Galaxy of Empires- Space Pirates Episode #1 (8 page)

“Who are you or what are you?”

“I am Evella Noctu, I am a Morphic Space
Dragon and this is my stepdaughter, Gothica. She is shy, so don’t
trample on her unless you want me to eat you,” Eve says in a
serious tone.

“Can you sing, too?”

“No. I don’t sing. Well, maybe in the
shower.”

Laughter rings out in the crowd.

“Is Gothica going to go on tour here?”

“If she wants, too. Why don’t you ask her?”
Eve says, holding her stepdaughter’s hand.

Gothica responds, “I don’t know yet.” Giving
a shy smile.

Photo recorders going off every second as
they continue walking through the spaceport. People begin asking
for autographs. Eve nods to Gothica, so she signs some autographs
as they walk down to the front entrance. They walk outside to see
thousands of people gathering in front of the entrance with signs
and cheering at the sight of the two. There are security guards in
a semi-circle pushing the crowds back. There are two Wolfkin males
dressed in high-quality suits there to meet them. Eve recognizes
one of them as Supreme Councilor Grewds.

Doc says, “Hello, Brother, it is good to see
you again. Eve and Gothica, this my brother, Pauax.”

Eve says, “Well met, and I believe you are
Supreme Councilor Grewds.”

“You are correct, Lady Eve. I see you know
something about Wolfkin politics. I welcome the both of you to
Zertin, the home world of the Wolfkins. I must say, I have never
seen a Morphic Space Dragon. I thought they were a myth, but here
you are. I’m glad to meet you and your stepdaughter. As you can see
Gothica, you are quite an angel in the eyes of my people,” Grewds
says with a smooth and dashing tone.

Doc says, “They are both quite special,
especially to me.”

“Pauax, you didn’t tell me you had such an
attractive sister,” says Grewds unable to keep his eye from roaming
up and down the doctor.”

The Doc blushes and replies, “You are being
too kind, Councilor.”

A huge hover limo arrives.

“Ah, your ride is here. My government has
arranged for both of you to stay at the best hotel while you are
here. We are also throwing a high-society dinner tonight in
Gothica’s honor. We are hoping she will grace us with her wonderful
voice this evening,” Grewds says.

Eve says, “We look forward to seeing you
then.”

“I hope Doctor Farshe will honor us with her
presence as well,” the Councilor says, unable to take his gaze away
from her.

“I will come as well. Someone has to keep Eve
from eating the guests,” Doc says with a rare sarcasm.

“Ha-ha!” Eve sneers at the Doctor, whipping
her tail around slapping the doctor in the butt. The crowd laughs.
Eve winks at the doctor as they get into the limo and take off to
the hotel.

“I don’t know if I can sing in front of a
live crowd. I don’t have any clothes either,” Gothica says with
concern.

Doc reassures, “I have my tailor coming to
the hotel with several designs to pick from. I have a doctor friend
who specializes in overcoming stage fright and she will be coming
as well.

Eve says, “It will be okay, Sweetie. Doc, do
you know a good car buff and waxer?”

“I wasn’t aware you had a car here.”

“I don’t, it’s for me. My metal scales need a
good buffing with some high-quality wax. My metal spikes could uses
some filing down, too.”

“Ha-ha, too funny. Yes, I know someone. I
will send a message when we reach the hotel. I will tell him to
meet us in the beauty salon in the lobby. I need to get a shampoo
and nails done myself,” Doc says.

“Yes, that stud muffin of a councilman was
all over you, Farshe.”

“He was just being nice.”

“Are you kidding me? I thought he was going
to start drooling on you right there in front of the limo. He’s
smart, powerful, good looking, and rich. Do I need to tail slap you
to wake you up?” Eve says.

“You think so? I don’t know. I am really not
good at personal relationships like that,” Doc says wondering if
she had misread the councilman’s intent.

“Geez, you are the smartest doctor I know,
but you are the dumbest person when it comes to male relationships.
Have you ever had a boyfriend?”

“No, I don’t have time for that, my research
takes up most of my time.”

Eve cuts her off, “Research? Get your head
out of the books for a minute before life passes you by. You’ve got
a nice male Wolfkin interested in you. You go for it, before I
start tail slapping you.”

They all laugh.

This story arc continues in
Rise of the Space Dragons Episode #1

***

Back the spaceport, Meek and his crew refuel
and make sure the ship is ready for takeoff. The spaceport cleared
out for the most part when his three passengers left. This is good
for the remaining crew and himself.

Fuel crewmember says, “Sir, your ship is
fueled up, and Lady Eve paid the tab. She also set up a tab for
your supplies, which you can get over there.” He points to a
warehouse about a hundred meters from this landing pad.

“Very good,” Meek turns to the crew and says,
“Cogg, take MCloud and check the exterior for any problems. The
rest of you follow me. Let’s go get supplies and food.”

The crew takes off to the warehouse across
the way, passing the landing pads to get supplies. Cogg and MCloud
start inspecting the outside of the ship. Five minutes elapse then
Cogg hears some footsteps behind him, which he thinks is the crew
returning.

“Well, well, well, lookie here, boys. What
are the odds of that?” a deep male voice says.

Cogg turns around to see Capt. Ullas and his
crew pointing blasters at him. Ullas and his gang of pirates were
the competition, so to speak. Meek and his crew stole Ullas’s ship
prior to the current one they now possess.

Cogg raises his hands.

Ullas says in an angry tone, “You bastards
stole my ship and left us on that moon to die when those Space
Dragons attacked. Where is my wanking ship, Bastard?”

“You would have done the same to us if the
dragons hadn’t eaten our ship first. We had to sell your ship for
scrap; the dragon acid made it a hunk of junk.”

“Well, look at our nice new ship, boys, let’s
get on it and return the favor to Meek,” Ullas laughs as it echoes
through his crew. They start going up the ramp and getting on the
ship.

“Give my regards to Meek.”

Ullas then fires his blaster, hitting Cogg in
the upper right chest area. Cogg flies backward on his back barely
hitting MCloud but enough to knock him to the ground as well. Ullas
chuckles again and this heavy-set middle-aged human male gets on
the ship. The engines start up and the ship begins to take off.

Meek comes out the warehouse and sees his
ship taking off. The rest of the crew comes out of the warehouse
just in time to see their ship fly over them. They see Ullas in the
pilot’s window just as he smiles and flips his middle finger at
Meek and his crew on the ground.

Meek yells, “Wanker!” and they all flip their
middle finger back at Ullas.

Che hollers, “Dam it! All of our stuff is on
that ship, too.”

“We are so screwed,” Sean says.

Chad says, “Man, game over, man, game over,”
as he put both hands on the top of his head in frustration.

“What are we going to do now, Boss? They took
off with the cargo, too,” Python, remarks with a sense of
hopelessness.

Che says, “Cogg is over there on the pad
laying on the ground, and he looks injured.”

They all run over there, except Python who is
pulling the supplies on a hover lift. They get over to Cogg and see
he is bleeding in the right upper shoulder.

“That is a nasty hit. Bring those supplies
over here. I’ve got some medical supplies in there too. Give me
that box and that one, too. I will patch him up,” Sean says. He
tears into the two boxes, he gets some medicine out of one, and
bandages out of the other one. He begins patching Cogg up.

Meek says, “See that small scout ship over
there? We going to steal it. Grab those supplies and follow me.
Sean stay with Cogg, and we will come back and get you.”

Meek and his crew go over to this small scout
ship and see a fuel man just finish detaching the fuel hose.

“Hi, there, we are from supply. We are just
here to load up this ship with their supply order,” Meek says.

The fuel crewman says, “Where are your
uniforms?”

“This is our first day. They are making them
now,” Meek lies.

“Oh, well then, welcome to the warehouse,”
The fuel crewmember says, and then walks to the next landing
pad.

Meek waits until that employee is out of
hearing reach and says, “Unload the supplies and then go pick up
Cogg with the hover lift and bring Mcloud, too. We need to take off
in five minutes. Go.”

Meek goes up to the pilot’s chair with Che.
Che gets into the pilot seat and examines the controls.

“It’s an old Katlin scout ship. I have flown
this kind of ship before. They are common pirate ships for a 10-man
crew. Only need five to pilot it. It is very small with only couple
tons of cargo space. I am doing pre-fight check list now and will
be ready for takeoff in five minutes for sure,” Che says.

“Good. I have flown one of these, too. They
make great pirate ships and are easy to find parts for,” Meek says
with confidence.

After a few minutes pass, the ship’s intercom
activates, “Boss, we got Cogg on board and supplies unloaded. Ready
for takeoff,” Chad says.

Meek replies, “Good job. We are taking off
now.”

Meek and Che look through the windows and see
some people running from the warehouse toward them from across the
landing pads. They have weapons drawn and appear to be yelling. The
ship lifts off and begins ascending to the sky. The people on the
ground shoot weapons at the ship but do not seem to be doing any
damage. The ship rips across the sky and up into atmosphere. As
they leave the planet and head to jump point away from the planet’s
gravity pull, the sensors light up.

Chad barks, “We’ve got two patrol fighters
coming from the space station platform heading in our
direction!”

“This is the Zertin’s Defense Force to stolen
ship, stop immediately or we will fire.”

Meek yells to Python, “Fire the twin rail
cannons! Time to jump point?”

Mcloud says “One minute, you big hunk of man
love.”

Python gets in the gunner’s chair and swivels
around and begins firing at the following ships. High-velocity
rounds light up the area as they spray on the one fighters in
pursuit. The ships take serious damage and explodes. The other ship
fires energy weapons at them.

“Hang on!” Che yells as she initiates a
barrel roll maneuver. The shots just barely miss the starboard side
wing by inches.

Che yells, “Get this wanker off my butt!”

“I am trying to!” Python hollers back,
continuing to fire, “He is a slippery bastard.”

The ship launches two heat-seeker
missiles.

Chad says, “Two seeker missiles incoming, 10
seconds to impact.”

Che yells, “Gimme a wanking break! That is
bullocks!”

Mcloud says, “10 seconds to jump point: 9, 8,
7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1....”

The ship jumps into light speed just a split
second before the missiles impact.

The crew sighs in relief.

Chad says, “Man, that was way too close.”

“I need a tranquilizer. That just was too
wanking close,” Che says in relief.

Meek says, “Ship status?”

Mcloud says, “No apparent damage, but some
relays on the starboard side are fluctuating. Fuel is good.
Countermeasures are empty; good thing we didn’t try to use them on
the missiles.”

Chad says, “Sensors are good.”

“Weapons good. Ammo at 98% for the rail
guns,” Python informs.

Che adds, “Helm and navigation seem to be
working.”

Meek says, “Mcloud, go check on those
relays.”

“Yes, Captain.”

Mcloud gets up out of the chair and goes into
the short hallway as the clanking of a metal object hits the
ground.

Meek sighs and grumbles.

Chad says, “I will put his arm back on. I
will go check the relays with him.”

Meek replies, “Thanks.”

Meek looks a Che and says, “Head to Reptilian
space.”

“Roger that.”

“Go the long route and take us through some
of the merchant flight paths and maybe we will get lucky. Right now
we’ve only got 5,000 platinum bars to show for this shindig of a
trip,” Meek says.

“Okay, I will shoot for the main merchant
path to Hoshan from where we are currently located,” Che says
checking the star charts.

“You have the bridge. I going to grab some
sleep for a bit,” Meek yawns.

“Roger that,” Che says.

Chapter 5

After four days in light-speed travel, they
were still in Wolfkin Space. The crew is restless with boredom when
suddenly the ship drops out of light speed.

Meek asks, “What happened?”

Mcloud responds, “Sir, the jump engines are
offline.”

Cogg, still nursing a serious injury from
being shot by Capt. Ullas a few days ago, was still in the engine
room trying to work. He activates the ship’s intercom and says,
“Boss, the jump engine is cracked and leaking suction from the
exterior of the ship. Going to need to set down for couple of hours
so I can fix it. Sub-light engine is okay for now, but will need to
check that also. We did take some hits from blasters that may have
caused minor damage, that needs to be repaired as well.”

Meek grumbles and says, “Okay, will try to
find somewhere around here to set down.”

“I have located a suitable planet for use to
sit down that is close by. Breathable atmosphere, dense vegetation,
rainy,” Mcloud explains.

“It will have to do. Che, head over there,”
Meek commands.