Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: Far Beyond the World
Part XVI - Pipe Dream
In the bowels of the Draconian Star Fortress...
"Give us the flightsuit!" came the guttural command.
The greyish-blue eyes of Colonel Wilma Deering narrowed.
"Not going to happen." she growled back dangerously as two towering Draconian warriors advanced toward her.
"You will do as commanded, Earthling, or you shall be rendered unconscious and we shall take it."
She raised balled fists and went into a read stance, "Good luck trying-" they rushed her, she slugged one in the jaw, threw up a high-kick for the face of the other, but he was fast and blocked her the ankle with his forearm, halting the strike, she pivoted around and punched him in the gut, then yanked her throbbing hand back as she had hit his armored breastplate. A mailed fist struck the side of her head, sending her reeling into the bulkhead, the Draconians surged forward and each caught an arm, wrenched them up painfully and slammed her up against the wall, pinning her there.
Wilma thrashed and bucked but their strength was enormous, they held her in place one-handed by the wrists.
"Let me go!" she raged as their swarthy bearded faces scowled down at her, and the one on the right reached in with his free hand and gripped the catch on the front of her flightsuit, began to drag it downwards-
"Stop..." hissed the husky female voice of Tigergirl and the bearded soldier did as he was told, pulled his hand back.
Breathing heavily, Wilma watched wide-eyed as the sultry felinoness rose up on her hind legs and strode toward her, hips swinging like a runway model. She moved into Wilma's personal space without hesitation and halted with her body nearly touching hers.
"You are not what I expected, Colonel Deering." purred the alien female as she studied Wilma's face carefully. Her voice was laced with feline inflections and they fascinated Deering despite her predicament, there was something so enticing about this strange being.
I always knew Tigerman came from some conquered world deep within Dynasty territory, but I-I never really gave his race any thought, let alone envisioned what a female member of his species might be like. She is...is breathtaking. But a deadly enemy, I can never forget that.
"I expected you to come across as a brutal killer," said Tigergirl as she looked her prisoner up-and-down appraisingly, "The infamous Colonel Wilma Deering, ace starfighter pilot with twenty-seven Draconian kills, partner-in-arms with the legendary Buck Rogers himself."
"Rumors tend to get out of control." glared Wilma.
"No, you are just as lethal as the files on you suggest, Colonel. Look what you did to our Launching Bay. Four men are dead at your hand."
"I was only defending myself."
"And you did an amazing job doing so." purred Tigergirl, "If it wasn't for my prowess you might have succeeded in escaping. But you didn't, and here we are. Now, I am going to order these warriors to release you, and you are going to remove that flightsuit and give it to me, with no resistance."
"I am? And why exactly would I do that?"
"Because it belonged to Warlord Kane's son."
Wilma's eyes saucered, "It does? I-I didn't know."
"And now you do. His father wants it back." and Tigergirl moved back, looked to the soldiers.
They released Deering and without a word she unmagged the front of the flightsuit, shrugged out of it's arms, then slid it off. She gathered it up carefully and handed it over to the cat-girl, then moved back, now clad in just her thermal bodysuit and bare feet.
"Thank-you, Colonel." replied Tigergirl as she folded the suit up and carefully stuck it under her arm. Then she nodded to the Draconian on Wilma's right and he slugged her across the jaw. She staggered to the side and fell to the deck on her knees, blood streaming down from the side of her mouth.
"That is for refusing our commands!" snarled the alien woman, and then she drew a palm scanner from her belt and played it across Wilma, "Now we shall see if you have anything hidden upon your person."
Wilma just glared up at her and waited for it all to be over...
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
Later...
With a hiss, the door to the Conquest's War Room slid back and Colonel Deering was marched in, clad in the knee-length skirts and silken vest of a Draconian handmaiden. Tigergirl marched behind her, blaster pistol at the ready for any sign of resistance. Kane looked up from his muted conversation with the Star Fortress's Commanding Officer as his sultry bodyguard stepped around the prisoner and strode up to him, handing over her bundle.
Kane handed her a data crystal in exchange, "Take this to the Chief Engineer."
Tigergirl accepted it and bowing her head in respect she left the War Room.
Raising the flightsuit's collar to his eyes, Kane studied the serial number printed there, then scowled across the deck at the Colonel, "Did you kill him yourself?"
Deering only stared back at him.
"No matter, he is dead, and now so are you." the Warlord placed the folded flightsuit on the console beside him, then squared his shoulders.
"So do it." snapped Wilma, "Execute me."
"Oh, we'll get to that, Colonel, that I promise. But after you answer a few questions."
"I'm not answering anything." she replied coolly.
"Your death can be quick and mostly painless, Deering, or it can be extremely slow, agonizing and very degrading. It's your decision."
She made no reply.
"I only wish to know if Rogers is still alive. The Directorate records we recovered after the invasion was complete showed that both you and he had perished during a training exercise. But here you are, Colonel, suddenly back in the land of the living, after almost two years. And one of our outer patrols is suddenly missing after reporting encountering an Earth vessel called Searcher, which appears to have vanished."
Kane drew a printed image from the surface of the console and studied it, "The image is fuzzy, but it appears to some kind of long distance space probe vessel. And do you know who else we found missing when we conquered Earth, Colonel? Admiral Asimov, Earth's foremost deep space explorer." he turned the image of Searcher around so she could see it, "And the motto written across the side of your vessel: Per Ardua Ad Astra. I still remember my Latin, Colonel. It means 'Through Adversity to the Stars'. You, Asimov and Captain Rogers went looking for the lost tribes of man."
Wilma's face hardened and Kane's lips curled into a sneer, "As I expected. You forget that I am not Draconian, Colonel-"
"Oh, I've never forgotten, Kane." she spat back, "You're human, though the lowest kind imaginable. You are a traitor, you turned on your own people."
"I am helping lead humankind into a new era!"
"You have enslaved them! Your own race! You're scum!"
"You don't know what it's truly like out there in deep space, Colonel!" he slammed his fists down on the console, "The Draconian Dynasty controls three quarters of the known Universe, but only barely. There are terrific alien elements out there whom we only just keep in check. Earth is but one planet, and your Federation is mostly symbolic, you have no real space force, and each world in it depends completely on their Defense Shields and Global Pulsar Batteries to protect themselves. But yours failed to keep us out, now didn't it!"
Wilma's gaze narrowed, "It should have. How exactly did you get past it? Scared to tell me your secret?"
Kane smiled for the first time, "It matters not if I reveal it to you, as Earth is ours now. One of your own transmitted the secret path through the shield to us."
"What?" the Colonel didn't believe him, "That's impossible! None of us would do such a thing!"
"You were just berating me for turning 'traitor', Deering." sneered Kane.
"I still don't believe it! Who! Who betrayed Earth!"
Kane shrugged, "That remains a mystery to us. The Dynasty received a coded message from deep space six months ago. In it was the coordinates for getting through Earth's Defense Shield, that was all."
From deep space? Wilma frowned darkly. Not from Earth itself? But who in deep space would have that kind of top-secret knowledge?
She didn't have an answer.
Kane returned to the original topic, "I read from your reaction that Captain Rogers is still alive, which comes as no real surprise. But even he can't stop us now, Earth is ours, Draconia has it in an iron grip, and there is nothing Buck Rogers or Admiral Asimov can do. Our forces will hunt them down and they will die, just as you are about to." and he looked to the nearest Draconian warrior, a tall thin man standing guard at the door, and waved him over.
Kane shoved Wilma down onto her knees and stepped back, ordered the soldier to draw his weapon. The helmeted warrior did so and flipped the pistol to it's maximum setting.
Wilma glared up at Killer Kane, "What, no trial? No pomp and circumstance? You're going to kill me right here, right now? Just like that?"
"Yes." replied the Warlord, then he nodded to the warrior, "Just like that."
And the Draconian levelled the blaster at Wilma's head and squeezed the trigger...
To be continued...