by Sid Kar
Tollvyk and Rockvyk were fast charging at the soldiers right behind the Stardjacker. Rockvyk had long legs and long strides and was the first to reach the melee. A Mercurian soldier turned his laser gun towards Rockvyk just when Rockvyk big booted him in the face, almost stumbling forward with his other leg for the extra reach, his huge boot and the force of the momentum breaking the soldier’s mask and flattening his nose before sending him under. A second soldier was swinging his laser gun when Rockvyk jumped forward just in time to stop the laser gun with his left fist and pummeled the Mercurian in his gut with a massive right punch. He followed it again with another hard right punch to the same region. The soldier yelled loudly and then doubled over on his side holding his gut with both of his hands.
Tollvyk was the last to reach and barely managed to grab a Mercurian soldier’s laser gun before he could aim and fire at him. Tollvyk kicked him in the stomach and then when he leaned forward Tollvyk whacked him on the back with a hard chop landing him face first. A second Mercurian started punching Tollvyk in the face and they fought punch for punch.
Meanwhile the Stardjacker had sent two more Mercurians to the ground with a rapid barrage of punches and kicks and he turned to Tollvyk, “Need help?”
“No, you look after Raptor,” Tollvyk said throwing a punch, “I will take this bastard.” His own face was bloodied red but he had broken the alien’s mask and the alien too was bleeding blue.
“What the fuck, you bleed blue,” Tollvyk said and the alien grunted a strange sound.
Rockvyk turned to look at them and started walking over to help him. Tollvyk felt slightly embarrassed at needing another individual to overpower just a single opponent. He suddenly jumped forward on the alien and the Mercurian was startled and fell backward with Tollvyk right upon him and Tollvyk started punching him hard in the face.
“That’s enough Toll…” Rockvyk said, “he is out.”
Tollvyk held his punch. The alien was unconscious. He looked around; all the Mercurians were knocked out while Stardjacker was kneeling over Raptor and administering some medicine.
“Is he…” Tollvyk began to speak in trepidation.
“Alive…” Stardjacker said, “I have given him shots of super-saturated adrenaline and highly concentrated opiates. But he needs medical professionals to save his life.”
“Our spaceship must be nearby. They were going to hide it in the forest,” Tollvyk said. He looked at Rockvyk who had taken out his laser pistol but wasn’t doing anything. He supposed that standard rules of war still applied unless told contrary, which they had not been, and knocked out enemy was not to be shot in cold blood. He would have hated for them to live if Raptor didn’t survive, but he would comply with the rules…for now.
“You don’t want to take him to the Starfleet Command?” Stardjacker asked picking up Raptor with his hands.
“Starship Conquistador has all the medical facilities of a military hospital,” Tollvyk said.
“I concur and those doctors have live experience of battle wounds,” Rockvyk said.
“Then let’s go,” Stardjacker had taken out Raptor’s personal command radio and turned on the beacon to locate the hidden spyship. He ran through the forest at top speed, dexterously navigating around the trees and jumping over fallen logs while firmly holding Raptor in his arms. Tollvyk and Rockvyk sprinted hard to try to catch up but when they reached the spyship, Stardjacker had already opened the door using Raptor’s biometrics and with the assist from the spaceship’s emergency system programming that recognized when its personnel were in danger and overrode the locks.
Stardjacker had strapped Raptor in the automated medical station abroad. These spyships had to fly deep in enemy space and stay hidden and thus had small, robotic medical stations installed to aid the spies.
“I can handle the medical booth,” Rockvyk said, “But one of you needs to fly this.”
“I can fly but am not a great pilot and I would rather stay with Raptor,” Tollvyk said.
“I will,” Stardjacker jumped over them and into the pilot’s seat. He fired up the engine and all the flight and navigation instruments and accelerated the ship straight out of the atmosphere and into space.
Diagnosing: the medical robot intoned.
Tollvyk and Rockvyk were watching Raptor who was strapped to a chair inside a small booth that was filled with medical instruments attached to a robotic hull and various gases were being released through the pipes connected to the booth.
After a couple of seconds, a gaggle of different numbers and symbols were spat out on the display screen outside next to the glass window.
“Hell…I can’t read this,” Tollvyk said.
“Neither can I, not completely,” Rockvyk moved his finger over some of the numbers, “But this red number: the system has lowered the temperature to the minimum possible. Not good, it means it is fighting for time.”
Patient requires urgent medical attention in a hospital: medical robot spoke again.
“How long?” Tollvyk asked.
10 minutes 38 seconds till the terminal point: the robot said in the same cool voice.
“Tollvyk, come here and call out to Conquistador,” Stardjacker said.
“You look after him,” Tollvyk said to Rockvyk who nodded with a wry smile. Rockvyk knew there was nothing him or the other two could do that the Robot wouldn’t already have tried.
Tollvyk ran to the front of the spaceship, jumped into the co-pilot’s seat and opened the connection to their Starship. Since this spyship was an assigned one to Conquistador, near instantaneous connection was established to its command room.
“Colonel Tollvyk to Conquistador,” Tollvyk said, “Col. Tollvyk to Conquistador command room. This is an emergency. Open link to VC Barryett right now.”
“Confirmed colonel,” a voice replied over their speaker which Tollvyk didn’t recognize but two seconds later a familiar voice spoke, “Col. Tollvyk, this is VC Barryett. We have an invasion on our hands right now.”
“I know. I know,” Tollvyk spoke hurriedly, “We encountered their scouts. Commodore Raptor is critically injured. I repeat he is fighting for his very life. The medical robot gives him ten minutes.”
“Oh my…” VC Barryett said, “Send me your coordinates and flight path and I will put Conquistador on the path to interception.”
“Keep the medicals ready,” Tollvyk said.
“I will, also will help if you transmit the diagnostic data, our medicals can prepare,” VC Barryett said.
“Doing now,” Norvyk said as he punched in a few keys on the instrument panel.
“Who is that?” Barryett asked surprised.
“Our new Stardjacker,” Tollvyk said, “don’t worry. I will explain later; Raptor wanted him. Detective Rockvyk is also with me. More on that later, meanwhile what is going on out there?”
“Mercurian Fleet has descended upon us in massive numbers,” Barryett said, “I was just preparing to contact Raptor and pick you guys up. Flight officer Capitan Flyptar has your data now and he is accelerating the starship at the top rate to rendezvous with your ship.”
“Good,” Tollvyk said.
“Look at that!” Norvyk almost yelled. The starfield had been becoming clearer for quite a while but now they could also see a large fleet gathering away from Rainmar.
“That’s ours,” Tollvyk said.
“That I know too, Col. Toll,” Norvyk said, “but look how those starships are buzzing around every which way as if they are starfighters. No discipline.”
“Or no time,” Tollvyk said, “I am in the command room. Trust me, that is not lack of discipline that you are seeing out there, that is a rapid scramble to get in a combat position.”
“Where is this supposedly massive Mercurian fleet mentioned by your Vice Commodore Barryett hiding?” Norvyk asked.
“We have almost 500 starships out there,” Tollvyk said, “I am not worried about them Mercurians. We kicked them hard once, we will do it…” his words trailed
off when suddenly a voice demanded that they identify themselves and fall in line. Their spaceship was now crossing the Starfirian fleet and starships and starfighters were flying all around them. One of them had contacted them over the army channel.
“Capitan, this is Conquistador’s spyship and we have an emergency mission back to our own…” Norvyk started to speak.
“You forget that. Starfleet Commander has ordered all army spaceships in Rainmar to join the fleet in defense,” the official voice said.
“Forget it chump,” Tollvyk said, “And if you don’t like it, take it up with Starfleet Command.” Tollvyk flicked off the channel.
“I could have reasoned with them, who knows we might even have received permission to dock immediately on a nearby starship,” Norvyk said.
“Fools would have dithered forever and wouldn’t have the same sense of urgency and importance as Conquistador staff,” Tollvyk said, “Raptor has won them victories and kept them alive through battles. They will turn every stone upside down and climb every mountain for him.”
“As you say,” Norvyk said.
“How much longer?” Rockvyk asked. They hadn’t noticed that he had walked up behind them and was standing leaning over their shoulders for a few moments now.
“Oh…” Tollvyk jumped in his seat then pointed to a symbol on the display screen, “Now that we have left behind our own fleet, Conquistador is clear on our scanners. I would say five minutes.”
“Four minutes and thirty seven seconds, the computer calculates based on our mutual accelerations,” Norvyk said.
“Good,” Rockvyk said, “gives me hope. The medical robot gave Raptor eight minutes and two seconds just before I walked over here.”
“We have at least seven and a half then,” Tollvyk said, “Feeling a little bit better.”
He had not finished his sentence when alarms blurted out from their instruments and vast numbers of tiny blue circles stretching from one end of the scanner to the other suddenly appeared on their gravitron display surrounding the lone red symbol of Starship Conquistador.
“Fuck me!” Tollvyk yelled, “The entire Mercurian Fleet is coming right behind Conquistador.”
“Unbelievable!” Norvyk remarked, “Must be thousands.”
“Computer estimates anywhere from 1,500 to 2,500 starships,” Tollvyk spoke in bewilderment, “What the hell? I didn’t think there was a fleet in the entire galaxy besides our own Starfleet Majestic, with that kind of numbers.”
“Why don’t we get an exact number?” Rockvyk asked.
“Too many congregated too close to each other,” Norvyk said, “the gravitron scanner can’t distinguish between so many gravitational signatures.”
“There are 2,200 Mercurian capital starships to be exact,” VC Barryett’s voice came through their speaker as Conquistador opened audio connection once again.
“No matter. Rainmar is done for,” Tollvyk shook his head, “Starfleet Majestic is going to have to come and liberate it. But that may take a month.”
“Umm…there may be a problem with that…” Rockvyk whispered softly to avoid his voice being transmitted over the connection.
“What do you mean?” Tollvyk turned around.
“Will tell you later, but its connected to Com. Antrar’s matter,” Rockvyk whispered again.
“Great!” Tollvyk threw up his hands in exasperation, “Everything is headed towards a blackhole.”
“VC Barryett, are you in danger?” Norvyk asked, “It might be better then for us to turn around and admit Commodore Raptor to another starship’s hospital.”
“I wouldn’t have let you take the risk either if we were,” Barryett replied, “But Mercurian Fleet is in a holding pattern. It is moving slowly but it will be hours at their rate before they engage our own fleet at Rainmar.”
No sooner had Barryett finished speaking these words when the alarms blared again and the lights on the display screen faded to dullness and another display screen lit up with flashing blue lights headed their way.
“Mercurian starfighters,” Norvyk remarked, “They must have hidden in the ring of that gas giant over there.”
“I am dispatching our own starfighters for your escort,” Barryett said and the connection to Conquistador’s command room terminated.
“Hand me over command of this ship’s rockets,” Tollvyk said.
“You sure? I can handle…” Norvyk started to speak.
“Joking Norvyk…” Tollvyk turned to look at him, “I am a starship’s chief rocket officer. And I am the senior officer here, don’t forget that too. But I will defer to your flight ability and experience in that realm.”
“Yes Colonel,” Norvyk replied and flicked a switch to turn over the rocket command to the co-pilot.
There were eighteen Mercurian starfighters visible on their scanner.
“What tactic do you want to follow?” Tollvyk asked.
“Go straight through them,” Norvyk said.
“We will all die for sure then!” Rockvyk said.
“No, he is right, these Mystery class spyships are strong and resilient and they are far more concealed from radio, photonic and electronic scanners than from the gravitron scanners,” Tollvyk said, “enemy fighters will rely more on those than gravitron for short distance and that will be our edge.”
“I see,” Rockvyk said, “I guess it’s faster for our starfighters to reach us too; if we veer off course, it will also cost Raptor time.”
“Exactly,” Tollvyk replied.
“I suggest not firing a rocket as long as they can’t detect our exact location for certain,” Norvyk said.
“Suggestion accepted,” Tollvyk said, “turn on the fake signals.”
Norvyk flicked on a few switches and the spyship started broadcasting ‘noise’ type of signals to confuse the scanners. The ship also launched half a dozen ‘Signalfakers’ that were rockets but were packed with signal emitting devices which would confuse the scanners as to their true nature.
The Mercurian starfighters got closer but they weren’t all flying in a pack. Six of them were flying out ahead but hadn’t launched any rockets yet. So far, the spyship was flying undetected. Tollvyk and company held their breath as the starfighters got closer and closer and then passed them by.
“Six gone, twelve more to go before our own starfighters,” Norvyk pointed to the flashing red lights representing Starfirian fighters launched by Conquistador that now appeared behind the flashing blue lights on their display.
“Rocket launch!” Tollvyk yelled, “their scanners must have finally picked us up when they flew by us and transmitted that back to the rest. Distance was too close to be completely undetected.”
“Twenty-Eight incoming rockets,” Norvyk said, “Looks like four each for the Signalfakers and for ourselves.”
“Prepare for evasive maneuvers,” Tollvyk said.
“Switching full power to engines,” Norvyk said, “get ready.”
“Why aren’t you firing back Col. Tollvyk? We could knock some of them out,” Rockvyk asked.
“We could but then they would know which of the seven signals is from a real ship and redirect all the rest our way,” Tollvyk said, “I am just itching to blast rockets, just be patient detective Rockvyk, that is coming.”
The rockets came in hard far ahead of the dozen Mercurian starfighters and destroyed the Signalfakers. Norvyk dived hard just a couple seconds before two rockets were due to hit and they passed over the ship but then turned. Norvyk turned the dive into an inverted side flip to throw them off and they struck and destroyed each other.
The third rocket had also changed its vector to match the spaceship’s maneuver and it hit them head on sending Rockvyk bouncing on the floor and jolting both Norvyk and Tollvyk in their seats. A large chunk of metal flew off of their shield but the underlying hull was still intact.
Tollvyk quickly jumped forward and turned on the defensive lasers. He knew the Mercurian photonic scanners would pick up the lasers and hone in
narrower, but survival was more urgent now. The fourth rocket had followed the path of the third rocket but this time the front lasers destroyed it before it could reach the spaceship.
“Front shield damaged almost 50%, over 85% at the point of impact,” Norvyk quickly read the damage summary spat out by the computer, “One more unlucky hit near the same spot and we would have a big hole in front of our noses.”
“We are on now,” Tollvyk said toggling through his rocket arsenal, selecting and programming his choices, “Rockvyk, how are you feeling back there?”
He got no response and Norvyk took a quick peak with a fast snap of his neck but Rockvyk wasn’t there.
“He isn’t there, must have gone to check on Raptor,” Norvyk said.
“Good man, that Rock,” Tollvyk said.
“Don’t worry my fall didn’t damage your spaceship,” Rockvyk returned with a wry smile, “Raptor is completely undisturbed.” He said revealing the cause of his slightly lifted spirits.
“Medical station is the most secure location abroad the spaceship,” Tollvyk said, “If I thought otherwise, I would have backflipped out of the chair…alright, here we go, launching now, ten Assassin rockets out and away.”
Ten rockets flew out of five different launch tubes but they didn’t fly past them, they didn’t even fly to their side, but instead fell behind their spaceship in matching speed.
“Goodness man, what is this Colonel?” Norvyk’s jaw dropped and he turned to look at Tollvyk.
“You let the grandmaster make his move,” Tollvyk said, “Raptor isn’t overly fond of sly battle tactics, he is more for pounding the enemy hard, but I know my rockets and these rockets do justice to their name. You watch.”
Rockvyk and Norvyk looked at each other once and then Norvyk accelerated and the rockets accelerated as well. Tollvyk laughed then stopped remembering Raptor’s condition but said, “They are programmed to mimic our spaceship up until I send the next signal.”