Starship Conquistador (Conquest of Stars Book 1) (6 page)

Vice-Commodore Raptor Warwyk neatly combed
his hair in the mirror. Usually, he didn’t bother but today he would take no
chances. He put on his red hat and straightened out the hard visor and saluted
himself. He carefully examined his clothes to ensure that everything was in
order. He was wearing a rose red shirt with silver epaulets, gold buttons, and
medallions and insignia on both sides of his chest. His shirt was tucked into
the large, wide black belt with a symbol of the composite bow over the belt buckle.
His neatly pressed black pants went under the shirt and he was wearing polished
black combat boots.

    He looked at the clock above and still
had ten minutes before his friend and fellow officer Colonel Tollvyk would pick
him up. Raptor stepped out of the bathroom and looked at the furlough card. Not
that it meant a lot since he had signed it himself. He laughed at the thought.

    Raptor Warwyk was a thirty-five year
old man with sufficiently rugged, masculine good looks, with a broad forehead,
big eyes, noticeable eyebrows and a chiseled jaw. He liked to keep his hair
short but had let them grow a bit this time. He was the Vice-Commodore of the
Starship Victory of the Sixth Frontier Fleet that was currently assigned to the
orbit of Planet Bravo and his rank made him the second-in-command.

    The bell to his hotel room rang and he
opened the door to Colonel Tollvyk. Tollvyk was thirty-three years old, had a
square shaped face, an easy smile and a strand full of hair that came over his
forehead.

    “Ready?” Col. Tollvyk asked.

    “Let’s do this,” VC Raptor said, “I am
excited, even a bit nervous.”

    “Womenfolk can do that to men,” Tollvyk
laughed and Raptor walked with him and jumped in the small two-person airship
that the Colonel had rented. He too was dressed in his army uniform and was
wearing sunglasses.

    “Do you know this tavern, Broken
Bones?” Raptor asked.

    “First time for me too,” Tollvyk said
as he lifted the airship to two-hundred fifty feet air-lane reserved for the
army personnel and punched the coordinates in his navigation system. The
airship took off in that direction. “Do you know this girl?” he asked.

    “Little bit, doesn’t Myra know her?”
Raptor asked.

    “She just became friends with her a
month ago,” Tollvyk said. Myra was his fiancé. “But you attended the Academy of
Space Warfare with her?”

    “Yes,” Raptor said, “One of the few
girls there. I remember her as drop dead gorgeous and I was in love with her,
but never got a chance to talk to her except during training exercises.”

    “Now you do,” Tollvyk said. Myra worked
as a civilian in the procurement department of the Regional Star Command and
she was helping Capitan Alvina Lytar – who was the supply & equipment
officer of Starship Valor – with restocking up on supplies for her spaceship’s
voyage out to the frontier when they had become good friends. Myra had casually
mentioned her to Tollvyk and Raptor when she was visiting their Starship in the
orbit and a flood of memories had overwhelmed Raptor. He had asked Tollvyk to
help him meet Alvina.

    “What did Myra tell her?” Raptor asked.

    “Nothing, I told her nothing either,”
Tollvyk said, “She is just bringing Alvina to meet her fiancé. As per our plan
you have just tagged along as you were on the surface coincidentally. Alvina
doesn’t know that you will be coming and it will be a ‘chance’ encounter for
her.”

    “I owe you one, Toll,” Raptor replied,
“very much.”

    “Not just yet, she may not be as
attractive to you now as when you had a crush on her,” Tollvyk said, “thank me
when you win her over.”

    Their airship’s navigation system
beeped an alert that they were close to the destination and Tollvyk lowered
their airship to an altitude of a hundred feet. He saw the tavern’s sign Broken
Bones in large, red letters on top of a building. He flew over to the airpad
and parked their ship and handed the keypad to the valet.

    They walked over to the entrance door
where two soldiers stood with their laser guns checking the furlough cards of
the soldiers. This tavern was open to the general public but was owned by the
Army and very popular with soldiers and officers.

    VC Raptor and Col. Tollvyk walked
towards the soldiers. The soldiers saw their insignia and clicked their boots
and saluted them. They dare not card the high ranking officers and waived them
in.

    “What table?” Raptor asked.

    “Table number 59, but nevermind I see
Myra,” Tollvyk pointed to Myra sitting down by herself at a corner table and
both of them walked over. Tollvyk gently kissed her on the cheek and Raptor
waved at her.

    “Vice-Commodore Raptor, glad you joined
us, you will keep Toll from getting drunk,” Myra said to him.

    “Just call me Raptor, madam,” he said,
“thanks for inviting me.”

    “We have an overnight furlough, if I won’t
get drunk tonight, then when will I get drunk, on the bridge of Victory?”
Tollvyk said and they all laughed.

    “Where is the Robo Server?” Raptor
asked.

    “Very busy tonight,” Myra said, “But I
have ordered drinks and appetizers.”

    “And where is that new friend of
yours…what’s her name?” Tollvyk pretended not to know.

    “Capitan Alvina Lytar, she couldn’t
come tonight,” Myra said. Raptor was trying to look for the robo server, the
robot that brought drinks and food, and was pretending not to pay attention to
their conversation but his heart sank and his stomach fell when he heard the
news.

    Tollvyk felt bad for his friend too and
inquired further, “Why? Is their spaceship departing for the frontier earlier
than scheduled?”

    “No,” Myra said, “She got called into
the headquarters of the fleet command. Many other officers from different
Starships have been called in. They are being transferred out.”

    “Oh…” Tollvyk didn’t know what to say.
Raptor turned around to look at them, he was feeling really bad now but he
forced a smile. If Alvina was transferred out to another province then he would
not get another chance to meet her. After the Academy he had forced her out of
his mind and as a junior officer he did not have the authorization to search
for the assignments of the other officers. Starfire Empire had a multitude of
fleets and bases flung out across thousands of light-years of space and the
chance that she would have been assigned to the same province as him was
remote. Yet, that is what had happened and he had not known it all these years
and now to come so close…

    His thoughts were interrupted when both
his and Tollvyk’s emergency receivers started giving out an uninterrupted
shrill noise at the same time. Customers at the nearby tables looked at them
and both of them yanked out a small metallic phone-like device and turned off
the alarm.

    “What the hell?” Tollvyk said, “Red
Star Alert?”

    “Same here,” Raptor said and started
decryption. 

    “War imminent?” Tollvyk wondered.

    “I doubt it. Lots of officers and
soldiers here, no one else is getting an alarm,” Raptor said. The machine was
decoding the encrypted message and they waited eagerly for it to finish, “I am
asked to meet Star Commander Carvyk Botlar at his palace immediately.”

    “Me too,” Tollvyk said.

    Myra let out a sigh. She worked for the
Star Command and understood that such demands were a part of the army life even
if she didn’t like it.

    “I am sorry…” Tollvyk said as they got
up.

    “It’s ok,” Myra said, “you have orders.
Another time.”

    “I will write him another furlough,”
Raptor said to her and she smiled. They turned around and rushed out of the
door and went directly to the parking space to their airship.

    Half an hour later they were sitting in
front of Commander Carvyk Botlar in his personal office at his palace where he
was holding their army records in his hands. He looked at both of them as they
sat sternly, their faces not showing any hint of the confusion raging in their
minds.

    “You must be wondering why I had you
two ordered to my office out of the blue,” Carvyk said.

    “Fortunately, we were on the planet on
furlough,” Raptor said.

    “Furlough that you yourself signed for
you and your friend Col. Tollvyk,” Carvyk said.

    Raptor and Tollvyk looked at each other
for a couple of seconds before looking straight ahead. Raptor knew this was
within his rights as a VC and had never been an issue before.

    “Now you boys don’t exactly have a
perfect record,” Carvyk said, “Colonel Tollvyk…drunkenness off and on duty,
quarrels, fights, swearing, tardiness on station, and general goofiness…”

    “Sir, I own up to all of it but I have
bettered my character and you will see those blemishes are from the past, my
recently history…”

    “Perhaps you have changed or perhaps
your follies are not officially written up anymore because your friend VC
Raptor is your commanding officer now,” Carvyk said.

    “Sir, I protest the insinuation of
favoritism,” Raptor said.

    “Ah, Vice-Commodore Raptor, let’s take
a look at your record,” Carvyk shuffled the papers in his hand, “tardiness,
excessive leeway to your subordinates and subsequent reduction in discipline,
over generosity with furloughs, strange pranks and antics, unorthodox maneuvers
in space battle practice and excessive humor.”

    “Excessive humor is a sin in Starfire
Army now?” Raptor laughed, “King Starryvk would be laughing from the great
beyond and so would be legendary Col. Sthykar.”

    “Kings and War Heroes have privileges
that you don’t,” Carvyk said.

    “I tell jokes, he just laughs at them,”
Tollvyk said.

    “You two make a great team, don’t you?”
Carvyk asked.

    They did not reply to this as they
weren’t sure whether he was being sarcastic or serious.

    “Luckily for you two, I have an
assignment for which I need someone… mediocre,” Carvyk said, “and don’t feel
insulted because you are being promoted.”

    “We don’t understand,” Raptor said.

    “Our protectorate of Nestorian Republic
apparently has some trouble with strange aliens from the unexplored regions of
the galactic space,” Carvyk said, “And for all I know it could be they who are
dreaming of expansion and conquest. All virtues have downsides and talent and
ambition in army officers comes with foolhardiness and willingness to rush to
battle before judgment. I don’t want to send our best officers who would jump
at a chance of starting a war. I want someone like you two, who enjoy your
humor and your leisure.”

    “I protest,” Tollvyk said, “I may not
be the best of the officers, but I am second to no one in my desire to fight
our enemies.”

    “Whatever you say,” Carvyk said, “But I
want you to understand something. You are not going to fight a war, but to
investigate and try to broker peace. The name of Starfire Empire will be enough
to back off most aliens and if it is Nestorians and their conspiracy riddled
republic that is stirring up the trouble, then put them in their place.”

    “Yes sir,” both of them answered
simultaneously.

    “I have been harsh on you,” Carvyk got
up from the chair and both officers did likewise, “But I believe in second
chances and third chances. Men can get better, I hope you two do. I have
extended a two-week furlough to you till your new starship is fully tested and
ready. Here are your new commissions,” he handed both of them two metallic
cards with displays, “details of your mission will be available to you upon
boarding.”

    “Thank you, sir,” they saluted him,
turned around and walked out of the room.

    Few minutes later they were in a
rocketship being transported to their orbital Starship Victory. They hadn’t
looked at their commission yet but wanted to say good-bye to their Commodore,
their fellow officers and the crew and collect their bags and personal items.

    “He is a straight speaking bastard but
bastard none the less,” Tollvyk said.

    “He is not that bad,” Raptor said, “Can
you deny that our conduct was less than stellar in the past?”

    “No, but I resent the insinuation that
because I love finer pleasures of life that I am a poor warrior,” Tollvyk said.

    “He didn’t say that,” Raptor said.

    “Fine not poor, but mediocre, his exact
words,” Tollvyk said, “let’s look at those commissions.”

    Tollvyk put his thumb in a slot on the
card and it scanned and verified his identity. Then it showed his new
commission on the display.

    “OFFENSIVE ROCKET OFFICER – FIRST
RANK!” Tollvyk said, “Woo hoo, alright Commander Carvyk is not a bastard
anymore. Assigned under you at the new starship…”

    Raptor read his new commission out
loud, “COMMODORE – STARSHIP CONQUISTADOR!”