Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: Far Beyond the World
Part XXVII - One for the Money
Present day, in the subterranean city of the Nomads...
Buck Rogers stared in awe at his old friend, his mind still whirling at the immensity of what Dr. Huer had endured and accomplished.
"I'm still trying to wrap my head around the concept that you, Doc, you, went out into the Forbidden Zone. You actually left the Inner Cities network!"
"I did what I had to, Buck." smiled Huer.
"Yeah, you sure did! And not only did you survive out here, you managed to conquer the place!"
"Bidi-bidi-bidi!" agreed Twiki from where he sat on the floor, graspers in his lap, "You're the Nomad King, Doc!"
"You two exaggerate my accomplishments."
"Not by much, I would say." piped up Dr. Theopolis from the nomadic war room's table, "I can confirm the veracity of every statement Dr. Huer has made, Captain."
Buck waved his hands in surrender, "No, I'm not saying I doubt any of it. You did what you said you did, of that I believe. You just never cease to amaze, Doc. Wow..."
Huer folded arms across his chest and frowned, "Well, yes, all that aside, I don't really see my mission as successful yet, as the Draconians still hold Earth within their grip. No, until the last of them is forced off our world, my job shall not be finished."
"Agreed!" said Theopolis.
"We've already got a plan with multiple-objectives underway, Doc." grinned Buck from his chair, "Though my part of it has sorta hit a huge snag."
"What were you attempting to accomplish?" asked Huer.
"My part was to get Dr. Goodfellow into New Chicago and infiltrate the Energy Directorate."
"Because he was their Head?"
"Uh-huh." nodded Buck, "But we were shot down trying to enter the atmosphere and our shuttle crashed in a lake. Me and Twiki got out, but the Doc, he didn't...he got eaten..."
Huer's eyes went wide, "That is awful, simply awful. What a loss, he was a great man, and a brilliant scientist."
"He was." Buck sighed, "But at least I've found you, Doc. You can give us access to the Energy Directorate and use your codes to power the Shield back up."
"Well, yes, I could do that. But then the invading Draconians would still be down here, and their armada of Star Fortresses would still be in orbit."
"Yeah, Wilma and Hawk are working on dealing with that. Their mission is to infiltrate the lead Fortress and plant a virus in it's systems that will disable the armada completely. There's even a chance they've already succeeded, as they've had plenty of time now to carry it out."
Huer frowned, "It's too bad we have no way of knowing if they have. But once we infiltrate New Chicago we should be able to find out."
Buck looked to Theopolis, "Can you get us in the same way you got yourselves out?"
"Unfortunately no, Buck. Since then I have attempted to gain access to the Draconian's comlink but they have changed the frequency."
"Oh, too bad."
"Indeed."
Buck rose and stalked across the room, grabbed up a Draconian blaster rifle, turned it over in his hands, "Then I guess we're going to have to get in the old fashioned way." and turning he tossed the weapon across the room and into the hands of Thaelin, the Nomad leader, who had been listening to the discussion in silence.
He blinked in confusion at Buck through his blue wrappings, "I do not...understand."
"Oh, you'll get the picture, pal, once I explain an old 20th Century concept called 'bait and switch'."
And Buck laid his idea out for them...
* * * * *
High above them in orbit, deep inside the twisting corridors of the Conquest...
"I think this--Yes! This is it!"
Smiling in relief, Colonel Wilma Deering stepped up to the nondescript door that looked to the Bird-Man like any of the many other doors they'd passed during their flight through the labyrinth of tunnels and decks that filled the huge Star Fortress.
Building a space cruiser two miles wide is insane, Hawk scowled, what is the point of travelling across the cosmic depths of space if you have to spend the majority of them time trapped within a maze of endless metal corridors, all blandly painted the same shade of rust. This ugly vessel is depressing...
He studied the twisting script titling the door while Deering worked to override the locking mechanism, "You can read Draconian?"
"Yes, uh-huh." Wilma nodded distractedly as she finished prying off the control panel's casing then unplugged the exposed mechanism of the the keypad and reaching inside the housing dug around for the appropriate circuit, "It was required reading back Flight School, seeing how the--uhh!--the Draconian Dynasty controlled three quarters of the known galaxy."
"Is there a problem?"
"No, I just brushed up against an unsheathe'd polarizer. That'll leave a mark, but I'll--yes!--live." and with a hum the door slid back, revealing a dark chamber.
"Well done, Colonel." Hawk smiled wanly as she replaced the keypad and it's casing, then followed him inside. The door slid shut behind them and they locked it shut just in case.
Ten seconds later back out in the corridor, the lean figure of Tigergirl prowled around the bend and eyed the door they'd just vanished through. She glanced at the keypad, instantly noting it was disabled as it no longer had a glowing locking indicator, then her hooded gaze slipped upwards to the gaps between the conduits running across the ceiling.
There is more then one way to skin a human, she grinned through needle-sharp teeth, then sprang upwards like the feline hybrid she was and crawled into the narrow space.
Inside the chamber, Hawk and Wilma studied the curving bank of machinery, it was taller then they were and covered in tiny screens, diamond-shaped keypads and about a million blinking green and yellow lights.
"So this is the ship's Main Computer?" asked the Bird-Man.
"Yes." nodded Wilma as she searched for an insertion point, "It controls every system on the Conquest, and not only that, it has a direct link to the rest of the armada, according to reports I've read from the Intelligence Directorate. See, the Draconians don't use Stargates to travel across the galaxy like we do. They actually have a stardrive generator, but it is far too complex and costly to install it aboard all their Star Fortresses, so according to what we've been able to discover they only have three of them. One is on the Draconia II, the Draconian flagship, one is on King Draco's personal Stellar Citadel, and the last one is-"
"-here, on the Conquest." finished Hawk with a nod.
"You got it." and she held out a hand to him.
"Right." he dug under his Draconian breastplate and pulled out a data crystal, handed it to her, "Let's hope the computer virus does everything it's supposed to do."
"It should," frowned Wilma as she plugged it into the waiting receptacle and it glowed to life, "Crichton wrote it and that robot has never steered us wrong."
"I should hope not." replied Hawk, folding arms across his chest, "I would not want to face-off against an intellect as superior as-" with a rush, Tigergirl plunged down to land between them!
Before they could react, the shapely alien threw out an arm and smashed Wilma across the face, while her boot flew up and struck Hawk on the chin!
The Bird-Man was bowled over and went down on the deck, out cold, while Deering staggered back and crashed up against the wall of computing machinery, her lips bloody. Tigergirl whirled and yanked the data crystal out, interrupting it's transfer, then stuffed the device down her cleavage.
Wilma's eyes flashed in fury, "If you think that's going to keep me from retrieving it, you are dearly mistaken."
"Actually, Colonel," hissed Tigergirl in challenge, "I'm counting on it!"
And they sprang at each other!
To be continued...