I felt that I should dedicate this story to my brother. He's been my rock and encouragement all these years. He's the one that inspired me to continue on the adventures of the crew of the Galaxy. After all, adventures don't stop when you finish growing up.
Star Galaxy: The Greatest Challenge II By: Tammy Livingston-Densley
Prologue:
"I see that we don't have much of a choice James. We need their help once again."
James looked up and sighed, "I hate to interrupt their lives for something like this but you are right Shauna. The science reports from your sensors and the probes that you've made confirm what we never suspected about Aldrea or Aldrea's system. Do me a favor; find Lisa because I want her to join the Galaxy as soon as they arrive here."
Shauna nodded, and brushed a loose lock of her gray hair out of her eyes. Her face was covered in soot and grime. She put her data pad down and left to find Lisa. James watched her leave and heaved a sigh. He turned to his desktop monitor and pushed some buttons on a keypad.
Chapter One
The sound of a shrill bell pierced the silence in the air. In a brand new brick building, children of all ages piled out of the various exits and were going in various directions all the while laughing and running around. Fall color leaves were all over the ground and the children laughed as they raced towards to create a huge pile of leaves to play around in. There was excitement in the air and the weather was unseasonably warm despite it was the beginning of October.
Tammy heaved her backpack onto her shoulders. She shook her head and sighed. She was about to look for her brother but was stopped by a teacher.
"Tammy, I need to talk to you." Spoke an urgent voice that belonged to Mr. Cryer, the principal of Hillside Elementary School. Tammy turned around to face him.
"What's wrong Mr. Cryer?" asked Tammy feeling concerned for Mr. Cryer has never used that tone of voice before in a long while. She saw the concern etched on his face and she instantly went on guard.
"Hey Tammy, are you coming?" asked a voice that belonged to her brother who came up behind her but stopped as soon as he saw Mr. Cryer, "What's wrong sir?"
Mr. Cryer sighed before he explained his concern, "Have you seen Jaret today or yesterday? When was the last time you talked to him?"
Tammy's brow furrowed as she recalled the last time she talked to Jaret, "That's funny you would ask that Mr. Cryer. I think the last time I talked to him was three days ago. Why do you ask?"
Mr. Cryer looked at Ryan as he waited for Ryan to answer the same question.
"That sounds about right Tammy. I haven't seen Jaret since then. Why and what is going on with this line of question?" agreed Ryan.
"Jaret hasn't been in school in 3 days. I've talked to Jaret's parents but they haven't seen or heard from him in 3 days as well. I think you should be the one to find him as it's not Jaret to keep to himself. Actually, I can't say that right enough, the last time he kept to himself was when…" explained Mr. Cryer as Tammy finished the sentence for him, "we found the Galaxy and were away from school for 3 days too."
Ryan looked at Tammy alarmed, "You don't think Jaret is…"
"On board the Galaxy. There's one way to find out." Tammy wondered as she set her backpack down and fished around in the pockets before pulling out a silver piece of jewelry.
"Okay, that would work but I didn't know you kept that with you at all time Tammy." Ryan smiled approvingly.
"You never know Ryan, and you should have yours too, you are a senior officer too you know!" admonished Tammy as she tapped her comn badge twice before speaking, "Computer, locate Capt. Jaret Pieper."
The comn badge chirped in reply, "Capt. Jaret Pieper is on the bridge of the Galaxy."
Tammy rolled her eyes as she heard that and looked at Mr. Cryer apologetically, "I'm sorry sir. I'll see what's keeping him up there and get him to call on you once we drag out the reason of his absence ourselves first."
"Tammy, I'm going to round up the senior staff. Mind if I borrow your comn badge for a second there. I think we all should have a little chat with Jaret. I guess that means we have a trip to make to the Galaxy." Ryan sighed as he took the comn badge from Tammy and walked a few paces away from her as he called upon the other people he want to join them.
"Thanks for confirming my suspicious Tammy. Jaret hasn't missed a day of school since you guys came back from your mission 5 months ago. Its not like him to do this now, not when it's October especially when a new school term just started again, it has me concerned." Thanked Mr. Cryer.
"I know what you mean. Again, I'm sorry you had to find out this way. I better get going. It looks like David, Tressa, and John have just arrived. I'll talk to you tomorrow. Have a good night sir." Tammy nodded in understanding as she grabbed her backpack and joined the little group.
"You ready Tammy?" asked Tressa.
"Am I ready? I'm so ready to kill Jaret for this! He's got a lot of explaining to do! Why does he not practice what he preaches!" snarled Tammy as she took her place among the group.
"Computer, five to beam up." Ryan chuckled as he spoke the command into the comn badge.
The five of them disappeared from the playground of their school, shocking some witnesses and the rumor mill started up once again.
Meanwhile, on the bridge, at the science station, Jaret was busy reviewing some important data and drinking some hot tea when he heard the turbolift doors swished open. He turned his attention only to find a very upset Tammy glaring at him with David, Tressa, John, and Ryan behind her with a very amused look on their faces.
"Jaret please tell me and the rest of us on what are you doing here?" snarled Tammy.
"Ah, so it took you guys 3 days to wonder where I was?" smiled Jaret.
"Jaret, we never even noticed your absence and please don't think lightly on this. Take a look at Tammy, you know how upset she is and she's my sister." Ryan groaned.
"Jaret! Don't you even dare think this is funny! We didn't even notice your absence till Mr. Cryer stopped me after school! How could you! You tell us that we're role models for our crew and for future crew members and you pull this stunt! If you haven't noticed, the new school year just started and you go ahead and pull this!" shouted Tammy.
Ryan's hand went to Tammy's shoulder in an effort to calm his older sister down before he calmly spoke, "Jaret, I know you're the captain and all, but you still had an obligation to inform us about your whereabouts, especially to Mr. Cryer and to your parents. As it stands, you have lots of explaining to them after you have explained to us what you have been up to the last 3 days."
Jaret was quiet amidst all this talk and he nodded before he spoke, "I'm sorry for worrying you guys suddenly. You're right Tammy; I went about this the wrong way. Alright, you want to know what's been going on, I will tell you. Let's adjourn to the observation lounge and get down to business."
The five of them stared at Jaret and were immediately on guard. It was not like Jaret to say that they have business to get down to. What happened to make him admit that he was in the wrong so fast?
Jaret got up from his chair and brought his drink with him. The rest of them looked at each other and shrugged his shoulders and followed him. When they walked off the bridge into the observation lounge. Jaret motioned them to take their assigned seats. He sat down at the head of the table.
"Okay, what's going on Jaret? You've got me curious." David asked directly.
Jaret looked at his senior staff and took a deep breath before he went into his explanations," Three days ago, I received a subspace communication for Aldrea. Mainly from James. We have another mission to go on, and I realize the timing is not fortunate but we have to help them once again." Jaret started as he keyed in something for the screen behind him to switch on and he got out of his chair to show something before he continued on, "Currently, Aldrea is undergoing massive geological changes. Think of this, billion of years ago, Earth underwent a severe climate change, the ice age. Well, if that was bad, its nothing compared to what Aldrea and Aldrea's system is undergoing right now. The planet and other planets in that solar system are dying. They are being pulled apart from the inside out. Aldrea is currently dealing out blow after blow of massive earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, massive lighting storms, and severe weather patterns. It's a very unstable situation. From what the sensors data I've received from James, there is something we can do to help, but its only a stop gap measure. We need to relieve tremor stress within the planetary mantle. That will buy us some time. The question is how? And that is what I've been primarily working on the last few days but so far, my simulations haven't been very promising."
Tammy looked at the data on the screen before asking the one question she wanted to ask," Buy us time for what Jaret? What's our primary mission then?"
"I think I know what it is." John piped in.
"Go ahead John, I can hear the wheels in your head turning at a fast pace here." Jaret smiled.
Tammy turned to John and waited.
"We've got to find a planet to re-colonize them on right?" guessed John.
"Correct, but the planet has to be somewhere away from the nova explosion that will follow Aldrea's rapid decline." Jaret announced to a stunned staff.
"Oh boy, .that's a massive undertaking Jaret. We are talking about relocating approximately over 2,000 people! We don't have the necessary crew to do this!" gasped Tammy as understanding dawned on her.
"I know it will be tight, but we owe it to them. They are asking for our help and we can't just leave them there. We owe our existence to them, and I'm feeling very obligated to do this. I told James we can do this. I want your support in this." Jaret pleaded as he turned off the screen when he sat back down in his chair again.
"Jaret, I know of a way we can release some of the stress on the planet's mantle. But, this is a short term measure, as you've already pointed out, but to get to Aldrea and then to wherever we go, we are going to be on a major time crunch here." John muttered out loud.
"I know. Once I've received the telemetry from Aldrea, I've spent the last 3 days going over the sensor logs the last time we were at Aldrea and all that. I've found a potential star system that can support humanoid life. Its our best bet in all this and we are under a time constraint for more than one reason. John, I realize that this is going to be extremely hard on you and well, on the engines, but can you suck up enough power to get us to Aldrea within a day? Then to the Tau system in a day too?" asked Jaret.
John mulled it over in his head before he answered, "I think we can do it, I'll have to tweak some stuff. I need to get my engineering staff on board pronto though. I guess my other project will be put on hold now."
"Do it. You can start now?" Jaret nodded as he gave his permission.
"I'm already gone." John smiled as he pushed his chair back and left.
Tammy's hands went up as she too got up, "Well, that means I've better get my medical staff up here too. If we're bringing the crew back on board here, they're not working till they get a full medical clearance to be back at work. I'm also going to stock up on medical supplies. I've a feeling that the Aldreans will need it once we get there. If the planet is in a bad shape, I can't think the Aldreans are any better." Tammy muttered as she too left before Jaret could say anything.
Ryan chuckled a bit as he saw that Tammy just stormed off without Jaret's permission," She'll be like that for awhile Jaret. You gave her a reason to be a bit mad at you. At least its not as bad as I thought it would be. Permission to head to the transporter rooms to start beaming our crew up?" asked Ryan as he too got up from his chair.
Jaret waved him away and nodded to David to join him. David nodded and took off after Ryan, leaving Tressa and Jaret alone in the room.
"Tressa, I know you're the ship counselor but for this mission, I want you to lead the science team in the Tau system. We need to know if the planet we're choosing will be safe for the Aldreans. Would you please send a communication to our crew's parents that their kids are on board the Galaxy and that we will be leaving in a day or so for a mission?" Jaret asked as he turned his attention to Tressa.
Tressa was stunned by the enormity of the question," Jaret, thank you. I would love to do that. I will get the communication message out ASAP. You better call on Mr. Cryer and Mr. O'Hara though. They need to know we're leaving tomorrow or the day after once we have made all our preparations. It's a good thing that tomorrow is the weekend. I think it would be best to leave Monday though, give John and Tammy time to do their stuff. I'll also get the science staff together to figure out what we need exactly and work with John and his people."
Tressa too got out of her chair and left Jaret all alone in the room. He watched her go and he shook his head, dreading the next piece of business he'll have to attend to.
"Computer, open a communication audio line to Mr. Cryer's office." Jaret commanded.
"Working on command, please hold."
Jaret leaned back in his chair, feeling very tired but he was relieved that there was another adventure to go back on. Even though the school year started again, the summer was more of a training time and plus John had begged him to get started on a project he's been after since they got back five months ago. He shook his head.
"Transmission ready, do you want to proceed?"
Jaret cleared his voice and spoke, "Open the communication."
"Jaret, is that you? It better be you!" spoke a voice that could only belong to Mr. Cryer.
Jaret winced as he picked up the same tone that Tammy had already blasted him with earlier, "Yes Mr. Cryer it is me. I'm sorry for taking off like that without informing you and not informing my parents. I will talk to my parents later but I needed to talk to you first."
"Okay, what's going on? I've just been outside, and noticed that several of my students have been transported out and not counting that, I've already got the calls from several parents demanding to know what's going on. I would like to know myself truth be told." Mr. Cryer demanded.
"Tressa will be sending off a message to all the parents informing them that we're leaving on Monday. The next two days, we're just getting ready for our mission. We've been called back to Aldrea. They need our help badly." Jaret informed Mr. Cryer.
"You sound tired, what's going on Aldrea now?" asked Mr. Cryer.
"Well, I guess you would call that Aldrea is undergoing a planetary event, as in total destruction level along with their solar system." Jaret replied.
"That is not good. How long do they have or what are you going to do?" asked Mr. Cryer?
"I don't know yet, but John has some ideas and he's good at what he does. I don't know how long it will take but our primary mission is to re-colonize the Aldreans to a new home. I want this planet far away from Aldrea's system." Jaret sighed as he rubbed his forehead.
"Okay, but please keep in touch while you're out this time. I'll inform the school board that again you guys will be gone. I'm hoping that they don't get too upset but that is the way life is." Mr. Cryer spoke as he gave in.
"Thanks Mr. Cryer, now if you excuse me, I'm going to head home and talk to my folks. I think I better do that in person and I have a few things to collect as well. I will keep in touch no matter what. We're leaving a subspace buoy out on orbit, so you can contact us if you need to or rather any parents to their kids. It's a new thing that John and I have been doing for some time. One good thing, the phone company can't charge that as long distance." Jaret smiled as he signed off.
The communication line went dead in Mr. Cryer's ears. So he placed the cradle back down and sighed. His secretary poked her head in the doorway and looked at him, "Sir, a Mr. O'Hara is here?"
"That's Chief O'Hara to you missy. Keith, what is going on?" glowered Gerald as he stormed into the office.
Keith looked at him with a grimace on his face before he spoke, "Let me guess, tons of phone calls from parents?"
"Okay, what gives?" demanded Gerald.
"They're leaving for another mission, and it's very important this time. They're set to leave orbit Monday so they got 2 days to prepare for the mission. On the good side, there will be a subspace thing in orbit that apparently the parents and us could keep in touch with them no matter where they are and vice versa. So, that should help with the whole situation. I don't know if they have activated it yet but I imagine they will do so soon." Keith explained.
Meanwhile in Main Engineering, John was talking to a person on his monitor, leaving last minute instructions.
"Look, I have to go, but I don't know when I'll be back. I will remain in touch though, so don't worry about it. Just continue on what we've discussed last weekend. We're doing fine so far. I trust you." John explained as he fiddled with the data padd in his hands.
The person on the monitor looked at John and sighed, "Okay, I can do that. You can count on us. How are the preparations going?"
"I've got to wait till Tammy clear my staff to work. You know her, by the book!" John exhaled in frustration.
"Now that, I understand and I'm sorry John but I think I've better get back to things here. I'll hold the fort here till you get back."
The monitor went dead and John leaned back in his chair only to be interrupted by Ryan who sneaked up behind him.
"Who was that?" asked Ryan.
John jumped from his seat and turned around and glared at him, "Ryan, don't do that! That was just a friend. He's helping me with something but he's not a member of the crew here. Wants to be, but we've got a full staff as it is."
"John, you're not telling me the whole thing?" eyed Ryan as he stared at John.
"No! You are not going to find out. I'm under strict orders to keep quiet about this. Now, to change the subject, may I ask when Tammy will be done examining my staff so I can get to work?" shouted John.
Ryan raised his hands to signal to John that he's backing down, "Okay, I will lay off the questions. Now, as for your staff, Tammy is almost done but I should mention to you though, she wants you there as well. She has already given me my examination and you know how she gets."
"I hate when she does this!" John groaned in defeat as he staggered off to leave main engineering with his data padd in hand. He knew better than to leave it lying around especially with Ryan who has been asking too many questions as of lately.
Ryan watched John leave and sighed, he looked around the room and was smiling once again, "Another adventure, great timing. Now I don't have to worry about that book report that's due in a few weeks. I've got some time to do it."
"Tressa to Ryan."
Ryan shook his head and laughed before he touched his comn badge on his shirt, "Ryan here Tressa, what is it that you want with me?"
"I've got in touch with everyone's parents but you really have to talk to your dad. He wanted to have a little chat with you regarding something that grabbed his attention. He accused me of lying about our mission. It was bad enough that Jaret had to explain to your father what's going on." Tressa informed Ryan.
"Darn, I didn't think Dad would be upset by this. Okay, thanks for letting me know, I'm going to head home for a bit and talk to him. I think I know what he wanted to talk to me about but I can't be sure till I talk to him face to face." Ryan thanked Tressa and he too left main engineering to head home to fix up some unfinished business.