Part 2
Zoltar swept the air before Sosai X in a practised bow.
"I should have expected that you would fail. Nothing has changed." Sosai X hissed.
"It was not entirely a failure, sire."
"You DARE argue?" the intensity of Sosai's light swelled, "The base was overtaken! The Ninja Tai outwitted you and the neutrino accelerator was destroyed! How is that not a failure?"
He clenched his teeth fighting back the response that danced on the tip of his tongue. He did not look up, surely the fire he felt would be reflected in his eyes.
"The Phoenix Sosai. We have the warship. It is a major victory against our enemies. Surely..."
"The ship is useless. It does nothing to advance the project. The Ninja Tai will only be temporarily set back, not defeated as I ordered!"
He could not resist standing now. How could this not be considered a victory? The Ninja Tai were left lying on the ground choking on their own dust!
"Are you SMILING? Do not tempt me, or you will regret every breath from your wretched body!" Sosai X's eyes glowed red with anger.
"No Sosai! I am merely pleased that we were able to bring you that small token at least," he gestured with an outstretched arm, "And over two thirds of the men returned to base."
"Their lives are insignificant! I offer guaranteed victory in the completion of the Black Hole Project and you worry about lives? Do not forget that your own life is forfeit if I choose it to be!"
He straightened up in surprise. "What?" That was as far as he got. A blast of white-hot energy knocked him to the floor. For a few seconds, it felt as if his own blood was boiling within him.
"FOOL! I will forgive only so much! You will learn to function here and to be my faithful servant!"
The painful energy began to ebb. He fought the cramping sensation in his gut.
"Defeat the Ninja Tai! Only then will I return you to your proper dimension!" Sosai was calm once more.
Silently, but not too reverently, Zoltar bowed and exited.
As he left his audience with Sosai for his own quarters, trying to walk more steadily than he felt, one soldier approached him. Stopping at about six feet away (a safe distance, Zoltar found himself thinking), he saluted and asked, "The GodPhoenix, Katse-sama. What would you like us to do with it?"
"Destroy it. That's all it's good for."
--
It's a fine line between private shame and public scorn -- and often that line's called the newspaper scoop. The morning after the KNT hauled itself back to Crescent Coral Island and explained things as best they could to Nambu, the city's widest-circulating English-language paper, The Utoland Times greeted them with the following front page:
WHERE, OH WHERE IS OUR GODPHOENIX?
(Beneath a picture of a tired-looking Science Ninja Team straggling down a mountain path, the text went)
Science Ninja Team Brought Back to Earth – Again
Barely one month after their warship was replaced at the cost of several million dollars, Gatchaman is once again hapless against the menace of Galactor. Only this time it was not destroyed in battle. They lost it.
Sources are understandably tight-lipped as to how this technological marvel disappeared and as of yet, no one is sure as to its whereabouts or fate, but it would appear that the GodPhoenix was stolen right from under the very noses of the Science Ninja Team themselves.
More on Page 3, Col 2
Joe made to turn the page, but Ryu tapped him and shook his head. "I've heard enough Joe."
Joe closed the paper and chucked it to the corner. "You're right. This is filth."
Ken picked it up. "It's inaccurate filth and I'm going to see Hakase about getting them to print a retraction."
"Saying what? That we really have the GodPhoenix but we just like walking to town and asking to use the phone so we can hitch a ride from the local U.N. forces?"
"Shut it, Joe. And we didn't get all the way into town."
"We got close enough for someone to take those pictures. Denial will make us look liars as well as fools."
"Well, I'm going." Ken left in search of Nambu.
Joe made a sound that could have qualified for a-ha! if there'd been any mirth behind it. "This should be good. Anyone want to see the circus?" Jinpei followed him out of the door.
In the meantime Ryu had found a chair and sat slumped in it. Jun patted Ryu on the shoulder comfortingly. Ryu's only reaction was to sigh. There wasn't much Jun could say. Nothing could erase the memory of yesterday.
When the emergency response crew had arrived, the Lieutenant was at first exuberant at meeting his heroes, then astonished to realize that they actually needed a lift. Ken had given the poor fellow the coldest of orders, utterly smashing the man's idolization. Jun was sure they were forgiven however; the despondent look on Ryu's face was enough to melt anyone's heart. Poor Ryu. She hugged him gently.
It was going to be at least four days before they could get a replacement: it'd be modelled on the old GodPhoenix because otherwise they'd have to wait another week to have their vehicles fitted. Four more days to stew. Jun sighed. Four more days to wonder how Katse ever managed to sneak aboard the ship. He should have been high tailing it for home after the bombs were detonated. How did he ever overpower Ryu and single-handedly toss him out? How had he evaded them all?
--
Mala watched the last of the occupants leave the docking bay. Her brother had long since left to see the Luminous One and retire to his chamber, but it was not he she wanted to speak to. Not yet. She accosted the young woman at the door. "Imalia. A word with you?"
Imalia bowed her head. "Certainly, Commander Mala." She fell into step with Mala.
Mala said nothing further until they were out of the complex, walking along the path to the rock garden.
"Zoltar. How was he?"
Imalia appeared to weigh the question and answered slowly. "Our Lord Zoltar did appear to be in excellent health. And you doubtless know of the success of our mission."
Four Galaxy Security bases destroyed with the loss of only one of their craft counted as success any day. Mala nodded. "But."
"But. His methods were… original. He wished us to go directly to New Chicago to draw G-Force there. He used the City leader to draw them out of their craft, and he shot her. We left then and they didn't think to follow for a while. Which made a big difference -- we had enough time to disperse our forces."
"Is G-Force still on Arcturus?"
"I believe so. Commander Mala, may I speak frankly?"
"Go ahead."
"I am not sure that I like the manner in which this situation progresses."
As she returned to her quarters, Mala considered, trying to feel out the shape of things as they were. At least he'd recovered enough to be active again. After he'd come round from his accident, she'd doubted even his sanity...
When he'd come round, he hadn't recognised her. She had needed to post guards at the door to keep the curious at bay. He'd calmed down by then, but she'd still been concerned. There was no doubt that her brother had experienced some kind of trauma, but how long would these after-effects linger? How long could she hide them from those circling vultures which were just waiting for Zoltar to show some frailty? She'd massaged his shoulders trying to coax away some of the tension. Yes, Ursok would just love to capitalize on this unfortunate accident. Any sign of weakness and they would be all too happy to claim the seat of power.
One of the guards had casually whistled.
"Zoltar?" Her brows knit in confusion. "Zoltar?" she'd repeated.
"SSHHHH!" had come the desperate reply.
"Brother? Where the devil?" she caught her breath. Under the table. Her brother was cowering under the table.
"The whistle! Didn't you hear?"
"Of course I -"
"HIDE! Before it's too late!"
She'd closed her eyes and prayed for patience.
He was much better now and for that she was glad. As for the source of Imalia's unease, she'd watch and see.
--
The Luminous One was in a congratulatory mood. "EXCELLENT! AND THEIR RULERS? HAVE THEY YET CAPITULATED?"
Katse bowed. "They requested time to consider it. After the crushing defeat we handed their so-called 'defenders,' I decided that they could only be postponing the inevitable and allowed it."
The Luminous One was silent for a bit. "HANDLE THE CAMPAIGN AS YOU WISH. ONLY SEE TO IT THAT YOU DO NOT BECOME OVERLY CONFIDENT."
Katse left on legs rubbery with relief, thinking I did it! Now I have fooled everyone! And this X is the softest touch of all.
Alone in its chamber, the Luminous One laughed to itself. "I NEVER CEASE TO BE AMAZED AT HOW EASY IT IS TO FOOL HUMANS."
--
One of Katse's old teachers had once said to him, 'You fall well.' She hadn't meant it in a good sense but she was right. Oh yes indeed. He'd fallen out of favour with Sosai X and into this. Ruler. Here, he went out into the streets and people stopped. They stopped and paid respect to him, they fell over themselves to be of service to him. The most powerful, most respected person in the world, complete with a version of X that asked his opinions! Granted it wasn't Earth, but that would be changing in the not-too-distant future. Katse threw open the windows to admire the sunset over his world. His jaw dropped open.
Both the Spectran suns were setting. What he'd thought were clouds earlier on had brightened with the fading suns. They split, defined their edges, grew, glowed, coruscated. For a while it held him awe-struck, and then he realized that he had seen this before at the South Pole. Aurora Australis. Only this was on another scale, an avalanche compared to a snowball fight. There were sheets, yes, but this one experimented, grew feathers, wings. The Aurorae shimmied, but this one danced. A headless snake writhed, twisted and caught its tail, turning into a torus through which the blackness of space was visible, like an empty eye socket. And the fire... sheets cascaded and arced, shorted-out and reformed.
Katse pulled a chair up to the window and watched the skies burn far into the night.
--
By the evening, Zoltar felt better and he went to stand outside on the balcony of his personal suite. The Himalayan cold made him wrap his cloak tightly around himself. He drank in the night sky. Night on Earth, restful with the constellations glittering in smooth black velvet. Beautiful. Absently he named the various star systems that in a different dimension, he could claim as his own. Eventually his eyes came to rest on the vacant area of sky where Spectra would be, millions of miles away. He sighed and leaned his elbows on the railing.
"It is so very different here," he lamented aloud. Most notably, there was no Spectra. His very reason for being, the planet and people he pledged his life to protect, simply did not exist. Perhaps the planet Spectra did exist, he corrected himself, but in this dimension humans had not discovered space travel yet and for some unfathomable reason he was stranded here on Earth instead of with his people on his home planet.
"No," he corrected himself once again, "Sosai X is the reason I am stranded here."
Sosai X. In those first few moments, Zoltar did not even realize where he truly was. One instant he was overseeing the preliminary test of his latest propulsion engine, the next he was sprawled out on the antechamber floor before the Luminous One. Until of course, the 'Luminous One' actually spoke. The difference was unmistakable. Sosai X seethed and grumbled like an ill-tempered child. He had all but blamed Zoltar for the accident that he himself had caused. No doubt this Sosai had incredible powers, he had after all transported his own man to an entirely different dimension. The direct consequence however, had been the unexpected backwash of energy that had ripped Zoltar from his existence and deposited him in this wretched place. Sosai himself admitted that he did not entirely understand what had gone wrong. The Luminous One would never have experienced such folly, nor would he be so single minded in his approach to defeating G-Force.
A bell chimed. Someone was daring to request audience with him. He went inside and flipped on the intercom. "What is it?"
"Um."
It could not be good news. "Yes?"
"I'm afraid that there have been a few...problems with destroying the GodPhoenix. You see..."
"I have no interest in what the problems are. See to it that it is done!" He cut the soldier off and returned to the patio, thinking, somewhere, someone will discover that the idiot is a fundamental particle. And these are the people I need to use to defeat these -- Gatchamen -- to return? Even so, he still could not simply throw them away, Sosai X be damned...
He stopped. What was it that Sosai X had said today? Guaranteed victory...guaranteed victory... The last time he himself had used those words, it was because he was about to rip the Earth from under the feet of its inhabitants, or at least their sky. To guarantee surrender. But, there's only one liveable world. And I am on it. Zoltar pushed himself off the railing. Surely Sosai X could not mean to do something so foolish? What is that Black Hole Project anyway?Half the night and several Access Denied messages later, he had his answers. Zoltar all but ran to the warehouse the GodPhoenix was in. It looked toyish in the huge space, an appearance enhanced by the tracery of cable lines running down to it and snaking over the fuselage.
The captain caught his eye and approached, clearly pleased with himself. "Ah, Katse-sama, you'll be pleased to know that all the explosives are now in place and we're just about to blow it up."
"Don't!"
"But you said..."
"Never mind! Just stop it! I have other plans for this machine."
As he listened to his orders being brayed out over the megaphones, he smiled. As Mala would have put it, you played the syr-stones you were dealt. The Telbyt game wasn't over until you folded. Well Gotchaman, or whatever you call yourselves, we shall see...
--
Like saltwater in an open wound. Cene grimaced as he watched the trucks negotiate the bend below them. The vehicles were unmarked -- the make and colour were enough. Triumphant bastards. By his side, Josk spat. The gesture summed up the little group's mood. He put the binoculars away. "At least, we shall start to make them pay tonight. For the last time, is there anyone who does not wish to be here?"
Everyone shook his head. "Very well. The revolution begins here."
They had come…
To Calgron City. The Spectran model of the 'resettlement' of Riga where what was left of the second largest city was reconstructing itself under Spectran aegis. At least, that's what the Spectrans claimed.
We saw…
The refugee tents were less extensive than they'd been six months ago, certainly. People were moving back in. The highway had been repaved. But they'd walked on to the eastern quarter and found the road blocked. The theatres, the parks, the like, all were now part of the Spectran military base that now 'oversaw' the area.
We shopped a little.
The more re-built areas sported stores. Many of the shopkeepers had insisted on Spectran currency but they'd found enough people holding out to make their purchases, albeit at outrageous prices. Thieves. It went against principle to go to exchange what little they had of their currency for the invader's lucre. They'd bought little things, a few odds and ends of the military surplus.
The sun touched the horizon, bathing them in red-gold.
And soon we will strike.