Chapter One:
Docking

Zack clicked on the large screen in front of him, a wide, diaglass blast shield that stretched around the entire hull of the ship. It enabled him to see outside, and what he saw amazed him. It was P.L.A.N.E.T, ten years after its construction had begun, and finally complete for him to gaze at its scientific glory.

What he actually saw was a hazy, blue tinted shield that shimmered in parts from the blinding pure-white light of the sun that he had his back to, creating a large shadow in the station. It reminded him of a ship in an old movie Xavior had once shown him, Star Wars, almost too much like the Death Star. Underneath the hazy shield he could see something circulating, almost like air. It was a synthetic atmosphere, an original design of Xavior's, to make the blinding rays of the sun viewable from inside the station. Underneath these two layers he saw what reminded him so much of the Death Star; it was a gigantic metal globe. This globe shielded the station from calamities like meteoroids, the shield was layered with moonrock, except for where the docking bays were.

Zack used his forefingers to drag, drop and click directions on the holographic, touch sensitive screen before him. Aractite, his personal android and only one on the ship, padded in. She was a petite, metallic figure. Her synthetic skin was a dark toffee color. Like the milky substance of Kmitch. Her hair was a dark, space black and was tied back in a neat plait. Her eyes were black with green data streams, her body an old stereo-type model, metal shimmering in some areas.

“Aractite, please log in so we can prepare the ship for decent into PLANET’s atmosphere,” he asked, glancing over his shoulder at the female Com. He shook his head, laughing at the memory. Fifteen years ago, Xavior hadn’t listened, claiming he would need a civilized companion for the ten year trip, though, she was rather useful, and had given him Aractite. She was created by one of Xavior's deceased friends, Khaos.

“Sì, senior Zack.” She said; using the program he had set. He was always fond of that old language, Xavior had taught it too him over radio waves a year back and he had it programmed into her, making him much more relaxed around her. She nodded silently, turning around and pulling a cord from the wall and putting it into the small insertion section on her forearms. Her black, robotic eyes hazed over in a green stream of data as the ship tilted slightly and Zack suddenly realized something.

“Wait! Aracite, please contact the station.” He asked, she nodded and the screen turned fuzzy for a few minutes before an image of an old ‘tiger’ coming from a stream of DNA, the signature mark of the Donx cure.

“Hello. Please state your identity.” Stated the voice of a Com. Zack rolled his eyes, the large stations relied too much on these machines.

“Zackery Locke, captain of the S.S. Zanpaku-to. May I speak to your captain or a docking coordinator?” He asked. There was a brief click and the image of a teenage female with shortcut blonde hair, highlighted red, brown eyes and rather inappropriate clothing was laying with her legs over the side of a captains seat as she fiddled with a small flight coordinator hand-held computer. She looked up, giving him a toothy grin.

“Welcome to PLANET, Senior Locke, I am Sierra, captain of this hunk of magnificent metal, and how may I help you…?” She asked with a northern accent, tossing the hand-held for a rather surprised flight deck member to catch. “You’re early.” She added, waving her hand in an off-handed sort of way. He raised an eyebrow, never in his entire voyage had he ever seen a captain so careless and rather insane as this one.

“Yes, well I apologize for getting our work done ahead of time,” He started sarcastically. She gave a light, musical, laugh, smiling as she stopped him.

“Funny. Okay, what do you need?” She asked, wanting to get right to the point as she twirled a short lock of her hair in a finger.

“My ship is already moving into orbit around PLANET -we’ll be retrofiring the engines in a minute. Aractite needs the navigation data and ion settings to enter the atmosphere and dock.” Sierra nodded, obviously already knowing what he would need.

“Give me five minutes to get one of these kids to convert the nuclear settings to ion, and we’ll send ‘em to your Com.” She said. Zack nodded and the screen went back to viewing the space station.

Zack looked at all the various plates of metal fused together as he heard the light hum of the ion engines retrofiring, getting a bit of a jolt in the simulated gravity. He placed a foot forward to stop himself as the ship came to a halt. He heard the gears behind him turn softly in the silence of space and glanced a bit of the engines as they locked into place in the opposite direction. He saw a gravity beam accelorating out of the station to cover about twenty kilometers behind them and then the engines fired. After finally into orbit, the engines switched off, allowing the ship to orbit around the station in the gravity field as they moved back into place.

Two minutes later Aractite gave a soft beep, and looked up at him. “Senor Zack, a zip file has arrived.” She stated. Zack nodded, turning around as he walked over to his captains chair and sat back down, then replied.

“Good, open it, decode it then send it to me, por favor.” She nodded, then her eyes hazed over again, another beep later and his hand-held gave off the light sounds of the wind instruments at a rave. Smirking at the familiar sounds, he grabbed it and pulled out the touch pen. Tapping the file, he sent coordinates and various data to the ion engines and Aractite. A few minutes later his screen beeped and Aractite spoke.

“Senor Zack, PLANET is contacting, would you like me to answer?” she asked, Zack nodded, setting down his hand-held he saw Sierra busy snapping at a subordinate, as she narrowed her eyes, turning around.

“Oh. It’s you.” She said, rather surprised. “Well, actually, of course it’s you. Well, we’re pulling you in now, the gravity is also a tractor beam, so I’ll meet you at the dock, ‘kay?”

“Of course.”

A/N: I claim no right to anything belonging to Star Wars what so ever.