ALTERNATE TALES OF THE STAR FORCE
STAR BLAZERS---FROM BOREDOM TO UTTER DISBELIEF
Being the first part of THE NEW COMET--- BY: Frederick P. Kopetz
(Thanks to Derek A.C. Wakefield for technical assistance lent in the creation of this installment---Freddo)
ACT TWO: ENTER THE PRINCESS
I. A NEW THRONE
The Andromeda Galaxy
Space Fortress Eritz Gatlantis
Friday, June 7, 2205
0430 Hours: Earth Time
It hung like a vile
moon around a planet at the edge of the Andromeda Galaxy, home galaxy of the
Cometine Race.
She was just one of many base ships constructed by the Cometine people. But, what made this almost-completed base ship special and ominous were two things; her size and her mission.
In Terran measure, she was over a hundred kilometers in circumference, four times the size of the original Gatlantis that still orbited Planet Earth as so much wreckage. Although her field generators were not yet complete, it was estimated that this ship would generate a Comet Field big enough to easily engulf Planet Earth, if needed.
She was the Eritz Gatlantis, a title in Cometine that meant both "Second Gatlantis" and "Resurrection of the House of Gatlantis."
She had been built at the command of the newly recognized Royal Princess of the House of Gatlantis and the Cometine Emperor as a weapon of vengeance with just one paramount purpose; the conquest or destruction of one defiant planet in the Milky Way Galaxy: Earth.
"This fortress is grand," said General Gorse as he walked through the corridors of the new ship.
"Of course, she is far from completed," said General Dyre. "The Princess will not like the engineers' completion estimate..."
"Which is?"
"About a year," said Dyre with a chill laugh. "That is, a year until the warp drive is enabled, and until we can light-off the new Comet field for the first time."
"So why not beg, borrow, or steal another House's Comet for this job?" asked Gorse.
"It is not...the
Princess' will," said Dyre. "She wants to add her own special touch
to this scheme. And you know how she is about getting her way."
"I do. I almost wish..."
"She had never become our ruler?"
Gorse nodded.
"Be careful about saying such things...or neither of our heads will be safe."
The two generals walked together into the Eritz Gatlantis' command center.
"It feels as if we're home again," said Gorse. "It looks like Prince Zordar's command center."
"But Zordar is no longer on the throne," said Gorse, looking at the empty throne.
"How true," replied Dyre. "As I have said, it is to our misfortune."
"Is it, now? WHY is that?" asked a familiar voice as a figure in white strode in and sat down on the Throne of the House of Gatlantis.
At that, everyone, generals and staff officers alike, snapped to attention at the arrival of Princess Invidia. She airily flipped her hand, signaling everyone to stand at-ease.
"Since you think it is a misfortune that I have ascended, I am going to inform you that I care not a whit about what you feel. I am here, so live with it! Any more thoughts of sedition, and I may reconsider my decision to promote you. Report, Dyre," said Invidia with a peeved look on her face.
"Princess," said Dyre. "First, I thank you for the position of second-in-command which you have given me. It is a true promotion."
"A promotion that
my father intended, had he lived. It may not have been mine, but, after all, no
one else was available that I could trust as much as you," said Invidia
after she stood. "Gorse, you are my Chief of Staff. Assist Dyre in his
report."
Gorse nodded to an officer while Dyre stood on a large screen. "The material condition of the Eritz Gatlantis is as follows. She is ready for sub-light trials, and the basic superstructure is complete. The weapons belt is activated, and the magna-flame cannons have been tested against stationary targets. The secondary weapons in the lower belt have been altered so that they can be fired at a better angle against enemy targets. Also, the tertiary weapon turrets in the underbelly have been increased in size and volume, and the underbelly itself was made from a denser iron-magnamese-trurinum mix found in the Petronia region's asteroid belt. Any ships' weapons would have a hard time piercing this ship's new underbelly, Princess. She has been built to be impenetrable. This is truly...an unsinkable ship, Princess. No one will bring us down in combat, not even another Trelaina, if such a freak of nature exists!"
"It sounds as if you have done well," said Invidia. "Go on."
"Unfortunately...the Comet field is not yet ready. Nor is the main warp drive."
"Why not, Dyre?" snapped Invidia.
"It will take time to develop that new de-centralized drive you asked us to create. Our design is untested; rather than combining all of the conduits from one energy center and node, we have eight, dispersed throughout three widely scattered Engineering decks, the objective being that a single party will not bring down all of the power in this ship like they did last time. It will take us time to build and test this new system."
"What is being done in the meantime?' asked Invidia.
"We are using Gernitz as a tool, as you commanded," said Gorse. "We have sent him orders that purport to come from Imperial Center. On those orders, he is probing the defenses of Earth for us..."
"General," said a staff officer. "I have a report from Gernitz!"
"Which is?" said Dyre.
The staff officer
snapped to attention and then he began to read a padd. "Baron Gernitz
reports that forces of ours under the command of General Czernak have engaged
the Earth space battleship Argo and several smaller units near the edge
of Earth's solar system. Czernak expects to cripple, capture, and board or
destroy the Argo shortly and bring it back to Petronia for study if captured.
You remember how she disgraced you and your father long ago, Princess. If the Argo
is brought down, the special missions unit known as the Star Force will no
longer be a threat to us. That is all."
"Excellent," purred Invidia. "I hope they complete the deed tonight. Then, we can have a great celebration."
"It looks good," said Gorse.
"It does," added Dyre. "It looks as if the Goddess Arishna has finally blessed our endeavors."
"I believe She has," said Invidia with a smile.
II. BACK IN THE SOUP AGAIN...
The Brumus Asteroid Belt
Space Battleship Argo
Friday, June 7, 2205
0435 Hours: Earth Time
"Wildstar!" cried Homer. "Hardy's reporting in!"
"Put him on audio."
"We've got the
heading of the enemy ships," said Hardy.
"What are they?" asked Derek.
Hardy began to read off a string of coordinates that Domon typed down as fast as he could. Finally, Wildstar said, "Hardy, get in there, attack, and then get out, and I'll finish it off with our main guns! You have two minutes to clear the area!"
"Roger," said Hardy. "All right, now, let's get them!"
At that, he and Angie flew in to take care of the enemy ships. Four Cometine destroyers were left burning as they pulled out, heading back for safety around the Argo.
Three tense minutes passed. Finally, Eager spoke up from his post. "Hardy's squadron is back; they're around the stern waiting to land!"
"Forward guns, open fire!" barked Derek.
"Okay, forward guns, fire!" repeated Domon.
The Argo's main guns went off. Three enemy ships fell in the first barrage. For a moment, Wildstar thought that this was going to be yet another battle won; another victory they could report back to Earth about.
Instead, from her
radar, Monica Cantrell cried, "Captain!! Missiles approaching from
KPX-112! Range, fifty megameters, speed, twenty-six space knots! Putting them
on video!"
Wildstar looked up, just in time to see heavy Cometine missiles blasting towards the Argo. "Crap!" he yelled. "Kitano, evade!"
"Roger, evasive," said Kitano.
At that, the Argo shifted her course and heading, buying just a little time for Wildstar to consider his next move in what seemed to be a very deadly game of cat-and-mouse.
The Danube and her escorts, the J'offre and the Marshall, were in their own little jam as another squadron of Cometine destroyers had appeared to begin hammering at them.
At the moment, the Danube
was smoking in several places, and beginning to look the way that the Argo
usually did after a hard battle. But, the battered
ship was fighting on, with plasma fire still pulsing from her working turrets.
She had even brought down two ships by herself after taking many hits.
Considering that this class of cruiser was meant to be a scout, that was no
mean feat on the part of Nova and her crew.
"How much longer can we take this, Barandini?" asked Nova. "We've lost all our scout planes and you just said that the number one turret was out!"
"About twenty minutes," said Barandini."
"There's always our wave motion gun," said Canning.
"Not good," said Nova, who gasped a little as she moved her leg. Damnit that burn on my thigh sure hurts she thought. "It'd take too long to charge, and they could duck into that asteroid field..." Then, a slow smile came to Nova's face.
"Ma'am?" said Canning.
"Miss Parker," sang Nova as enemy fire rang all around the ship. "Are you any good at flying in an asteroid field?"
"Well, yes...but...it'd be suicide...."
"Not...necessarily," said Nova. "We're going in there, and we're going to lose the enemy for a bit. Potter, signal the frigates; let them know that we're going in there."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Barnwell, you take command for a moment," said Nova.
"Now?" said Barnwell.
Nova nodded. Then, she looked down towards the second bridge. "Miss Forrester?" she called.
"Yes?" came the voice of her cousin, the recently-commissioned Ensign Brittany Forrester.
"Draw me a new uniform from stores...you know my size."
"Why, ma'am? Did I graduate OCS to...uhh...pick up your stuff?"
"Brittany, please!" sang Nova. "I have a good reason...all of mine are in the wash and the one I'm wearing is burned. Meet me in my cabin in five minutes with that uniform and some tea."
"Ma'am, what are you doing?" asked Barnwell as Nova got up.
"Getting changed...and...doing some math. Feed our current course to my cabin, running plot, and hold the enemy off..." said Nova. "And include all the asteroids in that plot, too. I have an idea. You have the conn until I get back, XO."
"Aye, aye, ma'am." At that, Nova left.
"Well?" said Canning.
His girlfriend shrugged. "Lionel, I think she is batty. Too much time out there in space. She thinks this is the Argo."
"So? Don't talk that way about the skipper." said Barnwell. "Right now, I think we could use that spirit...and experience."
In the meantime, Sandor
was having his own problems on the darkened bridge of his command, the patrol
cruiser Thames. She had just shot apart three Cometine missile ships,
but she had taken two more hits.
"Confirmed, sir," said Koriyama. "I heard from the skipper of the Parana, Second Flotilla. The Packard has been blown apart. Same thing's happened to the Smith."
"Fourth wave of missiles approaching," said Parodi.
The Thames was hit again and again by missiles. "We're taking more damage," said Sandor. "Baylor, how many ships did we take out with the first attack?"
"Four, sir."
"Target them for another attack."
"Yessir," said Baylor. "You know one of our forward turrets is out."
"Yes, I do," said Sandor with a grim look on his face. "Baylor, just carry out my order."
"Aye, sir. Correct firing angle, two degrees. Open fire!"
The Thames fired again. Another Cometine missile ship was blown apart, followed by another EDF frigate of the 20th Interplanetary Defense Squadron.
"How many left?" asked Sandor.
"Four enemy ships left," said Parodi.
"Mister Flint," said Sandor as he got up and stood behind his helmsman. "Take us into that asteroid field. They won't be able to find us so easily there."
"Then?" asked Baylor.
"Then, we'll come back on top of them when they aren't expecting it," said Sandor with a grim smile. "You're our Executive Officer. I thought you'd know that."
"Aye, aye, sir."
On the Danube, Brittany stood in Nova's quarters as Nova stripped off her burned uniform to treat her own burns and put on a fresh uniform. It was now exactly 0500.
"Ma'am, how come you're not going to Sickbay?"
"Because I'm needed on the bridge; that's why. Get that ointment on my thigh there, please. Then help me get my skirt up."
"Nova, you've got more tights in here."
"I'm gonna need a bandage on that, and the tights'll just cut off circulation. In the meantime, I've figured out what we're going to do."
"What, ma'am?"
Nova gasped as she finished bandaging her thigh. "Polarity reactor shells. We're going to pull some asteroids around ourselves and wait at the edge of the asteroid belt for the enemy. We'll bait them with fake radio signals of another fleet in the region," said Nova as she finished bandaging herself. She nodded to Brittany, who then helped her pull her skirt up while she flipped through a technical manual on her desk. "Luckily, this ship has a working polarity reactor; in fact, it's never been used in battle yet per the engineering log. When they come to investigate, we'll come out of nowhere and blow them apart. Pretty good trick, huh?"
"Sure is," said Brittany while Nova pulled her boots back on.
"Now, let's just hope it works," said Nova. "Bridge."
"Warp completed," said Kitano as the Argo emerged from the warp Wildstar had just ordered. "You know they'll still be on us, sir."
"That's what I want them to do," said Derek with a grim smile. "I'm sure you remember our polarity reactors?"
"Yessir, I do," said Domon. "We're going to head into the belt, catch some asteroids, and then..."
"Wait for them to show up," said Derek with a grim smile. "Not likely that anyone else is going to be trying this, so, we've got the element of surprise."
"When are we going in?" asked Domon.
"Now," said Wildstar. "Kitano, ahead slow. We need to do this ASAP."
"Again, report," said Gernitz's voice aboard the Jaavitz, which was the flagship of the fleet.
General Czernak, the enemy commander on the scene, smiled as the image of Baron Gernitz, his commander and liege-lord, came up on the screen. "It still goes well, Baron. We've forced the Argo to heel, and the others have destroyed the other two scouting squadrons, sir."
"They're finished?" asked Gernitz.
"No signals from them," said Czernak. "My commanders report that the ships drifted into the asteroid belt; probably mortally wounded. At your command, I'd like to draw them off to finish off the Argo."
"Granted. You know I want the Argo finished off! Concentrate on them, and report to me when you have a great victory!"
"Yessir," smiled Czernak. A signal came in aboard the flagship as another Cometine officer appeared on the other side of the screen on the flagship. "Sir, the Argo just warped to RX-235. She's trying to hide!"
"Keep on her, Captain Dalza!" said Czernak. "Pull back the other forces, and concentrate everyone at that location. Then, get in there and look for the Argo."
"Sir!"
"I don't care what you have to do!" yelled Czernak. "Find me
that accursed ship!"
"Yessir," said Dalza as the signal went dark.
On his ship, Gernitz smiled. "Yes, Czernak. Great job! Soon, we'll have a glorious victory to report!"
"Yes," smiled Czernak. "We will."
TO BE CONTINUED....
To Return to the Introduction to The New Comet, click here