Rocket 02

Gillman/Ghost Ship/1 Ian Gillman

Word Count: 8300

Ghost Ship By Ian Gillman

"This is like watching grass grow." sighed Captain John "Rocket" Robinson. "I agree." replied Sergeant Richard "Dick" Clari. Since the Interplanetary Operations division of the Earth Police Force was formed ten months ago there had been one really exciting case, the rest of the time was taken up with paperwork and escort missions like the one Rocket and Dick were currently involved with. Escorting a freighter containing expensive scientific equipment from the manufacturer on Mars to the scientific base on Saturn/Pandora.

Gillman/Ghost Ship/2 # Ever since the early days of the solar system colonization plan it was found that a naming system needed to be used that did not require a degree in astronomy. It was decided to use the name of the major planet when talking about one of its moons to enable the average person to understand where a particular moon was in the solar system. # "I am picking something up on the radar, it appears to be a spaceship." said Dick while concentrating hard on the fuzzy blob that had just appeared on the side of the radar scope. "It appears to be heading this way, they have no transponder information, shall I try to get them on the radio?". "That sounds like a good idea, see if you can work out how close they will come to the convoy." "OK" Dick turned back to the console and picked up the radio. "SP200C to unidentified spacecraft traveling on a vector of 3,2,2 please identify yourself." The radio remained silent for nearly a minute during which time Dick was busy calculating movement vectors to work out if they were on a collision course or not.

Gillman/Ghost Ship/3 "This is Earth Police Force Interplanetary Operations ship SP200C to unidentified spacecraft on vector 3,2,2 approaching convoy, identify yourself." said Dick becoming a little more official. Once again the radio remained silent. Dick finished the calculations and called again, this time he sounded more threatening and forceful. While he was waiting for a reply he spoke to Rocket. "They are on a collision course with the convoy. I can't predict if they will hit anybody but they will pass very close to us." "Hmm, OK, call the rest of the convoy and tell them to be on the lookout for this ship. Tell them to prepare to execute emergency maneuvers." "Yes Sir." "Then tell the rest of the escorts to stay with the convoy, we are going to go and have a look at that ship." he added. # "She's coming within visual range now." said Rocket as he eased back on the throttle and activated the braking rockets. "It looks like they might be in trouble, they have no lights and they seem to be doing a slow tumble." "They could also be smugglers trying to convince us they are a lump of rock." said Dick.

Gillman/Ghost Ship/4 "Get them on the radio, I can see their registration number through the binoculars, tell them we know they are a spaceship." "SP200C to TK421, SP200C to TK421, come in TK421." The radio remained silent, whoever was on board the spacecraft clearly was not going to talk. "Get the convoy on the radio Dick, tell them to carry on to Saturn/Pandora, we are going to check this ship out and, if possible, get on board, I am curious to know what is going on." # Rocket maneuvered the ship so that it was traveling alongside the mysterious craft. They had passed through the convoy a few minutes earlier and, due to the advanced warning, had not had any problems. "Grappling hooks attached." said Dick, a little redundantly, the whole ship started to slowly tumble, obeying the law of the conservation of angular momentum. "OK, Dick, let's see who s on board." Rocket started towards the airlock. Due to the tumbling of the other ship Rocket could not align the airlocks and therefore it was necessary to perform a space walk to get inside the other ship. Rocket worked his way round to the airlock on the other ship and operated the controls. Nothing happened,

Gillman/Ghost Ship/5 clearly the airlock had been powered down which, coupled with the lack of lighting, suggested that the entire ship had lost power. After fiddling for a couple of minutes Rocket decided to operate the airlock manually and broke open the emergency release box next to the controls. "Rocket, I have found the records on this ship in the Earth registration files. It is registered to a Simon Jones, 269 Wichita Way, Topeka, Kansas, USA, Earth. I am pulling his records now, they should be here soon. The ships last known flight plan was from Mars to Jupiter/Europa two weeks ago but it never arrived." "Well, they ended up a little off course out here between Jupiter and Saturn." replied Rocket while pumping the handle up and down to open the outer airlock door. "I am inside the airlock now, I will hand crank the outer door closed and then try to equalize the pressure." Rocket closed the outer door and then tried the inner door controls but they were dead as well. Breaking open the emergency control system Rocket opened a valve to equalize the pressure and then proceeded to hand crank the inner door open. # The inside of the spaceship looked like it had been a rough ride for the occupants who lay dead in their seats.

Gillman/Ghost Ship/6 Ship construction manuals and tools floated around the cabin leaving the impression that the occupants had been still alive when they lost power and they had tried to fix the problem until they died. One book caught Rockets attention, it had a bright purple cover which signified it was the ships log. # On their way back to Jupiter/Ganymede with the mystery ship in tow Dick had time to read the ships log that Rocket had found floating in the cabin. "Up until the last few days of their life the log entries appear to be normal, in fact, it is a very well kept log. The entry for a week last Thursday is where it starts to get interesting, let me read it to you." # Thursday Routine checks were performed, no anomalies found. On course and on time according to the flight plan. Nothing else to report. # Thursday additional. The ship has lost all power, lighting and heating are not working and neither of the backup generators are operational, I am writing this by flashlight. We are slowly

Gillman/Ghost Ship/7 tumbling out of the Jupiter system and into deep space, we have tried everything we can think of to revive the ship. It all started a couple of hours ago as we were passing close to Jupiter/Elara. Everything was fine until the Ghost Ship arrived, it was the "Michaelova", we could see the name on the side of the ship. The ship appeared out of nowhere, at first we thought it was one of the luxury liners heading for Saturn until we saw its name. All of the lights were on and we could see people moving around inside the ship. We had heard rumors of the ghost ship for months but did not believe them. Just as we tried to get on the radio to contact someone the whole ship went dead. Nothing electrical was working and that is the position we still find ourselves in now, several hours after the encounter. # "The rest of the logbook goes on to describe how they tried to get the ship working again but it appeared as if every electrical component on board had been fried, even the ones that were switched off at the time of the encounter." concluded Dick. # The rocket blasted away from the launch pad, Rocket flew the spaceship up and through the thin atmosphere of Jupiter/Ganymede and out into space.

Gillman/Ghost Ship/8 "Setting a course for Jupiter/Elara." said Rocket. "Roger that." replied Dick, "All systems normal." The spaceship turned and headed towards Elara, one of Jupiter’s outer moons and the last known position of the ghost ship. Dick rechecked the equipment they had hastily loaded onboard. There were several pieces of highly sensitive radio detection gear, a Geiger counter and both IR and UV goggles. # Rocket slowed the ship as they entered the vicinity of Jupiter/Elara and they both got into their spacesuits as a safety precaution. Looking out of the cockpit they could see the small moon in the distance against a background of shining, unblinking stars. "The instruments show nothing out of the ordinary." said Dick while examining the dials and gauges. What about the IR or UV goggles, can you see anything through those yet?" "No, just the same old background of stars and Elara in the distance. Its strange but, at the highest magnification I can see a small hot spot on the surface of Elara." "That's strange, the data on the moon is incomplete but it does show no volcanic activity or internal heating in general. I wonder what that hot spot is?"

Gillman/Ghost Ship/9 "Let's investigate, it may help clear up this case." Rocket opened the throttle and took the ship closer to the moon. "We are running into a clump of rocks just ahead, be careful." called Dick as he studied the radar screen. "Whoa!" shouted Rocket as the spaceship lurched to one side, "What was that?" "One of those rocks just started moving and the radio detectors have gone wild. I think that's a ship and a big one at that." Rocket brought the ship into a hard turn with one hand and armed the lasers with the other. "They are hitting us with a big pulse of electromagnetic radiation, it's a good job we are shielded." said Dick while trying to strap himself into his chair. Rocket swung the nose of the ship round until it was pointing in the general direction of the mystery craft. The sight that confronted him almost took his breath away. In front of them, no more than a few miles away, was a large, old style, luxury liner. All of the lights were on, every cabin light and every deck light. The whole ship seemed to glow as it hung in space. "They are hitting us with another pulse, this one is more powerful than the last one."

Gillman/Ghost Ship/10 Rocket pushed the throttles to their maximum and closed on the huge ship. As he approached he fired two laser blasts across their bows, the interplanetary signal to stop. The huge ship continued to turn as if it were trying to get closer to Rocket and Dick. As they raced past the hull of the ship Rocket could see several hatches opening and as they streaked away from the ship they were chased by a hail of laser fire. Rocket cut the throttle and hauled the ship round in a tight arc before giving maximum power to the engines again. This time their run towards the ship was met by laser fire from several turrets located on the main deck. Rocket returned fire putting two of them out of commission and this time as they streaked past the hull he got a chance to read the nameplate. "It's the Michaelova and they do not appear to be friendly." Unfortunately, this time Rocket cut it just a bit too fine and clipped part of the superstructure of the huge vessel. The ship lurched and altered course slightly taking them right over the top of one of the laser cannons. At that range even a novice gunner could not miss and both Rocket and Dick felt the laser blast tear into their ship. The sound was like tearing metal and the whole ship shuddered. Rocket tried to escape the laser fire by pulling another tight turn. This time the strain proved too much for the

Gillman/Ghost Ship/11 damaged ship and half of one of the wings used for atmospheric flight came off accompanied by a loud screeching noise. Alarms went off inside the cockpit, the cabin pressure fell instantly and several gauges on the control panel fell to zero. the ship stopped responding to the controls and Rocket had only seconds to react. Reaching downwards he yelled "Eject." at the top of his lungs and pulled the cord below his seat. Dick heard Rockets cry and reached down to pull his own cord. # Rocket looked around him and saw the large ship turn and head for the moon. He noticed that his own ship had managed to hit the liner about halfway down the ship on one side. There were sparks and a very bright light coming from the hole made by the smaller ship. "Dick, Dick, come in Dick." called Rocket over the small emergency radio in his suit but there was no answer. # Dick felt the ship lurch as he reached down for the ejection handle but his fingers never touched it, his body was thrown forward against the seatbelt. The cabin was filled with a crashing, screeching noise as Dicks ship made contact with the liner. Fortunately the ship hit the liner square on with one of the cabins and at that point, due to

Gillman/Ghost Ship/12 having a window, the hull was relatively thin. The nosecone and cabin of Dicks ship tore through the hull of the liner and the ship came to rest partway through the internal wall between the cabin and the corridor. Alarms went off throughout the liner and bulkheads closed to seal off the damaged section. By the time Dick awoke and had got his bearings he was looking at three figures clad in spacesuits with nasty looking guns pointing at him. They motioned for him to follow them and, once he had climbed out of the wreckage, he proceeded to do so. He was sandwiched between the front and second guard as they walked down the hallway to one of the airtight bulkheads. Once they were all through the airlock in the bulkhead and on the other side Dick and the guards took off their spacesuits. There were more armed guards on the other side, about ten in total, waiting to take Dick downwards, through the bowels of the ship. Dick was thrown into a cabin somewhere in the depths of the ship and the cabin was locked from the outside. # Rocket examined his current predicament. He was floating towards the moon Elara at an undetermined speed. His ejection seat had a small but functional rocket motor and directional thrusters with just enough fuel to get most people out of trouble and safely rescued. Given the current

Gillman/Ghost Ship/13 lack of instrumentation, going into orbit around Elara was not an option and turning around and heading back towards Jupiter was suicide due to a lack of basic supplies such as oxygen. If he was lucky he might be picked up by a passing freighter but, considering that Elara was at a point in its orbit where it did not intersect any major trade routes, the chances were very slim. "Nobody," thought Rocket, "has ever made a landing on a moon using a standard issue ejection seat. But there is always a first time for everything." Having made up his mind Rocket decided that it was time to find out how fast he was traveling and how close he was to the moon. In space there is little or no depth perception or sense of speed. By using the maneuvering thrusters and the main engine Rocket was able to alter his course so that he was heading for the edge of the little moon instead of the center of one face. By aiming at the edge he would enter the thin atmosphere at an angle and, once he was inside the atmosphere, he would have a better idea of speed and direction. He turned the main engine at the bottom of the seat towards the atmosphere and waited. # Dick was escorted by two guards, who carried guns and said nothing, back up through the liner towards the front

Gillman/Ghost Ship/14 and top of the vessel where the control room was located. As they approached the doors to the main control room Dick noticed that the guards started to smarten themselves up, straightening their clothing and holding their heads up high. The guards standing on either side of the door stiffened up. "What do you want?" asked one of them. "We have the prisoner, the captain wanted to see him." "Pass." The guards moved aside and allowed them to pass through the door. Dick was reminded of an old medieval court with the way the guards behaved near the control room. All three people entered the control room and Dicks eyes were drawn to the large man in the captains chair who looked a little familiar but he couldn't place him. "Who are you?" asked the captain in his deep, booming voice. "Sergeant Richard Clari of Interplanetary Operations." "What are you doing here?" Dick remained silent and the man started to look angry but then suddenly changed his expression to one of amusement. "Never mind, you will make a good addition to our mining crew. Put him back in the cabin and get ready for landing." "Aye Sir." said the guards in unison and it was then that Dick figured out where he had seen this man before. It was fifteen years ago when Dick was in the Space Corps. The

Gillman/Ghost Ship/15 mans name was "Jonathan Jones" or "Captain Jones of the Space Navy" to those who knew him at that time. Dick had been hitching a ride on a missile ship heading back to Earth and this man was the captain of that ship. Dick only met him once and that was while he was walking on one of the lower decks. The captain had chastised him about the lower decks being off limits and escorted him back to his cabin. It was five years later when Dick read a news report about a captain being charged with drug smuggling that Dick remembered the incident and the captains name. It turned out that the captain had been smuggling drugs on board his ship in the lower sections where not many people go. Only him and one other member of the crew knew about the drugs. The captain was given 25 years in prison and a dishonorable discharge but he escaped after two years and was never seen again. "I wonder what he is doing here?" thought Dick as he was being escorted back to his cabin, "One thing I can say for certain is that this ship is no ghost." # Rocket felt something tug at the ejection seat, one light tug followed by another one. He was entering the atmosphere of the moon and although it was a thin atmosphere it still had some effect on him. He felt a

Gillman/Ghost Ship/16 slight increase in weight caused by the seat being slowed by the atmosphere. Another tug, then another one, he wrestled with the maneuvering thrusters to keep the engine facing the direction of travel. Rocket could hear a faint roar through his helmet, the atmosphere was getting a little thicker and he was traveling at a great velocity through it. He opened up the main engine and gave a short burst followed by another short burst and then another in an attempt to slow himself down. Looking over his shoulder he could see the ground below him getting closer and closer. It was difficult to judge distances due to the lack of atmosphere not providing a haze and the unknown size of the rock formations below him. Was he looking at a high mountain range from a high altitude or a low ridge from a low altitude? He opened up the main engine again, this time for a long burn. Looking at the fuel gauges he found that he only had another thirty seconds of fuel remaining. Off to the left he could see jagged rock formations and the horizon looking very close. Rocket decided that he would rather have an empty fuel tank when he landed and not really knowing how high up he was he decided to open up the main engine for a final burn. The ejection seat shuddered as the main engine kicked in and Rocket felt his weight return as the engine slowed him down. Then just as quickly

Gillman/Ghost Ship/17 as it had started, the engine stopped, he had used up all his fuel and was now falling towards the surface, an unknown distance below him, at an unknown speed. Settling back into the ejection seat he braced for impact and a few seconds later it happened. The engine cone struck the soft, dust covered ground first and collapsed absorbing some of the impact. Next, the chair itself struck the ground and started to roll over and over coming to rest several yards away from the main impact site. # As Rocket started to come round he could hear many voices and he opened his eyes slowly but the light was too bright. "Easy does it," said a soft, feminine voice, “you have had a lucky escape." Rocket felt something soft and cold on his forehead. "Drink this." said the voice. Rocket felt a cup to his lips and he took a small sip. It tasted of water with a nasty tang to it, a tang that Rocket knew having spent many years in space, it was the tang that water gets when it has been recycled too many times. "I think he's coming round." said the voice to someone else. Rocket heard the sound of several pairs of feet moving towards him. It was at this point that Rockets brain

Gillman/Ghost Ship/18 started to function somewhat normally again and he realized that if he can hear all this noise then he cannot have his helmet on any more. He was breathing air, but it was a little stale and cold and he felt a little chilly. Rocket blinked once, twice and his eyes started to focus a little better. He was laying on some sort of bench looking up at a ceiling that looked like the inside of a spaceship. "Where am I?" he asked. "You are safe Captain Robinson, you are on Elara, one of Jupiter’s outer moons." "Who are you and how do you know who I am?" "You carry an identification card in your wallet and you are wearing a police spacesuit and uniform. It didn't take a genius to read your credentials." Rocket felt a little stupid at that remark. "We are trying to get off this moon which is why we are rebuilding this spaceship." "What are you doing here?" "I suppose I had better start at the beginning. On the other side of this moon there is a titanium mining operation going on. The mining is run by a guy who is called 'Captain', he and his band of criminals have been here for a few years now. Some of us have been on this moon for several years, others have only just arrived, all of us were captured by the phony ghost ship and brought here to

Gillman/Ghost Ship/19 work. Don't worry, you are not in the mines, we have all escaped at one time or another and now live here. "That's quite a story, what do you do for food and oxygen?" "We have friends still working in the mines that smuggle things out to us." "You said it was a titanium mine, that stuff is expensive, they use it to coat the heat shields used by spacecraft. How did they find it here?" "We don't know, all of us arrived after the mine was set up." "Well, what are your plans for the future then?" "We don't really know, we have talked of attacking the mines and taking them over but we do not have enough people or weapons for something like that. There was even talk at one time of getting this ship operational but none of us know where to begin." Rocket thought for a moment and then said, "I think I can help you there." # Meanwhile, back on Earth at Interplanetary Operations Headquarters, which is a grand name for three offices, one commander, one secretary and four agents, Chief Gundam was getting a little anxious.

Gillman/Ghost Ship/20 "Susan," he called to the secretary in the annex, "has anybody heard anything from Rocket and Dick lately?" Susan rummaged through some papers on her desk before replying, "No Sir, nothing for the past 48 hours. Their last message said that they were approaching the vicinity of Jupiter/Elara and that they would report back if they had any more information." "Well, they have missed two scheduled reporting times, I think it might be time to find out what is going on. Patch me through to the Jupiter/Europa police." # "The Captain" looked a little irritated when one of his subordinates burst into the control room without waiting to be invited in. "What is the meaning of this?" shouted the Captain, his eyes bulging from their sockets and his face turning red with anger. "Sir, I thought you should know that we detected another very small craft following the ghost ship back from the encounter with the police ship. We believe it was the ejection seat from the craft that crashed into the ghost ship."

Gillman/Ghost Ship/21 "Yes I know about that, the pilot and the ejection seat would have either missed the moon or crash landed somewhere on the far side and killed its occupant." "Not quite sir." with those words the captain looked a little puzzled. "Why not?" he inquired. "The standard issue police ejection seat has a main thruster built underneath it with a supply of fuel on board to get the occupant out of trouble. It is quite possible for a highly skilled and lucky pilot to use the engine to slow their descent to such an extent that they could actually land on this moon. The light gravity and no atmosphere combine to make such a landing possible." "Even if he did land, he would not be able to live for long." "No but maybe he would live long enough to send a signal to Europa or one of the other moons, that would bring the police here." "Send a patrol out immediately to look for the ejection seat, use all the data you have available to pinpoint its place of landing." "Yes Sir." the subordinated turned on his heels and left the control room. #

Gillman/Ghost Ship/22 Things were calm in the crashed spaceship, Rocket and Joanna, one of the other escaped workers, had been working on getting the main engine working. "Rocket, Joanna, come quickly." shouted someone from down the corridor, "We have a problem.". Rocket and Joanna rushed towards the main control room of the ship, following the sounds of the footsteps echoing in front of them. As they reached the control room they saw people grabbing what few weapons they had and rushing towards the main door. "Grab a laser gun, we have company." said the tall man handing out the weapons, "Some of the guards from the mine are outside, they have found the ship.". Joanna and Rocket headed for the main door of the ship and were met by a hail of laser fire, the guards had found the entrance and were pinning everybody inside. "Where is the emergency exit?" shouted Rocket above the noise of laser bolts exploding against steel bulkheads. "What emergency exit?" replied Joanna. "The one that all these ships have in case the main exit is blocked." Rocket ducked down to avoid a nearby explosion, "It's probably near the tail, let's go." Rocket stood up, fired three times through the main exit and then rushed down the corridor with Joanna in pursuit. A loud explosion and a wave of hot air followed them round the corner as a

Gillman/Ghost Ship/23 grenade exploded inside the ship. Rocket kept up a fast pace as he negotiated the maze of corridors that made up the interior of the ship. Eventually he made it to the rear of the ship and came up against a wall of wooden crates. "The door is behind those crates." he shouted to Joanna as he started to move the heavy boxes. The laser fire and shouting was getting closer as Rocket and Joanna worked in the small room. They stacked the wooden crates behind them to give them some degree of protection. The explosions crept closer and closer, Rocket and Joanna could hear people shouting and screaming, they could smell the explosives and see the occasional flash reflected off the walls. Eventually they had moved enough boxes to reach the door mechanism. Rocket reached across a couple of crates and pulled the handle. The door gave a small bang and blew itself off its hinges. Rocket and Joanna jumped through the door and landed at the feet of several guards from the mine. # Dick was working at one of the titanium seams, digging out lumps of ore and throwing them into a makeshift cart when he heard a familiar voice complaining about being pushed. He turned round and saw Rocket accompanied by a woman and escorted by five guards all walking in his direction. Dick had to fight with his urge to call out to

Gillman/Ghost Ship/24 Rocket, he was so relieved to know that his partner and friend was alright but he knew that it would not be good to let the guards know that they knew each other. Dick noticed that Rocket was not wearing his uniform and rightly assumed that the guards did not know who they had. # Once the escorting guards had left Dick pretended to follow a seam of ore and made his way over to where Rocket was working. "Rocket." whispered Dick. Rocket turned his head in surprise and almost shouted but remembered at the last minute to keep his voice down. "Dick, what happened? How did you end up here? What is this place?" whispered Rocket, full of questions and relief that Dick was still alive. # The two patrol ships from the Jupiter/Europa police force approached the small moon of Elara with caution. Using their powerful search radars they started to scan the area for any sign of Rocket, Dick or their spaceship. # "I am detecting radar emissions from orbit, we are not in their target cone yet but it is only a matter of time before they pick us up sir." reported one of the guards

Gillman/Ghost Ship/25 assigned to look for more ships, "Its frequency and pulse rate identify it as a class 3 police radar used on long range scout ships, they are probably from Europa.". "I will inform the Captain right away, in the meantime keep track of them." "Yes sir." # The large ghost ship slowly took off from the surface of the moon and began to get into orbit around Elara. "We have to stay on the other side of the moon from the police ships, Captains orders" said the commander of the vessel, "We have to stay out of site. The mine is underground and cannot be spotted from orbit.". # "What's that noise?" asked Rocket as the low rumble echoed down the tunnel. "I think the ghost ship is taking off." replied Dick, "They must have found another ship to capture.". Rocket look around and noticed that there were less guards than there were half an hour ago. "Where did the guards go?" said Rocket. "I don't know." said Dick, "They have never left us with less than five guards in the tunnel now I see only two by the entrance. Something must be happening."

Gillman/Ghost Ship/26 "We have to make our move now." Rocket turned to Joanna and nodded in the direction of the pile of explosives in the corner. "When I make my move, grab some explosives, set the timers for 5 seconds and throw them at the guards." Rocket then turned to Dick, "When the fireworks start try to get some of the other miners to rush the guards, with a bit of luck we can overwhelm them with people. Once we get out of the tunnel we have to make our way to the nerve center of this place. Either this Captain guy is on the ship that took off or he is still down here running the show. Either way, we need to take control of the radio system and send a message to the authorities." # The Jupiter/Europa police ships slowly approached the small moon of Elara, their radar sweeping out in all directions trying to locate anything that might give a clue as to the whereabouts of Rocket and Dick. # "Get the defenses ready, Captains orders. If those ships get too close to the mine or look like they may have spotted us we will have to take care of them in a hurry." remarked the officer of the watch on board the ghost ship, "Ground control will let us know if they have been spotted." #

Gillman/Ghost Ship/27 Rocket slowly made his way along the rock face, picking up a large hammer that someone had left laying on the ground. He nodded to Dick who picked up a pickaxe and then turned towards the guards. # "Sir, I am picking up some sort of echo from the surface, it looks like it might be some sort of large cave" said the young officer in the second police ship. # "They are sweeping us." noted the guard, "But I do not think they can get a good return on us just yet. # "Now" shouted Rocket as he hurled the hammer in the direction of one of the guards. Dick threw his pickaxe at the other guard. Rockets hammer was on target, the guard seemed to fall in slow motion in the low gravity environment of the moon. Dicks throw missed its mark as the guard ducked out of the way and started firing. Rocket looked across at Joanna who had not moved yet, "Go, get the explosive now." shouted Rocket. Joanna immediately broke from the spell she was under and made a dive for the box of explosives just as the remaining guard fired again. The laser blasts exploded against the walls of the tunnel, Rocket and Dick started throwing rocks in the guards

Gillman/Ghost Ship/28 direction and some of the other miners followed suit and started throwing their own tools and rocks as well. Joanna reached the box and pulled out one of the timed explosives. She set the timer for 5 seconds, threw the stick towards the guard and covered her head. # "The echo I am getting from the large cave shows it to be oval in shape, almost like it was the entrance to a mine. It seems just too regular to be natural. I am going to narrow the radar beam a little more to try and get a better picture." # "Sir, the radar beam is increasing in intensity, it looks like they may have an echo from us." "Stand by to inform the ship that they may have found us." # The stick of explosive landed quite close to the guard who just stood and stared at it in disbelief for a few seconds, then he gave it a very hard kick back towards Rocket, Dick and Joanna. By this time approximately four and a half of the five seconds had elapsed, the stick bounced across the floor of the tunnel and came to rest next to the box of explosive by Joanna’s feet. Joanna, Rocket and Dick looked at each other and then leaped into

Gillman/Ghost Ship/29 the air away from the box and towards the guard at the entrance. The explosive detonated sending a searingly hot shockwave along the tunnel. The air was filled with smoke and dust and the echo of the explosion. # "What was that?" asked one of the guards in the control center as he heard a loud noise and felt the floor shudder beneath him. "Attention ghost ship, attention ghost ship." said the guard into the radio, "We are under attack, I say again, we are under attack" # "Sir there was a flash of light and now a cloud of dust is emerging from the cave. It looks like there was an explosion, I am going to investigate it." # The ghost ship started to speed up in its orbit of the moon, its commander was anxious to get the two small police ships before they could radio something back to their base. # Rocket lifted his head and peered through the dust, the rolling echo of the explosion could still be heard up and down the length of the tunnel. Small rocks and bits of sand were beginning to fall as the tunnel groaned and began

Gillman/Ghost Ship/30 to shift slightly. Looking around him, Rocket got to his feet slowly and shook his head, coughing as he did so. He saw the two guards and a lot of the other prisoners laying around him either dead or unconscious. Moving towards one of the guards he reached down and grabbed his gun then, after getting the other guards gun, he started looking for Dick and Joanna in the dusty atmosphere. # "This is definitely a man made cave, it is too regular in shape to be anything else and I am starting to pick up reflections that are too strong to be...". The police ship exploded in a ball of light as the missile from the ghost ship found its mark. Almost immediately the second police ship with its more experienced police began a high G-force maneuver designed to shake off any potential attackers. The missile that had been tracking him struggled to keep the ship in the center of its sensors. The missile began an upward curve, chasing its prey. The ship swung through 180 degrees before snapping over and beginning another tight turn at right angles to the first one. The pilot of the ship searched frantically for any sign of pursuit. The threat indicator in his cockpit did not register anything but the pilot knew that something was out there, he had seen that type of explosion before. The missile closed

Gillman/Ghost Ship/31 rapidly as the ship changed direction and then began turning once more in an attempt to keep the ship in its sights. The on-board computer sensed the range to the ship and concluded that it was close enough to detonate. A fraction of a second later the distance between the missile and the ship started to increase as the ship turned even tighter than before. The computer decided to detonate the warhead while the ship was still in range. # Rocket dragged Dick and Joanna to their feet and, having revived them, gave Dick a gun. "Quick, to the door." shouted Rocket as he pointed in the general direction of an access hatch. The three of them ran to the hatch, opened it and crawled through into a passageway full of people running around, lights flashing and a loud siren screaming in their ears. Nobody seemed to notice them as they made their way through the complex, everybody seemed to be too concerned for their own safety to worry about a group of badly dressed people they had never seen before. # The police ship shuddered from the blast caused by the nearby missile exploding. The cabin went dark and several red lights illuminated the otherwise dark control panel. A

Gillman/Ghost Ship/32 siren started sounding in the ears of the pilot and partial power returned bathing the cockpit in a low light. Some of the instruments came back on-line, others remained stuck at either maximum or zero or just stayed dark and silent. The pilot pulled the ship into a turn and stared at the dark and silent radar panel. "Police one to base, police one to base.", the pilot spoke calmly and clearly into the radio as he stared at the dark and silent radio panel. The radar panel also remained lifeless rendering the pilot almost blind and deaf to what was outside his cockpit. Realizing his situation the pilot looked out of the cockpit window and began to take in his surroundings. His first thought was to get his bearings and he could do that by finding the moon. As he caught sight of the edge of the moon he noticed an object heading towards him. In space it is difficult to tell if you are looking at a large object at a long distance or a small object close up. A flash of light emerged from the object and missed the police ship by a number of yards. The pilot of the police ship decided that the best form of defense is attack and opened the throttle as far as it would go, charging headlong into the rapidly approaching ship. #

Gillman/Ghost Ship/33 "Sir, he is on an attack run." screamed the radar controller, not sure if his radar was telling him the truth or not. "An attack run? That's impossible, check your screen again." replied the commander. "He is opening fire!" shouted the officer as the ship rocked from explosions along its hull. The bridge glowed brightly for a split second as an explosion appeared just outside the main window. "Return fire, bring that ship down." cried the commander as he ducked behind a control panel. One of the rear turret gunners heard the cry over the radio and swiveled his turret round just in time to see the ship emerge from the other side of the bridge. The ship screamed past his position at an impossibly low level and nearly knocked the gun from its mounting. Turning the gun round and depressing the barrel to its lowest angle the gunner released a salvo of laser fire towards the police ship. # Rocket, Dick and Joanna approached the door to the main control room. The guards were still at their posts making sure that nobody entered the room. Rocket looked at Dick and whispered,

Gillman/Ghost Ship/34 "Just two of them, you take the one on the left I will take the one on the right." Dick barely had time to nod his agreement when Rocket rounded the corner, raised his weapon and fired twice into the guard. Dick followed a fraction of a second later and hit the second guard. Both guards collapsed without having a chance to return their fire or even seeing who had shot them. Joanna picked up one of the guards guns and all three of them approached the door. # The pilot of the police ship knew he had to keep low to avoid the guns that littered the hull of this ship. Dodging the superstructure he flew low over a gun and instantly regretted his decision. Pulling the ship round into a wide arc he had to climb slightly to avoid a tower and saw two laser blasts narrowly miss his ship. The third blast caught his ship right in the middle and broke it in half just before the fuel ignited turning the high speed craft into a fireball. The blast wave hit the hull of the ghost ship and tore a turret gun from its housing. Sirens blasted through the decks of the ship as large doors closed to seal off the damaged sections of the hull. #

Gillman/Ghost Ship/35 Rocket opened the door and ran through into the control room, Dick and Joanna followed him through the doorway and moved to the left and to the right of Rocket. The sight that greeted them was quite unexpected. Instead of seeing a large number of officers sitting at desks with the Captain in the middle they found a dark and empty room. The only light was from the control panels with their flashing lights. The floor shook and small rocks fell from the roof, a control panel sparked and fell dark. The radio was still on and the air was filled with shouting and sirens from the ship orbiting above. # The flash of light from the moons surface signaled that a craft was taking off. It was a small craft, capable of holding only a handful of people and designed for speed. Inside the craft the Captain and three of his henchmen were crowded into the cockpit while the pilot entered a new destination into the computer. The craft climbed upwards, towards the ghost ship which was surrounded by a cloud of debris. Several fires could be seen through the windows of the ship and it was obvious that it was in trouble. # "This is Rocket Robinson calling the Europa police force, come in Europa.". The radio stayed silent for

Gillman/Ghost Ship/36 several agonizing seconds before a voice was heard coming from the speaker. "Unit calling Europa police, please identify yourself and retransmit message." Dicks face turned from delight to horror as a section of the wall caved in and the floor shook once more. Rocket did not seem to notice as he keyed the microphone. "This is Captain Rocket Robinson of the Interplanetary Operations division of the Earth police force. Send reinforcements to the moon of Elara, we have found...". The floor buckled under the strain of the now collapsing roof and walls, Rocket, Dick and Joanna were thrown to the floor as part of the roof fell down. "This way." said Dick, pointing to a small door on the other side of the room marked "Airlock". the three of them got back on their feet and made their way past the rubble. # The Captains craft approached the ghost ship at a fast pace, the pilot swerved towards the ship to avoid a large piece of hull that suddenly came into view. # "Quick, close the door and get into a spacesuit." said Rocket as they entered the airlock. Hanging from the walls of the airlock were a collection of spacesuits that looked

Gillman/Ghost Ship/37 like they had been collected from several different sources. Rocket, Dick and Joanna picked out their spacesuits and started putting them on. The ground shook once more as all three of them hurried to get suited up. # The turret gunner spotted a small ship traveling at high speed just out of range of his guns. Keeping the ship in his sights he tracked it across his viewing area and, to his delight, the ship turned towards him as if it was setting up an attack run. # The air was released from the airlock and when the pressure equalized with the outside atmosphere the outer door opened and three figures ran from the opening. Dick turned and looked back just in time to see the roof collapse inside the airlock. What followed was a series of small explosions all over the moon base as one corridor after another collapsed in on itself. Standing around outside the base were several figures in spacesuits, some carried guns and others did not. It was obvious that there was a mixture of guards and prisoners but that nobody could tell who was who inside the spacesuits. #

Gillman/Ghost Ship/38 The turret gunner aimed a fired several laser blasts at the small craft. One of the blasts caught the craft on its side and it started to tumble end over end, obviously out of control. "Sir, the small craft is coming this way, it looks like it will hit us!" screamed the junior officer on the bridge as he looked out of one of the windows. # Inside the Captains ship it was chaos. The pilot was still strapped into his seat trying hard to regain control but fighting a losing battle. The Captain and his henchmen, who were not strapped in, were struggling desperately to get hold of parts of the ship to stop themselves from being thrown around. The pilot looked out of the window and saw the ghost ship getting larger and larger with each full rotation of the crippled ship. # Dick looked up and saw the ghost ship hanging in the sky. He also noticed a few flashes of light and pointed them out to Rocket. The radios in their suits were not functioning so Dick touched his helmet to Rockets helmet and shouted, "Laser fire, I wonder what is going on?". #

Gillman/Ghost Ship/39 The Captains craft struck the ghost ship just below the bridge and erupted in a ball of flame. The ship had been packed with fuel for a long journey and almost all of it exploded in that split second. A hole was torn in the side of the ghost ship and the whole superstructure shook from the blast. The explosion ruptured the floor of the bridge and exposed the room to the vacuum of space. # "Look at that." said Dick as he saw the bright flash of light emerge from the ghost ship. The ghost ship started to roll slowly, it also started to dip its nose towards the surface of the moon. Slowly, as if in a slow motion action replay, the ship started to descend through the thin atmosphere of the moon, heading for the surface. Parts of the ship broke off as the atmosphere heated parts of the damaged hull during its descent. The ghost ship disappeared below the horizon and, seconds later, a large cloud of dust emerged from the horizon. The impact of the ship could be felt through the feet of the people standing on the moon as a small earthquake. # About half an hour later the police ships from Jupiter/Europa arrived and everybody began to be evacuated

Gillman/Ghost Ship/40 from the small moon. Back on Jupiter/Europa Rocket and Dick were surprised to find Chief Gundam waiting for them. “I hear that you boys managed to destroy all of the evidence in several large explosions.” said Chief Gundam, “You also managed to destroy one long-range police escort ship and lose several very expensive police issue spacesuits. What have you boys got to say for yourself?” “Not bad for a days work was it Dick?” said Rocket. “Not when you consider that you signed the ship out using the Chiefs name. I hope it was not too expensive Chief.” said Dick with a big smile on his face. END