Keyop walked slowly across the lobby's shiny marble floor though all around him, harried-looking bureaucrats, diplomats, military personnel and business people from all over Federation Space, and even beyond, were striding about purposefully, clutching briefcases and portfolios and speaking rapidly into hand-held communicators.
Massive screens on the walls were adding to the visual and auditory chaos, displaying "Welcome to Earth" video clips featuring especially scenic vistas, orientation maps of the building's layout, schedules of events and meetings, and Federation News Network feeds.
No one gave him a second glance, but then, he was in his civvies and he looked like a mere kid, not like a member of G-Force.
He was on his way to Chief Anderson's office here at the Federation headquarters building on Earth. He'd spent the day in the city, specifically at the Natural Science Museum, as it was the opening weekend of a new exhibit of insects from all over the galaxy –some of them very rare!
No one else on the team had wanted to go with him. He shook his head, even as he kept on walking towards the elevators. Clearly, he thought, they didn't want to have fun.
As far as Keyop knew, they were all still at Center Neptune. Probably sleeping, as they'd all just come off a mission on the planet Achernar –one that had entailed a hostage situation. Those were especially stressful.
The plan was that he would go back there tonight, catching a ride with Chief Anderson, who had told Keyop on the previous day that he would be finished his business in the city that night and returning to Center Neptune.
Keyop hadn't really been paying attention to the video screens, but when he caught the words "G-Force," he stopped walking and turned to look at the largest screen.
"We bring you now, a Federation News Network exclusive!" said a typically handsome news anchor, "Rare footage of an actual G-Force mission against our Spectran enemy, aaand an interview."
Another Federation propaganda vid, thought Keyop. One was released to the media about three times a year, their purpose being to raise the morale of the populace, even as the war with Spectra dragged on and taxation remained high, by showcasing the most famous and glamorously heroic –but also the most mysterious- wing of the Federation's military.
G-Force.
The footage cut to a city whose skyline Keyop instantly recognized, as he had just been there.
Eridanus City on the planet Achernar.
Keyop stared. Mark hadn't said anything about an interview with the FNN, and Keyop knew that he himself certainly hadn't spoken with anyone.
However, there on the cinema-sized screen was the Phoenix, soaring through Achernar's faintly purplish sky over Eridanus City, accompanied by that piece of heroic-sounding music that was practically G-Force's theme song.
Clearly, there had been someone standing out in the open in the city –contrary to Zark's assurances that the citizenry had evacuated to subterranean bomb shelters- and that someone had been carrying a long-range video camera.
As the Phoenix continued to soar, a narrator began intoning dramatically.
"Zoltar's evil forces from the enemy planet Spectra, in a dastardly plot to terrorize the peaceful people of Achernar into ceding their moon to Spectra, for use as a base for further hostile encroachments into Federation Space, raided the capital, Eridanus City, with a menacing new attack ship and took the entire Achernar government as hostages!"
Keyop knew now that it had actually all begun as an ostensibly legitimate, but secret, negotiation conference in Eridanus City which the Spectrans had finagled by implying they'd pay certain key leaders in Achernar's government large sums of money for the use of the planet's moon.
But the narrator here wasn't saying anything about that.
Actually, thought Keyop, it was clear now that the Spectrans had been intending all along to use hostile means if the "key leaders" couldn't get them what they wanted. When word of what was afoot leaked out to the rest of the government, there'd been a massive cry of outrage.
And that was when the Spectrans had raided their Legislation building and had forced all one hundred of the planetary senators, at gunpoint, onto their ship.
Which, for some reason, had been designed to look like a wolf.
Spectrans, conceded Keyop, shaking his head, were pretty creative with their spaceship designs. A new animal every time...
Now the footage of the Phoenix soaring changed to that of the Spectrans' ship flying through the sky. Even the music took an accompanying turn for the sinister.
He glanced around the lobby then. Everyone –bureaucrats, diplomats, military personnel and business people – had stopped all their hasty and self-important walking-and-talking. Everyone's attention was riveted to the screen.
"But no sooner had Galaxy Security been apprised of this newest Spectran threat," continued the narrator, "The mighty G-Force was alerted and speeding through space, using the most powerful time warp technology to reach Achernar, before the army of terrible Spectrans had any chance to harm the prisoners aboard their Horrible Hyena!"
Hyena? Keyop blurted out "It's… a wolf!" before he could help himself, but no one was paying any attention to him.
Everyone was watching the footage of the Phoenix now sweeping past the "Horrible Hyena," which had taken to the air as soon as the Phoenix had arrived at Achernar. The Phoenix was coming around again to face it head on. The music was once again the familiar, triumphant "G-Force theme."
The Horrible Hyena, on screen, was now firing missiles at the Phoenix. Tiny had been able dodge them though, or at least, dodge most of them.
The footage here, however, wasn't showing the hits they'd taken.
Cheers of "Go G-Force!" and "Kick their Spectran asses!" and other similar sentiments surrounded Keyop as he stood watching.
He and the others had been concerned, Keyop recalled, that it was going to try to leave Achernar and use time warp to take the hostages back to Spectra.
Jason had wanted to hit back at the Spectran ship with missiles. He'd insisted he could target them carefully enough –aiming at paws, ears and tail- to force the ship to land but without destroying it or its captive occupants. Once it was on the ground, he'd said, all five of them could storm it from multiple directions –some of them very obviously (a role he'd clearly had in mind for himself) and some of them covertly, to locate and liberate the hostages. They'd been told by Chief Anderson in their briefing that this Spectran "delegation" was relatively small –only about 25 goons.
Mark had quickly overruled him. Instead, he'd taken Princess with him and they'd gone up to the dome. From there, they'd been able to soar to the Horrible Hyena and land near a vent opening on its back.
And that was what Keyop and everyone else in the lobby was watching now on the giant screen. Two "birds" of white, soaring with wings spread –showing nicely as bright red against the pale purplish sky- and swooping down upon the enemy that hadn't even seen them coming.
The images of Mark and Princess side-by-side in flight were becoming quite close-up. The person on the ground with the video camera must have had a very good zoom lens.
"That's the Commander, he always leads the charge personally -never stays on the Phoenix," declared a man standing near Keyop. "And the Swan," he added, speaking to a companion standing next to him.
"Yeah, I've seen the official photos of her," replied the other man, "Can't see most of her face, of course, but her body…"
He made a whistle of appreciation. Keyop scowled.
"You gotta love that skirt she wears," agreed the first man, "Look at her go –she's amazing! Girl of my dreams…"
"And of the Commander's dreams, I've heard," added a nearby woman, sighing dreamily, "Lucky girl."
"Fearless, invincible!" the narrator was saying now, "The Commander of G-Force and his lady comrade-in-war invaded the Horrible Hyena, and they brought it down –without any harm to the hostages –a classic example of the Commander's superior strategic skills!"
The footage changed, showing the Spectran ship flying feebly and listing very badly to one side, sinking towards the ground while the Phoenix tailed it closely.
Keyop was the only person in the lobby who knew just how frantic and nerve-wracking it had been for Mark and Princess, inside that ship, having to locate the hostages and bring down the ship –and all while remaining undetected by the Spectran crew, lest they begin harming the hostages in retaliation. He alone also knew that in this case, the "strategic skill" had been more Princess' than Mark's.
Without being discovered, they'd quickly moved about the ship and had determined in which area the hostages were being held. The problem had been figuring out a way to bring down the ship without injuring or killing any of them. Princess had realized the ship's design involved multiple, smaller fuel tanks spread throughout its body and she'd been both afraid to use explosives, with so much fuel everywhere, and unable to create any significant fuel leak.
Tiny had been warning them, over their communicators, that the Spectran ship was climbing, nearly vertically, and that it was clearly trying to leave the planet. There was no way they could have gotten 100 hostages off the ship unless it was on the ground. Mark had been that close to attempting a direct attack on the ship's bridge, though with just him and Princess, it would have been both a risky move and one that would almost certainly have alerted the potentially vengeful Spectrans guarding the hostages that their ship was under immediate assault.
It had been Princess who'd managed to access and then disable the ship's stabilization and guidance systems by pulling off a wall panel in a utility conduit and working directly with the wiring itself, rendering the ship structurally sound but virtually unflyable, and forcing it back down to the ground. While she'd been doing that, Mark had been able to surprise and take down the guards monitoring the hostages in the belly of the ship.
The footage changed yet again, and now Keyop and everyone else in the Federation Headquarters' lobby was watching the Horrible Hyena, lying tipped to one side in one of Eridanus City's wide streets. On its belly, a small section of the exterior suddenly shattered in a small explosion –the work of Princess' demolition expertise, Keyop knew.
Amidst the smoke, Princess appeared in the hole thus created in the wolf ship. She was running, at the head of a mass of Achernar senators, all running in blind panic, but following her lead away from the ship and to safety beneath the Phoenix, which had landed some distance away.
"Once again, a victory by G-Force over the forces of evil," enthused the narrator, "Thanks to the courage and talent of the G-Force commander, another planet's citizens can rest easy tonight, all the people of Achernar secure in the knowledge that the Federation is protecting them through valiance and vigilance of… G-Force!"
Keyop gazed around the lobby and more cheers and applause sounded throughout the lobby.
Mark had been the last to emerge, and whoever had been behind the video camera that had captured all this footage, they had zoomed in on him just at that moment when he paused briefly, framed by the smoke and the jagged edges of the hole, his cape flowing dramatically behind him as the narrator said "G-Force!" Then he too ran to join Princess and the senators.
Keyop knew exactly why they'd been in such desperate haste. All too often, defeated Spectran ships self-destructed, and this one had been no different. Within seconds of the hostages' rescue, the Horrible Hyena had exploded.
"Let this serve as yet another message to Spectra that their unlawful and menacing attacks upon Federation planets will never succeed –not as long we have G-Force to defend us!"
"Not… easy as it looks," whispered Keyop to himself.
But the narrator wasn't finished yet.
"Not only were we able to bring you this rare and exclusive footage of a G-Force mission, but our FNN reporter in Eridanus City that day was able to briefly speak with G-Force!"
And suddenly there was Mark and Princess, up close and personal and still standing beneath the Phoenix, though naturally their tinted visors' gleam concealed their faces. In the background were the senators, milling around and muttering rapidly to each other, but also looking very relieved and happy.
Ah, thought Keyop. So this is the "interview" the narrator had mentioned at the beginning of the vid… He, Jason and Tiny had still been on board the Phoenix when this had taken place.
"Commander," said a woman with a large "FNN" badge on her jacket, "On behalf of all the people of the Federation, let me thank you for another job well done."
"While it's our duty," Mark replied, "We're honored to be able to serve the Federation and its citizens. We work for you, after all. But any day now -mark my words- Zoltar will realize that the Federation stands united and strong, and he will cease his hostilities against us!"
Keyop knew a memorized line when he heard one, though Mark had delivered it well. It dawned on Keyop then that someone at Galaxy Security must have alerted the FNN in Eridanus City to ignore the orders to take to the subterranean bomb shelters and to instead be ready to film as much as they could of G-Force's battle with the Spectran ship.
And clearly someone had prepped Mark on what to say should an "interview" situation ever arise.
"So tell me, Commander," continued the reporter, with a knowing smile, "Do you and the Swan have a special celebration planned?"
Princess' shoulders stiffened, barely perceptibly, but Keyop could see it in the sudden twitch of her cape's wings.
Beneath Mark's blue visor, his mouth formed a smile that was not quite a smirk and he said, "She is indeed a special part of G-Force, and frankly, I couldn't do it without her," and then he put an arm around her shoulders. After a second, Princess smiled too.
"Well, don't let me keep you!" replied the reporter, with a wink, "Once again, on behalf of us all, thank you!"
And the footage changed one last time, but it was no longer Eridanus City or Achernar –now Keyop was seeing President Kane and Chief Anderson. In fact, thought Keyop, the backdrop behind them looked like Chief Anderson's office right here at Federation Headquarters. This part of the vid must have only been filmed yesterday or today.
"I'm happy to report," President Kane was saying, "That all the Achernar senators are safely at home with their families, and that their planet's moon is now and always will be safe from Spectra. From myself and Security Chief Anderson, thank you, G-Force!"
Like always, the vid's closing scene was of the Phoenix speeding through the sky, changing into the "fiery Phoenix" –their most deadly and visually-impressive attack, though not one they had actually used in this mission.
And the vid was over. The screen now switched back to generic news feeds and the crowds around Keyop began moving again, babbling cheerfully about G-Force, Achernar and the imminent and inevitable defeat of Zoltar's ambitions.
Keyop was feeling distinctly less cheerful. He saw imminent trouble brewing, albeit of another kind. The last four such propaganda vids had been increasingly focused on Mark and Princess, but this one blatantly showcased them to the point that the rest of G-Force hardly seemed to exist. He sighed. There was no denying that they were attractively photogenic, and never more so than when they stood side by side in their matching pristine white with red under-wings, looking every bit like wholesome and clean-cut heroes. There was no denying that the public, captivated by the apparent glamorous adventure of G-Force's exploits, tended to focus their interest on the two of them, "the Commander and his lady comrade-in-war."
He knew full well why he was kept out of sight in the propaganda vids –his small size elicited too many concerned and pointed questions about his age and the suitability of one so young being on a combat team. Tiny, he'd long resigned himself to being the stay-behind-guy on board the Phoenix and… well, his shape was less… photogenic.
It was Jason who was going to be ticked.
Keyop decided that there was nothing to be gained from worrying about looming intra-Team dissension now, and realized that he needed to get up to Chief Anderson's office. If he were late, there was a chance the Chief might forget their transportation arrangement and leave for Center Neptune without him.
Out of the corner of his eye, Keyop noticed that one man, who had been watching the vid intently but silently, was still just standing there and staring at the screen, though he seemed to be deep in thought. He was blandly middle-aged, dressed in bland, dark clothes, with smooth silver hair and he didn't seem to quite fit any of the standard bureaucrat, diplomat, military personnel or businessman categories.
"Anderson," the man murmured to himself, "Yes, that was his name."
Keyop was curious, and would have mentioned the man to Chief Anderson, but when he reached the upper level of the headquarters, where Chief Anderson's office was located, one of the Chief's administrative assistants stared at him blankly when he announced that he was there to meet up the Chief.
"Oh, he's not here –he never came in at all today."
This was news to Keyop!
"Where did… he go?" stuttered Keyop, realizing he might well have to make new transportation plans.
"I don't know," the assistant conceded, frowning, "But he sure left on short notice –probably last night! He had a full agenda today and I had to do a lot of last minute rescheduling. And he didn't say when he's coming back."
"Must have… been important," Keyop said, frowning in turn. Skipping out without warning was sure not the Chief's usual style.
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Tiny stared up at the Phoenix, his pride and joy, as it sat parked in its maintenance and repair bay at Center Neptune. As ever, the team of techs and mechanics had done a good job, quickly. The ship's exterior was shining and pristine once again. You couldn't tell where that wolf ship's missiles had struck it. Indeed, it looked like it had never sustained a scratch in its entire existence. They sure did a great job, he thought, keeping it always looking so perfect despite all the abuse it sustained.
He didn't see any of the people responsible for the great job, though, as he looked around. They were probably all inside the ship now, he assumed, running systems checks to ensure there was no internal damage remaining.
Tiny decided he would go on board himself. He was curious to know if everything was okay with his ship –in his mind, the Phoenix was his ship.
And it was something to do, and a chance to yak for a bit with the mechanics and techs. If he want back to the Ready Room, he'd just be alone and bored. Upon their return to Center Neptune, Keyop had immediately gone off to the city to see some bug exhibit at a museum, and now Mark, Jason and Princess were gone too.
They'd barely even had a chance to sleep; early yesterday morning Chief Anderson had suddenly sent the three of them off on an undercover mission to Spaceport 5 –so undercover, he'd instructed them not to use the Phoenix to get there, but rather to take passage on a civilian transport ship.
At least the Phoenix got to rest, thought Tiny. He felt a brief pang of sympathy for Mark, Princess and Jason, before he recalled that Spaceport 5 was reputed to be a pretty wild and racy scene. Maybe he should be envying them instead.
"As usual," he murmured, "I'm the stay-behind guy."
But he smiled to himself. At least he was a well-rested guy, and he was with his Phoenix…
Time to see what was going on inside her…
Soon, he was strolling down one of the Phoenix's corridors, en route to the bridge and gazing all around.
He encountered a guy whose uniform indicated he was a mechanic. Yet Tiny couldn't remember ever having seen him before, though the guy's silvery hair suggested he wasn't young.
"Whoa, there," said Tiny, realizing what was behind the panels that the guy was attempting to remove. "No way are you qualified to be inspecting those systems. Go check your assignment roster again," he added, keeping his voice good-natured
"I will do that," said the guy, walking away.
Tiny shook his head. Clearly a newbie. Well, he'd soon learn that only a few of the techs were qualified to work on those components that were part of the "Fiery Phoenix," and that curiosity about one of the ship's most famous though mysterious systems was still no excuse for poking around.
"Hey, Tiny," called out one of the techs, looking up from one of the consoles on the bridge as Tiny came walking in, "There's a new G-Force vid –you seen it yet?"
"No," said Tiny, sitting himself down in his chair, adding "Say, am I in this one?"
He slouched comfortably, though it always felt a bit odd to be wearing his civvies in here.
"What do you think?" asked another tech, walking into the bridge now.
Tiny shook his head in mock despair. "Tell me they at least featured the Phoenix."
"Oh yeah, she looked great. And they didn't show any of the missile hits she took from that wolf ship."
"No, no," laughed the other tech, "It was a hyena."
Tiny was surprised at this.
"They had footage from the Achernar mission?" he mused, "Wow, they didn't waste any time getting that out, then, did they?"
"Gotta keep morale up, don't you know," said the first tech, "And it sure makes Mark and Princess look good."
No doubt, reflected Tiny. In fact, he thought, if the vid was all about the Achernar mission, then they would be the only ones featured in it.
Again.
He sighed. Jason was going to be pissed.
He was rather glad he wasn't en route to Spaceport 5.
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