Attack and Counterattack
A Speed Racer/Star Blazers/Doctor Who
Fanfic by "Freddo"
Chapter Two: "...Enter the
Scientific Advisor"
--------------------------------------------------
July 11, 1968
A Secret Base Beneath
Agent 9 of the International Secret Police adjusted
his sunglasses, and then removed them as he sat in a briefing room with four
other agents from his cell of the Secret Police, and some men and women in
military uniforms.
The military types wore
uniforms that looked vaguely British, but they weren't. Each of them wore a
black beret with a small emblem reading U.N.I.T. for United Nations
Intelligence Taskforce.
Agent 9, aka Rex Racer, had
heard rumors of this bunch. ***I'm not sure what they have jurisdiction over***
he thought, ***but they seem to be a very interesting bunch. It's just two days
before the TransAmerica Grand Prix, so, I guess I'll have to withdraw my entry,
even though it would have been nice to pass through Kapetepek again***. Rex
shook his head as he remembered the small South American country that his late
mentor, the racer Kabala, had come from.
"Excuse me?" said
Agent 12, a young woman who sat near Rex. "Is something wrong?"
"No...just an old memory," said Rex.
The door opened with a bang that startled Agent 12. A
young couple ran in, followed by a tall British officer with a mustache. The man wore the uniform of a Brigadier in the
British Army, while the couple wore odd foreign uniforms that Rex had never
seen before. The young man, who looked either Japanese or Japanese-American
with handsome features and shaggy longish brown hair, wore a knee-length black
bridge coat trimmed in gold and red that looked somewhat Naval in appearance,
and he carried what was obviously a Naval Captain's hat in one hand. He also
wore blue bell-bottomed trousers and spit-shined brown boots.
The young woman beside him
was a lovely blond with delicate features in a snow-white uniform of a jacket
and short skirt worn with a bright scarlet ascot, lavender belt, and white
pumps. The couple was holding hands, and Rex noticed gold wedding bands on the
correct fingers. ***I wonder what outfit they're from?
Whatever military that is, that young Captain needs a haircut...badly...***
The Brigadier escorted the
young couple to a pair of seats beside the podium at the front of the room, and
he sat down.
"Where **is**
he?" Rex heard the British general muttering under his breath.
"Always late, as usual, and we're about to start..."
Then, Rex's ears perked up
at a strange, but rather muffled sound that seemed to come from the next room
from behind a door. The sound sounded like a cross between a
wheeze, groan, and the trumpeting of an elephant to his ears.
"What's that?"
asked Agent 9.
Agent 12 just shrugged.
A moment later, the door
opened. First, a young blond woman in a minidress and boots entered, followed
by a figure the likes of which Rex hadn't seen in a long time.
He was a very odd-looking fellow. He was very tall,
thin, and beaky-nosed with an old-young face and a curly mane of prematurely
white hair. He was oddly dressed in a ruffled shirt, black velvet smoking
jacket, and black pants and boots, with a flowing black opera cape trailing off
his shoulders.
"I'm sorry,
Brigadier," he said in a resonant voice. "Problems
in the timestream."
"Doctor, not all of
these people have Alpha Clearance. You shouldn't be so obvious."
"Speaking of Alpha,
Alpha Centauri sends her regards," he said with a smile. Then, he turned
to the young man in the Naval uniform. "Commodore
Wildstar, did you have good flying?"
"I did," said the
young man in an authoritative voice. "If you don't mind, would you take
your seat?"
"Balderdash! We can talk for a moment."
"Doctor, I think you'd
better sit down," said the young woman in the minidress. "We have a
lot of people waiting on us and we don't want to upset the Brigadier."
"Oh,
of course, Jo.
Ready my seat, would you?"
Then, the strange
white-haired man caught sight of a bearded face in the audience. "What are
**you** doing here?" he demanded.
"I've been **asked**
to be here," said the black-bearded man with a smirk. "You see, I'm
on a mission for the CIA. Pardon my rudeness."
"I want you to leave
this room at once!" demanded the Doctor.
"I have my orders from
the CIA," said the bearded fellow with a twisted smile. "And that
means, for now, we're on the same side...aren't we, Doctor?"
"Yes...I guess we're
on the same side," said the Doctor as he walked into the crowd to shake
hands with his arch-nemesis, the Master.
As the Doctor walked past
Rex after shaking hands with the Master, Rex asked, "Who is that
man?"
"Just
one of the most **evil** characters in the known universe!"
"And who are
you?"
"Doctor John Smith,
Scientific Advisor for UNIT. But you can call me 'The Doctor'."
"Doctor," said
Rex. "Perhaps our paths will cross again someday?"
"If they do, watch out
for **him**" said the Doctor, pointing back at The Master.
"Really, Doctor,"
purred the Master. "I assure you, this time...my
motives are clear and beyond reproach."
"Really?"
"Yes. I was
drafted."
"Time Lords, eh?"
said the Doctor.
The Master nodded. "Yes, unfortunately. Because, if it
were up to me...I would be plotting your demise right now, Doctor."
"As usual," said
the Doctor.
"Could you two make
peace for this meeting?" asked Rex.
The Doctor said, "I
will...but be careful of him."
"I assume he was once
a professional colleague of yours?"
"Yes...long ago...he
was."
"Doctor, you're
needed. We have to start the meeting," said the Brigadier.
The Doctor bowed to Rex and
The Master and then turned away.
After the Doctor sat down,
Agent 22, the current head of the International Secret Police, took the podium,
and the guards closed the doors from the outside. The grey-haired man said, "Now,
we shall begin. We decided to set up a liaison with UNIT after Captain Mock
Turtel of the US Interagency Intelligence Bureau found some murders in
***Earth Defense Forces?*** thought Rex. **Who are they?**
"What this mission
involves," said Captain Turtel, "...is a threat from what we believe
to be our future, a threat which has reached back into our time in an effort to
disrupt the history of Planet Earth. Upon considering the evidence, we agreed,
upon the advice of UNIT's Scientific Advisor, Doctor John Smith, to take action
against this threat."
Turtel paused again.
"Doctor Smith, who
usually prefers to be referred to by the title of 'The Doctor'
stated that he established contact with the future by means that he prefers to
keep unknown to us. In his contact, he has somehow succeeded in bringing back
through time two officers of the Earth Defense Forces, apparently a military
organization that will defend a future version of our world from alien
attack...an alien attack which has reached back to our time. I now give you
Commodore Derek Wildstar; he will explain what the threat involves...at least in
his time."
Captain Turtel sat down,
and the young, long-haired Commodore took the podium. "It is probably
quite unusual for you to hear from an officer from your future. In order to
avoid unduly influencing the course of your history, I would have chosen to act
in secret. However, the Doctor convinced me to change my mind and act
otherwise...at least with a small group of operatives such as yourselves who
are already aware that alien forces have interfered with your past, and your present. So, with some reluctance, I am here openly to
address you."
Wildstar paused again
before continuing. "I am the Captain of a spacecraft known as the Argo,
crewed by a specially chosen special operations crew known as the Star Force. I
come from a time about two hundred and fifty years in your future, a future
that was nearly destroyed three times over by overwhelming alien invasions from
the Gamilon Empire, the Cometine Empire, and a federation of aliens based
around a power known as the Technomugar Empire. It is the remnants of the
Technomugar threat that we are most concerned with at this time."
Wildstar snapped his
fingers, and the room went dark. Video footage of snatches of Earth's future
(But his own past) appeared on a screen behind them.
An image of Earth, being
assaulted by glowing asteroids appeared on the screen, followed by footage of
an ancient battleship on a dried sea bed breaking up as a sleek new space
battleship rose like a phoenix from its ruins. Wildstar said, "That was my
ship, the Argo, rising up for the first time to fight the Gamilon
threat. Gamilon was a dying world located in the Great Magellenic Cloud, a
galaxy near our own, that felt it had to find a new home by wiping out the
human race with radioactive bombs and then occupying Earth." Footage of
several space battles then ran across the screen...battles that the Argo
won, albeit with great effort.
"After we defeated
Gamilon, and gained technology from the Planet Iscandar to heal Earth,"
said Wildstar, "we had to stop this...the Comet Empire." Footage of a
massive fleet that somehow emerged from a huge White Comet ran across the
screen. Footage was also shown of the White Comet devouring entire planets.
This image was followed by an image of a large fleet of Earth ships attacking
the Comet near Saturn, stripping it of its gaseous coma to reveal a huge war
machine beneath. This war machine then defeated the Earth Fleet but was, in
turn, defeated by the Argo and then by a glowing woman with blond hair.
"The woman you saw was an ally of ours, known as Trelaina of Telezart, who
gave her life to help us destroy the threat of Prince Zordar's Comet
Empire."
Then, other footage
appeared...footage of something even bigger than the Comet Empire...a massive,
metal and stone mechanical planet that was in itself a horrible war machine; a
war machine that destroyed planets with one shot of some horrible weapon that
made Rex shiver when he saw it. ***What sort of beings would create such a
technological horror?*** he thought to himself.
Rex's answer came a moment
later from Commodore Wildstar. "The Technomugar Empire was an evil
federation of cyborgs that subdued many different races, including another
cyborg race we identified as a power known as the Black Nebulan Empire. We
learned that the Black Nebulans were plotting invasions of Earth and of the
planet Iscandar, an ally of ours in our time. These invasions were stopped by
the onslaught of the Technomugar, who, nonetheless, attacked Iscandar and Earth
for their own reasons. The Technomugar Empire was led by an ancient being more
machine than man known as the Lord Ekogaru, a madman with occult powers who
felt that he was the rightful Lord of the universe. In our time, we defeated
him and his massive planet-sized Fortress in a terrible battle, a battle that
created a small black hole that absorbed his fortress. However, we have
discovered that a black hole can be an opening into another dimension."
Wildstar again paused,
showing footage of the last battle with Ekogaru's Fortress, and its destruction
by the Argo's wave motion gun. "The ruins of Ekogaru's Fortress
were sucked into a massive black hole when we attacked it with a powerful
weapon contained in our ship's bow...the wave motion gun. The Doctor and I have
discovered that a small piece of that Fortress...the D'jlatts of Ekogaru...was
sucked back in time and emerged in your time, landing on a beach in
An image of a very tall,
strong man with glowing green eyes appeared on the screen. The man's face had a
greenish tint like that of a corpse, and he had a wild mane of salt-and-pepper
hair and a bushy mustache. He was ornately dressed in a white and black uniform
over which he wore a black cloak. In his left hand, he held an ornate black and
silver staff, topped with a small crystal sphere.
"Even though Ekogaru
himself, a man more machine than man at the end, is dead, that sphere, on the
top of his staff, arrived in your time when he was destroyed. Now, that sphere, and its occult power, are being sought by a
part of Ekogaru's federation, a race known as the R'Khells. The R'Khells are part of a race known as the Rikashans who once
worshipped Ekogaru. In the course of the war, we revealed to the Rikashans that
their so-called "god" was not truly a god, but was, instead, a
demonic madman who even hoped to enslave his own servants in the end. The
Rikashans then changed sides and fought on our side...however, the R'Khells
chose to remain worshippers of Ekogaru, and they began a civil war in the
Rikashan Empire, a civil war that goes on even now."
"Now," added
Commodore Wildstar, "the Doctor discovered that the R'Khells went back
through time and ended up in your time. According to evidence that the Doctor
discovered, the R'Khells are seeking to disrupt the flow of history. On that
note, I will give the floor to the Doctor so he may explain what threat the
R'Khells represent."
The Doctor took the floor
as the crowd whispered amongst themselves...clearly,
despite the footage, not everyone was ready to believe Commodore Wildstar's
wild-sounding account of Earth's future. After a moment, the Doctor began to
speak.
"I discovered the
nature of the threat when I was called to deal with several burglaries from
secret installations. The thefts were rather puzzling...groups of people taking
various strategic resources...such as magnesium, uranium, even plutonium. We
suspected internal terrorists, until I found alien DNA at the scene of one of
the raids, and then, shortly after that, I found evidence that some of the
guards at the scene were killed by beings using psionic powers. The DNA I
discovered, along with the proof that the raiders were using psychic energy, caused
me to conclude that R'Khell agents were behind the thefts. I believe that the
R'Khells plan to use these strategic resources to somehow construct both
weapons and a device to use the power of Ekogaru's globe, should they recapture
it. I knew about the R'Khell threat from prior contact in the future with
Commodore Wildstar..."
Rex stood. "So, what
you're telling us is that you know of the secret of time travel?"
"I do."
"How do you know
this?"
"Simple. I am a Time
Lord, not of your world or of your time. Therefore, I walk in eternity."
Rex's eyebrows went up.
**An alien?** he thought. "Could you tell us more
about that?"
The Doctor smiled.
"Perhaps you will learn more as we work together. It is important that the
globe be both recovered and its power neutralized. As for its whereabouts, I
will now give the floor to Lieutenant Commander Nova Wildstar, one of the
Commodore's officers, and his wife."
At that, the blond young
woman that Speed and Trixie had met two days ago took the floor. "Thank
you, Doctor. So far, this is one of the strangest missions that I've ever been
on. However, I want to tell you that after several days' worth of investigation
in
The room burbled with
apprehension. Rex sat up. **SPEED? My brother has that thing in his custody?**
"So," said the
Doctor in an icy tone. "Why didn't you retrieve it so we can take it to
"I had my
reasons," shot back Nova.
"Such as?"
accused the Doctor. "Cowardice, perhaps?"
Derek stood up with a snarl
on his face. "You mean you're accusing the woman who once stood down
Desslok of Gamilon of cowardice? You're accusing the woman who nearly gave her
life to save Earth and save our mission to Iscandar in 2200 of being a coward?
That's a slur on her honor and mine! We have our reasons, and we discussed them
before !"
"What were they?"
said the Doctor. "And why did you decide to leave the sphere in the hands
of a brainless professional racing driver?"
"Because of its effect
upon the psyche," said Nova. "If I had been able to retrieve it
without being opposed by anyone, I would have called Derek to the scene, and we
both would have taken it. When we met Ekogaru face-to-face, we were tempted to
assume his power and take his place. That temptation...that
pull on the psyche, still exists in the object. Have you ever read
Professor Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, Doctor?"
"I helped him research
it," huffed the Doctor. "Are you equating this real artifact to the
fictional One Ring?"
"Yes. You could say
that it corrupts upon touch according to the power and desires upon anyone who
takes it. I was kept from claiming the artifact for Derek and myself by the
interference of a R'Khell agent who tried to kill
myself, Speed, and his girlfriend."
Captain Turtel spoke up.
"So, what did you do with the agent?"
"He tried to kill us;
I reluctantly killed him. Reluctantly since even though I am
a military officer, I am a nurse and a survey officer. I am sworn to
save lives whenever possible...I don't take anyone's life lightly...not even
the life of an enemy."
"So if you killed the
agent, why didn't you kill the racer to take it?"
"I don't **act** that
way," said Nova. "I don't kill in cold blood...unlike **you**."
"So, you feel it is
safe in...Speed Racer's hands?" asked Rex.
"Well...he is ignorant
of its power," stammered Nova. "He would not be tempted to use it, as
I may have been had I claimed it separately..."
"Or if we both had
claimed it," said Derek. "In fact, I may have been tempted to use it
to defeat the R'Khell agents...as well as the fleet that they have begun to
gather. To stop them, we have to not only take the object to the El Tigre
pyramid in
"So it would be safest
in the hands of Speed Racer?" said Rex.
Derek nodded. "He will
be taking it to the place we need to take it, anyway. The TransAmerica Race
ends at the El Tigre Pyramid in
"Would you explain how
long this race is?" asked the Brigadier. "And, how would taking this
object to a pyramid neutralize it?"
"The race will last
for about eight days," said the Doctor, "extending from
"Doctor, what's a ley
line?" asked Jo Grant.
"A ley line, Jo, is a
line of electromagnetic force. At several points on the Earth, such as at the
poles and along certain points along the equator, these lines of force
intersect and create strong magnetic zones. If the sphere, which, as I believe,
was created by electromagnetic power..."
"Electromagnetic
power?" said Nova. "I thought it was created by occult power."
"Have you ever heard
of Clarke's law, my child?" asked the Doctor.
"I believe I have...it
said..."
"It basically states
that to any less advanced civilization, high technology could be so advanced
that it would seem to be magic. There is no such thing as magic."
"I would disagree with
you," said Nova. "There have been things in the history of the Earth
that could only be explained by the presence of a supernatural power of
evil...or by a Higher Power. I have personally seen things and met people that
would tend to make me believe in a Higher Power and the Providence of
God."
"I won't argue
theology with you now...but you remind me very much of an insufferable young
Time Lady I once taught on Gallifrey."
"What was her
name?" asked Nova.
"Romana. You two should get together
someday."
The Doctor also thought to
himself, *** And I could never win an argument with
Romana, either. Not even when I was a professor in the Prydonian Order, and I
had her in school under me. She always got perfect alpha scores. Insufferable!
I hope I never run across her again in one of my future incarnations.***
"Let's get on with
this!" said the Brigadier. "So, we're agreed that the artifact should
remain in the hands of Speed Racer, for now, until the race ends?"
Several nods came from
those gathered in the room. The last two to agree were Agent #9 and the Doctor.
"Very well," said
the Brigadier. "So, then?"
"I think we should
keep our Plan C in effect and have our operatives enter the race as 'Omega
Team'," said Derek. "We discussed this with the Doctor, and we agreed
that the Doctor, who likes to operate high-performance machinery, will compete
in the race with Jo Grant as his navigator as one member of 'Omega Team'. Nova
and I will compete as the other entry; since I am a fighter pilot, I will be
driving, and Nova will serve as my navigator. Our mission will be to guard
Speed Racer and make sure that he takes the artifact to El Tigre Pyramid
safely."
"That will also be my
mission," said Agent 9 as he stood.
"Yours?" said
Wildstar.
"Yes. I am also a
professional racer who competes under an assumed name," said Rex. "I
will also help you guard Speed during the race, but let me warn you, I am
racing to win. I'm going to **win** the TransAmerica Race."
"I might be racing,
too," said The Master.
"You too?" said
the Doctor.
"Yes..."
"Why?"
"I need not tell you
my agenda; that is a secret between the Time Lords and myself,"
said the Master smugly. "But, be assured of one thing, Doctor. Even though
we must work on the same side, I am going to beat you, and I am going to do it
in such a way as to make a fool of you...just like the fool that you
**are**."
"We shall see,"
said the Doctor.
"Yes," said the
Master. "WE shall SEE."
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Will Speed be able to take
the sphere safely to
Will the R'Khells interfere
with the race?
What is The Master's true
agenda? Can he be trusted?
What will Racer X to do win
this race and protect his younger brother?
TO BE
CONTINUED....
To Return to the Introduction for "Attack and Counterattack" click here