The Cagliostro Chronicles II: Conflagration (8 page)

Mark sat alone in the command meeting room, a glass of bourbon in his hand. Slowly he spun the ice around the glass, watching the crushed cubes swirl in the dark colored liquid. Then he took a drink. He clinked the tumbler heavily upon the surface of the meeting room table.

“Are you all right?” a male voice called f
rom the doorway.

Mark turned toward
it, smirking slightly as he did. “Yes, Red, I’m fine. I just needed a few minutes in a quiet place to get my thoughts together.”

“Good. Get them together, because everyone on this ship needs you
.”

Mark rose creakily from his seat
, arching his back as he did. “Do you ever remember stuff like this being easier than it is now?”

“Stuff like what? Hurtling through space in the fastest ship known to mankind, and maybe the whole damned universe
? No, last I remember it was always pretty tough.”

Mark
grimaced as he rubbed his back. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

“Got any ideas about Ari?”

“I’m having Danny fabricate a multi-band signal scanner. I’m hoping that will do what we need in allowing us to discover if there is an outside or controlling force being projected into Ari’s mind. If it doesn’t, then I have to assume something is already living inside of her.”

“Like something possessing her
.”

“Yes, exactly
. He said it’ll be ready in the next few hours.”

“What about the engine repairs?”

“Dan said they’ve run into a snag. They need a specific type of ore to smelt down and create a certain component for the magno disc propulsion system. He’s used the ship’s sensors and found some in a volcano about two hundred miles from here.”

“So under a minute in one of
the shuttles or the
Stargrazer
.”

“Yeah or whatev
er time we want to take getting there.”

“Okay
, so why aren’t they jumping on it?”

“Because somewhere out there lurks our enemy
.”

“Could you be any more dramatic?”

“Don’t laugh, Red. This is serious. I’m having a shuttle outfitted with the upgraded camouflage stealth system right now. The problem is we’re not sure where our enemy is. Neither are our newfound friends. We could be flying right past or over them. Not something we want to do.”

“This turned into a mess really fast
,” the burly security chief sighed.

“Yes
, it did. For once luck was not on our side.”

“When is it ever? Think about the last two years. We’ve made our own luck every step of the way
.”

“Yeah, l
ike I don’t know that.”

Red sat down at the table and reached for the bottle of bourbon
. Mark pushed it toward him, then reached behind himself and removed another glass tumbler from a cabinet. He filled it with ice from an ice machine, which was also inside the cabinet. He handed it to Red, who nodded in thanks.

Red poured himself a glass
of bourbon, then took a pull off of the glass. He placed the glass back upon the table, then looked back at Mark. “I’ve been thinking, maybe we should send the
Stargrazer
home to get reinforcements.”

Mark nodded slowly.
“We could, if they could get out of the system without getting caught. But there’s no guarantee of that happening.”

“What about that new camo system you were just talking about?”

“I don’t know, Red. As a last ditch effort, maybe. But I don’t have any interest in sending anyone to their possible death.”

“You really think it will come to that?” Red asked.

“Yeah, I do. We don’t know what’s out there. There could be a hundred ships massing behind the sun in this system. The
Cagliostro
is fast enough and tough enough to cut through anything and escape if need be. But the
Stargrazer
might get cut to ribbons out there. Sure its shields are first rate and cutting edge, but it doesn’t have the hull density of the
Cagliostro
. If we can’t get this girl off the ground anytime soon I’ll consider it, but not before.”

“Why not use the ‘
Grazer
to go to that volcano and mine the ore you need?”

“For the same reasons that we just discussed.
It’s our last ditch effort and our final card to be played. We hold it in reserve until we can’t do anything else, then we let it go and send it home.”

Red took another pu
ll on his glass before speaking. “Yeah, but it may be too late by then.”

“I know. It’s a chance we’ll have to take.
I do not want to give away our location if I don’t have to.”

Red nodded stoically.
“Understood. What do you want me to do?”

“You’re leading the mission to the volcano.
Take Eddie with you, and Lori Westin as well.”

“Anyone else?”

“There will be five others going with you from the geology lab. They'll be handling the ore mining. I want you to pick two more security officers as well to take along. Take
as much weaponry as you think you’ll need, just in case.”

“These geo guys know what we’re looking for?”

“Yes they do. They’re the ones who pinpointed what we needed inside that volcano.”

“Is that thing live?”

“It’s bubbling, but it appears like it’s been that way for a very long time.”

“Great. I just gotta make sure I’m not setting it off
.”

Mark smirked.
“That would be a start, Red. Get in, get out, get back here. Get it done.”

The shuttle bay of the
Cagliostro
opened slowly, and an instant later a small shuttlecraft flew out of it, turned in mid-air and zipped away. Almost immediately the skin of the ship seemed to shimmer and the small shuttle’s lines became blurred. An instant later the shuttle disappeared.

It was a small craft holding
all eight of its crewmembers in tight confines. The shuttles were modular in nature. This allowed maintenance crews the ability to remove or add rows of seating. This compromised carrying capacity, but at times it could not be helped, such as now. The shuttles were just twenty feet long, with a seven foot ceiling. They held emergency rations only. These were not deep space faring vehicles, merely for use on short hops between the
Cagliostro
and a planet’s surface if the
Cag
could not land for one reason or another. They were also sub-light only vessels. Anti-grav disc powered, Mark’s precursor to the magno-disc. No exhaust trails were present with either design. Once started, they created their own energy and could run almost infinitely, the magno-discs more so than the anti-grav discs.

But none of this mattered to Red Robinski
. The shuttle slid silently through the atmosphere, save for a slight hum at its passing.

“ETA to volcano?”
Red growled.

“At present speed three minutes longer,
Sir,” Lori Westin replied professionally.

“Good
, Miss Westin. Are you picking up anything on your comm unit?” the large security chief grumbled.

“Nothing
Sir, from the
Cagliostro
or from anywhere else.”

Red nodded silently.

Lori Westin was flying the small shuttle.
Eddie sat next to Red at the next console in the shuttles nose. He spoke in a low tone in Red’s right ear. “You okay, Chief? You seem, I dunno, nervous or outta sorts.”

Red snorted then replied, “
Naahh, I’m good, Eddie. Just thinking things through. We’re in a pickle, if you know what I mean. Things are not great right now. We need to get whatever it is the scientist types need to repair the
Cag
and get outta here fast. I’m not liking this whole thing. Something just seems, I don’t know, Eddie, off somehow.”

“Off how?”
Eddie questioned in a low voice.

“It’s nothing
, pal. I just have a bad feeling, that’s all.”

“I don’t like ‘bad feelings’. Mama DiGenovese didn’t raise
no superstitious fool, but she always told me what to be wary of, and one of them was normally tightly wound men acting squirrely all of a sudden. Just like you are.”

Red chuckled in a low, deep tone.
“Don’t sweat it, Eddie. Just keep your eyes open. I have a feeling we may run into the unexpected, that’s all.”

N
ow it was Eddie’s turn to laugh. “Dude, we’re out in space battling nasty aliens. Our whole lives are the unexpected now.”

“Good point actually
.” Red agreed.

The boxy little shuttle approached the volcano and slowed to a hovering halt.

“I’ll take it from here, Lori.”

The young
red headed woman nodded her head as Red took control of the shuttle.

“I want to fly around the cone once or twice and check it out before we land, so be aware
of anything that might seem suspicious.”

Everyone nodded and affirmed Red’s orders.

The boxy little shuttle
slowly flew around the cone of the volcano, still maintaining its camouflage, which reflected the ships surroundings back onto its hull so it was seemingly invisible.

“How are we gonna get down there?” Eddie asked.

“We’re not. The scientists are going to lower a robotic tool that will scoop out exactly what they are looking for from that thing’s cone and bring it back to the storage compartment below. Once onboard it will be cooled to room temperature, thus allowing it to be handled more easily. Onboard the
Cag
it’ll be mixed with other ingredients that will be added to that soup. Then it will all be added to whatever other pieces they need to get the
Cag
back into space at hyper-warp speed.”

“
Oooff. I don’t even like the sound of that.”

“Relax
, Eduardo, the
Cag
has a fully fitted and stocked chemical lab. Between that and the other departments on the ship we can recreate any component on the ship.”

“Yeah I know
, Red. Though that doesn’t mean I have to be happy to be in the situation we’re in.”

Red nodded.
“Agreed, buddy. Let’s just get into position and hope this fixes the
Cag
up. I don’t want to be hanging around this place any more than I have to.”

“I’
m in total agreement, big man. The sooner we get off this planet the better.”

“You both are forgetting something
,” Lori Westin admonished.

“Oh yeah?
What’s that Lori?” Red asked.

“T
here’s an Agalum base hidden somewhere on this lush green world and they probably know every square inch of this place.”

Red nodded.
“Yeah, I’m well aware of that Lori.”

“
I’m keepin’ an eye on things out there Red,” Eddie interjected. “First sign of trouble I see I’ll be blastin’ ‘em with both barrels.”

“Yeah
, just be aware this damn shuttle’s only got the two forward guns. It would be a fantasy to call what’s on this ship ‘canons’.”

“Understood
, Red.”

Red
turned to Lori. “Lori, tell the science geeks to get to work. We’re right over the spot we detected the monotriglicine we need to replenish the coolant. They can start lowering the collector now.”

Lori talked quietly into her comm microphone
to the men in the back of the shuttle who were already controlling the robot arm. It lowered with a great amount of precision, dipping carefully into the molten ore, then removing itself with a full scoop of brightly glowing molten rock and metal. After four more scoops of the stuff the scientific crew announced they had enough.

Red nodded and began to lift the still fully cloaked shuttle away from the volcano
, when he stopped it and turned its nose back around to face the volcano’s side.

“What is it?” Eddie asked.

Red said nothing, but pointed to an image on the viewer.

“What the heck?” Eddie muttered.

Cut into the side of the mountain was a slot cut into the mountain itself. It was illuminated with landing lights along both the roof of the manmade, or in this case, alien made cave as well as on the floor. It seemed to be a fairly large cave. One that was big enough for at least medium sized ships to land in.

Before either man could say another word a small two man flyer zipped through the air right below them and entered the impromptu landing bay
. An instant later the hole in the mountain’s side disappeared again.