My story is back! After all those long days of waiting for me to come back. (Yeah sure, like someone cares.), I have finally completed every chapter except for 12. Now, here's chapter 9.

For previous chapters of A Hidden Legacy, simply go to:

home.earthlink.net/~musapi/
Once there, click on the stories section.

<strong><big>Chapter 9-Let Dreams Fly 'til the Day I Die<big></strong>

What was I supposed to do with my life? Get a girlfriend, or find family? Become a famous captain. One thing was for sure, and that was something very important. Every time I looked back, it was time that was right behind me. Every single time in my mind, I stopped moving, and looked back, I saw that something, that wave of something.
I dragged my mind off the wanting, and the urge. I was going to do this if it killed me. I was going to find me destiny. Or perhaps god had left me out. Maybe I wasn't part of the gang, the group, the people. Maybe I was a forgotten soul without a purpose to live. My mother was dead. My father was never reported dead. Every week I would check to see where my relative where, and how they were doing. Every time I checked, never, or hardly ever would I find someone dead. My mother was someone of a different matter, and a different valor. She was some what adventurous, and had a sense that being part of the UE was something that wasn't right.
I remember her thoughts, and the way she would tell me. "Don't give into the sameness, it will give you no color, or life what so ever," she would say. Yet, it never helped. My mother was a good one. However, in this galaxy, all these people have a sense for finding wonder. Never was it what to dance? Or want to go out with me? It was as if, in this universe, the word "love" was practicly obsolete.
I walked into the bridge, and gave the command to Jake, and he hailed them. The screen was a dead black for a few moments, and then he was there.

"What's your first name, Captian?"
"Whatever for, Doc?"
"I need to know, Mr. Henkins."
"It is Jim. Why?"
"My father was named Jim," I said, staying calm, and my facial expression comepletly normal. Although it was hard to keep it this way. Especially the conditions at hand in the situation.

"Sorry, Doc, have to go. I am picking up a distress signal."

The screen went blank. I stared at it for several minutes afterward. Something inside me told me, not to run. What good was it to run, anymore? I couldn't just wait for the destiny to come to me? I didn't know. It was these lonely hours in empty space that I was now realizing what a universe it was. As I said before, again and again, I always wanted to see the great wonders of the universe, to be the best, again and again. To go back in history back and back and back. No matter what I did, and no matter what kind of ship I had, no matter how much money I had, there was still one thing missing.
I tried so hard to figure it out, and I couldn't. Everyone was going off to fight and die in a war. Humans. . .mankind. . .all I can even think of is the sentance from the holy bible that the human race had forgotten so about. Not the sentance, but the statement. It has always been said, over, and over. Can't we all just get along? No, we couldn't it was human nature. No matter how perfect we get, we can never grasp the right feeling, or the right knowledge that our hearts, and our minds seek so much to find.
You get out of high school, then colledge, and you say to yourself, "I'm going to be an adult." Then, you realize that you know nothing. If only you could go back in time, and always set things right.
First, we seperated our selves from skin color, then came the world wars. The Terra Civil Wars, and the Galaxy Civil Wars. Everything all had to do with death and destruction. You just have to ask yourself why? But who am I to think this, I am on a warship!

So I sat there in my captain's chair, drifting in the Karticel I system. The entire thing was empty. I thought for a moment that I got what I wanted, but was this enough? Was it big enough? Could it fill my soul with the wonderful dream of technology I had longed for so long? Only time would tell, and so, in the mean time, I would be heading back to Earth. For that, deselate world was my home, and home it may be, it was not just home, but home sweet home. That is in which the reason I shall plan to live forever, grabbing and clawing at all the excitement in the galaxy. However, was there more? Could I reach beyond the stars? Could I explore beyond the nebulas? Was it possible, that is the question, and that is the key to every single thing in my destiny.
But when I looked back at it, it always said to me, no, that's wrong. Everything that you do is your destiny. Whether it is drinking coffee on a cold moring on the planet Earth, or if it is getting a Pepsi Rich from the replicator. No matter how silly, or sorrow, or happy it was. All of it was there, my destiny, unfolded before me, laying out on the table.

I set course for the nearest system, and it was here that I decided I would literally go where no man has gone before. Let them do war. Let them die. I don't need to care. Although it was indeed are hard choice to make. I think I was going to be happy. It was just like every single other person in all the other races did, some were tragers, others just liked to be Renegades. It was the future of the past, and mankind's society was more human now that it had ever been before. When I say this, I know there are other aliens that humans are friendly with, but the Miranu don't live on Earth. Humans do, and now humans have made the best desicsions that will ever be made, or have they? To get the TF-22 back, they are going to probably need a big enough fleet to take out Voinia itself. Something told me, that the end of the Voinians was near, but I had a doubt about what they were doing to do.
Yet, I knew that many would die in the first place do to an ambush, I couldn't go off and help. I couldn't, something just told me I couldn't. I sat and thought, now longer as depressed as I had once been, but now feeling a sense of permeation in my feelings that I had never felt before. They were new heightened, and bigger. I just thought that if I went to help, there would be no predicting, and this means that the recon of that system is very low. What little UE ships have gone into the Voinia system, have never gotten out, and never returned.
So I knew that I could not go. At least that much was settled. I wanted to think of something else, but I couldn't seem to, and this whole thing was seeming to be too big of a distraction. So I turned my attention to Jake, and the rest of my bridge crew.

"Could someone please get me the pilots that we have for the TF-22's? They are newly hired aren't they? I don't know them, Kino, could you do that for me?"
"Yes sir, once moment," she said. Kino was a girl that operated and directed the speed of the ship. Not the helm, the speed. Meaning that she managed the fuel, and use of power into the ship's jump time, and it's hyperspace speed. Moments later, she returned to the bridge.
"Here you are, sir," she said, handing me a small computer screen. I took it from her hand, and pressed a small green button. It had the chart of the pilots, and various information.

PILOT NAME PILOT CALLSIGN PILOT'S SHIP
Jake Canine Jake101 TF-22
Scott Filin Scottolane TF-22
Madeline Castra Mad Maid TF-22

I selected Jake Canine, and wondered who he was. It showed the information:

YEARS OF EXPERIENCE: 8
VETERAN:YES
AGE:27
CONFIRMED KILLS:43
UNCONFIRMED KILLS:60
CLIENTS:S.S. Virginia, Igazra #40, Elizabeth Reib, Captain L Levens Hector

I sat and looked at the others, and it turned out he was the best one on the team. I sighed, and then looked at Jake, who was looking at me.
"Yes?" I said, looking into his eyes.
"What are doing?"
"Just looking at our fighter pilots."
"Oh."

I looked around at the bridge crew, everything was quiet. I looked at Kino, and Jake, and then walked out of the bridge. Standing in the doorway, I held the door, so it wouldn't close, and turned around, looking at all of them again.

"I am bored, I'm gonna be in the recreation deck if anyone needs me."
"Okay," they all said in unison. I walked over to one of the old style arcade games, and one of the turret mantience crew was playing a game called,"Star Soldier:Force Gemini." I looked around and found a couple people playing 3-D chess. I walked over to one of the news terminals, and looked at it. I saw the headlines, and wondered if anyone I knew was in the articles.

BEYOND THE PROXIMA NEBULA 2 COMING SOON

UE CRUISER GOES INTO MASS PRODUCTION-ANNA BALASHOVA DOES IT AGAIN!

MIRANU SELL AWESOME TECHNOLOGY

As always, or almost always, nothing interesting to me. Except the UE Cruiser headline, I selected it, and read a small article. I turned it off, and went over to the replicator. I saw that in the new items scroll screen it actually said something, it wasn't often that a new product became available.

PEPSI CLASSIC IS NOW AVAILABLE! ALSO TRY NEW PIZZA HUT CEBLARE TOPPING

Pepsi classic was usually only available at a store. It was cool that it was now free from a replicator. It was all good times now.
Nothing to do, but start something with my life. Or should I say continue with it. I wanted to see something interesting. Although I wished that I would not say that so often seeing as how I had now seen a newly discovered civilization. So my life was off to a good start, but heck I was only in the young adult time period of age. So there wasn't much that I could start in that short of time. So I couldn't quite imagine how I could spend my time correctly and do the right things all the time. Just when I was starting to relax, I have to seek adventure again!
The alarm suddenly went off, and the ship shaked. I fell to my feet. Over the ships announcement system I heard Jake yelling, "All personel to their battle stations, Captain Doc to the bridge!"
I got up, and ran out of the arcade room. The door opened, the few people that were on the deck were going to the level tube. I went to one too. With the word bridge, it began to take me there, quite quickly I might add. Everyone on the bridge was doing things. Jake was giving commands to the turret gunners, and they were firing.
"What's going on?" I yelled, and looked at the viewscreen.
" We just took a rocket hit! I just activated the jamming system, but they can still release their fighters."

I looked out the screen. It was 4 Voinian Cruisers right outside, and they were firing. The Karticel turrets roared with a large firing sound, and their blast, a white-like purple.
"Call the defense-" before I could even finish the sentance, a swarm of 30 TF-22s from the planet Karticel roared into the fight and launched flak torpedos everywhere. Two cruisers blew up.
"Give me their damage report, the Voinians, hurry!"
"One of them is down to half sheilds, the other is unscathed."
"Flak torpedos, fire four, to the left cruiser."

The bluish torpedos went blazing at a Voinian Cruiser. They made huge explosions, and another one of the Cruisers went down in flames, sinking down, then blowing up. The other was at half amour, and was starting to turn around.

"Back off, let the Karticel fighters handle it."

It was replied to with a yes sir, and then I felt the ship move. Very fast for a warship, the helm was taking the ship very fast up and to the right, then we did a literal helix, and then started to activate the rear view on the viewscreen. It wasn't everyday that uninvited guests showed up in the system. All we saw were several TF-22's flying down to Karticel for repairs, and for a break. It was no problem. In fact, the event that happend was so amazing that it was leaving me sitting there, awed at the way they handled it. I sat back in the captain's chair, and stared out into space. My Defender A.K. sat floating there in the Karticel system. I was sitting in my chair, and thought for a moment about what had just happend.
The surrounding civilians of the Karticel race, and the newly found Docmother empire continued with their normal business. Not just after the fight, but during. They knew that it was probably dealt with every single day. It was as if, I sat there, lying on a cloud in the sky, when I realized that saying bye wasn't even nessecary. All I would have to do is sit back, and let the dreams fly 'til the day I die. The TF-22's would do everything, and I do mean everything for me as quickly as possible. For I was a captain, and now my sense, and the wanting of my adventure like life was now ful-filled. I had a new goal to seek.

For the new written chapters of 10, 11, and coming soon: 12. Simply e-mail me at d-web@cyberdude.com, and I will send you either a attachment or other form of file.

Remember, you can find previous chapters of A Hidden Legacy at home.earthlink.net/~musapi/