The Sariens Strike Back (Part 2 of 2)
by Dan Cerulo

Historical note: This story takes place between Space Quest V: The Next Mutation and Space Quest VI: The Spinal Frontier, before Roger is stripped of the rank of Captain and while he is still in the command of the SCS Goliath.

If you remember back from part one, the Sarien leader, Utta, is bent on revenge on Roger for the crime of murder. He sent a Sarien to capture Roger, but while on the SCS Goliath he is a hard target to capture. Now the Sariens have tricked Roger into beaming down to a planet full of armed Sarien guards. As the story ended, he was to be executed.

"Ah, crap." Roger said aloud to the uninterested Sariens. The guards pulled up their rifles and aimed them at Roger. Then Roger heard a hysterical laugh coming from behind him. He turned to see curtains opening revealing a stage where a fat tub of lard sat. It seemed to have a head and all the features that came with one except ears.

The fat being spoke in a deep and echoing voice. "No, do not kill him. Let him live in a life of torture and agony."

"Just great. First I'm to be killed, now to live a life of torture." Roger thought to himself. "Well, what are yeah gonna do about it?" This time Wilco spoke out loud. "What the hell are you, you fat lard ball?"

This made the creature angry. He, or it, Roger couldn't tell, pulled its head into the body. It made a roll towards Wilco stopping right in front of him. Roger really started to freak out. The fat blob pointed his finger against Rog's chest. "Listen punk. People take orders from me around here. My name's Utta and I'm a Meban from planet Mesbat XII. I just happen to be the head of the Sarien government, so watch what you say. You are here to stand trial for the murder of all the officers on the Deltaur." Roger gulped. Who would have known what he did years ago would come back to haunt him like this. "DC102483 and NV695683, take him to his holding cell until I call." Two guards walked up to Roger and one grabbed each arm.

"Hey come on, easy on the new uniform. I just got it polished." Wilco said being carried away. They led him down a dark, dank hallway that seemed to go on forever. The whole wall was covered with holding cells, most carrying humans like himself. That couldn't be good. Finally they came to a stop at a totally empty cell. One of the guards hit a button next to the force field generator. The force field went down, so the guards let go of Roger and shoved him in. The guard hit the button again reactivating the shield. The two guards said something in a foreign language, then left. Wilco felt cold, but he just sat down on a metal slab which he guessed was his bed. Roger told himself he wasn't going to sleep, but within a matter of seconds he was out like a light.

Droole sat in the captain's chair waiting for news from Wilco. Flo turned from her console and announced "I'm receiving a message from the surface."

Droole pondered for a minute, then said "On screen." Wilco's face came on with Utta in the background.

"Droole, no need to worry. The Admirals down here assured me that they heard the message too. The Sariens sent it out to try to capture us. But we kicked their butts."

Droole stared at the captain. There was something not quite right about him. "Then who is lardy back there?"

Roger made the motion to quiet down. "He's the receptionist down here. He doesn't like it when people talk about his weight. Well, Wilco out." The screen went blank. Droole sat back in his chair, he knew everything wasn't peachy keen down there.

Utta was very displeased. "Lardy, how dare he. Let's kill that Wilco now just for that!" Wilco turned back to Utta after the communications. Roger's body started to turn into a blob. Then the blob came up in the shape of a smaller Meban. "Jett. Please tell two guards to go and fetch Wilco. He'll die for this insult." Jett, Utta's son and well known shape-shifter nodded at his father and left to fulfill his father's request.

Roger opened his eyes to the site of the inside of the cell. That was the worst sleep he had ever had. "Note to self: Never sleep on a metal slab again." He thought. Suddenly the force field went down. Wilco jumped up and tackled one of the guards. The other took at shot at Roger, but it was easily dodged. The shot hit the other guard totally vaporizing it. Roger shoved his foot at the other guard's ankle knocking him to the ground. Wilco grabbed the gun quickly, stood up, and aimed the gun. He pulled the trigger and watched the guard disintegrate. Roger heard an alarm for the first time now, which had started after the first blast. Wilco started running down the hallway, turning every time he came to an intersection.

Suddenly an announcement rang through the halls. "All fighters, to your intruder alert stations. Shoot on sight. Remember, Utta would prefer him alive, but he will be accepted dead."

"Great" Roger thought, "Dead or alive.", it was like an old western. An explosion went off on the wall to the right of him. He turned to see three guards running after him with blasters. As Roger turned the corner to another hallway he saw the thing he needed, a broom closet. Roger opened it and hopped in. He hit the lock button but knew it wouldn't hold the Sariens for long. He looked around for a new escape route. There didn't seem to be one, and Roger started to whimper. Suddenly he saw it. An air duct big enough to crawl through. What a break. Now if only he had his Xenon army knife. Oh, well. The cover popped loose and finally came off. He jumped up and crawled in pulling the cover back after himself. He started to crawl when he heard the noise of the Sariens breaking into the broom closet behind him. He had barely escaped the evil Sariens again. Wilco crawled through all the tunnels trying to reach a good communications point. He came by a spot in the wall where the duct opened up to an opening. He looked down and saw a creature shaped like Utta, although considerably less fat, roll over to a console and hit a button.

"To all guards. Last known whereabouts of the human Wilco where at the broom closet of sector 45, 876. All troops begin a sweep of that area. Control Room out." Roger hopped down and out of the duct with the rifle in hand. He fired at Jett vaporizing the lard off his body. What was left just piled up on the ground. Roger walked over to the console and hit the button labeled "Surface to Ship communications".

Flo voice broke through. "This is the StarCon vessel the SCS Goliath. Who is this?"

Roger whispered so as not to be found by the Sariens. "Flo, tell Cliffy to beam me outta here."

Flo caught on and whispered too, "You're to far down. You'll have to find a way to get back to the place we beamed you to." Roger nodded and hit the close communications button. He crawled back up into the air duct and started to crawl when he came to a ladder going up. What a coincident. Just what he needed. He started to climb up when he heard the noise of Sariens in the duct with him. He'd have to make this quick. Roger started climbing fast up the ladder until he reached a level marked "Utta's Palace level". Roger got off the ladder and started to crawl towards the side so he could slip out into the palace room. He heard the sound of lasers in the tunnels below him and guessed the Sariens had confused other guards with him. Roger reached a point where there was another grated opening. It opened into Utta's palace room. Wilco saw the fat Meban sitting, waiting for the capture of Roger. He slowly pulled the grate off and set in down beside him. Quietly he pulled out the phaser rifle and aimed it towards Utta's head. Suddenly Roger felt the end of a laser rifle stick into his side. Wilco turned his head to see a bounty hunter next to him, poised for attack.

"All right. Slowly crawl out of this duct and I won't shoot you." the bounty hunter said. Roger didn't take any chances, he slowly crawl out and into Utta's court. Utta's loud, deep laughter filled the air. Wilco knew he was blushing from the embarrassment of getting captured again.

Utta spoke to the bounty hunter. "Nulec, your excellency in this affair has earned you the rank of Grad. Congratulations. As for you Wilco." he turned towards Roger, "You will be executed immediately." Now that Nulec was Grad, it was his duty to terminate Wilco's life. Nulec raised his rifle up and aimed it at Roger's head. Suddenly the hum of a transporter beam was heard, and Droole stood in their midst with his phaser drawn.

"Nobody move. I got you all covered." He said aloud. Grad Nulec lowered his weapon, Roger sighed with relief. It seemed he wouldn't die after all. Suddenly without warning, a blast hit Droole in the arm. His phaser went flying towards Utta, who picked it up and aimed it at Droole. Nulec raised his rifle again towards Roger's head.

Utta laughed again. It was really getting on his nerves, that guy laughed to much. "No, no. I've changed my mind. Send them back to the detention center. I'm sure they'll have much more fun there." The guards walked Droole and Roger out of the palace room. Utta pressed the comm. button on the wall. "Jett, Jett. Please come to the palace room." Utta started to worry. Jett hadn't replied. He pressed the view screen button and the screen turned on. To Utta's shock, he saw what was left off Jett in a pile on the floor. "They will pay for this!" Utta yelled out to the people of his court.

The force field make a crackle, then came on. The guards started to leave while talking about the Super Zlot game. Note to all non-Mebans. Zlots is the Meban form of baseball, with few variations. "Now what are we supposed to do?" Roger asked Droole. Droole smiled, reached into his pocket and pulled out a communicator.

He flipped it open and said, "Flo, start plan-B. You know what to do."

"Yes, sir." She said, her voice coming through a little fuzzy because of the dampening field that surrounded the detention center.

"Wait a minute." Roger thought out loud. "If there's a dampening field around us, how can we communicate with the ship?"

Droole had the answer. "We set up a power booster in the communicator. Enough that the message could break through the field. But because of all the power being used. If we contact them again, the communicator will short circuit. This is a one time shot. It better work."

"SCS Goliath out." Flo said still a little muffled.

"So what is this plan-B anyway?" Roger inquired.

Droole began to explain. "In case my rescue attempt failed…"

"Which it did, horribly."

"Anyways, er I mean anyway." Roger nodded his approval. "Flo would wait for a transmission since we're to low in the ground for tranporters to work. She would pilot the Goliath out of the system to give Utta the false impression that we had been abandoned. Then she would contact the Good Ship Lollipop, a ship with a cloaking device. They'd come in and beam down into the court before Utta knew they were in the system. We'd have him captured. The one thing I want to know is why you contacted us and said everything was okay?"

Roger looked puzzled. "I never contacted the ship. I don't understand?"

"Neither do I." Droole replied.

Roger sighed. "So we're stuck here for who knows how long. Couldn't your plan-B be easier? I'm sure we'll be put to death before he Lollipop can get here." He started pacing, straining his brain to think of an escape plan. But he couldn't. They'd have to wait for the Lollipop. Why the hell did Droole have to think of such a dumb plan-B? Hopefully dinner was soon. Roger was starving. He hadn't eaten since yesterday. At least, he didn't think so. How long had he been down here? That didn't matter now. Roger walked to the metal slab that was his bed. Although he didn't want to sleep on this, he had to get some sleep. So he laid down anyway. He was jolted awake by Droole. "I think they're here. Come on Roger, get up!"

Roger sat up and saw half a dozen Sariens run down the hall past their cell. They turned around at regular intervals to fire behind themselves. Blasts also came down their way. A couple of guards were hit, knocking them to the ground. Once the guards were to far down the hall for Droole and Wilco to see them, eight StarCon officers ran past their cell.

The one wearing captain's colors yelled, "Jones, Funk. Stop and help them. The rest of us will go and find Utta." One officer wearing an engineers uniform and on wearing blue stopped and dropped the force field to the cell.

"Thank you so much. You don't know how loud he snores!" Droole said stepping out of the cell.

"It's not my fault!" Roger said. Droole started to walk down towards the palace court when a blast hit the wall next to him, and a chunk of metal just missed his head.

"What the hell?" He looked forward to see Utta and three guards. The guards had their guns aimed at Roger, Droole, and the two officers.

"Ah, crap." Every time they tried to escape, they ended up getting captured. "Utta. Don't you see. We beat you this time." Utta didn't crack.

He laughed. Roger couldn't take it anymore, if he laughed one more time he was going to freak. "If I'm going down," Utta said, "I'm taking you with me!" Roger closed his, he couldn't stand the site of blood. He heard the sound of phasers cocking. He heard the sound of laser fire, but he could still feel his body. Wilco opened his eyes to see the three guards dead on the ground. "What the?" Utta yelled swiveling around to see the six other StarCon officers. The captain from the Lollipop walked over and put a transporter signaler on Utta. "Good job Roger." he said, "We've been tracking Utta for years. He'll be put away for at least a good three-hundred fifty years. Heck, maybe even four." The captain smiled.

Before Utta was transported out he said, "Look Wilco. I'll be seeing you when I get out."

Roger became smug and said, "I'll be dead by then Utta. Looks like I win." Utta's body dematerialized out of the detention cell and onto the Good Ship Lollipop. The captain and his crewmen nodded at Roger, then beamed out themselves. Roger turned to Droole. "Come on, let's go."

The lift doors slid open and Roger and Droole stepped onto the bridge. Droole walked over to his station and Wilco took a seat in his chair. Flo turned from her console and said, "While you were gone, we received a distress call from another StarCon installation in the Rutheminon galaxy.

"Then let's hear it." Roger said awaiting the distress call.

The distress call came over the speakers on the bridge. "Help us… <snap> … this is the StarCon scientific installation in the Rutheminon galaxy… <crackle>… we've been attacked by …<pop>… god knows who … we need immediate assistance …<rice krispies>… any Confederacy ships in range, please respond! <cracklesnazzle>."

This story is ©; 1997 Dan Cerulo.

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