PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY
An AU Battle of the Planets/Star Blazers crossover
By Frederick P. Kopetz
Inspired by Yuki Wildstar and Gail (Fluffy) Kopetz.
CHAPTER SIX: A BETRAYAL EXPOSED….
I. A FIRE, UNQUENCHED
ISO Center Neptune
Off the Coast of Peru…
April 24, 2222
1900 Hours: Local Time
The Ready Room of Center Neptune had a lot going on, but neither Mark nor Princess were terribly interested.
“Anybody want another space burger?” said Tiny, who was doing drum rolls behind the drum kit.
“I’ll take one,” said Keyop.
“The thing about his space burgers is that they’re always half-baked,” smirked Jason as he played some vicious Ping-Pong with Mark.
“Yeah? Like you?” said Mark.
“What brings this on?” snapped Jason.
“Your frackin’ attitude, Jason,” said Mark as he angrily hit a ball into Jason’s stomach.
”Now wait a minute,” he said as he looked at Princess, who was looking at Mark while sitting in a beanbag chair with her guitar in her hand and her shoes off. “Princess? Have I been an attitude problem lately?” said Jason.
“Damn straight,” she said softly while looking at Mark. Mark slyly winked back and Keyop said, “Ooooo, sis…is there something going on that we don’t KNOW about?”
“Can it,” said Princess.
“Love to know what it is?” leered Jason.
“CAN IT!” Princess snapped in her most angry, no-nonsense tone of voice.
“I think we need to get out of here for a while,” said Mark. “Princess, please unplug the guitar. You and I need to have a talk about discipline!”
“Discipline?” snapped Princess as she caught a sly look in his dark blue eyes.
“Jason, go check out the Phoenix,” said Mark.
“Whaaaaaa?” said Jason.
“Your G-2 vehicle was off the stick in the last battle we fought. I don’t know if it’s a fault with the vehicle when it undocked from the Phoenix, or you, but you were so damn sloppy earlier today that…and Princess was almost as bad as you! She, I can and will have a talk with. You…we’ll talk after you check out every damn thing possible in that vehicle and report back to me. Got that?”
Jason glared at Mark, hard. Then, he finally said, “Aye-aye…Commander!” Then, he stormed off.
Mark then took Princess by the hand and said, “Come off with me…don’t question it…we are having a private talk…just pick up your shoes.”
Confused, and a little mad, Princess picked up her sandals, and was about to follow Mark when Anderson appeared in the doorway.
“Chief!” he said. “What is going on?”
Anderson looked apprehensive as he said, “Mark, what are you about to do?”
“Have a talk with Princess about discipline. Why do you ask?”
Anderson shifted uncomfortably. “All right. I guess that’s okay. Our visitors will not be here for another two hours.”
“Visitors?” said Princess.
Anderson nodded. “Admiral Derek Wildstar, Special Star Force Ops. Captain Nova Wildstar MD. They say they have something that is very urgent that they need to discuss with both of you.”
“What is it?” said Mark.
“Classified, for now,” said Anderson. He looked at them and ushered them into a passage. “For the first time ever, they pulled Directive Number 66 on me.”
“Directive Number 66? What’s that?” said Princess.
“A point of inter-organizational law,” said Mark as his face went white. “Under Directive 66, we are actually officers of the Earth Defense Forces on loan to ISO and Galaxy-Alliance Security. That can be rescinded at any time, or altered, by a flag officer of Earth Defense upon ‘a significant security threat’ It just so happens that Admiral Wildstar is actually in charge of the First Star Force…”
“…and all Earth Defense Special Forces,” said Anderson. “Technically, he is at the top of your chain of command. But, he has never invoked this authority, or even a shred of it, Until now.”
“Did he say what this is about?” said Princess.
Anderson shook his head. “No. But when I spoke to him by radio…he was barely even polite to me. As if the man is extremely angry about something. He told me….something about your basic commissioning paperwork has to be changed, and that you are to be the first to know of it…along with Princess. Doctor Wildstar said Princess has to be a part of this…”
Mark and Princess looked at each other, puzzled. Anderson put a hand on Mark’s shoulder. Mark saw it was shaking. Anderson said, “The Admiral and the Doctor will be here at 2100 on the dot. They are flying in and using a submersible of their own to dock with Center Neptune. Go and discuss this matter of discipline with Princess, Mark. Don’t think I am usurping your perogatives as Commander of G-Force. But, meet them in Conference Room Two off Sickbay Four at 2100. They said they have a lot to discuss. With both of you.”
“Will you be there, sir?”
Anderson shook his head. “Admiral Wildstar’s invocation of Directive Number 66 for this matter actually takes me out of the loop on this issue. Whatever this is…this is between you, Nova, Princess…and him. On that note…I leave you…and…wish you luck.”
Anderson then turned away and left.
“What is he talking about?” said Princess.
“No idea, here. I’m just as much in the dark as you are, Princess.”
The two teenagers gravitated to Mark’s room a few minutes later. Princess looked around; always struck on how austere Mark kept his room. Everything was in place; manuals, directives in binders, flight logs, mission notes. Standard-issue blanket; hospital corners, lockers in place.
The only thing that had any sort of humanity to it was a picture frame. Inside it were two pictures; one of Colonel Cronus, and one of him as a toddler with his ailing mother, Tina.
“Not much of a life, is it?” said Mark.
Princess shook her head. “Mark, that matter of discipline you wanted to discuss?”
He looked down at the deck. “Actually, not much, except to be sure that you’re on the stick the next time we fight…because I don’t want you getting hurt. The rest was an excuse to get you away from the others.”
“An excuse?” said Princess, as she blushed. Mark moved closer to her on the bed and put an arm around her, playing with her dark hair with its unusual tinge of green deep in its raven color.
“We…if…you don’t mind…we…we…have some unfinished business from the other day. But…I want to ask you something?”
“Yes, Mark?”
“Please be honest with me…”
“I’ll…try…”
“That day, on the Snake Mecha…did Zoltar…?”
Princess’ eyes filled with tears, sudden, hot, painful tears as she said. “He did, Mark. I need to confess that to you. He…his men….stripped me totally naked. Then, I was…strapped down to a table,” she said with a sob.
“And then?” Mark said as he tenderly looked into her eyes.
“He raped me,” said Princess with pain in her eyes. “He took from me what I was saving for the man I want to marry, Mark. He…took…from…me…what I was saving…for…you! Because I….”
Mark looked thunderstruck. “So…we’re more than friends?”
“What do you think?” cried Princess. “We’ve been together so long…I…I..I love you!”
Mark held Princess close, and he said, “I…I love you…too…”
Then, Princess climbed into his lap and wept as she fell back on the bed and kissed Mark.
“I…I..I…”
“Princess…what do you want to do?” said Mark.
“Isn’t it obvious? I smell like Zoltar in my mind! I remember his feel on me…his hands on my breasts, both clothed, and nude…and his hands on me there,” she said as she forced Mark to touch her clothed center. “I don’t want to smell like him anymore! I want to smell like you…and…”
“You’re saying you…”
Princess nodded as she sat up and pulled her G-3 shirt off. Mark was thunderstruck at the sight of her breasts. She was already barefoot, so the jeans easily came off next.
Then, she pulled down her panties, and let them fall around her painted toenails. Then, in the nude, she fell on top of Mark, kissing him hard as she pulled his shirt off….and then, she smiled as he cooperated and kicked off his loafers, worn without socks.
Princess finally pulled down Mark’s pants and underwear as she made him stand up.
Smiling, she then lay back on the bed and sighed as Mark played with her breasts with one hand and pleasured her fancy with the other. She reached up, grasped his manhood, and began to touch him, tease him, and then, Mark’s dreams and fantasies began to be fulfilled as Princess pleasured his nakedness without an ounce of shame, crying as she did so, and then crying as Mark took her and held her close as she began to make love to a man for the first time.
“Princess…is this making you unhappy?” asked Mark.
“Heavens above, NO!” said Princess as she cried all the harder and held Mark. “I….I…need you right now…I…I…really need you…I…”
“I need you…too…” Mark said. “Princess…I don’t need to be a Commander for a while…I need you to hold me…I…”
“You what?” said Princess as she curled her legs around him, closer to climax then before. Oh, she knew what it felt like.
Zoltar had forced her to experience it. Then, he had slapped her across the face and called her rude, vicious things.
“I need to be comforted too!” said Mark as he began to sob. “I just lost my father!”
“And I…I….I lost….”
“Don’t say it, Princess…because as far as I am concerned, you are mine, and you are as pure as a Swan’s Feathers!”
“Mark! I love you!” Princess said as they kissed, embraced, gasped…and then, they cried out together as they both hit climax at once.
Then, when they plunged off the cliff of pleasure, they lay there, holding one another, crying, petting each other, saying sweet, kind things.
“I’ll never take you for granted again, Princess,” said Mark.
“Nor will I take you for granted, my…my Mark,” Princess said back to him.
And, spent, Princess held Mark as they cuddled, and he fell asleep….
A dream came again to Mark.
It was a strange dream, a haunting one.
Somewhere deep in his mind, his mind retained a memory of his mother Tina holding him as Kenshiro Washio, his father, said, “I have to leave you and Mark, Tina. Probably for a very long time…”
“Why?” said Tina. “Ken, you have a boy here. You have our marriage! You have…”
“I have to go,” he said. “I have to go out into space as an Operative. Give up my name….give up who I am….I have to investigate something found in the breakup up the Rikashan Empire.”
“When do you have to leave us?” sobbed Tina.
“Now,” said Ken. “Maybe we will meet again…some day. Take care of Mark. You know how he came to us…?”
“I remember so well…he was…a miracle child…”
“Does he know?” said Ken portentously.
“Know? How can a child know such things…?”
“Know such things…” said his mother’s voice again….
“Know such things….”
“Know such things….”
Then, there came a bleak day.
The rain, the wind.
Mark shivered as a nun tried to hold him as he looked on and wept at the dark bronze casket holding his mother’s body.
Rain was pattering on it, and on the flowers on the casket….as the nun said, “God took your mother, Mark…”
“Where did He take her? And why?” Mark wept….”Why is she in that box? Why?”
Lightning hit, and
there was more rain.
In the way of dreams, a month went very quickly. The sun came out, and Mark saw Anderson sitting on the grass near the grave (which was on a hill) as a kind-looking young woman sat in the grass nearby, petting his mother’s bedraggled-looking cat Spunky as two tiny kittens played near her in the grass.
“Spunky wasn’t sick, then?” said Mark.
“No, she was just getting ready to have kittens,” said the kindly young woman. Mark remembered she was simply dressed; pink sweater; green, very light sundress, bare feet.
“Ma’am, I know that it’s crazy that I asked you to stop here to help her give birth a month ago…” Anderson said, barely able at times to keep from spilling everything every time he saw Nova Wildstar together with….Mark….
…her true, intended firstborn son.
Nova held Mark by the hand and said (even though Mark did not remember this well in his conscious mind; somehow, he never associated this kind young woman with the great EDF heroine, “Mark….the only part of your mother which is here in the ground is her body. That’s only because she became too sick to be with us anymore. God sent His Angels to escort her soul home to a place we call Heaven.”
“Can I go there to see her?” said Mark.
“Probably not in this life, darling…” said Nova. Then, in the dream, unaware of the full import of what she said, she said, “Your mother, you could say, is still quite alive and well, even though you can’t be with her….and she is taking every chance she can…the best way she can…to look after you…never forget that….”
“Really?” said Mark.
Nova nodded. “Mark, your mother still lives…”
“Your mother still lives…”
“Your mother still lives…”
“Your mother still lives…”
“she…still lives….”
Mark woke up with those words ringing in his mind…and….
….he woke up to a knocking at the door. “Open up!” snapped an angry voice from outside.
An angry male voice.
“Mark are you all right in there?” snapped the voice.
“Derek, he’s probably just asleep,” said a female voice, soft but authoritative.
Mark sat bolt upright and shook Princess awake. “Princess! PRINCESS!” he snapped.
She sat up, gasping. “Mark…I…”
Then, the knocking came at the door. Mark pulled on his pants, sans underwear, and tossed Princess’ jeans at her. Military discipline kicked in, and, except for his shoes, he was dressed by the time he opened the hatch, just as Princess was pulling on her T-shirt.
Mark looked, and he saluted as Admiral Derek Wildstar stood there, grim and tough-looking in his Star Force whites (albeit with a touch of very messy hair), with Nova at his side, holding his hand, as she stood there wearing an ISO green scrub dress, white sandals, and a long lab coat.
“It’s a pleasure seeing both of you,” said Mark.
“Likewise,” said Derek as he returned the salute. “Nova, you’ve performed the first of the tests?”
Nova nodded. “Yes. On a sample from myself, and from his birth mother. Luckily, that Goddamned Anderson kept tissue samples. I didn’t relish the thought of having to…drag this out by getting a court order to exhume Lina Washio.”
“Me neither,” said Derek.
“Sir…drag…what out?” said Mark.
“Come with us. Bring Princess. Correction. Let her buckle her shoes on, first. Sorry to disturb you two,” said Derek.
“What?” said Princess.
Nova giggled slightly. “You two are terrible at hiding things. Okay, so are we,” Nova said with a deep blush that Mark noticed went down to her bare toes. “Let’s not beat around the bush, you two. You two were being romantic in the past two hours and we dragged you out of bed. That’s okay. So were the Admiral and I. Sometimes, you just really have to do that when you’re a couple. Totally natural.”
“Sir, what about…insubordination charges, fraternization?” said Mark.
“I regularly fraternize with a Captain,” Derek said as he affectionately mussed up Nova’s hair. “How do you think we got five kids?”
“Six,” Nova corrected him.
“Six?” said Princess. “Mrs. Wildstar, are you expecting? Congratulations, ma’am…”
“No…we…just located..” stammered Derek. “Come with us.
All will be explained it a few minutes. You will have to give Nova a sample in
Sickbay….”
“Don’t worry…I just took one from myself,” said Nova.
In one of Center Neptune’s Sickbays, a few minutes later, Mark gasped a little as Nova clicked a complex device she had applied to a spot on his arm after she gave him a local anesthetic. Mark and Princess saw she was working with her lab coat off, and that her scrub dress was sleeveless and had a deep scoop neck. The bandage on her own bare upper arm was quite visible as she worked, and the hints of the contours of the slender body beneath made Mark guess (although he was too polite to say it) that Nova was probably naked beneath her scrub dress.
“I saw you had a robot,” said Nova as she worked at putting a bandage on Mark, the soles of her feet quite visible in her backless white sandals as she crouched on the balls of her feet with her legs together. “Does he lift up ladies’ dresses?”
“
Zark?” said Princess as she
sat curled up in a ball in her civvies and sandals. “No…he’s way too prim and
proper for that sort of thing.”
“Good. I know a robot back home who….never mind,” Nova said as Derek’s hand rested tenderly on her bare shoulder. He kissed her shoulder and helped her up. “Now, let’s process this sample. We are doing a match for the Mitochondrial DNA structure,first. I also took a sample from Derek before, for reasons that will become apparent during this test.”
Mark and Princess raised their eyebrows at each other as Nova placed the sample into a machine. She let a centrifuge run, and said, “You two have a lot to absorb tonight. Derek wanted you alone for this, but I insisted since you were a couple and were probably becoming quite….close, shall we say? I insisted that you two had to be together for this.”
“She’s right. It’s better this way,” said Derek as he looked strangely at Mark. Mark wondered why Derek Wildstar looked like he was about to cry. Nova came over to him, kissed him, and said, “Darling…please don’t cry. We know it is not your fault at all…”
“Yeah, if they had told me…” he said through a thick voice. “If they had told me, screw regs, screw secrecy, Nova, I would’ve told you and then we would have raided Singleton’s office like avenging angels to get him back!”
Nova looked at a computer readout a moment later. “Muscle sample reduced to its constituent parts…reading the DNA structure now….”
Nova then nodded, and typed some commands into a computer keyboard. “Mark, this structure indicates your Mitochondrial DNA. This is important because it comes from your mother, and is a marker that indicates whom your mother of conception is.”
“Mother of conception?” said Mark, mystified.
Derek nodded. “Your mother Tina Washio was a surrogate mother. You were implanted in her womb after your mother of conception had borne you for about two or three weeks. This was kept secret by ISO and by the Earth Defense Command, damn them!”
“The results,” Nova said in a husky voice filled with tears. She let Mark’s structure run across the screen, followed by Tina Washio’s. “The analysis shows that you are not a match genetically with the woman you thought was your mother. Instead, you are a perfect genetic match with this woman.”
Nova let another sample run across the screen. The name was blurred out on the screen, and, a moment later, another sample pattern began to run over the woman’s pattern. They came together, merged, and then the computer did a readout. Nova held back tears as she said. “This proves this woman was and is your mother of conception; and this pattern above is that of your father. Your father is not, and never was, Ken Washio. Tina Washio bore you, pushing you out of her loins in birth into the world, but hers were not the loins that should have birthed you, and her belly was not the belly in which you began to exist, and Ken Washio was not the father who made love to his wife and gave you life on a beautiful night on a Hawaiian beach on leave…oh, we can take you there, Mark, show you were you were conceived…”
“How would you two know these things?” Mark said, shocked, angered, and stunned. “How do you know all this about me?”
Derek then put an arm around Mark. “Listen, Mark. There’s a….a damn good reason we know this…”
“How?”
“Cronus found out the truth, and he made sure than the files came from Riga to us,” Derek said as he pointed at the files.
“Then who the hell is my real father?” cried Mark. “And my real mother?”
Derek then broke down in tears and hugged Mark close in a manly embrace. “Your real father’s holding you….that’s how we know. They screwed us, like they screwed and betrayed you!”
“Then…then…who the hell is my mo…?”
“I am, silly,” sobbed Nova as she came in close and held Derek and Mark. She cried hard as she said, “Mark, you poor thing, we are your real parents! We made love. We conceived you…but you were a Tubal Pregnancy. I thought you were a Fallopian Cyst. I went to the hospital, and instead of their doing the usual probe and operation to implant you properly in my womb so you could grow in my belly….they took you from me and placed you in Tina Washio’s belly….because they wanted you as an experimental guinea pig, and they didn’t want me to be pregnant then! Generals Singleton, Stone, Doctor Sane, and Anderson all played GOD and took you from your mother’s body and placed you in a stranger’s body! All knowing that you would be set up to be abandoned later on, and knowing that your mother was ailing and would probably die in five years!”
“Where the hell is the justice in that?” sobbed Derek as he held his son.
“I want to KILL Anderson right now!” yelled Mark.
“I know you do, shall I get him in here?” said Princess.
Nova unblurred the names on the computer screen as she stepped away. “Genetics does not lie,” she said. She handed Mark two pictures; one of Cronus or Ken Washio, and one of Derek at that age. “Who do you look more like?” Nova said as she sniffed loudly.
“It’s obvious he’s your dad,” said Princess as she held back a sob. “Look at you two…the fire you two get in your eyes when you are pissed off is the same, Mark!”
Mark smiled a little at that. So did Derek. Then, he looked at Nova and stammered, “Mo…Mother?”
“Mom is just fine,” Nova said as she held him again.
“Do you have on you….is there a scar from the operation…?” he asked as he held his mother.
Nova let go of him and said, “Yes….there is. It’s not that noticeable….oh, heck…” she said, blushing as she kicked off her sandals.
“Nova?” said Derek.
“It’s all right;
they may see me like this on the beach or around our pool anyway,” Nova said as
she abruptly pulled up her scrub dress, and then pulled it off, stripping
herself completely naked before Mark and Princess’ stunned eyes. They could see
that Nova was very pretty for her age, and looked startlingly young with her
uniform and glasses taken off.
She sat on the examining table and said, “Derek, you’ve seen this already…Mark…take a quick look at me…it’s...here,” she said.
“I…Mom…do I have to see this?” Mark said with a blush, embarrassed, yet fascinated as Nova pointed to the spot at her naked bikini area. He saw the light scar in her skin and realized that this was, like stigmata, a literal sign of his premature parting of the ways from his mother.
Nova blushed but said, “I’m not embarrassed…I would have had to strip naked to give birth to you, anyway….I get very hot in labor….if it had gone the way it was supposed to; I gave birth to all of my children in the nude,” she said, crying softly again. “I…I nursed all of my children at my breasts…often stripped naked like this so they could feel my warmth…my heartbeat…it’s okay…it’s…like a symbolic rebirth for you….Mark….”
Then, even as she cried, Nova hugged Mark hard, literally taking him in her arms and to her breast for a moment. He hugged back, weeping as he basked in his mother’s arms…feeling the love of a parent he thought taken from him, feeling Nova’s warmth…and hearing the soft but strong pounding of her heart for a moment.
Then, Mark thought she heard her voice in his mind, whispering, I love you, Mark…
How can you do that? Mark thought.
Nova held him and thought, I can do that because I have some Iscandarian blood in me which is thousands of years old; along with some Pellian blood. I am distantly related to Queen Astrena of Pellias and to Queen Starsha of Iscandar; which is why I look a bit like them, and now, you know, so are you….
Derek held him from behind, hugging him, hugging Nova….and all three of them wept as Princess also cried. Finally, after a bit, Derek said. “Let’s step back….let’s let your mother put her clothes back on….”
“Yes…Dad…” said Mark as he gritted his teeth and cried anew as Princess gently brought Nova’s clothing and shoes over and helped her get dressed. Both women then held each other and cried as Derek held Mark. Then, he collected himself and said, “The reason I’m invoking Directive 66 is that I’m ordering you and Princess to take a seven-day sabbatical from G-Force to come home with us.”
“And?” said Mark.
“To meet your family…to allow us to have your EDF commissioning papers reissued in your true name…so that we can add you to our wills…that sort of thing,” Derek said gently. “Nova and I agreed to that flying here from Brazil.”
“Anderson and the others caused you to be taken from my body like a sort of rape,” Nova said with a deep fire in her eyes. “You were taken from me and from your true father. The least they can give us together is a week. And…you need some time to be with Princess here…date her a bit…take her out for sodas, milk shakes…that sort of thing. Are you two engaged?”
Mark and Princess looked at each other and blushed. Princess finally said, “No, Doctor Wildstar…we’re….”
“Maybe you should consider yourselves engaged as of this moment,” Nova said, hugging both of them again. “I mean…so…you can room together at our house? Correction, Mark….your house?”
The casual throwing of the words your house made Mark shiver a bit. “I really have a home…siblings?”
“Anya will drive you up the wall,” said Derek with a slight smile. “You remember her from that night at the hotel?”
Mark nodded while Princess said, “Don’t worry, Mark….I’ll protect you from Anya.”
“I will,” said Nova as she kicked her sandals back on. Then, she looked at Derek and said, “We need to confront him, Derek. NOW.”
“Anderson?” said Derek. “Yes, we sure need to confront him….and right now. Nova, Mark, Princess, come with me.” He picked up the files and said, “Nova, please make a printout of the genetic results. We’re taking them in to Anderson. Then, after we see him, we are seeing the rest of G-Force.”
“The rest of the team?” said Mark.
Nova and Derek looked at each other, and nodded. “Damn right,” said Derek with a snarl on his face. “Those other three…they’re like your siblings, right?”
“They are,” said Princess.
“Well, they need to know who Mark really is,” said Nova. “No more secrets. No more hiding. No more lies. And, they need to know that you two are a couple. Derek, when we came in here, I…I heard a comment from that Jason.”
“And?” said Derek.
“I needed to restrain myself from slapping that kid in the face,” Nova hissed. “Something about ‘Mark’s getting some, guys…’ Damn punk!” Nova said angrily. “No one hurts our child like that, Derek…”
“Damn right,” said Derek as he made fists and ground his teeth. “NO ONE does that to my kid.”
Mark smiled a little at this. Not only did he have a new dad…he had one heck of a protective new dad.
II. CONFRONTATION
ISO Center Neptune
Off the Coast of Peru…
April 24, 2222
2256 Hours: Local Time
Doctor James Byron Anderson looked over the report that had just been e-mailed to him. He gritted his teeth as he looked at the letter, and thought, Now, even from the grave, Colonel Cronus has issued a strike against me…against G-Force…against the mission.
By doing what?
By having those records stolen.
This is worse than the Conway Tapes.
This is worse than giving away the codes right to Zoltar himself.
This is….a nightmare….security breach beyond all comprehension….
Anderson opened his desk drawer and looked at the Walther P.38 that came out. Do I need this? Anderson thought. Maybe I do. Maybe I need it for…them….maybe…I need it for…myself?
Anderson put his weapon in his desk drawer, at the very top, just as the door to his office opened.
Admiral Derek Wildstar came in, his mouth set in a snarl as he held hands with his wife.
Nova Wildstar’s eyes met Anderson’s, and, for the first time, he saw that she was giving him the same steely look she had given some of Earth’s enemies in the past. Anderson looked at that, seeing in their faces the look of the warriors who confronted Desslok of Gamilon, Zordar and Invidia of the Comet Empire, Lord Ekogaru the Great, Lord Zaden of Rikasha, Zoltar, and countless Bolar Federation officers.
Mark and Princess came up behind them, holding hands, and staring very hard at Anderson.
Mark spoke first as he said, “Chief Anderson…you have completely lied to me. My life for the past eighteen years…has been a complete and total God-damned LIE!”
“I…” said Anderson.
Derek spoke next. “We have met our eldest son this evening. This young man is our child. Our son! Why the hell did you take him from us…?”
“I…I didn’t…” said Anderson.
Nova slammed the files
on his desk. “These files discuss everything that happened. A few hours ago, I
felt like leaving my husband for this until we both saw you lied to him, too.
WHY?” Nova snapped. “Why did you have our child taken from my body and implant
him in the body of a stranger; something I would never have consented to, even
if he was really at risk!”
“Doctor Wildstar, there were all sorts of factors…” Anderson said.
“I read your so-called justifications;” said Derek. “And they are full of shit. Like you!”
“Listen, Admiral, you are not coming here and confronting me in that tone of…”
Nova looked at Derek, received a quick nod, and, as fast as lightning, she jumped like an enraged cheetah up onto Anderson’s desk. There, she raised her hand, and Anderson began to feel a strong force at his neck.
It was coming from Nova, and he realized that, like a Jedi Knight from a fictional movie, she was actually strangling him with her mind.
He gasped as Nova came up to him with fire in her eyes and a hard look on her face.
“Damn you, Doctor!” snapped Anderson. “You’ll be up on charges for violating my person like that!”
“Like you should be, for violating MY person with your doctors’ scalpels and cutting my child from my body?” Nova hissed in his face as she sat down on the desk and grabbed Anderson’s jacket by its lapels and shook him hard after she broke her stranglehold on him. Then, she slapped him in the face hard enough to knock his glasses off and punched him in the mouth.
“Admiral, are you going to let her do this?” gasped Anderson as blood ran down his chin.
“Be lucky I’m not up on that desk beside my wife,” said Derek through gritted teeth. “Or, count yourself lucky that I am not letting my son get up on that desk next.”
“So what are we doing about this?” said Anderson as he grabbed Nova’s wrists. “Damnit, get your hands off my coat!” he yelled. Nova was tempted to kick him, but at a glance from Derek, and a whisper in her mind from him that said, “Peppermint, dear, hold off,” she nodded at him and held off from kicking Anderson in the face.
“Get your damn hands
off my wife, Anderson!” snapped Derek. “You’re in a bad position. Right now,
she has every right to put you through that bulkhead if she wants to! And I’ll
stand behind her one hundred percent. Especially if this goes up before the
World Press, Parliament, or the Federation Council.”
“Thank you, Derek,” Nova said softly.
Then, Derek spoke. “I’m invoking part of Directive 66, Anderson. Mark is going on leave for seven days. So is Princess.”
“Is this…a unilateral…action?” gasped Anderson. “And, please, call your attack cat off!”
“It is, Anderson.” Derek paused. “Doctor Wildstar, please let go of Doctor Anderson.”
Nova glared at Anderson, shook him, let go, and got down off the desk. She saluted Derek, who returned the salute. She did not salute Anderson.
Then, Admiral Wildstar said, “I’ve come to a decision about the war with Spectra. Yes. It is a war. This is no longer just a set of terrorist attacks, with your five trained Whiz Kids against a mecha or two. The Van Allen Belt project hit us up side of the head. I wanted to take the Argo right to Spectra then and take the war right to Zoltar’s capital. Singleton talked me out of it. This time, I’ve done some thinking, and I’ve set some wheels in motion. I got Singleton to change his mind with a bargain after Nova finally agreed to it. Nova, the data cartridge, please.”
“Right,” she said, taking out a small message capsule. She handed the object, only about the size of a 21st Century Thumb Drive, to Derek. He then plugged it into a portable player on Anderson’s desk and turned it on.
The sound of a Jet Recon’s boats engines could be heard in the background, along with the beeps and boops of a comm signal going through Earth’s Defense and Comm Systems in code. A computer voice then said, “Link established; Gamilon Imperial High Command; Private Imperial Frequency 5431.2.”
Anderson’s eyes went wide. “You…you didn’t…?”
“Shut up,” Derek snapped. A moment later, the sound of a Gamilon ventilating system could be heard over the speakers as a mellow voice said, “Yes? Who dares disturb my repose at this hour?”
“That’s…” whispered Princess.
“Yes,” Nova said. “That’s Leader Desslok.”
“Desslok, this is Admiral Wildstar,” Derek’s voice said over the comm system.
“Is anyone else there with you?” Desslok said.
“Just me,” Nova said quietly. “We’re in a plane. This is scrambled and enciphered.”
“What do you two need?” said Desslok.
“We need to call in a serious favor, Desslok. We need you to begin a general mobilization,” Derek said.
Anderson’s eyes went wide as Mark thought, My God….my father has a HELL of a lot of pull. More than…. Cronus ever did…. he can just call HIM up and talk with him?
“My friend, why do we need to do this?” said Desslok.
“Spectra. Zoltar’s gone beyond his little games and sneak attacks. A few weeks ago, he tried to destroy Earth and Riga by crude but effective means. The sacrifice of a very brave man who should always be remembered as one of our greatest heroes stopped him. But it could be any one of us, Desslok. If he were to try that against Gamilon…. Or against Iscandar…” Derek said.
“Zoltar’s forces had begun to strike at my outermost bases. For the first time in many years,” said Desslok. “I’m very glad, actually, to hear from you and Nova about this. Do you want a mobilization against Spectra?”
“Yes,” Nova said. “Please. In the name of both Pellias and Earth. You know what I mean, Desslok. That’s how Derek and I got Commanding General Singleton to agree to this; that, and playing a little poker with him,” Nova added after she considered the bargain that they had finally presented him; If he moved with their wishes and mobilized the EDF, Derek and Nova would agree to leave most sordid parts of Mark’s conception secret. If not…they’d resign their commissions, go to the Press and Parliamentary Oversight Council, and advise Pellias, Gamilon and Iscandar to make formal diplomatic protests regarding the actions of Singleton and ISO. The General saw the handwriting on the wall, and he agreed to the Wildstars’ bargain.
“And what are you doing?” said Desslok.
“I’m calling up the Star Force,” said Derek. “I’ve had enough of this screwing
around with our little Ninja Force. The Argo will be in space in the
next two weeks. We are going to take the war right to Spectra. Can we count on
you for support?”
“You can,” said Desslok. “I’ll begin a mobilization and I will pull our Ambassador off Spectra within the next day. I’m cutting relations between our Empires…. although I don’t know if you can call his little ragtag band an Empire or not,” Desslok said with a sinister laugh. “I will be talking with your Commanding General in case you need justification for mobilizing the Star Force.”
“Good,” said Derek. “Although, I’ve already made…arrangements…with General Singleton. G-Force will also be a part of our operation. I want Zoltar dead. They also took my son. I want him back, if he is still alive.”
“And?” said Desslok.
“I’m going to be watching over G-Force. When we go into Spectra…G-Force will be under my command. Not the Federation’s Not ISO’s. MINE,” snapped Derek. “And this time, they get to take the gloves off.”
“You appear to have a very proprietary interest in that team, my friend. May I ask why?” said Desslok.
“My son commands them,” said Derek. “Nova and I just found out. Long story. The boy is going to Spectra to get his adopted brother out before we hit them with the hammer blows that they deserve. Military targets only. Damage to civilian populations to be held to the barest minimum.”
“I see,” said Desslok.
The transmission ended.
Derek then said, “Nova and I are leaving NOW. With my son. And his fiancée’, Princess!”
“Fiancée?” Anderson said. “As of when?” said Anderson.
“As of now!” said Princess as she stared at Anderson with a grim look on her face as Nova handed him back his glasses.
“Very well,” sighed Anderson, as another idea came to him. “Go…now. We will discuss this later, Mark.”
“There is nothing further to discuss,” said Mark as he left. Derek and Nova left a moment later without saying a word to Anderson.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
TO BE CONTINUED…