by James Palmer
“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 18
“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 with 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.”
“Talk about a close call…” Eddie murmured.
“You know Johnson,” Abruzzi interrupted, “If you have little secrets that the government shouldn’t know about, you shouldn’t be bringing them out in the open when one of the leaders of the military is sitting behind you.”
“Doesn’t much matter, sir,” Mark turned to face him, smirking, “You’re as much of a fugitive right now as we are.”
“Yes. I know Johnson, but if we get through this all, we may end up on opposite sides of something some time from now. I’m a loyal American, son, always bear that in mind when speaking around me.”
“General, we all are, everyone here I mean,” the crew looked at Abruzzi and nodded seriously.
“Glad to hear it son, I didn’t have any doubts either, just in case you were wondering.” The big, white haired, old man shifted in his seat, his mustache moving upon his upper lip as he inhaled hard.
“No issue here, General, just sit back and enjoy the show.”
Mark called up a virtual control panel and began adjusting controls as the Cagliostro streaked towards Earth. They were well beyond the blockade now. Mark hit a few last buttons and adjusted a virtual dial.
“We’re coming into weapons range of the satellite net now Mark.” Red pronounced.
“All right Red, thank you. We should be good to go at this point. Stay your course Mr. Sledge, the one I just programmed in. Make sure we drop out of hyper-warp before we hit the atmosphere. Too long an exposure will burn us up like paper in fire.”
“Dropping out now Chief,” Dan replied.
The Cagliostro slowed gracefully, though if one were looking at the view screen it seemed the Earth suddenly appeared on the monitor, seemingly from nowhere. Everyone on the command deck, except for Mark, inhaled sharply at the sight of the Earth suddenly just appearing there.
Mark simply smiled.
Dan adjusted his controls, eased the ship past the satellites in orbit and down towards the Earth. Once past, Mark again punched in commands on his control panel and then shut it down. The virtual control panel faded from view as if it was never there.
“What just happened?” Eddie asked.
“I shut down their sensor arrays. Then, once we were past them, I turned them back on,” Mark smiled.
“So you have the codes to shut down our entire defensive network? I don’t like that one bit, Johnson,” the General grunted.
“General, it was a one time, one use fail safe. I can’t do it again. Now that I turned them all back on, their codes shuffled and I have no idea what they are.”
Abruzzi leaned back in his seat once more, scowling.
“Mark, the coordinates that you punched in here are taking us directly to the Blue Ridge mountain range. It’s going to be a little tough to hide a thousand foot long starship there, or even to find a landing spot,” Red began.
“Yes Mr. Robinski, I am aware of that.”
“You may be aware of that, but what are you going to do about it?” Red retorted.
“Working on it Red, relax a moment.” Mark stood from his seat, took a step forward and knelt lower above Dan’s control panel next to the big man.
“Right there,” he pointed at a spot on Sledge’s control panel. Dan nodded as the ship slowed and descended towards it all but silently.
An instant later the Cagliostro touched to the ground, seemingly as light as a feather.
“Activating reflective skin,” Red announced.
“Reflective what?” the General asked, obviously annoyed.
Mark turned toward him and replied lightly, it’s experimental, General. It is something I haven’t perfected yet.”
“Well it sounds like it could mean invisibility on the battlefield or something like it.”
“ ‘Something like it’ is a better approximation, at least right now. It reflects our surroundings back upon the ships hide. It works better at night but not at all in space, where I was hoping it would work. I have to perfect it yet, so that’s why as of now it is not for sale. Once it’s perfected, you’ll hear about it, General.”
Abruzzi nodded.
“So what now Mark?” Red asked.
“Now we raid an enemy base, and seek to save the President, who should be buried and hidden here underground.”
“I don’t think you should use the word ‘buried’ right now, Mark,” Eddie smirked.
“Yeah you are right Eddie, but let’s get our acts together people, on the ground in three minutes.” He tapped a button on his just re-appeared virtual control panel and spoke into a microphone that appeared there. “Secondary command crew to the command deck.”
The primary command crew stood and flexed stiff muscles, exiting the deck as the secondary crew took their places. Mark looked on as a young man entered the command deck, smiled somewhat nervously, nodded to him and then took the Captain’s chair. His mind drifted back to his young protégé and friend, the murdered Miles Jefferson in remorse. Now this young man sat in the command chair nodding stoically at Mark. Mark vowed silently that the same fate would not befall this brave young man.
“Mr. Marek, good to see you up and about,” Mark chided, “Take care of my bird while I’m gone, and do not, I repeat, do not get a scratch on her gleaming hide, am I clear?”
He finished with a smile.
Marek smiled cautiously, not knowing if Mark was joking with him or not, and nodded, “Nothing to worry about sir. I’ll guard her with my life.”
“Don’t do anything stupid. Seriously, Matt.” Johnson replied. “If you see any trouble get her out of here, and up into space, as fast as possible.”
“What about y’all?” Matt Marek asked with a slight southern drawl.
“Don’t worry about us. The ship is the important thing.”
“Whatever you say, boss.” The young man replied nervously.
Mark headed towards the maglovator before turning back to the man who sat in the command chair, “Don’t sweat it, kid, you’ll do fine.”
Marek nodded, and then Mark stepped into the maglovator and was gone.
The crew exited the great ship, which sat in a clearing. The reflective skin mirrored the ship’s surroundings and the ship seemed to be effectively hidden. Mark, Ariel, Red, Dan and Eddie began silently walking up an incline. Ariel had already mentally linked them all upon exiting the ship.
‘Does this look familiar?’ Mark asked through the link.
‘Yeah it does,’ replied Red, ‘They terraformed that area to look like this back on that desert world.’
He was, at that point, trudging up the mountain, followed by Dan and Eddie. All were armed, with Red carrying his preferred weapon, the hand held cannon he had used on the space station. Dan carried two energy pistols, and Eddie held an energy rifle as he scanned ahead of them and to the sides. Mark walked in the back of the pack with Ariel.
‘Are you ‘hearing’ anything yet?’ Mark asked Ari as they made their way upwards.
‘Just our thoughts, no one else’s,’ she replied.
‘Well if this plays to form, we should be near enough to our entrance any second now. Anyone see, hear or even smell anything?’
‘There has to be guards out here,’ Red broadcasted mentally.
‘I know, it don’t make sense that there isn’t,’ Dan replied.
Mark’s hand scanner was still reading all clear.
“You are all under arrest,” a familiar amplified voice boomed out around them, “Stay where you are, and you will not be harmed.”
‘Ari,’ Mark warned through the psychic link, ‘tell the Cag to get out of here.’
‘Already done, I screamed it in Marek’s mind the instant that voice boomed out.’
Behind them, a flash of light disappearing into the sky was the only remnant of the Cagliostro’s silent departure.
‘Now we’re really on our own,’ Eddie mentally murmured.
“You five will come with me.” A voice intruded on their thoughts. They turned toward the sound of that voice as it exited a camouflaged bunker door, with a dozen troops, all with weapons drawn.
Dan was the first to react, “It’s that guy again, the purple skinned lettuce head from that desert planet.”
“No, it’s not,” Mark corrected, “It’s another just like him.”
“Very astute, Mr. Johnson. My ‘brother’ as it were is one of many of us who are in command of these facilities across the galaxy.
The uniformed alien stood facing them, with his hands behind his back, as he continued to speak.
But Ariel wasn’t looking at this man. She was staring at the creature behind him. The Quel met her gaze unemotionally. She locked her eyes with those of the mental parasite, and stared unwaveringly at him.
“You will all come with me now. Your interrogations will begin immediately.” The purple skinned alien announced as they were led through the doorway into the concrete bunker and down steps made of the same material.
He turned towards Mark and pointed, “We will begin with you.”
Chapter 19
Mark Johnson knelt on the ground, his hands tied behind his back, and spat blood out of his mouth. As he did, the big alien before him punched him across the jaw once again, knocking him back to the cold, hard, cement floor. He grunted as two more lettuce heads—as the rest of his crew called them—reached over and pushed him back to a kneeling position. Mark spit blood directly at his tormentor this time, as the big salad head reared back for another punch.
“Enough.” A voice called out, and slowly the owner of that voice, the purple skinned lettuce headed alien that had been in command of the group that had grabbed them outside this underground compound walked into the light from behind the tormentor. “This will go so much easier on you, Mr. Johnson, if you simply tell us what we want to know. Where are your worlds ship emplacements in space, what is the code th
at shuts down the defense satellite network, and finally, where is your ship?”
Mark spat blood once again, and then smiled. “Let’s be perfectly clear about this ‘Radicchio head’, if I knew any of those things, which I really do not, I wouldn’t tell you. You can kill me, you’ll never get anything out of me, because A) I really don’t know anything you’re asking me, and B) as far as I’m concerned you can really go screw off. I’m never going to be a traitor to not only my nation but my world as well. Kill me now. Nothing is ever going to change my answer.”
The alien, instead of looking angry or non-plussed merely shrugged his shoulders and spoke simply, “We shall see.”
He turned back and walked outside the cell area. “Bring the girl.”
Mark knew this was coming, it was only a matter of time. Two more salad heads dragged Ariel in. Her beautiful face was bruised and blood dripped from her mouth as well. Her sleeves and uniform top were torn.
Mark stood up, despite the bonds on his hands and feet, “You bastards.” He grunted as she fell towards him, barely conscious. He moved under her, catching her weight between his neck and his shoulder, then slowly he collapsed to the ground, easing her down.
“We shall leave you both alone for a while. You see Mr. Johnson, my dinner is being served, and I do not want it to be cold.” The salad head in charge commented as he walked out of the cell, the three interrogators followed him with the laser grid activating behind them as they walked out silently and disappeared down the hallway.
Mark cradled Ariel’s head on his shoulder as she moaned quietly.
“This is another fine mess you’ve gotten me into, Johnson,” she smiled as best she could.
“Stop it,” he chastised. “You’re hurt, badly enough that I’m very worried right now.
“Iss only a scratch.” She hissed through bloody teeth, matching his own, as her eyes closed and she mercilessly, quietly passed out.
‘We’re in trouble.’ Mark thought to himself. ‘But I refuse to give in, or surrender. We’ll get out of this one, the only question is how?’