ALTERNATE
TALES OF THE STAR FORCE
STAR BLAZERS---THE NET TIGHTENS
Being the fourth 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 ONE: A CAPTURE AND
REVELATIONS…
I. A STRATEGIC REVIEW
Planet Gamilon
The
Desslok’s Palace
Friday, February 28,
2206
1502 Hours: Earth Time
Desslok’s
troops and civilians cheered the Leader’s armored limousine with repeated
chants of “Desslok, Desslok, DESSLOK!” as the Leader arrived back at his palace
in the rebuilt city of
Gamilon,
while no longer as geologically overactive as it had once been, was still
something of a foreboding world. The continents and landmasses outnumbered
oceans by about sixty-nine percent. The landmasses were now either covered with
greenish, craggy stone, or with thick foliage from forests or from farmlands
which covered the planet. The sky was greenish, and much of the land was
covered with large cities that glittered brightly from deep space; these were
the administrative centers, shipyards, military bases, and factories of the
growing Gamilon-Galman Empire, which spanned worlds in both Magellenic Clouds
and a few worlds in the Milky Way. Yet, even though the Empire was growing, its
purpose now was ostensibly defensive, intended to defend the interests of
Gamilon and her allies.
Even
though war raged around the Empire, Desslok was more popular than ever as he
saluted his people. In just a few years, thanks, partially to the events of the
Rikasha Incident, Desslok had successfully rebuilt Gamilon, reunited the Race,
found brothers of the Race in the domains of the former Galman Empire that
Desslok had conquered after the partition and contraction of the Rikashan Star
Empire. Desslok smiled to himself as he noticed a scattering of orange faces in
the sea of blue and Caucasian faces of his people; some of the Rikashans, after
the defeat of Zaden, had actually decided to voluntarily join the Gamilon cause
when Lord Cha’rif had reconstituted what remained of the Rikashan Empire as the
Rikashan Federation of Free Planets and granted his former subject worlds
self-determination. Desslok found it a novel concept that, after free
elections, nine Rikashan worlds had voluntarily petitioned Desslok for
inclusion in the Empire. As long as they were loyal, Desslok didn’t mind the
influx of new blood and new resources into the Empire. One of these Rikashan
worlds, D’Ervash, had just joined the Empire in the past month.
A
military band playing “The Gathering of
the Fleet” very loudly (and with lots of drums and donner) as Desslok and his guards strode from the staff car into
the Palace. Desslok acknowledged the cheers with a quick salute, and then he
walked past his saluting guardsmen into his General Staff Meeting Chamber.
As
usual, Talan was the first to stand and salute Desslok as he entered, followed
by the other Generals and Admirals of the General Staff.
“Leader
Desslok, we have the latest reports from the border regions,” said Talan as
Desslok sat down upon his throne at the head of the table.
“And
how is it going?” asked Desslok as he accepted some wine from a female
guardsman and sipped at the goblet.
“The major
commanders from the battlefronts are here with their reports, sir,” said Talan.
“First, there is Gedig of the Eastern Milky Way Command.”
Desslok
nodded as an aged General stood. “How goes it in the hinterlands?”
“Shortly
after D’Ervash joined the Empire, Lord,” said Gedig. ”There were five organized
attacks from the R’Khells as the transition from Rikashan to Gamilon
stewardship took place. Luckily, the Rikashan Federation helped us in the
suppression of planet-side dissent, and the former Rikashan Legate, Purvis,
approved of our Provincial Governor’s recommendation to ban the
R’Khell/Josiahite heresy. Only a few thousand dissenters had to be killed,
Lord. We had Rikashan aid, luckily, on both the planet surface and in space.”
“Too
bad they aren’t just worshippers of Queen Guardiana,” said Desslok. “That
heresy, I can live with, so long as they don’t keep us from doing what we have
to in order to arm ourselves. R’Khell fanatics should be crushed by the
harshest measures we can think of.”
“Also,
the Cometines launched a raid at Planet Negarda, sire,” said Gerda.
“That
far out? Why was I not informed?” snapped Desslok.
“Lord,
at that time, you were at the battlefront yourself at Beta Nikaldis,” said
Gerda. “It was a small raid; just ten space submarines. And we lost only two destroyers.”
“Have
the Rikashan worlds been reinforced?”
“We
are working on it.”
“See
to it,” said Desslok.
Desslok
nodded as Gedig sat down and General Fraken stood. “Fraken, Southern Milky Way
Command, my Lord.”
“My
right arm, as of late,” said Desslok with a smile. “How have things gone since
we came home?”
“Cometine
resistance in the Sirius area, the Terran regions, the Nikaldian Belt, and the
Valentis and Arcturus Regions has been crushed for the time being thanks to our
valiant forces and the aid of the Earthlings,” said Fraken. “We do have reports
of minor Josiahite resistance on Earth, but the Earth Federation authorities
are confident that these annoyances can be forestalled soon. The Earth Defense
Forces are continued their mobilization, and the Argo and
Fraken
had nothing further to report. Next, a Garuman officer, General Keeling, of the
Great Magellenic Outer Rim regions, stood to make his report.
“Our
intelligence forces have discovered something quite disturbing as of late in
the regions between the Great Magellenic Cloud and the Andromeda Galaxy, Leader
Desslok. Those regions, as you know, were once your outer defensive shield in
the days before the war with Earth and the incursions of the Star Force took
place. Prince Zordar subsequently conquered them, but they fell into anarchy
after Zordar’s death. Princess Invidia has been trying to recapture these
regions and establish a permanent foothold there to endanger our interests and
those of Earth. Indeed, it is from these regions of space that the vessels that
have been attacking Earth interests and our interests have come from. I would
like to summarize, if I may, Zordar’s conquests in these regions and the
reconquests that have been taking place under Invidia. We also recently sent a
similar report to Earth for presentation to the Earth President by our
Ambassador.”
Desslok
nodded. An aide caused a computer screen to light up on the conference table
with the following data in the Gamilon language:
Known Major Comet Imperial conquests during the
reign of Prince Zordar, House Gatlantis.
1. “Black Fox” (Dark) Nebula: conq. 3521.6 (2197
Terran) (“Conquest” by
2. Magna Star Cluster (Dervardius Cluster): conq.
3522.8 (2198 Terran) Distance; 412,000 Lightyears Imperial Centre/Gamilon
3 Planet Petronia System Region: conq. 3523.6 (2199
Terran) Distance; 298,000 Lightyears Imperial Centre/Gamilon
4 Planet Rotella System region:
conq. 3524.2: (2200 Terran) Distance; 92,000 Lightyears Imperial Centre/Gamilon
“A graphical representation of Invidia’s reconquests
follows,” said Keeling as he lectured.
“As you can see, “ said Keeling, “The Eritz Gatlantis has
activated its Comet Field, and it is estimated to be 110,000 lightyears away
from Gamilon at the moment, between the Petronia Cluster region, which they
have recently reconquered, and the Rotella Cluster region, which they are
working on reconquering. They have again secured what remains of the Dark
Nebula and signed a new treaty with what remains of the Dark Nebulan Race, and
the Magna Star Cluster has not only been reconquered but is also being equipped
as a major garrison area, major concentration of shipyards, and major aggregate
of enslaved worlds. They have more in slaves on the Magna Star Cluster alone than
we have in the way of free Gamilons and allies amongst all of our worlds in the
two Magellenic Clouds and in the Milky 
Way.
That is not counting the resources they have remobilized in the ruins of the
Black Nebula and in the Petronia region.”
“How long do we have
at the moment?” said Desslok.
“It should take Invidia several months to retake Rotella,
since they are putting up a major resistance. Plus, if they reconquer it, it
should be about a year before the region would be useful to them as a forward
base. If we can somehow ally with the resistance and send them aid, and perhaps
persuade Earth and Rikasha to also aid them, we might be able to forestall
Invidia for another year, allowing us more time to build up our forces and
solidify our own conquests in the Magellenic Regions and the Eastern and
Western sectors of the Milky Way. I think the thrust of the war should be
there, at Rotella.”
“It’s a risky strategy, Keeling,” said Desslok. “But if we
can hold them back, it will buy us time. We will begin to implement this
strategy. See what sort of contacts you can make with the Rotellan underground
through our agents, and offer our aid.”
At that, Desslok relaxed a little. There may be a way out of this yet… he thought. “Next
report?”
II. FLIGHT TRAINING
CONTINUES
The Vicinity of Planet
Earth
Spacecraft Carrier Wasp
Friday, March 7, 2206
0938 Hours: Earth Time
After
the holidays, Deke Wakefield didn’t see very much of Sasha.
The
reason wasn’t due to a conscious cooling of their relationship, but due to an
increase in their duties.
Sasha
was a Cadet Section Leader this semester in her dorm, which meant that she had
a lot more to do in the way of paperwork and riding herd on her dorm deck as a
cadet CO.
Deke,
on the other hand, was still living in his BOQ quarters at the Academy, but he
didn’t see much of them. He was on active flight training with his Sun Tigers
Group, both as an advanced student and as a section leader/ assistant training
officer. He ran into Brew every now and then, but they were both very busy.
Deke
and Brew and the others were learning active Fleet flight ops, largely on the
go, in many different environments. They practiced landings at different bases
on Earth so as to get accustomed to landing in different climactic conditions
and in storms. Then, in February, they took off on the spacecraft carrier Wasp to practice takeoffs from the
carrier’s deck and landings at different ports of call, like Moonbase, Mars,
Saturn-Titan Space Station, Jupiter Station, Neptune, and Pluto.
Their
training officers during this period were Bryan Hartcliffe…and (Deke liked this
part) Jefferson Hardy, who was back at the Academy again. Although,
of course, Brew (when he was chilling out one night with Deke in their cabin on
the Wasp) said “If this is training,
it’s sure pretty realistic.”
“Well,
what do you think?” said Deke. “You’ve heard the scuttlebutt; they’re building
more ships, and there’s been either a Cometine or R’Khell attack somewhere in
the solar system every damn week now.”
“It’s
just a sub or two, and we get it…”
“Some
of the time,” said Deke. “You know we’ve lost patrol ships, frigates,
freighters, even a whole damn destroyer to those idiots. Heck, we were in a
working Anti-Submarine Warfare drill again last week out near Uranus.
Something’s up.”
“You
hear from Sasha much?”
“She
writes; I write. We haven’t been home since Valentine’s Day; and even though I
know this is the life we’ll be leading, I sort of can’t wait to get back
home…for a bit…”
“To
look at Sasha’s butt,” teased Brew as he looked over at the new picture on
Deke’s desk; it was a picture of Sasha in her cheerleader’s garb.
“No,
to talk with her and find out how she’s doing,”
said Deke angrily.
“Look
at that honey pot,” said Brew. “I bet that with all that honey, she’s having to keep away lots of flies.”
“She
sure is,” said Deke. “She told me that two guys hit on her last week, and she
had to learn three new ways of saying ‘no’.”
“She’s
gonna have to say that a lot,” said Brew.
“Definitely,”
said Deke. “Also, you notice Hardy’s been doing more work lately…and delegating
more of the routine training stuff to us? We’re not seeing that much of
Hartcliffe…”
“I
heard Hardy ranking him out through a hatch the other day. He was reading that
Brit the riot act about something, but…”
Suddenly,
the ship’s speakers blared.
“Attention, all hands! The Sun Tigers Group are to report to the main hangar deck in ten minutes ready
for flight ops,” said Hardy over the intership system. “This is not a drill, and this is no BS! Report to the hangar deck at
once!”
“Forget
the speculation,” said Deke as he threw down his book.
“Damn,
I need my pants on,” said Brew.
“Yeah,
that would help,” said Deke as Brew pulled on his Standard Blues.
“Okay,” said
Hardy. “We’re out of the solar system now; heading for Centaurus where we’ll
practice more flight ops,” he said. The flight students nodded; some of their
butts still hurt from yesterday’s Line Crossing ceremonies in which they passed
from Wogs to Shellbacks with all of the traditional hazing and humiliation
administered to green officers and men who left the solar system for the first
time. “We’re doing some more landing ops tonight; you’ll notice that there are
no bases around here for hundreds of megameters. Where are we gonna land, then,
people?”
“In
your hair, sir,” said a wiseass pilot as a few people chuckled.
“Not
funny,” snapped Hardy. “See me later about that, Ensign Blankowitz! Okay,
second try, geniuses. Where are we gonna land our
Tigers tonight if there’s no bases after we leave the ship?”
“Right. We trained
all those weeks on different strips and in the simulator for this purpose.
Tonight, we are putting our birds back down on the deck. That is why I told all
of you to make sure your life insurance was in ohduh
this mornin’! Sometimes we lose people in crashes doing this. Just wanna make
damn sure yoah ready for this. Ready to go?”
“Yessir!”
they all yelled as they snapped an EDF salute.
“Good.
And bear in mind, we’ll be doing this quite a BIT in the next couple of weeks.”
A
while later, Deke and Brew were in their Cosmo Tigers, flying about and doing
routine maneuvers. They had taken off from the carrier deck without any
glitches or irregularities.
The
landing, Deke knew, would be the really tough part.
After
they were done with flying practice, Hardy said,”Okay, people, we’re formin’
up, and then we’re gonna land! Follow me in!”
Deke
took a deep breath, and he noticed that Brew was right in formation behind him;
he was right behind Hardy. Hardy’s Tiger flew in towards the Wasp’s flight deck and zoomed in for a
landing that seemed effortless as Deke saw his plane slowed by the magnetic
arresting field as he hit the deck.
A
few minutes later, Hardy debriefed him; his landing was a possible 8.95 out of
10.00. He had a lot to learn, but, as Hardy told him, “Yuh just reached and
made the hardest hurdle of bein’ a space fighter pilot today,
“What
do you mean, sir?”
Hardy
smiled and said, “They didn’t grade mah first landing since I sorta crashed.
You ask Wildstah sometime.”
“Oh…when
will I have the chance to do that?”
“Two
weeks from now….when we practice on the Argo.”
“The Argo?”
“Damn
straight. You think this is the only ship yoah gonna have to land on? No way, Ensign. No way…”
Deke
felt a little nauseated at that one…until he realized he had landed on the Argo once before….
And it was in
combat, too,
he said to himself. This might be easier
than it looks,
Two
weeks later, on exactly March the 21st, Deke and Brew were again to
make another landing…aboard the Argo.
This
time, they were holding manuevers out around Mars. The time was 0930 Hours.
The
first landing that Deke and Brew made aboard the Argo was in the ship’s lower flight bay. It was a routine mission;
Deke and Brew had left the Wasp, with
their seabag and Flight Gear bags carried in a pair of small compartments in
their Tigers.
Deke’s first
landing on the Argo was relatively problem-free; it was in the lower hangar bay
and it was graded a 9.01 out of 10.00.
“Not
bad,” said Hardy as he clapped
“Thanks
for the compliment, sir,” said Deke.
“Course,
you know you gotta help out with lecturin’ the troops around 1400,” said Hardy
with a grin.
“Yessir,
I know that,” said Deke.
“You
and Marrable here were the only ones who got nines in today’s landings, so, of
course, you’ll be imparting your wisdom and technique to them later, mah
friends.”
“Thanks,”
said Brew.
“In
the meantime, we’re takin’ the tour,” said Hardy with a smile. “First stop for
you two is the
Hardy
wore Standard Blues, but was still greeted with nods and salutes as he rapidly
went through the corridors of the Argo
with Ensigns Wakefield and Marrable in tow; Deke and Brew felt a little strange
following him in Standard Blues, although one thing that Deke was conscious of
as he saw a crewman or two in their navy blue peacoats was that he hadn’t been
issued a blue dress coat yet (and wouldn’t be until graduation day a few weeks
from now). Still, it looked as if Hardy belonged here.
They went into
a lift and then came out in a small foyer. Hardy paused before stepping into the
hatch. And, then, he stopped as he noticed Wildstar and many of the others at
attention before the large viewscreen.
There
was a good reason that they were at attention; the Commander of the Earth
Defense Forces was on the video panel, speaking to Wildstar as he said, “How
strong were the signals you picked up, Wildstar?”
“Not
terribly so,but they’re at the edge of the solar
system.”
“You
said they were Cometine?”
Deke
and Brew glanced at each other as Hardy nodded grimly. “Homer and Nova
confirmed it, sir. We’re still working on a translation.”
“Get
that information to us as soon as possible,” said Singleton. “It’s important. It goes without saying that
you might have a change of orders in the next twenty-four hours.”
“Of
course, sir,” said Wildstar.
Then,
“So,
the green guys…” whispered Brew.
Hardy
gave him a look that could freeze stone. “You two are to give no sign you heard
any of this,” he said in a harsh whisper.
“Of
course…sir,” said Deke as he looked meaningfully at Brew and Hardy.
A
moment later, the conversation ended. Hardy led the way, saluting as he greeted
the rest of the Star Force officers on the
Deke
had to take a deep breath before he realized that he was actually looking at
and was on the very same space battleship bridge where so much history had been
made over the past few years. It looked smaller than the bridge on the Wasp, but it had a somewhat more
well-worn look to it. To Wakefield, the smells of hot circuitry, canned air,
and the lingering smells of hot oil in the ship’s older systems and hot coffee
coming from a mug or two sitting near some of the officers’ stations made him
more aware than ever that he was aboard a ship that was really still an old
naval vessel at heart.
At
that moment, Wildstar turned around. “Ah, Hardy.I see
you’ve brought our resident geniuses aboard,” he said.
“I
sure did,” said Hardy as Deke and Brew felt quite abashed at knowing they were
the center of attention of all of the veterans on the Argo’s bridge. “You guys wanna introduce yourselves?”
Homer
was the first one to nod. He shook their hands and said, “Senior Lieutenant
Homer Glitchmann, Communications Group Leader.”
Then,
the Artillery Officer stood, extending his hand, “Lieutenant Pavel Kumyat,
Artillery Section Leader.”
Another
man in red and white turned to them; they noticed he looked quite young. “Senior Lieutenant Ryusuke Domon, Combat Group Leader.”
A
man in white and green then introduced himself, “Senior Lieutenant Tetsu
Kitano, Navigation Group Leader.”
As
Then,
a heavyset man with brown hair in a white and orange uniform introduced
himself. “Lieutenant Commander Joe Yamazaki, Engineering Chief.”
As
Deke had his hand shaken, he smiled and then turned to a smiling feminine face
he already knew well. “Lieutenant Commander Nova Wildstar,
Radar and Analysis, and Living Group Leader.”
“Of
course, ma’am,” said Brew as he shook her hand.
Then,
Deke found himself being confronted by a figure in blue and white who was far
taller than Nova…or anyone else there. He gulped a little as he realized he was
meeting the famous Stephen Sandor for the first time, even as Sandor introduced
himself as, “Commander Stephen Sandor, Ph.D., Mechanical Group Leader and First
Officer.”
“Thank
you, sir,” said
Both
of them nodded. Then, as an afterthought, a little red robot popped up out of
the Analysis seat next to Domon’s station. “I’m IQ-9,” he said. “I’m a genius
robot, smarter than anyone here, Nova included.”
“Oh,
great,” said Deke. “Not another one of those.”
“What?”
said Brew.
“Ninth
class analysis robots,” said Deke. “One of them used to follow an old
girlfriend of mine around, all the time.”
“Whoever
she is, I can sympathize with her already,” said Nova as she rolled up her eyes
and skipped away from IQ-9. “Would you stop that? I know damn well where you want to put that hand!”
Then,
Wildstar said, “Hardy, how were their first official landings aboard ship?”
“Both
nines, sir,” said Hardy.
“Not
bad,” said Wildstar as he cracked a slight smile as Nova slapped IQ-9 over the
head with a rolled-up spare issue of Janes’
Naval Aerospace Magazine from her post. “Of course, if things go as I think
they will….well….it is a possibility that your landings today and tomorrow will
not be your last landings aboard this ship. Sandor, you have the conn. Nova,
let’s get some early lunch until Homer gets his job done. Then it’ll be your
turn at the computer.”
“Derek,
I’m supposed to give all of them a tour at 1145.”
“You
still can. Just as long as you remember we need those translations,” said
Derek.
“You
can meet us down below in the messhall,” said Nova. ”I’ll be waiting there at
1145 for your group.”
At
that, Deke nodded.”Thanks, ma’am.”
“Watch
out for the robot, ma’am,” said Brew with a wink.
“Don’t
encourage him, Ensign,” snapped Nova.
Later
on that morning, Wakefield and Brew settled into their quarters on the Argo; they would be aboard ship for
about a day or so, so Nova had assigned them and the others cabins after they
had been through their tour.
“What
are you so paranoid about, Dekesticks?” asked Brew as he began to post pictures
of ladies’ behinds on the bulkheads with some tape.
“My
bag,” said
“What’s
in that damn old B-4 bag that’s so important?” said Brew.
“Just
DJ and her magazines, for a start,” he said as he pulled out his old weapon,
while snapping it open and closed. He transferred DJ and the magazines to his
seabag while he went through the rest of his stuff. “Putting the picture of
Sasha in here…checking the other things…”
“Like?”
“My
sticks, my surfboard wax, picture of Dawn,” he said in a morose voice.
“Oh…,”
said Brew, not wanting to start that discussion up again. “What else?”
“Socks,
first-aid kit, meds, radio, handi-talkie, flashlight, compass, Army knife,
Leatherman-type multi-tool, second pair o’ drumsticks, blanket, poncho, spare
flight helmet, spare power supply, belt, matches, water packs, binoculars,
caffiene tabs, the usual crap…”
“Got
the same crap in mine, minus the sticks and picture of Dawn….”
Then,
the PA system went off. It was Hardy’s voice. “All Sun Tigers,
assemble in the lower hangar bay in ten minutes at 1500 Hours. Repeat, all Sun
Tigers, assemble in the lower hangar bay, ten minutes, 1500…”
“Wonder
what’s up?” said
“Damned
if I know,” said Brew.
When
they got below, they were a bit shocked to see Hardy standing there…in a Black
Tiger uniform.
“Sir?”
said another pilot.”Is this old home week?”
“Shut
the hell up, ah’ve been reassigned,” snapped Hardy. “
“Yessir,”
said
“Good.
At 1600, we will practice landings in both upper
hangar bays, port and starboard. We will do this together…mah squadron and
yours. Then, we’ll all debrief together at 1700, and then, gentlemen, we’ll
warp. Don’t worry, the Wasp will be followin’ us. You will then act as FORCAP for a shift
startin’ at 2100 Hours and goin’ six hours. Get used to it, people…it’s life in the Fleet. People are dependin’ on you. Got
that?”
“Yessir!”
yelled the pilots, young officers and midshipmen alike.
They
debriefed later on that day, at 1700. “Okay,” said
“That
wasn’t the most important thing we did today,” said Hardy. “The most important
thing was that intercept that Miss Franklin picked up in Second Squadron of
Black Tigers. Miss Franklin, report.”
A
young Ensign assigned to the Black Tigers who was one year ahead of them at
school said, “Sir, I spotted a radar signature at RXB-156, speed, twenty-two
space knots, on an intercept course towards our task force. It was radiating
multi-spectrum cosmo radar waves.”
“Did you get a
visual on it?”
“Who
wants to identify that?” said Hardy. A hand went up from
“Sir,
it’s the green dickheads. Flying a Type 25 Recon Scorpion, to
be exact.”
“Miss
Franklin, what did the bogie do when he spotted your flight?”
“He
ran, sir. But chances are, he’ll be back.”
Hardy
nodded. “That’s why I’ve been reassigned. Signals were picked up and translated
earlier today. A Cometine Squadron is operating out near the edge of the solar
system, around the Brumus Asteroid Belt. Wildstar thinks they’re up to no good,
and I agree with him. Make sure your lasers and weapons are working tonight
when you fly patrol. You may need them, people. That’s all
for now. Get ready for a warp to Jupiter. Dismissed.”
III. REPORTS
The Eritz Gatlantis
Petronia Cluster Region
About 250,000 Lightyears
Away From Earth
Friday, March 21, 2206
2200 Hours: Earth Time
“So what do you have to
report, General Dalkon?” snapped Princess Invidia as she looked down haughtily
from her dais in one of her new Comet ship’s throne rooms upon a screen. A
Cometine officer was reporting on that screen.
“While
we were performing reconnaissance out near Centaurus, Princess, my fleet picked
up some signals, so we warped. We have found the Argo, Princess. I now have a Task Group near the edge of their
solar system and beg leave to attack the Argo.
I am sure they are investigating my signals.”
“Permission
denied, for now.”
“Denied?”
“Observe
them, only. Maybe harass them somewhat,” said Invidia. “But I need you near
Rotella. They have a fleet that they are preparing, and I want you to help
Marshal Balkal in attacking that fleet. I want them broken. For now, Rotella is
more important than the Star Force.”
“Understood,”
said Dalkon with a harsh nod. But no one
says I have to like this, he thought.
“You
have your orders,” said Invidia. “See to it they are carried out. I expect to
hear your intelligence tomorrow morning.”
“Of
course, Princess…”
At
that, Dalkon cut off the transmission.
“We
shall do our best…within the limits you have set for us,” muttered Dalkon as he
whipped a glass across the bridge of his command carrier. “Again, Invidia, no
one said I had to fancy your orders. Just obey them.”
Deke
“So
what have we spotted in four hours?” he said over the circuit to Brew.
“Five
asteroids, one piece of Gamilon wreckage, two space rocks, and a partridge in a
pear tree,” said Brew with a laugh.
“The
partridge was deep-frozen, sir,” said Tolland.
“I’ve
got a bogie on my scope,” said Brew.
“Location?”
snapped
“RXC-152,
speed eighteen space knots and slowing; she’s just five megameters away….not a
natural object.”
“Okay,
crew,” said Deke as he headed off towards the bogie. “Let’s check it out…”
They
found a black Cometine Scorpion boat that was smoking slightly. It seemed to be
dead in space.
“Okay,”
said
“Let’s
take it in; see if anyone’s alive in that thing…”
“All
right,” said
They
readied cables. A moment later, the three Tigers locked on and took the boat.
With the enemy ship captured, they towed her back to the Argo.
Deke,
Brew, and Tolland waited as the ship was secured to the Argo a while later. A
spacesuit-clad group consisting of Sandor, Hemsford and four other Space
Marines, Dr. Sane, Nova and another spacesuit-clad nurse checked out the alien
ship.
The
first thing that
Nova
said, “Yes. What does she look like?”
“You’re
gonna interrogate her?”
“No…autopsy,”
said Nova. “We’re not sure how, but it looks as if she and the rest of her crew
committed suicide somehow when they detected your Tigers. I don’t think they
wanted to be captured alive. Luckily, Sandor is going over the boat for
intelligence. They didn’t succeed in blowing the computers.”
At
that, Nova and IQ continued to hustle the Cometine corpse on towards Sickbay.
Deke
was ordered to get some sleep. However, he heard someone banging at his hatch
at about 0400 the next morning. He got up first and found Hardy at the hatch.
“Sir?”
he said in a sleep-filled voice.
“You
and Mister Marrable are wanted at a briefing. They’ve been up all night
studying the ship and her crew. They want you there to discuss how you captured
them.”
“Got
it,” said
“Uhhh…that’s
cool…any gals with big butts present? Or do they have any brew?”
“They
have lots of coffee, Mistuh,” said Hardy. “Now, up!”
They
got up to a conference room in the Argo’s
bridge tower around 0420. When they were there, they found Commodore Wildstar
up nursing a huge mug of coffee at the head of the table, with Doctor Sane in a
bloody set of Medical scrubs to one side and Sandor in a greasy uniform to the
other side. Nova and the other nurse sat there in stained nurses’ tunics and clogs
near Sane, and two other Mechanical Officers sat at the table looking at a
collection of greasy parts and computer boards and disks, probably stripped from
the alien ship. At the moment, Nova was speaking; Deke noticed she seemed to
have some light circles under her eyes as she said, “My autopsy of the pilot
detected that she seems to have killed herself with a quick-acting form of
poison from a syringe built into her flight armor.”
“You’d
guess that since it seems that when we captured that pilot in 2201 that they
didn’t seem to want him back in their Fleet…?” said Derek.
“Yes.
It’s our guess this is a new doctrine the Cometines developed in case of capture.
I guess they think it’s better to kill themselves than
to be taken alive,” said Doctor Sane.
“Sandor,
did yiou pick up anything from the ship?”
“They
destroyed a lot of their systems,” said Sandor. “But, they recently received
communications that their business near Earth was currently not as important as
the invasion of a world known as Rotella…”
“I
wonder where that is,” said Commodore Wildstar. Then, a moment later, he
noticed
Later,
after Deke and Brew had retold their story, they were up having their breakfast
at 0600 on what was now Saturday, March 22, 2206. Hardy came down, and he
seemed to be in a rush.
“Glad
to see you,
“Sir,
I thought we were going to do some more…”
“The
Captain’s new ohduhs have just caused a change in plans. The Argo is headin’ outta here as soon as
you guys are gone in ohduh to take on another mission.”
“We
were at the briefing, sir,” said Brew. “Is it about the enemy?”
“Can’t
say, but I’ll bet you two can guess,” said Hardy. “We’d love to have you
aboard, but ohduhs are ohduhs. Remember, almost half yoah squadron is still
midshipmen. But the way this war is going, you’ll probably get yoah shot soon
as you graduate.”
“Yessir,”
said Deke. “C’mon, Brew, let’s fionish breakfast. Then
we’ll have to brief the others…”
“Yeah…”
At
0655, Deke was in his plane, flying back to the Wasp along with the rest of the Sun Tigers. Soon after landing, he
and the others watched the Argo
through a viewport. It seemed as soon as the last Sun Tiger was checked in on
the Wasp, the Argo turned about on a heading right out of the solar system. Then,
the space battleship abruptly roared off at what seemed to be full speed ahead.
“Well,
they’re gone,” said Brew a moment later. “Let’s get
our planes unpacked.”
“Yeah,”
said Deke, who was disappointed at being “beached” aboard the Wasp. Deke opened a compartment on his
plane and got his seabag, but he could not
find his gear bag.
“Brew?”
he said.
“Yeah?”
“Is
my B-4 bag in your plane?”
“Hell no, Dekesticks. I could
smell that thing from a mile away…”
“It’s
not in my bird,” said Deke. His stomach dropped. “In the rush to get back here,
I think I left it on the damn Argo!”
“You’ll
get it back at some point…”
“Probably
not,” said Deke as he kicked the landing gear of his plane. “It had my picture
of Dawn in it…and my old white sticks. I have my picture of Sasha…and…”
“And what?”
“I
wonder if this is an omen of some kind…like…’forget Dawn?’”
“Could
be, Deke,” said Brew. “Could be…”
TO
BE CONTINUED…
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