Chapter 8

Meanwhile...

"WHERE THE FUCK IS HE?!" shouted Emily for the thirty-seventh time. Both Jack and Mitch were watching Emily, like they were trapped inside a cage with a wild animal ready to tear their heads off at the slightest movement. Emily had been pacing the deck in the galley since Mike failed to come back. At first both Jack and Mitch said that Mike was just having some fun out in a fighter, and it had only been three hours. That was five hours ago with no sign of Mike. With every passing hour Emily got more agitated and snapped at the every little noise.

While Emily was pacing, Mitch had completed most of the upgrades, although the hyper drive would have to wait to be tested. At Mitch's request, Sam operated a small fighter to 'test' the new upgrades. The fighter was designed for two occupants, shaped like the US Air Forces Thunderbolt II, except it was a lot smaller. The craft was fifteen feet long by nine feet wide. When it was in the hanger bay the craft was resting on its landing struts barely six feet off the ground. Mitch found out that the fighter was heavily armored and made it half as fast as the fighter that Mike was flying, though it in fact had more powerful weaponry to compensate for its speed. It reminded Mitch of a bomber of sorts, not very quick, but packs a powerful punch when needed. For the first test Mitch had Sam maneuver the fighter ten kilometers away from the ship, then have the Thundercat, the fighter, fire it's forward particle weapons directly at the hull of the ship. With the new metaphasic armor, Mitch believed that their would be no residual affects from the particle weapon, meaning that the Thundercat could, in fact, stay outside of the ship and fire at its hull for the rest of the day without leaving a single mark. Jack decided to join Mitch for the rest of the day to avoid the "hell bitch", or else face a fate worse than death itself. He was a little nervous about Mitchs' plan; what if it failed was the main topic of their conversation. Mitch replied simply, 'we'd die a very painful, but quick death'. Jack was quiet for a while after that, silently hoping that the test passed. He was standing over the Science consul just skimming Mitchs' project notes, when he noticed the name 'Thundercat'.

"Mitch, what in the Sam hell is a 'Thundercat'? asked Jack while doing the air quotes gesture.

"Well, do you see that fighter out there?" Jack nodded, it was kinda hard to miss. "That my friend is what I name that particular class of fighter."

Jack decreed that Mitch was no longer allowed to name anything involving ships, A.I.s', bases, planets, and/or solar systems ever again. Mitch protested that it was a perfectly good name and didn't see a problem with it. Jack said, "If you can't see the problem, you are by far clueless and FUBAR. And if you don't know what that means, try Googling it."

Five obscene hand gestures later, Mitch had Sam transfer control of the Thundercat to the Science consul, so he could be more in control of the test. Mitch brought the Thundercat up on the main viewer and had Sam project the Thundercat and the ship in holographic panorama. Sam started a ten second count down until the fighter fired, Mitch was eager for this test to get under way.

"Ten", said Sam.

"Nine"

"Well I hope this works," said Mitch. Jack upon hearing this cursed worse than a drunken sailor trying pay to for a prostitute, and later finding out it was a guy in drag. Jack missed eight because he was cursing so loud.

"Seven"

"Six"

"Five"

"I am so going to kick your ass later," uttered Jack.

"Four"

"Three"

"Two"

"One"

"Ah shit," muttered Jack. Mitch pressed the firing symbol on the consul and a bright red flash of energy erupted from the Thundercat. Jack had his eyes closed the entire time. Mitch had his eyes on the holographic display as the energy blast drew closer towards the ship. The distance between the two rapidly decreased. Then the energy hit the ship. Jack still had his eyes closed, but asked when it was going to hit.

"It already did you big chicken shit," replied Mitch. Jacks' eyes popped open and looked around. No alarms went off, nothing seemed damaged, in fact Jack didn't even register the hit on the ship. "Damn that armor must be fucking good!" thought Jack. Though he didn't say that to Mitch. Mitch moved away from the consul with that damn smug look on his face. Jack decided that it was time for some payback. Without being too apparent, he launched his booted foot right in the center of Mitchs' hacky-sac. Mitchs' testicles moved right on in with their new neighbors, the tonsils.

Just about an hour later Emily stormed onto the bridge, much of her irritation still on her face. She scanned the area, hoping to lash out at anyone or thing, so she wouldn't be reminded that Mike was still missing. Emily wanted to take the ship out and search for Mike, but Mitch told her in no uncertain terms that the ship needed to be tested before we searched for Mike. That had been an hour before Mitchs' test started, now she felt that the ship was as ready as it was going to be, test be damned. She was tired of waiting, and when she found Mike, he is going to die a very painful death by her hands. A single moan broke through her thoughts as Emily turned her head towards the science consul. Mitch was sitting on the largest bag of ice that Emily had ever seen, well more like straddling the bag of ice than sitting on it. The irritation on her face slowly faded at the amusing sight.

"What the hell happen to you?" she asked. Mitch looked up from the consul and wince before he spoke.

"Jack and I had a disagreement of my testing methods. When he found out what the test entailed and how I had hoped that the test would work, he got a little upset. Needless to say if I had not called him a chicken shit after the test then my balls would not be up in my throat right about now."

Emily gave a slight smile at his labored effort to recall the incident. Mitch went on to tell her that all of the defensive upgrades were complete, both shielding and armor passed with flying colors. They could now search for Mike without further delay on his part.

"Sam could you extrapolate Mikes' flight path and guides us to him?" Emily asked with excitement evident on her face.

"Yes Commander, the emissions from the fighter can be tracked easily, but we had better do so now before his wake dissipates any further," explained Sam.

"Alright Sam, bring up his flight path on the main viewer and display the route that he might had taken without changing course, hopefully he hadn't taken the scenic route."

"Acknowledge."

The computer generated image of Mikes' flight path showed the fighter heading towards the outer reaches of the system passing close to Pluto.

"Jack please report to the bridge and man your station," commed Emily.

"Be right there." replied Jack.

Jack was panting heavily when he rushed onto the bridge, a slight flush evident on his cheeks. After a few seconds Jack brought his breathing back to normal and calmly walked to his consul. Emily took the Captain's chair and swiveled around towards the main viewer. She ordered Sam to take control and follow the flight path that Mike took and to set his sensors to their maximum setting. Mitch asked if she wanted the cloak activated, so they could avoid the chance of being spotted, even by that piece of shit Hubbell telescope. Emily thought it was a good suggestion and agreed.