by David Smith
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On board ISS Tiger, LaCroix could only watch from the Emergency Bridge as the Magistrate escaped in the old Sha T’Al scout vessel.
‘CHIENNE!!’ he screamed impotently at the view-screen. His ship was crippled and he knew the bomb on the surface was on a countdown. He had to get clear. But he had to get the other LaCroix first.
‘Singh, go to Sick-bay. Get Chen down here now. I don’t care what he’s doing, get him to drop it. At phaser point if necessary. Veira, contact the rest of the Yeomen. I want a strike team assembled in the Hangar Deck in five minutes’ he snarled.
‘Yes Captain. What is our target?’ she asked eagerly.
‘Do not question my orders!! OBEY THEM!’ he yelled abruptly.
‘Of course mon Capitaine! I just hoped for some detail so I can plan what equipment we need.’
He was seething with rage and pent up anger. ‘We’re going to board the other ship, capture the other LaCroix, retake that mine-sweeper and get the hell out of here!’
Viera was horrified. It was suicidal. But she knew better than to say that to Emmanuel LaCroix ‘Of course Captain, but that is a dangerous mission . . . we should perhaps take extra personnel to improve our chances . . . ‘
‘SHUT UP! YOU’RE WASTING ALL OUR TIME. I NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE AND I ABSOLUTELY WILL HAVE THOSE TESTICLES!!’ he screamed.
She froze in horror.
‘JUST SHUT UP AND FOLLOW YOUR ORDERS!! SINGH, WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE??’
The startled Yeoman headed for the door, but as she turned her back, Viera whipped out her phaser and calmly disintegrated her.
LaCroix spun on the spot. ‘WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING???’
Viera looked him in the ‘I’m sorry Captain. I’ve served your every whim these last three years. In your name I’ve maimed and slaughtered countless enemies and even allies.’
She pointed the phaser at him.
‘VEIRA!! STOP!! STOP!! ARE YOU MAD????’ he screamed wildly.
‘No Captain, I’ve never been more sane. AND THERE IS NO WAY I’M GOING TO SET YOU FREE TO ROAM THE UNIVERSE WITH A PAIR OF TESTICLES AGAIN!!!’
She fired, disintegrating the Captain and felt a weight fall from her shoulders.
It was time for her to take control of her life, and lead rather than follow. And as there didn’t seem to be a single officer left alive on the ship, that made her the new Captain . . .
Chapter 19
Dave wasn’t overly surprised by the scepticism of the Sha T’Al, but they did investigate the claim of there being a mega-bomb on the surface.
Like the Terrans, they had no idea what they were looking at and couldn’t judge if the whole thing was a hoax. They sent images and data from their investigation up to Tiger, but this wasn’t the only problem they had to focus on. The news that the Magistrate had escaped meant that they had more reason to evacuate, and the Elders had accelerated the boarding of the transports as best they could.
Dave didn’t have time to worry about such things. Janus and Chief Belle had completed the forcible eviction of the Imperial Ops staff, but they had no time to worry about them either and simply crammed all of them into Tiger’s Brig haphazardly.
They had to get rid of them, and for a lack of better ideas, Dave decided to strand them on Devil’s Island, assuming that the marines trapped there were still behaving themselves. Tiger was in low orbit and ASBeau brought the ship’s main sensors to bear so they could check out how things were going on the Island.
‘They all seem to be there still, Commander, but they’re behaving kind of funny. They’re spreading out like they’re trying to get away from each other?’
‘Can you get a visual?’ asked Dave.
‘We should be low enough, hang on, I’ll bring the ship’s telescopes on-line. Yeah, there we go . . . ‘
The screen resolved into an image of a small inland area. The resolution was so high that they could clearly pick out the individual marines. Dave peered at the screen. What the hell were they doing? ‘Is it me . . . or are those marines all bouncing around on space-hoppers?’
O’Mara leaned forward and took a closer look. Her eyes widened and she physically got up and walked over to the view screen. Examining it closely she exclaimed loudly ‘Bugger me!! Those aren’t space-hoppers!’ and turned to look questioningly at Delgado.
The young officer was still dressed in the slutty Imperial uniform (and making it look, very, very good). She held her hands up and said ‘Don’t look at me! All I know is that Kennickie brought with him a non-lethal bio-weapon that Katrin Mengele developed.’
On screen, one of the marines visibly shook and huge gout of white fluid erupted from his space-hopper and splashed over the marine directly in front of him. This marine obviously wasn’t impressed and bounced over on his space-hopper and began hitting the first marine.
O’Mara went bright red. ‘I think the other Hollins has infected them with airborne Arcturian Syphilis sir. Those aren’t space-hoppers, those are their testicles.’
Dave felt slightly queasy as the two marines rolled around on the floor, hugely impaired by their grotesquely swollen gonads, and made greasy by the spontaneous but accidental release of a quart of seminal fluid. ‘That is wrong on so many levels.’
Delgado shrugged again. ‘Yeah, but they definitely won’t be causing us or the Sha T’Al any trouble in the next five hours?’
Fortunately for Dave (who felt close to having his gag-reflex tested), they were distracted by Lieutenant Shearer. She sounded shocked as she said ‘Incumen cawl from ISS Tiger, Commander!’ and put the link up on the main view-screen.
‘This is . . . er . . . Captain Viera of ISS Tiger. We are adrift and unable to repair the ship, can you assist us?’
Dave recognized the soft French accent of Yeoman Chantelle Viera, a highly strung and extremely volatile person even in their own universe.
‘This is Commander Dave Hollins of USS Tiger. With all due respect Captain, your crew have been trying to kill us. Why would we assist you?’ Dave asked.
‘All the senior officers are dead or missing. There are only around two hundred crew left aboard, and most of them are pretty pissed with the way the Officers have treated them. They want out and have decided they will not return to Imperial service. However, we are aware that there is a bomb on the planet that will destroy us in five hours time. We just want to get away from the war . . . the Empire . . . everything . . . and start again. Will you help us?’ she asked nervously. ‘Please?’
‘We have our own issues, Captain, but I’ll do what I can to assist you. Please stand by. Hollins out.’
Dave looked at Delgado. ‘You heard what she said. The ship is there for the taking. You may be the last of the officers of your crew.’
Delgado suddenly looked panic stricken. ‘I’m not going back!! Please don’t send me back!’
Dave was speechless.
She saw his confusion and hurriedly explained. ‘I don’t belong here! I’m from the same universe as yourself. I think? I had some real trouble back home in Brazil and went on the lam. I joined Starfleet under an assumed name and got myself posted as far away from anywhere as I could. I was assigned to Tiger, this ship, about four years ago, and everything was good until Kennickie found out who I was.’
‘He black-mailed me into running contraband across the border into Sha-T’Al Space on a little fleet runabout he’d acquired from somewhere. I was delivering a cargo to a system close to the Tana border when I had a nav problem and strayed into Tana space. They sent a scout to intercept me, and after a running battle where both ships were badly damaged, they tried to close and board my ship. They don’t have transporters so they were just about to dock when I panicked and hit the warp-drive. Next thing I know I’m in this universe and the very first ship I run into is a runabout being piloted by a totally looney-toon version of myself.’
‘She boarded my ship, and tried to kill me so she could claim it as salvage. We fought, I came o
ut on top, and I took her ship because mine was wrecked. When I get back to Hole, everything is changed and people keep asking me why I’m acting so weird.’
‘I didn’t know what to do, so I just kind of . . . well . . . took her place. I’ve been stuck in this crazy shit-hole of a universe ever since. I’d been trying to work out a way of getting off the ship, which was why I made contact with the rebels. I figured I couldn’t safely escape anywhere in Empire territory, so the rebellion was my best bet. Until you showed up.’
There was a desperate look in her eyes. ‘I can’t handle it here. Everyone is bat-shit crazy. ISS Tiger only has a crew of about three hundred and fifty because LaCroix killed anyone who let him down, Joynes killed anyone he thought was a rebel, and everyone tries to kill their immediate superior. Apart from the Yeomen who seem to kill each other just for the hell of it!’
Two years of living on a knife-edge had clearly taken its toll on Delgado. ‘Please don’t make me go back! I’m begging you!!’
She looked petrified and Dave wasn’t sure what to do. There was no proof she was from their universe. She could be lying to escape from the Empire, or she might even be from a completely different universe.
She could see his doubt. ‘Please believe me!! I really am from your universe! Uh, ASBeau . . . he thinks he’s French Canadian but can’t speak French . . . ‘
‘Hey I am French-Canadian!!’ objected ASBeau.
‘ . . . and your version of Joynes is probably stoned in his quarters, right? . . . ‘
Dave nodded. He wasn’t, but if he was still with the ship, he certainly would have been.
‘ . . . and everybody dreads their staff appraisal with the Skipper because . . . ‘
‘OK!! I’m sold. You can stay’ said Dave.
‘Thank you!! Thank you so much!! You don’t know how much this means to me!’ she gushed, tears welling in her eyes.
‘Well this isn’t the time or place for this, we have other things we need . . . ‘ Dave began.
‘Ergent incumen cawl from tha surface, Commander’ interrupted Shearer. She put it on screen. Dave found himself faced with himself. Again.
This time, though, he felt slightly less confused as this wasn’t a future version of himself, it was only the equivalent version of himself that existed in this Universe. This version of himself was unshaven, untidy and looked deadly tired.
‘Well, well’ said the on-screen Hollins ‘aren’t you a handsome devil??’
Dave didn’t appreciate the humour. ‘We’re on a time-budget here. What do you want?’
‘I’m on a time-budget too, idiot! I want off this planet!’
Dave hadn’t even considered the rebels. ‘Oh. Ok. Er . . . how many of you are there?’
‘Not as many as there were. We’re only the core element. Just two hundred and twenty of us.’
His shoulders visibly slumped. ‘We rebelled, we fought hard, we lost. There’s not enough of us left to carry on the fight, we just need to find somewhere out of the way where we can hide and start afresh. Can you help us?’
Dave could feel his head throbbing. This was getting ridiculous. All of a sudden, he had a moment of clarity. ‘I don’t think I can, but I know someone who probably will. Lieutenant Shearer, would you please inform Captain Viera that we’ve found her some help . . . ‘
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Dave had Susan put up a countdown clock on the main view-screen and watched nervously as the time ticked away.
He’d got Delgado to lead a team back to ISS Tiger, and the rebels were using shuttles to board her. Dave had taken a chance on this universes version of Katrin Mengele and decided to allow her to rejoin her ship.
This had been beneficial, as she was the person who remembered that there was still one senior engineer aboard ISS Tiger: Commander Bartolomeo Cassini.
After his attempt to capture the class speed record had gone disastrously wrong, the Captain had thrown him in an agoniser booth with the explicit intention of torturing him to death.
Cassini had survived a full day in the booth at maximum setting, but the coursing electricity that stimulated the pain receptors in his body had done untold damage to his brain and reduced him to a gibbering wreck who they kept in a specially padded cell in the Brig.
Amazingly, his knowledge of engineering had survived the torture intact, and asked the right questions, he could still function as a sort of idiot-savant. He took only minutes to unlock the protection installed by O’Mara and ISS Tiger was soon ready to leave.
It was then that a nagging doubt in the back of Dave’s mind had surfaced. He’d made plans to evacuate the Sha T’Al and Ensign David and Cassie Long had identified a suitable planet, some way off in the Terran Empire’s treaty exploration area.
But if the Third Fleet was close by, could they escape from them in the slow, clumsy assault transports?
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On board ISS Nebula, Admiral Henry O’Connor was in a foul mood. He’d received status reports from LaCroix and Mackie which showed that both had been under attack by large numbers of mysterious cloaked vessels.
He suspected they were hiding the true extent of their failings, and that a double execution might be in order shortly, but it was irrelevant. He’d finally persuaded the Emperor to let him have his way.
His own Third Fleet had been augmented with units from the Fifth and Ninth Fleets, and he had under his command nearly three hundred warships, the larger part of the entire Empire’s combat capability.
He was going to crush the Tana and the Sha T’Al in the same way he’d crushed the rebellion, and he would be even more merciless, fully deploying the bio-weapons Mengele and Alvari had developed. He smirked; they were very clever, but too slow for his liking.
He had much higher hopes for the sub-elementary warheads O’Mara had come up with. If Magistrate Grosvenor came up with a conclusive test as she’d promised she would, they’d be able to destroy entire planetary systems in seconds. The Empire would conquer the entire Galaxy with these weapons, and he would use them to cement his place as the new Emperor!
The only fly in the ointment was the lack of communication from Grosvenor. He’d expected that she’d have contacted him by now to tell him that she’d captured Hollins. She was a treacherous bitch, but he’d grudgingly admit that she was very good at what she did, and the silence was worrying.
On the positive side, the Sha T’Al in the region weren’t putting up a fight. The only sign of opposition they’d seen was a battered old scout that had come straight at them, bold as brass, transmitting encrypted messages as she attacked.
Oddly the transmissions had been on common Imperial frequencies rather than Sha T’Al ones, but as always with the bloody Sha T’Al it was heavily encrypted and they hadn’t had a chance to de-crypt it before the scout was right on top of them. His own torpedoes had blown the ship to smithereens in a single salvo.
Now if only the Magistrate would get her finger out and confirm that the new weapons worked . . .
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Dave called the Council of Elders, the leader of the rebellion, the Senior Officer from ISS Tiger (Commander Katrin Mengele), the Superior of the Sisters of the Order of Latter Day Saints and a selected group of his own officers to a meeting in the Officer’s Mess.
‘There are about two hours left until the sub-elementary device left behind by Magistrate Grosvenor detonates. Can the Science Team shed any light on the device?’ Dave asked hopefully.
O’Mara nodded her head sadly. ‘It’s real.’
There were uncomfortable whispers and grumbles all around before she continued.
‘We’re pretty certain they’re using an anti-matter device to drive photons at a high enough velocity to trigger the splitting of a group of heavy hydrogen nuclei. They’re contained in what seems to be a stasis field, and I assume that the principle is that as soon as you split the quarks within one proton, there will be a chain reaction releasing unimaginable amounts of energ
y. I can’t be sure the reaction will be self sustaining, but if it is, it will consume every piece of matter in this system.’
There were audible intakes of breath all around.
‘I daren’t try to disarm it. The device is clearly primed and as soon as the detonator explodes and emits the high-energy photons, we’re in the lap of the gods. It’s very clear that the Magistrate has had her team build in safe-guards to stop anyone tampering with the device, and if that’s clear, it’s almost certain she’s hidden other safeguards we haven’t spotted. We probably could disarm the thing, but we won’t be able to do it for sure in the two hours we have left. Sorry!’
There was a very pregnant pause before Dave took a deep breath and continued. ‘Well, at least we now know what we have to do. I believe all evacuations are nearing completion and we’ll be ready to leave within the hour, so we go as soon as possible’
‘I had planned to set the Sha T’Al convoy off in the direction of several potential home-worlds. The rebels will join forces with the remaining crew of ISS Tiger . . . ‘
‘And myself!’ added Skye L’Amour.
‘ . . . Thank you, sister! They too will seek sanctuary in the area we would describe as treaty exploration space. And the remainder of the Order of Latter Day Saints have elected to go with the Sha T’Al and found a Terran colony nearby. When we’re happy that everyone is on their way, we’ll attempt to translate back to our own universe in this Tiger.’
He paused. Everyone looked reasonably happy. But now came the bad news.
‘However, my Communications Officer has de-crypted a transmission made when Magistrate Grosvenor escaped. In her message she informed us that reinforcements from the Third Fleet are due to arrive imminently.’
There were groans all around the table. This put a completely different outlook on their escape plans.
Dave continued. ‘We can’t be sure she was telling the truth but at the same time we can’t assume she was lying. If that’s the case, the Terran Empire’s fleet will shortly arrive in force with a lot of well-armed and very fast ships. Tiger is powerful, but I don’t know if we could protect you from an attack by an entire fleet.’