Earth Is Mine

Chapter 3

"You need to disengage the officers on the moon if you want the slightest chance at a secure landing," Remulus mutters from the pantry. He is unable to join us with his hand still chained to our dinner table's leg.

"Disengage?" I ask out loud and Joon stares at me knowingly. "You mean take them out?"

My eyes are wide with worry and disbelief when Joon starts setting up our ship's laser thrusters.

"Bring him here. He might be able to help."

I nod my head solemnly, feeling a growing discomfort in the pit of my stomach which is surprisingly not from the food this time.

Following Joon's instructions, I unlock Remulus from the table and bring him to the control room, my gun aimed at his chest the entire time. We are so close, now is not the time to be reckless.

"We're approaching the Moon," Joon announces, his voice laced with tension as he grabs hold of the trajectory handles, the ones used to aim our ship's guns.

I watch in intrepid silence as we glide over the wide expanse of dullish white rock. There are craters everywhere but not a soul in sight.

I hold my breath when I see it. A small make shift site with small boxes that are big enough to be houses with large telescopes perched on each wall. The Plutonian monitoring base on the moon, the one that monitors our entire planet for the Plutonians.

"That's weird," Remulus murmurs more to himself than anything.

"What do you mean weird? Why are they so silent? Wouldn't they have detected us by now?" I ask in a flurry of words as a surge of panic floods through my veins.

"Precisely. They were supposed to ask us to identify ourselves once we entered their radar. Can you zoom in?" He asks.

I rush to the control board and key in the magnification necessary to be able to see the base clearly. The image on our screen magnifies and we are shown multiple blocks of tall towering dark metal. All enclosed, no lights or any obvious activity whatsoever.

"Is it supposed to look like this?" I ask Remulus and he shakes his head in confusion.

"It looks deserted," He finally concludes after a long pause.

Both Joon and I lean forward, as if looking at the screen closely would tell us all the answers and end our confusion.

"I've never been to Earth's moon on a mission but I've been on enough missions to know that a deserted base is far from normal. Something isn't right," He turns to Remulus, expecting him to reply but the half breed appears just as flabbergasted.

"The only reason officers would leave their base is if they were instructed to," Remulus says finally.

"By central command? On Pluto?" I straighten up and turn to him. A look of pure incredulity is plastered all over his face, mirroring my own.

What was happening on Pluto? Why did the base here desert their monitoring posts?

So many questions and no answers to be found anywhere. Just then we see a red dot flash across the screen. It only flashes for a second, I almost miss it but then we all feel it.

Our entire ship throttles to the side, knocking us off our feet. I fall on my butt, my tailbone taking the brunt of it but I ignore the searing pain and bolt to my feet immediately.

"Looks like it isn't completely deserted," Remulus grumbles as he gets back up as well. He squints at the screen, his clear blue eyes as sharp as lasers. "Aim at that post and fire."