Chapter 6

The next day Mike was drinking his first coffee of the day in the ship's galley, alone with his thoughts. Jack strolled in looking like he had just fought a major battle with his pillow and the pillow won. Jack poured himself some coffee and sat down across from Mike, looking like he wanted to go back to bed. Mike looked out on the scenery that was the moon. It was kinda bleak for Mikes' tastes; it just looked like a large sand trap that you would find on a golf course. Everyone had donned surplus uniforms found in one of the storage closets on board the ship. The uniforms themselves were color coded for different departments of ship operations.

Red - Command staff/ship operations.

Blue - Medical/Science.

Gold - Maintenance/Engineering.

Green - Security.

Brown - Fighter Operations.

The uniforms are basic black on the outside with the department color trimming the sleeves and collar of the uniform. Rank insignia was located on the collar of the uniform, while patches could be sewn on to the sleeves or shoulders later if needed. Mike liked the uniforms though they kind of give you a wedgie every once in a while. Sam could probably adjust them. Mike asked Jack how he slept. Jack look at Mike for a minute, then said he slept well but he kept having a really intense dream that was driving him a little batty. Emily walked in looking very chipper and Mike hoped that she would drown in her coffee for being so chipper. Apparently Jack was thinking along those lines too since she walked in. No one had the right to be that chipper in the morning, it went against the natural order of things.

"Wow, isn't this just exciting, we're on the backside of the moon." Emily chirped out at them.

Jack responded with "Cram it Blondie, it's too early for the sun shine brigade to make an appearance."

With that comment Emily's chipper mood deflated faster than a balloon flying around a room. Mike was having a hard time restraining the laugh he got out of that, while Emily made her early morning report. Her mood quickly soured, and threw a seething look at Jack, who just shrugged it off like it was nothing.

"Everything is running smoothly, no problems whatsoever. I went to wake up Mitch five minutes ago, but he wasn't in his room. Sam told me he had gotten up at five a.m. EST. Then went straight to work after only having some dried toast and tea for breakfast. He's been working five hours straight on those upgrades. Sam informed me that he was not to be disturbed till at least noon. That's about it for now."

Mike was satisfied with her report and decided to go for a walk. He said he'd see them later; he wanted to check out the hanger bay while on his walk. Mike left the galley and proceeded towards the hanger bay. Mike was impressed with the work that Jack and the maintenance droids had done, the ship look almost brand new. None of the corridors had the slightest blemish. While admiring the handiwork of the Chief Engineer, Mike noticed that he was slightly lost. Just ahead of him on the right side of the corridor was a simplistic diagram of the ship. After getting directions from the diagram Mike was at the hanger bay in no time flat. The doorway to the hanger bay opened with a slight hiss and the inside was dark. Mike stepped through the doorway and activated the light switch. Overhead, artificial lighting came to life and showed the hanger bay in a peculiar sort of way. The fighters within the hanger were sleek works of art. A thin lay of dust covered the entire hanger bay, evidence that this area of the ship has been unvisited since the departure of the original crew. Maintenance equipment littered the floor of the bay and fighters were perched along the walls with the exception of one sole fighter. Mike slowly walked towards one of the fighters in the middle of the bay. This one seemed a little different from the rest of the fighters. This one was somewhat personalized by the original pilot, strange glyphs were scrolled along the side of the hatch, while an indigo stripe cut across the nose diagonally. Mike decided that he would take this one for a test drive, it seemed as good as any of the fighter craft here. He hoped that by the time he returned Mitch would have good news to report on those upgrades. But Mike was going to get into his combat suit first just in case, and it wouldn't hurt to bring Crimson along for some company. After donning his suit and grabbing Crimson, Mike headed back to the hanger bay.

Mike opened that hatch to the fighter and climbed inside. Once he was comfortable, he slid the hatch shut. Mike activated the ship' and banks of lights sprang to life. He retracted the landing struts and the ship floated in mid-air as if on an invisible cloud. He asked Sam to open the hanger doors and a crack appeared on the far wall as two massive doors retracted. Mike maneuvered the small fighter craft through the opening. He had to admit the little ship handled pretty well for being ten thousand-years-old. Stars filled the canopy of the little ship as it left the hanger. Mike was in awe at the sight, he realized just how small he was compared to the rest of the universe. He steered the fighter in a smooth arc towards the moon's surface, keeping the fighter between the ship and the moon. The moon reminded Mike of a golf course sand trap. Craters pockmarked the surface, which gave way to shallow ravines and expansive valleys. All and all it was pretty boring. Mike decided head the fighter towards the outer reaches of the system and check out Pluto. He plotted his course and headed out. Pushing the engines to their maximum, they glowed an intense blue. The fighter was cruising near one of Jupiter's moons, Europa. Mike had learned about this one back in high school, it supposedly has an ocean of water underneath its icy surface.

A beeping from the sensors brought Mike back to the present. The sensors were picking up something up on the edge of the system. Curiously Mike set the sensors to their maximum setting. While he was still too far away to get a clear reading he realized that if he went to investigate whatever it is alone it would be extremely stupid. Although Sam and the ship were nowhere near ready to investigate anything at the moment. Well, sitting between Jupiter and Saturn wasn't going to solve anything. Mike activated the cloaking device and the small fighter simply disappeared from the visual spectrum. The fighters' transponder was not active at the moment and turning it on might alert his presence to someone. Five minutes passed slowly as the fighter passed Pluto, which kind of looked like a misshapen potato. Mike was approaching the edge of the system and he could barley make out a speck in the distance. He focused the sensors on the speck and they reported it to be a ship. Fear slowly crept its' way into Mike's stomach, but he would need to get a lot closer to get a clear reading. Mike edged the fighter towards the ship, trying not to draw attention to his fighter, even though it was cloaked. He closed the distance between the two ships and the sensors reported that the ship was heavily damaged. Mike looked at the ship and he had to agree with the sensors, this ship was beaten to hell.

The ship was drifting into the system and probably caused an incident down the line. He checked the reading and saw that there was still some atmosphere on the ship, but most of it was concentrated in what appeared to be the cargo bay. Their shields, weapons, and engines were all off-line. The ships' hull was pocked marked with black scorch marks and chunks of hulls were missing. This ship was at least half the size of their ship and looked like an angular box with the wings located at the rear of the ship. The sensors couldn't tell him if anyone was a live or not, too much interference. Mike sealed his suit and brought the fighter right long the aft side of the hull near an airlock and magnetized the landing struts to the hull. Mike shut down power to the fighter and opened the hatch while all the air was sucked out. Mike climb out of the fighter and held on to the little fighter until he could magnetize his boots, once that was done Mike reached into the fighter, retrieved Crimson and strapped him to his back. Mike' progress was slow and after seven minutes of walking reached the airlock. He bent down and activated the airlocks' door. The airlock door was circular and rotated clock wise to the opened position. Mike then swung into the airlock and closed the door so the airlock would begin to repressurize the small room. Of course that wasn't really needed with the suit Mike was wearing. Artificial gravity was still operational, so he demagnetized his boots, and walked to the door that led to the other parts of the ship. He had a clear shot from here to the cargo bay, his suits' sensors indicated that this air was breathable, but decided against taking off his suit. He switched over to stealth camouflage, activated his shields and proceeded to the cargo bay. It was deathly quiet inside; no one seemed to be around. Mike figured if the crew was dead that their bodies would be scattered around. As he approached the cargo bay he could hear muffled noises coming from the other side of the door. Activating the door switch Mike watched as the doors slid silently open. What he saw next would haunt his dreams for the rest of his days. There was a fairly large group of people huddling in the corner of the cargo bay, wearing cloths that are torn and close to falling off altogether. All of these people were battered, bruised, bleeding, and shackled to each other. Most of them looked to be in a state of shock and were covered in various kinds of filth, some obviously their own waste. Standing in the middle of the cargo bay was an alien humanoid, seven feet tall, reptilian in nature, green scales and razor sharp black claws. On its' face was a sort of snout and had two rows of gleaming fangs.