The Cagliostro Chronicles (20 page)

Asteroids and ships rebounded chaotically, lighting up the Cagliostro
’s sensor board and view screen as the great ship split off from the Titan and began to cut to the right, away from the much larger war ship, attacking anything that was getting through. Several ships of the Earth fleet followed the Cag, strafing enemy vessels that the Cag had already passed.

But
it was not going to be enough.

“Mark!” Shouted Red Robinski
, “Too many are getting through the line!”

Just then the General’s visage filled the view screen, behind him the command deck of his ship was in
pandemonium. Lights flashed and klaxon’s sounded as people were seen running to and fro. The image blurred several times while explosions sounded through the speakers.

“Johnson! We’re going to meet their flagship head on. If I don’t make it, the ‘Titan’ I mean, you have command of the fleet. You’ve served us all well so far and everyone here owes you a debt of gratitude we can never repay. They will listen and more importantly advise you as well.”

“General, stop it!” Mark commanded, “The Titan is damaged, you’ve taken a lot of hits and that flagship has been hiding behind other vessels, biding its time. It’s unscathed. You might as well be starting a suicide mission. Wait for us to get to you; we’ll fight our way through together. The Cagliostro is barely scratched. Don’t be foolish; don’t sacrifice yourself and your crew.”

Abruzzi looked at him stoically before replying, “That’s what I always liked about you Johnson, you always speak your mind. No, son, I’m not going to wait. I have to hold th
at ship back from breaking our line no matter what the cost. We’re spread out right now over a hundred thousand miles from each other. That’s too short a distance for you to hyper-warp to my aid, and at regular speeds it will take you too long to get here before I have to engage that ship. But I have to stop them from getting any further. Your asteroid mining was a good idea and tactic, but there are far too many of these bastards left out here and that big ship of theirs is not going to get any closer to Earth while I can help it.”

“We’re on our way, General.” Mark replied, grim faced.

“God Speed, Johnson,” the General replied.

“The same to you sir
,” Mark answered, his expression pained.

The view screen returned to a view of space. Explosions continued to flare across the panorama of the image before their eyes
—bursts of light flaring to brightness and then fading away.

“Full ahead on the Titan’s position
,” Mark ordered.

“Aye, aye sir
,” Dan replied.

“Mr. Di Genovese, I’m sure I don’t have to tell you to shoot anything that gets in our way, and blow it straight to hell, do I?”

“Not at all, sir.” Eddie replied, as he began firing the ships massive solar cannons at full strength.

Almost instantly the Cagliostro was under fire from several fronts at once, energy
flaring across her shields, which glowed brighter with every hit.

The
Cagliostro cut a line though the enemy ships, darting on end under Dan’s steady hands while its cannons exploded with fury, smashing enemy ships with solar blast after solar blast.

“Incoming!”
Red shouted, as he diverted power to certain shield generators manually. The ship rumbled as twin missiles fired from the invaders before them exploded harmlessly on the Cagliostro’s next generation shields.

“How are the shields holding up?”

“Better than the ones we replaced, that’s for sure. She’s taking a pounding, but they’re hardly losing strength. They’re down to ninety-four percent right now. We’re doing well so far,” Red replied.

“Good, how’s the Titan?”

“She’s under siege. Surrounded and alone out there, we’re the closest ship to her and she’s still two minutes away.”

“
Just get us there,” Mark answered quietly, resting his chin on his clenched fist, staring straight ahead at the view screen. “Hang on General,” he muttered as he stared straight ahead. Ariel turned her head to look at him, pain reflected in her own eyes, and then returned her gaze to the control panel before her.

“We’re thirty seconds out
, Mark,” Dan announced.

“DiGenovese, fire on anything that’s even remotely near the Titan, starting now.”

“We’re still twenty seconds out of range yet.”

“Just do it!” Mark ordered angrily as the Cagliostro’s cannons began to fire again. Strafing everything before them further away than the naked eye could see. The seconds each seemed like an eternity as the Cagliostro drew closer to the beleaguered Titan.

Suddenly a bright explosion filled space as the Cagliostro hurtled onwards, instantly the screen dimmed to compensate, but everyone knew what they had just seen without it being verbalized.

Ariel continued to speak into her headset, almost pleading for a reply, but none was forthcoming. Finally Red turned back towards Mark, “The Titan
. Mark, she’s…gone.”

Mark stared at the view screen as specks of steel burned away from the explosion that had consumed the Titan. Flecks of burning debris shone brightly as they arced away from the war ships death, finally burning off and disappearing into the depths of space.

Four ships had surrounded the Titan and had brought a devastating attack upon her. She gave a good accounting of herself as two of the ships now billowed smoke into space. Each
was a mile long behemoth, and each of those two was in bad shape.

The other two ships were another story. They were barely scratched. One of th
ose 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 the
y 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 t
he 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 weeks 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.