Chapter 12

Mike was lying down in his quarters, exhausted by the workout he had received from Crimson. The Breaker blade was still upset with him because of the incident on the slaver ship. It had taken three days longer than Mike expected for Darkstar to tow in the crippled ship. When Mike inquired as to why this was Sam explained that the Darkstar was not 'a simple tug', that it was a ship of exploration. Even with the tractor beam and towing cables it was still one hell of a job getting all the way back to the moon. Mike was hoping that he could talk to Mitch and Jack for a few minutes about today's agenda. Getting up he walked towards his bathroom, his mind still groggy from sleep. After the usual morning ritual, shit, shower, shave, he was beginning to feel human when he felt a sort of soft buzzing in the back of his mind. For a couple minutes he couldn't understand what in the hell that was about but something about it said to hurry up. He was out of his quarters heading for the bridge, following the winding corridors all the way. Once he got there, he could see nothing that would suggest that something was wrong. A minute later Emily arrived, looking like she was being chased by the bogeyman. She too stopped to look around, than locked eyes with Mike.

"Hey, did you feel anything weird a few minutes ago?" She asked.

"Yeah, kinda like a buzzing in the back of my head." He replied.

"Hey Sam, does anything seem out of sorts today?" asked Emily.

"I can detect nothing that would suggest that anything is out of order. Do you wish for me to run a scan of the immediate area?"

"Yeah and while your at it com Mitch, Jack, and Xavier, if he's able. Ask them to come to the bridge."

After waiting a few minutes, all three men arrived at basically the same time. Xavier, however, was walking much more slowly than the others, an expected side affect of the serum. It could build up the muscles to withstand G-forces but it took a while for the person to get use to the gravity. He smiled at those gathered and asked what the problem was.

"Well, it's not exactly a problem; just more of a feeling really, that something seems wrong." Emily stated.

"Are we in stationary orbit around the moon?" asked Mitch.

"Yes, sir, we are currently passing the equator line into the daylight side of the moon, the slave ship is currently in a similar orbit one thousand kilometers behind us." Declared Sam.

"So do you have an answer to my question Sam?" asked Emily.

"I've performed a wide scan of the immediate area, including the surface of the moon we are passing over, and other than a few mineral resources nothing appears out of the ordinary."

"Can you scan Earth and tell us if something is going on there?" She asked.

"At our current range, just a general scan of the planet, not a very detailed scan. I would need access to the news media in order to find out current events."

"Sam do we have any probes on board?" asked Mike.

"Yes Captain, they're located in storage locker seven alpha. It seems that we have over two dozen of them."

"Ok, I want you to activate around seven probes and instruct them to either attach themselves to a satellite and take it over or destroy it and assume its functions. Then I want three maintenance droids to build you an uplink capable of Internet access." Mike said.

"Yes Captain, activating probes one through seven. Estimated arrival time to Earth orbit ten minutes and an additional five minutes for satellite takeover and/or replacement."

"Uh Mike, won't somebody on the planet notice that something effected the satellite feed? Also, there could be a chance of detection even though it is highly unlikely." Mitch put in his two cents.

"Yeah well, I really don't care if they do detect the probes." Mike stated in matter of fact way and just nodding his head sagely.

Everyone was just quiet for a bit, not really knowing what to say next. Xavier had seemed a bit worn out, so he had sat down at one of the control consoles and just sat there watching the exchange.

"Sam, one more thing before we move on to other business. I want to send five maintenance droids down to the surface of the moon with portable replicators. Have them gather materials and start building more droids. When they reach fifty they are to stop building. I want them to then start building a military installation that will serve as our base of operations. They build the base with local materials and use the replicators if they need parts or material not found there."

"Captain, that last request will take some time. I have calculated that it will take approximately thirty-seven hours to complete your first request and an additional fifty hours for construction of the installation. Is their anything else that I can do for you?" asked Sam.

"No, that will be all for today unless something unforeseen comes up." Mike was exhausted again and it was barley ten a.m. ship time. At the moment he felt like a worn out piece of cloth, stretched just a little too thin and maybe worn a bit around the edges. He had lost count of how long they've been up here and if he was being honest with himself then he was going a little stir crazy. What he really needed to do was relax, read a book, watch a movie, or exercise. The latter one was pretty much exhausted beyond boring while the two former options were lacking at the moment, considering they didn't bring any books or movies along.

'Maybe some busy work will take my mind off of things.' He thought.

"Hey Mitch, I have a job for you. Brainstorm with Jack and design some defensive/offensive weapons we could use to protect and defend this system."

"Yeah, no problem Mike. Let me know when Sam gets Internet access because I want to do some research involving some online Science Fiction stories."

Xavier and Emily were still sitting around watching Mike carefully while Jack and Mitch shrugged and wandered off to do what they were asked to do. Mike kept staring off into space, not really looking at anything, not really thinking anything either. He was just content to stand there for a few moments. Then he started to think about what had happened the other day, when he had evidently read his crew's minds'. He was beginning to wonder what else he could do.

'Aw, what the hell, it's not like I'm doing anything important today anyway.' He thought.

He concentrated again on the 'tingle' feeling, seeing what else he could do. Once he felt the feeling spread throughout his brain he held it without letting the feeling fade. When he was sure it wasn't going to fade he focused his attention on his surroundings. He noticed it right away; somebody had left a glass on one of the consoles, sitting there collecting dust.

'Mitch strikes again, I swear that guy is a complete slob, if he weren't so good at his job, I would have flushed him out an airlock after the first week.' Mike thought sardonically.

He kept looking at the glass for two more seconds and then wondered what would happen if he used his 'power' on the glass. His curiosity got the better of him and tried to make it move. He tried with all of his will power behind that thought but nothing happened. Frustrated and a little angry he thought he would just walk right over there and throw the stupid thing against the bulkhead. As soon as he imagined himself grabbing the glass and throwing it, the damn thing flew off the console and shattered against the wall. Both Xavier and Emily nearly jump through the ceiling when they heard the shatter but Mike just paled a bit and felt a little weak. He had enough strength to stagger to a bench and collapsed against it. For the next five minutes he concentrated on just breathing and trying to regain his strength back. Then he notice someone was standing in front of him and when he looked up he saw it was Emily. Her lips were moving, but for some reason he couldn't hear anything coming out of her mouth. He shook his head for a few seconds then the sound started to come back.