The Cimalian Princess: Clone
by AJ Marks
Part 26
Randy stood stunned when he heard another Meia start talking on the communicator, or at least someone who stated they were Meia. The fact she knew his name only served to increase the chaos going on even as Kim turned to him.
“Incoming Cimalian fleet, they were too close for the scanners to pick up in hyperspace,” she said to him.
He looked down at the scanners seeing the size of the fleet, it was over ten ships and at least three battle-cruisers several cruisers and destroyers and one ship the computer couldn’t identify. The odds were not in their favor.
“Orders?” Kim asked
“Tell John to launch, we have hostile forces,” Randy said, he needed time to figure out what was going on and who was in that smaller ship and why. He looked over at Meia who ahd stopped talking and appeared to be thinking about what was going on as well.
“Admiral, the enemy ships are heading towards the small ship,” Toni’s voice said breaking Randy’s concentration.
“What? That makes no sense,” Randy stated trying to figure out what was going on.
“They are trying to get us to believe that person on the ship is me by using my voice to cause confusion,” Meia said. “If we protect it, get it on board, they set off an explosion and the Akagi is destroyed.”
Randy thought about that, it made sense and something the Cimalian Empire would likely do, but he also had to remember whoever was on that ship used his name. He looked around to see everyone looking at him for the next order, what would they do next. Ignoring the ship was the wise decision and yet he couldn’t bring himself to give the order, something about it felt wrong.
“Randy, are you there?” the voice said again, and the pitch, tone, everything about it screamed it belonged to Meia. He had to know who was on the ship. “Bring that ship in, tell John to form a protection circle and give orders to land to the hanger.”
“But our mission, we’re ignoring it,” Meia said.
“I know,” he said turning to Kim. “Tell the hanger to prepare to receive prisoners, or enemy troops.”
“Yes sir,” Kim replied.
Randy watched her turn to Aaron who nodded and left the bridge to head down to the hanger to personally oversee what happened.
“Once all passengers are off-loaded eject that ship, recover our fighter and get out of here, retreat back to the fall back area,” Randy said.
“Understood,” Kim said, relaying the order to the rest of the fleet and the fighters.
“Tell the ship to dock but not to make any unexpected moves,” Randy ordered over the protests of Meia. He would sort all of this out later on.
*****
Meia’s finger hovered over the hyperspeed button, ready to go now that the engines had finished powering up. She had only one shot to leave as the fuel tanks were draining fast and keeping the engines on such a level would probably damage them. She hoped to have a quick reply from Randy.
“Unknown ship, dock in landing bay alpha, directions being given,” she heard Hans’ voice say and glanced at the other man who appeared uncertain.
“Understood,” Meia said, feeling a bit relieved, yet still confused.
“Another group of ships headed our way.”
Meia had already spoted that group and now powered down the engines, her decision made, had began to maneuver to land in the landing bay. She put her trust in the crew of the Akagi now, hoping they knew what was going on.
She spotted several Cimalian fighters breaking towards them. “Better get back and inform the others this could get bumpy,” she said to him, watching him go before concentrating once more on flying the ship.
The scanners indicated the fighters would reach the ship before it could reach the landing bay. The fighters closing the distance quickly, heading towards her and probably with orders to destroy the ship at all costs.
She noticed another group of fighters heading from the Akagi to intercept. “Go get ‘em John,” Meia said quietly while continuing on her path.
The hanger came into view and hoped to make it even as the transport shuddered from enemy fire from the fighters. She could see the Akagi open fire on the fighters as well and a few RG rounds streaked by the cockpit as another fighter strafed the transport. She judged the distance to the bay and switched over to manual, not wanting a computer to control her destiny. The controls had a bit of lag, quickly learning to do quick maneuvers.
“We’ve got trouble back here,” one man shouted as an alarm went off of a hull breech starting, a result of many of Cimlian civilian ships built without shields.
“I see it,” Meia shouted back to him. “Hang on for a few seconds.”
She pushed the transports engines to the extreme, hoping everything held together as she headed to the hanger. A quick glance at the engine reading indicted they were all in the red as the ship entered the hanger and she quickly performed a landing bringing the ship to a sudden halt, faster than what it was normally used to.
Breathing a sigh of relief she looked out the window to see a ‘welcoming committee’ of armed guards, not what she hoped for, but better than what she’d receive in the Empire. The engine warnings caused her to look down in concern.
“Everyone, get off now,” Meia said, waiting a few seconds hearing the group run out before programming the transport to lift off and hed back out into space. Presisng the execute button she quickly ran towards the exit even as the engines came back to life, protesting the rough treatment.
The engines powered the transport out of the hanger and Meia felt dismayed that the ship was already picking up speed as she reached the door. “This is going to hurt,” she mumbled to herself while jumping out the door hoping she got out before the transport exited the hanger and she died a suffocating death in space, something she did not want to do today.
*****
Randy watched the scanners over the protests of Meia as the ship approached to land on the Akagi.
“This could be the break we need, tell the rest of the fleet be ready to leave,” Randy said.
He didn’t bother to hear Kim’s reply, instead turning to the situation in the hanger and how the ship had rather reckless docked and wondered if Meia was right, that it was a decoy set to destroy the ship. He figured he would learn the truth real soon.
“People getting off, one injured, taking him the med lab now,” Aaron’s voice said over the intercom.
“I think you’d do more good down there than up here right now,” Randy said. “If they are doing what they were told then they’ll need new leadership.”
“Right,” Meia said, ending her protest of the current course of action. He watched her leave the bridge rather quickly and hoped they could get to the bottom of this mystery which was going on.
“Engines on the shuttle going critical,” Kim said.
“What?” Randy asked, looking over at her. “Can we eject it?”
“No time,” Kim replied back to him.
“Shuttle is moving again, its exiting the hanger,” Toni said.
“Shields up, helm, put as much distance between it and us as you can,” Randy said.
“All hands, brace for impact,” Kim’s voice said over the intercom. “Close hanger doors.”
Randy watched as the shuttle exited the hanger even as the doors started to close and hoped they would close in time, otherwise the hanger would be unusable and could even cripple the ship.
“Engines report full burn,” Kim was told.
“Informing all fighters to back off for a moment before picking them up.
“Shuttle’s engines going critical,” Kim said.
The Akagi shuddered as the shuttle exploded sending Randy to the floor, he hadn’t been strapped into the chair, a mistake which could have cost him his life. Alarms went off all over the ship indicating the battle-cruiser took some damage, now they had to figure out how bad. He stood up noticing others were still working and the bridge seemed to have suffered no damage.
“Status?” Randy asked, taking a look at the nearest screen.
“Reports coming in all over, shields are holding,” Kim stated. “Give me a hanger report.”
“The door took some damage, but the report is its still functioning, we are recovering fighters again,” Toni said to them.
“Tell the fleet to recover all fighters and jump out of here,” Randy said, not wanting to stick around anymore.
“Another nine ships approaching from hyperspace,” Kim said.
Randy nodded knowing they were working as fast as possible to get out of here. He tried to will people to go faster, knowing that he had probably stumbled into a trap, probably from the spies in the Alliance, a disadvantage to anything he tied to do.
“Hood and Warspite providing cover fire, their captain’s report they are ready to go the moment we are,” Kim said to him.
Randy nodded a bit relieved that the other captains were competent in their duties. It allowed the Akagi some room to recover and leave as well while accessing the damage done from the shuttle.
“Sir, Alpha bay is requesting your presence at once,” Kim said.
“Tell them I’ll be right there,” Randy said wondering what they needed him for. He turned to Kim, “tell all ships to leave once the last fighter is on board.” He watched her acknowledge his order before heading down to the hanger hoping he would learn the solution to this mystery and what exactly happened.
*****
Meia stood, wincing in pain as she put weight on her right foot. Standing up anyways she felt thankful to be alive after everything, and the hanger seemed to have survived intact even after she felt the shudder of the explosion of the transport ship. She limped over out of the area and made her way to where a few of the others stood waiting for her.
“You actually made it, amazing,” one of the guys said who had been with her.
“Yeah, a bit rough landing, but I made it,” Meia said stopping at the sight of the guards pointing their weapons at her.
She looked over to see Aaron standing there, staring with a confused look on his face. She wondered what was going on when another figure appeared, and she saw herself.
“See, I told you, and imposter,” the Meia she was looking at said.
“Imposter?” Meia replied confused. She had a lot of questions, including what a duplicate of herself was doing on board the Akagi.
“Yes, lock them all up,” the fake Meia said.
“Wait a second,” Aaron said, taking control. “I am in charge, not you. You might be Cimalian royalty or something, but not here.”
“Haven’t changed a bit have you Aaron,” Meia said a bit relieved he questioned her so much, now it would pay off.
“Have Admiral White report to the hanger at once,” Aaron said to another person, who went over the intercom to report probably to the bridge if Meia had to guess.
Meia looked around noticing several others who have taken notice at what was going on, including Ben and Jean who were watching. Despite everything it felt nice to be back.
“Thought you said things would better for us here?” one of the men who helped her escape asked.
“It should have been, but it seems she has messed things up, not sure who she is,” Meia said back looking at the other Meia. “Don’t worry, everything will be fine, you’ll see.”
Meia limped over to an area where she could lean against something to ease the weight off her ankle seeing the fake her watch her closely.
“So, you’re the spy the Emperor sent to destroy us all, if the admiral hadn’t acted quickly to throw the ship out of the hanger it would have destroyed us all,” the fake said to her.
Meia stared in shock at the lie knowing she had done that before anyone in the hanger even knew what was going on.
“Oh, going to lie again, its what you do best considering you’re working for the Empire,” the fake Meia said again.
By now the other Meia stood in front of her, anger on her face as she looked one and the combat stance she had. Meia replied as best she could despite her right ankle.
“What is going on here?” another voice said, one that Meia was relieved to hear.
End part 26