The rest of the week soon flew by, and soon, Sunday had arrived; the day before the launch.
Danny continued to survey the virtual training, sometimes accompanied by Lieutenant Jones. Slowly, each crew member was able to grow more familiar with the game and eventually made it to level four. Only a handful had been able to pass to level five, but by then, they had decided that it was enough; they had made it to Danny's checkpoint. Now, they could put the training behind them.
In the evening, before supper, Danny called everyone together. "You all did very well this past week," he said. "Half of you made it to level four, and the rest even made it to level five. Though I could point out all the mistakes you made, I won't…" He grinned. "You guys did your best, and I'm pleased to say that you've passed the training."
"Yes!" Lancer exclaimed, giving Arthur a high-five.
"This wasn't an easy training, especially since most of you were a little sceptic about having to fight ghosts in outerspace," Danny continued. "But you guys showed perseverance, endurance, and to a certain point, the ability to think and act like a ghost." He raised his head and beamed. "Point, I'm proud to be the captain of this crew."
Everyone grinned proudly at him.
Danny held up papers and began handing them out to every astronaut there. "Considering my shuttle isn't meant to fit more than twelve at once, half of you will be staying here, surveying our progress from Earth, here at Central Command. The other half will come with me onto the ship," he explained. "These are your schedules for the next two months. I went ahead of time to prepare them for you. The rest will be sent to you by email. Note that you will still get the chance to work with other astronauts on other missions, such as repair to the space station or moon rovers, and exploration on the moon itself. But this will be your schedule with me."
He looked at another sheet. "Of the heads of each position, one of the two will be accompanying me tomorrow," he announced: "Melissa Krahn, Arthur McCarthy, Judy Lance, Lancer Erikson and Jacob Robinson, you guys are coming along this time round. The six other astronauts are listed under your schedules."
He gave a chance for everyone to examine their schedule before continuing. "Our suits and equipment will be waiting for us at the launch site," he announced. "The shuttle is already suited for the mission and contains all of our supplies and weaponry. This is the ultimate test, people; if you guys pass it, you'll be official Special Mission Astronauts." Danny looked at everyone and smiled. "Welcome aboard Shuttle B-614, people."
The astronauts began to clap and cheer loudly and patted each other on the backs. Lieutenant Jones cleared his throat after a moment and clapped loudly. "Okay, folks, time to get some shut eye," he announced loudly. "We'll be leavin' at four o'clock in the morning, so get restin' and time your alarm clocks!"
Everyone began pouring out of the room, whispering excitedly about the next day. Nicholas, who had remained silent the entire time, grinned as Lancer patted his back and began filing out with his teammates.
"Dr. Stevenson."
Nicholas froze in his tracks and slowly turned around. While Jones had continued on with the others and left the room, Danny had remained behind, studying some documents in his hands.
The red-haired astronaut remained incredibly silent, waiting nervously for the man to speak.
Danny flipped through a few pages before looking up at him. "I'd like to speak to you in private, please," he said softly before turning and walking off.
Nicholas followed Danny into the hallway and down several more until they had reached Dr. Johnson's laboratory. Given that the scientist was absent that evening due to a special dinner outing with his wife, he had lent the keys to his laboratory to Danny, who unlocked the door and led his co-pilot in.
The lab was dark, but Danny did not seem to have any difficulty walking through its maze of tables and boxes. "I'd like to talk to you about the mission," he announced as Nicholas closed the lab doors and followed his captain. "Considering you're my co-pilot and first officer, it's important that I share earlier information with you."
"Information, Sir?" Nicholas echoed meekly. "About what?"
"Briefing about the mission," Danny replied, stopping in front of a small, round table. He pressed a few buttons on a keypad and a holographic 3D image of the shuttle appeared, glowing in blue light. Slowly it turned on itself.
Nicholas stared at the ship in awe.
"This is our shuttle," Danny explained. "It's especially equipped for this type of mission. It can phase through solid objects upon my command, it can turn itself invisible, and its equipped with guns that shoot ghost rays." He looked up at Nicholas. "As my co-pilot, you will need to learn how to fly the ship, command the ship, and fire the ghost rays."
"What about turning it intangible and invisible?" Nicholas asked.
Danny stared at him in silence before looking at the hologram. "No," he said quietly. "The only one who can do that is me. And the only time I will do it is when the time is needed."
"What do you mean?"
"I can't use my powers in front of everyone, Dr. Stevenson." Danny looked at him again for a second, with a slightly irritated frown. "Hence the secret identity, remember?"
Nicholas nervously looked away. "Yessir," he mumbled.
Danny pointed at the hologram. "Our dormitory rooms will be here," he explained. "The supplies here, the weaponry here, the medical wing here and the storage here. The main deck has all the computers. Considering our experience with engineering, one of our jobs will be to check that the entire ship is in good flying condition every day. We'll go through a check list." He pressed another button and an image of the command deck appeared. "We'll be sitting here, at the front of the ship," he announced. "It's from here that we take control. For the first day or two of the mission, I'll take the controls, and you'll study. After that, I'll pass the controls over to you."
"You're gonna give me control of the ship?" Nicholas said in shock.
Danny looked up at him. "No," he replied. "I'm gonna let you fly it. Commanding it is my job unless I'm injured. And you'd better hope that that doesn't happen where we're going."
Nicholas looked at him worriedly. "Where are we going?" he asked.
Danny had a holographic map pop up next and pointed at an area. "Here," he said. "A few thousand miles away from the moon. There's a dark asteroid in there, and our objective is to find it and bring back a few samples for your uncle to study."
"But I thought we were looking for ghost materials."
"We are; you'd be surprised how much ghost junk there is in space."
"So, what's a dark asteroid?"
"It's a synonym for black. Black asteroids are rumoured throughout the Ghost Zone to be outside areas where Ghosts can recuperate."
"Recuperate? You mean we're headed to one of their hideouts? Isn't that a little dangerous for a first mission?"
Danny looked up at Nicholas. "Ghosts don't go there all the time," he replied. "In fact, they hardly go into space at all. But there's some stuff on that asteroid that your uncle would like to examine." He held up five fingers. "Only five of us will be going out there. You, me, and three others. We need to get a bit of the samples and head straight back."
Nicholas looked at Danny in silence for a moment before speaking. "These special missions," he began, "Are they also secret missions?"
"Yes and no," Danny replied. "Only the directors of NASA and Dr. Johnson know about most of them," he explained. "But not all of them will be completely hush-hush. Some of our missions will be to explore further reaches of our solar system. The ones that involve ghost matter and anything else supernatural will be only between the crew, Lieutenant Jones and Dr. Johnson. These are specifically for your uncle's personal interest, and sometimes for my parents."
Nicholas nodded solemnly before speaking again. "May I… ask you another question, Captain?" he asked meekly.
Danny blinked. "Yes," he replied.
"Do the ghost-related missions… have anything to do with… you?"
Danny fell incredibly silent. The blue glow from the light cast a strange glow over his face and his eyes.
Nicholas waited patiently yet nervously for him to answer.
The black-haired man remained silent until he turned the map off. He then punched in another code and the lights in the lab turned on. Nicholas looked about him before staring at his commander once more.
"… In a way," Danny replied, almost hesitantly. "Dr. Jones and your uncle issued the first mission, but what they don't know is that there's actually a ghost portal opening over that very area by the time we arrive there."
"How… how do you know that?"
Danny frowned softly. "What I know about ghost portals and the Ghost Zone is none of your concern, Dr. Stevenson," he said sternly. "Normally, these special missions are just supposed to be like any ordinary exploration. The shuttle is built to go further than any other ever built, but because of the amount of unexpected ghost portal openings beyond Earth, I've synched my shuttle to work along with my ghost powers in case of any unexpected ghost meetings."
Nicholas looked at him nervously. "I thought some ghosts don't like to fight," he said.
His captain nodded his head. "Some of them don't, that's correct," he answered. "But considering I happen to be the commander of this shuttle, and that a lot of those ghosts are after my hide, I've got a bad feeling that if we do meet any ghosts, they won't be there to play chess."
"So, we'll actually need to fight them?"
Danny groaned loudly and rolled his eyes before turning away and walking to the ghost portal in the wall. "I don't know!" he exclaimed in exasperation. "I'm just setting up precautions! All that matters really is that once we're aboard the shuttle you follow my orders! If you don't, we risk losing more than fuel, capiche?"
Nicholas shuddered a little when the man raised his voice, but nodded anyhow. "Yessir," he said.
Danny looked at him. "Good," he said firmly. He crossed his arms. "Anything else you'd like to know before tomorrow?"
Nicholas nervously rubbed his arm. "Um, maybe why our shuttle doesn't have a ghost shield or is created to be anti-ghost—!"
"—I mean ask anything about the mission, NOT about my issues!" Danny snapped loudly. He frowned gravely at him. "The shuttle doesn't have a ghost shield, Doctor, because I'm half ghost! If I was to build the shuttle in anti-ghost material, I'd be unable to fly it, and even if I could, I wouldn't be able to steer it properly! As for a ghost shield, I could put one up if I need to, but that's only in emergencies! Does that answer your question?"
Nicholas cowered a bit before straightening out again. "Yessir," he said meekly.
Danny pulled at his hair and turned around to face the ghost portal. "Unless you have any questions about the ship or the mission, don't ask anything else," he said. "I won't give any more information away about what I'm sure you're dying to hear more about." He looked at Nicholas again after a brief moment of silence. "You're dancing incredibly close to that bottomless hole I told you about two weeks ago, Doctor," he said coolly.
Nicholas sighed heavily and looked at the ground. "Sorry, Sir," he muttered.
He waited for Danny to say anything else, but when all the man did was turn his head away from him, Nicholas gave up hoping and began walking to the exit.
He had nearly reached the doors when an unexpected voice stopped him. "I'm not finished," Danny announced.
Nicholas stopped in his tracks and was startled to hear that Danny had spoken incredibly gently, despite the sudden frustration he had shown seconds earlier. The red-haired man slowly turned around and looked at his captain.
Danny stared back at him in silence for a moment. No frown was over his brow, yet his arms remained crossed. "I looked at your score," he said calmly. "From the training game…" He shifted legs. "For someone as nervous as you, you sure know how to study."
Nicholas was not certain if this was a compliment or a joke, and so he remained silent.
"Your perseverance is top notch, if you get my drift," Danny added. "Despite the long hours of training and the pressure… you managed to beat four of the ten ghosts on that game… A mere Danny Phantom fan wouldn't have been able to even survive a minute with the Box Ghost." Danny paused for a moment before he raised his head a little. "It would be a shame if you couldn't keep it up while we're on the mission," he said very softly. "Not everyone's got that much in them when it comes to ghosts."
Nicholas blinked a few times and almost cracked a grin. "I'll… try my best, Sir," was all he could muster up.
Danny did not make another movement until he turned around and walked further into the lab. "Get some rest," he said. "We leave early in the morning."
Nicholas watched him walk about for a moment before turning and walking towards the exit again. It was only once he had left the lab that he silently began to wonder if Danny was truly trying to make his life miserable… or if he was actually just trying to protect himself.