“Don’t worry Dan, the Cag can take it. She’s a tough bird.” Ariel affirmed, smiling.
“Believe me, Ariel, I know that better than anybody. Don’t forget, Mark and I designed most of the systems on this baby from his ideas.”
“What if they don’t believe us?” the General asked.
“It won’t matter General, I have one other trump card to play yet.”
“What is it?” Abruzzi asked, intrigued.
“In due time General, in due time. For now let’s just concentrate on getting out of this galaxy and evading any ships that may be hiding in wait for us between here and Earth.”
The General ‘harrumphed’ once, then sat in the same seat he had occupied earlier. “The sooner we get home the better. This whole damned mess has left me itching to see Earth again. It’s been too long. Some of you may have been made for all this otherworldly adventure, but the rest of us are definitely not.”
Mark smiled before replying, “Duly noted, General, and thank you for all your help, by the way.”
“I have to help, son. I’m not turning my back on planet and country now. Both need this old man. Plus, I need some payback on those salad heads for keeping me captive all that time.”
“How long did they have you?” Ariel asked.
“I don’t even know for certain, Ariel.”
“When was the last time we met and talked before they took you?” Mark asked.
“You had just started construction on this ship. The frame wasn’t in place yet.”
“That’s impossible.” Mark answered, obviously surprised.
“Why?” the old man replied.
“Because General, that was three years ago.”
Chapter Sixteen
“Return weapons fire!” Mark shouted as the Cagliostro rocked once again.
Three days had passed since they had escaped their pursuers from the space station. It had been a three days filled with fleeting attacks from various alien ships
On the view screen the ship attacking them was different this time. It was sleek and smaller than the huge war ships that had dogged their trail the past three days. This one was almost avian shaped, akin to a hunting hawk diving towards prey. It maneuvered as well as the Cagliostro did, that much was already evident. Both ships danced through space, returning fire on each other again and again.
“Direct hit, Mark.” Eddie shouted, “I scored them good with that one.”
“Less talk, more firing, Eddie. Destroy that ship.”
Eddie shot Mark an annoyed glance over his shoulder as Dan rolled the Cag over and over through space. But the hawk ship mimicked the Cagliostro’s move perfectly.
“This is gettin’ ridiculous.” Dan complained.
“I thought you were good at what you did?” Eddie verbally jabbed Dan.
“Yeah, big mouth? When you actually hit somethin’ then open yer yap. So far you’re what? One for forty?”
“At least I did hit something. This guy is matching you move for move, and it looks like he’s doing it pretty easily too.”
“Both of you shut up.” Mark ordered, “Dan, go back to hyper warp, full power to the engines. Let them chase us. Double rear shields. Now you’re going to see why I designed three solar cannons at the rear of the ship.”
“Everybody hang on,” Dan roared as he flipped the ship over and accelerated directly at and then above and past the ship that was following them, passing cleanly above the enemy vessel, then immediately disappearing into hyper-warp.
“That ship will be on our tail any second.” Red stated.
“No kidding, Sherlock.” Dan answered.
“Will both of you stop arguing and listen? Red, you let me know when that ship appears on the rear sensors. Eddie switch your view to rear also. When that thing shows, drop our speed down to ninety-eight percent. Let it catch up, slowly.”
“You want it to catch us?” Ariel asked.
“I want it to get closer to us, not catch us. That ship seems to be a match for the Cag in every way. Beyond the body design, I’m willing to bet it’s a copy of the Cag.”
“What? How?”
“They replaced the General, who else could they have replaced? Someone in the company as well, I’m willing to bet, someone close to the designs. It could have been anyone. I’ll have to come up with a way to distinguish a clone from the original and scan everyone back at the company when we get this straightened out.”
“Why would they copy our ship? We’re the new guys. This makes no sense.” Eddie almost shouted.
“It makes perfect sense, Eddie. All these races have been watching Earth for a reason. It’s what I said earlier, they fear us. We make good stuff.”
“That doesn’t even sound like proper English.” Ariel chuckled drily.
“It probably isn’t, but that’s not what I’m concerned about right now. Have they caught up yet, Red?”
“Just coming into sensor range now.”
“Excellent. Can you get a reading on their shields?”
“They are fully deployed, and at full power.”
“Good, now how do they compare to ours?”
“What?”
“Our shields Red, how do they compare to our shields?”
“Uhhh, they look solid. Very solid.”
“Read their frequency. Are they the same as ours? Chances are they are exactly the same. Fighting this ship has been like fighting our own ship, in every way.”
Suddenly the Cagliostro rocked as several energy blasts slammed into the ships rear shields.
“And there they are, right on schedule as expected.”
Mark sat back in his seat and brought up a virtual control panel. “Here we go.” The ship rocked again as blasts again impacted on their shields.
“Mark, what are you doing?” Dan asked quietly.
Mark raised his hand toward Dan for silence, “Eddie I’m sending a command to your firing control panel. When you fire, that signal is going to ride along with the canons pulse.”
“Mark, what the hell are you talking about?” Eddie asked, without removing his eyes from the firing panel.
“Eddie, just fire, will you? Center cannon only on first volley, please. Red, bring up the aft of the ship on the main view screen please.”
The view screen switched to the rear of the ship as the center cannon fired a blast that hit the pursuing ship’s shields, suddenly illuminating them in a pattern of squares across the front of the enemy ship. The squares glowed brightly in a flash and then went out.
“NOW!” shouted Mark while enthusiastically pumping his fist, “Full power all rear cannons.”
The three rear mounted solar cannons blasted streams of glowing energy from their tips, slamming through the shields as if they were non-existent and exploding upon the ship’s hull, cascading across its surface, and spinning the pursuer sideways off course with their power.
“Eddie, again!” Mark roared. Eddie nodded and stabbed the fire control again, repeatedly. All three cannons fired multiple times, each hit and spun the pursuer violently twice more, until the ship suddenly exploded into its component atoms, lighting up the view screen like an exploding star.
“What the hell?” Red exclaimed.
“A failsafe. He built a failsafe into the shield codes.” Dan chuckled lowly.
“You shut off their shields. That’s—that’s cheating.” Ariel stumbled upon her own words in surprise, an astonished look creeping over her face.
“No, cloning and replacing people, and seeking to undermine my company and our planet, that’s cheating, and so much more.”
“So now what?” Eddie asked, bemused at what just happened.
“We get to Earth, as quickly as possible.” Mark replied grimly.
“We’re approaching the outskirts of the solar system now, Mark.”
“Okay Danny, thanks.”
“Uhhh, Mark, you better look at this.” Red suddenly exclaimed. He adjusted a control on his virtual control panel and the vi
ew screen suddenly zoomed in on a point in space several million miles ahead of them.
“Uh oh,” Eddie almost whispered.
“That ain’t good.” Dan added.
“Mark?” Ariel turned toward him, her face blank with fear.
For his part Mark Johnson said nothing, He just stared at the view screen and shook his head grimly.
Before them in a far reaching ring of ships was a blockade spread out as far as the eye could see.
Dan turned towards him, “Mark, those ain’t the alien ships.”
“I know Dan, those are all Earth fleet vessels.”
“Maybe they got the messages we’ve been broadcasting and are here to help us, in case we were being followed,” Eddie offered.
“I don’t think so,” Ariel began as she turned towards Mark, a worried look upon her face, “I just received a message ordering us to surrender, from General Abruzzi, and the President.”
Chapter Seventeen
General Abruzzi, the real General Abruzzi stood up from his seat behind Mark’s chair and stared angrily at the view screen. “That’s every ship in the fleet. They have hundreds of them out there all to capture us? That’s not making any sense. They left Earth totally unprotected.”
“Yes General, it does make sense. Perfect sense actually.”
“How, Johnson?”
“They’re out here looking for us, which leaves Earth unprotected.”
“I wouldn’t say it was unprotected, son. There are plenty of land based, and satellite defenses in play. Those alone should be able to defend the planet against just about any attack.”
“That we know of, General. There are something like two hundred fifty ships from the United States alone here, never mind every other nation on the planet. What if thousands of ships descend on Earth from all over the galaxy? Then what?”
“Well if there are thousands of ships coming we’re not going to have much of a chance anyway, Johnson.”
“Something’s not right. Dan, come to full stop.”
“Okay, boss.” Sledge replied.
“Mark, what are you thinking?” Ariel asked.
“Ari, if they have thousands of ships, why haven’t they just attacked us already? Long ago? The United States has about two hundred and fifty ships at this point, all war ships capable of leveling cities from space. No nation has close to that. China has half that number. Russia bankrupted itself trying to keep up. It’s what led to the fall of their new progressive party. England has what? A hundred ships at best? So let’s say that in total earth has about five hundred spaceships, not starships, but spaceships, because right now, this is the only starship from Earth. This is the only ship, not counting the Stargrazer, which can break the light speed barrier and attain full hyper-warp flight through space.”
Abruzzi looked at Mark quizzically, “I’m not following where you‘re going with this, son.”
“There’s a big question hanging over our heads here General and it’s a simple one. Why? Why go through all of this? Why the kidnappings, the cloning’s, why build a base under the Blue Ridge mountains for God’s sake?”
“Control?” asked Ariel.
“Yes, but control of what? Our government? Our world? Our space program?”
“Well they lost any shot at that once it became privatized and guys like you came along.” Dan replied.
“That’s somewhat true Dan, and maybe a good reason for this, as in they, whoever ‘they’ are, had to take a firmer hand in our supposed self-destruction.”
“Ya know, you’re not even mentionin’ the eight hundred pound monkey in the room.” Dan said.
“I know, I haven’t gotten to that yet, but we might as well broach the subject now. They have the President. There is no feasible way the real President would stand with the imposter Abruzzi, especially since he sent us on this mission.”
“What if he was the imposter all along?” Red offered.
“What do you mean Red?”
“Mark, think about it, he sends us off across space, looking for the General,” Red pointed at the General sitting in a seat on the walkway behind them, “figuring we’d either all be killed, captured or the Cag would be destroyed by the superior alien tech.”
“So you think this faux President sent us on a wild goose chase, hopefully to our doom.”
“That would make sense exceptin’ for one thing,” Dan interjected as he jerked his thumb behind him, “We got the real Abruzzi sittin’ here behind us.”
“Yes, that is an excellent point, Dan.” Mark agreed, “But not out of the question in regards to Red’s scenario.” He stood up now and began pacing back and forth around the command deck. “Let’s say the real President sent us on this mission. Let’s say he wasn’t taken hostage until after we left and he was replaced with another clone. So now we have to locate the real President.”
“But we already know where they would hold him prisoner.” Ariel smiled.
“Of course we do,” Mark answered, smiling broadly, “Below the Blue Ridge mountain section nearest to Washington.”
“Right where we found the General.” Red smiled broadly, “But then it was on the copy of the Blue Ridge on another world.
“Exactly.” Mark replied. “Now all we have to do is get there, and free him.”
“You know this is not going to be as easy as it was to free the General?” Red grinned.
“I don’t remember that bein’ easy at all.” Dan replied with a smirk.
“Never mind that, how far are we from the blockade, or rather where is it in relation to Earth?” Mark asked.
“It’s between Mars and Jupiter. They’re using the asteroid belt itself to take up space, and sort of clog the path home.” Red answered.
“Good plan.” Abruzzi approved, “Someone knows tactics.”
“We have to assume they have our own people planning this entire blockade out.” Mark thought aloud, while still pacing.
“Why not? For all they know they’re helping stop the dangerous Mark Johnson and his crew of traitors.” Red suggested.
“Very true. So we have to now assume we are wanted, accused traitors and public enemy’s number one through five.”
“But again, we have the General to disprove their claims.”
“Unless they claim he is the clone and not the man with them.” Eddie replied.
Mark threw his hands upward, then sat down once again before continuing, “We could go back and forth about this for the next week and get nowhere. Bottom line- we have to get to Virginia, free the President from that underground bunker and take back control of the nation. If we don’t, well I don’t think whatever they have planned out for us all will be all that pleasant, and by ‘us all’ I mean everyone on Earth.”
“Okay boss, where do we start?” Dan Sledge asked.
Mark walked over behind him and placed his hand on Dan’s shoulder, “Tell me Danny, have you ever run a blockade before?”
Chapter Eighteen
“This ain’t gonna be fun.” Dan grumbled, as the Cagliostro powered up and streaked away towards Earth.
“Prepare to go to hyper-warp, Mr. Sledge.” Mark commanded.
“Oh I’m ready an’ waitin’ for this one, boss man, just say when.”
“I think now would be good.” Mark replied as the ship suddenly streaked away at faster than light speed, heading directly towards the asteroid belt and the blockade of war ships, each five times the size of the Cagliostro.
“How long until we appear on their scanners, Red?”
“About another ten seconds, Mark.”
“Okay, double front shields, Red. We could get a little singed on this one, people.”
“You have a way with words you know.” Ariel smirked.
“So you’ve told me on more than one occasion,” he replied with a wink.
“Brace yourselves, here it comes!” grunted Red, as the ship was rocked by energy beam fire that raked across the front shields, mercilessly. The ship vibrated and shook wi
th each hit, as crew members all over the great vessel grit their teeth and prayed.
“Red, how long until we’re past them?”
“Another thirty seconds, Mark, and once we get past them they’ll never catch us. It’ll take them two weeks to get back to Earth.”
The Cagliostro soared at hyper-warp speed, hurtling through space, spinning and flipping, as Dan worked hard to avoid their getting hit by the powerful war ships energy blasts. Sometimes he was successful, sometimes not.
“Hey, Dan,” Eddie called, “How about trying not to get us hit by every blast, okay? Maybe try to miss just a few?” Eddie grinned nervously.
“I should throw you out a hatch right now, short stuff,” Dan grumbled as he fought the controls.
“Stow it you two, let’s just get through this,” Mark ordered, “Red, report?”
“Shields at forty eight percent and dropping, boss. That’s a lot of firepower out there and all of it aimed at us.”
“I know, Red. Begin to rotate shield power to the rear of the ship immediately upon completing our pass.”
The Cagliostro flew past the blockade, flying on edge as it streaked between two mammoth war ships, each firing continually at the much smaller manta ray shaped ship. Each scoring several glancing blasts off the brightly glowing rear shields.
“How are they even seeing us? We’re traveling so fast, we should be almost invisible,” Ariel asked.
“They don’t see us. It’s the long range tracking and aiming systems that I sold to the military two years ago. They begin to track movements from half a star system away, and do a damned good job of firing on a target with an almost clairvoyant aim.”
“In other words you build good stuff.”
“Yes, and for once that actually goes against us, though like I do with everything I build, I built in a failsafe.” Mark paused a second, then turned towards Red, “Red what is our shield strength right now?”
Red smiled nervously before answering, “Four percent.”
The Cagliostro Chronicles Page 12