Space Chronicles The Beginning

Chapter 15

She’s a very sexy girl, but watch out when she get’s mad.

The common room between Angie and Marty's quarters served as an unofficial meeting room for their crew. Marty, George, Karl and Tyler often used it as a good substitute for the sandbox at Area-51.

"How did you two do with Honey's status?" George asked.

"Didn't you hear?" Marty said. "They made her the ship's engineer. She's a full fledged member of the space rat pack now."

"Yeah, I heard that's what the other crews call us," Karl said.

Marty grinned like a proud new father. "That's because we’re bad asses and the best of the best."

"I wonder when we're going out again," Tyler said.

"I don't know," George said. "But, we have a pool running on where we'll be going."

Tyler smiled. "I say, you chaps don't miss a chance to make wagers."

"Yeah, and our two astronomers here have an unfair advantage," Marty said.

George feigned offense. "We give everybody the details on all of the choices."

Marty gave him a teasing grin. "That's the same as chickens accepting the fox as a guard."

All heads turned when Angie came out of her quarters. She was wearing a blue dress jacket and pants.

"We've been summoned to meet General Wilson on the hangar deck."

Marty frowned. "The hangar deck? That's weird."

She frowned. "What difference does it make?"

He stared at her for a few moments and then drained his glass. "Yeah, you're right." He got up. "Save some for me. I'll be back."

He and Angie rode an elevator down to the hangar deck. When the door swished open, a grim-faced General Wilson met them.

"Come with me. I have something to show you."

Marty and Angie exchanged concerned glances.

The general led them to a new hangar. Two guards saluted as the three passed into a chamber where there sat a space craft that neither Angie nor Marty had seen. The vessel was about three fourths the size of the X-1001. Standing on eight landing gears, the sleek black craft was wedge-shaped and had vestigial wings and tail. Twin forward and aft engines appeared hidden under a curved aft section.

Marty was impressed. "Wow! Is this a new fighter?"

"More like a fighter bomber," Wilson said. "It's equipped with the latest weaponry and is the fastest in the fleet."

"How is that? It only has two engines."

"It has to do with effective mass," Wilson said. "The lower the actual mass, the lower that Antigrav can reduce the effective mass, which equates to higher velocity."

"I like it," Marty said.

Angie's eyes expressed concern. “What do you want us to do?”

"We want you to take it out for a test run," Wilson said.

"Out to where: the Oort cloud?" Marty asked.

Wilson smiled. "Oh, no. This ship has jump capability, and we want you to take it to a specific star. Arthur will fill you in on that."

"What exactly are we looking for?" Angie asked.

"We have reason to believe that the enemy has a base there. The X-3001 traveled there to chart the system but came under attack. We want a conformation on that, and we believe that you can get in there with this new ship without being detected."