Battleship Avenger (Conquest of Stars Book 2) (4 page)

Nestorian spy
Roofus Bolfus slowly came to his senses. First he could feel sensation in his
arms and his back return and he felt that he was sleeping on a hard bed. Then
his ears could hear the chirping sounds and beeps that only mechanical
instruments make. Soon, his nose came on line and he could smell a strange
odor. A few seconds later, when his nasal sense was more finely tuned, he
realized there were multiple distinct odors, odors of chemicals in a lab. Finally
his eyes opened and he looked straight up at the ceiling lit with blue lights.

He closed his eyes
and opened again and blinked a few times.

“There you are,”
an alien head poked over him and Roofus startled involuntary but it was then he
realized that he was strapped down to the table with plastic harnesses. At
least they felt like plastic but they must have been some strong alloy for he
could not move them ever so slightly even with all of his strength.

“Don’t bother,”
the alien remarked, “Anyways, you are not a prisoner and you will be set free
after a few more tests. Tests for which I needed you fully awake and
conscious.”

“Free to go back
to my own people?” Roofus asked. He tried to remember how he got here.

“Umm…” the alien
replied, “Sorry fellow, that is upto the military personnel. I am just a
scientist. By the way, I am Tabulan Molan, chief scientist of this Mercurian
Fleet.” The alien looked down on him and his face muscles twitched in what
seemed like a grin.

Roofus stared at
his face for a few seconds. Not that he had any choice in the matter, he could
only look up straight or close his eyes and this Tabulan was leaning over him.
Roofus had never seen this race of aliens before but they did not look much different,
as far as their physiology was concerned, from many different aliens he had
seen or even not too different from the Nestorians themselves. He had a round
head, a bluish face, two eyes, one nose, one mouth and through the corner of
his eyes he saw two hands. 

“I am Roofus
Bolfus, I am Nestorian…” Roofus hesitated for a few seconds then said, “a
Nestorian Explorer. Why did you kidnap me?”

The alien
scientist laughed.

“They told me you
are a scout or a spy or something,” he said, “makes no difference to me. You
are a subject for my experiments.”

“I am a guinea pig
for your experiments?” Roofus was incredulous.

“Call it a guinea
fish, we use those for experiments from where we come from,” Tabulan replied.
Then he walked away and Roofus heard him fumbling with wires and instruments.
Roofus only hoped there was no pain in the experiments. A thought suddenly
occurred to him: how was he communicating with this alien.

“How are we
talking?” Roofus called out.

“Ah I see what you
mean,” Tabulan said while he attached a couple of wires to Roofus’ legs, “We
modified the mini-translation boxes implanted in your ears. I am talking in
Mercurians, you are hearing in Nestorian. We just added our language to the others
your technicians had installed. It was an easy task because quite frankly your
instruments are quite…primitive.”

Roofus did not
like the way the Mercurian said the word ‘primitive’ but he could not deny that
at least their spaceship technology was far in advance of Nestorians. The Mercurian
scientist meanwhile was busy attaching wires and electrodes to various places
on Roofus’ body.

“Just relax
fellow,” the scientist said, “You won’t feel the pain.”

“That’s a saving
grace,” Roofus commented wryly but either the Mercurian did not understand his
sarcasm or just ignored it. He was now finished with his task of attaching
wires and had gone back to a nearby desk and was twisting some knobs.

A few seconds
later, Roofus heard beeping and he also felt electricity run across his body. Few
years ago he would have yelled in pain but as a spy he had been trained to
withstand pain if caught and interrogated. Suddenly the electric voltage spiked
and Roofus shrieked in pain. The scientist turned his head in surprise and shut
off the current the next second.

“I apologize for
that,” Tabulan said walking over and leaning over Roofus, “I really do. But
your body chemistry is really different and we have not fully understood it
yet. But that test is done.”

“Why didn’t you do
the tests on the earlier Nestorians whom you kidnapped? Why Me?” Roofus asked.

“We have, but
unfortunately most of them perished during the testing,” Tabulan said and
Roofus’ eyes swelled with anger. Tabulan saw the fury and quickly added, “I
assure you it was not very painful for them. Our knowledge of chemistry is
superb and unparalleled in the entire galaxy, though even we make some errors
when dealing with a completely new chemical structure.”

“Chemical
structure? Hell!” Roofus nearly yelled, “Living creatures. We are living
creatures.”

“True, but all
creatures are a chemical structure,” Tabulan said, “You are lucky that you are
one of the latter ones. We know a lot about you Nestorians now, that is why you
are very little affected by our experiments and after a few more minor ones, my
experimentation regimen upon you will be finished.”

“By what right do
you claim to do these experiments?” Roofus said, “No volunteering, nothing.
Just grab whoever and start doing your tests.”

“We are the most
advanced empire in the entire galaxy,” Tabulan said, “What we do is for the
best of all, even if primitive nations do not understand it yet.”

Roofus was furious
and wanted to yell insults. But then he remembered he was a spy, he was sent to
collect information on the enemy. That’s what he should do first. Now he knew
why the abductions were happening, but he needed to know why they were doing these
experiments.”

“Suppose I give
you that,” Roofus said calmly. It took him great willpower to restrain his
anger and the Mercurian was a bit surprised by his cool voice, “but why are you
doing these experiments?”

“We need to
understand how your body will react to our chemicals…” Mercurian Tabulan had
begun speaking when he was cut off by the sound of footsteps approaching his
lab.

“Better close your
eyes and pretend that you are asleep,” Tabulan changed the topic, “Military men
will not be courteous with you.”

Roofus followed
his suggestion and then he heard someone walk in.

“Chief Tabulan,” a
voice said, “I need those results now. We are preparing for the ground
invasion.”

Ground Invasion
.
What was this newcomer babbling about, Roofus thought. Then he remembered that
he had been tracking a Mercurian invasion force and by now they must have
reached one of the planets of Nestorian Republic. He felt a certain degree of
relief knowing that he was back in his own country’s space but also felt a
shiver at the prospect of Mercurians capturing one of their planets. He just
hoped that General Bakus had received the signal he had beamed before being
captured and was coming to meet them with full force.

“I am not done
yet,” meanwhile the scientist replied, “Why can’t you use that        
di-tri-methoquadrofenylbutline…”

“Speak Mercurian
not Chemistry with me,” the man said irritated.

“The Hollutan Gas,
Admiral” the scientist said.

“Can’t,” Admiral
said, “Hollutan Gas is dark blue and their soldiers will see it. Besides, we
don’t have sufficient quantities of it because it only works in high
concentrations. You had promised a colorless, odorless gas that works in low
concentrations and that can knock the Nestorian soldiers unconscious fast.”   

“Admiral, you
can’t just order the chemical compounds to do what you want, like you would one
of your subordinates,” Tabulan replied.

That was it,
Roofus thought. This Hollutan Gas, that was dark blue, he had encountered it
and that’s how he had ended up unconscious. Now he remembered what had happened
after his spaceship had been pulled in by a Mercurian battleship. He had taken
out his laser gun and vowed to fight till there was any charge left in his gun
battery. He had walked around in the bay ready to fire his laser at anything
that came in and then he had smelled a strange odor from above. When he had looked
up he had seen the ceiling pumping in a dark blue gas and then he didn’t
remember anything after that.

The admiral and
the scientist seemed to be locked in an argument as they were raising the
volume of their voice.

“When then? When
will it be ready?” Admiral asked.

The room and the
equipment vibrated along with the whole spaceship before the scientist could
reply. A screeching alarm rang out and blue lights started flickering above.

“Damn, looks like
we took a hit,” Admiral said, “Chief Tabulan, come with me. I have a war to
fight and I need to get you to the safest place abroad our battleship.”

“What about my
subject?” Tabulan asked.

“Forget that
primitive alien, he doesn’t matter,” Admiral said and walked out and Tabulan
turned around to take one regretful look at Roofus and then followed him out.
They had gone less than two minutes when there was another vibration and this
was more intense than the one before.

Roofus despised
the Admiral’s parting words but he was also gleeful that they had left him
alone. Now he had a chance to escape but if they had taken him with them, he
would have been stuck.

As a spy he was
trained to escape tie-ups and confinements and Roofus tried to move and wiggle
around to see if he could find any weakness in his harnesses, but to no avail.
The Mercurians had done a thorough job of securing him and left no out.

Roofus hoped that
General Bakus would come to his rescue and a few minutes later his wish came
true. The entire battleship felt a massive shock from a rocket blast and the
walls of Roofus’ room shook like building walls during a huge earthquake. Most
of the instruments not tied down came over the tables and crashed to the floor
and shattered to pieces. Roofus’ own table turned over to his left and its edge
hit the floor. Fingers of his left hand felt a few sharp metallic pieces and he
used one to cut away the strap on his left wrist. Then the rest of it was easy,
picking up a knife like device that had fallen on the floor, he cut himself
free, stood up and tiptoed his way to the door. He looked around the hallway
and found it empty. Now all he had to do was find his way back to the bay where
his spaceship lay. He just hoped they had not taken it apart for study.

Roofus stepped
back into the room one more time and then took off his pants belt. He feared
that the Mercurians had taken out what he was looking for but right under the
buckle was a small transmitter and he took it out and activated it. Lucky for
him, the Mercurians had not anticipated any situation where he would be able to
escape. He activated the transmitter and it started flashing a small green
light in front.

There was another
transmitter in his spaceship and the two were synchronized. He just had to move
his transmitter in a circle and the green light would start flashing whenever
it was pointed in the direction of his spaceship. He slowly walked out in the
hallway and using the flashing light as an indicator started searching for his
spaceship. Mercurians had taken away his laser pistol, he was not that lucky,
but he had picked up the sharp, knife like object that he had used to free
himself.

He felt the sudden
movements under his feet and he had enough experience from participating in the
space battle training to know that the Mercurian spaceship was maneuvering to
avoid incoming fire. This and the occasional explosion that was jolting the
spaceship meant that General Bakus’ had brought their own forces to bear.

He did not come
across any Mercurian crew as he made his way back to the bay guided by the
small transmitter. This was not a surprise since these spaceships were so huge
– miles long and wide – that a clever operator could travel avoiding contact.
And in the middle of the battle, all the crews would be at their stations
performing their predetermined duties.

Roofus walked into
the bay and stopped just a second to catch his breath and take a sigh of relief
when he saw that his spaceship was intact. Either the Mercurians didn’t care
for such ‘primitive’ spaceships or they had examined Nestorian spacecrafts from
earlier abductions to their hearts content.

Roofus jumped into
his spaceship, fired up the engines and controls, hit the switch for
‘emergency’ controls that would allow him very rapid acceleration, and turned
on the single laser cannon that his spaceship contained. He transferred as much
energy to his laser cannon as it could handle, hoped dearly for his luck to
help him one more time and fired.

The door of the
bay was shattered into pieces and Roofus thanked his lucky stars. If that laser
blast had not broken it open, he could not have escaped for he had utilized
maximum power capacity of the laser battery. He flew his spaceship right out
and accelerated at maximum safe rate.

 His jaw dropped
to the spaceship floor when he saw his scanners lit up with hundreds of objects
and he saw out his front transparent shield a scene he had only seen in movies.
Hundreds of space fighters were zapping around in space firing lasers at each
other and there were huge battleships trading rockets. Roofus’ mind was
spinning, his experience abroad the Mercurian vessel and his talk with the
scientist had left him stunned and now being thrown in the middle of a large space
battle left him aghast. He could think of nothing but to run as far out into
the deep space as possible.