Chapter 2
1121 Words
Chapter Two
Daniel took a deep breath as he stood at the bridge door. He rubbed his eyes. Things were about to get serious. He’d almost forgotten how to be serious. For years, the Federation had jerked him around on mining expeditions. He’d become a laughingstock of ship captains. It was frustrating for Daniel. He’d had to work three times as hard as everyone else through Space Discovery School, or SDS, all because he was an Unwanted. He didn’t look like all the others: he was different. Daniel remembered being ridiculed over the years in school for his differentness. He’d put a wall up, a defense, and the only way he could cope with the constant bullying, was humor. Daniel didn’t know if he could approach life another way anymore. However, the president called on him to explore a planet. He had to prove himself now. No more so-called discovery jobs of mining random asteroid belts across the galaxy. This time, he was called to a planet. Granted, it was because he was the closest captain to the system, but that didn’t matter. Now was his chance.
He opened the door. Shawn sat at the navigation computer, reading a newspaper. Daniel raised an eyebrow. Where’d he get an actual newspaper from?
“Captain.” Jasmine bowed.
Daniel turned and smiled at the young woman. She was the Chief Scientist Officer onboard the Ghost, and an Unwanted like him.
When he was given command of his own ship, even though it was a small Ghost model, he’d been able to select his own crew … well for the most part. He wanted as diverse a crew as he could manage. The galaxy was too full of clones. He wanted unique people like him.
“Jasmine,” he said.
“We’ve found several of these asteroids have at least 0.3% Quantrium after a preliminary scan. That is a remarkable number. We’ve only found a few asteroids in the galaxy with such a high percent.”
Daniel smiled. “That is good news, Jasmine. I want you to categorize it, make a detailed stat sheet for which asteroids those are, and a detailed report of every other asteroid in close proximity in less than an hour.”
Her eyes widened. “An hour?”
“Yes. We leave in an hour.”
“Leave where? We just got here.”
“Jasmine, you have less than an hour to get me that report. If I spend the time explaining our new situation to you, you will lose out on valuable time.”
“Yes, Sir.”
She ambled out of the bridge.
“Captain?” Shawn asked.
“Yes, Navigator?”
“We’re leaving?”
“Yes, we are.” Daniel sat in his captain’s chair.
“Where to?”
“Sector 36780. A yellow star system.”
“By whose order?”
Daniel smiled. “The President’s.”
Shawn stood. His head slammed into the navigation computer above his head and he stumbled back down, putting one of his hands on his chair and the other on his head.
“The—the—president?” Shawn asked.
“Yes,” Daniel answered.
“Why us?” Shawn asked.
Daniel stood, walking over to his navigator. A smile was plastered on his face. He placed his hand on Shawn’s shoulder. “Because, my friend, we’re the only exploration space craft close enough to this area.”
Shawn snorted. “I should have guessed.”
“Yeah, well.” Daniel shrugged. “I was hoping it was because of our handsome captain and navigation skills.”
“Well, we have collected more Quantrium than any other exploration spacecraft.”
Daniel laughed. “Yeah, well every other exploration spacecraft is only forced to explore asteroids for six months. We’ve been stuck doing this for six years.”
“Why do they dislike you so much?” Shawn asked.
Daniel rolled his shoulders. “Because I’m not like them.”
“All of this because you’re not a clone?”
“Shawn, I know this is hard for you to comprehend, but yes. Remember, when space exploration first took off? There were never enough volunteers, or at least, skilled enough volunteers. After we mastered space travel with solar energy, dark matter, and hemp oil, clones were mass produced to keep up with our technology. Now, most of the politics through our galaxy are clones. They are rather proud of themselves and think themselves superior to anyone who isn’t one of them.”
“I’m not like that,” Shawn muttered.
“You’re not like that now, my friend. I remember when you first joined the Ghost as my navigator. You were a bit pompous.”
Shawn shrugged. “That wasn’t because of the way you looked. It was because you were arrogant and always wanted to make jokes.”
“That’s because to most of them out there, I am a joke. Who would have thought the Unwanted program would have developed leaders? We were supposed to be a way to prevent wasting lives. So, our parents didn’t want us? Well, the Space Armada did. We were supposed to be grunts—labor workers. None of us were supposed to make it out of the shipyards. However, some of us fought hard to learn as much as we could and were able to attend the Space University to better ourselves.”
“You know, I never asked,” Shawn trailed off.
“What?” Daniel asked.
“Does it bother you that your mother and father never wanted you?”
Daniel shrugged. “I don’t think about it. I never met them. Like most of us, I was grown inside an artificial womb. What about you?”
“I don’t have parents. Whoever the original DNA was—died over a hundred years ago.”
“I know … doesn’t that bother you?”
Shawn shrugged. “There’s not much I can do about it. All we can do is our best. There is a purpose behind all of this. We get to explore the galaxy, find new worlds, and bring humans into new worlds. I’m as much of a human as you are.”
“Yeah, though we’re the ones who actually do all the work.”
Daniel’s wristwatch beeped. He turned it on and saw Jasmine’s face appear. Sweat beaded across her brown face.
“Captain. I’ve categorized all the asteroids and sent the files over to you.”
Daniel smiled, touched his watch, and looked at the time. Forty minutes.
“Well done, Jasmine. You exceeded my expectations.”
“Thank you, Sir.”
“And Jasmine?”
“Yes, Captain?”
“Prepare anything you may need to explore the atmosphere of an actual planet.”
Her eyes widened. “Captain?”
“We have a new mission.”
“Yes, Captain.” She saluted him.
Daniel turned the video screen off. “Did you hear that, Shawn? We’re ready to take off.”
“Aye, Aye, Captain.”
Shawn began punching numbers into the ship’s computer. When he was finished, he pointed to Daniel. Daniel turned from the navigator to the pilot on the other side.
“Zach, take us away.”
Zach smiled and adjusted his bowtie. He didn’t talk much. But he loved to fly. He was cloned for that specific purpose. Zach turned the vessel around, looked at the coordinates from navigation, then pulled out his wireless controller, one that resembled an old Playstation controller from the twenty-first century.
“Let’s get dangerous,” Daniel whispered.
Shawn turned to face him. “Excuse me?”
“Yes?” Daniel asked.
“Isn’t that from Darkwing Duck?”
“Yes … yes it is. Is there a problem with that?”
Shawn shrugged. “No, I actually like that ancient cartoon.”
- Writer
