The Cagliostro Chronicles II: Conflagration

by Ralph L. Angelo Jr.

  “What is it? Fill me in on the run.”

  Eddie watched the monitors and the same one that showed the yellow skinned Agalum leader running past a few minutes ago now showed Mark and Ariel passing its camera by.

  “Mark, this whole base, the fake volcano. It’s all a weapon.”

  “What? What do you mean?”

  “There’s a room that’s emptying out now. The techs within it are abandoning the base with everyone else. It’s a control room for the weapon.”

  “But what weapon? What are you talking about?” Mark pressed. He was continuing to run, with Ariel doing her best to keep up behind him.

  “The top of the volcano, it’s a weapon. They must have never fired it, maybe it was never ready, but it looks like it’s just been completed recently. The cone of the volcano is no cone. It’s the barrel of an energy cannon. They could take ships out of orbit with this thing.”

  Mark stopped running and stood stock still while what he was just told sank in. He turned around toward Ariel. Her eyes widened in surprise as she shouted, “Mark look out!”

  Mark turned but too late. A laser blast rang out from the darkness catching Mark Johnson fully in the back and dropped him agonizingly to the floor.

  Chapter 39

  Mark writhed in pain on the floor. His stealth suit shorted out and he immediately came into view. Even so, his stealth suit’s resistance to weaponry saved him from an instant death.

  “So this is the great Mark Johnson of Earth. The Scourge of the Agalum Empire,” The yellow skinned alien stepped from behind shelves filled with supplies, still holding his laser.

  “I assume you have an accomplice hidden here as well. Someone else I cannot see with the naked eye. It doesn’t matter. I can see you now, and I can just as easily blow your head off of your shoulders, no matter what the standing orders from the high command may be.”

  The yellow skinned Agalum aimed its laser at Mark’s head when a blast of energy appeared out of empty space. It caught him square in the chest and blasted him back through a pile of crates. His weapon careened off into the darkness.

  Ariel shimmered into view with her gun still aimed toward the direction the Agalum disappeared in.

  “I was wondering when you were going to show up,” Mark croaked painfully. He pulled himself to his feet. “I have to find this guy. I can’t let him get away.”

  “You can barely walk. Forget him. If he’s not dead he’s not in good shape, and he lost his weapon. We’ll find him later,” she implored.

  Mark winced and begrudgingly turned back toward the hatch they had dropped though. They cautiously walked down the darkened corridor between two sets of shelves with boxes stacked on either side; all the while searching for the missing Agalum base commander.

  While they searched a box abruptly dropped from the top shelf. Mark threw himself between it and Ariel, knocking her aside. His blaster careened out of his grip, disappearing under more shelving. As she fell Ariel hit her head and was instantly unconscious.

  “Ari!” Mark shouted.

  The box of equipment had caught him squarely on the shoulder. He was pained but still able to move. The Agalum they had been looking for dropped down from above, a malicious smile plastered across his foul bright yellow face.

  Chapter 40

  Mark slowly stood up to his full height. His back and shoulder ached terribly. The Agalum faced him and smiled a pencil thin grin of evil. Both men were approximately the same height, though the Agalum looked heavier, thicker than Mark.

  “So, Mark Johnson, we are both weaponless, and both of us are wounded, but it seems you more so than I. I will make this short and as painless as possible.”

  The Agalum lunged toward Mark with both his hands outstretched for Mark’s throat. Johnson ducked under the two handed grab and chopped his own arms upward, snapping both of his enemies hands ceiling-ward.

  Before the enemy could react Mark smashed a right legged Thai kick into his foe’s gut.

  The Agalum immediately stumbled backward. Then it reversed position. Spinning left he kicked out at Mark’s legs sweeping the right out from under him. Mark hit the ground with a thud and a groan, slapping out with both arms to cushion the fall.

  The Agalum lunged again at Mark. This time Mark caught him by his shirt and stuck his foot in his opponent’s stomach, throwing him overhead. The Agalum landed with a thud behind Mark.

  Mark fought his way to his feet but so did his enemy.

  “You are a trained fighter, Mark Johnson. Good, good. I would like to see what an enemy can do before I kill them,” the yellow skinned fiend drawled.

  “Come and find out,” Mark growled.

  The two enemies circled each other both looking for an opening.

  The Agalum lunged again, this time with a right cross. Mark stepped left and parried the blow with his left hand. Grasping it with his right he pulled the fist through, throwing his foe off balance while hammering him with a powerful left.

  But Mark did not stop there. He grabbed the Agalum’s shirt and pulled him toward himself, slamming his knee into his enemy’s stomach. He finished with a strong short chop to the base leader’s neck. The leader dropped to the ground at Mark’s feet. Mark stumbled backward huffing slightly.

  “Th-this is not over, Johnson,” the yellow skinned alien groaned. The Agalum leader fought his way to his feet and began to pull his fist back, but Mark was much faster. He stepped forward and unleashed a powerful right cross, smashing his enemy across the left side of the face. His eyes fluttered and the Agalum fell to the ground, unconscious.

  “Sure it is, Smiley,” Mark quipped.

  “Oooh, my head.”

  Mark spun around and found Ariel grasping her forehead, struggling to her feet.

  “Easy there babe. I’ve got you.” He held her tight for a moment, and then relaxed. “Let’s get Troiano to look at you before we go anywhere.”

  “I already called her,” Ari replied.

  “You did? I didn’t see-” Then Mark paused and smiled. Ari was holding two fingers to her forehead smiling.

  Mark shrugged. “I suppose sometimes I do forget.”

  Dan’s telepathic voice exploded in Marks mind. ‘Mark, we’ve got a situation up here you better take a look at.’

  ‘On my way, Danny, but I need you to come down here and take care of a package that needs restraining.’

  ‘On my way, Boss. We saw the whole thing on the monitors.’

  ‘Oh really? And what? You didn’t think to lend a hand?’

  ‘We were on our way but you finished him off before we could get down the hatchway.’

  ‘All right, Danny, just come down here and find something to tie this guy up with. I don’t want him getting away.’

  Mark put his arm around Ariel and smiled. “I see your telepathy is working fine.”

  “Yes, I’m okay, just a little banged up. We better get upstairs I’m sensing a lot of urgency from them.” She motioned with her thumb toward the floor above.

  They hurriedly climbed the short staircase to the leader’s quarters, passing Dan as he ran toward the unconscious Agalum commander.

  “What is it, Eddie?” Mark asked as they reentered the room.

  “Here, Mark look. This is the battle in orbit.”

  Mark stared silently for a moment watching the embattled Earth ships careening through space, swarmed over by the Predators while trying to avoid the remaining G’Kor. A bright flare exploded across the monitor. Mark punched the top of the desk in anger and despair. “That was the Tempest. Dammit. Can we do anything to help them?”

  “I think we can,” Eddie replied. “But we have to do it fast.”

  Eddie ran out into the corridor of the now abandoned base, followed closely by Mark, Ariel, Troiano, and the just returned Dan, who had deposited the still unconscious yellow skinned Agalum leader on the ground. He was now wrapped up in steel shelving material that Dan had found below.

  “What’s the plan?” Dan asked.
/>
  “That weapon control room, it’s right here,” Eddie replied.

  He turned a corner and pulled up short. Twin laser blasts scorched the air mere inches from the top of Eddie’s head.

  But Eddie had dropped into a crouch, pulling his own blaster at the instant he recognized trouble. He fired two quick blasts and the same number of bodies could be heard smacking lifelessly to the floor.

  Eddie twirled his blaster and holstered it smoothly. “C’mon,” he urged them.

  They raced around the entrance into the weapon control room, past the two dead Agalum.

  “The weapon’s controlled from here.”

  “What weapon? What are you talking about?

  “We tried to tell you before,” Dan continued. “This volcano is an energy cannon of some kind. They must use the thermal energy of the volcano to power it.”

  “My God, that’s insane,” Mark exclaimed.

  Troiano looked at the men, then helped Ariel into a vacant seat. “Sit a minute, Ari. Let me look at your head.” She thumbed up the integrated medical scanner on her stealth suit and ran its beam around Ariel.

  “No concussion, I think you’re okay.”

  Mark had one ear on Troiano and Ariel and the other on what was going on with Eddie and Dan. Quickly Dan activated a monitor and pinpointed the battle in space. Mark began priming the weapon itself. “I hope we’re doing this right.”

  “Hey if anyone can figure this out on the fly it’s the two of us,” Dan replied.

  “The G’Kor is coming into range now,” Eddie notified them.

  “This looks like it’s ready,” Mark announced. “I hope you two are right about this.”

  “That ship is building its charge up. It’s going to fire on Nagata and the fleet,” Dan shouted.

  “Fire, Eddie!” Mark ordered.

  Eddie hit the alien button with his thumb.

  ***

  The last of the injured had just boarded the Cagliostro when the air about the volcano turned bright orange. “What the hell?” Red exclaimed. “Get us outta here, Samuels.”

  Barton Samuels didn’t hesitate. He slammed the throttle forward and the Cagliostro darted away from the mountain. A heartbeat later a shaft of energy leapt from the cone of the volcano and streaked spaceward.

  ***

  Even as the G’Kor class ship was powering its weapons, it was torn in half by a quarter mile wide beam of light.

  The crews on all the Earth ships covered their eyes as view screens automatically compensated for the sudden, intense blinding brightness.

  “What in God’s name was that?” Nagata questioned.

  His crewmen merely shook their heads dumbfounded.

  A moment later he got his answer.

  “Captain,” the comm officer called, “Captain Johnson of the Cagliostro is requesting to speak to you.”

  Chapter 41

  Several hours later, The Cagliostro sat quietly cooling in a field near the volcano turned weapon. In its conference room Mark and the remaining Captains compared notes.

  “A weapon that size, it boggles the mind,” Carlson admitted.

  “It wasn’t theirs either. Someone designed that for the Agalum. This is more of the same tech we saw already with the Predator ships,” Mark commented.

  “Those ships are dangerous and deadly. We’re going to need a counter measure to them. We can’t rely on luck if we’re going to win this war,” Nagata opined.

  Mark agreed. “You’re right, Captain. I already have a few things in mind based on what I’ve seen of their capabilities and the scans I managed to do of the one that fell into our hands.”

  “Good,” Argento nodded. “You keep doing what you’re doing out here, Captain Johnson. You’re our ultimate secret weapon against these alien creatures.”

  “I have no intention of stopping, believe me Captains. One other thing to bear in mind, there’s a new player in all of this and possibly two. The first one is an unknown. They’re supplying the Agalum with weapons and technology that might be a level up from what I’m building. They may have just taken the upper hand in this war.”

  “You mentioned two. Who’s the second?” Ryan asked.

  “We had an engine malfunction. You’ll all get the report when I get ten minutes to actually write it. We ended up in another dimension. One of purple space and clouds floating within it. It was filled with a race of ghoulish beings that took some of my crew hostage. They were called the Tahir Ga’Warum. We rescued the crew and returned here. We also did a lot of damage along the way. Their starship was organic in a strange way. Almost as if it was grown around its steel frame. They were horrible, grotesque creatures. They looked like old interpretations of ghouls or vampires or some such creature.”

  Mark paused a moment to gather his thoughts and then continued, “Honestly I hate to admit it, but I’m getting shivers running down my spine just thinking about them now. They actually crawled all over one another when they were coming for us like snakes. If they discover a way to come to our dimension we’ll have another major threat on our hands.”

  The other captains were silent a moment as they mulled over what Johnson had just told them.

  “What of…Chakix? Was that her name?” Captain Ryan asked.

  “Yes. It seems the Agalum killed her where we had her tied and secured. We had a dampening helmet on her so I doubt she could have left her body. I’d have to say I believe she’s dead.”

  “You don’t sound convinced?” Nagata noticed.

  “There was this…ape. A giant hundred foot tall red furred thing. We haven’t found it yet. It disappeared during all the chaos. We think maybe she hitched a ride with it mentally. It’s hiding from us somehow. We can’t find hide nor hair of it with all of our advanced sensors. It’s possible she placed her consciousness within it, but we don’t know. We found her body that she claimed was her real form, and we had it mind dampened with that helmet I rigged up. But anything’s possible.”

  Nagata stood. “Indeed it is, Captain Johnson. As we’re standing here is proof of that.”

  The captains all shook hands.

  “One last thing?” Mark stopped them. “Call me Mark.”

  ***

  Back on the command deck, Mark relieved Matt Marek. “Thanks, Matt. I’ve got it from here.”

  “Sure thing, Boss. Call me if you need me,” Marek replied. He headed for the maglovator with a nod toward Ariel and the others.

  Mark slid into his Captains chair and relaxed.

  “So? How’d it all pan out?” Eddie asked.

  “The Triumphant and the Crossbow will stay here until EPIC can place a complete crew in this base. Nagata and the Coronado are leaving now to return to Earth. He’ll take point on that.”

  “Carlson and the Revenant are going back to Earth also for refits and repairs, which we need to finish once we arrive there as well.”

  “When do we lift off?” Ariel asked.

  Mark turned toward Dan, who was sitting at his pilots/engineers station, “What do you say, Danny?”

  Sledge swiveled his seat around. “All systems are a go, Boss man.”

  “Mark,” Ariel began, “After everything we were just through, did we actually make any headway against the Agalum? Did we really win or do anything that matters?”

  Without hesitation Mark replied, “Yes Ariel, we won a major victory today, but this war is far from over,” Mark observed. “What we did was take a base away from them that was on our celestial doorstep. We have to start striking against the Agalum on their own turf. We have to make inroads to their galaxy and we have to find their home world. They know where we live but in two years of fighting against them we haven’t gotten any closer to discovering where they’re from. With their mysterious new benefactor they may have gotten the edge on us they needed.”

  Ariel quickly turned in her seat to stare at Mark, her wavy blonde hair following her. “You can’t be serious? No matter what these Agalum throw at us we’ll beat them. We have you
. That’s the one variable they cannot match.”

  Mark smiled. “That’s what I love about you, Ari. You cut right to the point and don’t feel bad about letting me know what you think.”

  “It’s the truth, Mister. You are our one best shot at winning this war once and for all, no matter how long it takes.”

  Mark got out of his seat and leaned forward. He kissed her gently. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

  “Like you needed anymore,” she snickered.

  “No, not really. I actually do have more than enough in buckets.” Mark turned back toward Dan Sledge. “Danny, it’s time to go home. Light it up.”

  “With pleasure, Boss man.”

  The Cagliostro lifted upward vertically then turned on edge and shot toward space,

  “Red, how’s deep space look? Anything you see coming our way we should be concerned with?”

  “Not a thing, Mark. Sensors are reading all clear, for now at least. Tomorrow’s another story.”

  Mark chuckled. “Agreed, Red. Let’s get out of here. Mr. Sledge, take us home.”

  “Gladly Boss, gladly.”

  Dan engaged the hyper-warp and the Cagliostro disappeared in a burst of light.

  Epilogue

  Days later, in the exact quadrant of space the Cagliostro had left its dimension from, static lightning flashed, space rippled and tore. A horrific blood red vessel that seemed more alive than mechanical flew through that tear. It halted its progress for the longest time, as if its crew were looking about. Then in a burst of crimson energy it disappeared. The Tahir Ga’Warum had arrived. Woe be unto us all…

  The End…

  For Now…

  The Cagliostro Chronicles II Appendix

  Agalum- Alien race, the enemies