ALTERNATE
TALES OF THE STAR FORCE
STAR
BLAZERS---IT NEVER RAINS IN
A
Postscript to THE NEW COMET--- BY: Frederick P. Kopetz
This Story is being completed
with the Cooperation and Assistance of Derek A.C. Wakefield (as usual)---Freddo
Notes: This tale contains some
crossover elements from an (incomplete) crossover story of mine later in this
timeline called Plausible Deniability that includes retconned
elements from an altered conception of the Battle of the Planets/Gatchaman
universe. Battle of the Planets/Gatchaman is © 2008 by Sandy Frank
Productions/Tatsunoko Studios This is
put here so the evil lawyers won’t send 7-Zark-7 after me. This story also
includes one rather sweet but spicy bit of fan artwork that fellow writer “Yuki
Wildstar”gave me. It was just too cute not to be used
somewhere!
PART SIX:
SPACE TRIALS AND A PULP NOIR TALE (1)
I. WARP!
The Moon Orbit
Saturday, April 2, 2208
1230 Hours Local Time
At her
post, Nova shook her head slightly as she entered figures and data for the Argo’s scheduled warp test to the
Jupiter region.
Six hours ago, I was up and in my pool
with little Alex, she
thought. Now, six hours later, back on
the ship, to see what she’ll do. The power ratings seem higher, she thought
as she typed in more parameters. After
the warp, around lunch, we can check on the kids.
“Captain,”
said Homer. “Commander Hardy reports the last of the planes are both on board
and secured.”
“Have
the Tigers meet us in the Briefing Room at 1430,” said Derek. “They’re going to
have some flying to do later on.”
“Yessir,”
said Homer.
At his
post, Derek jumped a little as an instant message came in on his screen…from
Sickbay.
It was
Sasha, being her turn with the kids until she would be detailed to help check
out the Diamond Girl and some of the
other Tigers.
In her
message, she typed:
Hi, Uncle, sir.
Situation normal,
all fouled up.
Ariel is up, and
is very cranky. I diagnosed the problem; it’s her diaper. Over.
Derek
sighed and forwarded the message to Nova, with a note to her,
Nova (Yes, I mean
you…)
Now hear this;
confused Princess. Explanation? Reassure the Princess.
Don’t take too
much time, Peppermint. You are supposed to be preparing to warp us out of here.
-Skipper.
Nova
smiled a little, rolled up her eyes, and put in PI to the 12th place
in one window, and in another window, she typed an IM that read;
Skipper—
Ariel had split
peas from a bowl this morning at 0400 before I nursed her. Forgetting already,
Dad? She woke you up.
Sasha:
Babies’ poop is
usually green when they eat split pea junk.
Both of you:
I am preparing
this space warp…or trying to. Do you want me to send us to the Andromeda
Galaxy? And stop calling me Peppermint.
--Nova.
Nova
then finished and said, “Captain, calculations completed for the space warp.
Transmitting data to Navigation. The status gauges read split pea green, sir.”
“Split
pea green?” said Eager. “What the hell ya mean by that?”
“Classical
reference for the Captain, Lieutenant,” said Nova frostily as she looked back
at Derek’s post and winked. Derek smiled and typed,
Nice job:
Peppermint.
Nova
smiled and typed back:
Up yours, Derek!
“Captain,
ready to make preparations for space warp,” said Kitano.
“Proceed
with warp preparations,” Derek said. He nodded at Nova, who then said over the
PA, “All hands, secure all stations for warp!”
Down
below in Sickbay, Sasha was closing up Ariel’s diaper and putting a clean shirt
on her when the announcement came to prepare for warp.
Nearby,
Dawn was futzing around with Alex’s diaper. He was screeching because she kept
on sticking him with a safety pin.
“What
do I do with this kid!? Sasha, what the hell do I do with this screaming brat
of a kid?”
“Let
me,” said Sasha. She sighed, reached out with her powers, and crooned, “”Do I
look like your Mommy? IQ-9 thinks I look like your Mommy. That’s why he lifted
my skirt before. Bad robot. Good baby,” cooed Sasha. “Good little cousin
Alexander! Where’s your thingie? Oopsie!
Diaper’s over it.”
“Sasha
mama?” said Alex as he bit at his own toes.
“Why
does he do that?” said Dawn. “Biting at his own feet is so gross!”
“He’s
a baby, that’s why,” said Sasha. Alex repeated, “Sasha-mama?”
“That’s
right, I’m your Sasha-mama! Mama-mama is up on the bridge.”
“Wan’
mommy. Hungy!” gurgled Alex as he
tried to grab one of Sasha’s boobs, clad in his diaper and nothing else.
“No, I
don’t give that much yet,” said Sasha with a giggle as she tickled his stomach,
deciding to keep him out of his clothes for a bit. “You need mama-mama!”
Doctor
Sane came in with his bottle. “Do you girls need a drink?”
“Nooooooo,” they said together, both being about eight
months pregnant.
“But
this one is Spring Water.”
“We’re
not sure, sir,” said Dawn, who looked better clad in her nurse’s tunic and
white clogs.
“We
don’t trust you,” said Sasha, who looked as military as possible in her Black
Tiger top and skirt as she held Alex.
The
door to Sickbay whirred open and Deke Wakefield came in and gave Sasha a
smooch. “Sasha, after we warp, my plane needs to have its computer checked out.
Nav was off a little when I flew in.”
“Where
are you going to sit to warp, Dekee?” said Sasha.
“Dekee,”
muttered Dawn. “Yeah, make me barf, you two. And where’s
“Dawn,
he’s busy getting fifty pilots checked out,” said Deke as he ran his hands
through his hair. “You damn well know that.”
“It’s tough caring for kids,” she whined.
“We
would have left you home if both you and Sasha could have behaved,” said Deke.
“Consider it your punishment; a weeks’ worth of extra duty. For God’s sakes,
we’re warping in thirty seconds! Get the damn junior cadets strapped down!”
Ariel,
now dressed, was placed in her little plastic crib by Sasha, who gently
strapped her in with the little car-seat like harness for the warp. Dawn
fumbled with Alex’s, and Deke had to help her (to Sasha’s annoyance as the
young officer found a seat and strapped herself in). Finally, Deke strapped
down between Sasha and Dawn, and he said, “Looks like I’m stuck in the middle.”
“Dekee,”
whispered Sasha.
“Quit
it,” said Dawn.
Sasha
stuck out her tongue at her.
On the
main bridge, a short time later, Kitano counted down to warp. “Ready for warp.
Warp preparations! Five…four…three…two..one…zero…WARP!”
He
pulled back the lever. The Argo
kicked off, blasting into the Fourth Dimension in a spectacular display of
colors and lights.
In
Sickbay, Sasha shut her eyes while little Ariel gurgled, fascinated at the
feeling that made her feel as if she was flying out of her crib.
Sasha
hadn’t quite reckoned upon a simple fact; Alex and Ariel were already sort of
familiar with this phenomenon, having experienced quite a few warps inside
their mother’s womb when Nova had been pregnant with them. This time, Ariel
really giggled at the lights and stars, because there was nothing soft and warm
(mommy) to hold her in place with bro-bro.
Ariel
tried to grab a galaxy as it streaked past, and began to screech for a second
when she couldn’t catch it. She giggled when a star lit up and cooed at the
pretty colors.
Nearby,
Alex was babbling as he talked to the stars. “gagaggagaga
aba aba aba starries get you ga ga boo boo toesies tickle…”
He
tried to catch a star with his toes but giggled as it flew past. The light show
did a good job at distracting the babies from their funny feelings in their
tummies as the Argo roared on through
the Fourth Dimension.
Finally,
there was the usual “slam” and then the usual humming noise came as the Argo reappeared in the Jupiter Region,
The Argo was far at the edge of the region,
fay beyond the orbit of any of the 72 known moons of Jupiter, many of which
were very small, and many of which had just been discovered around the
beginning of the 21st century, between 1999 to 2003. The most
recently discovered satellite, S/2207 J 5, had just been mapped and discovered
by the
“Warp
completed,” said Kitano.
“Nearest
object, Sierra 2207 Juliet Five, spotted at two hundred megameters’ range,”
said Nova from her post.
“I
suggest we stop around here,” said Sandor.
“Good
idea. We can have the Tigers “attack” the laser mapping stations that the
“It’s
still being considered,” said Sandor.
Derek
nodded and said, “Sandor, you have the conn until 1500, barring incident. Mrs.
Wildstar, get Ensign Hall up here to man your post; she’ll be delighted to take
it. Then, meet me in the mess hall.”
“Yessir,”
said Nova.
II. SPACE TRIALS UNDER POWER
Space Battleship Argo
The Jupiter Region
Saturday, April 2, 2208
1340 Hours Local Time
A
while later, in the Messhall, Commodore Wildstar sat with Diane Henson, who was
asking, “Well, how has fatherhood changed your life, sir?“
“It’s
certainly made things…more unpredictable,” Derek said. “Nova and I have quite
an age group to deal with at home, what with a 15-year old and two crawly,
playful smart little seven-month olds…we love all of them, of course. I know
the Government really propagandizes things to encourage people to become
parents, these days, but…”
“You
once told me, when we were dating, that you didn’t want to have kids until we
had peace. Not to impugn your judgment, nor Nova’s…hell, she’s a wonderfully sweet kid, I’d think you
would have waited until the war was over.”
“Well,”
said Derek as he ate his fried pastrami sandwich, “we thought we had a period
of peace there, so we were trying like crazy. Then, the war started up, and
when we weren’t trying, Nova found
herself very pregnant. You know what she was going through…”
“I
never told you, Derek, but some of the women
on this ship were putting her through hell then, as well as some of the men.
She just lost it at one point and talked to me about wanting to go home. I got
her to buck up and stay with the program, and, well, she was here until the
last day of the war, when I understand she gave you a fine young son and
daughter in the shuttle on the way home.”
“Yeah,
she did,” said Derek, blushing at the memories. “I hope the same thing doesn’t
happen with my niece.”
“Sasha won’t; she’s a trouper,” said Diane. “I know her. She’s going to be able
to hold out for six days, I think. That Dawn is the one I worry about. That is,
if she doesn’t throw herself out the friggin’ airlock. I…”
Diane
stopped when a set of hands went over Derek’s eyes while he heard some people
saying, “awwww…”
“Hey,
who’s that?” he yelled. “This is assault upon the person of the Captain!”
“Is this assault?” said a dulcet, familiar
alto voice as a set of soft lips kissed Derek’s neck.
Wildstar
turned around, beholding Nova standing there in an off-the shoulder white
peasant blouse that buttoned down, short corduroy skirt, and white rubber
shower flip-flops.
“What
happened to your uniform?” Derek said. “And what kept you?”
“Work,”
Nova sighed. “Sorry. I had one unpleasant duty and one pleasant one, both of
which messed my uniform up, so I had to change in a hurry. They’re still
breaking out the nurses’ uniforms, so everything on my back right now came
courtesy of Sasha.”
“What
was the unpleasant duty?” sighed Diane.
“Hi,
Diane. The unpleasant duty was having to do a physical on a certain Private
they dredged up from the brig.”
“Hartcliffe?”
hissed Derek.
Nova
nodded. “While I was helping Doctor Sane look at what the Marines left of his
teeth, he thought it would be funny to throw up on me. I was not amused! In fact, I think I cost him
two more teeth.”
“That’s
my girl, that’s my girl,” said Diane
as she grabbed Nova by the shoulders and laughed with her. “Then?”
“Well,
I think he won’t be able to have kids, either,” Nova said conspiratorially.
“Not after IQ-9 and I got finished with him. The Tinwit went nuts when he threw
up on me! After he and I punched that scum in the crotch after he tried to
assault me, I had to pull IQ off of him. Not that I was very nice to him,
either, when I got the handcuffs back on him. And they’re staying on him,
Derek. I don’t care if he gets presented to the authorities on that asteroid in
his skivvies!”
“Handcuffs…back
on him?” said Derek.
“The
little snake got one hand out and tried to punch me,” Nova said. “He’s back in
the cooler now. Lucky for him.”
“Okay,
that’s the unpleasant duty. The pleasant duty?”
“Alex
got hungry. I tried giving him some bacon and beans, and he ate some of them
and decorated me with the others. So, I slipped off to that side room and gave
him some milk…when he burped, more came up on my uniform. When Sasha found me,
everything I had on was off while I finished with him and Ariel. Just too
messy. She got me a spare outfit of hers that I got into by tightening
everything up. So, here I am,” Nova said. “If you two will excuse me, I think
I’ll get some of that pastrami, Derek. I’m ravenous.”
Derek
kissed his wife and said, “Go right ahead. I’ll save this seat for you.”
“Thanks.”
“HEY!”
yelled Bryan Hartcliffe as he sat in his cell in the Brig after his handcuffs
had been removed. “GET ME SOME FRIGGIN’ FOOD! NOW! ME FRIGGIN TEETH HURT! AND
PUT THAT IDIOT WOMAN IN ‘ERE WITH ME!”
“You
don’t deserve any solid food,” said the Space Marine guarding his cell. “They
had to extract some of your teeth, wiseass!”
“This is brutaility
t’ prisoners, man! Brutal!"
"I
don't need this crap!" yelled Hartcliffe. "Here's what I think of
your reading, Sarge!"
He threw the
Bible against the wall. The Marine Segreant slapped
him and said, "Ya weirdo! There's some stuff even I respect! You should have your ass kicked in and hard!”
Hartcliffe
snarled with a weird look in his eyes as he took the Bible and tore its cover
off. "Lookit this cross on the front of it, mate! This cross, which I just
turned upside down. I just decided I wanta worship
the Other Dude today. The Man Downstairs!"
“You creep!”
yelled the Marine as he threw open the cell door and waded in with a
nightstick. He bashed Hartcliffe in the head three times and kicked him against
the bulkhead. Then, he stalked out and slammed the cell door shut. “Forget that
soup they were going to bring you! As long as I’m on duty, you’ll STARVE,
Private!”
Bryan
Hartcliffe spat blood against the bulkhead of his cell and then began to crawl
on his hands and knees to the bed.
Then,
he lay there moaning like some kind of animal.
When we get you to that asteroid,
you’re going to learn a few things, thought the Marine Sergeant as he sat back in his chair
reading a magazine.
Nova
had been a little confused when Homer had told her that a call was coming in
for her from home. I hope Jonathan’s all
right, she thought as she went into the communications booth. I really do hope Mother is not calling to
complain about Jonathan or that he’s not sick or something….
So,
Nova took the call…to find a young woman with very dark, slightly purplish hair
and a dark red dress waiting for her on the other side of the line!
“Katrina?” Nova said.
“Interesting
uniform, Nova…cute,” said Katrina Savela (aka Princess Invidia) as she smiled
at Nova.
“Uhh,…this
is not my uniform,” said Nova, looking at her skirt and blouse. “Sorry..I can only talk for a few minutes. I put this on
because two babies made a mess on me.”
“Both
Alex and Ariel?”
“No,
one of the babies is named Bryan Hartcliffe. The criminal we had on trial.
Katrina, how did you find me here on the Argo?”
“My
contacts,” said Katrina. “Foxy and I wanted to see how you were.”
“Fine…we’re
just out here for a few days.”
”Michelle
was trying to reach Jonathan but no one answers there. Where is your son?”
“Uh…he’s
with my parents,” said Nova. Nova gave the portable vidphone number of her
mother and said, “He’s away camping. You can reach him there. He’ll probably
love to hear from you, Foxy and Michelle.”
“Thanks,”
said Katrina. As Invidia, she thought of some rumors she’d heard about the
House Dezaria being on the move again, and she said, “Is there any trouble out
there?”
Nova
laughed, “Oh…no…not at all!” I couldn’t
tell you if there was, of course, Nova added to herself. “It’s a test and
training cruise and we’ll be back soon.”
“I
hope you are well, Nova. Love to the little ones and Derek.”
Nova
nodded and blew a kiss at Katrina. Katrina did likewise, and the screen went
blank.
Back
on Earth, in Foxworth Manor, Foxy came into the room just as Invidia was
getting done. “Who were you calling?”
“Nova.”
“How
is she?”
“They’re
out in space. I got the number of where Jonathan is from Nova so Michelle can
call him up. As soon as she gets back from that event with that boy she went
out for ice cream sodas with. Why is she noticing boys?”
“It’s
normal. Would you prefer she is noticing girls?”
“No,” said Katrina as she blushed
fiercely.
“So, are you jealous that Michelle is
getting older?”
“No…maybe…I
don’t know. We were through so much together a few months ago,” Katrina was
quiet for a moment before Changing back to Invidia. “I’d like to have the
ability to lead and guide this world and do wonderful things with it; but I’ve
had quite enough of the blood and pain of war. They won’t give up this world
easily. And who can blame them for fighting hard?”
“We
fought for and fight on for that which we want to preserve,” said Foxy as he
looked hard at Invidia. “We’ve grown a lot in the past few months; the past few
weeks.”
“I’d
like to have a peaceful merger of this world into our Greater Empire,” said
Invidia. “Or a peaceful permanent agreement, and…”
Suddenly,
Invidia’s personal comm device rang. She took the phone out of a pocket of the
dress she wore and said, “Yes?”
“Princess,”
said the voice at the other end; the voice of a deep undercover Cometine agent
she knew named Helgrem. “I can’t talk for long. This is heavily encrypted.”
“Where
are you?” Invidia demanded.
“Deep
space. The region of the Crab Nebula, 6500 lightyears away from your location.
We’ve located a civilization here at its edge at a star they call Vikerneh. The
primary occupied world of the system is heavily polluted and occupied by a
humanoid race not that different from the Earthlings, but with far different
traditions. They seem to be rather aggressive; my ship was attacked once by one
of their mecha, which I shot down. The place bears investigation. Oddly enough,
the Pellians have an exploration ship in the region. I’ve contacted the ship,
but it is rather cagey about what it is up to. Orders?”
“Continue
recon there, and keep quiet. Out,” said Invidia as she put away her comm device
and then looked out the window. “Michelle’s coming back; with a friend.” She
Changed back into Katrina and whispered, “She is bringing the boy back. Be sure
we keep this conversation quiet.”
Foxy
smiled and nodded.
Paul
Rosstowski stood alone on the observation deck, looking out to the stars.
He had
told everyone Aliscea was back home and simply hadn’t wanted to come on the
mission with them. That was a half-truth. She had actually been away for about
two and a half weeks, aboard the Pellian exploration ship Talinghaver.
Suddenly
Aliscea called to Paul in his mind. “Paul, love?”
“Where
are you?” he said.
“Around
the edge of a Nebula. My mother and Desslok asked me to go on this mission to
investigate a planet in the region. It’s a dangerous place that I’ve heard has
an interest in the Orion Arm for some reason. We have also found a small belt
of stars beyond the Crab Nebula that is in about a hundred-light-year radius of
it. Some of the stars seem to have planets about them and some of those worlds
seem to be occupied.”
“Why
is the place dangerous?” Paul asked.
“The
planet appears to be the nucleus of a possible Imperial movement of some kind.
We visited a planet of the region called Bela. Bela has a small defense force that has had a few
skirmishes with the aggressor world. We’ve also seen signs the Cometines are
active in the region,” Aliscea said in his mind.
“Doing
what?” demanded Paul.
“Exploration, they say. One of those ships contacted us. They say exploration.
I say spying. Watch out. The Argo may
have to come to this region sometime in the next few weeks or months. Maybe. I
expect to be home in a month or three weeks. Love and prayers.”
“Love
and prayers,” said Paul as he wiped tears from his eyes. Aliscea, he thought. You’d
better be all right out there.
Later
that afternoon, after Commodore Wildstar called in the Black Tigers, the Argo made another warp, heading out
towards the region of
When
she emerged from warp, Wildstar called a briefing after the Argo was placed in orbit around
“First,”
said Wildstar, “We have a schedule. After we do our trials today, we will
cruise for a while in the
“That’s
good…it’ll be nice to see Mark again,” Nova said. “When will the rendezvous
be?”
“Ah…that
is the point I do not know,” said Commodore Wildstar. “The
reason being that when we meet the Arizona,
it’s going to be in a war game simulation. She’s going to be “attacking”
us at some point. When, we do not know, since it is to be a surprise attack
that will take place at some point after April the Fifth, and we’ll get
together for coffee and juice with Venture after we kick his butt back to
Venus,” said Derek. “Dash is on the ship as Combat Group Leader, so I’m sure
he’s got some stuff up his sleeve.”
“We
have some stuff up our sleeves,” said
Domon as he nodded at Rosstowski. “Sir, when are we testing the wave motion
gun?”
“We
can’t safely test it at full power in the solar system,” said Sandor as he took
the pointer from Wildstar and nodded at IQ-9. He still had a helmet and space
gear on because he and IQ-9 had been working together with Nova on installing
some sensors out on the open foredeck of the ship in space just a few minutes beforehand.
“The range and power of the weapon have been vastly increased because I found a
way to improve the tachyon compression rate and release rate,” he said as he pointed
at a graphic of the wave engine and gun’s inner workings. “I have estimates for
the power of the Gun, but we won’t be able to prove them for sure until after
we leave the Solar System. The reason being that when we destroy something, we
want to avoid navigational hazards. Nova’s found us a star system nearby for us
to play around with it, and now I’ll give her the floor,” said Sandor.
Nova
took the pointer and took over. “We have found a small star system a short
distance out beyond Alpha Centauri. The star is an aging red star that was
named Mikanus in the middle of the last century; it was discovered by the
automated Galileo XXVI Probe of 2136. You know from your history that right
before that probe was lost in 2142, it sent us back some of our clearest
pictures of Gamilon space warships to date, which were kept classified for many
years.Then, we finally had an idea of who was
destroying our probes and some of the first deep space manned missions we never
heard from again. In the Mikanus System, there are ten known planets. One of
the smallest is Mikanus VIII; which at 2800 kilometers diameter, is maybe a bit
bigger than Ganymede,” Nova said as she pulled up a graphic of the system and
the rocky little planet. “Mikanus VIII has a highly eccentric retrograde orbit.
Prior missions have ascertained that it has an atmosphere of methane compounds,
and is lifeless,” she said with an uneasy smile as she handed IQ-9 the pointer
so he could call up other graphics as she spoke.
“It’s
isolated; our shipping never goes there, the system is uninhabited, and it’s
really like…the middle of nowhere,” Nova said with an uneasy laugh and the hint
of a smile as some of the crew chuckled while she tapped her booted foot
nervously against the deck for a moment as she thought about moral variables
that she didn’t want to get into for the moment. Nova’s smile faded as she
said, “ It’ll be safe for…what I think we’ll be doing with it when we hit it
with the wave motion gun tomorrow,” said Nova as she looked uneasily at Derek.
“So
what are we doing?” said Deke Wakefield as he stood there with Sasha. Dawn had
baby duty at the moment. “We know how the wave motion gun works, right? If I
remember correctly, didn’t we and some of our other allies use it to turn the Eritz Gatlantis into an artificial sun
now in permanent orbit of Pluto?”
Wildstar
nodded. “We sure did. We’re also making a port call on Pluto tomorrow for a few
hours on our way back into the Solar System after we drop our prisoner off for
good at his prison in the Minerva Asteroid Belt; when we finish that
unpleasantness and get to Pluto, you’ll be damn surprised to see what we’re
doing with the base there now now that we have a sun
orbiting the planet. When we test the gun tomorrow afternoon, I will be taking
the controls myself. Domon, I would like you to take Analysis at the time we do
so. I’d like a weapons officer doing the readings.”
Domon
nodded as IQ-9 protested, “I am perfectly suitable for the job! Why am I
getting demoted?”
“IQ,
I’m putting you down in the wave gun firing room for the test,” said Commodore
Wildstar. “We need a genius there at close range taking internal readings of
the gun. That’ll be your job.”
“Acknowledged,”
said IQ-9.
Sasha
raised her hand. “Captain, permission to speak?”
“Granted,”
he said as he looked at the pregnant young officer.
“I
could tell what my Aunt was thinking…sorry for intruding on your mind, Nova,
but to me, you were giving off moral doubt like a 300-Watt light bulb. The wave
motion gun is already a horribly destructive weapon. I know this happened
before I was born, but I understand that you were…forced to use it devastate
Gamilon. In the right set of variables, the Gun can already wipe a civilization out. Why do we have to make it an even
more morbid weapon than it already is? I know where this is going, and I don’t like it!” she said.
Sandor
spoke up, “Sasha, you know that as our weapons have gotten stronger, our
enemies have gotten stronger, too. I know you read your history in the Academy
and had a good idea of what nearly happened to Earth close to six years ago
this month when Ekogaru and his Fortress entered the solar system. As we can
all tell you, it was only the intervention of Aliscea and her power that made
the Argo strong enough to destroy the
Grand Technomugar Fortress. And we had a hard time winning against the Eritz Gatlantis. What’s going to happen
when and if Ekogaru comes back someday in our lifetime, or someday when we are
gone and our children have taken up the torch we will someday have to pass to
them as we retire? With the medical advances we have, our lifespans are
lengthening slowly, and we might be able to be hale and hearty up until our
sixties or eighties with proper care and diet and some of the ideas that our up
and coming doctors and soon to be doctors have; if they can make them a reality
in the lab. There is a good shot that, barring accident, many of the younger
ones in this room might see a hundred or a hundred and ten years before they
have to go the way of all flesh and die and meet their Maker. But, when that
happens, Sasha, the daughter inside you will be one of those keeping watch for
when Ekogaru returns someday with an even bigger Fortress. For we know he will,
and you know it, too…”
Sasha
nodded her head miserably. “I know that‘s true, Steve. We have to…accept
this….but that does not mean we have to like
it!”
III. AN UNEXPECTED “PARTY”
Space Battleship Argo
The
Sunday, April 3, 2208
0351 Hours Local Time
It was
one of the early-morning watches, and Sandor was now Officer of the Deck as the
Argo cruised out beyond
Sandor
sat at the Captain’s station drinking some space java while a younger officer
named Cunningham manned his usual post. Kitano was in bed, so Eager was at the
helm. Paul Rosstowski was manning Combat next to him, and a pair of young
Ensigns were manning Artillery and Communications. Engineering was being manned
by Diane Henson, while Sasha Wakefield was yawning as she sat at the
Cosmo-Radar. “I hate these late watches,” she said.
“You
know it’s part of life here,” said Sandor. “If it’ll make you feel better, your
aunt will be Officer of the Deck this same watch in twenty-four hours from now
on Monday, and you’ll have a rotation coming up as Officer of the Deck in about
two days.”
“I
forgot how tired this made me,” yawned Sasha. “Okay, maybe it’s worse due to my
current condition.”
A
moment later, an IM came up at Sasha’s post. It said:
Sasha! Damnit, I
need your help! Kids! They won’t stop crying! Tried changing their diapers,
playing with them, feeding them some bottles Nova got together…what do I do?
Dawn!!! (MAD!!!)
Sasha
typed back:
I’m on watch and
can’t leave the Bridge. Call Nova up in her cabin. You know her number. They’ve
woken her and Derek up before.
PS-act like you
have a brain!
SASHA
Sasha
waited for a response, but there was none.
Nova
got the rough side of Dawn’s tongue as she woke up in Derek’s arms in her cabin
when the phone went off. “Capn’s quarters…yes?” she
mumbled.
“Nova,
get your butt down here! These are your kids and they are screaming their heads
off! How dare you leave me alone with two screaming little...?”
Nova
yawned and extricated herself gently from her husband’s arms. “Dawn, never call my children Goddamned kids
again, or I’ll be so mad at you that you won’t want to guess what’ll happen!
I’ll be down in a minute…OVER AND OUT!” she barked as she slammed down the
phone. “Damn teenager mentality!” Nova mumbled.
“Derek?”
Nova said as she kissed her husband and got out from under the sheet and
blanket, shivering a little as the cold air made goose pimples appear from head
to toe on her nude body.
“Yeah?”
“Baby
call. I’ll bring them up here with us…Dawn’s too agitated and tired to deal with this. God knows how she’ll deal with her
own kids at 0300 in the morning when she brings them home with
“Locker,”
yawned Derek.
Nova
opened the locker, stepped into her thongs, and clad herself in a knee-length
white robe. “There’d better be an alert in the next hour…see you in a bit...”
“Bye,
Peppermint,” muttered Derek.
Nova
yawned and said, “I need space java right now in a major way…”
A few
minutes passed on the Bridge while, elsewhere on the ship, Nova went down to
see Dawn, gave her the rough side of her tongue, and collected her children,
calming Alex casually with one of her breasts as the worst of his hunger and
thirst was taken care of by Mommy as Nova watched Dawn diapering Ariel. Then,
she left to take the kids back up to their cabin.
Back
on the Bridge, Henson asked Sandor, “Should I power down one of the auxiliary
engines for a check now?”
“Not
yet,” Sandor replied. “It’s possible we may need it later this watch. I…”
“I
have a weird feeling about this,” muttered Sasha.
Rosstowski
sat up, hard, as he said, “What sort of feeling?”
“Yeah,
what?” said Eager. “An Iscandarian flash of some kind?”
“A
vague feeling of unease, and…”
At
that, the Time Radar began to go off. “I’ve just picked up an intercept!” Sasha
barked. “This was in this space two point five hours ago…have a look?”
Sasha
pulled up an image. It was of a rather large-looking spacecraft, an odd design
that none of them had ever seen before. It looked like some kind of…centipede?”
“That
thing’s ugly..” said Sasha. “It…”
“I’m
seeing a cargo ship nearby,” said Rosstowski as he pointed up. “Look!”
Sasha’s
mouth fell open as the centipede quickly attacked the cargo vessel, blowing it
to pieces before it warped out in a shimmer and glare of light. Sasha then
said, “I’m reading debris! Metal…plastic…and…I think…bodies! NO!”
“Miss
Reiter,” said Sandor. “Have you picked up a distress signal?”
“No…nothing…”
“Nothing
to pick up….that ship destroyed them,” said Sasha as she tried to choke back
tears. “Ident says that ship was a Parkesburg-class
ore vessel. Crew of twenty, all dead!”
“Hmmm,”
said Sandor as he pushed aside his relief and looked some controls. “That thing
had Magna-Power engines. It could be from the Comet Empire! This is NOT good!”
“Should
we have an alert?” said Rosstowski.
“What
if they come back, sir?” said Henson.
Sandor
stood up, sweating slightly as he said, “No alert…yet…..but I am getting the Captain! He and Nova need
to see this. We might be dealing with a new enemy….another new enemy! Or maybe an old enemy who has just thrown an
armistice agreement out the window!”
“Not
good,” said Eager.
“Sasha,
keep on watching that radar until we get the Lieutenant Commander down here to
make some scans! I’ll be right back! Rosstowski, you have the conn!
“Yessir,”
replied Paul, who suddenly realized that until they got back…he was now in
command of the legendary Argo.
In the
meantime, in a growing frazzle because of the unknown enemy, and unaware of
(and indifferent to) what might be happening in the Wildstars’ lives at 0430 in
the morning, Sandor banged at the hatch to the Captain’s quarters, and then
just pulled it open, yelling, “Captain! With all respect, we need you!” but
regretting his choice as soon as he heard a baby gurgling.
Nova
snapped in a sleepy voice, as she sat there with her robe open and Ariel at her
breast, “Steve, it’s 0430! What is it? I’m sorry, but…I’m…we’re…kind of
busy!”
“Yeah,
this had better be good!” Derek snapped as he was suddenly aware of Sandor’s
presence as he stood there while his barely dressed wife held Ariel and fed
her.
“Uh….a
radar trace we picked up on the Time Radar…a ship that attacked and destroyed a
freighter….was in our space recently, sir. I didn’t call an alert, but if the
size of this thing is…right…”
Derek
threw a blanket over Nova’s chest (now, he was more mindful of his young wife’s
nakedness than she was, occupied with the babies) as she continued to feed and
snuggle their daughter. “Is it attacking the ship now?”
“No,
but….it looks like it’s 1500 meters long, and…”
Ariel’s
whimper reminded Sandor of where he was. He felt worse as her heard Nova
cooing, “Is that still what you want,
Ariel…there?” and then, since he was trying not to stare too much, he
nonetheless saw her getting up, holding the blanket to her waist with one hand
and holding her baby girl to her breast with her other hand. The tender scene
looked…adorable. Sandor felt more alone than ever as he glanced at Nova feeding
the baby that her love and Derek’s had produced. That’s something I’ll probably never know, he thought mournfully
for a moment. Diane knows…I…I can’t
conceive a child…damn that accident I had as a boy!
“Sorry
I caught you and Nova at a bad time, sir, I…”
“Steve,
beat it!” Derek snapped.
“Derek,
wait. Steve, send the video right to my desk up here in a feed. I’ll look at it
while I’m finishing with the kids. I…I do stuff like this all the time at
home…you’ll understand someday when you and Diane get married, especially if
you have twins… and…oh, darn, I…”
Sandor
stepped back, saluted, and walked out the hatch backwards…the last he saw of
Wildstar was of him picking up the blanket.
Poor
Nova had dropped it. Again.
He was
trying not to chuckle as the hatch closed.
Four
minutes later, still in their cabin, Nova was studying the Time Radar feed at
her desk as she sat in her chair with Ariel in her lap with her robe closed
while she burped Ariel while she tried to be a mother and an officer at the
same time.
“Now
why the hell was he panicking like that?” Wildstar snapped. “I felt like punching him! He knows better! Call us
first! You should have belted him!”
“I might have slapped him, except…. Besides,
Derek, he was panicking for a good reason! It’s because this thing is 1.5 kilometers long. I’ve never seen
a mecha like this before in my life; take a look! If the Gamilons weren’t on
our side, you’d think they would have built this ship. It looks organic! And
look at how it wiped out that ship! I feel so bad for those people!”
Derek
leaned over his wife’s shoulder, making her giggle a little when he kissed her
neck. “It looks like…some kind of Centipede? Nova, what are you reading on this
thing?”
“I’m
reading old traces of cordite and propellant,” she said as she simultaneously
burped Ariel. “Those legs on that thing are missiles. About a hundred and fifty
of them,” Nova said, using her toes to point to the screen since her hands were
full with Ariel. Somehow (Derek never knew how she had the flexibility to do so),
Nova used her big toe to hit “ENTER” on her keyboard and said, “Close-up view.
See the fins on that thing? Get us uniforms, please. When she’s full, I’m
dropping her off and we’re heading to the
Derek
nodded, helping Nova to slip off her robe and then to step into her underthings
and tights and the rest of her uniform as she ran to the bed, still with Ariel
in her lap, alternating between putting on her boots and pulling a fresh shirt
over her baby girl’s little bare chest. “Derek, what’s Alex doing?”
“Sleeping,”
he said as he pulled on his trousers. “I noticed he wasn’t hungry.”
“Good
guy,” Nova whispered as Derek tucked him into his carrier. Nova kissed his nose
and said, “Mommy is taking you two back to Sickbay, where, hopefully, Auntie
Dawn is being a good girl now and has calmed down. Okay?”
“Momma
uniform funny,” Ariel said as Nova slowly zipped her suit up.
“Shh,”
Nova said. “You’ll have Mommy again later. Want to try split peas again?”
Ariel
caught the screen and giggled, “bugbugbugbugbugbug,
BUG!”
“That’s
right, it’s a bug mecha,” said Derek as he closed his peacoat and pulled on his
cap. “Hopefully, Daddy and Mommy don’t have to exterminate it…”
Ten
minutes later, the Captain and Nova arrived together on the bridge. Some kind
of alert must have been called, for they saw regular crewmembers coming back to
their posts. Eager was at her radar, and he said, “The ship’s getting closer!
Following us at twelve megameters’ range.”
Nova
took back her post, flicked switches, and said, “Eager, was this the best you
could get of it?”
“It’s
got electronic counter measures up its butt someplace,” he drawled. “Good thing
you stuck the Time Radar on cook setting or we never mighta found it!”
“Cook
setting,” Nova mumbled. “That’s a new one. Its energy source seems to be
magna-power of some kind. I’m getting a clearer trace of it now!”
“Cometines,”
said Sandor flatly as Nova sent him the data. “It has to be!”
“Excuse
me?” said Wildstar from the Captain’s station after he sat down.
“They’re
the only race we know of that uses Magna-Energy,” said Sandor. “Wildstar, if
it’s them, they just breached the cease-fire and armistice. You know the
legalities. They are not supposed to bring any new armed types of spacecraft into
the solar system, nor are they supposed to be running recon on us.”
“Recon?”
Derek said.
Nova
hit some buttons and said, “I’m trying
to jam it, Derek, but they’re snooping. They’ve painted us with three kinds of
sensors in the last thirty seconds plus two kinds of sensors I don’t even know
about! And they’re coming in closer; range, ten megameters! Make that nine
megameters! Make that eight! Speed,
twenty-nine space knots and sharply increasing! That bug’s being really
aggressive!”
“Damn
thing’s on an intercept course!” yelled Eager. “They ain’t playin’ games!”
“Taking
evasive action!” snapped Kitano from his post
![051[1]](neverrains6pg_files/image012.jpg)
“That’s
it!” Wildstar snapped as he hit the
alert switch and grabbed his microphone. “Attention all hands, attention, all
hands, this is the Captain! All hands to combat stations! Repeat, all hands to
combat stations! This is not a drill, I repeat, this is NOT a drill! All hands
to…”
“Missiles
approaching!” barked Eager.
The Argo dodged the missiles while Domon
nodded to Rosstowski. Paul said, “Open gun turrets number one and two! Target;
enemy vessel! Turret aberration, plus five! Locking on target!” he said as the
Argo’s main guns raised and locked on, ready to fire in authentic anger for the
first time in months. “Ready to fire on your orders, Captain!”
“Domon,
arm all forward weapons, ready to fire on my…”
“It’s
sending some kind of communication!” said Homer. “Voice-only!”
“Switch
to the main speakers!” Wildstar ordered.
A loud
hum came up, and then the sound of someone clearing their voice. Then, an
arrogant, cold voice said, “You big ugly vessel! What reason do you have for
approaching us in this fashion?“
“You big, ugly vessel,” repeated Wildstar
mockingly. “That’s a new one. You’re intruding in our territorial space and you
fired upon my ship once, and we also have information indicating that you just
wiped out an unarmed, unescorted cargo vessel a few hours ago like a space
pirate! State your identity and planet of origin at once!”
“Tell me yours,” said the mocking voice. “And tell me what
sort of undeveloped dump of a star
system this is?”
“This
is the Sol System, and you have entered into the territorial space of the Earth
Federation! You are speaking to the space battleship Argo. My name is Commodore Derek Wildstar, commander of this vessel
and commander of the elite First Star Force Special Unit. Where are you from,
and do you have anything to do with the Cometine Empire, OVER!?!”
“My,
my, my, kiddo, do you have high blood
pressure?” said the mocking voice. “You must have a high anxiety level. Don’t
worry. Spectra can do all sorts of things to help you. We can sell you lots of
pills, after you bow to the Great Spirit and enter our Dominion, of course!”
“They’ve
got video coming in!” said Homer.
“Well,
switch it to the main screen!”
“The
gain’s really weird. It’s distorted!” Homer said.
“Well,
put it up!” Derek ordered.
“Yessir,”
said Homer.
An
image came up of a group of about nine Terran-looking men, all of whom wore
masks in a strange Bridge or Control Room that Wildstar assumed was that of the
centipede mecha. It was so distorted that it made the grid lines on the Argo’s screen look totally distorted.
The
man who was evidently their commander was a very weird-looking individual who
wore a purple cloak lined with red satin, strange high brown boots, and a mask
that made him look like some weird cross between a purple mountain lion and a
purple Doberman. Derek also noticed that the weird-looking commander seemed to
have pink lipstick on.
Lipstick? Derek thought with distaste. The only men I’ve ever seen in lipstick were
in costume at the midnight Rocky Horror Picture Show Nova took me to
once for a laugh. He looks like something from some ancient anime series.
“Okay,
you,” Wildstar said. “First, take off
that stupid mask. I don’t normally
talk to people wearing masks.”
“You take off that stupid yachting cap,
hippie-boy,” mocked the enemy commander.
“Like
hell,” said Wildstar. “This is a symbol of my rank.”
“My
mask is a symbol of my rank, Wildhair,”
snapped the enemy commander. “For your information, my name is General Ibn
Zoltar the Illustrious, probably to be the next Grand Chairman of Spectra soon
since our lord lies on his deathbed. I am doing his bidding. That is why I
wiped that ship out, for your information! I demanded their surrender and they
refused, so I jammed their transmissions and dealt with them as they deserved
to be dealt with, so it is now upon their own heads as they burn in Hell!
Anyone ever tell you that you have a stupid-looking crew, son? The kid in the
front next to the droid looks like he stuck his finger in a socket and thus all
of his hair is standing on end, the kid next to him in green and white looks
retarded, the guy in blue and white has no eyebrows, the guy next to him in
green and white looks like he overeats, while the blonde chick near him in the
yellow catsuit looks anorexic. The girl in the orange and white outfit has
grease on her face and looks idiotic, the guy in yellow looks like he is gay,
and the guy beside him with the messy brown hair looks like a jerk from South
Philly! And your droid looks like a red trashcan!”
IQ-9
got up and said, “I am not a trashcan! I am a genius robot! Take back what you
said about Nova! I am in love with her! She is the most beautiful woman in the
universe! If you hate her, you hate all women! Men and women are equal! Are you
a man or a woman?”
“None
of your business!” yelled Zoltar.
“Will you surrender, Wildhair?”
“You
should be the one who is surrendering,” said Wildstar. “You are the one
intruding in our space, you terrorist!”
“And
you are the one who offends me with your stupid dress sense!” yelled Zoltar.
“Peacoats went out in the Napoleonic Wars! And don’t you know that red and black
clash? Who dresses you in the morning, lover-boy?
The anorexic chick, or the fat one?”
Zoltar
laughed insanely as he cut off.
“I’m
not anorexic,” Nova huffed.
“I’m
not fat,” said Diane.
As the
ship fired more missiles, Nova said, “Recommend evasive! And he’s getting
closer! Range, seven megameters!”
“I
have the feeling that man is insane, Wildstar,” said Sandor. “He can’t be
reasoned with, or negotiated with.”
“Good
for us,” said Wildstar as he folded his arms, “Mister Domon, fire at will!
Let’s send that madman to Hell where he
belongs!”
“We
gave him his chance,” said Domon. “Main guns, OPEN FIRE!”
The Argo’s guns fired one, two, three times.
The
third salvo blew off the centipede’s tail and about five of its segments.
On
board the enemy vessel, one of the crewmen said, “General Zoltar. We’ve lost
four segments and the supply of poison gas for their homeworld! We have to
abort the mission! That ship is very strong and has heavy firepower! Just as we
were warned!”
“It’s
just under a fifth as big as we are. If we hit those naval turrets on that
floating nightmare, we can capture it!” Zoltar said. “Then we can do what I
should have done to that freighter and her crew, namely captured them and
turned them all into slaves!”
The
centipede shook again as more segments were blown off of it.
“Lordship!
That big ugly ship is launching space interceptors!”
“Interceptors
would tie us down too long,” said Zoltar. “Fire missiles at them and the big
ugly boat and let’s warp out of here! We can scavenge upon them another day!”
The
centipede fired twelve missiles….six at Hardy’s and
But
the strange ship just ran, warping away right as Hardy and his wingmen fired
missiles at it.
“Damn them!” said Hardy as he banged a
gloved hand on his dashboard.
FOUR HOURS LATER….
Commodore
Wildstar visited Sickbay. “How’s things?”
Doctor
Sane sighed. “Casualties could have been heavier. Three dead, ten injured,
mostly shrapnel and radiation burns. We’ve warped to the Mikanus System
already?”
Derek
nodded his head. “We have to go on with these trials and test the wave motion
gun. We can’t be interrupted in any more tests. Not now! Any more interruptions
while we do so will make our test results for that phase useless!”
Nova
came up, saluting as she stood there in a slightly bloody nurses’ smock. “Our
injured are okay. Dawn and Sasha are not among them. Luckily, neither Alexander
nor Ariel are among them, either. They’re sleeping now. God bless them. They
slept right through a battle! Poor dears,” Nova said as she wiped her eyes
and Derek hugged her.
“We’ll
be fine,” said Derek. “I think we gave that enemy unit a scare. They shouldn’t
be coming back. I hope. It’s whoever sent
them that worries me!”
“Derek,
do they have guest quarters on that prison asteroid?” Nova asked.
“Why?”
“Request
permission to be relieved of duty and dropped off there later today with Alex,
Ariel, Dawn and Sasha until you finish the trials in five days. Then you can
pick us up.”
“Nova…they
have guest quarters there…but near the Second Cellblock! Would you want to
subject our children to the sights and sounds of a prison?”
“It
might be safer there than here,” Nova said sadly.
“Nova,
yes, there is a threat of enemy attack, but here, you are as safe as possible.
The babies are either in Sickbay or our cabin, and those are among the most
well-armored parts of the ship by design. No one will hurt any of you here,
unless, God forbid, we get boarded. In that prison, you would be just meters
away from cutthroats and madmen like Hartcliffe, or even worse. And it is a men’s prison. Women would not be safe
there. In fact, regs keep you from even going into the place! I could relieve
you from duty if you feel you can’t be a mother and my officer at the same
time, but, no…you are not leaving this ship until we make the next safe port,
which is home. Do you want me to relieve you of duty?”
Nova
looked down at her white boots and shook her head “No, Derek. I didn’t know all
of that about that asteroid. Thank you, and you need not relieve me of duty. I
am…capable of doing my job…I…”
Nova
grabbed a tissue from a dispenser and sneezed into it.
“You
okay?” Derek said.
“Sinuses…I
think. That attack must’ve shaken up some dirt from the refit. Let me go check
on the kids.”
Nova
kissed Derek and took off.
Okay, I wonder what’s going to be on
the agenda next?
Wildstar thought. Those jokers had better
not come back.
TO BE CONTINUED….