As if on cue, the four aliens dropped to the ground, insensate, and shuddering. Ariel stood then, stumbled and almost fell to the ground, but Mark and Eddie jumped to her side, catching her and holding her up.
“Relax Ariel, you were fantastic as usual, leave the rest to us.” Ariel nodded as a trickle of blood ran down from her nose. She sat back upon the bench as Eddie tried to get the keys off the jailors belt to their binders.
Suddenly the door at the end of the hallway exploded with a rumble that shook the whole cavern.
“Dammit, he could have waited a few more minutes.” Mark fumed.
“Hey I’m glad he’s coming now, at least he can help get these cuffs off.” Eddie replied.
The sound of a blaster discharging echoed down the hall as the aliens could be heard scurrying between the escaping threesome and the doorway in fear, after a few more blaster bolts.
Abruptly Red appeared in their doorway, his blaster still smoking.
“Get these things off of us,” Eddie yelled.
Red snorted and smiled, “In trouble without me again, huh?”
“Just help us get these cuffs off,” Mark grumbled. “Ari, were you able to find him while I talked to this mook?”
Before she could reply, a vaguely familiar voice shouted from several cells further down the hall, “Who’s down there? I hear perfect English, not like these morons talk. Are those earthmen I hear?”
“We don’t need a translator for that, do we?” Eddie chortled.
“No, not this time.” Mark replied, “General is that you? Where are you?”
“Johnson? Is that you? But how?”
They ran down the hall to the General’s cell where the bedraggled, heavy set man stood holding onto the bars before him. His clothes were filthy and torn, as if he had been there for a long time in captivity.
“Stand back sir, we’ll get you out of here.”
“Harrumph, it’s about time, too.” The older man grumbled as a blaster bolt from Eddie’s recovered gun struck the lock on his cell door, obliterating it. The haggard looking old man stumbled out of the cell on legs long unused by his imprisonment. He had a heavy white beard, no longer just his bushy white mustache. His hair was unkempt, and he needed a shower, badly. But then he smiled slightly, “I’m happy to see you clowns.” He growled as Red grabbed him and helped him to walk towards the doorway.
“We have to get out of here. This place is going to be teeming with guards any second.” Mark commanded.
As if in response to his statement, blaster bolts started ricocheting off the walls above their heads. Behind them came the sound of running footsteps, followed by more energy bolts.
“Eddie, Red, buy us some time.”
“You got it boss.” Eddie nodded as he un-holstered his gun once again. He and Red ducked down on opposite sides of the roughhewn walkway, behind jutting stones. Eddie pointed at the light panels overhead and Red nodded. Both men began firing at the overhead lighting, throwing the cavernous walkway into blackness.
Heading towards them out of the blackness came a score of men, with weapons that had glowing muzzles that got brighter as they charged up to fire.
“Aim above the muzzles.” Eddie shouted to Red above the din of the ricocheting blaster bolts continued onslaught.
“Will do, squirt.” Red replied as both men laid down a blanket of energy bolts, strafing the cell blocks floor again and again. Screams of injured and dying men shrieked out from the darkness as Red and Eddie began backing up towards the entrance.
Red touched the communicator built into his uniforms right sleeve. “Boss, get us outta here.”
Outside the facility, Mark touched his uniforms communicator and replied, somewhat frantically “I’m working on it, Red,” he paused a second, “Danny where are you? Now would be a good time…”
“On my way, Mark!” Dan replied as the Stargrazer banked wide overhead, turning the night sky to day with its powerful lights. The ship paused in midair then silently dropped to the ground vertically as a side door slid away, from inside Dan shouted, “Let’s go! Move it!”
Johnson and Ariel raced into the ship, half dragging the General with them, a few seconds later Eddie and Red backed out of the devastated doorway below, firing back into the underground facility with every step.
“Move it!” Shouted Mark from the ships door, as he waved them in. Blaster bolts ricocheted about them as the men threw themselves into the ship. An instant later the door shut behind them as the Stargrazer was already climbing towards space.
Everyone buckled into a seat as the ship raced through the sky, ascending like a meteor in reverse.
“Look out!” Ariel shouted, pointing as two big, heavily fortified ships came into view just as they cleared the last vestiges of atmosphere and shot into the eternal darkness of the void.
“They’re shootin’ at us.” Dan rumbled as he banked the ship hard astern, then dove down, and quickly up as it spun around and around narrowly avoiding a stream of seemingly never-ending, deadly, energy blasts.
“Get us outta here Danny!” Mark ordered through gritted teeth, as he held onto his control console.
“Whattaya think I’m tryin’ ta do?” Dan replied with a shout.
“Eddie! Return fire, Now!”
“Already on it!” Eddie squawked as he fired the small ships guns again and again.
“Those ships aren’t as big or as heavily shielded as that one we fought in deep space, our blasts are actually scorin’ hits.”
“Yeah, but Eddie, there’s a lot more ship out there trying to hit us then there is here trying to hit them, so I repeat, Danny, get us out of here!” Mark yelled.
The Stargrazer screamed through space, arcing first left then right, then straight up as both bigger ships slowly turned to chase it, until with energy blasts splashing off its shields and skin, the Stargrazer suddenly flipped over and dove directly at the attacking ships, accelerating directly between them. Eddie continued to fire at them both until once alongside both ships Danny hit the hyper-warp and the Stargrazer disappeared in a splash of light.
“Those two ships will be after us in a minute.” Red grunted.
“I know, Ari, try to get in touch with the Cagliostro. We need her fire power.”
“Cagliwhatstro?” The General grunted “What the hell is a Cagliostro?”
“It’s my ship.” Mark replied.
“Is that what you named her? Why the hell would you name that bird such a stupid name?” The old General laughed.
Mark turned on the old man, annoyed, “It was the name of a sixteenth century alchemist and sorcerer. No one believed he could do what he claimed, just like none of you believed the Cag would break the light speed barrier. But guess what, you old pain in the ass, the Cagliostro not only broke the light speed barrier, it obliterated it. That ship, and this one as well, by the way, isn’t only faster than light, its thousands of times faster. And if not for me and that ship you’d be living out what’s left of your life in a cell on that dustbowl of a planet.” Mark finished.
The General looked at him with vehemence; steam was practically coming out of his ears. But then he suddenly softened and looked away, not wanting to match his eyes to Marks. “You’re right son, I do owe you my life. Without you and your ship I’d have died there. I’m sorry.” He raised his eyes finally and met Mark’s, “I have a feeling this whole adventure is far from over too. I think we may have a long way to go. I also know I’m not the only one who owes you. The whole damned planet will if you can pull this off. You’re literally going to save the world.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence; General, but we’re a very long way from home.” Mark turned toward Ariel, “Any word from the Cag yet?”
“Nothing Mark. Not a peep. I’m looping the hail, and hoping it gets through to them as we get closer.”
“Red, what about our company back there?”
“I see them, but they’re not gaining on us.”
“Alright, Danny
don’t spare the horses, full throttle and keep it pinned.”
“I’m doing that now Mark, but honestly, we’re running an untested ship here, and I have no idea how long we can keep her going all out.”
“I do, I designed this ship and its engines. I know what it can handle, even if the specs don’t show it. We can handle it. We have to. We got lucky back there. If those two big bruisers catch us, we’ll be done for.”
Chapter Ten
“I think they’re gone.” Mark announced, as he turned and faced Ariel, who sat next to him.
For eight long hours the chase had continued, with the Stargrazer running its engines full out, overrunning the specs they were designed for, just to ensure the crews survival.
Ariel nodded, and smiled slightly, “Thank God we lost them. That was getting to be tedious.”
“I don’t know if I would have termed it that way, but yes, I get your meaning.” Mark replied and relaxed a bit in his chair.
“How’d you know?” Ariel asked Mark, who sat at the ships controls flying the Stargrazer while Danny took a few minutes rest.
“Hhmm? How’d I know what?”
“That Red was alive. You weren’t the least bit surprised when he came bursting in guns blazing.”
“Eight hours later and now you ask me this? That’s easy. The suits we’re all wearing. I told you they were bullet and blaster proof, at least to small weapons fire.”
“What about the burning holes I saw after he got hit?”
“That’s how the uniforms work. They convert energy and displace it. It’s all part of the design. With bullets it’s a matter of converting the kinetic energy, with blasters it’s displacing the energy and shunting it off. It’s a great system.”
“Okay I get that now, but what about that alien boss back there, he said the guy we shot with the Stargrazer’s gun was his ‘predecessor’. What did that mean?”
“Yes what did that mean?” The General asked as he entered the cabin from the sleep quarters in the back.
“Not sleeping General? I’m surprised.”
“Believe me, son, I’ve gotten enough rest the past few months in that hell hole. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but I heard you talking about that little gestapo wannabe. What was that about?”
Mark grinned and took a deep breath, “He was a clone. So is your replacement by the way.”
“What? What are you talking about? They cloned me? When?”
“Probably months ago, maybe longer. All they needed was a stray hair or some skin follicles. They made another you, without a mind of course, and programmed him to do their bidding. That’s how they were hoping to stall us, and stop my FTL drive from ever being completed.”
The General sat back in his seat, looking stunned. “Bastards,” was all he said.
“What was all that with the terraforming about?” Eddie asked as he entered the control cabin.
“Think about it, what did that mountain range look like to you? At least a small section of.”
“I don’t know.” Ariel answered.
“Virginia.”
“Huh?” Eddie barked.
“Virginia. The Blue Ridge Mountains, west of the seat of our government. They recreated the Blue Ridge Mountains and built a base under them. Guaranteed that same base is under the real Blue Ridge and has been there for a long time. Far enough from DC to avoid detection, unless it’s under close scrutiny, but there’s been no reason for that, and close enough to feed the fake General orders and for him to have a place to report to only a short distance away.”
“My God, we’ve been infiltrated.” Abruzzi groaned.
“It’s worse than that General, if they replaced you this was just the tip of the iceberg. They could very easily have replaced the President, the joint chiefs, congress, anyone. This was a carefully orchestrated assault that took years to implement. That means they have been watching us for a very long time.”
“But who are “they”? Surely not the inhabitants of that backwater world.”
“No, I don’t believe it was anyone commanding their forces out of that dust bowl either, General. Somewhere else out there, very well hidden, is our enemy, our true enemy. We have to get back home, and begin retrofitting the fleet with my magno-disc engines but only after we find how deep our doppelganger problem is.
You were right before General, when you said this adventure is far from over. We have a lot ahead of us yet.”
“So what now? Red asked as he rejoined everyone and slid into one of the control seats.
“Find the Cag, that’s where we have to start.”
“Uh, I think we just did that.” Ariel turned in surprise to face Mark. She touched a control on her virtual panel and suddenly the display screen zoomed in and showed an image of the Cagliostro, listing sideways in space, motionless and dead, smoke trailing into space from her hull.
Chapter Eleven
“What the hell…” Mark rumbled.
“What do you think happened here?” Red asked Mark.
“No idea, maybe they were overrun by enemy forces. I could see the Cag holding its own and beating one of those big war ships, but against two or three?” He left the question hanging pregnant in the air.
“You think that’s what happened?” Ariel asked.
“See the scarring along the hull?
She nodded in the affirmative, her face stern.
“The Cag was in a battle, and a prolonged one too, against several ships. Are you getting any life signs?” Mark turned and asked Red.
“Looking now. Doing a scan. Nothing so far, also no power anywhere on the ship it’s completely out.”
By now the Stargrazer had slowed out of hyper-warp and slowly pulled up near the much larger ship.
“She doesn’t appear damaged, Mark, not badly at any rate, just powerless.”
“When we first battled that war ship as we were heading to the sand planet, they hit us with something that drained our power and energy stores. Multiple hits of that from multiple ships would have drained her dry.”
“We have to get inside.” Red growled.
“What’s going on?”
Everyone turned to find Danny standing in the doorway, rubbing his head dry with a towel. Then he stopped as he saw the view screen and cursed almost silently.
Dan slid into his chair and Mark returned navigation control to him. “Line up our belly hatch with the side of the Cag right there.” He pointed at a spot as Dan slowly guided the smaller ship up to the side of the much larger one. The Stargrazer turned sideways and floated in, securely bumping into the side of the Cagliostro.
“Magnetic locks activated.” Dan called out.
Mark was out of his seat in an instant and walking towards the center of the small spacecraft. Then he changed his footing to the wall of the ship standing on it and activating the irising portal that was on the floor of the Stargrazer.
The portal irised open and revealed the blank wall, which was actually a hatch on the outer hull of the Cagliostro. Mark picked up a heavy cable from a supply outlet on the Stargrazer and began to attach it to a mating port on the side of the door on the Cagliostro. Dan walked over and joined Mark. He took the heavy cable from Mark’s hands and finished the attachment, twisting the cable until it snapped into place.
“All set.” Dan nodded at Mark.
“Good. Ariel, begin power transfer.” Mark called to the front of the ‘Grazer. The General walked over to join them.
“Do you men need any help?”
“When we get aboard we’re going to have to go through ten decks one at a time to make sure we didn’t pick up any passengers, so yeah, you’ll be needed General. Grab a gun and sit tight for a minute or two more.”
Mark tapped a staccato pattern on a flat keypad under the same cover that the power conduits inlet was hiding beneath. After a second a retina scan read his eyes, and a DNA scan read his hand. One final code was introduced on the flush keypad and then the door slid open with power supplied by the
Stargrazer.
Within the Cagliostro was darkness. Mark tapped out a pattern on the sleeve of his uniform and immediately his sleeve produced a beam of light that cut through the darkness.
The General snorted, “Too bad you couldn’t make that thing into a weapon.”
Mark turned to him and smiled grimly, “Who said I couldn’t? Problem is too many men would blow their hands off if I did. I would probably forget from time to time myself.”
The old man nodded grimly in agreement, “Valid point.”
“So do we all go? Does someone stay with the ‘Grazer? How do you want to play this?” Eddie asked.
Mark Johnson did not answer immediately as he read one of the small handheld scanners they had used earlier on the planet itself. “Atmosphere reads normal. Eddie, you stay here. Close the hatch behind us and be ready to open that hatch at a moment’s notice if we come running.”
“You think there may be some surprises left for us?”
“I wouldn’t doubt it, but you never know. I’m probably just being overly cautious, which in this case is not such a bad thing. When we make it to the command deck, I’ll power up the magno-discs again and restore power to the ship. Once that’s done we’ll open the docking bays and you can get the Stargrazer back onboard. In the meantime, hang tight.”
“Sounds like a plan, boss.”
“All right, General Abruzzi, Dan, Red, and Ariel with me. Ariel are you okay enough to scan for survivors mentally as well as linking us? I know you took a beating these past few days, but I have to rely on you hon, I’m sorry.”
She smiled as she looked at him, “I’m fine, don’t ‘Mother Hen’ me. I’m really okay, I’m not just saying it, I promise.”
He leaned forward and kissed her quickly. They both smiled before turning and walking into the ship, flashlight beams from their uniforms sleeves were brightly illuminating the corridor they walked through. Everyone had taken a pistol before they left the Stargrazer, including the General. They all walked with their pistols drawn and ready now through the pervading darkness.
The Cagliostro Chronicles Page 8