The Fronteer

“Sir! We are being attacked!” yelled Lt. Ziron. “What should we do?”

“Increase Shields! Get fighter squadrons one and two out there!” yelled Captain Ziryan. “We cannot let them past us.”

The ship was rocked violently by a blast from the pirate ship that was attacking them.

“We’ve been hit by a pulsar bomb! Damage control reports that the impulse drive has been damaged.  Shields are low. We don’t have a chance against them. Sir, we should retreat!”

“Never! We will fight to the end!”

The ship rocked violently again. “Sir, we can’t take another direct hit. Damage control reports all fighter squadrons are destroyed. The impulse drive is useless. The shields are down. What are we going to do?”

“Are the impulse phasers still operative?” asked the Captain.

“Yes sir, but they will be of no use against a shielded ship.”

“Use them on the fighters. We’ve got to hold them off. We are the only Imperial fleet left. If they get past us the Fronteer will fall.”

“What happens if the Fronteer falls?” asked Lt. Ziron.

“Our empire will fall apart,” said the Captain.

“Incoming pulsar bomb! We can’t take another hit. We’re doomed!” yelled Lt. Ziron.

Suddenly there was a flash of yellow light.  The pulsar bomb exploded before it had reached its target.  Another flash of yellow light appeared. The pirate starship exploded in a tremendous ball of flame. Captain Ziryan’s ship rocked from the force of the explosion. “What happened?” asked the Captain. “Where did that blast come from?”

“Sir, the battle computer says it came from the Fronteer.”

“What? I didn’t know that the Fronteer had a defense system. I would not have risked the lives of my crew and my ship if I had known that the Fronteer had a defense system,” the Captain said angrily.

“Sir, Admiral Kujack just informed us that the blast didn’t come from the Fronteer,” one of the crew members said.

“Then where did it come from?” the Captain asked.

“I believe, Sir, that it came from somewhere past the Fronteer.”

“Thank you for that information,” the Captain said sarcastically. “Are there any other ships on the scanners?”

“No Sir. The Fronteer does not have any ships scanned either. They informed us that they are sending a repair ship out to help us.”

“Good. We need to get out of here,” the Captain said.

“They have also informed us that we need to evacuate the ship as fast as possible.”

“Why?” shouted the Captain.

“They said that the ship is unstable and that it could explode at any time. We must get off!”

“My ship is not unstable! I will not evacuate the ship! I will not sound the alarm until…” His words were broken off when the ship was rocked by a small explosion. “What was that?” asked the Captain.

“That was one of the impulse tubes. It just exploded. Shall I sound the alarm?”

“Are you sure it wasn’t a meteor?” asked the Captain.

“Yes Sir. Shall I sound the alarm?”

The Captain was shocked. He could not think.  There was no way his ship could be unstable, yet it was happening. “Yes. Sound the alarm,” the Captain said sadly.

The alarm sounded and people began to run around in a panic. They rushed to the escape pod in a frenzy. The escape pod left the ship just in time.

“I thought this would never happen to my ship. I was sure that it was impenetrable,” the Captain said very sadly.

When the escape pod reached a safe distance, the ship exploded sending metal fragments into space, some of which hit the escape pod and rocked the small ship violently.

“Sir, our scanners are picking up a pirate ship.”

“NO!!! We have failed. The Fronteer will surely fall. I have failed,” the Captain said. “Lieutenant, I bestow upon you the command of this ship and its crew. I will now step down from my command,” the Captain said as he raised a pistol to his head.

“Captain! Don’t do it! I cannot take command of this ship. I can’t handle such a responsibility,” the Lieutenant said meaningfully.

“Lieutenant you will do a better job of commanding this ship than I have.  I am going now. Good luck…” The Captain was interrupted by one of the crew members.

“Sir, there is an unidentified object approaching from the South.”

“Is it another pirate starship?” the Captain asked.

“No Sir. The ships computers cannot identify it.”

Suddenly there was a flash of yellow light and the pirate ship exploded. “Sir, the object is leaving.”

“Follow it! I want to identify it,” yelled the Captain. “Don’t let it get away.”

“We’ve lost it, Sir.”

“Well Sir, we know that the Fronteer is protected by someone or something,” said Lt. Ziron. “You no longer have to kill yourself.”

“You’re right Lieutenant. Let’s just hope that the Fronteer can build a new ship for us. I also hope that they still let us patrol the galaxy. We now know that we are not really needed.”

“Maybe the ship will never come back. That is a risk that the Fronteer will not take. They will build a new ship, and you will still patrol the galaxy,” said Lt. Ziron.

Lightning

                The jeep bounced violently as I hit a rough spot in the dirt road I was traveling on. The Lamar fire road led to the deep back country forests of Yellowstone Park where the wolves had been released earlier that year.  I was traveling too fast for the road but I knew that I had to get to the lake at the end of the road before dark. I now had my best chance of catching Lightning.

                As I drove along the rough road my mind drifted to the previous day’s events. A day that would live in infamy for the rest of my life.

                Chip Silicon and I were in hot pursuit of the man we called Lightning. We called him “Lightning” because every animal he killed he would cut the head off and shave a lightning bolt into the fur of the animal. We had been tracking him for three months now and we were right on his tail.

                We had him cornered in the Spectrum Ridge area when it happened. He had nowhere to run and we were bearing down on him. He came walking out from behind a tree on the trail in front of us. Chip and I pulled out our revolvers and aimed at him. Chip told him to put his hands in the air. That was when he pulled out his rifle and shot.  I heard the bullet whiz by my head. Chip and I dove for cover on opposite sides of the trail. Another shot was fired and Chip cried out in pain. I leaned out into the trail with my revolver pointed towards the spot where Lightning was standing.  Lightning wasn’t there. I waited a minute to make sure he was gone and then I ran over to Chip and saw that he had been hit in the chest. He was bleeding badly. He looked at me and said,  “Get him for me, Don.” As I looked into his eyes I could see the life drain out of them.

                Chip and I had been best friends for thirteen years.  We did everything together, but Lightning had taken him away from me.

                My attention returned to the road as the jeep left the ground for a split second as it went over a mound in the road. The jeep surged to the left but I fought the steering wheel and managed to keep the jeep under my control.

                Sunset was in less than an hour and I had to get to the lake before it got dark. I stomped on the accelerator and the jeep surged with the sudden burst of power. The jeep bounced around in violent waves but I kept it under control. Tonight was the night.

                I reached the lake just as the sun went behind the mountains. I parked the jeep behind some bushes and turned on the interior light. I took the .22 rifle out of its case and made sure the clip was full. I put a few extra clips into my pocket, turned the interior light off and got out of the jeep.  I threw some leaves and tree branches over the jeep and headed towards the other end of the lake.

                At the far side of the lake I found a small campsite. I took cover in some bushes nearby and settled in for a long wait. I knew that this was Lightning’s campsite and that he would be here in a few hours. Lightning came into the camp about an hour after sundown. He was carrying a giant elk head. He put the head down and gathered some wood to start a fire. He lit the fire and sat on a log that he had pulled up to the fire pit. He scanned the bushes around the campsite. He stopped turning his head when he came to the bushes I was hiding in. He gave the bushes a long look and I was worried he had seen me.  I brought the .22 rifle up to my shoulder as quietly as I could. He picked up his rifle and I tensed up waiting for a bullet to come flying at me. No bullet ever came.  Lightning took the clip out of gun and pulled a cleaning kit out of his pack. He started to clean his gun and periodically he would look around at the bushes.

                I waited for the right moment to take him when he was the most defenseless. He put the rifle down and turned his back to me.  I knew that I had to take him now or never. I jumped out of the bush and told him to freeze. I told him to turn around and put his hands on his head. He turned around very quickly and had two pistols in his hands. I fired my rifle at him as soon as I saw the pistols, but it was too late. He was already diving into the bushes. He fired at me and winged my right leg. It was not a serious wound but it hurt. The pain was so great that it brought tears to my eyes. I dropped back into the bushes and tried to regain my composure.

                I could hear Lightning running around to the back side of me and I knew that I had to move quickly if I were to survive this ordeal. I ran in a crouch towards the nearest pine tree. A shot rang out just as I took cover behind the tree. Splinters exploded out of the tree just inches from my face. I fell to the ground and tried to get a fix on Lightning’s position. It was too dark to see him but I could hear him moving around to the side of me trying to get a better shot at me. I crawled around to the other side of the tree and aimed at the rustling bushes where I thought Lightning was. I saw a tree branch move and I shot. I fired three times without even thinking. A flash of orange light came out of the tree I was shooting at and a bullet pierced my left shoulder. I rolled behind a fallen tree and took a minute to see what damage had been done. I could barely move my left arm and it put me in grave danger. I knew Lightning was still out there and he knew he had hit me. I looked over the fallen tree at the spot where the shot came from and I saw nothing. I was breathing so heavily that it masked any sounds that Lightning might have made. I tried to calm down my breathing so that I could hear any move that Lightning made but I could not. I was in a lot of pain and I felt a darkness starting to close in on me.

                Suddenly there was a rustle behind me. It was very close.  A twig snapped and I knew that it was Lightning. I held my breath and hoped that he hadn’t already heard me. The sound of his footsteps kept moving away from me.  The noise was about twenty feet away when it stopped.  I saw the gleam of Lightning’s rifle as it caught the pale moonlight.  I quickly rolled over and aimed my rifle at him. I shot four times and I saw Lightning go down. I crawled towards him as quietly as I could just in case he wasn’t dead. I reached the spot where he was lying and I could see that he was hurt badly. I stood up and approached him. He was out cold.  I put my rifle down to my side and rolled him over on his back with my foot. Suddenly, his eyes popped open and he grabbed my rifle. He yanked it out of my hand and jumped to his feet. He pointed the weapon at me and smiled with an evil grin.

                The sound of the shot sounded like a stick of dynamite going off in my head. Lightning fell dead. I turned to see who had shot him and found that it was Ranger Tibbs. I started to walk towards him when darkness overcame me.

One Spring Morning

Birds were awakened as the sun came over the tops of the mountains and shed its light across the valley. Dark shadows soon became groves of pine trees glistening with morning dew. A robin hops around them in the tall grass in search of a worm. The bird looks up as it hears the chirping of a squirrel. It finds the squirrel of no interest and goes back to looking for its morning meal.

                The dew covered grass sways in the light morning breeze.  The grass glistens when the drops of dew catch the suns light. Water gurgles as it travels down the river making its way around rocks and fallen trees.

                A moose comes to the river to drink the sparkling water. A herd of dear eat the t all grass of the meadow and the fawns play with each other in the morning sun. A bull elk comes out of the shadows of the trees and munches on the willow growing on the river bank.

                The churning of the water in the river is calmed as it flows into the lake.  Reflections move with the rippling of the water and then disappear as a fish umps.  The crystal clear water of the lake exposes the rich plant life that lives there.  Fish swim in and out of their hiding spot in a clump of moss.

                White fluffy clouds float lazily above the earth and cast shadows on the valley below. The clouds take the shape of the animals below as if mocking them.  They lose their shape as they run into the tall mountains.

                The silence of the morning is broken when the sound of thunder is heard in the distance. The ever darkening clouds continue to move towards the valley. The trees sway in the increasing winds. Lightning flashes and thunder erupts from the darkening clouds. A strong gust of wind rushes through the valley making the trees groan as branches break.

                The elk heads for the trees and the deer gather their fawns. The moose is startled and runs for the trees as another clap of thunder rolls through the valley. The herd of deer takes to the trees as the first drops of rain fall to the earth like feathers. A flash of lightning and an ear-shattering clap of thunder startle a flock of birds and they take flight in great panic. The rain is falling harder now and the wind is blowing with forceful gusts. More thunder erupts from the clouds as the rain comes down in torrents.  A tree falls victim to the winds powerful blows and falls to the ground. A bold of lightning strikes out at the trees and the thunder cracks through the sky.  The trees sway violently and the grass lies almost flat to the ground as the wind forces its way by them. A bold of lightning strikes a tree and starts it on fire. The rivers of rain come down killing the fire just after it is born. Another tree falls victim to the wind.

                The rain starts to let up and the wind dies down a bit. Thunder is heard in the distance now as the clouds speed on towards another valley. The rain is lightly falling now and the wind has stopped. The trees rejoice at the leaving of the wind and the animals come out of hiding. The birds have settled down and the fawns are playing in the meadow again.  Fish jump as they eat insects that fell victim to the storm.

                The rain stopped and the sun is creeping out from behind the clouds. The valley is again hopping with live as the storm moves on. The sun warms the valley with its life giving rays and the valley goes on as if nothing ever happened.