THE MIDNIGHT HOUR
A Star Blazers short tale
By Frederick P. "Freddo" Kopetz
Thanks to Gail Kopetz, Jamie Tucker, "Yuki Wildstar", Tom Szcepkowski, and “Anonymous Reader” for support and ear-bending.
Special thanks to Cathy Nakahara for artwork contributed to this chapter.
___________________________________________________________
ACT EIGHT: MIDNIGHT
_______________________________________________________________
Bolar Black Hole Fortress
The Edge of the Sirius Star System
May 31, 2214
0620 Hours: Earth Time
________________________________________________________________
On the Bolar Black Hole Fortress, Admiral Abdulov was speaking on the screen with Admiral Derek Wildstar from his quarters on the Argo. Nova, on the North Carolina, was also patched into the conversation, and appeared on the other side of both Abdulov’s and Derek’s screen.
“I have to make this quick,” Admiral Abdulov said. “I’m asking that you, Nova, and Sasha come aboard my vessel with that large Pellian, Grimslade.”
“That could be done,” said Derek. “Nova, are you feeling well enough to teleport us over to his ship in a stealth operation?”
“I’ll let you know that in a minute, Derek,” Nova said with a wink. Then, she vanished from the screen on the North Carolina, and, a moment later, she and Vlaner were on board the Argo beside Derek. “Is that quick enough for you?” Nova said as she stood there in her uniform jacket, cap, white slacks, and boots, sans her glasses. She was holding an AK-01 carbine that she tossed to Vlaner.
“I will have cover for this…or, rather, I’d like to propose the following cover for this,” said Vlaner. “I’ll pretend that I’ve captured you, Admiral, along with Nova and Sasha. We only need Grimslade as backup in case this doesn’t work.”
“That doesn’t sound like a bad idea,” said Admiral Wildstar as he stood up and took Nova’s cap off her head and set it on the table. “Admiral Abdulov, expect us shortly, if you don’t mind.”
“I will let the cyborgs that Ekogaru is working through know that we shall have a great victory,” said Abdulov. “Then, when he is off-balance, you bring them over, Vlaner…as your ‘prisoners’, so-called.”
“I understand,” the R’Khell replied as the Bolar Admiral cut off the transmission at his end. “Admiral Wildstar, where is your Iscandarian Princess?”
“My bridge,” he said. “Pardon me, please.” At that, Derek called Rosstowski, and quickly explained the plan to him and to Sasha.
“Well, I’m not sure I like the idea that much,” said Sasha. “But I guess I can role-play so long as you’re both there, Uncle and Auntie.”
“Oh, we will be there,” Nova said as she handed Vlaner her sidearm, which he put in a pocket of his cloak. “See you soon…my fellow “prisoner”,” Nova said.
“I hope this works,” Sasha said.
“Me too,” Nova said as Vlaner saluted Derek and Nova and then left them alone.
Nova sat down at the table in Derek’s quarters on the Argo and she and Derek held hands as she sat near him. Then, Derek embraced his fellow Captain and spouse as he prayed out loud.
Artwork: “Two Captains” © 2021 by Cathy Nakahara (Commission). Used by permission.
“O, Lord, I make the following prayer,” Derek said. “We are about
to descend together into the lion’s den, to fight the Dark Lord himself,
through cyborgs he has possessed…”
Nova then prayed, “Lord, we are about to face evil together. As You taught us to pray so long ago, ‘Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil…’”
Derek looked into Nova’s eyes and then looked upwards. “…For Thine is…”
Both of them then prayed, “…the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, forever and ever. We ask this in our Savior’s name, AMEN.”
Derek then made a fist as Nova snuggled against him and she said, “He will be with us, and we will be together. Even if we…somehow…don’t survive this…”
“We shall be together,” Derek said. “Until the end…whatever the Almighty decrees for us…”
Nova then looked into her husband’s eyes and she kissed him.
Derek returned the kiss, and said, “Let me hold you…just a minute longer…”
“Am I protesting?” Nova said softly.
“No,” Derek said.
“Then let’s enjoy this warm, gentle moment…” Nova said. “…before we descend into Hell.”
They snuggled in a moment that seemed utterly timeless.
Then, a heavy knock came at the hatch.
“Enter,” Derek snapped as Nova kissed Derek one last time and gently took his sidearm and holster from the outside of his coat to the inside, where she attached it to his belt on his uniform slacks and carefully hid it under his open peacoat.
Vlaner came in, nudging Sasha with his borrowed carbine as she stood there with her hands on her head, as if she had been captured.
“You don’t have to make this so realistic,” Sasha snapped.
“This has to look like a fight,” Vlaner said. “Admiral Wildstar, please forgive me…” he said.
“Forgive what?” Derek said, right as Vlaner punched him in the mouth.
“You dirty son of a bitch!” Derek snapped as he staggered against the table, with a fresh cut on his lip.
“Derek…this has to look convincing,” Nova said. “Vlaner, right before we teleport, please hit me.”
“Where?” he said.
“My cheek,” Nova said as she pointed at her left cheek.
Vlaner then hauled off and punched her in the side of her face.
“NOVA!” yelled Derek.
“I’m…fine,” she said as she staggered and landed against her husband. “Inside of my mouth is cut, too,” she said as she spat blood onto the deck. “Sorry ‘bout the mess…”
“Very good,” said Vlaner as he grabbed Nova and Derek from behind. “Nova, we’ll both do this…on three…”
“One…two…”
“Three,” said Vlaner.
At that, they all vanished from the Captain’s Quarters of the Argo…
….and reappeared in a dizzy haze on the bridge of the Bolar Black Hole Fortress.
“My Lord!” said Vlaner as he shoved the Wildstars right towards Count Prencov, Admiral Rosskovsky, and Admiral Abdulov. “Lord Ekogaru, look who I have captured!”
Ekogaru possessed Count Prencov, and the Wildstars and Sasha shivered as they heard the Dark Lord’s foul and deep voice coming from the cyborg monster that they were forced to kneel before.
“Ah, yes…three little birds, nicely caught in a net,” said Ekogaru as he bent down and caressed Sasha’s chin. “My little Iscandarian princess…a little bird who has pecked at me one too many times for comfort,” said the Dark Lord. “You’ll pay for it in my dungeons on R’Khell’eva, because you shall be the first one that I subject to vivisection in my Houses of Lamentation as I take your flesh and cut you apart to make a nice little cyborg from you. You shall be a nice little slave.”
“Like hell!” snapped Sasha as she spat on the Dark Lord.
“BITCH!” said Ekogaru as he grabbed Sasha by her long hair and smashed her face into the deck. “Hell take you for that arrogance!”
Then, he turned to Admiral Wildstar. “My dear, dear Derek,” Ekogaru said as he caressed Wildstar’s cheek. “You and Nova here met me years ago and you disgraced me before my own servants. Remember that?”
“I wish we could do it all over again!” Derek said. “This jackass behind me has beaten me up, and given me a concussion, see…my mouth is bleeding?”
“Yes, wonderful,” said Ekogaru as he patted Derek’s cheek and then slapped him hard across the face. “SCUM! You’ll be the second one I’ll cut up! I think I’ll possess your wife then and make her HELP cut you to pieces! Like the idea of surgery without anesthesia?”
“You’re sick,” said Derek.
“Why, thank you for the compliment!” Then, Ekogaru turned to Nova. “Oh, my dear High Queen,” he said as he grabbed Nova under her armpits and dragged her to her feet. “It looks like you got a nasty boo-boo fighting Vlaner. Look at that bruise on your cheek! It looks…sexy…”
“I…would…like…to spit…on you…God forgive me,” Nova said.
“C’mon, show me what you really think, bitch!” laughed Ekogaru.
Nova promptly spat on the cyborg; that is, Count Prencov, the current host of the Dark Lord Ekogaru.
He responded by simply kicking her.
Nova writhed on the deck in pain, moaning.
“YOU BASTARD!” Derek said as he struggled free and grabbed a scimitar from one of the R’Khell guards. “You…you…hurt her!” he howled as he took a good swing at the Dark Lord.
Ekogaru tried to fend him off with his arm, but Derek swung with such rage that he took his arm off.
Nova then struggled up, coughing because the Dark Lord’s kick had hit her in her solar plexus, but she screamed and blasted fire into the cyborg’s face.
Count Prencov screamed and roared as Ekogaru cut the link with the mortally wounded cyborg and left him to his fate. Indeed, the Dark Lord was somewhat stunned himself by the ferocity of the Wildstars’ resistance.
Prencov then spoke himself. “I would have you know I’m dying. But they say a wounded animal is extremely dangerous. YOU ARE ABOUT TO LEARN WHY!!”
He snarled and aimed a lightning bolt from his hand at Nova.
Sasha jumped in and blocked it with her hand, which was gleaming white. The energy bolt flew up into the overhead.
In the meantime, the R’Khell guards were howling and attacking Derek and Nova with their scimitars.
The Wildstars met, touching back-to-back as Derek readied his scimitar and said, “Well, here we go again, huh?”
“Seems we always end up like this,” Nova snorted as she whipped her own crystal sword out of the pocket dimension around herself; just in time because she parried a blow that would have taken her head off.
“Not my idea of a romantic date, love,” Derek said as he took a R’Khell priest’s head off. “I prefer a beach at sunset myself.”
“With a fire and a sleeping bag!” Nova laughed as she ran a R’Khell priest through.
“Don’t forget the weenie roast!” yelled Derek.
“What is…this…weenie roast…?” said a perplexed R’Khell.
“Pity you’ll never find out, Mergin!” said Vlaner as he whipped Mergin’s head off with his own scimitar. “I like hot dogs. These two showed up at our camp once in the R’Khell Union and they had a weenie roast for us after we killed twelve of you scum and had underground church!”
“Where?” roared another priest.
“You don’t need to know, ugly!” Derek said as he took the R’Khell’s hands off and Nova and Sasha finished him off with a psionic crossfire of green energy from their left hands, as Abdulov shot at Prencov with his sidearm and finished him off.
“Oh, Vlaner, you’re a R’Khell after my own heart,” Nova said as she winked at her red-clad comrade. “I’ll get you liking spicy brown mustard one of these days!”
“I’ll destroy your BRAIN!” roared a R’Khell priest as he fired red energy from his hands at Vlaner, who absorbed them into his chest and fired them back.
“TRAITOR!” roared the R’Khell before he died.
“Sorry, Giorgio, I serve a Higher Authority now,” Vlaner said. “Oops, Admiral Wildstar. I think Giorgio is sort of dead.”
The remaining cyborg, Duke Hansa said, “I cannot reconnect to the Dark LORD!”
“Too bad; Nova and I will raise glasses of pink lemonade in Giorgio’s memory!” Derek laughed. “Hey, Nova, are there beaches on Sirius V since we, the Gamilons, and the Pellians Terraformed the place? It used to be a cold rock, but now…it’s like North Carolina down there around New Southport.”
“YUP!” Nova said. “I have a swimsuit packed away on the North Carolina, hon. That old floral thing I wore on Iscandar years ago,” she said as she thrusted at another R’Khell trooper and ran him through. “Oh, Vlaner, are you baptized yet?”
“Nope,” he said.
“We’ll have to take care of that, hmm?” Nova said. “I could use a hoagie right now!”
“What is this hoagie, you demented heretic filth?” roared a R’Khell trooper who raised his hand and was trying to strangle Nova with his power.
Nova gasped, broke the psi-stranglehold on her neck, and said as she stabbed at her seven-foot-tall tormentor, catching him in the arm, while he stabbed at her with his scimitar, “A Hoagie is a collection of Italian meats, Provolone Cheese, Lettuce, Tomato, Onions and Pickles, buddy…” He was amazed she was cool enough to continue her conversation during the fight as she dodged a laser bolt from another trooper that Derek brought down with a blast from his Astro-Automatic and then she said, “…the sandwich is served on a long roll, also known as a hero sandwich, submarine sandwich, grinder, et cetera. They’re delicious!”
“You little shit!” he said as Nova, all of about five-feet-six in height, slapped away his grabbing hand and stomped on his sandaled toes with her boot heel.
In the meantime, Abdulov howled and shot at two R’Khell priests from behind a panel before they could kill him.
“Thank you, Bolar Admiral!” sang Sasha.
“Don’t mention it,” said Abdulov.
In the meantime, the R’Khell that Nova was fighting roared and pulled her hair. She slapped him away and drove him back with her power with an upraised hand. Nova smiled with approval as she felt Matrix energy leaving her while Derek did the same thing with the priest he was fighting.
Reminds you of Star Wars, huh, Peppermint? Derek sent into her mind.
You’re two for two, love! Great! Nova sent back into her husband’s mind. Then, she said out loud, “Okay, you R’Khell fanatic! Hoagies! It’s too bad I can’t give you one, because you have made it necessary for me to kill you!” Nova said as she knocked his scimitar out of his hand but watched as he got a whip out with his other hand. He hit her legs with a crack of his whip, making her cry out; but her slacks protected her from the worst of the damage. “Best you’ll get in the next five minutes is a cup of lava in Hell!” Nova said as she cut the enemy priest’s whip hand off and then ran through the R’Khell with her saber. Nova then looked at her handiwork while she caught her breath.
This swordcraft gets awfully exhausting, Nova thought. I wonder why Professor Tolkien never brought that up when Aragorn or Frodo were swinging at somebody?
Then, she, Derek, Sasha, Vlaner, and Abdulov and Rosskovsky looked around the bridge of the ship at the four survivors and one living wounded cyborg while Rosskovsky yelled, “ANYONE ELSE WANT TO PLAY GAMES WID US?”
“Hell take you traitors, loons and idiots!” snapped Duke Hansa. “You will see us again on another ship! AND SOON!” he screamed as he clapped his metal hands and he and the surviving R’Khells (except for Vlaner and one other, who were no longer under his spiritual control) vanished.
The Terrans, Iscandarian, and Bolar gathered around the remaining R’Khell with weapons and sidearms drawn. Vlaner asked him, “Donlits? How come you didn’t run with the other deluded rats!”
“I repented, Vlaner! I prayed to Him! I want to be on the right side!” he whimpered.
“You shot at me! I should break your neck!” Derek snapped as he grabbed Donlits’ robes.
“Derek, he surrendered! Let him GO, for heaven’s sakes!” Nova said.
“Yeah…okay,” Derek said as he pushed him away. “Watch him, Nova! He could be playing some lousy trick on us!”
Nova smiled and looked at the trembling man who was her enemy up until a minute ago and gave him a hug. “Welcome to the family…was that Donlits?”
“Yes, ma’am, Razion Donlits,” he said as he ripped off the upside-down pentacle pendant that showed his prior loyalty to Ekogaru and his demon friends.
“Nova, did he really repent?” Derek said as he kept his sidearm focused on Donlits.
“Oh, he repented alright; I heard him praying in my mind during the battle.”
“Nova, ma’am, would you make me a hoagie later?” asked Donlits.
“I sure will,” she said with a laugh as Rosskovsky received a transmission from his Chief Master at Arms. “Admiral! All of the boarders have left the Fortress! We are free!”
The group applauded. Sasha threw up her arms and screamed “YES!” in triumph as Derek and Nova shared a big kiss.
--------------------------------------
II. WE WON…NOW WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?
Earth Governor-General’s Office
The City of New Southport
Alpha Sirius V
June 1, 2214
0900 Hours: Earth Time
________________________________________________________________
Maybe twenty-four hours after the end of the Battle of Sirius, Derek, Nova, Venture, Rosskovsky, Abdulov, Vlaner, and Grimslade Halleck were standing in uniform in the office of Terran Governor-General Hallie Cheland.
The woman, a little older than Nova, had on a women’s business suit, vest, and heels as she shook hands with each member of the group, congratulating each of them. “It’s good to be back up from the small underground city we built here ever since the Gamilons and Pellians improved this place. Since there are no Gamilons present, I extend my thanks to the R’Khell, Bolar, and Pellian representatives, as well as to of course, our proven heroes, Admiral Wildstar, Commodore Venture, and the lovely Commodore Wildstar,” said the stately woman with a smile on her dark-skinned face below her trim dreadlocks. “Commodore,” she said to Nova in the sense of one woman speaking to another, “I like your skirt and shoes.”
“Thank you, ma’am,” Nova said. “Derek bought them for me this morning in the nice little mall you have here. You’ve done wonders with this city! How many settlements are here now? I’m sorry, but given my lines of work, I haven’t had time to keep up with your civilian development here.”
“Just two,” said Cheland. “This city, with a Terran and a Gamilon base north of it, and a smaller city, called New Allentown, north of that.”
“Ma’am, why New Allentown?” said Venture.
“I grew up in the Lehigh Valley before the planet bombings,” said Cheland with a laugh. “Allentown, or Allensburg as they call it now, is sort of a mess, with the Josiahites occupying it for so long as a base, so we rebuilt the Queen City here, although we put it near the coast. The Mayors of New Southport and New Allentown got into a friendly game of table tennis to decide who would host your group, and the Mayor of New Allentown won. There are docks there near the coast, so he’d like you to land your vessels near the city and he leased out a whole hotel and ballroom for your group near the beach. Each Commander has their own suite. The two Wildstars’ suites have a door between them, of course,” said Cheland with a bow.
“Tell the Mayor we don’t need that much room, even though we anticipate the hospitality,” Derek said. “Nova and I can easily occupy one suite together…and…Nova…what’s that?” Derek said as he felt Nova tapping his shoulder.
“Derek, I called Miarahl and the kids this morning from the North Carolina,” Nova whispered in his ear.
“I’m sorry, Governor, the Commodore and I can work this out quickly,” Derek said. “Please excuse us a moment,” while he motioned Nova out of the office. Outside, he looked at her and said, “If I remember correctly, they’re on vacation on Aphrodite, the L-5 Colony orbiting Venus near the new solar energy station, right? I mean, we got the tickets before I had to leave, and I told you that you and Miarahl were to take the kids anyway with the Valor Week recess from school, right?”
Nova nodded. “Miarahl and the kids left for Venus-Aphrodite in a space liner last night on Valor Day,” Nova said, referring to the worldwide twenty-third century equivalent of the old American holiday of Memorial Day. In honor of all of the planet’s military and civilian dead from all wars, there were religious services, civic assemblies and the like, and school was called off for several days or a whole week. It was very common for families to go on vacation a day after Valor Day itself in an unofficial kickoff of summer in the Northern Hemisphere. “You know we were going to spend Valor Week on Aphrodite with all the kids and take them to Zero One Zero Gee Park, right?”
“Right, but…?”
“Well, why don’t we give the kids a vacation within a vacation and bring them here to Alpha Sirius with us for a few days? And I can pick up Mark and Holly’s daughter, too?”
“Okay, Nova, how do you plan to get to Earth from here and back on a vacation trip?” Derek said.
Nova tapped the side of her head. “Matrix teleport! Since I know where everyone is…Miarahl can help, although I’ll ask Mark and Holly to warn their daughter, who might be a little surprised if I pop into her bedroom from nowhere.”
“Nova, your ideas are crazy….” Derek said.
“Sooo?” Nova said, giving Derek a pout.
“But they are cute. The kids will love it! We’ll talk with Holly and Mark later!”
“I’ll do it, Derek. You’ve got things to do. I think I’ll bring the kids aboard the North Carolina when we get her to New Allentown. They’d probably LOVE to see where Mommy is working now!”
“Proud Momma,” joked Derek. “Okay, Mommy, take us back in there.”
“I don’t know whether I want to kiss you or hit you,” Nova teased as she put her hand on the doorknob of Governor Cheland’s office.
“We apologize for the delay,” Derek said as he came back in with Nova.
“No problem,” said Cheland. “Admiral Rosskovsky was discussing the Bolar Government.”
“This should be interesting,” said Derek as he sat down after helping Nova into a chair.
“The Bolar Federation, you know, is what you’d call an evil power,” said Rosskovsky. “We have a Premier, or Prime Minister, who is the head of our Presidium, a Revolutionary Council. We had a cruel but respected Premier up to 2208 known as Bemlayze.”
“I heard of him,” said Grimslade, who spoke up. “Queen Astrena had a lot of trouble with him. The High Queen has yet to be told the full tale.”
“And why would you hide something from your mighty Tsarina?” barked Rosskovsky. “Ekogaru told us she is like a god, but a deranged god!”
Nova looked hard at Derek and he nodded. “I know of the High Queen. Derek and I met her beforehand. She likes to remain behind the scenes because her major job is fighting Ekogaru. Also, she has not assumed her Throne yet, but when the day comes when she does pass her tests and assumes that Throne, almost no one in the civilized Galaxy will be unaware of who she is, I’d bet.”
“But doesn’t she govern?” snapped Rosskovsky. “She…”
“Peace!” said Grimslade with a tone that brooked no monkeying around. “The Ruling Queen, Astrena, governs all politics, for the most part, except in severe cases. The High Queen reigns. She does not rule ordinarily since her job is destroying Ekogaru and his works. There is a heavy price on her head, and she desires to remain hidden!” barked Grimslade. “Even if Ekogaru may have let that cat out of the bag for you.”
“Please, leave it be,” said Vlaner. “I know that many here know her identity already, Out of respect for her, and so as not to surprise or alarm some of you,” said the R’Khell as he gazed very hard at Mark Venture and Governor Cheland and then gazed hard at Derek and Nova to keep up what he darn well knew had to be a façade, “let us speak no more about the High Queen’s identity except to say she actually walks among us, wearing many guises, and could well be walking down a street in New Allentown in a few hours eating an ice cream cone and you’d never know it!”
“This sounds strange,” said Mark Venture.
Nova turned on him and said, “Mark, going back to Terran mythology, do you think Peter Parker lets every Tom, Dick and Harry know he’s Spider-Man? Let’s just say Her Majesty is gonna find out what’s going on here, one way or another.”
“Nova, I like you, but sometimes you’re one strange lady,” said Mark.
“You don’t want to get High Tsarina mad at you,” blurted out Abdulov. “Trust me. She and I have met.”
Mark rolled up his eyes, getting an image of this High Queen as being some mystical figure like Starsha in some tower when in fact, unknown to him, she was sitting right next to him popping a piece of bubble gum into her mouth!
“Back to the story of Bemlayze?” said Derek.
Rosskovsky nodded. “Bemlayze was deposed and exiled by a new politician who became Premier in his place named Halleze. Halleze turned out to be just as cruel as Bemlayze. He had fun wiping out two Rikashan and one Galman-Gamilon world with proton missiles. Not a nice man at all. Unfortunately, it turned out Bemlayze was plotting behind the scenes for his old job, and he used his secret police, got his job back, and then he spaced Halleze right out of his flagship in his undershorts. They say it was a horrible sight watching Halleze die. Since then, Bemlayze and Ekogaru have been very friendly, and I believe Bemlayze and Ekogaru sent us here to start a major campaign of conquest, until all of you showed us how crazed Ekogaru is, and that he means no good even for the Bolar Federation! So, at some point…we have to stop this and overthrow Bemlayze.”
“Could you attack his capital?” Derek suggested as Nova squeezed his hand. “I mean…just his capital city? Not the whole home world?”
“Nice you added that,” said Abdulov tartly. “Whole galaxy knows what you did to Gamilon…POOF!” laughed the Bolar Admiral. “Not to mention what you all did to make the Gatlanteans look stupid twice and to beat Ekogaru! All of you…you’re all crazy witches and warlocks and sorcerers?” he said as he made the sign of the Evil Eye at Nova.
“You know I’m not evil,” Nova snorted.
“Did you put Iscandarian juju in his oatmeal, Nova?” asked Mark.
“Pellian and you know the story, Mark,” Nova said tartly. “Now be quiet and listen to Abdulov, please?”
“Thank you, Commodore,” said Abdulov.
“How do we get to Bemlayze and cause some regime change?” Derek snapped.
“That’s a tall order, Wildstar!” said Grimslade. “Are you out of your mind?”
“He has a different mind, Grimslade,” said Nova.
“He has rocks in his head, wanting to start a war!” barked Grimslade.
“You people started it!” Derek barked at the Bolars.
“Not us, we took orders which were really deluded!” barked Rosskovsky.
“Derek, would you screw your head on straight?” Mark snapped.
“Oh, he will, when he gets around to it!” Nova said with a sidelong smile. “Let him talk. I think he’s attempting to make a point!”
“Okay. Rosskovsky,” said Derek. “Let’s back up a bit. How many people in your interstellar nation hate Bemlayze?”
“Many,” said Rosskovsky. “But even though we are atheists, officially, there are a lot of secret believers around in your gods, but also many who believe in Ekogaru in secret. The regime could be changed, but it would probably take many years, and besides, Bemlayze is all over the place and not always in his capital. Attack his capital and he probably wouldn’t be there, and he’d make it a propaganda point about how bloodthirsty all of you are like he is doing with the Gamilons now.”
“So, he could be brought down?” Nova interjected.
“Yes, but would not be easy,” said Abdulov. “However, there are more like us. We feed you intelligence. When day comes, you strike! Unless the regime falls on its own, that is. Much discontent there is. I think one day the Presidium may grow sick of Bemlayze, especially after a major military loss like this one, and they will put Bemlayze against wall and pop goes weasel, and they shoot him DEAD!”
“Okay…this…was…interesting,” said Governor-General Cheland. “Now shall we go and have morning tea?”
“I want vodka,” said Abdulov.
“This early in the morning?” teased Admiral Wildstar.
“If it gets any deeper around here, I may want some,” said Mark.
“Later,” Nova said. “Actually, me, you, and Derek can meet up with Holly and finish up that Zinfandel you gave me.”
“Not a bad idea,” Derek said. “Let’s go to tea.”
“You people are…interesting,” said Cheland. “But, hey! We owe ya our lives here!”
Derek smiled at that.
TO BE CONTINUED…
TO BE CONTINUED….