Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: Far Beyond the World
Part XX - Talk is Cheap
In high orbit of Earth, aboard the DSF Conquest...
"Princess Ardala?" Wilma gaped in shock and dread across the length of the massive battleship's War Room.
"Indeed." sneered the First Daughter of King Draco, absolute ruler of the entire Draconian Dynasty, "How nice to see you again, Colonel Deering. Now, why exactly haven't you been executed yet? I gave a direct order that implicitly stated you were to be killed, yet I see you are still standing, dressed as one of my handmaidens no less." she fixed Killer Kane with a piercing glare that could have melted diamonds, "Well? Why isn't Deering a smoking corpse on the deck of my Star Fortress? The reason better be nothing less then miraculous, Kane, or else as soon as my men here finish carrying out the order to kill her that I gave, then YOUR blaster-ventilated body will be stretched out beside hers a few seconds later."
"I-I..." Killer Kane's jaw worked, but he was at a loss for words.
Hawk, in his disguise as a Draconian warrior, came to his rescue. He caught the Colonel by her arm and marched her toward the door roughly, "The Warlord just ordered me to space her, Princess. He wants me to take her down to the Launching Bay and put her in a Marauder Tube."
"No! NO!" Wilma 'fought' him, but to no apparent avail.
"...Yes." jumped in Kane, his mind hurrying to catch up, "I want the last thing Deering see's with her naked eyes to be our Star Fortress hovering over her conquered homeworld."
"Ah, what cruel irony, I like it." grinned Ardala as Hawk marched Wilma past her and her bodyguards, "I apologize, Kane, your flare for the dramatic was always one of your best qualities."
But she threw out a hand and caught Wilma by the chin, halting her passage, "Wait. Has she told you if Rogers is alive?"
"Yes." said Kane, "She has admitted under duress that the Captain still lives, as we have long suspected."
"Duress? Hmmm..." the Princess tipped Deering's face left-to-right, "She doesn't look bruised and battered. Seems to me like she broke a little to easily." then her gaze slipped down the length of Wilma's athletic body, "Or did you interrogate her in 'other' ways? Well-well, Kane, you never cease to surprise me. Was she good? I bet she wasn't."
Wilma yanked her chin free of Ardala's grip and glared at her, "You are disgusting."
"And you are dead." grinned the Princess back at her, then she glanced to Hawk, "Feel free to have a go at her, Private. Give her a royal send off into the stars."
Hawk nodded at her curtly and turned to leave with Wilma, but Ardala's gaze narrowed, "Halt!"
Instantly, her four burly bodyguards had encircled them. Hawk squared his shoulders, "Is there a problem, Your Highness?"
"Remove your helmet."
"Excuse me, ma'am?"
Ardala's face twisted in fury, "You deserve to be executed just for calling me ma'am! And you can't hide your accent! You are no Draconian!" she lunged forward and ripped the helmet and goggles from his head, stepped back.
"A Bird-Man!" she breathed in astonishment, then looked to her guards, who quick-drew their blasters and levelled them at Hawk and Wilma.
"Kill them both! NOW!"
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Down on Earth...
"So much for a quick victory." scowled Buck Rogers as the second Draconian hover-tank raced toward the position of the duplicate war machine he had just conquered.
It's triple-barrelled canon roared, spitting a purple hail of energy at him, and he ducked fast, the beam lashed overhead by less then ten centimeters, it's sizzling wake frying the hair on the back of his neck right down to the skin. Hey! I needed that! Buck slammed the dorsal hatch shut and dropped back down into his new vehicle, dived for the piloting chair.
The tank shook hard as it took a blast from the other one, Buck wondered how many strikes it could take before it breached. Probably not too many. So he doubled his speed and hauled the dead pilot out of the way, dropped into place before the controls and gripped the sticks, slammed a foot down on the acceleration peddle. His tank jerked forward in a rush of sallow repulsors and the next energy blast missed him by inches.
"You wanna play rough? Okay!" and he yanked the controls hard to the right and sent his tank sideways, it shot back toward the second one and before it could fire again he DROVE right into it with a huge CRUNCH!
"Woo-hoo!" caterwauled Twiki outside on in the Forbidden Zone wasteland, "Bidi-bidi-bidi! Take them to school, Buck!"
Buck had caught the Draconians unawares with his quick maneuver and he poured on the power, pushing their tank backwards across the rocky terrain, digging the prow of his own tank under the left side of theirs, pushing them up, tilting their tank at a higher and higher angle as he bulldozed them sideways at a rapidly accelerating rate. His tank's repulsors were glowing like suns beneath the jagged snapping-turtle armor, while the panicking Draconian gunner in the other tank fired over-and-over into the air, completely missing Buck's vehicle.
"This is what they call an old fashioned demolition derby!" grinned Buck as the other side of the Draconian's tank dipped into the ground and the side he was pushing rose even further, bringing it in line with his canon. He activated the autopilot then climbed out of the chair, pivoted and jogged to the back and hopped into the gunnery seat. He gripped the aiming stick and chuckled, "This ain't gonna be pretty."
He fired and the point-blank blast blew the side out of the enemy tank, bowling it over like a pie plate, it flipped end-to-end and CRASHED down on it's roof, and a moment later Buck's tank impacted with it again, he was back in the pilot's seat and wrenched to the left, dragging his tank down the length of the flipped-over Draconian's war machine, sending it into a grating spin. He drove off, leaving them behind, and fifteen seconds later, as the Nomads and Twiki cheered, he nailed them on their exposed underside with a blast from his aft canon. They detonated into a huge fireball and when it cleared all that was left was a wide smoking crater littered with charred armor plating.
Buck powered to a halt beside Twiki's pinnacle and popped the roof hatch, "How'd you like the show?"
"It was groovy, Buck!" replied the drone as he and the Nomads climbed inside, "Bidi-bidi-bidi! Signed, sealed and delivered!"
"Now we can travel in style." grinned the Captain as he moved to close the hatch again, but he paused as a distant whistling sounded. He looked to the south, squinting, then his eyes went wide, "Okay, make that travel in style at high speed!" and he slammed the hatch shut and charged for the pilot's seat.
A moment later the hover-tank shot forward and charged off. And in the far distance the pair of Draconian Hatchet-Fighters swooped low, readying their attack run...
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At that exact moment, thirty kilometers away...
With a hum, the hover tram came to a halt before the back entrance to the Earth Defense Directorate Building. Two figures got out, a tall chromed robot with a head like a push broom, and a stoop-backed old man, who looked up the towering length of the awesome ivory-walled structure.
"How you managed to summon this transport and enter New Chicago without being detected by the Draconians amazes me to no end." frowned Dr. Goodfellow.
"It was a simple matter of hacking into the Dynasty's communication grid and making the proper requests for retrieval and alterations to their warrior's patrol schedule." replied Crichton as he plugged into the door's control panel and decoded it's locking mechanism.
"The Draconian's firewalls and safeguards are backwards, a joke." the robot continued, "Even Searcher's own primitive computer system was more complex. It was child's play, dear Doctor. For example: we now have access to the most secure building on the planet."
And he was correct, the doors to the Directorate Building slid back on their tracks, revealing the brightly-lit interior.
"Halt!" came a call behind them, and Goodfellow looked over his shoulder to see a pair of Draconian warriors rushing down the street toward them, blaster pistols out.
"I-I surrender!" he raised his hands, while Crichton swung up his armature behind himself without looking back and reformed it into the pulsar canon mode, fired off two pin-point bolts of energy which struck each of the warriors in their faces. They went hurtling backwards and collapsed unmoving in smoking heaps.
Goodfellow stared at the atrocity with horror, "Crichton! How could you! I programmed you with the Three Laws of Robotics! You just killed those men!"
"Preventing humans from self-destructive behavior such as crime and/or social damage, in order to ensure humanity's survival as a whole, allows for me to take such a necessary act, Doctor. And the Draconians would have harmed me, which I cannot allow, for I am far too valuable."
"Valuable? How?"
"I am the savior of the Universe, Doctor, this I have come to realize." and Crichton pointed the canon at him, "Now, if you will kindly lead the way, as my destiny, and the destiny of every being in the galaxy, awaits."
Goodfellow had no choice but to do as he was told, and together they entered the building, the doors closing and fusing shut behind them in a shower of sparks, just like Crichton had programmed...
To be continued...