by Frank Carey
"Yes, yes, of course, she said while stepping aside. "Greg?" she asked as Max stepped through the opening with her load of weapons.
"Yes, Milady."
"Thank you."
He tipped his nonexistent hat. "You're welcome, milady. Just pray we can pull this off." He stepped through the portal and was gone. Moments later, the connection was closed leaving Penelope and Wilson alone.
"Wilson!"
"Yes, milady."
"Since when could the portal be used for interstellar travel?"
"I do not know, milady."
"Check the buffer, are the coordinates for this planet Charlene still available?"
He ran out of the storeroom with Penelope following close behind. After a flurry of keystrokes on the control console, he had an answer for her. "Yes, milady. Did you want me to connect with the Charlene portal connector?"
"Yes, but first I want a contingent of the house security force assembled here in full combat gear and have my staff bring armor and weapons for the two of us. We're going to lend Greg a hand."
"Us, milady?"
"Yes, Wilson, us. Do you have a problem with that?"
"No, milady!"
"Then carry out my orders!"
"Yes, milady!"
CHAPTER EIGHT
Greg was finishing up his pre-launch checklists when Max stuck her head through the cockpit hatch. "LT, could we see you in the cabin for a moment?"
"Yes, milady," he replied. When he walked out, he found Lady Penelope, Wilson, and a dozen other people all wearing battle armor and weapons. "Lady Penelope?"
"Yes, Greg. We’re here to help."
"LT, I've been trying to explain to the good lady that this is no task for civilians," the marshal said.
Greg closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Marshal, the good lady and Wilson are both combat trained and both have aided the Alliance of Six on several missions. Lord Alabaster once watched her dispatch a rampaging lion with her bare hands."
Max and Melinda looked at the lady who smiled back.
"Fine!" Melinda said. "Everyone, raise your right hands." Once they were raised, the marshal swore them in as deputy marshals. "LT, get us into the air. First stop is the nearest site."
"Yes, milady," he said as he headed to the cockpit. He didn't notice Penelope following close behind until she pushed past him to sit down in the copilot's seat. Shortly, the craft was in the air and heading to its first destination.
"You suddenly appear after an eight-year silence. Why?"
"I needed weapons to use to rescue the remaining Alliance of Six members."
She rolled her eyes. "Idiot! Why the silence?"
"I saw the confusion in your eyes when you looked at me."
"What confusion?"
"A combination of interest and revulsion. It's like half of you thinks I'm your husband while the other half thinks I'm a monster. I thought it best to get on with my life while letting you get on with yours."
"You have to admit that the situation is a little odd..."
"Not to me. As far as I'm concerned, I'm Gregory Alabaster and the rest of you are nuts. Unfortunately, I know that isn't true, so I left for the sake of my sanity. Now, I have friends, a great job, I travel, and people are happy to know me for who I am. I don't have to live in the shadow of a 300-year-old genius."
"I am truly sorry. It's just that you are so much like him..."
"Am I? Leona and Rex both disagree with you. They think of me as being kinder and gentler than Lord Alabaster."
She smiled and looked down at her feet. "They're right, you are. You remind me of him from back when the two of us first met. He changed over the years. You have his memories, so why haven't you changed?"
He shrugged. I'm not him. We diverged the moment I was created. Even our DNA has diverged due to his exposure to the elements. Yes, he could harvest my organs, but I am not him. I am just me." He stopped talking for a moment, then smiled. "I think I may have just gotten my head on straight."
"What do you mean?"
"It's nothing. We've arrived." He thumbed a switch on the control yoke, activating the intercom. "Marshal, we've arrived. Everyone, take a seat, we're starting the landing sequence."
Shortly, the Zoetrope was sitting next to the SWAT transport that had arrived earlier. "Sheriff Tillison, report!" Melinda ordered as she strode down the ramp.
"Ma’am! We have confirmed the presence of alloy 6 inside the building. We have drones guarding all entrances, and our troops are ready to breach."
"What's waiting for us inside?"
The sheriff brought up a hologram on her wrist gauntlet. It showed about a dozen robots even more fearsome than the ones they faced rescuing Leona.
"That's not good," Max observed.
Leona joined them. "Hello, Penelope, I see you brought Wilson along. How nice. Did you know about Gregory creating biological copies of all the team members?"
"What? No, I certainly did not." She turned a menacing eye toward Wilson. "Speak, Robot! Did you know?"
"Yes, milady. Greg was a prototype. The other copies were backup in case they were killed during a mission."
"Where are these copies now?"
"Dead, milady," Greg replied. "They perished in 1944 when a buzz bomb destroyed the building housing their chambers. I would have perished with them if not for a clerical error."
"Leona looked at Greg, then Penny before walking over and hugging her friend. "Can you forgive me for doubting you?"
"Speak nothing of it. You are alive, and that is all that matters."
"Now that's out of the way, can we deal with our bot infestation?" Melinda asked.
"Yes, milady. Did the engineers get a chance to examine the bots?"
"Yes, their technology is no different from some of our most advanced models."
"Are they susceptible to EMP pulses?"
"What's an EMP pulse?" Leona asked.
"A dramatic increase in electromagnetic field strength," Melinda explained. "They can destroy things like robots and ships. What are you thinking?"
"We send a small team into the building. They find the source of the pendant signature, and if it is one of the Six, they place a diffuser field around it. Once it's in place, we light-off an EMP grenade, destroying the bots in the building. We then free the alliance member from the chamber."
"You make it sound so simple," Melinda noted.
"We could just try storming the facility," Greg observed.
"Yeah, no. I like this idea better. Who do you have in mind for your team?"
"Me and Leona."
"I insist on accompanying you," Penelope said.
"Count me in," Max added."
"Ladies, I appreciate the offers, but Leona and I..." he stopped when he saw the look on all three faces including Leona's. "Fine. Grab you gear, and let's get this done."
CHAPTER NINE
The Zoetrope, its stealth field making it invisible to any sensors protecting the building, hovered over the structure while Greg and his companions repelled down ropes onto the roof below. Once down, the mighty ship moved off, leaving them to find their way in. "Over there," Max said, pointing to a hatch embedded in the roof's surface. Moments later, the four were inside, standing on a balcony surrounding a large, bot-filled open area with a large tube coming out of the floor at its center. Leona peered at the tube with a pair of binoculars. "It's Tressa."
"Is she surrounded by blue mist?"
"Yep. She looks like she hasn't aged a day."
"Neither do you, young lady," Greg noted.
"Says the man who lost almost twenty years’ worth of wrinkles."
"Can we get on with the mission?" Penelope hissed.
"Right," Greg said. "We wouldn't want to mention how someone is a demigoddess with ageless beauty."
"No, never," Leona added.
Max smiled.
Penelope blushed.
Greg examined the area around the tube. "The bots are all facing outward. My guess
is they are using optical sensors on top of every other imaginable sensor tech. An approach via the outer floor area is going to be bloody."
"Yeah, our blood," Max noted. She looked up at the ceiling. "The roof supports are an open metal truss design. It reminds me of a warehouse store I went to while I lived on Earth."
"Ah, fifty-pound wheels of cheese. My favorite," Greg joked. Penelope cuffed him. "Focus!"
"Sorry." He took off his pack and rummaged around in it. "I knew I brought it," he said as he pulled out a cable gun with a folding grappling hook sticking out of its muzzle. "I can hook one of those trusses, then swing over and lower myself down to the control console with the sentries none the wiser."
Max held out her hand. "My turn."
"Milady..."
"Don't 'milady' me, Lieutenant. I'm lighter, and rank doth hath its privileges."
"She outranks you?" Leona asked.
"Yes, she does. The Space Patrol rank structure is a hybrid between Navy and Air Force. I'm a first lieutenant while a Deputy Marshal is technically a commander, so she outranks me." He handed her the gun. "Please, be careful."
"Afraid you'll have to deal with Red?" the Alue asked, referring to Marshal McKee's nickname.
"No. I just don't want to see you hurt."
Smiling, she grabbed the gun, took aim, and fired, catching a truss on the first shot. "See ya," she said as she clipped the gun to her equipment harness, then leapt over the side. Moments later, she was crouched behind the control console with a force field generator in her hand.
Penny looked from Max to Greg, then back to Max. "Really?" she asked with an edge of disbelief to her voice.
Greg frowned at the remark. "Really what? She and I are trained for this sort of thing. She's the commanding officer, and she took initiative. I don't understand the problem you're having with this."
Leona placed her hand on his forearm. "I'll explain later. For now, how about we deal with the mission?"
"Right. Sorry." He reached into his pack and withdrew three grenades with blue bands encircling them. "Just like a normal grenade: grip the lever so it can't release, pull the pin, then toss it down to the ground. Aim for a spot directly in front of you approximately half-way to the tube." He tapped his earcomm. "Max?"
"I'm ready, LT."
"Good. We're moving into position. Activate the field on my signal."
"Roger that," she replied. "Standing by."
"Penny, you stay here. Leona, head counter clockwise 120 degrees and standby while I head the other direction. Call when you're in position, then wait for my signal..." Penny stormed off to the right before he could finish the instructions. "What. The. Plark. Is. Going. On?"
"She's angry and confused," Leona replied.
"If she screws up this OP and gets someone killed, I will personally show her the meaning of angry." He looked at her. "Now, do you want to stay here, or do you want to go to the left?"
She pointed left. "I'll go that..." the sound of something hitting the ground below interrupted her. They looked and saw a pipe bouncing around directly below Penny. As they watched, three nearby bots looked up, then opened fire on Penny's position.
"Dammit! Leona, set your grenade to remote detonate, then go help her while I distract those bots," he yelled as he pulled a reel of line from his pack and attached it to his harness, then clipped the free end around the rail. Before she could reply, he vaulted over the side, the reel slowing his descent until he hit the ground. Activating both of his weapons, he fired on the behemoths while running away from Penny's position. Seeing a nearer threat, the bots turned on him and opened fire. Meanwhile, Leona made it to where Penny was pinned against the far wall by bot fire.
"Penny!" she yelled between returning fire and ducking. "Grenade!" the Lady Alabaster threw hers to Leona, then returned fire. Catching the device, Leona reprogrammed it, then threw it into the crowd of bots. "Greg, two grenades set. Penny and I are returning fire. Greg!"
Greg was a little busy. One of the bots jumped him, slapping his pistol away before aiming a large gun at him. Greg reached into his belt and pulled out a Space Patrol-issue collapsible sword and extended it. Like the collapsible batons of old, this weapon was easy to carry, yet lethal in the hands of one trained in its use. Unlike the baton, the sword sported a pair of razor-sharp, adamantine plated edges which could cut through mild steel plate. It was this latter feature that Greg used to cut the bot's gun arm clear off followed by its head.
As a crowd of bots advanced on his position, and while his earcomm filled with requests from outside for a sitrep, Greg quickly reprogrammed his grenade to act as a master trigger for the other two weapons. "Max! Now!" he yelled. When he saw the field shimmer into existence, he pulled the pin and threw the device in front of him. Just as the first bot reached him, the EMP grenade exploded, cooking every electronic device in the building not protected by a force field. Around him, bots fell to the ground in crumpled heaps. Greg took out his scanner and panned it around the room. "Max, we're clear," he said into his comm. "Penny, Leona, any injuries?"
"We're fine," Leona replied.
"Greg, I'm sorry..." Penny said.
"We'll talk later. That you two are all right is all I care about. Get down here. Marshal McKee, the bots have been cleared. It's safe for you to enter the building." Finished, he ran up to where Max was waiting for him.
"You didn't say anything about your friend being half-snake," Max said as she stared at Tressa suspended by blue mist, her long, serpent tail coiled just below her.
"Yeah, she used it to hide aces when we played cards. The woman is a consummate cheat, but God can she fight. Let's get her out of there and checked out. We've got four more people to rescue."
CHAPTER TEN
Greg sat alone in the crew compartment of the SWAT APC writing a report while the rest of the League personnel talked and examined three of the four remaining members of the Alliance of Six. Feeling that his presence would just confuse things, he asked the Marshal if he could find someplace to deal with the growing pile of paperwork being generated by finding a 300-year-old group of legends from the Victorian Era.
A knock on the hatch was followed by Max and Leona walking in and sitting down across from him. "Greg, the docs want to talk to you about something," Max said.
"Great. At this rate, they'll be prying reports from my cold dead hands. Please excuse me, miladies."
When he was gone, Leona leaned back in her seat and stared at Max.
"What?" Max asked as she retracted her black, nictitating membranes which normally covered her large eyes.
"You have blue eyes."
"Yeah, all Alue do. The black is just our natural sunglasses. I like to occasionally go bare-eyed. Was that why you're staring at me?"
"No. I was staring at you because I'm trying to figure out how to broach a subject."
"And what subject would that be?"
"That you're in love with Greg which is driving Penny crazy."
Max's sunglasses returned with an audible snik. "Excuse me?"
"Penny is very confused, and rightly so. Hell, I'm confused. Lord Gregory Alabaster is a self-absorbed prick with an ego almost too large to fit through this vehicle's aft ramp. Lieutenant Gregory Alabaster is a kind, self-deprecating gentleman who would give up his seat on a tram even if it meant he had to walk through a snow storm. Hell, I think every woman in this group, including the colonel, has a small crush on him."
"I do not have a small crush on Greg."
"No, I am not saying you have a small crush on our LT."
"Good..."
"What I'm saying is that you have a huge crush on him. Not only that, but he may be feeling something for you, which is what Penny is picking-up on. Her brain knows he's not Gregory, but her heart doesn't give a damn."
Instead of more denials, Max asked, "So, what should I do?"
"You're a girl. I assume you have competed over the affections of a boy when you were younger? Just be yourself. If it is meant t
o happen, it will happen. Oh, remember the lion story?"
"Yes?"
"It really did happen. The lion jumped Gregory and was about to tear his throat out when she ran over and killed it. What Greg didn't tell you was how she then ripped out its heart and ate it. She's extremely competitive."
Greg took that moment to walk in. "The marshal wants to see everyone outside."
"What's up?" Max asked.
"Assuming Gregory didn't add another member to the alliance, this last location should contain him, so the marshal wants to go over our plan."
The two ladies got up and followed him outside where everyone was gathered. Greg walked over to stand with the five members of the Alliance of Six. Next to him Leona, then Tressa. She was followed by Angus, a giant of a man with vestigial horns and a neck as big around as his head. Next was Douglas Shade, a being who existed in several dimensions simultaneously. Finally, there was Bayou, an amphibian adept at any type of game of chance. Some say he bent the underlying rules of the universe to his will.
"Gregory!" Bayou said. "Now the Alliance of Six is complete!"
"Not quite. I'm not Lord Gregory Alabaster, and I am not married to Lady Penelope Alabaster."
"He's gone daft!" Angus said. "Perhaps he should lie down. Have a cold compress applied to his fevered brow."
"I am Gregory's copy. I was grown in a lab and given his memories," Greg explained.
"You are a simulacrum?" Douglas asked.
"Yes."
"Yet you are sapient. Why would Lord Alabaster do such a thing?" Tressa demanded.
"You can ask him after we retrieve him," Melinda said. "We think that like you, he's being held in a stasis tube inside that building on the other side of the hill."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Angus demanded.
"We're waiting for data from our centipede robots," Melinda said. She handed one to the giant. "We sent in a dozen of them to map out the room and whatever defensive and offensive systems may be inside."