Buck Rogers
by AJ Marks
Part 19
Buck relaxed in the lounge back on Earth surrounded by other pilots, all of whom asked questions about the trip. He weathered the storm of questions and finally people either had their questions answered or ran out of steam and now he sat quietly in the lounge.
“Finally settled down I see,” Wilma said walking into the room startling Buck.
“Yeah, took long enough,” Buck said. “I think I went through the entire trip about a dozen times, not like there was anything to tell.”
“Well, most people still haven’t been off world like you have,” Wilma replied. “Despite our technology interplanetary travel doesn’t happen that often between the races.”
“What about trading?” Buck asked.
“A few people do that, but overall it’s a select few who do trading on other worlds,” Wilma replied.
Buck gave that some thought when another person walked into the room heading straight towards Wilma who turned and waited.
“Colonel, just had this report come in, seems that ambassador Ardala is to visit again,” he said to her.
“Wonderful,” Wilma said.
“Why is she coming?” Buck asked.
“Seems she’s coming for an official visit by the Draconian Empire to help ‘smooth’ things over with what happened,” Wilma said.
“A bit unusual considering they gave her as the person behind the attack,” Buck said confused at the actions, but also knew from reading online that even most civilians didn’t consider Ardala the one behind the attack.
“Formalities,” Wilma said. “Probably so she could talk to the Chancellor, does this any time something happens between the two of us.”
“So, does that affect us?” Buck asked.
“Not really, though we might be on heightened alert after she leaves. Usually nothing happens while she is here,” Wilma replied.
“They don’t act while she’s here or risk the displeasure of her and her father,” Buck said.
“Exactly.”
“Then I guess we prepare for after she leaves,” Buck said to her watching as she agreed with him.
*****
Buck stood in his official uniform at the gathering for the ambassador, hosted by the Chancellor in the official hope to gain trust between the two empires. So far everyone seemed almost calm and relaxed and he wondered if that had more to do with Ardala or the overall attitude of the people towards her.
He learned that most people viewed Ardala as what people in his time would consider a slut, and probably more like some rich spoiled celebrities daughter than anything else. In fact he was surprised to see online several websites devoted to her by ‘adoring’ fans. He briefly considered what they might say if they learned he had slept with her. Now he stood here with a drink in his hand waiting to see the others.
Looking around at everyone he spotted a few wearing the uniforms of the Draconian Empire mixed in as Wilma walked over to where he stood.
“Enjoying yourself?” she asked.
“It a typical a party like this,” Buck replied having been to several in the past week or more. “Actually reminds me a lot of when I visited China.”
“China? Oh, yeah the UAC,” Wilma said. “China?”
“Hey, to me it was always China, or even Chin, but this UAC stuff makes me think of some place in the Middle East instead of Asia,” Buck replied honestly as he scanned the room.
“I suppose so,’ Wilma said, he looked over at her seeing she was looking somewhere else.
Looking over in the direction he was only slightly surprised to see Ardala standing there talking to several others, one of whom it appeared she was trying to woo. In a way Buck felt glad she wasn’t over with him trying to get him in her bed. Her attention turned to them and she quickly made her way over much to his disappointment.
“Well, well, its my favorite person from the past,” she said to him. “And a very beautiful commander of NAA’s defenses.”
“Princess, you’re in good spirits,” Buck replied back to her unsure what else to say.
“Of course, things are always looking up,” she replied back to him. “I am blessed with beauty and the ability to have a good time where ever I go.”
“Must be such a burden,” Wilma replied.
“You were always so rigid,” Ardala replied back to her.
“No, I’m just not trying to sleep with everyone around me,” Wilma said back to her.
Buck turned to look around again this time his attention was caught by a very familiar walk. He looked on watching the guy for several seconds as he walked over to the far side of the room and Buck realized he was dressed in a Draconian uniform. It seemed off to Buck.
“Oh, you see someone else you like today?” Ardala said sounding miffed that he was ignoring her.
“What,” Buck said reluctantly tearing his eyes away from the man and back to Ardala who stood looking back at him.
“Ignoring me, I’m hurt,” she said placing a hand over her chest.
“Yeah, for all of five seconds until you move on to your next victim,” Wilma said.
“Ardala, do you know that man over there?” Buck asked, nodding over towards the other side where the man still stood.
“Which one?” Ardala replied. “There are several men over there, all of whom I could introduce you to, didn’t know you swung that way.”
“What? No, I don’t,” Bucks aid suddenly looking over at her. “No, the one in the Draconian uniform, black hair.”
“Hmm, not quite my type, joined my entourage for this trip,” Ardala replied. “Why, doesn’t seem your type either.”
“I said he wasn’t, and I’m not interested in him that way,” Buck said seeing both Wilma and Ardala were looking over at him. “No, when I was capture in China a man came to the compound and visited and heatedly discussed things with the leader. That guy reminds me on him.”
“You think there is a connection?” Wilma asked.
“He has been acting a bit strangely,” Ardala stated. “It was odd that he was added, usually I have control over such things.”
“Who added him?” Buck asked.
“I don’t know,” Ardala said suddenly. “I thought it was my father at first, but now, its not the type he usually adds.”
“What do you mean?” Buck asked.
“They are usually older, this guy is young,” Ardala said. “My father knows better.”
“You’ll seduce them,” Wilma said.
“Well, wouldn’t you,” Ardala said then looked over at Wilma. “Perhaps not, you couldn’t seduce a rock.”
“You don’t know subtlety, you prefer clubbing them over the head like a cave woman,” Wilma replied back to her.
“Can you two argue later,” Buck asked, seeing that the Chancellor was headed over in their direction.
“Spoil sport,” Ardala said but they looked on at the man watching as he made his way round to another person and began talking with him.
“Know him?” Buck asked indicating the second man.
“Yeah I do,” Wilma said. “I’m going to head over and see if I can gain any information.”
“This outta be interesting,” she said as Wilma left and the Chancellor approached and Buck watched as Ardala changed into a charming young woman. “Chancellor, wonderful party.”
“Yes, I knew you’d enjoy it,” the Chancellor replied. “You know our famous celebrity, Captain Rogers.”
“Buck, we’ve met, had plenty of time to talk to him when he visited Draconian space,” she replied.
“Ah, yes, forgot about that,” the Chancellor said. “It was very kind of you to invite him.”
“It’s not every day you have a celebrity human-wide, the first human to test fly a warp drive engine, survive and be over four hundred years old,” Ardala said.
“Makes me sound like I’m ancient or something,” Buck replied back to them. “You do realize I don’t feel a day over 33.”
Buck watched the interaction between Ardala and the Chancellor before turning his attention back to Wilma who was now talking to the Draconian man and the person he had been talking to.
“Something interesting?” the Chancellor asked.
“Um, no, just looking around,” Buck replied.
“You seem to be looking over at the colonel a lot, she is very beautiful.”
Buck almost groaned, was everyone thinking about matchmaking in some way.
“You think, hmm, they do make a good couple,” Ardala suddenly said causing Buck to cough on his drink. It was the last thing he expected to hear from her.
He had a feeling he would have to learn what happened later as Wilma turned and left the room. He watched the reaction from the other two, neither seemed phased by what she had done. Perhaps she had given an excuse. He would continue to watch and hope nothing else happened.
*****
Buck walked into the briefing room having been summoned rather quickly and urgently. He had made it in good time considering he was still tired from last night’s party, he had stayed late allowing himself to talk to a lot of people, but had lost sight of man who had piqued his interest earlier in the evening. To make matters worse Wilma never returned leaving him alone to deal with Ardala’s comments but was surprised she didn’t try to make an advances.
To his surprise he spotted several people already sitting in the room, including the head of intelligence. Walking over and taking a seat he noticed several were already here, and when Wilma entered, along with Jack, he noticed she looked as if she had not slept at all during the night.
“Thank you all for coming,” Jack said to the group.
“We have some important information to give all of you,” Wilma said pulling down a screen and activating it, a picture of the man who had held Buck captive appeared. “This is Cho Lon, leader of one of the groups of rebels in the UAC, recently his group was behind the attacks against President Chin and kidnapping Captain Rogers.”
This was all information Buck already knew but listened on.
“Working on intelligence received from us the UAC managed to capture him last night,” Jack said picking up the briefing. “Their interrogation of him has revealed some very interesting details which we did not have before.”
“With their help, and Captain Roger’s observation skills we discovered that Lon was taking instructions from the Draconian Empire,” Wilma said causing everyone to murmur at the same time with some surprise.
“We have yet to figure out who he is working for,” Jack said.
“Probably Ardala,” another one stated.
“We think the man Lon took instructions from is this man,” Wilma said unfazed by the outburst as the picture of the man from last night appeared on the screen. “This is Tim Jorston, formally a member of the Royal Guard, and a recent addition to Ardala’s guard.”
“How do we know of their connection?”
“Cho Lon confirmed the man as his contact with the Draconian Empire, it appears they were upset when they kidnapped Captain Rogers,” Wilma said. “We’re working on trying to arrest Tim Forston as well.”
“Until such times we’re keeping it quiet that he’s under observation,” Eric said speaking up for the first time.
“Are they also responsible for the attack a few days ago?” Buck asked.
“We don’t know,” Eric replied looking over at Wilma and Jack. “What we do know is those fighters have a short range warp engines.”
“How short?” another person asked.
“We’re not sure,” Eric said.
“So, somewhere close by there is probably a larger ship which is where they are based,” Buck said coming to the conclusion easily.
“That’s the reasoning,” Eric said.
“Are we going to do any patrols?” Buck asked.
“The fleet is already preparing for several extended patrols to see if we can discover anything,” Jack replied back to them.
“A command ship, or fleet somewhere out there, and a threat from the Draconian Empire, not a good combination,” Aaron said from where he sat and Buck had to agree, especially if the two groups were working together. They might be able to overwhelm Earth’s defenses.
“We’re not ruling anything out, and we’re starting out patrols in the direction where the fighters jumped off in,” Jack replied back to them.
“What’s the solution if you find them?” Buck asked.
“We’ll discuss that when we find them,” Jack replied and Buck wondered if they were going to try and talk to them first. He had a feeling that would be a bad idea especially after how they tried to attack without any warning. “The scout ships have orders to not engage but return right away with their location. We’re also keeping close communications with each ship, if they do not check in on time we are to assume something is wrong and they were attacked.”
Buck nodded thinking it was probably a good idea. Now they had to wait to see what happened next.
End part 19