Attack and Counterattack

Attack and Counterattack

A Speed Racer Fanfic by "Freddo"

Chapter Ten: "A Snake in the Grass"

-----------------------------------------------------

Reiterating some copyrights and credits....

Thanks, everyone, for your continued encouragement, patience and patronage. Thanks for the reviews, and to you, Gold Angel, thanks for the tapes and other research tools. I'm sorry I've been away from updating for so long, but I wanted to make this one worth it. We are about two chapters away from the end now. I wanted to set up an ending that will be worth everyone's while.

Enjoy! More coming soon...

...Freddo

July 15, 1968

Space Battleship Argo

Sick Bay

Snake Oiler slowly opened his eyes.

He gazed up at a vision of loveliness as a concerned Nova Wildstar stood there in her white nurses' tunic sponging his face.

"Where am I? Is this some hospital?"

"No, it's the Sickbay of the Argo," said Nova.

She noticed him trying to get up, which would not be good in his current condition; after all, he had just been operated on.

He's probably trying to leer at my legs, she thought, so she said, "Snake, don't move."

"Huh?"

"Your midsection is bandaged. Moving too much too soon could pull out your sutures! We just got you here in time."

"Why?"

"You were bleeding internally from damage to your organs. The Master's attack didn't fully cauterize everything, so we had to give you blood. In fact, you're still getting some."

"Whose blood?" muttered Snake as he looked up at the bottle that was still dripping blood into his veins.

"Mine," said Speed as he came in.

"Yours, Racer? Is this some kind of joke?" asked Snake.

"Not at all," said Speed as he pointed at his inner elbow, exposed in his Go Team blue racing shirt. It was bandaged. "I'm one of the people here who had your blood type."

"Who's the other sucker?" asked Snake. "I...?"

Then, he looked at Nova's arm. It was exposed in her nurses' tunic, and it was also bandaged. "Oh, you...Why?"

"I don't even like to see snakes die without reason," said Nova as a short, odd little man came into the room.

The little man had no hair left save for a fringe around the back of his head; he was chubby, and looked a bit like a Japanese version of Danny DeVito.

"Who are you?" asked Snake.

"Doctor Sakezo Sane, chief surgeon here," said the little man in an angry, high-pitched voice. "If it wouldn't have been for myself and Nova working on you, you would have died two hours ago! If that's all the gratitude you can show to two people who have just saved your life, you are one of the most sorry examples of humanity I've ever seen!"

"I'll live; you two jerks don't have to baby me," sneered Snake. "Being a nurse or a doctor is for losers."

"Is that so?" said Nova as she squeezed her sponge into a basin. "You just soiled yourself not too long ago. Who do you think cleaned you up, Mister Strong Man? Huh?"

"Women," he sneered. "Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em," sneered Snake.

"Oh?" said Trixie Shimura as she came in with a bouquet of flowers for Snake's bedside vase. "Maybe you don't want these flowers, Snake?"

"They're probably full of bugs," he sneered.

"Well, take them, then!" huffed Trixie as she threw the flowers on his bed. "C'mon, Speed. Even in his state, Snake must not want visitors. Nova, Dr. Sane, thank you for the medical treatment for Oiler."

"Why are you thanking me?" said Sane.

"It's obvious that he won't," said Trixie as she took Speed's hand and led him out of the compartment towards a sliding door that whirred open at their approach. "Speed, let's go."

"How's the Mach Five doing?" asked Trixie as they slowly walked down one of the Argo's vast curved corridors, marveling at the strange sounds and smells aboard the vast interstellar battleship.

"Fine, I think. Sparky got her up on a lift inside this ship's Mechanical Engineering section, and he found some front end damage that needs work."

"Oh? How bad is it?"

"On our trip here, she hit a hole in the bed of Lake Ontario, and a stabilizer arm was damaged. Luckily, the ship's Science Officer and Mechanical Engineering Chief says that he can easily make a new stabilizer arm out of the ship's stores and that he and Sparky can get it back on."

"What's the Science Officer's name?"

"Sandor. He's a very tall man with a crew cut and no eyebrows. I wonder what happened to him?"

"I don't know. I've been walking around the ship a little, and I've noticed a lot of things that are very strange," said Trixie. "Like, all the people with long hair. No military outfit in our time would allow that. And I've never seen a garden inside a warship before."

"Garden?"

Trixie nodded. "There's where I found those flowers. They also seem to grow all sorts of vegetables there. I wonder why they need to grow things?"

"It must be for their food supply or something," said Speed. "If this ship really sails the stars, there must be months, maybe even years, where they're unable to stop anywhere for supplies. Where's Spritle and Chim-Chim?"

"Nova and I made sure they were locked in a cabin as soon as we got into the ship. I hope they're not causing trouble."

"Me too."

"Let me out!" yelled Spritle as he banged at the hatch with his foot while Chim-Chim made all sorts of howling noises. He hadn't appreciated being locked inside this empty crew member's compartment by Trixie and the other woman, both of whom had told him to stay in there and not cause any mischief. Neither of those women were his mother! "C'mon, you people, I'm hungry! Let me out of here!"

"Chim-Chim, we've gotta get out of here," yelled Spritle as he kicked the hatch again. "This metal door is sure..."

The hatch whizzed open before a surprised Spritle's eyes. Before the boy could react, he found that he was looking up at a tall, authoritative figure. "Are you the one making all that racket in there?" snapped the tall young man in the black officers' jacket.

"Oh...Captain Wildstar, sir. Uh...sir, Speed's girlfriend and your lady friend in the yellow outfit locked me in here, sir. Can you see to it they're punished?"

"No, I won't see to that," said Commodore Wildstar.

"Why...uh...not...?" asked Spritle as he looked behind Wildstar and found that Nova and Trixie were behind him along with Speed.

"They locked you in here on my orders to keep you out of trouble until we took a tour of the ship," said Commodore Wildstar. "Now, would you like to stay in there, or join your brother on the tour?"

"Sir, I'd rather join the tour. Can you get me some candy?"

Behind Commodore Wildstar, Trixie giggled. "Always thinking with your stomach, Spritle. That'll be up to the Commodore later."

"I don't have candy around, but we can give you some of my fresh-grown fruit if you're both good," said Nova.

"That sounds cool!" said Spritle. "Where does the tour begin?"

"Right now," said Wildstar. "Follow me."

Speed and the others weren't happy when Wildstar showed up with Spritle and Chim-Chim in tow. But, before they could argue, Wildstar said, "You'll pardon me...but we have things to do. Let's go. We have a number of stops to make."

The tour took a while. After a dinner in the Argo's messhall, the 20th century visitors were taken in an elevator to a rather large room inside the Argo's bowels.

"We didn't see this room before," said Spritle as he looked up at several racks of sky-blue and black planes.

"You came in through the front compartment, that's why," said the Commodore.

"Why do you have all of these planes?" asked Trixie.

"For the same reason you have planes on an aircraft carrier of your time," said Nova. "They serve as one of our attack arms, and as part of our defenses. Next, we'll go see Mechanical Engineering."

"What's there?" asked Trixie.

"Something I think you'll like," said Nova.

"Groovy!" replied Spritle.

A few minutes later, they stood in a long room looking at a very long machine.

"What's this?" asked Speed.

"Our automated production line, or Dynamic-do-all as I call it," said Sandor. "Let's say that we...uh, need a new missile for one of our planes, and we have component parts." Sandor began to program a button-covered control panel. "I call up the plans for one with these buttons, and...watch..."

Sandor programmed the device, and a short time later, Speed, Trixie, Sparky and Spritle watched in surprise as the machine went to work. Hunks of scrap and strange substances went in one end of the unit. Metal was smelted, made up, and through viewports they could see that a warhead was made, an engine and guidance system were fabricated, and the missile was painted, and a finished missile came out the conveyor belt on the other end. "How do you like that?" said Sandor with a smile.

"Wow, I think you could put most of the factories of Detroit out of business with this!" said Sparky.

"Have you made more complex items, like, say, a race car?" asked Speed.

"He's done that and more," said Commodore Wildstar.

"It took a little while because we built her in four sections," said Sandor, "But once, when we were on a deep-space mission, we collected asteroids and space junk and made two replacement Cosmo Tiger planes out of them. Also, there were times when the Argo took many bad hits in battle, and we built replacement components for her with this. We never would have survived our missions without this replicating technology."

"What else can you make out of this?" asked Trixie.

Nova stood in her nurses' dress with a finger against her lip. Finally, she turned to Derek.

"I have an idea," she whispered.

"What?"

"Can I make her something? Something she can take home with her after we get that sphere to El Tigre?"

"What? Nova, I hope it doesn't involve our technology...we can't give them our..."

"I know. This is my idea." She whispered something in Derek's ear, and he agreed with a nod.

"What are you talking about?" Trixie asked.

"I'm going to make you something for a little party I'd like to have. Derek, while the Mach Five is being repaired, can we give them a party in the holography room?"

"I guess we could," said Derek. "Sandor?"

"The ship needs some repair and tuning work overnight. A break in routine would be good for the crew."

"Good," said Derek. "Nova, permission is granted for your party."

"Thank you," she said.

"Now what are you making me?" asked Trixie.

"Well, your outfit looks a little sweaty. I was thinking of putting on a nice dress for the party. Would you like one?"

"Sure! But how would you make me a dress down here in this factory?"

"Stand over there and I'll show you," said Nova with a cute smile.

Trixie did so, and Nova threw some raw cloth and vinyl into one end.

A moment later, Trixie felt herself being scanned from head to toe by some low-intensity blue scanning beams that ran a pattern up her body. Nova and Sandor pushed some buttons and looked up some templates on a screen.

"Which one?" asked Sandor. "You're better at this stuff than I am?"

"The design I made the other day, number fifteen," said Nova. "Here we go."

A moment alter, the machine got to work. Trixie watched through the viewports as the cloth and vinyl were made into...something. They were cut, fabricated, and shaped. Trixie began to smile as she guessed what it was...and grinned as a yellow sundress and white sandals came out the other end of the machine.

"Those are for you, Trixie." said Nova, who didn't tell her that they were leftovers from when the machine had been put to work making her and Derek twentieth-century clothes for this mission. "Consider it a little gift from us."

"Thank you," said Trixie. "Uh..Speed, mind if I go somewhere to change?"

"Can I watch?" he said with a wink.

Trixie playfully clouted him. "Silly, we aren't that close, yet! No, you can't," she said primly. "Nova...?"

"There's a locker room over there," said Nova. "Go in there and I'll stand guard at the door."

Trixie winked at Speed, who winked back. She slipped off to change. When the door closed, Sparky made as if he wanted to follow Trixie in, but Nova put out her booted foot and said, "Nope. Women only."

"Sparky, why would you want to do that?" demanded Speed.

"Just kidding around, Speed! It's been a while since I've seen a pretty girl..."

"Not my Trix," snapped Speed.

"Hey, you need a girl, get a girlfriend," said Nova happily.

"I'm just busting Speed's chops," said Sparky.

"Yeah?" said Spritle. "She's a future relative, take that and that and that!" he yelled while punching Sparky in the legs while Chim-Chim hollered and hooted.

Everyone laughed at this.

"What do you mean she's a future relative?" asked Speed.

"Well, aren't you two gonna get married someday?" asked Spritle.

"Huh?" said Speed with a look of shock on his face.

"I mean, ain't you two gonna get married and have kids?" asked Spritle. Then, he looked at Derek and Nova. "I'm sure they're gonna have kids soon."

"Uh, not yet," said Nova as she felt herself blushing. Then, she said, "Speed, Trixie does love you a great deal. Haven't you noticed?"

"Why are you saying that?"

"You're blushing worse than I am," said Nova. "In fact, you're as red as a tomato."

"I am not."

"Derek, isn't he red?" teased Nova. "And you should know why he's red..."

"Uhhh," said Commodore Wildstar.

Nova looked at Speed and Derek with some amusement. "Both of you are a little dense in that department. I once hinted to Derek not long after we met that I wanted a certain boy to fall in love with me, and he had no idea who I was talking about."

"Who were you talking about?" said Derek with a wink.

Nova rolled up her eyes. "You, you big, silly..."

At that, the door to the locker room opened, and Speed's eyes went wide.

Trixie came out with a little grin on her face, her usual clothes over her arm, while wearing her new clothes. "How do you like these, Speed?"

Speed began to grin as Trixie put down her old apparel and did a little pirouette, showing her leg for a moment as the skirt flounced over her knee for a second. The yellow sundress showed off Trixie's neckline to some advantage, and the low white sandals Nova had made looked about as easy to walk in as her usual loafers, but rather more feminine and very practical; Nova herself wore the same style sometimes when standing for hours assisting Doctor Sane with operations.

"My God, Trix, you look like a girl!" laughed Sparky.

"Didn't I look like one before? HMPH!" said Trixie with her nose in the air. Then, she flipped the skirt around. "Speed? Do you like it?"

"I love it," said Speed. "You look...great! Uhhh...can I make a comparison?"

"Yes?"

"You kinda look like Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday in that dress."

"I do?"

"But you look even better," said Speed softly. He showed his appreciation for Trixie by giving her a big hug.

"Speed," Trixie replied with eyes brimming with tears for a second. He was making her so happy!

Maybe this day wouldn't be so bad after all; even in this strange place.

Snake Oiler waited until the heads of the medics and nurses were turned. When they turned to work on another patient for a bit, Snake pulled out his IV and blood lines and got up. Gasping with pain, he dressed in his regular racing clothes (although his shirt was still missing) and cobra-like helmet, and then, he staggered out of his area of Sickbay. He noticed fresh blood welling up below his bandages, but he paid it no mind.

He found a bottle of sake' nearby; it was part of the eccentric Doctor Sane's stock. He drank some to fortify his nerves, and then he stole a scalpel. Unnoticed for the moment, he slipped out of Sickbay and began to sidle down one of the curving corridors found in the Argo's living block.

Thoughts of no good ran through his mind.

He thought, If I could steal some of the stuff on this ship and blow this joint, I could make a lot of trouble; maybe even help the other Acrobats get that globe back for us. Wait a minute. Didn't they say that they had that thing on this ship? Or did the old man have it?

I wonder who's got that thing? Snake thought. Now, if I had that.....I could become a king. Even make Father bow down to me! I could even get that weird terrorist guy he knows...the guy with the skull face...I could make him bow down to me! That'd be great!

"Where's this place?" asked Spritle as they came out of a lift a few minutes later. Before them was a staircase.

"The Argo's main operations bridge," said Commodore Wildstar. "We call it 'The First Bridge' here. It's near the top of that command tower I showed you in that painting of the ship down in the messhall."

Derek led the way, followed by Nova and Sandor and the others.

When they stepped through the heavy automatic doors, Sparky got one look at the scene and let out a low whistle. "This looks bigger than what they show on Star Trek!"

"It looks impressive," said Speed. Chim-Chim, walking next to Spritle, let out some excited monkey noises, while Trixie, in her new dress, just looked on with utter rapture.

The bridge was a large room with a red-tiled deck in something of a rectangular shape. Parts of the bulkheads to their left and right and much of the forward wall were actually large picture windows of heavy glass (or a glass-like substance) in armored frames. To their left and right were large greenish computer screens that connected with the windows and took up part of the ceiling, but above the forward bank of windows was a huge screen that extended the width of the bridge. Five control stations, three of which had seats, were right behind that forward bank of windows.

Four more control stations, two to each side, were on the left and right walls. In the middle of the large room stood a large glass hemisphere that glowed with a golden light. Beside it to the left and right were two free-standing control stations with their own heavy seats.

Finally, Commodore Wildstar had them face the aft (or rear) bulkhead, where they had come in at. A very large free-standing control desk sat there, with a single chair behind it, and a heavy bronze bas-relief plaque of an old man above it. The old man wore a jacket somewhat like Derek's and he had a beard and a seafaring Captain's hat on his head. A small light illuminated the portrait with something like reverence.

"Wow! Who's that old man in the picture?" asked Spritle.

"Spritle, be quiet," said Speed.

"I'm not angry," said Nova. "Children have a right to be curious. Derek, let them know who the Captain is? Be careful, of course..."

Derek stood considering. How much of the future should I tell them? he thought. Then, he remembered, They know our most basic story. I can tell them about Avatar, but don't have to give them all of the details. Finally, he turned and said, "That man was Captain Abraham Avatar; this ship's first commander. He led us on our first mission in our time but then finally died of battle wounds and a space illness. We remember him with honor; he was an example to us. Sometimes, we feel like he might be with us?"

"Was he a nice man?" asked Spritle.

"Well, yes. He could be a tough skipper sometimes, but he was very wise," said Derek. "He helped me become much of the man I am today. I still miss him. I think he would have loved to see Nova and I get married."

A moment later, a youngish man with dark hair and a green-on-white uniform stood and placed his fist to his chest in salute. "Sir," he said. Are you returning to duty soon?"

"I was going to let Homer have the Officer of the Deck watch at twenty-three hundred," said Wildstar. "Nova proposed giving a short party for our twentieth-century guests while they're on board ship. These people were recruited to work with the Doctor and INTERPOL in helping us find that sphere that the Doctor asked us to come back into time to retrieve. In fact, they have it."

"I see," said the young man. He then said, "I'm Lieutenant Commander Tetsu Kitano; fourth in command of the Argo during this mission."

The man beside him stood and introduced himself; he was a dark-haired man with a red and white uniform. "I'm Paul Rosstowski, the Combat Group officer of this ship." The others looked surprised when a young woman who looked much like Nova except that she had hair that extended clear down to her waist stood up. She was clad in a black dress and sandals, and looked somewhere between imperious and amused. "I am Aliscea of Pellias, Paul's spouse," she said in a very musical, cultured voice. "From where I come from, I might best be described as a warrior priestess, or maybe a Jedi Knight of sorts."

"What's a "Jedi Knight?" asked Speed."

"Oh, wait, this is...1968," said Aliscea. "We're from...2204...and Star Wars wasn't made until 1977. Forget about what I just said. That movie is a bit beyond your time; it was made around the time that Paul McCartney took his first world tour in years."

"You mean the Beatles are going back on the road?" asked Sparky. "Groovy!"

"Uh, never mind," said Aliscea with a smile. "Long story. Did they release Let it Be yet?"

"No, they're in India with their guru right now," said Sparky.

"Really long story," said Paul Rosstowski with a grin.

Snake Oiler had made his escape.

With a warped smile, he crept down a corridor and opened an access panel. He grinned and began to pull out wires.

Immediately, a series of green lights inside the access panel turned green, along with a series of lights that were in security cameras mounted in the ceilings of the corridor.

Snake walked on, staggering as a black object like an evil stone pillar appeared out of nowhere.

Snake recognized the man who came out at once. "You're the alien guy who double-crossed me! What's your name, anyhow?"

"The Master," said the dark-bearded man with an evil grin. "And, I'd stand in place if I were you."

"Why? So you can burn me again? I know where the globe is. The one everyone wants!"

"Oh? I have some friends who might be very interested in hearing your story."

"Who?"

"Let us say that we made up our differences," said an evil voice as a man in red came out of the Master's TARDIS. He was followed by five others.

"Team Rouge?" asked Snake.

"Aliens like myself," said the Master. "This man is named Karnaz. He says the globe is his by right. You will tell him where it is so he can use it."

"For what purpose?" asked Snake.

"To wipe out your miserable little civilization," said Karnaz. "The Master has promised me the globe, and I have promised him something, once we wipe all life off this world," said Karnaz as two other R'Khells grabbed the weakened Snake and disarmed him.

"What?" yelled Snake as the two R'Khells holding him began to melt, shimmer, and change shape...into what looked like ordinary men in white Medical uniforms. Argo medical orderlies, to be exact.

"What I promised him was the right to use the ley lines of Earth for an experiment. That's what he wanted to begin with. He needs manpower, and we needed the globe. When he broke us out of prison at Plattsburgh, we sat down and had a friendly talk. You see, we 'little green men' must keep together. He just wants to affect some weird experiment somewhere."

"Where's that?" gasped Snake.

"Logopolis," said the Master with a smile. "Now I can act earlier when I did before, when the Doctor stopped me and gave one of his lives to ruin my plot at the Pharos Project. An insignificant matter of science...and..."

"Wait," said Karnaz. "Give him to me a minute, Master."

"Ratzen, Viggatz, release him. What do you plan to do? Drain his mind?"

Snake writhed in pain as Karnaz forced his way into his mind. "They gave the globe to someone else. But it is here. On this ship. On the bridge. The woman has it."

"Aliscea?" asked Ratzen.

"Who's that?" asked Snake.

"Shut up," said Viggatz as he struck Snake in the face.

"She has it," said Karnaz, who made a vision appear in something like a hologram that appeared in her hand. "I sense its aura around her. She is the killer of Lady Yvona, our Prophetess of Ekogaru."

"Who is that?" asked Viggatz.

The image showed a young blond woman in a white Medical dress and boots holding a chimpanzee in overalls.

"Our enemy Nova Wildstar has it," said Karnaz. "What shall we do? Attack the bridge?"

"Use stealth," said the Master. "Have your goon friends take him back to Sickbay without being noticed. Can they?"

"We just psychically killed the guys whose images we took," said Viggatz. "They're named Sergeants Balda and Rabin. They were asleep in their beds. Poor guys," laughed Viggatz.

"Good. Take him captive; we could torture him for information," said the Master. "Viggatz, Ratzen, get Nova and that globe by mixing with the crew. Bring the globe to me. If that woman is still alive when you are done with her, bring her to me, too. I'd like to have a little entertainment in the torture chambers in my TARDIS."

"Understood," said Ratzen.

"What about me?" asked Snake.

The Master punched him in the stomach, near his wound.

"You are going to be my test subject when I leave here with your human friend," said the Master. "A lab animal. Take him away to Sickbay, and get him again when no one notices. But I thank you for shutting down their security cameras. You are good for something, you inferior."

"Sir!" said a nurse in Sickbay after they were done with their patient. "Look! Snake is gone!"

"Get me a scan on the security cameras!" said Doctor Sane. "In his condition, he can't have gone far."

An orderly switched on a panel. "They're down on this deck."

"What?"

At that, "Sergeant Ahmed Balda" and "Sergeant Mordecai Rabin" (they had been an Arab and Israeli who were friends as well as comrades...at least the real men had been friends) came in with Snake Oiler in their arms. "Here's Snake. We'll put him back in restraints," said "Balda."

"Why is he bleeding?"

"Doctor Sane, the poor guy hurt himself in a fall," said "Rabin" in a calm voice. "Let's give him some Malanite. That'll relax him for a bit."

"Okay," said Sane. "Not too much. It's powerful stuff."

"We'll be careful," said "Balda". "Drink this."

Snake was made to drink the medicine. Before he passed out, the last thing he saw was "Balda" putting the small brown medicine flask into a back pocket...

...and smiling.

What will happen next?

What will the Master do next?

What will Karnaz do to the Master?

Will they steal back the globe?

Will Nova become their prisoner?

What will happen to Earth?

Stay tuned for Chapter Eleven: "Party Time"

TO BE CONTINUED....

To Return to the Introduction for "Attack and Counterattack" click here