Chapter 10

The attack by the ant people lasted for about a hour. Many Vicron-3 ships were destroyed or damaged,even the XT-1 took heavy damage,but it was the XT-1 and her crew that chased the last ant ship down and destroyed it. But not without taking a heavy blow that knocked out the ships shields.

Oh how I wish Bigguy and Trapper where here to fix these shields,Captain Camper thought to himself as they headed back to dock at Vicron-3

Captain Camper was snapped from the memory, of when Bigguy and Trapper put the shield system in during their trip here the first time a little over a year ago,by Val saying,"Captain we have a messege from Orion Command".

Orion Command was the new name for the Earth base. "Patch it through". Captian Camper told her.

"Captian Camper this is General Grey,what is the status of the attack by the ant people"?

"General,the enemy has been defeated,but not without the destruction of many Vicron-3 ships. The XT-1 has taken serious damage. We have lost all shields. We are heading back to Vicron-3 now for repairs". Captain Camper took a second to think before he continued. "The attack came without any warning sir,why didnt the deep space sensors on Vicron-3 pick up their ships aproaching the moon"?

The speakers started to crackel with static caused by space interference.

"Val,can you get them back"? The captian asked his communications officer.

Busy typing on her communictions key board she replies,"Trying to as we speake sir".

A couple of seconds pass and the com-system goes silent."Sorry sir,but we lost contact with Orion Command.

"Ok crew lets worry about whats at hand here. Mewolf,run a compleat diagnosis on the ship and make sure it is only our shields that got damaged". Captain Camper said as he stood up from his captains chair.

"Yes captian,Im on it and will have diagnostic report for you in a couple of minutes" Mewolf said as he turned to his control console

"Good",Captain Camper said as he sits back down.

Captain Camper then asks Pi-E,"what is our ETA back to Vicrom-3"?

"We will be reaching Vicrom in 5 minutes". Replyed the mechanical voice of Pi-E

The Captain turns to his communications officer and says to her,"Val,see if you can get Vicrom-3 on the Com and tell them we are heading back".

"Yes Captain"Said the communications officer.

Mewolf looks up from his computer screen,looks over at the Captain and says,"Sir,the diagnostics are all green excpet for shields".

After a sigh of relief Captain Camper says,"excellent,all we need to worry about is fixing the shields then".

The bridges turbo lift door opens,and all that can be smelled is fresh peach pie,Charlie walks in with a whole peach pie and some plates and forks."Who wants pie"? He asked already knowing that the Captain was gonna want some.

Before anyone could answer Val turns to Captain Camper and says,"I have Vicrom-3 control on the com captain,and there is a problem".

Captain Camper takes the pie from Charlie and then turns to Val and says,"What do you mean theres a problem,how can there be a problem when I hold a whole warm,fresh out of the oven,peach pie in my hands"?

Val smiles at the comment and tells the captain. "No,no,theres not a problem with the pie sir,the problem is Vicrom has told me that their docking bay doors were damaged by the attack and they cannot open them. They are having all their remaining ships land on the moons surface".

As Val was speaking Captain Camper cut the pie in half and in half again and put a piece on a plate and started to eat it. It was wonderful,melted in his mouth,ahhh if everything was as good as this pie he thought.

"Great Pie"! The Captain said to Charlie who was putting pie on plates for everyone else.

Camper sat there eating his pie thinking when Val interrupted his thoughts again by saying," They want to know if we are gonna land on the surface of the moon".

Camper took another bite of pie,chewed it,swollowed it and then answered. "No,we will not land on the surface so we can be sitting ducks with-out shields should the ant people come and attack again". Captain Camper took the last bite of pie and then continued with a mouthful,"We will head back for our Moon Base".

Captain Camper then turned his attention to Pi-E and told him,"plot a course for Moon Base at the cordnance of 066711TA419".

Pi-E responded to the order by saying,"setting course for 066711ZA419,course set Captain".

Captain Camper swallowed his mouth full of pie and said,"No,Not 066711ZA419. I said set the cordnance at 066711TA419".

Pi-E replys to the Captians orders by saying,"Ok Captian,my fault,but it sounded like you said Z instead of T with a mouth full of pie". Pi-E punched in the cordnance and said,"cordnance 066711TA419 is set sir".

"Ok Pi-E,engage heading at warp factor 5",the captian commanded.

"Warp factor 5 Captian,engaging in 5,4,3,2,1,engaged".Pi-E replyed to the orders as he engauged the warp drive and the ship took off like a bullet out of a gun across space heading for Earths moon.

The Captain then turned his attention to Val once again and said. "Keep trying to reach Orion Command and let them know our situation".

"Yes Captain",she replyed.

Captain Camper then turned and watched the holoscreen and thought how he could never get over being overwelmed by the colors of the stars and space gas clouds streaking by at warp speed.

Camper reclined his Captains seat and watched the light show on the screen and dozed off to sleep thinking how good of a peach pie maker Charlie was.

A hour goes by without any events other than the ones that come with space travel.The crew of XT-1 were good at there jobs,so good that no one had to wake the Captain for anything untill he started to look like he was having a nightmare of a dream. Sugermags went to the Captain and shook him gently to wake him from his dream.

"Captain you alright",medical officer Mags asked as she woke Camper up.

Camper snapped awake and sat straight up in his Captains seat sweating. He looks at Mags and then looks around the bridge as thought he was lost,and then he asks,"What is going on"?

"You were mumbling and jerking around in you sleep". Science officer Bonni told the Captian as Mags took Captain Campers pulse. "Were you having a nightmare"? She asked.

Captain Camper sits back in his reclined seat and takes a deep breath and holds it for a couple of seconds before releasing it. He looks at sugermags and then turns his look to nothing paticular and says,"I did have a dream, but Im not sure if it was a nightmare. This is the second time I have had this dream and each time you Mags,you Val,and you Mewolf along with others I have traveled through space with have been in it. Somehow the ship is caught in a black hole and taken to moment from the past on earth. We go back to a small western town around the year 1816. When we first get there everything is great,but then we start to notice that everyone in the saloon were clones of us. Then the moon comes out and all heck breaks out,we get into a fight with the people in the saloon and one of them got killed and a bunch of other stuff happened. We all were arrested and thrown in jail for charges I dont remember happening. We had to go to court and we didnt have a chance,we were all found guilty and were gonna be hung. But a storm rolled in and blew the town to pieces allowing us to get back to the XT-1 and escape. Just as we are about to engage warp drive to get back to our time,Mewolf tells me we have a problem and I wake up".

"Did you eat peach pie before falling to sleep the first time you had the dream"?Mewolf asked as he sorta chuckled

Mags spoke up before Captain Camper could answer the smart remark,"I think your dream could be showing you that we all beat ourselvs up from things we have done in our past that we dont want nobody to know about,because if they did,they would judge us for them and it makes us want to kill ourselfs before others find out the truth and kill us with shame or worse. But most times we can escape from them,that want to judge and condem us for our past,but the problem is,we can never escape our past".