The Cagliostro Chronicles II: Conflagration (35 page)

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

Dan’s telepath
ic 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.

The
y 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.”

B
arton 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.

***

E
ven 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.”

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.

Ma
rk 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 c
aptains 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.

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…