The Cagliostro Chronicles (17 page)

Mark sighed sadly, “I know you are hurt, I really want you to take time off from all of this when we get home. Relax for a week or two. Then we can decide on a new position for you”

“Mark, none of this is over, you know that. Not yet.
You need me right now. After this is over I’ll gladly take a vacation. We’re going to war; you know I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know.”

“Ari, you have to understand, I just saw the results of you being beaten badly. It’s not anything I ever want to see again.”

She pushed herself up on an elbow and looked at him, “Mark, I know you’re worried about me, but right now you have to be more concerned with what we—the entire planet is facing. I’ll be all right. But everyone else needs you more than I do right now. This doesn’t mean when all this is over that I won’t want to take a nice desk job at headquarters, but I have to say, beyond the getting socked in the jaw part, I think I’d end up missing all of this.” She waved her hand up in the air, indicating space.

Mark shook his head, looked away and exhaled before turning back to her and answering, “You are one confusing and infuriating woman.”

“Aren’t we all?” she smiled demurely, and shrugged her shoulders with a smile.

The Cagliostro hovered in place then slowly began to enter the cavernous hanger before it. The ship settled in and quietly powered down.
Across a loud speaker in the bustling hanger, a woman’s voice spoke, “Maintenance crew to hanger thirteen, repeat, maintenance crew to hanger thirteen, full diagnostics and repair crews required as well.

The boarding ramp touched down and people began streaming out of the ship instantly, Mark at the forefront. “I want full diagnostics on shield data downloaded to me personally. I want weapons diagnostics as well. Weapons power and efficiency
must be increased by at least one hundred percent.”

Red grasped Mark by the arm.

“Hold on Mark, one hundred percent? You want to double weapons power? How are you going to do that? We could be attacked at any minute for all we know.”

“We won’t be. They may be out there, Red, but they have a healthy respect of us now
. Maybe even a fear, if we’re lucky. That’s something we can play on.”

“Okay, fine, but is the ship going to have the structural integrity to withstand you doubling weapons output?”

“Red, c’mon, it’s me. I have so much redundancy built into the Cagliostro that it could withstand five times the stress I’m going to subject it to.”

“I hope you’re right
, boss, no matter what we’ve just been through the past few weeks, this is still an experimental ship. Meaning anything could blow up in our faces at any time.”

“No Red, not true. This ship is rock solid. Besides, I was having new weaponry developed while we were gone. Advancements were being made based on our data that we were broadcasting back to headquarters the entire time we were out there.
New and vastly improved solar cannons are going to be fitted before the day is over. Shield generator capacities are being doubled so their energy siphoning device won’t work on us any longer.”

“Wait a
sec; I thought we had already beaten that trick of theirs?”

Mark smirked, “Not at all Red. In order to defeat those siphoning beams of theirs I had Abruzzi powering up every shuttle ship in the landing bay and adding its energies to the Cag’s
.”

“Ha!” Red guffawed, “I meant to ask you about that. I figured you just had some brainstorm idea pop outta your head and you beat that trick of theirs that way.”

“What? You don’t think my idea of adding energy from the shuttles to the Cag’s was a brilliant idea? I thought it was myself, actually.”

“I’m sure it was, boss. You know engineering ain’t exactly my thing.”

Mark waved Red off, “It’s okay Red, don’t sweat it I’m just playing with you a little. Now we have to get some rest, all of us.”

“Are you going home?” Red asked.

“No, I figure I’ll sleep aboard ship. I don’t want to leave her unguarded.”

“Hey if you’re going to stay
, so am I. I’ll leave a security detail aboard with us just in case. If they see anything …questionable they’ll contact us immediately.”

Mark shook his head, “No Red, if they see anything tell them to shoot first and ask questions later. Right now, until those engines are manufactured and ready to be mounted on our fleet within the solar system, we are standing in front of the fastest
ship on the planet. That’s a tactical advantage we cannot lose.”

“Did you look into how close those other engines are to being completed?”

“Yes, as we were on approach I put a call in. We’re still at least two days away for the first set. The second set is at least a week away.”

“That ain’t good
,” Red replied.

“None of it is
,” Mark reaffirmed. “We’re in trouble in that we can’t take a full scale assault back to these guys. Hell, we know so little about them; the first question should be where do we go to find them?”

Dan and Eddie walked up and joined Mark and Red.

“How are you both doing?” Mark asked.

“Alright boss.” Eddie nodded affirmatively.

“The ship all settled in Dan?”

“Yeah boss it is. She’s good.”

“Where’s Ari?” Eddie asked.

“I had her stay aboard with Dr. Troiano looking after her. That salad headed bastard did a number on her. ” He flexed his fists involuntarily as he thought about Ariel’s bloodied
and bruised face.

“Nothin’ you can do about it now boss
, the guy’s dead. Everyone in that hole in the grounds gotta be after what we put ‘em through.” Dan replied as the men entered a door heading towards the offices within the huge hanger.

“Is security in place around the facility
, Red?”

“Yes I questioned the
security head before we landed. I wanted to make sure everything was in place and locked down.”

“Good. I was worried about that
,” Mark answered.

“Since when do you worry about anything?” Dan asked, wide eyed.

“This adventure taught me a lot, my friends. This universe is a much larger place than we ever realized. We always knew we were not alone, at least for a long time. But whatever evidence we had paled in comparison with the incontrovertible proof we discovered within a few days of leaving Earth.”

Dan shrugged his big shoulders, “Yeah boss, you got that right at least. I don’t think any of us were ready for such a hot reception when we got to that desert planet
. Duddas, I think Seventeen called it before the President blew his brains out.”

“Yeah that was a hell of a thing wasn’t it?” Dan remembered.

“This entire mission was a hell of a thing so far,” Eddie replied.

“Ain’t that the truth.” Red answered.

“Boss, do you want us to stay aboard tonight? Just you know, in case?” Dan asked protectively.

“No, you two go home, relax. Tomorrow we have to get the Cag outfitted with the improvements that we want implemented; in fact Dan
, you and I have some design work to do ahead of us. I’ve already got a few ideas to boost things up in both shields and solar cannon strength, even beyond what is being mounted in the coming days.”

“Me too
, Boss.”

“Okay Dan
, get home and get your feet up, relax for tonight I’ll see you in the AM. Try not to be here too late.”

“Ya know boss, I think I’m just gonna stay on board. I can get home tomorrow some time. Tonight, well I got a bad feelin’ about this.”

Red turned towards Dan and grinned wolfishly, “So I’m not the only one eh?”

“You too?” Dan asked
grimly.

“Yes, me too. Something is just not right.”

“And I thought it was just me.” Mark confided, “If you two are going to stay on board then let’s get back on there now. I have to see Dr. Troiano about Ariel.”

Eddie shrugged his shoulders, “I might as well stay too then, not like I have anyone waitin’ at home for me.”
And then added after a moment, “An Troiano ain’t exactly hard on the eyes.” he added with a grin.

Mark smirked as he began walking up the boarding ramp, “Good let’s get inside and kick back a little while.”

“Good? Whattaya mean good? I ain’t got no life a my own away from this place, you should be feelin’ sorry for me!” Dan’s voice trailed off as they entered the ship.

Eddie replied with a laugh, “Feel sorry for you? Do I feel sorry for the orangutan in the zoo because he’s in a cage?”

“Hey! Watch yer mouth scrawny before I pop yer head off yer shoulders like I was openin’ a Pez dispenser.”

Their voices trailed off within the ship as they disappeared from its entry way.

                                      ***

But unseen by all, near a skid of barrels, something dark and mysterious stirred.
It moved cautiously through the darkened hanger bay, a bay designed only for the Cagliostro. It skulked within the shadows awaiting those who still loitered within the cavernous expanse to leave for the evening as technicians finished up their duties on the great ship and began to filter out of the huge building.

Finally, after several more hours of skulking about and keeping to shadows the hanger was mostly empty, at least as empty as the shadowy being deemed it would ever get. Its impatience was beginning to gnaw at it like unto a dog with a bone as it crept stealthily towards the boarding ramp of the Cagliostro, under its gleaming, majestic bow.

The creature crept on all fours, cautiously watching as it swept its shadowy head from side to side. Up the ramp it crawled on all fours, its long, thin tongue slashing forward to test the air ahead of it like a snake.

Suddenly its head snapped around,
revealing a serpentine face of absolute blackness as reptilian eyes dilated in surprise as a voice caught its attention entering the hanger.

“Damned keys, where the hell’d I leave them?” The
technician muttered with his head down as he made a beeline to his work bench and began rummaging through it frantically. He never saw the night dark thing silently slide up behind him, never felt its presence until its hand was around his neck and then he was dead, his neck snapped like a twig, as the creature now carried the dead tech like a feather. Then cautiously looking about, dumped the man’s body into an empty barrel, before forcing a lid back upon the top, and returning to the ramp, disappearing into the ship with one last surreptitious look around.

***

Within the ship, Mark stopped in at the sick bay, where Dr. Troiano and her team of doctors were checking up on those on the ship that still needed care. Matt Marek was in a hospital bed in one of the small rooms off of the sick bay scrolling through a video feed. He had broken several ribs when he was shot almost point blank by the mad woman, Reynolds, but his uniform had absorbed not only the energy component of the blast, but much of the impact as well. Mark knocked on the open door as he walked in, “How are you feeling, Mr. Marek?” Mark asked.

“Hey Boss, I was shot, how do you think I feel?” He grinned.
 

“Ummm probably like you had a bulls-eye on your chest?”

“Haha- oww. Don’t make me laugh, boss. That hurt.” Marek moaned.

Johnson chuckled as he exited the room, “Get some rest
, Mr. Marek, I’m sure I’m going to need you soon.”

“I’ll be ready boss.” Matt Marek called after Johnson as Mark walked towards another room on the hospital level. Neither man mentioned the loss of Miles Jefferson, who was the second team commander before Marek, until he perished a short week and a half ago, along with forty other crewmen. But it was on both their minds
.

Mark rapped his knuckles on the door of another room and walked in as Dr. Troiano turned at the sound of him entering. In the bed she was attending to was Ariel.

“How is the patient, Doctor?”

“How do you think
, Captain? She’s stubborn and rude.”

“I am not!”

“Yes, you are young lady, and it’s not your most endearing quality, let me tell you that much at least.”

“Whoa, what’d I walk in on ladies?” Mark asked with his hands held out before him.

“She’s insisting she wants to go back to her quarters. Now that we’re on the ground I’d like to keep a closer track of her injuries, and she’s fighting me on it. I was trying to…suggest… that she stay here tonight where there will be a Doctor on duty all night, myself actually, so I can make sure she’s not having any repercussions after that beating she took yesterday.”

“Ari, that’s actually a very good idea,” Mark began, before she cut him off with a motion of her hand.

“Like hell it is, Mister! I got a little banged up, that’s it. I feel fine now, you and Dr. Troiano here are making more out of this then it is. You’re like a couple of mother hens.”

“C’mon Ariel, you know that’s just not true
—” he began, before she cut him off again.

“Mark Johnson, don’t you
dare try that condescending crap with me. I know what you’re trying to do and it won’t work. I want out of here and I want to go back to my own quarters, and you and I have been together long enough that you know I’m going to get my way once I set my mind to it.”

“That may be so, Ari, but I could always have Dr. Troiano deem you unfit for duty
, and have you medically confined to this medical bay. How would that make you feel?”

“You wouldn’t dare
,” she snapped.

“Don’t push me Ari
el. I have a lot to consider here, including the wellbeing of the entire planet. We have aliens out there who are gunning for us, the whole Earth, and we don’t even know who they are yet. But they are out there, I have to help outfit the Cag tomorrow with next generation weaponry and shield generators, plus I have a feeling I’m going to hear from the President as well. I don’t need to add you to my concerns.”

She
visibly deflated. “All right, I’m sorry I was acting like an idiot.”

Johnson eyed her, and he realized he really was annoyed with her at the moment. He turned back to Dr. Troiano and asked, “What do you think? She already sat on the
command deck through all of that and helped out there, and she slept in her bed last night. Is she okay?”