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Excerpt from Chapter 8:
"That son of a bitch!" Doc stepped forward and punched the wall with a resounding smack, shaking all of us from our shock. "I can't believe he would do something so vile! If I get my hands on him when we get there, I'll …"
"You won't be going aboard doc." Kyle turned and looked at the doc, putting all of the authority he could muster in his voice, "You will stay on the ship, we need you here in case one of us gets hurt."
"The hell I will! I'm not letting a bunch of kids go running into a trap to be captured or killed! I'll go and rescue Michael."
"As an acting member of this crew, you will do what I tell you, when I tell you. I appreciate the gesture, but you will stay on board the ship, or you will be secured in the brig until I find a place to deposit you. Is that perfectly clear?" The challenge in Kyle's voice would have made even the heartiest of men think twice about crossing him; the doc looked at him shocked, but then his eyes cleared and it was clear he had seen reason.
"Yes sir, I understand, sir. I didn't mean to be presumptuous. What you say makes sense. I just don't want to loose any one of you. Don't ask me why, you're just a bunch of pain in the butt kids," The grin the doc flashed the boys let them all know he wasn't upset about Kyle's command, "But I seem to actually care about you all. Okay, hot shot, what's your plan once you get on board the station?"
Kyle seemed to shrink as the air of command left him, he had drawn himself up so much expecting an argument that he seemed to have been three feet taller. Now that tension drained out of him and he became just Kyle again, instead of Captain Barkley. Terry and Odey let out breaths they didn't even realize they were holding.
"Well first, I think Zeke needs to finish his story. We still have a while before we get there, and I think we need as much information about this guy as we can get. Since it seems that he knows the most about him, we need to hear what happened to him. From there, we will all try to figure out a plan of attack, for once we're on the station, and then, we will all need to try to get some sleep. I know it will be hard, but we should at least rest ourselves. So Zeke, can you pick up where you left off?"
"Sure thing Captain," Zeke fell naturally back into his story.
Chapter 9
"That man you just saw, if he can be called a man and not a monster, is Captain Blackheart Brackus. His real first name is Alvin," The giggle Zeke let out as he said that made them all look at him funny, " Well, no one is supposed to know that, I broke into his quarters one day and found some old notes from his mother. Anyway, Captain Brackus is the man I was telling you about, the man who was checking us out and eventually bought us. He is a slave trader for the most part, but he runs this area of space. All of the people who have tried to stand up to him, be it other pirates or planetary governments, have failed and most of them he has slaughtered to insure no one else tries again. He's a vile and ruthless man, but I'm getting ahead of my story.
The day he bought us from our kidnappers, I had no idea what to expect. After he had bargained with them for us, he led us back to his ship, making use of the slavers collar whenever he felt like it. Our pain seemed to amuse him. When we reached his ship, we got neither clothes nor rooms, we were simply thrown naked into a cargo hold and a guard was left to watch us. I thought hard about making another run at Malachi, but I just didn't have the energy. The guard watched us for a while, staring at everything we had on display. Eventually he came forward and grabbed me by the hair.
"Well, well, the captain got us some cute ones this time; I wonder if you guys are for sale or for the crew? I guess it doesn't matter much, either way you two will probably be little whore boys soon. We've got a little time, so I should break you in real good. Now why don't you be a good boy and get down on your knees?" He had the remote to the collar in his hand and he punctuated the last part of his statement with a jolt from the collar. I fell down and he pulled me back up by the hair. He was about to hit the button again when the door to the cargo bay opened and another man walked in.
"Let him go Gregor, or there will be hell for you to pay, from what I hear, these two are for the Captain himself, and I don't think he would take kindly to you hurting them any, just yet. They are to be his amusement, not yours. Why don't you run off and find one of the other little whores on board and take your frustrations out on them. I have work to do with these two." Gregor let go of my hair and shoved me roughly to the ground.
"Whatever, he always gets the cute ones, guess that’s why he's the captain, Hope these two last longer than the last one he had, that little bastard didn't make it a week." He turned and walked out of the room, running his shoulder into the other man as he walked by. As the door to the cargo hold closed, the other man turned to us and grinned.
"Well that asshole is gone, looks like I got here just in time, Are you okay boy?" I looked up at him, surprised and a bit shocked that this man was being so nice.
"Oh don't look at me that way, I'm not like the other people you'll meet on this ship, I won't hit you and hurt you, or even take advantage of you. I'm the ships Doctor. It's my job to see that you don't get hurt. Well, in all honesty, you will probably get hurt, but I'll be there to make it better. I'm sorry I don't have better news for you. I really don't like working here; it's just something I have to do. On the upside, or the downside depending on how you want to look at it, you two are to belong to the captain. I say the upside, because he doesn't rape the boys he owns, which is something that can't be said for most of the other men on his crews, but it's a down side because he does enjoy seeing people suffer. Be forewarned, you never know what he might ask you to do, but whatever it is, I suggest you do it quickly, because he loves having a reason to punish someone. My name is Dr. Allen, but you can call me Mike if you would like, sorry I get a little long winded at times, what are your names?" I looked at him funny for a second, and then I realized what it was, Since the night my mother and father had died, no one had actually talked to me, had a real conversation, sure I had talked to the creatures who took us from time to time, but that was just answering their questions, and I had been yelled at by the guard, and had fought with Malachi, but no one, until now, had actually had a conversation with me. I took a second to get over it, then I looked over at Malachi, he was curled up in a ball, muttering to himself, he hadn't even noticed anything that had gone on since we got here.
I pulled myself up and then got to my feet, when I felt like I could stand without falling, I looked at the doctor and extended my hand, " My name is Ezekiel, This here," I gestured with my hand at the lump of a boy on the floor, " Is, or was, my brother Malachi. We were kidnapped from our home, I guess even from our planet, it's nice to meet you sir." He looked down at my hand as if wondering what I was doing. I looked down at my hand as well and realized how insane it was to assume that anyone out here would have the same traditions. I was about to pull my hand back, when he reached out and grabbed my hand in a firm, grip and gave it a nice shake.
"Amazing, I haven't seen the formal greeting of the Royal family of Enroch since I left home! Where do you hail from Ezekiel?"
"Well sir, we're from a planet known as Earth, I think it is a long way from here."
"Ahh Earth, never heard of it, but as it was the Greys that brought you here, I can only assume it is some small, technologically primitive planet, I mean no disrespect by that, that’s just their normal hunting grounds, they seem to think that beings can not exist happily without technology, and see it as their job to relocate them to other areas, even if it means selling them as slaves. I personally think it is rubbish." With that the doctor opened his bag and began to pull out some tools, some looked like things I knew from earth, others looked like things I knew from the learning machine on board the Grey's ship, and still others looked as alien to me as everything else I had encountered on this trip. "Okay, I guess we will start with you, I need to check you out physically, and then I will need to give you some shots to help fight off any diseases you may not be accustomed to. The Greys do a pretty good job at inoculating for most of the real nasties, but I like to be thorough. So let's see." The Doctor examined me all over; he checked a lot of things, scanned me with some weird devices and finally pronounced me fit.
"You look like you're in good shape for a boy your age, your body didn't have any adverse reactions to the cryogenic sleep, nor did it have any reactions to the aging deceleration processes the Greys use, that will wear off now, as you begin to eat real food and not the stuff they give you. All you really need is some good food, some good sleep, and you will be one of the fittest boys I've ever seen."
"Excuse me sir, but what is the cryogenic sleep you mentioned?"
"Well first, no more sir, either call me Mike or Doc, but not sir, I'm a slave just like you, not a master, and cryogenic sleep is a process where you are slowly frozen, and put into a deep sleep, it enables you to live a long time because it lets your body work a lot slower than normal. You can pass years and barely age. The Greys like to think they are technologically advanced, but they still haven't got warp travel down to a science, they can only travel at light speed, so it takes them a long time to get anywhere, they live damn near forever, but the people that they take do not, so as soon as they take them, they put them into a cryochamber, and keep them there till it's time to start their training, Most people don't even remember that time, because they are sleeping and the Greys knock them out before putting them into stasis."
"Oh, so you are a slave too? How did they get you? How long have I really been away from home? How long was I asleep?" The doctor raised up a hand to slow me down.
"Whoa, I know it's a bit of a lot to take in, but slow down, trust me, you will have lots of time to ask questions. First, yes I am a slave, and they got me because I was an idiot with a gambling problem, I had just finished med school and had racked up a huge gambling debt when these two goons from the loan shark showed up, they gave me three options, pay up now, disappear, or work off my debt for their boss, so I chose option C and here I am. At the rate they pay I'll be working here the rest of my life. But no worries, that is the thing about choices, you have to live with the consequences, and it's really not so bad, I always wanted to travel, and being the doctor means I don't get the shit a lot of the slaves do. As to your last two questions, I really don't know, there is no way to tell for sure, you could have been with them for a few weeks or for a few hundred years. How old were you when they took you?"
"Well I was 8, but when I woke up in my room on the Grey's ship, I looked older."
"Yes you do, my scans show you to be around 10 years old, give or take a few for different species years and life spans. That would mean you were in stasis of a pretty long time, probably a few hundred years, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but your home probably isn't the same anymore."
"That’s okay, my home wasn't the same when I left it."
I told the doctor my story as he gave me my shots and began to check Malachi. Malachi just lay there, only moving when the doctor moved him. I left out the part about him being the one who betrayed us. I couldn't believe it had been hundreds of years since I left home. The doc finished up with Malachi, and even gave him a sedative to knock him out, and then he asked me to help him make some beds. We went over to the corner of the cargo hold and there were some old blankets and pillows pilled in the corner. We pulled them out and tried to make them into something other than just blankets on a cold metal floor, they weren't much better, but it would have to do for now.
"When you've been here a while, you'll start to get things, either just stuff you'll find in your travels, or things that are given to you. You can use those things to barter for better stuff with some of the other slaves, and sometimes even the pirates. But this will have to work for now. I've got some clothes for you and your brother. Lets get him dressed and then we'll carry him to the bed, then I'll give you a sedative as well, you two need a lot of good sleep, the next few weeks are going to suck." We did just as he said and got Malachi sorted out, and then I got dressed and as comfortable as I could get. Mike walked over and leaned down. " I can tell you're strong, a lot stronger than most of the kids that come through here, most are like him," he pointed at Malachi, " but you aren't, Brackus likes to break people, If he knows you won't break, he'll try harder till he breaks you anyway. If you can do it, I would suggest giving him his way, pretend you’re his, and he will be easy on you, fight back and your life will be hell. I know it will be hard, but remember, your not alone, you have a friend." And with that he gave me a shot in the arm and I was out for the night. I followed his advice for three years, it was hard, but I did everything Brackus asked of me, some of it I can't stand to remember. After a while it got a bit better, Malachi and I even earned his trust enough for him to remove the collars, he thought he had us broken and bent to his will, I guess Malachi was. I made the mistake of trusting Malachi again after a couple of years, I vented to him like I vented to Mike. And the whole time he was telling Captain Brackus everything, and Brackus began to watch me and Mike a lot more closely.
Mike was a good guy, he was a great friend for those three years, but he was more than he appeared, he was also a spy. I never knew it, he never told me, but the whole time he had been aboard Brackus' ship, he had been sending information to someone, information about the things they were doing, the places they were going, and their plans for the future, and Brackus found out about 6 months ago. Because of Malachi, he had been watching the two of us closer; he knew he had two people onboard who were not loyal to him. Finally he saw what Mike had been doing under his nose the whole time. One night, I was jerked out of my bed and thrown on the floor, I was stripped naked and hit over and over again, I kept asking what was going on, and no one would tell me. A new slavers collar was put on my neck and I was dragged to the brig area of the ship. When I got there, Malachi was there, and Captain Brackus. The guards chained me to the wall and the Brackus walked up to me.
"You took me for a fool EZ, all these years I have taken care of you and you were laughing behind my back." He swung out his hand and slapped me. "I'll show you who the fool was, the man who thought he could betray me under my very nose." He made a gesture and the doors to the room opened and they dragged Mike into the room, He had been beaten so badly I barely recognized him. They chained him to the wall across from me and then the captain walked over to him.
"I want to know what you've told and who you've been telling it to, and I want to know now, you don't seem to respond well to my normal style of interrogation, so we'll try an alternate style. Tell me what I want to know, or you will see very, very mean things happen to little EZ here."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Mike cried as he looked up at me, he mouthed the words 'I'm sorry' as the collar hit me like never before. I would have fallen to the ground, but the chains held me up. Again and again it hit me until I couldn't remember anything but the pain. Then it let up. I looked over at the other wall and saw Mike crying, promising he would tell them whatever they wanted, and begging them not to hurt me anymore. It took all the strength I had, but I stood up and yelled at him.
"No! Don't tell this son of a bitch anything, I don't care what happens to me! Anything is better than serving him! Don't tell him anything." Mike looked up at me and for a brief second I saw him grin, then I saw the locks on his cuffs spring open as he fell to the floor, a blaster appeared in his hand as if from nowhere, Everyone's attention was still on me, so he had a second or so before anyone noticed him. He turned the blaster on Brackus and fired. He hit him, but only in the arm, and suddenly everyone's attention was right back on him. He fired one more time, and missed Brackus completely, but he had hit what he aimed for, the chains on my arms fell free, and I dropped to the floor, I looked up, just in time to see two guards grab mike and pull his arms back, they made a cracking sound as they both broke in two. He cried out, but it was a short cry, Captain Brackus pulled his own blaster, and as I watched he fired over and over again into Mike.
I almost cried out, but then I realized that Mike had done what he did to give me a chance, he never meant to kill Brackus, only to get everyone's attention, I saw the door and I ran for it. I didn't know it at the time, but Brackus had shorted out my collar the last time he zapped me, so no matter how hard they tried to fry me, it didn't work, I didn't know that then, so I just ran. I ran until I couldn't run any more, and then I saw the door. I didn't realize that we had docked, but we were at a station, I ran off of the ship, falling and slipping as I did so, and finally made it to the deck of the station. I turned for just a second to look back and saw the doors closing; they must have thought I was still onboard. I realized that gave me some time to hide, and I used it well, I found an air duct and hopped inside of it, and followed it back until I was in the belly of the station. It really wasn't so different from my cargo hold. I found a shadowed corner and sat down, and it was only then that the events of the last hour caught up with me. I cried for Mike, I cried for myself, and I even cried for Malachi. I cried myself to sleep, and I don't know how long I spent there.
I woke up later, when I heard people wandering around. I looked out from my corner and saw that it was some of the pirates, and they were looking for me. I looked around for a way out, and saw that the machine I was up against was broken down, and had a hole in the side of it, I crawled inside and found the missing piece of metal, I lifted it up and rested it against the hole, hoping it would mask it, as much as possible and I sat there and listened. The pirates began to talk:
"I don't know why we're looking for the kid anyway! It's not like he can't get another. Besides, he has already decided to leave behind a couple of the younger guys to look for him, that Damien brat will probably eat EZ for dinner. I'd certainly put my money on him."
"Well the captain said to search so we're searching, we're leaving in a few hours anyway, the captain doesn't think the boy knows anything important, and we have an appointment with a heavy arms vessel, it's hauling a lot of weapons, and we can make a fortune off of it. The captain is still pissed that one of the other crews missed that Mishi boy the other day, so we have to go have a chat with them as well. We can't be late."
"Whatever, this area is clear, let's go report and get something to drink before we leave." I listened as the two walked off. So they were going to hit an arms vessel huh? There was something I could do about that, I needed access to a COMS port, but that would mean leaving my hiding place. I waited till the pirates were good and gone, then I snuck out from my machine, and made my way down to the communications deck of the station. I listened in to the COMS agent as she cleared the ship for departure, and listened all throughout the night to her COMS broadcasts. Finally, after hours of waiting, she left her post for a break. I didn't know how much time I had, but I had to try and do something to the pirates to avenge Mike, I unscrewed the vent I was behind and dropped down into the room as quietly as I could. It was only then that I realized I was still naked. I hadn't bothered to find any clothes since I ran. There was no time for modesty so I hurried over to the control panel. I had spent a lot of time around the controls on the pirate ship and knew my way around well enough. What I hopped the captain didn't know, was that I had memorized his access codes. I pulled up the ships computer from the stations and found a backdoor into the computer systems. I was going to disable everything and leave them dead in space, but I heard a noise in the hall and knew the COMS Agent was coming back. I quickly found the weapons systems and disabled them, and set up a relay system to relay a shut down code to any other pirate ships they came across. It probably wouldn't take them long to discover it, but perhaps it would cause them some trouble. Mike would have liked that. I quickly backed out of the system and climbed back into the air duct, just as the COMS Agent came back in. I lifted the cover back up and reattached it as quietly as I could.
My plan worked out well from what I heard. The pirates came upon their intended prey, and tried to attack it, but nothing happened. They had brought about twenty ships to try and take down the arms vessel, but none of them could do anything, the arms vessel took out fifteen of the twenty vessels before they could escape. By this time I had gotten myself some clothes and had found my way around the station, using the ventilation systems. I had found the crews that the pirates had left behind, mostly older slave boys or young, unproven pirates. The only one I knew was a threat was Damien, he wasn't exactly sane. I had heard rumors he was Brackus' illegitimate son, and that was why he was so crazy. He was trying to prove himself to his dad. I dodged them easily enough; I caused them trouble when I could. The only time I actually went into their camp, was when I found out that Malachi had been left there as well. I snuck in one night, using the same way in that I used to rescue you guys. I was going to try and talk with him, to get him to escape with me. I had started stockpiling my money years before, and it had built up, I added to it by pick pocketing on the station, mostly from the pirates, but also from a few of the people I knew to be slave traders or just dirty people. If he would come with me, we could charter a vessel off this station, but I never got to talk to him. At the end of his bed hung the swords our father had given us. Brackus must have had them all these years, and he must have given them to Malachi. It brought back everything from the past. I snuck over and took my sword. At first I held it to Malachi's throat, intent on avenging my family, but then I realized that to kill him in his sleep would be something he would do, and something father would not have approved of. So instead, I cut the slavers collar off of my neck, I hung it where my sword had hung, and I snuck back off and trained myself for the next several months, so that when the day came to face him, I could kill him fair and square. And then you guys showed up and accelerated my plans somewhat."
Zeke looked up at the boys. They could tell he was drained just from telling his story. He needed to rest, but he had one more thing to say.
"So you see it was always my choices that led us wrong, everything I chose was the wrong thing. If I would have never chased Malachi, we would still be at home, If I would have killed Brackus when he still thought I was his little slave, Mike would still be alive, and If I would have just left the station months ago, or turned myself in, then the station wouldn't be under attack right now, and Michael and his family wouldn't be in danger. You should just give me back, Mates; I'm not worth the trouble."
Kyle walked over to Zeke, and grabbed him and shook him before the others could react, they didn't know what he was doing, but he soon made it clear.
"It is not your fault that those things happened. Bad things happen to good people all the time and there is no rhyme or reason for it, and if I ever hear you say you aren't worth it again, I'll throw you off my ship faster than you can say light speed. You are worth saving, and none of those things that happened, none of you choices were wrong, you did what you had to do, and you held up a lot better than most people would. I told you and I told your brother, you are our family now, we claimed you as a brother, and nobody in my family is worthless. I am proud to call you brother." Kyle hugged Zeke and then let him go.
"Just out of curiosity, do you still have the codes to his ships? They could come in handy right now."
"No I don't, he changed them after my last little escapade. Sorry mate. If I have some time with a COM unit I may be able to hack him. I'm damn good with weapons, and if you'll let me go with you on the station, I can be a big help."
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that, you're still injured. When you get better, if you're interested, we may have a position for you, but for now, you'll just have to sit this one out." Kyle turned to the doc, "Keep him here, Doc, but don't sedate him or strap him down, he may have to be able to move if things get rough. Everyone else, come with me, we have some planning to do.
The Destiny slid silently through space, her cloaking device engaged. The Silurian Space Station was getting closer by the minute. Kyle knew this would be one of his first real tests as a captain. He was pacing in his room. Terry had tried to comfort him, but his nerves were on edge. He pulled out his datapad once again and went over the station specs. The slightest mistake and he could lead his entire crew into danger and death. For the first time on this journey, he wished he wasn't the captain.
"Captain Barkley, the Silurian station is in sight, you are requested on the bridge immediately." The voice of Ajax sounded across the COM. Kyle jumped a bit. Then closed his eyes and tried to relax. It was time to go to work.
"On my way, Ajax." Kyle turned and looked one more time at his reflection in the mirror. He checked that everything on his uniform was perfect. If he was going into battle, he was going to look like a captain. When he was satisfied, he turned on his heel and made his way out the door and up to the bridge.
"Okay, what is our status?" Kyle walked through the door and he went straight over to the science station. Terry was running the sensors from that post and keeping a look out for any enemy craft.
"We are within viewing range of the station; I'm picking up a lot of ships surrounding her. I'm unclear as of yet which are friendly vessels and which are pirate craft, but as we get closer, I should be able to tell." Terry looked up from his equipment for a minute and gave Kyle a quick smile.
"Bring it up on the main viewer, please." Kyle smiled back, a grin he didn't really feel and then turned to look at the image on the main viewer. The door to the bridge slid open behind him.
"Dear God!" Doc walked onto the bridge, his eyes locked on the viewer screen. There on the screen was the Silurian Space Station, and surrounding it was what looked like a cloud of spaceships. Thousands of ships, many more than had been there at their last visit. Many were firing on one another, skirmishes were happening all over. They watched on the viewer as ships exploded, unsure whose side they were on.
"Terry, have you I.Ded. the Pirate ships yet?" Kyle pulled his eyes away from the battle scene unfolding on the viewer.
"I think I may have it." On the viewer, many of the ships became highlighted in red. The rest turned blue. "The ships in red share a common communications frequency. It's not one I recognize, so I'm guessing it is a pirate frequency. The ships in blue lack that frequency." Terry looked up at the screen and saw that the red outnumbered the blue. "I think the blue vessels may just be the merchant craft and other vessels that were docked here at the station. Some of them have tried attacking the pirate craft, and some have tried to flee. It seems the pirates are attacking any vessel that undocks from the station."
Kyle looked up at the screen. They had to act fast, people were dying.
"Okay, remember our plans. Doc, you have the ship, in our absence. Dad will handle most of the controls and stuff, so there really isn't much for you to do, just stay here and be ready. We may have a medical emergency come up that will need your attention, and whatever you do, keep Zeke on this ship. I don't want him hurting himself more trying to help us. Terry, Odey, Sepi, and I will be going onboard the station to rescue Michael and his family." Kyle turned and looked at a hologram image of his father, "Dad, keep the ship hot, we will be coming back in a hurry, and the ship should be fine hidden under the station. No matter what, don't send anyone in after us, if something happens, get out of here and get the Doc and Zeke to safety." A few tears filled Kyle's eyes. "I love you dad, if we don't make it back, take care of yourself."
Hugh looked down at Kyle, a sad look on his face. "Nothing is going to happen, you will be in and out in no time, If you get in trouble in there, we should be close enough to the station to beam you out, so be careful and take care of the others. I love you son." Hugh wrapped his arms around Kyle. Neither of them could feel the hug, but it helped just the same. He let Kyle go and backed up. "Go kick some butt."
Kyle smiled and turned to the Doc, "Doctor, you have the bridge, we are going to go get ready. Let us know when we are in position." With that Kyle turned to leave the bridge, but Terry ran up to Hugh and gave him another unfelt hug.
"I'll look after dimwit over there and make sure he doesn't hurt himself." Terry turned and grinned at Kyle despite the tears in his eyes, and then he turned and ran over to the Doc and surprised him by giving him a big hug as well. "Take care of the ship and Zeke while we're gone, and don't get yourself hurt. We've kind of gotten to like you."
The doc looked at Terry with a bit of sad wonder in his eyes, "I've gotten to like you boys as well, be careful," Then another look crossed his face, "If any of you get hurt, you will answer to me! Don't go doing anything foolish, do you hear? I'm not someone you want mad at you!"
Terry just grinned up at the doc and then ran to Kyle's side, the two of them headed off the bridge and down to the cargo bay where Odey and Sepi were waiting for them. As they walked in the door Kyle couldn't help but laugh. Odey was dressed in full body armor, with weapons strapped all over him, he looked ready to go to war, but it wasn't that that made him laugh, beside Odey, Sepi sat, trying to lick himself through a little kitty set of battle armor.
"What are you laughing at biped?" Sepi asked through the COM. Kyle was glad to see he wasn't talking through Odey.
"Well I have just never seen a cat in body armor before," Kyle suppressed any more giggles, "you have to admit you look funny, and besides, how are you going to go invisible in that?" Sepi looked up at him as if he was dumb and proceeded to turn himself and his armor quite invisible.
"Don't you know anything biped? Spanglers can make anything they touch invisible if they want. That’s how this ships cloaking device works, they studied spanglers and how we work, then they made a synthetic version of the organ inside us that controls our invisibility, it's tied to Ajax's AI. When he wants the ship invisible, he stimulates the synthetic organ and can make anything on or touching the ship invisible. He could make you invisible right now if he wanted." The spangler sprung back into visibility.
"Okay, then now that the kitty is done with his lesson," Odey grinned down at Sepi who slowly slid his claws out through the slots in his armor and licked them as if ignoring Odey, "I can tell you about the armor I've designed. I got on the computers with Hugh earlier and came up with this stuff. It's a synthetic alloy that is incredibly durable, yet still moves fairly freely. It will repel a blaster shot from as close as 1 meter, any closer than that and there is a chance of penetration. It can't be punctured by any blades, and it can harden instantly to prevent blunt damage. The visor has a display in it you can switch to a sub-light frequency to allow for better vision in the dark. There is a COM receiver built into the helmet to allow for quiet communications. The suit has anti gravity propulsion in the boots to allow you to jump from high up or to lift up to those hard to reach places. One of my favorite features is the shadow cloak. It's not like true cloaking, you aren't completely invisible, but by running a small current through the material we can make you shadowed, almost translucent. It makes it much easier to blend into the shadows and stay out of sight." Odey smiled proudly and pointed to two suits that matched his. "Those are yours. Get suited up and then Zeke will go over weapons." Odey pointed to his left over by the wall and Kyle turned to look, it was only then he noticed Zeke, wearing a matching set of armor and crouched down by the wall. Kyle watched as Zeke stood up and removed the shadowing from his armor. Then he pulled off his helmet.
"Relax Cap, I'm not planning on breaking your orders and tagging along, I just wanted to help out and equip you guys with everything you need to make it back." Zeke smiled at Kyle and then went to get ready for his briefing.
Kyle and Terry got suited up and tried out the armor a bit. It moved really well with them, and they both agreed it was comfortable. It would definitely increase their odds of pulling this off. They stopped playing when Zeke called them over for some weapons training.
"Okay guys, I've given you a pretty broad range of weapons, but we don't know exactly what you will be encountering. Let's start with the defensive weapons. On your wrist," Zeke pointed to a wide bracer on his right wrist, "are most of the controls for the suits and the defensive systems we built in. You control your visor display unit, your shadowing, anti-gravitational boosts and such from here. Odey explained all that, so I will tell you about defensive systems. First, we have small shield generators built into each suit. They don't last long, only about 5 seconds before they need to recharge, which they do from thermal energy produced by your body heat. If you know a blast is coming you can activate them and it will help. But it takes about 10 minutes before they are ready to use again so use them wisely. The next defensive system we've built in is a noise generator. I'm not sure it will be of much help, but it seemed like a fun way to distract your enemies. It produces a high frequency noise that is incredibly loud." Zeke put his helmet back on, and then pushed the button. The boys didn't hear anything.
"I don't think its working." Terry turned to Kyle to see if he heard it.
"Oh ya, you have to take off your helmets." Zeke grinned at them but he and Odey made no move to remove theirs. Kyle looked at Terry, and then the two of them pulled off the helmets to their suits. Immediately they wished they hadn't, as a deafening blast of noise assaulted them. They quickly jerked their helmets back down, and both of them glared at Zeke who was laughing so hard his injury began to hurt.
"Oh, god, sorry guys that was just too funny!" Zeke pressed the button again to silence the noise, and then pulled off his helmet. Terry went for his button, but Kyle grabbed his hand just in time to stop him. They didn't have time for games.
"Okay, your helmets produce an opposing white noise that blankets out the sound for you. So as long as your helmet is down you hear nothing. This could be useful if you find yourself in a conflict, but again use it sparingly, it will give away your position, and we want to attract as little attention as possible." Zeke looked at them all with all the seriousness he could muster. Then he cleared his throat and continued. " Moving on to non lethal weapons, you will each have a stun ray, it works just like a blaster, but will knock the target out for a while. It's good for getting through someplace quietly. You will also have several flash grenades, and smoke bombs. Use the flash grenades carefully, your helmets can help protect you from the flash if it's not too close, so make sure it's not or you'll be as blind as your opponent." Zeke moved over to the last stack of weapons. "Now onto the lethal weapons."
"We know how to use blasters, but what are the other things there?" Terry had noticed some odd looking weapons in that stack.
"Glad you asked Terry," Zeke turned with a grin, "First we have your average blaster pistol. Each of you has used these, and should be familiar with them, you will each have two. Then we have a blaster rifle. It is bigger, packs a stronger punch, but can still be used on the go. It's as easy to use as the pistols, but is better if you need to blow open a door, or need to shoot through someone else's armor." Zeke slung the rifle over his back by the strap to show them how to wear them. "Then we have an Ion Cannon." Zeke picked up the big bulky weapon off of the table. It's heavier, and less accurate, but it does a lot of damage. I would recommend at least one of you carry one. The rest is an assortment of plasma grenades and some minor explosives. You probably won't need them, but it's best if you carry them. Also each of you will have about 5 knives or blades, your suits have one in either bracer that is spring loaded." Zeke made a fist and a blade came out from the bottom of his wrist, longer than his hand, he made another fist and it retracted. "There is a switch in your palm to activate them. Then you have a boot dagger in both boots, and a belt knife, obviously, on your belt. Michael and his family may be tied up and you may need the knives to get them out. But they are also for protection. I know you guys know hand to hand combat, these will help you, I know you don't want to hurt anybody, but they sure as hell won't care if they hurt you so use these things." With that Zeke pointed to a pile of weapons for each of them and told them to get ready. He headed over to his pile and strapped his weapons on him. Then he picked up his long swords and strapped them crisscrossing across his back. "I'll defend the fort while you're away." He gave them a grin, then slid on his helmet and headed to the bridge to join Doc.
The boys had gotten everything together and were sitting on their hover bikes awaiting the signal to launch. Sepi was in a backpack on Odey's back. The door to the cargo bay opened up and Doc walked in.
"Okay guys?" Doc walked right up to Kyle and smiled at him.
"What are you doing here Doc? You're supposed to be on the bridge to tell us when to go."
"I know, but I left Zeke in charge for a minute so I could bring you these." The doc reached behind his back and pulled out 3 round balls. They were each a different color. He handed a gold one to Odey, a blue one to Kyle, and a green one to Terry. "I didn't bring the furball one, but I figure he can share with Odey."
"Doc, are these medbots?" Terry looked at his in wonder, remembering the last time he had seen them in action.
"Yup, I made them each especially for each of you, they match your eyes," he said with a grin and a twinkle in his own eyes. "I know the deal was passage on your ship for one of my medbots, but seeing as I made them with parts generated from your ship, I figure its fair. Clip them to your belts and keep them close. You never know when you might need them. We are almost to the drop, so get ready; I'll open the bay doors on Zeke's signal." With that the doc walked out of the room and stood at the door controls.
"Okay guys get the atmospheric shields up, when doc depressurizes the bay; we want to be able to breathe." Kyle fell back into command, ready and confidant in his team. All of the boys started up their bikes and brought the shields up.
"Okay doc, let 'em go, gods speed guys." The bay doors opened and the sudden rush of the vacuum of space jerked the bikes forward and gave the destiny a shove backwards. The boys revved up the bikes to regain control.
"What the hell was that Doc?" Zeke yelled across the COM trying to figure out what had launched them backwards.
"Sorry Zeke, I'm not used to running things on a ship, I think I forgot to depressurize the cargo bay."
"Damn you scared the bloody hell out of me. I thought we were under attack before our little rescue could even start. Are the guys okay? A launch like that can throw you way off course!"
Doc closed the bay doors and pressurized the bay. Then he ran over to the window in the launch door, the boys seemed fine and they were almost into the station. "Their good Zeke, I'm on my way back up to the bridge, stand by." With that Doc left the bay.
"What the hell happened back there?" Terry's voice rang across the COM.
"Its okay, Doc just forgot to depressurize the cargo bay before opening the doors. We're fine here, carry on with the mission. Are you still on course?"
"Ya Zeke we're fine, try to keep Doc out of trouble till we get back." Kyle grinned behind his helmet as they glided through the dump bay shielding on the station. They landed the bikes and began to gather their stuff. They each had a mission to accomplish. Odey was going to go in and gather some information. His shape shifting made him the perfect spy. Sepi was his back up, but he also had his own mission. Under his cloak of invisibility he could get into areas no one else could, it was his job to find out where they were keeping Michael. Terry was to make his way to the command center on the station and see if they could get support from the guards. Kyle was there to guard their backs and lead the charge once they figured out where they were going.
Zeke had loaded a map he had created of the air ducts and other passages in the underground of the station into Kyle's datapad. As they finished gathering up all their stuff, they made their way though the hatch and into the station. None of them noticed the blinking red light that started flashing as they went through.
"I hate this waiting around stuff, I know that station better than anyone, I should be over … bloody hell Doc are you trying to pull my guts out?!" Zeke jumped as the doc readjusted the sealer on his wound.
"Just because you seem to heal quickly, doesn't mean I'm just going to let you tear yourself open again. You should still be in the medpod. Don't make me restrain you again! You're lucky to be up and walking at all. Kyle was right and you know it, they would all be too worried about you over there to do their jobs properly."
"I know I just feel useless here. I want to be over there helping."
"Well pull your shirt down and go man the …" Doc looked over, trying to figure out what anything on the ship did, "That station over there." Doc pointed and made a show of walking to the captain's chair.
Zeke walked over to the science station and saw the sensor scans for the area. Nothing was of much interest so he switched the scanners over and brought up the view screens.
"What the bloody hell? Doc we are cloaked right?" Ten ships had dropped out of the surrounding formations and were slowly closing on them.
"Ajax?"
"Yes, sir, we are cloaked and silent."
"Then what the hell are they doing?" Just as Zeke asked, the ship rocked hard. "Their firing on us, how the hell are they firing on us?!"
Doc and Zeke turned to the main screen and watched as two more blasts flew past the ship, missing it by very small margins.
"They are firing blind, that one was just a lucky shot," Doc turned to the COM just as another blast rocked the Destiny, and then another. "Damn it, they are getting luckier." Doc hit the button on the COM, "Kyle we're under attack!"
Terry's been gone too long! Where is he? Kyle wondered to himself. He had set up a sort of operations base as the others had gone about their missions. Terry had been the first to leave, and he should have been back by now one way or another. Shielding in one of the passage ways messed with his COM, so he couldn't keep constant communications, but he promised to be back on COM, or back to base in five minutes, that was ten minutes ago. Odey had reported in, he had found a group of pirates and incapacitated one with his stun ray and taken his place. With any luck he could get some intel quickly. Sepi had yet to locate Michael and his family, but he said he was close. Kyle knew the others were fine; it was Terry he was worried about. Kyle reached over and picked up the ion cannon, ready to go looking for him if necessary, when a sudden bang behind him made him spin around and nearly fire.
"Whoa, hold it, it's just me." Terry crawled out of the air vent. The cover was tossed down on the floor.
"Where the hell have you been? You were supposed to be back in contact five minutes ago!"
"Aww were ya worried about lil ol' me? That’s sweet." Terry grinned at Kyle as Kyle glared at him. "Sorry, I got side tracked. After that shielded unit, I found the command center alright. It's shielded too by the way. Without the proper frequency, you can't transmit in or out. Don't expect any help from them though. The officers, who weren't dead, were working for the pirates. I think I may have found Michael and his family. The pirate guy we saw in the transmission, Captain Brackus, has taken up office in the Station commander's office. I was going to try to sneak in for a closer look, but they have patrols in the vents! I had to scurry to get back here without being caught."
Kyle looked Terry over, insuring he was okay, and then he called Sepi on the COM.
"Sepi, where are you?"
"Where I'm supposed to be, where are you?"
"This is no time for sarcasm, Terry thinks he may have located Michael, we need you to check."
"No need, I'm looking at him."
"You are? Where is he?"
"He's in the station commander's office."
"Great! Terry was right. See if you can get his attention, without getting anyone else's, if you can, give him the COM unit in your bag."
"Can do. Sepi out." Kyle turned around with a relieved grin on his face. So far they were doing well at this covert stuff. Suddenly Odey yelled over the COM.
"Kyle, they know we're here, we tripped some kind of alarm when we came in! You need to secure your location, they have guys moving down to where we entered the station, that should keep them away from the base location, but you need to be extra careful, we've lost the element of surprise."
"Crap, thanks for the info Odey. Get back here as soon as you can."
"On my way captain, Odey out."
"This is not good, so much for getting in and out quietly." Kyle moved over to his bag and began taking out things to help secure the room.
"That explains the guards in the ducts. If they know we entered down in the underbelly, it would make sense for us to use them to move around undetected." Terry grabbed the other bag and began to help Kyle when Kyle's COM activated again.
"Kyle, we're under Attack!"
"What do you mean?" Kyle came back across the COM, "Your cloaked how could they find you?"
"I don't know, they were firing over and over till they hit us, they had to know we were here somehow." Doc swiveled in the chair as Hugh appeared beside him.
"Okay Doc, we tripped some sort of alarm when we came in. that must be how they found you, tell dad to move you to a more secure location and wait till I call you to come pick us up."
"Okay Kyle, I'm on it," Hugh closed his eyes and the ship began to move. The blasts were starting to hit all around them, as they moved through the firing lines of all the ships. "Almost clear." One more blast hit the side of the ship, knocking it harder than the others. The red alert alarm sounded. "What the …" Hugh closed his eyes tighter, "Our cloak is down!!! They can see us! That last blast must have hit just right, it jarred something loose. I'll see if I can fix it! Zeke I may need your help, get down to engineering. Ajax, do some fancy flying and try to avoid them." Hugh vanished and Zeke jumped up to head for the door.
"Damn, this is not good! I don't know what to do!" Doc turned to watch Zeke as he ran out the door. All he could do was watch the screen as the ships began to close in, more then ten now, twenty, thirty, forty, more and more were angling to intercept as the Destiny began to run.
"Doc, what the hell is going on?"
Kyle heard the sirens blare across the COM. His dad had started to move them, but something had gone wrong.
"Doc, what the hell is going on?"
"We've lost the cloaking device, Zeke and your dad are trying to fix it, but we have to dodge a lot of ships. They had better hurry, or there will be nothing left to cloak!"
Kyle turned to look at Terry; the worry was clear in his eyes. Things were not going as they had planned.
"Hurry up Zeke! There is a tool kit over under the console there." Hugh pointed to a console as he hurried over to the cloaking engine. "I can see what's wrong with it through the computer, but I need you to actually get to it and fix it, I can't touch anything!"
Zeke ran over with a set of tools, "Alright, what do I need to do?"
"The repair is simple; it is just a conduit that dislodged. But to get to it you need to remove this panel here," Hugh pointed to a piece of the wall that had bolts holding it in place, "and climb back about 100 feet. Then just plug It back in and we're in business, I think."
"That sounds easy enough." Zeke went to work unbolting.
Doc was pacing the bridge, feeling scared and useless. All he could do was watch the screen and pray that Zeke and Hugh were fast enough. As he watched a group of ships broke formation, they were different from the others and began to head strait for the Destiny at high speed.
"Hugh we may have a problem."
"Only one, I figured that was apparent by now." Hugh appeared beside Doc. One of the advantages of being a projection was being able to be in two places at once. He looked at the screen and then turned to Doc. "We need to boost the shields, now!"
"Why? What are those?" Doc turned a worried eye back to the screen.
"Those are emitter ships. If we take a hit from one of their phase beams, the whole ship is dead in the water! Move! I'm trying to boost shield power now." Hugh closed his eyes again. "Damn, the shields are on the same power system as the cloaking device, I can't relay any more power to them until Zeke finishes, Damn!" Hugh vanished again, leaving the doctor very scared and alone.
"Zeke," Hugh appeared in miniature in front of Zeke in the passage way. "You have to hurry, this needs fixed now, or we are in serious trouble."
"I thought we were already in trouble! You mean there is more?"
"Emitter ships, closing fast. If they hit us, you know what happens."
"Bollocks! This damn conduit won't reattach, I think it's broke inside." Zeke turned to look at Hugh, "What can I do?"
"There is a spare conduit back where the tool kit was hurry!" Zeke spun around in the tight passageway and crawled back to grab the conduit. "Hurry Zeke before it's …"
Doc watched the screen as the emitter ships pulled into range. The first one fired a strange purple ray. It struck the shields and Doc watched as a warning message displayed. There shield was breached. Another ship fired at the same spot, only this time there was no shield there to deflect it. Doc braced for an impact, but it never came. Suddenly, everything went dark.
"Hurry Zeke before it's …" Hugh just stopped talking for a second "It's too late. Our shields are breached, the next shot will…" Hugh faded and the Engineering bay went dark.
Zeke grabbed a flashlight out of his tools and began running for the bridge. He rounded the last corner and ran strait into Doc, knocking them both on the ground. He grabbed Doc and pulled him back to his feet.
"Get up! We have to get the emergency power back on, we have no shields and no steering!" he grabbed Doc and dragged him back to the bridge.
"Guys? What's going on? Guys? Zeke do you hear me? Doc? Dad? Shit!" Kyle punched the wall and turned to Terry, the terror in his eyes flashed like lightning. "Their gone, I've lost communication! You don't think …"
"Na, they will be fine, we need to worry about ourselves for right now. We aren't exactly on vacation here." Terry turned on his COM and told Sepi and Odey what was going on, they agreed to meet them back at base as soon as possible. A sound in the hallway made Terry turn and shout out to Kyle. "Look out, they have found us!" He shoved Kyle down and overturned the table they had been using. A blast ripped the doorway apart. Flames leapt up for a second, but were suppressed. Pieces of metal impacted the table, shaking it and pushing it back. Kyle and Terry coughed at the smoke and dust, but slowly looked over the table to see what used to be a doorway, now twisted and fallen. Debris filled the hole where it used to stand. One of the pirates had found their present. It would slow them down, but now they knew for sure where they were. "Odey, Sepi, stay away, we've been found, I repeat, stay away."
"Damn it this is not good! Give me the Ion Cannon." Terry handed it down to Kyle. "Fall back to the air vents lets try to get out of here before they move that stuff." A blast from outside the room shook the debris and it settled down, someone was trying to blast through. "Quick Terry move!"
Zeke jumped into the first chair he could find and grabbed the nearest terminal. He began tapping commands like crazy. Doc looked over his shoulder and noticed a simple interface that was still online. Zeke hit a series of commands, and a faint light came on overhead, then it grew stronger. Other terminals began to light up and run their protocols. The ship was alive again. A blast from behind them rocked them hard.
"Damn, just in time! I've got emergency power back up, that will give us most basic systems the shields got up just in time before that blast ripped us apart! Let's see where we are." Zeke punched in a few commands and the viewer loaded a very large image of a space station, growing closer quickly. "Damn, we are heading for the station! I've got to get us on a different course. We don't have much thrust in this state, but I should have enough to get us back away from there." Zeke began to enter commands. "This is hard without Ajax and Hugh!" he entered more commands. "It's not working!" Zeke jumped up and ran to the helm. The layout was easier to understand, but none of the controls were working, for just a second he got the ship to nudge up, but then everything locked up again. "That last blast must have knocked out helm controls, we are so screwed!" Zeke spun in the chair and looked at Doc. "I've got to fix this before we crash. I'll be back." With that he bolted from the chair and sprinted down on his way to engineering, leaving Doc once more on the bridge alone. He did the only thing he could think to do.
"Kyle can you hear me?" The scared voice of Doc came across the Com.
"Doc? Is that you? I hear you, what the hell happened?" Kyle stopped in the air duct and flagged down Terry, they both ducked as far out of sight as they could and made sure they were shadowed. They hadn't come across any of the pirates yet, but they had seen signs they were about. This was the first good news they had gotten. The ship was okay!
"We are having a lot of trouble out here. Have you gotten Michael yet?"
"Not yet Doc, what's going on out there?"
"Some strange ships shot us and it knocked everything off, Zeke got our emergency power back on, but I don't think we are going to last long out here. We don't have helm control, and we are heading strait for the station." Doc pressed a button, trying to get their exact distance from the station, and instead activated the locators for the boys. He saw them outlined as small dots on the station. Odey and Sepi were together, somewhere in the main section, but Kyle and Terry were in the upper air ducts, right where the ship was heading. "We are heading strait for you! You need to move, now!"
Nothing was going right. The helm was totally fragged. The console was sparking. There was no way to fix it. Zeke looked up with frustration at the screen, they were going to hit the station in about 30 seconds, and he couldn't do anything about it. He flipped on the COM and sent out a message to everyone. "It's no use, the helm is fried! We can't stop! I may have one idea, but …" A loud pop and a shower of sparks flew from behind him; he spun around and saw the COM unit spark and fizzle. 'Great!' he thought.
"It's no use, the helm is fried! We can't stop! I may have one idea, but …" Suddenly the COM went dead again, Kyle grabbed Terry and they ran as hard as they could. Noise and fire suddenly ripped apart their world. There was a huge blast behind them. The bulkhead they had been hidden behind only seconds ago was ripped forward and blasted through the wall on the other side. Blackened metal flew in all directions. They tried to keep running, but the floor rippled beneath them and began to collapse. Something else exploded behind them and Kyle was suddenly thrown violently forward. The heat made him feel like he was cooking. His grip slipped from Terry's as he slammed into a wall and was hammered by a load of metal. He had just landed when he was jerked back, as the vacuum of space tried to pull him through the gaping hole in the station. The pull only lasted a second as a shield formed around the breach almost instantly. Kyle fell back to the floor. Metal scattered all around him. Smoke rose off of his armor. He looked up at the hull of the space station from his back. He could see stars from the hole. He shook his head and tried to stand up. Everything seemed to be working, nothing seemed broken. He looked back at where they had been standing. There was nothing there, just a whole in the floor of the air duct.
He couldn't believe it; the Destiny had torn through the station. His ship was gone. Zeke, the doc, Ajax, were all gone. Then he thought about his dad, who survived only as an AI stored in the computers Databanks. If the computers were destroyed that meant he had lost his dad again. This time for good!
Kyle fell to the ground again, he ripped his helmet off. Tears rolled down his face, his whole life was ruined. Everything was gone. He was going to make the pirates pay, if he had to die to do it. He had to get Terry and get out of here. They had to find the others and find a way to make these bastards pay. He turned and saw Terry wasn't behind him, a sudden panic clenched him. Terry was gone.
"Terry!!!! No!!!!" It was all too much and Kyle turned his head and vomited. He couldn't breathe. He tried but his lungs wouldn't open. He saw spots, and suddenly air rushed into his lungs. He fell forward, face first onto the ground, took one good breath and then all was darkness.
To Be Continued...
Author's Notes:
Well It is finally done. All I can say is … I blame Hammer! He made me do it I promise!!!! Sorry it took so long. The story has been going in a different direction than I thought it would, and I think that’s why I've put off writing some. That and with school keeping me swamped it was hard to find time. Chapter 10 will hopefully get out a lot quicker. If I don't resolve a few things I think I would have to fear for my life. I hope you enjoy, don't hurt me!!! As always, questions, comments and evil author nominations accepted at taronw@jeffsfort.us or drop me a line on jeffsfortboard.com. As always,
Thanks for Playing,
Taron Webster
Chief of Security's Note:
What the heck do you call that???? You leave us in limbo for months and this is what we get???
You ******************************Censored******************************!
Get back to this keyboard right now and fix this!!!!!! What the heck were you thinking? Guys, I'm gonna mangle my author! Sepi will help! If you have any suggested torture methods, please send them to me on the author's forum. No Sepi we need a bigger chainsaw than that!!!!! Got to run!
Odey
Editor's Notes:
Hmmmmmm He thanks us for playing. Well if this is playing I would hate to see what happens when it's the real thing!
Get that author Odey! You too Sepi. You use your claws on him. I am not a happy editor. Let me see if I can edit out the explosion. No that didn't work, I wonder if I do that... Hmmm that didn't work either. Well let me think about it for a bit. I know the next time I see Taron I am going to really slap him around. I know that won't help our guys, but at least it will make me feel like I accomplished something.
By the way Taron, for being a Webster, You sure could use a better dictionary; I found some Ofs that needed to be Thats, so be careful walking around these sentences, they can get pretty complicated. I think I might have lost a box of semicolons somewhere on the station, as I was running to get out of the way of the explosion. I always keep some with me in case I need commas, quotation marks or periods in an emergency. And this certainly counts as an emergency.
I thought that Str8mayb was the one that was blowing up spaceships. Now I discover that I have at three authors that I edit for that blow up spaceships. Dark Star was the first one, in A Different Place. Then there was The Phone, or at least he had a tragic accident on a spaceship. And then Str8mayb blew up Quest or almost did, and now, Taron is blowing up Destiny. What am I going to do? This is setting a very bad example. Now every author is going to think it is okay to blow up ships. Here we go again killing off lovable characters all at once. I am really going to have to think of something nasty to do to Taron. ACFan, Can you change Taron's post count again and turn his Avatar Upside down or put a bag over his head? That might keep him busy..... Oh wait we don't want to keep him busy. We want him to fix this, don't we?
Hurry up Taron Fix this problem. Hurry!!!!!!!!!!
Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher
The Other Editor's Notes:
Cliffffff Hannnngggeeeerrrrrs Innnn SPAAAAAACE!!!!
Oh, thats right there are no cliffs in space.
Okay you get an A in Cliff Hanging. NOW FIX IT!!!
Str8mayb
Author's Addendum:
Fix what? **looks innocent** I didn't do anything!!!! **grins evilly** Okay, okay, I'll get to work!!!! Should have chapter 10 sometime in the next year, I promise :p
Norat …. I mean Taron!!!
See ACFan, you have given me an identity crisis!!!