ALTERNATE TALES OF THE
STAR FORCE
STAR BLAZERS—THE BATTLES
OF THE MAGELLENIC AND THE MILKY WAY
Being the eighth part of
THE NEW COMET--- BY: Frederick P. Kopetz
This Act is being completed with the
Cooperation and Assistance of Derek A.C.
Wakefield (as usual)
Major Thanks to Michael C. Crump (aka “Max Damage”) for artwork contributed to this
chapter.
This
chapter contains some mature content, and a short scene some might find
disturbing…
ACT FOUR: DÉJÀ VU….
I.
TAKING STOCK
Space
Battleship Argo
Space,
Near Iscandar
Thursday,
July 2, 2207: 1442 Hours Earth Space-Time
On the Argo, a
briefing was taking place in the Central Strategy Room after the Star Force’s
second major battle while the ship underwent some minor repairs. Among them, as
Wildstar had noticed, the ship was being stripped for more combat by having the
anchors on her bow and sides and gun-barrel stripes painted out. The mighty old
ship now looked a bit more like she had back in 2200.
While Meldazz had been defeated, they knew that a a fleet was regrouping around Skaldart’s ship; a fleet
that they thought would turn on Gamilon next. But, they were confident that
Desslok would be able to take care of that fleet…or so they hoped.
However, relieving Iscandar was Commodore Wildstar’s
immediate concern as he listened to Nova giving a report of what they had
picked up from their Eye in the Sky scanning satellites over Iscandar from both
their units and some units recently launched by the Gamilons.
“So, they’re in the process of taking
Nova nodded. “By this analysis,” she said as IQ-9 made a
complex computer graphic appear on the deck screen, “eighty-five percent of the
Joint Base is now in enemy hands. Maybe eighty-nine percent of
“Resistance there?” asked Derek.
“Mostly fighter planes of many types,” said Eager. “They
have about forty landing ships over Iscandar and maybe fifteen or twenty Black
Nebulan warships guarding their landing ships.”
Wildstar looked over at Captain Venture and Commodore Raful
from the Shiryu, who was accompanied
by his brother Alex from the Princess
Astra. The Argo, Arizona, Shiryu, and Princess Astra
had all taken damage, but all four of these heavy space warships could still
throw two hundred and fifty planes into an attack to break the occupation of
Iscandar. Also counting the recon planes they had available from some of the
patrol cruisers that could act as attack fighters in a pinch, they had two
hundred and fifty-eight planes they could strike back with. “We have the
planes,” said Admiral Alex Wildstar. “The problem is missiles. All told, on all
four of our ships, we have just enough missiles to provide for two more deck
plane sorties; then we are out of ammo.”
“So, in order for this to work,” said Derek. “We have only
one chance to hit them, and to hit them hard. If we win, we have Iscandar
liberated, at least from landing ships and planes. We would then have to send
Marines down there to mop up the enemy ground forces.”
“With the Shiryu
repaired, more or less, I have a lot of Mud Marines embarked who are waiting
for some action,” said Commodore Raful.
“And I have Iscandarian and Pellian troopers ready to back
us up,” said Alex.
“And I’m also ready to go in there with my platoon and kick
some butt,” added Hemsford.
“Finally,” said a tall Gamilon who was standing off to one
side; a distinguished-looking semi-bald officer with a moustache named General
Egon Von Rhys. “I also have troopers waiting aboard several of my own ships.
Desslok has given them to me specifcally for mop-up on Iscandar. And Leader
Desslok has also said that he will come to Iscandar with his own fleet once the
danger to Gamilon is fought off…”
Derek nodded. “It sounds as if we are in good shape. Hardy,
when will our plames be re-fueled, re-armed and ready for another mission?”
“Fifteen-thirty, sir.”
“Would the rest of you be ready then?” said Derek.
The other commanders nodded.
“Very well, then,” said Derek. “We will make preparations for the retaking of
Iscandar. At fifteen-thirty, we will begin our advance. At fifteen-forty-five,
we launch. Our first target is
“Commodore,” said Raful. “As well as my Marines, I have a
group of EDF Seabees aboard my spacecraft carrier. They can be landed to repair
any needed runways with their equipment as soon as we have something secured.
Those men and women can help us fight, too, if needed.”
“Reminiscent of some old battles once fought on Earth, huh?”
said Derek.
“Yeah!” yelled Deke. “
“Which one?” said Wildstar. “The 1942 World War II operation
or the 2036 Unification Wars operation?”
“Both, sir,” said
“Good comparison,” said Commodore Wildstar. “Okay, people,
you know your jobs; Dismissed!”
At that, the briefing broke up.
On the Eritz Gatlantis,
Ekogaru stood behind Invidia’s throne. He was clad all in black, and he
whispered, “Invidia, encourage them…”
“Yessir,” she said. “To all
forces! We have four major fleets remaining at our beck and call! I will
strip our territories, for the most part, of our Territorial Fleets in the next
few days! But now, I speak to you,” she said as she addressed her four major
commanders on a split screen. “Skaldart and Sarda,” she said as she addressed
the remaining Black Nebulan commanders, who commanded Skaladart’s Command
Gorba, two other Gorbas, and sixty-five ships “and…Menklen, Timmalz, and
Dalphal,” she said as Gorse stood there with her. “We do not have much now.
However, we have our Terriitorial Fleets of two hundred more vessels, and I
have concluded new alliances with Baron Vilzal of what remains of House
Pangarda…”
“Wait?” said Gorse. “Invidia, you have made a deal with a
Discommended House?”
“You forget we are
also Discommended as far as the Grand
Emperor goes!” snapped Invidia. “I will make common cause with Vilzal if it
earns us four hundred more ships, three more base planets, and two hundred
thousand more troops as well as safe haven by Planet Comlassi. And the R’Khells
are sending us two hundred more vessels. Some were captured from the Rikashans,
some from a race under their sway called the Bolar Federation. They are winning
a war against that race, winning rapidly. Six hundred more ships. We can
control three planets with those ships and more!”
“We can,” said Skaldart. “I accept your offer to serve as
Governor-General over the Gamilon Empire and Gamilon, Princess.”
“You said you have a little plan for Gamilon,” said Invidia.
“What is that plan?”
“It involves two pieces of technology now being tested by
us,” said Skaldart with an evil grin. “We intend to deploy them…tomorrow…”
“Excellent!” laughed Invidia. “Menklen!” said Invidia as the
dark-haired green Cometine general bowed. “I charge you with a task!”
“Yes, Princess?” he said.
“Get between Iscandar and the Earth Task Force,” Invidia ordered. “Then use
your heavy battleships to destroy the Star Force!”
“I shall do so…with…pleasure,”
laughed Menklen as he faded out.
Some time later, on the Argo,
Nova looked at Derek, put her hands on her hips, and said, “You’re doing what?”
“Leading the Tigers and Trojans into combat from my Super
Star,” he replied.
“I thought we discussed this before, and that we agreed this
was not a good idea!” said Nova with
angry and downcast eyes before a shocked bridge crew. “I thought you said you
were going to try to avoid this…”
“Nova, I should be back aboard the ship in an hour or two,”
he replied as he put a supportive hand under her chin. She was looking at him
with tear-filled eyes. “I’ll come back safely. I promise. I order you to help
Sandor command the ship while I’m gone. This’ll be over soon.”
“It had better
be…you said the same thing when you flew off the Nagato with your brother,” snapped Nova as she hugged Derek
fiercely. Then, Nova said, “We’ve been over this before; I don’t want to have
to show our children pictures of
their father because he got killed in some mission in his fighter! I want you
there to help raise our children, damnit!” Then, they kissed quickly before she
stepped back, saluted, and said, “Returning to my post. Come back soon…sir.”
“I will,” he said. Sandor turned to yell “Wildstar!” as
Derek turned and ran off the bridge.
“Too late to stop him,” said Sandor as he looked at Nova.
“Steve, would you like to try?” said Nova.
“It might be a good idea,” said Sandor. “But….he is in
command. He gave us his orders,” sighed Sandor.
Soon,
a pensive Wildstar was back in space in the cockpit of his Super Star fighter, nodding
at the bridge as he manuevered his plane over the weather deck while he flew
off to lead the Tigers and the Trojans into combat.
“Ah heahd you and Nova had a little discussion on board
ship,” said Hardy.
“I don’t want to discuss it, Hardy,” said Derek. “Our job is
getting those guys off Iscandar. We have one chance to do it, and we’re going
in fast.”
“Just launched from the
“Reporting in, Fighter Captain,” said Flash Contrail from
his cockpit with the Sun Tigers.
“First squadron of Trojans reporting in,” said Deke
Wakefield from his cockpit, as, behind him, Sasha gave him a thumbs-up from her
place as radar intercept officer in the Diamond
Girl.
“Second squadron checking in,” said Brew from his cockpit.
“Second bloody Tiger Squadron reportin’ in, mate,” said
Hartcliffe as he flew into combat with Eric Clapton’s Layla playing very loudly in his headset.
Several other squadron commanders reported in from the Green
Hornets and the other Groups from the Shiryu
and the Princess Astra as Wildstar
nodded. Then, he barked, “All planes, begin re-entry into Iscandar’s atmosphere
and power dive! Our first target is
The
planes blasted down in an imposing group as Wildstar led them into combat.
It took only a few minutes, but, soon, they were in the sky
over Iscandar, roaring down as
Wildstar then ordered, “Sun Tigers, Green Hornets, Black
Aces, Blue Diamonds! You begin liberating the southern part of the island under
Conroy’s command! The rest of us will work on the northern part of the island.
Find Black Nebulans…fire at will! GO!”
The two groups of planes flew in together, and then split
up. One hundred and thirty-four planes followed Conroy; the other one hundred
and twenty-four birds followed Wildstar.
Derek smiled grimly to himself as he swooped in over the
runway at the edge of the fighter base and began to plaster a knot of Black
Nebulan tripod tanks with missiles. Soon, there were no longer any tripod tanks
guarding the runway. Derek gritted his teeth and then went down to treetop
level, strafing enemy troops as he roared in. There were many screams, and much
scattering of blood, brain matter, plastiflesh, and various cyborg parts as
Wildstar and Hardy began to strafe enemy troops and enemy planes that were
still on the ground.
You
thought you guys could take Iscandar? Derek thought. Now, it’s payback time, you crappy machines!
A few minutes later on Iscandar, a General Mekein of the
Black Nebulan forces was now grandly calling himself “The Occupation Commander
of Iscandar.” As of yet, he was
oblivious to the fact that Commodore Wildstar was now in the process of
breaking his occupation to pieces.
The bald Black Nebulan grinned as he sat at what had been
Commodore Priceman’s desk at the fighter base. He finished working on
Priceman’s computer and was delighted at the notice he had made.
“The first order of the Occupation,” he said proudly to an
underling as he ran off several copies of Proclamation Number One. “Advar, see
to it that two hundred copies are made of this handbill. I want it posted in
the city post-haste!”
“Yessir!” said Advar. “What of the latest round of slaves we
captured?”
“Separate the women and children from the men, and make
certain some of the children are separated from their mothers by force so as to
serve as examples. Some of the children shall get the whip. You can kill a few
to terrorize the others,” said Mekein as he opened some of Priceman’s wine and
began to drink it from a souvenier Black Tigers mug. “Ship the men off to Work
Planet Twelve before the day is out. I want some of them experimented on with
the hyperon beams to see if this plan of Skaldart’s to kill them and then put
our minds in their bodies shall work. If it does, maybe we should negotiate
with Invidia for Earth. Give some of the women to Invidia as slaves for her
draft; send the most attractive ones to the Joy Units where they will earn
their living comforting our men…”
Advar nodded eagerly. “May I have first pick?”
“Yes, except for three of them once we complete the
occupation,” said Mekein as he looked at a picture on Priceman’s desk. “Her
Highness, of course, goes back to Invidia. I’m having some trouble deciding
whether I want the golden-blond one or the honey-blond one in my bed after we
slaughter their husbands in front of them. Maybe both. Wouldn’t these two
beside the Queen look cute chained up?” said Mekein as he smiled.
The picture he turned towards Advar was a picture of Queen
Starsha, flanked by Sasha, and by Nova.
The Black Nebulans laughed until another aide ran into the
room.
“Sirs!” he said. “Large wave of enemy planes spotted in the
ionosphere of Iscandar! They’re heading right for this station! I…”
Then, a moment later, there was an explosion outside.
“They’re here!” yelled the aide.
“Damned nuisance,” said Mekein. “All right, let us resist!
Standard measures!”
“Remember!”
snapped Cory Conroy as he and the Sun Tigers broke off from the main body of
the fighters over Iscandar and dived towards the base. “We want Black Nebulans
dead! We are to only damage our own equipment if it is being used against us!”
“Roger that,” said Flash Contrail from his plane.
They dropped down towards the runways, and began to strafe
any Black Nebulans they saw running for their planes. They weren’t picky. They
went after the planes, too, and they also had a great time shooting down any
Cometines they saw working with the blue-grey cyborgs.
The planes then began to climb again as a few enemy troop
carrier ships were spotted.
They went after them with gusto.
Conroy whooped as his flight blew two apart in a minute.
So far, the battle was going well…very well.
Up in the sky, in the meantime, Commodore Derek Wildstar was
still flying along, personally leading the Black Tigers and the Trojans in to
attack from the cockpit of his Super Star fighter.
Deke
A few Black Nebulan pilots launched from one of the runways,
but Sasha tapped Deke on the shoulder and said, “They’re heading to port,
Deekee!”
“Roger that,” snapped Deke. “Heading off for
“Will they succeed?” said Sasha.
“Not if I can help it!” replied Deke as he shot missiles
into three Black Nebulan fighters. A few fired back at him, but he took them
out.
Brew flew up, with Bangs beside him and said, “My opinion
is, these guys suck!”
“Agreed!” snapped Deke. “There’s our old headquarters!” said
Deke. “Look at all of those Black Nebulans running outside!”
“I don’t think they like the sight of us!” sang Bangs over
her mike.
“You know what to do, guys!” snapped Deke.
“SPINDLETOP TIME!” yelled Brew. “Let’s strafe those idiots!”
Brew was the first one to begin strafing the group of
stunned Black Nebulans. Deke followed, and Bangs was the last one to fire.
Deke blew Advar in half. Bangs shot off a shocked General
Mekein’s head as Brew shot the rest of him into pieces of mechanical junk and
red jelly.
Two minutes later, there were no Black Nebulans left outside
the old EDF Base Headquarters.
“How’s the situation?” said Wildstar in
“We’re taking out some vehicles near the north end of the
runway, sir!” said
“Give it thirty more seconds, then we’ll let Conroy mop up!
Prepare to break off and meet me; we’re going to
“Yessir!” said Hardy.
Soon, a minute later, Wildstar’s group broke off, noticing
that the Black Nebulan presence on
Wildstar nodded as his group flew over the sacred beach,
heading north to free
On Iscandar, at least, the Black Nebulan occupation was
finally beginning to break…
II.
THE FOG OF WAR…
Space
Battleship Argo
Orbiting
Iscandar
Thursday,
July 2, 2207: 1602 Hours Earth Space-Time
Lt. Cmdr. Nova Wildstar had calmed down somewhat, thinking, I guess this is war, and Derek feels he
has to lead his pilots in a crucial operation…but I wish he would have listened
and commanded this operation from the bridge, where he belongs! I think he’ll
be okay, but why do I have the feeling that he’s going to pay for this somehow?
Not that I’d do it, but more like Karma will pay him back for this? Karma?
Destiny?
Nova sighed and sat at her radar holding a microphone on a
coiled cord. The mike connected to a jack on her board that patched through to
Communications. For the moment, since Sandor was working on some battle damage
to one of the auxilary engines that the ship had taken a few minutes ago thanks
to some Black Nebulan planes, she was in command of the Argo as Officer of the Deck, and since she had on a headset that
patched right through to Derek’s plane through another cord, she was his
representative as commanding officer of the Task Force.
War.
It can always be a confusing situation, Nova thought. I was just reading this book from Captain
Avatar’s old library in our cabin the other day; a book on the
As she watched her radar and conditions around her, part of
Nova’s mind drifted back two hundred and sixty-three years, back to October
1944, back to what she had read about the battle at sea in a historical novel
that Derek had read over and over again, highlighted in several places, and had
finally gotten her to read….back in the past, the situation was similar to what
was going on now in this wide-ranging battle…
A
Selection From: The Lost Battleship
Yamato: A Retrospective, A Novel by Warren Hirsch, © 2189, Hyperion Press.
Web and Print Publishers, Ltd.
October 25, 1944
Imperial Navy Battleship Yamato
Vicinity of the
0658 Hours, Local Time….
“Teki da!” (“It’s the Enemy”!) screamed a
lookout on the Yamato’s bridge.
From his command
seat on the Yamato’s bridge, Admiral
Kurita, commander of the Task Force, nodded with a samurai’s grunt as he
watched a number of dots converging on his ship. It was a few brave pilots from
Taffy Three, a nearby American task group consisting of a few light carriers, a
few destroyers, a few destroyer escorts. Through a number of miscalculations
and historical accidents, this small task group was all that was between
Kurita’s fleet and an American landing force in Leyte Gulf at the moment; a few
ships literally “In Harm’s Way” against an overwhelming but somewhat confused
Japanese fleet.
“General
Attack!” snapped Kurita. “Every ship for itself! No delay!”
As the
bugler nodded and got onto the Intership PA to blow the proper signals, a voice
came from the aft part of the bridge. “We should coordinate this attack!”
barked back Kurita’s deputy, Admiral Ugaki. “I want those gaijin wiped out like the cockroaches they are!”
“Those
are brave men, coming like that, Ugaki-kun,”
said Kurita as he watched the few American planes coming on like juggernauts
through the black clouds of flak his fleet was putting up. “I have the
impression we are fighting a foe who is tougher than we think. We need to show
him respect. We have little air cover. We have to open the main guns now and
fire.”
Soon, the
Yamato’s guns fired. They fired
incendiary rounds called sen-shiki-dan—nasty
bomblets inside the ship’s 46-centimeter shells meant to bring down planes.
They were
only partly successful. Some of the planes from the smallish American “jeep”
carrier
Some
pilots had torpedoes. Others had bombs. Some just strafed the ships as they
passed. A few observers on Yamato’s
open bridge were decapitated by a combination of bullets and shrapnel as the
Americans braved the super-battleship’s bullets to perform their assigned
tasks.
One
pilot, an American named Lt. (j.g.) Frederick Rosstowski, is said to have
thrown a Coke bottle at the Yamato’s
bridge when he ran out of bullets. He is said to have survived, and it is
thought that his descendants have lived on to our time in the twenty-second
century…
The bleeping of the radar jerked Nova’s mind out of 1944 and
back into 2207 as she looked at her screen.
“Enemy force approaching!” cried Nova. “They just warped in!
Domon! Ship identification-Cometine! Four space battleships and twelve space
destroyers! Range, eight megameters off port bow! They’re trying to get between
us and Iscandar!”
One of the enemy ships fired its shock cannon at an EDF
patrol cruiser just as Nova cried those words. It hit and destroyed the patrol
cruiser
Kitano began to turn with a nod at Nova’s order as Nova
realized the rest of the fleet was following her orders.
On the enemy flagship, the Cometine space battleship Destrava, General Menklen sat grinning
as an officer reported to him. “General! Squadron attack commenced! The Argo has taken damage!”
“Wonderful,” said Menklen. “Viscont Tre’ger..” he purred.
A minor R’Khell R’Jkharraz
in red and black who wore something that looked like a white khaffiyeh headscarf on his head bowed to
Menklen and said. “Star Force is scattered. The dread Commodore Wildstar is off
flying a mission, and his executive officer repairs damage.”
“Who commands the Argo then?” said
Menklen.
“A mere girl, I sense…” chuckled Tre’ger after he closed his
eyes and scanned the Argo with his
powers.. “I am not an adept, and they are too far away for me to attack
psychically so I can strangle the enemy commander. She is Wildstar’s little concubine. She has
no experience to speak of that I am aware of, and…”
“Enemy fleet forning main battle line!” barked a radar
officer. “They may be more effective than we thought!”
“Main shock cannons ready!”
yelled a bearded Cometine officer on the Destrava’s
bridge.
“All right, young lady concubine,” sneered Menklen. “Let’s
see how long we can play this out. It might be fun tormenting you before we
kill you along with your ship. And won’t your paramour be disappointed?”
Menklen laughed like a maniac at that.
Menklen didn’t know Nova very well, of course…
They’re
moving fast, thought Nova as she watched the
enemy fleet herself. But I think I’ve got
the drop on you, enemy commander. Don’t underestimate me….I’m here to defend
innocent lives; not to play your cruel games! Then, Nova got a hard look in
her eyes that Derek would have been very proud of if he had been there to see
it.
A second later, Domon and Nishina were already computing a
firing solution as they said, “Main guns, train to forty-five degrees port;
elevation plus twelve degrees!”
Nova then heard Homer yelling, “Ma’am, on the
“Go for it!” snapped Nova as sweat ran down her back while
three beams of energy slammed into the Argo’s
port side. At that, the
“Minor damage taken!” yelled a voice on the PA.
“Hold course, Kitano! Domon, how long?” snapped Nova.
“Five more seconds!”
“Enemy destroyer overhead!” yelled Eager.
“Mister Nishina! Smokestack
missiles!” snapped Nova.
“Aye!” he barked back from Artillery.
“Domon, where are those main guns?” cried Nova.
“Ma’am, the crews are doing the best that they can!” retorted Domon.
The Argo’s
smokestack missiles went off and got the Cometine destroyer just as she was
diving to try to both shoot up and ram the Argo.
“
Homer yelled, “Venture reports the Fleet is ready!”
“We’ve crossed their “T”!” snapped Nova. “FIRE!”
The Argo fired her
guns to port, followed by the
One Cometine battleship fired its shock cannon vortex beams
right at the Argo as it got on her
six in a crazed turn that tore bulkheads and damaged systems in the ship; which
was almost suicidal in its determination to get the mighty Earth space
battleship, its guns blasting apart the EDF destroyers Burke and Adley as they
tried to ram the enemy ship in this mad, close-quarters battle.
Artwork: “Broadside” © 2008 by M.C. Crump (“Max Damage”)
Used By Permission
Over Iscandar, Derek looked up as some almost-dissipated shock
cannon beams bored into the atmosphere and hit the far-off ocean like ghosts.
“There’s somethin’ nasty goin’ on up theah, Wildstah!” said
Hardy.
“Damnit, they’re jumping Nova and Venture!” snapped Derek.
“Nova!” he snapped on the frequency. “What the frack is going on up there?”
“Cometine bandits!” said Nova, who sounded very out of
breath. “Sandor’s still down below in the auxilary engine room; port side. We
have it shut down-power’s reduced! I counterattacked with the fleet; took out
two-thirds of the enemy fleet, and…”
“..and what?”
“Enemy Cometine battlewagon is on our stern! It’s trying to
use those vortex shock gun things on us!”
“I’m coming back up there!” snapped Derek. “You need our
help! Tigers…regroup and…”
Derek then heard the sound of the Argo’s main guns going off from inside the ship over the circuit.
His heart went sick when he heard static, and then cheering….
On the Destrava,
which had taken damage, Menklen sat there with his mouth open on a smoking
bridge as most of his fleet was turned to space trash, and his own crew tried
to begin repairing battle damage caused by the Argo herself. Nova was much
smaller in person than the 6’ 9” tall Cometine general, but the young woman, he
had found, had teeth, claws, and 46 centimeter main guns.
“We have just four ships left!” said his radar officer. “Our
flagship, one battleship with heavy damage, two destroyers!”
“Recommend we ram them!” said Tre’ger, who stood shaking his fist.
“Arishna has abandoned us!” muttered Menklen. “I lost my
first battle.”
“Their guns are training on us!” yelled Menklen’s radar
officer as the Argo’s guns locked
dead onto his ship.
“Warp us out of here!” yelled Menklen. “Maximum power!”
Derek Wildstar was only hearing static for the moment as he
flew along and yelled, “Nova! NOVA!”
I
killed her by leaving the ship, he thought. Her and our children…this is all my fault!
On the Argo, Nova
smiled when Domon said, “Ready to fire, ma’am,” with a crazy grin.
“You know what to do,” said Nova as she looked at her screen
and then pounded the board in frustration. “FUDGE!” she cried. “UH…” she added.
“These guys just warped out! Homer, get me back on the horn with Derek! Darn
static…”
“Aye, aye, ma’am…” he said.
Sandor came on the bridge and said, “Nova, are you all
right?”
“Tired…we got most of them-the rest ran; probably a bunch of
dishonorable cowards. If I were in their shoes, I would have rammed and sent
Marines to board,” she said as she caught her breath.
“We have an uplink with the Commodore’s plane!”
Nova tapped her mike and said, “Derek!”
“Nova!” he yelled back in his cockpit. “Are you all right?”
He had his breath taken away for a moment as he heard her voice again. Thank You, God, he thought. He breathed
again when Nova said, “Yes…we’re done, sir! Cometine battleship destroyed-enemy
fleet scattering and warping out. Sandor’s back on the bridge, too! I brought
down twelve out of sixteen ships…was that okay?”
“It sure was,” said Derek as tears of gratitude ran down his
cheeks. “Tell Sandor to take command; good job in a lousy situation, Nova.”
“Thanks,” gasped Nova as she gave Sandor the microphone and
headset and the conn. Derek then said, “Steve?”
“We’re fine, but your Lieutenant Commander is sweating
buckets and her pulse rate is way out there,” said Sandor as he felt the pulse
on Nova’s neck against her protests. “Relieve her?”
“Nova, before you take off that headset, great job! You’re relieved! I should be
back on the ship in thirty minutes or less. Go take a nap, Mrs. Wildstar,” said
Derek, momentarily a worried husband rather than a commander.
“You’re worrying about me?”
said Nova. “I’m worrying about you,
Cowboy!”
“Go to sleep, Peppermint. I’ll wake you up,” said Derek.
“Stop calling me that,” said Nova as an Ensign took her
post. She stood up, stretched, and looked lost. Sandor turned around and said,
“Nova, you’ve been relieved. Get off this bridge and catch some sleep.”
“I can do another watch,” she said defiantly. “As long as he’s out there, I’m on duty. I’ll crash
when he’s back on this ship.”
Sandor reluctantly stood. “Nova. You’ve been like a little
sister to me; the kid sister I never had. You have a crazy man out there who
loves you to death and he told me that it rips his heart out every time he has
to get into that cockpit and fly and leave his pregnant wife on this ship
“biting her nails and cursing me out in her head” as I quote. But, you know
we’re not in a good situation. You’ve barely slept in two days. You’re over
seven months pregnant. You pulled off a new one today. You must be the first
pregnant woman in the history of the Fleet to have won a Navy Cross conning a
ship in combat in your delicate condition.”
Nova nodded dully. “Thanks.”
Sandor then said to her in a low voice as he put his
friendly cyborg hands on her shoulders. “Now, please go up there and get some
rest before you pass out and we have to carry you off this bridge. When I get a
minute, I’ll send some orderly up there with food for you. You need it. You
look as white as a sheet. Get up there and get out of that uniform, get a
shower, and get into a robe before I carry you up there and do it myself with
you punching my lights out.”
“You wouldn’t,” said Nova.
“Nova, who do you think carried you out of the Cosmo-DNA
working compartment after you went unconscious on us and we couldn’t find your
pulse? Derek was just holding your body and going psychotic….”
“Point taken, Steve…” she muttered. “I stand relieved.” She
saluted and then yawned. IQ-9 came over and helped her walk off the bridge.
Yamazaki shook his head sadly as they left. “That poor kid’s
really pushing herself.”
“Think she’d make a good Captain?” said Nishina. “That quick
thinking saved our asses.”
“She already is, actually,” said Sandor. “But it’s not what she
wants out of life. She wants to be a doctor and a mother in that order. God
bless that girl. She will be both soon if we survive this war.”
“If,” said Homer. He looked really worried.
“What’s wrong?” said Sandor as he came over.
“Communications dispatch I got on the wire,” Homer said.
“The R’Khells showed up near Earth; minor bombing raid near
Sandor just nodded and wnt “hmmmm…I know what you mean…”
“What is it?” said Domon. “What does
“His fiancee’, Wendy Singleton, is on TDY there at SouthCal
Command Heaquarters.”
“And I can’t stand
it!” sobbed Homer as he held his head and cried.
“It’s going to be all right, son,” said Yamazaki as he got
up, went over to Homer’s post and put a comforting arm around his shoulder.
“Things like that have a way of working out.”
“I’m depressed as hell this cruise,” said Eager.
“I think that goes for all of us,” said Sandor.
III.
SURVIVAL…
Derek
Wildstar’s Super Star Fighter
Over
Iscandar
Thursday,
July 2, 2207: 1638 Hours Earth Space-Time
Wildstar’s planes met some stubborn resistance over the sea
near
A few Black Nebulans and a knot of Cometine planes and boats
were there to oppose them as they swooped in over the embattled city.
Wildstar could see the towers of
C’mon,
he thought as he flew his plane hard and jinked hard to evade some missiles
fired ftrom a Scorpion boat. Just a few
more of them! Let’s just shoot down these enemy jokers so we can give the next
set of Marines a clear landing zone. Then I wanna get home. Nova’s probably
having kittens right about now!
As if in answer to his thoughts, Nova’s somewhat crackly
voice came over his headset. “Derek! Are you all right out there? Over!”
Maybe
she’s a little psychic, he smiled to himself as he
answered back, “Are you blocking Fleet Communications just to call me?” he said
as he got a bead on the Scorpion boat and shot at it. “OVER!”
“No, I’m up in our cabin resting with a headset on.” Nova
had the privacy cover up; from their quarters, she could look down on Iscandar
and could actually just make out little flashes of light coming from the
continents every now and then; the lights of the distant battle. I can access things from up here, though. I’m
using the sideband frequency we always used when we flew together!” said Nova
through the static and the slight whine. “I’m in just in my robe right now…took
a shower a minute ago…”
“Okay! Are you mad at me?”
“Mostly no,” she said with a slight smile. “I think you can
fix the rest if you treat me very nicely when you come home,” she purred
impishly as she closed up a bottle of nail polish.
“Good. I’ll be back soon. Keep dinner waiting, or at least
some tea…I…CRAP!”
“DEREK!” cried Nova from her bed with her headset on.
She heard blasting and slamming noises and chewed her nails
with anxiety. Why isn’t he reporting?
Nova thought as she clenched the blanket on the bunk with her fingers and toes
in frustration. Nova hoped she didn’t wreck her recent handiwork. She had been
polishing her toenails with clear polish right before she got the implusive
urge to tap in on Derek. Using her woman’s intuition, she had then plugged in
to make sure he was all right. Is he
fighting? Or did he..?
In combat, Wildstar saw a Tiger near him shot down in a ball
of flame. He looked back. The culprit was a Scorpion boat.
Derek did a flip to get the enemy boat off his six, and he
did a frontal attack as he multiplexed up another frequency. “Hardy! We’ve got
a knot of crap here!” he barked, knowing that Nova was hearing him. “Get some
boys over here to seven klicks off the beach of the Great Continent. I’m not
far from the cove where
“Gotcha!” he said.
Derek fired a missile. The Scorpion was hit, and it fired a
final burst into Derek’s left wing a moment later.
“CRAP!” yelled Derek. “Damnit!” he yelled as he saw lights
going off all over the place on his dashboard. “The left ram’s been hit!”
“DEREK!” cried Nova as she thought, I distracted him, it’s all my fault, it’s all my fault! How could you
have so stupid, woman! Calling him up to chatter like a housewife when he’s in
combat! If he dies because of this, I’m shooting myself!
“Hardy, Nova! Hardy, you and
Wildstar pulled the plane’s nose up hard as he pulled out
and began to throttle down for a moment. His engine sounded very sick, and the
plane was vibrating like crazy. He was unhurt himself, but his Super Star was
trailing smoke. He looked back. “Damnit, the fire’s not going out!”
Derek flipped the channel back to just Nova again. “Nova!
I’m five klicks…six klicks…away from the battle! Coordinates! RP-45 by JAZ 242!
Middle of the block! Keeping my helmet transponder on!”
“What are you doing?” cried Nova.
“Punching out. This thing is toast!”
Nova heard loud blasting noises and then static as Derek
pulled his ejection handle and the ejection seat blasted him up out of his
Super Star at maybe 4,000 meters altitude. “Derek!” she screamed. “Derek!”
Then, closing her eyes, she heard a splash and vaguely made
out an explosion. Then, Derek came on line and said, over the wound of
whistling wind, “Well, that’s the end of that bit of the taxpayers’ money…oh
well…”
“You’re alive!” she cried.
“Yeah, but banged up a little,” said Derek as he balanced on
the survival chute that was part of the ejection seat’s survival gear. He moved
his hips, and the part of his harness that held a life vest and survival
supplies tore away from the rest of the seat cushion after he undid a pull
cord. He reached down and got rid of his flight boots, knowing he’d be in the
water soon. It would be easier to just swim barefoot. “Well, at least we know
the water’s warm on Iscandar,” he said. “Just pray that the enemy doesn’t show
up and start strafing at my head while I’m in the drink…”
“I’m coming for you!” said Nova with a new urgency as she
got up and tore off her robe. Naked, she dug in her locker for the upper half
of her wetsuit and her helmet. She slid into her yellow wetsuit, ignoring the
bottoms (she liked it better bare-legged, especially in very warm water) as she
strapped the single wide strap over her crotch to hold down the jacket and for
some very minimal covering over her lower pregnant tummy and crotch
area…although, in her state of anxious desperation right now, she would have
swam in the nude to rescue him if she had to and had no water gear around.
Nova added to herself, Of
course, if I wasn’t pregnant, I would have been in that plane with him right
now…and we’d both be in the water now…funny…
Nova pulled on a helmet, scribbled down his coordinates on a
waterproof diving notepad and zipped up her wetsuit jacket. She said, “I’m
coming for you with Dawn in a medical boat! If we have to, we’ll rescue other
pilots! Hang tight! I’ll be there soon!”
“This
is crazy, with all respect, ma’am, you are so melodramatic about the Skipper!” said Dawn as she flew off in a
Medical Boat with Nova a few minutes later.
“Can you blame me for being protective?” said Nova. “We are talking about my husband and the
father of my children,” she said. “I want him around for the next seventy
years! If ‘in sickness and health’ means I have to pick him up in a water drop,
I will pick him up. I know he has to fly at times…but I want him safe! He picked me up off Diamond
Island like that once in one of those old obsolete Disk Helicopters. It’s time
I paid him back for the favor.”
Nova was in the pilot’s seat and was actually flying the
boat, while Dawn was in the co-pilot’s place. Dawn also had on a wetsuit like
Nova’s; she had remembered to bring her swim fins, which were off to the side
at the moment as she flew; Nova had not brought her fins at all.
Dawn was slightly amused that, literally, a barefoot and
pregnant woman was in command of this pickup. Dawn didn’t know if she would have
that sort of hysterical spunk if she wasn’t expecting. Must be the hormones? Dawn thought. Dawn also remembered that Nova
had had quite the time getting clearance from Sandor to fly this mission.
“I hope we don’t get attacked, Nova…”
“I don’t want him in that water long in case they strafe him
or something. It’s dangerous!” said Nova.
“We’re taking the same risk,” retorted Dawn. Nova looked at
her hip. Dawn had not brought an Astro-Automatic; Nova had.
“You should have brought something,” said Nova. “Funny that
only one of us is armed if you’re so concerned about the enemy.”
Dawn shook her helmeted head, not sure what to say about
that one. Re-entry was fairly easy, and it was easy to follow Wildstar’s
built-in helmet transponder…a new device, it gave out a small “ping” that Nova
tracked on a large multifunction screen surmounted by two Matsumoto Dials on a
readout between the pilot’s and co-pilot’s seats. “We’re not far, ma’am,” said
Dawn.
“Should be four minutes to the site,” said Nova. She pushed
a few buttons and then she gave control of the boat to Dawn while she went
slightly aft to check the drop hatch and the Jacob’s Ladder winch behind the
pilot and co-pilot’s places. “When I give the word, when we’re a few meters
over him, prepare to hover and cut the engines somewhat. We don’t want to give
him too much blast wash.”
Dawn nodded as she worked the controls. “Two minutes to
pickup point…”
Nova tapped her helmet. “Derek? Are you reading us? Over!”
“Read you loud and clear,” he said as he kicked away in the
water, treading water even though he had his floatation cushion on.
“Where’s the battle?”
“Far off to the north, Nova. I can barely see it now…we
should be safe if you and Dawn are fast.”
“Don’t worry,” laughed Nova. “We’re fast,” she said with a
playful wink.
“Why are you in command?” said Derek.
“My mom always said, you want something done right, do it
yourself.”
“Nova, I thought you didn’t like your mother that much…,”
said Derek.
“I’m starting to learn she was right about some things. Some
things. Not many things…” said Nova.
“Sixty seconds to pickup point!” creid Dawn.
“Derek, did you spray your shark repellent in the water?”
asked Nova.
“Yes I did, Mom,”
he said with an embarrassed laugh. Dawn rolled up her eyes at that one,
thinking, If I had a bag of sugar around,
I’d use Deke’s old habit and plunk it down in front of these two. They can
induce diabetes…of course, people used to do the same…with us…I hope Jeff is all
right in this stupid battle!
Derek looked around. No sign of them yet, even though the
sky was blue and the water was fine. “Hey, Nova!” he teased. “Did you bring the
volleyball? We can play space water polo. I’ll spot you three points!” Derek
had to admit, his wife was doing a good job keeping up his spirits as he
awaited rescue.
“We can do that after the fighting is over, silly,” laughed Nova. “You are such a
goof sometimes, Derek!” I don’t believe
it, he’s making me laugh, Nova thought. I’m
mad at him… I think? It’s hard to contemplate dunking your husband underwater
when he is making you laugh!
“Thirty seconds!” yelled Dawn.
Nova nodded. She worked a control to lower the winch down to
deck level. She then hooked her toes over the padded trapeze bar at the bottom
of the winch and locked herself on with one of the safety harnesses. It had a
D-ring that clipped right to a similar one in the waistband of her elastic
wetsuit, which still fit her baby bulge nicely. “When we’re over the site, lower
me down carefully…”
“Aye, aye, ma’am,” said Dawn.
A few seconds later, Derek waved in the water as he saw the
boat. It hovered down for him with a roaring sound that grew louder by the
second. The jet wash began to make wavelets in the water.
Dawn manuevered the boat down to ten meters’ altitude,
almost over them. Derek then heard Nova’s voice saying, “Swim over my way!”
Derek nodded and began swimming. Maybe twelve meters’ later,
he was in the right spot, bracing against the strong jet wash as Nova came down
on the rescue winch, one hand clinging to the line, and her toes hooked over
the bar. She was a welcome sight to Derek as he scanned the sky.
Nova waved as the winch dropped her slowly waist-deep in the
water. Held on by her harness, she let go and swam over a kick or two to him.
She gave him a hug and said, “Now let’s get on that bar. Do you have your
flight boots off?”
“Yeah, they were weighing me down and the water’s warm,”
said Derek as he held onto Nova in his wet uniform. She used a slender bare leg
to manuever him onto the bar as she clipped the other harness D-ring to his
belt. “Got you,” she said.
“Thanks a lot,” he replied.
“Pull us up, Dawn!” ordered Nova.
The winch pulled them back into the hull of the boat a
moment later. Derek felt somewhat relieved to have a deck under his feet again
instead of water as Nova pulled his helmet off, stripped him of his wet shirt,
and began to rub him dry with a towel while Dawn flew on from her co-pilot’s
seat. “We’re going back to the….” Then, Dawn stopped as she spotted another
blip on the screen. “Another pilot’s in the water!” she cried.
“Huh?” said Derek as he leaned on the back of the chair and
pulled his helmet back on from the use of his radio.
Nova’s head shot up. “It’s Sandor! He reports someone else
shot down, maybe ten klicks north of us…”
“Who is it?” said Dawn as she suddenly jumped when she heard
a familiar voice saying, “Hey! Mah Tiger’s crap! Got a wing shot off! Need a
pickup..over!”
“JEFF!” she cried. “Jeff, are you all right?” she said as
tears ran down her cheeks.
“Dawn, is that you?”
“Yes, it is…”
“Where are you?”
“Medical Boat 21165,” she said. “We had to use one of the
smaller ones with the drop capsule. It’s gonna be a little crowded in here, How
did you get shot down?”
“Black Nebulans. Three of ‘em at once! They got Advair and
Nakajima!”
“Do we need to pick them up, too?” said Nova over the
circuit.
“Mrs. Nova, what are you
doin’ there?”
“We just picked up Derek,” chuckled Nova as she dried
Derek’s shoulders with her towel while standing behind him.
“Hardy, what about those guys?” asked Wildstar as he talked
into his lip mike; even bare-chested, he again on his helmet. He sat down in
the pilot’s seat and watched the controls while Dawn flew on and Nova ran about
getting things ready and putting away other things.
“We don’t need to pick them up,” Hardy sighed. “Dead. And
Hartcliffe made some idiotic mistake and he didn’t come to Advair’s aid fast
enough…told me he was trying to increase his kill count. What’s with that guy lately? He’s a total
jackass!”
“Let me get this straight,” said a rather angry Wildstar.
“He failed to help another Tiger and let him die?”
“Afraid so.”
“Jeff, there is no “I” in the word TEAM,” said Nova. “The
Star Force is a group! You know that!
We never leave one of our own in a
jam without help. Even when you are mad at him!” said Nova as she pulled a bit
of Derek’s hair. “That’s rule number one!”
Dawn was impressed. She had heard about and seen the Star
Force’s legendary group dynamic before, but now, she was seeing it in action. My God, they’re all like a big extended
family, she thought.
“We’re doing a full inquiry on Mister Hartcliffe once this
battle is over with,” snapped Derek. “Nova, that makes me sick. Doesn’t even give a rat’s butt for his own wife, either?”
Nova shook her head. “No. And it’s getting worse. I’m
feeling very sorry for Angie right
now,” said Nova mournfully as she leaned against the back of Dawn’s seat.
“Not you,” said Derek as he reached over and squeezed her
hand. “You are going to be the most protected mother-to-be in the Fleet now.
Now granted, I’m requisitioning a new Command Super Star from the Shiryu when we get back…”
Nova turned her helmeted head and glared at him. I know he has to, she thought. But, so soon?
“You!”
said Nova as she pulled his hair again.
“OUCH!” he said. “You’re a sadist!”
Nova giggled and said, “I hope that I’m better than being
with the enemy?”
“I have to think about that one,” said Derek thoughtfully.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t stand your jumping in that plane
when you have forty-eight pilots on your ship,” said Nova. “Still, we’re a
group. Wherever you go, I go…right?”
“My sentiments exactly, Nova,” said Derek.”That is, when you
get the idea to stop ripping my hair out!”
“Don’t be a baby, Derek,” quipped Nova as she tried to hide
her being upset with a witty comment like she sometimes did. Derek did the same
thing, but Nova had her own little feminine twist to it that drove Derek crazy.
“I’ve got two already. I don’t need a third!”
Derek looked at her with sad eyes. “Okay,” said Nova as she
tousled his hair at the edges of his helmet. “I can’t resist you when you get
like this…”
Nova kissed him, and then turned away as tears of both
sadness and frustration ran down her cheeks.
“Nova?” said Derek as he heard her trying to hold back sobs.
“I’m OK,” she lied as she talked through her nose for a
moment. Nova thought, God, I hope he can stay with us on the ship
commanding the Task Force…Task Force 2.0, that is… as much as possible…I hope
we don’t have another situation where he has to fly with the Tigers
soon! I know it’s war, but…
Derek then looked at her and the stricken, angry and upset
look on her gentle face and said, “About that plane?”
“Yes?”
“I’ll requisition it…but I don’t think I’m going to be
flying it all that much now…if we can avoid it in this war. I know we can’t
make an ironclad guarantee, this is war...but I’ll do my best to be there for
you! I want to be thereto hold your hand
and comfort you when you go into labor…with our children!” he said as he looked
at Nova with eyes that were brimming with his own tears as he gave her tummy a
gentle pat. He knew he couldn’t do so now, but part of him was just longing to
open her wetsuit and caress her pregnant tummy right now in sheer affection.
“Lieutenant Commander, thank you, thank
you, for risking your life in a combat zone just to pick me up!”
Nova smiled at that. “You’re welcome, Derek,” she said as
she squeezed his hand back. “And also forgiven…” she said softly even though
Derek noticed her hand was shaking slightly. “Tea for you back on the
ship…along with a good shower…”
He nodded as Dawn got up and Nova took her place in the
co-pilot’s seat beside him. Derek himself then nodded as Nova gave him control
of the boat. “Fly it to that point, Derek. You’ve flown like this before.”
He nodded. “The altitude is supposed to be ten meters for a
pick-up.”
Nova said, “Yes..!” Then, she unsnapped her gun belt and
handed her holstered sidearm and belt to Dawn. “Mrs. Hardy, put these on,” said
Nova. “That’s an order.”
“Sure,” said Dawn reluctantly. She then reached for her swim
fins but Nova said, “I wouldn’t, Dawn. He won’t be far from us. It’s easier to
hang on to the trapeze if you’re barefoot.”
Dawn was about to retort that maybe Nova needed the extra
balance with her pregnant stomach and she
didn’t, but she thought better of it.
She found her commanding officer Nova rather strange at
times, and she felt really uneasy and even a bit jealous when she saw how she
and Derek just communicated with their eyes and a couple of nods at times. Dawn
could see they had the potent mixture of being dear friends, combat buddies,
and joined-at-the-hip lovers, all at once. She could see that they had a loving
yet slightly defiant “us against the world” kind of relationship. It drove her
mad when she saw that she was watching a couple who would die for each other; without
hesitation, even given the little argument she had sensed beforehand. Sort of
like Deke and I used to be back in high school before he turned weird…and maybe
we would have become like that if I hadn’t dumped him… and he didn’t end up with her…she thought as an angry
thought of Sasha ran through her mind. I
love Jeff dearly but I don’t have that kind of unspoken rapport with him…yet…
Dawn looked at the hatch as she ran over and put her feet on
the bar. She couldn’t look at them anymore even though they were being totally
professional as they flew the boat and began to head down to where they saw
Hardy, who was waving furiously for a pickup.
Here
we go, thought Dawn as she undid the hatch and it whirred open.
She gave Nova a thumbs-up as she was lowered down towards the water for Hardy,
TEN
MINUTES LATER…
They made a safe landing back on the Argo. Nova couldn’t help noticing in Sickbay as she and Doctor Sane
examined Derek a few minutes later that Dawn and Tasha Cleveland were looking
very quiet as they examined Hardy from a nearby bed with a scanner unit.
Nova looked over the scanning screen with Doctor Sane with
some worry on her face as she and Sane palpated Derek’s abdomen for any damage
(he was now naked for the moment for his exam). “Does it hurt there?” asked
Sane.
“No,” said Derek.
“His spleen looks fine, Doctor,” said Nova. “I don’t think
he needs to be profiled. I also checked him for rupture. Nothing indicated…”
“Did you have to squeeze so darn hard when you made me cough, Nova?” said Derek.
“You be quiet,” she said. She then whispered in his ear,
“I’ll kiss you and make you feel better later on if we have time…”
“Where?” he said with a nudge.
Nova blushed deeply and whispered, “I’m not mentioning where
here, silly! At any rate, you have
that salt on your back, and…”
“Okay, Nova, he’s released. Get his clothes back on but see
if he can take a shower ASAP. He has a few little nicks on him that we don’t
want that sea salt irritating,” said Sane.
“Yessir,” she said. “Just what I was thinking,” Nova added.
Derek got his underwear and pants and a pair of shower
flip-flops Nova had gotten him, but Nova took his shirt away from him. “No
shirt for you! Not until I wash those
nicks on your back and shoulders,” she snapped.
“How do you propose to do that, Nurse?” he teased in a low
voice as Sane went off to be with Dawn and Tasha as he popped the cork on his
bottle of Spring Water.
“In the shower with you later on…together,” she whispered. “I know you’ll be a lot more fun to wash
in the shower than that little Dellar.”
“Silly girl,” he said. “Okay, Peppermint Novelle!”
“Ohhh,” said Nova. “Where are you pulling that one from?”
“My head!”
“Is there anything in
there?” teased Nova as she tapped on his forehead.
Derek smiled at her in return. “Okay. I know your name is
Nova and not Novelle.”
“That’s better,”
whispered Nova. Nova smiled back and then turned to let Derek dress while she
followed Sane over to Hardy’s bed.
Hardy was protesting as he said, “Dawn, Tasha, that is not a good diagnosis! I can’t have no
concussion!”
“Scanners say you might have a little one,” said Tasha as
she stood there in her Medical minidress and white boots, looking smarter at
the moment than either of her commanding nurses, who were still in wetsuits and
bare feet (and still slightly wet!) “Doctor, I think we should profile him for
twenty-four and hold him overnight.”
“What?” said Hardy.
Sane chuckled as Nova swooped in like some strange pretty
blond vulture with a cute but slightly goofy Audrey Hepburn face and she shone
a penlight into his eyes. “Hmmm…Doctor! One pupil is just a tad bigger than the
other. This does not look good.” Dawn then felt a sudden surge of jealousy as
Nova professionally ran her hands through Jeff’s wet, shaggy mane of hair.
“Lump on the left side. Jeff. How did you get this?”
“Dawn kicked me in bed last night,” he said with a wink of
the eye you could see under that mane of hair.
“I did not!”
snapped Dawn.
Sane put some scanners near his head and began scanning.
“Looks like you hit your head on the edge of your cockpit when you punched out.
Did you black out when you left your plane?”
“I…”
“DID YOU?” screamed Sane.
“Yeah, I did…”
“Nova, profile him and hold him for observation for
twenty-four hours,” said Sane. “You and Cleveland do the paperwork to admit him
now.”
“We got a war to fight!” snapped Hardy.
“Hardy, the Tigers will live for twenty-four hours without
you,” said Wildstar as he came over, dressed except for his shirt. “I’ve got
another good commanding officer to shuffle around to his spot.”
“Not Hartcliffe?” said Nova.
“Hell no.
“Still out flying clean-up by
Derek nodded and he walked to a phone and phoned the
“Yessir?” said Domon.
“Report up to our cabin at…uh…eighteen-thirty,” said
Wildstar. “Right after we pick up the planes. Bring
“Clear,” said Domon. “The Gamilons have reported that the
fleet attacking Gamilon seems to be retreating.
Desslok has no idea what’s going on, but…”
“I think we’re good for the moment. How are the repairs
going?”
“Sandor wants to work on the armor around the gun turrets,
but he says it’s getting tough with energy running out on the maintenance jet
packs. We…”
“Land us on Iscandar again; near
“Me too,” said Domon. “Good work, sir…”
“Thanks,” said Wildstar as he put down the phone. “Nova, are
you done with Hardy, yet?”
“Almost,” she said as she got Jeff a set of pajamas. “You’ve
got to cover that up,” Nova said as
she pirouetted around and glanced down at Hardy and winked as she threw a towel
over his lap. “You might drive Dawn crazy on her next watch if you lounge
around like that….”
“So how am I looking?” said Hardy as he looked at all three
nurses.
“You have a concussion and scratches, Jeff,” said Dawn with
a wink. “Otherwise…no comment…here…
I’ll bring you some good reading material from our cabin. That’ll keep you
busy…”
“That’s not what I wanted to keep me busy,” said Hardy as he
smiled at Dawn.
“Rain check on the rest,” said Dawn primly. “Now, I need a
decent uniform on. Later, guys!” she said as Nova walked away with an arm
around her Derek’s waist.
“Later,” sang Nova
with a wink.
He didn’t get a concussion
punching out, you lucky little blond SOB, thought Dawn. And you get to take care of him all by yourself
up in your cabin! Bleeeagh! I’m jealous!
IV.
REGROUPING
Space
Battleship Argo
On
Planet Iscandar, Near New
Thursday,
July 2, 2207: 1742 Hours Earth Space-Time
The
Argo was back on a
deceptively-peaceful looking Iscandar again, floating in the sea at anchor near
the rest of Task Force 2.0 as Sandor and his men and women worked on repairing
the armor plating out in the open on the warm decks.
“It’d be nice if you ignored the smoke still coming up from
the island,” said Diane Henson as she and Sandor worked together with a welding
unit on top of the Argo’s main aft
gun turret.
“This planet’s suffered a lot in the past few hours,” said
Sandor. “We have a lot to think about until we get home…”
“Like children,” said Diane as she stopped welding and
looked right in Steve’s dark eyes after pulling her safety goggles off.
“Children..” said Sandor in a flat voice.
“If we want them after we get married,” said Diane in a
matter-of-fact manner.
“After we get married?” he said. He raised his eyelids and
said, “Funny. I haven’t proposed to you yet…”
“Wham, bam,” said Diane as she waved her hands around. “Oh,
Steve, will you marry me someday?”
“This is serious,” Sandor huffed.
“I’m awaiting your answer,” said Diane.
“After we fix this weld,” he said.
Diane turned on an acetylene torch and lowered her goggles.
“Put down the wrench, Steve…”
“Yes to your proposal,” he said.
“What?” said Diane with a smile.
Stephen Sandor cleared his throat. “I said…yes.”
“To what?” said Diane.
“To your proposition! I will marry you!” he said as he
laughed, got up, and picked the tall, strong young woman up off her booted feet
with his strong cyborg arms.
“Steve!” cried Diane with joy as she hugged him back and
almost dropped him off the top of the turret.
“I owe you a ring,” he said.
“Do not; your word’s good enough with me,” said Diane.
“Oh, grow up!” he
said with a laugh. “I owe you a ring, and I will make one!”
“Fine,” said Diane.
“Ok, we’ll get to that later,” said Steve.
“Now, about children,” said Diane.
Sandor’s face dropped at that.
“That’s if we ever want them,” said Diane. “It is optional.
However, they sort of have this social pressure These Days for married couples
to have kids, and…”
“Okay?” said Steve.
“I know your predicament, and I’m not like Tricia,” he said,
referring to Steve’s ex-wife. “If we want to consider this, we will probably
have to adopt. Although Nova said there are other ways to handle this.”
“You’ve been chatting with Nova about this?” said Sandor.
“Yes, advance planning for us,” said Diane. “Nova is a smart girl. I do not hold it against
her any more that she kicked my butt in that ring five years ago.”
“Hmmmm…I kind of like this,” he said as he held her hands.
“Okay. What are you considering?”
“We just started talking about it one day a few weeks ago.
Funny that we’re so tight now. I feel all weird about Derek, but I know our
days together are long over. And so
many people are talking about how many children they can have if and when we
win this war.”
“Okay, so what are the alternatives?” said Sandor. He felt
shy on the one hand, but he knew Diane well enough now to know she could be
very blunt and direct when she wanted to be. Although he loved her, part of him
wondered why Wildstar had ever been attracted to this woman. Although he knew
she had matured a great deal and had even begun to learn the rudiments of being
romantic in an adult manner, in so many ways, she was Nova’s polar opposite…
Or
is she? Steve thought. Nova
also has a little bit of the tomboy about her, too. And she’s just as
strong-willed as Diane is, although she uses her iron hand in the velvet glove
approach to get what she wants. Diane just uses a crowbar!
Diane stood there tapping her white-booted foot on the deck
as she said, “Steve? Are you ready to discuss this? Before fixing this heat
stress fracture with a tritanium rod makes me forget?”
“Okay, shoot,” said Steve. “What is your theoretical
framework?”
“Proof: we might want children, Proof: you were hurt in that
accident and you are sterile. I am fertile. Approaches: One…use artificial
insemination. Proven method if we want children. The donor’s semen can also be
put on ice for many years…if we want to hold off, that is…you know about the
Allen-Kreitz protocol?”
“What’s that? I don’t remember that one…” said Sandor.
“The methodology, per Sane, is that we use stem cells and
combine them with your genetic code to make artifical sperm that would be
yours. Then, it goes into me in a little operation, and…bun comes out of the
oven....ding!”
“Diane, you are not an E-Z-Bake Oven!”
“I might be,” she said.
“You’re
horrid,” said Sandor.
Diane cleared her throat as she lit the torch again and her
dark red-brown hair stood out, making her look mildly insane as she played with
it.
“Okay, let’s get serious. If we can! The operation takes place in Sickbay or a hospital with a hand
pressure unit…and…”
“Uh…yeah. What’s option number two?” said Sandor.
Artwork: “Diane Henson Grins” © 2008 by Freddo.
“It is different than Option One. Experimental, but it has
had some success. It involves taking bone marrow and generating artificial stem
cells again with DNA manipulation. Don’t ask me how; that’s Doctor Sane and
Nova’s area of Weird Science, along with that Tinwit. They could fix your
little…problem..by generating you some new equipment. Sorry, they aren’t up to
making new arms and legs yet. You just have to live with those bombs in your
arms and legs. Don’t ever show me where the switch is when we get married or I
might get tempted to get weird and
borrow an arm of yours to excavate our swimming pool! But they can make you two
new little friends,” she whispered. “We think.”
“Maybe,” said Sandor. “Would you hold it against me if we
never had childrem?”
“No,” said Diane as she stopped working to get up behind him
and give him a hug. “But, maybe we can find a way…if you want to…”
“We’ll discuss that later,” said Sandor.
At that, they hugged a little before going back to work….
1750
Hours…
A few minutes later, in the Captain’s Quarters, Derek and
Nova Wildstar were still in the shower. “OWW!” Derek yelled. “YIKES!”
Nova was behind Derek, scrubbing his back. She giggled in
the steam and said, “I’m sorry, Derek. Better to get rid of the salt now than
have it get in any of your wounds…”
“But, you’re making my back sting!”
“I know,” she said.
“I thought you said I was forgiven,” sobbed Derek.
“Shhh,” said Nova as she finished scrubbing and then just
stood up on her toes and tenderly held him against her unashamedly naked body
in the steam. “This is the end of your rescue,” she said as she ran her toes
over the top of his foot and began kissing the nape of his neck. “I’ll be
careful with your back,” she said as she ran gentle hands down his stomach. “We
do not need to be concerned with it anymore, except to gently dry it…but you’re
clean,” she whispered. “And, thank God, back safe on the ship with me again…”
“It sounds like you’re finding…God…a nice way to….make…me
dirty…again,” said Derek as Nova’s hands ended up on a nice part of his
body…and her touching made him smile.
“We must be very careful here,” said Nova. “We…can’t..have
any sea salt on you…there…”
“Why not?” gasped Derek.
Nova turned around and smiled a cute, appealing grin under
her wet hair. Derek looked her down all over, thinking, Seven months bearing our children and you look prettier every day! What
is that Hartcliffe’s problem, mocking you, and mocking his pregnant wife?
Nova..you look more beautiful every day. Especially…naked…
“I’m that beautiful?”
said Nova as she kissed him.
“Hmmh?”
“You were saying how beautiful I look naked?” said Nova as
she blushed.
“Thinking out loud,” laughed Derek. “More like mumbling out
loud…”
“Oh?”
“You do look very attractive right now, Mrs. Wildstar. Very
attractive…and…sexy…” he said with a wink.
“You feel pretty luscious right now yourself, sir,” said
Nova as she shut her eyes.
“Actually, you look even better than the way you did two
weeks ago,” said Derek as he ran his hand over her stomach.
“You mean it?” whispered Nova.
“Hell, yes…”
“And?” said Nova.
Artwork: “The Captain’s Shower” © 2008 by Freddo
“I want to engage in a new mission right now, Nova.”
“Which is?”
“I don’t need a fighter for this mission…” he purred.
“Thank God,” laughed Nova. “What is the mission objective?”
“Making you feel wonderful,” he said as he kissed her.
“Especially since you’ve been doing the same to me the for past ten minutes…I
mean, that bottom against me, I…”
“Then go for it, silly,” purred Nova while Derek touched
her, caressed her, loved her, and made sure she was ready for him as he touched
her stomach and breasts, smiled when he felt the babies kicking, and then, he
let his hands go lower as he touched his best friend, shipmate, wife, and
lover. “We have a few minutes,” Nova gasped.
“Does that hurt?” whispered Derek. “If it does, I’ll…”
“No…it most assuredly does not hurt, sir,” said Nova with a cute smile on her face as her
breathing sped up.
“I am forgiven, my
darling? I’ll do anything you want to make this up to you…I swear it…”
“Yes. Derek…I..I..I want you…now…let’s make up with a kiss…”
And they did. With lots of kisses.
And heaven all around as their bodies slowly joined under
the water as Nova turned her back to her husband so as not to interefere with
her pregnant stomach. Then, Nova danced with her husband, barefoot, pregnant,
naked and unashamed in the warm water as he took her slowly and passionately
and her toes curled up with delight.
In a baseball metaphor, there were several grand slams in
that shower stall in the next few minutes…
In the Hartcliffes’ cabin, things were not so cozy.
Angie had come in from her watch, set aside her
Astro-Automatic, and was trying to stretch her legs when…
..when
“NOT NOW!” cried Angie as she heard him coming at her. He
hit a button and the weird strains of the Beatles’ “Happiness is a Warm Gun” began to play in their small cramped
cabin; their mostly unhappy home since May.
“She’s not, a girl,
who misses mooch,” sang
“Stop
that, you…you…you…CREEP!” cried Angie as
“Wot’s yer problem?”
he said. “Gettin’ a bloody allergic reaction to ‘yer husband?”
“
“Feet up,” he said as he grabbed at the sandals she had just
began to wear today due to slightly swollen ankles and as he made her kneel, he
pulled them roughly off her, leaving her barefoot on the cold deck before she
could protest. “Now, relax,” he said as he undid her slacks and panties and
just roughly pulled them down to her calves as he breathed roughly against her
neck. She could smell Navy Rum on his breath, and it was not a nice smell.
“C’mon, you, stop bloody strugglin’! I ain’t rapin’ yer!”
“It feels like
it!” cried Angie. “Even though I am
giving in to you! But be nice!”
“Oh, c’mon, stop yer runnin’ at the mouth and ‘ave some
Rum…” he said.
Angie struggled as he grabbed the bottle of Navy Rum and forced
her to drink some. Undiluted by any soda, it burned as it entered her mouth and
burned going down to her stomach. She almost retched it up and tears ran down
her face as
“
“Oh, shuddup, luv…”
he said as he opened her bra from the front. “Nice, nice, nice,” he said as he leered at her. “They’re gettin’ a wee bit
bigger…and those boobs…hahahaha!” He squeezed her..hard. It hurt.
Artwork: “Angie in the Hands of the Big Bad Wolf Bryan.” ©
2008 by Freddo
“Please stop this,” sobbed Angie as tears ran down her
cheeks. “At least let me get ready for you! I want either a negligee on, or
nothing..please…this is not decent!
You making me submit to you half-dressed like this…like a street whore or
something!”
“SHUDDUP!” he yelled as he slapped her face, and not
lighthly with affection as a tease, either. He belted her. “Ya stupid bird! Put out for me my way! DO IT!” he yelled.
“
She tried to get away, but he held her closer. He
felt…like…a werewolf.
“Yeah, yer pregnant, so bloody wot?” said
“
“Y’like it?”
“I do NOT!” cried Angie as she struggled at
“Ah, you and ‘er, comin’ up with these stupid ideas,” hissed
“
Then, he roughly pulled her clothing entirely off her, and
shoved her to the deck on her bare back and bottom, leaving her very naked and
cold on the hard deck, bare, not even a rug on the deck…and not even in their
bed as he came at her like a beast again with just his pants down as she cried,
too tired and humiliated to fight him any more.
She screamed when he took her again.
And he was not gentle.
Overpowered by his strong, rough hands, Angie shut her eyes,
tried to feel as little as possible, and submitted to him with no joy in it at
all for herself as she cried.
Her body betrayed her, feeling a hot, burning passion in
spite of her wishes…and her anger at this horror of a husband she had married
nearly six years ago.
I’ve
been with him, and has he gotten better? Angie thought as
she wept and accepted him as he just grunted like an animal. No kindness from him. No loving words from
him any more …l Just, grunting…he’s so bitter that I’m pregnant. Why? He did it
to me, the louse! HE DID THIS TO ME! IT WAS ALL HIS FAULT, NOT USING PROTECTION
THAT NIGHT…!
In
the meantime, Nova and Derek were up in their cabin, spent and happy as they
lay snuggling together on their bunk after having had another playful time on
their bunk. They were dry, and their
hair was dry, but they both still wore absolutely nothing. They were watching
the chrono for their appointment, but they had no particular need of clothing
at the current time.
Nova lay with her cheek on Derek’s chest as he sang to her
in a very good voice. “Oh, darling…please
believe me…I’ll never do you…”
“no harm,” Nova
joined in as she sang along to this rather different Beatles piece.
Then their voices joined in post-love bliss as they sang, “believe me when I tell you…I’ll never do
you…no harm…”
“Boom boom boom boom
boom boom,” sang Derek as he imitated McCartney’s bass line on the song.
Then, someone began banging on the hatch. “Captain!” yelled Domon from the other
side. “I’m here with
“Ohhh, fudge!”
said Nova as she suddenly blushed. “I’m….”
“I’m the same way, Nova…”
said Derek with a blush. He kissed Nova, got up, and said, “I’ll get my
pants…what do you want?”
“Your shirt,” she said as she quickly (and seductively)
clothed her nakedness in his shirt. It covered her but left her long legs very
bare. It was a rather gorgeous sight.
As Derek pulled on his pants, another knock came at the
door. “Uncle!” called Sasha. “Are you alive in there?”
“Give us two shakes of a kitten’s tail!” cried Nova.
Derek closed his pants up, kissed Nova, threw a towel around
his shoulders, and he got up and answered the hatch.
Artwork: “Loving” by Hitomi. © 2008.
“Sorry, guys,” he said as he accepted their salutes. “It’s
been a crazy night and a long day. Nova and I were just catching some…uh…rack
time…”
Waklefield gave them a look that said, “Yeah, right” as he thought of where he’d prefer to be right now (in
a similar situation with Sasha in their cabin with the hatch locked). Nova
smiled sheepishly and said, “Sasha, when he gets to be a Captain someday, be
prepared to be disturbed at weird hours of the day. Nova then bowed, looking as
gracious as she possibly could while in nothing except for her husband’s shirt,
which just kept her covered (not that anyone there seemed to be complaining about her current attire)
and she said, “Who wants tea, guys?”
Everyone’s hands went up.
Nova rolled up her eyes, and smiled a little. She twirled on
her toes and said, “I keep my all of my tea bags numbered in case of emergency.
Starting the water now…”
FIVE
MINUTES LATER…
Commodore Wildstar was up sipping at his fresh tea with
lemon with a towel over his shoulders (Nova kept slices up there in their little
fridge) and he said, “Okay, Domon. That’s what we need to do. I just explained
why.”
“That’s low, even for him,”
said Deke. Deke looked at Sasha, shrugged, and got his sticks out of his bag
and started drumming against Wildstar’s table top. No one complained.
Nova handed Deke some tea with some sugar packets and lemon.
“Lemon is good for you,” said Nova with a smile. “Without
it, you might get some nasty vitamin deficiency.”
“Ma’am, you’re my aunt, but with all respect, de nada. You take it. I take vitamins as
prescribed,” said
Nova shrugged, sat down (after making sure her shirt was not
riding up and exposing anything untoward) and she took her tea with two lemon
slices. She liked lemon, as well as most kinds of fresh fruits and vegetables.
“I can’t believe that Hartcliffe,” said Domon.
“You mean he just let Ensign Advair die?” said Sasha.
Derek nodded sadly. “Per Hardy, yes.”
“For him, that’s a new
low,” said Nova. “I actually thought he was growing up. Until Angie got
pregnant. Now he’s regressing…”
“Back to what he was in 2201,” said Derek. “Or even worse. I would not give him
command of the Black Tigers, let alone the whole Flight Group now…”
“So desu ka?” said
Nova in a somewhat higher voice as she sadly shook her head. Deke looked at her strangely until Nova said,
“Japanese. My second language as a child. We sometimes spoke it at home and
when we lived on
Derek looked at her, said “Ehh,” in a different voice and then said, “Back to Standard
English, dear…”
“Oh, yes,” said Nova. She yawned and said. “I think we can
make some changes?”
Wildstar looked at
“Well, it’ll look good on my resume’,” said Deke as he
yawned and drummed some more with his drumsticks. “Sorry, sir. Really…tired…”
“We know the feeling,” said Wildstar as he sipped at his
tea.
“Sir, we know about tired. The thing is, when are they
coming back?” asked Domon.
Derek sipped at his tea. “Hard to say…”
“I have a rather scary feeling about this,” said Sasha. “I
do not think it will go well. I think they are plotting something. But I do not
know what it is!”
“We should be on our guard, you are saying?” said Derek.
Sasha nodded at that.
Wildstar then looked at
Deke nodded. “It’ll be hard…but I can do it, sir…”
“Best of luck to you,” said Wildstar. “You’re now in
temporary command of the entire Flight Group until Hardy is back on his feet.
Nova, give him copies of Hardy’s latest briefing files as soon as you can. I’ll
provide the computer access…”
“Yessir,” said both
A few minutes later, after
“Where is it?” she
said as she stood on tiptoes looking for something on a high shelf.
“Where is what?” said Derek.
“Those pewter candlesticks I packed for when we have a
romantic candlelight dinner which, incidentially, I owe you,” said Nova. “When
you have the time, that is. I promised to help Angie and Bryan Hartcliffe have
one; she said he was at least trying to be semi-nice to her, and…”
Derek got up and reached up, reaching the shelf easier with
his 6’ 1” frame as compared to Nova’s smaller 5’ 7” frame in flats. “You mean
these?” he said.
Nova reached around and hugged and kissed Derek. “Thank you,
Derek! You are such a sweetheart…”
“Well, it’s not very gentlemanly or honorable seeing you
strain yourself…especially in your current condition,” he said.
“You’re a prince,” said Nova. “Don’t mistake that with being
Zordar, of course. You are not in that late maniac’s league…”
“I hope not,” said Derek. “I don’t think I’d look good with
green skin and white hair.” He felt his upper lip. “Should I try growing a…?”
“No,” said Nova.
“I mean a mou…”
“NO,” said Nova more firmly. “I like you the way you are
now, sir,” she said as she kissed his lips again. “Fuzz on you would just get
in the way…”
“And?” said Derek as Nova closed the locker door.
“On you, a moustache might look like a fat brown pregnant
caterpillar,” said Nova with a giggle. She ran to the hatch, blew him a kiss,
winked, and flounced off down the stairs with her candlesticks in her hands.
In the meantime, back on the Eritz Gatlantis, Menklen had come back to Invidia’s throne room
with his tail between his legs. Accompanied by Tre’ger, he stood with his head
bowed as Invidia slapped him across the face.
“You idiot!”
yelled Invidia. “Tre’ger sent us the battle report! You go up against nine
Terran, Gamilon, and Iscandarian ships vid sixteen of our ships! You have them outnumbered
nearly two to one with superior weaponry on our side, superior manuverability,
superior crews, and you lose against
eight old ships and one sort of new one? Fool! Do you think we grow new
warships on trees back on our conquered Planet Breshtava? No, we have slaves
building them!”
“To make it worse, he lost to Wildstar’s little pet female,” said Tre’ger. “The one you
tried to kill twice. It appears she is alive and well and making your
commanders look like idiots. She is maybe two months away from spawning her
young. Little damn Valkyrie! Will she still be fighting us when she is in
labor?”
“You lost to Nova?” sneered Invidia. Damn her, she is almost as much of a thorn in my side as her accursed
husband, thought Invidia.
“Yes, we lost to her,” said Menklen.
“You lost to a young woman half your age?” sneered Invidia. “She’s only a little older than I am. Fool!”
Invidia clapped her hands. “Commandant!” she yelled as a commander and four
guards came up. “Get this man down to the torture chambers; Sphere of Joy for
him for punishment before we give him back his ship…make sure he loses some of
his anatomy in there!”
“NOOOO!” yelled Menklen as he was dragged away. “HAVE
MERCY!”
A little later, Invidia sat drinking wine with Gorse as he
said to her, “I’m not sure I like this strategy, Princess…”
“He suggested it,”
said Invidia.
“You’d listen to a man…I think, who shook you by the neck
and tried to kill you just the other day?” said Gorse.
“He has made amends in my book,” said Invidia. “He contacted
the R’Khells for me and gave us new hope. It is then that I remembered Baron
Vilzal. He is an outcast like we are. He has given us more new hope.”
“What
is this strategy you have come to discuss?”
“Gamilon will soon be dealt with; they will surrender or we will destroy all on
that planet, courtesy of Skaldart. I want to deal with Earth myself. That is
why I want this plan executed,” she smiled as she opened a notebook.
“Case Sapphire Ged?”
he gasped as he looked at the plan. “Princess, you know the operational
doctrine! We do not execute this step on Earth until we defeat the Earth
Defense Fleet!”
“What will they have to defend if we start devastating the little planet?” purred Invidia.
“And while Star Force is tied down here trying to be gallant and help Desslok,
we jam the Sanzar System so no word from Earth gets to them; and then we force
Earth to recognize the old surrender they were about to sign. Then, who knows?
Maybe we attack Iscandar with the enslaved Earth Defense Fleet under our
command? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! And the Argo
destroyed, maybe, by Earth’s own flagship, the
“When do we execute?” sighed Gorse.
“It begins now,” said Invidia as she stood. “Give out the
orders and prepare us for continuous warp to the Milky Way. Our next stop….Earth! Ha
ha ha ha ha haaa!”
This
is amusing, thought Gorse. But is it wise? How far into destruction do
we follow this impulsive, crazy woman?
But, Invidia, ignoring him, stood there with her hand over
her mouth, just laughing. She seemed to like this idea, as weird as it was.
Space
Battleship Argo
1930
Hours….
Nova arrived in the galley a few minutes later, setting her
candlesticks down on a counter.
Sr. Lt. Ben McCutcheon, the Living Group’s Galley Chief
under her command, was not there.
Instead, his second-in-command of the Galley Section, a
Lieutenant named Odelle Cummings, was busy stirring some pasta in one pot and
some vegetables in another.
“Good evening, ma’am,” said Cummings in her sweet, smoky
Southern tones. She wore a white apron over her gold and black Living Group
uniform, and the large earrings she often wore under her Afro glittered under
the kitchen lights against her dark skin.
“Good evening, Lieutenant,” said Nova. “Have you seen Bryan
and Angie yet, Odelle?”
“They’re late,” said Cummings. “They were supposed to be
down here a while ago at 1915. I have a table set up for them and all…”
“When did you last go out to check?” said Nova as she opened
a refrigerator. She pulled out two strip steaks. “You picked out nice ones…”
“Supplies of the fresh stuff are starting to go a little
short,” said Cummings. “Makes me think back to the days when Sam and I were trying
to run the diner in New York before it got hit by the planet bombs and we had
to go underground and he died and then they called me back into the service,”
said the 49-year old officer. In spite of the fact that she had twenty years on
Nova, Cummings didn’t look that old. “We were about to start our own family
when Sam died…” said Odelle with a sigh.
“I’m so sorry,” Nova said as she gave Cummings a pat on the
shoulder.
“Hey, life goes on,” said Odelle. “I hear someone out there
now. Want me to get the broiler ready while you go and check?”
“Sounds good; I’ll be right back,” said Nova.
Nova ran out to the mess hall to find a scene that disturbed
her a great deal.
Angie sat there, alone, at a table, crying her eyes out.
“What’s wrong?” said Nova.
“Bryan and I had a horrible fight,” said Angie as she hugged
Nova. “He called me all sorts of terrible things! He….”
“Did he slap you?”
cried Nova as she saw how red her face was.
“Yes, but…I don’t want to press charges…he….it was my fault,
and…”
“It is NOT your fault,” said Nova as she knelt down beside
her chair and held her hands hard. “Where is Lieutenant Hartcliffe now?”
“In our cabin,” said Angie. “He…got hold of some party rum
from the ship’s stores…I don’t know how…he’s dead drunk…”
“God’s blood,”
muttered Nova. She took a deep, huffing breath. “Well, he won’t be in your
cabin any more tonight…he’ll be
sobering up somewhere else; the brig!” said Nova. “I have to report him;
dereliction of duty and misdemeanor spousal abuse.”
“I don’t want him jailed for this!” cried Angie. “We had a
fight! That’s it! Do you put Derek in the brig when you two have fights?”
“Derek does not
slap me around like that,” snapped Nova. “That’s charge two. Charge one is
because we could possibly use him in a cockpit and he’s going around stinking
drunk! We could be in battle any minute! This is a space warship, not some
animal house party dorm at some college! What an idiot! I’ll be right back…”
Nova squeezed Angie’s hands, got up and went to the nearest
phone and dialed a number. “Lieutenant Hemsford?” she said.
“Yes, ma’am,” said Pat Hemsford of the Marine Group. “What
can I do for you tonight, my lovely lady?”
“Can you send a Corporal and two men down to Room C-235 on
Charlie Deck in Living Block? You’ll find a Flight Group Lieutenant down below
in there. He’ll be drunk. I want him arrested and put in the brig. Then, I want
an Incident Report from your men on his condition. I’m doing a presentment for
Captain’s Mast in the morning based on it. I’ll be short some sleep tonight.”
“Isn’t that Hartcliffe?” said Hemsford.
“Yes, Pat, it sure is,” sighed Nova. “Why do you ask?”
“We got him out of one drunken scrape the other day on
Iscandar at the Cocoanut Grove, ma’am, when we were doin’ shore patrol. Hardy
gave him a good reprimand for that one…”
“I want to make sure he gets more than a reprimand this time,” snapped Nova.
“Make those reports good; Lieutenant Commander Wildstar out!”
“Hey, wot is this?” yelled Bryan Hartcliffe in a
semi-conscious stupor as he came to in the Argo’s
brig, “I’ve been in ‘ere before!”
“You are under arrest,” said a Marine. “Captain’s
Mast for you tomorrow morning, after you dry out.”
“I’m not drunk!” yelled Hartcliffe in a drunken, slurred
voice in his battered orange prisoners’ jumpsuit.
The Marine guards ignored him…and let him stew.
In the meantime, in her cabin, Nova sighed and began writing
up an investigative report as to Hartcliffe’s actions.
She would be busy with it for a while; this would be a long
night…
VI.
TROUBLE ON THE HOME FRONT
Earth
Langtry’s
Lounge
The
Vicinity of
(Local
Time) Thursday, July 2, 2207: 1802 Hours
On the Argo, which ran,
with the rest of the Fleet, on Tokyo Megalopolis time, it was now close to 0400
hours on July 3rd. On Earth, though, it was still the second on many
parts of the planet due to the International Date Line.
At the moment, two women sat at bar stools in a bar near the
One women was a red-headed lady in her early fifties in an
off-white skirted suit with pink blouse and pumps. She was named Vanessa
Caverness, and she was the current Chair of the
Her friend was just a year younger, and she wore her dark hair
down tonight (which surprised Vanessa because she usually wore it up in a bun)
and she wore a green silken pantsuit with gold pants and shiny black patent
sandals. Vanessa noticed that her friend, the new Co-Chair of the Art and
Photography Department, was trying to look about fifteen years younger tonight
with the way she was flipping her hair around, laughing…and, even, apparently, flirting a little with younger men.
“Teri, if I can ask, where’s Karl tonight? Weren’t you going to
meet him here?”
Teri Forrester shook her head and said, “Darn him, he had to go to
“How are Aurora and David doing?”
“They like to destroy the house and run around like wild animals,”
said Teri brightly. “Typical behavior for kids pushing five years old. David
will never sit still, but
Then, Teri said, “That’s cute. I only saw her older sister doing
that maybe one-third of the time when she was her age. But, she wanted the play nurse kit at that age. And she was
reading books way beyond her years. Thank Heavens Aurora isn’t as precocious as
Nova was.”
Teri went silent and drank her highball again. “Gifted children
can be such trouble sometimes,” she said as she began to slur her words a
little. “Children will drive you to drink.
“It’s wartime, Teri,” said Vanessa.
“Wartime! They all say that,” said Teri as she threw up her hands.
She banged down her money and said, “Bartender? Another, please?”
“I hope you’re not driving,
ma’am,” muttered the bartender after he and his serving robot made up another
one and handed it to Teri.
“I’ll be fine,” said Teri with an ironic grin.
“What’s on video?” sheaid Teri as she looked up at the screen
above the bar.
“Ballgame,” said Vanessa. “Rockies against the Phillies;
Teri looked up, bored at the tri-d screen and a batter for the
Phillies as the announcer said, “Ramirez swings, hits…pops fly to the foul
line…strike two….”
The image suddenly faded out as a graphic came up that read
FEDERATION GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL BULLETIN. Another graphic read BREAKING NEWS:
EARTH DEFENSE HEAQUARTERS…
A moment later, activity in the bar stopped as an image of General
Stone behind a podium came up. He was sweating and looked shaken as reporters
yelled things at him. “Are we sure of this? Has
it been confimed!? What can we do?”
“YES IT HAS BEEN CONFIRMED!” barked Stone. Then, he faced the camera.
“We received an update from the Gamilon Embassy that the New Comet, which was
observed at the edge of a battle in the Sanzar System which is largely
completed, for the moment, warped away from the Sanzar System at 0401 Hours
Earth Spacetime. We didn’t think much of
that, until the next flash came in. Namely, at 0403 Hours, a new Black Nebulan
Fleet and a huge object appeared in the Sanzar System near Gamilon. That was
the last we heard from them! We then tried to raise the Star Force, but found at
once that an enemy jamming screen has gone up interdicting all communications
with the Argo, Starsha, or Desslok.”
Stone paused. “You were called here to be notified that the Sanzar
System is again under heavy attack and that the Argo and her Task Force are now out of contact…”
“GOD!” Teri screamed over the announcement. “NOVA! MY BABY!”
“Would ya shut UP, lady?” yelled someone with a
“…but, then….Mars Base called in. It just sent its last
transmission,” said Stone. “Before we lost contact with them, we found out
exactly where the New Comet was…and is…”
“Where?” barked a reporter as lots of people yelled.
Stone swallowed hard. “Our Eye in the Sky Satellites are tracking
it. It is beginning to shed its energy field…no sign of a Fleet seen
yet…Admiral Yamanami and First and Third Fleets have been dispatched to
intercept…”
The room filled with hubbub and yells, as did the bar. “Well,
where IS it?” someone yelled.
Stone
swallowed again. “It’s coming at high speed…it is six hundred megameters away
from Mars…and firing at Phobos!”
“Course?” yelled someone else.
“A parabolic course,” said Stone. “It’s been tracked. The Battle
Satellites are ready…the emergency Automated Fleet is ready as well, until the
First and Third Fleets arrive…we are trying to reach the Star Force.” Stone
snapped. “Commanding General Singleton is being roused from his bed. We are
ordering all citizens to seek shelter…”
“So where is the New Comet Empire?” yelled someone.
“Heading…right…for…Earth,” said Stone.
“OH MY GOD!” screamed Teri from her bar stool. Then, she began to
cry. My babies, she thought. David, Aurora, will I even have time to get
them? Is Karl safe? And what about Nova? Is she even still alive? I should have
never let him take her on this mission pregnant…NEVER! Teri thought
as she just began to cry harder.
But soon, there would be no time at all for tears…
And, soon…this time, the effect upon Earth of Invidia’s latest
round of madness would be far, FAR worse….
But, in the Cosmos, as she looked down upon what would soon be a
suffering Earth, Trelaina sighed to herself. To prevent an even greater evil in the years to come, she thought. I must stay my hand now. I have foreseen
much. The defeat of Invidia…this time around, will not be my battle…as much as
I am tempted to, this time…I cannot intervene. This time, what happens, must
happen.
Destiny
has written me a hard script. But, for spring to come, for Earth to live and
grow and reach out to the rest of the universe, for now, she must endure a very
hard frost…
And, at that, knowing she was constrained, Trelaina wept.
TO BE CONTINUED….
To Return to the Introduction to The New Comet, click here