Star Trek: Starfleet Academy - The Next Generation - 13 - The Haunted Starship by Brad Ferguson & Kathi Ferguson

Author:Brad Ferguson & Kathi Ferguson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Juvenile Fiction, Fantasy & Magic
ISBN: 9780671014322
Publisher: Aladdin
Published: 1997-02-15T08:00:00+00:00

them. “Meet Billy Devil, the biggest and baddestand ugliest-outlaw the Belt ever knew.”

“Ah,” Trennek said. “I’ve come across stories of Billy Devil in my reading. He had quite a reputation, didn’t he? Geordi, are you saying that Ikushima is the man who ended Billy Devil’s criminal career?”

“That’s right,” Geordi confirmed. “Ikushima took on Billy Devil himself. They used to say Billy was a hundred kilograms of bad hair and worse attitude.”

“He looks it,” Siobhan said.

“But I don’t remember reading anything about Billy Devil ever being captured,” Trennek recalled. “In fact, I don’t think he was.”

Geordi nodded in the firelight. “That’s right. He wasn’t. Benjamin Franklin, alone, faced down Billy Devil and more than thirty renegade ships in what was called the Battle of the Belt. Captain Ikushima and Ben smashed Billy Devil’s operation and captured more than a dozen renegade ships. The rest of Billy Devil’s forces were destroyed in the battle. Ikushima tried to capture Billy Devil, too, but Billy put his ship on self-destruct, killing himself and everyone else aboard.”

Geordi erased the figure of Billy Devil from over their heads.

“He blew himself up?” Hassan said. “Well, good riddance to bad rubbish, as they say.”

“For many years afterward,” Geordi continued, some people claimed that Billy Devil hadn’t really died.

There were reports of him being spotted here and there in the Belt, on Earth, and even in other Federation star systems. None of those reports was ever confirmed, and they’re very unlikely to have been true. Sometimes, people just make things up to suit themselves.”

SB

“And those weren’t the only tales about BIIIV, were they, La Forge?”

Sanchez prompted.

“No, Captain, they weren’t,” Geordi said. “There were also stories that the ghost of Billy Devil was haunting the Belt, causing all sorts of mischief aboard ships passing by. The stories said that Billy’s ghost could never find rest because it was condemned to float around inside the Belt, weightless and alone, for all eternity.”

“That’s ridiculous!” Hassan said with some heat.

“There are no such things as ghosts.”

“It’s just a story, Hassan,” Geordi replied. “That’s all.”

Trennek shrugged. “It must be tempting to blame your own incompetence or bad luck on the work of a mischievous ghost,” she said. “Just for the record, I don’t think Billy Devil snuck up behind me today and yanked out my air line.”

“Maybe it was one of Billy’s pirate pals,” joked Siobhan. “Booga booga!”

They all laughed.

“Geordi,” Trennek asked, “what happened to Captain Ikushima?”

“He died saving this ship,” Geordi answered. “Captain Ikushima was killed two years after the Battle of the Belt, while Ben was on patrol in another star system. It happened during an emergency in the engine room. Ben’s old-fashioned impulse engines were powered by nuclear reactors. One of those reactors suffered a massive mechanical failure that nearly caused it to melt down. If it had melted down, the ship would have been destroyed, and all hands would have been lost. Ben’s entire engineering staff had been disabled

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