Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: Far Beyond the World
Part IV - Devil Incarnate
On the Bridge of EFS Searcher...
Hawk stood over the useless Tactical Station, taut arms flat to his sides in frustration, as he and Buck Rogers stared across the deck to the Master Screen at the four missiles that had just been unleashed by their enemy.
The Marauders peeled off as they had done before, eager to be out of range of what was to be a fantastic explosion, most likely ten times that of the last one, for when Searcher blew, the Plasma Core powering her would go with her, causing a huge detonation.
Buck had dashed down to the Helm at the first sight of the rockets being unleashed and had managed to power up their low-speed maneuvering engines and in a blast of thrusters he had righted Searcher, more or less, and sent them shooting backwards. It wasn't the fantastic speed they would have gotten from their twin Plasma thrust tubes if the Core had been operational, but it was fast enough to buy them perhaps another sixty seconds of life before the faster missiles managed to catch up to them.
Every second counts, scowled Buck as the deck rumbled beneath his booted feet, I don't go quietly, if you wanna execute me, bub, you gotta drag me kicking and screaming all the way down to Hell!
But despite their attempt at retreat, the missile's impact was less then a minute away from happening now, this Captain Rogers knew very well. Once again he stared down the barrel of the gun, and once again his extremely sharp survival instinct fought to find a solution to the problem, one that he had been overlooking, one that was perhaps beyond his ken-beyond his ken!
If the answer you seek appears beyond you, then seek out an intellect greater then your own!
Buck swung his gaze back to Crichton who was selfishly pushing an unconscious crewman out of the way so he could get to the lift and leave the Bridge, most likely bound for the life pods, a destination the tall robot had no chance of making it to, but that was the way the egomaniacal construct thought.
But it's not the way I think! Buck grinned darkly as he charged back to the Engineering Station and with a blur of his fingertips he entered a command into the board, shutting down the lift.
"What?" the robot gaped as the doors to his escape refused to open, "What is the meaning of this! Turn the lift back on!"
"Not a chance! You aren't going anywhere, bolts." snapped Rogers, "You're trapped here like us!"
"What is the meaning of this!" demanded Crichton, his neck extending to it's highest point, indicating his rage at such foul mistreatment.
"What it means is, Sparky, is that you had better get yourself over to Hawk's console and interface with it, or bond with it telekinetically, or magically repair it, whatever it is you do, and do it FAST! Else you're gonna go Ba-Boom with the rest of us in about forty seconds."
"I-I refuse! This is blackmail, Captain!"
"Yep. It is. And you've got thirty-seven seconds now, I think."
The robot looked to the Master Screen, then back to Rogers, and Buck could swear he could smell him fuming, then Crichton rolled a fast as he could to the Tactical Station and raising his left arm jacked it into the waiting port.
"Hurry!" urged Hawk beside him.
"One cannot rush sheer genius." snapped the robot haughtily, "This requires precision tuning and the creation of a variety of bypass subroutines-"
"Then do it, Crichton!" growled Buck, his eyes glued to the Screen as the rockets got closer-and-closer.
"I am endeavouring to do so, Captain. I can converse with you, my blackmailer, without losing any processing time. In fact, I am able to-"
"NOBODY CARES!" shouted Buck.
"You are far too touchy." sniffed Crichton, "There, I am done."
"He is!" grinned Hawk as the required portions of the console lit-up. He typed furiously and the buffers came back online, "Buck-"
"Way ahead of ya!" and Searcher's maneuvering engines quit, the lights dimmed to just battery levels, and even the low thrum of the atmospheric vents died away.
"Transferring all available power!"
"Receiving it!" replied Hawk, "Channelling it!"
"Do it fast! 'Cause here they-"
"DONE!"
"-come!"
WHAM! BOOOOM! the starship bucked madly, Buck and Hawk clung to their Stations to stay aloft, while Crichton, who had just detached himself from Tactical and headed back to try and override the lift controls, was sent sliding backwards across the deck and nearly fell over again, if it wasn't for a console he managed to clamp onto, halting his flight.
Is this the end of the greatest mind the galaxy has ever seen? the robot pondered internally.
But a moment later it was all over and amazingly they were all still there.
"Yes!" beamed Buck and Hawk nodded back at him in triumph.
"The Defence Shield held." reported the Bird-Man, "With the energy you provided I was able to more then double it's strength over the last time, and the impact of all four missiles have been countered."
"How much power do we have left?" demanded Buck.
"Let me see..." Hawk studied his readings, "Almost nothing. The Shield is barely at 2 percent."
"Then transfer it back." Buck said and his friend did so. He reactivated the Environmental units and returned power to the lift.
"Excellent!" said Crichton as the controls lit-up again, "Now I can make my escape."
"Nope. Now that the ship is defenceless, Hawk and I need to do something about those Draconians. So you're staying right here." Buck jogged past him and into the opening lift car, followed by Hawk. He slapped the controls.
"But-"
"No buts about it. As much as I hate the idea, Crichton, you're in command for now. So use the medical kit and wake up anybody you can."
"This is intolerable!" the bot's indicator lights strobed in fury, "I refuse!"
Hawk shrugged to say he didn't give a crap, "Yeah, well, that's too bad, bub, 'cause I transfered only enough power into the lift for it to make one trip down. See ya on the flip-side, Rusty." and the lift doors slid shut and they were gone.
"I do not deserve to be treated like this!" raged the robot as it turned back around to glare at the silent Bridge.
My intellect should be revered and given the greatest social and environmental problems of our times to solve, but what am I relegated to? Playing nursemaid to a band of gibbering fools...
But Crichton sighed and gave in, then rolled off for the port-side lockers where the medical kit was stored...
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Beyond Searcher's twisted and pitted hull, out in space...
"I don't understand! Why are they still there?" the bearded Draconian squadron leader pounded mailed fists on the board of his Hatchet-Fighter, "Those missiles should have completely destroyed them, they should be space dust!"
"Sir!" said his wing-man over the comlink, "I think they managed to get their Shield back up. They must have boosted it's power some how."
Lt. Bonengel dialled up his nose cone camera and zoomed in on the Earthling's starship and saw that all her running lights were off now, and her portals were dark. White clouds of atmosphere funnelled out of the breaches in her hull in milky swirls.
So, she may have managed to fend off our thermax-graded projectiles, but it cost them the last of their energy. They are completely defenceless now!
"Ready your blaster cannons! We will carve them up like a roasted Zekkdron lizard!" and he sent his Marauder jetting forward on a third and guaranteed to be final attack run, the other three members of of his squadron falling into place after him.
That foul Earthling craft shall BURN this day even if I have to personally drive my fighter prow-first into her side!
But Bonengel's glare narrowed through his acceleration goggles at the sight of two smaller vessels exiting from Searcher's forward docking bay in a flare of engines. He didn't recognize the configuration of the first craft, but the second one he knew very well.
"They ARE from Earth!" he yelled into his comlink, "That's an Earth Defence Directorate starfighter!"
A cruel smile curled his lips, "I get it! They have been away for months, if not more. And they think we're flying the same old class of Marauders. Hah!"
He received echoing laughs from the other pilots.
"Oh, are they in for a shock. A shock, yes indeed."
And Lt. Bonengel altered his trajectory to intercept, eager to make the first kill...
To be continued...