The Cagliostro Chronicles (11 page)

“So ten to a cell, nice,
jam them together, very hospitable of these aliens.”

“How close are they to the ships that are docked?”
Dan asked.

“The ships are docked along the outer rim of the wheel of this station. Th
e crew is being kept at the hub, it seems most of the population is at the hub. The ‘spokes’ of this wheel are tubes they use to travel to and from the ships docking ports. The outer part of the wheel seems to be maintenance areas as well as defenses and the docking ports themselves.” Red finished.

“This gets worse and worse
,” Eddie commented, and shook his head disgustedly.

“Not really, the problem just changed, that’s all Eddie. They are keeping everyone together, at least for now
, and that’s a major plus for us.”

“So what are we going to do? We can’t just charge in there, guns blazing,
to use your own terms. We’ll be annihilated.” 

“You’re right Eddie. But we still have to get our people back.”

“So what are you thinkin’?”

“Bait and switch.”

Everyone turned towards the General sitting behind them on the Cag’s command deck.

“What are you suggesting, General?” Mark asked.

“You draw them off, while some of us go onto the station as close to our people as possible and free them.”

“How do you expect to pull that off?”

“Your other ship, the smaller one.”

“The Stargrazer? What are you talking about?”

“Listen Johnson, you make a run at them with this bird, while the Stargrazer sits hidden behind a moon in stationary orbit, like you did earlier. Then when all their attention is on this ship and they leave to chase it, you have someone go in with the Stargrazer, punch a hole in their hull and get our people out.”

“Wait,” Eddie began, “You want to stuff sixty people into the Stargrazer? They’d be packed in there like Sardines.”

“Maybe so, but who’d notice they were gone with all the mayhem this ship would be causing?”

“That’s a valid point, General, but we’d have to work out shield generator emplacements on the station as well as the ships.”

“No Mark,” Dan interrupted, “We’d need to work out where their engines were the most vulnerable.”

“What’re you thinking Danny?”

“We wound as many ships as possible as quickly as possible, in as many ways as possible. Get the number of ships cut down as far as we can, then hightail it out of there. The remainder will be chasing us, hopefully and leave the Grazer free to attach itself to their hull near the cells. We cut through the hull grab our people and hyper-warp out of there to meet up with the Cagliostro at a pre-determined place.”

Mark turned towards Abruzzi, “What do you think, General, it was your idea?”

“I think it’s a solid plan. I also think we’ll need some luck on our side.”

“Red? You’re my security man, what are your thoughts?”

The burly security chief shook his head with downcast eyes and then looked up at his boss. “I really can’t think of a better idea. I think it’ll work. The Cag is heavily shielded, and if they try their power draining weapon with the modifications we came up with, I think we should be able to handle them.”

Dan Sledge nodded in agreement, “Even without the ‘Grazer here
, we’ll be fine if they hit us with that thing again.”

“Only thing that remains is who goes with what ship?”

“I’m staying with you, wherever that is.” Ariel demanded.

“Son, I have a suggestion as far as your teams go. Your two big men and the sharp shooter have to go rescue those civilians. Being that your pilot is super humanly strong and fairly invulnerable will make him plenty useful in that raid. The born warrior with the red hair will be very helpful in that firefight and the marksman is a necessity. That leaves you
, me, and your girlfriend as the crew here. That’s my recommendations, as a military man I think that’s the best plan.”

Mark nodded slowly and began to grin slightly, “I’m learning
more from you every hour, General.”

“Ha! I’m just a bull headed old fool who has seen a few missions under fire
, son. I picked up a few things along the way, that’s all.”

“All right. Let’s get this show on the road. We need a technical scan of one of those ships.”

Red touched a virtual button and a display went up before Mark and Dan on their consoles, “Already done when we were following that behemoth in.”

“Good man, Red. Now we have to look over their engine design for flaws and weaknesses while the rest of us get ready.”

“You do know we have a better chance of being blown away then we do of succeeding, right boss?” Eddie asked.

“Yes Eddie
, I do, just as well as you do, but we have no choice in the matter. Too much is riding on this.”

“What about the people back home?” Ariel asked.

“The Earth is safe, Ariel. There are almost two hundred destroyer class war ships between the outer edge of the solar system and Earth.”

“Only problem there
, Mark, is the General’s clone,” she replied.

“Which only means we have to get back to Earth before any of these ships do.”

“Once we attack, and they realize who we are, you know they are definitely going to make a beeline towards Earth,” Red commented.

“Yes I do
, Red, so that just means we’ll have to beat them there.”

“Don’t worry boss, I know this will work.” Dan acknowledged.

“You’re more confident than I am, Danny.” Mark turned and looked about the command deck, then smiled like a predator, “Let’s get moving. It’s time to go hunting.”

The Cagliostro dropped out of hyper-warp directly in front of the space station, so quickly that no one on board had time to react. The ship streaked around the huge wheel in space, firing all its weaponry at different ships docked at its huge hull.

Missiles
, as well as energy blasts, leaped from the manta ray shaped starship, every weapon was precisely aimed, and all found their mark. Within two minutes, thirty five ships had damaged engines or shield generators. The cannons aboard the space station glowed brightly, their energy discharges began to come closer and closer to finding their mark as they explosively seared space all about the Cagliostro, which under Mark’s deft hand flipped and spun through space, diving and ascending rapidly.

Then the Cagliostro suddenly flipped over
and reversed direction in mid-course and sped away, disappearing into hyper- warp. Instants later the remaining three ships that were undamaged were in pursuit, also disappearing after their prey in explosive barrages of light.

That was when the true mission began.

The Stargrazer dropped out of hyper-warp
, literally on the bottom of the station. The flash of hyper-warp curtain being dropped should have been unseen by anyone, who would have been more concerned with the damage the station and the ships docked to it had just been subject too.

The Stargrazer attached itself via
its magnetic belly hatch as a hole was quickly and quietly cut into the hull of the station itself and Dan, Red and Eddie advanced quickly to the prison level.

“So far
, so good,” Red whispered.

“Yeah
, don’t jinx it,” Dan growled almost imperceptibly.

“I got movement heading our way
,” Eddie advised while looking at his handheld scanner.

All three men wore armored suits now with see though helmets. Like their regular uniforms, the armor was blue and white.

Eddie ducked low and peered around a door edge as several blasts of light seared the walls above his head. He looked up and gulped hard before returning fire.

Now it was a pitched fire fight between three men and an army.

Red looked down at the scanner in his hands, “Our people are behind them. We have to get through these guys before we can go any further.”

“Yeah leave that to me, you two keep firin’”
Dan ordered as he ran into the hallway, suddenly taking two huge, bounding steps then hurling his armored form into the amassed troops with a loud ‘Boom!’

Even as Dan cleared the enemies out of the way
, another wave of the stations guards came rushing down the hallway at him. As he braced himself for their assault, a blast of energy flew past him and exploded into the converging guards, scattering them like leaves in a hurricane.

Dan spun around and saw Red standing there in his armored suit holding what could only be described as a small cannon. It hung from a strap over his shoulder and the end was still smoking as Red grinned behind his plexi-steel face mask. “Mark VII energy
canon. Perfect for crowd dispersal.”

“You’re
tellin’ me?” Dan replied as he turned back and began running to the cells.

Eddie
had set up where they had cut the hole in the floor with a tripod mounted energy rifle. He looked at his scanner as Red did the same.

“We got incomin’ Red.”

“I know, slick. You ready?”

DiGenovese smiled and snapped his head sideways for half a heartbeat then back upright.
“Mamma DiGenovese didn’t bring up a boy who wasn’t.”

“I pity yer mamma.” Red grumbled, as he wrapped the strap to the handheld cannon tightly in his right hand.

Behind them, along the sides of the hallway, Dan Sledge raised both his powerful hands above his head and brought them crashing down upon the force field holding the crew within the cells so powerfully the floor shook and those within the cell were knocked off their feet.  Despite all his might though, nothing happened.

“Uh-oh.” Sledge remarked

An auburn haired beauty ran to the bars out of the crowd of blue and silver suited captives. “Nothing can take that field down. We think it’s a kinetic energy field.”

“Scientists
,” Dan grumbled disdainfully under his breath, “Get back Reynolds,” he addressed her,” This is gonna make a mess.”

Sledge walked away from the force field
, to the wall next to it where its controls were mounted. He stood against the opposite wall then charged the one he was facing, head down, like a maddened bull. The wall shattered into dust and crumbling debris as he charged through it. A half second later his fists tore through the wall of the cell, shredding the stone and steel cell like tissue paper.

“Ever’body out!” He roared
. “Head down to Eddie and Red, they gotcha covered. Go!”

He repeated the same actions with the cell
s next to the first one and within seconds sixty people were rushing down the hallway towards the hole in the floor where the Stargrazer was docked.

“Move it!”
yelled Eddie as he fired blaster beams into the now smoke filled hallway before him. On the opposite side of the hallway from him, ducking behind a protrusion in the wall Red waited for his hand cannon to recharge. An instant later he stepped from behind the protection and braced his legs as the cannon fired a massive pulse of energy through the air towards the gathered guards. The deafeningly loud ‘Whoomp!’ sound it roared made the freed captives cover their ears while some squealed in surprise as they dropped through into the Stargrazer.

“Things’re gonna be tight in there, so get as far back as you can
,” Eddie shouted.

Reynolds, the female scientist who had spoken to Dan a moment earlier grabbed his shoulder as she was running past, ducking down behind him. “Where’s the boss?”

“On the Cag, runnin’ interference, now get on board hon, we ain’t got time ta waste.”

She nodded and dropped th
rough the hole between the Stargrazer and the station. Instantly the artificial gravity in the Stargrazer took hold of her as the instant she stepped through the hole she was suddenly standing on what a second ago within the station would have been the ceiling, but aboard the ‘Grazer was actually its floor, which was attached to the floor of the station. In other words when she stepped into the ‘Grazer, everything as upside down.

Again the former captives heard the explosion of Red
’s gun as Eddie continued to fire into the smoke filled miasma ahead of him. Energy blasts were being fired in answer now back upon the Stargrazer’s crew from within the smoke.

“All clear down here!” Dan shouted.

“Everyone’s aboard.” Eddie replied.

“Let’s move it!
” Red shouted.

Dan came thundering down the hallway, his feet pounding upon the floor like heavy drums
, as behind him from the opposite end of the hallway energy blasts began to smack his armored form and the walls of the hallway about him.

Eddie dropped through the h
ole into the Stargrazer followed by Red. Dan suddenly stopped behind them as blaster beams seared his armor all about him.

He stood there watching impassively as enemies moved closer and closer to him, now no longer hidden in the fog-like smoke. Within his helm
et he grinned as he jammed both his hands into the wall on his right and tore the entire wall down for thirty feet in both directions, burying the enemy combatants. “That’s what ya get for killin’ our friends, and taking the rest captive.” He turned his head towards a camera he had seen earlier, mounted on the ceiling above him, and then growled menacingly, “Don’t mess with us.” Then he leaped up, and crushed the camera in one massive paw.

An instant later he
dropped through the hole in the floor just before the Stargrazer’s belly hatch irised closed. People were jammed like sardines in the small ship, but he fought his way to the front, even as Eddie ramped the engines up to full power and the Stargrazer hurtled away from the station as the stations defenses came to life, firing blasts at the diminutive ship, coloring space like a lightning storm at night.

Dan moved into his seat, taking flight control from Eddie.

“Well that was certainly exciting.” A baldheaded man said, elbowing his way up to the front of the ship to stand behind Dan’s seat.

“Hang on tight Moratora.” Dan looked over his shoulder at the man.

“I am. As tightly as possible, Mr. Sledge.”

“Good
, ‘cause we ain’t outta the woods yet.” 

Even as Dan spoke
, the small ship was rocked by explosions as energy blasts seared its shields.

“Red
, what’s goin’ on?” Dan asked, plunging the ship hard astern. Behind them, the crew heard gasps and cries of surprise as the former captives were thrown about.

“What do you think is going on? They’re shooting at us!”

“I kinda figured that one out, genius.”

“Dan, get us to hyper-warp, man. We can’t out fight those things
,” Eddie shouted.

“What things?” The beleaguered pilot replied.

Red punched a button on his control panel and the view screen split in half, showing both fore and aft views side by side. In the aft one, a huge war ship was speeding after them, and gaining rapidly.

Dan looked in surprise and then grimaced, “I thought they were all taken out by the Cag?”

“Well obviously not all of them,” Red answered sarcastically.

Dan shook his head angrily, “Everybody hang onto somethin’. This is gonna get rough.”

He touched a control and the ship leaped into hyper-warp, leaving their pursuers far behind.

“Full power to the engines, divert extra power to the rear shields. We took a beating already. We can’t take a chance on getting’ hit again.”

“Where to now?” the bald man named Moratora asked.

“We rendezvous with the Cag. That’s step number one. After that we have to get back to Earth, and warn everyone.”

“What are you talking about? You can’t warn anyone in time to save the planet? These people have hundreds maybe thousands of ships that can break the light barrier. Counting this one, Earth has two.” The auburn haired woman, Reynolds said, coming up to stand next to Moratora.

“It ain’t a matter a goin’ faster than light once we get back
there; it’s gonna be a matter of ‘who’s got the bigger guns?’ So far from everything I’ve seen, that’s definitely us, lady”

“Dan’s right, Reynolds,
” Red began, “Earth has hundreds of ships between the planet and Pluto. All armed to the teeth. From what I’ve seen, in my professional opinion since we’ve been out here, they haven’t got a chance against us.”

Reynolds snorted and thr
ew her mane of auburn hair back as she laughed. “You jokers make me laugh. Do you really think these aliens can’t handle backwards ol’ us? We’re the new kids in town, and these guys will smack us down like nothing.”

“Really Reynolds? And why’d you think of something like that?”

“Because how else could it end? If this alien race has been keeping its eyes on Earth and our developments, then why shouldn’t they be ready for any weapon we’ve got? My God, they impersonated the General and put a plant right in the pentagon while doing so. We’re up against some serious bad guys. This is not going to be a joke or an easy mission.”

“No kiddin’ lady
,” Dan rumbled, “Though it don’t much matter. This is somethin’ we have to do. If we don’t warn home in time, our families will be massacred by these aliens, as well as everyone else on the planet.”

“They’re an advanced race, or races, if they wanted to pluck us out of the stars they could do so with ease
,” Reynolds replied hotly.

Red turned to her
, with anger flashing across his face, “Lady, are you kidding me? We have won at every turn here.”

“Except the one where forty of us were slaughtered and the other sixty were captured while you fools were off playing space cowboys
,” she retorted with equal ire.

“Do you think the boss or any of us aren’t going to feel that one for a long time
, sister? You had better think again. Now go claim a spot away from me, before I throw cuffs on your wrists and a rag in your mouth. I’m still head of security on this ship. You don’t want to piss me off.”

Her eyes bulged from her face as she glared at him then she slowly turned and walked away, disappearing into the back of the crowded ship.

“What got into her?” Eddie asked.

“She’s afraid
,” Red replied. “Very afraid. I’d say the vast majority of these people never expected what happened to them to happen in the first place. It was never even a consideration.”

Eddie nodded, “Yeah I get that. But hey, they were all warned before we took off.
But besides that, I think we better keep an eye on Reynolds. Something ain’t right. I mean how’d she know all that stuff about the General? She wasn’t there and was already taken captive by the time we got back.”