The Cagliostro Chronicles II: Conflagration by Ralph L. Angelo Jr

Author:Ralph L. Angelo Jr. [Angelo Jr., Ralph L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cosmic Comet Publishing
Published: 2014-07-12T00:00:00+00:00

***

Seven hours later they removed the headsets and both of them almost collapsed where they sat.

Mark exhaled, “I don’t think I’ve been this exhausted in years.”

“Yeah I agree, Boss man. I feel like I’m gonna pass out right here. But at least we got our answer.”

“I know. It took us long enough to get the parameters just right, but it was a good thing we just didn’t try to cross back over. C’mon let’s get back to the command deck.”

“I’m starvin’,” Dan mentioned.

“Yes, me too actually.”

Both men exited the engineering deck into the maglovator, and both of them felt the hairs at the back of their necks rising.

Dan turned to face Mark. “Did you notice…”

“That the engineering deck was empty? Yes I did. C’mon.”

A minute later they exploded onto the command deck from the maglovator and stopped short as soon as they entered the command deck.

“What the hell? It’s empty!” Dan exclaimed.

“We have to find out what happened here.” Mark slid into his seat and activated his holographic control panel.

Dan did likewise an instant later. “Last eight hours?”

“Yes. Start with the command deck, then work our way around the Cag.”

Dan nodded stoically.

On the main viewer a vid feed of the command deck appeared and began playing very quickly. Hours passed in minutes as the two men watched silently and intently.

“There,” Mark shouted at the six hour indicator.

The video instantly stopped, then Mark rolled it back in increments.

“What the hell is that?” Dan asked.

Mark shook his head incredulously. “I don’t really know. Whatever it is, it’s making a chill run up my spine.”

On the view screen the two men watched as a roughly man sized amorphous cloud of black smoke appeared and disappeared constantly about the command deck almost instantly. Chalk white arms would dart out and grasp a crew member and then the entire cloud enshrouded mass would blink out only to reappear a heartbeat later at another spot on the command deck to drag someone else unwittingly within its smoky miasma.

Again and again this happened until the command deck was cleared of all personnel.

“Do you think it got everyone?” Dan queried, fear coloring his voice.

“Let’s find out,” Mark growled.

Mark punched a glowing red button on his console. Instantly the ship’s warning klaxons exploded with sound, a female voice began blaring ‘red alert’ over and over in between the klaxons’ bellows.

In twenty seconds the sounds quieted and Mark spoke into a microphone at the communications console. “All crewmembers check in immediately.”

After a moment he growled, “Ah, screw this.”

Mark punched buttons and the scene on the viewer was replaced by a grid pattern with every crew member’s name upon it. Next to their name was an indicator.

Only a dozen indicators remained lit. The rest were dark.

Calls started to come into the command deck, one on top of another. “This is Maxwell on the hangar deck reporting in.”

“This is Dr. Troiano in Medical reporting.”

“This is Robinski reporting in,” Red’s voice thundered.

“DiGenovese reportin’ in,” Eddie’s voice followed.

‘Mark, what’s going on?’ Ariel’s telepathic voice filled Mark’s mind.

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