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Chapter 13
Jessie took a huge bite of his bacon cheeseburger. The juicy burger and crispy bacon contrasted perfectly. Even the cool lettuce added to the experience. In order to eat this he had to promise to get lettuce on the burger and a heaping bowl of fruit salad on the side. They'd compromised on the fries and let him have a small plateful. Everything tasted scrumptious. He wished they'd let him have one of the cooking boxes for home, but Coach explained Earth wasn't ready for the technology. Luckily Mom was a good cook, so it wasn't too much of a disappointment. He felt sad for a few minutes thinking about home, but kicked himself out of it. Mom and Dad wouldn't even know he was gone.
Ryder had a personal pepperoni pizza, while Rake and Stretch ate bowls of blue gruel made of some sort of plant on their planet. Both Coach and Mickey had taken their meals elsewhere on the ship.
When Rake and Stretch finished, they got up and headed for the door. "We're going to see how close we are to the space station," Rake said. "We'll call you to the cockpit when we get there."
Stretch nodded. "You won't want to miss the sight. It's truly spectacular."
Both Jessie and Ryder had their mouths full so they just waved. With the two adults gone, Jessie swallowed his bite of burger and turned to Ryder. "They don't want to talk about it, but I do. How did you guys get to me so fast? I thought I was a goner. They were going to sell me into some kind of intergalactic slavery or something."
Ryder snickered. "Like the Spice Mines of Kessel?"
"Whatever 3PO. Seriously, what happened?"
"I heard your door explode, but I had to wait awhile before Coach came and unlocked me. It was easy to see the pirates had nabbed you, what with your door being totaled and all."
"But how did you guys know where to find me?"
"Sounds like Rake put a tracking device on you when he locked us in our rooms." He shrugged. "They didn't tell me, but that's what I pulled from the conversation."
Jessie reached around to the back of his neck and remembered the twinge he'd felt there. That must've been it. "Did you get one, too?"
"I don't know. Did you feel anything?"
"Yeah, like a bug bite."
Ryder frowned. "No. I didn't get anything."
The two finished the rest of their meal in silence. The burger and fries still melted in his mouth, but Jessie's entire focus wasn't on the food any longer. Why would they have marked him and not Ryder? More importantly, why had the pirates targeted him? He wanted to keep talking about it, but he could sense it would be a bit of a sore subject. Ryder looked to be mulling over the question of why Jessie, too.
Just as Ryder polished off his last bite of pizza and Jessie swallowed his last piece of fruit, Rake stuck his head into the room. "We're almost at the space station. Come take a look."
They jumped out of their seats and followed him down a couple of hallways. He stopped at a door that looked like all the others, but instead of waving his hand in front of it, he pressed it in the middle. The door slid open, presenting the cockpit.
"Wow," Ryder said.
Jessie wasn't sure what he expected an intergalactic spaceship cockpit to look like, but this wasn't it. The whole area was about the same size as his bedroom back home, and the three walls were covered from floor to ceiling with various-sized buttons, levers, and knobs. The fourth wall was one big window, though he doubted it was made of glass. There were two seats, both unoccupied. Plus there was no steering wheel or control stick or any other way to drive. The only thing that looked like it might be driving was the head of a robot positioned about half-way up the front window.
"Is that robot driving?" Ryder asked.
"A rather crude way to put it, Mr. Gonzalez, but the answer to your question is affirmative. Though I prefer flying. Or maneuvering may be more appropriate."
Whoa, the robot had said that.
"Cool!" Ryder said.
Coach stepped forward. "Ryder, Jessie, meet 7-23-AFX."
"Though I prefer Pitch."
"Pitch?" Jessie asked.
"In addition to piloting this vessel, Mr. Campbell, I am also the pitcher for the Aces."
Coach chuckled. "Mickey's nicknames tend to be right on the button, even if they do lack some in the imagination department."
"I heard that." Mickey Martell walked into the cockpit. "We there yet?"
"We're just coming into visual range now, Mr. Martell."
"It's Mickey, Pitch. How many times do I have to tell you that teammates are on a first name basis?" He paused for a second. "Or nicknames." He looked at Ryder and Jessie. "That goes for you two knuckleheads, too. I don't want to hear any more Mr. Martell. Got it?"
They both nodded and gave each other star struck looks.
"My apologies, Mr. Martell," Pitch said.
While Mickey rolled his eyes, Jessie and Ryder struggled to contain their giggles. Coach, Rake, and Stretch had no problem bellowing out their laughter.
"See what you started?"
"I don't know what you mean, sir."
Jessie had to work doubly hard to keep his laughter in. He had a feeling Pitch knew a lot more than he let on.
Ryder pointed out the windshield. "Is that the space station?"
"Yup," Coach said. "That's our home for the next few weeks."
At first it looked like a little disc floating in the sky, but as they got closer, Jessie saw it was so much more. He thought Pitch had chosen this trajectory for him and Ryder, but a quick glance around the room proved the adults were just as enthralled.
The first thing that jumped out at him was the stadium itself. It sat under a huge see-through dome, and as impressive at it was from this angle, Jessie couldn't wait to see the view from the field. Talk about playing under the stars! The playing field looked easily as big as Sea Lion Park in Newport Beach. Jessie could see the differences between this intergalactic version of Over-The-Line and a major league field, but the size matched up pretty evenly. The stands were comparable, too. He couldn't tell how individual seats differed from back home, but there were just as many.
"That must seat thousands," Jessie whispered.
"Seventy-five thousand, give or take," Coach said. "And they'll all be full."
"That many people, or whatever, show up?" Ryder asked. His eyes never left the stadium.
Rake scoffed. "Heck, they could quadruple the seating capacity and it'd be full."
"I would be glad not to be in charge of the docking bays if that were the case," Pitch said. "They're crowded enough as it is."
Coach patted Pitch's metal head. "You'll get us in. You always do."
"Speaking of that, Coach, the station computers informed me that they'll be closing down registration soon. You should make it in time, but be prepared to rush off as soon as we dock. I'll complete all of the shutdown maneuvers. We'll be set in a few moments."
As the ship moved closer to the station, Jessie pulled his eyes off the stadium and looked at the rest of the floating structure. Though it was mostly a smooth white disk, he saw pin-pricks of light dotting the walls. Were those windows? As Pitch drew them closer, he wondered if they'd be able to see inside some of them.
Someone tugged on his shirt. Jessie tried to shrug it off, but it persisted. He needed to see in one of the windows.
"Come on, Jess," Ryder said, snapping him out of his zone.
"We need to hurry as soon as we land," Coach said. "They'll be plenty of time to admire the station later."
Jessie blushed and followed his teammates out of the cockpit.
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