Drew of the Stars

Chapter 1 and 2

CHAPTER ONE: THE CREW OF HAILMARY

<blockquote>

Twinkle, twinkle little star,

How I wonder what you are!

When the blazing sun is gone,

when he nothing shines upon

Then you show your little light,

Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.

Twinkle, twinkle little star,

How I wonder what you are!

</blockquote>

DREW BARRYMORE, our space faring girl, was staring at the window or viewport of the library of the spaceship HAILMARY. She was on break, and although it was customary for the crew to take their break at mess hall, being the only woman in a ship full of rowdy, uneducated, brash, and dare I say it?, primeval men made it uncomfortable for her to spend her time in the mess hall. The captain ROY SCHNEIDER being the sole exception, and he spent his time mostly seated in his command chair or in his cabin.

A whooshing sound was made as the door to the library opened. It interrupted her reverie. ADAM SANDLER walked in. Short hair, funny head, thin for the strength he actually possessed. One of the more amiable crew who was not raging with hormone and exhibited behavior bordering illegal toward opposite sex. He was one of the few crew members the captain had allowed to interact with DREW.

"Yes?" she inquired.

"The plumbing is clogged again," he said.

Sighing, she reluctantly left the viewport, opened a low slung cabinet drawer and extracted the electromagnetic suction plunger. "It's been happening every day. Do you think you can tell the guys to take it easy with the toilet? It's an old ship, after all," she implored.

"Sure, I can tell the guys that."

"Thank you. I really appreciate it."

"Not that there's a snowball chance in hell they'll listen."

Drew gave him an exasperated look, took a deep breath, and went on her way. She passed by the captain in the hallway. "Captain, please tell me again why I'm doing this?" He was showering her with praise, promising all sorts of rewards and career advancements and promotions when he was recruiting her from the academy back home.

"Because you're he most valuable engineer in the whole ship," he told her in his easy mannerism.

"That doesn't mean I should play janitor everyday!"

"A Life Support System _Engineer_," he corrected her. "Responsible for the maintenance of the ship's life support system, from air scrubbing to the water reclamation system in which we grow our food and sustenance." He was reciting the job description. "I can't think a more important and valuable job than that," he added as an afterthought.

"I'm scrubbing toilets!"

"Still an engineer."

"Can't you assign somebody else?!"

"Listen. I know it's a lot of work for one little girl," although he didn't say it different, Drew had a distinct notion that 'little' was emphasized, "to be in charge of the whole ship's system. But we're talking about the life support system here. If the mechanism broke, we will asphiate. If the water unfiltered, we will get sick. If the plumbing system gets destroyed, everybody in the ship will die, including yourself. Do you understand the enormous gravity of the task that you're doing?"

"Yes, but..."

"Now, tell me. Knowing the rest of the crew as well as I do, who do you think is trustworthy enough to do the job right, and not screw up?"

Her thoughts went to the personnel files the captain had graciously let her see. "Other than you? Nobody."

"Exactly. That is why you got the job." He smiled his pleasant fatherly smile, trying to comfort her, yet like a well disciplined father, would insists that she does her assigned duty.

"Maybe I can train somebody?" she was hopeful to be alleviated from the unpleasant task of cleaning the whole crews' bodily waste, a distasteful experience even with Personal Protective Equipment.

"You just tell me who would listen to a sweet little girl like you, and I'll promote you to _Senior_ Life Support System Engineer!" He assured her.

There's nothing else left to talk about. She was stuck with the job, and was stuck with it for the remainder of the journey. None of the crew would even look at her as human. Some would treat her like a dog, and those are the better ones.

"Maybe I should think like the guys." She mused. "Maybe I should approach them like a guy would. Maybe then they will soften up and accept me. Maybe I should be doing what they're doing and develop some camaderie."

Voices can be heard as she walks past the Mess Hall where the guys are gathering. Some rather excited voices can be heard. "...stuck a straw to my nose. And then, I drank the whole glass of milk through my nose!" Laughter and hollering and sounds of approving action followed. "Then again, maybe not," she concluded.

Meanwhile, back in his command chair, the captain pondered the situation. His looming destination had so far failed to respond to his hails. And now that they were close enough, the sensor indicated troublesome lifeform readings at the colony. He frowned, unhappy with the readings shown on screen.

CHAPTER 2: A MISSION! PLANETFALL FOR THE GUYS

Everybody gathered in the Mess Hall. The captain has called for a meeting regarding the action to be taken when landing on the planet. The spaceship is currently in orbit for the planet.

"Listen guys, we need to secure some weapons and ammo, and head down to the planet," the captain said.

"Yee haa! Action! What creatures are we hunting, captain?" The crews were getting excited.

"We're not on a hunting mission, and I don't know what creatures are down there, but there are some disturbing readings right at the colony. What we're going to do is a scouting and surveillance mission, and perhaps some rescue mission."

"Do we shoot at anything that moves?"

"There are colonists down there. Do not shoot the colonists. Please identify your target before you shoot. Safety protocols are to be followed at all times."

"I feel very safe with grenades, captain."

"No grenades." The crews moaned. "Flamethrower is fine." the captain said. "Any questions?"

"Nope. Let's go kick some alien butts!" The crew laughed.

"These are not aliens. These are indigenous creatures. We must be respectful toward all God's creatures."

"Sure thing, captain. When I kill them, I'll be sure to kill them _humanely_."

The captain rolled his eyes. "Get you gear and prep up. We'll meet at the shuttle for final instructions." Everybody moved about. "Where are _you_ going?" he asked Drew.

"I'm getting my gears, captain. Weapons and armor." she answered.

"No, you're not." The captain was firm.

"But you said..."

"I need somebody to stay on the ship. Who knows what we'll encounter? I need the ship to be in top condition when we get back. You're the only one I have who can make that happen."

"But the colony..."

"We don't know what's going on down there. It can be dangerous. That's why we're going down with weapons. You could get hurt. And then I'd have nobody who can be trusted to regularly service the air scrubbers. We'll be stuck on that planet if you get hurt. Do you want that to happen?"

"Well, no."

"Good. Then it's settled! You'll stay with the ship." Drew frowned at the idea, but the captain made sense. "Don't worry," he added, "you'll be going down there eventually, once the planet is safe. We still need you to find an intern to help you with your duties." At this she brightened. The captain had not forgotten about her.

"Yes sir!"

The landing went without a hitch. The captain was very professional about it, inspecting the crew and gear for proper fittings, and administrating discipline when it was needed. Drew was impressed by the expediency of the captain. Once the shuttle departed, she listened to the radio. Each crew was fitted with a communication device, but bandwidth restriction limited it to audio only. There will be time later for video recording review when all the guys are back at the ship.

At first, things were fine. Things went wrong almost immediately after they went past the front door. The captain noted some creatures that weren't supposed to be there, and mused about the possibility that everybody is dead. Then he ordered some buildings to be cleared. Lots of cursing and gun shots erupted. "Danny! Quit pissing in your pants! Adam, spread your fire! Quincy! Don't shoot your teammates!" The captain was barking orders, but it is obvious that whatever it is down there, it was big, and it was overwhelming the team in short order. The captain ordered withdrawal. The guys responded by running away wildly, screaming their heads off. And then suddenly, Drew realized that she no longer heard the captain speaking. A sinking feeling fell to her stomach. It took only minutes after that for the transmission from the radio to cease altogether, and she came to realize that she was alone in that whole solar system.

CHAPTER 3: DREW TO THE RESCUE!

Words: 1513

Time: 45 minutes.