Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: Far Beyond the World
Part VI - Face the Music
On the Bridge of the Earth deep space exploration ship Searcher...
With a hiss of the hypodermic, the stimulant flooded the system of Colonel Wilma Deering and within moments she was surging back up to reality and sat up moaning.
"Uhhhh..." she rubbed at her throbbing skull, "Th-Thanks, Buck. What's our st-status?"
"You do not have Captain Rogers to thank for your return to consciousness, Colonel Deering, but instead I." declared a domineering voice and Wilma's brow furrowed deeply. Oh no, anybody but him. He is never going to let me live this down...
She cracked her eyes and beheld the towering shape of Dr. Goodfellow's 'crowning' achievement in robotics, the super-brained rolling automaton known as
"Crichton," glared Deering as she stared up at him, "quit hovering and get out of the way so I can get up!"
"No good deed goes unpunished." sniffed the chromed bot and wheeling back he turned around and headed off, "Really, I am beginning to come to the conclusion that this galaxy would be much better off if a vastly superior intellect like my own was completely in charge. Embarrassing incidents like today's ugly events would never happen under my watchful eye."
"I'll keep that in mind." Wilma rolled her eyes as she climbed up onto rubber knees and surveyed the ruins of the command deck. She frowned at the crew who were all still out of it.
I'm the only one conscious? Where is Hawk and Buck?
She looked to the Master Screen but it was dark, so she sighed and reluctantly turned to face the only source of new information she had.
"Crichton! Report!"
"I am not under your authority, Colonel."
"Oh, yes you are! I'm Searcher's Second Officer and you will obey all my commands."
"I am not a member of the Earth Defence Directorate, nor any of the many other obsolete Directorate's you humans have invented to badly micromanage your own meaningless affairs."
"I will have Dr. Goodfellow deactivate you, Crichton, if you continue to act like this!"
"He cannot. I have disabled all human access to my subroutines." and the robot finished downloading into the Engineering console and the lift's indicators lit-up. He spun about and headed into it.
Deering gaped after him, "Wha--Where are you going?! Crichton!"
"I had decided a long time ago then once we made it back to Earth I was going to disembark and go my own way. I have grown tired of you inferior organics and your cloying, simpering ways."
"We aren't back on Earth yet, you tin-plated idiot!" she made to charge the lift.
"Since you bumbling humans have managed to bungle even a simple task like making it back to Earth, I will endeavour to find a way to complete the journey on my own." and the doors moved to close, "Farewell, Colonel. I shant miss you." and then he was gone.
"Unbelievable!" Deering raged at the empty Bridge, her red-throbbing face and balled fists making her appear ready to explode.
"Problem, Wilma?" came Captain Rogers voice from her neck.
The comlink!
She turned back to face the blank Master Screen and tapped the pip clipped to her uniform collar, "Buck! Where are you!"
"Outside the ship in my starfighter."
"What? How!"
"Hawk and I were forced to leave you guys behind in the questionable hands of Crichton-"
"And thank-you for that." she growled.
"The old pop machine giving you grief, huh?"
"You have no idea, Buck. He abandoned me!"
"No time to worry about that, Wilma. We have much bigger fish to fry."
She blinked in confusion, "Fish to...fry?"
"Nevermind! Look, Hawk and I managed to destroy three of the Marauders-"
"Great!"
"Yeah, it was a piece of cake. Well, not really, 'cause the Draconians seem to have upgraded their hull armor, not to mention the power of their ship-to-ship missiles-"
"Buck! Get to the point!"
"Right! Sorry! Okay, Hawk is gone. He took off in pursuit of the fourth Marauder in an attempt to keep it from reporting in. But one of the Draconian pilots survived me blowing his ship to smithereens and he's managed to jet aboard Searcher!"
"What?!" Deering's stomach twisted.
"Yep! He's aboard right now, Wilma, and most likely isn't there to sell Girl Scout Cookies. And he closed the Hanger Bay doors, keeping me from getting back in."
"You're trapped out there?"
"Uh-huh. Wilma, you--ave to--I-----keep him from----you there? Wil-" and with a final crackle of static the channel broke.
"Buck? Buck!" she stabbed the comlink again-and-again, but got nothing.
The line is jammed! It must be the Draconian. He couldn't have brought a jammer onboard with him, so he has to be doing it with our own equipment. Which means he must be in Communications!
Wilma spun on her heal and dashed for the lift, but it didn't open at her approach and she halted scowling, slapped at it's controls. But it wasn't receiving any power, it was dead. And so will we all be if I don't find our intruder and stop him! He's going to destroy the ship, that's for sure!
She jammed her fingers between the doors and with a grunt pried them apart, then peered down into the yawning rectangular abyss of the lift shaft. It's never easy, not for one second. But then what would be the point of life it was?
"There wouldn't be any!" Colonel Deering declared and she sprang across the shaft and caught hold of the rungs there. Gripping the utility ladder firmly, she began her rapid descent into the darkness.
Back on the Bridge, the slight shape of a silver-finished Ambuquad finally managed to heave the chunk of ceiling debris off of himself and sat up, shaking his molded head to straighten out his visual receptors.
"Bidi-bidi-bidi!" gawked Twiki at the silent command deck, "Where'd everybody go?! Awww, they've abandoned me."
* * * * *
Six levels below...
"Hey! You there!" shouted a voice and Lieutenant Bonengel looked up from his work on the exposed console.
Two humans emerged from the darkness of the Communications Bay, glaring at him, "This area is off-limits, who are you--he's Draconian!" and the man and woman halted in surprise.
"Yes! I am! And you are dead!" the blaster was out of his holster in a blur and Bonengel fired, catching them both in the chest with deadly energy beams. They hurtled backwards and went down, smoke spiralling up from the mortal wounds.
Bonengel grinned, then holstering his pistol he turned back to his work. And a minute later he was done.
"It will take them a week to undue the mess I have made here and call for outside help. But all I will need is less then an hour to blow the ship back to the Earthling hell that spawned it."
"You won't even get that, Draconian!" growled a voice on the other side of the room, and Bonengel spun round fast to face it and saw a tall, trim woman in a dark blue Officer's uniform. His pistol flashed from his hip in a blur and they faced each other in a Mexican stand-off.
"Drop your weapon, Earthling!" he glared through his goggled eyes.
"You first! I'm shooting to kill!"
Bonengel cocked his head in surprise, "You--You are Colonel Deering!"
"One and the same." Wilma glared down the barrel of her out-flung Type-2 Directorate pulsar pistol, "So you know what I'm capable of! Surrender right now or you aren't leaving this room alive!"
"You are the one whose life is about to cease to be, Colonel." sneered the Draconian, "Because you have made a fatal mistake."
"I have, have I?" she glared at him scathingly.
"Yes! You assumed I wasn't prepared to be interrupted by one such as you."
Wilma's brow furrowed in confusion, prepared? What is he going on...about...? And her eyes spun fast about her and alighted on a hex-shaped device of obvious Draconian manufacture that was stuck to the wall just inside the door. Damn!
She whipped about and sprang back out the doorway, just as Bonengel raised the rod-shaped device in his other hand and thumbed it's red-glowing button. BA-BOOOOOOM! the charge detonated, ripping the exit to shreds and sending a huge fireball tearing down the corridor after the Colonel!
The Draconian was already long gone, headed for the other way out of the Communications Bay, as the shockwave caught up to the racing Wilma Deering and lifted her off her feet and sent her hurtling down the passageway, she bowled end-over-end, her expert Defence Directorate training instinctively rolling her into a tight ball, she crashed to deck in a hail of spinning metal and flaming bulkhead chunks, rolled hard and fetched up against the wall, landing in a gasping heap.
Wilma sat up groaning and slapped out the flames burning the left arm of her uniform tunic, then winced at the pain shooting through her hip. She looked down and saw a twisted piece of shrapnel sticking out of her upper leg.
Great, just great...
She tried to stand but couldn't, the agony was too much. She slumped back down and gripped the smoking piece of metal sticking out of her, grit her teeth and shut her eyes, then pulled on it.
And nearly screamed at the top of her lungs!
"Uhhhhhh...." her head lulled as the deck spun beneath her, and then Wilma blacked out.
And from the next corridor, Lt. Bonengel stepped from the darkness, having backtracked to see how his booby-trap had fared. He sneered down at the unconscious form of the shapely female Colonel and with oily movement slid a knife from his belt, knelt over her and pressed it against the flesh of her throat.
"So much for the fabled Wilma Deering." he caressed the supple flesh of her neck with the wicked blade, positioning the razor-sharp tip directly over her jugular vein, then prepared to push it deep.
"Congratulations, human, you get to die in your sleep." he stared down the length of Wilma Deering's prone body, taking in the curve of her breasts and hips with lustful relish. "If I only I had time to properly appreciate you, I would roughly show you why Draconian males are superior to their human counterparts in every way."
He frowned and pried his eyes from the cream-hued plume of Deering's slowly rising cleavage, then returned his sneer to her angelic face. He fingered the knife and prepared to strike.
"A parting gift of unexpected mercy from the Draconian Dynasty, Colonel, for very soon the rest of your wretched crew shall die screaming as their rust-bucket of a starship explodes around them."
And with a laugh, Bonengel upped the knife's hilt and stabbed downwards...
To be continued...