The Cagliostro Chronicles

by Ralph L. Angelo Jr.

  “I guess that’s as good a name as any for that damned weapon,” he replied, talking more to Dan then to Ariel. “Ariel the first that you hear of anything let me know. We’re going to try to kick start the engines, somehow. Johnson out.” He clicked his right sleeve once more, silencing the communicator.

  “If those ships ain’t near Earth yet they can’t be usin’ hyper-warp.”

  “They could but at a much lower speed. At one quarter light speed it will take them about 17 minutes.”

  Ariel’s voice interrupted them both, “Mark I’ve been monitoring your conversation. According to Red, those ships won’t reach Earth for about two hours at the speed they are currently traveling at.”

  “Thanks Ari. We’ll be back up there soon.” He nodded, looking at Dan then added, “That’s one of the first things that’s gone our way since all this madness started.”

  “Yeah, you got that right. So what are you thinking? Usin’ the ‘Grazer and the shuttles again to kick start the Cag?”

  “I wish it were that easy, Dan, but they were hit by the same dampening technology that hit the Cag itself this time.”

  “So what’re you thinkin’?”

  “Something drastic,” he smiled menacingly at Dan.

  “Okay now you got me scared. What, nuclear?”

  “Yes. Setting off one of the nukes I had loaded aboard before we headed out on this mission.”

  “I didn’t know you had nukes added.”

  “That’s right, no one did. Abruzzi and the President thought that every ship should have nukes aboard in case we had to use them as a last line of defense against these marauders. Now we don’t even have the power to fire one at any of those ships.”

  “Maybe the ship don’t…” Dan smiled then. It was not one of his pleasant, almost happy go-lucky grins, it was menacing.

  The two men entered the armory and both put on the armored battle suits the crew had used earlier to board the space station several weeks back. As the clear blue tinted visors slid into place, the suits sealed with a hiss.

  Dan’s suit was bulky and large, covering his massive body tightly, mimicking his powerful muscles beneath its armored surface. Mark’s was sleeker and tighter fitting. Both were based on the ships skin technology adding armored resistance to energy shields.

  “These things have power, huh?” Dan asked, his voice modulated through the communicator built into the armored suit.

  “Yes, like the sensitive ships systems, such as life support and communications, I was able to shield them from the majority of the dampening wave’s effect. Hell, if their dampening power was the same as we had originally faced weeks back, we’d have been fine. But the way they amplified it through most of their fleet…” his voice trailed off.

  “What?” Danny asked.

  “Maybe nothing, but I think I have an idea.”

  “You gonna clue me in?”

  “Would you say that at least most of those ships are linked together somehow to be able to produce that energy wave?”

  “Yes, of course. There’d have ta be some kinda link between the ones engaged in that attack, at least.”

  “Good, let’s go to the heavy ordinance wing, and then you’re going to have to carry something very heavy.”

  “A nuke, you want me ta carry a nuke.”

  “I always said you were the smartest guy I knew, besides me at least.” Mark grinned as he exited the armory with Dan following.

  Crewmen hustled about the corridors of the Cagliostro now as the two armor suited men drew closer to the heavy ordinance wing. Most crewmen didn’t even give Mark or Dan a second look as they scrambled, trying to get sensitive systems back online.

  Mark tapped the door control on the wall, but nothing happened. He looked overhead and saw only emergency lighting on.

  “Blast, its dead down here. Dan, I need you.” He pointed at the doors, then he spoke over his suits speaker system, “Everyone on this deck clear out immediately, I need this deck empty of all personnel besides Dan Sledge and myself.”

  Immediately without hesitation all the crewmembers on that level headed to the maglovators and filed out.

  Mark turned back to Dan, “Ready?”

  Sledge nodded and forced his fingers into the seam between the doors; bending omnium steel like it was paper. Then with a slight pull, he forced the doors apart. Mark nodded approvingly as they entered the heavy ordinance bay.

  “Here.” Mark pointed. In the corner were several magnetically sealed and isolated containers.

  “Nukes,” Sledge commented.

  “Yes, all ready to be mounted on a missile and fired. Only this time this one is going to be thrown.”

  “By me. I get it.”

  “I know you do. C’mon, time is running out on us and the Earth.”

  He tapped his sleeve once again, “Ariel, any word from any one yet?”

  Her voice crackled weakly and static filled over his headset, “None yet. We’re too deep in space and being almost powerless we can’t access subspace communications.”

  Mark shook his head and pursed his lips in disgust, “I’m about to rectify that problem… at least I hope I am.”

  Then he cut the communications link. Mark turned toward Dan, “Are you ready Danny?”

  The big man nodded in his armored suit, the blue visored faceplate moving up and down. “Which one you want me to grab?”

  “The one closest to you. Then let’s move.”

  They exited the heavy ordinance bay, Dan carrying a forty-ton nuke in front of him as they walked precariously down the hall towards the shuttle and landing bay.

  “Are you okay?” Mark asked.

  “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. This thing’s heavy, but I’m strong enough to handle it.”

  “I know, that’s one of the reasons why I rely on you.”

  “When this is over I want a raise, ya know.”

  Mark laughed for a half second, then moved to open the landing bay inner access doors. He hit a sequence of numbers and the doors slid slowly open.

  “Hhhmm, there’s some power left down here yet, just enough to open the doors it seems.”

  “I guess all your shielding did manage to protect a few systems, at least a little bit,” Dan replied.

  “It was better than nothing, I guess,” Mark answered.

  The two men walked into the big hanger deck, Dan balancing and carrying the forty-ton warhead like it was a garbage can held out before him.

  “So what am I doin’ with this thing?” Dan inquired.

  “Do you see that powerless and derelict Agalum ship out there? It’s probably only about a mile or two from us?”

  “Uhh, yeah. What about it?” Dan answered pensively.

  “Throw that war head at it. When it makes contact I’m going to blow it remotely.”

  “Uhhh, are you thinkin’ this through?” Dean asked incredulously, “That’s seriously a mile out there. I don’t know if I can hit that from here. That thing is maybe as big as the Cag; it’s not one of the mile long ships. Chances are I’m gonna miss it.”

  Mark smiled, “No you won’t, Danny. I have complete faith in you.”

  “Yeah? Well that’s more’n I got right about now, boss-man.”

  “Look Dan, once you get it clear of the ship, inertia and weightlessness will do the rest. Just throw it out there when I tell you. In fact you can put it down right there for now and give me a hand over here.”

  Dan lowered it with a suppressed thud as it hit the deck. Then he walked over to where Mark was standing, as Mark began to open a crate that was stored near the doors.

  “What’s this?” Dan asked curiously.

  “Something I put together immediately after we returned. When I saw what our enemy could do with their dampening technology. It’s an induction unit. Made to absorb heat and radiation and convert it to energy to turn the magno-discs over in case something like this happened again. But I never thought about using a nuke to jump start it. It was all going to be s
olar based. Unfortunately, it will take hours to absorb that much solar energy. Earth will be a stinking crater by then.”

  “It may be anyway by the time we get back there,” Dan added stoically.

  “No,” Mark turned and shouted at his friend. “I will not give up, not now, not ever. We will beat them back there and then I’ll do whatever it takes to send them back to their own worlds, or straight to hell, whichever comes first!”

  Dan put his hands up in mock defense. “All right buddy, I’m with you to the very end. You know that already. Just tell me what to do.”

  “Throw these two panels out towards that derelict ship. They don’t have to get that far away, just as long as they are facing that ship. The heavy leads from each will hook to this device which is connected to the starting cells on each magno-disc engine. I’m going to open the landing bay doors now. We’re going to lose oxygen, and this section will decompress. Best to magnetize your boots to the floor.”

  “What about the shuttles and the ‘Grazer?”

  “Maintenance crews secured them before we engaged the enemy. They’ll be fine.”

  The bay doors opened and the oxygen within the landing bay whooshed out explosively, both men held onto handles built into the solid steel walls until the pressure equalized within the landing bay.

  Dan then took the two ten foot long panels of glistening white material and heaved one after the other towards the unmoving Agalum ship, which besides an occasional spark or errant plume of smoke from something within burning up, was seemingly quite dead.

  Mark attached the leads from each panel to the control interface he was standing in front of. “We’re ready Danny. Heave the nuke as far as you can. Try to hit that damned ship out there. We need the mass from it to make this work.”

  “I’ll do my best, boss.”

  “Your best is hitting it, Dan.”

  The big man looked at Mark and nodded, then waved his hand for Mark to stand clear. Lifting the forty-ton warhead up once more, he began to swing it like a shot putter, around and around, never taking his eyes off his target, then once he built up considerable speed, he let it go, directly at his target. The bomb hurtled through space, aimed unerringly at the unmoving vessel.

  Mark shut the bay doors and oxygen once again flooded the landing bay. On the monitor for his console, he watched as the nuke slammed into the floating ship. He punched a button with the bottom of his fist, and the screen they were watching went blazingly white. Their visors on the armored suits they both wore turned black instantly as the monitor itself turned jet black automatically as well.

  Immediately the great ship rumbled as it sprang to life about them. The magno-disc engines began to whir, slowly at first, then building power mightily. All about the ship systems blazed back to life.

  Ariel’s voice shouted from the communicators within each man’s suit, “We’re back to full power.”

  “Hyper-warp now!” Mark roared.

  The Cagliostro leaped towards Earth, disappearing in a blaze of distorted starlight.

  Thirty seconds later it exited hyper-warp as both men still wearing their armored suits entered the command deck. Immediately two awaiting techs helped them out of their bulky armored suits. A pilot named Edmundson stood as Dan approached the pilot’s chair and stepped aside without a word letting Dan slide back behind his control panel.

  Mark cursed loudly as the view came into focus. Earth was being bombarded from space by well over a thousand vessels, as the outnumbered Earth ships who were still trying to blockade the planet fought bravely against their enemies.

  Chapter Twenty Eight

  Mark Johnson stood up from his command chair and walked towards the main viewer, his mouth hung open slightly for an instant, in shock. The scene before them stunned everyone on the command deck to silence. Space above Earth was lit up with energy blasts and explosions as well as missile contrails striking from Earth.

  Massive space stations in Earth’s orbit fired blasts of golden energy at the attacking ships, as hundreds of one-man attack vessels poured from the orbiting stations as well as from the planet’s surface.

  The enemy assault ships fired powerful energy blasts, disintegrating the small one-man ships instantly, as they in turn were blasted by the next wave of small attack craft. Mile long ‘Dreadnaught’ class Earth ships formed blockades about the space stations, using their own mass to protect the vulnerable orbiting city-sized space stations. Powerful deck cannons fired missiles and energy upon the enemy ships, decimating them.

  But it was slowly, once again, becoming a matter of numbers. It was now the denizens of one planet against the soldiers of many. Even with the massive planet-wide retaliation, the surface of the Earth was in turmoil. Streamers of enemy fire raked the planet below, leaving a scorched Earth in its wake.

  “Mark!” Ariel began with stunned trepidation edging her voice, “Cities are burning. New York, Chicago, London, Tokyo, Los Angeles, they’re all in flames, and more are being attacked at every moment.”

  “This is like the end of the world,” Dan murmured.

  “It will be Dan, unless we do something about it. There has to be a way to stop this.” Mark’s jaw set grimly in determined fury.

  Red turned to him, “Cut the head off and the tail dies.”

  “What?” Mark snapped, turning towards his tactical officer.

  “The command ship. We take that down; this all goes to hell. Well, hopefully at least.” He shrugged.

  “And what if it doesn’t? It’s a good start and I’m not discounting it, but we need to destroy this fleet completely.”

  Red cocked his head sideways before continuing, “Start with the command ship, it’s as good a place as any. The rest we can make up as we go.”

  Mark nodded in agreement, “All right, let’s do that.”

  “Mark, what about that dampening weapon of theirs? You know they’re going to use it again and drain all these ships and stations of power?” Dan offered.

  “Yeah, I do Danny, I’m working on that right now, I have a few ideas and you and I are going to talk about that after we take out that command ship.” Johnson turned back to Red, “Where is that damned ship?”

  “Trying to find her now, boss. There’s lots of static out here, blocking sensors. They’re trying to hide it.”

  “Where’s the static thickest? The most concentrated?”

  “Ummm, this makes no sense,” Ariel exclaimed.

  “What is it Ari?” Mark snapped.

  She turned to look at him, “The largest concentration of what we’re referring to as ‘static’ is coming from Mars. Actually, behind it.”

  “Sonuva-” Mark trailed off. “They’re hiding the command vessel behind the red planet. That’s why they cleared us from the asteroid belt. Whoever’s in command of this attack is orchestrating it from the dark side of Mars.”

  “The cowards!” Dan blurted out angrily. “They’re usin’ their troopers like cannon fodder. They don’t care how many die, as long as the bosses are safe an’ sound. Sittin’ back sippin’ their lattes.”

  “For all we know they may all be clones, which would make sense actually,” Red offered.

  “Ari contact command, tell them what we are doing and where we are going. Warn them about that energy dampening attack they used on us, send them all the pertinent information we gathered on that attack before everything went dark, then tell them I’m working on something to counter it, but first we’re going to take out the command ship.”

  “Got it,” she replied.

  “Dan, get us back to Mars. Hyper-warp. Now!”

  The Cagliostro exploded away from Earth as if it was shot out of a cannon, space blurred around it and the great manta-ray shaped ship disappeared, starlight reflecting off of its mirrored surface as it streaked away towards the red planet.

  “Exit hyper-warp on the opposite side of the planet. Now it’s time to try out some of those improvements we installed after our shakedown run, Dan.”

&nbs
p; Sledge nodded his big head grimly upon his muscular neck and shoulders, “Reflective skin?”

  “Yes, I was saving it for something just like this situation.”

  “We’re exiting hyper-warp now,” Dan commented.

  “Turn on the reflective skin as soon as we exit.”

  Dan nodded. “Done and done.”

  “Let’s hope it works,” Eddie added.

  “Agreed,” Mark replied

  “Where to now, boss? Around the planet?”

  “Yes, try to keep us close to the planet but stay out of the atmosphere; I don’t want them to see any heat ripples from us skirting what little atmosphere there is. Red, the Mars stations have all been evacuated, correct?”

  “Yeah, they did that days ago, actually when we returned everyone was recalled. All our people are out of there.”

  Mark nodded silently.

  “What are you thinking boss?” Eddie asked.

  “Don’t worry about it DiGenovese. It’s something nasty, and if I decide to do it you’ll be the first to know.”

  Mark clenched his teeth and set his lip as thoughts and calculations flew through his mind quickly.

  “Bring us about, Mr. Sledge. It’s time to confront our enemy face to face.”

  The Cagliostro shimmered as the reflective skin took effect, more akin to a chameleon’s ability more than to true invisibility. But still the ship seemed to disappear, its graceful shape blending in with the space about it as it sailed around the curvature of the red planet towards its opposite side.

  “Uhhh, Mark,” Red began, “the shields are down, you do know that right?”

  “Can’t be helped, Red. It’s part of the reflective skin. For now we have to rely on our armored hull. Hopefully we won’t need either armor or shields, for now.”

  “And that just make me feel all the more secure,” Red replied hesitantly.

  The Cagliostro silently flew to the side of Mars away from the Sun, and almost immediately Mark ordered, “Full stop.”

  Dan eased the throttle down on his virtual control panel as everyone upon the command deck caught their breath and stared silently at what was before them.