Omega Force 3: The Enemy Within (16 page)

When the computer confirmed their speed and position, he engaged the slip-drive and watched as the canopy darkened. After monitoring the flight systems for a few more minutes, he gingerly climbed out of his seat. “I’m going to go get cleaned up,” he told Kage. “I want a report on that in thirty minutes.”

“I’ll be ready,” Kage said distractedly as data from the device scrolled across his displays.

*****

“RU933,” Kage said. “That’s the star we’re heading to.”

“What’s there?” Jason asked.

“Nothing. No habitable planets or moons, no interesting mineral deposits, nothing of any scientific value. There would be no reason anybody would ever deliberately go to this system.”

“Unless you were trying to hide something,” Crusher said.

“Exactly,” Kellea said, manipulating the display. She had already read through Kage’s brief before the crew had crowded into the small briefing room on the command deck. “This is officially designated as a scrap yard by the ConFed if someone were to actually bother to look it up, just one of hundreds. But, if our intel is accurate, it’s actually a high-security impound where ConFed Fleet Command buries its skeletons.”

“Such as?”
Jason asked, his interest piqued.

“Mostly what you would expect,” she said.
“The remnants of little known and likely illegal military action along with a handful of confiscated civilian vessels.”

“So we’re flying into one of the ConFed’s dirty little secrets,” Jason mused. “So we can expect heavy resistance.”

“If we do this right, there should be no resistance,” Kellea disagreed. “While I know you guys like the battering ram approach, the amount of fleet presence there would be too much. Even as fast as this ship is, we wouldn’t be able to get close enough to the formation the
Diligent
is parked in to get onboard and retrieve the safe contents, to say nothing about trying to get back out.”

“I’m listening,” Jason said with a growing sense of apprehension.

“Our intel source indicates that the
Diligent
is here,” Kage said, highlighting a portion of the map with a pulsing red circle. “There are seven large formations of ships and other objects stabilized into extremely high orbits over the largest planet, a Class 4 gas giant. It was probably selected for the enormous gravity well it produces as well as an inexplicably low radiation level.”

“Would we be able to mesh-in outside the system and dead-drift the
Phoenix
towards the formation?” Jason asked.

“There’s also this,” Kage said, and brought up another set of highlighted areas on the display.
“Passive detection grid. It’ll detect magnetic anomalies as well as shielded power sources. We might be able to ghost in through the gaps here, but the main reactor would have to be completely cold.”

“That’s not an option,” Twingo said. “To run the powerplant completely cold means we won’t be able to get it started in time if we need the engines, weapons, or the ability not to slam full speed into the
Diligent
when we arrive.”

“Agreed,” Jason said. “There’s got to be a better way to do this. I’m assuming our countermeasure systems would be useless against this?”

“Quite useless,” Twingo said. “A passive grid this enormous isn’t easy to circumvent. Running active jammers might hide our exact position, but the very presence of the jamming will alert them that
someone
is there.”

“How long of a flight is it to RU933?”

“Seven days and some odd hours, Captain,” Kage said.

“OK, we don’t necessarily have to commit to a bad idea right now,” Jason said. “Let’s give it a couple days and see if we can come up with something that won’t get all of us killed. Or incarcerated, and then killed. Kage, go send the new course data to the nav system and command the speed increase.”

Jason was on the bridge alone during “night hours” while the rest of the crew slept, sitting at one of the side stations and puzzling over a way to defeat the ConFed detection apparatus they’d erected around RU933. He’d come at the problem a few different ways, but the result was always the same: the
Phoenix
wouldn’t be able to get close enough to the
Diligent
to make the extraction without the defending ships being alerted and engaging them. If the intel was accurate, the defense force around the planet was light, but would still cause major problems for a single gunship trying to sneak in.

He toyed with the idea of trying to mesh-in beyond the boundary of the detection network, but a few computer simulations later he abandoned the idea.
Attempting to come out of slip-space so close to such a large gravity well was borderline suicidal. The results could be anything as mundane as popping out near the planet’s core to the more exotic, like being extruded back into the universe in a stream of disassociated molecules.
At least either would be painless, but not especially helpful.

“I see you have not made significant progress on the problem, Captain.” Jason didn’t jump, but his muscles clenched up in surprise at the voice.

“How the hell did you sneak up on me, Lucky?”

“It was not difficult. You are completely distracted by your simulations,” Lucky said. Jason looked up and the battlesynth was standing stock still, had no discernible facial expressions, yet he looked like he had more to say. The fact that he could now read the synth’s body language spoke to how far he, and Lucky himself, had come in recent years.

“There was more?” he asked.

“I may have a solution to the problem, but it is neither easy nor safe,” Lucky said after a moment of hesitation.

“Go on.”

“Your idea of drifting the ship through the grid is the right approach, but the wrong execution,” Lucky said. “The
Phoenix
will always end up being caught because it simply has too much mass. But, I don’t. And neither do you when you’re encased in your armor.” Jason swallowed hard at the implications, but pressed ahead.

“The fact you’re approaching me about this tells me you’ve already thought this out to the last, tiny detail,” Jason said. “You’ve done this before?”

“Many times,” Lucky affirmed. “I was once in a cadre of other battlesynths who took part in specialized raids. We would drift through open space for weeks at a time in order to execute an unexpected attack against orbital facilities or even other ships.”

“There were a
group
of you that did this?” Jason shuddered at the thought of being boarded by a group of soldiers like Lucky. There’d be no stopping them short of scuttling the ship.

“Yes.
Ten individuals including myself.”

“How old are you, Lucky?”

“Eighty-four years. Is that relevant in some way?” Lucky asked.

“Just a passing curiosity,” Jason said. “We’re all still carrying around a lot of baggage from our previous lives. Anyway, go on.”

“Of course. You and I could depart the
Phoenix
approximately four hundred thousand kilometers away from the outer effective range of detection and drift in. Once passing though the boundary of the grid, we will use repulsors to slow our approach and make fine corrections and intercept the
Diligent
,” Lucky said as if it were perfectly reasonable. “Then, with the instructions provided by Captain Colleren, we will be able to extract the safe’s contents.” Jason’s head swam a moment at the scale of the operation. He knew the distance to Luna from Earth was only around three hundred and eighty thousand kilometers, which led him to another uncomfortable thought.

“Lucky, how long are we going to be drifting in space?”

“Approximately seventeen hours,” Lucky said. “We could increase our velocity, but you may not survive the deceleration.”

“Fair enough,” Jason said.
Seventeen hours? That’s still close to twenty-five thousand KpH. This is going to suck.
“Let’s run through a few simulations here so I can see what you’re talking about, and then we can set up the flight sequence for the
Phoenix
and let the others know what we’re attempting.”

*****

“Before you even start, I can already tell you’re planning on telling me I have to stay behind,” Crusher glowered at Jason over the galley table. “Not happening.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it, Crusher,” Jason deadpanned. “Lucky, give him the broad strokes.”

“We will be required to exit the
Phoenix
at a precise speed and location approximately four hundred thousand kilometers away from the detection grid and drift through open space for seventeen hours,” Lucky explained. “We then must locate the
Diligent
, decelerate at the correct rate and time, and intercept the ship as its orbit intersects our flight path.” Crusher just stared at Lucky for a long moment before turning back to Jason.

“Good luck, Captain. We’ll all be pulling for you.”

“So that’s it in a nutshell,” Jason said. “I’m relying on Lucky and Twingo to work out the math so that we don’t just fly into the planet. Then of course, we’ll need the details on the safe from Kellea.”

“Not necessary,” she said. “I’m going with you, and before you even open your mouth, this is not open for debate.
My ship, my problem, and my mission. You need me for more than just information on the safe; gaining entry to the ship is an issue all its own.”

“I planned on making ingress through the gaping hole in the hull,” Jason said, regretting his words as soon as he said them. “But, you do have a point. There is the issue of how you’re going to accomplish the trip. Lucky is fine, I’ll be in my armor, but just an EVA suit will not be able to protect you for such a lengthy trip.”

“That’s where I can help, Captain,” Twingo said. “I can fabricate her a suit that will be able to handle the trip. It won’t be combat armor, but it’s better than the standard EVA suits we have onboard.”

“So that somewhat settles that,” Jason said. “Do you have time to do a proper job on it?”

“It should only take me a couple days and we have the raw material onboard the fabricators will need,” Twingo assured him.

“There’s a glaring hole in your plan here,” Kage said. “How are you getting back? Slowing down with repulsors is one thing, but you won’t have the power reserves or the thrust to get back on your own for pickup.”

“That’s a wrinkle we’re still working on,” Jason admitted. “But I did get an idea as I was going over the rest of the intel we got from Kellea’s contact. Kage, I want you to start running through the IDs on the other ships in formation with the
Diligent
. Try to find why each is there and then report back to me.”

“What am I looking for specifically?” Kage asked.

“Anything connected to organized crime or paramilitary units,” Jason answered. “It can’t be anything tied to the ConFed itself. Also, try to find one that’s tied to an ongoing legal matter.”

“This may take a bit,” Kage said dubiously. “I’d better get started now.”

“I’d say we all better get started,” Jason said as he watched Kage climb the stairs to the command deck. “Kellea and Twingo, you have a lot of work to do and not a lot of time. Lucky, I’ll need you helping me since Twingo will be tied up. Doc, you give them a hand to make sure her life-support systems are up to the task. Crusher, you’re going to help me in the armory later to get our load-out right. Any questions?” Nobody had any. “Good. Let’s get started.”

Jason left the table and walked down to the armory to begin prepping his armor for the lengthy trip through vacuum he had coming up. As expected, Crusher followed him down through the starboard engineering bay and into Armory. He stood leaning against the doorway as Jason keyed in a sequence on a control pad. With a hiss and a whir, his armor, hanging on the rack, slid out of the wall panel.

“You know,” Crusher said, “we’d probably maintain a better profit margin if you didn’t buy new armor every few weeks.”

“This is the third unit, and the first one shouldn’t count,” Jason shot back. “The damn thing almost got me killed.”

“Really? I thought it was your one-man assault on a fortified position that almost got you killed,” Crusher said, walking into the room.

“Were you here to help or throw insults?”

“I can do both,” Crusher answered. “But seriously, Captain, is this the best plan we can come up with? The odds of success aren’t all that great. Lucky is easily the best I’ve ever been around, but even he is pushing it on this. This was his idea, wasn’t it?”

“How could you tell?”

“Each of us, no matter how brave, always leaves ourselves an acceptable margin of error and a relief valve for when things go to shit,” Crusher said. “He doesn’t.”

“I disagree,” Jason said. “His calculation of acceptable risk is as precise as his aim, so he doesn’t need a wide margin
..”

“You’re betting your life on that, you realize that don’t you?”

“I do. And I trust him implicitly, as I do you,” Jason said. “He wouldn’t have suggested it if he didn’t think he could pull it off while also keeping me alive. He’s more protective of this ship and crew than even you are, if we’re honest.”

“I’m not saying it’s a trust issue,” Crusher raised his hands up protest. “I’m just saying he’s not infallible and to trust your own instincts.” He turned and left before Jason could respond. After a moment of thought, Jason dismissed the conversation and began putting the armor through a series of self-test sequences.

*****

“There’s nothing that fits your search criteria within the formation the
Diligent
is parked in,” Kage told Jason after spending the better part of a day searching. “But, there are eight other groupings that orbit the planet. Each is a different distance from the planet and put together according to mass so the orbits remain stable without having to continually go out and drag them back into place.”

“And you’re telling me this because you think there’s a ship in another group that will help?” Jason asked.

“Yes,” Kage answered, turning to his display. “This one. It’s a confiscated smuggling vessel that is part of an open internal ConFed Fleet investigation into one of their admirals. This is real-deal Fleet, too ... not just some local reserve flying the flag.”

“What are the charges against the admiral?”

“Apparently she’s been diverting weapons shipments into her own distribution network and subsidizing more than a couple little private wars all on her own,” Kage said, reading off a list of charges. “From what I can tell, she had no issue outfitting both sides of a conflict with top-of-the-line ConFed hardware. Seems she was supplementing her retirement more than making a political statement.”

“That’s an interesting coincidence,” Jason said with a snort. “Isn’t that exactly what Crisstof is accused of? What are the chances his flagship ends up in the same impound as the admiral’s?”

“Hmm, I didn’t make that connection,” Kage said. “Do you want me to pursue it?”

“No,” Jason said after a moment of thought. “I don’t want to risk your activity being detected on the net and I can’t really see a connection other than similar charges.
Facilitating a war that was already going to happen isn’t exactly the same as being accused of starting an open insurrection. Just leave it alone for now.”

“You’re the boss,” Kage said. “What do you want me to do with this new information?”

“We need a way to get the
Phoenix
into the area to pick us up without tipping off what we’ve been doing,” Jason said. “So we need a legit target other than the
Diligent
, and we need to make sure they don’t bother to check the ship out afterwards. In fact, the admiral’s ship being in a different orbit really helps us out with that.”

“How so?”

“Pull up a chart of the system and I’ll show you,” Jason said while he turned to his own terminal and began pulling up the weapons load-out the
Phoenix
was currently carrying. “This is a long shot, but if we can pull it off it will give us an easy escape. Maybe.”

For the next two hours he and Kage narrowed the plan of attack using the information that was on the chip Kellea had paid so much for. Or more specifically, that Omega Force had paid so much for. Jason desperately hoped the
intel was not only accurate but also up to date. Any significant changes in position of the key players and the timing would be completely off from the time the assault team exited the ship to when the
Phoenix
needed to be in position to pick them up.

*****

“This isn’t bad, Twingo,” Jason said as he walked around Kellea, now ensconced in a hybrid EVA suit that had far more substantial life-support systems and hard-plate protection on every surface that didn’t need to bend. “The joints are also reinforced?”

“Yes,” Twingo answered, making adjustments as Kellea stood motionlessly with her arms out. “The material will be stiff, but it will protect from nearly all micro meteor impacts.” Kellea’s muffled voice came unintelligibly from the suit’s helmet. “Computer, patch this suit’s com through ship’s intercom, Engineering only.”