“The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.”
(This episode takes place after Episode 20 – “Who You Gonna Call..?”
and before Episode 21 – “the Untouchables”)
The call from Superintendent Cunningham was unexpected. Could they come to New Scotland Yard? She was very vague though as exactly what help she required of them.
Entering the conference room, Superintendent Cunningham immediately introduced them to a short, bald headed man in glasses who she introduced as Mr ‘Smith’ from G.R.E.E.T., the Galactic Reception Embassy for Extra-Terrestrials. He smiled a very insincere smile and immediately asked them, “How much do you know about the interstellar community?”
The team were aware of GREET and of the presence of Aliens on Earth, but for various reasons it hadn’t really impacted on them before. Mary whispered to the others “Not a lot, this isn’t my world remember.” Akira reminded them of his sheltered upbringing at Skomer Vale.
Sam muttered, “We’ve had some experience with the Silver Storm and Stormers but apart from that…”
Mr ‘Smith’ nodded, “The biggest of our interstellar neighbours are the Ziru Sirka, which consists of over 15,000 worlds and over 500 sentient races but is a humanocentric interstellar empire controlled by a race of humans known as the Vilani. The next largest near us is the Fteirle or Aslan Hierate, alien barbarians according to the Ziru Sirkan ambassador.
The first official contact with aliens was contact with the Ziru Sirka on the 11th of November 1990 when a Vilani diplomatic mission entered the Solar System and broadcast their peaceful intensions to the whole world. The fact that G.R.E.E.T. was already in existence at this point showed that the UN had already been expecting just such a visit. Permission for the Ziru Sirka to set up a diplomatic mission on Earth was subsequently agreed after a couple of years of negotiation.”
He continued, “Although the Vilani don’t necessarily accept it yet, we believe that an alien race (a race the Vilani refer to as the Ancients or Preservers) likely visited the Earth about -28,000 BCE. This now apparent extinct race appeared to have removed humans (Homo Sapiens, as well as other sub-races) from Earth for their own reasons before genetically adapting them to live on other worlds across the galaxy. We understand there are at least 40 or 50 systems seeded by them with humans across the galaxy.
These Ancients were a major race whose civilization apparently ceased to exist, many tens of thousands of years before the Ziru Sirka Empire was established. We have proof that we originated here, on this world, we have fossil records no other human ‘colony’ has and our biology is perfectly adapted to this world. We’re the only human race with that heritage in known space.
The Ancients had technology that remains apparently unmatched by the Imperium, and seeded sentient beings including humanity across various worlds of the galaxy. We don’t know why they were so interested in humanity or even why they seeded humans across the known universe and these other human races developed not knowing the location of their original homeworld.
Confidentially, it was the meta-human, Daedalus, who made initial contact with them when he ventured out into space. They subsequently followed him back and set up a diplomatic mission here. They refer to this sector of space as the Sphere, and again this information must be treated as confidential.
According to the Vilani there used to be a mysterious barrier (known as the Sphere) present for thousands of years, surrounding space for 25 parsecs (a parsec is 3.24 light years) in all directions from the Sol System. This blocked ships from entering the ‘sphere’ by jump drive; the most common form of interstellar travel and caused ships to suffer severe misjumps and malfunctions. This may have been some sort of an ancient artefact, apparently centred somewhere in the solar system. We don’t know what it is or was, what it did, why it was there in the first place or even why it switched off.
This sphere remained active until the beginning of the 20th century but what is interesting is that it’s powering down may also relate to the appearance of the first meta-humans of the modern era in 1909).
Ziru Sirka’s diplomatic mission is to explore the area of the sphere starting at the centre point of the barrier – the Sol system. Its presence has given earth a reputation that, despite being considered a backward world, we have an extremely powerful ancient weapon somewhere that can protect us.
At present, Terra has been declared an Amber Zone and quarantined, whilst the Ziru Sirkan Embassy investigates further. Terra’s meta-humans, our extensive knowledge of genetics and biology and our technological potential (we not only created jump technology without outside assistance, we exceeded the range of Vilani ships in our first attempt) makes us a system that had to be evaluated thoroughly.
What has not made the news is that a rebellion has broken out within the Ziru Sirka whilst it was dealing with an invasion from another race, known as the Unity: a hive mind race capable of metamorphosing into the shape of other species and forms. They’d been previously been kept at bay by the Imperium’s use of Psi’s – their equivalent of meta-humans though they are extremely rare; another difference between our starfaring cousins and us.
While they’d been dealing with this invasion, a rebellion broke out led by a barbarian, known as the Star Khan who has conquered about a third of Imperial space in the last few years and as a result has cut off Earth from the Vilani Capital.
He has learnt that the Vilani Emperor has a nephew here, on Earth visiting the Embassy and has sent warships here to demand that we hand him over to his representatives. Otherwise, he will consider that we have taken sides in the ensuing interstellar conflict. Thankfully, the Embassy has had a change of heart and agreed to hand the Prince over and the Prince himself has agreed to comply in order to prevent war breaking out with Earth.”
He paused, wiped his glasses and carried on, “The Prince for reasons I’ve not been able to discover personally requested that The Balance accompany him on his trip from the Embassy to the rebel warship. I’d have personally preferred one of the more established teams, possibly the Bundesgarde or… Anyway a team with more experience and more Government oversight, to have accompanied him but he has been extremely determined. It’s either you go with him or he will go unescorted. He wants to make sure that Earth is not drawn into this interstellar war and has agreed to only go with them on the understanding that they leave the Earth alone. Your presence will be a show of strength. Proof that we have meta-enhanced humans capable of defending the Earth.”
He continued in a lecturing tone, explaining that the Vilani are virtually identical in appearance and biology to humans, and interfertile with us, so many Vilani can easily pass as Terrans. Vilani have a somewhat different range of hair colour and eye pigmentation however.
Some of the other human aliens have other differences, including the Zultasians who are the backbone of the rebels, the Star Khan himself being of that race, who are blue-skinned. Many of the bodyguards at the Ziru Sirkan Embassy were Zultasian and its believed that is what finally forced the Ambassador’s hand.
They are primarily soldiers, not scientists and that helped turn a large percentage of the Imperium’s forces to the Rebel’s cause.
‘Smith concluded, “In three days’ time, if agreeable, you will head to the Embassy to meet with the Prince and his guards then head to Libreville in Gabon, West Central Africa, where the Terran starport is situated, then fly by courier ship to the warship to hand him over. The Challenger-Wildeman have agreed to collect you from there in their experimental starship, the Swift Flier if you’d prefer.”
They discussed where these warships were in orbit and Akira joked that he could personally pilot the courier ship himself as Mr ‘Smith’ took his leave. Before he left Akira tried to get some insight into the man, only to experience a type of mental white noise that clouded his abilities. Mr ‘Smith’ felt untrustworthy, possibly even alien?
Recovering quickly, Akira muttered that, “I’ve never been able to trust a man without hair” and rubbing his own shaved head as he spoke. Sam pointed out that in his Dragonkin form he also lacked hair to which Akira replied, “See? That’s what I mean! Do you think I trust myself never mind you, Sam?”
The good-humoured banter continued for a couple of minutes especially regarding GREET’s existence pre-alien presence and whether they should participate or whether Akira should work on his chopstick collection instead, and that he had some serious reservations. Sam insisted he just needed to call the restaurant and change the reservations to another night…
Before the teasing between them could escalate further, Superintendent Cunningham interrupted. “I don’t care what that bastard says,” pointing towards the door that Mr ‘Smith’ had recently exited through, “there is no way we are handing over a kid to be held hostage or killed. I don’t know how you do it, but you’ve got to come up with some way of preventing this.
You can use the full resources I have available and I’ve already been in touch with the Challenger-Wildeman’s and they’ve agreed to make all of their resources available to you if it would help.”
Sam queried what she was saying; a switcheroo or?
She just reiterated, “Find a solution, by whatever means possible. There is certain information we’ve managed to get from Daedalus and the Challenger-Wildeman family. The Vilani are not very innovative. If their scientists says something cannot be done, that’s taken as gospel and they just stop trying. As a result, we’ve already been able to build faster, more manoeuvrable ships than they have done despite their thousands of years of interstellar travel. In addition, their knowledge of human genetics and medicine is primitive in comparison to our own. Growing up on planets with ecosystems so alien that they were completely immune to it, meant their knowledge of diseases is almost non-existent. That’s an advantage we can use. These rebels also want this young Prince either to use him as a hostage against his Uncle the Emperor, or to make sure he cannot become a figurehead that other planets within the Imperium can rally round. A figurehead that could force the rebels to have to fight on yet another front…”
Akira remembering a film he’d seen as a child on a neighbour’s TV whilst growing up at Skomer Vale, where a big planet-like ship had been destroyed by a single missile. “Perhaps that’s what we should do, blow up the ship whilst it’s still in orbit?” Mary looked at him, “and kick off an interstellar war?”
Cunningham again reminded them, “these rebels want the Prince as a hostage, and if they can’t have him as a hostage then they will most likely kill him to prevent him becoming a figurehead at some point. Leaving the Prince here will just mean they will come back either to get him and probably the planet as well. Find another way…”
Mary asked, “If the Prince died onboard their ship, would that kick off an interstellar incident?” Cunningham thought for a moment, “Unlikely, that would be less of a problem for them than were the Prince to suddenly vanish. It solves at least one of their problems as long as we aren’t seen to be the assassins.”
The team left and started discussing their various options and their newly acquired knowledge of the deactivated Sphere barrier.
They approached the Challenger-Wildeman’s about their offer to pick them up after the transfer and to see if they could provide the team with some sort of sedatives or drugs that would help fake a death. Tess, after a quick discussion, provided them with three syringes filled with a neo-Tetrodotoxin compound, one for each of them.
As they were leaving Sam said, “If only we had that damn holobelt, we could use it to disguise a droid to appear to be the Prince…”
None of them noticed Vicki Challenger-Wildeman passing by at that point. She overheard the comment, smiled and immediately took off running for the lift.
The day of the hostage transfer arrived and a grav vehicle flew the team out to the gravitically-powered Embassy floating above the grey waves of the Atlantic Ocean; a massive saucer-like structure.
Landing, the Ambassador, a tall, thin, skinny, dark haired noble-looking gentleman approached them. He looked extremely unhappy at the situation but made an effort to smile at the team and immediately opened a small box, which contained three small flash-drive like sticks, and three small disks. He gestured that they should place the disks behind their ears, similar to where he had his.
As soon as they did so, he began to speak in what was obviously Vilani but they clearly heard English inside their skulls. “These commdots work with the translation programs in the translator sticks and will translate Vilani and Zultasian into either English or French. If you speak English, the guards’ commdots will translate it into Zultasian for you. They will make communicating with the guards easier. The Prince is already fully conversant in English. It will also not interfere with your own commlinks.
I am Archduke Ty’dea Viisarikaa, Ambassador to your planet and I wish we were meeting under better circumstances. Thank you for agreeing to the Prince’s request. It will not be forgotten.”
He introduced them next to Prince Tamesha Naasirkaa, a quiet teenager with long black hair and soulful grey eyes who politely welcomed them.
The Ambassador quickly explained, after the Prince had rejoined his ever watchful guards, that the Prince was the nephew of the Emperor. He was here on earth unofficially and no-one outside of staff was supposed to know though given that a number of the staff here, including the guards assigned to him, had been Zultasian they had apparently contacted the rebels as soon as they realised…
He reached behind him and picked up another box from a nearby table, “these are Psi-shields, a marvellous device invented by your own scientists and they will help prevent the Rebel’s Vadaka (the commdots translated this after a second as ‘hounds’) from reading your mind. Their telepaths will likely try to read your surface thoughts. The bands aren’t a perfect solution but will help by creating mental white noise, however they also make it hard to concentrate, so don’t wear them unless you have to.”
Sam asked, “Can we get spacesuits, just in case?” The Ambassador nodded and made suitable arrangements to have them fitted out. Sam noticed his suit was more ornate than his teammates and the tail section on his was obviously intended for a creature with a thinner, more agile tail than his own, however it fitted despite the tightness.
The Ambassador explained that all of the rebels would be departing with the Prince, leaving him only with those staff he still trusted. He explained that he would have preferred to fight but the Prince had decided that one life does not outweigh the many; rather than risk the lives of the other Vilani or his Terran hosts he would willingly accompany the rebels to their warship. He knows there is a possibility that he will be killed.
“Please be aware that the Rebels are terrified of Terra and its Meta-humans. They’ve been brought up with the story of the mysterious Sphere, they know somewhere in the Sol system there is possibly the most powerful weapon ever known, apparently ready to be reactivated and blockade this whole region of space… It could cause their ships to misjump leading to madness and death. Then on top of that, they come here and discover this same planet is home to an ever-expanding population of powerful meta-humans, like nothing ever discovered on any of the thousands of other worlds in known space. I believe that’s the Prince’s intention in asking for you to accompany him on this journey; to reinforce the message that this planet is protected in so many ways. Good luck.”
Sam cast an eye over the guard’s weapons, looking at their blaster sidearms as Prince Tamesha and the Balance entered the grav vehicle again for the journey to Libreville. Four guards and the pilot followed them in. The rest of the rebel staff would follow on in other vehicles.
The guards and pilot were all Zultasian in appearance.
Sam and Akira started a whispered conversation over their commlinks about whether to tell the Prince about the drugs which quickly deteriorated into banter about young people wanting the good stuff and Akira being “down with the young people, yo!” With Akira jokingly saying that apparently drugs are “cold sick” and “solid”. Mary pointed out that the Prince didn’t actually possess a psi-shield and that although there didn’t appear to be a psychic ‘hound’ onboard with them, the warship crew likely did have. Did they really want to risk anything before they were on the warship?
Whilst the joking and conversation continued, they noticed after about half an hour into the flight that the guards were getting nervous and the Prince, who appeared to have picked up on something amiss had turned even paler than before and was holding tightly onto his chair.
Sam immediately looked at the guards and prepared himself to jump in front of the Prince if any of the guards looked as though they would draw a weapon. Then they overheard the pilot talking to the guards. Their gravship was being shadowed by another large, alien-looking vehicle flying in the same direction as them; their pilot was nervous as a result.
Sam leaned over and tried to calm the Prince but he looked him straight in the face and smiled, despite the nervous, cold sweat on his forehead. Then the pilot screamed, “There are several missiles incoming from the ship! We’re going to have to take evasive manoeuvres, hold tight.”
They couldn’t help but notice that the pilot did not sound confident. The ship lurked dramatically as he spun the ship round trying to dodge the missiles that had apparently locked on to their hull.
The Prince remained smiling throughout Mary noted, why?
Akira added his own TK to the dramatic evasive action as pilot and Akira battled each other to get the ship clear of the incoming missiles. Two equal and opposite forces competed with contra-evasive manoeuvres.
Whilst the Balance prepared themselves for the bucking, the guards and Prince were no so prepared and were bounced around. One of the bodyguards bounced off the inside of the hull knocking him unconscious. The Prince caught by surprise, was thankfully buckled in, and avoided the worse of the sudden and unexpected turbulence.
Unfortunately, the missiles were still locked on.
Mary changed into an insubstantial Banshee and exited their craft through the hull whereupon she prepared to unleash a shattering shriek at the leading missile. Sam meanwhile opened the hatch and considered grabbing the Prince and flying him away from the vehicle though he knew unless the Prince’s death was confirmed somehow they’d either still have to deliver him to the warship or risk a war with the rebels.
He noticed one of the guards draw his gun and stand in front of the Prince so he moved to the hatch and unleashed a blast of fiery breath at the foremost missile, severely damaging its guidance system. While no longer tracking, it was still heading in their direction however. Outside an insubstantial Banshee changed her aim and took out the second missile incoming with her shriek causing it to fly straight into the sea. The first missile was still flying and weaved around but was no longer tracking them. A third missile was still on their trail however, and Sam and Akira couldn’t help notice two more of the guards with guns drawn were moving towards the Prince. It appeared that if they were going to die they would make sure the Prince died first.
The prince had his eyes closed and seemed resigned to what was about to happen. Akira unleashed a mystical blast from the hatchway at the final missile and caused it to explode, the shockwave also exploded the first missile as well; the shockwave from both exploding missiles buffeted the hull forcing the guards back into the pilot’s cabin and forcing them to grab handholds where they could.
Warning sirens from the cabin shattered the silence as Banshee re-entered the ship and Sam placed himself between the guards and the Prince as a warning.
The other vehicle, its markings obviously non-Terran and extremely ornate and impracticable, headed off at an angle to try to avoid confrontation but still appeared to be heading towards Libreville. Sam and Akira discussed Akira possibly teleporting over to get some idea what they were facing.
Akira said, “Sounds dangerous, I want to be a pilot not a pirate! Why not fly over yourself? You go over with an eyepatch, I don’t want a repel boarders action with me as the target.”
“You could teleport me over and I can fly back?” suggested Sam. Akira said no again, it was too risky.
In the meantime, Sam used Draconic persuasion on the guards to get them to calm down. They wanted to get this trip over and done with and remained nervous.
Akira used his insight on the Prince to try to find out why he went pale and reacted so funny before the missile attack; as though he was preparing himself for something. He didn’t appear psychic, a rare skill amongst the Vilani anyway. He sat beside him and whispered, “So tell me Prince, did you know about this attack beforehand?” The Prince glowered but remained silent.
He was definitely nervous, though not afraid and knew something was going to happen before anyone else. Had he been in on the attack somehow? Did he know the identity of their attackers?
Sam did wonder why DID he ask for them rather than one of the other, international teams? Could this be a hit on them or were they being paranoid?
Sam came over and putting his hand on the Prince’s shoulder he quietly, used his draconic persuasion on the young man. “Is there anything particular you haven’t told us about this journey?” He looked Sam in the eyes and said, “lots.” Sam continued, “Why did you ask for us in particular?”
The Prince replied, “On Earth I met someone who knew you, a Bethany? When she learnt what was happening she contacted me and said I could trust the three of you to make sure this planet was kept safe. I’m not willing to risk a whole planet for one life.”
Sam looked a little surprised but replied, “Yes, any friend of Bethany’s is a friend of ours; welcome to the Balance you’re going to have a great time…” The Prince looked puzzled at this but nodded wearily.
“I fear it will be a very short journey and after we will not meet again.” Sam again put his hand of his shoulder, “you’d be surprised about that.”
The other ship was apparently faster than theirs and soon left them behind. It looked as though it wouldn’t be attempting any more attacks whilst crossing the ocean.
As they headed into Libreville they could see the starport in front of them and the Terran Beanstalk currently under construction, though it was already the tallest structure on the planet. They flew over the correction facility in the middle of the bay and landed on the edge of the port. With the guards, they all proceeded to head, on foot, across to the Courier shuttle on the landing strip.
The local language was French and to their surprise, they discovered that their commdots also allowed for French to English translation!
Rebel troops began to advance towards them. These were different to the guards accompanying them, two guards in full body armour carrying some form of power staffs and accompanied by almost feral, bald humans, psi’s apparently – these were “Imperial Hounds”. They suddenly had the start of a headache as though someone was starting to probe their minds. Quickly they put their psi-shields on and glowered at the psi’s staring at them. Sam smiled, “Uh uh, it’s polite to ask! And you need to buy me dinner first…”
Akira turned round and muttered, “That headband looks good on you Mary.” “Better on me than on you, I think. It’s the hair.” Sam smiled, “makes you more trustworthy somehow…”
These new troopers were obviously newly arrived and obviously not comfortable being on Earth, moving through people who didn’t automatically move out their way; out of either fear or respect. It was – frustrating for them. They began to usher the group as quickly as possible towards the Vilani shuttle, which was waiting ready for take-off.
Sam moved in as close to the Prince as he could ready to jump between him and any danger. The Prince leant over and whispered in his ear, “whatever happens next, let it happen.” Sam tried not to react but quickly, subvocally, updated the others over their shared commlink.
Coming towards them were three powerful aliens, looking like large, upright lions walking on two legs. Their dress was ornate and they carried themselves as warriors. They were heading straight towards them, pushing through the crowd.
They heard the guards mutter “Fteirle!” and “Barbarians” as they readied their weapons.
The team subvocally argued about the Prince’s request, should they let this happen or was this a form of suicide? They looked at the Prince who seemed to be steeling himself – possibly preparing himself to die?
Their escorts were really not happy about the advancing aliens. The two Imperial troopers armed with power staffs were readying their weapons. Sam turned round and immediately started flapping his wings to create a miniature storm, preventing the cat-like aliens from moving in closer and impeding any possible attack.
Then they noticed that the trooper’s power staffs seemed to be malfunctioning. They were aiming their staffs at the aliens and… nothing, they refused to fire! Something was impeding their function and the telepathic ‘hound’ seemed in pain and very upset. A bodyguard pointed his hand blaster at the Fteirle and it also failed to fire – something was specifically interfering with the guard’s weaponry.
Banshee turned insubstantial as he grabbed hold of the Prince; causing them both to become incorporeal, muttering quietly, “you don’t need to die, trust us we can find another way.” The Prince stared at her and admitted, “This was my idea, I set this up and hired the Fteirle mercenaries to kill me, so there would be no impact on Terrans. If you’ve got a way of dealing with this..? Just promise me, no matter what you will not allow me to be taken alive by the Khan. There is a reason why that has to be. Ah, you see I’m not the Emperor’s nephew…” Mary wanted to ask he who was really, but now was not the time.
Akira erected his personal force field around himself as the three aliens pushed forward through Sam’s storm and headed straight at them. One of them jumped on the bodyguards and troopers, ripping through their armour whilst the other two focused on trying to reach the Prince apparently hiding between Sam and Akira.
Sam rushed forward and diving in close to the leading mercenary to prevent their claws from ripping through his scales, he grappled with the creature in a massive bear hug, lifting him off the ground as it struggled to free itself.
Banshee remained insubstantial and unleashed a terrorising scream that everyone nearby was affected by except for her teammates who were immune, including the Prince and most of their escorts as well as one of the aliens who retreated in shock. Akira followed up by unleashing the Illusions of Idolon on one of the two remaining cat-like attackers changing its appearance to mimic the Prince.
The shocked but still insubstantial Prince was hidden behind the others. Sam muttered something about taking his alien with them only to have both Banshee and Akira scream, “You cannot keep it as a kitty cat, Sam, leave it be and get to the ship” as they themselves ran with the real Prince towards the shuttle loading bay.
Sam responded by head-butting his still captive alien and while it was dazed patted him on the shoulder and ran after his teammates. The other alien, no longer temporarily altered by Akira’s illusion, tried to grab Sam as he went pass and began to pummel him. The guards left him behind and used the confusion to run for the ship. Banshee let go of the Prince and headed outside back towards Sam. The other dazed alien seemed to be recovering. Banshee reached over and turned Sam insubstantial leaving his attacker hugging itself.
Sam felt sad he’d not managed to finish the fight but knew the goal had to be saving the Prince, not wrestling the kitty-cat into submission.
Onboard, the hatches closed behind them and immediately lifted off.
Akira took the opportunity to have a quiet word with the Prince. “Don’t worry we have a plan, one that will make it appear as though you’ve died. Trust us please? As long as the rebels believe that is what has happened and we will get your body off the ship and resuscitate you. I promise we will not allow them to take you alive no matter what…” The prince nodded and sat down. He whispered, “If all else fails leave me something so I can take my own life, promise me?” Akira nodded and headed to his own seat.
The shuttle headed up and, after a few hours, approached the warship and two other escort vehicles and docked with the larger ship. A few minutes later, they entered a large loading bay where several Imperial guards waited for the Prince and his meta-human chaperones.
They used his title but it felt as though they were all mocking him and were about to move him to his ‘quarters’ – outside the Challenger-Wildeman’s ship, The Swift Flier waited by the launch bay doors for permission to dock.
It was now or never. Akira immediately rushed over to the Prince and grabbed him as to support him, as though he had apparently staggered. He covertly used his sleight of hand to inject the youth with the neo-Tetrodotoxin compound and then shouted aloud, “He seems ill. Was the Prince hit when we were attacked by the cat-aliens? He really doesn’t look well!”
Sam interjected “he does look extremely pale, is he sick?”
Akira placed the now fitting body on the ground and clandestinely gestured to cast the illusions of Idolon on his body to change the colour of his skin and make it appear he was suddenly breaking out in numerous bursting pustule globules and abscesses.
The Prince played along, “I was hit by one of the Fteirle, he must have poisoned me…” Then the compound took affect and he screamed as his body spasmed convulsively. Seconds later, he was unconscious and his skin turned grey under the spreading pustules.
One of the Zultasians ran a monitor over the body and declared it as seizing, then the Prince’s heart rate went through the roof before it flatlined as the neo-Tetrodotoxin took hold and reduced his breathing and heart rate to a death-like state. The illusionary green abscesses began to erupt, driving the medic in panic from the bay.
Akira called for Sam to help him but they were both pushed back towards the launch bay as the ship’s captain demanded his medic’s return.
Akira shouted, “I recognise this, it’s a rare deadly Terran disease that the cat people must have infected him with; I think this is the affliction of Madrossos, there is no cure and it’s highly infectious and almost always deadly. This is the only stage where it’s not immediately lethal, you must immediately get the body into a body bag or some form of sealed container immediately before it enters its next stage when it becomes deadly infectious. Once it becomes airborne, everyone will be infected. He must be sealed in immediately…”
One of the guards immediately grabbed a re-entry pod from the wall and dragged it towards the Prince. Nervously he grabbed the corpse and tossed it into the casket and sealed it before breathing a sigh of relief as Akira caused his illusionary pustules to ’explode’ covering the viewing window in puss and blood. The airtight seals apparently held.
They then insisted the Terrans “LEAVE NOW” and enter the launch bay leaving the flight deck immediately. They were told to contact their ship as several guards immediately began to force them into an empty airlock.
Akira kept up his warnings that they needed to quarantine the deck and dispose of the body immediately or risk the infection getting loose and putting their entire ship at risk. The only way they could sure was to eject the pod, jettison into space and destroy it immediately; it was the only way to be sure.
The clock was ticking. One of the Zultasian crew confirmed life extinct inside the pod as its medical readings remained flatlined.
Akira continued, “If you don’t destroy it and it infects the Earth you have caused a major interplanetary incident, it must be cast out into space and destroyed completely.”
The crew member stood up and shouted, “this pod is fully atmospherically sealed, how can it be a danger anymore?”
Akira replied, “if there is any kind of rupture you will have doomed everyone onboard, you willing to risk that?” and reached out with his Theurgical-Kinesis to pop the seals and cause the pod door to partially open with a sudden hiss of atmospheric pressure.
Mary used the chaos to turn insubstantial and drop through the airlock floor into the access shafts beneath the flooring. She flowed beneath the floor until she was underneath the pod and phased up. Thankfully there was enough space inside the pod itself for her to re-substantiate herself, grab the Princes’ body and turn them both insubstantial before dropping back through the floor.
At the same time Akira transferred his illusion from the ‘corpse’ to the casket itself and made it appear as though it was ‘leaking’ its airborne infection.
Lying on her back, hugging a dead body Banshee allowed herself to levitate back the way she’d come. The clock was now ticking if they were going to be able to resuscitate their corpse-like Prince.
She needed to now wait until the Swift Flier confirmed they’d docked as she pulled them back through the floor into the airlock hiding the body with her own from the glass door. Thankfully, there were no security cameras in the airlock itself.
In the launch bay everyone was being evacuated in panic from the area. Sam also used his body to block the view into the lock and used her commlink to whisper to Tess, “You may want to keep an eye on the pod.”
It appeared as though the rebels were planning to expose the whole launch bay to vacuum and then blast the now open pod as it drifted into space. Akira shouted, “you really need to vaporise that pod so it’s not accidentally picked up by another ship and accidentally start an interplanetary epidemic… You listening to me?”
A loud click confirmed that the Challenger-Wildeman’s starship, The Swift Flier had successfully docked. It had been two minutes forty since the kid had gone into total cardiac failure; they had to hurry.
As they ran through the airlock into the airlock of the Swift Flier, they were met by Vicki Challenger-Wildeman. “Hold on tight, while Tess manoeuvres us away.” Broadcasting quarantine and hazmat warnings, the Swift Flier flew away at top speed from the warship.
Banshee immediately re-materialised with the comatose body of the Prince who she placed on the airlock floor. Sam rushed over grabbing the medic kit and immediately began to give CPR. Minutes later, he resorted to the defibrillator before risking a shot of adrenaline to the heart. This kid’s immune system was almost non-existent but Sam was thankfully rewarded after a couple of minutes with a sudden, sharp intake of breath from the ‘corpse’.
“You’ll like this” Tess smiled as she manoeuvred the ship to a deep stop a couple of kilometres away from the Warship and jointly watched as the rebels allowed the pod to drift out into space and then their cannons flared as it destroyed the ‘contaminated’ re-entry pod that had been ejected following their departure from the launch bay.
She reached over and hit a switch on her console. Suddenly twenty massive starships, each three times the size of the rebel’s warships, materialised around them; ‘de-cloaking’ in a matter of seconds. But, but..? Earth didn’t have a battle fleet, did it?
Tess put her finger to her lips to shush them to silence them and handed a microphone to Verne.
As he spoke, an image of a well-known 20th century actor appeared on the screen lip-syncing along to Verne’s words; Verne’s youthful vocal tone changing to that of an older, more mature male, “This is Admiral James T. Kirk of the United Terran Defence Force to the plague ship “Ganimakkur Eneri” and escorts. We have endured your unauthorised presence in our space for diplomatic reasons, but those reasons no longer apply. You will leave this system immediately or face the consequences.” As he spoke several of the ships disappeared. Re-cloaking? Would they be escorting the retreating warships to the jump point..?
As the warships left orbit, Verne laughed, “I wanted to be Admiral Han Solo, but got outvoted. We’ve got to stop allowing Nani to vote with both his hands and feet!”
Nani was their Sasquatch childminder and a Star Trek fan apparently.
Vicki smiled at their looks of disbelief. “Actually it was you lot that gave us the idea when you were talking about the holobelt. If a miniaturised holo-bee could create the illusion of a person, why not rebuild the same thing on a larger scale… We released a series of holo-buoys on the trip out and activated them to create the illusion of a fleet. Each ship is, was a hologram with the projecting buoy so small and low powered as to be sensor-invisible. Those ships that disappeared? It wasn’t that they re-cloaked, it was just their batteries ran out. We only had three days to build an entire fleet from scratch after all…”
They did notice that on the journey back the kids kept on referring to their passenger not as Prince Tamesha but as Prince Ishugi. It clicked with Akira first, this wasn’t the nephew. Verne confirmed this was the Emperor’s son; his youngest and supposedly his favourite.
No wonder he didn’t want to the rebels to know who he really was. If they had known they’d never have allowed the Terrans access to him and he’d been much more valuable to them as a hostage. Even the Ambassador wouldn’t be told he’d survived, at least not until they were sure it would be safe to do so.
As they headed home, Verne confirmed he’d been in touch with Bethany and agreed that the Prince could safely hide out at Claremont Academy; just one more youth amongst others and the Academy had top-of-the-line security as well as its population of meta-human pupils.
To preserve the anonymity of their destination as they flew overhead, Akira volunteered to fly out with the Prince so the ship wasn’t seen to stop anywhere and no-one else on Earth would know the Prince had survived.
It would also give Akira a chance to say hi to the Amazons. Wonder how the Prince would cope with them as his informal bodyguards?
Bethany would meet them when they landed and would arrange for a cover identity for his passenger and ensure he was properly (and safely) integrated into the school. Sam also insisted that Ishugi be checked over by the school’s medical staff for at least another 24 hours.
Adam was going to be busy picking everyone up.
At Libreville, as the rest of the team exited the Swift Flier without the Prince it confirmed their story that they had failed. It was a failure they would happily live with…
Superhero Adventures, UK Style 
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