ALTERNATE TALES OF THE
STAR FORCE
STAR BLAZERS—ENDGAME
Being the ninth 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)
Thanks to Ami Meitsu and Kenneth Mayes
for Artwork contributed for this chapter
Thanks also to Gail Kopetz (Fluffy! My Wife!) and Ami Meitsu for
helping to inspire me….
Note: This chapter contains some mature
content…just wanted to warn you…
ACT TWO: TWO BULLETS…
I.
FLASHBACKS
A
Planet
Demonranstra
Sunday, July 26, 2207: 0812 Hours Earth Space-Time
“Do you know something?” Deke
“What?”
“When you had that nightmare five hours ago about Jeff being
killed, it reminded me of when I used to comfort my sister Kathi. Remember
Kathi?”
“She was cute,” said Dawn. “Thanks to her being killed in the war,
she never got to grow up. I wonder if she would have liked sitting here trapped
in this rotten cave with us?”
“She would have been playing house with us,” said Deke.
“You and that Starventura doll,” sighed Dawn. “A girl adventurer
daredevil type in that purple jumpsuit. Purple bellbottoms.”
“She was cute,” said Deke.
“For a while, she was your girlfriend,” grunted Dawn. “The first
other woman I got jealous of. And that long blond hair.” Then, a crazy thought
hit Dawn. “Did you marry Sasha because she kind of looks like Starventura?”
“Yes and no,” said Deke. “I haven’t thought about Starventura for
years. I bet those things would go for several thousand credits now as some
kind of Gamilon War antique. You know anyone else who had or still has one?”
“One lady I know still has hers…I think,” said Dawn.
Deke began drumming with his drumsticks, and, to his surprise,
Dawn grinned and revealed a pair of sticks she had found in the jungle and had
whittled into crude drumsticks last night when she had been on watch. The two
of them began drumming a cadence against a rock formation for a moment, until
Dawn stopped and blurted out, “Deke!”
“Yeah?”
“Now I remember! That time when I yelled at you for changing
Star?”
“The doll?”
Dawn nodded. “I told you that you were not supposed to be looking
at her naked,” teased Dawn.
“Well, bullshit!” said Deke. “How was I supposed to change her if
I didn’t look?”
“Does Sasha have a purple jumpsuit?” teased Dawn.
“Please…not a good time
to bring her up,” snapped Deke. “Especially since it may be debatable if I ever
see her again!”
“Sorry,” said Dawn.
In the meantime, on the Argo,
efforts to repair the battered ship were still ongoing as the heat gradually
dissipated. The internal temperature was now maybe 90 degrees as Nova only had
to get one more climate control unit back on line. If she could do so today,
temperatures would be back to normal a day later.
Diane Henson, who now worked in a pair of male-patterned slacks, a
bikini top, and thongs, knelt beside a panel in the engine room as Wildstar,
clad in his uniform top, shorts, and shower thongs, came down, observing her
working with a very greasy Tim Orion (who had on an undershirt and his slacks)
and some other crew members.
“How is the work going?” he asked.
“Fairly good, so far,” said Diane. “We might be able to get the wave
motion engine back on line in the next two days. Good thing, too, because the
batteries are running low.”
“How bad?” said Wildstar.
“We have to get the engine back on-line in forty-eight hours or
we’ll begin having to cut down more in the way of shipboard functions.”
“That bad, huh?” said Wildstar.
“Yeah,” said Diane. “But I think we can do it. I think.”
“If we aren’t able to do it,” said Wildstar. “I…I don’t want to
think about it! Just do it!” he
snapped.
“Yessir,” said Henson as she saluted.
A while later, Derek found Nova in the life support area, where
she was making the final repairs to one of the air conditioning units in her
skirt, sandals, and a standard shirt tied under her breasts that showed her
sweaty, pregnant midriff.
“Hi,” Nova said as she extricated her head from the unit, saluted
Derek, then gave him a quick kiss. Derek gave his pregnant wife’s stomach a pat
in return and hugged her.
“You look like you need a drink,” Derek said. “Thanks for working
so hard.”
“I’m almost done with this,” Nova said. She wiped her face with a
rag, made sure her gloves were on securely, and she went back into the unit.
“How are the engine repairs going, Derek? The batteries are starting to get
low; I know that.”
“Henson says sometime in the next two days. I told her to rush
it.”
“If we don’t have full power in thirty-six hours, we’re going to
have to cut artificial gravity and lighting to two decks,” Nova said. “These
climate control units have been working overtime since we’re so close to that
star. And if we can’t move in two days….I don’t like the thought of the
radiation buildup, either.”
“Nova?” said Derek.
“Talk to Sandor. He and Bando just found that the star seems to be
becoming more active….” Nova then extricated her head from the unit, smiled,
and said, “I’m about to try to turn it on now, Derek. I’ll cross my fingers and
toes that it works.”
Commodore Wildstar looked down, and noticed Nova crossing her
gloved fingers before putting her hands on the switch. She crossed her bare
toes on her sandaled right foot and pulled down the power switch.
The unit coughed, sputtered, and roared to life as Nova wiped her
brow and smiled. “Thank God! That’s
done! If that star doesn’t go crazy, we should have normal shipboard
temperatures again in about ten hours. But what do we do if we get attacked?”
Derek took a deep breath. “I’ve been thinking about all of the
possibilities, none of them good. We’d have to depend on the Black Tigers and
missiles until we have enough energy back on-line to run the main guns or the
wave motion gun.”
“And what about that missing gun turret on the fantail?”
“Nova, we have the hole patched over. Unless we can find a lot of metal
somewhere and have ten uninterrupted days like after the battle of the Rainbow Star
Cluster where we rebuilt the ship’s keel….and we got that metal only by
cannibalizing the wrecks of three Gamilon spacecraft carriers…we can’t build a new turret short of a dockyard!”
“Oh,”
Nova said. “I’m sorry I upset you.”
“It’s not you, it’s this damn situation
we’re in…half-defeated, half-wrecked…marooned…”
She put up her hand and coughed. “I know. We are not in a good
situation right now. I hope Deke and Dawn are still alive,” Nova said.
“The chances of that are very small, I hate to tell you,” Derek
said.
“I’ve been talking with Sasha. When she is not crying her eyes
out, she says she can still feel Deke
through their bond, Derek. Ergo,
would logic not dictate that for her to feel him, he must be alive?”
“Logic, huh? Okay, genius! Write me a formal proof and leave it on
my desk in the morning,” said Derek with a little grin.
Nova tapped her foot. “Sometimes, you are impossible!”
Another Living Group enlisted person came up to Nova, saluted and
said, “Ma’am, we are having trouble with one of the refrigerator units in the
galley again. Can you look at it?”
Nova nodded and said, “I’ll see you later, sir,” to Derek.
Derek nodded and said, “Good luck with that unit.”
Nova winked at her husband as she left.
II.
MORE FLASHBACKS
The
Eritz Gatlantis
Three
Lightyears Away From Planet Demonranstra
Monday, July 27, 2207: 0900 Hours Earth Space-Time
The
New Comet bristled with power as it roared through space a few star systems
away from Demonranstra as Invidia’s forces continued to look for the Argo so that they could either capture
or destroy her.
Princess Invidia looked miserable as she sat on her throne while
various officers made reports. “Some of the repairs are still underway,
Princess,” said Gorse. “Until then, our warp capabilities will be somewhat
compromised.”
“Not important,” Invidia snapped. “Have you found the Argo yet?”
“There are fifteen star systems within three lightyears’ diameter
of Demonranstra to begin the search,” said another General, who was named
Mekis. “We have not detected any signals from the Argo in days. It is possible they may already be destroyed.”
“No,” said a deep, cruel voice as Ekogaru walked into the room in
Stovall’s body, leaning on a staff. “They are still alive.”
“And you can’t tell me where they are?” snapped Invidia.
“Sasha of Iscandar is being careful to hide her presence, even
though I wish she was here for me to torture!” said Ekogaru. “Unless she does
something extreme, the best that I can tell you is that they are maybe twenty
lightyears away from us. I believe it
is somewhat hard for this wreck of a city-ship to warp about now?”
“Do not call my ship a wreck,” snapped Invidia.
“To make matters worse, one of our recon fleets made contact with
a fleet from Radnar’s side earlier today, Princess,” said Mekis. “If Radnar
finds us, we would have a hard time defending ourselves.”
Invidia slammed a fist against the arm of her throne and sighed as
tears came to her eyes. “Perhaps we should take this as a sign that the
Earthlings have earned their freedom and call this whole thing off. You and Dyre were right, Gorse.”
“While we can still fight?” snapped Gorse.
“Who gives the orders here?” said Invidia. “You, or I, Gorse?”
Ekogaru then came up to her and slapped her across the face. “And
who props you up on your teetering throne,
you piece of filth? Not your generals, not yourself, but I! I keep you alive and breathing for one reason! You are useful to
me!”
“Why?” demanded Invidia as she rubbed her face.
“Someday, someday, I will bring back my own Empire and the power
of the enhanced cyborg machine! Through my science, we can live forever!”
Ekogaru roared. “Do you doubt my power, you snot?”
he roared at Invidia.
“Stop speaking that way to our Princess,” snapped Gorse.
“YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTH!” roared Ekogaru as he tapped Gorse hard in
the chest. “The only reason I let you people live is to weaken the Earthlings!
I will have you know that in ten years, twenty years, thirty years, you and the
Earthlings will BOTH be bowing to me as your new god! And gladly, since I will
let you all live forever, so long as you worship me! That is why I let you
live! You and the Earthlings have been manipulated into hurting each other like
scorpions in a bottle! Don’t you realize that yet? You two are both primitive
filth to me, using primitive weapons, hardly better than cavemen fighting with
sticks and rocks! Remember your place and role in life when you speak to me!”
Invidia was about to retort when Duchess Caella came in, knelt
before Ekogaru, and kissed his feet! “Please do not hurt us,” she cooed. “My
cousin Invidia and her men have not been well lately. They understand your
great superiority, O Lordship, and they will listen to your most wise counsel.
Won’t you, Invidia, my darling?”
Invidia, dumbstruck, just nodded.
“I thought you hated what your cousin was doing to the
Earthlings,” said Ekogaru as he rubbed Caella’s hair.
“She’s smart, but sometimes, I’m smarter than her because I’m
older,” cooed Caella. “Maybe we need to be meanies until they realize how great
you are, Ekogaru, Lord…”
“How is your Earthling pet male?” purred Ekogaru.
“He’s really cute, and really, really, really sexy, too,” said Caella. “Like you!”
Ekogaru spat on her. “I do not sleep with the likes of you, Duchess,” he snapped. “That is to
be made clear, once, and for all time! Are we clear on that?”
“Who kept you from being picked on when we had the playroom,
Invidia?” sobbed Caella.
“I don’t want to be reminded of that,” snapped Invidia. “You were
always so spoiled!”
Ekogaru clapped his hands and put his hands on Caella’s blond
locks as she knelt and hugged his legs. “Let us bring to light these memories,”
he said as he made a ball of purple light appear before all of them.
Then, inside the purple light, images began to fly past in 3-D as
if they were watching a holographic movie of some sort.
Invidia hid her face, embarrassed beyond belief as the Dark Lord
laid her past bare….
The
Cometine City-Ship Gatlantis
Sometime
in the Earth Year 2189
At
the Edge of the Andromeda Galaxy
Ten years before the battleship Yamato was even dredged up from the sea bed, Prince Zordar and his
father (who still lived then) were plotting to expand their realm into Gamilon
space by force by conquering various worlds between the Andromeda Galaxy and
the Great Magellenic Cloud.
Zordar was away with his father, Ruling Prince Zadek, at a staff
meeting, gathering as much intelligence as he could about Planet Rotella, the
first of their planned targets.
Invidia’s mother still lived, but she was busy as Caella and
Invidia played in the massive playroom in the Comet.
At
that time, Invidia was just six. She wore a dark little black dress and black
boots as she played, climbing up a slide and squealing as she went down.
Caella, who was ten, wore shorts, a tank-top, and went barefoot as
she waited at the bottom of the slide for Invidia.
Caella put out a leg and made her cousin stumble as she sang,
“Freaky-skin, freaky-skin! Princess Invidia is pale and she’s freaky! You’re a
Princess, I’m a Duchess, and you are really freaky!”
“I’m not freaky!” sobbed Invidia.
“Lookie at Invidia!” sneered a little green-skinned boy in a
t-shirt and khaki pants named Cosmodart Naska. He would later grow up to be
General Naska. “She’s not green like us! Are you a mutant, Invidia?”
“LEAVE ME ALONE, NASKA!” sobbed Invidia.
Naska giggled, and he ran over to a sandbox and grabbed some sand.
Then, he threw some sand in Invidia’s hair as Caella yelled, “Hey, Naska! She’s
weird and freaky, but she’ll get in trouble with her Mom and Dad if she has
sand in her hair! Even though she dresses like she’s goin’ to a funeral, leave
her alone!”
“She’s too stinky to be allowed to live!” sang Naska. “Hey,
Invidia! Wanna go dinosaur hunting with us on the next minor planet we conquer
so the dinosaurs can eat you?”
“Leave me alone!” screamed Invidia.
“Hey, freaky, want me to protect you?” said Caella. “Or should I
dump sand on ya?”
Artwork: “Little Invidia” © 2008 by Ami Meitsu
“I have my stick!” yelled Invidia as she got her pointer out of
the sleeve of her dress. “And I’m going to hit you both with it if you don’t
stop picking on me in my playroom while I play with my toys! My Daddy is Crown Prince and he can cut all your heads off!”
“Freaky, freaky, freaky!”
chanted Caella and Naska together as they giggled at Invidia. “Freaky Mental Invidia!
Invidia is a Mutant Mental Case! She’s not quite even a Cometine!”
Invidia screamed and went after both children with her stick as
one of the governesses finally stepped in and dragged her away. Invidia fought
and hissed like a cat as she was dragged away for a spanking while Naska and
Caella laughed their heads off.
Ekogaru then smirked as he stopped the vision. “Do we need to show
them how you got spanked with your underpants down, Princess?”
“No!” said Invidia as Caella laughed her head off.
Caella said, “You looked so funny and freaky as a child, cousin!
And you still look sort of freaky!”
“I AM NOT FREAKY!” yelled Invidia as she got her pointer and went
after Caella with it. “And you are an ugly little trollop, Caella!”
“Stop fighting, girls,” purred Ekogaru. “Now, shall we get back to
this staff meeting?”
“Yes, Lord,” said Caella in a simpering little airhead voice.
“YES,” hissed Invidia as she thought, Soon, Caella, soon, one of these days, I will get you!
III.
TIME PASSES…
A
Planet
Demonranstra
Tuesday, July 28, 2207: 1045 Hours Earth Space-Time
While events continued to go on around them, Deke and Dawn sat in
their cave reviewing their past as they fought hunger by slowly eating some
wild fruit and vegetables that Deke had found in one of his foraging missions
outside of the cave yesterday.
“I’m going to be on an involuntary diet if I keep on eating this
alien stuff, Deke,” sighed Dawn.
“Where’s your boots?” asked Deke as he realized that Dawn now went
barefoot.
“I lost one down a crevasse when I was going to the bathroom
earlier,” sighed Dawn. “I know, I’m stupid!
I threw the other one away.”
“Why?”
“One boot does someone no good. Just like that time you broke that
one roller skate. Remember?”
“Oh, yes,” Deke said as he began drumming with his sticks while
Dawn began to drum with hers. “
“Yes, Marshmallow Boy, I remember that,” grinned Dawn.
“Don’t call me that!”
Deke snapped.
“The name fit, sadly,” said Dawn. “We all saw you as being kinda
weird then. What with your waist-length hair, while most of the boys in your class kept
theirs short or shoulder length at the longest. You were shorter than I was at
that age, and you were a bit pudgy around the middle and in the face…”
“And you had your bubbly, positive attitude,
long, shiny, waist-length, medium-brown hair, and brilliant, beaming white
smile, so your popularity at DeSoto soared to new heights (most notably with
the boys)….”
“Yes,”
said Dawn. “They all told me, “Get out of
band! You're never going to attract a football player if you keep playing the
drums, Dawn!”
“And
those Junior Space Cadet Corps kids from high school began picking on me. One
stuffed me in a locker once, Dawn. Then in 2196, I broke my leg during
skateboarding practice and used my broken leg and the silent treatment you were
giving me as a pity ploy to gain sympathy and attention from some of the other
girls at school. Then you found me with several of them at the neighborhood
soda fountain. When I got home, Kathi said, "Ohmmm…, Dawn gonna hurt you, Deke! U not supposed to be with any OTHER
GIRL?"
“I
wanted to kill you. I blew a stack as my not-so-little green monster showed
itself for the first time. I arrived home in tears, confused and angry over
what I saw. Over cups of hot cocoa,
“Then,
there was what you did to Staci Collinsworth after she would NOT STOP going
after me,” said Deke with a grin.
“At
the principal’s office, afteward I told Principal Cooley, “I can't help it if
she put her hair in my hand and then ran away. I can't help it if she shoved my
fingernails into her face. I couldn't help it if she shoved her eye up against
the heel of my hand. I can't help it if she put her skirt, and then her blouse,
and then her bra, and then her panties in my hand and pulled away….”
Both
Deke and Dawn laughed hard over this memory, and ended up hugging. Deke ignored
his headache as Dawn hugged him, and pulled out her Star Pendant.
“I
still have this, you know,” she said.
“Seriously,
Jeff still lets you wear that with no grief?” said Deke. “The symbol that we
began going steady in March of 2197 when we were thirteen?”
Dawn
nodded eagerly.
“You
know, your father Cal had a long talk with me after I gave that to you,” said
Deke. “He gave me two warnings.”
“Which
were?”
Deke
cleared his throat and said, “One: you
know she can fight when angered, so don't even think about looking at another
girl. Two: You had better not even
had thought about what MY DAUGHTER looks like in her birthday suit (let alone
think about doing so in the near future).”
“What
did you do, considering…uh…we had slipped off to that isolated part of the
underground city, in the old tunnel, and had….uh…done it already?”
“I
grinned,” said Deke as he kissed Dawn.
Deke
grunted as his headache hit him very hard. For a minute, Dawn was about to ask
Deke if they wanted to forget everything and try that again (being bored) just to see what it felt like now, but she
dropped the idea when she saw him grimacing. “What’s wrong, Deke?”
“Headache,”
said Deke as thoughts of Sasha came powerfully to his mind as he extricated
himself from Dawn’s arms. For a minute, Dawn had seemed very attractive, and
for a sneaky minute, even the thought of making her pregnant just like Wildstar had done to Nova
didn’t seem that bad to him-until he remembered Sasha when he got that
headache, that is…
Deke
shut his eyes, only able to think about Sasha as he blurted, “Sasha is
watching.”
“What?”
said Dawn. “She doesn’t have that kind of weird power like her mother! She’s
just half-Iscandarian!”
“You
don’t know crap about her,” moaned
Deke. “I felt her as if she was in this cave with us!”
“What,
she sees you when you’re sleeping? She knows when you’re awake, Deke? What is
she? Some Iscandarian floozie Santa Claus?”
“Ho,
ho, ho,” he moaned as he
dry-swallowed an amphed pill pain remedy from his pack. “You go on watch,
Dawn.”
“In
my bare feet?” she teased while wiggling her toes.
“You
can walk in the grass, Mrs. Helpless,” snapped Deke as he handed DJ to her. “Be
careful you don’t shoot me with this.”
“Right,
even though I hate this gun!” said Dawn as she mockingly saluted and tiptoed
away, not reminding Deke that, in her cheerleading days, like Nova, she had
occassionally led cheers barefoot when she knew she was destined to go up to
the top of the pyramid of cheerleaders on their shoulders.
Then,
after Dawn left, Deke sat and moped in a very, very morose mood. Weird, he thought. Sniping at her, and I miss her all of a sudden. And I almost slipped
before and forgot my marriage vows; to be with my ex? What is happening
to my mind? Is Ekogaru possessing her or something? This is just plain nuts!
Yet, it feels good…but, can we ever go home again?
IV.
NEW TRIALS…
Space
Battleship Argo
The
Edge of the Great Magellenic Cloud
The
Dikensia System
Wednesday, July 29, 2207: 1259 Hours Earth Space-Time
“Test
it!” said Sandor from across the
“Right!”
Nova said as she sat at Communications, thinking to herself Where the heck is Homer? He’s late!
Nova then
punched in the right protocols and codings, and then she took a deep breath as
the clock ticked over to 1300 and said, “Earth Defense Command! This is the
Space Battleship Argo! Acting
Commander Nova Wildstar reporting! Come in, please! Over!”
“First
Star Force! Is that you?” barked a
voice from out of the speakers as Nova turned a knob with a gloved hand.
“Yes,
sir,” she said as she thought, Ohhh…General Stone! Not the man I wanted to
talk to right now! Well, I’ll just play this cool, she thought.
“What
are you doing there, Lieutenant Commander?” barked Stone.
“Sir,
Lieutenant Glitchman is still at lunch with the Captain,” Nova responded. “I’m
perfectly trained to run this board, and I’m in command for the next watch
unless Derek relieves me. How are you,
sir?”
“We’re
surprised you people are still alive!”
snapped Stone. “We haven’t heard from you in several days! Is there a good
explanation why you decided to play dead? Are you people taking unauthorized
leave?”
“No,
sir,” Nova said. “We took heavy damage in battle a few days ago. Communications
were out, and our main engine is still out as well, sir. We’re near the edge of
the Great Magellenic Cloud, but we have an idea that we are not far from the
New Comet. They were also damaged when they tried attacking us a few days ago.
It is the Captain’s hope that when we make repairs, we can try to rescue Leader
Desslok and then attack the New Comet before it ever gets to Earth.”
“Oh,
Lieutenant Commander? When did you make yourself an Admiral? And how did you
freebooters lose Leader Desslok in the first place?”
“Sir,
I believe we reported that to the Commander a few days ago. We were attacked
near Iscandar. Did you forget our last message, sir?”
Stone
looked Nova up and down with distaste. “And what the hell are you doing in a
skirt, Lieutenant Commander?”
“In
case the General has not noticed, sir, I am about eight months pregnant,” Nova
said dryly.
“And
you expect me to…never mind. Where is Commodore Wildstar?”
“Lunch,
sir,” said Nova. “I am acting as
Officer of the Deck in case we get attacked.”
“Since
when?” said Stone.
“I’ve
been in the deck officer rotation of this vessel ever since 2199, sir,” said
Nova. “Captain Avatar first assigned me to that post along with the others.
Every bridge officer on this ship is in the rotation, now, sir. Even Ensign
Apprentice Wakefield.”
Stone
thought for a minute of that Iscandarian teenybopper Sasha running the Argo and he pushed the thought out of
his mind in a hurry. Having this
glorified secretary and housewife running this ship is bad enough, but having
that Iscandarian teenager running this ship is even worse, he thought.
“Women like you belong at home,” he muttered out loud, not intending to be
heard.
“Sir?”
Nova said. “Did I hear you correctly, sir? Isn’t that against the Code of
Conduct, sir?”
“What?”
he barked. Then, he yelled, “Do you know how much it is costing us to call you at this hour? I don’t need to be talking to
some fresh woman!”
“Well,
until Derek is available, you’re stuck with me, sir. Do you have any orders for
the Star Force?”
“Uh…I…get
your ship fixed! Then get your ass back to Earth!”
“I
thought we were supposed to be following the Comet, sir,” said Nova, in a cool
voice, refusing to go down to Stone’s nasty level. “We will be carrying out the
mission the Commanding General gave
us as soon as we can get underway again. Let our families know we are fine,
sir.”
“Oh…then…carry
on! Stone out!” he barked.
Nova saluted
and nodded as he cut off. “Male chauvinist pig,”
she muttered under her breath.
The
bridge doors whizzed open just as Derek and Homer appeared.
“Captain
on the bridge, assuming command. Did you report back home?” asked Commodore
Wildstar.
“Yessir,”
said Nova as she got up. “I made our report to General Stone, sir. The
Commander was away for the moment.”
“What
did you do to my panel, Nova?” barked Homer.
“Huh?” Nova said with wide, innocent
eyes.
As
Derek snarled at him, Homer almost pushed Nova aside and then sat down at his
board and looked at it with crossed eyes.
“I knew it!”
he said. “AHA! You left cooties
there, Nova!”
“Cooties?” Nova said. “Really, Homer. You
can’t be serious?”
“All
girls leave cooties behind when they sit down on things. It’s girl germs! I
never go to your radar because I’m afraid that your cooties or Sasha’s will get
on me!”
“Then
how do you make love to your girlfriend Wendy?” Sasha asked innocently.
“Wendy
has no cooties,” sniffed Homer. “She is as innocent as the new-flown snow. Nova
must have a ton of cooties because she is pregnant! You’ve got zillions of ‘em,
Sasha! All because of Deke!”
“If
I ever see him alive again!” she snarled.
Nova
put her hand on Homer’s shoulder and said, “Translation, people. What you are
saying, Homer, is that you are still a virgin? Right?” she said as Sasha, Diane
Henson, and some of the others laughed and applauded.
“How
do you know that, Mrs. Smarty-Pants?”
snapped Homer.
“If
you weren’t a virgin, you would not
be talking about women and cooties like that,” said Nova with a wink as Derek
hugged her from behind. Derek said nothing because he thought this was actually
sort of funny. Homer had gone off on this tangent before, but he was getting
stranger by the day.
Derek
thought, At this rate, we all need a good
poker game once we get under way again. I wonder if I can really teach Nova the
game in a few days so she can beat Homer at poker and make him look stupid? Oh,
Homer…you’re always good for a laugh.
Later
on, with shipboard temperatures now back to normal, Diane Henson went below to
the engine room, where Orion gave her some good news.
“Ma’am,”
he said. “We’re closing up the panels now. We’re ready to restart the main
engine.”
“At
last!” she said. “It’s been almost a week!”
The
engine room crew worked hard as access panels were closed up. Sandor was found
in the compartment checking and rechecking readings at various boards. Finally,
after an hour s’worth of diagnostic checks, Sandor said over his intercom to
the
“Good,”
he said. “Sandor, Henson, come up to the
“Yessir!”
he said. “All hands!” he yelled. “To your posts! Prepare to switch power from
batteries and open main starting cylinder!”
Soon, men and
women were running to their posts in the engine room as the Argo’s klaxons began going off. They
gave various reports as they ran to their posts and reported in as a humming
noise began to fill the ship.
“Starting
Cylinder sealed and ready!”
“Power
ducts ready!”
“Main
Keel Bussard Scoop Polarized; beginning to draw in matter for compression into
tachyons!”
“Priming
Circuits at 750 Volts!”
“Port
and Starboard Boosters ready for Balance!”
“
“Afterburner
Ready!”
“Supercharger
set!”
“How
much power do we have left in the batteries, sir?” asked an Ensign as he looked
at Orion.
“Enough
for two starting attempts once the auxiliary engines are on-line!” said Orion.
“Ready for auxiliary engines!”
“Auxiliary
Engines, Ready for Start!” said Kitano from up above in the
Then,
Henson’s voice said, “Open Auxiliary Engine Starting Cylinder! Up to 1600 RPMs
speed at once!”
“READY!”
said Orion as he threw a switch. “Pressure being released to auxiliary engines!
Port engine! CONTACT! Starboard Engine CONTACT! 500 RPMS! 600! One Thousand!
Twelve Hundred! Sixteen Hundred!”
“Boosters
started and balancing perfectly,” said Henson. “Ready for wave motion engine!”
Orion
went over to the main control panel and threw a switch. “Begin auto-start
sequence!”
“Main Starting
Cylinder Ready!”
“Supercharger
ready!”
“Ready
for energy buildup!”
The
energy buildup began as, up on the
“Commence
ten-second countdown!” said Kitano. “10! 9! 8! 7! 6! 5! 4! 3! 2! ONE! ZERO!”
“Main
engine CONTACT!” barked Orion from below.
“Main
engine start!” barked Commodore Wildstar. “Argo,
take off!”
“Argo, taking off!” said Kitano as he
pulled back the throttle.
The
main engine roared as the flywheels lit up, and, a moment later, the engine
came up to life.
The
main engine and the auxiliaries blasted back to life, and, at that, the Argo began to move again after nearly a
weeks’ worth of being marooned.
TWO HOURS
LATER….
The Argo cruised past a small, Earth-like
planet in the star system while each crew member checked over the ship’s
systems.
“Ship’s
speed, .75 of light speed,” said Kitano from his post. “When we clear the
planet’s gravity, we’ll be ready for our test warp.”
“Warp
course calculated to star system’s edge,” said Nova. “After that, we will
prepare to warp back to the Demonranstra System as you ordered, Derek.”
“Good,”
he said. “We have to search for
I hope Deke is
still all right, Sasha thought as she sat at the Battle Radar in Eager’s
place. I feel our bond, but it feels
weaker. What the hell is wrong with him? I hope he is okay…
“Five
minutes to clearing gravity well at current speed,” said Kitano.
“Astro-Compass
tracking normally,” said Henson.
“Forward
main gun turrets ready,” said Domon. “Both Auxiliary turrets, ready! Pulse
lasers, ready!”
“Black
Tigers standin’ by,” said Hardy from his post.
“Warp position in one minute,” said Nova.
“I….MISSILES APPROACHING!” she said.
“What?”
said Derek.
“Small
spread of six missiles, eighty-five degrees to port!” said Sasha.
“Range,
two megameters,” said Nova. “Speed, twenty-five space knots! Identified as
Cometine torpedoes!”
“Evasive!” barked Kitano as he turned the
ship.
The
Argo turned, evading the first wave
from port. However, a missile hit to starboard a moment later, causing minor
damage.
“Tracking
enemy submarines!” said Sandor as he dropped the wave motion sonar probe from
the access hatch in the ship’s bow. “They’re at RP-212 and JD-92! on the grid,
Domon!”
“Prepare
anti-submarine warfare measures!” snapped Derek from the Command station. “We
can’t take any more major damage, especially not NOW!”
“Preparing
Anti-submarine warfare hedgehog missiles!” snapped Domon. “I’m going to force
those things to surface!”
“First
squadron of Black Tigers, TAKE OFF!” ordered Wildstar.
“Takin’
OFF ASAP!” barked Hardy as he thought, I
wanted to see ya again, Dawn! I wanted to be in the search party to find you!
Hope I get the 
chance now with this battle ragin’ all around us!
The
Tigers took off as soon as the first wave of Hedgehog missiles went off,
forcing two of the enemy subs to surface.
One of them
surfaced just a few hundred meters away from the Argo, firing its two gun emplacements into the ship’s side.
The
Argo responded with her pulse lasers,
blasting fire into the enemy sub’s hull as if there was no tomorrow.
The
sub took major damage as the Black Tigers roared up a moment later, firing
right into the ugly sub’s bow.
The
sub fired back, blasting at least one Tiger pilot and his plane into oblivion.
An
angry Hardy snapped, “I ain’t gonna put up with that from you guys!”
The
first squadron of the Trojans took off a moment later under Brew’s command,
seeking revenge as Brew snapped, “We aren’t letting those Cometine dudes go
home and have any brew tonight, guys! Send those guys straight to hell!”
Soon, six
Tigers from both squadrons converged on the sub, pumping missiles and laser
fire into the sub just as it fired again at the Argo, causing more minor damage to the beleagured space battleship.
The
Tigers blasted missiles and laser energy at the subs, damaging one of the subs
quite severely…
…just
as six more of them surfaced around the Argo!
“NO!”
cried Sasha from her post. “Wolf pack!
We’re surrounded by eight enemy subs!”
“Forward
turrets, ready to fire!” snapped Commodore Wildstar. “Target! Enemy subs to
forward!”
“Ready
to fire!”
“FIRE!”
snapped Derek.
Domon
repeated the order as the Argo’s main
guns went off.
Two
more enemy subs were blown to bits as the Argo
was attacked again.
The
Argo took three more torpedo hits in
two minutes as Nova cried out, “More torpedoes approaching from starboard…they…”
To
Nova’s shock (and everyone else’s) the torpedoes didn’t hit the Argo. Instead, they surfaced and slammed
into one of the enemy subs, blowing it to bits.
At
his post, Sandor sat up and said, “Captain Wildstar! Eight more subs detected
on sonar! They’re Garuman-Gamilon
subs!”
“Repeat
that?” said Derek.
“One
of the subs surfaced!” said Nova. “It’s a Gamilon dimensional sub! They’re helping us!”
“This
is…a surprise!” said Derek.
On the bridge
of his command sub, the Egrasyte,
Gamilon General Fraken turned to his executive officer and snapped, “Where are they?”
“Sir,
the remaining enemy subs are all plotted! Ready for our
wolfpack to counterattack!”
“Order
them to attack! Make certain that the Argo
is not scratched! Per General Talan’s orders, we want them left alive to help
us locate Leader Desslok!”
“Yessir!
Preparing counterattack!”
“Execute!” snapped Fraken.
“Yes,
SIR! Executing attack formation on enemy submarines!”
Fraken smiled
as he ran to his periscope as he submerged his submarine back into subspace,
where he met the Cometine subs head-to-head as they also submerged.
From
there, it was almost no contest as the Garuman-Gamilon subs ran silent and deep
in subspace and fired torpedo after torpedo into the 
Cometine
wolfpack.
Trails
of energy blasted out in hyperspace as enemy sub after enemy sub was blown
apart. Only two Cometine subs were left a moment later…one ran, and the other
one surfaced to attack the Argo,
fighting back desperately as the Black Tigers and Trojans converged on her
before she could again submerge. Soon, no Cometine sub was left as the Star
Force and the Gamilons joined forces to finish the final sub off.
Finally,
space was again quiet as Fraken’s subs surfaced around the Argo and Fraken sent a message.
“Captain!”
said Homer. “The Gamilons are contacting us!”
“Switch
the Gamilon commander to the main video panel!” ordered Derek.
A moment
later, Fraken’s image appeared on the video panel as he stood laughing behind
his periscope. “Clean sweep, Commodore Wildstar!” he reported. “Only one enemy
vessel got away from us, and my perimeter guard might get him by morning. Do
you require assistance?”
“Yes,
but what we need can only be done in a shipyard,” said Wildstar.
“I
am noticing that one of your aft turrets is missing and that your stern has
taken damage?” said Fraken.
“Yes,
but we need an entirely new aft main turret,” said Wildstar with a bowed head.
“I don’t know if you can spare us the metal to build a new aft turret?”
“We
most certainly can,” said Fraken. “I have a floating space fortress at the edge
of this system. You can dock there and repair your damage, and my men will help
you reconstruct a new aft gun turret out of the materials that we have on hand.
We have a foundry and other shipyard facillities in our Fortress. I believe we
can repair all of your damage within twenty-four hours. All that I ask is that
you repay the favor to us in equal time someday. I take it you are searching
for Leader Desslok?”
“We
are,” said Wildstar.
“If
you find him soon, please bring him back to my Fortress. Then we will be able
to take him back to the Empire. We are aching for vengeance against the New
Comet, but Talan has told us to hold off on a full-scale attack until Desslok
is rescued. When Desslok is safely back with us, I will be glad to help you
send that ship to Hell before it ever reaches Earth. But, for now, please
accept our offer. I am sending the coordinates of our Fortress to your
communications officer.”
“I
will accept your offer, General,” said Derek. “Thank you.”
“Anything
that we can do to help, as we are on the same side…” said Fraken as he smiled.
Then, the Argo’s main screen went
dark.
“I’m
glad that’s over with,” said Nova a
moment later as she got up to stretch her legs and kicked her chair back on its
track.
Sandor was by
Kitano’s post and he said, “We might have had a much harder time if that battle
had gone on much longer. Nova, did Homer send you those coordinates yet?”
Nova
nodded as she ran some routines at her board as Homer came up and handed her a
slip of paper. “Thanks, Homer,” she said, not noticing it as he pulled her
chair away. She ran some more scans and said, after glancing aft at Derek’s
face, “Derek, the Gamilon Fortress is at TXQ-212 on the graph. We’re past the
gravity well of that fourth planet now, so I can compute our course for a space
warp to that Fortress.”
“Good,
Nova. Get to it. Homer, what are you doing?” snapped Derek.
Homer
just snickered as he ran back to the aft part of the bridge with something.
Then,
Nova went to sit down and cried out when she said, “My chair’s gone! Derek! WHO TOOK IT?”
“Mister
Glitchman!” snapped Derek angrily. “This is ridiculous!
Put the Lieutenant Commander’s chair back in its place!”
“Sir,
she looked like she needed to stretch!” said Homer. “Besides, I have to de-cootie this!”
“De-cootie
my seat?” said Nova as her eyebrow went up. “Now, Homer, there is an essential
difference between girls and boys. However, part of that difference does not
include mythical friggin’ cooties!”
“Too
bad IQ-9 isn’t here…he’d be making a great time out of this,” said Nishina.
“Stop
picking on her, you idiot!” snapped Henson.
“Homer,
put Nova’s chair back where it belongs so she can work,” snapped Derek. “Then
come see me later! These practical jokes of yours are just plain getting stupid!”
“Yessir,”
said Homer as he hauled Nova’s chair back to where it belonged and locked it
back onto its track on the deck. He actually helped her sit down while she
smiled wanly at him and then he stepped away so she could work.
Three hours
later, after the Argo warped to the
Gamilon Fortress and made port, Derek came up to his cabin, where he found Nova
lying on their bunk with her sandals still on, looking very mournful.
“Hey,
what’s wrong?” he said.
“That
stupid Homer!” Nova sobbed. “I’m pregnant and now he thinks it’s funny to harass me?” she said through thick tears.
“He is such a jerk at times! No wonder Venture wanted to punch him through a
bulkhead several times! I’m tempted to do so myself about now!”
“Hey,
you’re usually the one with the level head here,” said Derek as he tried to hug
her.
Nova
threw a pillow at Derek and yelled, “The babies! They’re kicking harder than
ever in here! If I had sat down and fallen on my butt on the deck, Homer might
have laughed, but I might have gone into premature labor or something! From
that last scan Doctor Sane took the other day, Alex and Ariel are still a
little small for eight months! We don’t really have facilities for neonates
here on this ship! For God sakes, tell Homer to get off my case!”
“I’m
going to have Mast for him later on, Nova,” said Derek as he held her and tried
to comfort her as she cried in his lap. He rubbed her stomach and said, “Are
they frisky now?”
Nova
nodded. “They sure are. They want out.” She smiled a little at this. Then, she
blushed and said, “I want to show you something.”
“Which
is?” said Derek.
Nova
smiled and took her top off and then undid her bra and cast it aside. She
sobbed and smiled at once as she invited Derek to touch her nipples. “Feel
those?”
“They’re
a little wet,” he whispered.
“My
milk is starting to come in,” she said in awe. Then, she pulled off her
sandals, stood, and undid her belt and skirt, and let them fall to the deck as
she pulled down her panties. Naked, she came to him and said, “My body’s
getting ready to bear our children, Derek. Isn’t it the most beautiful thing?”
Derek
held and kissed his pregnant wife as he said, “Yes. It is. How big are they
inside you now?”
“Maybe
three pounds each oldscale,” said Nova with awe. “They’re almost ready to be
born, my love. It won’t be long now.” Then, she wriggled her toes down and
began to cry afresh in Derek’s arms. “What…what if they get born during a
battle, Derek? What if I have them on the bridge in front of those guys? What
if I can’t have any medication and just scream through the whole thing on some
mattress someplace? Or on the deck like those poor women in the underground
city?”
“Nova,
that won’t happen; we’ll find a way to get you to Sickbay or maybe a
“How
do we know that?” Nova sobbed. “What if I have them cold, naked and all alone
without you there as some prisoner on the Comet Empire or something? What if
that horrible Princess Invidia laughs at me and breaks their necks when they’re
born…when I’m in too much pain to stop her?”
Then,
Nova just began to cry in Derek’s arms. He carried her to the bed and held and
rocked her through the ordeal as he sang to her and his children inside her.
After he was done, he said, “What do you want?”
“Make
love to me,” she whispered. “Before I get too fat to do even that anymore!”
“I
will,” he said…as he began to kiss her.
V.
TWO BULLETS
A
Planet
Demonranstra
Thursday, July 30, 2207: 0442 Hours Earth Space-Time
“The
last time I was with you was when?”
said Deke in a depressed voice as he held Dawn, ignoring his headache now as
the loneliness of their ordeal was just driving
him crazy.
“Over
five years ago!” snapped Dawn. “December 26, 2201.”
“When
did I hear that date before?” said Deke.
“Wildstar’s
anniversary!” snorted Dawn. “But that’s not us! We’re never getting back to
Sasha or Jeff now. It’s over a week! They must have forgotten about us!”
“Sasha’s
alive,” said Deke. “I can still feel her.”
“Yeah?
What about Jeff?” yelled Dawn. “He might be dead by now!”
“I’m
sorry,” said Deke as he sighed. “You know, there are times I feel guilty that I
ended up with Sasha….”
“Yeah…you
didn’t feel guilty enough not to do the deed with her!”
“Well,
you never wrote back to me after I wrote you all of those letters,” said Deke
angrily.
“Yeah!
Well, you’re no prize in the sack, Deke!”
“What
the hell do you mean by that, Dawn?”
“Jeff
has a bigger manhood than you do and he’s a far better lover than you ever
were! He excites me…if I will ever see him again, that is! On the other hand,
you had a habit of putting me to sleep! Is that what Sasha likes? Someone who
is clumsy and barely knows where to put it?”
“You
are so FULL of it, Dawn!” Deke yelled.
Then,
she threw DJ back at him. “I hate
this stupid gun of yours! It’s part of what caused us to pull apart in the
first place! You, this gun, and that vengeful attitude of yours!”
“So
what are you going to carry for a weapon the next time you have to friggin’ go
on guard duty?”
“A
K-Bar knife!” Dawn yelled. “Your buddy Nova showed me how to use it! And
there’s another weirdo! I admired her, and she probably gets off on killing
people! The world’s first Spartan Nurse!”
“I
was with her in battle a few times, Dawn,” said Deke. “She knows how to kill
people, but I can most certainly tell you she gets no joy out of it! And I don’t, either!”
“Oh,
yeah, killer?” wept Dawn. “And you’re
unrealistic thinking that I was ever going to come back to you after several
years. You couldn’t make up your mind between your Iscandarian floozie and me?
Or did you want both of us at once or something?”
Deke
felt like slapping Dawn for that. “Dawn, you are just so damn…”
Then,
something outside the cave snarled…it just snarled
in the night.
Dawn
ran to Deke’s arms and screamed, “DEKE! What’s that?”
“Sounds
like some of the local wildlife,” he said dryly as he held her.
Deke
and Dawn stared into each other’s eyes, and they looked out and saw red,
glowing eyes outside of the cave.
Deke
drew Dawn instinctively close and he held her. He held her closer than he had
for years.
“I’m
afraid, Deke,” she said in a small voice.
“I
know,” Deke replied.
For
a moment, it felt like 2200 all over again. Deke drew Dawn even closer, and he
was shocked (but not altogether surprised) to feel his body responding to her
being so close.
Dawn
rubbed her thigh against him, and neither of one them were shocked much when
Dawn’s hand went around Deke’s bottom, and she practically rubbed herself
against him.
Time
stopped as Deke literally felt Dawn’s body throbbing for him inside her thin,
skin-tight uniform. Feeling as if he was in a dream, Deke reached down and
gently undid the vacc-zip that held the crotch of her uniform shut for hygenic
purposes, and he was shocked and pleased to, for a moment, find he was touching
her, sans underclothes…underclothes
she had discarded days ago when they had just gotten too grungy.
Dawn
gasped and shivered as she said, “Deke, forgot to tell you…I’m naked under my
uniform now…I…”
Then,
she undid his fly and pulled Deke out, notwithstanding what she had been saying
about his pride a moment beforehand.
The
beast growled again, and Deke just prepared to take Dawn right on the cave
floor when it went away and they realized what they were doing!
“My
God!” said Deke as his headache hit him at full force and made his mojo run out
of gas in a hurry. “I’ve…I’ve got a wife!”
“Yeah….Jeff…will…kill
me…” said Dawn as she pushed Deke away and got decent, although her prominent
nipples under her uniform told a different story.
“Sasha
is…” said Deke….
“What?”
“Feeling
this…and, I’m sure she will want to kill
me!” Deke said.
The Argo had departed from the Gamilon
Fortress at 0300 Hours, with her damage repaired at last thanks to Fraken and
his crews in the space fortress. In the Fortress, the gun turret had been
rebuilt, and other damage had also been repaired.
After
the Argo left the Fortress, Wildstar
ordered a test of the aft turret at a nearby asteroid field. It worked just
fine.
The
ship warped at 0330 and Derek left command of the ship in the hands of Sandor
as he and Nova turned in at last for some sleep at 0342, pulling off their
uniforms and just falling asleep unclothed in each others’ arms after snuggling
a little bit.
Some
time passed.
But
the scene was not so cozy in Sasha’s quarters.
On
the Argo, Sasha, naked, was jarred
from a sound sleep at 0443 Hours as she sat up and almost screamed out loud.
“Deke, what in the Goddess’ Name were you…just…doing!?!”
The
image of Deke with his THING OUT feeling up Dawn hung in front of Sasha’s mind
like a horrible nightmare as her longing dream about being with Deke turned
into this horror.
Sasha
growled a low, feral, bestial growl like an animal as she pulled a robe on over
her nakedness and ran right up to the Captain’s Quarters.
Derek
and Nova found themselves awakened from a sound sleep a few minutes later by
Sasha smashing at the hatch.
“Ohhh, who’s that?” moaned Nova. She staggered
up and threw on a yukata over her
sweaty form…it was a summer after-bath kimono; Nova’s had pink flowers on its
white material. Nova was sweating because she had been having a bad dream in
the little bit of sleep she had
gotten. Then, she tossed Derek his plain two-tone tan kimono. He awoke and got
the door after he clothed himself. Then, he saw Sasha there.
“Ensign,
do you understand what time it is?”
Derek yawned.
“0455, sir. There is an emergency!”
“Which
is?” yawned
Nova.
“Deekee!” she yelled in an enraged tone.
“Deekee
is an emergency?” mumbled Derek.
“Derek,
maybe somethin’s wrong with
“Oh,
that. What’s wrong with Deke?” said Derek. “Is he hurt?”
“No!”
Sasha snapped.
“Dead?”
“Worse than dead,
sir!”
“How
can he be worse than dead?” said Derek.
“He’s
playing around with HER. Dawn! The hussy! At least that is what I felt!”
“He
and Dawn are still alive?”
Sasha
nodded through her tears. “They’re down on Demonranstra, hiding out in a cave
near the sea maybe twenty klicks away from where their Cosmo Hound landed. I’m
not sure where yet. I’m sure a party can find it. All of the others are dead.
There are Cometines on that planet!”
“Cometines,”
said Derek. “Okay. We’re going there and sending parties and getting them back.
The presence of the enemy means you aren’t going down there with them, Nova.
Sorry.”
“I’m going!” demanded Sasha.
“We
expected that,” said Nova. “I’ll run the radar and scan what I can for you from
up here…”
“Thanks,”
said Sasha through her angry tears.
“I
recommend you go and get dressed,” said Derek. “And make sure your
Astro-Automatic is fully charged!”
Sasha
nodded at that.
In
the meantime, down on the planet, Deke and Dawn had company.
Cometines.
Dawn
was cursing and crying because she had tried throwing her K-Bar knife at one of
the enemy troopers, and she had missed.
She was
reduced to hiding behind a rock and throwing stones at them while, beside her,
Deke held them off with DJ, much of his remaining ammo, and the vile stench of
cordite.
One
of the Cometines fired at them, and then he laughed and yelled, “When are you
coming out, you little rats?”
He
smiled at his comrades and awaited an answer. Won’t be long now, he thought. Especially
since the Princess has sent us backup in the form of another destroyer
squadron.
“Come
and get us!” yelled Deke.
“Oh,
we’ll be happy to, Earthling scum!”
laughed the Corporal in charge in a deep, rough voice.
“Hey,
Gertz!” yelled his nearest comrade. “Is it true they bleed red like us when you
shoot them?”
“They
do, but it is kind of pale, like them!”
laughed Gertz. Gertz cursed as one of Deke’s shots hit his comrade with a
scream and blew his innards all over a rock.
“Earthling!” yelled Gertz. “When do you give up?” he yelled.
“NEVER!” yelled back Deke.
“Suit
yourself, scum!” yelled Gertz. He leered at Deke in the dark, drew more fire,
and thought, Let him run out of his lead ammo, first. Scum. Then, he whispered into his comm unit. “Sergeant
Daka, Gertz here. I have them cornered. Earthling male running out of ammo,
Earther female, unarmed. Send me one more squad to finish it!”
“On
the way in ten, Gertz, old friend,” laughed Daka.
Now, I’ll wait
this out, scum, thought Gertz as he knelt behind his rock and played dead.
A few minutes
later, a landing party roared down to the planet from the Argo in a landing boat. The boat was being flown by Commodore
Wildstar. Sandor was backing him up, along with Sasha, Homer, Hardy, a squad of
six Space Marines, and two gunners from Combat Group.
“Hardy,”
said Wildstar from the cockpit.
“Yeah?”
said Jefferson Hardy.
“We’ll
split up when we get down to the planet. Nova’s scanning from orbit for the
most likely limestone caves she can find. When we split up, you take Sasha and
the Marines. I’ll take everyone else as backup.”
“Good
idea,” said Hardy.
After
Derek switched off, he turned to Sasha. “You’re sure about that?” he said.
“About
what?” she snapped as she tried to hold back tears.
“Youh dream.”
“Wasn’t
a dream; it was a vision!” snapped
Sasha. “They were playing games with each other down there! I know it!”
“Probably
thought we was never comin’ back. I might do the same
if I was stuck down there with a few females…”
“Oh?”
said Sasha. “Who?”
“Bryan Hartcliffe’s wife Angie, if she
wasn’t pregnant, foh one thing. She’s too good for him. Maybe Bangs if
we were in the same situation. Maybe even Nova if she wasn’t preggers either
and she was sure Derek was dead and so was I.”
“You
men all think alike,” snapped Sasha.
“Hey, I just
admitted to yuh my three most likely choices for female companionship if I
thought Dawn was dead. Half the guys on the crew have been lookin’ at those
three. Hell, your Auntie Nova’s still a looker even with a bun in the oven!”
“Am
I a looker?” said Sasha as tears ran
down her face.
Hardy
nodded and said, “No comment, Miss Sasha.” He held her for a moment and gave
then her a brotherly kiss on the cheek as Homer
applauded.
“Oh,
you be quiet!” Hardy snapped.
Deke
felt an angry shiver go through him as a thought came to his mind. Sasha’s in the atmosphere of this planet.
She is coming. But Hardy just kissed her. You’d better straighten up and fly
right, son…but who will get to us first? Them..or the
green guys about fifty meters away?
“We’re
not going to make it, are we?”
whispered Dawn as she heard more Cometines shuffling into the cave in the dim
light. It was near sunrise, and they could just about see.
One
of them pointed a weapon at them. Deke guessed it would soon be over, one way
or the other.
“We
may not,” muttered Deke. “That’s why I’m not shooting any more. That’s why I
kept back two bullets.”
“Two
bullets?” asked Dawn.
Deke
nodded. “I learned this in survival training. Last ditch measure. Two bullets,”
he said. “I think they are coming for us. Do you want them to capture you alive?”
Dawn
thought hard. Capture for her might involve eventual death, but would probably
involve a long, vicious period of rape. “Nova told me that they…like to rape
women. Nova has the edge of one of her dog tags sharpened so she can slit her
own throat at the carotid artery if she has to. She told me she’ll never let
them capture her alive.”
“Smart lady. Did you ever
sharpen a dog tag?”
“No.”
“Well,
then one bullet is for you,” whispered Deke. “The last is for me. It would’ve
been nice to see Sasha again, but…”
“See
that light?” whispered Dawn. “That will probably be the last dawn we’ll ever
see.”
“Yeah,”
sighed Deke as he held her…just to comfort her shaking.
Then,
she said, “When you shoot me…will…it hurt?”
“It’ll
go right into your head,” said Deke. “You won’t feel much…”
“You?”
“It’ll
go right in my mouth,” he muttered.
Dawn
nodded, wiping away tears as Deke undid the safety of DJ with a click.
Figures, she thought.
I always hated that gun. Now, I might die
because of it.
In
the meantime, up above on the Argo,
Nova was scanning the area.
Domon
was currently in command of the ship as Officer of the Deck. “What have you
found?” he asked.
“I’ve
just picked up three caves near a cove at MB-712 on the grid,” Nova responded.
“Connect me to the landing party.”
“Gotcha…”
A
moment later, Derek heard Nova’s voice in his headset. “Yes?”
“Derek,
I found something! Fix on three caves five klicks away from your current
location,” said Nova. “There’s caves detected with both my MRI sonar and
infrared by a cove at MB-711, MB-712 and MB-713 on the grid. I’m now uploading
to you what I’ve got.”
“Good
work,” said Derek as he looked at Nova’s data flashing across his screen. “Have you tried calling them?”
“Domon
and I have had Ensign Mellon sending signals the past five minutes in code. No
response.”
“They
may not be able to respond,” said Derek. “Keep on trying, though.”
“Roger
that,” said Nova.
“So
where are we putting her down?” said Sandor.
“Right
here, by MB-710. Right by that metal we picked up.”
“Good
job,” said Sandor.
About
three minutes later, the landing boat landed in a bleak clearing near the Cosmo
Hound’s ruins and the parties came out.
“Look
at this, sir,” reported one of the Marines while Hardy and Sasha (repulsed
because of the smell of death) were checking out the ruined Cosmo Hound and the
Star Force dead around it. They had been there about a week in the heat, and
the smell was horrible.
“What?””
said Sandor.
Wildstar
ran over and found the burned and damaged IQ-9 after taking his helmet off for
a better look at the robot. He was somewhat charred and he had two holes shot
through him, but Sandor looked at him and said, “He can be fixed. He’s in
auto-sleep mode right now, sir.”
“Okay,”
said Commodore Wildstar. “Privates McCauley and Romo!
Get IQ-9 into the ship.”
Romo
began moving IQ-9, but his dome awoke a moment later, scaring Romo out of his
wits. “What day is this?” he said.
“Thursday,
the 30th of July,” Romo said.
“Well,
put me back together!” burbled IQ-9.
Sandor
laughed and said, “Good thing you’re back with us, tinwit!”
After
they reassembled IQ-9, Homer came up. “We found…lots of dead guys…”
“Cometines or ours?”
“Both,”
said Homer. “Hard to tell for sure because of the
decomposition. Uhh…they all look
green now! Covered with flies and worms and maggots and…”
“STOP
IT!” cried Sasha. “Homer, that’s gross!
Sir, we have to bury them now!” she said as she looked at Derek.
“We’ll
do burial details later,” Commodore Wildstar said.
“I will assist in that…duty,” said IQ-9.
“Good,”
said Derek. “Let’s see if we can get
“Yeah,”
said Sandor. “We’ll split up…”
“Okay,”
said Homer.
Wildstar
took off, carrying his helmet to put back on.
He
noticed that Sasha looked very mad…and very mournful, as they walked off
towards the caves in the red sunrise.
Which cave are
they in?
Hardy thought. Hope it doesn’t take all
day to find ‘em?
About ten minutes later….
Wildstar, Hardy and his group found a cave entrance. Derek had
dispatched the Marines to begin searching the other entrances.
“This might be it,” said IQ-9. “I detect Cometine life signs
inside, maybe twenty-five meters from here.”
“Homer, you stay out here with Romo and Sasha,” said Wildstar.
“Everyone else, follow me. We have to deal with the enemy, first.”
“Right,” said Sandor.
Hardy came up to Sasha and said, “We’ll find ‘em, one way or the
other…are they still alive?”
Sasha nodded. “I’m not sure I want to find them now,” she said.
“Why’s
that?”
“He…betrayed me. He betrayed me. I have to deal with that…”
“You can divorce ‘im,” said Hardy. “Might wanna divorce Dawn when
all this is over…let Mister Psycho High School Wakefield have her.”
“I CAN’T DO THAT, WE’RE BONDED!” snapped Sasha through her tears.
“How could he do that to me? How?”
Sasha began to cry as IQ-9 tried to comfort her. Derek gave her a
hug and a kiss proper for an Uncle as he went in there, halfway determined to
kill
There were now eight Cometines in the cave. Some of the others had
heard Gertz’s call, and they were about to ambush Deke and Sasha when they
heard a noise.
“Others are coming and we didn’t call anyone, sir,” one of them
said to Gertz. “I hear footsteps.”
“Let’s go up to the entrance to investigate. The Earthlings or
Gamilons might have sent a rescue party. I just heard word that the Argo is in the area.”
Thus
it was that when they heard Wildstar, Sandor and Hardy coming, they went up
towards the entrance to investigate. Deke and Dawn were left alone for the
moment.
As soon as Derek heard them, he and Sandor and Hardy got behind
rocks and began firing at the enemy.
Wildstar’s Astro-Automatic was smoking as he pumped off, one, two,
three shots.
Sandor and Hardy did the same, making sure that they got all of
them. Gertz was the last to die, firing right at Hardy.
Hardy kicked him as he lay dead. He fired another shot into his
head, wanting to make sure of it.
“Well?” muttered Derek.
“All dead,” said Sandor. “We got them.”
“I’m seeing bootprints in the dust here,” said Hardy. “And…prints
from bare feet?”
“Looks to be about Nova’s size,” said Derek as he looked at the
footprint. “That might be Dawn. They might be down there…”
“If the enemy didn’t get them,” said Sandor grimly.
Derek nodded.
“You heard that?” whispered Deke.
“Its not dripping,” said Dawn.
“Footsteps,” said Deke. “It’s them!”
Deke stood up. He cocked DJ to load the first round. He pointed it
at Dawn’s head.
Dawn shut her eyes as tears ran down her cheeks. This is what it’s like to die, she
thought. Deke, hurry up and do it! Dawn
thought. Shoot me and get it over with!
Finally, tears ran down Deke’s cheeks as he realized he could not do it.
He pointed DJ up and just fired both rounds into the ceiling of
the cave and then threw DJ onto the cave floor in disgust.
“Deke?” said Dawn.
“I could not do it,” said Deke. “Call me marshmallow boy if you
want…I could not kill you! But I’ll protect you from them…they won’t rape you
as long as I live!”
“DEKE!” cried Dawn as she ran up to him and threw her arms around
him, sobbing like crazy.
Hardy heard the two bangs at about the same time. He stopped the
group and said, “Ya hear that?”
“That was not a laser rifle,” said Derek.
“Nor was it an Astro-Automatic,” said Sandor. “But who the heck
brings an old projectile weapon down here to…?”
“
They took off in the direction of the sound…just as Sasha showed
up on her own.
“What?” said Derek. “I ordered you to
stay back there with Homer!”
“He’s alive…or he was,” said Sasha.
“Ah hope he didn’t do somethin’ stupid like killin’ her,” said
Hardy.
“Why would he do that?” said Sandor as Derek remembered. “Survival school. He might keep two bullets behind for the
same reason Nova and I keep our dog tags sharpened…in case the enemy shows up…”
“Hardy, watch Sasha,” said Wildstar as he handed Sasha off to him.
“Steve and I will go first…”
Hardy nodded, his teeth beginning to grit as he thought again of
Deke
and Dawn jumped out of each other’s arms when they saw Wildstar and Sandor
walking up, followed by Hardy and Sasha!
“Sasha!” cried Deke as he ran up.
Almost out of reflex, she hugged Deke and then stepped back with
an utter look of wrath on her face.
“YOU,” she said. “You have a
“Sasha?” said Deke.
“YOU KNOW WHY!” Sasha barked.
Derek looked at Sandor, shrugged, and muttered, “Let’s keep out of
this, Steve…”
“Yes…good idea,” said Sandor. “Let’s go up to another part of the
cave. They look all right.”
Derek nodded as he left, snapping a
“carry-on” gesture to Hardy as he carefully picked up DJ and took it with him. This is so no one else gets shot, he
thought.
Sasha smiled and then she snarled at Deke as Hardy, not able to help himself, accepted a hug from Dawn.
“Excuse me,” said Sasha a moment later as she pushed Hardy and
Dawn apart.
“What?” said Dawn.
Sasha gritted her teeth and slapped Dawn silly. “YOU LITTLE SLUT!”
she roared at Dawn. “KEEP YOUR PAWS OFF MY DEEKEE!”
Dawn was utterly shocked and didn’t fight back as Sasha slapped
the crap out of her one, two, three times.
Hardy then looked at Deke and said, “
“Yes, I was…”
Then, Hardy snarled and hauled off and belted Deke. He punched him
in the mouth hard enough to draw blood.
Both Deke and Dawn fell on their butts on the cave floor. They
looked at each other, stunned. Then, they began to laugh.
“What are you two hyenas laughin’ at!?” said Hardy.
“Jeff, we deserved that,” said Dawn. “I may be friends with Deke
again, but we went too far and we admit it. We’re sorry.”
“Sasha, I can’t go home again. But who wants to?” said Deke.
“How are you going to make this up to me?” snapped Sasha.
“Yeah..to us?” said Hardy.
Dawn opened her uniform and pulled out her Star Pendant. She took
it off and said to Deke, “It’s over now, Deke. I should have realized that long
ago, Deke. I’m so sorry.”
“Are you giving that back to me?” said Deke.
“No,” said Dawn as she walked up to Sasha and put the Star Pendant
on her neck. “This is a symbol of Deke’s love. Since I am no longer his, and you
are, you are the only one with a right to wear it from this moment on. I’m so
sorry. Do you want to…hit me more? I deserve it.”
Dawn stepped back to take her hit, and Sasha said to Deke. “You
thought you might never see me again?”
“I was beginning to think we’d spend the rest of our lives here,”
said Deke. “What happened to the ship?”
“Hit bad in a battle, delayed,” said Hardy. “We almost got
marooned ourselves several lightyears away by a star with the climate control
going down. It was only thanks to Sandor, Henson, and Nova workin’ their butts
off that we got to stabilize the temperature and move the ship again; then the
Gamilons helped us finish the repairs. You thought we were dead?”
Deke nodded. So did Dawn.
“You really thought that?” said Hardy as he walked up to Dawn.
Dawn replied, “Deke thought he felt Sasha now and then, but he
wasn’t sure, and…Jeff, if you don’t want me anymore…”
“That’s not what I want,” said Hardy as he grabbed Dawn and kissed
her. Then, he slapped her across the face. “NEVER do that
crap to me again! NEVER! You do that again, we ARE through! Got that?”
“Right, I won’t,” said Dawn.
Hardy held her again as he said. “Let that be the first time and
the last time I ever hit you, Dawn. Let’s go off and let the Wakefields alone…”
Dawn nodded, walking off hand-in-hand with Jeff.
Sasha and Deke were left alone facing each other. Deke stood there
with his eyes closed.
“Why are your eyes closed?” said Sasha.
“I’m waiting for you to belt me,”
said Deke. “I was so stupid. Dawn and I started talking, and then we started
arguing, and then there were animal noises, and we found each other kising. I
got a headache every time she kissed me, so I stopped,
and…”
“That was our bond punishing you,” said Sasha with a smile.
“Hmmh?” said Deke.
“I’ve done some study on this based on crystals Mother gave me,”
said Sasha. “When people used to bond, the bond would cause great pain if one
partner so much as looked at anyone else. If you would have done the deed with her, the retribution could
well have been fatal. As of now, our bond is tainted.”
“Tainted?”
“Still there, but it doesn’t feel the same, does it?” said Sasha
sadly. “There’s only one way to fix this.”
“What is it called?” said Deke.
“Tirana is the word in Iscandarian, Sha’rana is
the word in Pellian. Both mean the same thing. ‘Resanctification.’”
“How do you accomplish that?” said Deke as he went to kiss Sasha.
To his shock, she pushed him away.
“How do you think?” said Sasha with a grin. “You take me somewhere
and we do the deed until our brains
are coming out of our ears! And it has to be done within the next twenty-four
hours.”
“Or?”
“We might go mad. Or die. All sorts of unpleasant things can
happen,” said Sasha. “I’m only holding you off right now because in my current
state, if I start kissing you, I will not be able to stop until we re-consumate
our marriage. We’re saving it for our quarters. Oh. Jeff and Dawn have to do
the same thing to each other. Or you have feedback.”
“Feedback?” said Deke.
“The feedback from our messed-up bond would kill them, too. I
should have told you about this before you went down with her, but I was just reading the crystals the day you went off. We
both thought you’d be back in a few hours. I also never thought that there
would be any spark of romance ever showing up between you two, what with the way you two were snarling and sniping at
each other when you went down there.”
“Same here,” thought Deke.
“We have a date tonight,” said Sasha. “After that, you are fully
forgiven. But never let it happen
again. Are we clear?”
“Clear as the nose on your face,” laughed Deke.
“Are you saying I have a big nose?” said Sasha.
“No,” said Deke.
“Good. Don’t,” said the Princess as she dragged her Consort out of
that cave by one hand. Luckily, he would not see the place again for many, many
years.
VI.
Planet
Demonranstra
Thursday, July 30, 2207: 0612 Hours Earth Space-Time
Strange birds sang and piped as the hot sun was now up on
Demonranstra.
Dawn’s feet hurt a little as she went barefoot over the rough
ground as Hardy helped her walk over a few rocky spots. At one spot, with a
sigh, he just picked her up and carried her until they were over the rocks.
Finally, they came out into the clearing in just enough time to
find Derek with his helmet on and the visor down nodding grimly as he looked at
a dog tag attached to one of the rotten green bits of remains clad in what was left
of a yellow and black Star Force Living Group Uniform. “This was Ensign
Leyland,” he said. “Don’t look too closely at his face…animals have been at
it.”
Dawn turned away as a Marine brought up a body bag and the Marine
and Derek stuffed him into the body bag.
IQ-9 and another Marine were helping Homer as they worked on
another set of remains. “This used to be Sergeant Timothy Sandoval,” said
Homer. “Now, he’s pretty well dead.” They heard Sasha screaming with revulsion
as Deke led her away from another body they had just encountered. “Sasha just
found Ensign Blaklee from Living Group. Or what is left of him. Half of his
body was eaten by animals…”
Sandor came up to Derek a moment later. “We’re going to have to
destroy what is left of our equipment down here before we leave, sir.”
“Yeah….can’t have the enemy getting at it,” said Commodore
Wildstar as he watched some Marines carrying off the bodies of the Cometines to
a place near a tree. The plan was for each of their dead EDF comrades and the
body of a Gamilon prisoner they found to each have their own separate
roughly-marked graves. The Cometines would be thrown into a common burial pit
by that tree after their bodies were stripped of any equipment that could be
analyzed later. Derek had determined that even the enemy troops would at least
get a grave marker. “Make sure we make a marker for those guys, too,” he said
as he pointed at the Cometines. “Even they
deserve a decent burial. I don’t think all of them were volunteers for this
sick raid. Someday, their families should at least have a place to come back
to…from whatever part of the Andromeda Galaxy they came from. I don’t like
leaving even the enemy here for animals to munch on.”
Sandor nodded. “Yeah…”
Then, a tone went off in Derek’s headset in his helmet. “Commodore
Wildstar here,” he said into his lip mike.
“Derek,” said Nova’s voice. “Domon and I strongly recommend that
you get back to the ship ASAP. We just got a reaction on the radar. Cometine destroyers at thirty megameters’ distance. They
just warped in. They’ll be in firing range of us in ten minutes at their
current speed!”
“On our way,” said Wildstar. Then, he shouted at the officers and
Marines. “The enemy’s back! They’re
heading for the ship! Get your butts in the landing boat! NOW! We’re leaving
everything until later and heading back to the Argo! MOVE IT!” he yelled as he clapped his hands.
Sasha nodded, grabbed Deke’s hand, and ran back towards the
landing boat with him.
Dawn did likewise for Hardy.
EIGHT
MINUTES LATER….
Commodore Wildstar ran onto the first bridge with Sandor and
Homer. When Domon saw them, he saluted and said, “Sir, they’re closer now!”
“Range to enemy fleet, eighteen megameters. Speed, twenty space
knots and approaching fast in battle fornation,” said Nova. “They’re coming
from 45 degrees off the starboard bow.”
“Hardy!” barked Wildstar into a mike from his post. “Ready to launch yet?”
“Just about,” he said. “I’m letting
“You mean to say you’re letting them….bond in combat?” said
Wildstar.
“Right,” said Hardy. “Now they’re both blamin’ the green guys for
their current….predicament…”
“Right,” said Derek. “Let’s just leave it at that.”
“What predicament?” said Eager. “Did I miss somethin’?”
“You’ll hear about their interesting love life soon enough,” Nova chuckled.
“Nova…how did you know?”
said Sandor.
“Sasha was screaming into my ear about it two minutes ago and
blaming the enemy for it,” Nova said. “That’s why I pulled off my headset when
I saw you and Derek coming. Boy, the Scuttlebutt Express will have a new one to
work on now. In the meantime, enemy fleet identified. Ten destroyers, two space
battleships, one missile ship, and…”
The Argo shook from yet
another hit as Nova finished. “…uh…one spacecraft carrier.
They just launched planes.”
Derek nodded while Domon snapped, “Black Tigers, Trojans! Engage
enemy planes!”
“
“You don’t need to tell me
twice,” muttered a rammy Deke Wakefield as he engaged a Scorpion boat in
flight. “Sasha! Any of them on my six?”
“Negative!” she said with a crazy grin. “Now get this guy before
he turns around!”
“Why, I was just planning on doing that, Mrs. Wakefield,” said
Deke with an equally maniacal grin as he fired two missiles. “TAKE THAT, ya
green son of a bitch! This is for keeping me and my wife apart for a whole week
of hell!”
Deke fired, blasting his missiles right into the enemy boat’s tail
with a spectacular blast. Then, a moment later, a Tiger joined him on his tail
as he heard a familiar Scouse accent saying, ‘Elloo, sir! Glad to have yer
back, mate!”
“Hartcliffe! I
never thought I’d be glad to hear your voice!
What’s up?”
“Got shot over here by
dodging fire from one of those battleships.
But I found the carrier!!”
“Where?” demanded Deke.
“P-212,” said Hartcliffe. “They’re keeping it back from the main
action and letting the destroyers and planes hit the Argo first!”
“Good. Stick with us! BREW!” demanded
“Glad to hear you’re back
with us,” said Brew. “What’s up?”
“Enemy carrier, P-212. Break formation and let’s
hit that sucker!” yelled Deke.
“Okay, let’s!” yelled
Brew. “Guys, we’re going in!”
A moment later, twenty Cosmo Tigers were roaring in after the
enemy carrier thanks to
The carrier shot a few shots at them, but the Tigers successfully
evaded, firing tons of missiles in at the enemy carrier.
Caught like a bug in a jar, the enemy carrier was unable to evade,
and it blew apart a moment later as missile after missile flew in against it.
Deke clapped his hands and yelled “YEEEAH!” as Sasha smiled behind
him. He’s back, she thought, Not all the way back…I’ll deal with that later,
but, he’s back! That’s my Deekee! I never thought I’d be flying with him again
after all this, but, he’s back!
“Okay,” he said. “Anyone up to playing with a
Cometine battleship today?”
“I am,” said Hartcliffe, “Then later on I want to play with Angie.”
“I thought you two were separated,” said Deke.
“We were but now we’re not,” said Hartcliffe. “We can’t room
together, but…well…we…”
“I think we can figure you two out,” laughed Sasha. “We do not
need the gory details…”
“Tell ya sometime over some grape juice. I ain’t supposed to drink
no more, neither,” he said.
“Understood,” said
In the meantime, two Cometine destroyers were
busy firing at the Argo from close
range.
The Argo took a few hits
on one side, but the gunners were finally ready as the destroyers flew about
and went after the ship’s aft portion.
“Open number three turret,” said Nishina. “Guys, this will be your
test of the new turret in battle.”
“Number three aft main turret ready,” said the gunners in the
turret. “Locked on target.”
“Auxiliary turret ready and locked on target,” said the gunnery
chief in that turret.
“FIRE!” snapped Wildstar.
“Main guns, FIRE!” repeated Domon.
The
aft guns went off, blasting six satisfying streams of fire into the destroyers.
The rebuilt aft main turret on the Argo
passed its first combat test in admirable fashion.
The enemy destroyers perished a moment later.
Another barrage went off from the Argo, and one of the enemy space battleships disappeared in a blast
of energy and gas.
The aft gunners were able to get more target practice as they hit
two more destroyers, and then they prepared to join in a broadside as Kitano
manuevered the Argo around while a
few enemy missiles skipped around her from one of the destroyers.
In space, on the enemy space battleship, the Captain looked at the
fleet and said, “How many have we lost now?”
“More than half the fleet, sir!” said an officer. “And the carrier
Endrava has stopped answering our
hails!”
“Enough for now,” said the enemy Captain. “All ships! Prepare to
retreat! The Argo is not as badly
damaged as our intelligence thought! She could still be a major threat! Retreat
and head off to the New Comet! Keep the destroyer Matrasha off her stern at three hundred units’ distance to track
her!”
And, at that, the enemy fleet broke off and retreated.
0930
HOURS….
The
Same Day…
Deke and Sasha sat in their cockpit, listening as the funeral
service for Leyland, Sandoval, Blaklee and the others was transmitted from the
surface of Demonranstra, voice-only, as Derek read the service while Nova
quietly laid flowers from the ship’s garden on each man’s fresh grave…and even
left flowers on the mass grave for the Cometines in which Cometine Corporal
Gertz now lay along with Sergeant Daka and the all of the rest of their men from
the raid. Nova wore her space boots, slacks and a helmet, but she looked very
tired.
Finally, Nova quietly activated a disk player and speakers for the
men on the surface while she looked for a final time at the crude cross grave
markers made from some of the remains of their Cosmo Hound; each decorated with
their dog tags. The Cometine grave was decorated with a symbol representing the
Eritz Gatlantis found on the belt
buckle of one of the dead enemy officers they had buried. The strains of Scarlet Scarf sounded in Deke’s speakers
as he and Sasha saluted while slowly heading down towards Demonranstra one last
time with all of the others.
Most of the bridge crew stood in salute by the graves as most of
the flights of the Black Tigers and Trojans flew overhead in missing man
formations. Then, Commodore Wildstar said, “We will remember you on Heroes’
Hill when we return home with this war over. Until then, we will fight on in
the cause that you died in. These proceedings are finished.”
Deke’s flight remained overhead, waiting as the crew party from
the Argo got back into the two
landing crafts that were waiting. When the landing boats were safely on their
way back to the Argo, Wildstar gave
“Yessir,” said Deke. “Sasha?”
“Equipment spotted,” she said. “Deke, take care of it…”
Deke and his flight flew in over the now-quiet jungle and strafed
the remains of the Cosmo Hound, the abandoned, damaged Jet Recon Boats, and the
remnants of the Cometine base until there was nothing left. When there were
only a few pyres burning with smoke streaming over the graves, Deke and his
pilots dipped their wings at the sad scene and left, with Deke looking for one
last time at the cave opening by the ocean.
Then, they returned to the Argo.
Deke was the last pilot back in the ship.
After Deke’s plane was stowed, Deke helped Sasha out of the ship
and said, “Now, I believe we have a job to tend to?”
“After the meeting,” she said.
“Right after the meeting?” said Deke.
“We have permission to be off the rest of the day right after the Argo warps,” said Sasha. “For now, let’s
get some real food. I bet you’re still hungry from that time down on
Demonranstra…”
Later that day, at 1400 Hours, Commodore Wildstar assembled the
ship’s officers together for a meeting in the Central Strategy Room.
“We will be leaving Demonranstra in a few minutes from now,” said
Derek. “Now, our next mission is to finish the repairs to the ship and get a bead
on where the New Comet is.”
“Where do we think they are?” Sandor asked.
Nova made a graphic appear on the deck screen at their feet; she
had changed back to her skirt again after the service. “According to the Time
Radar, the New Comet was last near the edge of the Rainbow Cluster one hour
ago. Since then, she’s warped out, and we think it may now be around the
Ambercyte Rift.”
“The Ambercyte Rift,” said Eager. “That’s seven thousand
lightyears away, ain’t it?”
“It’ll take us at least five days to catch up with it, unless we
warp ahead of it,” said Sandor.
“That might be a good idea,” mused Derek.
“Yes, when we catch up with it and want to attack it by surprise,”
said Sandor. “Until then, our job is to somehow get in there and get Desslok.”
“But how do we do that with that Comet Field up?” said Commodore
Wildstar.
“We could go in through that vortex in the center of the Comet,”
said Nova as she pointed to a readout of the Comet
with her pointer. “The hard part is to get ships or planes in front of that
vortex undetected.”
“Aliscea might be able to do it,” mused Derek.
“Or maybe I could,” said
Sasha.
“Sasha, you don’t have that much power,” Derek said.
“We don’t know that yet,” said Sasha. “Now, if I flew in with
“It might work,” said Deke. But
I don’t like it, he added to himself.
“Sasha, let us know if you think you might be capable of that,”
said Commodore Wildstar.
“I will,” she said.
A while later, the meeting
broke up.
THAT
EVENING…
After the Argo made its
next warp, putting it a thousand lightyears closer to where they thought the
Comet was, they had dinner. Deke and Sasha didn’t say
much, save for smiling at each other slightly.
Not far away, Deke felt like he wanted to slam down a bag of sugar
on the table as he saw Dawn and Hardy holding hands and talking quietly. Dawn
had on her Medical minidress and sandals, and she had kicked a sandal off and
looked like she was playing footsies with Hardy under the table.
“They look happy,” said Deke.
“They made a little bargain,” said Sasha as she smiled at Dawn.
“She told me.”
“What is it?”
“I’ll tell you later,” said Sasha. Then, she looked at Deke and
whispered, “She was very open about it. She told me he carried out his part of their bargain earlier, with
gusto. Notice she is wearing her open-neck dress? And a new crystal Hardy had
made for her?”
“Uh-huh…”
“This isn’t there
anymore,” said Sasha as she played with the Star Prendant, which was now on her
neck, showing visibly in the neckline of her Midshipman’s uniform. “Look at me
in it in my uniform while you can,” whispered Sasha.
“You’re not taking it
off?” snapped Deke.
“Never,” said Sasha. “Nova is getting me some new uniforms issued
as of next week. Flight Group uniforms. I’m going to
asigned to work officially with you again, and my rank goes up to Junior
Lieutenant as of next week, as well.”
Deke’s eyebrows went up a little above his glasses until Sasha
said, “I was given the choice between a decoration and increased rank by the
Skipper for what I did in helping to save Gamilon from that Hyperon Bomb. I
took the rank. When the rank increase hits, I will also no longer be an Ensign
Apprentice pending completion of graduation requirements. I got very morose when you were gone, so I
studied for the last tests and took them with Nova. I am now considered an
Academy Graduate at last.”
“Yaay,” said Deke in a depressed fashion.
“What’s wrong, Deekee?”
“You’re still mad, aren’t you?”
“Concerned, yes.
Mad, no. What’s wrong?”
“That
resanctification part…I thought you’d be a bit more…uh…anxious…to…”
“Oh, I am,” whispered Sasha. “We need a full meal and some rest,
first, don’t we?”
Deke nodded. He got up.
Then, she ran to his arms.
Sasha then tenderly kissed him.
Deke kissed back.
Then, she took him away.
Off they went…
…to be all alone together….
Artwork: “Soul Kiss” © 2008 by Kenneth Mayes.
Used By Permission
VII.
RESANCTIFACTION
Space
Battleship Argo
Deep
Space
1000
Lightyears away from the Edge of the Great Magellenic Cloud
Thursday, July 30, 2207: 1950 Hours Earth Space-Time
“Sasha,” said Deke outside of their cabin as he tapped at the
locked hatch. “Sasha! Let me in there.”
“Not yet,” she purred.
“Why not?” he demanded.
“I live there too!”
Sasha said, “Deke, I have to get things ready. Besides, I think you need to wait a little bit longer. Consider that part of your punishment.”
“Sasha, I thought you forgave
me!” barked Deke.
“Forgiveness is not complete until I make you forget all about her,” said Sasha. “I am setting things
up to make certain that you forget her and never, ever forget me again!”
“Okay,” said
“Thirty minutes. Come back here at exactly 2020 Hours, Deekee,”
sang Sasha from inside their cabin. “Got that?”
“Where do I go for thirty minutes?”
“Go take a smoke or something. Talk to Brew. Smoke with Hardy. Play
Parcheesi with Auntie Nova or something. Don’t start playing drumsticks with
Dawn tonight or I’ll know about it and this Tigress will hunt you down. Remember, I am watching you!” she teased.
Deke, confused and amused (and maybe getting a bit aroused by Sasha’s
game) went off to the aft observation deck.
On that repaired deck, he found Hardy there, smoking a cigarette
and smiling like the cat that ate the canary.
“You look happy,” said
“Dawn took mah bargain hook, line and sinker,” said Hardy.
“You’re still mad at me,” said Deke.
“Was, but not now,” said Hardy. “Want a cig?”
Deke took a cigarette from the man whose wife he had almost
snatched up in a moment of lust earlier that same day and said, “What’s her
bargain?”
“I’ll tell ya if you tell me what Sasha’s bargain was.”
“Wait outside until I’m
ready for you. She made a friggin’ appointment,
Jeff! She sent me up here to cool my heels until 2020 Hours.”
Jeff laughed. “You deserve it! Just like Dawn deserved the bargain
I made her stick with. You note I’m smilin’,
boy?”
Deke nodded. “Sure you wanna talk about it?”
“Hell yes, especially since you used to date her. How was she
about havin’ kids when you used to sleep with ‘er? C’mon now. ‘Fess up.”
“She…dreaded the idea. She dreaded the very
thought.”
“”What do you think of
havin’ kids?”
“Honest answer or bullshit answer?” said Deke.
“Honest,” said Hardy as he took a drag on his cigarette.
“I’m surprised Derek and Nova haven’t had a few already, unless she lost a baby and she
and Wildstar aren’t talking about it. Earth needs
kids after this war. Sasha has agreed to that…she used to say, ‘…I’m scared,
but I’ll get pregnant when it’s Destiny’s time for me to do so.’”
“Dawn is scared of getting fat…losing her youth,” said Hardy. He
looked meditatively at Deke and said, “Was she talkin’ about high school a lot
when you two were marooned down there in that cave?”
“She was,” said Deke. “So was I. Memory. I never really got to say
a proper goodbye to her because we grew up together. I wanted that. I wanted to
close the circle and move on with Sasha…I…”
“Hold that thought,” said Jeff. “You wanted to close the circle? She wanted to go back.
That pissed me off. She wants to be a teenager again. Part of her was scared of
bein’ an officer. Part of her was scared of bein’ my wife. I had three
conditions I set for takin’ her back. One: Grow up and be a proper offisuh.
Two: Forget high school! It’s gone.
Three: Be my wife and prove it.”
“So you two have already done it?” said Deke.
“Yeah, but that ain’t all of it. I told her that when we did it, don’t get her contraceptive shot.
Did you know she was missin’ one? Did she tell ya that?”
“Oh, crap…I…”
“Yew swear to me ya didn’t put your plow in my wife’s field? Swear on your momma’s
grave?”
“I swear, Jeff. We were tempted, but…”
“Tempted, hell.
Tempted means crap. Makes me upset, but as long as you didn’t throw her down,
stick up her legs, and put your fuelin’ probe where it don’t belong, so what? I
did. And I made sure she’d forget you for good,”
Hardy said as he finished his cigarette.
“How?”
“We are havin’ a baby togethuh. If she ain’t pregnant now, we keep on doin’ it until she is.
That was mah bargain. Grow up and give me young’uns. I think she liked that,”
Hardy said as he nudged Deke in a rough, brotherly fashion. “We’ll be watchin’
her waistline from this point on. When it grows, I’ll be damn happy. Got that?”
Deke nodded. “Yeah. Well….you worked out
that one.”
“Time’s 2018,” said Hardy. “Go work out things with Missus Sasha.
Have a great time. And if you and Dawn ever start talkin’ again, hands OFF the
crotch area. Especially if she gets all moody and pregnant.
Got that?”
“Yessir,” said
2020
Hours….
Deke tapped at the hatch of their cabin. “Sasha!”
“Yes?”
“I’m here.”
“The hatch is open,” she sang.
Deke stepped forward and the hatch opened.
He stepped in and saw that Sasha had the lights turned down very low, and that a few candles were
burning in the cabin.
Sasha
was standing there waiting for him on tiptoe on the throw rug before their
bunk.
It was easy to see she was on tiptoe; she was barefoot. Her
toenails were freshly polished gold.
She had very little on.
Sasha wore the following: a brief T-shirt that showed off her
midriff with a gold cat’s eye pattern on it….
…and, a pair of black
panties, also with a gold cat’s eye pattern on it.
She wore that, and her freshly brushed
out golden hair, and nothing else….but a winning smile.
“Will this make you
forget?” she purred.
“I think I’m forgetting already,”
Deke said as he came to Sasha’s arms. She pulled off his boots and his socks,
and made him dance with her for a bit.
Then, she kissed him.
He kissed back, tickling her tummy.
He found her belly button, tickled it, and made her laugh.
While Deke was tickling Sasha, she was playing with his belt
buckle.
Before Deke could react, his pants were down.
So were his skivvies.
Sasha found her cat toy a moment later, and she did what any
self-respecting kitty cat would do with her prey.
First, she played with her prey.
Then, she pounced on it.
Artwork: Pet The Kitty
© 2008 by Kenneth Mayes. Used by Permission
Deke did not mind being pounced upon.
Especially since he saw that his kitten was also making Deke pull
her underpants down….
…then….
Deke pounced back.
Like any self-respecting Tiger….
Deke pounced back….
Then, they went to their bunk, and began to roll, play, fight and
growl.
The delicate business of Resanctification had begun.
Sasha was going to make sure Deke never forget this night….
NEVER….
Commodore
Derek Wildstar came up to his cabin at 2100 Hours to find Nova lying on their
bunk, again with her shoes still on, looking very depressed as she looked at an
e-mail on the PC terminal near their bunk.
“What’s wrong?” Derek asked.
“This e-mail I received,” she said.
“From whom?” said Derek as he kicked off his boots.
“My mother,” Nova sighed.
“Your mother is somehow forwarding you e-mails? Okay. Every time
you talk with her, you get upset. What is it now?”
“Derek, she wants me to leave you.”
Artwork: “Sad Nova” © 2008 by Freddo
“WHAT?” said Derek. “She can’t be serious!”
“She is, Derek. I do not agree with her, of course, but…”
“What is she saying?”
“Read the e-mail, Derek. And let me answer her, please. I’ve got to cut these apron strings
now…somehow…”
Commodore Wildstar huffed as he read Teri Forrester’s latest
letter to her daughter.
It was obviously written in a very upset mood.
It read:
To: Novawildstar.EDF.net
From: Teriforrester.UCOLO.net
Subject: What is going on?
24 July 2207
Nova:
I am writing to you, dear, because you are
WORRYING YOUR MOTHER AGAIN!
Must I remind you that you are now 8 months
along with our grand-children, and you have not either
written nor called us in days?
Are you home yet, for God’s SAKES?
Derek was supposed to have you home SAFELY on
EARTH by the 20th at the very latest. Or so you said in your last
e-mail to me.
If you are home, why are you taxing yourself by
continuing to work when you are so far along?
What do you want to prove? That you are Little Ms. Invulnerable?
I have left five messages for you at home on
your answering machine and you have not bothered to respond.
To your own mother.
Or have you decided to become a rebellious
teenager at twenty-nine?
What have I done to offend you?
Is it my offer to provide baby clothing and
cribs?
Is it my offer to have my own doula there
to help you through the birth? You know how narrow your hips are, honey.
Maternal mortality still happens even in this day and age, Nova. Do you want
Derek to have to bury you before you know your babies?
Or does Derek care?
Has Derek decided to have you stop writing or
calling your own mother?
I had suspicions about that Captain at my worst
moments.
Has he decided to prove who he is by keeping you
from contacting me?
Is he drinking too much sake?
Is he beating you, Nova? Be honest.
Maybe you should leave him if he has put you
into a harem and made you wear the veil.
I hope things are better than I fear. I hope he
does not still have you OUT IN SPACE.
Then, if I were you, I WOULD LEAVE HIM.
Please consider it. I have a home for you and
the babies if you need it, and your father will take him for every credit
possible and ruin his reputation.
Think about it. Please write me.
I love you.
YOUR WORRIED MOTHER!
“Why, that lousy, rotten, ridiculous…” said Derek as he clenched
his fists.
“I’ll handle it, Derek,” said Nova. “I think maybe she was
drinking when she wrote this. She told me she has been going through her change
of life early and has been acting very weird…”
“Don’t defend her!” he snapped.
“She has just royally pissed me off!”
“I know,” said Nova as she summoned Derek close and motioned for
him to sit on the bunk. She laid in his lap and said,
“I’d never leave you…unless I found you playing around with your niece Sasha or
Diane Henson or something equally improbable and stupid like that. I know that
would never happen. I know you. My
mother does not. I think she is losing her mind.”
“Nova, it is about time you cut those apron strings and told your
mother to go to Hell,” Derek barked.
“I intend to do that; but I will be a little more ladylike about it. We had fights before, you and I. We will
work this out. Want to see what I write to her?”
“You’d never leave me. You’re sure?”
“Of course not,” chuckled Nova. “Now, sit here with me, and watch as I write Mother something that will make her
sit up and take some notice….”
Nova then sat up, kissed Derek, and went to the terminal and hit
the “Reply” button.
She began to write this brief note:
To: Teriforrester.UCOLO.net
From: Novawildstar.EDF.net
RE: What is going on?
30 July 2207
Mother:
Thank you for writing to me.
First, I cannot tell you exactly where I am due
to Military Censorship. We are still in space.
I am on the Argo, and we are still
fighting a war with the Cometines to defend you and Father and my brother and
sister. Please keep this in mind from now on, and
PLEASE keep in mind I volunteered to be here of my own free will! Derek is not
forcing me to be here. In fact, he wants me home just as badly as you do!
I am well, and Derek is being an absolute angel
to me. He loves me and I love him.
He does not beat me, make me wear a veil, and he
seldom drinks sake.
Your suppositions about my husband and
Commanding Officer are ridiculous, out-of-line, and actually obscene.
Were you not about to be the Gradmother of my
children, I would tell you never to talk to me again like I told your sister Yvona. Remember HER, Mother?
However, because you are about to be the
grandmother of my children, I will bite my tongue because you may still wish to
see them.
IF you wish to see them, you will write to Derek
when you get this (you have his e-mail address) and apologize.
You will also never try to induce me to leave MY
husband again and leave my children without a father. If you ever bring this up
again, I am no longer your daughter and you are dead to me.
Oh. Take the cribs and baby clothing and donate
them to the Church. Derek makes more than enough money to purchase me what I
need. WE do not need them.
Apologize to my husband and myself or you and
Father will never see your grandchildren.
And stop treating me like a child, for God’s
sakes!
NOVA.
Nova then hit the “SEND” button.
“There we go,” said Nova. “I think that takes care of her. Doesn’t it?”
“Uh-huh,” said Derek.
“Now, let me take care of you,” purred Nova.
“How?” said an angry Derek.
“Forget about her,” said Nova as she kicked her sandals off and
lay in her husband’s lap again. “You need to relax a bit.”
“And how do you propose doing that,
Lieutenant Commander?”
Nova smiled and began kissing her husband.
“Now, I like that,”
Derek said.
Then, Nova succeeded in healing their rift…by letting Derek just have his way with her…
Later
on…
Dekee
and Sasha had taken care of their problems in a similar fashion.
It was around midnight on August 1, 2207, as Wakefield lay smoking
a cigarette in his bunk as a very naked Sasha cuddled up to him and said, “Have
you succeeded in forgetting yet?”
“Forgetting what?” said
Deke.
“I think it worked,” said Sasha as she kissed him. “You told me
that Hardy basically made Dawn have his baby…”
“Yeah, not that I agree with that one hundred percent, but…”
“She told me,” said Sasha. “She does not seem one hundred percent unhappy about it.”
Then, Sasha sat up a little. “This war is going to be over soon.
If we live through these next few weeks, we will be just fine.”
Deke took another drag of his cigarette. “Want a taste?”
Sasha sleepily shook her head. “You know very well that I do not
smoke, Deke.”
“Wanna put on anything?” said Deke.
“I’m not cold,” said Sasha.
“Why?”
“I have you to keep me warm, Deekee. You and
only you.”
She kissed him and said. “I could lie here like this forever.” She
looked at the tattered Tiger poster above their bunk. “When did you get this
thing for Tigers?”
“When I was about four, I think,” said Deke. “Around the time the
very last fossil-fuel pumping stations were going out of business as we went to
heavy-water fusion cars, there was one that had a Tiger for its emblem. My
father bought me everything possible from that pumping station chain before
they went to heavy water sales at a lesser profit margin and retired their
Tiger mascot.”
Artwork: “Deke and Sasha in Bed” © 2008 by
Kenneth Mayes. Used by Permission
“Tigers,” said Sasha. “You showed me video of them. They were
beautiful animals.”
“There’s maybe eight of them left on
Earth. All in zoos at the moment. Very
tame, almost. They might never be wild again, they fear.”
“Wild Tigers,” said Sasha sleepily. “You were wild before,
Deekee…”
“Am I forgiven?” Deke said.
Sasha kissed him and said, “Does this answer that question? Don’t go anywhere, Deke. Don’t leave
this cabin. I love you.”
“I love you, too, Sasha,” said Deke.
“Good,” said Sasha. “In my heart, I always felt you did. Thank
Destiny I was right.”
She kissed him again.
At the moment, she was unaware of one basic fact.
Dawn Hardy was not the only
newly pregnant woman on the Argo that
night.
Sasha was also going to be a mother.
Except that she did not know that yet….
VIII.
A RENEWED RAGE…
The
Eritz Gatlantis
Deep
Space
The
Ambercyte Rift
Heading
Towards Planet Balan
Saturday, August 1, 2207: 1000 Hours Earth Space-Time
The
New Comet roared through space like a ravening monster.
Invidia was not happy about the most recent loss near
Demonranstra.
When the Captain came to her to report, she had sent him off to
the torture chambers after condemning him to execution for his mistakes.
Now, as the latest report came in from the destroyer Matrasha, Invidia snarled at the Argo’s shape on the deck screen.
“I do not believe it,” said Invidia. “I am beginning to repect that
cursed ship. We kick at them, we abuse them, we thought we destroyed them, we
thought we marooned them! They repair their damage like some living monster and
come right back after us!”
“They live on,” said Gorse. “They are like some vile force of
Nature. I am beginning to think that Desslok of Gamilon was right about them.
He was obsessed with their destruction! Now I can see why,” said Gorse. “Also,
Radnar’s forces shadow us, just in the way we shadow the Star Force.”
Invidia
was truly worried as she slammed her pointer into her hand. “What if they join
forces now against us? It is a
possibility.”
“The Argo and that Fortress of Radnar’s.
If they do that, we would be lost,” said Gorse.
“That is why I am having HIM brought here. I will find out how to defeat
the Argo from him.”
“Who?” snapped Gorse.
“You know who,” snapped Invidia. She walked over to her throne and
hit a control. “BRING HIM IN!”
The doors hissed open, and several Cometine guards brought a
single tall figure into the room.
He just happened to be blue.
“Invidia, I see you are
here,” purred the sibilant, smooth voice of their prisoner. “I already know I
am wasting my breath.”
“Good morning, Desslok,” said Invidia with a smile. “Are they
treating you well in my prison?”
“Considering that I have been twice stripped of my clothes and
subjected to crude, vile tortures, I would say no,” purred Desslok. “You are a terrible
host this time around, Invidia. Or were you not allowed to go so far with me when your father was alive?”
“What did you think of the Earthling girl I sent to you?” said
Invidia.
“Michelle? That poor teenager? We talked
the other night. That is all we did. Oh. I wrapped my cape around her. She was
cold in my cell in that poor excuse for a nightgown you made her dress in. You
are really strange, Invidia. Did you think a married man is interested in
sleeping with teenagers?”
“She
is my slave. She does whatever I demand of her,” snapped Invidia.
“We did nothing,” said Desslok with a smile. “I gave the poor child
my bunk and slept on the deck.”
“Tell me something,” said Invidia. “The Star Force is a demon. I
am finally convinced of that. They are a force from Hell. How did you fight
them? Would you tell me?”
Desslok smiled at Invidia and began to laugh. “Did you ever hear
the expression that a good stage magician never reveals his secrets? I had my
differences with the Argo and their
crew once. We have settled them. Do you think I will help you defeat my
friends?”
“I offer you much,” said Invidia. “Tell me how to defeat them and
Radnar, and I will let you share my throne.”
Invidia walked over to her throne. “I give you this. We will have
two thrones. Mine and yours.”
“How will you propose doing this?” said Desslok. “This sounds
amusing.”
“Make me your second wife,” purred Invidia. “Father was right,
giving this throne to you. Share my power and tell me how to bring the Argo down a notch and we have an end to
the war and you can have this.”
Invidia then came up to Desslok and whispered in his ear. “I am warm. I am
nice. We do this and you sleep in my suite tonight…”
Desslok rolled up his eyes. “Invidia, my dear.
Your father said you were mad. Now you have convinced me of it. I almost feel
sorry for you. Don’t you think I know that after I sleep with you, you could so
easily arrange for me to die in your bed? I’ve almost thought of doing the
same, you see. With you.”
“You talk of insane people, Desslok,” hissed Invidia. “You are the
snake here! I make an offer in good faith!”
“Like at the Melezart conference?” purred Desslok. “You tried to
assassinate me before. Were it not for my former enemy, that good-hearted,
innocent woman you almost killed in my place, you would have succeeded. And the
Earthlings gave of their lives again to deactivate your morbid bomb on Gamilon.
What sort of people have you been associating with recently, Invidia? I am
almost worried about you.”
“You are joking,” said Invidia.
“I do not joke,” said Desslok. “Surrender to me, and I will make you a deal. Asylum for
the rest of your life in peaceful solitude on Iscandar. Immunity from your monstrous acts. Peace
and quiet. I make you this offer out of respect to your father, who did help me as best as he understood in
his psychopathic mind. Then I take
over and begin reforming your so-called House. Do we have an offer?”
“You have nothing!” she screamed after standing there with her
head bowed. It was hard because, for a moment, he was actually offering her a way out of her mess! “Guards, take him back to his cell! Keep him
there and keep on torturing him until he is ready to break to MY will!”
“You’re a fool,
Invidia!” said Desslok as the guards marched him away.
“Who is the fool here?” she hissed.
Yes,
she thought. Who is the fool here? Is
Ekogaru right? Or is Desslok right?
TO
BE CONTINUED…
To Return to the Introduction to The New Comet, click here