The black limo pulled to the front of the house, a massive structure built into a cliff face. Nash was jumping out of the car practically before it had stopped.
In minutes he had descended several stories in a turbo lift to a lab complex below the main house. As the doors parted a half dozen men looked up, their anxiety level climbing a couple of notches. Nash bounded to a center chair and started keying up visuals on a giant viewer on the wall before him.
On the view screen was a replay of the destruction of the Apollo. Four massive photo torpedoes appeared out of nowhere and slammed into the hull from four different directions. The attack so sudden there had been no time for any defense.
A small smile appeared on his face as the Apollo burst into ball of gas and debris and the escape pods raced in retreat.
"The beam go undetected?" he asked the man to his right.
"Yes Sir. The Phoenix defense systems has no idea where the torpedoes appeared from.
"And did we retrieve our young engineering spy?"
"In the holding cell. In the excitement of the disaster no one saw him beam out of engineering."
Nash slapped his hand on the arm rest. "Very good....very good indeed. Now we have the complete specifications and technology to the most advanced star ship in the galaxy and we can use it to our own ends. Nothing will be beyond our grasp.
Nash jumped from his seat and bounded over to another console. Punching instructions furiously he pulled up an image of a hover car burning deep in the canyon several miles from the house.
"And...we have eliminated a nuisance to boot! With Dexter Industries now ready for the taking and the technology that the Apollo provides ANI will be the unseen power of the Phoenix colony.
The team turned and nodded to Nash.
"So let us go and begin to debrief our man."
******
Marcus was as sure of his own death as he had ever been. The bottom of the canyon had been racing up at him and then......it just disappeared. To be replaced by the interior of a GAR.
Anderson was the first person he recognized. Standing behind him was Cassandra.
"Welcome aboard Mr. Dinn." Anderson smiled.
"I thought this was destroyed?"
"The first one was...thanks to you. You never asked if there was a second." Anderson smiled.
Cassandra came around him, scanning him with a medical tricorder.
"Is he ok?" Anderson asked.
"Except for his common sense. Yea.....he's fine."
Marcus got up and started for the pilots seat. "How did you find me?"
"Captain Leo sent us a message the moment you stormed out of the Police station." Anderson answered.
"So Anderson grabbed the GAR, swung by Governors Station, picked me up and locked in on your tracking signal." Cassandra added.
"I didn't know I had a tracking signal."
"Of course you didn't." Anderson grinned.
"Nash know were here?"
Cassandra took the co-Pilots seat. "Nope. Cloaking device operational."
"Good...." and with that Marcus pointed the GAR in the direction he'd been heading before being forced off the road.
Anderson was seated at a rear communications station monitoring transmissions.
"Shit...I don't believe it." he swore.
"What is it?" Marcus asked looking over his shoulder.
"The Apollo. Its gone."
"Gone?"
"I'm tracking dozens of emergency pods making their way to the surface, but the Apollo...its been destroyed."
Anderson worked the scanner. "some of the pods are heavily damaged. They're not going to make it."
Cassandra grabbed Marcus arm. "We have to help."
Marcus nodded. "yes we do. Anderson, give me targets. We'll beam them aboard just like you did me."
"Providing Co-ordinates now."
As they sped half way around the globe, snatching shocked crewmen from their escape pods as they disintegrated around them Anderson continued to work the problem of how the Apollo was destroyed.
"Mr. Dinn. I've got an unusuall energy reading coming from the desert we picked you up from."
"What do you mean?"
"If I didn't know better I'd say it was a heavy lift transport beam emitter."
Marcus spun the ship, heading for the next escape pod, the collected space for the crewmen in the back of the GAR getting more crowded. "Run a scan on the area where the Apollo was. Any sign of Derliumum?"
One of he crewmen of the destroyed ship spoke up ."Right...right Derliumem. It was like we were struck from all sides by massive photon torpedoes."
Marcus wanted to immediately head back to the desert...to find Nash and finish this. But with over a dozen of the Apollo's crew now aboard the GAR.. He had to drop them off first.
"Send the intel to Omega Prime. Alert Commodore Viceroy and Chancellor Branson of our findings. Tell them as soon as we drop off our guests we're headed to Mr. Nash's residence. They may wish to join the party."
Anderson was already on it, as Omega Primes spaceport cleared the air for their arrival.
Marcus Dinn
Owner of RICKS and Oz
Phoenix Colony
Phoenix Federation
