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