The Cimalian Princess: Invasion
by AJ Marks
Chapter 8
Randy walked back into the med lab once more. He seemed to be brought back to the mysterious blue haired woman. The doctor walked over to where Randy stood near the woman.
“I see you’re back,” Tommy said.
“There’s something here that I’m missing doc. She’s human, yet her clothing, the ships they’re using are all indications of something more than pirates,” Randy said.
“Another mystery, I found an unusual drug in her system. It took a while for the computer to analyze it but it came back as a form of mind control drug,” Tommy replied.
“Mind control, why’d that be used,” Randy questioned what the doctor had told him.“I don’t’ know captain, only what we find,” Tommy said turning to head back to his desk.
Randy glanced back down at the woman on the bed. She appeared a bit young, perhaps about twenty-five or so. A few years younger than he was, of course he had been promoted to captain only a few months ago. Who was this beautiful woman, beautiful, where did that come from he thought to himself. He shook his head a bit trying to clear the conversation with himself out of his mind.
“Is this the mysterious pilot,” a voice said causing Randy to turn. John stood not far away glancing at the woman on the bed.
“That’s supposed to be secret information John,” Randy replied.
“Oh, right sorry, it’s surprising when even the government doesn’t recognize what’s going on,” Jack said.
“John,” Randy said slowly. “I don’t know game the politicians are playing, but we’ve got another problem.”
“Another problem?”
“Seems we’ve lost contact with Hesslius and Vernada and some in the government are keeping that information from the people and the military,” Randy said. He waited a few seconds for the resulting explosion of words.
“Hades, what next, this is a big joke right? That’s it, I’m going to wake up and find out this is all a dream, well actually a nightmare,” John said.
“If this is then we’re sharing the same dream,” Randy said.
“Maybe we can send some government officials to the next attack. Make up a bunch of paperwork to invade a planet, or perhaps they can talk these invaders to death,” John said.
“John, these are the same people we’re sworn to protect,” Randy said. He didn’t mention he had the same thoughts.
“Sorry, just, well,” John trailed off looking down at the woman. “Humph, she shot down three of my squad, almost got me as well. I finally finished rearranging the fighter squadrons.”
“Some good news then,” Randy said. “Hood is out for at least three months, perhaps longer depending on the budget.”
“And Dredge?”
“Haven’t heard,” Randy said. “I have heard that Admiral Hayes is taking her place at Corestar along with the Second Fleet.”
“Heard good things about him,” John said. “What are ya going to do with our prisoner here?”
“I’m, well, I think I thought of something,” Randy said. The idea had come to him earlier and now he wondered how John would take it. “I’m trying to win her trust, maybe learn some things about who and where they come from and why they’re here. It might also give us a clue how to beat them.”
“Well, if you want to play that game, don’t blame me if it backfires though. Well I need to make sure the babies are settled in,” John said.
Randy nodded knowing that new pilots were in good hands. He glanced once more back at the woman lying there. A deep gut feeling told him she’d be important, or he just thought she was cute.
Meia glanced at what she saw in front of her. Her mother lay in front of her right after the explosion but the woman seemed different. The building looked familiar but as she continued to look there were differences.
“What is going on,” she asked herself. The woman in front of her was, but wasn’t, her mother. She backed up trying to filter though the information she saw.
“The Alliance, they did this,” she finally said.
“Did they?” the little girl’s voice asked.
Meia glanced over at the small girl. “What would you know about it? The Alliance are nothing but lairs who wish to destroy us.”
The girl cocked her head to the side as she continued to look at Meia. “Not what I remember.”
Meia opened her mouth to speak but the girl had already started skipping away. Glancing once more she continued to notice a morphing effect on her mother. One second the face was her mother, the next someone she’d never seen before.
Randy turned to look back at the monitors then at the strange woman once more. Something had definitely happened according to the monitors. Thinking about what possibly could be going on her actions took him by surprise. She bolted upright quicker than he thought possible.
He stumbled back by the action which normally would’ve been fine, except for the chair right behind him. His left leg hit the chair causing him to lose his balance. Halfway turning to try and maintain any balance he might have only cause him to stumble even more. Throwing out a hand for balance he hit the table, again it would’ve been fine, if equipment hadn’t been on it.
The resulting crash made him cringe as he fell to the ground. The noise had brought people from all over the med lab. He just hoped his dignity remained intact after this.
“What is,” the Doctor’s voice trailed off. Randy got up noticing that the doctor’s attention had been focused on the woman.
Several guards ran into the room as well. Randy saw the woman’s eyes darting around. She appeared to like a caged animal looking for a way out. One of the more eager guards walked towards the woman. A couple of heartbeats later the guard laid on the floor and the woman now had a weapon.
“Great,” Randy mumbled to himself. He could see the guard stunned as he looked up from the ground. “Everyone out, now,” he ordered.
“Captain, this is a dangerous situation,” the squad leader said.
“A situation that’s become dangerous by one of your man’s actions. I can take care of myself,” Randy said.
With some hesitation the guards left followed by the nurses then finally the doctor. That left him with one disarmed guard and one confused and armed woman.
Meia tried to shake the fog of what had happened with what currently was going on. The feel of the metal of the gun she held brought some sense of comfort in a situation she had no idea what had happened. Disarming the guard had been easy but standing left her dizzy. Her legs were wobbly but she willed them to hold. The man in front of her had to be in command by the way he talked.
She quickly assessed the threat the man might cause her. He stood about a foot taller than her with brown hair and blue eyes, but appeared to be about the same age. His uniform had been very different than anything she’d seen, black pants, a light blue short sleeved shirt. A quickly glance around the room indicated she stood in a medical facility that didn’t match anything she’d seen before. Her memories were a jumbled mess.
“Who are you,” Meia finally managed to whisper. Her lips and throat felt dry causing a hoarseness to her voice.
“I’m Captain Randy White, and you are?” he asked her. His tone seemed to be non-threatening but Meia couldn’t take a chance.
“Where am I,” Meia finally asked. She ignored Randy’s question for the moment. She needed information quickly. The dizziness hadn’t gone away yet.
“In the med lab aboard the Akagi,” Randy replied to her. “What’s your name?”
Meia waited a few seconds as she thought about the ship’s name. She had no recollection of such a ship. She finally decided to answer. “Meia.”
“Meia, I can see your still hurt, let us help you, there’ll be time for questions later,” Randy said.
She didn’t lower the gun just yet. She didn’t want to give whoever Randy was an advantage to use against her. She took a breath hoping to calm down her now blurring vision.
“What happened,” she finally asked.
She watched as Randy looked into her eyes before answering. “What we can tell from scans is you were fighting us. Is seems your very good, but when you pursued one of my pilots one of your own attacked you from behind. Your fighter crashed near our hangar where enough atmosphere gave your injection system the idea it was in an atmosphere. You were found in the hangar with sever injuries,” Randy replied.
“Alliance,” Meia asked.
“Yes this is an Alliance ship,” Randy said.
“Lies,” Meia finally said almost automatically. The dizziness now had an accompanying pain beginning to overwhelm her. Finally darkness overtook her.
Randy quickly ran over to help the guard on the floor help Meia back up and into the bed.
“You’re all right,” Randy asked the guard.
“Yeah, except my pride,” the guard said retrieving his gun.
“Next time assess the situation longer before rushing in.”
“I will captain,” the guard replied.
“Tell Doctor Leaver to come in,” Randy said as the guard walked out. Seconds later Tommy walked into the room.
“What happened,” Tommy asked walking over to his patient.
“She appeared to be having trouble with her balance, even her focus,” Randy told him.
“Hmm, could be a withdrawal symptom of the drug in her system. Her vitals look fine. She should rest for a while then,” Tommy said.
“I’ll go make a report to the admiral to let him know what’s going on,” Randy said. “Let me know if anything changes. And don’t let the guards near her again without backup.”
“Don’t worry, last thing I need is an armed confused patient on withdraw and pain medication,” Tommy said laughing a bit at his own joke.
Randy shook his head then walked out. He found John waiting just outside the med lab.
“Thought you were going to see about your babies,” Randy said.
“Did, then I heard about some excitement here,” John said. “So what happened?”
“Well, it was pretty impressive,” Randy said remembering the moves Meia had done on the guard.
“So she did disarm the guard as quickly as they said,” John asked.
“Very easy, one move and she had the guard on the ground and his gun in her hand,” Randy replied.
“No wonder she’s a good pilot. Reflexes like that would help greatly,” John said. “They can’t all be like that though.”
Randy glanced at John seeing the man in deep thought. “Now what are you thinking.”
“I’d like to meet her,” John finally said.
“John,” Randy said. He still didn’t think John meeting an enemy this soon would be good, for either person. “I don’t want you in the med lab. I need all the pilots I can get.”
“No, I’ve been thinking about what happened. I think I’ve blamed the enemy as much as myself. I’d like to know why their here, what did we do, and where did they come from,” John said. “There seems to be more going on than we know.”
“Especially if she’s drugged,” Randy told him.
“Drugged, you mean like a performance enhancement type or something else,” John asked.
“According to doc, its a drug that the computer says will affect memory,” Randy told him. That didn’t settle well with him at all.
“Their messing with their own minds,” John said. “We might not even be dealing with humans then. The people behind this might be aliens using them to confuse us.”
“Hadn’t thought of that. Might have her DNA tested to see if it matches anyone lost lately,” Randy said.
The two arrived at the bridge where Yvette stood on duty. She gave him a bit of a smirk before saying that Admiral White wanted to talk to him. Randy walked over to the communicator waiting until his father’s face appeared.
“Randy, glad you called,” Jack said.
“I hear you wanted to speak with me, I also wanted to speak with you,” Randy said.
“About what?”
“It appears our ‘guest’ woke up. Her name’s Meia and we’ve learned a bit more. Seems Doctor Leaver’s found a memory altering drug in her system,” Randy told him.
“And?”
“And she managed to take out one of the guards in one move while taking his weapon, but everything’s now under control,” Randy added hastily.
Randy watched as his father thought about that for several seconds.
“Anything we can use,” Jack asked.
“Well, she’s human, definitely confused, but that could be because of the drug, and, oh yeah, she’s got blue hair,” Randy said.
“Blue hair?”
“Yeah, its not dyed either but natural,” Randy said.
“Blue hair isn’t natural son,” Jack replied. “Is she a clone of some sort?”
“No clone markers that the doc could find,” Randy said. “We’re not going to be able to gain any new information for a while until she wakes up again. What info did you have?”
“I sent the Dragon to Vernada, and the Leadger to Hesslius. I’m waiting to hear back which should be in an hour or two. The Hood’s official repair work came in. The yard estimates three to four months repair time.”
“Thought so,” Randy said.
“Also Mark Hayes has now been promoted to Vice-Admiral along with another promotion and command,” Jack said.
“Who,” Randy asked.
“You, you’ve been promoted to Rear-Admiral,” Jack said.
“Dad, I’m only twenty-seven, too young to be a Rear-Admiral,” Randy replied.
“Randy, with all the career military people leaving it’s been easier to promote people then you think. Also you’ve made an impression with a lot of people the way you took over Admiral Dredge’s job during the battle. You’ve proven yourself. There is also a lot of promotions for your crew. I see John standing there, he’s been promoted to Lieutenant Commander,” Jack said. “There is one more thing though.”
“Here is comes,” Randy said glancing at John then back at the screen.
“Using the Akagi and Bismarck I’m pulling ships from the Reserve fleet and scattered ships to form a new Strike Fleet under your command,” Jack said to them.
“What about the government,” Randy asked. “They won’t like this.”
“We have a job to uphold, and that’s what I’m doing. Greg’s helping out with the government along with a few more allies. I think things will get easier for us if we can liberate Vernada, that’s your first mission with the Strike Fleet,” Jack said. “I’ll have all information to you by the end of the day.”
Randy sighed as his dad signed off. He glanced over at Yvette who gave him a mock salute.
“You knew,” Randy asked.
“Yeah, I also got a promotion but I didn’t know anything about the new fleet,” she replied.
“Well then, looks like I’ve got work to do. You’ve got the bridge,” he said to her. “And you Lieutenant Commander, don’t you have something to do?”
“Yes sir,” John said giving his own mock salute.
“Wise guys,” Randy said turning to head to his office.
End Chapter 8
Continued in Chapter 9
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