by James Palmer
The other two ships were another story. They were barely scratched. One of those two was the command ship.
The four ships turned in space, seemingly almost in slow motion as they came about to face the Cagliostro. Then they spread out from one another, creating a greater distance between themselves. Nearby, other ships in their fleet positioned themselves equidistantly as well.
“What are they doing?” Ariel asked quietly.
“Boss, I don’t like this at all,” Red announced.
“Agreed. Full reverse. Tell the other ships to reverse as well, reconnoiter back on the other side of the asteroid field.
Suddenly the ship at the furthest end of the line opposing the Cagliostro and the remaining Earth ships began to glow from two protruding rods that had emerged from the bow of each of the alien ships. Energy crackled like lightning in space first across the two prongs on the ship at the far end of the group, and then it leaped to the next one, and then the next and then the one after that. In less time than it would take to tell it, ever one of the enemy ships was connected to that almost living arc of energy thousands of miles wide across space.
“Full reverse and all power to forward shields; steal it from life support if you have to. Front shields need to be powered up more than any other system on these ships now, and keep reversing.”
“Boss! What are you doing?” Eddie asked, wide-eyed.
“Trying to save all our lives,” Johnson barked in reply.
Instantly the arc sprang forward, leaping from the prows of all the enemy ships positioned across the gulf of space from their Earth-born foes, simultaneously.
The arc of energy slammed into the asteroid field, disintegrating everything before it, shattering asteroids, and detonating un-exploded mines, burning the depths of space white hot before the Cagliostro’s crew’s stunned eyes.
Several slower moving Earth ships were caught in the wave of energy. The arc tore through them like they had no shielding at all, decimating the ships of the fleet and leaving them either de-powered or simply decimated.
The Cag backed away quickly, followed closely by less than a hundred other remaining ships.
Johnson stood as he watched the arc slowly gaining on them as they backed away, covering thousands of miles in instants.
“Prepare to go to hyper-warp,” Dan advised.
“No, wait,” Mark ordered. “That arc or wave or whatever you want to call it is losing cohesiveness.”
“He’s right,” Red replied, “it’s falling apart somehow, it must be reaching the end of its limits of travel,” he apprised as he watched his sensor grid. “What’s left of it is still going to impact us, brace yourselves, ‘cause here it comes.”
Almost as soon as Red had advised it, the Cagliostro was buffeted horribly, violently slammed as if by a gargantuan fist in space, the ship spun across the void out of control. Sparks flew from control panels across the command deck, and then everything went dark as the Cagliostro lay horribly askew in space, seemingly teetering helplessly on end.
Nearby, the much larger ships that had survived the battle and had been gathering with the Cag were also similarly devastated by the attack. Smoke and sparks curled into the airless void. The Earth fleet floated, decimated in space and powerless.
“What was that? What the hell did they hit us with?” Dan asked, in stunned shock.
“Some variation of that energy sucking attack they used on us in deep space,” Mark replied as he rubbed his head. “Is everyone okay?”
Ariel, Red, Dan and Eddie all replied affirmatively.
“Do we have any power left?”
“Emergency only Mark, not enough to start the magno-discs,” Dan answered.
“What about the rest of the fleet? Are any other ships viable?” Mark asked desperately.
Ariel merely shook her head, fear playing across her eyes as she did.
“Find me power, we have to start the engines.”
“Wait Mark, look!” Red pointed at the view screen as over a thousand of the massive enemy ships began to pass them, heading towards Earth.
“Th-they’re ignoring us.” Eddie announced, wide eyed in surprise.
“We’re beneath them now. We can’t fight back, or they think we’re all dead already. Either way it’s their mistake,” Mark growled menacingly.
He sprang from his seat, “Danny you’re with me, I think I have an idea, but we have to hurry.”
“Okay Mark, let’s go.” The big native of Jupiter’s moons stood and answered as he followed Mark into the maglovator.
Once inside, Dan turned towards Mark and asked, “So what’s the plan?”
Johnson shrugged, and answered in a low voice, “I don’t have one. I’m fresh out.”
Dan looked at him wide eyed and incredulous, “Are you kiddin’ me? Now’s not the time fer foolin’ around Mark. The whole damned planet needs you. You gotta have somethin’ up your sleeve?”
Mark looked up at his friend, “I’m trying to work it out Danny, but I can’t. They steamrolled us. What’d I miss? There has to be something.”
“No, we didn’t miss anythin’. They had numbers on us, by a freakin’ big margin too. But now ain’t the time to be thinkin’ about that. C’mon Mark, you’re the only guy I know smarter ‘n me. Let’s get this baby fired up again and get after those creeps.”
“Danny, I should have hyper-warped us out of there, we’d still be in the fight right now.”
“It wouldn’t matter, Mark. We’re out gunned an’ outnumbered. We need a big thing, like what they used against us. Somethin’ ta even the odds. Usin’ the asteroid belt was a good start, but we needed more‘n that.”
“I know,” was Mark’s terse reply. He touched the cuff of his sleeve and spoke, “Ariel, any word from Earth yet?”
“No Mark, not yet.”
“What about the other ships damaged in the attack? Are any of them under power again?”
“No Mark, I have no contact with any other ship that was hit by that dampening wave.”
“I guess that’s as good a name as any for that damned weapon,” he replied, talking more to Dan then to Ariel. “Ariel the first that you hear of anything let me know. We’re going to try to kick start the engines, somehow. Johnson out.” He clicked his right sleeve once more, silencing the communicator.
“If those ships ain’t near Earth yet they can’t be usin’ hyper-warp.”
“They could but at a much lower speed. At one quarter light speed it will take them about 17 minutes.”
Ariel’s voice interrupted them both, “Mark I’ve been monitoring your conversation. According to Red, those ships won’t reach Earth for about two hours at the speed they are currently traveling at.”
“Thanks Ari. We’ll be back up there soon.” He nodded, looking at Dan then added, “That’s one of the first things that’s gone our way since all this madness started.”
“Yeah, you got that right. So what are you thinking? Usin’ the ‘Grazer and the shuttles again to kick start the Cag?”
“I wish it were that easy, Dan, but they were hit by the same dampening technology that hit the Cag itself this time.”
“So what’re you thinkin’?”
“Something drastic,” he smiled menacingly at Dan.
“Okay now you got me scared. What, nuclear?”
“Yes. Setting off one of the nukes I had loaded aboard before we headed out on this mission.”
“I didn’t know you had nukes added.”
“That’s right, no one did. Abruzzi and the President thought that every ship should have nukes aboard in case we had to use them as a last line of defense against these marauders. Now we don’t even have the power to fire one at any of those ships.”
“Maybe the ship don’t…” Dan smiled then. It was not one of his pleasant, almost happy go-lucky grins, it was menacing.
The two men entered the armory and both put on the armored battle suits the crew had used earlier to board the space station several week
s back. As the clear blue tinted visors slid into place, the suits sealed with a hiss.
Dan’s suit was bulky and large, covering his massive body tightly, mimicking his powerful muscles beneath its armored surface. Mark’s was sleeker and tighter fitting. Both were based on the ships skin technology adding armored resistance to energy shields.
“These things have power, huh?” Dan asked, his voice modulated through the communicator built into the armored suit.
“Yes, like the sensitive ships systems, such as life support and communications, I was able to shield them from the majority of the dampening wave’s effect. Hell, if their dampening power was the same as we had originally faced weeks back, we’d have been fine. But the way they amplified it through most of their fleet…” his voice trailed off.
“What?” Danny asked.
“Maybe nothing, but I think I have an idea.”
“You gonna clue me in?”
“Would you say that at least most of those ships are linked together somehow to be able to produce that energy wave?”
“Yes, of course. There’d have ta be some kinda link between the ones engaged in that attack, at least.”
“Good, let’s go to the heavy ordinance wing, and then you’re going to have to carry something very heavy.”
“A nuke, you want me ta carry a nuke.”
“I always said you were the smartest guy I knew, besides me at least.” Mark grinned as he exited the armory with Dan following.
Crewmen hustled about the corridors of the Cagliostro now as the two armor suited men drew closer to the heavy ordinance wing. Most crewmen didn’t even give Mark or Dan a second look as they scrambled, trying to get sensitive systems back online.
Mark tapped the door control on the wall, but nothing happened. He looked overhead and saw only emergency lighting on.
“Blast, its dead down here. Dan, I need you.” He pointed at the doors, then he spoke over his suits speaker system, “Everyone on this deck clear out immediately, I need this deck empty of all personnel besides Dan Sledge and myself.”
Immediately without hesitation all the crewmembers on that level headed to the maglovators and filed out.
Mark turned back to Dan, “Ready?”
Sledge nodded and forced his fingers into the seam between the doors; bending omnium steel like it was paper. Then with a slight pull, he forced the doors apart. Mark nodded approvingly as they entered the heavy ordinance bay.
“Here.” Mark pointed. In the corner were several magnetically sealed and isolated containers.
“Nukes,” Sledge commented.
“Yes, all ready to be mounted on a missile and fired. Only this time this one is going to be thrown.”
“By me. I get it.”
“I know you do. C’mon, time is running out on us and the Earth.”
He tapped his sleeve once again, “Ariel, any word from any one yet?”
Her voice crackled weakly and static filled over his headset, “None yet. We’re too deep in space and being almost powerless we can’t access subspace communications.”
Mark shook his head and pursed his lips in disgust, “I’m about to rectify that problem… at least I hope I am.”
Then he cut the communications link. Mark turned toward Dan, “Are you ready Danny?”
The big man nodded in his armored suit, the blue visored faceplate moving up and down. “Which one you want me to grab?”
“The one closest to you. Then let’s move.”
They exited the heavy ordinance bay, Dan carrying a forty-ton nuke in front of him as they walked precariously down the hall towards the shuttle and landing bay.
“Are you okay?” Mark asked.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. This thing’s heavy, but I’m strong enough to handle it.”
“I know, that’s one of the reasons why I rely on you.”
“When this is over I want a raise, ya know.”
Mark laughed for a half second, then moved to open the landing bay inner access doors. He hit a sequence of numbers and the doors slid slowly open.
“Hhhmm, there’s some power left down here yet, just enough to open the doors it seems.”
“I guess all your shielding did manage to protect a few systems, at least a little bit,” Dan replied.
“It was better than nothing, I guess,” Mark answered.
The two men walked into the big hanger deck, Dan balancing and carrying the forty-ton warhead like it was a garbage can held out before him.
“So what am I doin’ with this thing?” Dan inquired.
“Do you see that powerless and derelict Agalum ship out there? It’s probably only about a mile or two from us?”
“Uhh, yeah. What about it?” Dan answered pensively.
“Throw that war head at it. When it makes contact I’m going to blow it remotely.”
“Uhhh, are you thinkin’ this through?” Dean asked incredulously, “That’s seriously a mile out there. I don’t know if I can hit that from here. That thing is maybe as big as the Cag; it’s not one of the mile long ships. Chances are I’m gonna miss it.”
Mark smiled, “No you won’t, Danny. I have complete faith in you.”
“Yeah? Well that’s more’n I got right about now, boss-man.”
“Look Dan, once you get it clear of the ship, inertia and weightlessness will do the rest. Just throw it out there when I tell you. In fact you can put it down right there for now and give me a hand over here.”
Dan lowered it with a suppressed thud as it hit the deck. Then he walked over to where Mark was standing, as Mark began to open a crate that was stored near the doors.
“What’s this?” Dan asked curiously.
“Something I put together immediately after we returned. When I saw what our enemy could do with their dampening technology. It’s an induction unit. Made to absorb heat and radiation and convert it to energy to turn the magno-discs over in case something like this happened again. But I never thought about using a nuke to jump start it. It was all going to be solar based. Unfortunately, it will take hours to absorb that much solar energy. Earth will be a stinking crater by then.”
“It may be anyway by the time we get back there,” Dan added stoically.
“No,” Mark turned and shouted at his friend. “I will not give up, not now, not ever. We will beat them back there and then I’ll do whatever it takes to send them back to their own worlds, or straight to hell, whichever comes first!”
Dan put his hands up in mock defense. “All right buddy, I’m with you to the very end. You know that already. Just tell me what to do.”
“Throw these two panels out towards that derelict ship. They don’t have to get that far away, just as long as they are facing that ship. The heavy leads from each will hook to this device which is connected to the starting cells on each magno-disc engine. I’m going to open the landing bay doors now. We’re going to lose oxygen, and this section will decompress. Best to magnetize your boots to the floor.”
“What about the shuttles and the ‘Grazer?”
“Maintenance crews secured them before we engaged the enemy. They’ll be fine.”
The bay doors opened and the oxygen within the landing bay whooshed out explosively, both men held onto handles built into the solid steel walls until the pressure equalized within the landing bay.
Dan then took the two ten foot long panels of glistening white material and heaved one after the other towards the unmoving Agalum ship, which besides an occasional spark or errant plume of smoke from something within burning up, was seemingly quite dead.
Mark attached the leads from each panel to the control interface he was standing in front of. “We’re ready Danny. Heave the nuke as far as you can. Try to hit that damned ship out there. We need the mass from it to make this work.”
“I’ll do my best, boss.”
“Your best is hitting it, Dan.”
The big man looked at Mark and nodded, then waved his hand for Mark to stand clear. Lifting the forty-t
on warhead up once more, he began to swing it like a shot putter, around and around, never taking his eyes off his target, then once he built up considerable speed, he let it go, directly at his target. The bomb hurtled through space, aimed unerringly at the unmoving vessel.
Mark shut the bay doors and oxygen once again flooded the landing bay. On the monitor for his console, he watched as the nuke slammed into the floating ship. He punched a button with the bottom of his fist, and the screen they were watching went blazingly white. Their visors on the armored suits they both wore turned black instantly as the monitor itself turned jet black automatically as well.
Immediately the great ship rumbled as it sprang to life about them. The magno-disc engines began to whir, slowly at first, then building power mightily. All about the ship systems blazed back to life.
Ariel’s voice shouted from the communicators within each man’s suit, “We’re back to full power.”
“Hyper-warp now!” Mark roared.
The Cagliostro leaped towards Earth, disappearing in a blaze of distorted starlight.
Thirty seconds later it exited hyper-warp as both men still wearing their armored suits entered the command deck. Immediately two awaiting techs helped them out of their bulky armored suits. A pilot named Edmundson stood as Dan approached the pilot’s chair and stepped aside without a word letting Dan slide back behind his control panel.
Mark cursed loudly as the view came into focus. Earth was being bombarded from space by well over a thousand vessels, as the outnumbered Earth ships who were still trying to blockade the planet fought bravely against their enemies.
Chapter 28
Mark Johnson stood up from his command chair and walked towards the main viewer, his mouth hung open slightly for an instant, in shock. The scene before them stunned everyone on the command deck to silence. Space above Earth was lit up with energy blasts and explosions as well as missile contrails striking from Earth.
Massive space stations in Earth’s orbit fired blasts of golden energy at the attacking ships, as hundreds of one-man attack vessels poured from the orbiting stations as well as from the planet’s surface.
