The Cagliostro Chronicles II: Conflagration (17 page)

Dan
turned toward him mirthlessly. “You think?”

Mark
’s dirty look silenced Dan momentarily while both men returned to staring at the view screen in awe. Puffs of purple clouds rolled by in the void they found themselves in.

Mark finally shook himself
out of the shock of the moment. “Dan, status report on all systems?”

“Hyper-warp is down, but it
’s nothing mechanical, it’s just…down.”

“What does that even mean?” Eddie choked.

“It means we may be stuck here for a while,” Mark sighed.

Ariel looked at Mark and their eyes connected.

‘Are you all right?’
she asked telepathically.

‘Ari, your telepathy is working again?’
  Mark replied, surprised.
 

‘Just now Mark, since we left Chakix’ world.’

Mark mentally sighed.
‘I’m glad to know whatever effect that world had on you wasn’t permanent. How are you feeling?’

‘I think I’m fine
. I feel normal again.’

He nodded and smiled.
‘Good. I’m very relieved, Ari. In fact, you have no idea how much.’

‘Oh, I’m sure I do.’
She smiled softly.

“Mark,” Dr. Troiano’s voice filled the a
rea around his command chair, “come down to the med deck when you have a minute please.”

“Are we
secure here, Red?”

The big redheaded man nodded.
“Sensors are a little wonky, but we seem to be okay. It looks like this purple void dimension is filled with a whole lot of nothing.”

“
All right, let me go see what Troiano wants.”

‘Dollars to donuts it’s that Chakix again
,” Eddie opined.

“Of course it is. I’m curious to see what it is this time.
Danny, join me. Red, you’re in charge. We’ll be back in a few minutes.” He spun on his heel and left the command deck with Dan right behind him.

Th
e maglovator doors slid closed. “What is it, Mark?”

“Nothing
, Danny. I just wanted to get your opinion and thoughts on everything so far, and where we should go from here.”

Dan shrugged.
“Well we’re kinda trapped in this crazy purple void, though I’m sure you have a plan to get us outta here. Once we do we should make a bee-line for Earth, an’ then come back with maybe the whole fleet if possible an’ wipe these bastards offa that world.”

Mark nodded.
“My thoughts exactly, though I’m going to start sending the emergency broadcast long before we get home. Perhaps not even return home until we clear the Agalum off of that world.”

The maglovator doors opened, and both men exited on
to the med deck. They walked into the main med bay. But even before the doors slid open they could hear a screaming from within. Looking at each other they hurried in.

The native who housed Chakix’ consciousness
was being restrained by several members of the medical staff. The alien native growled and cursed, at one point shrieking madly. All the while Troiano was fighting to get near enough to anesthetize the man. Dan immediately leapt forward and lifted the madly struggling alien up, swinging him around and slapping him upon a waiting gurney with enough force to knock the air out of the wild man, but not do any grievous harm.

Troiano placed the
pressure fueled hypodermic apparatus to the man’s arm and pushed the button. Instantly a dose of sedative was pumped into him. Within a few seconds the native was docile.

“What happened?” Mark blurted.

Troiano turned to face both men. “When you left the planet’s atmosphere Chakix went nuts, kicking and screaming like a lunatic.”

“Doc, are you sure that
is
Chakix yet, an’ not just the native himself in there?”

Troiano nodded slowly, “I see your point
, Dan, but a few of the things the native screamed definitely sounded like Chakix.”

“Care to enlighten us, Doctor?” Mark inquired.

“Sure. The alien spoke of wanting to tear your guts out for dragging her away from her world.”

“The native himself could hav
e been yelling that, not Chakix.” Mark said. “And why did you refer to the creature as if it were a female?”

“It’s referred to itself as a female all along, Mark. It possessed Ariel first
, indicating a preference for women.”

“Actually
, Doctor, I assumed it possessed Ari because she was a telepath, making her more susceptible to a powerful world mind’s influence than one of us.”

Troiano turned her head, bit her lip slightly and then agreed with a nod.
“You’re probably correct Mark, I had thought of that as well.”

“But anyway
, why do you think Chakix possessed this native, a male, for any particular reason over any other?”

“Probably because it needed someone to speak through quickly, once Ari was freed, and this man was camped outside
.”

“
Making him an easy choice. Sounds about right, to me at least,” Mark confirmed.

“What do I do with him when he awakens?”

“You can keep him/her/it sedated, or maybe see if the creature within can act like a civil being and speak to us normally. I want this creature to eventually trust us. Keeping it tied up and shouting at it just isn’t accomplishing that objective.”

Troiano nodded he
r agreement. “Understood, Captain.”

“Let’s give Chakix another chance to act like a modern human being instead of a savage
animal. Maybe we can reach an agreement with it.”

“I think you’re missing one point here, Captain
.”

Both men turned back to face Troiano.

“What is it, Ann?”

“That creature, Chakix is basically a god to those people.
It does not have to bargain or make deals with anyone. It’s in charge. Now we come along and that authority means nothing to us. You’ve found ways to stymie it right along. You are probably the only serious challenge this creature has ever faced.”

“You’re forgetting something
, Doctor. The Agalum have been on its planet for a while already and have basically ignored Chakix completely. I would say with force fields and anti-gravity devices they’ve been able to make Chakix irrelevant. The natives have probably been praying for salvation from Chakix for God only knows how long, but it’s been helpless against the Agalum. We have to become Chakix’ ally, and in turn it our ally. We’re heading back up to the command deck. Keep me informed if Chakix wants to talk, but definitely keep its host restrained. For the time being at least.”

Troiano nodded grimly as the two men exited the medical bay.

The two men entered the maglovator, and Mark turned to Sledge. “You were quiet in there. What are you thinking?”

“That this is getting’ stranger an’ stranger, Mark. Also I’m thinkin’ I have to get the ship out of this purple dimension an’ back home, wherever we really are.”

“Yes, let’s get to working on that immediately
.”

The maglovator doors slid open, both men stepped within the command deck area and the entire
Cagliostro
seemed to shudder and shake, as if hit by something.

“
What the hell?” Mark exclaimed. He slid into his command seat, while Red took his own seat once more at the security station. Dan slid into his pilot’s station.

“Red, what was that?”

“I don’t know, Mark. We were attacked by something, but our scanners are still having problems acclimating to this dimension. Something is out there though.”

As if in response to Red’s comment the entire ship shuddered
once again.

“There, look!” y
elled a tech pointing
at the view screen.

“What the hell…” muttered Dan.

An image floated by on the view screen, obscured by static. It was just a shadow, but it seemed to mimic the
Cagliostro
’s lines and general shape.

“I don’t know what that was but it attacked us, so return fire
!” Mark ordered.

“You got it, Boss
,” Eddie replied.

The forward solar cannons roared to life, illuminating the pea soup they were flying through. Both blasts missed, but by what distance no one knew.

“Not easy aiming in this mess, Mark,” Eddie blurted out over his shoulder.

“Just do your best, Eddie.
”

The ship rumbled again as something hit it once more.

Alarm klaxons were blaring loudly all about the ship.

“Shut those off, Red. Leave the red alert lights blinking
throughout the ship corridors. Not here though.”

“You got it
, Mark,” Red acknowledged.

The command deck was silent as everyone was trying to discover what had attacked them either on sensor readouts or on the view screen.

“I got something, Mark,” Red announced.

“What is it?”

“Believe it or not I’m scanning on infrared.”

“That shouldn’t work in space, not in a vacuum like this
.”

“That’s just it
, Mark, this isn’t a vacuum. I don’t know what this is, but there’s weight and depth here. This thing is swimming through it.”

“But we can sense its body heat using infrared?”

“Only up close, Mark. About a few hundred feet away at best.”

Mark jumped up from his sea
t and leaned into Dan’s console. “Reconfigure sensors for a wide pattern. Three hundred foot range maximum, Heat imaging on main viewer. Three hundred sixty degree view of the
Cagliostro.
”

Dan nodded.

The static filled view screen showed nothing but the white noise images they had been staring at for the last few minutes when something eerily appeared as if from nowhere.

“Whoa, look at that
,” Eddie whispered, wide eyed.

“I am
.” Ariel shook her head.

“It looks like the
Cagliostro
,” Eddie proclaimed.

“No,” Mark interrupted.
“It looks like a Manta Ray.”

“Mark, it’s not alone
,” Red growled in surprise.

The view screen showed the static filled images and blurry lines, but it also showed more and more of the
deep space manta rays that were now encircling the ship.

“There must be half a dozen out there
,” Red declared.

“And probably more coming
,” Mark added. “Prepare all weapons systems. Let’s make this place too hot for them to handle.”

“What are you
plannin’?” Dan queried.

“
According to the sensor readouts I’ve been watching since we came here, this purple pea soup appears to be combustible. We’re going to set it all ablaze and then hopefully get out of here.”

“Wide spread pattern on the solar cannons
. I want shields at one hundred percent before we fire.”

The
Cagliostro
was engulfed in a ball of luminescent energy that played over its hull the instant the shields hummed to full life.

“Pick a target
, Mr. DiGenovese, and fire at will.”

Eddie nodded.
“Will do, Mark.”

The solar cannon glowed a moment and then unleashed its ene
rgy directly at the nearest swimming space-ray, catching it across most of its body.

The creature flipped over in space and stopped moving its fins. It just lay there and floated away, seemingly dead.

Immediately the rest of the space-rays turned and directly converged on the
Cag
.

“Fire at will Eddie, this is all you
,” Mark shouted.

“I’m on it Mark, I’m firing at anything that gets close.” Eddie’s hands played deftly across the fire controls quickly targeting and
firing the shgips powerful solar cannons again and again at the space-rays. After several minutes of this the remaining giant creatures spun away on the purple clouds and floated off, away from the
Cagliostro
, but all about the ship the otherworldly dimension now burned. In fact the entire expanse of space around the
Cagliostro
burned as more and more of the purple clouds caught fire.

“Uh-oh,
I’m not likin’ this at all,” Dan mumbled.

“
You’re not the only one. Back us away from this mess,” Mark ordered.

“Good idea, Boss
,” Dan replied.

The
Cagliostro
slowly backed away from the burning area of dimensional space.