ALTERNATE TALES OF THE STAR FORCE
STAR BLAZERS---PASSICAGLIA AND FUGUE IN C MINOR
Being the eighth part of THE RIKASHA INCIDENT--- BY: Frederick P. Kopetz
ACT SIX--NIGHTMARES AND
DREAMSCAPES
Preface: From the Writings of the Dark
Lord, written on parchment....
They call me mad....
They call me a lunatic. For what? For wanting to improve the lot
of humanity? For wishing to drag Man out of the
Primordial Slime?
Man, as I saw him, when I began my
project ages ago, was a being that came naked and wet out of Mother like an
animal. He suckled like an animal, rutted and reproduced like one, and died in
the dust after three score and seventy like an animal. He even decomposes like
some kind of animal if you leave him to smell bad and rot long enough.
I wish to be man's benefactor, Man's Saviour. I give Man the sublimity of artificial cellular
structure, neurons and ganglia that never grow senile, muscles that never grow
flabby, eyes that never grow dim, and facial features that never age.
I give unto them Eternal Life. And they
shall never perish.
All I demand as my Due is that they
follow My Grand Scheme. All I demand is that all of us who join in this
enterprise join in either forcing all to become one with me or wiping the
Organic Slime who wish not to Evolve off the FACE of the Eternal Cosmos as a
lost Project! Is that so Evil?? I would do good, not Evil. I would create, not
Destroy.
But, oppose ye the force of Mine Will
long enough, and ye shall see I can Destroy like none other.
Yea, in the Words of The Terrans, these
buckets of slime with ganglia and intestines and tear ducts and sweat glands
that ooze repulsive salty ill-smelling slime and orifices that must eliminate
poisonous chemicals and slimy waste every few hours...Yea, I AM become Death, Destroyer of Worlds!
EKOGARU THE GREAT, BENEFACTOR OF
MAN!!!!
I. DEVASTATION
The Vicinity of Planet
Beemira
Monday, April 5, 2202
1032 Hours Spacetime
"Nova, why is it that
we're heading down to Beemira again?"
"To
gather green plants, IQ-9."
"We just left Iscandar
a few days ago. Why do we need more plants?"
"You don't remember
when Baron Cha'rif attacked us again two days ago?" asked Nova in the
cockpit of the modified Jet Recon Boat she was flying. "The Number One and
Number Two refrigeration units were hit. We had to throw out a lot of food, and
we're running low again. If we can avoid the Beemirans,
I think we can get the edible plants we need and get out of here."
"Why do we need to
avoid the Beemirans?"
"You compute it,"
huffed Nova. "The last time we were here, I sort
of got tied up. So did you! Remember?"
IQ-9's lights flashed for a
bit while he computed. "Yes. It would be wise to avoid the Beemirans if at all possible. Regardless of who is in
power, they are likely to be hostile. They couldn't wait to see us leave the
planet."
"Good. If we can land
here in the jungle..."
Nova found a spot near one
of the swamps, and she came in for a landing a moment later.
She and IQ-9 worked quietly for a while gathering
green plants after climbing into a small cave to check an odor they had
detected. In the cave, they found some plants that would be useful. When the
cargo compartment of the boat was filled up, Nova reported in to Homer.
"Would you tell Captain Wildstar that we've gathered up our first load?
We'll be back on the ship to unload, and then we'll return to the planet later
for a second load."
"Roger," said
Homer.
Nova and IQ-9 flew back.
They returned later that day, landing on another part of the planet to gather
more edible plants. On the second trip, however, they found a somewhat
disturbing discovery; the still form of a Beemiran
underneath some large leaves. It so happened that IQ-9
found it. "Nova," he called.
"What?"
"Come here and look at
this."
Nova and IQ-9 looked at the dead
body lying on its stomach holding a sword. "I don't pick up any life
signs," said IQ-9.
Nova turned over the body
with a booted foot. "It looks like he's been dead for a few days. Do you
think he died of that energy hit in his chest?"
IQ scanned the body.
"I think so. It goes most of the way through him."
Derek called the party on
Nova's headset. "Nova, IQ-9, come in. Are you two okay down there?"
"Yes we are, Derek. We
were about to head back with the second load, but we just found a dead Beemiran. IQ-9 thinks he was killed with a beam
weapon."
"Could he have been a
casualty from the first time we were there?"
"No, it's too recent a
death," said IQ-9. "His exoskeleton isn't faded due to weathering,
and most of his internals are still intact. I estimate he's been dead about two
or three days at the most."
"There may be hostiles
on the planet, Nova. How far are you from the hive?"
"About
a hundred klicks."
"Get back here with
your second load. You're getting an escort for the third run, and I'd like you
and your party to land within sight of the hive to see if the Beemirans are all right."
"Roger," said
Nova. "We've gathered about fifty kilograms' worth of stuff this time, and
we'll be back soon."
"Good. Be
careful."
Nova and IQ-9 arrived
safely back on the Argo with their second load. About an hour later,
they left again, with Nova now piloting a medical shuttle. They needed the
extra room. She was now accompanied by two young officers from the Living
Group. They were Ensign Donald Hammersmith, who was a botanist, and an Ensign
Clarisse Lange, who was an entomologist. Four enlisted men and women from
Living Group also accompanied them. Some Marines also accompanied them down in
a second landing shuttle that flew alongside the Nova's medical boat. IQ-9, of
course, began bothering Lange when they landed. He only stopped when the
dark-haired young woman grabbed a tree branch and threatened to smack him with
it.
"Ma'am, how do you put
up with this thing?" demanded Lange as she glared in Nova's
direction. Nova was bending down on one knee, looking at some plants.
"Fight him, Clarisse.
He used to be fixated on me, once."
"I still am,"
said IQ. "Especially on that behind."
"Can it, tinwit!"
snapped Nova. Then, she thought. Oh, Lord God, what did I do that you've
cursed me with this robot and his libido?
"Ma'am, look at this
tree over here," said Hammersmith. "It took a laser hit."
Nova ran over to the tree.
She looked at the burn mark and whistled to Lieutenant Hemsford.
"Look at this. It
looks recent," she said.
"Looks like at least a
.50 caliber," said Hemsford. "It seems that there's
some people around here packing some nasty shit."
Then, they heard a loud
scream. A moment later, laser fire whizzed in towards the party.
"Hit the deck!"
yelled Hemsford. Nova ducked down beside him behind a tree trunk. The ground
was swampy, so some water kicked up when they took shelter. Luckily, their
boots and uniforms kept the muddy water out.
The enemy fire blasted in
again. Hemsford returned fire with his rifle, with Nova backing him up with her
Astro-Automatic.
The enemy was visible a
moment later. The group was a good-sized pack of humanoids in camouflage green
battle armor.
An enemy trooper then said,
in a flat, electronic-sounding voice, "In the name of the Lord Ekogaru, give
up, you scum!"
"Technomugar?"
whispered Hemsford.
Nova nodded once. The
electronic voice came again. "We know where you are. We have you
surrounded."
A moment later, some of the
electronic voices yelled. There came loud howls, and the sound of hand-to-hand
fighting.
Then, right in front of
them, from out of the tropical growth, came a pair of beings locked in mortal
combat. A Technomugar trooper who had been disarmed was attempting to kill a Beemiran with only his armored hands. The Beemiran was badly wounded, but he still had enough
strength to stab at the trooper with his short sword.
Then, the Technomugar troop
grabbed the sword, and decapitated the Beemiran with
it. The Beemiran's corpse then collapsed into the
water like a rag.
"My God,"
whispered Nova.
Hemsford said to Nova,
"Stay under cover here, ma'am," and then he jumped out into the fray.
He pulled his K-Bar combat knife and soon had it against the Technomugar
trooper's relatively unarmored neck.
"Let 'im go!"
said Hemsford. The trooper refused, so Hemsford stabbed the enemy trooper in
the neck. A pinkish fluid that resembled blood poured out over Hemsford's hands
and over the enemy's uniform.
"Damn you, you
organic piece of garbage," said the Technomugar trooper, who fell down a
moment later. He was dying, but even in his death throes, he tried to strangle
Hemsford. The Marine officer gasped, but he managed to extricate the enemy
trooper's hands from his neck right before the armored soldier twitched and
died.
Another Technomugar soldier
spotted Nova. He ran up firing and howling. Nova dodged the bolts and returned
fire, but her fire just skipped off the trooper's armored breastplate. The
enemy trooper kicked her in the wrist, knocking her weapon out of her hand into
the swamp. Nova backpedaled away from the trooper, who was laughing.
"Good. Now, it's time for you to die, you organic scum. Too bad you'll never
see Earth again, you half-witted woman!"
Nova found a fallen Beemiran and took a sword from out of his hand. With a
high-pitched kiai, she swung and
knocked the rifle out of the Technomugar trooper's hands. Then, the battle
turned into hand-to-hand combat, with the trooper punching and kicking at Nova
as she fended him off with the sword. Her helmet came off, and splashed into
the water. Then, Nova fell as she avoided a blow from the trooper. Luckily, she
was able to get up a moment later, fending off the trooper's blows with the
flat of the sword.
Finally, he grabbed at her
neck, hoping to grab her and just snap her neck like a twig. Nova responded by
swinging at the trooper's neck with all she had. A moment later, the
Technomugar trooper's head came off. Nova then leaned against a tree with one
hand, holding her sword with the other as she caught her breath.
"Are you all
right?" said IQ-9.
Nova nodded. "My
party's still fighting. Let me go and help them,
IQ."
Nearby, Clarisse killed
another trooper with her astro-automatic, followed by Hammersmith.
"No. You look shaky. Rest there. Let me try to find your helmet."
Not far away, one Marine
died, but the enemy trooper was killed by his squad mate.
Finally the jungle was
again quiet, save for the cries of strange birds. The battle was over; with the
squad of eight Technomugar troopers all dead.
Hammersmith ran up to Nova
as she stood there panting. "Ma'am, are you all right?"
"I'm fine," she
said through heavy breaths. "That guy almost finished me."
IQ-9 came up with Nova's
helmet and then noticed that she still had her sword. "Nova, I'd better
not tease you when you have a sword in your hand."
"Yeah, right,"
she said. She put her helmet back on, and swore softly as she found that the
helmet's transceiver had gone dead. "Hemsford, can I have your
radio?" she said. "I think we'd better call Derek for backup. There
might be more of them around."
"Certainly,
ma'am. Good job
on that guy, by the way."
"Thanks," said
Nova as she took Hemsford's walkie-talkie. A moment later, she was calling the Argo
for backup.
A while later, the other
Marine landing craft arrived, carrying Captain Wildstar, Sandor, and more Space
Marines. By then, Nova was busy taking care of a wounded Marine on a dry spot
when Derek showed up.
"How's it going?"
"We took care of the
squad we were facing, but IQ-9's detected more of them around, Derek. Did you
see what happened to the Beemirans' hive?"
"Yeah. We flew over it, and it was
burning. It doesn't look good. We saw lots of dead Beemirans
all over the ground."
"Poor people,"
said Nova with a shake of her head. "It's worse than what the Gamilons did
to them. But why? What sense does mass genocide
make?"
A moment later, more laser
fire raked the area. Derek shoved Nova under cover with a yelp, but a moment
later, they had their weapons out and were returning fire.
From what they could see,
it was more Technomugar soldiers. Some were on foot, while others had armored
vehicles of some kind. The vehicles stopped, and the troopers began to pour out
like rats.
A moment later, a flight of
Cosmo Tigers roared overhead. One of the armored vehicles began to shoot at the
Tigers, but the flight leader roared back for a bombing run. The
three CT II's from the Black Tigers took care
of the armored vehicles a moment later with six missiles, two from each plane.
The planes roared overhead
again, and Captain Wildstar heard a familiar Liverpudlian
voice in his headphones. "Hey, Bryan Hartcliffe here,
sir. Feels good to be back outta the brig. Good
job, that?"
"Yes, nice job,
Ensign. Thank you, Mister. Now take your flight up off the deck a little and
search for more of them. We're heading towards the hive and we don't need to
meet any more resistance like that."
"M' pleasure,
sir," said Hartcliffe. The Tigers waggled their wings in Wildstar's
direction and then roared off.
"Hardy must have sent
him," said Nova. "I think his squadron's on Combat Air Patrol right
now."
"You're right,"
said Derek. "Another one of Hardy's flights escorted my landing boat in.
Okay...let's start making our way towards that hive..."
In the meantime, the Argo
herself was under attack; two Technomugar space battleships and a number of
smaller vessels were shooting at the ship.
Under Venture's command,
Dash and Rosstowski were firing the main guns at the enemy battleships. The
enemy returned fire, damaging the Argo slightly, but the next barrage
from the Earth ship finished the enemy space battleships off. The remainder of
Hardy's squadron and Conroy's squadron were then called back to the area around
the ship to attack the smaller vessels. The invasion of Beemira was broken when
two troop carrier ships were blown to bits by the Black Tigers.
Finally, mission
accomplished, Conroy's squadron returned to the ship while Hardy remained on
patrol to deal with any stragglers.
The giant beehive and
surrounding outbuildings were all on fire. The area was littered with dead
Technomugar troops and dead Beemirans. The Beemirans had obviously gone down fighting; some of them
still clasped swords in their dead hands, while others held the crossbow-like
weapons characteristic to their race. Nova remembered that those weapons had
been crude but deadly; she had seen Beemirans slain
with that weapon, and had remembered when the Beemirans
had held her prisoner with such a weapon against her head.
"IQ-9, are there any
life signs around, other than ours?" asked Nova as she and Derek looked at
the carnage. Both of them looked a bit ill.
"I'm picking up
something, now," said IQ. "Over there."
The robot pointed, and
Nova, Derek, and Hemsford ran over to find a Beemiran
woman in a torn-up red dress lying on the ground.
"Their Queen,"
said Nova.
"Is she the same one
who enslaved them to the Gamilons?" asked Derek.
Nova nodded.
"Uh...Queen Melina," asked Nova. "Can you hear us?"
"Gamilons," she
whispered. "Desslok finally sent you back. Too
late."
"No," said
Captain Wildstar. "We're not Gamilons. We're from a planet called Earth.
I'm Captain Derek Wildstar of the Argo. The young woman is my wife, Nova
Wildstar, who is our survey officer and also our ship's head nurse."
"Yes, the old man held
you prisoner," said Melina. "I'm remembering the revolt now. Seems
this battle accomplished...what he meant to do."
"What happened?"
asked Derek.
"They came from
above...everywhere; the planet was overrun by these people. The
Technomugar. They demanded we surrender. I refused. Now, I can tell I'm
the last one left alive of my race. I had a link to the rest of my people; but
no one is now left alive. A new race could spring from me...but I don't think
it can...not if I die."
"Hold on," said
Nova as Melina grimaced. "We'll take you to our ship for treatment."
"Won't help...I'm
dying," said Melina. "Goodbye, from...the last of
my kind. Please destroy the hive...mostly destroyed already..."
And, at that, Queen Melina
died.
"No Beemiran life signs are left," said IQ-9. "Now,
they're all dead."
"The last of her
race," said Derek as he took off his helmet and saluted. Beside him, Nova
did the same. No one said anything about the tears that ran down her face as
she did so. Somehow, tears seemed appropriate at this moment.
A while
later, they were all on their way back to the Argo. A dead Technomugar had been picked
up; the body would be autopsied aboard the ship later. Scans, luckily, verified
that there were no more Technomugar left alive on the planet. As the troop
carrier flew back to the ship, Nova leaned against Derek's pilot seat in the
cockpit.
"I wish I knew why
they did that, Derek. What did they want with this planet?"
"I don't know. They
mentioned Ekogaru, didn't they?"
"Yes. They acted as if
he's still alive. I hope he isn't...but, if he is..."
Captain Wildstar sighed.
"If he is alive, it seems as if this would be one of his works. Did you
gather enough plants?"
"Yes I did. At least
the food problem's solved." Nova looked at her
helmet. "This thing needs a new transceiver."
"I'll fix it for you
later on," said Sandor from the co-pilot's seat. "When are you and
Dr. Sane going to be examining that dead enemy trooper?"
"Probably
as soon as we get back.
"That won't be
long," said Captain Wildstar. Before loomed the bulk of
the Argo. Derek spoke into his microphone. "Lower
bay; do we have landing clearance?"
"That's an
affirmative," said a radar controller's voice.
At that, the troop shuttle
landed.
II. AUTOPSY
Sickbay
Space Battleship Argo
Monday, April 5, 2202
1412 Hours Spacetime
The Argo was now a
thousand lightyears away from Beemira, having made a space warp just a while
ago. But now, quite a few members of the Star Force, off duty, were standing
around Sickbay's observation windows, watching intently as Doctor Sane, Nova,
and IQ-9 prepared to work on a tall bluish-purple form partly covered by a
sheet.
An oxygen mask dangled near
the form, but it was not connected since the being lying there would never need
oxygen again. The dead Technomugar trooper, stripped of his armor and
underclothing, looked a bit like a very tall and massive Gamilon to casual
observers; he had dark hair, strong features, and was quite well-muscled.
"Nova, pull back the
sheet so we can begin," said Doctor Sane.
"Yes, Doctor,"
she replied. Nova carefully removed the sheet from the alien body; at the
chest, the pattern of three wounds that had killed the creature now happened to
be visible. Nova worked carefully, occassionally
jotting down observations on a computer padd. She had
more to write down when she had removed the sheet all the way, leaving the
Technomugar trooper naked on the table.
A few rivulets of sweat ran
down Nova's bare legs under the hot operating-room lights as she stood near the
instrument tray, ready to hand Dr. Sane a retractor at his call. Since this was
an autopsy, neither of them needed to wear masks over their mouth or shoe
covers over their sandals; there was no risk whatsoever of infecting their
"patient". However, they still wore the usual caps; getting hair into
the field of dissection was still not a good idea, and, of course, they wore
gloves. There was no further need for any other protective gear because IQ-9's
initial analysis of the corpse didn't bring up any caustic or acidic substances
inside the purplish-blue alien body.
"How's the cut
going?" asked Nova.
"Mmmhh,"
said Sane, tapping his geta-clad foot against the laser knife operating
pedal to make the laser "blade" hotter. "He's got a thick
hide."
"Smells like burning
plastic," said Nova as she wrinkled her nose. "Same
with these tendons in here under the pectoral muscles. Are they plastic,
too?"
"My analysis says
they're carbon-fiber," said IQ-9 as he came up.
"How did this creature
get made?' asked Nova. "Don't you think we should
have had Sandor in here? How much of this being is mechanical?"
"I'm not sure, but
we'll find out."
Vorston, the Rikashan prisoner who had been
a long-time "guest" of the Star Force sat meditating in his cell when
he suddenly stiffened. A wave of cold ran over his bare chest, and he mumbled,
in Rikashan, "What is it you desire? Who are you?"
A deep, cold voice in his
mind replied. "I am Ekogaru, your God of War. You are sworn to serve me, Vorston. One of your brothers is being disgracefully cut up
in the autopsy room. Rise, and help him kill the human animals who are profaning his form. There are two, a man and a
woman. I want both of their necks broken."
I can't do that, thought Vorston.
This can't really be Lord Ekogaru. Isn't he honorable? Isn't he merciful?
"Rise up," said
the cold voice again. "RISE!"
After a long struggle, Vorston made his decision. "Lordship, I hear and obey
Thee," he said.
A moment later, a Space
Marine tapped at the hatch. "Hey, Rikashan!" he yelled. "This is
your breakfast! Sorry I'm a little late, wanted it to get nice and cold,
buddy!"
The hatch opened, and Vorston sprung out like a wildcat. In a moment, the
Marine's neck was broken and the Rikashan had his Astro-Automatic. He pointed
it at the other three guards and said, "Let me out of here! NOW!"
One guard thumbed a control
at a console, and Vorston shot him through the
midsection. Vorston snarled, "Want you to die,
all you scum? NO! Get away from those, let me out!"
The marines moved, and, a
moment later, Vorston used all of his strength to
punch through a heavy steel hatch like paper. "I could have gotten out of
here all along. Now there is something I must do. Apologize do I, but you will
see why I must do what I must do. Fare thee well, Terranische!"
Vorston ran off as one Marine fired at him.
Another one picked up a phone and called the
Aliscea sat up bolt upright
from her meditations as soon as she had felt Ekogaru's astral presence. Goose
pimples covered her body; she had been floating in the air in her sleepshirt in a lotus position when she had felt the
presence.
"It's Sickbay,"
she murmured. She let herself drift to the deck, stretched out her legs, and
ran out of the VIP quarters as fast as her legs would take her. Of course, she
knew where Sickbay was. And, of course, she knew what was about to happen...
"It's cold in here all
of a sudden," said Sane. "Nova, do you feel it?"
"I sure do," she
replied. She felt frozen in only her Medical dress and underclothes. She looked
at one of her bare legs; it was covered in goose pimples all the way down to
her feet; and she felt as if her sandals had suddenly turned into blocks of ice
strapped to her feet. "IQ, did you hit the temperature switch? It was warm
in this compartment a minute ago!"
"No, Nova, I didn't touch
anything."
"Thanks. Doctor Sane,
what's going on?"
Doctor Sane spoke,
surprised to see vapor coming out of his mouth just as it had from Nova's mouth
when she spoke. "I don't know. Let's get this autopsy finished; then we
can have some hot green tea, and..."
"Doctor, look!"
cried Nova.
They were about to cut open
the Technomugar's scalp to lay open his skull when
the eyes suddenly opened. They glowed red with malice.
"Scum," hissed
the Technomugar as he lifted his head. "You have disemboweled me, you
stinking torturers! Get away from me!"
"We didn't know,"
said a horrified Sane. "We thought you were...dead," he said as he
made a hand signal to Nova. She knew it meant "get the Morpheus-X". Morpheus-X,
one of Earth's strongest anesthetic drugs, was kept in emergency syringes for
such a purpose, in case regular anesthesia failed while a patient was on the
table. Nova had never thought she'd need to use it during an autopsy, but she
guessed there was a first time for everything.
Above, in the observation
area, Dash and the others saw what was happened. "Damnit, we have to get
in there to help them," he said. "Guys, follow me," yelled Dash
as he drew his Astro-Automatic.
Both
Hartcliffes,
Raiden, Hemsford, and Homer all drew their weapons, determined as one to rescue
Doctor Sane and Nova from this maniac.
Nova got the syringe while
the Technomugar got up. Doctor Sane didn't see how he could stand up, let alone
walk. Half of his internal organs had been removed, and others hung gruesomely
out of his opened body cavity.
"Now, you
listen," said Sane. "Get yourself back on that table and we'll see if
we can help you! I didn't know you were still alive."
"You do now, you
scumbag," said the Technomugar with a smile.
"Wait a minute,
there's a lady present," cried Sane. "Watch that language!"
"Make me, you
brainless pond scum," said the enemy trooper. He jumped for Doctor Sane,
but Sane wheeled back. Taking off one of his shoes, he cried out and slammed
the Technomugar in the head as hard as he could.
"Nova, get out of
here!" cried Sane. "This is no place for you!"
"I can't leave you
alone," Nova retorted.
"Prepare to die,
scum," said the Technomugar as he grabbed Sane, who fought back fiercely
with his geta clog. The old man slammed the clog against the Technomugar's head, but nothing happened.
"You're dead, old
man," mocked the enemy trooper. "After you die, I'll take out the
blonde babydoll of your assistant." With a
snarl, the guard tossed Doctor Sane away like a rag doll. Sane hit a console
and his head began to bleed under his paper medical cap. He looked dazed and
then fell unconscious to the deck.
Nova gasped slightly. She
was armed with only her hypodermic, and the monster was coming for her.
"Ready to die and go
to hell, you accursed female thing?" growled the enemy trooper. "YOU
are beyond your station! You know your gender is good for only one thing!"
"No, I'm...not,"
responded Nova in a shaky but authoritative voice.
Klaxons began to go off,
and there was some announcement in Derek's voice that the Rikashan prisoner Vorston had escaped. Nova paid it little mind as she
watched IQ-9 putting himself between her and the living-dead Technomugar.
"Nova, I'll protect you," he cried. "Run!"
Nova backed up, grabbing a
scalpel with one hand while she reached up and back with a foot numb with cold.
She kicked the hatch lock, and listened as the hatch slid open.
She prepared to back out of
the hatch when the Technomugar howled with rage and threw IQ-9 out of the
operating room. The robot flew out of the hatch, hit the deck in the corridor,
and collapsed into three pieces.
The enraged Technomugar
then kicked savagely at Nova. But, Nova lashed out like a mongoose fighting a
snake with her left hand and sunk the hypodermic needle into the Technomugar's ankle. She slammed home the plunger and
stepped back.
"You attack me with
such puny weapons, moron?" snarled the Technomugar. "I will have you
know that Ekogaru lives and he wants you DEAD!"
He came at Nova, who found
herself trapped against the round wall of the passage outside a moment later.
She held the scalpel, preparing to defend herself when the Technomugar flew in
like a blur from her left and knocked her to the deck. She cried out as his
foot kicked her in the left thigh like a football, cutting her with her own
syringe as it flew out and scraped her thigh. The impact threw her down the
corridor like a doll and would leave a nasty bruise on her leg when she hit.
As she flew through the
air, the Technomugar ran towards his enemy to finish her off...only to be
greeted with a heavy punch in the mouth from an unexpected source, namely, Vorston of Rikasha. Nova's mouth fell open as she noticed
the Rikashan jumping into the fray, trying to defend her. A second later, when
Nova landed, she saw and heard no more after her head slammed into the deck
with a sickening crunch. Blood began to flow out one ear beneath her hair. Nova
didn't know it, but she was now mortally wounded. Without assistance, she would
die in about one hour...or become a vegetable.
In the meantime, the fight
between Vorston and the Technomugar continued.
"Why do you fight me? We are allies!" yelled the Technomugar in what
sounded like archaic Rikashan.
"Allies? Never. Not
you. Some demon pretending to be Ekogaru spoke to me. We cannot harm these
people. They are decent. They have treated me well. I will defend them against
monsters like you, you sickness."
"Ekogaru damn you, you
stinking Rikashan heretic!" howled the Technomugar as they grappled. He
moved a little more slowly now; Nova's anesthetic was beginning to take effect
despite the cyborg's mechanical defenses. The cyborg also knew that his psionic
link to the Dark Lord and the Grand Fortress had been cut. The accursed doctor
and nurse had taken out his D'ansheivalen link
circuits while he had been in the stasis his wounded body had thrown him into
while it healed or received new parts. The Technomugar felt that it was his
duty to find his torturers and rip out their beating hearts even if he was cut
off from the gestalt that was the Technomugar race. He would mutilate
them even as he had been mutilated.
While Vorston
(who was grievously wounded when the Technomugar ripped one of his eyes out)
and the Technomugar grappled like grotesque Titans in their blood, Aliscea of
Pellias ran down the corridor, and nearly stumbled over Nova.
She knelt and cradled the
limp form for a moment. My God, her skull's
fractured, thought Aliscea as she tenderly felt and probed Nova's body. Her
brain's beginning to swell, leg's bruised and cut, she'll never wake up from
this unassisted. Well, I'm not letting the Reaper have you yet, dear. You've
been like a sister to me, and you have much to do yet. We need you alive and
working, hon.
Aliscea began to glow a
soft yellow as she reached out with her power, healing Nova's swelling brain,
and also repairing the damage to her skull and meningial
membranes. Then, she fixed the two broken ribs and even the wounds on her
thigh.
A moment later, as Nova lay
in Aliscea's arms, her eyelids fluttered open and she mumbled, "Momma, do
I still have the chicken pox? Where's those Toll House
cookies?"
"Nova, dear, I'm not
your mom..."
"Aliscea!" she
cried. "That battle. Got to get in there and help Doctor Sane! Head feels
so...foggy...though...I..."
"Do not try to get up
yet," ordered Aliscea in a stern voice. "What I did to save you will
take a few minutes to fully take hold. Sit there with your head between your
knees and rest. Your husband will be here for you in two minutes. You're a very
brave young lady, taking on one of those with only that little knife. Stay
there, I shall handle this!"
Aliscea kissed Nova and ran
off.
In the meantime, Vorston and the Technomugar fought. They tore at each other
with tremendous strength like gruesome prehistoric reptiles. Vorston was in great pain from his wounds, and he was
bleeding like a river, but the stoicism bred into him by the fierce cruelty of
Rikashan military training made him almost unstoppable. Even in his last
moments, he continued to fight the cyborg warrior who was about a thousand
years old now and had once been of his race, taken long ago in a raid.
Aliscea noticed the
fighters and howled with rage as she leaped on the Technomugar's
back. In a moment, like a Harpy from hell, she tore out one of the Technomugar's eyes and threw it across the deck. Then, she
pushed Vorston out of the cyborg's foul embrace with
a bare foot. She focused her power, began to gleam again, and then she began to
tear off the Technomugar trooper's head, unmindful of her exposure as her sleepshirt hitched up, revealing her otherwise naked
bottom.
Gore smeared against
Aliscea's bare legs as she tore at the head. "Scum!
Scum! Scum!" yelled the Technomugar. "When I get my hands on
you, you father-lover, so help me, I will..."
"You'll what?"
snapped Aliscea.
She finally broke off the
head, and, howling words in ancient Pellian, she caused fire to run down her
arms and explode on the face of the still-living cyborg head. The Technomugar's mouth opened in a silent scream as Aliscea
incinerated the head right in her hands. In her rage, she also didn't care
about the pain she felt in her hands from the creature's metal skull.
Aliscea herself enjoyed
immunity to fire, but hot metal could still burn her. Indeed, she focused her
power so intensely that her holy, terrible fire literally began to soften the
metal of the cyborg trooper's skull as she roasted the living human brain that
lay inside the unholy metal carapace.
Aliscea screamed as the
sprinkler system went off, dousing her flame and giving her an unexpected cold
shower that caused her long hair to cling to her now-exposed body like a
natural nightgown. She was still screaming when Dash and the others found her
in the corridor, accompanied by Wildstar, Sandor, and Rosstowski.
"What happened?"
said Captain Wildstar.
"Are you okay,
Aliscea?" asked Paul Rosstowski.
The Pellian nodded.
"I'm fine, if a little underdressed right now. Nova and your doctor tried
to autopsy this without reckoning on his stasis circuits." Aliscea
cast the charred Technomugar head to the deck. Paul saw the burns on her hands
and pushed aside Wildstar to get at his wife.
"God, what happened to
your hands?" he said. "And you're naked! You can't let everyone see
you like this!"
"The burns will heal,
Paul, I'm working on those now. As for my clothes, they've just seen me naked,
so what's the concern? Losing your clothes in a good fight is no sin if you
live. I ended up like this because I threw on a sleepshirt
when I felt HIM but then burned it off fighting that trooper."
"HIM?" asked Paul
as he took off his shirt.
"I am referring to
Ekogaru, Paul. Why are you doing that?" asked Aliscea.
"I'm gonna cover you
up, damnit. And, again, who's "HIM?""
"Ekogaru, I
said," snapped Aliscea as Paul dressed her in his Star Force shirt. She
let him do it out of chivalry, because she knew it was a loving gesture on his
part. "He lives and was trying to give that thing aid and comfort,
what do you think? But Sane and Nova cut his psi-link,
but the Dark Lord didn't know that! He was also trying to corrupt the Rikashan
who broke prison to fight for us. I wish I could help him, but I cannot...not
at this time. It is because I used and drained my inner power to heal Nova and
kill that creature. As for the rest of you, when you fight those, the only way to kill them is to hit them in the head, cut off the artificial
blood supply to their head, or decapitate them! Their bodies can go into
stasis and recover, but if you get their brains, they become as dead as rocks
in seconds."
"Aliscea, are you all
right?" asked a soft voice as Derek suddenly noticed Nova coming up the
corridor. She, too, was soaking wet, and she had her arms over her bosom since
her clothes were plastered to her body like a wet T-shirt and could be seen
through, leaving Nova's body quite visible.
"Listen, you!"
snapped Aliscea. "Sit that tush down on the deck and be quiet! You're
still healing, Nova! You'll be as right as rain in ten minutes and able to go
do gymnastics or run up on the
"Assistant
shaman?" asked Nova, puzzled. A minute later, Derek was cuddling her in
his arms.
"The lady told you to
be quiet," said Derek in a husky voice. "I see blood on your ear.
What the hell happened to you?"
"She was too damn
brave, as usual," said Dr. Sane as he staggered out of Sickbay.
"Well, what about
you?" snapped Nova. "Trying
to fight him off with your shoe, Doctor, really!"
"Fighting is no job
for a lady," snapped Sane. "There you were with that needle. And now
you look like a refugee from a wet T-shirt contest on Spring Break or
something! I can see you through that! Don't you have any shame, Nova?"
"I can't help it! The
sprinkler system went off," said Nova while Sane (wearing only one shoe)
ran in and got a lab coat.
"Wrap her in this,
Wildstar. She'll catch her death from cold! Why is this place so cold?"
Derek did so while Nova
whispered quickly in his ear, letting him know about how Aliscea had saved her
and how Vorston had also tried to come to her aid
before her head slammed into the deck. Derek nodded as Aliscea came up.
"Aliscea, why is it so cold?" he asked.
"The influence of
Ekogaru," said Aliscea. "He lives, in case you haven't noticed, and
his malice powered this scene."
Then, Sane heard a moan. He
and Nova ran together to Vorston's side.
"Looks like I am going
now to your
"Don't talk,"
said Sane. "It'll make it hurt worse."
Derek knelt in the blood
beside Vorston as the dying Rikashan grabbed his
hands. The Rikashan's gore-soaked hands were
trembling. "Decent you have been to me, Wildstar. I am sorry; my command
of your language is quite poor. You and your men and women.
I have a wife and child on Rikasha. Let them know how I died."
"You were defending
us," said Derek. "You should have let us know you wanted to join our
cause. I would have let you out of that brig and let you join us as a fellow
soldier, not a prisoner."
"I have joined
you," said Vorston as he saw how Nova was
holding his hand as tears ran down her cheeks into her wet hair. "Your
wife's tears and my blood have sealed my acceptance into your people. I pray I
go to your
"We worship many Gods,
all of us," said Nova. "But mine, well, He...He's merciful."
"Let Him know I'm
coming. Would you? Now, I go. Fare...."
And, at that, Vorston breathed his last. He went limp with his eyes open,
finally liberated from the pain of this life.
Nova's sobs filled the air
a moment later as she held the bloody corpse and cried into his hair. She
wasn't the only one wetting the body with her tears; Derek managed a shaky Star
Force salute as his tears also wet the Rikashan's
face as he lay sprawled like a child in the couple's laps.
Captain Wildstar tenderly
closed Vorston's eyes and then laid his head back.
"Rest well," he whispered over Nova's sobs. "You died as a
member of the Star Force, and you'll be buried in space as one of us. Farewell,
Vorston of Rikasha."
III. THE PIONEER
The Milky Way Galaxy
Deep Space, Not Far From
Procyon
Monday, April 5, 2202
1648 Hours Spacetime
Mio Hoshiyama stood over an
instrument panel on the Earth exploration vessel Pioneer, looking at
some instruments at her bridge station.
"What are you finding,
Lieutenant?" asked Commander Harold Moline, the ship's Deputy Captain.
"Life signs,"
said Hoshiyama. "Good thing we're stopped. There's a welter of life signs
around Procyon."
"And they picked up
signals, too," said
"Think he did the
right thing?"
"Yeah, I'm sure he did,
Mio. We're still covered. We have our screen...a good number of cruisers, and
those gunboats."
"I don't know," mused Mio. "It doesn't feel right. My boyfriend told me
once that his commanding officer said that you have to listen to any feeling
you might get out here in deep space. He said a mistake can kill you very
quickly."
"Who's your boyfriend
again?"
"Jefferson Hardy, on
the Argo," said Hoshiyama with a smile. "I just sent him an
e-mail some time ago. Hope he sends me back an answer soon."
On the Argo, Todd
and Becky Voorhees were at attention together in the Captain's quarters quite a
while after the gruesome fight that had made its way through the Scuttlebutt
Express already. They were a bit relieved that things didn't seem as bad as
they had thought; Nova was clad in her regular gold and black uniform again,
and was dry, presentable, and doing some quiet paperwork at her desk behind
Captain Wildstar as Derek appraised the Voorhees couple.
"So, why did both of
your request mast?" he asked. "Is anything wrong?"
"Well, yes and
no," said Todd. "Uhhm...would you like to
tell him, Becky?"
Becky sighed. "Guess I
will. Captain, sir, if it's within your power, we need a transfer off the Argo
when we finally arrive home, hopefully in a month or so."
"Why's that?"
said Derek.
"Sir...uhh...well..."
stammered Becky. "Through no fault of my own,
since...uh...I have been protected as per regulations for this couples
experiment...uhhmm...I just found out that I'm
pregnant."
Derek's mouth fell open.
"Oh? I mean...well...I guess I can't blame you for that. You said you were
obeying regs on the topic...uh...Nova...?"
"Yes?"
"Can that happen...I
mean...if you're...uhh..."
"Occassionally,"
said Nova with a blush. "The meds are supposed to be about 99.5%
effective. Now and then, though, you have a case where...a dose doesn't work.
Then, you find yourself in your predicament, if you can call it that. Well, the
regs are clear on that. The mother-to-be has to take
shore duty by her seventh month, unless she can't do so otherwise."
"So, our
request?" asked Todd.
"I think I can grant
it," said Captain Wildstar. "Of course, you guys can't go home right
now, nor can you go aboard a ship heading out even further, like the
"Yessir," they
said together. Todd and Becky left. Nova was smiling a little after they left.
"That must be a nice
predicament to be in, Derek." she said softly.
"What?"
"Expecting."
"You've been talking
about this quite a bit lately, Nova. Can I ask why?"
"No reason," she
said with a little smile. "When we have peace, though..."
"Yeah, know what you
mean," replied Derek with a sigh. "I know what you mean."
And, on that note, they
just held hands and looked out at the stars for a while together.
It was a relief to simply
do that after they morning they had both
experienced....
In the meantime, Captain
Jorge Peronada of the
"I've got life signs,
sir," said Lieutenant Hiroshi Yamaguchi, his Living Group Leader and
Survey and Analysis officer.
"Yes, Mister
Yamaguchi?"
"They're Cometine,
sir. That base is still manned! And I'm picking up radar contacts, sir. Eight
ships at QV-234, range,. Eight megameters, speed,
twenty-two megameters. Switching to video panel."
"Cometine
cruisers," said Lieutenant Commander Tyrone Westlake, his Combat Group
Leader and Deputy Captain. "The Gamilons were wrong; the base is still
manned!"
"Open our guns,"
said Captain Peronada. "Target,
the Cometine squadron."
"Aye, aye, sir,"
said
"Yessir," said
Lieutenant Julie Petersen, his Artillery officer. She pushed her dark mid-back
length hair out of her eyes and said, "Open turrets one and two. Range, seven point ninety-two, speed, twenty-two. Angle of fire, forty degrees!"
The
A moment later, the
Cometines fired, hitting one of the task force's gunboats.
The
"Sir," said
Lieutenant Walsh, the
"What's the
message?"
"Captain Carroway's
reporting the approach of a Technomugar fleet; and she says they've destroyed
the patrol cruiser Lehigh and have also opened fire on the Pioneer."
"Tell her to hold the
line here until we can get there; we're a little busy at the
moment."
"Hold the line,
huh?" said Carroway. "Just the Vampyr
and us and the two survey ships, and we've got to hold the line, huh,
Eager?"
"So what do we
do?"
"You're Star Force,
Eager. What would Avatar and Wildstar do?"
"Kick some butt?"
"Right, good
boy," said Carroway as she patted his head. "Let's get to it."
"Okay, y'all, we're
gonna kick some butt!" yelled Eager.
"Full
speed, Mister Eager."
"Right!"
The Valkyrie and Vampyr roared towards the Technomugar fleet
with guns blazing in a move that shocked the fleet's commander. "What the
hell?" she muttered. Then, Yvona Josiah slammed her fist hard against the
command chair of her ship. "You're an accursed kamikaze, you"
"Get them, Tolgarth!" she yelled to her executive officer.
"Lady Josiah, I can't!
They're under our guns!"
Yvona got up and grabbed Tolgarth by his shirt. The Technomugar officer's white
uniform contrasted sharply with the EDF peacoat that Yvona was wearing...a
peacoat stolen from her late husband. "You failed us at Beemira by running
before the Argo showed up and leaving the garrison behind! I wanted my
revenge upon the Star Force, and you ruined it! Likewise, it looks as if you
will fail here! Get them!"
"Let's board one of
the scientific vessels, Lady. The one they call the Pioneer."
As Yvona's flagship, the Sabga, took hit after hit from the Valkyrie
and the Vampyr, Yvona nodded.
"Ready the party. I could use some hostages. Then, open up a signal to
their flagship. In the meantime, dispatch the second task group to Procyon VI.
Have them destroy the Earth Fleet and then burn the Cometine base clean of all
life."
"Yes ma'am!"
"Captain!" said
Walsh on the
"Good pickup on our
patrol cruiser's part," said Peronada.
"Have him relay the message to us."
"Yessir."
A moment later, a green Cometine face appeared on the
screen. "So. You are Earthlings. You're biting
off a bit more than you can chew, you know. I am General Devat.
I was one of Zordar's finest, and I am sworn to aid Gernitz when he returns to
finish enslaving your foolish, stinking world. What is your name,
Earthling?"
"General Devat, I am Captain Jorge Peronada
of the Earth Federation Space Battleship
"Forced to
attack?" sneered Devat. "Your ships are
attacking, already! You've brought down my first cruiser squadron, and you
people are now attacking my base positions."
"Are we?" said Peronada.
"Sir!" said
Yamaguchi. "Radar contacts! Ten battleships and
eight cruisers at RX-225 off the starboard bow, range, nine megameters, speed
thirty space knots! They're attacking the whole fleet!"
Soon, fire raked both the
Earth Fleet and the Cometine base as the
"That's not us!"
yelled Peronada. "Whoever it is, they're
attacking us, too, Devat!"
"Very well, it seems
we both need to survive in order to carry on our argument," said Devat. "Would you like a temporary truce, just between
us? I can send you Scorpions to provide cover, and battleships to help you
out."
"Why would you do
that?"
"This is between us.
I don't like it when the Technomugar interrupt our battles, and those machines
are also a threat to our survival and imperial ambitions. Shall we say,
uhh...blood is thicker than water against cyborgs?"
"Devat,
if you're telling the truth, thank you. But if this is some trick..."
"No trick, Peronada. I give you my word of honor!"
"Good," said Peronada as his ship took and returned heavy fire from the
Technomugar Fleet. "If you're sending help..."
"I shall get right on
it, as you inferiors say," said Devat with a
smile. "The truce begins now. Good luck, Captain."
The Pioneer was
boarded a moment later when a capsule rammed through the hull. Shot after shot
rang out a moment later in the smoke and dust as two squads of Techomugar
raiders poured in like ants, killing as they went. The crew of the Pioneer
took defensive positions and killed a few of them, but more Earth survey
crewmen died than Technomugar.
"Defensive positions,
bridge crew!" yelled the Pioneer's skipper, a man named Captain Valery Podsednek.
"Hoshiyama,
"Got it!" cried
Mio. The bridge hatch exploded inwards a moment later, and she opened fire
first as the Technomugar poured in.
"Set on stun!"
roared the Technomugar sergeant in his own language. "We want this lot
alive!" The beams turned from blue to green, and
the enemy sergeant then yelled, in Terran Standard, "Are you scum ready to
be captured?"
"LIKE HELL!"
cried Mio as she pumped shot after shot like a madwoman along with
The older Podsednek was the first one hit. He fell with a scream and
was dragged off the bridge by two Technomugar. Then, Reeder was hit, followed
by Schmidt,
Well, guess I'll go down
fighting, too,
thought
The Technomugar boarding
pod and its load of prisoners flew back to the Sabga.
A moment later, Yvona's smoking flagship blew the Pioneer apart with a
single barrage from her guns.
There were still twenty-one
enemy ships left in the area, though. The Vampyr
finally kamikazed into one of the battleships, taking
it out along with two others.
"Call up the other
ship," said Yvona. "It's about time I let them know we have prisoners
and that we want their surrender."
"Of
course."
"Communication from
the enemy!" yelled the comm officer on Carroway's ship.
"Patch them
thorough."
A moment later, Yvona
Josiah appeared on the screen on the console between Eager and Carroway with a
smirk.
"Hello, there,"
said Yvona. "And what would your name be, you little pants-wearing
trollop? You remind me a bit of my rotten little niece, whom I hate with a
passion."
"I am Lieutenant
Denise Carroway, the Captain of the Valkyrie. And who would you be? You
look like an Earth person. And why are you wearing one of our peacoats?"
"I am Lady Yvona
Josiah of the Grand Technomugar Empire, granted eternal life as a cyborg by
Ekogaru the Great, Carroway. Do you want to plead for the lives of these
prisoners?"
"Prisoners?" said
Carroway.
"Drag them in,"
said Yvona pleasantly. A moment later, two Technomugar troopers dragged Mio
Hoshiyama and Captain Podsednek in like a pair of
sacks. They were still unconscious, with Mio bleeding
from a head wound she had taken while unconscious...
"You recognize
them?" said Yvona pleasantly as Denise gritted her teeth.
"Yes. The woman. She was a good woman. What do we do to get her
back?"
"Disable your weapons,
surrender, and maybe I'll parole you and her and let you take her home. Or maybe not. It depends upon my mood."
"They said you were
crazy," hissed Carroway. "My God, they were right."
"God? Ekogaru is my God. He'll be yours,
too, you little tramp. And am I speaking to Christopher Eager, formerly of the
space battleship Argo?"
"You are," hissed
Eager. "What'ja want?
She always said you were nuts."
"Who?" said Yvona.
"You know who. A lady
who'll be more of a lady than you'll ever be, Yvona!"
"That's Lady Josiah,
you hick," hissed Yvona. "Oh, yes. When you see Mrs. Wildstar
again, tell her to just strip and wait for me in the nude? It'll save us the
trouble of undressing her when we take her captive for experimentation,
along with you two."
"Like hell you
will," said Carroway in a flat voice. "And this has gone far enough.
Goodbye, your Ladyship."
Carroway ordered the signal
to be cut with a hand gesture. "What an inhuman little creep. But, we'll
deal with her. You note how the Vampyr just
went kamikaze, Eager?"
"Yes,
ma'am?"
"Well, guess it's our
turn next," said Carroway with a grim voice as her smoking gunboat evaded
shot after shot from the fleet. "Eager, aim us for that flagship; I want
to take her into the next life with us."
"Yes,
ma'am. Out of
missiles, aren't we?"
"Yeah. And the forward turret is out,"
said Carroway. Denise then smiled and flipped on her mike. "Well, ladies
and gentlemen, we're about to stand between our homes and the war's desolation
and make the big sacrifice. I just want you to know that you were a great crew,
and we'll be hitting the flagship in about thirty seconds. Mister Eager, full
power."
"Aye, ma'am," he
said. Well, guess I'll never get to marry mah girlfriend Lisa, he
thought. Honey, ah hope you don't cry too much when you get the news...here
we go..
Eager put his hand on the
throttle and threw the Valkyrie into her final charge.
Then, as three laser bolts
flew about the ship and he was ready to feel the collision, the enemy fleet
gleamed, wavered, and faded away. The ship the Valkyrie was to ram was
gone a moment later as the Earth gunboat flew pristinely alone through space.
"They're gone,"
muttered Carroway.
"Musta
warped out," said Eager. He slowed down and said, "Now, what do we
do?"
"Search for that
flagship. They took some of our people, and...."
"We're being ordered
to rejoin the Task Group at Procyon, ma'am!" yelled the Valkyrie's
communications officer. "What should we do?"
Carroway thought hard.
"We're more likely to capture that flagship with twelve ships than with
one. Eager, take us back to Procyon VI. We're rejoining the Fleet."
"Yes,
ma'am."
"Captain Delgadar!" yelled Yvona's voice aboard the second
Technomugar squadron flagship, the Kervat.
"Yes, Lady
Josiah!" snapped the Technomugar officer.
"What do they have, Delgadar?"
"One
Earth battleship, one Terran cruiser, three Earthling gunboats, and six
Cometine antimatter missile ships, two battleships, and six cruisers. Twenty-four ships in all. The
Earthers and the damned Cometines seem to have some kind of agreement. They
seem to have joined..."
The Kervat
shook as a squadron of Cometine Scorpions from the base came in on one side and
a squadron of Terran Cosmo Tigers from the
"Delgadar!"
snapped Yvona as the transmission faded out on her end and then came back up.
"Sorry,
Lady. We've
taken some damage, and we've lost two ships. Both sides have sent planes at us.
Scum! They're coordinating their feeble resistance!"
A moment later, the
"Now, we'll start the real
fun," said Devat in his base. "Major Bermar! Send a message to the Earth ships and our own...ask
them to clear a corridor at RT-224. Then, ready our new weapon...our stationary
base Magna-Flame Gun."
"Yessir!"
"Move aside?" mused
Peronada on the
"Looks like we're
about to find out." said
"Mister Westlake,
let's observe. If we assault this base later on..."
"Of course..."
"Sir, the corridor is
clear," said Bermar.
Devat smirked and pulled a special
handgrip up from his desk on a coiled wire. "Base Magna-Flame Gun, open
fire! Our target is the Technomugar Fleet!"
A moment later, the
stationary rectangular gun barrel, which looked a bit like that of a Gamilon
Reflex Gun, fired an orange burst of energy. Two fields of warp distortion
appeared at each side, and the lance of energy vanished.
A second later, the lance
reappeared in the middle of the Technomugar Fleet, blowing it apart with one
blast. Devat fired a second burst, just to make sure,
but the Fleet was gone a moment later.
"Holy crap,
sir!" said
"A warning," said
Peronada. "They must've wanted us to see
that. Very effective game of brinkmanship on that General Devat's part. But that just told me that a frontal
assault on that base would be suicide. If we want to hit that base, we'll have
to send a landing party down there, first..."
"Sir! Devat's
calling back!"
"Good, Walsh. Put him
up on video."
The Cometine General's face
appeared again. He looked amused.
"Did you like that,
Earthling?"
"Not bad, General. Do you mean to let us escape?"
"Maybe I
shouldn't," mused Devat.
"But, no. Shooting someone in the back is no fun. You have six hours, Peronada. Leave the immediate area of the planet now, and
then get all of your ships out of this quadrant in six hours. If you don't,
well... when our truce ends, I think you know what I've got down here waiting
for you if you try anything funny. And I may have more than one of those...or
reflection satellites, my friend. Think of that. Maybe when we finally beat
you, I can share a drink with you when I visit you in a concentration
camp?"
"Devat,
mark my words, I'll be back. But unless you and your rulers change their tune a
little...well, our next meeting won't be quite so friendly. But, thank you for
the favor. You're the first honorable Comet Imperial I've ever met."
"And you're decent for
a stupid Earthling rebel, Peronada. Remember; we
still claim your world. You surrendered."
"I don't think so, Devat," smiled Peronada.
"Isn't Zordar a little bit dead?"
"Yes, by a fluke, I
understand. When Gernitz returns in Zordar's cloak, I think you shall find
otherwise. But, for what it is worth, farewell, Peronada.
Just get out of my sight and out of my system. Got that?"
"Of course," said
Peronada with tight lips. Then, at his end, Devat ended the communication and the
A while later, the entire
EDF Task Force (or what was left of it) made a rendezvous and warped out of the
Procyon system. Captain Peronada sat in his office
with a bowed head as Captain Denise Carroway of the Valkyrie made her
report about the fate of the scientific vessels.
"Those
"So, the survey
vessels are gone and you want to try and get those prisoners back? That was our
whole reason for being out here."
"Not good, is it,
sir?"
"No,
Carroway, not good. But, thanks for trying."
"Hey, I did my
best," she grinned. "Not my fault they didn't let me ram them."
"I like your spirit,
Lieutenant," said Peronada. "As Captain of
your ship, you're going to go places. I'll join you for dinner a bit later on
if you don't mind."
"I've got a fiancée, sir," said Carroway. "I don't know if
he'd like it. And I think I'm a bit young for you."
Peronada laughed. "No, I don't mean in that
sense. You're my guest. I can't send you back to your command without giving
you some of the fruits of our galley. Besides...it'll enable me to see if I can
get permission from General Stone to allow us to go back out there and get back
those prisoners."
"But I thought we were
under orders to go to Iscandar. Don't we still have scientists on this
ship?"
"Yes, but I think we
can manage a side trip?"
Later on that afternoon,
Denise Carroway and Eager sat eating a pair of steaks in the
"What's the bad
news?" sighed Carroway, who had, in one hour, just fought off two
different requests for a date from two Cosmo Tiger pilots from the
"Two
pieces of bad news. No, Stone says we can't search for the survivors from the Pioneer,
and, also, you have to give up your helmsman, Carroway."
"What?" said
Carroway and Eager in shock.
"Sir, I don't wanna go
anywhere else," said Eager. "Ah like bein' Carroway's XO. You ain't putting me on your
ship."
"Sir, I think this
is..."
"Carroway, hold your
tongue a second," said Peronada. "The
transfer's on the Commander's orders. Eager's going
back to a place where the Commander feels his experience is needed. I'll give
you one of my crewmembers as a replacement. The transfer of Mister Eager will
take place in three days, after a couple of warps...when we rendezvous with the
Argo."
"Sir?" said Eager
as his face lit up. "No offense, Lieutenant, but do ya mean...?"
"Si," said
Peronada. "Your orders are to report back to
your old post on the Argo in three days. You and a lady named Parsons
will be working together on alternate shifts."
"That's great!"
cried Eager.
"I don't understand
why you're happy, Eager, I mean...you're taking a demotion," said
Carroway.
"Yup, but I'll be back
with mah friends. Wonder if Nova's coffee is as black and strong as
usual?"
"Oh, no," said
Carroway. "Is Star Force coffee really...that bad?"
"You can try it in
three days," said Eager.
"And what are we doing
in this rendezvous?" said Carroway.
"We're getting some
survey people and sharing our intelligence with Wildstar," said Peronada. "The rendezvous point will be near the
Wishing Star of Voton...an idea spot...as we go out, they'll be coming home...or
going to whatever they have to do. Stone was vague about that."
"Wonder what it'll be
like when we meet them?" mused Carroway.
"Oh, you'll like mah
friends," said Eager. "They're a neat bunch."
"Excuse me, Captain
Carroway?" asked a Blue Condor pilot as he came up with his helmet and
flight plan. "Like to go out with me?"
"No, I have a
fiancée," said Carroway with a smile. "But thanks for asking."
The three of them chuckled
as they saw the pilot slam his fist into one hand and mutter, "Looks like I
struck out, too," before he left.
"Don't worry,
sir," said Carroway with a smile as she saw the shocked look on Peronada's face. "It happens all the time.":
"Yes, I'll bet."
IV. DREAMS AND MEETINGS
Space Battleship Argo
Approaching the Milky
Way Galaxy
Monday, April 5, 2202
1105 Hours, Spacetime
"Another two thousand
lightyears closer to home, luv," said Bryan Hartcliffe as he and Angie
cuddled naked in their cabin. After a long, long, time, they had finally
decided to resume intimate relations.
"I hope this mission
will be over with soon,
"Yeah, and I don't
know if we can afford one now, either. Through me own fault, I'm makin'...."
"Shhh,"
said Angie softly. "We'll have pay socked aside in the bank waiting for us
when we get home. I think we can go somewhere on that. What's
"Rainy
and cold this time o' year. How's about the
"Sounds better,"
said Angie with a kiss. "By the way, you were really, really good
before. And it didn't hurt at all, honey."
"Thanks."
"Now if I can cure
those wandering eyes of yours, I think I'll have the perfect husband. And, oh,
yes, please don't pick any more fights with the Captain?"
"I'll try not to,
luv."
"Good," cooed
Angie. "I think you're finally learning,
"Hello?"
whispered Nova Wildstar in a soft voice as she and Derek lay together in their
cabin. "Derek? Sorry to bother you, but..."
Nova stopped as she looked
at her husband's face. It had been a trying day, and Derek finally looked
peaceful in sleep. "You're so tired," she whispered. "And you
worried about me so much. Maybe too much, Derek. I'm
all right. And so is Aliscea. I know we have new orders from the
Commander," she said as she stroked his bare chest, "I know it's our
job to find Ekogaru, and to take out Yvona...preferably with extreme prejudice
after what happened today with the
Unknown to her husband,
Nova was softly snoring on his chest about two minutes later. She smiled a
little in her sleep a while later. Her dream was very pleasant and sweet.
On the other hand, Derek
Wildstar's excursion into Dreamland wasn't quite as pleasant as his wife's
dream, which was filled with grass, flowers, laughter, and rabbits hopping
around in a meadow.
In Derek's dream, he was on
a foggy quay somewhere near the ocean, dressed in his Captain's peacoat, Star
Force uniform, ascot, and Captain's cap.. A foghorn moaned in the distance, and
a ship's set of lights also loomed in the distance.
Wildstar heard footsteps in
his dream, and then he saw a figure coming up slowly, leaning carefully on a
walking stick. The hazy figure turned into the figure of a stocky, but strong
man in a Captain's hat and peacoat.
Finally, the hazy figure
resolved into that of a man with a beard. A seafarer, but not
just any man.
Captain Derek Wildstar
found himself gazing at Admiral Abraham Avatar a moment later.
"Captain
Avatar..." he said in a quiet voice.
"Don't worry. As you
can see, I'm back in good health," said Avatar. "You look good in
that coat, and, my old wound's not bothering me any more. The sea smells good,
doesn't it?"
"Yes, it does,"
said Derek. "Where are we, Captain?"
"Look up."
Derek did so, and the
lights finally took shape. The great ship looming above them in the fog was the
Argo. But, the odd thing was that she looked bigger than she normally
was.
"Why are we
here?"
"The time has come for
us to talk," said Avatar. "You know that you're facing a threat
that's cold, that's death, like this fog?"
"Ekogaru?"
Avatar nodded. "His
power is getting stronger. We're even beginning to feel glimmerings of it over
here on this side."
"This
side? My God, am
I dead? Did I die in my sleep? Is Nova going to wake up in the morning and find
she's been sleeping with a dead body?"
"No, you're just in a
corridor, a sort of anteroom," said Avatar as he lit up his pipe. The ash
glowed like a red eye in the fog. "We can meet here. And, mark these words
well."
"What words?"
"Nova will be here in
a while. Just a visit. But she'll be back. I can tell
you that much." Avatar paused and listened. A strange sound came to their
ears; the sound of a baby's cry.
"What's that?"
said Derek.
"Just your son,"
said Avatar.
"But Nova's not
pregnant!"
"Someday, she will be.
Remember that much. It'll help you." A cold wind began to blow around
them, and Avatar's scarf blew out of his peacoat and blew back in the wind.
Avatar snorted with distaste. "Wind's changing. I've got to go back."
"Go back where?"
Avatar chuckled and pointed
up to the Argo. "There. It's not quite Heaven, and I'm not there
all the time, but there are times when He lets me check in on you. You mean
you've never felt me around? I'm glad that you and Nova are enjoying my cabin,
by the way. And don't be ashamed, either. It's been too long since there's been
happiness and laughter up there. Nice change, having you kids there...."
Avatar then put his hands
on Derek's dream-shoulders. "Remember, Wildstar. I picked you for the post
of Deputy Captain. Don't lose heart, and don't lose hope! I see better days
ahead for you...and for Earth..."
Then, the old man turned
and walked off, disappearing into the fog. Soon, the sound of his cane was
blotted out by the sound of the foghorn, and Wildstar stood there, knowing he
was alone.
Then, the dream flipped.
Captain Wildstar found himself in an odd place with nothing on.
"Weird," he said.
He had been naked before in his dreams, and it was always a little disquieting.
"What's this place?"
He looked around. There was
a bed with a cheap white simulated wood headboard...a small couch, a dirty
white rug, and posters on the wall. There was a poster of a popular basketball
player of the day, posing in just a swimsuit. Another poster depicted a male
stripper. Yet another one depicted a woman in a bikini above a Periodic Table,
and another one was an EDF ship recognition poster.
There was a small desk with
a chipped nameplate on it. The nameplate read MICKEY HENSON.
"Now I know where I
am," said Derek. "The apartment that Diane Henson's brother used...the
place we used to spend our..."
Then, Derek looked puzzled.
On an end table sat Diane's bedroom slippers, open-toe mules with high heels
and white fur covering the uppers. Beside them sat a small globe.
The globe was a
representation of the city of
"Nova's
gift to me, here?"
Then, Derek noticed another
object on the end table. It was a pair of black surfer thongs with pink straps.
Unlike Diane's slippers, these shoes were pleasantly battered, and some sand
was stuck to the soles.
"Nova's
slippers?" he said. "What the hell are they doing..."
Then, the door to the
bathroom opened, and Diane Henson herself walked in, totally naked, tossing her
hair. Before the door closed, Derek thought he could see someone else in the
shower behind the frosted glass....
Then, Derek lay there,
moaning, gasping, and crying out in his unspeakable, sick dream. He began to
sweat, and then he began to gasp...
...and the gasps turned to
screams.
Derek Wildstar woke up screaming,
screaming his lungs out while a concerned Nova looked into his face.
"Derek,
darling. Derek!
Come out of it! It was only a dream, honey...come out of it! You're with me!
You're safe. Nothing to fear."
Derek finally stopped
screaming. With his eyes half-shut, he looked into Nova's face.
"You're alive?"
"Of course I am,"
she said softly while she pushed away the covers and crawled on up over him so
she could see his face better. "What happened to you? Another
nightmare?"
"Yes....I..."
"Boy, you almost..."
"Thank God I didn't,
given what I dreamed about."
"Was it about
me?" whispered Nova as she began to...caress...him...in the unashamed and
innocent manner of the loving wife she was. Since this was the touch of his
loving wife, and not the touch of some awful phantom, Derek didn't resist, even
though tears flowed down his cheeks.
"Nova, I dreamed of
Captain Avatar. That was nice. Then, I dreamed I was in Diane Henson's
apartment...and...and..."
"Derek, everyone
dreams about their past. You can't help what you dream about, my love. If she
did some nice things for you, I..."
"She belittled
me...and in the dream I was married to you, but I was forced to be with
her...and then, God...you showed up."
"Did I rescue you from
Diane?" she whispered. "Derek?"
"Then, you
turned...uh...into a skeleton in my lap while we were making love, and then
your Aunt Yvona showed up, followed by Ekogaru. And then, they went at me! I
hated it!"
"No wonder you were
screaming," said Nova in a very soft voice. "Your
poor dear. Well, it's over...and it's just us..."
"Well, what do you
want me to do?"
"I dunno,"
giggled Nova as she began to tease him again. "How's
about enjoying this?"
Then, she kissed him...and
Derek did lay back and enjoy it.
He was with his dear Nova.
How could he not like it?
They were up far into the
night.
The next morning, a certain
young couple looked very, very bleary-eyed as they sat together eating
their hotcakes and synthetic bacon. They needed a boost so badly that Nova had
slipped into the galley to make a small specially
strong pot of coffee for Derek and herself.
"Well," teased
Mark Venture as he showed up with Holly Parsons. "Three guesses as to what
you two were up to last night."
"Partly right,"
said Nova with a blush. "But there was a reason. He had a horrible
nightmare, Mark."
"Derek...I'm
sorry," said Mark as he gave his friend a rough hug. "Your
parents?"
"No. It was about my
wife dying in my arms. I won't say any more about it than that."
"I had a weird one,
too," said Holly. "In my dream, I was being lowered into a tank and
slowly drowned by a figure with a black hood. Then, he pulled me out, and I was
paralyzed. He said "Just wait until it happens, Holly. You'll never be
a bride." Remember, Mark? I called you at 0400 to discuss that
one."
"Three guesses as to
who the figure was?" asked Nova.
"Ekogaru," said
Holly. "I just knew it somehow."
"Hey, I had a weird
dream, too," said Conroy as he came up, having overheard them. "In
mine, I was going down in flames in the rear place of a Tiger, and HE was at
the controls, just laughing like a maniac. Laughing and laughing. Then, I woke
up."
Hemsford came up. "I
had one, too. In mine, the SOB had tied me to a Claymore mine. Which he then set off."
"I had one, too,"
said Tatiana Lubyanska. "In mine, I was receiving a live autopsy...from
him, of course."
"In mine, I was shoved
down one of the ship's guns...and then shot out burning into space," said
Dash. "Of course, he did it."
"Guys, guys,"
said Captain Wildstar. He put his hands up to stop the flood of crewmembers who were running up to their table. "Enough
for now. It seems most of us had some pretty weird experiences last
night. For now, I'm asking anyone who has had a dream to see Dr. Sane, Dr. Bradford,
or Lieutenant Wildstar for counseling through normal channels. Then, I'll
consult with someone to see what we can do about it."
"Yeah," said
Hardy as he came up. "Another naight o' this and we won't be able to do
ouh jobs. None of us will!"
"If I have a dream
like the kind I had again, I'll go insane, I swear it!"
cried Royster.
"Yeah...I'll go insane
if I have another one like the one I had," said Homer.
"Aaaaa, you already are
insane," snorted Venture.
"Hey!"
cried Homer as everyone in the messhall laughed. "That's a low blow,
Venture!"
"Just kidding,
Homer," laughed Mark.
"Yeah, I'll bet!"
snapped Homer. "Hmmmmph!"
"Captain, this is
very, very strange, " said Doctor Sane
much later on that day while he pored over some results that Dr. Bradford
handed him. "With our Marines, Black Tigers, flight crew, and regular
ship's company of 114, we have just under 280 people aboard now, counting
casualties."
"That's two hundred
and seventy-two," said IQ-9. "Two hundred and seventy-three if you
count me!"
"You're a robot, not a
human," said Nova while she doodled on a pad. She, Sane, Captain Wildstar,
and Dr. Bradford were meeting in the small briefing room in the bridge tower.
"Doctor, did you get the same conclusion I did?"
"I did," said
Sane.
"Well, what's so
strange?" asked Derek.
Sane adjusted his glasses
before continuing. "Well, out of two hundred and seventy-one officers and
enlisted men on this ship, and one guest, that's Aliscea...two hundred and
sixty-nine people had nightmares of various kinds. Most involved violent death,
some involved a bizarre sexual element, many involved
both. Only three people didn't have nightmares last night...as a matter of
fact, they reported pleasant dreams."
"Who were they?"
said Derek.
"Aliscea
Rosstowski of Pellias, Lieutenant Paul Rosstowski, and Lieutenant Nova
Wildstar. Paul's on duty, and Aliscea, who is quite upset, to say the
least, is meditating. Something about these three people made them
immune from the dreams, but I have no idea what it was."
"From what I can
figure out, I think it involved contact with Aliscea's power in some
fashion," said Nova. "Paul has a bond with her, and I was touched by
her almost thirty-six hours ago when she healed me. If there was some way
Aliscea could spread that immunity to every one of us..."
"But it'd drain
her," said
Someone outside tapped at
the locked hatch. "We're having a confidential meeting, could it
wait?" called out Derek.
"No it can't, I'm
afraid," said Aliscea. "I understand I'm being discussed?"
"Derek, let her
in," said Nova.
He nodded, and got up to
undo the lock. "What can you suggest?"
"There may be a way I
can deal with these nightmares," said Aliscea. "But, it will take
time. I will try concentrating upon keeping the Dark Lord's essence out of the ship.
You do know he lives. And you do know it'll be difficult."
"Aliscea,
thank you."
"You are most welcome,
Captain Wildstar."
The meeting ended on that
note.
V. LORD EKOGARU'S PLANS
The Grand Technomugar
Fortress
At the Edge of the Milky
Way Galaxy
Tuesday, April 6, 2202
1903 Hours, Spacetime
The Grand Technomugar
Fortress had just entered the Milky Way Galaxy.
Ekogaru, at last, was home.
"Vergar, how are we on
my attack plan?" asked Ekogaru in his Audience Chamber.
"Better than expected.
We obtained fresh acolytes and slaves from the Rikashans. They have helped our
remaining population repair the Grand Fortress and the Phased Density Cannon.
We have resumed speed, in fact, we are doing
better than before, being able to warp 2,500 lightyears a day, now. We are
here, not far from Carufax in the Rikashan Empire. The Rikashans have allowed
us to aid them in their administration of the colony, and we have taken more
slaves from the Carufaxi. Our trap for the Argo,
therefore, is all but laid."
"I will ensure they
come here in three, perhaps...four days," said Ekogaru. "Yvona!
You failed me before, but it is forgiven. Take a Goraizu Fortress and go out
and find the Argo and attack her. I have weakened the will of her crew,
and this shall do more. When they get to Carufax, I want them to be putty in my
hands so I can enslave them."
"Of course, " said Yvona.
"What about the
invasion of Earth?" asked Gralnacz.
"Thirty-five days to
go now," said Ekogaru. "We must stop at R'Khelleva, receive their
blessings and gifts, and then I foresee we shall merge the Rikashans and
R'Khell into my Government at last under Zaden as Viceroy. Baron Cha'rif
continues to harry the Earth forces. He shall do so, weakening them, until I
warp this way, along a parabola from the outer spiral arm, through the Galactic
Core, attacking Earth from the center of the Galaxy like so," said Ekogaru
as he made a graphic appear on his grand screen. "Then, I shall play them
a symphony of destruction on my rebuilt organ until they either surrender or I
have to blow Earth itself into dust. Then, the Grand Rikashan Fleet under Lord
Zaden shall arrive a few days behind me to take care of any final resistance.
Are we clear?"
"We are," said
Ekogaru's underlings as one.
"Excellent," said
Ekogaru. He sat down and began to slowly play Bach's "Passacaglia and
Fugue in C Minor." Then, he stopped, laughed, and said. "The next
time I play this, the Star Force shall hear me. And they shall follow this
tune, yes, to their doom. And they shall bring Aliscea with them, and I shall
begin corrupting her into my new image, after my own likeness."
And, again, Ekogaru
laughed. Today, he felt almost triumphant.
THERE ARE NOW 35 DAYS TO THE ARRIVAL OF EKOGARU IN EARTH'S SOLAR SYSTEM
To Be Continued With Act
Seven: "The
To return to the Introduction to the Rikasha Incident please click here