Flight of the Destiny

Part 1

The Destiny Drifted on, farther and farther from its home world; or what once was its home world, as the boys drifted in a darkness of their own. Guilt and worry troubled the boys as they slept, and plagued their dreams. Kyle’s dreams were filled with his father's face, as Kyle watched him fall, and those were the easy ones to bear. Other dreams he had showed them happy and together, if only he would have not turned back. In his mind, he blamed himself for his father’s death. Nothing could quiet the voice in his head that told him over and over that it was his fault.

Terry’s dreams were filled with fear. Over and over again he saw himself loose Kyle, just like he had lost everyone else he ever cared about, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. He had vowed to protect Kyle from anything, but the dreams taunted him, showing him there were always ways for fate to win. As he watched, over and over, Kyle was taken from him and he was left alive and alone. After a while, he woke up with a start, sleep evaded him for the rest of the night. He decided to lie there and hold on to Kyle; his love, as he wept silently until morning.

The time came for getting up, and Terry woke Kyle up very gently. He kissed him softly and rubbed his back, hoping the scars of the day past would not be more than he could heal.

“Kyle, love, we need to get up,” checking the clock Terry realized that he must have drifted to sleep, at least some, in the night, “ Holy crap, it’s been 12 hours since we went to bed.”

Kyle began to rise, he leaned over to Terry to kiss him good morning, “Tell me yesterday was just a nightmare,” He told Terry, “ I can’t believe it really happened, we're out here all alone, without a home or even a planet, headed for someplace I’ve never heard of and my dad isn’t even here to help us. Can we do this on our own?”

“You bet we can,” Terry told him, “I’ll never let anything happen to you, I swear, we are going to find this planet your dad wants us to, and were going to make it. We have the most advanced ship in the fleet and we have each other, it’s going to be okay.” With a huge warm hug, Terry tried to calm his lover's fears.

“ I can’t help being scared; It’s all my fault he died,” Kyle began to weep openly, “All I could think of last night was, if I hadn’t gone back, he would have made it, if I hadn’t gone back, my dad would still be alive! It’s entirely my fault. I should have listened to him. What if the same thing happens to you? I can’t loose you, Terry, I’d go mad!”

Terry realized that Kyle felt guilty and he could think of no way to show him that he wasn’t to blame. He realized that it was something Kyle would have to work out on his own, and he swore he would do all he could to help him. He also had his own fears and nightmares to deal with, if he was to die trying to protect Kyle, Kyle would still be lost. He had to protect him, and insure that the two of them were never separated. It was a lot of responsibility for a twelve year old to take, but for Kyle he would do his very best.

“Kyle, I know exactly how you feel, I lost both my parents too, and had it not been for you, I would have lost my mind. Please let me be here for you now, like you were there for me; lean on me when you need to, don’t just keep it inside. I don’t know how, but I know I’ll find a way to prove to you that this was not your fault, you need to let go of the guilt, or it will eat you up completely, from the inside out. Fall on me when you need to, and I’ll always be right there to catch you.”

Kyle saw in his eyes, that Terry meant every word. How could he have been so selfish? Terry had lost someone too, the only person he had now was Kyle. They had each other. They would make sure they stayed around for one another.

“How could I be so stupid? I never thought about you Terry; I’m so sorry. Of course I’ll talk to you, anytime I’m feeling bad, but you have to do the same to me. I don’t want you to hold everything back either you know, trying to be strong for me. We’ll protect each other, from anything that comes our way. That’s what families do after all.”

The boys fell together on the bed, and celebrated the new bond they had formed. They had been tested under fire and had held together and formed a closer bond than they thought possible. What they did not know, however, was that their trials were just beginning. Space is a cold and lonely place. They would be pushed to their limits if they were to hold together and survive.

The ship suddenly rocked sharply as it hit something, Kyle and Terry were thrown off the bed and onto the floor. Kyle was the first to jump up,

“ What the hell was that?” As he ran to Terry, another jolt rocked the ship.

“I don’t know, Ajax, what the hell is going on?”

The computer terminal in their quarters suddenly came to life, showing three large ships, each about three times the size of the destiny, firing upon her.

“ There appear to be hostile vessels attacking us, sir,” Ajax replied, “ I’ve raised the shields, and I am standing by to hail them.”

“ Hail them my ass!!!” Kyle cried, “Ajax! Return fire!”

“ I’m afraid I no longer have control over the weapons system; another system has rerouted them.” Ajax’s cold calm voice began to upset Kyle.

“Hail them, see why they’re firing upon us,” Terry replied, trying to remain calm and controlled, “ At least that might give us the time we need to get to the bridge and figure out the manual weapons system.” Terry grabbed Kyle’s hand and took off quickly for the bridge.

Just as they reached it, Ajax got on the COM, “ I’m afraid they are ships from the rebel fleet; the ones responsible for the uprising on Anderon, they demand that the Imperial family member on board this ship surrender at once, and allow them to board.”

“Well tell them there is no Imperial family members on board!” Kyle yelled, “ They already killed them along with the planet!”

“I have attempted to explain that to them, but for some odd reason, they believe me to be lying. They say unless we surrender within one minute, they will destroy this ship.”

“Wait a second,” Terry suddenly realized an error in the readings, “ Ajax, where exactly are we? They couldn’t have followed us all the way from the planet or they would have attacked us before this, If I read this right, we’ve not left the Anderonian system yet! We should be light years from where we're at by now!”

“ I am programmed to find a stable orbit until I am given a new set of orders. When you came on board, no orders were supplied, so we are orbiting around the fifth planet from the sun.”

“Oh shit!” Kyle couldn’t believe they had forgotten what his father had told them, “Ajax, does escape plan Barkley register with your systems?”

“Yes, I have the file for escape plan Barkley, if you wish to implement it then we can begin our trip as soon as these ships are out of the way. According to the captain of the lead vessel, we have five seconds to surrender.”

“Ajax, where are the weapons systems located on the bridge, I can’t find a weapons console.” Terry stood, looking about, “ There has to be a manual weapons console!”

“ I’m afraid that console was faulty, they removed it just yesterday, and the new part was scheduled to arrive today, With some time, I could synthesize and replicate a new console, but,” The ship began to rock and sway as the barrage from outside began,“ I don’t think we will survive long enough.”

Kyle was flung forward; he landed in the captain’s chair. Straps immediately held him down to prevent him from flying across the bridge. Terry ran to the sensor console and began looking at the readings.

“Kyle, we have to find a way to access the weapons! The shields are not going to stand up to much more of this, they're now at forty-five percent. So far the ship hasn’t taken any damage, but we won’t last long after that shield falls.”

Kyle pulled the captain's console to his side, looking for anything that could help them out of this mess, he looked through the ship's systems menu and noticed a lot of the subdirectories were locked out; another subprogram jumped out at him, It was simply called Hugh. Kyle didn’t think twice, he pulled up the program and instantly things changed. The weapons systems jumped to life, blast after blast was being sent at the marauding ships. The power centers rerouted power to the shields, and the engines kicked in.

“I don’t know what I did, but it’s working!” Kyle yelled to Terry.

“That’s the understatement of the century! Shield life is up to eighty percent and climbing, and the weapons systems are going full blast!”

Kyle and Terry turned their attention to the viewer, and watched as the lead ship exploded into space dust. The other ships continued to fire, but the Destiny outmaneuvered anything they threw at them. It was as if an expert pilot was controlling her, instead of a computer backup system. She didn’t just fly; she danced. They zipped between the two ships and, as another volley came from the Destiny, the second ship fell. A familiar voice rang out “Yeah!! Eat that.”

“Dad?” Kyle yelled in amazement, looking everywhere for his father. The straps held him down and he couldn’t see over to the navigation center.

“Just a second son,” Hugh said, “ This last one thinks he can attack and run! Not today, buddy!” with one last volley, the last of the rebel ships was destroyed. As soon as the straps let up, Kyle jumped to his feet and spun around, but no one was at the nav center.

“Dad! Where are you?” Tears began to form in Kyle’s eyes. Had he imagined the whole thing? If he had, then how were they still alive? He looked at Terry and knew at once that he had not imagined it. Terry had heard him too.

“I’m here son, relax, your not insane,” At last Kyle tracked the voice to the bridge speakers. “I’m just not quite what you were expecting.”

“What do you mean? Where are you calling from?”

“I’m in the computer now, Son. You told Ajax to save me and he took you literally. You see the personality AI for this ship was never configured properly. In case you haven’t noticed, Ajax is a little on the bland side. When you told him to save me, he uploaded everything about me, from my brain, directly into the computer systems. He copied my thoughts, feelings, memories, everything. I’ve been rerouting the systems I need all morning, so I was in a bit of a sleep cycle. When you activated my icon, it woke me up and gave me access to all the systems. I can control most of the major systems, and I share control for the other systems with Ajax.”

“That’s impossible!” Kyle was amazed, “ A computer can’t download a person, and an AI is always a new computer life, that AI can’t take its persona from a person!”

“I told you the Destiny was the most technologically advanced system in the fleet, our scientists have spent years designing the transfer protocols to make this possible. They did it so that if the Emperor were to die while away from the planet, they could keep a part of him alive to rule until there was a clear successor chosen by the people. It’s a civil war fail safe, or so we thought. The rebels believed that this was a way for one person to rule our people forever, they refused to believe it was only a fail safe. What was to be our hope became our downfall. They attacked the way they did, because the Destiny was near completion. And above all else, they wanted it destroyed.”

“So you're in the computer systems, now?” Terry was trying to figure out the implications of all this, “ does that mean your still alive?”

“I’m afraid not. My body passed on, when we said goodbye in sickbay. I’ve had my body cremated as per my wishes, wow that’s kind of weird to say. I want you to keep them until we reach earth, when we find a new home, you can spread them there so that I will always be with you boys. What I am now, is a computer intelligence. I’m essentially a program based on your father. I act like him, and in fact, I even feel like him, I have, essentially, everything he had, but I am a computer nonetheless, which was tough to get a grip on. Luckily, I now can think about 2 trillion times faster than I used to, so I had time to debate my existence while you two slept and I choose to see it as a good and acceptable alternative. At least a part of me can be with you boys, and see this situation through. If it’s too much for you, I can let Ajax handle all communication with you two, but I can’t let you go on this trip alone. Ajax wasn’t prepared to run things alone, we actually complete each other. That really seems strange, doesn't it?”

“Dad, I can think of no computer system I would rather deal with than you. I love you even if you aren’t really my father. This is amazing, and I’m sorry for turning back on the planet. I know it’s my fault that you died, but I hope to make it up to you.” Kyle’s joy and guilt flooded down his face, he had been given another chance with his dad, even if he was stuck in a computer.

“Son, I want you to know one thing,” A sudden flicker of light in the corner brought forth a hologram of Hugh, he walked to his son and knelt down, “ What happened to me was nobody's fault but the people who did it. The rebels assumed something, and due to their blind faith, they destroyed everything they loved. Many people lost more than we did; at least I was able to save you two. I love you both so very much, and what happened to me, happened because that was the way it was supposed to happen, so that you two could be saved. That was all that mattered and I would give my life a thousand times over to save you once. Don’t ever feel guilty for me, be happy for me, I lived my life, I loved my family and I died... exactly the way I would have wanted, saving those that were and still are, very precious to me.”

Terry and Kyle held each other tight. Hugh’s speech left Kyle feeling whole again. The guilt he had been holding on to so tightly was finally gone. With his dad back at his side, at least sort of, they would make it to this place he called Earth. He had no doubts. He trusted his dad.

---

Part 2

The boys spent the remainder of the day familiarizing themselves with the ship. The first place Kyle had to familiarize himself with was the bathroom. What with all the excitement he had not gone all day. When he realized how badly he had to go, he was about to wet his pants. As he finished that up, he reached out and dragged Terry into the Bathroom by his shirt collar. He pulled him into the shower and proceeded to strip every last piece of clothing off of him.

“That’s better, you were starting to stink.” Kyle told Terry, with a huge grin. He turned the shower on, and began to wash his husband.

“Me, stink?” Terry feigned shock; “ you were the one who about wet his pants, remember? Who knows what else you almost let go! Help me we're gonna get blown up, help me. You were scared to death.” Terry’s grin was, if anything, bigger than Kyle’s.

“Hey, if it wasn’t for me your cute butt would be space chunks by now. I had to save the day!”

“Well then, in that case, my cute butt thanks you.”

All of a sudden, the speaker fired off, “ Where’s my thanks, guys? I'm pretty sure that I had a hand in saving said cute butt, as well!”

Kyle turned six shades of red. “Dad! Your not supposed to listen to us in the shower! What if we were, well you know, indisposed?”

“Then, as the computer, I would have known,” If computers could grin, then this one was a Cheshire, “besides, I turned off the sensors in there, I just over heard you before I got the sound registers off.”

“Okay, well then not to be rude, but, take a walk! Will ya, Please?!” Terry replied, “ I’ve got to make your son, Indisposed.”

As the boys finished up in the bathroom, they came out to find their clothes missing.

“Dad! Where are our clothes?”

“Clothes? What clothes?” Computers don’t pull off the innocent look well, either, “Just kidding, I had the maintenance druids pick them up, all your belongings are in your drawers, and there are clean uniforms for you in the synthesizers. I’ll have your clothes brought back up, when they’re finished being cleaned, but those uniforms you can simply synthesize when you need more, the old ones are fed back into the chemical matrix when your done with them, just set them back in the synthesizer, and press return.”

The uniforms were pretty cool, actually. They made the boys feel official and important. They began to explore the ship, with Hugh as their very personal guide. When they reached the mess hall, they realized they were starved, but Hugh already had brunch set out for them. Anderonian omelets and a large variety of other breakfast food greeted them at the table.

“ Where did all this come from?” Terry asked, “ I know we didn’t stock the ship before take off, I thought we were going to have to live off the candy I had in my pockets!”

“You had candy in your pockets, and you didn’t feed me?” Kyle did his best puppy dog look, “ here I was starving, almost delirious from the pain in my stomach, and you’re holding out!”

“ Actually the food comes from the synthesizers as well,” Hugh began to explain, “ They synthesizers break things down to the raw elements and then rearrange those elements into whatever is needed at the time, you can have the synthesizers make you anything you want. If you want a more home cooked meal, the galley has an excellent kitchen. You can either stock it when we land on a planet, or simply synthesize your ingredients. I know how you love to cook, Terry, so with this set up you can make anything you want.”

“Well that’s cool, but there’s one thing that’s bothering me, you mean to tell me when we desynthesize our clothes each night, and then make breakfast the next day, we're eating our dirty clothes from the day before?” The look on Kyle’s face as this idea registered with him made Terry almost shoot juice out of his nose.

“Well I suppose, if you want to think of it that way, then, no, not really. The elements for different purposes are kept separate; we have equipment bays, and food bays. The uniforms, the new weapons panel I’m currently working on, and anything equipment based, are made from the elements there, Those kind of things require a different mix of elements than most of the food, so that container is rich in the elements needed to synthesis those things. The food bays are filled with elements to build vitamins and minerals and the other necessary building blocks the food products need. So there is never any cross contamination. There are enough element packs in the cargo bays to last us the entire trip. We could synthesis all the parts needed to rebuild the ship, a hundred times a day and we wouldn’t come close to running out. Same with the food, so that’s one thing you won’t have to worry about.”

With those problems settled, the boys dug into their food. There’s a saying somewhere about boys and their food, but it escapes me at the moment. Suffice it to say that the synthesizers were put to quite a test that first day, and they met the challenge quite nicely.

“Aww man, why did you let me eat so much?” Terry asked Kyle.

“So you wouldn’t say anything about me eating that much,” Kyle replied. A pat to his belly and he was ready to go explore the rest of the ship.

“Over here is the guts of the ship,” Hugh resumed the tour, “ Unless one of you has some hidden talents, we're going to need a mechanic on board. I can teach you enough to get by, unless something serious happens, but in the event it does, we want to start looking at the first spaceport for a good mechanic. We’re also going to need a Doctor, and a good weapons expert would be advised. We should be able to find someone suitable along the way. I can always check them out, before they come aboard so that we know they are trustworthy.”

“Yeah, that would be cool. We're going to need more people besides just us, I’d go crazy on a ship this large with no one to talk to except horn dog over there, and the computerized chatter box.” Terry replied with a grin.

“Well then, let's see what you guys think of the next room. It might help liven things up around here a bit.” Hugh led them on to the next door. As it opened, both boys had to catch their eyeballs before they shot across the room. Inside was a state of the art, well, just about everything. There were computer terminals and view screens with every game imaginable. A large screen on the wall showed a movie library of infinite proportions and it had feeds of entertainment programs from every planet in the quadrant. Game tables of all shapes and sizes were everywhere, and in a side room, there was an entire gym, complete with pool, hot tub, steam rooms, and sports courts. Everything you could imagine to keep you entertained on a long journey.

“Welcome to the leisure deck. If you can’t find what you want to do here, then go to the room in the far rear of the deck, and there is a virtual world generator. You can make anything in there you could possibly want, from playing through your favorite book, to training simulators to learn how to operate this bird.” Hugh informed them.

The boys ran into the room to check everything out. They had a blast playing in the gravity ball chamber. Eventually Hugh pulled them away, to continue the tour.

“Most of the rest of the ship is additional living quarters for crew. You two are in the Imperial suite, but there is also a suite for the captain and other officers. All told, this ship has room for about 30 people if they all have their own quarters, but some are double quarters so the actual supported number is around 50 people. I doubt that we’ll have any need for all of that, however, so I’ve closed off the bottom deck of quarters, that will leave you with plenty of room for about 25 people, and we can always open the bottom deck if need be. If you will follow me now, we will head to the Captain's office.”

“ What’s in there?” Kyle asked curiously, “ and what do we need to go there for?”

Well, you see Kyle, so far the ship has been responding to anyone, because it was in a state of emergency, however, because the emergency is ending as we near the boundaries of our solar system, the emergency control will over ride, and then the ship will only respond to a crew member, and to have a crew, we need a captain.”

“But who is going to be our captain? Will we need to look for one of them at a spaceport too?” Terry was wondering, but he knew whom he would follow. He wanted Kyle for his captain.

“Well, Son, you see the ship has kind of already attached itself to you two. When Kyle landed in the captains chair earlier, the second his hand touched the console, the computer registered him as captain of the Destiny. You, Terry, were at the other console and the computer registered you as the commander. The ship has a mind of it’s own, and it did what it saw fit in the situation. All that’s really left is to enter the office and make it official. Once you're in there, the computer will take retinal scans and other identifiers from you. It will ask you several questions and from there, it will set up your security codes and clearance levels. Once all that is done, you will have access to the entire ship to do with as you see fit.”

“Wow! Awesome we always wanted to join a crew when we got older! And now we get to run the ship together! Isn’t that awesome, Terry?”

“ There is no one I trust more to lead me on this ship than you.” Terry’s pride in his husband shone through, and they kissed right before they entered the office.

As soon as they entered the office, they were both wrapped in the light of the systems scanners. A computer terminal, with a face they did not recognize on it, slid down from the roof to look them in the eyes. It began facing Terry, and Kyle could not hear a thing it was saying. Suddenly his father began to talk to him.

“The computer generates a white noise frequency for security reasons when swearing in new officers. As soon as he’s done with Terry, he’ll begin with you.”

Suddenly he could hear what was being said.

“Welcome Aboard The Destiny, Commander Terry A. Barkley.” With that said, Ajax turned to Kyle.

“Greetings Captain, as you may have guessed, I am Ajax. I will be registering you in as Captain of The Destiny. What is to be your designated clearance phrase?”

“My What?” Kyle asked.

“It’s a code, known only to you, that allows you access to the ship in the event of a lockdown. It also gives you special privileges and overrides, should the needs ever arise I would be happy to inform you in greater detail.”

“So it can be anything I want?” The face on the terminal nodded, “ Then I want it to be Terry.”

“Names of other crew members are only permitted with a numeric backer. You will need a number code to supplement that phrase.”

“Okay, then make it Terry035647,” The exact time he had first seen Terry on that park bench. In Anderonian time, which was, of course, useless now.

“ Thank you captain. Your scans are now complete. Welcome aboard The Destiny, Captain Kyle T. Barkley.”

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Part 3

After the boys were sworn in as officers on the ship, Hugh continued to teach them about the ship. The Captain's office had a wealth of knowledge on every subject from the workings of the ship, to proper protocol for a captain and his officers. Kyle knew he would be spending lots of time in here. Hugh took Terry to see his office and suddenly Terry yelled across the speakers.

“ Kyle, come here quick, you won’t believe it!” Kyle rushed to the commander’s office and as the door opened he was shocked to see that they were not alone. There in the office with them was a Spangler. For those who don’t know a Spangler is a large feline type creature. They can grow to be about two and a half to three feet tall, and they are amazing predators. They have razor sharp claws and teeth, and when they want to, their skin can shift colors to fit the surroundings. This one was barely older than a kitten. As Kyle slid into the room he noticed two things, other than the presence of the Spangler. The first was that one of the legs to Terry’s uniform was missing, and the other was that said leg was in the Spangler’s mouth. Kyle burst out laughing.

“Leave it to you to find a pet on an empty ship, I swear you would adopt a dust particle if you could.”

“ Hey, it’s not my fault, I sat down at my desk and the next thing you know Bam! I get a lap full of furry. I think he’s calmed down now though, he seams to like chewing my pants leg.”

“Ahh, I wondered what became of Sepi. We used him in our research into the cloaking device this ship uses.” Hugh explained. The slated Commander of this ship was a breeder of Spanglers and he brought this one aboard. When the ship was attacked, he got out of his pen and I lost track of him. Good thing you sat there and not a foot to your left, or it would be your butt he was chewing on Terry.”

Kyle just about died laughing at this, while Terry looked a bit startled.

“Is there any way we can track him when he shifts like that?

“Well,” Hugh began, “ there is one way, if you’ll give me that collar he has on, I’ll work my magic. Just place it in the synthesizer and I’ll put a tracking locator in it. As a matter of fact, we need something for you two as well, in the event you are off the ship. Place your lockets in the synthesizer too, please.” A worried look flashed over both boys, “ Don’t worry, I won’t hurt them, I know what they mean to you both. We can use that to our advantage, because you never take them off you will always have them.”

It only took a few seconds and the light faded from the synthesizers.

“ There you go, I made a few minor modifications. We can now track you anywhere in the universe with these. I can get vital signs and all sorts of other information as well. I also built in a COM link to the ship, so you can communicate with each other and the ship, with them. They will register sub vocalization so if you’re ever in a situation where you can’t talk, simply mouth the words, and it will transmit them.”

The boys put their lockets back on each other, and reattached Sepi’s collar. Their newfound friend was full of energy. He had been cooped up for a week, since his owner went on leave. The boys took him to the Leisure deck they had dubbed the playroom.

“Hey Hugh,” Terry asked, “ What do we do when he needs to, you know, go?”

“Well Terry, he’s completely ship broken. He has a desynthesizer built in his pen that he knows to go on. It dematerializes anything he drops there. And he is sorry about attacking you, but he thought you were an enemy.”

“Wait, you can talk to him? How do you do that?”

“Well, when we were experimenting with the shifting, Ajax noticed the frequency his brain patters works on, and became able to translate them. I can have them directly translated to the COM system if you would like, It would give him a voice of his own, although beware, the thoughts of a predator can get kind of gross. If you ever want to turn his voice off, just say, "Sepi off," and the computer will stop translating.”

“Awesome! We can talk to the kitty!” Kyle was excited by the thought of this; he had always wondered what animals’ thoughts were like. Suddenly the COM system put out a new voice.

“ Tell him that I’m hungry and I’d like a bite of … hey I just thought … hey I can hear myself thinking, that’s cool, echo, echo, echo.” Sepi’s voice sounded like that of a young boy. “ Hey Terry can you hear me?”

Terry nodded, “ yeah, I can, can you hear me?”

You could hear the amusement in Sepi’s voice, “ Of course I can, and I’ve always understood you people, it’s you guys that can’t talk to everyone else.” Sepi flicked his tail and licked his paws. “ Sorry about the pants leg thing, I didn’t mean to,” As if to prove it Sepi went to rub on Terry’s leg, “ so what do you say we run to the food place and get me a steak? I’m starving and there's nothing to eat on this ship, to clean for any tasty mice.”

“eww, that’s just gross, come on Kyle; let’s get him something to eat.”

The boys made their way back to the mess hall and got Sepi a nice juicy steak, very rare, as per his request. Talking to a Spangler was defiantly different. Kyle and Terry soon came to love the newest addition to their crew, who quickly informed Kyle that despite allowing them to feed and pet him, he was nobody's pet. The rest of the day passed as the boys and their new friend explored and learned as much as they could about their new environment. As the day drew to an end, the boys made their way back to their room, and Sepi went back to his. The boys were exhausted from all the events of the day. They curled up together to read some of the books they had found in the offices. As they began to think about bed, Kyle decided to ask his dad about the trip.

“Dad, how long will it take to reach Earth?”

“At least a year, Son, and that's if we don’t run into any complications. Why? Are you tired of the ship already?”

“No, it’s not that; I was just wanting to know. You said you had been researching it, what’s Earth like?”

“Well, if you would like me to, tomorrow I can let you access my notes, And I can give you access to the frequencies we're monitoring from there, there are some interesting things happening there, that’s why I think it’s the perfect place for you two.”

“Yeah that would be great, I want to know as much about this place as I can. Since we’re going to live there and all.”

“Yeah me too,” Terry added.

“Ok boys, well get your rest, we’ve got about three days till we reach our first stop, And it’s not a great place to be, so tomorrow, we are going to start some defense training.”

“O.K. Dad, we will. See you in the morning.”

“Yeah, take another walk old man.” Terry said, with a huge smile, “I’m gonna wrestle your boy right now.”

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To Be Continued...

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Author's Notes:

Well there’s chapter 2. What a ride. I’m sorry the beginning was kinda dark, but that’s the way life works, more ups and downs than a roller coaster. I hope things get more fun and less confusing for our young heroes. Things are starting to look up now for them though. I can’t wait to see what their first stop brings. Kyle and Terry seem to have taken well to The Destiny. Sepi was a bit of a surprise, I never knew about him till he was on the page, some characters are so demanding, and just so you know I am the proverbial dog person, cat’s are only good in jerky, hey that’s my leg Sepi let go! I was kidding. Cats! Well that’s all for now, next chapter should be out soon so until then, thanks for playing.

Taron Webster

A.K.A wizzkid_420

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Editor's Notes:

Well, I am most pleased to have been chosen to edit this wonderful story. I hope I can do it justice. Our author has given us some wonderful characters, and what seems to be a very interesting plot so far. I have great confidence in how well this story is going.

Just remember, I haven't begun to sneak any funny business into it yet. Just wait.

Let me say here and now that I fell instantly in love with this story from just about the first sentence. The pacing is very good, the chapters are reasonably long. I had very little trouble with the way it was written I really like it a great deal, and I hope i can add my two cents every so often.

Well, I'm off to grab a snack. You made me hungry. I will send this off to you as soon as I can

Darryl

AKA The Radio Rancher.