Taking SPACE

LET'S TAKE OVER THE GALAXY

"I said, 'Steven's right; someone should do something about it and that someone is us.'" Daniel answered.

All four of them stared at him like he'd lost his mind.

"I'm serious. Think about it. We're the best team that has ever existed. We've never lost any strategy game yet, and who's better to take over the galaxy and fix it than us?"

"Wow Cat, what did you feed him this morning?" Stephanie retorted.

Catherine shifted a little bit uncomfortably. "Noodles."

Stephanie glared at her. "For breakfast?"

Daniel rolled his eyes. "Stop trying to change the subject. The galaxy is a mess and someone needs to fix it and that someone is us and we should start with the stupid pirates."

Stephanie's glare swung to Daniel. "And just how do you plan on doing that Mr. I-want-to-be-Emperor?"

Daniel shrugged. "I don't know... this mining station has an impressive array of weaponry, can't we use them somehow?"

Steven shook his head. "No."

"Why not?" Daniel insisted.

"Because they're hardwired and I'd have to rip half of the station apart. Not to mention you'd leave us completely defenseless."

At this Stephanie's face became hard. "No you're definitely not going to risk Catherine's and my life in some false idea of conquest."

Her icy tone made Daniel put his hand up. "Okay okay. I get it that's not a good idea. But what if we lured them into the asteroid field then ambushed them with the station?"

Michael shook his head this time. "No, their scanners would pick up our station and our weapons long before they came in range. Any pirate worth his salt would know to stay away from an armed space station."

"Well then, what if we lured them into the asteroid field then crushed them with asteroids? If we that there will be no weapons for their scanners to pick up."

Catherine looked at Daniel and sighed. She pulled out a hollow tab and leaned against the viewports as she began to play a puzzle game on it.

Everyone instantly recognized it was one of her ways of coping with Daniel's wild imaginations. However, this time Michael said, "Wait Catherine, what he suggested might actually work."

Dismay filled Stephanie's eyes as she recognized the look on Michael's face. "What? You're not actually thinking about listening to one of Daniel's crazy ideas are you?"

Michael smiled. "The pirate ship is most definitely equipped with a logic drive. This means that it automatically calculates the trajectories of the asteroids and does the necessary movements to avoid them. But if we use thermal explosions to suddenly change those asteroids directions, there is no way their logic drives can compensate in time."

Catherine lowered the tablet. "Something like that would take absolute precision in timing, and you need one heck of an explosion for an asteroid to crush a ship."

Michael tapped his lip with his finger, "Well Catherine you're good with timing. So I don't think that will be a problem. Plus we don't need a big explosion."

Steven moved his hand dismissively, "No Michael she's right. If we want to crush the ship we would have to have big explosions to move the asteroids with enough force. We don't have that type of explosives and something that big would easily be picked up on their sensors as well."