Star Blazers-A Voyage to Remember Ch. 29

STAR BLAZERS: A VOYAGE TO REMEMBER

A fanfic recapitulation of Series One “The Quest for Iscandar” by

Frederick P. Kopetz

EPISODE TWENTY-NINE: “THE GREAT MAGELLENIC CLOUD”

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Planet Gamilon

March 13, 2200

Desslok’s eyes narrowed. “Are you being serious, Starsha?”

“I am being quite serious. To the best of my knowledge, the Deathshadow has left Iscandar. You no longer need to bully me regarding this matter. It is concluded!”

“Then, why can’t we track her, Starsha?”

“She may have performed warps just beyond our gravity well. Do you watch everything, Desslok? Please don’t tell me you are all-knowing? Or claim to be?”

“Are you all-knowing, Starsha?”

“No. But I have a clearer perception of things than you do. Let me warn you, Desslok. You are dragging Gamilon on a path towards destruction. You must allow the Argo to pass to my world with no further interference.”

“Starsha. If I sit and do nothing like you, in sixty to seventy years, we shall both see destruction. You will live on Terra with me when all of this is over.”

“Will I? I think you are mistaken, Desslok.”

“I do this for you, Starsha.”

“If you love me…you have a strange way of showing it,” Starsha said. “Fare thee well, Desslok.”

At that, she cut off.

Alex Wildstar, now clad in his blue slacks and a white pullover, came into the comm room of the Palace on Iscandar leaning on a cane. At long last, he was almost recovered.

“Were you speaking with him again, Starsha?”

Starsha nodded. “Luckily, he has not guessed where…we actually have the Deathshadow. He must have forgotten about the drydocks under Mother Town? The drydocks I had your cousin Harlock approach by cover of night?”

“They will have to be careful, Starsha. Sooner or later, Desslok is going to find out that you have tricked him. Then, we will have to fight.”

Starsha stood and sadly looked out a window; she was looking up at Gamilon. “Desslok will be fairly impotent if he continues on his current path. I have already foreseen what may well happen to him if he tempts the Argo to Gamilon. So does Yurisha. I am not sure what Astra thinks, if she returned with them as she hinted at when she left Iscandar. And there is the woman of mixed bloodlines whom I aided. My friend Nova. O, if only I knew what she looks like.”

“As for me?”

“When the Star Force arrives here, you will be going home, and most likely taking Adam Avatar and the woman he loves with you. Your home is Earth. I have told you….many times,” Starsha said with a hitch in her voice. “That you cannot remain here. Yurisha and Astra can join me here. You…have your own destiny to fulfill, Alex.”

“But what is that destiny?” he said.

“Whatever that destiny is…it is with your own people, Alex.” Starsha smiled at him. “Even though I must say you have been good company for me in my solitude.”

“Is that all?” Alex said.

“Leave me to my thoughts, Alex. Please.”

Alex bowed to Starsha. “I shall…Starsha…”

At that, he left.

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Finally, at 0900 that morning, while Nova slept (wearing one of his spare uniform shirts as a sleep shirt) Derek Wildstar opened the hatch to his cabin.

A picture containing text

Description automatically generated “Okay, why am I hearing tin cans clanking?” he said.

He looked out and saw that someone had attached a number of empty food and soda cans to the door with string! What is more, notes were attached to the hatch and the area around it that read “Congratulations!” “Just Married! “Happy Wedding!” “Best Wishes, You Two” and other messages and drawings that were sort of…lewd.

“Better get some of those down before Nova sees these,” Derek mumbled. He needed a shave, he had no shirt on with pajama bottoms, and he was wearing house slippers. He pulled on a shirt.

He had most of them down when Nova tiptoed out on bare feet, holding his shirt around her body. She was wet from the shower.

“What are you taking down, Derek? Oh, these are CUTE!” she cried.

“I’m trying to get down some of the R-Rated ones,” Derek said with a blush.

One of them fell on the deck. Nova picked it up. She read out loud, “He got His, she got HERS?” Oh, my!”

“Black Tiger locker-room humor, Nova. Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I’m debating two things in my mind.”

“What are they?”

“Asking you to get some clothes for me from my cabin…or….”

“Or what?”

“Jumping back in the rack to do some more of what we were up to last night? Now I see why Natalie was so happy that day a few months ago. The little sneak,” Nova grinned.

“Do we have duty?”

“We have twenty-four hours off. It’s not twenty-four hours yet!” Nova sang.

“So?”

Nova answered the question by grabbing him and kissing him again.

“Yeah. Let’s go inside,” Derek said.

The door to their cabin hissed shut again. And locked.

The sound of Nova’s giggles could be vaguely heard out in the corridor.

Most of those on that level of the quarters gave that room a rather wide berth that morning….

Except for two Black Tigers who listened at the hatch and tiptoed away snickering.

Later that morning, Derek brought Nova a gym bag with some casual clothes in it after he visited her cabin. Derek had shaved and was in uniform. She dressed in fresh undies, black jeans, a pair of black athletic shoes, and a grey t-shirt with a Beatles logo on it. She stuck a Naval gimme cap on her head and said, “Let’s get some more pictures in the holography room before we get breakfast.”

“Good, because I just heard the galley is running again. They were serving cold sandwiches due to damage to the ship,” Derek said as he got his camera.

In the holography room, Nova stuck up the same image of her old backyard she had put up early in the mission when she had given Derek a good piece of her mind for being rude. Now, as she sipped at some lemonade, she said, “I wonder how I’m going to do something when we get home?”

“What, Nova?” Derek said.

“Tell my mother we eloped and need to give her a public wedding for the sake of having a big wedding as we discussed,” Nova said.

“Let me guess. Your Mom will hit the roof.”

“Well, my Dad will understand. So will my cousin Brittany. But my Mom…she’ll have kittens! She might even disinherit me.”

“Does it really matter?” Derek said. “We have good jobs. Earth will probably pay us a king’s ransom in hazard pay and gifts when we get home. You might even end up richer than your parents.”

“As if that matters,” Nova sighed as she took another sip of lemonade. “There are things that matter more than money or your parents.”

“Such as?” Derek said.

“Such as…you…” Nova replied. Then, she made a few changes to the hologram, and her parents’ old house disappeared.

“Why did you do that?” Derek said.

“You can’t go home again,” Nova said with a smile. “Besides, it is taught…Ephesians, I think, ‘For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.’ The same goes for the woman, too, right?”

Derek kissed Nova while he laughed. “You’re Mrs. Profound!”

“Not me, it’s the Scripture.”

“I was thinking of that, too. You really erased your parents’ house?”

“Erased, deleted, gone,” Nova said. “Now, let’s find some breakfast, okay?”

“Sure.”

That afternoon, the crew was gathered for a briefing in the Central Operations Room.

“This is our current situation,” said Venture. “We are now at the edge of the Great Magellenic Cloud’s gravitational influence, and we are now five thousand, eight hundred lightyears away from the Sanzar System. If we warp two hundred lightyears a day, making adjustments to the wave engine on the way as we make repairs, we will now reach the Sanzar System in about twenty-nine days.”

Nova, now back in uniform, spoke up. “I have been speaking with Yurisha. She would have been here except that she still has some trouble walking a long distance. This should be a temporary condition. She has reoriented herself by synchronizing her life-force with Queen Starsha’s, and she has told us we are heading in the right direction, which fits with the coordinates Queen Starsha gave us.”

“We should still stop at a planet to work on the Third Bridge structure,” said Sandor. “Luckily, I found one in a system two hundred lightyears from here.”

Sheena Hilgar then spoke up. “It is a planet known as Kripteria. It was a Gamilon world until they had a rebellion there. It was quelled with a barrage of Ultra Missiles and air attack.”

“Wait,” said Eager. “How do we know we aren’t walking into another Gamilon trap?”

“Because, after convincing Starsha to give Gamilon the Cosmo-DNA unit, or attacking her to take it by force,” said Sheena. “This planet was to be a test bed for the machine to make sure it would reform Earth to our liking. Lysis told me the background radiation was at a low level, but it would be advisable to wear space gear here.”

“So…our crews would still have to work in EVA suits?” said Sandor.

“Yes, but at least you don’t have cosmic radiation from space to limit your exposure,” said Sheena.

“It’s risky,” said Orion. “Deputy Captain, suppose we go down there and find a trap?”

“Then we will go armed,” Derek said. “We will plan to land on Kripteria at 0900 tomorrow morning. I want to get the shell of the Third Bridge finished tomorrow. The interior work can continue while we cruise on to Iscandar. Dismissed.”

As the meeting broke up, Doctor Sane came in, looking very worried. “Wildstar, Nova, Sheena, we defrosted Iroze’ s body and took an autopsy. We confirmed her body was not booby-trapped. Her cause of death happened to be the two saber wounds Nova gave her. However, we discovered something disquieting about her.”

“What?” Nova said.

Sane shook his head. “She was roughly fifteen days pregnant when she was killed.”

Nova’s face went pale. “I killed…a pregnant woman?”

“She may have gone into battle not even knowing her condition,” said Sane as he took off his glasses and wiped them. “I analyzed enough of the blastocyte to know the father was Gamilon.”

“But I still took an innocent life,” Nova said, biting her lip.

“You couldn’t have known. Probably Starsha didn’t know,” Derek said, trying to sooth her.

“If it helps, this often happens,” sighed Sheena. “She was Imperial Guard. Many such men and women volunteer for suicide missions out of loyalty to Desslok. I have heard that some were expecting but gave no thought to it, even using their pregnancies to hide bombs as suicide bombers. Since Iroze was Iscandarian, she would have known her condition. She is the one who thought of her own child as…nothing. Not all of us are that fanatical, if it helps, Nova.”

“I still feel sick over it,” Nova said. “Derek, as Deputy Captain, when we get to Kripteria, can we bury her and her child with military honors? It is the least we can do.”

“Nova, if it is safe there, we will do that, and I will stand behind you and Father Likanski as you say the proper words.”

“Thank you,” Nova replied. There was no one else there, so she hugged her husband.

It would ease her mind…if not her conscience.

The next day came.

The Argo landed on Kripteria.

They found a world of ruins, skeletons of men, women, children and animals, and a sullen silence.

Work crews were working on the Third Bridge as, under a sullen sky, Father Likanski stood in space gear near the grave that Derek, Nova, IQ-9, and Sheena had just dug for Iroze. Her casket rested over the grave on boards and ropes, with a hand-made Gamilon flag, with the emblem of House Desslar, over the casket.

Sheena and Nova had recorded a keyboard-based version of the Gamilon National Anthem, which played on a small stereo as the burial party saluted the casket.

“Under God’s Grace, we know not what this woman’s final thoughts were as she died,” said Father Likanski. “We therefore commend her soul to the mercy of God, and her body to the earth of this forgotten world. May she rest in peace here.”

“She and her innocent child,” Nova said with tears flowing from her eyes as she placed a single lily on the uncovered part of the casket above the flag.

Derek, Nova, Sheena, and Father Likanski fired a salute with their Cosmo-Guns in silence. Then, they folded up the flag, took away the boards, and slowly lowered Iroze into her grave and began to fill it in.

Derek then said, “IQ-9, please place the memorial stone.”

“Yes, Deputy Captain,” said the strong robot. He had used his laser cutter to carve an inscription on a slab of stone, written by Nova and Sheena in Terranglish and Gamilon. It read:

HERE LIES

LADY IROZE OF GAMILON AND ISCANDAR

BORN: DESSLINE ERA 2 *** DIED: DESSLINE ERA 131

BORN: AD 2070 *** DIED: AD 2200

DEFEATED IN SINGLE COMBAT IN THE SERVICE OF HER PEOPLE ON GAMILON.

BURIED WITH FULL GAMILON MILITARY HONORS AT THE REQUEST OF LT. SENIOR GRADE NOVA FORRESTER WILDSTAR ESS ARGO

GAHRE GAMILON

LONG LIVE TERRA

MAY WE SOMEDAY HAVE PEACE

IQ-9 placed the stone over the grave after it was fully covered over.

Then, everyone saluted the grave again.

There would come a day, decades in the future, when an enclosed tomb would be placed over the grave by the reconstituted Gamilon Empire and the Terran-Pellian Commonwealth when Kripteria was rebuilt and shared as a colony by both interstellar nations. When time permitted, the leaders of both interstellar nations would periodically lay wreaths on the gravestone, fulfilling the promise of peace between Terrans and Gamilons.

But that day would take a long time to come.

No one dreamed of it as the burial party returned to the Argo and left Iroze in her grave.

With the shell of the Third Bridge covered over, the Argo left Kripteria that evening, heading deeper into the Great Magellenic Cloud, towards Iscandar.

TEN DAYS LATER…

March 24, 2200

General Erich Lysis’ battered flagship came out of warp around Kripteria.

“General, we have survived our first space warp,” said Volgarr to Lysis. Volgarr now had a bionic hand on his left hand.

Lysis nodded grimly. He was still in pain. Part of his face had been burned off by radiation, along with one eye. A metal plate covered the ruined side of his face, and a red bionic eye burned balefully.

“How long until we can warp again, Volgarr?” Lysis said.

“I think it may be some time. Weeks, perhaps. It is a good thing we stopped here. Maybe we can find repair parts in the ruins we left?”

“It is a long way from here to Gamilon,” said Lysis. “It is a dark miracle that we survived our encounter with the Argo. I wonder where they are now?”

“With our luck, they are already at Iscandar,” hissed Volgarr.

“If they ever made it past Gamilon, that is,” said Lysis with a dark smile. “Let us go down to the surface.”

The two of them went down in a shuttle.

By chance, if it can be called chance, they found a small pile of metal near the outskirts of the ruined capital.

“Sir,” said one of Lysis’ surviving officers. “There was a ship here not long ago. One can tell by the markings left in the ground.”

Lysis took some pain medicine and, with his teeth gritted, he and Volgarr walked up and down the plain.

“I recognize the markings in the dirt,” said Volgarr.

“So do I,” said Lysis as he and another one of his officers dug through a small amount of metal. “This was painted a dull shade of red, recently, over blue. The wreckage of one of our carriers, repurposed.” Lysis smiled darkly even though it hurt him to do so. “Avatar, I see you have not yet given up…damn you and your ingenuity.”

“Over here, Field Marshal!” said an enlisted man in brown armor.

Lysis and Volgarr walked in his direction, stopping before Iroze’s grave.

Lysis’ Roc-Roc Bird landed mournfully on one of Lysis’ shoulders and made a mournful cry that was appropriate for the depressing surroundings.

“Iroze, now we know what befell you…and you were buried here with at least a modicum of honor,” Lysis said.

“I would love it if we could meet them again and defeat them!” snapped Volgarr. “We must have our vengeance!”

“Vengeance? Yes, we must have our vengeance,” said Lysis. “But when will it happen? Our survival is the first order of business, Volgarr. Vengeance against the Star Force will come later…someday.” *

“Yes, someday, we shall meet the accursed Argo again,” said Volgarr… * And….”

“Then, when we meet again, there shall be a reckoning,” hissed Lysis with a dark smile. The pain in his face.

He would never forget it…

Space Battleship Argo

April 22, 2200

Just under one month had passed for the Star Force.

Erich Nishizawa was sitting in Sickbay, flexing his arm with a small weight as he talked with Princess Yurisha.

“You should be happier,” said Yurisha with a small smile. “Now, we are just four hundred lightyears away from the Sanzar System. We will then almost be at your goal.”

“Almost?” said Erich. He had begun to draw closer to Yurisha recently.

“There will most likely be one final obstacle to pass before we arrive at Iscandar,” Yurisha said. “That is, unless we approach Iscandar at exactly the correct orbital angle.”

“Can you tell me what this obstacle is?” Erich demanded. Yurisha went quiet at that. “Yurisha? I hope we don’t have to do battle again…I…I lost too many of my friends already.”

“I am glad that you opened up to me,” Yurisha said. She smiled at him.

Erich nodded. “I wish you knew more about this…obstacle.”

“I am being guarded because we may be able to evade it, Erich.”

Erich held Yurisha’s hand. “I hope that you realize I will have to report this to Deputy Captain Wildstar.”

“It would be wise if you do,” said Yurisha.

Twenty-five minutes later, after Nishizawa had talked with Wildstar, he was in Captain Avatar’s cabin, along with Wildstar and his triumvirate of trusted officers and friends; Mark Venture, Steven Sandor, and Nova Forrester-Wildstar.

“You’re certain about her intelligence?” Captain Avatar said to Erich.

“As certain as I possibly can be. She said we would have one more obstacle to face on our way to Iscandar. She didn’t say what it was, but said it could be evaded if we hit the planet at the proper orbital angle,” Nishizawa said.

“Did she say whether this obstacle is artificial or natural?” Sandor queried.

“She didn’t say, sir.”

Venture bit his lip. “Wildstar, whatever this obstacle is, it will require some tricky navigation.”

“As we get closer to it, whatever it is, I’m sure I can scan the area and find you the course you’d need, Mark,” Nova said.

“You sound pretty confident,” Derek said after a moment.

“It’s our only way around this,” Nova said.

“I wonder if we can get a long-range scan of the Sanzar System before we warp?” said Venture.

“I think we should try it,” Derek said after a long moment. “We can try other things, too. Nova, try that ring of yours and see if Starsha’s on the psychic line.”

Nova nodded.

“Captain?” Derek said to Captain Avatar.

“You’re the Deputy Captain,” he said sleepily. “You make the decision.”

“Venture, you and Eager get busy and get those long-range scans,” Wildstar ordered. “Nova, you back them up. See what sort of images you can get from here.”

Mark and Nova nodded.

“I think I should have Yurisha on the bridge while we’re doing this,” Wildstar said. “We’ll also keep up our warp schedule. We will warp on schedule at 2000 tonight and repeat those scans from that distance. It looks like we have a mystery to solve, people, but we can surely solve this one. We’re just four hundred light-years away from Iscandar now. We’re not going to mess up this journey at the end of the road.”

“We just can’t,” Venture commented.

They left Avatar’s cabin and got to work.

FIVE HOURS LATER…

The Argo’s bridge crew was gathered around one of the aft screens on the First Bridge as Mark Venture lectured them with a pointer.

“The following is a plot of the Sanzar System,” he said. “Our location is here, four hundred lightyears away at the red dot. The enlarged plot is over here, at the right.”

“Iscandar would be the eighth planet, based on what I could remember,” Yurisha said. “What is the refraction angle of that shot?”

“.025 refraction factor,” Nova said. “That’s the best we could do with the scanners and radio telescope from this distance. What I was able to determine was that the mass of Iscandar seems to be just slightly over that of Earth.”

“I didn’t pick up any radio signals or other chatter from this distance,” Homer said. “That seems a little unusual. You’d think Queen Starsha would be hailing us already.”

“Nova, has Queen Starsha been hailing you through your ring?” Derek said.

“I’ve been calling to her, the best I know how, but she’s not answering,” Nova said.

“She could be asleep or otherwise occupied,” Eager said.

“Maybe she’s in the head,” snorted Dash, ignoring everyone’s dirty looks. “I mean, if she’s like us and Yurisha, she has to go, right?”

“That was coarse and uncalled for, Dash!” snapped Venture.

“Also, a little nauseating,” Nova said while biting her lip as Yurisha blushed.

“Not my fault you ladies get all funny about calls of nature,” said Dash.

“Dash, quit it!” snapped Derek. “This has nothing to do with our course!”

“I’ll try calling Starsha later,” Nova said. “Hopefully she won’t be occupied then.”

“With the evidence we have, I think we can safely warp,” Sandor said.

“We will warp, on schedule, at 2000 Hours,” Derek snapped. “We’ll start to draw closer to the Sanzar System’s gravitational influence after we come out of warp, so we’d better take account of that for computing our course.”

“Oh, does this mean our D & D game is cancelled for tonight, Wildstar?” said Dash.

Wildstar nodded firmly. “We’ll see what happens to Eager’s fighter-thief after we land on Iscandar and receive Queen Starsha. Same with your Elf Princess, Nova.”

She smiled quickly at Derek and nodded.

“I’d like to learn your silly game when we get to Iscandar,” Yurisha said.

“Good, we need another player,” Derek said. “Sparks quit after we penalized his character for using poison for no reason.”

“Warp in twenty-five minutes,” said Venture.

“I’m reelin’ up the engine for ye soon,” said Orion. “Oh, all you kids,” he said with a smile. “You’re refreshing.”

A picture containing diagram

Description automatically generated The Argo made her space warp right on schedule at 2000 Hours.

When she came out of warp…

…more of the journey was over.

They were now only two hundred lightyears away from the Sanzar System.

Two hundred lightyears away from their goal.

Two hundred lightyears away from Iscandar.

And, unknown to them…

…they were also two hundred lightyears away from Gamilon.

And were being watched at long range by unfriendly eyes…

“Gimleh, can you tell me where the Star Force is now?” Desslok said as he called the lead ship in an Imperial Guard Fleet led by General Hydom Gimleh.

“Two hundred lightyears away from the Sanzar System,” Gimleh replied. “They will surely reach our system shortly.”

“I’m so pleased to hear that,” said Desslok. “More pleased than you know.”

“My Lord,” said Gimleh. “Valas and I have fifteen ships ready. We can surely catch that vessel unaware and attack them, and board that vessel before they reach the system.”

“No, Gimleh,” said Desslok. “Your role, as I have said, is to tail them once they reach the system. You can board them and wipe out their command crew only if they attempt to escape. I have my own plan ready for them that will prolong…their suffering,” he said with a grin while sipping at his wine. “Incidentally, this will also give Starsha a great object lesson that I am not to be trifled with. She will surely become more pliable once I show her footage of her pet warship being destroyed by our ingenuity. Are we clear, Gimleh?”

“Sire, I am clear,” Gimleh said as he sipped at his tea, which was in a cup with a point that mated with a small brazen rack in a saucer. He thought. They will become craven and try to run when they see they are being dragged to their doom. All Terrons are like that. Spineless. Then, we can carry out a little mission, and I can present Leader Desslok their ship, filled with corpses…

Space Battleship Argo

April 23, 2200

The Argo had completed its final two-hundred lightyear warp.

She was now deeper into the Great Magellenic Cloud.

“We have completed our scans of the Sanzar System,” Venture said. “Distance from the system, 0.87 lightyears. No change in our findings. But, when we face in the direction of Iscandar, a large mass is pulling the Astro-Compass off-target.”

“I didn’t think Iscandar would be such a heavy world,” Nova said as she stood by Venture’s station with Derek.

“Maybe my instruments are off,” Mark said.

“We check the instruments regularly. They’re fine. As for Iscandar…perhaps it is of a different composition than we thought,” Sandor said.

“Too bad Yurisha is asleep,” Derek said. “Nova, were you able to raise Starsha on your ring?”

“Only briefly,” she said. “She told me she will be speaking to us soon…”

At Homer’s station, he said, “I’m picking up a signal. It’s from the direction of Iscandar!”

He turned it in as everyone ran over.

Then, Starsha’s voice came over the speakers as Yuria ran up, with Toru on her heels.

The voice said, “Welcome! This is Starsha…of Iscandar!”

“That’s Starsha’s voice!” Nova cried, smiling widely.

“It’s from AMX-37, where Iscandar is,” laughed Homer. “Go ahead, Queen Starsha! We copy!”

“This is Starsha of Iscandar. You have almost reached your destination. This is a great moment for you, Star Force. As my sister Yurisha has told you, Iscandar is the eighth planet of our solar system. I am keeping a guide beam going at frequency D-2341 megacycles. Follow that guide beam straight to Iscandar! Do not deviate from that heading. It is very important for your safety. I look forward to seeing you!”

Derek shook Mark’s hand and laughed. “Venture! Ha ha ha ha! We made it!”

“Yeah, we made it, Wildstar!”

Derek hugged Nova as Toru twirled Yuria around as she laughed. “Toru, wait until you see my wedding dress!” she teased.

“Can’t I see it now?” he laughed.

“No way. Bad luck,” he laughed.

“We need all the good luck we can get right now,” said IQ-9.

Derek raised his mike and announced on the 1MC that they were now approaching Iscandar.

Up in Captain Avatar’s cabin, he smiled, thinking, Approaching Iscandar at last, as he lay in his bunk. What will happen next? Will we encounter that obstacle Yurisha spoke of? Please, God, let us not have another encounter with the Gamilons…not here…

On the first bridge, Nova whispered something in Derek’s ear. He nodded. “Mark, take the conn,” Derek said. “Yuria, take Nova’s post. We’ll be back in a few minutes.”

They ran off the bridge together.

“That’s an interestin’ development!” laughed Eager.

“More like a revolting one,” sniffed Dash.

“Would you shut up, Mister Cynic?” snapped Homer.

“You’re all celebrating like we’re already there,” said Dash. “With our luck, there’s bound to be some screw-up somewhere on the way there.”

“Well, I’m keeping us going,” said Venture. “Third space speed. ETA to Iscandar; nine hour at our current speed and heading.”

“Sounds good to me,” said Yuria.

“There, looks good,” Derek said a few minutes later as he set up his camera on its stand, aiming towards the stars and Nova as they stood on the aft observation deck. “Now, I’ll set the self-timer…”

Derek ran into the shot and hugged Nova.

His hand went around her shoulder and brushed her breast.

Nova rolled up her eyes a little and slapped Derek’s hand right as the picture was taken.

“Oh, that was mean!” he said as Nova giggled. “You spoiled the shot! LOOK!” he said as he picked the picture out of the camera.

“That display of affection was too public and too extreme,” Nova giggled. “We save that for our quarters!”

“You’re impossible,” he said, looking at the picture.

“I think it’s cute,” Nova said. “And it’s something you can keep to show our children when they’re older. It’ll give them an idea of what their papa and mama were like when they were young!”

“Yeah…okay,” Derek stammered.

“I have work to do in Sickbay,” Nova said. “Meet you for lunch at 1300.” She gave him a tap on the nose. “Bye!”

“Bye,” Derek said. He looked at the picture. “Well, let’s see. Darn, she’s cute. And smart as a whip. Probably smarter than I am…wait. Papa? And Mama? Is she expecting?”

Then, Wildstar heard Doctor Sane laughing from a corner in the observation deck. With his bottle of sake. “I was watching you two,” he said. “You both crack me up, you’re so cute! You sort of remind me of when I was a newlywed with my wife long before she died. And, no, Nova’s not expecting. Yet. She has arrangements for that eventuality.”

“Yeah, she told me she didn’t want to have kids until the mission was over and she was in Medical School on a healed Earth,” Derek said. “Even though she’s in high spirits like the rest of us.”

“Tell me why you’re in such high spirits?”

“Doctor Sane, I’m sure you’ve heard. We are now eight hours away from Iscandar. We expect to land at 2100 ship-time! The mission’s halfway over now! We did it!”

“Can I give you some advice?” said Sane.

“Go ahead. I’m all ears,” Derek replied.

“You do not want to think the mission is finished because we are almost halfway at our goal,” said Sane. “We walked ten thousand steps. We have two hundred more steps to walk. Who knows what could happen in those two hundred steps?”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” said Derek. “I’ll tell Nova that later.”

“And you’d better tell the rest of the crew, too, young man!” barked Sane. “We can’t let down our guard. Not even here. This is the Gamilons’ home galaxy. They could be up to anything. Just anything.”

Leader Desslok called Gimleh’s flagship.

“How is the Argo doing?”

“They have passed the tenth planet, Leader Desslok. Starsha is sending a guide wave beam from Iscandar. It is also making them hard to track.”

“A guide wave beam?” said Desslok. “Oh, Starsha, there you go, up to your little tricks. See if you can jam that guide wave beam. Then continue following them. Make sure they come straight towards the ninth planet on a course towards Gamilon. We will then begin my plan.”

“Yessir. I understand,” said Gimleh. “We could eliminate them from here if needed. Fifteen ships against one ship…”

“Do not deviate from the plan,” said Desslok. “I have my own fate set up for them.”

“Yessir,” said Gimleh, whose face fell a little at that order.

The screen went dark.

Zain Valas, one of Gimleh’s XO’s, came up to him and said, “What a pity. I was looking forward to slaughtering some of those Terrons.”

“I am sure we will have our chance sooner or later, Valas,” Gimleh said.

Valas nodded. Of course, irony would eventually stack up upon irony, and in the years to come, he would join a musical group with many of those Terrons he now hated, and would, at one point, record an album in a home studio owned by two of the very Terrons he now hoped to kill! And he would also be their house guest and would occasionally scare their children (just for fun!)

Homer came into the Argo’s communications room a while later. Due to a shortage of personnel, Paul Rosstowski and another enlisted man from Technical were manning the watch along with Sheena Hilgar, who was there to translate any Gamilon signals.

“What is the problem?” Homer said.

Rosstowski replied, “Sir, the guide wave we were following to Iscandar? It was just cut off!”

“We can’t find a reason why, Chief,” said the other enlisted man.

“No Gamilon chatter. Yet. I do know that we aren’t that far from the home world of the Empire.”

“What do you mean?” said Homer.

“My memories were taken, so I do not know exactly where it is, but I do remember that Gamilon was toward the edge of the Great Magellenic Cloud,” Hilgar said. “We have to watch ourselves. I will let you know if we pick up any Gamilon chatter.”

“Switch the comm panel to the first bridge,” Homer snapped. “I am going to report this to the Deputy Captain.”

When Homer arrived on the First Bridge, he made his report and asked Nova and Sandor to assist him in trying to pick up the guide wave. Soon, the three of them were working together at his console.

Venture said, “We have to stop the ship. Now.”

Wildstar replied, “Mark, what’s the problem? I have Homer and his Chief and Sandor trying to get the wave guide back, but we can keep on going. We know where Iscandar is now. We can follow the compass heading there now! We also know that Gamilon is somewhere close to the edge of the Great Magellenic, but we do not know where, based on Hilgar’s limited intel. So, we have to keep our eyes open.”

“We have a big problem,” Mark snapped. “We know now what the mass discrepancy was. There’s not one Planet Iscandar. There’s two.”

“Two planets?” said Derek.

“Someone is jamming the guide wave from another source,” Sandor snapped. “We’d have to work for hours to get it back.”

The Argo then shook hard.

“I think we’re in the gravitational influence of the twin planets now!” said Eager.

“Get me a visual yesterday!” barked Derek. “Nova, get back to your post and scan both planets!”

Nova nodded and began to leave as the visual came up.

A moment later, they all could see the twin planets.

“It looks like Iscandar has a very big moon,” said Dash from his post.

“That moon almost looks as big as the whole planet,” said Orion.

Nova looked up and took her post. “Both planets are almost the same mass as Earth. They have active inner iron cores, but the green planet has a larger core than the watery blue planet. I think they’re both very actively volcanic; the green world seems to be more actively volcanic than the blue world. Trying to analyze the atmospheres…I….just picked up a heavy missile launch from the green planet!”

“Followed by ten more!” yelled Eager. “Now we got two hundred damn missiles comin’ at us from Iscandar! Looks like someone kicked over a beehive!”

“It’s a trap!” yelled Dash. “Wildstar, where’s Yurisha? She has a lot of explaining to do!”

“Whatever’s going on, we’re getting attacked!” snapped Venture. “You’re in charge, Wildstar!”

Derek made two angry fists. He thought. What’s your real name, Starsha? Judas Iscariot? “Open all forward guns, Dash!” Derek snapped. “Get the forward pulse lasers opened, too! Hoshina!” he said in his microphone. “Get some troops and find Yurisha! Inform her she is under arrest and is now being treated as a hostile until we know otherwise! Bring her to the First Bridge under heavy guard! I’m getting Hilgar up here to listen for Gamilon signals.”

“Roger, Deputy Captain,” said Toru. “What about Nova? We know she’s of Iscandarian descent now. Shouldn’t we arrest her, too?” said Toru. “For all we know, she could be a Mata Hari…sleeping with you for information!”

Nova gritted her teeth, doing all she could to keep from slapping Hoshina’s face at his classless and false accusation as Hilgar showed up and leaned against Homer’s console, wearing a second set of headphones.

“I do not doubt Nova’s loyalty to us. She was born on Earth,” Derek snapped as he held her hand. “I’ve seen her personnel file.”

Nova almost cursed herself for having told Toru about her alien ancestry. She had mentioned it herself after the fight with Iroze in explaining how she could see her when invisible. How did she ever know he would use it against her? Telling him was stupid, stupid, stupid, she thought miserably. Toru, I am going to have a hard time trusting you from now on!

“Opening all guns,” said Dash as the red alert klaxons began to blow after Wildstar smashed the button on his console.

“Nova, leave the bridge! It’s just to look after Captain Avatar!” Derek said. “Make sure he’s securely strapped into his bunk and that he’s all right. See you later, love.”

“Yessir,” Nova said. She ran off, relieved that Derek did not doubt her loyalty to Earth or the mission.

“All guns, open fire!” Derek snapped.

The forward main guns went off, followed by the pulse lasers.

The missiles began to separate, sending small bomblets at the Argo. Some of them hit the ship. Others exploded, filling the area with a nasty-looking cloud of red particles.

“What kinda junk is this?” said Eager.

“Ferrous particles; tens of thousands of them,” said Sandor after he did some scans. “They also have a small charge that draws them around the ship. It looks like Starsha timed this perfectly. If she timed this,” said Sandor.

“What do you mean, Steve?” Derek said.

“She could be under the influence of the Gamilons-or another hostile race,” said Sandor.

Yurisha was brought to the Bridge under guard a moment later. “May I ask what the meaning of this is?”

“We have just been attacked from the direction of Iscandar,” snapped Derek. “You tell us.”

Yurisha bowed her head. “We ran into the obstacle I warned you about, Deputy Captain Wildstar. I mean no harm to you, Neither does my sister. Neither does your wife.”

“Well, what’s the obstacle?” said Venture.

The screen still held the image of the twin planets. “The water world on the left is Iscandar. And, I would have told you earlier, save for my disorientation. The green world is Planet Gamilon. The heart of Desslok’s Empire. That’s why I wanted you to avoid it; why I pleaded with you to avoid it, but…”

“The signals are hard to make out, but I’m catching Gamilon chatter,” said Hilgar. “Something about ‘we have them where we want them now.’”

Derek snarled at that.

“Starsha’s guide wave was interrupted,” said Homer. “It was jammed.”

“Yes…by Gamilon ships,” Yurisha said with anger on her face. “You are now under Queen Starsha’s asylum. But Desslok has chosen to ignore that fact. He is a very devious commander who plays by his own rules.”

“We need hard proof, Wildstar,” said Sandor.

“The fact that I’m picking up enemy chatter is not enough, sir?” said Hilgar.

“We, I want physical proof,” snapped Sandor. He thought, but did not say out loud, You’re a Gamilon. How do we know you’re not a plant meant to help with this trap?

“Good thought,” Derek said as the battle went on.

In Captain Avatar’s cabin, Nova had tucked the Captain in, and had strapped him into his bunk, and was closing his window shield so he could rest.

“What did you find out about the twin planets you mentioned?” Avatar said.

“They both have volcanism,” Nova said. “The green world has volcanoes that are very active, almost horribly so, from my analysis.”

“Well, why aren’t you telling the Deputy Captain this?” said Avatar.

“Sir, he ordered me up here to look after you. And some of the crew has me under suspicion because I appear to have some Iscandarian blood…I’m not sure how it happened…but…I am loyal to the mission,” she said with tears filling her eyes.

“You should be on that bridge. Does Wildstar suspect you?”

“No, sir,” said Nova. “He’s been as loving and kind to me as ever.”

“I do not suspect you, either. You’ve always been like a daughter to me,” Avatar said as he coughed. “You’re a good officer and woman. Your place is at Derek’s side. I’ll be all right.”

“Sir,” Nova said as she saluted.

She reappeared on the bridge soon afterwards. Toru and some of his Security men gave her a dirty look, but she said as Derek looked at her with raised eyebrows, “The Captain said he’d be okay. I secured him so he could rest. He dismissed me and sent me back here. Yurisha, why are you here?”

“I’m under arrest,” she said.

“She gave us some important intel,” said Derek. “Toru, let her go. And your Security men are not to get near Nova, either. She is above all suspicion as far as I’m concerned.”

Hoshina’s eyebrows went up, but he took off her handcuffs. “I’m not sure this is the best idea…”

“It’s an order. Nova, take your post. We need more intel on those planets, particularly the green one. Yurisha told us it may be Gamilon.”

The ship shook again, and Nova stumbled as she started to take her post, but she held her footing in her boots.

“We’re going all over the place!” barked Venture. “Stop the ship! Stop the ship! Orion, kill all engine power! NOW! FULL STOP!”

“Stop giving orders!” snapped Derek. “You’re out of line! I’m in charge here!”

“Yeah? Look at our instruments? They’re going crazy!” said Venture. “We’re on our own in a strange galaxy, possibly a few thousand megameters away from Gamilon, and we have no navigational instruments! Those missiles formed a thick cloud of iron around us.”

“Main radar’s out,” Nova said.

“So’s the battle radar and sensors,” said Eager. “It’s like Rainbow Cluster all over again! We’re deep-sixed!”

Derek looked out the windows and snarled.

Then, he turned on Venture. “Mark, I know what you’re thinking! Admit it! We’re lost in a strange galaxy on my orders because I trusted that transmission was really from Starsha. Because I trust Ensign Hilgar? Because I trusted Yurisha? Because I trust the woman I married, who is NO damn Mata Hari? You think I’ve taken us straight into a trap? That’s I’m not capable of being Deputy Captain?”

“I never said that!” snapped Mark.

“Maybe you’re partially right,” Derek said as he went back to his post after grabbing Nova’s hand and squeezing it. Then, he sat down and brought up his mike. “Conroy, go out in a Tiger and get us some samples of that-metallic chaff!”

“Are you out of your mind, Wildstar?” said Conroy. “I can’t even take off. No instruments means I can’t navigate!”

Derek was about to snap for him to do it, until Yurisha said, “Deputy Captain. I can navigate. I don’t need any electronics to get us out and back safely.” She tapped her own temple.

“Okay, then. But I’ll fly her in my Zero,” said Derek.

“Not a good idea, Derek. They need you here on the bridge,” Nova said. “She should go out with Nishizawa…or me.”

Derek bit his lip, figuring out at once why she volunteered. It was to redeem her reputation. He didn’t like the idea (as he wanted her safe in the ship) but he could not fault her logic. “Nova, you’re the more neutral of the two pilots you mentioned. You take her out. But watch her like a hawk.”

“Roger,” Nova said. She saluted and took off with Yurisha.

“Why did you send her?” said Dash.

“She seems to have a rapport with Yurisha that almost no one else has,” Derek said. “And I need to eliminate any bit of suspicion about Lieutenant Forrester-Wildstar. Last of all, I know she can babysit Yurisha.”

“Hope you don’t screw us all up,” snorted Dash. “If I were you, both of those women would be in irons in the brig awaiting Court-Martial. Along with Sheena the Gamilon here!”

Hilgar got up, gritted her teeth, and without a word, she made fists. “Let’s go for it, NOW, if you think I’m a traitor to Earth, Dash. I’ll break your neck!”

Dash got up. “Why don’t you try it, you Gamilon witch?”

“STOP it, both of you!” snapped Derek as he separated them. “Hilgar, Dash, we will discuss this later! For now, sit down, do your jobs, and STOW the temper tantrums!”

They both nodded at Wildstar, while still glaring at each other.

Sheena did not say it out loud, but she had the idea that later that night (if they survived this) that she and Nova could sneak up on Dash together and give him a “blanket party”. A “blanket party” was an old time-honored Terran military custom of getting a barracks troublemaker caught under a blanket and then beating his or her head in. With the blanket over his or her head, the troublemaking target would, in theory, be unable to identify their assailants.

As it turned out, with Yurisha’s extra-sensory help, Nova and she performed the mission without a single hitch, with Nova flying Derek’s Cosmo-Zero with no issues. She was a respectable pilot, but not an ace like Conroy or Nishizawa.

They were back aboard the Argo with samples forty-five minutes later. Almost no one doubted Nova’s loyalty after that, and even Yurisha was again trusted by many of the crew.

While the ship sat stuck, Sandor analyzed the chaff in his lab. “Hmmm…yes. It’s Gamilons, all right!”

“Does this mean the Gamilons are occupying Iscandar?” said Derek.

Yurisha shook her head. “No. It’s just as I said. There are two worlds. Iscandar is a paradise. I cannot wait to return there with Erich. Gamilon is the green planet, and it is a volcanic hell, slowly dying from pollution.”

“As my scans seemed to indicate,” Nova said.

Derek said, “So…all the time we were heading straight to Iscandar…we were heading right towards Gamilon! That’s it!”

“I wish Starsha would have told us that,” said Venture.

“Maybe she was unable to tell us,” said Sandor.

“Well, whatever it is, I wish she had made things clear from the beginning o’ this cruise,” Orion said.

“So do I!” Nova snapped as she took off the ring that linked her to Starsha. “Derek, you hold this for now. All of a sudden, it feels foul and disgusting!”

“It is not!” said Yurisha.

“Until we know more about Starsha, no harm in being careful,” Nova said. “Carry it, Derek. But don’t put it on.”

He nodded. “Wise idea, Nova.”

“She can be trusted!” insisted Yurisha.

“Until she has a damn good explanation for…this” Nova snorted as she pointed at a view of Gamilon and Iscandar. “My trust in her is seriously shaken at the moment.”

“For once, you’re being smart, Nova,” Dash said.

She just nodded at him.

On Gamilon, Leader Desslok lounged in his bath, smiling as one of his attendants brought him a commlink. “Leader Desslok. Queen Starsha is calling from Iscandar.”

“I’ll take it,” he said. “Leave us.”

“Sir,” said the attendant as he saluted and left.

“Well, Queen Starsha,” said Desslok. “It has been weeks since you and I have had a chat. How are you? Unfortunately, your pet Terron space battleship is not doing very well at the moment.”

“I wasn’t sure if I could reach you with all of the communications interference you and your lapdog Gimleh have created around Gamilon recently. If you are that anxious to talk to me, you have a very strange way of showing it! And you are getting stranger by the hour!”

“My, you sound rather angry, Starsha!”

“I am angry!” she snapped.

“It is I who should be angry at you,” Desslok said. “Yet do you note how calm I sound? You interfered in a major way with my plans when you offered the Cosmo DNA to the Terrons and interfered with my plan to evacuate the populations of our dying and unstable Gamilon and Iscandar to Terra, after, of course, we dealt with the Terrons once and for all. Oh, they are so far behind us, Starsha. They have no right to live.”

“Yes, I know we are both doomed, Desslok,” said Starsha. “But your solutions are all presumptuous, mad, and evil. I could have offered you a better solution, if only you had listened to me.”

“What solutions do you have? Starsha, I am acting! You just sit and wait meekly for your doom! Besides, the Terrons are totally brute and uncivilized.”

“Uncivilized?” said Starsha. “I ask you, Desslok, when have those who commit genocide been civilized? Yet you have the blood of many civilizations on your hands!”

“Right now, thanks to your leading them on, I have your Star Force right where I want them. Under my thumb. My wager is that they are cursing your name right now, Starsha. The Gamilon people adore me.”

“Desslok, I have warned you before,” Starsha said. “Perhaps I am foresighted, perhaps not, but if you do not stop this madness and let the Argo go, Gamilon shall pay the price.”

Desslok laughed. “You’d attack us? How? You have no fleets. No armies. Nothing!”

“No, but your own plans may be the knife laid at the very heart of Gamilon itself, Desslok.”

“And you have placed a hidden knife in the path before the Star Force by bringing them to me. As I said, they must be cursing you.”

“They may be, but I only mean well for them. You do not. And there is another factor. Why have they defeated you at every turn? Perhaps they have an inner strength that comes from a Source you do not understand.”

“Yes? Their so-called Yamato-damashii, or Yamato Spirit? Most of those idiots come from an island chain where they still worship trees and rocks, or have descent from those primitives. A ship of fools, as I said. They have been lucky, but Avatar’s luck has just run out. Also, Starsha, remember. The only battle that counts is the last one. They have not gotten to Iscandar yet, and I trust they never shall. Goodbye, Starsha!”

Desslok cut off.

Starsha lay on her couch in her comm room, looking up at Gamilon.

And, quietly praying. For the Star Force.

Hundreds of Generals, Admirals, Captains, and other officers cheered Leader Desslok as he took his balcony in one of the many Great Halls near his Palace on Gamilon.

Desslok, back in a starched, fresh uniform, saluted and accepted the cheers of his men and women.

“Gentlemen and ladies of the Empire,” he said. “Today is a great day for us and the Empire, and the last day for the Terron space battleship Argo and their Star Force. I am acting today to assure our future!”

Many cheers came again. Desslok raised his hands for silence.

“This is our current situation,” said Desslok as a graphic of Gamilon came up on a large screen behind him. “We have known for years that Gamilon is doomed. Our new home shall be on Terra, which, I am convinced, is actually our ancestral world of origin once known as Galmania. The Great Magellenic Cloud and the Terrons’ Galaxy were once close to each other, and our oldest myths state that all life originated on Terra; that both Gamilons and Iscandarians and many other races we know of in the Galaxy were born there. Since Gamilon is dying, Terra is our home world of Galmania, and it is our holy birthright, the very place where a great Deity created us from the dust and gave us the breath of life. We have searched for decades to find another planet like our own, but we are a unique and superior Master Race destined by all the gods to rule the galaxies. As you see, Gamilon has a very active inner core with molten heavy metals and precious radioactive elements, with two outer shells. The top one, above us, is a thin protective crust that was once the surface.”

Desslok paused as graphics of Gamilon’s degradation showed on the screen. “Gamilon was built, and our civilization was nurtured here by volcanic action that enabled us to harness geothermal energy. But the same volcanic energy that helped us build our Empire is now dooming it to a premature death. Some say we cursed ourselves by over-harnessing that energy; others think that this was simply inevitable. We are dying. Our land and sea are being polluted by the sulphuric compounds contained within the lava and magma from the volcanic eruptions which have only become more destructive as of late. The seas around the lava crust have been degraded into almost pure sulphuric acid. Our water cycle is now close to becoming heavily acidic and destructive and we must import water from other worlds of the Empire. The acidic hydro-cycle is deadly to us, but it shall be even more deadly to the Argo. At the current time, the Argo is trapped, five thousand kilometers away from Gamilon. It is trapped in a cloud of chaff created by our Type Chalmad missiles. This chaff has made communications, navigation, and radar scanning impossible for the Argo. Gimleh’s First Imperial Fleet is five hundred thousand kilometers behind them, ready to trap them should they attempt to escape. We have set magnetic transmitters near the openings closest to their current location to trap them in a tractor beam and pull them inside Gamilon itself, right to the acid seas. With our climate destabilizer satellites, we will create a great rain of pure sulphuric acid that will damage their ship and force them into the acid sea, where they shall all face death and dissolution by sulphuric acid. Our missiles, depth charges, and other weapons will attack from above, forcing them into the sea, and our coastal guns will also cripple them. With this massive array of Gamilon strength….!” yelled Desslok as he slammed his scepter against his lectern “we shall destroy the Argo, and Terra’s resistance, and thus ensure Gamilon’s future!”

Desslok’s officers cheered like mad as he bowed and snapped his fingers. “Krypt, Talan, come with me. We will go to Command Center Five above the Capital. From there, we shall watch the fireworks!”

Krypt nodded.

General Ghader Talan thought, Desslok, have you overextended us? We should have taken more direct action against them, and sooner. How much of this show is for our benefit…and how much is for your own glory and ego, my friend?

Derek Wildstar stood on the aft observation deck of the Argo looking at the magnetic cloud. He bowed his head and thought, I don’t really know what to make of this magnetic cloud. I wonder if it could be Starsha’s doing? Can we trust her? She could by an ally of Gamilon, Derek thought.

Then, he felt Nova’s ring growing strangely warm in his pocket. He pulled it out and looked at it. “Huh?” he said out loud.

Then, a thought hit him from nowhere. Give this back to Nova. It is part of her birthright and inheritance. A token of much to come in the following years.

Nova then appeared at the door. “Derek! The jamming has just gone down! Queen Starsha is calling again from Iscandar!”

“Okay,” he said. He ran beside her and said, “Please take this back.”

“That ring?” Nova said. “Why…?”

“Let’s say a little bird told me to give it back to you,” Derek said.

They stopped before a lift and Nova took the ring back and put it on.

Then, it began to glow.

A voice came from it. “All of you have been within my prayers. Believe me,” Starsha said.

“We shall,” Nova whispered back. The light faded.

“Well, what do you think of that little bird who spoke to me?” Derek teased.

“I think we should trust her, crazy at it seems,” Nova said. Then she kissed him. “This whole journey has been a great leap of faith in Starsha. Why give up now?”

“They’ll think I’m crazy, but I agree with you, Nova,” Derek said.

Back on the First Bridge, the Bridge Crew stood around Homer’s station as Starsha said, “I am very glad that I am able to speak to all of you again. My guide wave and signals to you were being jammed by the Gamilons. I knew all along where Gamilon was, and I was trying to make a safe path for you to Iscandar that would have evaded the Gamilons. I have been able to counteract this jamming at last, but now, to our regret, you all know where Gamilon is and where Iscandar is. I did not intend for this to happen this way nor for the Gamilons to harm you in any way whatsoever. We are indeed twin planets, but we are very different from each other. The Gamilon Leader, Desslok, has his heart set on genocide for your people and he wants to personally stop you now. This whole plan is his doing. I know him, and his heart and much of his mind are set on death for your human race. I do not know why. He used to be a good and honorable man and he and I were once close…friends. I have again and again tried to persuade him otherwise, and Yurisha and I kept the location of Gamilon secret from you since we feared you would not come here otherwise. I am sorry we did not warn you sooner. I thought my method to guide you past the Gamilons would work, but to our great sorrow, it did not. Please be very careful. The Gamilons are determined to stop you. I am praying for your safe arrival. May the Most High God guide your footsteps. I hope to see you soon.”

“Okay…this Desslok tricked her, just like he tricked all of us,” snapped Dash. “Nova, I’m sorry I said you and Yurisha should be in the brig. I…”

“It’s all right. We were all really tense before,” Nova said, smiling at Dash.

“Mark, I’m sorry I blew up at you before,” Derek said, extending a hand to Venture. “The thought that our mission to Iscandar might be hopeless…it…”

“Wildstar…it’s all right,” Mark said, shaking hands with him.

“Where did Yurisha go?” said Derek.

Sandor said, “She left the bridge. She said she needed to speak to Nishizawa in his cabin.”

“Let them be,” Nova advised.

“Sir, my job is over for now,” said Hilgar. “Request permission to come off watch.”

“Denied,” Derek said. “Take a station in the comm room and keep on monitoring those frequencies now that we all know where Gamilon is. I’m going to see the Captain. Nova, see if you can get any scans through this junk. I’m giving you the conn, from your post, as we’ve all been doing since the Captain has been in his cabin.”

“Okay,” she said. “But why me?”

“Vote of confidence, Nova,” he snapped. “Everyone, she tells you to do something, obey her as you would me!”

Then, Derek left.

Nova sat down at her console and began to enter settings.

“What’s on your mind?” said Eager.

“Wondering what the Gamilons are going to do next,” Nova said. “Based on what we know about this…Desslok…it can’t be any good.”

“I don’t think it would be,” said Venture. “Orders?”

“Steady as she goes, Mark. Particularly as we aren’t going anywhere at the moment,” Nova sighed.

“Aye, aye, Deck Officer, steady as she goes,” said Mark. He smiled and winked at Nova.

She smiled back.

Derek and Captain Avatar had a long conversation about their situation.

“I don’t doubt your decisions, Wildstar,” Avatar said.

Derek breathed a sigh of relief at that.

“I know it was hard to trust in Starsha…in Yurisha…and in Sheena, and even in Nova for a moment, but I have it in my gut none of those women mean us an ounce of harm, and that Starsha is still a strong ally. The sort of person who can own up to her mistakes is a person with a well-meaning heart. I have faith that Starsha and Yurisha are honest, even though they could have told us sooner. You know Nova is honest, if imperfect, like all of us, like Hilgar, Wildstar.”

“Yes. She told me she was being a bit hasty and went along with the general zeitgeist* when she took off that ring. She said she owes Queen Starsha an apology.”

“Good,” said Avatar. “You know, you’re still going to have to get past the Gamilons.”

“I hope I can do it.”

“I have confidence you can do it, Wildstar,” said Avatar.

Derek’s face went resolute at that. “Yes.”

Then, the Argo shook hard, hard enough to knock Wildstar out of his chair.

“What happened?” he yelled.

“It starts now,” said Avatar. “Go back to the First Bridge.”

Wildstar stumbled back onto the bridge, seeing his crew all over the deck.

“What is it?” he yelled.

Eager said, as Nova was struggling to her feet, “We’re being pulled right towards Gamilon! It’s some powerful field of some sort!”

“It’s interacting on the magnetic chaff and the mass of our ship!” snapped Sandor.

Nova took her post. “I’m reading some kind of tractor beam! Derek! Surrendering the conn to you!”

“Combat stations!” snapped Wildstar.

“All hands to battle stations!” barked Venture. “Orion. Full reverse power! Making a turn to port!”

The engine roared to life.

The Argo tried to turn.

“Gamilon fleet to our aft section!” Nova said. “Missiles coming in!”

On his flagship, Gimleh laughed a low chuckle. “They may be trying to escape. Valas, ready the boarding pods in case they come our way. Make sure all your troopers have their weapons set to kill.”

“May not be necessary, sir. Look! They’re being pulled towards Gamilon like a toy!”

The Argo’s aft turrets fired at Gimleh’s fleet.

They didn’t hit anything since the chaff was interfering with their rangefinders.

“We’re gonna crash on Gamilon!” Eager yelled as the Argo plunged into Gamilon’s atmosphere.

“Negative! We’re being pulled towards that massive opening!” Nova said. “Gamilon fleet behind us is retreating! They warped out!”

“We’ll probably see them again at some point,” Derek hissed.

The tractor beam broke off as the Argo, driven by momentum, crash-landed in Gamilon’s acid sea.

IQ-9 was thrown all over the bridge along with other crew members as the Argo smashed right into the ocean.

Derek stood up and turned the red alert off. “Well, like it or not, everyone, welcome to Gamilon. What a weird planet! Look at this underground sea!”

“I got the engines off just in time,” said Venture. “We would have had a major burnout.”

“There has to be as escape route,” said Orion.

“I’m picking up tons o’ rainclouds,” said Eager. “Looks like a storm is brewing! A storm worse than East Texas!”

“Oh, East Texas had some major storms,” Nova said with a little grin. “You should have seen the blizzards in Colorado, Chris. Before the planet bombs hit, that is.”

“The first issue is finding out what sort of soup we’re floating in. IQ-9, help analyze the Gamilon sea water,” Derek said.

“Wait a moment, Derek!” Nova said. She was kneeling on the deck with Sandor. “Steve and I have to get him back together!”

“Okay, get to it,” Derek said.

“If we can get up and out an opening, a short warp to Iscandar might do it,” Mark suggested.

“Let’s hope that the Gamilons don’t follow us right to Iscandar,” Derek said. “Starsha seems to be able to act. I wonder why she’s not a prisoner of theirs.”

“She said she used to know Desslok,” said Homer.

“If they were once buddy-buddy, maybe that explains it,” said Dash.

“Okay, IQ-9.,” Sandor said a few minutes later. “Compute as fast as you can and give us intel on that sea water.”

“I trust you and Nova followed the diagram on my back panel,” IQ-9 said. “Now, I will compute….”

A few minutes passed.

Derek sat with his chair back, and he said, “Well, whatever this water is, a ship and the water go together nicely, don’t they? The rocking motion is nice.”

“Don’t get too complacent,” said Venture.

“Analysis complete,” said IQ-9. “Assuming my favorite two humans put me back together correctly, we are floating in a sea with a Ph of 1.0121. Almost pure sulphuric acid, concentrated. I estimate it will eat through our hull in seventeen minutes.”

Wildstar sat up with a start.

“Engine room! Get us up!” Venture yelled.

The Argo took off, but with some damage as the third bridge creaked and fell off into the acid sea.

“Wildstar!” said Sandor. “We just lost the third bridge and six members of the ready crew! The acid ate through the pylon!”

“The rain hitting us is almost pure sulphuric acid, too!” Nova cried from her post. “And there’s depth charges coming in!”

Depth charges fell down and smashed again and again into the Argo.

The Argo tried to keep full speed, but the wind and the rain made it difficult.

Now, how the heck, Derek Wildstar thought. How…are we gonna escape from this?

How would they escape? Earth’s time was running out. And so was the Star Force’s.

PLANET EARTH HAS 164 DAYS LEFT.

· The Star Force does, indeed, meet Lysis again. But Lysis’ planned revenge is under far different circumstances in February of 2202. See Return to the Great Magellenic Cloud, Chapters Three and Eight.

· Zeitgeist-German for “spirit of the times”.

TO BE CONTINUED….