Read The Cagliostro Chronicles Online
Authors: Ralph L. Angelo Jr.
Tags: #Fiction, #Science Fiction, #Space Opera, #Action & Adventure, #General
The Cagliostro Chronicles
The Cagliostro Chronicles
By Ralph L. Angelo Jr.
The
Cagliostro Chronicles
By
Ralph L. Angelo, Jr.
Cover by Gustav Barta
Edited by Deborah Richardson
Of DRE&MS
Published by Cosmic Comet Publishing
Dedicated to the kids in my life, Tara, Sammy, Madeline and Nicholas!
You guys all rock! Love ya! Uncle Ralph.
Contents
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“3, 2, 1…IGNITION!”
The great ship shook, vibrating so heavily those sitting within its
command deck area held on for dear life as their vision blurred. Mark Johnson sat in the Captain’s chair and cursed inwardly, shaking his head he said “Shut it down.”
“
It’s not supposed to do that, is it?” A stocky man sitting in a plush chair behind the pilot’s display turned in his seat, and said to Mark.
“No Danny, It’s not.” Johnson replied as he slumped back in his seat, annoyance written all over his face.
Dan Sledge sighed as he stood up. “Relax Mark; I’ll get right on it. The issue has gotta be with the gyroscopic navigation and balance system.”
“All right Danny. Keep me informed. I’ll be down to the engineering bay as soon as possible.”
Dan Sledge nodded and walked away, toward the elevator on the left side of the command deck, and after entering the single entrant wide elevator sideways due to the width of his shoulders, disappeared. He was a very powerfully built man. At six feet tall he looked far larger than he actually was, because he had a huge amount of muscle packed on him. That was due to his heritage as a member of the famed Jupiter colony where he was born. He had been born in a floating city high above Jupiter that was placed there as a gas mine. His lineage had been genetically altered to allow for the incredibly increased gravity of the place. Not only was the denser musculature needed to simply walk around in such a high gravity environment, but it aided in moving equipment that weighed many tons more than it would on earth. Most machinery would crumble under its own weight in such a place. But people like Dan, genetically engineered to be super-humanly strong took all the guess work out of gas mining above Jupiter.
His strength was significantly more than a normal earthborn man’s. He could lift many tons easily, due to his unique musculature, but he had the heart of a teddy bear.
Next to his console a gorgeous blonde sat and swiveled her seat until it was facing Mark Johnson’s. She smiled warmly and offered, “It’ll be all right Mark. Danny’ll straighten it out.”
Mark
Johnson nodded as he stood up from his command chair. He was a good looking man with medium length brown hair. He stood about six foot two and weighed in the neighborhood of two hundred pounds. Not thin, not heavy. He had suppleness to his movements that some compared to a panther. “You’re right Ariel, I know you are, but I have to worry about this stuff. It’s my name out there.” He waved towards the outside of the ship and the hangers in the distance.
Ariel nodded, “I understand Mark, but try to relax anyway. This will all work out. You know that.” Her wavy blonde hair fell between her shoulders as
she turned her chair and returned to her position at her monitoring station.
A
riel O’Conner was drop dead gorgeous. She stood five feet seven inches tall and had perfect looks, like a Goddess. But she had something else going for her too. She was a telepath. A very powerful telepath. All of Mark Johnson’s command crew were special people. Ariel was his communications or ‘comm’ officer, and she was also his girlfriend.
Mark nodded in agreement then turned h
is head toward a man sitting at the next console over from Ariel, “Eddie, how are the weapon diagnostics going? Tell me something good, Mr. DiGenovese.” Sitting across from Ariel’s station was Eddie DiGenovese. Eddie was a dark haired man about five foot nine inches tall, and around a solid one hundred and eighty pounds. His boyish good looks and quick smile melted many a ladies hearts, but that wasn’t all Eddie melted. When he fired the ships weapons, or his hand blaster with pinpoint accuracy he could melt out a key hole at half a mile. His expertise had yet to meet its match. “Well, boss, I gotta tell you, it’s all good here so far. I think the weapons banks are fine. You do good work.” Eddie grinned.
Mark nodded and turned toward the last member of his command crew. “Red, anything to report? Are we okay? Or did we wake the enemy?”
The fifth member of the crew was the security officer or sergeant at arms. He stood six foot four and was a rock solid two hundred twenty pounds of muscle. His red hair and freckled face belied his no-nonsense temperament. He was a bruiser, trained in many different fighting styles. To this day, James “Red” Robinski worked out two hours every day. One hour building muscle, another hour practicing fighting techniques. He always had a dour expression on his pale face, and was not known to be the happiest of persons. But most importantly he was unmatched at his job, and he was completely and absolutely loyal to Mark Johnson. As were all in his security detail. “Mark, everything is fine. All security details have checked in, but it looks like we’re going to have some company in the next few minutes. I’m picking up hover tank movements in quadrant four, aimed directly at us and closing fast.”
“The general?” Ariel asked Mark.
“I have to assume. I mean who else could it be?” He turned to her, and then to all the command crew, looking over the expectant faces of everyone watching him, “I’m getting tired of these impromptu visits.”
“Tell him that.” Ariel urged.
“Won’t matter Ari. There’s more going on here than you know right now, but I promise I’ll explain it to all of you soon, once we get off planet.”
Ariel walked up to Mark who was staring out the big view screen before the
command crew. Right now it showed where the ship was ‘parked’ in the middle of nowhere, meaning deep within the Arizona desert, and the Johnson Space and Aeronautical Corporation test facilities.
“Mark, relax. This will happen. The Cagliostro will fly.” Ariel began, her smooth voice softly toying with his ears.
“I know Ariel. But I need to get it space borne in the next few days. We have to get off planet sooner than later.”
“Why?”
“Because of him.” he jerked his thumb towards the view screen “I’ll fill you in later, all of you. This is big, and right now I have to deal with our company.”
Ariel turn
ed and looked out the view screen, then cursed softly under her breath. “Do you want me to come with you?”
“No Ari. I’ll handle the General.”
Outside, now facing the great ship Cagliostro were a half dozen powerful hover tanks as well as an old style gasoline powered jeep, where a cigar chewing, army General stood up and looked over the top of the windshield. He was a heavy set man about six feet one inches tall. His gray mustache quivered on his lip as he beheld the Cagliostro for the first time. He whipped off his sunglasses and huffed and puffed on his cigar before jumping off the jeep, fists clenched, he stomped determinedly towards the Cagliostro itself.
“Johnson!” He roared. “I know you hear me Johnson! Get out here! You and I need to talk
, and talk now.”
Mark
sighed, shook his head and walked toward the elevator on the right side of the command deck.
‘
Do you want me to at least stay mind linked with you?’
Ariel spoke within the confines of both their minds.
‘
Up to you hon,’
Johnson replied in the same manner, “Though I have a feeling my conversation with the General is about to become a bit…colorful.”
‘
Okay, I’ll cut the link. If you need me holler, I’ll hear that.’
‘
Sure thing, babe.’
Ariel severed their link
while Mark exited the command deck and a moment later was outside the Cagliostro and walking toward the General.
“What are you doing here, General?”
“I came to see what all the ruckus was that I had just heard about.”
“And
just how’d you hear about my engine test so quickly, General?”
The older man pointed
towards space with the hand holding his cigar. “We have these new-fangled things you might have heard of, they’re called satellites.”
“So you
are
watching me.” Mark replied, with anger coloring his voice now.
“Of course we’re watching you
, Johnson. It’s 2089, everyone is watching everyone. You promised the United States military your faster than light magnetic drive. We mean to watch over our investment.”
“There is no investment, General, not yet. I funded this
faster than light drive out of my own pocket, as you well know. I have no problem selling it to my nation after I test it, but I decide when and if it’s ready to be put into production. Not you, or anyone else.” He turned to stare at the gleaming space ship towering above him.
“No one is trying to step on your toes
son; we just want to make sure you have the best interests of your country at heart. Look, you know you are about to make history with this new ship of yours. Mankind has never flown through space faster than light before. Isn’t it best to have the United States military making that great achievement? It’s something for the history books, son. Like Washington crossing the Potomac, or the Wright Brothers first flight. Think like a patriot son. You are a patriot, aren’t you?”
Johnson turn
ed and faced the General with anger playing at the corners of his mouth. “General, you pulled up here on to my property with six, count ‘em six of the hover tanks I designed, built and sold to the government. My patriotism is unmatched by anyone in Washington or anywhere else for that matter. Secondly, all the greatest moments in mankind’s history have come from individual engineers, scientists and free thinkers, NOT the government, which can’t even run itself because of all its largesse. Now you go back to your superiors and tell them that I will gladly sell them the designs for not only my magno-disc engine design, but the starships that go with them, when I decide it is safe to put them into production. Not before. No soldier will be put at risk because of me. Good day General.”
Johnson turned and walked away before the General could say another word.
Two minutes later he was back on the command deck, sitting in his plush Captains chair staring at the six hover tanks which were just now powering up and floating away, The jeep remained a moment longer with the old man standing within it and staring at the magnificent ship before finally sitting down and barking orders at his driver to get them out of there. External microphones picked up the General’s order.
“This ship has to be in space tomorrow.” Johnson commented loudly enough for everyone who remained on the
command deck to hear him.
Mark stood and silently returned to the elevator, descending to the engineering bay. The magnetic elevators were a marvel. Not only did they move up and down, but side to side as well. Now after dropping to the fifth level out of the ten on the ship
, the magnetic elevator, or ‘maglovator’, whisked him toward the tail of the ship, stopping in the ships center, where the doors slid open.
Dan Sledge raised his head at Marks arrival and nodded, smiling.
“Any luck, Danny?”
“I’m on the right track boss-man. Magno-disc
balance system was a few ticks off. It’s gonna take me a while to get ‘em re-aligned.”
“How long?” Mark asked
stoically.
“Mebbe six hours or so.”
“Get it finished in two, Dan. I need to get us into space ASAP.”
“Why? What’s up? Are we in trouble?”
“Maybe. I don’t like the way General Abruzzi was carrying on out there. I don’t trust him. I have a bad feeling he’s going to try some legal wrangling to take the ship away from me.”
“I’ll be done here as fast as possible.”
“I’m counting on it Dan. If you need an extra set of hands down here, let me know. I designed most of this system anyway.”
“Naaah, you go back up top boss. You’ve got enough on yer mind. Let me an’ the boys down here handle this.”
Johnson nodded stoically, “All right Danny, I won’t stand around hovering over your shoulder. If you need me, call.”
Before leaving
Mark walked around the engineering bay and stopped at a schematic of the ship on a display. Its smooth rounded lines from the side did not show the entire shape of the ship, only a side view. The dimensions were written next to the ships image on the screen before him. They were one thousand feet long, two hundred and fifty feet high (body height, not from the ground, add another fifty feet for take-off and landing apparatus that retracted and hid in the belly of the ship once it was underway.), and six hundred feet wide. Mark tapped the screen and a view from above the ship now filled the screen. This view showed an almost exact depiction of a Manta Ray with a few additions. Instead of just the center tail of the real fish, there were two additional tail-like trailing edges at each side of the rear of the ship, for a total of three tail-like protuberances. Ten decks made up the ship, with fifty foot armored sections top and bottom before you even reached a deck. It was a juggernaut for its size. All it had to do was get off the ground.
“Danny,
really, what can I do to help?”
Sledge stood up and looked at his boss and friend, then smiled slightly, “Mark, go back upstairs.
Seriously, I got this.”
Mark nodded and walked off towards the deck hallway. The doors hissed open as he approached and sighed close behind him. He walked down the empty hallway and smiled as he ran his fingers across the spotless, gleaming white wall.