Day after day, the Alexandria flew through the solar system at a leisurely pace, full standard speed. Evidently, Captain Lee would not take any risk to draw attention to his ship. Mason had to find a way to get word to Admiral and Captain Baines where he was, and what was happening. They were allowed weekly transmissions to call home and make everything seem normal. He decided to contact Dr. Rachel Baines and see if they would allow his transmission to be connected. All communications were strictly monitored. Any attempt to call for help was cut off instantly, and the offending crewman severely punished. Appearance must be kept up.
Commander Cohen, now Captain Baines, used her PhD in Molecular Biology to become a research scientist at Earth Command, after her tour of duty on the Hesperia as Head Nurse ended. She was promoted to a Captain, but preferred to be called “Dr. Baines.” Mason hoped she would take his call. He hadn’t seen her son after he was born, or spoken to her in over a year. He was not permitted to make the live transmission before now. He carefully thought out what to tell her, and what message to give to Admiral Baines from him. He waited three days until Captain Lee allowed a five minute call.
“Dr. Baines? It’s Master Gunnery Sergeant Mason, ma’am,” he began.
“Mason? John! I nearly lost all hope of ever hearing from you again. What ship are you on now? We heard the Esmeralda ran into some trouble and returned, but I never heard from you.” She was all smiles for him, and looked as beautiful as ever.
“It’s a very long story, ma’am. One I hope to tell you someday. May I see little Victor? I never got to see your son, ma’am.” Mason’s heart was racing just speaking with her. She reached into the bed, and held up her sleeping son, a beautiful platinum-haired boy, who looked just like the Admiral.
“He’s beautiful. You did a good job, Dr. Baines,” Mason said, choking back his emotions.
“Thank you, John. I wish I could see you again,” she said softly. “I really miss you.”
“So do I, ma’am. You have no idea how much I’d like to see you again. But I have my duty to perform for Captain Lee here on the Alexandria, ma’am.” Mason could barely keep it together to speak with her, his former best friend for seven years. He still loved her.
“I understand. Will you be attending OCS when your mission is finished?” She asked.
“I sure hope so, Dr. Baines. I finished my PhD courses a few months ago and I’m working on my dissertation now,” he told her truthfully.
“That’s wonderful, John! I’ll tell the Admiral. I’m sure he’ll be pleased to hear of your accomplishment. I’m so proud of you John!” She was beaming a great smile at him.
“Would you tell the Admiral something for me, Dr. Baines?” Mason asked.
“Of course.” She placed her toddler in his bed.
“Tell him I finally found the old book from Urz. Tell him I’ll use page 357 as the focal point to balance the equation like he recommended, ma’am.” Mason knew they were going to pull the plug on his transmission now.
“All right, I will. Whatever that means. In any case, thank you for calling me, John. I truly miss you.” She looked all soft and warm, and genuine.
“Just as much as I miss you, ma’am.” He felt his eyes getting red. The “Ten seconds to transmission end” sign flashed.
“All my love, Dr. Baines." He was crying.
“All my love to you, John.” She was teary-eyed, too. The transmission cut off.
Mason knew there was very little time left. He decided days ago to fulfill his duty to Captain Hanson at all costs; he owed his former Commanding Officer that much. He left the vid comm booth and went to his quarters, tears stinging his eyes. He still loved Rachel Cohen Baines, as much as ever. He saw no reason to bury those feelings anymore. He never expected to see her again in person. Mason would most likely be killed trying to escape the Alexandria. If the bridge crew from the Esmeralda was somewhere on board with him, he would try to get them all free and escape. But he would at least get Captain Hanson and help her escape, if at all possible.
The “old book from Urz” was actually the ‘Technical Specifications Manual’ from the Hesperia used by the traitor officer Lieutenant Urz as his code book. He chose page 357, with a skip letter sequence as his code key to send messages to the Yellow Man. Mason knew he had precious little time before his coded message to Admiral Baines was deciphered, and he would be found out. He previously encoded a data transmission to Admiral Baines, and he sent it now: “I did not volunteer. The Yellow Man is making me a hybrid against my will. I am his Perfect Man. I did not volunteer.”
Mason punched “Send” on the data transmission comm link on his wrist. He figured there was less than an hour to find the Esmeralda bridge crew, if they were on board. He ran to his quarters and unpacked four tiny vid cams he hid on an old uniform, given to him by then Captain Baines, on the Hesperia. Each was smaller than a stylus point. He hid them each in his uniform, and left to search for the Esmeralda bridge crew.
He could access all decks on the Alexandria but decks 7 and 8, so he went to look for the bridge crew on those decks. Deck 7 was listed as “Auxiliary Quarters,” but both doors were bolted shut, sealed and alarmed. He had no access, and could only guess what lie behind those doors. Deck 8 was listed as “Research Lab A - D,” and his palm opened the lock on the door.
Research Lab A - D was a humongous room full of nurse droids and examination tables; each table contained the body of a uniformed officer. He walked up and down the rows of nurse droids, ignoring their robotic orders to “Stop forward progress.” On the end of the third row, he found who he was looking for: Captain Hanson tied to an exam table by restraints, looking at him anxiously. Mason quickly sent his second encoded message, already programmed in his wrist comm-link: “I did not volunteer to be a hybrid. The entire bridge crew from the Esmeralda is here. We did not volunteer. Altered against our will. Please help.” He attached the tiny vid cam feed to his data message, which showed the entire room of working nurse droids. Captain Hanson was easily identified when Mason bent down to see her face. He hit send, and the rogue transmission was on its way to Admiral Victor Baines. He was their only hope.
Mason pulled out his long knife from its sheath on his weapons belt and cut Captain Hanson’s restraints. The nurse droid began loudly calling “Intruder Alert!” repeatedly, so he swiftly kicked it to the floor to shut the thing off. He grabbed Captain Hanson by her arm and tried to run out of there with her.
But Captain Hanson was under some drug and could not walk. Mason just picked her up in his arms and ran out the door to the lift. He took her down to the cargo bay and ran to the starboard wall where the bank of escape pods was. He put Captain Hanson down only long enough to break open the hatch access lock and hotwire it to open for him. He picked her up again, and took her inside the 2-man pod, closed the hatch and jettisoned the pod into the blackness of space.
The escape pod stored enough water, oxygen and food pouches for 2 people for seven days. He disabled its homing beacon and set course for Mars. He strapped Captain Hanson in her seat, trying to make her as comfortable as possible in her drugged state. She still could not speak, just look at him in wonder. Mason strapped himself in, as well, and tried to settle in to his seat, but his stupid tail made the seat uncomfortable. Nothing he could do about that now.
Mason looked out the porthole window at the Alexandria, hoping they would be out of laser range before his treachery was discovered. He knew her weapons array did not have enough fire power to destroy their pod if they could get a little farther out of range. The Alexandria was a science vessel, and not equipped with weapons with which to fight. Mason hoped Captain Lee would choose to let them go and continue on their course to Landau One. After another fifteen minutes, he knew they were out of weapons range. The Alexandria made no course corrections to try to follow them, as he hoped.
To conserve energy and power, Mason cut the escape pod’s thruster to ¼ speed and programmed the solar sails instead. As the gold sails began t
o unfold, he cut the thrusters off completely. They would have to sail along for two more days before he could be in range to send any transmission to Earth Command. Mason prayed, and went to sleep.
The shining, iridescent golden solar sails captured enough solar winds to allow the little escape pod to fly at 1/8 thruster speed, gently gliding on her course to Mars. Captain Hanson was still sleeping in her seat across from him, her head against the back of the head cushion tilted slightly to one side. She was the respected leader of the Esmeralda, and treated all the Space Forces and Space Marines on board with dignity, fairness and respect.
Mason was exceptionally intuitive, and was capable of keying in on someone’s mental and physical state. One of his bridge duties as Prime Marine was to ascertain the mental, physical and psychological state of each officer at their work station. He became Captain Hanson’s primary ally and close friend, in addition to being her escort and bodyguard.
In their escape pod, silently sailing slowly towards Mars, Mason attempted to discover how far along those nurse droids progressed in altering Captain Hanson’s DNA and transforming her into a reptilian hybrid. She wore a black turtleneck, hiding the marks on the back of her neck. He had a tail stub growing at his coccyx; she did not. Neither of them began to change their facial features like the Yellow Man, or even Captain Lee. Thank God for that favor.
He swiveled his chair around towards the control console, and checked their air quality and remaining power charge. No way could they actually reach the Red Planet. His plan was to send out a distress call late tomorrow, and hope they would be rescued before they ran out of oxygen. His best hope was that Admiral Baines could decipher his encoded message, and somehow stop the Alexandria from leaving the solar system with the rest of the Esmeralda’s bridge crew. Mason wanted to rescue them all, but had only the wherewithal for one person and himself, and he chose Captain Hanson, of course. Who else?
Captain Hanson stirred, and asked, “Mason, where are we? What is this place? Where are my officers?” He turned his chair around to look at her as she rubbed her eyes, and tried to come out from her drug-induced stupor. He reached up and got her a water pouch, pulled up its straw, and handed it to her.
“Captain Hanson, please drink some water, ma’am, and I’ll tell you everything you want to know,” Mason said softly to her. She took the pouch and did as he asked, trying to sip the water and not drain the pouch too quickly.
“We are inside a 2-man escape pod, under solar sails, on a heading towards Mars. I took you away from the Alexandria, away from those nurse droids, so we could escape and be rescued, ma’am. Do you remember the Alexandria, ma’am?” He asked.
She was slowly able to focus more clearly, and looked squarely at Mason. “The last thing I remember is being imprisoned on Titan One. I was not treated as I should have been, Mason. In fact,” she began to get red-eyed, “I was tortured and beaten, and more.” She averted her eyes away from him. Mason knew she had been raped, and probably sodomized, as well.
“They held me, too, Captain Hanson, beat and tortured me. Did they use those clips on you like they did to me, ma’am?” Mason asked very softly.
“Yes. It was excruciating. I never endured such pain. And those men enjoyed every minute of it.” Her blue eyes narrowed as the tears rolled down her face. Mason unclipped his harness and held her gently as she cried, remembering her agony. She undid her seat harness and held onto him tightly, until she could stop crying.
“We did nothing to deserve such pain and punishment. Nothing at all, Captain,” Mason said bitterly. They talked for hours about their ordeal in the Titan One prison, both of them baring their souls, sharing their pain. Captain Hanson had no recollection of being moved from the prison to the Alexandria at all. She and the bridge crew must have been drugged and brought on board in an unconscious state.
After they talked themselves out, Mason got them each a food pouch, and attempted to relax. There was not enough room for him to stand or stretch out his long legs in the pod. “The designers of this pod never counted on two tall passengers sharing space inside it, let alone a man who is over 2 meters tall, ma’am,” Mason said, trying to laugh.
“We’ll have to take turns lying on the floor, Mason. At least we can stretch out there, or I hope so.” She was right. Mason swiveled his seat right up to the console and angled it, and sat on the floor. He stretched his legs out, and leaned his head down to stretch out his back muscles.
“How did we get inside this pod, Mason?” She asked. He told her of his “reassignment” to the Alexandria, Captain Lee, the encoded messages, and his escape plan. “Why didn’t you escape alone? You had enough air and rations to make a Space Station in this pod. Why take me with you, Mason?” She asked incredulously.
“I swore an oath to protect you, Captain Hanson. No way I could leave without you, ma’am,” he answered in all frankness. “I had to try to get us both rescued. You are my Captain.”
Captain Hanson looked down at Mason, her Prime Marine, forced to suffer as she, and this man chose to take her with him in his escape. What could she say to him? “Thank you, Mason. Thank you for not leaving me behind.” She moved out of her chair and lay down next to him. “From the depths of my soul, thank you, John.” She timidly took his hand and held it. They both fell asleep, lying side by side on the floor of the escape pod.
Captain Hanson woke up in a few hours, her head on Mason’s arm, his sleeping body behind her, and his arm around her waist. She quietly realized where she was; safe in an escape pod, away from the torturers and droids trying to reprogram her genetic code - all thanks to this man. She grew to trust him implicitly as her Prime Marine on the Esmeralda. In fact, she had even moved him next door to her quarters so she could sleep in peace at night. He always had her back, and protected her, as he now did. She rolled over as softly and quietly as she could on the hard floor, facing him. She lay her head on his arm again, and put her arm around his broad, muscular chest. She closed her eyes and fell asleep, safe in his arms.
After a few hours more of sleep, Mason awoke. He realized he and Captain Hanson were in each other’s arms. He looked at her peaceful sleeping face, and her black hair, all messed up. She was an attractive woman all right, no doubt about it. She always projected her stern “command and control” face of the Ship’s Captain on the Esmeralda. Now, she was as close as she could get to his face without kissing. Mason felt a sharp and sudden familiar feeling; his cock decided to finally have some feeling in it after all. Great, he worried. She’ll wake up and kick my balls, after I finally got my first erection in months. He tried to stifle a laugh at his situation, but his body shook with the laugh, and woke her up.
Captain Hanson sharply pulled her head away from him as she opened her eyes, but she did not let go of him. He was smiling broadly, and he became irresistible to her. She began to smile at him, saying only, “I’m going to ruin your reputation, Master Gunnery Sergeant Mason.” She took his face in her hands.
“Destroy it completely, Captain Hanson,” Mason responded, and she began to kiss him, over and over again, with growing passion. She unzipped his one piece uniform all the way down, reaching inside to feel his warm, silky skin and hard muscles. She quickly pulled off her uniform blouse and unhooked her bra. The Captain pulled the top of his uniform off his body, stroked him all over and kissed him, rolled him on his back and climbed on top of him, after she pulled off her trousers. He gave her deliberate, rhythmic thrusts as she moved with him. She held on tightly to his hands as she came, still moving with him. Mason held out for a few more thrusts before he exploded inside her. They lay panting, caressing each other.
“Did you activate the rescue beacon, John?” She asked, finally.
“Not yet, ma’am.”
“Good!” She laughed. He rolled her onto her back and penetrated her. She loved his every move, every kiss, each caress, and his thrusts. They made love for hours, until they were completely spent and more than satisfied, and then fell asleep in each ot
her’s arms.
Mason awoke, and gently rose up from her sleeping body, so beautiful in slumber, those killer legs slightly open. He sat in the pilot’s seat, and thought about his long conversation with the Captain, when they shared their stories about torture and their mistreatment. What bothered him more than anything was why no one tried to help them; why no one looked for them. They were right there, on the same space station where their ship was docked for months. All Earth Command had to do was to look in the auxiliary prison for them.
How could Earth Command not look for an entire bridge crew of over twelve officers? He was the only enlisted man stationed on the bridge, everyone else was an officer. It was as if they all just disappeared into the ether one day. The Esmeralda was the flagship of the science class vessels. How could Earth Command take over that ship, fly her to Moon Base, and not look for her bridge crew?
IV
Admiral Baines came home from work at Earth Command, looking forward to a quiet evening with his wife and son. Mrs. Baines greeted him with a little kiss, and excitedly told him about her call from John Mason. “He is on the Alexandria, Victor. He didn’t forget us after all. It was so good to talk with him.”
“I got a very strange data message from him an hour or so ago. It was all garbled and made no sense whatsoever,” he said. “Totally unlike Mason.”
“He asked me to give you a message. Said he found the old book from Urz, and will use page 357 as his focal point, and balance the equation like you told him. That made no sense either, Victor.” She watched her husband’s face suddenly change, and he asked her to repeat what Mason said.
Vengeance of Sukesh: John Mason (Legend of John Mason) Page 4