Chapter 2

I wrote this up. Then my friend helped me polish it. Hope you all like it! Be sure to comment.

Ardie glanced at James.
“Ardie!”, Screamed King
Ardie puled off the covers and got out of bed. Forgetting he was on the top bunk, he landed flat on the floor. King was already turning the corner when he pulled himself through the door. The bright flashes of light and panicked personnel running to their stations, made it hard for Ardie to keep up.
“Wait Up!”, he hollered. But King ignored him.
“Out of my way!”, growled King as he pushed a cadet into the wall. Ardie saw King take the emergency chute. He had to wait for it to come back through. Once it did, he stepped in and pressed the button. His body was thrown against the wall and his hair was forced over his eyes as the chute blasted away. Suddenly Ardie was standing next to King in the cockpit.
“Is this the man?” said a gruff voice from one of the two seats in the middle of the room.
“Yes sir.”, huffed King.
King stepped back into the chute and disappeared.
Ardie looked around the room. Two pilot seats stood in the middle on a dais, around it were several control panels, And above it all was a massive convex window that served as the roof.
“Get over here, we're about to be pulled off course!”, shouted the man. Ardie bounded over to the co-pilot seat and sat down. He began pulling, pushing, and twisting the various levers and buttons surrounding him.
“Co-pilot died ten minutes ago, no one knows why?”, said the pilot. Ardie began to sweat. He was doing his best to remember and perform all the controls and flight techniques he had researched.
“Shouldn't we close the hyper-drive flaps?”, Asked an out of breath Ardie.
“No, that'd just slow us down, keep doing what your doing”, Said the pilot. Ardie found it more than difficult to keep a mountain sized mother-ship, traveling several times the speed of light, on course. It was going to be a long night.
Several hours passed and Ardie was finally getting the hang of flying. Every so often, he could find time to look out the window as an entire galaxy would pass them by in seconds. The view was breath taking, as colors and shapes filled the window.
“Quite a sight, ain't it?”, said the pilot.
“Yes, sir!”, said Ardie.
“Worth all the training in the world... Ever since I was a kid always wanted to be out here.”
“It's amazing all this came from one explosion..I mean.... its almost impossible.”, said Ardie. The pilot gave a grunt as he pulled out a log book.
“I've struggled with that thought for years son, guess there's no answer.”, he said.
“:There's always an answer.”, said Ardie under his breath as he relaxed a lever and tightened a vice on his left.”
“Watch your grid.. readings are a little off.”, said the pilot. Ardie made the proper adjustments as they speed-ed toward Komar.

The clock on the wall read thirteen hours till arrival at Gamma. James had just finished a game of RAIN with Fooz, who had beaten him every round.
“Do you want to play again?”, Asked Fooz.
“ No thanks,” He said as he leaned back in his chair. “ It sure is nice staying up here for a change?”
“I s'pose so”, Said Fooz, not as happily as James had expected. “Its not like I earned this.”
James almost agreed with him but kept his mouth shut.
“I was just in the right place at the right time. King and Sgt. Dagmar were the real heroes.”, said Fooz. James huffed. The door opened and in walked Trisha Dagmar. “Lieutenant Calhorn,”, she said. “Your friend has been upstairs for the past ten hours, your services here are no longer needed, you may return to the barracks.” James began repacking his duffel bag.
“What services Trish? Com on, just let him stay, whats the big deal?”, protested Fooz.
“Its fine”, said James as he stepped out the door. A strong hand griped his collar and pulled him back inside.
“Stay.”, said Trisha.
“Thanks Tr..”, James stopped himself.
“My friends call me Trish, you can call me Sgt. Dagmar.”, She said as she left the room. Fooz gave a chuckle and motioned for James to set his belongings back on the bed.

There would be no sleep for King when the ship reached Komar. If the embassy thought the disturbances were technologically oriented the least he could expect was a fleet of space pods waiting for them.
“Thirty minutes till we reach Komar!” shouted someone from the other side of the arsenal.
“You heard him men! Get ready!”, Shouted King.
The arsenal buzzed with excitement. Men began loading the cannons with six-round cylinders. Once the hatches were locked, a soldier climbed into the seat connected with the cannon and put on an Infrared head set.
“Connections are good.”,Said one of the men sitting in the control seats.
“Hold your positions!”, shouted King as he took the chute leading back to the cockpit.

Ardie heard a swoosh come from the rear of the room.
The Pilot turned his seat toward the sound. Ardie stayed focused on staying the course.
“Twenty-seven minuets till we reach Komar, anything I should know about sir?”, said the voice.
“Nothing that you don't already know..just be prepared for anything.”, said the Pilot.
Ardie looked out into the void and thought he saw a small burst of yellow and red. After several minutes it became larger.
“Sir I believe I found it!”, said Ardie. The Pilot turned in his chair and looked toward where he was pointing.
“Captain, tell the arsenal we will be arriving at Komar much sooner then expected.”, A swoosh was heard again as the galaxy came closer.
“Close the hyper-drive flaps, turn on the reverse thrusters!”, commanded the captain.
Ardie did as he was told. The ship slowly moved into the cloud surrounding the galaxy. What seemed like glowing fog enveloped the window.
“Hold her steady.”, said the pilot.
“Should we stop?”, asked Ardie.
“No, just move her through slowly.”

Back at the arsenal King stood still, heart pounding, ready for anything that might come.
“Sir, I cant see anything!”, said a soldier as he handed King his Infrared goggles. King placed them over his eyes. Red lights filled his view.
“Its just space fog son, You'll see fine once we get through it.”, he said in a confident voice hoping to hide his uneasiness. 

Ardie watched as the bright lights began to diminish. He could see clear black space in the distance.
“We'll be out of this mess soon.”, said the pilot just as a cadet stood up from her station.
“Sir”, she said, “Something has collided with the right side of the ship. It looks like a meteor! Minimal damage was caused.” there was a moment of silence that seemed to intensify the news.
“Lets see how well you can really fly.”, the pilot said to Ardie. The mist had faded away and the ship was surrounded. Rocks the size of sky scrapers flew in every direction. One had nearly collided with the cockpit window but the two pilots had pulled the ship down. One of the cadets reported a collision with the ship's bottom.
“ Out of the frying pan and into the fire!” murmured the Pilot as he reached for the intercom. King listened as the speakers projected the pilots voice into the arsenal.
“We seem to be caught in an asteroid belt, firepower should.....” King reached for one of the Infrared goggles. Green and blue shapes danced before his eyes.
“Fire away!”, King ordered over the intercoms announcement. The arsenal erupted with sound. Cannons moving left and right, up and down. Soldiers unloaded and reloaded cylinders. A blast of light came from the left side of the room. Bodies were thrown to and fro. One of the cannons had backfired. King rushed to the scene with fire extinguisher in hand. He screamed orders to those standing around.
“Get this man to the medical wing...Take his place..Get back to work...put out that fire!”

Ardie winced as he felt an asteroid scrape the ships surface. His seat shook violently back and forth. He wove the ship in and out , up and down. Beams of light, from the laser cannons, could be seen as some of the asteroids broke in two or moved backwards. Ardie could see an opening through the cluster. He looked over at the captain.
“Do it.”, he nodded. The thrusters were engaged. They were almost through the gap, almost there.
“Faster!”, shouted the pilot. Ardie pushed the lever further still. Debris from an exploding rock hit the front of the ship sending it backwards.
The cockpit window split down the middle. Chunks from the ship floated in front of it. Lifeless bodies were thrown into space by the force of the impact.
“Sir we lost our feed! Our radar must have been hit!”, said one of the arsenal's troops. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at the Captain.
“Don't just stand there!”, screamed King, “Keep firing, don't stop don't st..” The roof caved in and all were sucked out into the void.
A cadet stood up to inform the Pilot that the left arsenal had been destroyed, but it was unnecessary. Disembodied limbs smeared themselves across the glass, shards of metal collided with ammunition and gear, blank stares could be seen on the faces of the dead as they wandered into oblivion.
“Quite a sight.”, Ardie thought to himself as he remembered his previous conversation with the pilot. A small troop of soldiers floated into view protected from the atmosphere by emergency suits. King was among them.
“Send in a rescue team!”, the pilot ordered into the microphone. Thirty seconds later men, strapped to jet packs, brought the arsenals' members back to safety.
Completely unaware as to what had just happened, James and Fooz had set the table for five anticipating Breakfast. Just then King opened the door and stood transfixed on the scene. His eyes darted angerly at Fooz.
“Is something wrong?”, Fooz asked.
“Shut up.”, said King as he made his way to the bed. Fooz and James stared at each other in confusion. Fooz shrugged and acted as if nothing had happened. James followed suit.
“Oh.”, said Fooz, “Ardie won't be eating with us tonight, hes flying.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot”, James began to take up the extra dishes. He thought he heard a sob come from the bed behind him. The door burst open again. In walked Trisha Dagmar.
“Captain it wasn't your fault! You couldn't have changed anything. I'm sure you did your very best.”, she said.
“Trisha leave me alone”, said the captain as he swung his legs off the bed and onto the floor as he sat, head in hands.
“What in the world is going on?!”, jumped in Fooz.
“Over sixty wonderful men and women just died under my watch!”, groaned the captain.
“Don't be so hard on yourself, without your help we might all have been dead. They wouldn't have pulled us through without your help!”, said Trisha as she dropped to one knee.
“What in the world happened?!”, Fooz repeated. “Were we attacked?!” Trisha rose to her feet.
“No, we passed through an asteroid belt the embassy conveniently forgot to warn us about.”, she explained.
“ How come we didn't feel anything?”, asked James. Sgt. Dagmar glared at him making him wish he had never spoken.
“This ship is too big for you to feel every little thing that goes on in it.”, she said.
“How come we weren't warned?”, asked Fooz. Trisha put her hands in her hair. It looked as if she was going to scream.
“Because we had enough people already running around like chickens with their heads cut off. We didn't need a fat one to join in on the fun!”, she marched out of the room. King got up, said he needed a drink and followed.
“I'm not fat.”, said Fooz. James laughed.
“I think I'm gonna eat in the cafeteria where people don't take life so seriously. You want t' join?”
“Sure,” said Fooz. They left the room together.
Ardie and the crew had reset the ships hyper-drive function and were, according to the charts, ten minutes away from Gamma. 

“You look a little shook up?”, said the Pilot. Ardie gave a reaffirming chuckle. “Well all in all, you did well kid. Your good under pressure, I like that...Don't see that much anymore.”
“Thank you sir.”, said Ardie.
“Call me O'Brien.”, said O'Brien.
“We should be approaching our destination in thirty seconds.”, came a woman's voice from one of the control panels.
“Thanks, Sheryl”, said O'Brein, “These dang charts are never right. Pull us out Ardie.” Ardie pulled out of hyper-drive. There before them hung Gamma, covered in green.
“Hook up the SPS and find that base!”, Ordered O'Brien.
“Found it!” announced one of the cadets.
“Good, make sure every space pod is wired to those coordinates”
“Will do sir.”
“Ardie,”,said the pilot “You'll need to stay here with me for a few days until they send us a new co-pilot”, Ardie tried to interrupt but O'Brien continued, “King has already told me your vital role in this mission due to all that research crap, so everything has been arranged. You will be sent to the base once the pilot arrives, so cool off!”

Two hours later all military personnel loaded onto the space pods. King, Dagmar, Fooz, James and several others boarded pod number twenty-seven. With Dagmar at the wheel they took off. As they left the mother-ship James made a backward glance. He seemed so small compared to the ship he had spent the last 48 hours in. He saw where the asteroids had left their marks and was surprised to find repairmen already at work.
“That's going to be one heck of a mess to cut through.” said a man at the rear of the craft. It was obvious Gamma consisted mainly of jungle-like terrain. James could see rivers here and there but no oceans. Just green with occasional cloud cover. It seemed like ages before it was apparent they were getting closer to Gamma.
“Here we go.”, Said Dagmar as she turned into the atmosphere. The space pod shook rapidly as they fell toward the ground. Flames appeared on the nose of the craft. James thought it was going to fall apart, but Sgt. Dagmar held tightly to the stick. Then, without a second thought she pulled. The craft ceased its vibrations and swept upward making James' insides lurch. Dagmar, turned on the thrusters and took off across Gammas uncharted sky.
“There it is”, pointed the captain as the first pod landed on the bases runway
“Not too bad.”, Fooz said to himself as he looked toward the base. James could easily see that to the North and East was a watchtower, to the South-west was a supply room, to the north-east a hangar, a landing strip to the south-east, and a head-quarters and barracks in the center. The craft landed beautifully due to Trisha's skillful hand.
“Welcome to your new home boys.”, said the captain. 

 

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