Adventures of Space Cadets 101: Back At It On Two Fronts

By Darryl D. Wright and Karen Paul Stone

This 253 page E-Book of 95,000 words is the fourth book in a series about a wealthy family of the future.

The Houstons adventure into space where they take on space pirates and many kinds of aliens. As technology advances, so do their ships until they pilot the most advanced ship in the universe. The risks, thrills and challenges of space exploration are many and diverse - even to the point of occasionally having to struggle against Earth Defense Forces.
Titles in this series:
1. Adventures of Space Cadets 101: Space Pirates, Allies, and Aliens
2. Adventures of Space Cadets 101: Invasions
3. Adventures of Space Cadets 101: Weddings
4. Adventures of Space Cadets 101: Back At It on Two Fronts
5. Adventures of Space Cadets 101: Captain Kirk ... Houston
6. Adventures of Space Cadets 101: ISIS

• Language: English
• Publisher: eBookIt.com
• Release date: Apr 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9781935186519

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TABLEOFCONTENTS

SUMMARY OF BOOKS 1, 2 and 3

Chapter 1 - BUGS

Chapter 2 - DEMOTED

Chapter 3 - SITUATIONS

Chapter 4 - MATED FOR WIFE

Chapter 5 - A LOST CIVILIZATION

Chapter 6 - DOWNTIME

Chapter 7 - TWO-DIMENSIONAL

Chapter 8 - RISE OF THE MACHINE

Chapter 9 - ASTRO

Chapter 10 - HEIST

Chapter 11 - THE PLANET LIZARDE

Chapter 12 - EVACUATION

Chapter 13 - MOM

Chapter 14 - AN OLD FRIEND

Chapter 15 - MERCURITES

Chapter 16 - HANGOVER

Chapter 17 - DO YOU BELIEVE IN GOD, DAD?

Chapter 18 - DOGFIGHTS

Chapter 19 - WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?

Chapter 20 - LIFE IN THE SPHERE

Chapter 21 - WAR

Chapter 22 - IT HAPPENS

Chapter 23 - POLITICS

Chapter 24 - T-11 ACT

Chapter 25 - NOAH WANTS TO GO HOME

Chapter 26 - INVADING ANTI-BODIES

Chapter 27 - THE RAPTURE

Chapter 28 - RED DWARF

Chapter 29 - BACK TO THE SPHERE

Chapter 30 - THE SHIP

Chapter 31 - SPACE-DOCK

Chapter 32 - MEET ME IN THE MIDDLE

Chapter 33 - IT'S GETTING BETTER

Chapter 34 - THE RESCUE

Chapter 35 - DEREK'S REAL PARENTS

Chapter 36 - TREXIAN SOUNDS

OTHER TITLES AVAILABLE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

This is the fourth book in a series about a wealthy family of the future.

The Houstons adventure into space where they take on space pirates and many kinds of aliens. As technology advances, so do their ships until they pilot the most advanced ship in the universe. The risks, thrills and challenges of space exploration are many and diverse - even to the point of occasionally having to struggle against Earth Defense Forces.

Titles in this series:

1. Adventures of Space Cadets 101: Space Pirates, Allies, and Aliens

2. Adventures of Space Cadets 101: Invasions

3. Adventures of Space Cadets 101: Weddings

4. Adventures of Space Cadets 101: Back At It on Two Fronts

5. Adventures of Space Cadets 101 : Captain Kirk … Houston

6. Adventures of Space Cadets 101: ISIS

SUMMARY OF BOOKS 1, 2 and 3

The Adventures of Space Cadets 101 began when astronauts Austen and Derek Lee Houston wanted to take their Cadets to visit Deep Space Jupiter Station. However, they ran into space pirates before and after they arrived. They bested the pirates on both occasions and had to trade ships with them. On the trip back to Earth, the Space Cadets 101 were falsely targeted as pirates by Earth Defense (ED), so they ran back to Jupiter Station, but they were trapped in a space pirate armada ambush.

An alien lizard-like race known as Lizardians came out of nowhere and rescued the Cadets who then traveled to a planet the humans called, Kess. There they uncovered a very formidable starship they named the Turtle because it looked like a turtle. From Kess they went with their Lizardian allies to rescue two planets called Scunrus and Lizarde from beings the humans called ET, Centurions, or Skinnies. While participating in the rescue, they became friends with their allies, the lizard bi-pedals.

Thanks to the new ship's advanced technology, the Houstons found out that Earth was to be invaded by two different species - the Trex, which looked like small T-Rexes, and the Leonsians, which looked like Lion-people. Both species thought of Earth as a new feeding ground with humans as a new source of meat just like cattle.

In book two, Adventures of Space Cadets 101: Invasions, the Space Cadets saved Earth from invasions by these species, but it did not put them in favor with Earth Defense. ED wanted the Turtle and all of its marvels for themselves and tried to kill the One-Oh-One Cadet leaders.

The planet Kess now is populated by citizens from several worlds and is the birthplace and home base of the Alliance of Planets, an organization made up by the Houstons to protect Earth, Scunrus, Lizarde, Kess, and all of the shipping lanes among these planets.

In book three, Adventures of Space Cadets 101: Weddings, the Space Cadets set out to rescue a people known as Tauri from the Leonsians and relocate them on the safe planet Kess, far from the lion-people’s grip or teeth. With alien help from the planet Mercury, the Cadets saved Earth again by keeping the Sun from going nova.

ED persisted in trying to kill the Cadets and threatened their families, so their leaders invoked war, and in just a very short time, killed more military than all the wars on Earth put together.

Austen and Derek Houston married and let their brother, JR, take over ED and give it a new name, the Space Rangers, even though ED refused to conform to the new status and clings to the old name and uniform. JR promoted himself to Rear Admiral, taking the lead position in the Space Rangers.

Chapter 1

BUGS

Admiral Deana Kester Houston told Brion at communications aboard her borrowed ship, the Amigo, to hail their base on Titan. A moment later, Brion turned to look at her and said, Admiral, I'm not getting anything but static from Titan's lightning storms. Other than that, there's no response at all.

Jamie Lee spoke up. Sir, half of the base has gone dark, and I'm not picking up any life-signs either. … Oh right, we only have droids there. I forgot because I've never been here before, Sir.

Deana looked at June England, a cadet reporter and newest member of the Amigo crew, and said, It's true. Nano-droids don't have life-signs to detect. Then she asked Jamie, Do you read any damage, Honey?

Jamie ran her scans and said, I'm only getting about fifty percent on scans, but they show no damage on what it reads, Sir.

Deana said, Well this is certainly weird, because we just checked on them a week ago, and they reported everything being fine. She told Noah to go ahead and land because they would certainly have to check it out. There were over thirty droids down there then.

Noah said, I have the ball. Two minutes till touchdown, Sir. I'll get us right to the front door, and here we go.

Kirk interrupted and said, Admiral, we don't have to do that. Maybe we should use our transportation helmets to send some droids. Not every ship has droids, and we ought to take advantage of having them instead of landing in the unknown when it shouldn't be an unknown, Sir. Of course, it's up to you, Sir.

Transportation helmets carried an astronaut's consciousness to a digitally beamed Nano-droid somewhere else so the astronaut could remain safe from danger. Nano-droids themselves could be beamed anywhere.

The experienced admiral listened thoughtfully to her stepson who she had always admired for his intelligence, and she said, That is a very smart idea, Kirk. Why don't you take Noah, Will and Leo with you and check it out, Darling?

Kirk said, wearing a smile, Well, the perception of the obvious is very phenomenal and highly significant, through the process of elimination and the progression of staying on top of the situation, and as always never leaving the Turtle. Why would you?

Deana laughed and asked, Are you still here?

As the three left the bridge, Deana asked Jamie what else her scans picked up. Jamie answered, Well, the outside of the base is the same as it always is, orange. Looks the same from space, Sir.

Deana interrupted her, We can see that for ourselves. Then she told the Lizardian, Qworn, Get us back into a lower orbit till we know what's down there. She implied for Jamie to keep reporting.

Jamie said, It's 180 degrees Celsius on the planet, with hills and valleys for most of the surface and with rivers and lakes of liquid methane. It's raining nitrogen and methane with a storm system of upwelling ammonia ice crystals. There's a light wind of up to eleven hundred miles per hour. Also, this moon is bigger than Mercury. I'm afraid that's all I have for now, Sir.

Deana ordered that no one set foot on the planet without hazard suits, if they did visit the base, just to make sure everyone was safe in case of hull breaches. Then she said to Jamie, Add to those specs that we are also eight hundred million kilometers from Sol, Earth's sun, and that a day on Titan is just under sixteen Earth days.

Jamie said, We are now sixty miles up, in low orbit around Titan, and directly above the base, Sir.

The four teenagers - Kirk, his cousin Noah, his friend Will, and the young Leonsian, Leo - known affectionately to the Space Cadets as the Bratz, picked out their transporting helmets, but Leo said to them that his head was too big, and that his helmet didn't fit. Kirk said, I guess you get to stay here then. Don't worry; we shouldn't stay gone long, Leo. Leo insisted he wanted to go with them, which gave Kirk an idea.

Back on the bridge, Jamie reported to Admiral Deana that Kirk wanted a word with her. Deana said, Put him on.

Kirk appeared on the front screen, but only three of the Bratz were holding transporting helmets. Kirk said, Leo can't join us, but I can think of a hundred other Leonsians that could join us with your permission, Sir.

Deana picked up on the idea and said to the ship, Turtle, send all Nano-Leo-droids to the transportation room on the double. We may end up leaving them here.

The Turtle said that they were on their way, and then Kirk said thanks and went off screen. The three human kids sat down and put on their helmets. They turned them on, and Kirk said, Turtle, beam our Leo-droids to the main office down below, but make sure there is still an office to go down to, because I'm in no hurry to see what Titan looks like.

The three Nano-droid boys beamed into the main office, but it was total darkness. N-Noah and N-Kirk instantly turned on their wrist lights which lit up the room. N-Will finally figure out how to turn on his light.

The office was trashed; everything was knocked over and in disarray. Kirk said, We've got incoming, so let's move to the hallway quickly, guys.

The hallway was just as dark. They headed out as the first bunch of Leo-droids beamed into the messy office, and the act lit up the room again. They did not need light because they all had infrared vision through the visors on their helmets. The boys saw small burnt pieces littering the hallway all the way down it.

N-Noah reached down and picked up a piece and handed it to N-Kirk. N-Kirk looked at it as the Leo-droids started coming out to the hallway to join the boys. N-Kirk said, I know what this is; it's part of the crew we left here. He handed it to the Leo-droid beside him, and when the fake Leos saw it, they all drew their weapons with safeties off. N-Will dropped his weapon but picked it up before anyone saw him.

The boys hung back and let the Leo-droids go first. N-Kirk decided it might be a good idea if he and his entourage became observers only. Each room was inspected, and they all seemed the same as the main office where they had entered. Everywhere they looked, there were pieces of melted droids. The N-boys, with about thirty Leo-droids leading them, entered the base's cafeteria. It had never been used due to the fact no one had had to eat there yet, since only Nano-droids were stationed there so far. Now they were gone.

N-Kirk contacted the ship. Admiral, they're all gone, every one of them. Looks like something tried to eat them all. My guess is they didn't lie down either, so whoever did this must have caught them off-guard. There must have been a lot of enemies, whatever they were. What do you want us to do?

Deana came over everybody's head-set and said, I'll leave the Leos, but you boys get back here right away. It's not that you are in danger, but I don't want you guys having nightmares.

Before N-Kirk could reply, the cafeteria began filling up with giant bugs. There was a huge hole in the floor behind the counter. They were all coming from there, and they were scary. To Kirk it looked like their heads were giant cockroaches with a thin neckline. They had big bodies with six legs. Four were used to walk, and two were used as arms just like humans used their arms.

Unfortunately the Leo-droids only had knives and lasers to fight the giant creepy crawlers, and it wasn't doing enough damage. One by one the Leo-droids were dropping left and right. N-Kirk saw only one of the bugs go down, and immediately it was consumed by all of its friends. The three N-boys started backing out of the large room. The bugs that were biting the droids were screaming loud, because once a droid was bitten, the nanites that made up a droid entered the biter's mouth and began eating the bugs from the inside out.

Now N-Kirk knew what had happened to the droids that were stationed there. He was scared, and when he turned around to run, the other two N-boys took off with him. As soon as they entered the hallway, they reached up and turned their helmets off. That immediately sent them back to their bodies onboard the Amigo.

Leo asked Kirk what was going on down there, and Kirk answered excitedly, Bugs, very large bugs, and many of them. He called the admiral to let her know they were back onboard, and she ordered the boys to the bridge.

The four cadets ran onto the bridge as the admiral was talking to the only Leo-droids left on Titan. We have a dead bug with us. We are the only ones left. Requesting a beam-out, Admiral.

Deana said, Turtle, beam them to the cargo bay, and put the bug in a quarantine isolation unit.

When the Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) known as the Turtle said it was done, Deana told Qworn to send a couple of nukes to the base, and Qworn obeyed happily. Seconds later, everybody saw two bright lights flash on the moon. Deana turned to Kirk and said, Looks like your idea of not landing at the base was a very good idea, Son. Thank you for your input.

The A.I. said over the bridge, Only five Leo-droids made it back, Sir.

An hour later Deana had the isolation unit moved to the Houstons' brother JR's ship and explained to him that the Saturn base was no more and why. JR, rough and bullying as ever, scolded Deana for not having a wingman at Saturn and told her he was taking her rank of admiral from her.

About an hour after that, all of the Turtle's children, the ships, met up with the Amigo. Their bellies were full of immigrants from Earth to Kess. The Amigo led the way back to Kess, and everybody couldn't wait to get back there. Home sweet home.

Chapter 2

DEMOTED

JR Houston was at the age of 47. He felt strong and healthy for a human in space too long, and he felt he had accomplished plenty in his time in space. He had advanced from a rogue Mexican-American on Earth Defense's Ten most-wanted list to Governor of all the Space Pirates, and now to Rear Admiral in the Space Rangers, the very people who used to be called Earth Defense. He felt that Earth’s Solar System was enough of a domain for him, at least for the present.

He gave the order to hook-up his ship with the Amigo under the command of his sister-in-law, Deana. The Amigo was heading back to the planet Kess, but had not left the solar system as of yet. It was the Flagship for fifty-one other Space Cadet 101 ships that were filled with homeless and the miserable from Earth. They were promised a better life away from Earth, so they had signed on without hesitation.

Deana was pregnant, and she was upset with her brother-in-law’s request at having her ship stopped so he could board. She also was not pleased that JR intended to reduce her rank, but she knew she had to go through the BS and the motions, so she stopped.

Deana was 35 Earth years young and positively one of the most beautiful women from Earth. Even being pregnant with her second child only made her more beautiful. Her husband, Derek, was JR’s younger brother and nothing she could do could change that. She wished Derek were there to deal with JR, but Derek was back on the planet Kess in another galaxy, she believed.

She spoke JR’s name as if it were the invocation of a demon. JR, why do you feel the need to keep me here? I’m spoken for, so deal with it. Besides, I just left your ship an hour ago. She was talking to her forward screen which held JR’s image on it. JR was looking back and smiling at her snide remarks. Deana only had a skeleton crew, and two of her lieutenants were JR’s nephews, Kirk and Noah. They were the same age, only eighteen like all the rest of her crew but one, Jamie Lee, so Deana didn’t want any trouble.

JR Houston smugly said to her, Don’t worry. I don’t want you that way anymore. You’re not worth it, Darling. What I have to tell you will only take a second, Sis, and he disappeared from the Amigo’s screen.

Minutes later, JR and two of his Lizardian bodyguards entered the Amigo’s bridge. Deana got out of her captain’s chair and walked the five feet to where JR was standing.

Qworn, who was not only an alien Lizardian youngling but also one of the three builders of Deana's ship Amigo and now serving on it, got up and went to talk with his fellow Lizardians.

Deana sounded exhausted as she asked the leader of the Space Rangers, Why have you delayed us, JR, and what could you possibly want from me? She couldn’t stand to be in the same room with JR.

JR was looking at her swelling breasts instead of her eyes until she said a bit too loudly, Up here, using her two fingers to show him to focus on her eyes. JR smiled innocently and asked her if she wanted the conversation here or in privacy. She wanted whatever it was about over as soon as possible so she said, Here is fine, Sir. She was wondering why he had been all smiles since he arrived.

He asked her for her admiral’s patch, and when she asked why he said, For going solo. You had no back-up, no wingman at Titan, and you know the rules, Girl. It is the second rule in the Cadet Manual.

She replied, You know you put the 'dick' in ridiculous! You know that, boy? We were at our base on Titan which was our back-up. You, Rear Admiral Houston, and this ship have five Caprices to launch.

JR smiled and said, My ship’s A.I. said you were going to land on Titan, without receiving any communications from the base, until Lt. Kirk told you that it was a bad idea. You were going into the unknown with these kids, our kids, without back-up.

Deana said, Fine, here, and she took off the small patch and threw it in JR’s face. He caught it quickly which surprised Deana a little bit.

JR said, I’ve been thinking, Colonel, that maybe taking Earth’s citizens to your planet Kess might be a mistake. Not a bright idea considering there may be assassins onboard one of the ships right now ready to kill my brothers, Austen and Derek, who by the way is your husband, in case you forgot. I don’t put anything past old Earth Defense. Their motto is 'tried, try, and try again'.

Kirk and Noah left their chairs and stations behind to gather by their elders to listen to this discussion. Qworn overheard it too and stopped talking so he could listen in on the conversation. He cared very much for Austen and Derek Houston who were back on the planet Kess last he heard.

Deana put her Colonel patch back on her shoulder, looked at the Bratz and said, I had not even considered that, JR.

Deana was an empath and could read just about any human, but there were almost forty thousand people onboard the fleet headed for relocation. There was no way she could read them all before approaching Kess. She hadn’t even read all the Tauri Cadets to see if they could be trusted. They worked for the Turtle. They, at least, had been with the fleet for a long time and had shown that they could be trusted. More than a few Tauri were married to 101 Space Cadets. As far as the Earth humans went, though, it would take forever to read that many minds. In addition there were some humans like JR, she couldn’t read, or do anything else to them.

Kirk asked, What do you all suggest?

Deana answered, Well the orders came from Derek and Austen, so I believe we do what we’re told for now, and take them to Kess. We can always drop them all off on another continent on Kess. The three main cities are too crowded anyway. Plus, Derek can tell us what to do when we get to Kess.

JR said, I just thought you ought to be careful. I’m out of here. He hugged his nephews, and then he left with his lizard buddies who followed their king respectfully. He had given Deana food for thought before he went.

Deana told Brion at communications to order the fleet to proceed at space-normal speed until they left the solar system. Deana wanted time to think about all of this.

Brion was a kid from the planet Tauri in another galaxy. Almost two million of his people had been relocated to the planet Kess. Their ancestors had been eaten by the species known as Leonsians, and there were still millions left on Tauri fighting every day for survival. The Tauri on Kess could be trusted, but not all Taurians could be trusted on their own planet. They had proven that during one visit.

Earth had just been given another chance to prove themselves to the Space Cadets 101, but Deana knew JR was right. Humans could not be trusted in the here and now, and probably not for a generation or more. Deana sat down in her chair and looked at each individual young cadet who in turn looked back at her hoping for the best, just as she was.

They were passing Saturn, all fifty-one cadet ships, and Deana was wondering where those giant bugs came from that had wiped out the secret 101 Base on Saturn’s moon, Titan, even if it wasn’t a secret any more.

Leo, a Leonsian engineer serving onboard the Amigo, which he also helped build, was checking a read-out for confirmation. Schematics came up on his console in front of him. As he enhanced the image, disbelief took over his lion features. He cleared his throat loud enough to get everybody’s attention.

Colonel Deana Houston asked, What have you got for us, Leo?

Leo shrugged his shoulders and said, I can draw no inference except for a great anomalous … ball.

The Colonel said, Put it on screen.

Just out past the Kuiper Belt was indeed a ball. It was metallic looking in nature and as large as a small solar system. Will and Kirk yelled at the same time, A Dyson’s Sphere! They were definitely excited, but Deana was waiting for some explanation.

Kirk Houston, a genius and wealthy beyond anyone’s dreams at his age or any other age for that matter, said, A Dyson’s Sphere is a solar system with a large enclosed sphere built around it and encompassing it. It is probably made of neutronium and carbon-diamond. That way no energy of the sun would be lost, and the planets inside would be protected from external whatever, except from a black-hole or super-novae. Oh, we have to check this out Sir! Besides, it’s too close to home to ignore.

Deana asked, Is there any danger to Earth? After a few moments consultation, both eggheads, Kirk and Will, said probably not as long as it kept going in the direction it was going.

Will added, It is a way for an advanced civilization to utilize all the energy radiated by the sun inside, and I’m talking about an enormous amounts of energy. He then gave the equation, T= (E/4 pi r^2 eta sigma) ^1/4.

Deana simply said, Huh?

Kirk answered, ‘E’ is the energy output of the sun; ‘r’ is the radius of the sphere; ‘eta’ is the emissivity, and ‘sigma’ is the constant of Stefan Boltzmann’s law, Sir. But in my opinion, anyone who could build a Dyson’s Sphere probably wouldn’t need one. It is just too much trouble and work, Sir.

Deana asked Leo to use an infrared scan on the massive ball, and then the whole screen lit up brightly. She told him to turn the scan off immediately. She said, Looked like a giant death star when we did that. My eyes still hurt! Why is it so hot, Kirk?

Before Kirk could answer, Leo growled a bit too loudly, getting everybody’s attention again. He moved his console’s image to the main screen replacing the sphere’s image. When he did, Deana stood up and said, All stop!

Chapter 3

SITUATIONS

What do you have, Sis? JR asked from his ship the King.

Deana was standing on the bridge of the Amigo, talking to her brother-in-law, or bastard-in-law if anybody were to ask her. We were passing Neptune and our furry friend, Leo, saw this on the frozen mass of Neptune’s largest satellite, Triton. She motioned for Brion, the Tauri Cadet, who sat at the communications console to send the caption to JR’s screen.

JR Houston didn’t know what he was looking at. To him it looked like an ocean of raging dark tides from the distance the Amigo caught the picture from space. He asked, What am I looking at Sis, because I’m not seeing what you’re seeing.

Deana said, You’re looking at millions and millions of bugs just like the dead bug we killed on Titan and that we dropped off on your ship and placed in quarantine for study.

JR immediately said, We’re coming to you.

He then ordered Shlizz, his Honor-Guard Lizardian and second in command of the King, to contact Nick Turozski’s ship, the Razor’s Edge, to follow the King to the last planet in the system. Shlizz got on the radio, but before Shlizz could carry out the order, someone was contacting JR, so JR said, Put it onscreen. JR wondered if anyone on Earth knew how busy it was in space.

"Rear Admiral Houston, this is Captain Clinton at Starbase Beta orbiting Mars, and we have a situation. Four large shield volcanoes have come to life after L.R.P. (Lyndell, Russell, and Powell) Corporation launched their operation ‘Genesis.’ Six months ago they received the go-ahead to revive Mars’ core after drilling six holes strategically around the planet. Then three days ago, they sent six nuclear warheads to the center of the planet to light the core back up, and it worked too. Unfortunately, their math was off, and we now have more than thermo-dynamics. Olympus Mons, Alcaeus Mons, Pagonis Mons and Aria Mons have all erupted. Nuclear winter from the fallout is everywhere. Molten lava has killed more than sixty percent of all microbes, algae and lichens, and the rest will die soon. The pollution machines have been turned off since the volcanoes were turned on. The problem is that Mars temperature has warmed up to an incredibly stable eight degrees Fahrenheit, and that has caused electrical storms, sand storms and tornadoes everywhere. Nobody thinks the dome will hold together, and it has been hit with multiple lightning strikes.