THE PLANET THAT LOVED PEOPLE (standard:science fiction, 2821 words) [16/18] show all parts
Author: Danny Raven	Added: Mar 05 2016	Views/Reads: 1787/1257	Part vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
PART 1 - CH 15

FIFTEEN 

“Where's Blaze?” Corthan asked the following day at the beginning of the
session. 

Tyler stared round at them from behind the desk. “As you all know, you
are forbidden to leave the grounds near your allotted building. Blaze 
was found wandering outside Fleet Head Quarters main building last 
night and was lasered.” 

Corthan stood up slowly and stared at him. “Is he dead?” he asked. 

Tyler didn't answer. 

“If the boy's dead,” said Corthan, staring steadily at Tyler, “then the
mission's over. I'll irradiate the room and half the Fleet before you 
can stop me.” 

Tyler began to wilt under the unrelenting stare. “No, he's not dead,” he
eventually replied. “He was only stunned. You'll see him tonight.” 

Corthan was still suspicious. “If he's dead, Tyler, so are you,” he
warned then sat down. 

Tyler paled a little. He knew what Corthan was capable of and he'd just
matter of factly issued him with a death sentence. 

Sinto laughed derisively. “Scared, Tyler?” he mocked. 

Tyler ignored him. “Let this be a warning to all of you,” he said,
staring round at them. “Stay in your assigned building or the grounds 
next to it at night. Anybody caught out with these areas will have 
clone-pain inflicted on them. Severe clone-pain.” 

The prisoners glanced at each other. They knew he would keep his word. 

“Right gentlemen, today's session covers your route and your roles in
the Ship,” Tyler went on. “First, your route. It will take about one 
week at near maximum speed to reach the Black Hole.” 

He was still inside his three feet moveable force-filed and he pressed a
button on his belt and the room lights began to dim and a three 
dimensional space map appeared on the wall behind him. He strolled to 
the side so they had a clear view of the map where the main planets 
were represented by different coloured small circles. 

“In case you don't recognise it,” Tyler told them, “Earth is the small
green circle on the bottom right of the space map.” 

A small blue triangle appeared next to Earth and then started moving
away from it. 

“Your Ship is the blue triangle,” Tyler informed them. “You'll be using
a Falcon,” he went on, staring at Kane in the semi-darkness, “which 
some of you may be familiar with.” 

‘You were correct, Frank!' Kane heard Muslik say in his head. 

Kane nodded slightly in reply. 

“For those of you who don't know, a Falcon is a quarter the size of a
Battle Cruiser,” Tyler went on. “It is therefore much faster and more 
responsive to controls.” 

The blue triangle quickly travelled through its own Galaxy, passing
Mars, Saturn and out past Pluto, all indicated by small yellow circles. 
The triangle accelerated through the next Galaxy then started a wide 
curve to bypass a cluster of planets all coloured red. 

“The Dorian Group of planets,” Tyler informed them. “Stay well away from
them. There are several inter-planetary wars going on there at present 
and Earth doesn't want involved.” He smiled round at them. “That is, 
not until the strongest planet becomes obvious.” 

The blue triangle accelerated again across the next section of the map


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