OUTLAW STAR: SURVIVING THE STORM

CHAPTER ONE

following the events of the galactic layline gene starwind, melfina, and james hawking had left thier home of sentinal three. as for aisha clan clan, she had stayed behind and attempted to start a new career inhopes to make her way back into the c'tarl c'tarl empire.

four years later, gene and melfina had been unoffically married and had begun spending time together as loving couples do, at first this did not seem like a problem, however after some time had passed jim, had begun to feel like a third wheel, and under the excuse of wanting to keep starwind and hawking enterprises active he left the outlaw star. gene had been kind enough to give him a lift back to sentinal, once there jim set out to find aisha, which turned out to be easier than he had expected. it turns out that she had been living out of what was left in starwind and hawking enterprises resources. she had been fired from her job, she wouldn't tell him the reason. jim had offered that they re-establish starwind and hawking, and with some persuading by aisha, they had changed the name, now one year later in present day sentinal three we find that clan clan and hawking enterprises is starting to strike it big... well sort of.

"hey! wakeup!..come on aisha!" jim shouted "umm, just a few more minuets." mumbled a half asleep aisha. "jeez, aisha your worse than gene, we get three well payed jobs in a row and you think that we can just take the day off?" jim said hoping that it would get a rise out of her unfortunately for jim aisha had been expecting it and sat up in bed " now, jimmy you know that an honorable c'tarl c'tarl such as myself is much more intelligent than a slimeball like gene starwind. don't you think so jim?" jim didn't say a word and aisha knew why when she sat up, it had been revealed that she had slept in her underwear that night "uhhh. um..yeah, whatever you say aisha..i gotta go make breakfast" jim said in a hurry as he left the room as red faced as a tomato "i like my eggs scrambled jim!" aisha called out as she laughed at the look that he had plastered onto his face. "that'll teach him to interrupt my beauty sleep."

after a quiet breakfast, the pair received their first job of the day, "hello, clan clan and hawking enterprises jim hawknig speaking." there was a pause on the other line " hello, Mr. hawking, could you tell me the going rate for a transport job? " "well, sir we don't really have one at the moment-" as aisha walked by where jim was she heard him scream " what! are you serious!" aisha ran to jim's side " jim what is it what's wrong?" jim looked at her his eyes opened wide in shock " he..he.." not getting any information from jim she took the phone from him. "hello?" "hello?" the man on the other line answered back confused "who am i speaking to? " "aisha clan clan" "oh, " "could you tell me whats going on my partner is a little indisposed at the moment. "oh, right, look i need a delivery done in three days to a remote planet about 500 light years from here and all i told your partner was that i was willing to cover all of the charges for the normal fee, but when he said that you didn't have one o just threw out a number." aisha looked at jim who was still a little freaked out "sir, what exactly was the number that you threw out? " i don't really see what the problem is i just offered to pay you both 10,000,000,000 wong for the job." aisha froze "did you just say 10 billion?" "yes, i believe that i did. is that a problem? " no, no problem at all, " "all right then, here's my address, i hope to see you soon so that we can discuss the particulars of the job. bye" "bye" aisha said as she hung up the phone. she turned to jim " jim, he said" "10 billion i know" they hugged and laughed together "we hit the jackpot!"

the next day, once they reached the address that their client had given them, they met with the man and he explained in great detail the nature of the cargo and the planet to which they were delivering it to, "well, thats about all you need to know, oh, i almost forgot, you can take one of my ships, "are you sure?" "yeah, i've three afterall besides i figure that you'll want to get this over with, the ships got the course set so all you really need to do is start'er up and make sure she dosen't hit anything along the way and before you know it your done." "thanks,mister..." "kyle, just kyle" aisha and jim headed back to the shop to get what they needed for the three day trip and then made thier way back to the space port. " "ok, everything all set?" aisha asked as she watched jim and kyle give the ship one last look over, "yep, aisha everythings a ok, " aisha and jim got their belongings on board and got seated for the mission. jim excused himself to go to the restroom before take off while aisha headed to the bhridge, where she found kyle working with somthing "whatcha got there" kyle turned towards her holding up a small remote shaped device "oh, i almost for got to tell you since this ship is a rather old model the emergencey transmitter is prettymuch useless so i retrofitted it to work as a pulse beacon." "pulse beacon?" "yeah, see all you need to do is twist it like this, and then it sends out a pre recorded message that repeates itself every thirty minuetes." "really, i've never heard of anything like that, whats the range? " "well, for one thing the reason you've never heard of this design before is because i designed it myself, as for the range its about a few hundred light years."

after geeting started on their delivery job, aisha assumed the piloting duties, and ordered jim to get some sleep." alright, i'm going," jim said yawning still not wanting to admit that he was tired. eventually he went to sleep...BOOM! jim awoke to an explosion rocking the ship, leaping out of bed he ran to the bridge "aisha, what going on!" jim arrived at the bridge to see aisha franticlly gathering the emergency supplies, " jim, listen take this, and get to the escape pods," "what, aisha what about you" "jim, i'll be fine just go!" jim nodded and ran to the escape pod. however when he got inside aisha activeated the pod from the bridge jim's crys echoed through the ship "aisha!" tears filled the c'tarl c'tarl's eyes as she watched the pod fall to the planet below "i'm sorry jim"

once jim's pod laned on the planet he looked up at the ship as it fell from the sky onto the planet and exploded. seeing the ship hit the ground jim screamed "aisha!

END OF CHAPTER ONE.