ALTERNATE
TALES OF THE STAR FORCE
STAR BLAZERS—THE
PRINCESS AND THE SURFER
Being the seventh part
of THE NEW COMET--- BY: Frederick P. Kopetz
This Act is being completed with the
Cooperation and Assistance of Derek A.C. Wakefield (as usual)---Freddo
ACT ONE: MILITARY
INTELLIGENCE AND A CHRISTENING
I.
LIVE-FIRE EXERCISE
Planet
Earth
Vicinity
of The
The
Space Fighters’ Training School
Monday:
May 4, 2207
1830
Hours: Local Time
It was now late afternoon at the Space Fighters’ Training School.
Most of the Classes of 2207 and 2208 sat in their red-and-white
and blue-and-white Midshipman uniforms in bleachers on a hillside near a bleak
spot of bare, battered ground that still bore traces of craters from
planet-bomb hits back during the Gamilon War.
This
looks like a part of Earth that the Cosmo-DNA never healed,
thought Sasha in a depressed fashion as she sat next to her roommate, ready to
watch the show as a Space Marine Armored Personnel Carrier manuevered down
around a crater below in this nasty spot not far from the firing range.
Then, the Midshipmen gasped when two or three Bopper Gun rounds
slammed against the APC. They had been activated by remote control.
The APC’s rear hatch flew open, and the 255th Platoon flew
out, grunting and cursing as they took positions by the edge of a crater.
A moment later, practice-intensity laser rounds fell about them as
they returned fire to a bleak spot with their weapons; lasers and Bopper Gun
rounds went off like mad.
Then, some mines went off. The platoon hid behind their APC, and a
gunner got up onto the APC’s upper deck and let loose with its laser machine
gun.
The cadets were awed for about an hour or two as the messy,
explosive display continued.
Later on, when they got back to the main part of the SFTS, Lt.
Maples looked disdainfully at the shocked Class of 2208 as they stood in
formation in their blue-and-white midshipman uniforms and thought, You people must have been losin’ it…bunch o’
sheltered damn kids. Too damn stupid to be officers, I…
Then, Maples nudged Stovall in the arm with his elbow and said,
“Hey, Stovall!”
“What?”
“See that girl over there? The one with the weird long blonde
hair? I recognize her. I used to torture her durin’ her plebe year here at the
Academy. Almost got her thrown out.”
“What’s ‘er name?” whispered Stovall.
“Sasha Petrovsky,” said Maples. “Little creep…”
“Sir, I heard she’s really rich,” said Lance Corporal Nevland, one
of Stovall’s ‘boys’. “Heard she’s some kinda rich bitch distant relative of the
Wildstars or somethin’. She practically got her graduation purchased for her,
damn snot.”
“Where’d ya hear that?” said Maples, who was smiling.
“Scuttlebutt.”
“You said her name was ‘Petrovsky?’” asked Stovall.
“Yeah, I did,” said Maples.
“When I was on the
“So?” said Maples.
“She’s important to Commodore Wildstar,” said Stovall. “Like a
long-lost cousin, maybe. We screw her up, we screw Wildstar up.”
“Yeah, she’s gotta be more important than she is,” said Maples.
“I wanna get Wildstar for that bad performance report he gave me
back in October 2206,” muttered Stovall. Then, a flash of knowledge came to him
from the Dark Lord. “She’s under some assumed name and she’s someone else.
Oh…man, I wanna hurt her and Wildstar SO BAD.”
“How?” said Maples.
“Attack her,” hissed Stovall. “Leave her cryin’ in an alley
someplace….maybe even kill the little snitch.”
“And lose your stripes?” snapped Maples as a shap pain hit
Stovall’s head, making him aware Ekogaru didn’t like this plan, either.
“So, what do you suggest, SIR?” whispered Stovall.
“You said she’s under an assumed name?” said Maples.
Stovall nodded.
“Well, let’s find out who she is. They keep medical records in
Blackwell Hall, where the infirmary is, and I know they don’t guard it much at
night,” said Maples. “Stovall, you guys up to a little bit o’ midnight
requisitioning?”
Stovall nodded as Lance Corporal Nevland said, “Sir, that’s
breaking and entering…”
“”That I know, boss,” whispered Maples. He leered at Sasha’s
shapely bottom from afar as the cadet formation broke up. “Let’s do it tonight.
Twenty-three hundred; Blackwell Hall.”
The other Marines nodded. They liked the idea.
2300
Hours….
Blackwell
Hall
Maples, Stovall, Nevland, and one other Marine had stolen into
Blackwell Hall and past the minimal Midshipman guard like ghosts.
Following Maples’ directions, they ignored the infirmary and exam
rooms and easily managed to break into a small file room that held the medical
records of various Midshipmen.
They found the filing cabinet that held the “P’s” and found a thin
file reading “Petrovsky, S”
“What’s here?” whispered Stovall.
“Not much. Your girl’s a healthy one,” muttered Maples as he read
the file by penlight. “She hasn’t been here much, and…wait, man. Last page of the file! “See 225 file in Profile room for
more info…”
“Where’s the Profile room?” said Nevland.
“The room where they hide shit,” muttered Stovall. “That little
closet here. I was here before years ago.”
“When?” said Maples.
“I was finding confidential stuff on a cadet named
Nevland stole over to the small closet door and rifled open two
locks with his bayonet. The door creaked open.
The Marines were soon inside, breaking open two locked filing
cabinets.
“
“Lookit this, sir,” he
said as he pulled out a very thick file. He opened it, and Sasha’s picture
appeared at the upper left hand corner of the inside of the file. The name
below it read, “Wildstar (aka Petrovsky), Sasha, Princess of Iscandar
CONFIDENTIAL MEDICAL FILE: CLASSIFIED: FOR EYES ONLY”
“Holleee shit, she ain’t even human!” muttered Nevland.
“Shh…you want the whole place to hear us?” said Stovall as he got
out a portable digital spy cam. “Guard the door, Nevland. You hear ANYONE
comin’, either strangle ‘em or shoot em with your silenced Astro-Automatic.
What’s our escape route, sir?”
“Out the window,” said Maples as he got out his own spy cam. “I’ll
image the legit file and
Stovall nodded as they got to work.
II.
REPORTERS
Planet
Earth
The
Newsroom
of the Great Megalopolis Times and
Reporter
Tuesday:
May 5, 2207
0200
Hours: Local Time
The Newsroom of the Great
Megalopolis Times and Reporter was filled with hard-bitten reporters at
this early hour of the morning as gaggles of mean-spirited, cynical men and
women, many of whom still smoked archaic cigarettes and cigars, worked
feverishly to finish their articles and file them for the morning deadlines of
the Print and Web editions of their newspaper.
Phones rang, people slammed on computer keyboards, people
muttered, yelled and cursed; this room of nasty, cynical reporters was no place
for someone with a sensitive stomach.
In a small office, the Military Affairs editor picked up one of three
ringing phones and yelled, “Who the hell in the Great Casesar’s Ghost are you,
buddy? We got a morning edition to
finish!”
“Hiroshi,” said Maples in a honey-filled voice. “Ya mean you done
forgot me already?”
“Maples, you fool!” laughed Hiroshi Kamayama, an old platoon mate
of his. “Okay. I got time for ya. Make it five minutes, buddy,” said Kamayama
as he belted down a drink of whiskey, hard and straight. “What is it?”
“A scoop for tomorrow’s edition,” said Maples. “We got an alien
livin’ right here in the Megalopolis, at the Space Fighters’ Training School,
and I got proof. Medical files, psych profiles, reports on her psi-abilities,
where she came from, even printouts of the dame stark nekkid under a medical
scanner.”
“Okay, I’ll give ya ten minutes,” said Kamayama. “What’s her
name?”
“Sasha,” purred Maples. “And the little slut is half-Iscandarian
and is the niece of Derek and Nova Wildstar and the daughter of Starsha of
Iscandar and Alex Wildstar, and she’s married IN SECRET to this guy named Deke
Wakefield.”
Stovall laughed his butt off at that one. “
“SHUT UP!” snapped Maples. “Hiroshi, they had her covered up good
at the Academy. Ya want the files, it’ll cost
ya,” said Maples as he talked from a pay phone near a diner off-campus; he and
his unsavory squad had gotten digital images and had stolen the paper files as
well, leaving everything locked and secured behind them. “I got three guys
here. Each of us wants a hundred thousand credits for his share. Four Hundred
Thousand Credits, bud. Take it or leave it.”
“That’s robbery!” yelled Kamayama.
“Take it or leave it,” purred Maples. “I got a card for someone at
Asahi Shimbum to talk to next, my
friend. Wanna lose the scoop of the century? If not, pay up. Have checks ready
for us when we get there…”
Kamayama sighed. “It’ll be cash money, bud. I know where we can
get it. My editor has this little safe, and…”
“Well get him to open it,” said Maples. “Deal?”
“Deal,” said Kamayama. “Meet me here at the paper at 4 AM. I’ll
have everything you want.”
“Nice,” said Maples. “Bye now.”
He hung up, and the Marines whooped and hollered as they prepared
to give their stolen booty to the Press.
Like it or not, Sasha’s secret was about to come out.
The drop happened on time and Sasha’s life story was sold to the
Press while she slept. Kamayama got the files by 0430 Hours and began to call
in some old favors, calling up EDF officers and former EDF officers he knew in
the middle of the night. He called ten of them; only two talked, and the
confirmation he got of the story cost him and his own pissed-off editor in
chief another three hundred thousand credits in bribes and favors.
Finally, Kamayama was given a “go” to begin writing his
rough-draft story at 0600 Hours while his editor, Jenkins, made some calls to
their video subsidiary to get a camera crew to the Wildstars’ later that day.
Soon, leaks of the info were boiling out (for more bribes) to CNN, Federation News,
NBC (in its Washington, DC main office), MoskvaNet, the BBC,
DeutscheTelefunken, Reuters, Cosmo News, Al Jazeera, 23rd Century
Fox News, name the news branch, it went out. A stringer from the
State-Controlled GamilNet was even getting wind of the story at the Gamilon
Embassy by 0700 and was calling his Propaganda Minister on Gamilon for
permission to run with the story. The Propaganda Minister he was talking with
would only have about another day and a half to live (he would be called in for
a ‘conference’ with Leader Desslok about this in a while…a conference he’d be
carried out of with several mortal blaster wounds) but he gave the nod for the
story to be released.
The story went out on the World Press wire as a brief squib at
0730 Hours Tokyo Megalopolis time while the Wildstars were washing up. None of
them turned on the news, so they didn’t catch the first announcement in the
Megalopolis at 0750 Hours local time on a small video station, but Al Jazeera
and Action News 6 in Philadelphia formally broke the stories as soon as they
got them in their local time zones, at 6PM the previous day in Philadelphia,
and 1AM the same day, Riyadh time, in the Arabic countries. By 0800 Hours local
time in the Tokyo Megalopolis, insomniac news hounds in Arabia and the
Other news outlets in the Tokyo Megalopolis held the story until
they got confirmation. As a result, many outlets didn’t break with the story
until later in the afternoon in the Megalopolis.
Nothing much was happening at the Wildstars’ house because Derek,
Nova, Alex, and Sasha were getting ready to go to a stadium near the Kure Space
Naval Shipyards.
That day, by request, Nova would be christening the new EDF space
battleship Nagato before the ship
took off on her test run.
The Nagato, SBB-9, was an Arizona-class space battleship that had
been authorized under a Parliamentary
Emergency Fleet Building Program of August 2206. Her SBB-9 registry number was
authorized on the motion of Senator Hiroshi Miyama of
So, upon Senator
Miyama’s request, Nagato was first
chosen in 2201 as the name of the SBB representing Japan/Great Island in the
EDF, and the second Nagato was named
in memory of that ship, which had been credited with the kills of six Cometine
space battleships and five destroyers at Saturn-Titan before her loss in the
coma of the White Comet, where she was destroyed with all hands lost. Lost with
her was her Captain, Captain Jonathan Miyama-Parkersburg, a distant relative
(cousin four times removed) of Commander Derek Wildstar and Admiral Alex
Wildstar. The fact that Nova was thus a distant relative of the first Nagato’s Captain by marriage is what had
led to her being invited to launch the new ship.
The new ship had been
under construction for several months, ever since September of 2206, to be
exact. She had taken the Earth Government seven months and nearly a billion
credits to complete.
So, while the news
media was mulling over Sasha’s story, the Wildstars were driving in an aircar
towards
They got to the ship, resting in the middle of Memorial
Stadium, at 1100 Hours that morning. They got there just as President
Mendellsohn was concluding a speech about the Nagato and her crew as 50,000 members of the populace of the city
admired the brand-new two-toned blue space battleship as she glistened in the
sun.
“At this time,” said
the President. “Earth is still caught in a great war. The Comet Empire, the
R’Khells, and the separatists on Earth are still endangering our way of life
and our peace. I wish we could stop building warships, stop fighting, and
concentrate on rebuilding. We cannot do so. Our enemies are not permitting us
to do so, and we must fight on. Perhaps, this time, we can stop the Comet
Empire. I pray we can do so. Today, we launch Nagato into our fleet in the hope that we can win, this time. In
the hope that we can finally stop this enemy, we bid the crew of this new ship
Godspeed with our other warriors…”
Then, as the crowd
cheered, Mendellsohn bowed and stepped off the podium.
A moment later, on a
platform near the Nagato’s bow, a
Shinto priest, Buddhist priest, Catholic priest, a Protestant minister, a
Jewish rabbi, and a Muslim imam came up to the ship and began offering prayers
and blessings in their traditional fashions while Derek Wildstar, Alex Wildstar,
Sasha, and Nova got onto a lift to ride up to the platform. While the Imam was
concluding his blessings on the Nagato,
Nova handed over her champagne bottle to a waiting enlisted man from the Nagato’s new crew, who tied the
champagne bottle into a ribbon-type holder.
Then, a staff officer
introduced Nova after she kissed Derek on the cheek. She came up to the edge of
the rail with many cheers, grasping the champagne bottle as she took the
microphone.
Then, she said, “To
protect the peace of Earth, I now christen thee Nagato! Good luck!”
Nova then stood up on
tiptoe and swung the bottle as hard as she could.
The bottle smashed
against the new ship’s bow below the wave motion gun, and the military band
played a loud flourish as confetti and streamers blew all over the place. The
crowd cheered as the Wildstars then bowed, and then they ran towards the lift
to board the ship as the building roar of her main engine’s energy buildup blew
over the crowd.
Before long, the
Wildstars and Sasha were aboard the Nagato,
and they were ushered up to the Captain’s Quarters.
The takeoff only took
a few minutes, but Sasha’s legs shook as she sat behind a table in the
Captain’s Quarters of the Nagato. I can’t believe this, she thought as a steward
began serving them lunch. I’m getting
spacesick!
“Admiral Wildstar,”
said Sasha as she looked at her father, being careful to hide her true
relationship to Alex (or, for that matter, Derek or Nova…). “I’m not feeling
well, sir…”
Alex looked at her
with concern as Nova opened her purse. “Just some spacesickness…the Midshipman
doesn’t have her space legs, yet,” said Nova as she dug in a pillbox for
something.. “Sasha, take this with the juice. It’ll help you.”
Sasha nodded weakly
as she tried to keep from throwing up her breakfast. “I feel terrible…”
“Take the pill,” said
Nova. “It’ll pass…”
Captain Jan
Vanderveer, the elderly skipper of the Nagato,
walked in a moment later. “Good afternoon, Admiral, Commodore..,” he said as he
shook the hands of the Wildstar brothers. “I don’t have a lot of time to be
here with you…I hope you’re enjoying the ride?”
“The Midshipman is
getting a little spacesick,” said Derek. “But, I’ve been aboard ships on trials
before…we’re fine…”
“She has a nice
ride,” said Nova as she got up to look at the stars as they began coming out as
the space battleship reached the edge of the atmosphere. Then, the ship
trembled under her, and she screamed and held onto the edge of the table to
keep her stomach from slamming into it.
“What the heck?” muttered Captain Vanderveer as
his hat flew off. The klaxons immediately came on as
the lighting in the Captain’s quarters went red.
“Commander Mizuki,
what in blazes is going on down there?” snapped Vanderveer as he stumbled over
to his communications unit.
“This is the first
bridge…we’re under attack! Comet Empire planes just pounced on us as we went
through main engine cutoff!” snapped the ship’s first officer. “Bridge tower
took an indirect hit…helm’s damaged, cosmo-radar’s damaged…the officers at
those posts are wounded…”
“Are the Red Centaurs
aboard us yet?” snapped Vanderveer.
“Not yet, sir.
They’re fighting through flak, sir! We have two Superstars on board, Kamisama
knows who the heck on this ship can fly them…”
“You’ve got a
qualified pilot on this ship,” snapped Derek Wildstar as he threw off his
peacoat, ascot, and hat.
“Derek!” cried Nova.
“Thanks for the
concern, but I need a helmet and space gear,” said Derek.
“I’ll fly as your
Radar Intercept Officer,” snapped Nova.
“Nova, with all
respect, like hell you will,” said
Derek. “You can’t get into a fighter with that,” he whispered as he pulled her
close and patted her stomach.
“Oh,” she said as
tears formed in her eyes. “Right. Well, be careful…you can’t go out there
alone, Derek!”
“He won’t be alone,”
said Alex Wildstar as he threw off his cap.
“Sir?” said
Vanderveer.
“You have two
fighters, you have two qualified pilots to form a screen until your Tigers show
up,” said Alex as he shrugged off his coat as Sasha’s eyes went wide. “I know,
Sasha…it’s going to piss off your mother…but no one attacks a ship I’m on board
without me doing something about it,”
he snapped. “Derek, it’ll be great flying with you at long last, little
brother.”
“You remember how to
fly a Superstar?” said Derek as he looked at his brother with wonder in his
eyes.
“It’s like riding a
bike,” laughed Alex. “You know it. You never get that plane out of your blood
once you’ve flown a mission in her. C’mon, Derek…let’s go…”
Derek and Alex nodded
at each other, and then at Nova and Sasha, as they left.
“Where does this
leave us?” said Nova.
Vanderveer bit his
lip. “Mrs. Wildstar, I’m heading to the bridge. Take Miss Petrovsky with you
below to stores and draw proper space uniforms. Meet us on the first bridge
ASAP. I’ve got some work in mind for you two, based on what I know of your
records.”
“Yessir,” said Nova
as she saluted. “C’mon, Sasha. Try to hold it in..”
Sasha nodded. “I’ll
try…”
Before long, Derek
Wildstar, in his Star Force whites and helmet and gloves, was flying a
Superstar out of one of the Nagato’s
aft launch tubes, and Alex Wildstar, in a helmet, gloves, and his Iscandarian
Defense Forces uniform in blue, white and black, flew one out of the other
launch tube.
They had more than
enough work to do. They could see a space battle raging with a number of Tigers
and Scorpions and Paranoias off in the distance as the Nagato’s Flight Group tried to make it past the enemy to the ship.
However, four
Scorpions were flying around, using the Nagato
as a target for their guns. A few pulse lasers were going off on the new ship,
but it looked to Derek as if either the gunners were really green, or that
maybe they were not all fitted out yet.
Derek gritted his
teeth and flew his Super Starfighter down along the Nagato’s hull, snap-rolling and popping up just in enough time to
blast a Scorpion into the next life.
Then, he flew over
the deck and noticed his heart jumping into his throat as his brother, just
having brought down one Scorpion gunboat, flew along with another one right on
his tail. “Alex!” he bellowed. “Watch
your six, damnit!”
“You
don’t need to tell me twice, Derek!”
snapped Alex as he made a hard roll and turn, flying about to come almost
wingtip to wingtip with his brother before the Scorpion completed its roll.
Derek and Alex looked
at each other through their cockpits and nodded, both of them firing at once
into the Scorpion.
“Nice job, Derek,”
snapped Alex.
“Thanks…”
Alex then spotted a
Paranoia fighter coming up on Derek’s tail.
“Derek!” he snapped.
“Watch your six!”
“Huh?” said Derek. Then, he caught a glimpse of the enemy
bird as his plane took a hit and his arm got wounded when a panel blew up. “Damnit!”
“What happened,
Derek?”
“My plane’s FUBARED
and my arm’s hurt!” snapped Derek.
“Don’t worry, I’ve
got your back,” snapped Alex. “Just like in the neighborhood with those damned
Miyagi boys,” he muttered as he remembered a group of bullies who had enjoyed
picking on his then-peaceful little brother…a group of bullies who had stopped
when confronted one day by the very big and angry UN Space Defense Force
Midshipman he had been then, that is.
“Thanks,” said Derek
as he held his arm and tried to manuever as Alex swooped up behind him and took
aim on the enemy pilot.
“What do you think
you are doing, Earthling scum?” said the Cometine pilot in regard to Derek’s
plane as he manuevered the fighter from the strange prone position he was lying
in. “I…” Then, his heart stopped as he caught one other angry pilot on his own
six. “Oh, Arishna take you, you damn…”
Then, Alex fired, and
the Paranoia pilot was blown to bits.
Derek breathed a sigh
of relief. “Thanks, Alex…”
“Don’t mention it,”
said Alex. “Keep your head up…a second wave is coming!”
“Great,” said Derek as he ground his teeth in pain.
Sasha and Nova ran as fast as they could onto the Nagato’s bridge. Sasha had changed into
a blue uniform she had found that looked a little like a Midshipman’s uniform
in two-tone blue but which contained a full collar. Nova had squeezed into a
female space uniform and boots, and she also wore a blue and red peacoat over
it to help to protect her stomach, and she had also found an ascot somewhere.
She had also asked a Space Marine to be sure she had a weapon in case they were
boarded; he had obliged with an astro-automatic.
At the Captain’s
station, Vanderveer spotted them and snapped, “Midshipman Petrovsky, take over
the cosmo-radar from Miss Fey. Mrs. Wildstar, since you’re a qualified navigator,
take the helm from Mister Manglin. Mister Manglin, go to the battle radar; Miss
Fey, take over at Analysis.”
“Yessir,” said all
four officers as they switched places. Nova carefully bucked on her harness and
made sure her chair was locked in its track as she took the helm. “Helm’s a
little sluggish, sir,” she said as she looked at Commander Mizuki, the ship’s
First Officer, who was running Combat in the white gloves and blue and gold
peacoat he had been wearing earlier during the ceremonies.
“I know,” he said.
“Half the ship’s not working right. They were going to fix it in the shakedown,
they said. Yeah, right,” he said as
he pushed his long hair out of his eyes. Then, he looked at Nova. “You know
what you’re doing?”
“I was skipper of a
cruiser once, and stood some watches at the helm of my ship, as well as on the Argo,” said Nova. “If this thing will
let me compensate for these screwed-up thrusters, we’ll be good….”
“My stomach,” gasped
Sasha.
“Spacesickness bag is
over there in the port drawer,” said Nova in a monotone.
A few other members
of the bridge crew held back snickers as Sasha used the spacesickness bag. She
got rid of the mess and then noticed blips on the radar. “Oh! Enemy fleet
approaching! Four Cometine space battleships and eight destroyers at RX-235,
speed, eighteen space knots, range, fifteen megameters. Just getting into their own effective firing range!”
“Sure you know what
you’re doing?” smirked Ensign Manglin, a young blond man with a bit of a smirk
on his face.
“Affirmative, sir,”
snapped Sasha. “I just don’t have my space legs yet! I haven’t been on a ship
for years…”
“Helm, hard about,
port, fifteen degrees,” said Vanderveer. “We need to intercept that lot.”
Nova nodded from her post. “Helm, hard about, fifteen degrees,
bringing up speed to twenty-two space knots to intercept the enemy fleet in one
hundred seconds.”
Vanderveer snapped,
“Mizuki, Hamlin, open main guns!”
“Turret number two
will be running four seconds behind, power level’s down,” said Miss Kira Hamlin,
the ship’s female artillery officer, from her post.
“Well, compensate for the dratted thing, Kira!”
snapped Mizuki. He looked over and saw that Nova had the ship right on course.
“Not bad,” he muttered.
“There was one little
action we had in the Rikashan war once late at night,” said Nova. “I was at the
helm, Derek was pointing those guns. We got them then, we’ll do it now…”
Nova then gasped as
the enemy fleet fired. Two shots hit the Nagato’s
bow.
She tilted the bow
downwards to evade the fire, and then she picked up speed another 0.5 space
knots.
“Engine room,” she
said into the comm tube. “Can you give us more power?”
“I’ll do our best,”
said the officer on duty below. “This is a real
test, ma’am!”
“Well, this is a real
battle, thank you,” Nova retorted.
Sasha grinned a little from her post. She thought… That’s good, give ‘em hell, Auntie!
“Radar
operator! Range to the enemy
fleet!” snapped Vanderveer.
“They’re at five
degrees to port, RZ-240, speed twenty knots, range, ten point two-two
megameters,” said Sasha as sweat ran down her face. This is harder than I thought, she thought to herself. Especially when the ship is moving and
you’re getting shot at. No way is this an Academy simulator..this is real!
“Mizuki, give us your
best,” said Vanderveer.
Mizuki nodded, “Kira,
fire main guns!”
“Acknowledged!” said
the young African-American officer. “Main guns, FIRE!”
At that, the Nagato’s forward main guns spoke in
anger for the first time. One Cometine space battleship and two destroyers blew
apart.
Not bad, thought Nova
as she squinted at the explosions outside. A destroyer came up at them very
fast, and, she cried, “
Sasha’s stomach
rebelled at that manuever. She began to think, Auntie, but bit off the words as she stammered,
“Mrs….Wildstar…please remember this isn’t the space coaster on the moon,
ma’am!”
“I’m doing my best!”
snapped back Nova as she braced her booted feet hard against the deckplates as
she began a turn to evade the ruins of a newly destroyed battle satellite that
the Cometines had just blown up. Of course, the battle satellite had fired at
the enemy ships and had done nothing at all.
The Nagato fired again, and then again,
blowing up two more ships in the process.
However, the battle
still raged on…
III.
THE STORY OF DANA HALL
Dana
Hall’s Apartment
Monday:
May 4, 2207
2130
Hours: Local Time
The space battle had
continued, with the ships involved passing the International Date Line into the
previous day over Earth, and also, incidentially, passing over the terminator
into Earth’s night side over the other side of the Pacific Ocean, aka The Great Easten Sea.
In the Rio Amarillo
apartment complex, a young raven-haired woman in a gauzy white dress stood in
her bare feet in the grass behind her large condominium, trying to take her
mind off the sadness that had perfused it lately by watching the stars that
night through the macrobinoculars her late husband had left her.
The woman was named
Dana Hall. Her husband, Lieutenant Alan Hall, had been a member of the EDF up
until February. He had been serving on the spacecraft carrier Wasp then, as a member of the Red Vipers
flight group.
He had never gotten
home. There had been a skirmish with the damned Comet Empire near Uranus in
early February. The Wasp, near the
end of her patrol then, had launched planes to protect a freighter. Dana’s
husband, Alan, had been one of the pilots who had met the Cometines. Two
Paranoia fighters, they said, had taken him away from her forever in that
battle and had brought two years’ worth of marriage to an untimely end.
Some of the units
here in this complex had been sold as condominiums the previous year, while
others were still rental properties.
Tears ran down Dana’s
face as she thought, It was about a year
ago, now. Alan and I bought this unit
with such high hopes for our future last April. He said he’d serve two more
tours in space and could then put in for reassignment to serve with the
Military Science Professors’ Staff at the ROTC unit at
Dana sighed as she
scanned space with the binoculars her husband had left her. He loved these so much…almost hate to use
them…I…
She stopped, dug her toes
into the grass and gasped as she saw bright flashes.
“Something’s going
on,” she said to herself in a low voice as she looked on, and then she turned
her head to notice that her neighbor, Lynn Westland, was in the yard.
“Checking on me
again?” she said with a half-rueful smile.
“You could say that,”
said
“Oh?” said Dana. “You
mean the flight nurse?”
“Yes, her. She brought home someone.”
“Who? A puppy? A kitten?” said Dana.
“No, Dana, a husband.
I know it’s a bit of a sore topic for you, but…”
“Yeah, life goes on,”
sighed Dana. “What’s his name?”
“He’s a charming
young man, and a great hero, too. His name is Jefferson Davis Hardy.”
“Uh…repeat that name
again?”
“Jefferson Davis
Hardy…he was with the First Star Force.”
Dana whistled. “Your
daughter has quite a catch. You know, Alan put his name in the hat twice for
the Star Force. Twice, he got turned down.”
“I’m sorry…Sorry to bring
in these reminders of…”
“That’s okay. I can’t
get away from it in these times,” said Dana. She handed
“The air raid sirens
might be going off soon,” said Dana with a shrug.
“You’d better get
ready to run to the shelter, then!” cried
“Nothing doing,” said
Dana as she took back the binoculars. “Looks like one of our space battleships
up there with a lot of planes around it fighting some kind of enemy fleet.
They’re going awful fast, heading east, too. Soon, they’ll be out of our
sight.”
“But what if we get
hit?” said
“Won’t matter much to
me,” said Dana. “Then I can go home to be with Alan. He’s still out there, you
know, out by Uranus, floating dead and frozen in his cockpit,” she said as
tears ran down her face. “They told me they couldn’t retrieve him-the wreckage
is adrift someplace. Maybe it’s better that way. At least the worms will never
get to him way out there in space.”
“I told you not to
talk like that,” said
“
“Why?”
“I’m just…passing the
time. Marking time, rather. I won’t be around in a few
months…”
“Stop talking like
that, Dana,” said
Dana just sighed and
turned away.
A few minutes later,
after Dana got tired of watching the battle, she went back into her
three-bedroom condomium after looking around her yard. There was a high fence
around the small back yard, and she and Alan used to like the privacy, and she
had used to enjoy sunbathing and gardening there. Now, she did little with the
garden except pick the peas and beans that were still growing on their vines
with little attention from her. She had let everything else, like the other
vegetables and the flowers, go to waste.
A good gardener could fix this place up, she thought in despair. With those dreams I’ve been having, I think one will be here in a few
months…
Dana then went into
her living room after basicially ignoring the kitchen. She put some soft,
soothing piano-based jazz on her stereo and threw herself into her favorite
black plush beanbag chair to relax.
Dana shut her eyes,
and thought of the times she and Alan had enjoyed here; times when they had
been happy together; times when they had been so much in love…
She looked around
again as tears flooded her eyes. She looked at the white plush rug in the
middle of the living room, and blushed, remembering that she and Alan had so often
made love on that rug. She had wanted so badly for him to make her pregnant
that it hurt remembering it.
It had never
happened, of course. There had been one little “scare” dating back from
October, when they had last been together. She had missed a period, written him
letters, and thought she was…
I did a stupid thing then, so stupid,
she thought sadly as she went
into what had been the first spare bedroom. They had left the second one for
guests.
Dana tried to keep
from crying as she looked at how she had redone the room. She had painted the
walls in cheery stripes in blue and pink, had laid down a white rug, and had
purchased two cribs. One was trimmed with blue, the other with pink. A blue
mobile suitable for a boy, decorated with little Superstar fighters and Cosmo
Tigers in blue, hung over one of the cribs. A pink mobile, decorated with
angels and flowers hung over the other one. A window was slightly open, and the
mobiles turned slowly in the night breeze of
There were also baby
blankets, a changing table stocked with baby oil, powder, and safety pins for
diapers. She opened the drawers and found baby clothes that she had purchased
that she now knew she’d never use, because she’d never have any children of her
own. Yet, Dana refused to disturb them.
Why? Dana thought
as she looked at the little boy’s sailor suit in her hands and felt like
crying. The dreams I’ve been having. The
war’s going to end soon, and I know, somehow, I won’t be here to see it. I know
someone else will be living here after I’m gone, in a few months…another young
family. Somehow, the arrangement will be a wartime one, and it will be
temporary. They’ll have twins, a boy and a girl. They’ll be major war heroes;
their ship will be in refit here in
Dana then went back
into the living room. She opened a closet, and pushed aside her medical student
uniforms and coats to find a white bag. She ignored it, and pulled out her
textbooks; her textbooks from the first semester, which she had never sold back
to the bookstore, and her barely-used textbooks from her second semester; the
ones where her marks and annotations had ended somewhere around Page 210 in all
of the books because around then was when she had gotten the news about Alan
and when she had taken “her leave of absence”. She still drew her stipend,
because the school expected she would be back soon, maybe in the summer
session, maybe next year. She lived on her stipend, her widow’s pension, and
the rent from another unit that Alan had owned in this complex. Alan had
inherited it from his parents, but he thought it was a little small, which was
why they had purchased this unit soon after getting married.
Dana thought, Some other medical student will need these books
soon. I have no idea who, I just recognized the dreams…the young mother who
will live here next will be in school here for maybe one or two years. The
books won’t change much; they’re basic first-year books; she can use mine after
I’m gone.
Dana got a marker and
scratched her name out of the small EX LIBRIS stickers she had pasted in the
flyleaves of her medical books.
Then, with that small
task done, she left them out on her desk, knowing she wouldn’t touch them again
as long as she was alive.
Dana then looked over
her will while playing with something in a small bag.
I’m going to leave it all to Lynn Westland, she thought. She’s
always been a good neighbor. She’ll know what to do with it.
Dana then shut off
the music (the stereo had been playing a jazzy version of “Iscandar”) and opened her bag.
She was looking at a
small metal object in her hand.
A loaded
revolver.
Dana opened her mouth
and calmly put the muzzle of the weapon in her mouth.
One shot,
she thought. One quick shot,
and it’ll all be over. The dreams. The lonelieness,
the emptiness, and I’ll be with Alan again…I’ll…
Dana’s finger tensed
on the trigger, but something stopped her.
She found she
couldn’t do it.
She found she could
not commit suicide. At least not yet.
Why not? Dana sobbed
as she pulled the gun out of her mouth and put on the safety and put it away. Why can’t I do it yet? Why?
It is not your time, yet,
came another thought. You will most likely die soon, but not by your own hand. Wait for the
right time. You still have work to do…you have to
prepare this place, still…for others who will come after you…
Yeah, right,
she thought. Like sitting here waiting to
die…like being the keeper of the morgue…
At that, Dana Hall
threw herself into her beanbag chair and began to cry.
She cried herself to
sleep. It wasn’t the first time, and it wouldn’t be the last…
IV.
AFTER THE BATTLES…
Space
Battleship Nagato
Over
the
Tuesday:
May 5, 2207
1500
Hours: Space-Time (Great Megalopolis Time)
“I swear, you always get your arm hurt, Derek,” said
Nova as she stood in the Sickbay of the Nagato,
clad in open clogs and a WHO-pattern nurse’s minidress with a coverall-type
back (the only medical gear they could find aboard ship that would accommodate
her pregnancy), about forty-five minutes after the end of the battle. “You’ve
hurt that darned arm more times than I can count,” she said as she finished
suturing up the arm while Doctor Carroll, the ship’s surgeon, nodded his head
at her work.
“Good job,” said the
chubby doctor, who looked a bit like a younger version of Doctor Sane. “Those
sutures will hold just fine.”
“When will it stop
twinging?” said Derek.
“Oh, it’ll just get
worse in the next day or so,” said the doctor soothingly while Alex Wildstar
and his daughter looked on. “Nurse Wildstar and I gave you a local anesthetic
so you wouldn’t jump out of that chair while we worked on you. My heavens, you
big bad fighter pilots are so bad about pain…”
“We won, of course?”
said Derek.
“We wouldn’t be here
if we hadn’t,” said Alex. “We should be home in about an hour, give or take a
few minutes. I’m driving the car home, Derek.”
“I can do it,”
grunted Derek.
“No using machinery
for at least a week until that heals
up,” snapped Doctor Carroll. “Mrs. Wildstar, here’s the meds he’ll need; you
make sure he takes them…”
“Yessir,” said Nova. Derek
then gave her a hug. She smiled, appreciating the feel of his hands on her
semi-bare shoulders as they embraced.
On the new Gamilon-Garuman Imperial Flagship Excelsior, Talan had just summoned
Leader Desslok. He said it was urgent.
“Talan, what is it?” asked Desslok.
“We’ve made contact
with General Radnar’s ship, Leader Desslok,” said Talan. “He wants to speak
with you at once, he says…”
“Not altogether
unexpected,” mused Desslok. “Let us see what he wants
from us, shall we?”
A staff officer on
the Excelsior’s huge command bridge
said, “Leader Desslok, we have a visual feed from Radnar.”
“Put him on the main
screen,” said Desslok.
Radnar’s aged face
appeared. “Leader Desslok,” he said in his deep voice. “We meet at last.”
“Interesting, that we
appear to be on the same side,” said
Desslok.
“Yes, we are now also
fighting Invidia, as well.”
“Why is that?” said
Desslok.
“It is evident that
the High Authority on Great Andromeda looked over the tape which was the
Donation of Zordar and recognized you as his Heir and Prince, Desslok.
Therefore, I wish to swear fealty to you, Prince Desslok.”
“That is Leader Desslok to you, Radnar,” said
Desslok. “If anything, I am an equal to the Grand Emperor on Great Andromeda.”
“Yes,” said Radnar. “But,
as I recall you saying in the conference at Melezart, you were aware of
Zordar’s naming you as a Prince of the Empire, and you wished to order Invidia
to make peace.”
“That is true,” said
Desslok. “She has no right to make war in her father’s name. She calls me an upstart? She is the upstart.”
“I have the rest of
the power of the Comet Empire behind me, Desslok. Many of the Houses have
joined my side. Together, we can put an end to this illegal war of Invidia’s. I
have begun to do my part…”
“Yes, I received the
report from Dagon,” said Desslok. “I am glad that you and he worked together,
as it were, to rid the galactic regions of Gernitz. Perhaps Invidia may stop…”
“She will not,” said
Radnar. “We stopped them at Geratz and Peralta. I have word, on high authority,
that her next target will be deeper in the Great Magellenic Cloud.”
“Where?” said
Desslok.
“The Sanzar
System. I have spies on her
ship who state she has found out where Iscandar and Gamilon lie. She also plans
to strike again at Earth. She sent more forces to Earth today to try to
assassinate your friends the Wildstars, and, as my spies report, a member of
the Iscandarian Royal Family.”
“Sasha?” said
Desslok.
“I believe that was
her name,” said Radnar. “Our intelligence states that they were going to attack
a new Earth battleship taking off on a ceremonial test run today. However, they
also report the Earth forces beat them. Only one Cometine space batleship of
Invidia’s even got out of the Sol System.”
“I am not ready to
form a formal alliance with you yet,
Radnar,” said Desslok with his arms crossed across his chest. “I have little
trust for any of your race after
Melezart, after you tried to kill me there. But, if you speak the truth, your
help would be appreciated. Do what
you can to stop Invidia’s forces as an advance force if you tell the truth. I
must return home to reinforce my homeworld.”
“Of course,” said
Radnar.
“If this works,” said
Desslok. “We will have more to discuss. But, if you betray me as Invidia did at
Melezart…”
“Yes?” asked Radnar.
“If you betray me,
all the depths of space will not be enough to hide you from my wrath, Radnar,” snapped Desslok. “Are we
clear?”
“Yes, my liege-lord,”
said Radnar with a bow.
“Go,” said Desslok.
“Get out of my sight.”
At that, Desslok
signalled to cut off the feed.
“Well, sir?” said
Talan.
“This gives me much
to think about,” said Desslok as he rubbed his chin. “Yes,
Talan. Much…”
That evening at 2000
Hours, Stephen Sandor was as nervous as a cat.
He was off duty, and
he was waiting in a restaurant called The
English Steakhouse in one of the better parts of the Megalopolis for Diane
Henson to show up.
He and Diane had been
associating and working together on the Argo’s
refit for quite a long time, and he and Diane had finally agreed to formally go
out to dinner together.
It would be Sandor’s
first date in many years. And that was why he was nervous.
He wore a suit, tie,
nice boots, and he looked rather handsome.
I hope she’ll accept me and not make fun of the fact that
I’m a cyborg, he thought.
The doors opened, and
Diane came in, wearing a jumper-type minidress, sweater and boots. She actually
looked rather classy for once. This surprised Sandor because Diane had always
been sort of the greasy tomboy type.
“Hi,” said Diane in a
sultry voice.
“Hi, Diane,” said
Steve, who was very nervous as he got up, pulled out a chair for Diane, and
helped her sit down. Then, he sat down himself. “Have a hard time getting
here?”
“No, I remember this place
from years ago. It had a branch in the underground city, believe it or not.
When Derek was broke once, I took him there for a date.”
“Alex told me some
things about you,” mused Sandor as he picked up a menu after a waitress robot
in a white apron dropped it off.
“Drinks,
gentlebeings?” asked the robot after a moment.
“Yes,” said Sandor.
“Let us look over the lists first.”
“Thanks,” said the
robot, who left.
“What were they?”
said Diane.
“Let’s not get into
those now,” said Sandor. “Suffice to say…”
“Yeah,” said Diane.
“Let’s change the subject! The last time I was here, was underground, with
Derek. Who were you here with last time? You said you took a girl here before,
Steve.”
“Yeah, it was sorta,
kinda a date,” said Sandor as he began to get nervous at the memory. The
waitress robot came back and Sandor said, “I remember the beer list. I’d like a Guinness Stout, please.”
“And you, dear?” said
the robot as she turned to Diane.
“Same thing,” said
Henson.
“Understood, thanks,”
said the robot as she turned and went off to the bar. Steve and Diane chatted
as the robot came back three minutes later with the drinks and then was
dismissed.
Sandor sipped at his
ale as he said, “Now, back to the last time I was here. It was the summer of
2199, right after the Paladin had
left for the Battle of Pluto. After that, I was assigned to the Yamato’s reconstruction, and I met an
old protégé’ of mine there.”
“Who was it?” said
Diane.
“The girl was more interested
in medicine than technical items, but she was no slouch at computer
programming, either. I taught an advanced course in Gaussian Logic for two
semesters as a guest instructor at a private college in
“Did she know about your…uh?” said Diane as she tapped an arm.
“Yeah,” said Steve. “Never mattered to her, though. In fact, she helped design
two sets I used. But, it never felt right even thinking of dating someone close
to ten years younger than me. As we ate and talked, she kind of came to the
same decision. She was nice about it; even kissed me goodnight on the cheek,”
said Steve. “And I danced with her that night,” said Sandor as he watched some
couples on the dance floor by the bar. “Only time, until her wedding, of
course. Kid even gave me another kiss on her wedding day. On
the cheek. Very chaste girl….”
“Well, who is it or
was it?” said Diane.
“You two went at it
once in the ring,” said Steve with an almost warped smile.
“Nova?” said Diane.
“You went out with her once?”
“Once,” said Steve.
“It was even more awkward than this time,” he laughed. “She even had on that
same dress she wore on the way to Iscandar when Tinwit lifted her skirt in the
wardroom that time. We were working together, we thought,
why not go out to eat one night? Then, it went weird. Almost as bad as with
Tricia, but…”
“Who’s Tricia?” said
Diane.
“Only Alex and Nova
know about her,” said Sandor. “My ex-wife. I was with
her for a year around 2196. We divorced the next year when we found we couldn’t
have children together, and…”
“Steve, I’m sorry,”
said Diane as she patted his hand. “What happened?”
“My fault…part of the
accident,” said Steve. “They got…parts of me back together. They work…Tricia
and I had a more or less normal marriage, except for the fact that we couldn’t
do that one thing. That one simple thing.”
“What?”
“Have a child
together,” said Sandor. “That was important to Tricia, and when Nova brought up
the same topic…just saying she’d like to have kids someday, but was in no rush
for it…”
“Did she know?” said
Diane. “About you, I mean?”
“No,” said Steve.
“She hadn’t…ever read that part of my medical records. When she did a day or
two later, she apologized to me left and right for innocently bringing up the
topic. She never mentioned children around me again, until after we found out
she was pregnant and she woke up from that tube, that is. Even then, she tries
not to say much, but…”
“Her stomach does the
talking for her,” giggled Diane.
“Yeah. I always looked out for her afterwards, like a kid sister.
Really stunk almost seeing her get killed that time on the Cosmo-DNA unit by
that gas on the way home from Iscandar….and…”
The waitress robot
came back. Aware they hadn’t looked at the menus, Steve and Diane ordered prime
rib and steak fries and she left. Then, Diane said, “So, what do you want out
of the future?”
“A professorship,
full-time, someday,” said Steve.
“Working on your doctorate?”
said Diane.
“Yes,” said Sandor.
“That’s nice.”
“My third one,” he
said with a blush.
“What?” said Diane. “I mean, you always have your head in some circuits
someplace, you never mention…”
“All the nights I sit
up doing pure research because I can’t sleep well?” said Sandor. “I don’t sleep
much. Maybe five hours a night. Hope that doesn’t bother you. There’s all sorts of things about me that people find
weird.”
“There’s
things about me that people find weird, too,” said Diane. “Like the fact
that…well…there was Derek, there was Randy Parmon, there was one other guy, and
then there was Tatiana.”
“The pilot?” said
Sandor.
“Yeah…Lubyanska…” sighed Diane. “This is the part where you probably…get up
and walk out…but we were more than friends…”
“So?” said Steve as
Diane’s eyes went wide. “People try things,” he said.
“Thanks for seeing it
that way,” said Diane as her eyes glistened.
“Hey,” he whispered.
“We both have issues. “After all, I’m mister bionic…”
Diane blushed. “I was
just wondering…uhh…?”
“I said I was fully
functional,” whispered Sandor. “Except for being sterile..everything
else works….”
“Yoo much
information,” said Diane. Sandor shrugged. Both of them chuckled at that.
Then, Sandor’s
portable phone rang.
“Who the heck would
want me here?” he muttered. “Hello,
Sandor speaking.”
“Steve?” said Alex
Wildstar’s voice at the other end. Sandor’s eyes went wide when he heard the
anger in his voice.
“What’s wrong?”
“We just got home,”
said Alex. “There’s reporters all over the place, yelling crazy stuff through
the doors, the windows…they’re even on the damn porch!”
“What kind of crazy
stuff?” snapped Steve. “Are those cretins bothering Nova again about her babies?”
“No, it’s worse,”
said Alex. “You two had a big staff aircar requisitioned tonight, right?” said
Alex.
“Yeah…a six-man
monstrosity…all I could get…what a nerd car, huh?”
“We can’t even get at
ours,” said Alex. “They’re all over the place, like bloodhounds on the scent of
a story…”
“What?” snapped
Sandor as the waitress robot brought dinner.
“Princess,” said
Alex. “Her secret is out.”
“Bozhe moi,” said Steve in his native Russian. He said, “Alex, we’ll
be there ASAP and get you out of the city.” Then, Steve looked at the robot. “Wrap
those dinners up, please. Here’s a hundred,” he said as he got out a credit
note. “Get those out fast. No need to worry about change.”
“This is not
logical,” said the robot.
“No!” barked Sandor.
“It’s not!”
The robot left as
Sandor hung up.
Diane asked, “Steve,
what was that about? Should I get a cab home?”
“It’s an emergency.
No, you’re coming with me. You like fighting, you might be useful.”
“What’s going on?”
“Bad night at the
Wildstars,” said Sandor. “I’ll explain in the car.”
V.
SASHA REVEALED
The
Wildstar Residence
Tuesday:
May 5, 2207
2030
Hours: Space-Time (Great Megalopolis Time)
“This is Harvey Lee
Jones, live from the Wildstars’” said a well-known muckraking and “crusading” investigative
video commentator, an ex-lawyer (disbarred) who worked for Cosmo News as he
spoke into a mike right on Derek and Nova’s front porch being captured on video
by a camera girl while other reporters gathered in the yard, yelling questions,
while a mob of onlookers began to gather around them beyond a small ring of
police. “The rumors began early today, but it is now substantiated that the
Wildstar family has been harboring a deep secret here on Earth. The youngest
daughter of Queen Starsha of Iscandar and Admiral Alex Wildstar of the
Iscandarian forces has been living here on Earth for years under the assumed
name of ‘Sasha Petrovsky’, and this alien hybrid creature has even been
attending the Space Fighters’ Training School as a Midshipman, thanks to your
tax credits.”
Jones continued as he
held up a picture of Sasha from a copy of the medical records that had been
given to him. “We know she is maybe four or five years old, but appears to be
twenty-one, thanks to her strange alien growth patterns. Are there other things
that are strange about this Princess?
Does she have bizarre alien powers like her mother? Could she be a threat to
the human race? It has also come out that she is secretly married to an Earth
pilot. Will she produce strange children? What is her motive? Can we trust
Iscandar for implanting an agent amongst us?”
Inside the house,
Sasha knelt by a window on a cushioned settee and cried; she was able to hear
the reporter through the glass.
“Daddy, what a
xenophobic bastard he is!”
“How does Mother feel
about this?” said Alex as Nova brought her some tea, tiptoeing up on her bare
feet to do so.
“She hates it,” said
Sasha as she took the tea from Nova and shakily drank some. “And she is getting
very angry at this.”
“What I’m doing is
trying to figure out an escape route,” said Derek. “Alex, maybe we could go out
a window…jump out…”
“We all could, if Nova wasn’t pregnant,” said Alex.
“OH…right,” said
Derek as he slammed a fist into the couch.
“You guys take Sasha
and leave me,” said Nova as she wiped away tears. “They can’t hurt me in my own
house. The worst they can do is keep me from sleeping.
And I can’t sleep anyhow,” she sobbed.
“I’m not leaving you
here with those mobs around,” said Derek. “Sounds like it’s
getting ugly.”
“Did you call
Security?” said Alex.
“Yeah,” said Derek.
“They said their men will have to fight their way through this, like everyone
else. The normal agent in a car near the house just got overwhelmed, they
said…”
Nova gritted her teeth
and picked up one of her clogs. “I’ll go out there and talk to them.”
“Nova! You can’t!” said Derek.
“Wanna bet? I don’t
appreciate people trespassing around our house,
Derek!”
“You’ve got a point,”
he sighed as he got up in his sock feet and uniform. Alex had likewise doffed
his boots; only Sasha kept hers on; the one-piece uniform she had on, of
course, made it rather hard for her to shed her boots.
Nova walked briskly
out of the living room, through the foyer, and then she opened the door and stepped
outside, leaving the door open for the others.
Jones saw her walking
out as much of the crowd cheered while others booed. Nova saw reporters,
lights, and protestors with signs. She then turned her dark eyes on the
reporter and put her hands on her hips as the cameras turned to face her. The
spectacle was on live video, being seen around much of the globe as a “breaking
story”.
“Ah, Mrs. Wildstar,”
said Jones. “Do you have any comment?”
“Yes, I do,” said
Nova in a tart voice. “I’m not usually this rude, but you’re trespassing on
private property.”
“So?” said Jones.
“The world has a right to know, Nova.”
“You do not call me
by my first name,” snapped Nova. “And you have ten seconds to get your filthy self off my porch!”
Derek stepped out
behind her, followed by Alex, and then, as Alex protested, Sasha herself came
onto the porch.
“The world has a
right to know who you’ve been harboring here,” said Jones as he shoved the
microphone in Nova’s face. Then, other reporters screamed, “Answer him!”
“Answer him!” yelled
another one.
Then, a chant of
“Answer him, Answer him, Answer him!”
started up.
“Answer me!” yelled
Jones. Then, he turned to Nova and said, “come on,
woman, talk!” as he got into her face and slapped her in the shoulder.
“Answer this,”
snapped back Nova. With a loud slap, Nova slapped the man’s hand and knocked
the microphone out of his hand; as it flew out of his hand, it knocked his
fedora off.
“I could have you in
prison for that, dear.” hissed Jones.
“Same for what you
did, you idiot! Let’s see you try it!” barked Nova.
Derek than ran up
beside her and said, “Didn’t you hear my wife, sir? You are not wanted here. We
do not want to talk about Midshipman Petrovsky tonight. End of story! Get off
my property!”
Someone else handed
Jones a microphone and a file. “This is a copy of her medical file, Wildstar!
Do you deny this is true?”
“We have no comment,”
snapped Derek.
“Do you deny it is
true?” insisted Jones.
“No comment!” said
Derek as Alex stood dangerously silent behind Derek and beside Sasha.
“Look at this,” said
Jones, trying to elicit a response like a prosecutor for good video. “Live, on
TV, you deny this?” he yelled as he
shoved the file in Nova’s face.
“GET AWAY FROM ME!”
screamed Nova with tears running down her face as the rest of the Press stopped
their shouted questions and began to mutter amongst themselves.
Even they were starting to get sickened at the sight of a pregnant woman being
badgered like that.
“DO YOU DENY THIS,
YOU FOOL….?” yelled Jones.
He never got to
finish as Derek Wildstar just lost it and punched him in the gut. He doubled
over, but because he wasn’t hit in the solar plexus, he coughed and ran around
the Wildstars and shoved the microphone right in Sasha’s face.
“What is your name?”
he demanded.
“That’s not
important,” cried Sasha as Nova stepped back to put her arms around her.
Jones brandished the
file and said, “This file says your name is Wildstar, Midshipman! Where were
you born?”
Sasha stared him down
like a cornered animal and then screamed in his face as Nova tried to protect
her, “Iscandar! Okay? Put me in
prison, chain me up like a freak, I’m HALF ISCANDARIAN, all right?” she yelled
with fire in her eyes as the crowd really began to mutter and yell at that.
“Then tell us what
you are doing on Earth, alien,” said
Jones into his microphone with undisguised hatred and flame in his eyes.
“I was learning to
help you idiots defend it,” said Sasha. “And I’m half-human,” she said in a
low, growling voice that even Alex had never heard before.
“Sasha,” said Alex.
“The police are coming, and a car is coming, let’s…”
“Not yet, Daddy,” she
said as the crowd went berserk with mumbles again.
“Okay,” said Jones as
he stepped back a little while Sasha kissed Nova and stepped out of her arms to
face him alone. Then, she said, “I am Princess Sasha of Iscandar, the daughter,
people, of Alex Wildstar and Queen Starsha of Iscandar. Jones, do you have
anything to say to me?”
“Yes, freak…” he said as the crowd gasped. “Is
it true you are secretly married?” he said as Alex came up behind her.
“This interview is
over,” said Alex.
“No it’s not,” said
Jones. “Sasha, are you married? To an Earthling?” he said as he shoved the file
into her face.
But, he miscalculated
the shove. A metal edge of the file caught her cheek and cut it.
Sasha stepped back
and screamed.
Alex Wildstar then
rolled up his sleeves, determined the beat the living tar out of this man.
But Sasha put her
hand to her cheek and said, “i’m…bleeding…you’ve…hurt me!”
“Do you bleed like
us?” yelled the reporter as he wiped his finger across the bloody cut.
Alex was about to
belt him, and Derek was drawing his Astro-Automatic to
fire a warning shot into the air, but Sasha kicked Jones out of her face first
with a kick in the shins as an unearthly glow burned in her eyes.
Then, she made a fist
with her right hand, and then extended her fingers at Jones, yelling, in a
feral roar, “EAT THIS, JONES!”
And then, to
everyone’s shock, something like blue lightning roared out of her hand and
smashed into Jones.
Jones dropped his
microphone with an unearthly howl of feedback as the energy roared into him,
and he screamed like a tortured puppy as the energy gave out, leaving smoking
wounds on his stomach. He gasped.
“Don’t mess with me!”
said Sasha as she picked up the microphone as some people began to cheer and
applaud. Then, she said, “I declare this over. Let us get out of here!”
Someone in the crowd
booed loudly, and yelled, “YOU FREAK!”
Others began to boo
as the police tried to run over, but two of the goons in the crowd picked small
rocks from the edge of the Wildstars’ driveway and threw rocks at the porch.
One rock smashed through
one of the Wildstars’ windows, while another one skipped onto the porch and hit
Nova in one of her bare calves, while another one knocked an enraged Alex’s
Naval cap off.
Then, a final stone,
aimed right at Sasha, hit her right in the side of the
head.
Hard.
Sasha collapsed like
a rag doll before her father’s enraged eyes.
Alex went to his
knees and held his daughter. “Oh, Goddess, Sasha!”
Derek raised his
weapon and fired one warning shot into the air as an enraged Nova picked up a
broom from off the porch and brandished it at a few more reporters.
“Don’t you dare!” she
yelled as the horn of an aircar sounded as bright lights parted the crowd.
An aircar sped across
the yard, barely missed a tree, and then stopped right before the steps as the techtite
canopy lifted back, and Stephen Sandor opened his glove compartment and
extended an astro-automatic at the crowd as the police gathered around the car.
“The next one to
throw a rock is dead!” he snapped as
Alex carried an unconscious Sasha like a doll in his arms into the aircar. Nova
was helped into the car by Derek, and Diane Henson helped buckle them up.
Then, Sandor shut the
canopy of the aircar and floored it while executing a hard turn like a fighter
pilot.
Rocks and bottles
bounced off the car as the police and security forces finally opened fire on
the rioters. Nova looked on at Sasha lying inert in Alex’s arms and at the
rioters and some video cameramen trying to take pictures of the melee as some
people fell dead outside.
“Oh, God!” Nova cried as she put her face into her hands. “Derek,
there are times when I HATE this planet!”
“Me too,” said a numb
Derek. “Me too, Nova…Steve, where are we going?”
“The Iscandarian
Embassy,” said Sandor. “We’ve been summoned there.”
“By whom?” said Alex as tears ran down his face.
“Starsha,” said
Sandor. “And she is not happy.”
VI.
DEKE’S PRIVATE HELL
Spacecraft
Carrier Wasp
The
Vicinity of Planet Beemira
Wedenesday:
May 6, 2207
0023
Hours: Space-Time (Great Megalopolis Time)
Deke
In this dream, he was
back in the underground city of
As if in slow motion,
he turned towards Sasha Morningstar, the young mother who had been trying to
make peace with her ragged dress open and a baby at the breast of her
semi-naked body.
As if condemned to
repeat the same moves over and over again, Deke fired DJ at her. The bullets
flew, knocking her out of one of her sandals, spraying blood everywhere.
She fell with her
eyes open, and Deke ran to her.
Only, when Deke got
there, the face and body had changed.
To Deke’s
horror, the woman lying there ruined, almost naked, and bleeding from mortal
wounds wasn’t Sasha Morningstar.
It was Nova Wildstar,
lying there with an eye shot out.
Nova tried to speak
as she reached up a trembling, bloody hand at his. “You…Deke…you killed my
babies. I…wasn’t,” said the dying Nova in his dream as she coughed up a huge gout of blood. “I wasn’t….doing any harm…”
“No…” replied Deke.
“You weren’t…”
Nova’s hand trembled,
and then she dissolved before his eyes and became the worst vision of all.
Sasha.
Sasha shook, extended
a hand as she tried to sit up and the rags of her dress tore off, and said to
Deke, “Deke…I’m so sorry…you killed me, didn’t you?”
“No I didn’t,” sobbed
Deke. “I….”
“The bullets
came…from DJ…I know it….dying…”
“Sasha, don’t go!”
cried Deke as he hugged her shaking body.
“Deke…I…” she said. Then, she exhaled and went limp in his arms as
her eyes fixed, dilated, and her bladder relaxed in death.
Sasha was dead.
“SASHA!” he screamed
as he held her bloody, mutilated, limp body. “SASHA!”
“Hello there,”
snapped an authoritative voice behind him.
“Who the hell are
you?” Deke demanded as a reporter in a fedora shoved a microphone into his
face.
“Harvey Lee Jones,
Cosmo News!” he snapped. “Do you admit to murdering your own mutant Iscandarian
wife,
Deke was horrified as
he saw a TV camera focusing on him in his grief and Sasha’s mutilated, unclad
form. He tried to cover one of her bloody breasts and yelled, “I admit to
nothing! DROP DEAD!”
Jones continued with,
“The rumors began early today, but it is now substantiated that the Wildstar
family has been harboring a deep secret on Earth and you were hiding her in your
back pocket, Lieutenant! The youngest daughter of Queen Starsha of Iscandar and
Admiral Alex Wildstar of the Iscandarian forces was living here on Earth for
years under the assumed name of ‘Sasha Petrovsky’, and this alien hybrid
creature has even been attending the Space Fighters’ Training School as a
Midshipman, thanks to your tax credits. And now you just murdered her. How does that make you feel, losing your Princess?
Are you shocked? Are you disgusted? You’re a killer, like one of your
contemporaries said…”
“Who?” hissed Deke.
Then, Jones’ form
began to dissolve and melt into something that looked like a rotting corpse in
an EDF Midshipman’s uniform. To Deke’s shock, the
weird apparition was Mick Stovall. Only it was a Stovall with maggots crawling
from his eyes as something like red fire burned in the empty eye sockets.
“She always said you
were a killer,” said Stovall in a dragging, deep parody of his good old boy’s
nasty voice. “Dawn said that you ruined everything you touched,
“You sick piece of garbage!”
yelled Deke as he tried to protect Sasha’s rapidly stiffening corpse from
Stovall’s gaze. “How would you like to EAT THIS?” he said as he pointed DJ at
the Stovall-thing with a free hand.
Deke fired, but the
monster just laughed and sealed the barrel of DJ and made it blow up.
Now, Deke was
screaming in agony from self-inflicted shrapnel wounds.
“WHO ARE YOU?”
screamed
“Sasha used to be
cute but she ain’t now,” said Stovall. “We
hurt her! Me and my buddies! She’s between a rock and a headache, son!
LITERALLY! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Gave her a headache with a rock, my boys did,”
said Stovall as he turned into a Thing in a black robe with a skull-face.
“WHO ARE YOU?” yelled
Deke.
“Your worst
nightmare. Your
death. Sasha’s death,” said the Thing in an unnaturally deep voice. “And the Bringer of Slavery and Death for Earth,
Deke screamed.
He had just screamed
himself awake.
And he was covered
with sweat.
He knew he was back
on the Wasp when he heard a banging
at the hatch and heard Brew yelling out in the passage. “Dekesticks!
Yo, cuz! You woke me and Bangs up, man!
What’s wrong with you in there? Need a Brew?”
“Had…a…nightmare..” muttered
“Shoot,” said
“It’s okay,” said
Bangs. “I won’t look.”
“Ain’t right,” muttered Deke as he threw on his robe and then
sat on his bunk with his 3S drumsticks, beating a cadence against the side of
his bunk while Brew and Bangs looked on.
“What’s wrong?” said
Brew.
“Nightmare
about…about…a lady friend,” he said, correcting himself as Bangs looked on.
“So you are hooked up with someone, Sticks,”
said Bangs.
“Don’t wanna get into
gossip now, but…yes,” he said. “Brew, I had this really bad dream about my
squirrel. In the dream, I shot her like I did with that
Morningstar girl years ago…”
“You shot a girl
once?” said Bangs, who looked nervously at Brew and Deke.
“Yeah…in the Junior
Space Cadet Corps, food riots during the Gamilon War, it was a horrible Goddamn
mess of an accident,” said
“By Nova, do you mean
Nova Wildstar?” said Bangs. “How do
you know Ms. Star Force, aka “Ms. Concrete Thighs” amongst us ladies?”
Deke nodded glumly.
“I’ve had…contact with her. I saved her life during a recent mission we were
on. She’s as batty as her samurai husband, fighting green guys when she’s
pregnant…”
“Interesting,” said
Bangs. “So you dreamed you shot your girlfriend?”
“Whom I miss very
badly, yeah,” said Deke. “That’s why I’ve been so mean lately. All I’ve been
dreaming about is her, her, her. I’m going space happy
myself, Brew. I need my squirrel.”
“We can’t ship her
where we’re goin’,” said Brew. “At
least not yet…”
“You need a squirrel
cage?” said Bangs.
“Do you even know
what a squirrel is?” said Deke.
“I’ve…heard the term,”
said Bangs. “Sir, are you up to flying that next patrol at 0700 with us?”
“I will be if I can
get back to sleep and have some space java when I get up,” said Deke.
“Well, get the hell
to sleep, bro,” said Brew. “Don’t have any more nightmares.”
“I won’t,” replied
Deke as they left. Brew thought
“This explains a lot
of shit,” said Bangs as she walked back down the passage with Brew.
“Yeah, he needs
help,” said Brew.
“This sounds like one
officer we need to get laid,” said Bangs. “That can be arranged. I know people
and his squirrel will never need…”
“No, Bangs,” said
Brew. “
“We can go down to
Beemira and find him a lady bug from that other hive they discovered by the
equator near the signal monitoring base. Turns out Queen Melina wasn’t the last of her kind like she
said before she died. Hah. Those bugs…they creep me out looking at
them….brr…but maybe he could use a female, just to…relieve his tensions…”
“He won’t even do
that,” said Brew as he rolled up his eyes.
“Do a bug?” said
Bangs.
“You horrible,” said Brew in a slurred,
half-asleep voice as he glared at her. “No, Deke would not mate with a Beeperson. Don’t think many humans would.”
“We gotta get him
laid before he blows a thruster gasket,” said Bangs. “But
how?”
“You sleep on it,”
said Brew. “I know I will…”
“Thanks.”
VII.
SASHA IN HIDING
Planet
Earth
Vicinity
of the Greater Megalopolis
The
Iscandarian Embassy
Wedenesday:
May 6, 2207
0530
Hours: Space-Time (Great Megalopolis Time)
For security
purposes, the embassies of the Iscandarian, Gamilon, and Rikashan governments
were all hidden away on an island in
This island had been
a gun emplacement up until the end of World War II, and had later been home to
a missile battery during the Unification Wars. The planet bombings had largely
wiped the place clean, and, thus, the now-forested, mostly unihabited island
was now the hidden (and, by necessity, secret) site of the Iscandarian,
Gamilon, and Rikashan Embassies here on Earth. There was no regular civilian
access to the place, and that cover was maintained by some misinformation that
the site was still “radioactive” from the planet bombs. A carefully picked
Marine Company kept the place secure and secret along with the equivalent of
Marines from Iscandar, Gamilon, and Rikasha.
The Iscandarian Embassy,
with its crystalline spires, was the tallest building on the hilly, forested
island. The next tallest was the Rikashan Embassy, a structure that looked like
a forbidding fortress made of stone. The Gamilon Embassy, a complex of bleak
mushroom-shaped buildings that looked a bit like their departed base on Balan,
was nearly hidden, ironically, at the bottom of a planet bomb crater that the
Gamilon War had caused. The bit of background radiation there actually made the
place rather pleasant and congenial for the Gamilons, who were used to
surviving in areas with a high radiation count. And the desolate ambience of
the hole they lived in somewhat reminded the Gamilons of their homeworld. It creeped out the Terrans who had to serve around the complex, though.
Sasha woke up in a
woozy haze in a room she didn’t recognize for a moment.
“Where…am I…?” she
said
She looked around,
noticing that she now wore a pure white nightgown, and that she was looking at
crystalline walls that surrounded her; a dim light was filtering through since
the sun was just coming up.
“You’re in the
Iscandarian Embassy, Sasha,” said Nova in a soft voice.
Sasha looked over at
her aunt, who was still in the WHO-style nurse’s coverall she had been wearing
the previous day. She was still barefoot, and she looked like she had barely
slept.
“Why am I here?” said
Sasha.
“Sanctuary,” said
Nova. “After that mob hit you in the head with a rock on our porch, we had to
get you to a safe house. It’s here. You’re okay. For now.”
“What about the
Academy?” said Sasha. “I have classes…I…”
Nova bowed her head.
“You won’t ever have to see that place again, Sasha. Now why don’t you rest?”
“Why not?” cried
Sasha. “I wasn’t to know what’s going to happen to me!”
“You’ll be kept
safe,” said Nova in a soothing voice. “I’m afraid it’s going to be a while
before you can walk around on Earth again by yourself. However, a lot of people
here on Earth are behind you, Sasha. Many world leaders and religious leaders
and politicians are offering their deepest apologies.”
“But I want to go
back to school!” sobbed Sasha. “Nova, I was on the honor committee…I liked
being a Midshipman…I have my cruise to do….I won’t let a few idiots keep me
from…”
“Security risk,” said
Nova. “We spent all night up talking about you; that is, Derek, myself, the
Commander, the Commandant of the Academy, Aliscea, Sandor, your father, your
sister, your mother…that is, of course, when Doctor Sane, myself, Aliscea, and
Doctor Penalba here at the Embassy weren’t all in here checking on you.” Nova
bit her lip, and then decided it would be better not to tell Sasha that she had been so sick earlier that her vital
signs had been fluttering. Aliscea had helped Nova and the doctors stabilize
Sasha.
Nova also didn’t tell
Sasha that Aliscea found evidence that she had been psychically as well as physically wounded in the riot. Aliscea had
been back by the Wildstars’ house in the middle of the night and had found
evidence that Ekogaru himself had been there among the rioters! How, or in what
form he had been there, even Aliscea did not know. But it was known that the
Dark Lord had somehow incited some of this madness. Thus, the repercussions
from Starsha and Desslok were not as bad as they might have been otherwise.
“Mother knows about
this?”
“She contacted us
while you were out.”
“Where’s my sister?”
Nova looked at the
chronometer on her wrist. “She should be back from the city in that jet ferry
in about an hour. She is at the President’s office now, presenting a formal diplomatic
note of protest from your mother to the Earth Government. The Gamilon
Ambassador is there, too.”
“I almost wish he’d
go back to that creepy crater he crawled out of,” said Sasha with a shiver.
“Ever been there to the Embassy, Nova?”
“Yes, it was
interesting, but creepy. I wonder why they have to have that weird moaning
noise everywhere they go?”
“Has to do with the
ventilation systems they like,” said Sasha. “Astra told me they like a very
even, sterile atmosphere in their ships and buildings.”
Then, Commodore
Wildstar came in. He was in his uniform, and had gotten boots from somewhere.
“Hi, Nova,” he said. Then, he looked at Sasha. “You’re awake?”
“I think I am,” she
said with a shrug. “I’ve been having bad dreams. Same with Dekeee....”
“How bad?” said
Derek.
”You don’t want to
know,” said Sasha with a shiver. “Where were you, Uncle?”
“Over bugging the
Gamilons,” he said. “Steve and I thought their egghead scientists must have some idea of where Ekogaru went.”
“Do they?” asked
Sasha.
“No. And then they
told me to go home and to go to sleep,” said Derek as he looked at the floor.
Then, he looked over at Nova. “Why are you not wearing shoes?”
“I left them at home,
Derek. Besides, I like being barefoot at five in the morning.
I wish I could get some sleep,” she said as she yawned.
Then, Sasha’s sister
Astra strode into the room in her purple gown, followed by two Iscandarian
retainers and two EDF Space Marines. “Sasha. You’re well!”
“Not totally, sis,
but…well enough,” said Sasha.
“I have finished my
business before your President for the day and have received all due apologies
and assurances that those miscreants are being searched for,” Astra said as she
bowed formally to Derek and Nova. “The Queen is satisfied for the time being.
That reporter, Jones, is imprisoned now. No, you didn’t kill him with that
strange outburst of psi-energy. We wonder where that came from, by the way. The Pellian is a possible suspect. At
any rate, the Earth Government is helping to heal this rift by searching for
the others and they have imposed a press blackout on most of this matter. But
your secret is out, Sasha. Your mother will want to speak with you in a moment.
Your Uncle has something to give you.”
“What?” sighed Sasha. “I’m not a cadet any more, so…”
“They told you?” said
Derek.
Sasha looked at Nova.
“Auntie Nova told me.”
Derek looked at Nova.
“You wrecked my surprise,” he said with a grin.
“Oh, Derek,” sighed Nova in a fashion that
did not look amused. “No. I didn’t tell her everything
yet.”
“About what?” said Sasha.
“Owing to the fact
that you fought in battle yesterday in the Nagato
and then got wounded in battle near our home,” said Derek,” it was decided to withdraw you for security
purposes from the Space Fighters’ Training school so that you could continue
your remaining educational requirements by correspondence…”
“..oh,”
said Sasha. “Where?”
“On the Argo when we leave Earth in a few days
after our undercover trip to
“Uncle?” said Sasha
as she looked at the small anchor that would soon be pinned to her uniform.
“I….”
“Aboard the Argo in public, Ensign Wakefield, that will be ‘sir’,” said Derek. “Oh. You don’t
have to keep that a secret anymore, Sasha. You are on the ship’s crew register
now as Enisgn Sasha Wakefield, Navigation Group Officer. Deke will be informed
of the news soon after he gets to Iscandar. Which is where
we’re heading, too.”
“Why am I going home?” said Sasha.
“Word from Desslok,”
said Astra. “He has received intelligence indicating that the Cometines are
threatening the Sanzar System as their next major objective. The Argo will be going there along with the
new spacecraft carrier Princess Astra
to bolster the defenses, and maybe fight the decisive battle of the war near
Gamilon and Iscandar. It is hoped we can keep them from ever coming to Earth.”
Sasha nodded, not
liking the idea much until she realized, Isn’t
that where Deke is headed? Maybe I’ll see him again!
This, she was in a
better mood for when she had to meet with her mother.
A while later, after
having been left alone and after having dressed again in normal civilian clothing
(jeans, a top, sandals) that someone in the embassy had left for her, Sasha
went to the Communications Room in the Embassy complex to meet with her mother.
Queen Starsha was
waiting on the visual image, sprawled on her couch with her long hair all around
her.
Sasha bowed to her
image and then said, “Mother, it’s been a while. You’re looking well.”
“Sasha, I wish I
could say the same of you. Please be seated.”
Sasha sat down in her
chair and said, “A lot has changed, Mother. I’m so sorry…”
Starsha sighed.
“While you complicated matters somewhat in what you learned from the Pellian
Aliscea….”
“Mother, she didn’t
quite teach me to do…that. I was trying to use telekinesis to push away that reporter, that was all. Instead, I tapped…”
“Strange things are
happening to you, Sasha. We think that in some ways, you are a throwback to
things about our culture we long thought buried or suppressed.”
“Mother?”
Starsha sighed. “In
the Times of Chaos long ago, we were not as pacifistic as we are now. We also had
an unfortunate tendency, long ago, to at times form extrememly strong psionic
bonds with our mates. Those bonds wre often unpredictable,
and often dangerous. They tapped parts of the mind and powers that we
would rather not access in our more enlightened times.”
“You mean
Iscandarians practiced something like the Pellian custom of Shalinskar?”
“Crudely, yes,
Sasha. These were called
Consort Bonds. Lovers who married and bonded in this fashion were invincible
warriors together. I deplore the fighting we have had to get into, but…”
“Mother,” said Sasha.
“Read my lips. The Cometines attacked us.
The R’Khells attacked us. The
Abomination Ekogaru attacked us. Why shouldn’t we kick their butts to the
next Galaxy?”
“My daughter,” sighed Starsha. “Goddess help you.
You are turning…into a bully…”
“What are you going
to say next, Mother? That I’m acting like a Gamilon?”
Queen Starsha shut
her eyes. “I will not deny that the thought has crossed my mind…”
Sasha gave her mother
a look as if to say “hmph!” while
making two fists. “Mother, I can’t help it if that reporter shoved his file
into my face! Nor can I help it if he shoved himself onto a tree of energy I
created.”
“That…I know. Just be
cautious. Your father…”
“What about my
father?” said Sasha.
“I can’t say,” said
Starsha. “Just try to be as close to him as you can. And send your thoughts and
love to Deke. It is…your destiny.”
Sasha’s eyebrows went
up at that one. “Mother? You approve of him?”
“I will not give my
opinion,” said Queen Starsha. “But the man is going insane without you there.
In the name of simple humanity, think of him since you had to marry and then
part in this war in this fashion. And sustain him with your thoughts until you
meet again and be careful. That is all I shall say until we meet again.
Farewell, Sasha.”
Then, the screen went
dark. At her mother’s end.
At that, Sasha just
shut her eyes.
And tried to
keep from crying.
A little later that
morning, Jefferson Hardy and Dawn Hardy were putting the finishing touches on
an apartment in the Megalopolis that they had just leased and were moving into.
They had spent their first night there, with a lot of boxes unpacked and a lot
of things (like the video unit) still not hooked up. However, a radio was on,
and Dawn sighed and shook her head when she heard the news and heard a limited
recap of Sasha’s story on talk radio.
“Oh, Jeff, that’s weird,” said Dawn. “Who would let
something like that out? They say someone broke into the Academy and stole her
medical records.”
“If they were Earth
Defense,” said Hardy. “They won’t be stayin’ Earth Defense for very long, ah
bet.”
“Who are you trying
to call?” asked Dawn as she saw Hardy dialing a phone number from their newly
connected vidphone.
“Wildstah,” said
Hardy. “He never answered my messages; wonder where he’s been? Trying his
portable…”
Hardy let the phone
ring three times, and he almost jumped when he got an answer. “Hello, Commodore
Derek Wildstar. Hope you’re doing well, sir…”
“Wildstah!” said
Hardy. “Where have you and Nova been?”
“Travelling
and preoccupied with business.
Let’s say we’re at the Iscandarian Embassy right now…seeing to a relative.”
“I’m sorry,” said
Hardy.
“Where have you
been?” said Derek. “Nova and I have been trying to call you for a few days.”
“Well, long story,
but I went to
“The nurse? How is she?” asked Derek.
“Fine. But she’s Mrs. Hardy now. We…eloped, Wildstah. Decided to get married in a hurry kinda like you and Nova did.”
“Well, we didn’t get
married in
Then, Hardy heard a
small commotion, and he heard Nova at the other end. “Hi,
Jeff. Congratulations, hon! I was expecting this sooner or later out of
you two…”
Hardy smiled as he
heard Derek at the other end saying, “I wasn’t…”
“I was,” said Nova.
“Jeff, keep this on the QT, but..well…I think we will
be seeing you soon…new orders coming down the pipeline, shall we say.”
Hardy nodded. “I
think I get the idea, Nova. Coming?”
“Uh-huh.”
“You can’t! You’re
pregnant.”
“Wanna bet?” smiled
Nova. “Take care, you two. And good luck from Derek and I!”
“Take care, Missus
Nova,” said Hardy.
VIII. A PRINCESS ENRAGED
The
Eritz Gatlantis
10,000
Lightyears Within The Great Magellenic Cloud
Thursday,
May 7, 2207
2000
Hours: Standard Earth Space-Time
“Major Helmval, tell
me you are kidding!” hissed Princess Invidia as she stared down the sole
surviving commanding officer, the Captain of a Cometine destroyer, who had
escaped the holocaust of a few days ago caused by Radnar and Dagon. “We lost Gernitz and his Dreadnought?”
“Yes, Princess,” said
the trembling officer. “The whole fleet was destroyed. My
ship the only one that got away from it. Radnar turned on us.”
“I told you he’d be trouble, Princess,”
said Gorse. “We have lost about half our fleet strength.”
“More than half
thanks to the cursed Earthlings,” said Dyre. “They fight well, the damned
Earthers. Even with a ship still not quite finished.”
“So did we kill the
Wildstars and that Princess?” said Invidia.
“No,” said Dyre. “And
word came out that she escaped the Josiahites and their sympathizers, too. It
appears to us that she may soon learn of our connection to the R’Khells and
those traitors on Earth. If she does, disaster! And that cursed Dagon told
Desslok we are in the Great Magellenic Cloud, along with, I think, Radnar.”
“Radnar is working
with Desslok?” hissed Invidia.
“It is a possibility
they are working to overthrow us. If they get help from Andromeda…with so many
of our ships gone…me maybe have, two, three hundred ships left…”
Invidia sat with her
lips pressed hard together. We will lose,
she thought. Just a
matter of time. I won’t admit
that yet. But maybe we can pull something out of this and salvage our heads
before the Emperor. Or, we can at least take our enemies to utter destruction
with us.
“Gorse, what about
Erugar?” said Invidia. “Heard from him yet?”
“We did,” said Dyre. “They
are almost at Earth. What our generals failed to do near Earth, they might
do…kill the Wildstars.”
“Good,” said Invidia.
“Lieutenant, get us some wine…let us drink a toast.”
“To what?” said Dyre.
“To the death of the
Wildstars, the occupation of Gamilon and Iscandar, and the enslavement or
extermination of the Earthlings,” said Invidia. “That is a good toast, isn’t
it?”
“Yes,” said Dyre. “A splendid toast, Princess.”
At that, they all
laughed.
To Be Continued….
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