Chapter 31
A Crillon Coming.
Fifteen minutes to the dot, they were sitting with Hector in his private cabin.
Frank had never seen how comfortable it was until now. “No wonder you like this ship Hector, you might as well be in a hotel.”
“It is nice compared to yours. But, I’ve seen the designs for the next class of ships, and they’re impressive. So, when you get rid of your old tub, you’ll have the same facilities as this as standard.”
“I hope Andromeda didn’t hear that Hector. She’ll find a way of getting back at you; you can count on it.”
“I hope not,” he replied. Chuckling as he handed them both a drink which he’d already poured.
“Thanks, Hector, we need this,” Susanna said taking it back in one go. “Lovely.”
“Do you want a top up?”
“No, thanks. That was refreshing,” she replied.
“Getting away from ‘boys-toys’ for a moment, though. When will you be able to release Jenny’s body?” Susanna asked
“In a couple of days. Is she going to have a space burial?”
“No. Bren and Acarea are going to bury her on their planet.”
“That’s kind of them, she liked it there if I remember correctly?”
“She did. That’ll make us feel better about it as well.”
“Yes, well let’s not get too morbid,” Frank remarked.
“Talking about Jenny. You said that Susanna wouldn’t mind if you told me what went on,” Hector said. “Is that right, Susanna?”
“Yes,” Susanna confirmed. “But I’ll tell you the details, so you won’t think Frank was just getting randy, OK?”
“Right, fire away Susanna.”
“Andromeda must have seen the changes caused by Cazer’s drug, as they were building up in Jenny, and luckily for all of us she started recording all her movements, with both sound and vision.
Anyway, it all kicked off when Frank made the mistake of going to her cabin. She had seemed very upset since leaving the Crillon Starship manufacturing plant. And Frank thought it was the best thing to do.
But we didn’t know at that time, about Cazer injecting this drug in her hand.”
She looked at Frank, who just nodded.
“Well,” she continued, “Jenny was very strong, physically. And had been trained to subdue anyone.”
“I quite believe it. I had already seen her muscles,” Hector interjected. “She was really into weight training. She even spoke about it on that ‘past achievements,’ recording that she handed in when we were on Mars.”
“I obviously won’t go into the details,” Susanna continued. “But you already know what that drug was meant to do.
Anyway, she ended up forcing him to make her pregnant, and, I mean, forced him. I didn’t believe it until I saw the recordings. But in the end, she went too far, couldn’t take the rejection then killed herself in an outburst of rage.”
“What a waste,” Hector said.
Suddenly, a contact warning sounded, startling them. The warning was from the stealth drone at Zeta Reticuli’s natural wormhole.
“My control room, Frank.”
All three left Hector’s cabin in a hurry, going straight to his control room.
“What is it, comm’s?”
“A Crillon, ship sir. We’re just waiting for the Ship’s ID and verification data, plus any comm’s it might be sending out…”
There was a brief pause, then. “It’s jumped,” then another pause. “We have the drone’s prediction on the ship’s destination, sir. The drone is indicating that it’s coming to DPav4.”
“Weapons to battle-ready now,” Hector ordered. Then asked Frank. “Is your Astro department still able to tag ships?”
“I think so,” he replied. Then sent a thought message to Andromeda.
‘Andromeda, there’s a ship coming in, possibly a Crillon. But there’s no comm’s from it so it may be hostile. Check if Astro will be able to tag it for Argonaut when it exits the wormhole?’
Hector watched Frank concentrate as he carried on his mental contact with Andromeda. He shook his head in wonder at the mental chit-chat going on.
“Where did you both get that mental ability?” he asked Susanna.
“No idea Hector, and no idea how long we’ll keep it?”
Ten seconds later and Andromeda was back in Frank’s mind.
‘OK Frank, Astro will tag the ship the moment it exits jump.’
‘Thanks. Stay alert. Defend, and destroy that ship if it poses a threat.’
‘I understand Frank. Are you returning?’
‘Yes, a little later.’
‘I see. My interpretation of the drone’s hyperlink data is that the wormhole created was larger than normal.’
‘So, possibly a Crillon battleship?’
‘That’s my guess Frank, and it might only be one day away with that sort of power.’
‘That changes everything. Ok, we’re coming back, now.’
Frank turned to Hector. “Andromeda thinks it might be a battleship. If that ship had been on a genuine mission, it would have signalled us via the drone.”
“Agreed. I’ll get the special stealth-drones out just in case.”
“Good Hector, we’ll push off.”
“Ok, see your own way out.”
“Thanks for the drink,” Susanna said as they left and headed for the holding bay.
‘Andromeda, please prepare to ‘Remote’ us back, and send an immediate recall to all our crew on the planet,’ he ordered, knowing Hector would be doing the same. As although the Argonaut had 47-crew members, they would all be needed in battle.
They reached the Argonaut’s holding bay and stepped onto their force crafts platform. As they seated themselves, a green light lit on its control panel, indicating the craft was being remotely controlled by Andromeda.
The craft’s force-field immediately came on, followed by a few seconds of pre-space flight checks. The air was then sucked out of the holding bay and into its storage chamber, leaving the holding bay airless.
Then the force-craft left, with the holding bay door closing, and the bay then being re-pressurised, using the air that had been stored; the air was a precious commodity for spaceships.
Frank and Susanna had returned to the Andromeda, by the time the other four force-crafts rapidly ascended from the planet’s surface, each heading straight to its own ship.
It had taken just fifteen minutes from them leaving the Argonaut to exiting the holding bay into the corridor.
They kissed each other before splitting up. Susanna going to the Data Analysis department and Frank to the control room.
The size of his control room hadn’t bothered him before, but after seeing Hector’s, he was a little bit jealous.
“Andromeda, how long before we’re battle-ready?”
“Twenty minutes Frank, the crew will soon be back.”
“Good. Anything from Bren and Acarea?”
“Not yet.”
Another contact alarm sounded, again created by the stealth drone at Zeta Reticuli.
Andromeda rattled off the reports coming in from Argonaut’s hyperlink.
But this time, it contained a Crillon Battlecruiser’s ID, and Commander Tripicac’s personal identification code.
Frank tapped Hector’s icon.
“Hector. Your hyperlink is much faster than ours. Tell me what else you’re picking up?”
“Tripicac’s sent something, but it’ll be two hours before we get it.”
“Damn. Then we must assume the first ship could be, no probably will be, a problem.”
“Yes, Frank. Our special stealth drones have already been deployed.”
“Well, as long as we can tag it, we should be all right.”
“Yep. Oh, by the way, we’ve sent your special Echo 23 drone back. I’m afraid we didn’t get a chance to refit the second nuke.”
“What do you mean Hector?”
“Andromed
a wanted to put a particle-beam weapon on one side, in place of one of the nukes. I thought you knew about it?”
“No, but never mind. She probably has a valid reason, at least for her.”
“Echo 23 will dock in three minutes. Anything else?”
“No Hector, just keep me up to speed.”
“Will do.”
Then Hector’s image was gone, and Frank sat back thinking about the situation.
He knew that Andromeda would be ready for battle in 18 minutes. Astro, weapons and the links to Argonaut were already tied into Andromeda’s tactical systems, so this was all good.
He also knew that a Crillon ship exiting a wormhole would be blind for one or two seconds, so could easily be tagged in that time.
But, of course, there would be a further two to three seconds before the relevant drone acquired a target and acted.
He tapped Hector’s tab.
“Yes Frank, I agree. I think we should.”
“Should what?”
“When we’re both secure, move our ships further out from the planet. A thousand kilometres would be safe.”
“OK. We’ll ‘sync’ together Hector. Good guess, by the way.”
“Thirty minutes.”
“Ok.” Then Hector was gone.
Something crawled around in his mind as if it should really be apparent to him. Then it hit him.
What if?
He hit Hector’s Icon again.
“Yes, Frank?”
“Sorry to disturb your flow Hector, but can I run this thought past you?”
“Of course, so, Andromeda’s not listening?”
“No, it’s not that. I need a Captain’s assessment, specifically your assessment.”
“I’m flattered. Ok, shoot.”
“OK. But tell me if I’m way off track, Hector,” Frank said.
“When we were on the Crillon’s moon Tapin, Cazer asked if we were going straight to our home planet.”
“Yes, I remember that.”
Frank continued. “Right, so what if Cazer thinks that DPav4 is unprotected at this moment in time? That we actually did go straight home?”
“I’m following you so far Frank.”
“Then, let’s say, somehow he heard about Jenny.
Could be that he’s reading something else into it.
Maybe that we’ve worked it out and we might start looking for his offspring on the planet.”
“No, I can’t buy that. Not if he thinks we’ve gone straight through.”
“OK, Hector. So maybe he believes that we have gone straight home but that we’ll be looking for them when we return.
So, this would seem like a good time to get his offspring out.”
“That I can buy.”
“So, somehow, he takes command of a battleship, perhaps he has enough friends, a following, I don’t know, but it could be done.”
“Could be, I know that it’s all assumptions, Frank.
But if you’re right and Tripicac found out too late to stop him…,” Hector replied, then paused briefly, thinking.
“But then, by coming here Tripicac has put himself in a very dangerous position.”
“Yes. But Tripicac’s probably honour-bound to try to stop him. Even though, there’s no way he’d be able to fight a battleship.
Especially if this so-called ‘brilliant’ science officer is in command of it.”
“So, how are we going to play it, Frank?”
“Well, your second-generation stealth drones are already deployed, so we should be able to take him out if we have to.”
“Yes, I’m sure we can.”
Frank thought for a moment.
“Yes. I’m sure that we must do this Hector.
So, send your marines down to the surface, and make sure they’ll be ready to move anywhere, and fast.
We’re hoping to get the exact position from Bren shortly, if not, then we’ll just have to track him.”
“OK.”
“I’m sure T-Rex, I mean Marine Captain Reece, would want to go on this mission. I believe that he and Jenny were long-time friends.”
“Sounds good so far.”
“I’ll get Echo 23 drone to go down as well, perhaps that particle-beam weapon might just come in handy, after all,” Frank said.
Paused momentarily, then added.
“Cazer will be surprised to see us here. But he won’t want to take us on.
He’ll think that the Argonaut’s a battleship, and he already knows what Andromeda can do.”
“I agree. I think he’ll park and make a dash for the surface,” Hector paused momentarily.
“He probably knows the whereabouts of his offspring anyway.”
“On the button, Hector, and he must know someone will come after him. Just make sure your Marines expect the unexpected.”
“Will do. Can I assume he’s non-returnable?”
“Absolutely. This is one time when; what happens, never happened.”
“Good. What about his offspring?”
“We leave them alone if we can. I’ll let you know, as soon as we hear anything from Bren and Acarea.”
“Well, the first ship, probably a battleship, is expected to arrive in a day’s time.”
“Okay, Hector. Let’s hope we can find his offspring before then.”
“Yes, I hope so.”
And the contact ended.
Frank sat back.
‘This could be messy,’ he thought.
Chapter 32
Revenge is Sweet.
A wormhole formed one and a half thousand kilometres from the planet DPav4. Then Cazer’s battleship exited the wormhole, which promptly collapsed behind it.
The ship moved forward then stopped, as Cazer realised it was blocked by two of the human’s StarShips, which were just 90 kilometres in front of his and one thousand from the planet’s surface.
“You told us there would be no other ships here,” the battleship’s Commander snapped at Cazer.
“They aren’t supposed to be here,” Cazer snarled back.
“We’re not engaging them, Cazer!” The enraged battleship commander snapped back.
“We know they took out Space Marshal Trendor’s ship and the battleship next to him. Even though, they were both at the rear and supposed to be protected by the other vessels in front of them.
No, Cazer. It will not happen.”
“Then I will go down myself and pick up my belongings.”
“Fine. You’re on your own Cazer. I will inform the Humans that we are here just to assist you, and not to attack them.”
“As you wish. It’s your ship.”
“And don’t you forget it.”
Cazer left to put on his own specially re-designed battle armour. He would go it alone, knowing the suit would protect him and his offspring from anything the human marines had.
Frank had received a report on the offspring’s location from Bren. It wasn’t very accurate, but good enough for the Marines to work with.
The mother was still living but spoke to no one. The neighbours had told Bren that she had two sons, one of whom was either dead or had gone away. The other son was still around, and yes, he did look human.
Four hours earlier, after receiving the report, the Marines and stealth drone Echo 23 had been dispatched to the area where the mother lived. They would keep watch for Cazer, as would Andromeda and the Argonaut.
Both the Andromeda and Argonaut picked up a transmission from the Crillon battleship.
“My apologies for the intrusion. We are only here to collect a scientist’s belongings.”
“You gave no ship’s ID at the gate,” Hector firmly said. “Now, tell me what your ID is, and give me your name and rank. Then we can converse?”
“My apologies again. I am Commander Chunvic. My ship’s ID has now been sent.”
“Very well Commander Chunvic. I can see that your ship has just been tagged. So, I’m warning you not to do anything unfriendly. For your own sake.�
��
“You have my word, sir.”
“Well Commander, the so-called ‘belongings’ that your scientist has come to collect will not be allowed to leave the planet. We will not allow a human being to be taken.”
“I don’t understand Captain. What human being?”
Frank listened to the conversation and decided to let Hector continue. He was doing a good job after all, and Frank’s attention had already shifted to a small shuttlecraft that had just left the battleship.
“Andromeda. Inform the Marines that Cazer’s on his way.”
“Already done Frank.”
Susanna’s icon flashed.
‘What?’ he thought.
‘I’ve been monitoring. Are we going down?’
‘No. I’ll leave the cleaning up to T-Rex, He knew Jenny, and so he needs to end this for his own satisfaction.’
‘Thanks, Jenny would have smiled at that.’
‘I’m sure she would have.’
‘I’ll leave you to it,’ Susanna finished and went.
He could swear that he ‘felt’ a tear run down her face. Then felt his own cheeks, and realised they were wet.
He tapped her icon off and listened to Hector again, thinking. ‘Nothing will happen until Cazer lands.’
Hector stopped speaking to the Commander for a moment as new data about the battleship came in. It showed that the ship had powered down all its weapons. Just leaving a low-energy protective force-field in operation around the vessel. This was standard practice. Because meteorites and other types of space debris were a real hazard in outer-space.
Hector decided it was time this Commander knew what Cazer had been up to, and to realise what he was dealing with in bringing Cazer here.
“I am Captain Serrell of the Argonaut, he said. “It seems that your scientist Cazer has been carrying out experiments on human females against their will. This warrants a death penalty here.
I can assure you that he will not be allowed to leave this planet, and you will not be allowed to help him whatever the outcome.”
The Definitive SpaceFed Trilogy (SpaceFed StarShips Trilogy).: A thrilling, action-packed Sci-fi space adventure. (SpaceFed StarShips Series Book 8) Page 65
