The control room shook, debris fell from the ceiling, when the photon blast from Dinn's GAR evaporated the house stories above it.
Nash looked around the room, half of the screens now black, the operators turning to him with fear in their eyes.
"What happened to the shields!" he roared.
One of the operators shook in fear. "There was a power drop. I can't explain it."
Running his hands over his bald head Nash turned to one of the doors. "We'll have to evacuate. There are several dozen Marines working their way down here right now!"
He grabbed one man by the shoulder, 'Come on, he have to get Lieutenant Simpson and collect the data chips."
Leading a team thru the maze of tunnels deep under the house Nash headed to collect his prize and get out to town.
****
Meanwhile on the surface Brown and Dinn stared down the gaping hole that once was a turbo shaft.
Brown rubbed his chin, "Not the best way to go."
"There has to be another way in." Marcus answered looking over the smoldering rubble. "Maybe we can just transport down?"
Brown was already taking tricorder readings and shaking his head. "No...some kind of interference. Look at this...I've never seen anything like it."
Marcus took the tricorder, trying to make sense of the readout. Then it hit him.
"Serapheisum."
Brown twitched his tail. "Sera..what?"
"Serapheisum, extremely difficult to create, more difficult to handle."
"What do you do with it?"
Marcus handed back the tricorder. "You make transphasic weaponry with it. We may have a bigger problem."
Brown started motioning for men to begin rappelling down the shaft. "Well, we're not going to fix it up here."
****
Nash opened the door to Simpson's holding cell, shocked at what he saw. Standing over the dead mans body was his personal bodyguard, Reginald White. The knife in his hand still dripping blood from where he had just slit the throat of the young engineering officer.
"Reggie?! What the hell?" Nash screamed.
An evil sneer spread across his face. "What...do you think you're going to take the Apollo files for yourself?
Nash took a step closer, but Simpson drew a hand phaser with the other hand and pointed it at him. "You think you're so smart. You've been so busy with you're little plans for conquest you didn't even see that you were a chess piece in someone else's game. You've been played Mr. Nash. The Retarnee used you, and now you've have no value to us."
Simpson pulled the trigger, the phaser set at maximum. The great Graham Nash first glowed a brilliant red and then evaporated into the air. The men with Nash, unarmed and frightened for their lives turned and ran.
***
It took almost 30 minutes to get the first squad of marines down the tube and to secure the room. Brown and Dinn followed next. They were amazed to find they were met with no resistance. Carefully they made their way room to room finally coming to the control center. Bursting thru the door they found a small team of men cowering in a corner.
"Where's Nash?" Marcus yelled at them.
One of the men looked at him, shaking. 'Dead!............His,....his..bodyguard killed him."
"What the hell?" Brown asked.
"He...he said he was Retarnee......and he killed him. He killed Nash and Lieutenant Simpson."
"Simpson? Who is Simpson?"
"The Engineer we had planted on the Apollo." the operator answered, fearing the huge Antican would hit him.
"What about the information on the Apollo?" Dinn asked.
The man turned and looked at him. 'It's gone......It's all gone. He must have copied the files and erased the computer memory....its all gone!"
Brown looked at Marcus. "I'm afraid neither of us is going to get what we came for."
Marcus Dinn
Owner of RICKS and Oz
Phoenix Colony
Phoenix Federation
Colonel Belvedere Brown
Commandant of the Marine Corps.
Phoenix Colony
Phoenix Federation
