“It’s a dreary world. That’s kind of an understatement, I know, but there’s not much other way to describe it.” Ari replied.
“Yes I know, still there has to be something significant about it for them to drag the General here, if that is who it is.”
“Do you really think they have Abruzzi here? Then who was that we’ve been dealing with?”
“Ari, I don’t know. I know it definitely wasn’t him, that much I can tell you. He may be a stodgy pain in the ass, but what he’s been putting us through the past few weeks has been just shy of crazy. Whoever that is taking his place has done his best to confiscate the Cagliostro, which means we would have never made this flight. In fact I have no doubt the ship would have exploded the moment it went to hyper-warp, and that would have ended our deep space program before it started.”
“Wow,” she murmured, “I hadn’t thought of that.”
“This is a convoluted mess, Ariel, and it’s only likely to get worse before we figure it all out.”
“What’s worse is we have no one to back us up.”
Mark nodded as his sky cycle sped over treetops, “I know the Cag is gone now too. We’re really on our own out here, which is definitely something that can bite us if something goes wrong.”
As if in response to his last comment a spotlight suddenly shined upon him and Ariel from above, and then a voice boomed, “You will land your vehicles immediately and allow yourselves to be subject to a search. Land now. You will not be warned again.”
“Yeah, I don’t think so.” Mark replied to his crew over the comm link and suddenly shot his sky cycle straight upwards, past their pursuers. Ariel followed but on a different vector.
“Hell, it’s more of those two-man gunships that were after us at the space port.” Mark grunted angrily.
“Do you two need help?” Reds voice cut through instantly.
“Yeah you could say that.” Mark replied testily.
“On our way.” Red confirmed.
Mark and Ariel zig-zagged their sky cycles to and fro, avoiding deadly energy beams that lanced out towards them from the two-man gunship dogging their tail.
“Watch out Ariel I’m going to try to draw their attention.” Mark shouted into his microphone.
Sliding his cycle to the right of Ariel’s, he flipped it over in midair, and sped across the bow of the gunship, then dove down and back up, looping around the two-man craft. When he was facing them directly he fired the two small laser blasters equipped on the sky cycle. Scoring a direct hit on the larger ship.
The problem was that the weapons on the sky cycles were small discharge blasters, and could do no real damage to the heavily armored gunships.
Now it was a dance of death over the blackened landscape with the stars twinkling overhead, as the two small sky cycles dove and spun through the night sky, avoiding the attacks of the much more heavily armed, two-man gunship, its bubble canopy showing the helmeted faces of their antagonists within.
First Mark would draw their fire, then Ariel, as each took turns blasting the larger vehicle, their energy pulses splashing off its armored hide like water.
“This is no good; we’re hardly making a mark on that thing.” Johnson lamented.
“I know, but we can’t run, they’ll shoot us down right away.”
“I know Ari; we have to hold on until the others get here.”
“Here now.” Red’s voice intruded as his sky cycle dove down between the attacking gunship and Ariel’s sky cycle.
“An’ he ain’t alone!” Shouted Eddie as he raced his sky cycle through the air from above the attack craft, heading towards it and strafing it as he passed over it.
“I’m feeding you all the aiming coordinates. Fire there. Together we can take this thing out.” Red shouted.
“Agreed.” Mark replied as the bigger craft turned again and headed towards them. Each Sky Cycle split off from the others in another direction, Each time the two-man craft would draw a bead on one cycle another would attack it, spinning by it, or sliding through the air sideways above or below the small gunship, all aiming their weapons at the same spot, the side of the engine cover at the rear of the patrol vehicle.
This dance of death went on for several minutes, until at one point Ariel flew too slowly, and too close to the small gunship, when one of its blasters found its mark, tearing through the rear wheel of her sky cycle disintegrating it explosively and causing the cycle to cartwheel sideways though the sky.
“Ariel!” Mark shouted as he dove his sky cycle towards her at full throttle through the black sky. “Jump!” He shouted both mentally and verbally, praying she’d hear him one way or another.
Ariel’s sky cycle continued to spin toward the treetops below, now looming much closer in the blackness. Suddenly she was flung free as instantly, Mark dove his cycle directly towards her only a heartbeat behind her decent.
The deadly impaling tree tops loomed through the darkness as Johnson, his sky cycle’s engine screaming, grasped her flailing arm and pulled her up to him. Ariel immediately set herself behind Mark on the long seat and clung to him tightly. ‘I’m okay,’ is all she said mentally to him.
He patted her hand and then squeezed it as he looped his sky cycle in a tight circle, as far below the Sky Cycle Ariel had been riding exploded violently when it finally hit the ground, so far below the trees.
Accelerating madly he climbed his sky cycle towards the battle being played out across his HUD. Now aiming from his far removed position from the battle he began firing upon the two-man patrol ship, concentrating his fire on the target Red had directed them to aim at.
The gunship turned towards Mark and Ariel, but was attacked from above by Eddie as Red arced around it once more and concentrated his fire on the same spot again. Now all three sky cycles attacked the engine cover and within seconds it glowed bright orange and exploded with a horrific grinding of metal. The gunship hurled itself sideways and disappeared within the trees. An instant later a muffled explosion and a burst of flame shot up from below.
“Is everybody all right?” Mark frantically shouted into his comlink.
“Yes,” Eddie replied.
“Ditto,” answered Red.
“What just happened there?” Ari asked.
“I think we discovered where they’re hiding the General.” Mark replied.
“You think we overflew where they have him stashed?” Red asked.
“Yes, I do. I don’t believe that there’d be a heavily armed patrol ship in the middle of nowhere. Something’s being hidden there. I’m sure it's who we’re looking for.”
“Now all we have to do is remember where the patrol ship came after us and start a search from there.” Red commented.
“Not that difficult a thing to do,” Mark explained, “all we do is recall the data going backwards to the point where the gunship attacked us, and fan out from there.”
Ariel squeezed his shoulder from behind as the sky cycle zoomed low over the treetops, heading back to where they came from.
“That was pretty smart,” she said with a smile, while she patted him on his shoulders playfully.
“Well Ari, you have to remember,” he began, smiling wryly within his helmet, “I am a genius.”
Chapter Eight
The sky cycles converged on the spot the attack had begun.
“From here we expand in a ‘K’ pattern, sensors on the helmets on full front, Danny, are you there?”
“Yes I am boss.” Dan’s voice replied over the helmet headset.
“Okay Dan, keep us on your sensors and be ready to take off at a moment’s notice, we may need a quick pick up. Conversely, we may need a distraction along the way too.”
“Gotcha boss.” Dan replied.
The three small sky cycles spread out once again, flying low and slow over the black treetops. After twenty minutes of repeating the pattern over and over again, Eddie spoke up over the comm “I got something boss.”
“You wanna share?” R
ed broke in.
“Yeah I have some heat signatures but they’re faint. I think they might be underground, because I’m not showing anything on the surface. No buildings, no anything. Yet I’m seeing what looks like bodies moving around. I think there are tunnels down there.”
“Okay, converge on Ariel and I. We’re landing, and walking from here.”
A minute later the three sky cycles were on the ground and all four members of the team were off and walking, each using a hand-held scanner that replicated what the Heads up Display within the helmet had done.
“I’m seeing the same heat signatures you were a few minutes ago.” Mark began, “ They are definitely below ground. Now we have to find their entrance. Fan out in a straight line and set your scanners to ‘full sensitivity mode’. Let’s find out how these people are getting below ground.”
“Whatever you say Mark.” Eddie agreed as he walked in an opposite direction from Mark and Ariel. Red trailed Eddie.
“What’ve you got Red?” The smaller man asked.
“Nothin’ Eddie, nothin’ yet.” Red murmured, while watching his scanner.
Ariel and Mark walked side by side as two of the planets four moons shone brightly in the sky overhead. “Nice night, and at least this small oasis is a nice place to be. It’s kind of romantic,” she remarked.
“Hhhmm? Yes it is romantic I suppose, though I’d rather be able to take advantage of that when our lives aren’t at stake.” He turned and smiled at her. “And you are right it is kind of an oasis, except with more trees, and it’s a good fifty mile swath of land that’s like this with the small mountain range jutting out of nowhere.”
“It’s a little strange isn’t it that this is the only piece of land anywhere around here that’s built like this?”
Mark stopped, smiled, leaned forward and kissed her. “Looks like I’m not the only genius here. That was brilliant.”
Ariel stared at him, perplexed. What was? What did I say?”
He laughed in a low voice, almost a whisper really, “You said ‘built’. That’s exactly what this place is. It’s been terraformed. This fifty mile stretch of land was terraformed for a reason. Now, what is that reason? That’s what we have to ascertain. Any suggestions?”
She stared wide eyed at him for a moment then looked around. “I-I have no idea,” she replied, shaking her head.
“It doesn’t matter, I’m sure we’ll figure it out on our own soon enough. Now that I’m actually thinking about it, I’ll let my subconscious work on it while we continue with the job at hand.”
Ariel stared at him through slit eyes a moment, “Sometimes you really scare me,” she laughed quietly.
“So, I guess I’ll take that as a compliment then,” he replied with a smirk of his own.
“Hey boss, Mark, do you read me?” Red’s voice rumbled through the communicator.
Johnson touched his sleeve and replied, “Yes Red. Find something?”
“We did, our entrance. I’m sending the coordinates to your suits GPS. Come and meet us. And hurry. This place is guarded.”
“On our way Red. ETA is four minutes.”
Mark and Ariel looked at each other and began to jog through the woods as quietly as possible, the bright light reflecting off of the two moons in the sky providing ample light, even at this time of the night.
“What do you think?” Eddie didn’t even look their way as they arrived. He kept his eyes locked on the target before them.
Mark and Ariel looked on from behind thick tree coverage as their scanners depicted a scene they were too far from to actually see. A concrete double doorway, seemingly going nowhere but down, with two armed guards standing silently out in front of it.
“Only two guards?” Mark turned his head towards Red and asked.
“Two that we can see on scanners and I’m sure there are more walking around out here. Plus, don’t forget we were attacked in the air. I have a feeling that was just a patrol.”
“Yes,” Mark answered, “a patrol that didn’t check back in as of yet.”
“You don’t think they know their men are down?” Eddie asked, incredulous.
“No. Do you see any activity here? Any men running in and out of this place? I don’t see anything. Those two guards at the door are not even really paying attention to what’s going on around them. They’re relaxed.”
“Good points, Mark.” Red hissed.
“So do we charge them?” Ariel whispered.
“Why not?” Mark replied quietly.
Mark turned and looked up at Red as they were all bent low hiding in the trees shadows and foliage. “What do you think? Spread out and shoot them down?”
Red stood there a moment and then shook his head side to side in reply. “Something’s not right about this. This is almost too inviting.”
“You think it looks like a trap?” Ariel asked.
“Why don’t you tell us Ariel?” Eddie nodded towards the double doors.
She closed her eyes and mentally reached out with her telepathy a moment. “Nothing.” She spoke quietly as she opened her eyes.
“What do you mean ‘nothing’?” Mark asked warily.
“I’m not reading anything. Nothing from those men. It’s like they are not even there.”
“Maybe they are not.” A new voice intruded upon them as bright lights suddenly blazed to life about them. “Lower your weapons and you won’t be harmed. Resist and we’ll just take your bodies inside.” A figure walked forward towards them from outside the ring of lights that now blinded them. Then his face came into focus quickly.
“You.” Mark snorted as he stood up, the crew following his example.
“You’re that officer, or whatever you are, who tried to take us at the spaceport. I thought we killed you?” Red asked smiling.
“Not quite.” The alien replied as he fired two quick energy blasts from the pistol in his right hand into Red’s chest, dropping him to the forest floor like a sack of meat.
Ariel inhaled sharply as Red’s body spasmed a few times, then lay there on his back with the two holes in his chest smoldering. The alien turned sharply and ordered, “Leave him. Get the rest inside. We have to sort this all out, don’t we?”
Chapter Nine
“So, somehow you survived a point blank blast from a starship’s wing canon. Even set on its lowest setting you should have been killed. And yet here we are all talking to each other. This is all very interesting.” Mark commented, his face set grimly.
“My existence is none of your concern, but I will tell you that was my predecessor who you killed with your ship.”
Ariel turned towards Mark; he grinned slightly and almost imperceptibly nodded. She faced front again. Mark, Eddie and Ariel were seated with their hands bound before them in what could only be called an interrogation cell beneath the ground, down a long subterranean corridor that curved below the ground almost from the moment of entry at the concrete door platform above.
“You Earthmen are quite extraordinary. You muddle around on your own world for centuries and leap to worlds within your own solar system, then in no time at all, at least cosmological time that is, you suddenly decide you want to play with the big boys and join the rest of the universe. The gall of you beings. You are a minor race, nothing more. You do not deserve to be out amongst the stars with your betters. You have not matured enough yet as a race. You should not be flying amongst the stars for centuries to come. Your unmitigated gall as a species, well I find it personally appalling.”
“I’ll make sure to relay your message when we get home.” Mark replied.
“Your sarcasm merely reinforces what I have just said, human. You are a belligerent race of little people who think to leap amongst the stars and soon after you would seek to run the whole damned universe.” The purple skinned officer waved both his hands in the air as he spoke.
“You’re a little overdramatic, dontcha think?” Eddie snickered.
“You find your predicament funny? What am I
to do with you people? We tried to send you all off, to make you turn around. We’ve done everything we could to discourage you, and yet here you are. Perhaps if we send your pieces back to your home world that would serve as enough warning not to come back out of your system, what do you think?”
Mark laughed outright then as he stood up within the small cell and walked over to stand face to face with his tormentor. Nearby the guards surrounding them tensed and fingered their weapons as they watched the confrontation begin to escalate.
“I personally think, salad head, that killing us and sending our pieces back could be the very worst thing you could do for your own races survival. If you think killing us and using us as an example is going to scare humanity, you have no idea who or what you are dealing with. All you’ll do is begin an interstellar war with the absolute most war-like race you have ever encountered. Man has fought man for so many centuries over everything from religion and politics to who owns what and who should be standing on which side of the street and when. Believe me, provoke us. We’re just looking for a whole new races ass to kick.”
“Salad head?” The alien murmured to himself in shock, looking stunned at the insult.
“All of that and that’s what sticks with you?” Eddie sat back and laughed.
The alien tormentor turned towards his subordinates with their guns trained on the crewmen. “Kill them all.”
Mark turned towards Ariel, “Now.” She nodded and leaned forward, her eyes rolled up into her head as she furrowed her brow. Instantly the three guards and their master dropped to the ground holding their skulls and screamed in agony.
“Did you think your Quel was the only one who knew how to play mind tricks? He may have taken Ariel by surprise once, but she has no trouble using his own tricks against you. She’s been doing mind assaults like this for a long time. She’s more than just a mind reader; she’s the most powerful telepath on my planet. Something else you can hold against us I suppose. Enjoy your pain; you’ll be unconscious in a few more seconds.”
The Cagliostro Chronicles Page 7