The Cagliostro Chronicles (21 page)

“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 f
rom 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
-ton 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 onc
e 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.

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.

The enemy assault ships fired powerful energy blasts, disintegrating the small one
-man ships instantly, as they in turn were blasted by the next wave of small attack craft. Mile long ‘Dreadnaught’ class Earth ships formed blockades about the space stations, using their own mass to protect the vulnerable orbiting city-sized space stations. Powerful deck cannons fired missiles and energy upon the enemy ships, decimating them.

But it was slowly
, once again, becoming a matter of numbers. It was now the denizens of one planet against the soldiers of many. Even with the massive planet-wide retaliation, the surface of the Earth was in turmoil. Streamers of enemy fire raked the planet below, leaving a scorched Earth in its wake.

“Mark!” Ariel began with stunned trepidation edging her voice, “Cities are burning. New York, Chicago,
London, Tokyo, Los Angeles, they’re all in flames, and more are being attacked at every moment.”

“This is like the end of the world
,” Dan murmured.

“
It will be Dan, unless we do something about it. There has to be a way to stop this.” Mark’s jaw set grimly in determined fury.

Red turned to him, “Cut the head off and the tail dies.”

“What?” Mark snapped, turning towards his tactical officer.

“The command ship. We take that
down; this all goes to hell. Well, hopefully at least.” He shrugged.

“And what if it doesn’t? It’s a good start and I’m not discounting it, but we need to destroy this fleet completely.”

Red cocked his head sideways before continuing, “Start with the command ship, it’s as good a place as any. The rest we can make up as we go.”

Mark nodded in agreement, “All right
, let’s do that.”

“Mark, what about that dampening weapon of theirs? You know they’re going to use it again and drain all these ships and stations of power?” Dan offered.

“Yeah, I do Danny, I’m working on that right now, I have a few ideas and you and I are going to talk about that after we take out that command ship.” Johnson turned back to Red, “Where is that damned ship?”

“Trying to find her now, boss. There’s lots of static out here, blocking sensors. They’re trying to hide it.”

“Where’s the static thickest? The most concentrated?”

“Ummm, this makes no sense
,” Ariel exclaimed.

“What is it Ari?” Mark
snapped.

She turned to look at him, “The largest concentration of what we’re referring to as ‘static’ is coming from
Mars. Actually, behind it.”

“Sonuva
-” Mark trailed off. “They’re hiding the command vessel behind the red planet. That’s why they cleared us from the asteroid belt. Whoever’s in command of this attack is orchestrating it from the dark side of Mars.”

“The cowards!” Dan blurted out angrily
. “They’re usin’ their troopers like cannon fodder. They don’t care how many die, as long as the bosses are safe an’ sound. Sittin’ back sippin’ their lattes.”

“For all we know they may all be clones, which would make sense actually
,” Red offered.

“Ari contact command, tell them what we are doing and where we are going. Warn them about that energy dampening attack they used on us, send them all the pertinent information we gathered on that attack before everything went dark, then tell them I’m working on something to counter it, but first we’re going to take out the command ship.”

“Got it,” she replied.

“Dan
, get us back to Mars. Hyper-warp. Now!”

The Cagliostro exploded away from Earth as if it was shot out of a cannon, space blurred around it and the great manta-ray shaped ship disappeared, starlight reflecting off of
its mirrored surface as it streaked away towards the red planet.

“Exit hyper-warp on the opposite side of the planet. Now it’s time to try out some of those improvements we installed after our shakedown run, Dan.”

Sledge nodded his big head grimly upon his muscular neck and shoulders, “Reflective skin?”

“Yes, I was saving it for something just like this situation.”

“We’re exiting hyper-warp now,” Dan commented.

“Turn on the reflective skin as soon as we exit.”

Dan nodded. “Done and done.”

“Let’s hope it works
,” Eddie added.

“Agreed
,” Mark replied

“Where to now
, boss? Around the planet?”

“Yes, try to keep us close to the planet but stay out of the
atmosphere; I don’t want them to see any heat ripples from us skirting what little atmosphere there is. Red, the Mars stations have all been evacuated, correct?”

“Yeah
, they did that days ago, actually when we returned everyone was recalled. All our people are out of there.”

Mark nodded silently.

“What are you thinking boss?” Eddie asked.

“Don’t worry about it DiGenovese.
It’s something nasty, and if I decide to do it you’ll be the first to know.”

Mark
clenched his teeth and set his lip as thoughts and calculations flew through his mind quickly.

“Bring us about
, Mr. Sledge. It’s time to confront our enemy face to face.”

The Cagliostro shimmered as the reflective skin took effect, more akin to a chameleon’s ability more than to true
invisibility. But still the ship seemed to disappear, its graceful shape blending in with the space about it as it sailed around the curvature of the red planet towards its opposite side. 

“Uhhh, Mark,” Red began, “
the shields are down, you do know that right?”

“Can’t be helped, Red. It’s part of the reflective skin. For now we have to rely on our armored hull
. Hopefully we won’t need either armor or shields, for now.”

“And that just make me feel all the more secure
,” Red replied hesitantly.

The Cagliostro silently flew to the side of Mars away from the Sun, and almost immediately Mark ordered, “Full stop.”

Dan eased the throttle down on his virtual control panel as everyone upon the command deck caught their breath and stared silently at what was before them.

“I didn’t realize that thing was so
big
,” Eddie announced in an awed whisper.

“Yeah that’s one word for it I guess
,” Dan replied, just as stunned by what he saw.

The ship that faced them was akin to a small city. It was tremendous
, dwarfing the giant battleships that even now fought above the Earth.

“
How come we didn’t realize how large this thing was earlier?” Red asked.

“Too many other ships around it at the same time I suppose
, plus we were in battle. Some of its mass had to be hidden. At least that’s what I’m going with, for now.” Mark replied.

“So what do we do now? This thing is so big it’s ridiculous. I mean it’s almost the size of Manhattan Island.”

“I know Dan, I know. It’s probably got ridiculous firepower as well.” Mark paused a second before continuing, “But so do we.”

“
Ariel put me through to the heavy ordinance bay please.”

She looked at him warily, narrowing her eyes to slits,
and then she clicked a few buttons on her virtual control panel. “They’re up, Mark.”

“Gentlemen I need the Planet Buster weapon readied for immediate firing.”

All heads on the deck turned to stare at Mark when he spoke.

“You’re going to use it?”Ari asked incredulously.

“Yes I am. I don’t care if I have to take Mars down to do it either. It’s a lifeless rock, and Earth is all that matters right now. Everyone on the Earth is counting on us to save them, and we are about to.”

Everyone on the command deck stared first at Ariel then at Mark, then back to Ariel once again.

Finally she spoke, “Mark, I’m not arguing with you on this. I’m not trying to be your conscience, not at all. I want this to work, if it’s going to save our world.”

“So do I Ariel, so do I. I don’t just want this to work, I expect it to.”

She nodded then, setting her beautiful jaw firmly, before answering, “Good, then let’s blow these bastards straight to hell, where they belong.”

“How are you gonna do this boss?” Dan asked, “You gonna fire it into the planet or directly at the ship?”

“Danny, I have to get through their shields first to nuke ‘em outright, which with our nukes payloads shouldn’t be a problem, it’ll probably disintegrate that ship instantly, but I don’t know that it will definitely. If I sacrifice Mars, its larger mass will cause them to be sucked in to the black hole or singularity that will exist there temporarily.”

“What about us? We’ll be sucked in too, won’t we?”

“No, Eddie. If we hyper-warp the instant that missile is away, we’ll be fine.”

“I say open the singularity up in their faces. Use their ship for the mass.” Everyone turned towards the sound of Ariel’s voice. “What? It’s the logical thing to do. Hit them
straight on. After everything these bastards have done to us this past few weeks, they deserve to be nuked.” Her voice was vehement as she finished.

Suddenly the Cagliostro rocked hard as a klaxon
went off.

“We’re under attack!” Red shouted.

“No, really?” Eddie replied.

“They saw through the reflective skin
,” Dan announced.

“Shields full strength, double front, damage control I need assessments yesterday
,” Mark commanded.

The Cagliostro began to weave through
space, energy blasts sparking on its shields as the great ship swooped and dove to and fro majestically under Dan’s deft manipulations.

“Heavy ordinance
, what’s your status?” Ariel shouted as the ship shook again from another hit.

“The weapon is being loaded now, command.” A
static filled voice replied frantically.

Again the ship rocked violently as Dan flipped it over and shot away
from the planet at an angle. Dan’s face was tense as sweat dripped down his brow, even though the command deck was cool, which he wiped with the back of his hand.

“How’s our hull integrity?” Mark questioned, exuding calm and confidence even though it seemed like hell was exploding all about them.

“Hull integrity is strong but dropping steadily with each hit,” Red replied, “Shields are taking a beating from that thing. We’re down to fifty eight percent now.”

“Just keep that ship within range, Danny. We’re only going to get one shot at this.”

“Understood, boss-man,” Dan replied nervously as he fought the controls.

“Mark!” Ariel shouted, “We’re being hailed by the enemy ship.”

Mark looked at her sideways at first, and then nodded. Instantly the same yellow skinned alien with the large black eyes they had encountered earlier appeared on the view screen, “Greetings human Captain,” the alien began. “You will immediately surrender your crew and your ship will, of course, be destroyed. That is the only ‘deal’ that will be put forth.”

“Here’s the only answer you’re ever going to get, you mass murdering sonuvabitch!
This one’s for General Abruzzi!” Mark replied as he punched a glowing red button on his virtual control board.

Instantly the missile carrying the war head leaped from the underbelly of the manta-ray shaped vessel, streaking across space towards its intended prey.
A heartbeat after the missile left its launch tube, the Cagliostro disappeared in a burst of light.

***

Aboard the Agalum command ship, the alien commander shouted, “Battle stations!
” then continued with, “Shields at full! Brace for impact!” as the missile streaked unerringly towards the huge ship.  “These foolish humans dare to fire a missile at our vessel? Surely they underestimate us.”

“Commander!” one of his subordinates shouted in obvious fear, “That weapon is nuclear!”

“What?” The commander leapt from his seat and stared incredulously as the nuclear warhead exploded upon their shields, spreading light as great as a newborn star out behind Mars

***

A hundred thousand miles away the Cagliostro stood stationary and all aboard watched as the nuke exploded, sending cascading waves of radiation across the Agalum command ships shields, instantly collapsing them.