The Cagliostro Chronicles II: Conflagration (20 page)

“That’s code,” Mark appraised. “Block all their communications, Ariel. They’re calling for reinforcements.”

Ariel immediately complied
, then looked at Mark once more. “How can you be sure?”

Mark n
odded toward the alien prisoner. “He’s smiling, or was at least when he heard that sound.”

“Well he ain’t
smilin’ no more is he?” Dan growled.

The creature jammed its amorphous hands into the force field trying to break free once more, and failed
yet again. It snarled at Dan as it balled its pale white hands into fists and pounded them repeatedly against the unyielding force field.

“You ain’t getting’ out o’ there anytime soon, Nosferatu
,” Dan antagonized.

Eddie continued to fire the ship
’s weaponry. Finally the shield at the rear of the mammoth ship shattered. Arcs of energy flew across the purple void like fingers of lightning thousands of miles long.

“It’s down
,” Red proclaimed.

“Continue firing
, Eddie. I want those engines out of commission.”

Eddie DiGenovese pressed the firing control again and again, this time strictly the solar cannons
. The powerful energy weapons blasted the enemy ship’s engines repeatedly until the port engine exploded spectacularly with a large eruption of debris.

“Mark they’re trying to contact us now
,” Ariel declared.

“Yes,
of course they are. That didn’t take long did it? Put them on screen.”

The viewer
showed more of the frightening looking creatures, with their bald heads and pointed ears, their glowing eyes and chalk white skin. Three of them filled the view screen, twisting slowly one way then another horrifically. Their tattered rags seemed to flow around them independently as if alive, or at least a part of them.

Before any of them could sp
eak, Mark commanded, “Stop with the theatrics, you don’t frighten us. I want our people back, and I want them back now. If you refuse I’ll destroy you all.”

“You are over confident and you do not bluff well
, strange skin.” The creature on the screen cocked its head to the side and slowly licked its lips as it replied. Its black forked tongue darted in and out like a serpent’s.

“You don’t know me very well if you actually think I’m bluffing
,” Mark replied.

‘I’ve got a fix on the tech suit transponders, Mark.’
Ariel spoke telepathically, to not just Mark but the rest of the command deck crew as well.

‘Good
, Ari. Let’s keep that to ourselves for now. We’re going to have to send a six man boarding team over there.’

“You
creatures, release my crewmen and do it immediately. This isn’t a request. If I have to come over there and take them back it will make your lives a
hell
of lot more difficult.”

The lead alien sneered.
“Come and get them, strange skin.” With that, the screen went blank.

“What was that about? He sneered at us and threatened but nothing more. Why even contact us?” Eddie asked.

“Maybe he wanted to see how many of us they’d missed?” Dan suggested.

“Whate
ver. Keep our shields up.”

The
Cagliostro
rocked again violently. “They’re attacking again,” Red announced.

“Yeah, kinda got that,
Cap’n Obvious,” Dan smiled while replying.

“Red, what’s their shield status?”

“Rear shields are still down, Mark.”

“Okay
prepare our boarding party.”

Eddie l
ooked at the ship on the screen. “How are you we gonna get on that thing?”

Mark crossed his arms over his chest and turned toward the left
side corner of the command deck. “That question’s answer is standing over there with a force field wrapped around it.”

Dan jerked his thumb at the alien encased in the force field, “That thing? How
’s that gonna help us?”

“The answer to tha
t is coming up the maglovator in Dr. Troiano’s hands right now.”

Troiano exited the maglovator holding the helmet they had built and used on Ariel earlier to
separate and shut down the Chakix entity.

“You think that
thing’ll work on this ghoul?” Dan asked.

Troiano
tilted her head to the side noncommittally. “It should, Dan. From preliminary scans I’ve gotten off of this creature’s neural cortex we should be able to control it through the helmet.”

“Yeah but for how long?”
Eddie interjected.

“Long enough to get us over there and get our people back
,” Mark replied testily.

“What about getting back though? Is this thing gonna be able to take sixty people back in one shot?”

“Again,” Mark began, “we’ll have to see. I know it took groups at least once according to the vid feed. Even if it has to take three or four trips I’m fine with that. The armor suited security people can run interference in the meantime.”

“How you gonna get that thing on its head?” Dan asked.

Mark grinned. “Stasis field. I’ll drop one in place and hold it still. We’ll put the helmet on its bat eared head then release it. That should do it.”

“Let’s do it then
,” Dan agreed.

Mark turned toward Dr. Troiano.
“Are you ready, Doctor?”

“Yes
, Captain, I am,” the diminutive ship’s doctor replied, her blue eyes sparkling behind her glasses.

The alien creature began to fidget behind the force field,
seeking some form of escape.

“Drop a stasis field in place on it now, Red
.”

The burly security chief nodded and touched a button in his virtual display
. Almost instantly the ghoulish creature froze in place within the force field.

“I’ll take that, Doctor
.” As Mark walked past Troiano, he removed the helmet from her hands. He walked up to the frozen creature, then turned to face Red. “Drop the force field but be ready to instantly turn it back on, just in case.”

“Don’t worry,
Mark. I got this covered.” Red and another security man stood holding their weapons aimed at the horrific being.

“Dropping it now
, Mark,” Red announced.

Instantly the field dropped.
Mark plopped the helmet gingerly atop the alien’s head, locked a buckle under its chin, obviously repulsed by doing so, and backed away quickly.

“Field back up
,” he ordered
.

Red nodded and the force field sprang back into place.

“Now, drop the stasis field. Let’s see if this worked or not.”

The color of the beam radiating from the ceiling atop the alien abruptly changed from orange to a soft blue
, and the creature began beating at the force field frantically. It hissed and spat, but before it could remove the helmet Troiano touched a control on a tablet she was carrying. Instantly lights across the helmet sprang to life and the creature stopped its movements.

“How are you goin
g to control it? The tablet?” Eddie asked.

Troiano nodded.
“Yes, everything can be done through here. It’s a simple voice command set up. At the touch of a button we can stop its movements completely, like I just did.”

Mark reached over and took the pad from her. He touched his
right sleeve and a beam from the sleeve on his blue and silver tech suit sprayed across the tablet. He handed the tablet back to the doctor a moment later. “I’ve transferred all controls to my tech suit. Anything your tablet could have done can now be done through my suit.”

“Yeah but shouldn’t you have transferred it to one of us instead of you
?” Red asked. “We’re going across to that thing, not you.”

“No
, Red, I’m going too.”

Red’s jaw dropped.
“Who’s going to be in charge here?”

“Ariel will take charge here. Six of us will go across with our friend here. You and Dan
will wear the heavy armor suits along with one of your security personnel. You three will run interference. You know as well as I do that the tech suits can take a beating and keep us relatively unharmed if we come under fire.”

Eddie stood up, “So what’s the plan? W
hen do we leave?”

Before anyone could answer the ship shook once again.

“They’re bombarding us again, Mark,” Red announced.

“Okay
, you three to the heavy suit bay on the armory level. Eddie and I will wait here. When you get back, we’re going to take a trip over to that ship. We’ll follow the tech suits’ transponders. Now go. Bring back a couple of solar rifles for Eddie and me too, as well as a bandolier of plasma grenades. In fact bring a couple of hand blasters as well.”

Dan grumbled, “Why dontcha just come with us an’ get yer stuff
yourself?”

“I have to stay here to watch our ride over there
.” Mark pointed his thumb to the force field entrapped alien.

Dan and Red stood and left, taking Malcom Joiner, a security officer
, with them.

***

Fifteen minutes later, the maglovator doors slid open revealing the three men in heavily armored battle suits.

Eddie smirked.
“Those things always remind me of the old video game giant robots with all the angular lines they got going on. Except these aren’t giants of course.”

The three men exited the maglovator and
looked very impressive. The suits added a foot to their height, as well as half a foot of width. They were massive and powerful. Their colors were silver and blue, just like the tech suits every member of the crew wore. Each man carried a matching helmet. Across their backs were slung multiple weapons belts.

“Here ya go
.” Dan held out his hands and handed Mark and Eddie the weaponry Mark had requested. Red and Joiner followed suit as well.

“Thanks
,” Mark replied.

“Maxwell,” Mark started, “y
ou take over the weapons array.”

“Yes
Sir.” Maxwell saluted smartly and sat in the seat Eddie normally occupied.

Mark looked at the young
sandy haired technician uncomfortably, “Maxwell, what’s your first name?”

The young man seemed to squirm a bit in his seat,
his face knotted uncomfortably. “Colm, Sir.”

Mark nodded, leaned in and began to whisper
. “If you ever salute me again I’ll smack you in the back of your head, understand?”

Surprised, the young man looked at him and nodded, wide eyed.

Mark slapped him on the back. “Good man. We’re counting on you to keep this ship free of alien infiltration. Aim true and fire. Most of it’s automated anyway. You won’t have any trouble.”

Maxwell nodded.
“Thank you, Sir.”

Mark nodded and moved closer to their
other dimensional captive, “I’m going to release the force field. Train your weapons on it, just in case. Everyone ready?”

They all nodded in the affirmative, their eye
s never trailing from the captive.

Dan muttered, “This is one damned ugly Nosferatu lookin’ thing
.”

“Never mind
, Sledge. Close your helmets up everyone. I’m going to activate our teleporter.”

Mark began tapping a virtual control panel on his sleeve. An instant later the creature shuddered, momentarily fighting the control the helmet was exerting over it
, then finally relaxing.

Mark walked up until he was standing in front of the creature. “I have some questions for you before we go to your shi
p. What is your race called?”

“We are the Tahir
Ga’warum,” the creature hissed.

“And your name?”

“Barukt, I am called.”

“That’s a start
. How many of us can you teleport at once?”

The creature answered unemotionally,
“Forty of you in one group.”

“
So, we need three trips then,” Red whispered to Mark.

“Agreed, Red.
Let’s see what we can do.”

“Okay
, Barukt, you are going to take us to these coordinates within that ship.”

Mark steered the alien like a remote controlled drone. The horrific creature activated its teleport
ation ability and its robes swirled about itself. With a snap the world seemed to go black, but in less than a heartbeat it resumed being lit again, this time aboard the alien ship.

“What the hell…” Red droned off staring around at th
e corridor they stood in. It was a dark red in color and seemed organic somehow, as if portions of the ship were alive. The burgundy lighting seemed to pulse slowly as well.