THE MIDNIGHT HOUR
A Star Blazers short tale
By Frederick P. "Freddo" Kopetz
Thanks to Gail Kopetz, Jamie Tucker, and "Yuki Wildstar" for support and ear-bending
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ACT
TWO: SIX MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT
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I. A DESPERATE DEFENSE
The Vicinity of Arcturus
Earth Space Battleship North Carolina
May 26, 2214
1408 Hours: Earthtime
________________________________________________________________
“Skipper!” cried
Lieutenant Pal Vriker, the young East Indian officer at the Communications
Console of the EDF Main Space Battleship North
Carolina, which was the Flagship of Task Force 17. “Lost contact with the Arizona!”
“What do you think it is?” said Captain
Tucker Allen from his post after he coughed and blew away some of the growing
fog of smoke on the battleship’s First Bridge. Task Force 17 was also under
attack, and the North Carolina had
taken six hits already from Bolar fighter-bombers; one of them had blown her
fighter bays and most of her attached Flight Group to bits.
“Interference, like the sort that’s
keeping us from calling the Shangri-La
for fighter cover, sir!” said Vriker. “And…report from Lieutenant Danson…his
command fighter is fatally hit; he’s trying to kamikaze into the bridge of the
enemy flagship.”
“Down to three fighters,” said Allen.
“Where the hell’s the Shangri-La?”
Another spread of torpedoes smashed into
the North Carolina, tearing out her
port side keel anti-grav pod.
“We can’t take much more of this,
Skipper!” said the ship’s Mechanical Officer, a tough young woman known as
Lieutenant Commander Michelle Watling. “Another bloody hit like that’s going to
break the keel!”
“I know we can’t take much more of this!”
snapped Allen. A console near him exploded, and wisps of smoke blew around him.
“Hard about; one hundred and eight degrees! Vriker,
send that order to the capital ships, and then order them to take Emergency
Measure 51-Bravo and pull all overrides!”
“51-Bravo, sir?” said Watling. “Sir, the
engine room is damaged, and…”
“Would you rather have us go down
fighting or singing lullabyes?” snapped Allen. “Carry out my order, people!”
“Aye, sir,” said Commander Ronald
Schlosser, the ship’s Navigation Group Leader. “Hard about!”
“Preparing to stop all engines when we
complete the turn,” said Lieutenant Commander Hayao Nishigawa at Engineering.
“We have established touch with Captain
Luther on the Shangri-La,” said
Allen’s comm officer. “They report their flight deck is damaged and they cannot
launch fighters and bombers for the moment, but they can assist with their guns.”
“Better than nothing,” said Allen with a
shake of his head. “Thank Captain Luther for me.”
“Turn completed,” said Schlosser.
“Holding at station-keeping position!”
“Enemy fleet’s at RDX-120; we’re facing
it,” said Ensign Darryl Grant, the ship’s Radar Officer.
“Orders, Captain?” said Commander Sherri
Haskins, the ship’s Combat Group Leader, who was also a qualified pilot.
“Measure 51-Bravo,” said Allen. “Prepare
to fire the wave motion gun!”
“Transferring power,” said Nishigawa.
“Pulling all overrides,” he said as the North
Carolina began to shake like mad while the wave motion engine tried to
bring up power. “Energy level at seventy percent; eighty percent…ninety
percent…”
“Prepare all anti-shock and anti-flash
defenses!” said Captain Allen as he reached for his goggles.
“Ten seconds to firing!” said Haskins as she pulled
on her goggles. “Nine…eight…seven…six..”
Abaft and below the North Carolina, the battered Jean
Bart prepared to fire her wave motion gun at the enemy fleet, as well.
On the EDF battlecarrier Shangri-La, the same order was being
executed.
“five…four…three…two…one,”
said Haskins on the North Carolina as
she sat smoking, ready to carry out her order.
“FIRE!” snapped Captain Allen.
The North
Carolina, EDF Space Battleship Pennant Number 55, fired her wave motion gun
a moment later, followed in rapid succession by the Jean Bart, the Shangri-La,
and the space battleship Mutsu, along
with the wave motion guns of four fleet cruisers that were part of the task
force.
As a result, eight beams of wave motion
energy roared at the Bolar Fleet.
The beams slammed home, destroying the
Bolar space battleships, cruisers, and frigates in one massive explosion a
moment later.
The enemy commander, though, who was off
in the distance, five thousand megameters behind the main scene of the battle,
smiled to himself as the beams roared in. Thus goes our damned 115th Parski
Battle Squadron, all meant to be sacrificial lambs for my little scheme,
thought the Bolar Admiral as he turned to one of Ekogaru’s Vanguards on the
scene, a powerful black-robed, almost robotic cyborg from known as Count
Prencov and he asked him, “Lord, your wishes?”
“Move in, Admiral Rosskovsky, and
activate the power of your Black Hole Fortress against those stupid Terrans!”
said the voice of Ekogaru himself from one of his cyborgs, namely Count
Prencov. He bore a grotesque, mechanical face that looked like a cross between
a skull and an ancient gas mask, and his eyes burned red from inside thick
lenses in his face. His thinner assistant, Duke Hansa, a cyborg that looked
like a collection of junk, looked at him and nodded, saying. “Aye.
Today, we Neo-Technomugar begin the ascent of our evolution. All life show join our ranks by Your Pleasure, Lord, or…it shall die.”
“I am so pleased,” hissed Ekogaru’s
voice from Prencov’s ugly masked mouth. “Begin our ascent, Admiral!”
“With pleasure,” said Rosskovsky after
he adjusted the high collar of his own red and black peacoat and took a drag
from the cigar he was carrying. “All hands, prepare Black Hole Cannon! Target,
Terran Task Force! Scatter those scum to the four
winds of space!”
“Preparing the Black Hole Cannon, sir,”
said Commander Borski, his executive officer. “We are opening circuits and
energizers. Contact in fifteen seconds!”
The Bolar Fortress moved into position
and opened its Black Hole Cannon. The Fortress was an ugly, massive collection
of armored spheres.
“Target locked,” said Borski. “Ten
seconds to firing!”
“Ready to engage Terranisch Fleet,” said Admiral
Rosskovsky. “Fire at will, Mister Borski!”
“Firing, NOW!” roared Borski as Count Prencov
nodded with approval.
Borski thumbed a switch in his hand
attached to a console with a long wire.
The Black Hole Cannon fired.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
A ball of energy roared into the middle
of the Earth Task Force.
“What the HELL is that?” demanded Allen
as he saw the ball of energy appearing.
It exploded, and a void opened up in the
very substance of space itself.
The Mutsu
was immediately sucked into the small black hole created by the Bolar weapon.
It was never seen again.
Another blast came, and the Jean Bart was likewise swallowed up,
along with her escorting cruisers.
One of the North Carolina’s escorts, the Patrol Cruiser Sumida, turned about and attempted to kamikaze right into the
sphere with the Cannon in it. A blast of gun fire from an adjacent sphere
knocked into a sphere nearby. The Fortress took damage, but the Cannon remained
viciously unscathed.
The North
Carolina, in the meantime, blasted about and attempted to fire all her
working guns at the Cannon.
The plasma beams smashed around it, just
barely missing it.
Then, the Cannon fired again.
The North
Carolina was blown along with the energy sphere.
The battleship smashed into the Shangri-La and then glanced off of her.
The North
Carolina, filled with internal explosions, attempted to roar away from the
Black Hole as a massive explosion hit the Bridge.
Captain Allen yelled, ”COMM OFFICER!
Send General SOS! Code Five!”
“Sending!” said the Comm Officer.
Captain Allen was about to give another
order as the North Carolina began to
fall into the Black Hole, but he never got to deliver it as his panel exploded
around him. Captain Tucker Allen was immediately killed as he went up in flames
like a torch.
Another blast killed Commander Sheri
Haskins at her post as she was literally decapitated.
Lieutenant Commander Watling stumbled
up, with a leg broken. She looked around, saw that she was the sole surviving
senior officer and barked “WARP!”
The dying helmsman carried out her
order.
He warped the North Carolina towards Earth.
The substance of space stretched as the North Carolina’s fantail started to fall
into the Black Hole as her engines went off. There was a blast of energy as her
forward portion blasted into warp, and the keel hit earlier caused her to snap
in half just behind the Bridge Tower as the wave motion engine of the ship
literally ripped in half.
The forward part of the North Carolina roared into warp,
blasting towards the Solar System.
Her severed aft half fell down the Black
Hole and exploded.
The explosion kicked the Shangri-La into warp just beyond the
battle scene. She emerged, badly damaged.
Admiral Rosskovsky laughed like mad as
he roared “Stand down! Yes! Our first victory, with little
bloodshed on our part!”
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
II. OPERATIONS…
Earth: The Tokyo Megalopolis
Central Hospital: Surgical Suite Twelve
May 27, 2214
0215 Hours: Earthtime
______________________________________________________________________________________
The operation that Nova had been called
to the hospital for; namely, an emergency reattachment of a dockyard workers’
hand after an accident, was over with by 0200 the next morning.
Nova yawned after some of the nurses
took her patient out of the operating room.
She looked at Nurse Fujiko Kiiyama, her
head Surgical Nurse for this evening, after the nurse took off her paper shoe
covers, exposing her OR sandals. The nurse, who still had on her scrub cap,
looked at Nova and said, “Doctor, would you like a cup of coffee?”
“Yes, as soon as I get my own paper
booties off and my toes under some cold water. My feet are killing me…” Nova sighed.
“I’ll get that coffee now, ma’am. How
are your kids?”
“Doing fine in Day Care, if they’re
asleep….” Nova said. “I’m hoping I can get my Au Pair to pick them up if they put me to work with another
assignment,” Nova said as soon as she accepted the coffee, kicked off her own
sandals, and ran her bare feet under some cool water near a drain near the
scrub sink. “That feels so much better…yes…”
“Where’s the Admiral, ma’am?” said
Kiiyama respectfully. “Are you two really separated like the World Examiner says?”
“That scandal sheet again?” Nova
snarled. “No, we are not separated, except by duty. The Admiral was deployed on
an emergency basis yesterday morning and is off Earth. I only have a vague idea
what is going on,” Nova said as she half-lied and accepted the coffee from the Lieutenant. For, Nova knew
that Derek was on the Argo and was in
battle, but her senses had kept her from reaching out through her bond for the
past few hours…until now…when she shut her eyes, and reached out through the
power of the Matrix that slept within her.
Nova? Derek responded
mentally to her call through the psychic bond they had had for only the past
few years.
How is it out there? Nova sent.
Bad. Bolars and some beings sent by HIM;
therefore I have to keep this short. The Bolars and R’Khells attacked a lot of
our ships. You’ll be dealing with the fallout of it soon on Earth, I’ll bet, so
be ready for it. How are the kids? Derek
sent rapidly.
Fine. How are you, Derek?
About to be in the thick of it…we
just found wreckage….and….
And what?
Nova shot back.
HIS Presence is strong about this thing…a ship…we
have to deal with this. I think I’ll be seeing you out here soon, Nova. I feel
it in my bones. I love you.
Love you too, Nova
sent back, wiping her eyes hard behind the round glasses she now used for
close-in work. She thought to herself…I
was able to see an image…of what hit the North Carolina…from the Argo’s screen….they
are going to be in the thick of it soon, and in thirty seconds…so will I.
Then, the phone rang on the counter.
Lieutenant Kiiyama asked, “What’s wrong,
ma’am?” Are you crying?”
“It’s very personal; let me answer that
phone, Lieutenant,” Nova said as she shut her eyes and then kicked back into
her sandals, getting a flash of what would happen next.
“Doctor Knapp,” she said as she picked
up the phone.
“How’d you know it was me?” he said.
“A very good hunch,” Nova responded. “What
is it?”
“Make arrangements for your kids to be
cared for, Commander. The wreck of the North
Carolina has just crashed on Guam. She was in heavy combat and we need
emergency surgeons around the wreck. I’ve just landed on Guam and I am
establishing a field hospital around this thing and I am using Regulation
1125.25 to declare your remaining Surgical Training over with. You are
graduated as of now, Commander Wildstar, and are now a full-fledged Combat
Surgeon, along with the rest of your class. We need lots of surgeons around
this wreck. The survivors are telling us that the Bolar Federation is now in open
war on Earth, and Headquarters received some sort of surrender demand. A battle
is going on out near Arcturus, or so I was told. You will be meeting reporters
on your way out the door; God knows how they got up there. Tell them no
comment, get to the day care area, where you have fifteen minutes to deal with
your child care issues, then get up on the roof landing pad to Medical Boat
21107 in your scrubs and doctors’ coat. You will be piloting a medical party of
twelve right to Guam on that boat because you are the
only qualified pilot I can get at this hour. Meet us here.”
“Yessir,” Nova said, as she almost
viciously finished her coffee and threw on her white lab coat over her scrub
dress, keeping her hair tied back in the ribbon she had used to tuck it into. “Lieutenant,
get ready to meet the press,” Nova said.
“Hmm?” said a very confused Kiiyama.
“Get your papers and get ready to run; we will be
flying to Guam shortly,” Nova said as she grabbed Kiiyama’s arm and stepped out
into the corridor.
She and Kiiyama stepped into the glare
of video lights, men and women holding microphones, and news photographers who
yelled questions as Nova smiled a little and held up her stethoscope with her
left hand. A moment later, with her right hand, she barked, “One question at a
time, ladies and gentlemen! One question at a time! Yes?”
“Commander, why are you being called
upon at nearly 3AM?” barked a reporter.
“I’m told a vessel crashed near Guam, I’m
not sure which one; we’re heading out there shortly.”
“Commander, where is Admiral Wildstar?” yelled
another reporter.
“Deployed already with a vessel, and I
have no further comment on that matter since I’ve not yet been briefed.”
“Is it true there’s a hundred dead near
Guam?” yelled one reporter. Another one yelled, “Are we facing invasion?”
“What about the demand from the Bolar
Federation to surrender?” demanded another reporter.
“Is it true Ekogaru the Great came back
from the dead?” yelled another one.
“I have no comment at this time,” Nova
said. “I’m flying to Guam to help with relief efforts and I DON’T KNOW anything
else!” she snapped.
“Is Pellias involved?” yelled another
reporter.
“Is it true you have contacts with
Pellias and Gamilon?” demanded another reporter.
“The Pellian Ruling Queen said the
mysterious High Queen may have a comment. WHO IS SHE?”
“I wish I knew…I’m just a surgeon whose
feet hurt,” Nova quipped…while lying through her teeth. I have to have a psychic talk with Astrena, she thought to herself
in an irritated tone.
A babel of voices erupted around Nova and
Kiiyama as they pushed past the crowd and into a hospital elevator.
Nova banged the button for the fifteenth
floor as the doors closed while some security guards kept the reporters from
following them into the elevator.
Kiiyama looked hard at Nova. The younger
nurse was crying while Nova took a deep breath.
“Ma’am, how often do you have to deal
with those…those..”
“Paparazzi? About twice a month,” Nova said brightly. “You
would not believe some of the questions Derek and I get asked. They’ve even
taken to beginning to question the kids. They all know when to keep quiet. “
The elevator reached their floor, and
Nova was greeted by Jonathan, who was there with Fela.
“You were waiting for us?” Nova said.
Fela nodded. “I brought along the VW bus
you purchased last year for the kids, and we’ll help you get them in after your
say your goodbyes. Astrena sent me here after you, and she has this message she
faxed to the Embassy,” she said as she handed Nova an envelope with the Pellian
Royal Seal on it; namely, the six-pointed star of the Ruling Queen. “She asks
that you read it and respond mentally when you are in the air on the way to
Guam….majesty,” she said with a
whisper.
Nova nodded. She opened the letter and
rapidly read:
To Nova, High
Queen in Waiting, my beloved foster-daughter:
From:
Astrena: Ruling Queen of the Pellian Commonwealth.
Majesty
Dearest:
I am aware
that Arcturus is under attack from the Bolars. I am currently aboard my own
flagship a thousand lightyears from New Pellias, in
battle myself against an onslaught. Desslok has not responded to the Gamilon
Embassy on Terra yet since he is in similar straits himself at the edge of the
Sanzar System in battle himself. Why are we all in battle? The Bolar Federation
is on a rampage, and I feel HIS Presence there at Arcturus as well as here in
creatures filled with his evil presence. He means to kill all of us, but he
uses the Bolars and those creatures as his tools.
I prophesy
you will soon be facing these wraith-things yourself, in person. Remember who
you are, what you Carry, and Whose you are, and you
can break HIS link to these demons and then help us in defeating the Bolars by
ordinary military means.
I can hold
them back, and have conferred with the Blue Council, but we feel you can best
break the Link in a quiet mental battle you will fight even as you are in real physical
combat. Our trust resides in Thee.
Cheers to
thee, and I hope we can succeed and meet soon on New Pellias, but it may not be
since I feel you may soon see more of your Future as you come from the Past
than you can imagine.
Keep the
Faith,
Astrena.
“Not good, NOT good,” Nova responded as
she shook her head hard while putting away the letter. “And it’s going to be
worse for Derek. Much worse!”
“How bad, Mom?” said Jonathan.
“Not at liberty to say right now,” said
Nova. “Except for this. I need to hug each one of
those kids, and let them know this may be the last time Mommy ever sees them
alive. This might be IT,” Nova said fiercely. “Fela, let’s go. Kiiyama, follow
us…”
“Aye, ma’am,” said Kiiyama.
________________________________________________________________
III. TERRA STRIKES BACK….
The Vicinity of Arcturus
Earth Space Battleship Argo
May 27, 2214
0308 Hours: Earthtime
_________________________________________________________________
The Argo
and her task force had come upon the damaged Shangri-La not far from the battle scene.
The Argo
was repaired with regard to most of damage she had taken in combat the previous
day, except that her comm systems were not working that well for long-range
transmissions. She had only been able to send about two blips out towards
Earth, and had received only a few orders back.
Admiral Wildstar had not located Captain
Mark Venture yet.
However, he remember that Lieutenant
Commander Deke Wakefield was still aboard the Argo, but only for the time being, since the Shangri-La had been able to use its own experimental SMITE unit to
warp him along with his second flight leader, Angie Hartcliffe, and one other
squadron of the Blue Devils in time to assist.
Now, Deke was on the bridge of the Argo, standing again near Sasha. The
couple had had their reunion out in the lobby beyond Bridge One while Derek had
been mentally speaking with Nova about an hour ago.
Deke looked at Sasha’s radar and asked, “When
are they getting back?”
“I don’t know; I haven’t picked up that squadron we
sent out on search for the Shangri-La
yet,” Sasha replied, still feeling a little self-conscious in Nova’s usual
yellow and black uniform colors as her replacement as Living Group Leader and
radar officer for this mission. “If you ask me, sir, I’m feeling rather nervous…”
As well as concerned, Sasha thought.
Auntie’s the only member of the Blue Council who hasn’t psychically contacted
me yet, she thought, thinking of the Council of psionic women that had been
reconvened by Starsha and Astrena some years back that she and Nova had been
inducted to at about the time New Pellias and the Pellians had regained their
independence five years ago.
Their five-year watch for Ekogaru, and
their close watch on him ever since then when they had almost succeeded in
destroying him, although at great cost, was finally bearing fruit, Sasha knew.
She could feel His presence far away in those creatures, and that confirmed for
Admiral Wildstar what Nova had told him before….that Ekogaru was behind this
vicious battle, although mysteriously at arms’ length.
Then, a moment later, all hell broke
loose as the Argo shook, very hard.
Deke almost fell right into Sasha’s lap, and Sasha began to gleam a little.
The ship trembled horribly.
“Venture!” yelled Wildstar from the
Captain’s Station.
“Sir, we’re getting a report from the Indus that the cruiser Sumida has just vanished into
nothingness, along with the destroyers Ota,
Lagos, and Williamsport!” said Homer from his post at Communications. “Commander
Majid on the Indus has no idea what’s
going on!”
“We’re falling into a Black Hole!”
yelled Sasha. “Just like they did! Some kind of
artificially created Black Hole! But how and why?”
Holly was struggling to keep the Argo from falling into a Black Hole
which had materialized near it, from out of nowhere as Derek brought the ship
up to Red Alert, bringing up the klaxons himself as crewmembers ran to their
posts.
“Black Hole…at
five megameters’ range!” said Sasha. “I’ve no idea where it came from. But…there’s
a power around it…and…”
“I don’t CARE about metaphysics right
now, Sasha!” yelled Derek. “Deke! Keep her in her
seat, and Holly, keep the damn stern of the ship out of it!”
“Trying!”
barked Holly.
“Where did that come from, Sandor?”
demanded Derek.
“I read about this in an Intel report,
Wildstar,” Sandor said. “They used this weapon in a battle with the Rikashans
last year. President Cha’rif sent me a report; they almost killed him with one
of these weapons. It’s called a Black Hole Cannon which creates artificial
singularities and shoots them at enemy targets! Sasha! Scan for a source of
Berthold Energy in the region! If you can find that, you can find the Fortress
that is probably the source so we can attack it. In the meantime…we did lose
the main SMITE Projector on Bridge Number Two, but we still have the auxiliary ones
that can come out of the forward torpedo tube launchers, although the power
rating is less.”
“Good! Sandor, get those SMITE units
deployed; Sasha, scan for that Berthold Energy!”
“Roger,” said Sasha.
“Wakefield, get to your plane, and tell
Hardy I want him ready to launch,” snapped Derek. “When we find that thing, I’m
going to use our version of SMITE and will warp in three Tiger squadrons to attack
it before we hit it with Wave Motion Cartridges! Rosstowski! Get the gunners to
load up the Wave Motion Cartridges, and get them to stand by so I can take that
thing out!”
“ROGER, sir!” said Rosstowski.
Then, a moment later, just as the Argo began to pull free from the Black Hole
weapon, Sasha cried, “Bolar Fleet, amounting to eight battleships, five
destroyers, and a carrier, approaching from port, distance, eight megameters, speed, thirty space knots! No
Berthold Radiation yet detected!”
“DAMN! NOT now!” said Derek. “Hardy! Are you ready to launch yet?”
“We’re just gettin’ the lower bay
opened; they’re opening the only workin’ upper bay, the port bay, by hand!”
said Jefferson Hardy from his post below in his plane.
“Launch faster, damnit!” barked
Wildstar, who gritted his teeth as he saw the two Fleet Cruisers that were part
of his Task Force colliding and blowing apart as the destroyer Bethlehem
swirled into a Black Hole right before the horrified eyes of the Argo’s Bridge
Crew. The Task Force was now down to three destroyers, and the Indus, who engaged the Bolars first. The
destroyer Manchester hit one Bolar
destroyer, but another Bolar destroyer blew apart the EDF destroyer Buenos Aires even as seven Gamilon
destroyers warped into the area and signaled their presence to the Argo before they also began to fire at
the enemy ships.
The Bolars then began to return fire with everything
they had.
The Argo
soon took hits to her radar, her bow, her stern, and to her forward torpedo
tubes, even while being protected by the remains of their task force and the
Gamilon ships, which as Homer communicated, were under the command of a Kapitan
Hel Langford.
Worst of all, one of the forward SMITE
projectors, on the port side, was badly damaged.
And, to make things even worse, the
Third Bridge was hit and blown off the ship altogether.
“Starboard Auxiliary engine is out! “snapped Sandor. “Upper port Fighter Bay hit, ten pilots
killed!”
“Main guns ready for regular fire!” said
Rosstowski.
“OPEN FIRE!” snapped Derek. “Target…the
Bolar Federation Fleet!”
“Opening fire!” said Rosstowski…even as
another Black Hole weapon launched and arrived on scene, swallowing up two of
the Gamilon destroyers on site.
“Captain!” cried Sasha. “Source of the Berthold
Radiation spotted…at AX-212, range, fifteen megameters! Huge enemy
fortress at that location!”
“Holly, get us towards that Fortress,”
said Derek.
“Roger that!” Holly Venture replied.
The Argo’s
main guns finally spoke as beams of energy blasted from them towards the enemy.
She was beginning to strike back in this
mad battle at last.
“Two Bolar destroyers hit…one enemy
battleship taken out,” Sasha reported. “One was rammed by one of the Gamilon
vessels.”
“Get us facing AZ-212, Venture!” said
Derek. “We should just be able to warp in two squadrons with the auxiliary SMITE
units. Sandor, is the other one up yet?”
“It just came back up,” reported the
Mechanical Group Leader.
“Great,” said Derek. “Now if we can just
get in…a little closer…”
_______________________________________________________________________________________
“Count Prencov,” said Admiral Rosskovsky
on the Bolar Black Hole Fortress. “The Argo
is coming toward us.”
“A most cunning move on Our Part,” said
Prencov as Ekogaru’s voice came from him.
The Dark Lord himself was far away, in
caverns beneath his Temple on planet R’Khell’eva, almost ninety thousand
lightyears away from the battle. He smiled as Rosskovsky said, “The Knight is
parted from the Queen on Terra, Lordship. Are we to capture her and use her for
ransom Earth’s surrender when we take it?”
“No. I want her crucified when we take Earth or her…” said Ekogaru softly as his
voice came through Prencov.
“What?” said Rosskovsky.
“She will soon be in a position where
Marda can bring her directly to me. The Bitch of Despair shall soon bring me
the greatest prize of all when her R’Khell sub reaches Terra…do
not worry…you will get to see her stripping, torture, and then her crucifixion
at close range…”
“Lord, you said she was to be captured
and interrogated for the secrets of the Cosmo-DNA…,” said Rosskovsky.
“Which I can get out of her before I kill
her,” said Ekogaru.
“Does not she have young ones?” said
Rosskovsky. “Lord, we may be soon killing the father, but why deprive the
younglings of their mother, too? I mean…I understand their smallest one is
still even occasionally at her mother’s breast!”
“She will not have to worry about the
young ones, as I intend to kill them one by one, too,” said Ekogaru. “Five little
crosses would look adorable surrounding her cross on R’Khelleva as we nail her
to the cross and she gets to see her children again…all preferably dead…”
Rosskovsky had no words for that; he was
sickened. “Borski, you are in command…I need a drink,” he said as he left.
“Why are you leaving?” said Prencov.
“I do not feel well. Borski can handle
the end of the Argo for a few minutes,” snapped Rosskovsky as he stalked off
the Bridge.
“Idiot, M’Lord,” said Duke Hansa.
“He will be dealt with…eventually,” said
Prencov, left on his own as Ekogaru’s spirit left him while the Dark Lord
focused his attention on the R’Khell Priestess Marda, who was near Terra in
subspace on her sub.
A mere moment later, the battered Argo warped in, right near the Fortress.
“Activate SMITE!” said Derek a moment
later as six planes, carrying Deke Wakefield, Angie Hartcliffe, Angie’s husband
Clive Hartcliffe, Jere “Brew” Marrable, and two other pilots, flew in front of
the SMITE projectors and warped right towards the Fortress, followed by six
planes led by Hardy who warped in at another angle.
“How are you doin, Dekesticks?” yelled
Brew over Deke’s headset as he warped in.
“Tryin’ to keep from throwin’ up, man,”
said Deke. “This is the weirdest flight I ever experienced,” he said as he flew
in towards the Fortress, blasting missile after missile into whatever ports he
could manage.
“I’m scanning one heck of an energy source,”
said Angie Hartcliffe from the cockpit of her Tiger.
“I’m right behind you, and ready to back
you up, luv,” said Clive, Angie’s second husband.
“I’m so glad,” she said. “You’ve been so
good to me these years, luv. I hope Richie is alright on his ship,” said Angie.
“He should be fine…hopefully the battle
hasn’t gotten to him yet,” said Clive as he blew a kiss at Angie, right as he
attacked a sphere of the Fortress.
A massive gun caught his plane, and blew
a wing off.
“NO!” said Angie. “Clive, darling…punch out!”
“I found where the Black Hole cannon is,” he said as his plane began to swirl out of control. “I’m
heading for it!”
“Hartcliffe!” said Hardy over his
headset. “Pull out! That’s a direct orduh, son!”
“With all respect, sir, it’s about to
fire right at the Argo…what a load o’
bollocks! I love you, Angie! Tell him I love him…and…”
Clive blasted his Tiger down the Black
Hole Cannon like a missile as Angie screamed.
Just before the fatal moment of impact,
Clive saw a gleaming woman with light blond hair floating before him. She did
not appear to be clothed.
This is not your destiny,
Clive Hartcliffe…said the voice of Trelaina of Telezart as
she appeared before him.
“Luv, whoever you are, how am I supposed
to crash me plane into that thing?” Clive protested.
“Not by leaving your wife a widow, nor
your boy fatherless…besides…he needs you…” Trelaina said as she phased him out of the cockpit…and sent him elsewhere….
The plane smashed into the depths of the
Black Hole Cannon and destroyed it a moment later as Angie screamed, wanting to
follow him into what she reasonably assumed was a fiery death, until Trelaina’s
soft voice whispered in her mind, “He
lives still…Angelique…”
“HOW?” she yelled. “I saw that
explosion! He’s dead!”
“He will not die there…he is with your
son…alive, but together with him in a deadly peril. Let them know that I let
him live…”
“Who are you?” demanded Angie.
“I am Trelaina…Trelaina of Telezart…and
my job is elsewhere,” she said as she appeared to Angie for a moment, smiled at
satisfaction at the burning Black Hole Cannon, and smiled as the Fortress
warped away.
A confused Angie just managed to shake
the tears from her eyes and fly back to the Argo.
She did not know how she landed, but she managed to do so….
For now, the battle was over. But the Argo had lost the ability to communicate
with Earth….for now….and the Shangri-La
was in even worse shape….
____________________________________________________________________________________
IV. OPERATIONS…
Earth: The Tokyo Megalopolis
Central Hospital: Day Care Area
May 27, 2214
0415 Hours: Earthtime
____________________________________________________________________________________
Fela the Ralkhen, with her furry body,
was trying to catch up to a crying Anya Wildstar in the child care area of
Central Hospital. The Day Care Suite was misnamed, for it ran twenty-four hours
a day now to provide child care for the numerous Doctors, Nurses, Orderlies,
and other allied Health personnel who had children who needed urgent child care
duties while the medical care professionals of the EDF dealt with their demanding
jobs in Terra’s largest hospital.
“You’re not as strong as we are,” said
Fela as she caught up to the crying girl. “You’re a bit small to go barefoot in
the street; you at least need your flip-flops on.”
Anya threw herself on a couch and moped.
“Fela, I do not need my shoes. I need my MOTHER!” she yelled. 
“Mom has to go,” said a crying Ariel as
Nova kissed her.
“Bad enough Daddy
had to run off, but you too, Mama?” whimpered Anya. “Are you going to leave me
an orphan?”
“I hope not,” Nova said softly as she
rubbed her daughter’s hair while cuddling a crying little Teresa. “Put your
sandals on. Please. For me?” Nova said with a winning
smile.
“Ohhh…all right,” said Anya.
“Mom, you said that plane you’re getting
on is a special boat. Why?” said young Alex Wildstar as he moped beside Stephen,
who was reading a book and saying little to his mother.
“You and Ariel were born in that space
boat,” Nova said. “It was very special for us, although it wasn’t special for
me for a while.”
“Why’s not?” said Anya.
“Giving birth to your big sister and
brother really HURT,” Nova said. “You and Stephen weren’t so bad because I’d
done it once already, and by the time Teresa here came along, I was a pro at
that business,” Nova said as she kissed the crying toddler and tenderly handed
her to Fela.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t have much time,” Nova
stammered. “I have to go away, probably for a day or so,” as she addressed all
her children. “There are sick people waiting for me to take care of them on the
island of Guam. I’m going to be very tired and work very hard, but Fela is back
now with Hegen and I want all of you to be good for her and your big brother
Jonathan and for your father, who may get
home before I do. You all know by now he’s very good at defeating the bad guys.
He may get home before I do, who knows?”
“What do we do if both of you die out
there?” Anya pouted.
“Be good, and carry on the fight,” Nova
said.
“I DON’T WANT YOU TO GO, MOMMY!” cried
Ariel as she clung to her mother.
Nova sobbed as she held her eldest
daughter, and said, “I will be back. One way or the other.”
“How do we know that?” sobbed Ariel.
“I do not think this is my Time yet,”
Nova whispered in her ear. “That’s why. Be brave. Look after them with Alex and
Jonathan. You are the Lady of the House until I get back. I love you.”
“I love you, too, Mommy!” sobbed Ariel.
“I’m not crying,” said Alex as he ran up
to his mother and hugged her.
“Why not?” said Nova.
“Uncle Mark Venture says boys ain’t
supposed to cry!” said Alex as he held his mother, while crying.
“You listen to your father,” said Nova
as she hugged and kissed her eldest son. “He says boys can cry if they need to.
I don’t mind.”
“Why not, Mommy?” sobbed Stephen as he
held his mother.
“Because he’s a man, and he still cries,”
said Nova. “And Derek is the strongest and best man I know on Earth. That’s why
I love him so much,” Nova sobbed. She put on her lab coat and adjusted her
glasses. “Goodbye, kids,” she said.
“GOODBYE, MOMMY!” yelled all of them at
once.
Nova saluted her children, and on that
note, she left.
TO BE CONTINUED…..