The Cagliostro Chronicles Read Online Free PDF

beam, and shake it hard. Eddie let those missiles fly the instant the tractor beam is fired.”
    Eddie nod ded and fired the solar cannons. The twin energy beams leapt from the Cagliostro’s bow, raking across the huge ship before them. An instant after they finished their sweep the tractor beam was engaged and immediately the enemy vessel seemed to buck and shake in space.
    “I can’t hold this long Eddie, There’s strain on e very system already.” Red shouted.
    “Already ahead of ya , big guy.” Eddie DiGenovese replied, as he fired the missiles. They snaked through space unerringly on target, and then slammed into the larger ships engines, huge explosions engulfed both engines, with flames spouting all about the ship.
    “Their shields are down!” Red growled
    “NOW Eddie, FIRE!” Mark ordered .
    Instantly Eddie fire d the cannons again and again, hammering at the area already weakened by the missile strike. The enemy ship shuddered once, and then seemed to fall over to one side. It lay there dead in space, smoke and sparks peeled into the airless void from several spots along its huge frame.
    “Are we able to go to hyper-warp?” Mark asked quickly.
    “Yes.” Sledge replied.
    “GO!”
    The ship leaped forward again, disappearing into hyper-warp .
    “ Forget what I said earlier, I want a status report on this entire ship before we arrive at that target solar system.” Mark barked tensely. Then he stood up and exited the command deck. An instant later Ariel followed him out into the maglovator.
    “What are you doing?” She asked tensely.
    “What do you think?” He replied just as anxiously. “I had to get out of there for a few minutes. That was intense! Really intense. Wow! A real space fight and we won!” He exclaimed enthusiastically as he grabbed Ariel and gripped her by her arms, shaking her as he spoke.
    “What is wrong with you? We all could have died a few minutes ago. Get it together.” She replied angrily.
    “I am together. I’m celebrating. This was a huge test for us all, and we not only passed, we passed with flying colors. This ship, all of us, we did great.”
    She sighed, then looked at him shaking her head, “What is the matter with you? Have you lost your mind? We could be in big trouble out here. Yes, we won one big outer space dogfight, but that’s it. Plus we took some damage. Who knows when the ship will be back in fighting trim? What has gotten into you?”
    “This is exhilarating, all of this. Don’t you realize we’re doing what no human has ever done before?”
    “I do realize it, I also realize from what you’ve said that maybe the whole world is relying on us, and that’s a lot of responsibility. Think about that before you celebrate.”
    Suddenly his visage turned decidedly stern before Mark answered her. “I have been thinking about it. Why do you think I left the command deck?”
    She nod ded, quietly now, and looked at him seriously, “Mark, I’m worried. This is big and I’m more than a little afraid. I know I’m not the only one.”
    Johnson smile d and reached to her, pulling her towards him, finally hugging her tightly. “Okay baby, I’ll talk to the crew. Relax, we’re going to be okay, I promise.”
    “All right.” She return ed his hug warmly, obviously frightened by what they just went through.
    “Let’s go back to the command deck ; I’ll talk to everyone now.”
    “Okay.” She replie d.
    Back o n the command deck a minute later, Mark had Ariel cue up the comm system. “Crewmen of the Cagliostro, this is Mark Johnson, your Captain or boss or whatever you want to call me,” he began, “I want to talk to you all about what we just went through. We were in a battle with a much larger star ship. We won, as I’m sure every one of you knows. Whether we just got lucky, or we won on smarts, I don’t know, but the bottom line is we won. It’s not something to be easily overlooked, or ignored. But we cannot let that go to our heads. To be