The Cagliostro Chronicles (2 page)

Entering the Maglovator, Johnson punched a few buttons and exited back upon the command deck a moment later. He looked about him one more time, then spoke “Hey everyone, listen up. Take an hour. Go to your quarters aboard ship. Take a shower and put on your uniforms, relax a little bit, but be ready to go at a moment’s notice. I have a feeling we may be heading into space very soon, possibly within the hour. So don’t fall asleep on me. I need you all. Just make sure you put the new uniforms on. I want everyone wearing them when we take off. Thanks. Now go on. Get out of here.” He concluded.

The rest of the
command deck personal, the non-essential staff all headed to the dual maglovators talking amongst themselves.

The
command deck was almost empty now as Mark sat back in his chair and looked out the view screen.

“Are you okay?”

Mark turned around and saw Ariel standing behind him, arms crossed, leaning against the wall by the maglovator. She walked towards him and sat in his lap. “Are you okay?” She repeated.

“So far. Abruzzi is going to try to take the ‘Cag’, I can feel it. We have to get
her out of here as soon as possible. I will not lose control of this ship and the design work that went into her.” 

“Mark, what’s the difference if they buy her from you or not?”

“Ari, this is
my
ship. I didn’t design this one for NASA or the government or anyone else. I built her with my money exclusively. There was no contract signed for anything on this ship. Yes, I guaranteed the new faster than light magno-disc propulsion system for sale to them, but that’s only going to happen after we run our own test flights. Also, like I said, this is my ship. It’s not under anyone else’s rules or jurisdictions. I run this baby. Everyone on this ship is on my payroll and they are the most trusted of employees.”

Ariel shook her head “Sometimes I really do think
that you are nuts.” She replied as she got up out of his lap and walked behind her chair.

He walk
ed over to her and grabbed her arms lightly while staring her in the eyes. “Look Ari, you have to trust me on this one. There’s more going on here then I can talk about right here and now. You’re going to have to let me run with this. I’ll fill you in as soon as I’m able to. When it’s safe for you and everyone aboard this tub.”

She smiled whimsically at him, “A minute ago this was your baby, now it’s a tub?”

He leaned forward and kissed her, then pulled back. “YOU’RE my baby. This IS just a tub compared to you. But it’s a tub I’m passionate about. This ship is going to be special.”

Ariel smiled at him, “It already is
, with you in control of things.”

Mark laughed
“You are one cool chick.”

“Make sure you remember that, rocket scientist.” She smiled over her shoulder
, and walked away.

“Ariel,”
he called after her, “Go put your uniform on, will you please?”

“Wanna help me big boy?” She winked at him playfully.

“Any other time you couldn’t keep me away, but for right now I’ll have to take a rain check.”

Ariel pouted a moment
, then left the command deck and headed to her own quarters.

A moment later Johnson
left the now empty command deck and headed to his quarters.  He exited forty-five minutes later wearing his own uniform. It was a one piece semi-shiny light-blue and silver suit. It was temperature controlled by an interwoven technology within the fabric, as well as being decidedly sturdy. It would resist most bullets as well as lasers and pulsed weaponry to a certain point. It still wouldn’t feel good being hit by any of those, though. But the wearer wouldn’t be killed, at least not the majority of the time.

Mark Johnson exited the mag
lovator and re-entered the command deck. He looked around the command deck and saw everyone was wearing their uniforms. The place was alive. Sounds were emanating from just about everywhere as decks were checking in with Ariel.

Mark sat down in his command chair and looked around smiling. On the right side of his chair, a yellow light was blinking. He tapped it and immediately Dan Sledge’s voice filled the area around
him. “I found it boss-man. We should be good to go.”

“Good work Danny, now get your butt back up here, I’m going to begin launch procedures.”

Mark noticed every head turn to look at him when he finished talking to Sledge.

“Patch me through to the rest of the ship, Ariel.”

She nodded and clicked a virtual button.

“This is Mark Johnson.” His voice reverberated throughout the ship, “We are about to go into space, but I have to warn you all, this is going to be more than a test flight. There’s a good chance we will be gone for several weeks. If any of you want to stay on Earth due to family or any other reason
s, I understand. I’m just going to ask you to exit the ship as soon as possible. We’re getting ready to lift off and I do not foresee us being on the ground for more than another twenty minutes. Once the doors shut, they are shut and you will be with us for the long haul.”

Some
throughout the ship looked nervous, some excited, but they all knew what was about to happen. History was about to be made.

“Engines starting.” The burly engineer proclaimed from his seat on the
command deck.

This time there was nothing out of the ordinary.
There were no more filling loosening vibrations as the crew had first experienced, no loud noises that froze the hearts of weaker men. Just a very low and slight hum that soon disappeared completely.

Johnson smiled, “Sounds good
, Dan.”

“Want me to take her up?” The big engineer replied.

“Not this time Danny. I’ve got it.” Mark tapped a button on the arm display of his chair and instantly a holographic pilot’s display and controls appeared before him. He touched a few of the holographic controls and with small puffs of sand; the ship gently rose majestically from the desert floor.

Slowly at first, then faster
as its speed doubled, tripled and then quadrupled within a few scant seconds, the ship rose out of the Arizona desert and pointed its majestic body skyward.

“Ten seconds till we break atmosphere” Sledge reported with a big grin on his face.

A light beeped on Ariel’s display, she turned towards Johnson. “That’s The General. He wants to know where we’re going and why wasn’t he informed the ship was space worthy?”

“Tell him we’ll talk after our rundown flight.”

She paused a moment, then, “He disconnected me. I don’t remember him being this hard headed.”

“Ignore
him; we’re in space right… about… NOW!” Johnson finished with a smile as the big manta ray shaped ship broke the final vestiges of atmosphere and left Earth’s last remnants behind.

“Mr. Sledge, the controls are yours.” A beaming Mark Johnson proclaimed.

“Thank you sir.” Dan Sledge replied with a smile of his own, as his controls took over when Mark’s shut down.

A heartbeat later a beeping sound and a corresponding blinking light appeared on Sledge’s display.

“Hey Boss-man, we got company.” Mark was out of his seat and standing next to Dan instantly.

“What is it?”

Sledge waited an instant as the verification software compared long range scans, then furrowed his brow as he replied, “Uh Mark, that’s a ‘Goliath’ class star cruiser. I just received verification; it’s the ‘War-Hammer’.” Sledge swiveled in his chair to face Mark.

“Would Abruzzi send a war
ship after us?” Ariel asked in surprise.

“It looks
he already did.” Mark replied, as he sat back in his seat. “Eddie just in case, have the solar cannons online. I don’t want to fire on a US Navy space ship, but I’m going to take this ship out of here whether General Abruzzi likes it or not.”

“You do realize if we disobey a direct order from that ship we will automatically be performing an act of treason, right?” Eddie asked.

“Well, under normal circumstances, yes Eddie. But these are not normal circumstances. You’re all going to have to trust me on this.”

As he finished speaking the ship suddenly shuddered for an instant
, as a flash of light played across the view screen.

“They just fired on us.” Red shouted from his security console.

“Yeah, we got that.” Eddie replied over the alert klaxons that were now going off.

“Red, kill that thing.” Johnson ordered, and the klaxon went silent.

“The War-Hammer is hailing us.” Ariel stated flatly.

“Let’s see what they have to say.”

Ariel nodded as the view screen turned to an image of the gray haired Captain of the War-Hammer, “This is Captain O’Neal of the USS War-Hammer. You are ordered to return from whence you launched and await General Abruzzi from there. Am I understood?”

Mark leaned forward in his seat and replied, “I’m sorry Captain O’Neal, but this is a private ship and is free to do as I deem necessary. We are under no military jurisdiction whatsoever. Give
the General my regards, and you, yourself, have a nice day.” As he finished he slashed across his throat with his first two fingers on his left hand while looking at Ariel. She immediately killed the connection.

“D
anny get us away from that ship, then power up the magno-discs to one hundred percent and get us out of here.”

“Already on it
, boss-man.” Sledge replied.

“Incoming!” Shouted Red.

A shockingly bright blast enveloped the ship’s command deck for an instant and then passed as the Cagliostro shuddered from within.

“How’s integrity?” Johnson asked Sledge.

“Hull integrity is perfect. That hull armor you insisted on is holding up fine as of now.”

“Now you know why I insisted on fifty feet of it both top and bottom of the ship.”

“Yeah I do.”  Sledge shook his head in the affirmative.

“Good, now get the magnetic defense shielding up.”

Sledge turned back to his console and pressed a button, immediately a blue glow wrapped around the ship, deflecting enemy fire easily.

“NOW we’re protected.” Red
added.

“Yes
, we are. Pilot, it’s time to earn your pay. Get us out of here.” Mark commanded.

Dan Sledge smiled, “With pleasure, Boss.” He ran his fingers up the clear touch screen and the ships engines began to hum strongly.

“We got more trouble.” Red barked, “Another ship incoming on an immediate approach vector. They’re trying to wedge us between them.” He turned when finished.

“What is it?” Mark questioned.

“Rapier class fast attack cruiser.” Red replied.

“Okay let’s rock and roll.
Bring us in tight to the ‘War-Hammer’, I want us hugging its skin, then it’s time to go faster than light. Hit it Dan.”

Sledge nodded and brought the engines to full power, as energy blasts were
now aimed directly at them and splattering on their shields, rocking the ship as it started to accelerate.

“How are
the shields holding?”

“They’re taking a beating from both ships out there. They’re down to seventy
-five percent. The way those things are pounding at us, we won’t last much longer.”

“Won’t need any longer.” Sledge grunted as the Cagliostro rocketed along the side of the big War-Hammer. Sliding past it and between the closing Rapier class ship
. “Hold onto your stomachs, cause here we go!”

A sudden surge of acceleration
pushed everyone back into their seats, and after an instant they were gone!

On the view screen before their stunned eyes the
command staff watched in awe as stars and planets were left behind in a ghost-like state. Seemingly nothing more than an afterimage.

“Whoa.” Eddie DiGenovese whispered in awe.

“Whoa is right Eddie. We are now the first humans to officially break the light speed barrier. Welcome to history.”

“No wonder Abruzzi wanted this for the military first.” Ariel commented.

Mark didn’t say anything, keeping his council to himself.

“Okay so when do I turn this baby around?” Sledge asked.

“You don’t. I’m going to punch in some coordinates. That is where we’re going.” Mark replied as he called forth the virtual instrumentation in front of his Captains chair once again, and tapped a few buttons.

Dan turned towards him
when he read the coordinates, his face screwed up quizzically. “This is a pretty damned far trip, you know that right?”

“Yes
, I do, Dan. Just get us there.”

Dan shook his head to one side, then murmured “Glad I packed some extra socks.”

Mark smiled as Ariel looked at him strangely once before turning back to her console.

“All right Dan, Eddie, Ariel and Red, meet me in
the conference room in five. Ari, call the secondary crew to the command deck while we’re there.” Mark stood up and headed towards the maglovator.

***

“What’s going on here?” Red Robinski asked. “Why are we suddenly flying further into space then man has ever gone which we already have crossed that threshold by the way, and going to some mysterious coordinates that you happened to have in hand the minute we clear Earth’s gravity well?” Red was agitated, as he always seemed to be.

Johnson smiled as he leaned back in his chair at the
briefing table within the command room. “That’s why I like having you around Red, you keep me honest.”

Robinski looked at him through slit eyes, “What’s that supposed to mean? What are you holding back from us?”

“Look guys, you are right, I have been holding something back from you all. But this is big, really big actually. Like world changing big. I wanted to tell you earlier, heck I tried earlier today and then the general showed up and it had to wait.”

The four of them
focused on him seriously at this point. Johnson sighed and then began, “Last week I had a meeting with the President, and it wasn’t the first one.”

“What about?” Dan asked slowly.

“This is deep, my friends. I tried explaining this earlier before the General interrupted us. There’s a traitor within the government, a mole. This is the part you’re not going to believe, it’s an alien. They know that for a fact. There’s an alien race targeting the United States government and its space program.”

“Why?” Red asked, with a furrowed brow.

“Because they do not want us to perfect interstellar flight. Which I don’t have to remind you,
we
just did.”

“Again,
why the interest in us?”

“The President thinks
it’s because we are dangerous. As a race we know one thing very well. That’s how to blow things up, and kill the enemy. The President believes that someone is trying to keep us sequestered in our corner of the galaxy so fifty or a hundred years from now we won’t be challenging anyone for galactic supremacy.”

“Why would they think we would do that?” Ariel asked, obviously perplexed.

“The answer’s obvious,” Red replied, “We’re conquerors. As a race we climb the highest mountain, swim the deepest ocean, etc. We explore until we run out of things to find in any given area and then we move on to a new area and start over.”

“That’s right Red. That was pretty much the Presidents assumption as well. He asked me to undertake this journey, to
head up this investigation, and to do it surreptitiously. That’s why us and not the military.”

“Okay, but what about our vaunted spy organizations? Why couldn’t they do it?”

“In what ship? This is the only ‘Faster than Light’ or ‘FTL’ ship on Earth. We have a huge space armada, but none have ever broken the light barrier. The Cagliostro is the fastest ship known to man. It’s also one tough sucker as well. Between our shielding system, which withstood an onslaught from two powerful fleet war ships only a few hours ago, and our deck armor, we are virtually untouchable. At least for a while.”

“So does he have any idea who the spy is?” Eddie asked.

“No. He’s not sure. But he has a few suspicions.”

“So where’d these mysterious coordinates come from?”

“They managed to track a signal that was bouncing off a few of our satellites before being received somewhere in D.C. It was filtered and splashed about so that it had no real recipient that could be found. It hit a wide range of space, before it was received by its mysterious recipient. All we know is it came from the coordinates we’re going to.”

“Which is not the best news I’ve heard all day.” Eddie replied.

“How so?” Dan asked.

“Real Simple
, Danny-boy, we have no idea what we are heading into. At all. This could be either a military base, a planet of space-pirates, which by the way, the concept of does not thrill me in the least. A planet of a warrior race, God only knows what else? We are really flying blind right now. We’re heading into trouble.”

“And that Eddie,” Mark began, “Is why we have to be prepared for all eventualities. Look team, we’re going to be in FTL for at least a week until we find this signal
’s origin point. Everyone here has to be sharp. We’re going to be running some training scenarios over the next week. We have to be at our best, because not only am I, but the whole world as well is relying on us. We may be the Earths first, last, and best line of defense.”

“So everything is riding on us.” Red finished.

“You could say that, Red. Look, the bottom line is that someone out there set their sights on Earth for whatever reason, and we have to find out why and what for.”

“Do you think there’s an imposter involved?” Ariel asked, “You know what I mean, someone who was planted taking the place of someone high up in the government?”

“I think that’s a definite possibility, Ariel. I even have a few suspicions as to who it may be.”

“Care to share that information?” Red asked as he clasped his fists and leaned forward on the table.

Mark turned toward him before speaking, “No. I’m not going to. It’s best if only I know who is suspected and who is above suspicion.”