Chapter 8

Chief Anderson slammed both hands down on his desk, papers fluttering from the impact. Mark thought he looked like an enraged chimpanzee with his angry, hunched-over posture.

"I can't believe you two!" Anderson yelled. It was of great significance that he had raised his voice. The Chief almost never lost his cool.

"Tiny! You know how important and delicate the Phoenix is!" he lectured. "And Mark, you are the Commander! You of all people should know better than the take the Phoenix on a joyride! What were you doing; picking up girls and going parking?" Anderson's face took on a purplish hue.

"Well, actually…" responded Tiny.

Anderson stopped him mid-sentence. "I don't want to know." he interrupted. "But I am also very angry that you convinced Keyop to cover for you. He's still a child! He's still easily influenced by his Commander. Mark, you abused the trust he has in you!"

Mark looked at the floor. Everything Chief Anderson was saying was true. But he had been so desperate to find Jason and Princess. And now it looked like it was a good thing he had tried.

"But Chief…" he tried to explain. Anderson chose not to hear him. He continued his tirade.

"And just who was watching the Phoenix while you were gallivanting around on Riga?" demanded Anderson.

"Well… uh… Susan offered…" mumbled Tiny.

"Susan????" sputtered Anderson, "How is she qualified to fly the Phoenix?"

A muffled voice came from the Chief's jacket. Anderson pulled it open and pulled out his PDA. Susan spoke.

"Actually Chief, I have been programmed in a variety of functions…"

Chief Anderson proceeded to let loose a stream of invectives at his PDA. Tiny flinched. Mark blanched. He had never heard the Chief use some of those words before.

When the angry tirade had subsided Tiny spoke again. "But we did help the team sir! We found the G-2! It was there in that parking lot…"

"It looked like it had been there for quite awhile." added Mark. "It's not like Jason to do that sir. He loves that car."

"Yes." replied Anderson grimly. "Amazing as it may be, Jason seems to have more of a sense of responsibility toward his machines than you do right now." He glared at Mark.

"All the same sir," Mark continued stoically, "I think he and Princess may be in trouble."

"You may well be right." the Chief sighed. "I have been unable to contact them on their communicators. But for the moment we will have to set that aside."

Mark and Tiny gasped.

"We have a Level 1 alert." Anderson continued. "Zoltar seems to be on the move again. A Spectran ship has been spotted moving towards the Earth. Zark!" he said, turning towards his viewscreen, "Can you give us some more information?"

Zark appeared on the screen. Though he looked the same as usual, his tone of voice was almost… snarky.

"Well if you must have me repeat myself, please listen this time!" he huffed. "The Spectran ship appears to be unlike any other we have encountered. It will arrive at Earth in about 6 hours. At this distance we have been unable to determine the nature of their primary weapons."

"And what about its other capabilities?" queried Anderson. "And its intentions?"

"Weren't you paying attention?" snapped Zark, "We cannot determine anything about it at this distance! It's not like we've gotten any new data in the last 10 seconds!"

"Oh wait…" Zark paused. "Nope, just a system check."

The Chief was livid. "What has gotten into you Zark?" he demanded.

"Me?" asked Zark innocently. "Oh nothing… but I do think that you could have been nicer to poor Susan. All she was trying to do was to help G-Force, which is what she was programmed to do."

Anderson sighed. The last thing he needed right now was an indignant robot.

"Mark! Tiny! Get Keyop! Prepare to launch the Phoenix and defend the Earth!"