The Cagliostro Chronicles II: Conflagration by Ralph L. Angelo Jr. Page A

mouthed.
    Mark held Chakix/Ariel by both arms now, making sure her attention was focused on him and him only. “Release Ariel, Chakix. We mean you no harm. We want these adversaries removed as much as you do. From your surface as well as from this quadrant of space. Help us do so.”
    “ No,” the not Ariel voice continued. “You will all leave my skin, my surface, my world. You will take those…Agalum with you, or you will all die here.”
    Troiano moved surreptitiously away from Mark with Red and Eddie knowingly blocking her from view. Red tapped his left sleeve, which pulsed a red light twice at the cuff faintly.
    “We don’t want to be your adversary, Chakix ,” Mark continued, “But we cannot leave here as of yet, and you cannot stay within Ariel any longer.”
    A half dozen security men burst through the med lab’s doors on each side, surrounding the possessed Ariel.
    “No! You will all leave!” Chakix/Ariel shouted.
    Her eyes flared brighter and the entire security detail was lifted into the air and hurled against the walls .
    But at the same time Troiano made her move, slipping up behind Ariel and injecti ng her with a powerful sedative.
    Ariel’s eyes rolled up into her head . Her eyelids fluttered like a butterfly’s wings. Then her body dropped toward the ground. Mark deftly caught her before she could impact the hard, gleaming floor.
    “What’d you give her?” he eyed Dr. Troiano.
    “The equivalent of a horse sedative ,” She answered grimly.
    “Are you serious?”
    “Yes I am, Captain Johnson. She will be all right. If you had seen the life scans my equipment had on her you would have done the same thing,” She paused a moment and then continued with a strange look upon her face as she looked at Ariel. “Hell, after looking at the readings I’m getting on her right now I’m not certain I used enough.”
    “I’m not condemning you for what you did , Doctor. I know it had to be done. I’m just concerned for Ari, that’s all.”
    “We all are , Mark,” Troiano replied.
    Simultaneously Dan Sledge thundered through the doors. Medics were helping the security people back onto their feet all around the crew.
    “Everybody all right?” Dan asked.
    “Yes , Danny. What happened? What allowed you to get our power up and running again?”
    “The ship was bein’ enveloped by this frequency from the planet itself. It was some kinda power dampening field. Hand held scanners still worked, an’ if you noticed so did our suits’ protective qualities. I powered up a frequency jammer outta some stuff in the engineerin’ lab an’ isolated that frequency, puttin’ up a counter frequency. I used my suit’s power supply to get it started, an’ once it was in place I tagged it onta the ship’s power. She’s not gonna be able ta do that again to us. I got the ship’s systems scanning for frequency changes. We can match her just as fast as she changes ‘em, now that I know what we’re lookin’ for.”
    Ma rk patted him on the shoulder. “Good man. I always said you were the smartest guy I ever met, except for myself. Today you were smarter.”
    “Naaah, Boss. I just had my head clearer. You were worried about Ari.”
    Mark turned and watched as the medics picked Ariel up off the floor and placed her onto a gurney. She was unconscious and her eyes were closed.
    H e turned toward Dan and Troiano. “Is there any way to use that same procedure to remove this ‘Chakix’ from Ariel’s mind? Perhaps block whatever signal she’s transmitting to Ari?”
    “Do you think Ariel is receiving a signal from this Chakix?” Troiano asked with wide eyes.
    “It’s either that or she’s possessed by it. We won’t know until we run some tests I suppose. Danny, can you rig something up to see if Ari is being used to receive some sort of telepathic commands or something?”
    “I could , Mark, but would that explain the telekinesis?”
    Mark sighed. “I suppose not. But I want you to run that test