8: ROOSTER
It was a sunny day about Sunhome. I wasn't on call so I was down at Pivlic's tavern, again. A couple of drinks of Romulan Ale and I was fairly pickled. So the trip home was interesting, at best. Got my pills against mosquito death … my buddy's breathing his dying breath …
Boy was I in a funky mood. Memories of the 20th century flooded back. It was not necessarily a pleasant time to be alive.
They come to snuff the rooster…
I woke up with a target on my forehead. They were coming for me. Of that I was sure. Why, I didn't know. But they were coming. Was it another version of the black life link interrupter? But with no angels to keep me company, I definitely felt alone.
Then I awoke to Sara's embrace. Was it just a dream?
"Where's Razia?" I had to ask
"On the bridge," Sara replied. She was definitely puzzled by my question.
"Razia, report to our quarters, please," I sent over the intercom.
It took a few minutes but Razia entered our quarters. She found us still in bed. It was a bit to explain…. but a song from my past … Rooster…
"They are definitely NOT coming to snuff the Rooster!" Razia stated. "You were just dreaming that last night. By the way where would you find that much jungle to hide in?"
"In a place called Viet Nam, on my home planet – in the past. So you felt the dream?"
"Of course. You can't keep secrets from us!" Razia yanked me out of bed and gave me an embrace. "Don't worry about it! Your job is to keep us on the rescue, so my job is to love you and keep you around for as long as possible! But just in case, sciences have been alerted to check for black mana beams."
The next moth passed by rather quickly. Then out of nowhere the dream cropped up again. And no, I deliberately avoided any war movies! Razia woke me up before the dream ended, and gave me a smooch.
"We'll have no more of that," she commanded.
"… OK …"
Jace had communicated to Sunhome, that his ship would go out to explore the huge mana-less universe. He wanted a guide, so called in to borrow someone from that universe. Since this was expected to be a short trip the angels volunteered … me. They figured getting out and exploring would get my mind off other matters.
We were headed core-wards, towards Earth and the center of the federation. Or what was left of it. We had found an intriguing signal that I traced back to Omega Leonis, lying some 33 parsecs from Earth. The computer indicated the 4th planet was class M, and was inhabited by a pre-industrial intelligent canine species. That computer entry was dated over 1000 years ago, from the early 29th century.
The signal was coming from a ship in orbit. Advanced looking but oddly asymmetrical. Question was: who are they?
We didn't get a chance to find out. They fired a beam at us, and all of a sudden we were plummeting towards the planet's surface without any engines!
Premonition comes true. Here I was, in a jungle with a bunch of goblins, facing off against, for a lack of a better term, armed kobolds. All with projectile weapons, it's Viet Nam all over again. And the angels don't know I'm here …
The only other advanced being here was Jace himself. But as this was a mana-less universe, he was almost as emasculated as I was, when I depleted my phaser charges, and was left with the local weaponry, projectile weapons reminiscent of my past. Hopefully the beacon on The Inquisitor's Omen was actually working, or this was going to be a short career.
Ain't found a way to kill me yet
Eyes burn with stinging sweat
seems every path leads me to nowhere
"This weapon as called an assault rifle," I explained to Jace. "It fires a chemically accelerated projectile of about 8 grams mass, at a speed of mach 3. Good enough to take out any unarmored target…"
"I notice nobody here has any armor," Jace replied.
"Amazing that," I answered. "And the guy with the belt fed weapon is the Rooster."
"That would be you!"
"Unfortunately …" But I was left with the adage: 'do the best you can with what you got.'
Walkin' tall machine gun man
they spit on me and my homeland…
Here they come to snuff the rooster, aww yeah
Yeah here come the rooster, yeah
You know he ain't gonna die
No, no, no ya know he ain't gonna die
"I do have a name for that ship that shot us down. They are called the Breen," Jace mentioned.
"Like that matters now. The only question important is: Why are they here and do they have anything to do with the natives?" I asked.
"Why is that important?"
"Because it's virtually impossible for these canines to have advanced this far on there own. They had just entered the iron-age one millennia ago. Usually it takes three to five to get this far. And why does it appear that the entire planet is undergoing perpetual warfare? All we have found so far is primitive iron-age dwellings and the only advanced items are weapons? Who is making them, and where?" I questioned. We had yet to find anything larger than a small village, all armed to the teeth, and all aggressive to any outsider. At least they haven't come up with booby traps or IEDs.
For the last three days we managed to avoid any major encounter with the locals. In the week that the ship had crash-landed we found nothing here that would be of help. Even if we could fix the life support and evade the Breen, it would be a long crawl on impulse engines to any hub of civilization nearby.
It was late in the day and we didn't make fires, as that would attract the locals. We had found a large village with what appeared to be a small factory in it, and had camped nearby, where we could keep them under surveillance. Tomorrow we would reconnoitre the area.
A bright flash lit up the sky.
"Bolide," I mentioned to Jace.
"That's more than just a Bolide. Look," Jace commanded.
I looked at the incoming fireball. It was debris from a star ship, the Breen by the look of it. "It looks like somebody has just shot down the Breen. Question is who?" I asked.
We didn't have time to discuss it. One of the lookouts warned that the townsfolk were headed this way en mass. Someone must of spotted us by the light of the Bolide.
Just great, a major firefight at night.
They were pretty slick moving through the trees, too. By now we had enough firearms to arm all the surviving goblins. There were a total of three belt-fed guns. Jace and I each carried one, while a trio of goblins operated the third on a makeshift tripod. I had a target on my forehead. They were coming for me. Of that I was sure. But with no angels to keep me company, I definitely felt alone.
Deja-vu.
"Here they come," Jace whispered. Just before they were in range there were flashes in the sky. Then phaser bolts filled the air – the sky full of angels! It was all over before we fired a shot.
Razia landed beside me, and gave me an embrace. "They are definitely NOT coming to snuff the rooster!" She stated. "I wont stand for that!"
Jace was somewhat astonished, both by Razia's appearance but her knowledge about the situation we were in. "How did you know about the rooster?"
"Stephen dreamt this over two months ago. I thought it was just a bad dream, but we decided to follow just in case. Unfortunately we had diverted for Cait when your distress signal came in. We just got here." Razia answered.
"You shot down the Breen!" Jace exclaimed.
"So that's who they were. Their first shot had no effect so we weren't about to let them switch weapons," Razia replied.
"It disables your warp drive in one shot. But apparently your engines are immune," Jace responded.
"Hate to break up the kibitzing, but can we get the hell out of here?" I asked.
Razia chuckled. Then a quick communication and the transporters fired up. I found myself in the transporter rooms of the 'Helion. I was home. The angels had cuddled with me, to make sure I had 'made it back' and wasn't traumatized by my ordeal. The flurry of wings was a daunting effect! But my two angels took some time to beam up, so I was patient. Then we headed to our quarters …
I awoke to both my angels, and both seemed to be satisfied by last night's activities. I was eager to demonstrate my appreciation of their mercy! Both of them hugged me close and reassured me of my place in their hierarchy. They may have come to snuff the rooster, but the angels won't let it happen. We were here for each other. Like yin and yang we were stuck with each other, and all appreciated it! We took a while to report to our posts…
When I reached the bridge, John was already there, and relinquished the center seat, taking up ops with Pense. Razia and Sara were at my side. Nergat was in tactical, Maya on sciences, while K'Tee had her usual chair at communications. All seemed OK with the universe again, for now. I can't predict what the future will bring.
As we approached the rift K'Tee picked up a Romulan transmission. "I just picked up a transmission for our favorite Romulan."
"Relar has another ship?" I asked incredulously.
"Or access to a ships subspace radio," K'Tee replied.
"Unless he was demoted he is still a commander…"
"True," K'Tee answered
Two ships came into sensor range just before they crossed the rift. That meant they would reach Ravnica before we made the rift.
As soon as we crossed the rift there was a message waiting for us to call Sunhome immediately. Razia walked over to K'Tee's station. Arcus was in the guild mage's chambers when out call came in. "Holiest, we have a problem. Two Romulan ships have taken up an orbit around Ravnica. We intercepted a transmission from one, coming from Relar."
"So destroy those ships!" Razia ordered.
'That's the problem," Arcus replied. "Both ships have proper IFFs from the praetor's fleet."
Razia turned to me. "That is a problem. If the IFFs are true firing on them starts a new war," I explained. "Arcus, do you have scans of those ships?"
"Sending the telemetry now…" Soon I had the scans up on the view screen. I couldn't help but snicker.
"What is so funny at a time like now?" Razia seemed to be a little infuriated with me.
"Those are a pair of K7Rs," I stated. "Called 'storm bird' they were aging ships during my time. Gen-4. They could even be the Praetor's ships. That could mean the Tal'Shiar has surrendered, and this command is Relar's punishment!"
"Punishment?"
"Yes, if the empire is as depleted as we think, the Praetor can't throw away command staff, no matter how rebellious. But he can put them in the crappiest ships possible until they demonstrate their loyalty! When we reach Ravnica I want full scans of those ships."
John replied, "They will pick that up…"
"I want them to notice! We'll de-cloak and perform a complete hull map. That will send a message," I ordered.
We entered orbit un-cloaked, and passed within 10 kilometers of the Romulans. Our scanners were active, and we were not trying to hide the fact. But then again a pair of storm birds would only last a little longer than Jace's ship. We might actually have to fire a second volley to get them both.
We were down in the guild mages chambers, going over the hull maps while the mages debriefed Razia. They were pretty sure that Relar had taken a shuttle to somewhere in the ghost quarter. I was pretty sure that I had actually been in the building before. A quick check of the satellite records confirmed that a shuttle was sitting on the back terrace of a Dimir safe hold.
"Figures." I thought out loud.
"What figures?" Razia asked as she turned towards me.
"There's a reason those ships entered the system uncloaked. They aren't equipped with cloaking devices," I answered.
"So this punishment detail you spoke off … but why send him here?"
"The ultimate in embarrassment, maybe?" I mused.
"How does that work?" Razia seemed to be confused.
"Simple. He has to parade in front of his former enemies emasculated, and in plain sight. As a creature of duty he has to do this or prove himself unfit. So he does what his Praetor orders. The ultimate test of loyalty combined with the ultimate in humiliating punishment." That brought a smile to my face. "For someone as proud as Relar, this may be a fate worse than death. We'll see if he goes through with it. And if he so much as twitches in the wrong direction we kill him."
That brought a smile to Razia's face. "Not my style of punishment … but I like it."
"Of course not, there's no instant zorching!" That got me another jab to the ribs.
I awoke to Razia's embrace. It was mid-morning, and we had slept in. OK, I had slept in. Razia didn't seem to mind. "So rooster, is the henhouse safe today?"
"I'll let you know when the day is over," I answered.
"Spoken like a true paranoid."
"Just because you are paranoid, it doesn't mean that the universe isn't out to get you…"
Razia pondered that for a while. But for me, it was the start of a new day.
