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.
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
"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
At the moment, the
"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 Allison 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?"
"Allison, 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
"Confirmed, sir,"
said
"Fourth wave of
missiles approaching," said Parodi.
The
"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
"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
"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 Allison, 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
Allison 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