OMEGA Allegiance (8 page)

Jack Carson looked up. "This changes everything. If I have family left, they are on the ground on Doomlight. I have to try to rescue them. If you promise to take me there, or to a place where I can get to there, I will help you recover Joni Salton … although, I don't know why I should now that I know it was the Saltons who took my family from Barrington."

Go stepped up. "We need a plan, Mr. Beutcher. We will be within range of the portal complex any moment."

"Bring us to a full stop," I said.

I turned back towards Jack Carson. "You help me free Joni Salton and I will take you all the way to the surface of Doomlight. I can't promise you anything further than that, but I will do all I can to make that happen."

Jack Carson thought for a moment and looked back at his crewmen. "We are all from Barrington, Mr. Beutcher. You promise to get us to Doomlight and we will get you through that portal."

I looked up at the image of the portal complex on the holo-display. It covered most of the wall in front of me. "Tell me how we get that portal open."

The Captain stood, staring at the display for several seconds. "We need a set of phony transport transponders for our approach. If we can get a team of twenty aboard that complex, we can overpower the guards. There's only a handful. They used to keep a destroyer on duty here, but there hasn't been any need to protect it from this end, so they probably sent it through."

I replied, "We have the codes from that fleet that just went through, but they would probably recognize those codes."

The Captain turned to face me. "They are lazy with their transponder assignments. What is the third to last character in one of those transponder sequences?"

Go replied, "I show it as 'J.'"

The Captain looked back at the holo-display. "Change them all to 'K'. That will allow us to approach and take control before they can check."

"Setting codes on all ships … done. Transponders activated, Sir. Should we proceed?" Go asked.

I stood. "Take us in."

I pressed the comm button on my arm pad. "Major Dontep. I need you to assemble and prepare five squads of your most disciplined fighters for an assault on the portal complex. We will be going in cold. I want it captured without loss of life if at all possible."

The Major replied, "As you request, Sir. We will be ready and awaiting further instruction in four minutes."

I looked at Go. "I'll be going with Mr. Carson. That leaves you in charge of the fleet. Be ready to move through on my order without me if necessary. If that happens, do your best to find Garrett and assist him in any way you can."

Go offered a single nod. "Yes, Sir!"

"Mr. Carson, let's see if we can get you fitted with a battle-suit. We have suits that are a bit better than the one you are wearing."

The Captain looked over his suit. "If it's all the same, I would just as soon keep this one. It's broken in and I'm used to wearing it, even in combat."

I nodded. "Very well."

Ten minutes passed before we came into comm range. A hail was sent to the station. The airwaves were silent for several minutes.

"Approaching fleet. Please bring yourselves to a stop and identify. This is restricted space."

I replied, "This is a new transport fleet on special mission from the Zed Corporation. I apologize for the use of this channel, but we left port in a hurry and the standard channel was not provided. We have more ships that will be joining the fleet that just passed through."

A voice from the portal complex came back, although hesitant. "We have the transponder codes, Sir. We just don't have authorization."

Jack Carson sat in my captain's chair. "This is Jack Carson. You should have me on file coming back through not long ago. You have to remember the ship I was flying at the time. She was full of holes."

The image of the comm officer came on screen. "Yes, Sir. Lieutenant Belkar, Sir. I was here when you came through. Glad to see you made it to the shipyards. Can you pass the authorization code to me, Sir. I need confirmation before I can open that portal."

Jack Carson nodded. "I've been ordered to not transmit that code, Mr. Belkar. I'll be bringing it to you personally. Just have that gate ready to be opened when we get there. Looks like we have another fifteen minutes."

Belkar replied, "Yes, Sir. The system should be ready by your arrival."

Carson nodded as he reached to close the channel. "Thank you, Lieutenant. Our mission is urgent, we need to catch up to that last fleet. We'll be going in with them."

The comm channel was closed before the Lieutenant could reply.

Jack Carson stood from the chair. "Sorry, Mr. Beutcher. I just thought that might be a better cover."

I smiled. "I'd say that went as well or better than we could have expected. You'll be able to walk right up to that Lieutenant without a fight. Our request would certainly be unusual. I'm betting he has no protocol for handling such."

Jack returned a half smile. "Let's just hope nobody get's wise to us in the next fifteen."

The taking of the portal complex went off without incident. Jack Carson commanded a single squad of Talisan guards. He was escorted to the control room where the Lieutenant waited for his authorization. The authorization was delivered in the form of a half dozen blasters.

Go pointed excitedly. "The portal is open Mr. Beutcher!"

I replied, "Send the other ships through. We'll wait here for Mr. Carson."

As a small shuttle approached, Jack Carson spoke. "Get ready to move through as soon as we are in the bay! I locked up everyone in the control room, so we should have a few minutes before anyone else figures anything out. I think I convinced the Lieutenant to cover up this whole incident as well. I told him if the Saltons found out it was him that let us on the complex, he would be the next one sent through, if he lived that long. From the look on his face, I think he's a believer in that scenario."

When Jack Carson and the shuttle had landed in the docking bay, Go pushed the throttle full. In an instant, we passed through the portal to a new galaxy. The remainder of our fleet was waiting.

Jack Carson walked onto the bridge. "I can't believe it went that smoothly."

Go turned. "You just hang around Mr. Beutcher for a while. Things seem to go his way a lot!"

I asked, "Do you have a star chart of the Doomlight system?"

Carson nodded. "I can fly us there. Funny thing though, I would have thought they had charts of every colony in Andromeda, but we were never given any. I think they wanted to keep us in the dark about what was going on. If we got captured, we couldn't reveal information to the enemy if we didn't know."

I replied, "Wouldn't they have the colony information from those planets they raided? The colonies of the New Alliance didn't have restrictions on that kind of information."

Carson half laughed. "They don't exactly tell you what's going on out here. You just get your orders and they expect you to follow them."

I gestured towards the Captain's chair. "Mr. Carson, I hereby promote you to Captain of this ship. Take us to Doomlight or wherever else you think those transports are headed."

Carson drew a long breath. "I just hope we can find them before they hit the planet. Your friends might not even make it to the surface."

Go cut in. "Those transports only came through a couple hours ago. This fleet is faster than they are. Point me in the right direction and we'll catch them."

Jack Carson punched coordinates into the holo-display hovering over his arm pad. "I would expect them on this path, Mister ... what is your name anyway?"

I laughed. "We just call him Go. Don't get him started about it unless you want a long story."

Jack smiled. "Got it. Just keep us heading towards those coordinates, Go, and we'll be at Doomlight in six days. Hopefully, we'll catch up to the transports well before that happens."

Jack stood from the captain's chair and began to pace the deck of the bridge.

"What's on your mind?" I asked.

Jack stopped. "I just can't believe I am back here already, that's all. I've been such an avid supporter of the New Alliance for all the things we discussed that I never stopped to consider how I might feel if it was my family being conscripted. I just thought that was impossible. Now … I don't think I owe any loyalty to the Alliance at all. Why would I?"

I walked over to place my hand on Jack's shoulder. "Have a seat. You know, I've run that same scenario through my head a thousand times. What if they went to my home and took my family? What would I do?"

"And?"

I sat beside him. "I always came back to the same conclusion. Without the New Alliance my family would end up involved in a war anyway. At least with the New Alliance, most families won't. I know it's a very difficult justification to make, but it's there none the less. I don't like it, I don't even prefer it, but I understand it, and from that I accept it."

Jack frowned. "It sounds like your conviction isn't very deep either."

I nodded. "It's not. But every time I run it through my head I keep coming back to 'It's better than all-out war between the colonies.'"

After nearly a day of travel, Go had good news. "I have the fleet on deep sensors! We'll be within visual in about twenty minutes."

I gestured towards the captain's chair for Jack. "I'm giving full command of this ship over to you, Mr. Carson. If you'll take it. That will free me up to think about what we need to do next. I want to contact Garrett to get status."

Jack replied, "I can do that, Mr. Beutcher. It might help take my mind off of the anger and rage I am feeling right now. Betrayal does not stir healthy emotions."

Several minutes later Garrett Rourke was on the comm. "Glad to see you made it through! I managed my way into the fleet's systems, and I've tapped into their comms. I have the transport identified that Joni is riding on. Jontik is on a different one. I'm forwarding that data to you now. We know how many guards are on the transports and how many troops on the destroyers. We know how many crewmen are on each vessel as well. Their nav says they are headed to a system with a planet called Doomlight. They have limited information on what's there."

I pressed the comm button on my arm pad. "Garrett, we have a new member on our team. Captain Jack Carson. He was piloting the damaged destroyer you saw that came back through the portal. He's willing to assist us if we can get him to Doomlight. We think his family may be there after being conscripted from Barrington Station."

Garrett replied, "What's at Doomlight? Is that the training facility we thought they would be heading to?"

I shook my head. "No, Doomlight is the war. It's a ground war for the most part. According to Jack, both sides keep reinforcing their ground forces, but they have to get by the other side's fleet first. He says as many as a third of the transports don't make it to the surface each time."

Garrett frowned. "And if they do? Make it to the surface?"

I hesitated before my response. "If they make it down, they are sent right into the fight."

Jack Carson leaned forward in his chair. "Garrett, Jack Carson. Once they get into hostilities it's a long fight of blasters versus laser weapons. Defenses on both sides are good against those weapons. They each just keep blasting away until they exhaust their ammunition supplies and then it turns into hand-to-hand combat until only one side is left standing. The surface war has been raging for three years now with neither side making much headway. From what I've heard, the battle line that stretches between them hasn't moved more than fifty kilometers either way, during that time.

"You would think one side or the other would come up with a new move that was a game changer, but the other side has adapted every time. War in space isn't much different. I'm one of two of the longest serving captain's in our fleet. Giles Martensen has been out here exactly one month longer than I have ... if he is still alive. We've served under fourteen different admirals during that time."

Garrett thought for a moment. "So, you're saying that the war on Doomlight has been going on for three years? We were told the enemy was pushing us back on all fronts, that we were desperate to stop them."

Jack shook his head. "I've been out here for five years, and unless the war is being fought on multiple fronts, there have only been a handful of planets involved. Maybe that's all a campaign of misinformation they are using to motivate people. I don't think any but a few really know what's going on."

Garrett leaned back in his chair. "I don't think we'll be changing any of that, so, the question is, how do we get Joni Salton off that transport?"

I switched the comm to a wide view of the bridge. "Do you know where on the transport she is? Is there any way on or off that ship?"

Garrett replied, "I have a breach collar I could attach. I can cut my way through. Only problem is, it's a slow and noisy action, and I'm certain every guard on that ship would be waiting for me with a blaster on the other side. I thought about using the trick of entering through the refuse port, but I haven't been able to acquire the code for the inner door. The transport she is on is a new ship design and I don't have it in the
Jess
's database. I have the codes for most, if not all of the ships up until I went dark."

Garrett laughed. "I suppose we could always just ask them to hand her over."

Jack said. "If we try to make contact, they will immediately take it as hostile. I've done this run repeatedly and we were always on high alert for an ambush. It's happened at least a half dozen times. The first time we were far from ready for it. We lost over half our ships in that raid."

I gestured towards an image of the transport fleet on the large holo-display. "Is there any way we could separate the ships? Garrett, How much access do you have into their systems? Could you take control of the nav system?"

Garrett shook his head. "Again, I don't have the codes to do anything more than to get their current heading and a few other settings. I can read the systems, I just can't write to them without knowing the codes."

I again gestured towards the fleet image. "Do you have the codes for any of those ships? If so, maybe we could use them for a diversion of some sort."

Garrett looked over his local display after swiping at it several times. "I do have the codes for eight of the transports. That's if they haven't changed them for some reason. I haven't encountered changes in the past, but you never know."

I said, "If we split up the fleet, what does it buy us? Those destroyers are going to continue to do everything they can to safeguard those transports. Either we figure out how to get her off of that ship quietly or we have to wait until she hits the ground to extract her, and I doubt that will be any easier."

Jack raised his hand. "I have a suggestion."

I nodded for Jack to continue. "Set your transponders to be codes that represent Alliance ships. Then we make a comm call to the fleet, telling them that we are an additional escort that Command has sent through. They should have my personal information in their system as a member of the New Alliance fleet out here. If I can persuade them, they might let us join up. That doesn't get your friend off the transport, but it gets us right in there with them."

I half smiled. "I'm not sure we could pull that off. When they get visuals of these ships, they are not going to be recognized as Alliance ships. We don't have the markings and they would see through the bogus transponder codes. Where would that leave us?"

Go yelled out, "We have another fleet approaching the transports! Thirty-six of those teardrop shaped ships just showed up on the deep sensors!"

I looked over at Jack Carson. "Hail the Commander of the fleet and take us in there. Tell them we are here on special assignment to assist in the case of an ambush. If we show that we are here to fight on their side, they would be idiots to refuse the help. Garrett, is there any way to separate that transport from the others? Could you slow it down in any way?"

Garrett replied, "I could drop back and take a shot at one of the ion engines. I would be exposed at that point and would have to leave. Plus, there is always the possibility of the shot taking out more than we intend."

Jack spoke to the fleet comm officer. "This is the New Alliance ship
Garmon
. I am Captain Jack Carson. We are here on special assignment to assist you in any way we can. Patch me through to your fleet Commander so that we may coordinate a response to this attack!"

Several seconds passed before the fleet Commander responded. "This is Martum Bargo of the New Alliance Adican Fleet. We aren't showing you on sensors, Captain, and we weren't given any notice of another fleet in this area."

Jack replied, "We should be coming up on your sensors any moment, Mr. Bargo. Turn your fleet our way and we can be there in fifteen minutes. Do your destroyers have the training to counter the enemy missile fire?"

Martum Bargo shook his head. "We don't have any experience fighting, Captain. I have the destroyers going out to meet the enemy as we speak."

Jack winced. "Pull them back immediately, Mr. Bargo. Set them in tight with your transports. Those ships will be gunning for the transports first. Have your destroyers defend them until we can get there. And Mr. Bargo, do exactly as I say. I've been fighting the enemy for five years now. If you want to keep your people alive, pull those destroyers in close and target the missiles, not the ships."

Martum Bargo stood silent for several seconds before barking out commands. "Reverse course! Bring the destroyers back! Pull them in close to the transports and concentrate fire on knocking out those missiles!"

Jack sent a diagram to the Adican Commander. "Form your destroyers into a wedge like such, Commander. Have the point of the wedge directed at the enemy fleet. They will be sending a volley or two of the missiles your way before they engage with their guns.

"If you stick with the wedge formation initially, you have the best chance of knocking out those missiles. Some will make it through, so have your damage control parties at the ready. You will lose people today, Commander. If you want to save as many as you can, do your best to protect those transports!"

Jack continued, "Go, send out the commands for our fleet to form a straight line. When we arrive, we'll engage the enemy straight on."

Go replied, "Yes, Sir! What about the fighters, Captain? What should we do with them?"

Jack looked me in the face. "You have fighter craft?"

I nodded. "We have fifty such ships. Go, pull a diagram of the fighter with its specs up on the display for the Captain."

Jack smiled. "Excellent! Those will make hard targets for the FTL missiles. And from the looks of the cannon, they should do damage to those teardrops. Have them deploy just before we engage."

Go replied as he turned back to his console. "Yes, Sir!"

As we approached, the first wave of missiles slowed to lock in on the fleet. Martum Bargo left the comm channel to his bridge open so that efforts could be coordinated with his commands. The first wave contained one hundred eighty missiles. The wedge formation knocked out all but twenty-two. Of those twenty-two, four impacted destroyers while the remaining eighteen continued into the formation of transports. Eleven ships took damage, with four being severe.

Go yelled out, "We have a second wave of missiles coming in! Sir, we'll be about five seconds too late! I count one hundred forty-four in this wave!"

Jack Carson signaled the Adican Commander. "We're too late for this wave, Commander. Brace yourselves!"

The second wave of missiles was aimed primarily at the defending destroyers. Twenty-eight of the poorly armored ships took extensive damage. Most immediately dropped away from the fleet. The teardrops were quickly upon them with devastating results. The remaining missiles tore into the fleet of transports like rocks hurled through paper targets. A dozen transports exploded violently, with another eight taking heavy damage.

Garrett fired upon and eliminated two missiles targeting the transport that held Joni Salton, thereby revealing his position.

I opened a comm channel. "Garrett! Stay where you are and defend that transport! We will be there in seconds."