Galaxy Rangers: "Time Bomb"
Chapter 9
Doc got to his feet, putting a hand to his head. He had the
grandmother of all headaches, and the sinking feeling that things were
only going to get worse. Sure enough, as he looked out at the room
around him, he realized that he was in one of the Queen's prison
tubes.
"Awake yet, Galaxy Ranger?"
Standing below the tube was the Queen herself. There was no
mistaking the purple tone of her skin, the harshness of her almost
beautiful face, the vivid red of her royal robes. She regarded Doc
with a mocking smile.
"Out of the frying pan and into the fire!" Doc exclaimed, as he
pressed his hands against the glass.
"I hate to fall back on cliche's, Queenie, but you won't get away
with this! Your pals Macross and Kilbane betrayed you! Gooseman knows
where I am, and he'll be here any minute!"
The Queen laughed. "I know about Macross and Kilbane's stupidity.
It won't help you. If Gooseman comes to rescue you, he'll be caught
like the rest of your friends, and if he doesn't, he'll be all alone.
He'll be easy enough for me to track down."
With a sweep of her cape, the Queen of the Crown turned back to a
console on the other side of the room. Adjusting a few dials, she
brought up the image of a Ranger craft on the display.
"My Gooseman!" Doc said with a grin. "I told ya!"
The Queen chuckled. "That is not Ranger Two, Hartford. It is
Ranger One. That is the ship carrying your two other friends, Foxx and
Niko."
Doc stared at her for a moment, uncharacteristically silent.
"My agents planted a homing device on their ship, so I would know the
moment their mission was over, and they had lifted off. I do not want
their concerns for a current mission to interfere in my plans..."
She turned back to Doc. "As you have guessed, Ranger, you will
not be Slaverlorded. What good to me is a slave that can be killed, by
remote control?"
As Doc's frown deepened, the Queen laughed. "You have, indeed,
guessed the truth. Your own people, your trusted BETA, your 'good
friends', they programmed you with a self-destruct mechanism."
The Queen put a finger to her temple. "BETA has planted a Time
Bomb in each of your heads... and I intend to set it off..."
The Queen's mocking laughter was all that was left behind, as she
left Doc alone in the room.
* * * * *
"Okay, Buzz, what the hell happened?"
"I suppose you mean with the device that Kilbane had... Zozo, may
I?"
The Kiwi handed Buzz what was left of the mechanism, and he sat
down at the table with it. Zozo was looking out the window at the
street in front of Agbar's bar, keeping an eye out, while Buzzwang
examined the strange device that had almost killed Gooseman. Daisy
seemed comfortable enough, though, settling onto a couch near the
door. Apparently, she used this back room a lot, as a hiding place
on her visits to Tortuna.
Kilbane's device was a ruined mass of shorted wiring, blackened
with soot. "At the moment that you encountered Killbane, in his room,
I heard a complex series of tones, transmitted on a radio frequency.
They lasted nearly a second, during which you apparently experienced
extreme pain."
Goose snorted. "The sequence was interrupted, apparently when the
power supply shorted out on this unit." Buzzwang looked down at the
device, pulling a few wires out to look at them more closely. "I do
not think that the power supply Killbane used in this unit was quite
adequate to the demand. It burned itself out before it could complete
its intended purpose."
"Which was to kill me," Goose finished.
Buzz nodded. He pulled the disk out of his coat pocket, and
stared at it for a moment. Then, as if making a decision, he touched
his palm to the surface.
Being an android, Buzz's expression could not change. Yet, there
was a slightly different note in his voice when he spoke again. "It is
as we suspected. After the failure of the Supertrooper Project, the
members of the Senate Committe on Extra Terrestrial Affairs put in
place a safe guard on any future projects. That included the Galaxy
Rangers project. The implants were programmed with a failsafe, to be
used if any of the Rangers went renegade."
He looked up at Goose. "The signal that Killbane sent was a
self-destruct signal, intended to cause your implant to overload,
sending enough electrical energy through the tissue of your brain to
cause immediate death. There is a lead shield in place, however, to
prevent the signal from being sent accidently, or by an enemy agent.
The signal must be loud enough to penetrate the shield, and thus
cannot be sent over more than a few yards... under normal power."
He looked at the device again. "Killbane's device was constructed
of inferior parts, and thus failed before it could complete the
signal. Even so, only your biodefences protected you. If you had been
one of the other Rangers..."
He looked up again. "You would be dead."
Goose stared at him a moment. "Does Walsh know about this?"
"I doubt it. This appears to be a secret safeguard, added to any
projects by agents of the Senate during the design process. I doubt
that anyone at BETA knows about this."
"But Wheiner does." Goose growled. Eve sighed heavily, putting a
hand to her head. "Don't worry about it," Goose told her. "Now that we
know about this, we can get it removed. And if it was so secret, maybe
your father didn't know about it, after all..."
The last was said primarily for Eve's benefit. Goose wasn't sure
he believed it. "So how can we protect ourselves from this thing?"
Buzz shook his head. "I don't think there is any way. The signal
must be so loud, in order to overcome the shielding already in your
implant, that any other shield or jamming signal would be useless. It
would take an INCREDIBLY powerful signal to jam it, at least twice the
power of the signal." He held up Kilbane's device. "And you can see
how much good it would have to have too little power."
At that moment, the door burst open, and their ally darted
into the room. "Miss O'Mega!" He said breathily, "You should see
this!"
He gestured for the others to follow, and they did, hiding in
the shadows of the balcony above the main floor of the bar. As they
watched, the face of the Queen of the Crown appeared on a monitor
down below.
"My subjects!" The Queen said, her voice as melodramatic as
always. "I am pleased to announce that I have captured one of the
Human Galaxy Rangers..." The camera pulled back to reveal Doc, still
held in a prison tube. He wasn't trying to break out of the tube, but
looked around himself furtively, as if trying to find a way to escape.
Buzz inched closer to Gooseman. "This message is being broadcast
on all subspace frequencies... including those used by Earth!"
"The Galaxy Ranger will make a fine addition to my Psychocrypt,"
the Queen gloated. "At noon tomorrow, he will become my strongest
Slaverlord!"
Behind her, Doc suddenly threw himself against the glass. "Zack!
Niko! It's a trap! Don't..."
He cried out as a field of electricity enveloped him, inside the
tube. Then Doc slumped, unconscious. The Queen turned back to the
screen. "My subjects, I declare tomorrow a day of celebration!
Rejoice, for my victory is yours!"
The screen went dead. Zozo made a thoughtful noise. "It's not
like the Queen to declare ANYthing a day of celebration. What's she up
to?"
"Tha' wasn't meant fer her subjects, furry-face. That was meant
fer th' Rangers."
Goose nodded. "That's got to be it. She's expecting us to mount
an attack. The Psychocrypt is the perfect base from which to send that
signal..."
"And with the asteroid field around the Queen's Graveyard dotted
with those transmitters, she could blanket the whole area with the
self-destruct signal." Buzzwang paused a moment. "And Pathfinder said
that the transmitters are also programmed to detect any Ranger Ships
in the area. So they not only echo the signal, but they tell the Queen
when to send it, as well."
"Zack and Niko, of course, will ride right to Doc's rescue, and
jump right into the middle of the field. They're as good as dead."
Daisy flipped the code key for her Interceptor into the air,
quickly snatching it back into her closed fist. "Unless we get there
first!"
Chapter 9
Doc got to his feet, putting a hand to his head. He had the
grandmother of all headaches, and the sinking feeling that things were
only going to get worse. Sure enough, as he looked out at the room
around him, he realized that he was in one of the Queen's prison
tubes.
"Awake yet, Galaxy Ranger?"
Standing below the tube was the Queen herself. There was no
mistaking the purple tone of her skin, the harshness of her almost
beautiful face, the vivid red of her royal robes. She regarded Doc
with a mocking smile.
"Out of the frying pan and into the fire!" Doc exclaimed, as he
pressed his hands against the glass.
"I hate to fall back on cliche's, Queenie, but you won't get away
with this! Your pals Macross and Kilbane betrayed you! Gooseman knows
where I am, and he'll be here any minute!"
The Queen laughed. "I know about Macross and Kilbane's stupidity.
It won't help you. If Gooseman comes to rescue you, he'll be caught
like the rest of your friends, and if he doesn't, he'll be all alone.
He'll be easy enough for me to track down."
With a sweep of her cape, the Queen of the Crown turned back to a
console on the other side of the room. Adjusting a few dials, she
brought up the image of a Ranger craft on the display.
"My Gooseman!" Doc said with a grin. "I told ya!"
The Queen chuckled. "That is not Ranger Two, Hartford. It is
Ranger One. That is the ship carrying your two other friends, Foxx and
Niko."
Doc stared at her for a moment, uncharacteristically silent.
"My agents planted a homing device on their ship, so I would know the
moment their mission was over, and they had lifted off. I do not want
their concerns for a current mission to interfere in my plans..."
She turned back to Doc. "As you have guessed, Ranger, you will
not be Slaverlorded. What good to me is a slave that can be killed, by
remote control?"
As Doc's frown deepened, the Queen laughed. "You have, indeed,
guessed the truth. Your own people, your trusted BETA, your 'good
friends', they programmed you with a self-destruct mechanism."
The Queen put a finger to her temple. "BETA has planted a Time
Bomb in each of your heads... and I intend to set it off..."
The Queen's mocking laughter was all that was left behind, as she
left Doc alone in the room.
* * * * *
"Okay, Buzz, what the hell happened?"
"I suppose you mean with the device that Kilbane had... Zozo, may
I?"
The Kiwi handed Buzz what was left of the mechanism, and he sat
down at the table with it. Zozo was looking out the window at the
street in front of Agbar's bar, keeping an eye out, while Buzzwang
examined the strange device that had almost killed Gooseman. Daisy
seemed comfortable enough, though, settling onto a couch near the
door. Apparently, she used this back room a lot, as a hiding place
on her visits to Tortuna.
Kilbane's device was a ruined mass of shorted wiring, blackened
with soot. "At the moment that you encountered Killbane, in his room,
I heard a complex series of tones, transmitted on a radio frequency.
They lasted nearly a second, during which you apparently experienced
extreme pain."
Goose snorted. "The sequence was interrupted, apparently when the
power supply shorted out on this unit." Buzzwang looked down at the
device, pulling a few wires out to look at them more closely. "I do
not think that the power supply Killbane used in this unit was quite
adequate to the demand. It burned itself out before it could complete
its intended purpose."
"Which was to kill me," Goose finished.
Buzz nodded. He pulled the disk out of his coat pocket, and
stared at it for a moment. Then, as if making a decision, he touched
his palm to the surface.
Being an android, Buzz's expression could not change. Yet, there
was a slightly different note in his voice when he spoke again. "It is
as we suspected. After the failure of the Supertrooper Project, the
members of the Senate Committe on Extra Terrestrial Affairs put in
place a safe guard on any future projects. That included the Galaxy
Rangers project. The implants were programmed with a failsafe, to be
used if any of the Rangers went renegade."
He looked up at Goose. "The signal that Killbane sent was a
self-destruct signal, intended to cause your implant to overload,
sending enough electrical energy through the tissue of your brain to
cause immediate death. There is a lead shield in place, however, to
prevent the signal from being sent accidently, or by an enemy agent.
The signal must be loud enough to penetrate the shield, and thus
cannot be sent over more than a few yards... under normal power."
He looked at the device again. "Killbane's device was constructed
of inferior parts, and thus failed before it could complete the
signal. Even so, only your biodefences protected you. If you had been
one of the other Rangers..."
He looked up again. "You would be dead."
Goose stared at him a moment. "Does Walsh know about this?"
"I doubt it. This appears to be a secret safeguard, added to any
projects by agents of the Senate during the design process. I doubt
that anyone at BETA knows about this."
"But Wheiner does." Goose growled. Eve sighed heavily, putting a
hand to her head. "Don't worry about it," Goose told her. "Now that we
know about this, we can get it removed. And if it was so secret, maybe
your father didn't know about it, after all..."
The last was said primarily for Eve's benefit. Goose wasn't sure
he believed it. "So how can we protect ourselves from this thing?"
Buzz shook his head. "I don't think there is any way. The signal
must be so loud, in order to overcome the shielding already in your
implant, that any other shield or jamming signal would be useless. It
would take an INCREDIBLY powerful signal to jam it, at least twice the
power of the signal." He held up Kilbane's device. "And you can see
how much good it would have to have too little power."
At that moment, the door burst open, and their ally darted
into the room. "Miss O'Mega!" He said breathily, "You should see
this!"
He gestured for the others to follow, and they did, hiding in
the shadows of the balcony above the main floor of the bar. As they
watched, the face of the Queen of the Crown appeared on a monitor
down below.
"My subjects!" The Queen said, her voice as melodramatic as
always. "I am pleased to announce that I have captured one of the
Human Galaxy Rangers..." The camera pulled back to reveal Doc, still
held in a prison tube. He wasn't trying to break out of the tube, but
looked around himself furtively, as if trying to find a way to escape.
Buzz inched closer to Gooseman. "This message is being broadcast
on all subspace frequencies... including those used by Earth!"
"The Galaxy Ranger will make a fine addition to my Psychocrypt,"
the Queen gloated. "At noon tomorrow, he will become my strongest
Slaverlord!"
Behind her, Doc suddenly threw himself against the glass. "Zack!
Niko! It's a trap! Don't..."
He cried out as a field of electricity enveloped him, inside the
tube. Then Doc slumped, unconscious. The Queen turned back to the
screen. "My subjects, I declare tomorrow a day of celebration!
Rejoice, for my victory is yours!"
The screen went dead. Zozo made a thoughtful noise. "It's not
like the Queen to declare ANYthing a day of celebration. What's she up
to?"
"Tha' wasn't meant fer her subjects, furry-face. That was meant
fer th' Rangers."
Goose nodded. "That's got to be it. She's expecting us to mount
an attack. The Psychocrypt is the perfect base from which to send that
signal..."
"And with the asteroid field around the Queen's Graveyard dotted
with those transmitters, she could blanket the whole area with the
self-destruct signal." Buzzwang paused a moment. "And Pathfinder said
that the transmitters are also programmed to detect any Ranger Ships
in the area. So they not only echo the signal, but they tell the Queen
when to send it, as well."
"Zack and Niko, of course, will ride right to Doc's rescue, and
jump right into the middle of the field. They're as good as dead."
Daisy flipped the code key for her Interceptor into the air,
quickly snatching it back into her closed fist. "Unless we get there
first!"