Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: Far Beyond the World
Part XXII - Vicious Circle
High above the Earth, on the most lethal Star Fortress in the Dynasty's armada...
"Kill them both! NOW!"
The four muscle-bound Bodyguards held their long-barrelled blasters levelled at the faces of Hawk and Colonel Wilma Deering, while Princess Ardala, resplendent in her amber-and-platinum royal livery, waited for her order to be carried out, a bloodthirsty sneer upon her radiantly-beautiful face. Her impressive bosom heaved in wanton anticipation, straining against the low-cut bejewelled bodice that barely contained it. And her men tipped their pistols downwards and pointed them at the chests and backs of the human female and her feather-haired companion, their gauntleted fingers tensed on their triggers and
"STOP!" shouted Killer Kane, back inside the War Room, and the four warriors froze, millimeters from vanquishing Deering and Hawk from existence.
Ardala whirled on him, her face livid, "How DARE you, Kane! I gave a royal command!"
"But you have no right, Princess. That Bird-Man is in my employ."
"What?" she looked back to the tall alien and scowled, "That is insane! You know the law. No Bird-Man is allowed off the surface of Arcannis."
Arcannis! Hawk committed the name to memory, he would never forget it, it was burned into his consciousness with fiery letters ten miles high!
"Yes, I know that, Princess." replied Kane as he strode up to her and plucked the helmet and goggles from her grip, "I was the one who made the law, remember. Which means I can bend it, if needs be."
"But a Bird-Man cannot be allowed to roam free!" she countered, glaring at Hawk, "You know the Prophecy."
Prophecy? frowned Wilma and Hawk's fists balled even tighter.
"And indeed one cannot, Princess. This Bird-Man is my indentured servant, a loyal member of my Clan's household. He is Vulture, and I trust him as far as I could trust any non-human."
"Vulture?" Ardala pursed her lips and looked the alien up-and-down critically, as Kane handed him back his uniform effects.
"Yes." said the Warlord as Hawk put the eye covers and headgear back on, "He was assigned aboard the Star Fortress Triumph until this morning when I had him transfered back to my command."
"But loyal so far or not, Kane, how can you truly trust him?" Ardala demanded, though her tone was already beginning to denote boredom with the subject.
"He is implanted with a subcutaneous thermax charge. With a simple coded transmission from this I can kill him." and from a pocket in his black uniform Kane produced a flat silver device set with a single red button.
"That sends the detonation code?" asked the Princess.
"Indeed."
"Then gimme it!" and she snagged it from Kane's fingers, then turned on Hawk and held it up before his eyes, "See this, Bird-Man? Your life is now in the hands of me! Step out of line even ONCE, and that will be the end of you! Do you heed?"
"Yes..." replied Hawk and resisting the urge to break her neck with every fibre of his being he bowed his head to her in supplication, "I heed..."
Wilma's eyes flicked down to the Bird-Man's fists which were quivering with barely restrained rage. Her stomach twisted even further into knots and she prayed he could maintain control.
Ardala studied his face for a long moment, then rolled her eyes, "Fine then, Vulture. Now, take this ugly human female down to the Launching Bay and cast her out into space. I shall watch the show from the Bridge."
"As you command, Princess." and grasping Wilma by the arm Hawk shouldered his way past the bodyguards and vanished down the dark corridor, dragging the Colonel after him.
Ardala watched him go, drinking in his regal bearing lustily. He is magnificent! Perhaps I shall have him brought to my quarters later, to further 'test' his resolve...
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As soon as they had put two bends in the passageway between them and the War Room, Wilma gasped in relief and Hawk released her, his stoney expression waning for a moment.
"That was close, Colonel."
"You're telling me!" Wilma had to put a hand on the bulkhead to steady herself, "I think my life flashed before my eyes six times back there. If Kane hadn't of interceded we'd be dead!"
"Indeed." nodded Hawk, "His loyalty to his son must outweigh the oath he has sworn to the Draconian Dynasty."
"Apparently." she huffed out a worried breath, "Okay, we managed to get away from the psychotics running the fleet, if only for a few moments, and we've met up. So, onto Phase Three of the plan?"
"Wild turkeys could not hold me back, Colonel."
"Wild turkeys? Uh, close enough." and taking Hawk by the hand, Wilma set off at a run through the ship, bound for the target of their operation.
Back in the part of the corridor they had paused to mentally regroup in, amongst the loose network of pipes and conduits in the ceiling above, a hidden figure uncurled from their hiding place and with cat-like reflexes they dropped back down onto the deck, landing on all fours.
Her suspicions confirmed, Tigergirl set off after Hawk and Deering...
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Far below their racing feet, on the surface of the Earth...
Darkness had fallen in the wide Forbidden Zone surrounding the distant Inner City spires of New Chicago. No stars glimmered in the inky dome of the nocturnal sky, and with the running lights shut off and the repulsors on stealth mode, the stolen hover-tank carrying Buck Rogers, Twiki and their new Nomad companions, was completely invisible as it reached a massive blast crater.
Up-ending it's rear section with a flare of xanthic repulsor power, the squat conveyance tipped down and into the canyon-like grotto carved by a nuclear strike half a millenia earlier. The slope was steep and the tank shot down it at a fast rate, bumping and quaking as the inertial resistors attempted poorly to compensate for the extremely uneven terrain.
"Bidi-bidi-bidi!" bleeped Twiki with worry as he clung to the side of Buck's piloting chair, "I don't like the looks of this!"
"You and me both, pal." muttered Buck to him under his breath, but he kept to the coordinates the Nomad leader Thaelin had given them.
After nearly ten minutes of rapid descent the bottom of the huge crater finally loomed and Buck released the accelerator halfway, slowing them down so the levelling out wouldn't put the underside of the tank in danger, lest a large enough boulder appear in their path. A moment later they were flat to the ground, albeit still hovering a meter above it on a soft glow of yellow light, and Buck sent them shooting forward, returning to cruising speed.
"Buck! What's that?" Twiki pointed to an orange light that had begun to pulse on the console.
"It's a radiation alert." scowled the Captain, "This place is hot, and I don't mean packed with bikini-clad co-eds."
"Bidi-bidi-bidi! Are we in danger?"
"Not yet, the tank's thick armor is protecting us. But I wouldn't want to build a summer house down here, let me tell ya." he watched the meter above the blinking warning light slowly climb toward a yellow bar.
It it gets to red I'm dumping Thaelin and his cronies out then turning us around and getting us out of here faster then the Roadrunner!
Up ahead a dark cave mouth loomed, more then big enough to accommodate the hover-tank, and Buck frowned, glanced back over his shoulder, "Hey, Thaelin!"
"Yes, Captain?"
"Is this your pad?"
The Nomad stood up from the gunnery chair and moved to the front of the cabin, looked to the tactical display on Buck's console. He nodded beneath his blue hood, "Yes. That is...where...you want to...go."
Buck tapped the rad readout, "Is it going to get any worse if we keep going? Because I'm really fond of my hair. Not to mention my internal organs. I like them in an un-liquified state, if you know what I mean."
"Once you leave...the crater...behind...the radiation goes...away." assured the nomad, "Not that it...bothers us."
"Yeah, was pretty sure it didn't." Buck returned his gaze to the screen and raised their speed, eager to get to the safe zone, "To live out here you'd have to be pretty hardened against it, I'd expect."
"You have no idea...Captain. The levels in...this crater are...nothing compared to a...lot of the...regions out in...the Eternal Wastes."
"Sounds like a real garden spot."
"It is not."
"Yeah, I was being sarcastic." and then they shot into the tunnel and were surrounded by absolute darkness.
The ground beneath them began to slope steeply and they plunged down-and-down into the earth. They had to already be at least two miles below the surface and Buck swallowed hard, tried to not think of cave-ins and giant worms tunnelling through the depths, eager for humans to snack on.
I have gotta stop reading Frank Herbert after midnight...
At last the slope levelled out and they shot down a short tunnel that terminated in a wide, well lit cavern of immense size. Buck brought them to a halt and gaped in astonishment at what he saw there.
"No way!"
But it was.
A huge underground lake spread out before the hover-tank, and ringing it was a dense village of boxy buildings and huts constructed out of the leavings of 20th Century Earth. The Captain made out parts of billboards advertising cola and life insurance, the fuselages of downed 747 airliners, fire escapes that had been inverted to become fences around gardens, log cabins constructed out of utility poles, the list went on-and-on and became more bizarre the more he studied it.
"Is that tall building on the right made out of stacked refrigerators?" he couldn't believe his eyes.
"What is a...ree-frig-or-eight-tor?" asked Thaelin.
"Forget about it." Buck shook his head, "This is amazing, simply amazing."
"Thank-you, Captain." the Nomad smiled through his hood, "To...us it is an...occasional rest stop, while to others...of our kind, it is...home."
A horde of angry Nomads with privative weapons had rushed out to challenge them and with a nod to Rogers, Thaelin moved to ladder and ascended it, popped the hatch and climbed up on top of the hover-tank, waving his countrymen to a stop. The mob morphed into a friendly crowd and it parted down the middle to allow passage to a medium heighted man clad in wrappings of white.
"That must be their Archon." said Buck, heading for the ladder with Twiki on his heels, "Well, time to meet Mister Big."
"Bidi-bidi-bidi! I got your back, Buck!"
Rogers crawled out of the tank and slid down it's sloped prow, landed on the hard-packed ground, then turned back and lifted Twiki off and set him down beside him. Together they crossed to the front of the crowd and stepped up to the senior Nomad. Buck held out his hand to him and shot him his best 'astronaut on a talkshow' grin.
"Howya doin, the names Captain Rogers. But you can call me Buck."
"Indeed I can." replied the Archon through his voice-muffling hood, and to the Captain's surprise he shook with him heartily.
"You have no idea how good it is to see you, Buck."
"It is?" Rogers cocked his head in confusion, "How so? Have we met before?"
"You might say that." chuckled the Archon, then releasing the Captain's hand he reached up and pulled back his hood, revealing his face.
And Buck's jaw dropped to his shoes, "No...friggin...way! Elias? ELIAS!"
It was. The man before him was Dr. Elias Huer.
"Welcome home, Buck."
To be continued...