Ghost Probe: SPACE GH0ST ADVENTURES, #1

Chapter One

Captain Daniel leaned forward, hands clenched to the bars of his chair, bottom squeezed tight against his cushion, teeth clattering against each other. The ship, Galactic Hull 0-Series Space Traveler, or G.H.0.S.T. for short, slammed out of hyperspace. Daniel jerked in his seat, let out a breath, then looked through the viewport that lowered above his head. The outside of his spaceship: it was his, at least, as he claimed it and after all, he was captain, was outfitted with dozens of cameras. Forget the movies, glass is stupid for a spaceship. Even bulletproof glass wouldn’t hold up to a thousand space debris clattering against its exterior, not for a century or longer. The ship wasn’t entirely deprived of glass. There was glass in the front, just like the darn movies, for when they traveled at slower speeds, but pneumatic shutters normally covered the glass for extra protection.

Daniel unbuckled his seatbelt, stretched, then walked to the navigation computer. He bit his bottom lip. Not a bad entrance.

Shawn glanced up at him, an eyebrow raised. Not bad? I saw you over there clenching your butt cheeks! Don’t pretend you’re fine, and don’t pretend you’re the one who navigated us here.

Excuse me, Shawn. You are speaking to your captain. I think a little more respect is in order.

Shawn’s lips pressed together, and he exhaled a sigh. "You’re right. Sorry, Captain. Don’t pretend you’re a navigator, Captain. Let your butt cheeks loose, Captain."

Daniel nodded. That’s better. I do think it’s time for some coffee. That always helps.

He turned away from his navigator, Shawn, and tapped a few touch screen buttons on the drink machine. Fresh coffee fizzled out of the machine and into his coffee mug. Daniel picked up the cup, without adding sugar or creamer, and took a sip.

Now, where the heck are we? he asked.

Sector, 36782, Shawn said.

English, please.

Shawn threw up his arms. Asteroid Belt, Sector 36782.

Daniel raised an eyebrow. That’s what it’s called?

Look, I don’t come up with these names. This is what it’s called in the computer. If you have a problem with the names, bug the scientists who categorize everything. But let me tell you this, they’re not very original. You’d think scientists would have more of an imagination.

Daniel looked through the view port, he rotated the angle of the camera to inspect the asteroids. There were hundreds of them, all spaced far apart from each other, and moving slow in a clockwise rotation. Another thing they got wrong in the movies. Asteroid belts always had plenty of space to navigate a ship through, and there were no fast spinning small asteroids you had to dodge. With the glow of the red sun, and the ultraviolet lights on the outside of the Ghost, the asteroids looked pink. Daniel shrugged.

They look pink. I’m going to call this the Pink Asteroid Belt.

Shawn rolled his eyes. You’re almost as creative as the scientists.

Thank you, Daniel said.

That was sarcasm.

Daniel smiled. I know.

Are you ready to detach the probes?

I’d rather not be inspected right now. I just had an inspection last week. I swear, I’m good. Daniel took another sip of coffee.

For the asteroids …

Oh, right. What are we looking for again?

Minerals. Specifically, Quantrium.

Oh, that’s right. You know, I’m getting tired of these mineral runs. Can’t they have someone else do this? I signed up for captain of Ghost because it promised space exploration. I want to search for alien life, not minerals. This is boring.

Shawn craned his neck back, yawned, then looked back at the captain. You know how important Quantrium is. It’s only found on asteroids, and not all asteroids. Without it, we can’t mix it with hemp to create any more ships. We need more ships so we can continue to explore space.

Yada yada yada. Bunch of boring talk. I want aliens.

We’ve been traveling outside of our solar system for over a hundred years. We’ve explored, searched, and even prayed to find some form of alien life. Face it, there is none. We’re alone in the galaxy. We’ve searched our whole galaxy, every star system. There are no aliens.

Daniel shrugged. We haven’t looked much in other galaxies. I think that’s where we should go.

Discover a new theory for space travel then, because CQ Drive is all we have.

It’s a bet! I’ll work on that … and you can work on asking Kara out.

Shawn’s eyes crossed.

Daniel stuck out his hand. Deal?

Shawn spun his chair around to face the navigation computer once more. "According to these readings, I found six asteroids with high levels of Quantrium. We can send out the miners to begin operations. Is that acceptable, Captain?"

Daniel shrugged again. Sure, why not? While you do that, I’m going to have a drink. And … um, do captain things.

Shawn shook his head.

Daniel made it out of the bridge and to the bar before his watch blinked, a low buzzing echoing from the device.

Rats, he cursed.

The barkeep raised an eyebrow as he poured Daniel a beer. Are there rats on the spaceship again, Captain?

Daniel looked up. No, no. I just finally get a break, and someone is calling me.

Oh, good. I always have to hide the pub mix when we get rats.

Daniel shook his head. You know, it’s unbelievable that we’re in space, and we still have a rat problem. Why couldn’t we leave those vermin on earth? But no, the scientists need to experiment on them, blah blah blah.

The barkeep chuckled.

Daniel grabbed the pint of ale and took a gulp. Thank you, Justin.

No problem, boss.

Wait, did someone say there were rats on the ship again? Where are they at? I have peanut butter and I’m looking for a good time, Clyde said.

Daniel glanced to his left and saw the Chief Steward, Clyde, drinking a beer. He was a strange fellow, and the more Daniel thought about it, he hadn’t seen the man without a beer in his hand.

No, Clyde. There aren’t any rats. I’m sorry, but you’ll have to keep buying food for your snake. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to answer this.

Daniel pressed the accept button on his watch. A small video opened on his screen. An old, black man wearing a clean white suit appeared. Daniel slammed down his ale and sat straight in his seat.

President Reynolds?

Drinking on the job again, Captain Daniel?

No … no, sir. My first name is not Jack.

Excuse me?

You know … Jack Daniels … never mind.

I am not amused, Captain Daniels.

You never are, President.

What is your current location? President Reynolds asked.

Umm … section three-six-something-something, uh.

You don’t know where you are? the President demanded.

Look, it’s a lot of numbers. We’re at the pink asteroid belt.

Pink asteroid belt? he asked.

Daniel smiled. Yeah. I named it myself.

Captain Daniel, do you ever wonder why you don’t get any exploration missions?

Yes. I wonder that quite often, actually.

It’s because you’re an imbecile.

President?

You don’t take anything seriously.

I do. I’m a good captain. Ask my mom, she believes in me.

Captain Daniel … this is serious.

What is it? Daniel asked.

I have a mission, one where I need a serious captain. No games, no fun. This is important.

Daniel raised his eyebrows and sat up straighter. What is it?

First, where are you?

Daniel closed his eyes, going through the events of the day. Sector 36782. Asteroid Belt. Star system 36709, red sun, asteroid belt ten A.U.’s from the star. We’re looking for Quantrium to take to the shipyards for them to mix with hemp and soybeans to create more spacecrafts for galactic exploration, per our orders, Sir.

The President nodded. I suspected you may be there. There were three different locations we suspected to find Quantrium, and two of them are close to our new information.

What is it, sir?

President Reynolds took a deep breath. We received a radio transmission from one of our satellite probes.

Transmission? Like … alien life?

President Reynold’s lip twitched. We’re not sure. There are more than potential intelligent life forms that transmit radio waves through space. But this one comes in several different patterns, in a constant wheel.

Like a recorded message? Daniel asked.

Yes.

Daniel scratched his chin.

It could be nothing, but we’d like you to explore the region where it comes from.

Where?

Sector 36780. Yellow star. As per usual, check the third or fourth planet in the liquid water section of the solar system, from one to two AUs from the star. But don’t rule out any gas giants with enough heat near any small moons that could keep water from freezing.

Of course. Consider it done, Daniel said.

And Daniel …

Yes?

No fooling around.

Daniel raised his eyebrows. I’ll try my best.

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