ALTERNATE
TALES OF THE STAR FORCE
STAR BLAZERS---A STRANGE INTERLUDE…
Being the fifth 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)---Freddo
ACT SEVEN: A PASSAGE
INTO SLEEP…
I. THE HOPES OF EARTH
Planet Earth
The
Earth Defense
Headquarters
Saturday, October 18,
2206
1030 Hours: Earthtime
General
Stone, the acting Commander of the EDF on Earth, stood in Headquarters as Prime
Minister Pitor Kopechne stood next to him.
“It
should not be long, sir, until we hear from Melezart?” said Stone.
“By
noon, the treaty should be signed,” said Kopechne with a nod.
The
President called in a moment later. “Prime Minister, has there been word from
Wildstar or from the Commander, yet?”
“None,
President Mendellsohn,” said Kopechne.
“They
have not called in yet,” said Stone.
An
officer suddenly stood and saluted.
“Sir!
Word from Melezart!”
“Which
is?” said Stone.
“At
0930 Hours, the delegation began its final conference,” said the officer. “No
word from them since.”
“If
they’re talking, we can finish it up today,” said Kopechne. “I’m sure that this
will win you re-election, Mister President.”
“Yes,”
said Mendellsohn. “So am I.”
In
the meantime, on Pluto, Dawn Westland was co-piloting a Medical Boat down to
the surface.
R’Khell
subs had attacked a listening post on the cold and icy little planet, and it
was their job to rescue the survivors and haul them back to the main base for
treatment.
“Good,”
said the pilot as he looked down at a series of lights. “They have the landing
zone marked out,
“Yessir,”
said Dawn as she took the controls. Soon, the Medical Boat was heading down to
the surface, its descent braked by its thrusters.
The
boat was down on the icy surface a moment later. The hatches opened, and Dawn
and the rest of the EDF standard blue spacesuit-clad crew ran in towards the
two small burning domes. As soon as she got into the airlock, Dawn stumbled
over something in the emergency lighting that made her suppress a scream.
It
was a member of the base contingent; or what was left of him. He had been blown
apart in half. His head and torso lay by one part of a panel and his legs were
about a meter away. He had obviously died in agony in a bloody mess.
“Stop
staring,
Dawn
looked around, and as she opened her helmet faceplate, she heard a weak
moaning. She and Cleveland ran over to another one of the base personnel. It
was a man who was trying to put his intestines back into his stomach.
“Evaluate
him,” snapped
Dawn
was trying to keep her breakfast from coming up as she looked over the man and
heard his screams and smelled the stench coming from him. Smells like his colon was torn open…my God, she thought. At least it’s not inside of him to cause peritonitis.
He’ll need major surgery if he’s gonna live….
“Secure
his innards with a dressing and get him back to the ship,” snapped
“How
can we leave them like that, ma’am?” said
“Triage.
We leave those who are obviously dead or dying, work on those critically
injured who might pull through, and have the less critically injured wait their
turn. You mean they didn’t teach you that in college or flight school, Miss?”
“No…and
why do you have that gun at your hip, ma’am?”
“They
didn’t issue you one, either? God’s beard! Sometimes, we have to defend our
patients in these situations. Especially when the enemy is around…like that
battle I was in last month when I was serving with the space cruiser Westphalia’s Medical Group.”
“Ma’am,
I’m WHO…they said…”
“You’re
serving with the EDF, aren’t you?”
snapped
“I
am, but…”
“You
serve with us, girl, you fight with
us…because we won’t have much time to cover your ass when they start shooting,
Miss Delicate. Got that?”
Dawn
knelt in silence as she finished with the moaning man’s combat dressing and the
packing and taping off of his torn colon. Luckily, he had passed out.
“Get
him back to the ship,
“Aye,
aye, ma’am…”
II. THE END OF THE TRUCE
Planet Melezart
The Great Hall of the
People
Saturday, October 18,
2206
1035 Hours: Earthtime
“Priincess
Invidia,” said Desslok. “If you think we are going to take this lying down and peacefully
roll over and go with you, you must truly be mad.”
“You’re
not going anywhere, except maybe to Hell, if it exists,” said Invidia as she
fingered her dagger.
“My,
aren’t we assertive?” said Invidia.
Lord
Cha’rif walked up behind them, seconds from concentrating his psionic powers to
begin strangling Invidia from across the table when he felt a dark force
entering the room…and then, he felt an invisible hand on his own neck.
“What?”
he gasped.
“Cha’rif!”
criied Astra as she ran to him. An invisible force made her trip and fall. She
just barely dodged two Cometine laser blasts, and she fell under the table,
grazed by a laser burst.
A
deep, mocking voice came to Cha’rif’s mind. “I am surprised you don’t recognize
me, ancient kinsman. But, to remake my introductions, I am the Lord Ekogaru. I
am not yet dead. But you’ll be,
soon.”
“Why..help..them?”
“I’ve
my reasons,” laughed Ekogaru in his mind. “I suggest you watch the fun. Even
though this snake Invidia needs very little encouragement…”
The
grinning Invidia smiled as she nodded to Gorse. Gorse whipped out a weapon and
fired right at
“What?”
he said.
“You
had to duck…we have to get out of here!” said Nova. “I should have armed
myself,” she whispered in frustration.
More
shots rang out amongst them, some from just a meter or two away as Desslok
began returning fire himself. Not far away, there was a scream as a Gamilon
trooper fell dead with a smoking hole in his brown armor. Nova saw a chance as
his Gamilon grip gun fell out of his limp hand.
“Sorry,
my friend,” said Nova as she crawled over and bowed her head. “I need this more
than you do now,” she said as she took his weapon. And I
hope I can learn to fire it in about fifteen seconds, she thought.
Nova
popped up over a chair and pumped a few shots right at a horrified Invidia.
Unfortunately, she missed because she was unfamiliar with how to grip the
Gamilon weapon she’d picked up. If she would have had her familiar
Astro-Automatic, Invidia would already have been in the next life.
“You
dare to shoot at me, Commoner?”
snapped Invidia.
“I
think you’re the one who started
this, witch!” snapped back Nova, who crawled to Wakefield’s left behind him as
energy bolts skipped and snapped all around them, fired by both Gamilons on
their side and Cometines on the enemy side of the room, where several fires had
already started.
And,
as Janlits lay dying in a pool of his own blood, Stovall was nowhere to be
seen.
“Where
the heck is Stovall?” cried Nova in the increasing smoke and confusion of the
battle.
“Got
no idea, ma’am!” yelled
…and
whipped her dagger right at Desslok.
“NO!”
screamed Astrena. She put up a hand…
…But,
to Wakefield’s utter shock, Nova rolled over and popped up in front of Desslok,
crying “WATCH OUT!” as she rolled right into the Gamilon ruler’s lap…to deflect
the blade…
…and,
with a scream and a grunt, she stopped the blade…
…with
her own body as it plunged right into her left shoulder near the collarbone.
Nova
took, one, two, three hard, gasping breaths as she felt pain in her shoulder
that felt as if some giant wasp was stinging her there. She felt something
burning and hot going into her body as she thought, POISON! This damn thing is injecting poison into me like the other one
I got the other night. I can’t let this thing do its work, so…
Nova
shakily stood, and she snarled in pain and rage as Invidia laughed at her with
her head thrown back.
What
Nova did next startled Invidia and everyone else. Gasping with pain, Nova
cold-bloodedly tore the dagger out of the bloody puncture wound in her
shoulder, and she threw it right back at Invidia with a howling scream of rage.
A
horrified Invidia could not dodge the blade as it flew towards her chest and
then plunged home near her rotten heart. She fell, and was dragged away by Dyre
and Gorse as they ran out of the room like cowards to leave the battle to their
inferiors; inferiors that the Gamilons and the Melezartian troops were
beginning to shoot down in vengeance and rage even as many of the blue and
Caucasian-looking fighting men from both races passed into Valhalla together in
the Great Hall of the People, which was now on fire.
Talan
snarled as he heard the whirring roar of Cometine Scorpions roaring overhead
above the city and heard bombs falling. “Desslok!,” said Talan. “They’re
bombing us! It was a trap, sir! We have to get out of here!”
“Talan,
not yet,” snapped Desslok. Desslok looked down at the trembling Earth woman in
his lap, who squeezed his hand as she gasped, “Are you all right, Desslok?”
“No…are
you?” said Desslok as
“I’m
on fire,” gasped a trembling Nova. “I…”
Desslok
nodded. “Young man!” he snapped at
Nova
was beginning to flail her legs as her eyes rolled back in her head as she
began to have a seizure. “Bad enough, but not beyond hope, son,” said the
Gamilon ruler as he undid his own tunic slightly. From a hidden inner grey pocket,
the Gamilon Leader pulled out something that looked like a small green pen.
“This is a universal basic antigen I carry to protect me from assassination
that should work and stop the worst of it. Bare her shoulder and the wound. It
has to be injected near the wound site.”
As
Nova’s breath came out in rasping gasps that sounded like something coming from
a strangling dog, Wakefield pulled open Nova’s blood-soaked white peacoat, and,
not believing he was doing this, he found the front vac-zipp on her uniform and
pulled it open, exposing her shoulder and a blood-soaked bra strap.
Nova
gasped in pain again as Desslok quickly plunged the needle of the small syringe
into her bare shoulder near the stab wound as if he knew precisely what he was
doing. The action shocked
A
moment later, Nova’s eyes went normal, as she said, “uh…Desslok?”
“I
have given you and your children a fighting chance at life,” said Desslok as he
covered Nova back up after he slapped over the wound a combat dressing that a
kneeling Talan had taken from a packet on his own General’s belt and had handed
Desslok. “Go and give my best wishes to Wildstar,” said Desslok as he kissed
her hand. Then, as he stood while
“It’s
“
“Yessir,”
said
A
few minutes later,
“Yessir,”
said Deke as he ran to his plane, got his flight gear, and began to power the
plane up. He was about to get into the cockpit when Hardy motioned him back
into the landing boat. “Nova’s not doin’ good, is she..?”
”How’d
you…”
“We
heard about how she’s doin’ from Stovall,” said Hardy quickly. “Not good. The
Gamilons found him and sent him back with this doctor. This Lieutenant here,
this nurse, was sent over from a Medical boat that got blasted to bits after it
landed. We’re taking her back in this. Can you help us a minute? We need
another set of hands as a medic. The doctor says we need to do some emergency
treatment right heah if she’s gonna live!”
“Cripes!
You are?” said Wakefield to the elderly-looking Gamilon, who looked like a blue
version of an old Chinese or Japanese sensei
of some kind with his epichantic folds, spare hair, and grey Fu Manchu
beard and mustache.
“Doctor
Barandar in your tongue,” he said as Wakefield and Stovall laid Nova down on
the bench seat in the side of the landing boat and strapped her down while, to
Deke’s further surprise, Doctor Sane ran into the shuttle.
“Sir,
where did you come from?” said Deke.
“I
was on that shuttle with
“That’s
all right,” said Nova with a weak smile.
“What
meds has she been given?” snapped Sane.
“Desslok
gave her an antigen based on a synthetic form of what you call Triandes but we
need more,” replied the Gamilon doctor. Deke looked away as the alien doctor
snapped at the brown-haired nurse, “Nurse, get her boots off, check her
extremities, and help me cut off this damned coat. We need to see how that
damned pregnancy is doing.”
“
As
As Doc Sane pulled open her uniform,
“Doctor Barandar, her color is not good,” said
Sane.
“That means?” said a confused Deke.
“You
see her color?” said the Gamilon doctor as he looked at Deke, who was setting
up IV stands in the holes provided in the bench seat of the landing boat. While
this type of landing boat was not a medical shuttle, it had minimal provisions
inside for medics to treat wounded ground troops after battles.
“I
wish that my twin sister Samantha who’s on Pluto was here now, she’d be a big
help,” said Tasha as she smoothed down Nova’s hair. “You’re gonna be all right,
ma’am. You’ll see. We’re following your combat protocols, ma’am. You wrote the
textbook on this, remember?”
“Yes..”
gasped Nova.
“You
are not out of the woods yet,” snapped the Gamilon doctor. “Especially your
young inside you. You were very
foolish, child! You should have hid under the table during that battle like the
Iscandarian girl did. Cleveland, get her disrobed…we have to work…I have to
ready those IV’s and fast…Sane, get me a packet and also get ready to
catheterize her…we need to get those toxins out fast!”
“Got
it,” said Sane. “
My God….thought
Nova in her pain. Derek…I could
lose our babies! And it would be my fault…trying to be brave and trying to save
Desslok like that….
Nova
began to weakly cry as
She
began to shiver uncontrollably. Stovall looked over again, grinning
sardonically. “Get out of here, you Marine idiot!” yelled Sane as the Marine
jumped. “You’re like many Marines, totally worthless when someone’s hurt!”
“
Cleveland
and Wakefield then quickly covered Nova down to her knees with the remnants of
her peacoat like a blanket but Deke had seen enough to see that the coldly
efficient doctors and nurse had methodicially stripped Nova of all of her
clothes with their scissors as they had worked on her and started the IV’s in
at least three places, putting the bags and bottle up on the emergency stands
he had helped to set up. “Sensor unit says the fetal heartbeat is slower than I
like…nurse, see if there is any bloody show from her birth area! If so…,” said
the Gamilon doctor as his eyes met Sane’s and they nodded.
“Emergency
Caesarian?” said
“If
they’re even viable and if contractions are coming…yes…,” said Sane. “She’ll
need more drugs on board ship. Hard to do a full diagnosis until we do
full-body deep scans and check everything out. Good thing that knife didn’t hit
her subclavian artery or we’d be getting ready to bury her now.”
“My
God,” said
“Deke,”
gasped Nova.
“Nova…I
can’t look…you don’t have anything on, but…”
“Deke,
I don’t care now. Come here,” said Nova in a gasping, pleading voice.
An
explosion shook the ship from outside and Hardy yelled, “We have to take off,
“We
were separated; no idea..”
“Take
that uttah idiot of a Space Marine and get in the air! Escort us back to the Argo,
Deke
saluted and nodded at Hardy and Nova. His last glance of Nova was of her crying
out as the damned Gamilion doctor bashed a large needle of some kind into her
patheticially naked hip while Sane helped hold Nova down. Blood spurted out
onto the deck in a stream for a moment.
How much blood does she have to
give them? Deke thought in anger as Stovall ran beside him in
silence.
III. THE GREAT
Over Planet Melezart
Saturday, October 18,
2206
1110 Hours: Earthtime
“
“Escorting
a landing boat back to the Argo, sir.
Representative Janlits bought it when the Cometines turned on us at the
conference, Astra is missing, and Nova’s in that landing boat with Hardy, some
nurse and some weird Gamilon doctor. Nova’s hurt bad. She got stabbed and
poisoned during the fight with the Cometines. They broke the truce a few
minutes ago and went berserk.”
“Hurry
up! We need you in combat. The enemy’s pouncing on Melezart with a squadron of
anti-matter missile ships that we’ve got to stop, and the Rikashans are in
battle with a Cometine battleship squadron. It started just fifteen minutes
ago; it must’ve been when they must’ve broke the truce.”
“Damn
straight it was,” said
“Okay,”
said Conroy. “Escort them back to the Argo
and then join up with us.”
“Roger
that,” said
Then, heavy fire came in.
“
“Affirmative,”
said Deke.”I have four left.”
“Good.
Let’s get that ship before we get back to the Argo.”
“No
thanks to you, sir,” hissed Stovall. “You’re shaking me up pretty bad, buddy.
You know how to fly this tin can?”
“Shut
the hell up,” said Deke. “Keep on firing.”
“Don’t
need to tell me twice, bud,” said
Stovall.
A
moment later, Deke smiled as Hardy’s boat pumped missiles into the Cometine
antimatter missile ship’s bridge. The enemy space warship began to fly off
course, and
“Scratch
one enemy ship,” said
“Not
bad for a rookie,” snapped Stovall.
“Marine,
shut the hell up,” muttered
“I
was looking for the Gamilon doc and found him. End of story,
Stovall, you are so full of shit, thought
As Ekogaru passed the knowledge of Wakefield’s
thoughts into Stovall’s mind, Stovall grinned to himself and thought, We’ll even this up someday…Dekesticks…
IV. CHAOS ON EARTH:
BEGINNING OF THE
SECOND WAR OF
UNIFICATION
Saturday, October 18,
2206
1200 Hours: Earthtime
A
Josiahite cell had been attacking an EDF facility near the Yunnan Capital of
Kunming in
A
few dark minutes later, they found out when they discovered most of their units
decimated within a few minutes when a captured hydrogen missile warhead was
exploded by the Josiahites. A mushroom cloud went up, destroying half of the
city of
About
an hour later, a message was handed to President Mendellsohn in Presidential
House by one of his staffers.
“Is
this about the Melezart conference?” said the President.
“No
word from Melezart yet, sir. This is worse. Far worse.”
“What
could be worse than new fighting with the Comet Empire?” said the President.
“This,”
said the staffer. He handed Mendellsohn the message. It read:
We have accomplished our first
major victory today in the name of states’ rights and local freedom against the
Facistic running dog Gamilon-ally government in
We are now as of this day
declaring our independence from the so-called Federation Government to follow
the glorious teachings of Yvona and the Josiahites.
We are signing our own treaty with
the R’Khell
We hereby declare ourselves THE
FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATE OF
DEATH TO THE FEDERATION!
THE UNIFICATION WARS HAVE BEEN
RESTARTED!
In the name of our Lord….
PRAXIS
“Open
fighting on Earth?” said Mendellsohn as his hands shook. “Not a skirmish? Open war?”
The
staffer nodded. Then, another staffer ran in.
“Sir.
Bad news from Melezart from Commanding General Singleton.”
“What
is it now?” said Mendellsohn.
“Mister
President, the truce at Melezart has been broken. The Cometines just tried to
assassinate Desslok and Nova Wildstar and the others. Janlits of Melezart is
dead and the Iscandarian Representative is missing. One report states that Nova
Wildstar is badly wounded. The Argo
and
Mendellsohn
sat with his head in his hands. He sighed. “Perhaps..gentlemen…perhaps…”
“Perhaps,
what, sir?”
“Perhaps
I should resign. But…no…I will not…”
Then,
another staffer ran in. “Sir. We’ve just gotten a phone call from Senator
Guanxi in
“A
no-confidence motion?”
The
staff nodded. “We think so.”
“This
is all that I need,” muttered the President. “If I get re-elected, it will be a
miracle…”
V. THE GREAT
Over Planet Melezart
Saturday, October 18,
2206
1205 Hours: Earthtime
Deke then
did a roll, and saw two Scorpions flying towards the Argo, which was already smoking from two hits she had taken in the
battle. Deke used two more missiles on the Scorpions, and then, he and Stovall
flew back into battle leading his own flight around the
“Don’t
need to tell me twice,” said Deke as he saw the
A
moment later, the eight space warships opened fire with all of their main guns.
The deadly salvo raced through the vacuum of space, blowing apart many of the
Cometine ships before they could evade. Some of the others fired smaller
missiles, which hit the Argo and the
On
the Argo, as Nova moaned on the
operating table in Sickbay under fresh green operating-field drapes and sheets
as the ship jumped under her, Doctor Sane screamed, “How am I supposed to work
on a sick woman full of IV’s, probes and cathethers when we’re getting shot at?”
“We
do our best,” said Doctor Barandar. “Sane, are the anti-contraction drugs
working?”
“They
seem to be working as best as can be expected,” said Sane. “It’s going to be
touch-and-go for the next twelve hours, though. I wonder how Invidia is doing?
I heard that Nova got her with the knife right to the heart….”
“Hope..she’s…dead..”
gasped Nova. “Doctor Sane, am I going to have these…?”
“We
don’t know yet,” said Sane as he readied an anesthetic mask that Nurse
Cleveland had handed him. “I’ve got to put you under to fix that shoulder wound
and do a primary accelerated dialysis and flush to help your kidneys and liver
get the remnants of that poison out of you and out of the babies through your
placenta. Luckily, your bone marrow and immune system were not compromised by
that poison. How can anyone create such a sick weapon as that?”
“They
have no sense of honor,” said Barandar as he assisted Sane. “That is what it
is. Even our radioactive gasses were never so vile as this stuff. And I should
know; I am an expert toxicologist.”
“You’re
going to be going under now, Nova,” said Sane as Nova saw the mask being
lowered over her face. “When you wake up later, we’ll consult with you on your
medical options with this pregnancy. I took enough scans of the babies to see
that they are alive and out of immediate danger…for now…”
“Thank
you,” whispered Nova. Soon, the mask went over her nose and mouth and she
passed out of her pain into a blissful and quiet sleep.
Outside,
the battle raged on as the Earth battle line fired again and again, finally
destroying the anti-matter missile ships.
“Enemy
fleet destroyed,” said Bando on the
“Prepare
to engage enemy ships, Domon. Get our wave motion cartridges loaded,” ordered Wildstar.
“Yessir,”
said Domon. “McCloskey, ready wave cartridges!”
“Gladly,
my friend!” laughed the Argo’s new
Artillery officer. “Turret crews, prepare wave cartridges!”
“I’m
getting a signal from Desslok,” said Homer.
“What?”
said Commodore Wildstar. This is the
worst possible time, thought Derek. How
can I concentrate with Nova critically injured down below? Yet, what else can I
do? We’re fighting for our lives. “Homer, put him on the main video panel…”
“Yessir!”
Desslok
came up on the screen. “Wildstar, I have a request to make of you. An urgent
one.”
“Which
is?”
“I
need you to attack the New Comet itself with your wave motion gun. We have
discovered it is starting to bear down on Melezart. We are in great danger and
could lose the war right here. It could easily crush the planet and take all of
us with it. I have cleared this request with your Commander Singleton, and he
agrees. I would have done it myself, but my Desslok Gun is damaged and under
repair. Can you do it, Wildstar?”
“I
could, but how would one shot matter?”
“Aim
at the Comet’s central vortex, Wildstar. That is the New Comet’s weak point. It
should not be hard to find.”
“The
weak point…central vortex,” said Wildstar. “Sandor, are you getting that?”
“Roger
on that point,” said Sandor. “I’m scanning the Comet now. It’s eight hundred
and five megameters behind the fleets and gaining on us fast.”
“I’d
recommend a short warp right in front of it,” said Desslok. The Gamilon Leader
then smiled. “The same tactic you used against me five years ago, Wildstar.
Remember?”
“Yes,
we can do it,” said Wildstar. “Kitano! Calculate a space warp of seven hundred
and ninety megameters at low power without the supercharger! Target, fifteen
megameters away from the Comet.”
“Calculating
warp.”
“I
found the vortex, Wildstar!” said Sandor as he scanned the Comet urgently on
his computer screens at his post. “Right at the center like Desslok said.”
Desslok
nodded. “I leave you to your work, Wildstar. Best wishes.”
“Domon,
we’ll both line up that final shot,” said Wildstar as the Argo’s warp sensor
began to beep.
“Warp
in thirty seconds!” said Kitano over the PA.
In
Sickbay, Sane wiped his brow. “Thank Heavens our patient will be sleeping
through this!”
A
moment later, the Argo just warped
out in an old-style space warp.
Target;
right before the New Comet….
Aboard
the Eritz Gatlantis, Dyre oversaw the
battle with a bandaged Gorse as they looked at the vacant throne behind them.
“So,
Princess Invidia is in the Sickbay?” said Dyre.
“Yes.
She is not expected to live,” said Gorse. “All of our doctors are working on
her at once. The regular injured can wait.”
“If
that Earth girl was not an enemy, I would give her a medal and a kiss for
ridding us of the Princess,” said Dyre.
“Cynical,
aren’t we?” said Gorse.
“War
is too important to be left to amateurs,” hissed Dyre. “Our quest to conquer
the universe has to be run by professionals. If I were to succeed to the Throne
of our House, it would change
things.”
“We
are in fine shape. We can easily crush them now,” said Gorse.
“I
have sent the Government of Melezart its last warning, already,” said Dyre.
“Unfortunately, the Earth Fleet and the Gamilons stopped the anti-matter
missile ships I had in position to just blow the planet apart. And the
Rikashans defeated our first battleship line with their surge cannons and heavy
guns on those damned heavy warships of theirs. If they do not transmit their
surrender in two more minutes and ask the enemy fleets to break it off, we will
move ahead at full speed and crush them with the Comet!”
“An
excellent plan!” laughed Gorse. “What about any survivors?”
“Gernitz
is waiting at the rear with the Dreadnought. He will clean up any trash we
leave behind.”
Gorse
laughed at that. “General Dyre, I like the way you put things.”
An
officer suddenly came to attention with a click of his heels. “General! One
ship spotted before us! It has just emerged from warp!”
“ONE
ship?” sneered Gorse.
“Bringing
up a visual.”
A
moment later, the familiar shape of the Argo
appeared before the New Comet. A moment later, a glow began to build up in the
firing gate of her wave motion gun. A familiar pulsing whine began to resound
through the Earth ship, thanks to some tricky and dangerous work in the ship’s
engine room on the parts of Yamazaki and Henson.
“Not
them?” hissed Dyre. “How arrogant can you get?”
“They
can’t harm us,” sneered Gorse.
“Sir,
I have calculated a possible danger,” said the officer. “They could be aiming
at the Vortex. Should we change course?”
“No,”
said Dyre. “Increase speed! We can crush them before they can even fire their little gun against us!”
At
that, the New Comet increased speed and bore down on its lone adversary like
some mad Goliath coming up against the shepherd boy David in an ancient battle.
“Locked
on, sir,” said Domon, who had his goggles on as he got up from his seat and
saluted as Wildstar sat down. “Any final adjustments are yours now, Commodore.
Why are you firing, sir?”
“I’ve
got my reasons. Thirty seconds to firing,” said Wildstar as he lowered his
goggles and sat down and strapped in. “Secure all anti-flash and anti-shock
measures!”
“Energy
level now at one hundred and thirty percent,” said Yamazaki. “You’d better fire
fast, sir; we’re risking a burnout at this kind of power!”
“I
know what I’m doing, Chief,” snapped Derek as he put his hands around the
firing grip. “Sandor! Final range to the vortex?”
“Fourteen
point twenty-two megameters,” Sandor replied. “Location, RP-20 by JPG-350.”
“Move
lock point up one degree, JPG-350, aye,”
said Wildstar as he adjusted the firing grip of the wave gun slightly with a
sharp click heard in the tension even over the whine of the wave motion gun.
The deadly flare of the New Comet burned like a sun in his target scope.
“Steady as she goes, Mister Kitano.”
“Steady
as she goes, control transferred to you, sir.”
“The
blast is going to be very bright,” snapped Wildstar. “Lower safety shields on
forward windows, switching target scope to remote mode!” he said as he flicked
switches and the blast shields came down over the bridge windows. Then, he tore
off his goggles and said, “Belay those!
Commence final ten-second countdown!” yelled Wildstar as Domon sat at Analysis
and began to take scans. “Ten…Nine..Eight…Seven…Six…Five…Four…Three…”
“Energy
buildup from the Comet!” snapped Eager. “I think they’re tryin’ to run for it!”
“Too
late, people!” barked Wildstar. “two…one…zero…FIRE!”
Wildstar
gritted his teeth as tears ran down his cheeks. This is our revenge for Nova, you bastards, he thought grimly to
himself.
The
trigger clicked, and a horrid blue flame blasted out of the Argo’s bow into the New Comet’s maw. 
The Argo’s superstructure and hull began to
groan in pain as the Comet’s gravity field began to grab them with tenacious
invisible fingers as the ship tossed.
“It’s
working!” yelled Sandor with a laugh as he saw the whirling Comet field burning
red and white and beginning to explode.
Inside
the Comet, Dyre and Gorse screamed as they saw their precious field coming
apart. Klaxons went off, and emergency lighting came up as the Eritz Gatlantis suddenly shook as if it
had been kicked as the remaining energy of the wave motion gun’s surge scored a
direct hit in the Eritz Gatlantis’
rocky underbelly. Energy tendrils flicked like St. Elmo’s fire all over the
superstructure of the mighty Fortress as blue lightning covered the entire
Fortress and some of the glasssteel and stone buildings on the war machine’s
upper half began to blow apart. Then, nothing could be seen for Dyre and Gorse
and the others as they saw nothing but fire surrounding their arrogant, mighty
fortress.
Earth’s technology has improved
immensely, thought Dyre in panic as, for a moment, the very
integrity of the Comet Empire’s arrogant city hung in doubt. They don’t need Trelaina any more! By Arishna, those barbarians can
kill us themselves!
The
Star Force caught a glimpse of the chaos inside the exploding Comet as they saw
the shadow of the burning Eritz Gatlantis,
but, a moment later, a brighter flare than ever blocked the city-ship from
their visual and even magnetic sensors.
“We’re
not out of it yet!” screamed Wildstar as the explosion loomed up on the Argo’s main screen. “Kitano! Hard about
one eighty! Yamazaki, release all overrides and bring the supercharger back up!
Get us out of here!”
“Affirmative!”
said the helmsman and engineer together. “Orion! Henson!” yelled Yamazaki.
“Pull every override down there you can find and give us power! I don’t care if
you have to use your teeth to do it!”
“Roger,
releasing one through eight!” yelled the younger Orion as he flicked knife
switches and levers like a madman. Lights and computer screens went red as
klaxons and electronic bells went off. “DANGER, RISKING WAVE ENGINE EXPLOSION!
DANGER, RISKING BREACH OF MAGNETIC CONTAINMENT BOTTLE!” called out a loud,
monotonous computer voice as the Engine Group was trying to force the energy
generator and wave engine beyond every safety factor built into it after it had
just provided energy to fire the wave motion gun.
“Oh,
shut UP!” yelled Diane Henson as she ripped out several wires to still the
voice before she ran over to another panel of switches.
“The
Chief won’t like that!” yelled Orion.
“He’ll
like it even less if that explosion sucks us up!” cried Henson as she ran over,
flicked four switches with her hands, and then flew over to grab two more, pull
them, and then to grab one more, pull it, and then she used her booted foot to
kick the last one home. “Overrides off! Stand back, guys!” she yelled as the energy generator’s flywheel began to
gleam insanely bright and it spun insanely fast as the engine came back on line
with a screaming whine as a coolant line blew and spat steam all over the place
above their heads.
The Argo’s stern engine ports lit up like a
new star as the engines went off and kicked them out beyond the expanding
explosion that had been the New Comet.
“The
power of the wave motion gun has increased a lot since 2201,” laughed Domon as
the bridge crew began to cheer like mad. “Sandor, did we get them? Did we take out the Comet and their Fortress?”
“I’m
reading a mass in that lake of fire and gas,” said Sandor grimly.
“Picking
up mass!” said Bando from the Cosmo-Radar. “Main screen on!”
The
burning gasses and the vortex expanded outwards, and, to everyone’s shock and
rage, the Eritz Gatlantis cruised
slowly out of the holocaust. It was shorn of its Comet field and was surrounded
by gas. Unlike what had happened at Saturn-Titan in 2201 after the first Comet
had been destroyed by the whole Earth Defense Fleet, this 100-kilometer wide
ship had actually taken damage. Many buildings had been blown apart, and it was
burning, and it could only move at about a third of her best speed due to
massive damage to even its multiple redundant energy centers (a feature the
original Gatlantis had not been
designed with).
“Okay,”
said Wildstar as he returned to his regular post as Domon returned to his post.
“So, they’re not finished yet, eh? I think we could arrange that!”
“Enemy
fleet approaching to stern!” said Eager.
“Domon,
have Hardy take off and leave those guys to the Black Tigers. We’ve got some
work to do. Homer, where’s the rest of the Earth Fleet?”
“Three
minutes away, at best speed, according to Captain Venture,” said Homer as he
gripped his headset after typing out an urgent query. “The Rikashans are five
minutes away. And Desslok is asking us to clear the area in ten minutes. He has
something up his sleeve, too!”
“More
than enough time,” said Wildstar. “Mister Domon, Mister McCloskey, ready main
guns. I hope we have more wave motion cartridges left; we’re gonna need ‘em.
Target the rotating belt and the lower half of the city.”
“Roger!”
“The
Commander’s calling!” said Homer.
The
main screen came up and Commanding General Singleton came on line. “This is
different,” he said. “I haven’t personally been in combat since the end of the
Unification Wars and the beginning of the Gamilons’ major offensives. We’re
doing well, Wildstar. I’ve ordered Captain Venture to send you fire support
from the
“Thank
you, sir.”
“Thank
you, Wildstar,” said the Commander.
“I was sorry to hear about Nova. Bring us a victory today, Commodore. One way
or the other, I want an end to this war. My heart told me it would come to
this. I don’t know why I didn’t listen.”
Wildstar
just shut his eyes. “We’ll win, sir. Don’t worry. You can count on us.”
“Thanks.”
“
“FIRE!”
barked Wildstar.
A
moment later, the Argo’s guns went
off as death began to rain against the Eritz
Gatlantis.
VI. THE GREAT
The Vicinity of Planet
Melezart
Saturday, October 18,
2206
1320 Hours: Earthtime
As
the Argo continued to fight on,
Doctor Sane and his Gamilon counterpart were closing Nova’s wound up at last. “
“Yessir,”
said the now-minidress and clog-clad nurse as she ran over. She looked at
several readouts on the dialysis equipment connected to Nova’s arms and leg.
“Blood toxicity back to normal levels except for metabolic byproducts. We
licked the poisons just in time. Judging from their heartbeats, the babies
inside her seem to be out of the worst of their crisis. But the bilirubin levels
are not good, sir.”
“The
patient will probably survive, but I do not know about those young inside her,”
said Barandar. “I pray you did not mind my aid.”
“Not
at all, I could use every hand I can get here,” said Sane.
Another
nurse ran in. “Sir, we have casualties from a blast in the aft auxilary gun
turret. You’ll have to work on burn cases, sir.”
“Barandar,
Cleveland, wheel Nova into Recovery and get a gown on her and a freshly warmed
sheet. She’ll be very cold when she comes around. We’re done here for now
unless we have to do an emergency delivery. Give me a hand, Miss Jackson! And
ready the debriding equipment!”
“Yessir,”
said the second nurse as the Gamilon doctor and nurse wheeled Nova and her
equipment out with the aid of a medical robot.
“Well?”
said
“I
think she’ll be all right…I hope….she’s a strong kid….or she was. Those babies,
though…”
“What
do you think, Doctor?”
“I
don’t know yet..” said Sane as he looked at the deck. “And I don’t know how I’m
going to tell Wildstar, either….especially if she does not make it. And if she
does make it…I have no idea what to tell her if we cannot save those kids…by
sweet Buddha, they wanted children so badly.”
1336 Hours…
“Hey, buddy, guess who the Tiger
dragged in!” laughed a familiar voice.
“Brew!” he laughed at the leader
of the flight flying back into combat next to him. “I see you lost a guy…”
“We’ll manage, Sticks,” said Brew.
“The Scuttlebutt Express says you and Hardy got Nova back to the Argo. I hear you might be up for a Navy
Cross for this, bud…”
“I don’t wanna talk about it,
Brew.”
“Over?”
“Brew, I do not want to talk about it,” snapped Deke.
“Okay, whatever…”
“Hardy!” laughed
“We got a job to do…all of us,” said Hardy as planes
from the Courageous showed up. “Our
target…should be obvious. Let’s make those green guys pay for this!”
“Roger that!” yelled everyone in
Hardy’s range who could pick him up.
“Sun Tigers, close ranks,” said Cory
Conroy in his heavy accent. “We’re gonna give those guys a massive headache
before this is over with! Flight leaders! Close ‘em up!”
“Black Tigers,” said Hardy as the
two groups flew together for what was the first time in their mutual existence.
“Pull ‘em in, and take em out!”
“Stay close, guys,” said
As they flew in, they let loose a
huge spread of missiles, and then broke to dodge enemy interceptors and
anti-spacecraft fire as the enemy caught on to their presence down below in the
Comet Empire city.
This was bringing Deke out of his
bad mood. Soon, getting revenge felt just as good as being let loose in a candy
store. He hoped that they’d end the day with this thing down and gone.
In his ship, Bryan Hartcliffe
smiled as he waved at his wife Angie, who was flying beside him. Then, the
pilot grinned, and put on some music that played loudly in his headset.
It was a cover version of “I Want
You (She’s So Heavy)” that fit his mood as he
wanted to see Cometines die. He laughed as he heard the lead singer scream out,
“I Want You! I WANT YOU SO BADD! I WANT
YOU….”
“I want you dead, you green
bastards,” said Hartcliffe as he grinned like some mad gnome as he blew apart a
Cometine interceptor with his nose guns. “That’s what I want, mate!”
He laughed as he saw a Gamilon
dive-bomber roaring past to begin blasting like mad at a gun emplacement down
in the city. He roared with laughter as two Rikashan planes followed it in a
moment later, breaking off to attack two Scorpions.
“Give ‘em hell, guys!” laughed
Hartcliffe.
On
the Eritz Gatlantis, Invidia had come
awake, and she screamed in pain as the doctors, nurses, and robots on her ship
worked on her in a brightly-lit and very cold hospital tower.
Like
Nova, she currently went naked, but unlike her, the doctors had not even
covered her with anything in the burning cold hell in which she lay on the
operating table. They had withdrawn the dagger, and had somehow repaired her
dying heart in a gruesome open-heart surgery she had been awake for. She went
in and out of consciousness, insane with pain as she lay conscious in intervals
of torment. What was worse, the doctors showed no respect for her as a Princess!
Unlike with Nova, who had been made as comfortable as possible by Sane and
Barandar in the procedures she had been forced to endure, Invidia had been
treated like a machine and had even been slapped and punched into submission by
her doctors to keep her still in the sickening chamber of horrors she was
enduring.
She
knew they were in battle from the way that the ship shook. The tower had a
skylight in the upper operating suite they were in, so Invidia had screamed in
rage as she saw her precious Comet blown to the winds, leaving her Fortress
just as unclad as she was.
“Can
they repair my Comet?” she hissed at one of the doctors.”I want zat planet
crushed for this!”
“You
need not concern yourself with that, now!” the hooded doctor snapped back as he
closed the incision above her heart with a laser instrument that made the room
smoke and filled the chamber with the scent of Invidia’s roasting flesh. “Dyre
is in command.”
“I
want to get up there, and now!”
“Princess,
you have three incisions in you that we are closing and you are on the verge of
shock and utter insanity,” said another doctor as he slapped her in the face as
her heartbeat fluttered. “Damn you, get the paddles!”
“Put
me out!” screamed Invidia as a robot came up with the crash cart. “PUT ME OUT!”
“Impossible,”
said the robot. “Your brain has already been compromised from the poison and
two instances of cardiac arrest on the table. You would not survive anesthesia
now.”
“Zen
kill me,” gasped Invidia as the heart sensors went flatline with loud beeps.
Invidia looked up, and with her failing sight, she saw Earth space fighter
planes through the skylight. They were the Black Tigers. Led by a vengeful
Jefferson Hardy and Bryan Hartcliffe, they came with missiles, lasers, and
devastation, as several towers near their medical tower were blown to bits by
their attack. Invidia saw bodies flying out into space with the explosions, and
she felt utter rage as she realized what they had come to. I am in such pain, she thought. My heart will not beat! And they attack my
greatest creation and kill us! How dare they do that?
“Clear,”
said the robot.
He
used the paddles, and Invidia’s naked body jumped on the table.
“No
response,” said the robot. “Respiration nil. Clear!”
The
robot tried again. Nothing came from Invidia’s mouth but a gurgling, rattling
sound. Her pupils were becoming dilated, and her soul was beginning to glimpse
some of the horror that awaited her in the blackness that was opening up over
her head. She saw flames.
And
the flames were not part of the battle that raged around them as Eritz Gatlantis itself was now under
siege.
“One
last try?” said the doctor as Invidia heard it all.
“Yes,
then we can tell General Dyre the teenage bitch has finally died if we can’t
bring her around.”
“Fate
of the body?” said another doctor.
“Dissection
and cremation,” laughed another one. “She won’t keep for a state funeral; she’s
already going nice and green. Let us
kiss the Earth girl who freed us from this rotten ruler. Look how green she is
with her own poison!”
“Yes,
she will finally match us,” said another doctor as theyall laughed. “Clear. Go, robot.”
Invidia’s
soul felt electricity going through her as the body jumped one last time.
“Call
it?” said a doctor.
“Five
Samovar Twelve. Eighth Hour. The Princess has died.”
NOOOOOO! Invidia’s
soul screamed as they finally covered her body with a sheet.
Then,
the room went silent. As Invidia’s spirit was about to be sucked to the fate
that awaited her as body and soul were about to die, the Cometine doctors
dropped their instruments in shock.
An
Earthling was in the room.
And he had just appeared from out
of thin air!
“Who
are you?” yelled a doctor as he picked up a blaster. “Earthlings are not
permitted here! You are subject to immediate arrest, torture, and exec...”
The
Earthling in his green dress Space Marine uniform raised his hands with a
twisted grin and shot green fire and light right out of them into the Cometine
doctor. He writhed in pain, and fell to the floor of the operating suite,
burned and almost consumed in an instant. All that remained of him was a
charred skeleton.
“Anyone
else care to try?” said the Terran in an unusually deep, mocking voice.
“You
are?” said the head doctor in shock.
“Ekogaru
the Great, ruler of the Technoumgar, the R’Khell, and claimant to Earth. But I
will be willing to share our prize if you let me bring your Princess back to
life.”
“How
can you do that?”
“My
master has given me the power of life and death,” said Ekogaru as he pulled the
sheet off Invidia’s blood-smeared pale face. “Her eyes are open. Good. I must
act. What is troubling you is the nature
of my game,” sang the Dark Lord with a laugh. “But I care not.”
The
ancient Rikashan and now Technomugar scientist and demon-inspired sorceror in
Mick Stovall’s body stooped over Invidia as a darkness appeared out of his
body. The doctors panicked and huddled in a corner as Ekogaru gave the witch a
sick parody of the Kiss of Life and recalled her soul back from the edge of
death by the nearly-snapped silver chord that tied it to her nearly dead body.
Green lightnings blew over Invidia as the external damage was healed and some
sick form of life poured back into her shrunken body.
Ekogaru
stood back and watched the Princess take her first trembling breath.
“Where
am I?” she gasped.
“Your
ship,” said Ekogaru with a sick smile.
“Who
are you?”
“Your
new God,” said Ekogaru with a cold laugh. “I leave you…for now. We will speak
again.”
“Why
did you bring me back to life?” gasped Invidia.
“Altruism,
Princess Invidia, had nothing to do with it. You will join your father in Hell
soon enough. But not yet!”
Ekogaru’s
mad laughter filled the operating room as the Dark Lord turned into a horned
shadow with red eyes and disappeared.
“Is
there really a Devil?” said one of the doctors.
“Why?”
said another.
“I
think we just met him.”
1402 Hours…
In
the meantime, the rotating belt of the damaged and burning Eritz Gatlantis was firing missiles at the Earth fleet that gathered
around her firing their guns as the ship’s shields finally came up, covering
the upper half for just a moment…before a screaming Rikashan pilot kamikazed
into part of the rotating belt and brought the shield down. The shield that
should have covered the lower half of the new ship, however, had already been
taken out of commission by a few wave cartridge hits from the Argo that had exploded inside three of
the Magna-Flame cannons in her belt and had damaged some of the alien fortress’
circuits.
The
The Argo’s fires increased as she continued
to fire at the Eritz Gatlantis from
below along with the
But
she dodged the fire from the Eritz
Gatlantis’ lower ball turrets as both ships continued to pound the bottom
of the
Inside the
Eritz Gatlantis, discipline was
breaking down as the arrogant fortress took further battle damage.
“Fighter
bay level twelve is burning!” screamed an officer as his troops ran for safety.
“She’s taking heavy damage, General Dyre!”
“Can’t
you stop them?”
“Negative.
The enemy blasts are going right through weak points in the rock shield in the
lower half of the ship! These barbarians are too damned good!” yelled a
crewman, as, a moment later, a wave motion cartridge flew up into an opening
fighter bay hatch and it blew the entire deck into wreckage as the enemy
soldiers died screaming.
“Helm
control is compromised!” yelled a crewman on one of the bridge levels as panels
were exploding all around him. “We’re taking overloads every minute!”
“Get
her on course!” snapped Gorse over the speakers. “We need to fight and the
fleet can’t do it alone!”
“I’m
trying, sir!”
Another
General came up to Dyre and bowed. “General, estimated losses are at close to
nine thousand men already. Many ships’ systems are damaged. Should we warp out
to a safer area?”
“Evacuate,
in our moment of triumph?” laughed Gorse. “I think you over-estimate their
chances, Scranda!”
“More
enemy planes approaching the upper levels!” said another officer. “We are
having a hard time launching interceptors with the extensive damage to the
lower works, General Dyre.”
“Well,
tell the stupid gunners to fire harder!” snapped Dyre. “Isn’t that what we pay
the idiots for?”
“The
Earthlings are mad,” said Gorse. “And Gernitz is nearly an hour away now. So
much for sending him out to the edge of the system to watch for enemy
reinforcements, Dyre!”
“Pull
him in,” said Dyre. “We need reinforcements since so much of our First-Echelon
Fleet is now destroyed. Did you send word to the Grand Emperor of the enemy’s
treachery, yet, Gorse?”
“We
can’t.”
“Why
not?”
“Long-range
commscan is out until we get it fixed. We can’t even call Petronia or the Black
Fox Nebula for help, let alone
“Idiots…I
am surrounded by idiots!” hissed
Dyre.
1411 Hours…
In the meantime, over the Eritz Gatlantis, Deke and Brew’s flights were together, and they
were smiling as they flew all over the upper half of the enemy ship, shooting
up things and causing damage even though they no longer had any missiles left.
“This
is great,” said Brew. “Nothing like a hell of a battle to bring up your mood,
huh, Deke?”
“Damn
straight,” said
On
the Argo, Wildstar heard Homer stand as
he said, “Commodore! Captain Venture seeks permission to fall back behind us
and ready the
“Not
a bad idea,” said Wildstar. “Homer, order him to…”
“Message
from Desslok!” cried Homer.
Desslok’s
image came up on the main screen a moment later. “I can see what you have done
to Invidia. Fine work, Wildstar.”
“Thank
you, Desslok. We’re about to finish her off…”
“Please
permit us the honor of the kill,” said Desslok with a bow. “I brought a new
Garuman-designed weapon I wish to test on
that monstrosity. One point-blank hit will finish it. Your ships are damaged,
Wildstar. Let us finish this.”
Derek
looked puzzled but then he said, “Okay…Desslok…we’ll break off. Good luck…”
“Thank
you, Wildstar,” said Desslok with a jaunty salute.
He said his Desslok gun was
damaged? Derek thought. I wonder what the
Gamilons have up their sleeves? Considering how he used to attack us, this
should be interesting.
“Domon!”
said Wildstar. “Disengage! Homer, send orders to Venture and the others. I
think we’re done for the day…”
“Roger,”
said Homer. A short time later, the Earth ships pulled away and began to
recover their planes.
1421 Hours….
On
the Farushar, Desslok called up a new
Garuman-designed space battleship under the command of a young Garuman general
named Dagon.
“Dagon,”
said Desslok on his screen. “The Earth fleet is breaking off from the Comet
city ship. The time has come. Execute first operational test of “Plan X”.”
“Yes,
Desslok,” said Dagon. “It will be a pleasure. Our fleet is making way for the
“X” ship now.”
“I
am pleased,” said Desslok as he switched to a visual of Dagon’s fleet, which
was parting to allow a single small Garuman ship to roar forward.
The
ship did not matter that much, nor was it that impressive.
The
payload that it was towing was.
It
was a huge, black missile.
A
missile that looked incredly large as it cruised past the
It was the
Garuman-Gamilon Empire’s most impressive and morbid new weapon. They had
reverse-engineered the design from the Rikashans and the Bolar. And they had
made it better.
It
was known as a proton missile. Gamilon-Garuman’s
very first operational proton missile was about to be turned on the Comet
Empire. Desslok had been dreaming of this moment for months.
“Ship
Experimental Unit “X” is ready,” said the little tow ship’s captain.
“Planet-destroying Proton Missile enabled. Target, the Eritz Gatlantis. It should be a straight hit, General Dagon!”
“Make
certain it hits that Comet base ship head-on,
Captain Yargel. Emperor Desslok does not want this test to fail,” said Dagon.
“Yes,
General,” said Yargel. “Commencing countdown now!”
“Let
us win this battle and show even the Earthers who holds the straw that stirs
the drink in their so-called alliance,” laughed Dagon. “Proton missile, FIRE!”
The
missile fired, accelerating rapidly as its engine gathered power and speed.
“What…in..the
name of Arishna is that..THING that those new Gamilon ships fired at us?”
gasped Dyre as he watched their approaching doom on the Eritz Gatlantis as the missile came from behind them.
Gorse
ran up with a printout. “Scans indicate that it is a proton missile, General.
It is near impact!”
“What?”
seethed Dyre. “It can’t be! We are three years away from deploying one of those
ourselves!”
“It
is,” said a sweating Gorse. “Desslok has beaten us to the punch, for once. What
will happen to our mastery of the universe if he builds enough of those?”
“What
defense do we have?”
“The
shield will not stop it….we can try one tactic…,” Gorse said.
“Yes?”
“Bring
up the Magna-Flame belt cannons…and release the anti-recoil devices!”
Dyre
nodded, screaming at several officers. “What are you waiting for? Do it!”
The
Eritz Gatlantis began to wildly fire
its belt cannons, with each shot blasting it away from the oncoming missile—and
closer to Melezart.
Finally,
the firing and beleagured Comet Fortress changed course as Dagon’s and Fraken’s
ships (not all of them successfully) dodged the Magna-Flame barrage. The proton
missile impacted at the top of one of the Eritz
Gatlantis’ towers, and turned the whole scene into a holocaust of flame as
it exploded.
On
the Farushar, Desslok brought up the
scene on his screen and took a deep breath. “Dagon, good work,” he said. “There
is still the small matter of the remainder of their fleet and that Dreadnought
to deal with, but I think we may have won at last!” At that, Desslok threw back
his head and laughed a high, maniacal, and ringing laugh of triumph. “I hope
you enjoyed my gift to you, Dyre and Invidia!”
“We
should scan them to make sure they’re
dead and gone, first, Desslok,” said Astrena. “I am not sure what to think,
myself. I have not picked up the psychic screams of as many enemy deaths as we
would have expected.”
“How
could they have failed?” said Desslok as he clapped for a servant to bring him
his wine and goblet. “Let us drink a toast, my dear…a toast to our victory…a
toast…to the superiority of the Garuman-Gamilon Empire.”
1434 Hours…
“The
Gamilons report that their ship is finished!” said Homer as the Argo’s blast screens whirred back up
into the windows to reveal that something like a new artificial sun was now
orbiting Melezart. It was now about twenty minutes since the proton missile had
smashed into the Eritz Gatlantis, and
close to an hour since the Black Tigers and other planes had attacked the Comet
city. The planes were now landing back on their respective ships throughout the
Terran, Rikashan, and Gamilon fleets, with their job mostly done. The Argo had even recovered two Gamilon
pilots whose dive-bombers had taken heavy damage in the battle.
“Sandor,
scan it,” said Wildstar. “We need to know if they are really finished. Remember Telezart?”
Sandor
nodded as he went over to Eager’s post. “Commencing scans now. Eager, scan it
at full intensity and magnification.”
“Yessir!”
he said.
The
bridge doors on the Argo whirred
open, and Hardy came in with a very bedraggled-looking Princess Astra in tow.
Her dress was torn and bloody, and she was barefoot, but she had made it out of
the chaos that Sterlent had become.
“Where’d
you find her?” said a startled
Wildstar as Astra leaned against a bridge panel to catch her breath.
“Miss
Aliscea sorta appeared in the rear place of my Tiger and told me to go down and
get huh,” said a startled Hardy. “Then she went back to the
“He
found…me…at the edge of the city,” said Astra. “Lost my sandals…I was trying to
run from enemy troops when he saved me.”
“What
happened to the troops?” asked Kitano.
“You
don’t wanna know, sohn,” laughed Hardy. “Cometines don’t mix very well with
strafing fire from a Tiguh.”
“To
be precise, he blew them to pieces,” said Astra. “It was a most gruesome and
unseemly scene. No wonder you call them Tigers, Commodore Derek Wildstar. They are rampaging beasts. The name is sure
quite….”
“I’m
detecting movement in that cloud,” said Sandor. “Hmmm…this does not look
good…switching to visual.”
A
visual of the gas cloud came up. A moment later, a smoking, battered, but
very-live looking Eritz Gatlantis
cruised slowly out of the burning gas.
“SHIT!”
yelled Domon as he slammed his panel. “Desslok didn’t get it!”
“All
right,” said Wildstar as he rubbed his lip. “Plan two, guys…Yamazaki, is the
wave motion gun up to another burst?”
“They
just warped out!” said a startled Bando from the main radar. “Ten battleships
warped out with them!”
“What?”
said Eager.
“They’re
gone with the solar wind,” said Homer.
“Wildstar,
do we have a plan three?” said
Sandor.
Derek
sighed, running his hands through his messy hair. “Give me some time, and some
intelligence, Steve…we’ll think of something…”
At
that, Doctor Sane came onto the bridge, sighing and looking very tired. “Well,
Wildstar, we’re done with Nova and the others.”
“My
God!” said Derek as he ran his hands together. “I hate to say this, Doc, but
the battle…and everything else….it sort of put Nova out of my mind…is she?”
“She’s
awake, Derek. She and the babies are fine, for now. But they are not out of
danger yet. We need to talk. Now. All three of us. It is very urgent that we
discuss her treatment!”
“Doc?”
“She
is asking for you, Wildstar, you big
idiot!” screamed Sane as his big teeth came exposed. “Come with me to Sickbay! Now.”
Derek
nodded. “Sandor, you have the conn. Doc, let’s see what’s happening…”
VII. A SAD RESPITE
The Vicinity of Planet
Melezart
Saturday, October 18,
2206
1446 Hours: Earthtime
Derek
Wildstar came into the Argo’s Sickbay
and had a sad reunion with a weakened Nova as he held his nightgown-clad wife
in his arms while Doctor Sane tried to keep from crying. Wildstar noticed that
IQ-9 had come over somehow from the
“How
are you?” he said through some sniffles.
“I’m
fine,” she said. “Hurts a lot…”
“What
about the babies?”
“I’ve
felt them moving…but not as much as usual. I don’t know what’s going to happen
to us, Derek! I’m so scared. I knew I might die in battle…but…but not like
this! I hope we come through this all right…”
“Me
too,” said Derek as he held his wounded wife. “Desslok told me to tell you he
was very grateful and very surprised that you would sacrifice yourself for him
like that.”
“Why
not? He’s our ally, Derek. And he’s our friend.
Did they get the New Comet, my love? Did we win?”
Derek
didn’t want to tell her that the battle was still in doubt and that they didn’t
know where the Empire was. He couldn’t lie, though. “We gave them a beating and
blew the Comet field off their ship. The battle is still going on, though. We
have a little break…”
“Derek,
go back to the bridge. They need you there, darling,” said Nova as tears ran
down her cheeks. “I’ll be fine.”
“We
have to talk,” said Doctor Sane with a loud sniffle. “I need to talk with both
of you a minute. This is very important.”
“About
what?” said Wildstar, not liking the dark, sad tone Sane was taking.
“It
is about Nova’s health and pregnancy,” said Sane. “I may have to induce
delivery to save Nova’s life if more toxins build up inside of her. She is at
twenty-one weeks now, Derek. At that point, if we had to deliver the babies,
with our technology and drugs…they’re just at the edge of being viable now,
both of you. I…”
Nova
sobbed. “I know, Doctor. During the planet bombings, on Earth, I cared for
several preemies at that gestational age. Only one of them lived. I don’t want to condemn our children to death,
Derek.”
“Yet,
having them out of you so I could do microsurgery and flushes on you and then
on their circulatory systems would be the best chance we’d have,” said Doctor
Sane. “Or I could partially open the womb, but you would be a very sick woman
for weeks afterwards, Nova, and probably bedridden for a while.”
“If
that’s what it takes,” sighed Derek.
“Can’t
you do the surgery and flushes on the babies and me arthroscopicially through a
micro-incision?” said Nova. “That’s the most obvious treatment, isn’t it?”
“It
would be if they were bigger and the poison-damaged parts in you were easier to
reach and I could use the finest instruments I have on this ship, Nova. But I
do not have fine neo-natal instruments here; they have them on Earth.”
“Sandor
can make them,” said Nova.
“Not
in the fine tolerances I need,” sighed Sane.
“Then
we can just take her home,” said Derek. “After the battle, of course. The Argo could have her home in thirty-six
hours if we get permission and we push her hard enough.”
“We
do not have thirty-six hours,” sighed Sane. “The metabolic wastes are building
up in Nova and in those babies by the hour. I’m surprised that they even as
healthy as they are now. In about...twelve hours….at normal metabolism, their
bloodstreams will be overwhelmed by the metabolic wastes that built up when
their little bodies were fighting the poison with the help of those Gamilon
drugs, and they will probably die an hour or so afterwards without
intervention. Nova might then have a day left after that.”
Nova
buried her head in Derek’s chest. “I shouldn’t have even come on the mission,
Derek! After all the times we tried, I might die…and we might lose them? IT’S
NOT FAIR!” she screamed into his shirt. “I hope that Princess Invidia is dead
and in Hell for this, Derek!”
“There…is…one
more option we have to save them, Commodore,” said Sane very slowly. “It is the
least risky, but the most involved. The long-term sleep tubes….”
“Doctor!”
yelled Wildstar. “Nova could survive that in good health and if she is not
pregnant, but she wouldn’t make it in freeze like this, and neither would those babies! I forbid it!”
“Derek,
you don’t understand all of this,” said Nova as she wiped her eyes. “That is
one reason why the long-term sleep units were invented; to save criticially ill
crewmembers until they could be taken home to Earth or a base for treatment, as
well as for long-term sub-light travel or suspension if the ship’s oxygen or
life support ever ran out. This…technology…has been around since about 2106.
It’s perfectly safe…even for pregnant women…and their babies.”
“Nova,
the doctor said that the babies would have little time left…and you would also
have little time left…”
“If
they all lived at the current metabolism without treatment,” said Doctor Sane.
“At minus three hundred degrees Centigrade in one of those sleep tubes, the
twelve hours the babies have would stretch out to twelve months at a very reduced metabolism in hibernation. Even if we remain on
station for as long as we are scheduled for the rest of this deployment, if I
put them in suspension here, where we have one of the newest Mark 763MB sleep
tubes that they don’t even have yet on the Arizona,
we are scheduled to be home sometime next April. That is maybe six months or
so. As long as we land and I can get her to a hospital in a shuttle in about
four or five hours after she is brought around, we can have a neonatal surgical
suite ready on Earth so I can do that full flush and transfusion they’d need
arthroscopically so I could save them and finish saving Nova. She should then
be home in about a week after she and the babies are observed, and, if
everthing goes as I expect, she can continue with the pregnancy normally from
22 weeks as if we had done all of the surgery today. And she should also be
able to deliver naturally as she wants to when they reach full term…around
eleven months from now.”
“And
the babies will be fine,” said Nova reassuringly, “If the surgery works, that
is. I have read about mothers in this position who gave birth a year later and
had healthy babies who grew up to be fine young men and women with no health
problems or mental problems.”
“I
don’t like the idea…but..,” said Derek. “Doc, what if the ship takes damage
with her like that?”
“These
tubes have redundant systems, and can be ejected from the ship as lifeboats if
needed,” said Doctor Sane. “They have radio transmitters so we can find them
later on if we have to. We found some people who were in capsules and launched
from the destroyed Earth ships after the Battle of Saturn-Titan, and some of
them were floating in deep freeze for almost a year like that in their
ejectable units.”
Nova
sobbed, but she looked at Derek with clear eyes. “Derek, I think this is the
best option. What do you think? We both have to agree to this; after all, we
are both their parents…”
Derek
sat with his eyes closed. “Okay, Doctor. If you feel it’s best, get her ready.”
“It
will take me about two hours to have IQ-9 and the others get Nova ready to go
into the tube. It takes less than four minutes to get her asleep after that. Get
us through that battle and get back down here at 1700. I will be putting her
under around that time…you can say goodbye for now at that time.”
“No,
not goodbye,” sobbed Nova.
“Not
goodbye?” said Derek in a choked-up voice.
“No.
I plan to say good night,” said Nova. “If God is willing, I am making plans to
wake up, get back to work, and have these babies with you at my side…Derek…”
“Nova,”
sobbed Derek as he held her again.
They
cried together as Doctor Sane signalled for IQ-9 to leave the compartment.
“We
need to get ready, IQ,” said Doctor Sane.
“Thank
you,” said the little robot. “My heart is breaking…hearing them crying like
that…”
“I
know what you mean, my friend. I know what you mean.”
Derek
Wildstar left the compartment about five minutes later, wiping his nose hard on
his sleeve. He took a deep breath, shook his hair out of his eyes, and got
ready to walk down the passage when the red alert klaxons went off again; and
then, worst of all, the Argo
resounded with the sound of an explosion.
Wildstar
remembered where he was and ran towards the lift, fully aware that both of the ladies in his life; his wife
and his ship, were in grave danger.
Out
of love and fear for them both he hurried back to resume his command.
VIII. THE GREAT
The Vicinity of Planet
Melezart
Saturday, October 18,
2206
1501 Hours: Earthtime
The
first grim sight Wildstar saw when he got back onto the bridge of the Argo was the sight of three Scorpion
boats being blown apart near the bow. Not far away, the burning space
battleship
“Stop
all engines,” said Sandor.
“Stop:
all engines,” said Kitano as the Argo
braked to a stop. “Sir!” he said as he saw Wildstar. “The
“What
is going on?” said Wildstar.
Sandor
sighed. “The
“Oh,”
said Wildstar morosely. Even when it had to be done, deliberately sinking
another Earth Captain’s space warship was one of the saddest duties he had to
face in war. “How are we sending her down?” he said as he sat at his post and
looked over the orders sent over from Commanding General Singleton from the Westphalia that charged him with the
duty of destroying a fellow Star Blazer’s ship.
“Forward
torpedoes,” said Domon. “Coming from all three ships.”
“Captain,”
said Homer. “The skippers of the
Derek
looked up. Then, at his post, he opened his microphone after preparing the
appropriate music.
Then, he said, “Ladies and gentlemen of Second
Fleet” knowing his voice was being transmitted throughout all of the surviving
Earth fleet. “At Fourteen Forty-Five Hours, the evacuation of the surviving
members of the crew of Space Battleship
Every
hand who could salute and who heard the message came to attention and began to
salute whether they were on their feet, in chairs being treated, or in Sickbay
beds. Even Nova snapped to in her nightgown in her sickbed, holding a salute
with tears on her cheeks as “The Last
Sortie”, a solemn funeral dirge of the EDF that was heavy on the drums,
began to play.
There
was not a dry eye on any of the ships in the Fleet as that song played. Even
Stovall, who felt alone since Ekogaru had put him back on the Argo and had left him desolate again,
stood at attention crying as he felt the sadness of the moment as the dirge
played. It was tradition for the march to play on and for those who could
salute to hold their salutes until the job was done. At 1504 Hours, Wildstar
barked out, “FIRE TORPEDOES!” over the march.
Domon
hit the firiing switch along with Rosstowski and the Combat Group Leader of the
carrier Courageous.
Eighteen
torpedoes streaked out from the three heavy ships and roared home. In a mere
instant, their warheads blasted into the burning
“FIRE
SALUTES!” yelled Wildstar.
The
forward guns of the three heavy ships then fired five salvoes into space to
remember the
Then,
Wildstar ended with, “
A
moment of silence came as Bando said, “Ships spotted astern, sir. The remainder
of the Gamilon and Rikashan fleets. They took heavy losses, too, Captain.”
Wildstar
snapped a salute as he saw Desslok’s and Cha’rif’s flagships approaching at the
head of their fleets in the distance. On their ships, their allies were also
saluting as they saw the damaged, but still-defiant Earth fleet standing off
before them.
Melezart
hung off in space behind the Earth fleet, with fires visible far below on the
planet as the rage of the Comet Empire’s attack came to Desslok’s eyes. He
narrowed his eyes in rage.
“Talan,
I hope that we finished them. I hope that they went into warp, and never
emerged, or that they have emerged…”
“Leader
Desslok! LOOK!” cried Talan.
A
moment later, an obscene shape burst in out of warp in the distance. Mad
laughter came over every speaker in the Alliance Fleet as Desslok snarled,
recognizing the voice of General Gorse.
Gorse
appreared on his screen a moment later. Thanks to relay techology, and the fact
that the dreadnought Devastation was
nearby relaying his message onwards, Gorse was also seen on Earth, on Gamilon,
on Rikasha, and on Iscandar and also, deep in the Comet Empire itself.
“I
speak to the misbegotten Galactic Alliance, that so-called Government,” said
Gorse. “You have shown yourselves to be only barbarians today. Barbarians we
cannot afford to negotiate with, and barbarians that we have determined that we
must either utterly enslave or kill. We were going to show you mercy, but we
have changed our minds since you dared to attack our ship, our fleet, and our
Princess Invidia today. Soon, we shall leave. However, since Melezart hosted
this conference, it will be the first to pay for your arrogance.”
“For
your arrogance, Melezart shall pay the price. That price is utter death. We
execute the sentence now, and you shall join them unless you surrender unconditionally!
Farewell, arrogant barbarians!” laughed Gorse.
And,
at that, the full firepower of the damaged but still-vile Eritz Gatlantis’ main belt Magna-Flame Siege Cannons was released
upon Melezart, and upon the Alliance
Fleet.
Five
Earth ships, twenty Rikashans, and eighteen Gamilon ships were blown apart in
that first sickening barrage before they could even evade the
The
Argo was blasted around like a toy as
two EDF cruisers and a destroyer near her exploded in flames. Fortunately, the
The First
and the Second Star Force watched in rage, with their ships making desperate
evasive manuevers as the Eritz Gatlantis
began to pick Melezart apart with its cannon like a tantrum-prone child
demolishing a toy.
Beams
smashed into Sterlent, destroying the city and all of the souls in it in an
instant. More beams destroyed the last few remnants of the former Cometine base
that the Argo’s wave gun had not
destroyed several weeks ago and actually killed some Cometines who were on the
surface engaging in salvage of the equipment.
More
energy beams lanced into villages, farms, into moutains, into seas. Soon, the
seas on Melezart were melting and vaporizing as the doomed world’s crust began
to split apart.
Not
far away, Gernitz laughed as his own siege cannon on the Devastation added to the sickening spectacle of destruction.
Only
ten minutes later, Melezart’s surface was a molten, roiling mass of flame and
magma. Nothing and no one on the planet was left alive.
It
was one of the most sickening scenes Commodore Wildstar had ever seen in his
life. On his ship, Commanding General Singleton shook his head, and again
muttered, as he had almost five years ago, “Such evil….such madness!”
“Sir?”
said the Captain of the
“I
have to speak to the President when we get home….if we get home. These people cannot be reasoned with. I’m not even
sure they are quite human,” said Singleton as he shook his head. “They are as
bad as Ekogaru was…or worse…killing for the sake of killing. Even Ekogaru had
some twisted, insane justification for his sick deeds. These people offer no
justification at all…there were twenty million people on that planet…if they
can do this…”
The
skipper of the
In
the confusion, as the wounded Alliance Fleet tried to regroup and bravely
attack the enemy at the edge of Hell to finish what they had started, Dyre,
Gorse, Gernitz, and the hundred and seventy-five ships that remained of their fleet
warped away, running back into Cometine space like the cowards and bullies they
were and not stopping until they reached the vicinity of Petronia. There, the
wounded men and women of the evil House Gatlantis would lick their wounds,
repair and replenish their fleet and their badly damaged and humbled City-Ship,
and take a breath and figure out what new atrocity to unleash upon the
Alliance.
But,
the Alliance Fleet knew that at 1530 Hours, the horrid day of battle had
finally come to its end…with the Comet Empire both wounded and humbled…
…but
not yet destroyed.
IX. PASSING INTO REST
Space Battleship Argo
The Captain’s Cabin
The Edge of the Melezart
Star System
Saturday, October 18,
2206
1712 Hours: Earthtime
While
he had been resting, Lieutenant Deke Wakefield had been summoned to a meeting
with Captain Mark Venture on the
Alone.
As
he stood at attention before Venture’s desk in his Captain’s Quarters, the
tired, guilt-ridden pilot had answered a few questions about what had happened
that day on the planet. Then, Venture said, “I don’t know if you can guess
this…but, well, the Old Man wants to see you. ASAP.”
“Sir?”
Venture
chuckled. “Not the Commander. Wildstar. Although it feels funny calling him the
“Old Man”-he’s not much older than us…you are to fly over to the Argo in the next ten minutes. Derek’s
waiting for you. He says it’s an “informal talk” he wants to have with
you-whatever that means.”
“Yeah,” said Deke as he closed his eyes. This is probably gonna be the bitch-out
session to end all bitch-out sessions, he thought. I’ll be lucky to get off that ship with my rank and without my ass
kicked. I’ve heard stories of how he challenges people to fights that he
doesn’t like. Well, I guess I have no choice…
“
“Sir?”
“It’s not going to be what you think,” said Venture.
“Wear your flight jacket, and put this in the pocket,” he said as he sealed up
an envelope. “Make sure Wildstar gets this; it’s a response to him
about…well…about a crewmember transfer. Then, when you get back on the
“Aye, aye sir,” said Deke.
“I’ll talk later if you want to see me tonight,
too,” said Venture as something like the ghost of a smile went across his face.
“We need to have a nice talk, too…I think. I’ve been taking men like…oh…never
mind,
“Yessir.”
On
the Argo, a few minutes later, a
courteous but mostly silent Space Marine sergeant in the markings and uniform
of the Argo’s own Marine Group
escorted Deke Wakefield from his plane in the lower bay all the way to the
Captain’s cabin.
“My
orders were to leave you here,” said the Sergeant.
“Do
I knock and report?” said
“Just
open the hatch. Some people are waiting for you, I understand.”
The
other man sat slightly slumped in Star Force Combat Group whites and a black
peacoat over a computer panel. He was looking over a printout that had just
come out of his printer. He looked it over, nodded to himself while muttering
“this seems right” under his breath (and sounding oddly like a very old sea
captain while speaking for a moment), and then, he spun his chair around and
stood up.
“Mister
Wakefield,” said Wildstar. “Front and center beside the Corporal. All three of
us need to have a talk.”
“Yessir,”
said Deke in a low voice. Wildstar smiled tightly at that. “Stovall? Do you
have a response?”
Stovall
remained silent. “Stovall?” said Wildstar as his eyebrows came up. “Has the
ship’s cat got your tongue?”
“I
ain’t saying anything, sir, until I consult with a JAG officer,” said Stovall.
Wildstar
raised his eyebrow again. “Interesting reaction, considering that you are not
formally accused of a single offense, Corporal. I had a nice talk with another
officer before. This officer is one of a select handful I would trust with my
life. The talk was about you. This officer was very nice about you, given that
the officer and you once had some dealings that were not only not pretty, but
which also turned my stomach.”
“Did
you talk,
“Listen
you,” snapped Deke. “The last time we talked you…”
Wildstar
clapped his hands. “The next outburst from either of you men will earn you a
punch in the mouth,” said the Commodore in a cold, professional voice. “From
the way you are acting, it is obvious that you two men have had some rather recent dealings with each other. I
learned this when I spoke with a third party who is not in this cabin right now
and cannot come to this cabin. This third party is very hard to bullshit,
people. And she is probably smarter than the three of us put together.”
Oh, Christ, thought
“This…third
party…had a lot to say about both of you men,” said Wildstar as Wakefield
looked around and noticed a seabag, guitar case, and two suitcases lying near
Wildstar’s locker. “Before she becomes unavailable for an extended period of
time, she wanted me to talk with both of you and tie up a few loose ends. Now,
this is to be on an informal basis…for most of it, anyway. I have no legal
proof you two did anything wrong; just a very good hunch and some
circumstancial evidence. In my hunch, I am guessing you two had a fistfight.
Don’t be surprised. It happens all the time in the Fleet. I was in a few
myself. Funny, two of the men I beat up later became two of my best friends.
None of you are up on charges, since no one actually saw you, and…with Melezart
turned into a flaming ball of fire by our enemy, we can’t go down there and
subpoena anyone anymore. Stovall, did you start it?”
“Sir,
I ain’t saying anyting without a JAG officer present, and…,” snapped Stovall
before Wildstar shut him up with a glance.
“I’m
kind of good at reading people’s eyes, and I’ll take your response, Corporal,
as a yes,” said Wildstar. “
Deke
sighed. “Yessir…that’s the reason. I just couldn’t help it when the man rammed
his nose into my fist.”
Wildstar
smiled a little. “I like that response. Honest. Different, but very honest. So
that both of you men keep your noses clean in the future, I am going to have
counseling statements placed in your files. That is the most I can do to
you…without solid evidence that someone saw you two fighting. Unless either of
you wants to say anything, that is.”
A
second later, almost before
“What
the..?” said Stovall as he wiped his mouth. Blood came off all over his hand.
“You rotten, lousy, nasty, sneaky, slanty-eyed little Jap son-of-a…”
Wildstar
hauled him up by his shirt. “Got anything else to say to me, asshole? HUH?”
“I…sir..I…”
“This
isn’t officer and subordinate, buddy. This is man to man!” barked Wildstar.
“Given the dealings you have had over the years with me, my wife, Mister
Wakefield, and his former girlfriend and fiancee’ Dawn Westland, I personally
think you are the biggest rotten, slimy, disgusting, putresecent, idiotic,
puerile, sickening, dirty-minded, ugly, and asinine excuse for a member of the
Defense Forces and one of the worst human beings I have ever met in my life.
You are right down there with Sam Sparks, Randy Parmon, and Yvona Josiah, all
of whom would probably have enjoyed your company, you hick-mouthed jackass! Do
you want a piece of me, buddy? Wanna try it?”
“no..”
whispered Stovall, who really wondered where Ekogaru was about now. He could
have used him around to turn Wildstar into a burning skeleton like he had with
that Cometine doctor.
“Then,
you are to give this officer and gentleman
here no further problems that I know about. And you are not to come within ten
meters of my spouse except in the line of duty if a higher-ranking officer of
the Defense Forces orders it. Is that understood?”
“Aye,”
whispered Stovall, who was now scared shitless of Wildstar. He was convinced
that this messy-haired officer had won so many battles because he was a raging
psychopath.
“Then
take your counseling statement and present it to your next commanding officer,
who, for the purposes of your job description right now, is General Hiram
Singleton,” said Wildstar as he handed him an envelope. “Now, post out of here
with a salute, and meet Astra of Iscandar in a waiting shuttle as Sergeant
Lenhard outside escorts you out of Officers’ Country aboard this command. And
take a good look around, Corporal. Because as long as I am alive, this is the
last time you will ever be aboard
this command! I don’t know why, but you give me the creeps, Corporal.”
“Yessir,”
said Stovall as he put his hand in his pocket to finger the Sphere.
“AND
GET YOUR ROTTEN HAND OUT OF YOUR POCKET AND STOP PLAYING POCKET POOL!” screamed
Wildstar. “I think you saw my wife without her clothes on today for a short
time, Corporal! At least that is what she told me!”
“Sir?”
“Nova
may have been in agony on that shuttle, but she was NOT stupid!” barked
Wildstar as
“Yessir,”
said Stovall as he shook in his boots. “Corporal Michael Stovall, requesting
permission to post out of the Captain’s Quarters, sir,” he said in a monotone
as he saluted.
“Granted,”
hissed Wildstar. “And get out of my
sight.”
Stovall
held the salute, but he waited a long time for a response as Wildstar just
turned around to stare out the cabin window at the
“Has
the man left, Mister Wakefield?” said Wildstar.
“Yessir,
he has.”
“That’s
good,” said Wildstar in a husky voice that sounded almost like a suppressed
sob. It shocked
Wildstar’s
grief hit
“STOP
THE MARTYR CRAP!” yelled Wildstar. “I don’t blame you, Mister! I blame myself!”yelled
Wildstar as he slammed the arms of his chair with his fists with all of his
might.
“Sir?”
said
“I
blame myself because I was the man who should have been down there on that
planet and should have said to hell with the Cometines’ sick demands so I could
have protected my wife! I should have taken that knife hit for that pregnant
woman lying in Sickbay! I should have held her and let her scream into my shoulder
as they stripped her naked and took bone marrow out of her hip with a needle! I
should have prayed with her when she told me she had to pray all alone before
they put her under to save her life! And I should be the one they freeze for
six months…not her! And she should be divorcing me right now…you know that?
Instead, the last time I saw her, she told me she can’t wait to wake up and
hold me and make me feel better again! She is worried more about her children
inside of her and me than she is about herself in near critical condition! What
kind of woman is that,
“Sir…I….I
failed you. I was supposed to protect Nova and I failed you.”
“You
did what you could,” sighed Wildstar. “You did your duty.
That is all we can ask. Read this,” he said as he handed
“What
do you say to that?” said Wildstar.
“Sir…it’s…fair,”
sighed
“Give
that to me. Now, the second notice in the envelope.”
“Sir?”
said
“Read
the second notice.”
“That’s
the notice,
“She’s
not mad at me?”
“No.”
“Are
you angry, sir?”
“I’m
upset, but not angry at you. Off the record,
“Me,
too, sir.”
“One
last question,
“Yessir?”
“Did
Desslok help you treat Nova down on the planet?”
“He
did, sir. He…injected her with something. I had no idea what it was, but felt
it was a Gamilon drug of some kind, somehow. I hope it helped her..”
“It
was an antidote to the poison and it may have saved her life,” said Wildstar.
“However…well…she and our children…they’re…not out of the woods yet, Deke.”
“Sir?”
“She
has to go into cryo-freeze for the rest of the mission until she and our babies
can be treated together on Earth. If they can work on her on Earth after
bringing her around successfully, she…should pull through all right…the same
with our..”
The
phone rang. Wildstar took it. “Yes?”
“Wildstar,
this is Doctor Sane. What are you waiting for? It’s time.”
“I
see,” said Derek in a low voice. “Thanks.”
He
hung up. Deke then remembered. “Sir, I…Venture wanted me to give you this…I have
no idea what it is,” he said as he withdrew the envelope from his flight
jacket.
Wildstar
opened it and read the single page. “I know. A change in orders and medical
transfer request.” Derek paused. “It’s for Nova. She’s been relieved of her
duties on the
The
phone rang again. Wildstar picked up. “Doc? She wants to see him too, before…?
Understood. He’ll be with me.”
Wildstar
slammed down the phone. “Belay that,
“Yessir,”
replied Deke with a heavy heart.
The
two men entered a quiet, pink-painted and softly fluorescent-lit part of
Sickbay that was not accessed all that often.
The
compartment had no furniture other than about twenty or thirty beds. Or, things
that looked like beds.
Each
bed had a control panel at its bottom and connected into a control panel in the
bulkhead. Most of the beds were vacant, and most had red status lights.
Doctor
Sane turned away from one unit to look at
“No…she’s
getting dressed in the other room. This is another officer, Ensign Terrence
Rogers. He received an injury while out in space too long performing his duties
as part of the Mechanical Group. He has some radiation sickness he incurred from
background radiation that we have to treat on Earth. We have him in hibernation
to arrest the progress of the radiation sickness. He could be spared, so that
is why Sandor agreed to this. He’s been under for three weeks already and he’s
doing just fine…see, Wildstar?”
“Yeah,”
said Derek in a morose voice.
“He
and Nova will be awakened together at the end of the deployment, Captain.
They’ll be quite safe in here.”
The
door opened, and a very dignified-looking Nova came in in her full standard
gold and black shipboard uniform with her usual astro-automatic at her hip.
Except for the fact that she looked a bit pale and one could see a bandage on
her shoulder beneath her skin-tight uniform, she looked unusually healthy
compared with her pain-wracked appearance earlier, although she looked rather
subdued and shaky as she sat down slowly and carefully in a way that shocked
“Hi,”
said Nova. “In my frame of mind, guys, being down here makes me sort of tired.
No pun intended.”
“Ha,
ha,” said Derek as he wiped a tear from the corner of his eye. “Very amusing,
Nova. Considering it’s all my…”
“Derek,
Deke…I have to tell you both the same thing, I think,” said Nova as she yawned
and sat slowly on a mattress in the tube across the aisle from
“Nova,”
said Derek. “You did what you had to do. It was your duty as you saw it;
preserving life. Even his life. If…we
all pull through this,” he sobbed.
“When we pull through this,” stressed
Nova.
“Okay…when
we come through this,” said Derek. “You are going to be a wonderful mother,
Nova.”
“Thanks,”
she said as she kissed Derek’s hand. “I have some last words for Deke, Derek.”
“Okay,”
he said as he let the tears fall without shame now.
“Deke,”
said Nova as she took his hands. “Do not blame yourself for anything. That is a
bad habit of yours. When you get back to your ship, talk with Aliscea as if you
would have talked to me. That is what I trained her for. Now her teacher has to
leave her for a while. And write to Sasha. Write her often. But, don’t mention
my condition to her in detail. Please. Derek will tell her that.”
“Yes,
ma’am,” said Deke as tears ran down his cheeks.
“And
look out for Brew, and be very careful
about letting your fists run into people’s faces,” said Nova with a slight
smile. “Please visit me in the hospital when we’re home again?”
“I
will. I promise.”
Nova
squeezed Deke’s hands and turned to Derek.
Deke stepped to the other sde of the room to give them at least some privacy as they made their
goodbyes.
“Derek,
I have a lot I want to say…,” said Nova. “It would take hours. I…don’t have
time to say everything. Except, don’t blame yourself, and remember…I love you
dearly.”
“I
have a lot to say,” said Wildstar as he held his wife’s hands and sobbed. “I
don’t deserve an angel like you, Nova.”
“Don’t
say that,” sniffed Nova.
“You
have two beautiful children inside you that we put there. When you were naked,
being examined with the ultrasound the other day, you were so happy when we saw
our children for the first time that you almost ran out into the corridor with
nothing on for sheer joy. We don’t deserve these children.”
“Derek,
the damn war wasn’t our fault,”
sobbed Nova. “These things happen. And why should we be like monks because
there is a war on?”
“No…we
shouldn’t be…but…”
“Derek,”
Nova whispered in his ear. “When I am home, and when I am out of the hospital,
if my body can handle it, when I am better, I will want you as much as ever
until it is too difficult thanks to the pregnancy. And I’ll want you
afterwards. I will always love you. And I think I’ll dream of you in here.”
“Can
I come in with you?” sniffed Derek.
Nova
smiled and kissed her husband on the cheek. “No, dear. The Star Force needs you
too much. Especially now. Do your job. You can visit whenever you want. I don’t
think they limit visiting hours down here.”
“No,
they don’t,” said Sane as he wiped his cheek…now, he was crying. “My best
nurse, stuck in a tube to sleep, like…”
“Doctor,
you said it was the best thing,” said Nova. “Don’t feel bad. Please. Same with
you, Derek.”
“I
love you,” said Derek as he rocked his wife on his lap and held her. They
sobbed, and he shared a last deep kiss with her. Finally, Nova sighed and began
to lie down as Derek reluctantly got up. Nova stretched, took her last few
breaths of regular shipboard air for a while, and then said, “Let’s finish
this, Doctor.”
“Goodbye,
Nova,” sobbed Derek as he kissed her cheek while Doctor Sane began to push some
buttons. “Sensors enabled,” said Sane. “Picking up your heartbeat and the
babies’. Priming temperature unit, scanning body mass, calibrating…”
“Calibrated?”
said Nova from inside the bed.
Sane
nodded sadly. He flicked a switch, and the glass tube whirred shut and sealed.
Nova waved a wan, sad “goodbye” at her husband from inside the tube and blew a
sad kiss. Then, she put her hands on her stomach, shut her eyes, and waited.
Deke
stood there a moment later. Sane pushed a few buttons, and some gas whooshed
into the tube. Nova’s form was quickly covered with ice, and went very still as
all visible breathing stopped.
To
all appearances, she looked dead now.
“NOVA!”
screamed Derek as he held the tube. “Nova!”
“It’s
all right,” said Sane as he helped Wildstar up off the tube.
“But
I don’t see a heartbeat or anything else. All the lines are flat!” he yelled.
“You killed her, Doc! You…”
“Don’t
panic,” said Sane in a high voice as a slow blip went across the screen that
indicated Nova’s heartbeat. The babies’ heartbeat came up next, although their
heartbeats were now very slow. A few lines indicating brain activity came up,
along with screens full of numbers as the lights went green.
“She’s
stable,” said Sane as he wiped his brow. “Suspension complete. She is dreaming
now, Derek. And she will stay there, fast asleep, quite safe, until we get
home. When she wakes up, she will feel like she has just had a good night’s
sleep…that’s all. It was that fast for her.”
“Can
I return to the
“Permission
granted. You can go now,” said Wildstar.
“Thank
you…sir…”
To Return to the Introduction to The New Comet, click here