Omega Force 6: Secret of the Phoenix (6 page)

“Looks like they’re still on us,” Doc said. “They’re accelerating out of orbit on a pursuit course. The other cruiser is coming about, but it will be a few minutes before they can reverse their course and come after us.”

“How did you avoid their grappling field?” Naleem spoke up.

“It wasn’t a grappler,” Jason explained absently as Kage sent the missile targeting data to his display. “It was an interdiction field. They were going to disrupt our main drive enough to latch onto us and then likely cut their way onboard. Twingo, what’s the slip-drive’s status?”

“Drive needs another three and a half minutes before it can be engaged,” Twingo said after glancing at one of his displays.

“Kage, open the weapons bay doors and prepare to deploy the missile,” Jason ordered as he optimized his course to keep the maximum distance between him and the pursuing cruiser. The
Phoenix
had a marked speed advantage, but the cruiser had already been at high velocity when it broke orbit and began its chase while the gunship was still accelerating out of a gravity well.

“Missile prepped,” Kage said. “Targeting solution to the cruiser we just passed is locked in.” Jason didn’t answer as the missile icon appeared on his armament panel. He selected it and squeezed the trigger until the icon blinked and disappeared. He saw the flash in the canopy as the missile streaked away and veered to starboard to begin its circuitous course back to its target. With any luck the cruiser would be so fixated on them that it wouldn’t notice the comparatively tiny missile streaking towards its starboard flank.

“Range,” Jason said.

“Target one is now out of range and falling behind, two hundred thousand kilometers. Target two is no longer closing and is holding steady eighty thousand kilometers, still well out of effective weapons range,” Doc reported.

“Keep an eye on any expendable munitions launches,” Jason warned. “I’d rather they not pull the same trick on us that we’re about to pull on them.” They were far enough away from the planet and the other ships that Jason was no longer manually flying the ship, allowing the computer to precisely plot their course through the system and avoid any navigational hazards.

“Hit!” Kage called. “Missile one has detonated within five kilometers of the target, battle damage assessment coming in now.”

“Target two has jumped to slip-space,” Doc called.”

“Shit!” Jason said as he dove for the helm controls. He called for a full stop and brought the grav-drive to standby. “Shut down all tactical systems, full countermeasures, passive sensors only. Time to disappear.” The crew didn’t question his orders as the
Phoenix
went from a bright sensor contact emitting tachyons and a large gravimetric signature to just a dark hole in space.

“The last sensor data we had on the ship we hit was that it was listing and streaming atmosphere, but still maneuvering,” Kage reported.

“Let’s hope the blast distracted their sensor operator, or even better knocked their sensor array offline,” Jason said quietly in the sudden stillness of the bridge under low-power mode.

“Target two has reappeared,” Doc said. “Passive sensors caught a slip-space distortion just over forty million kilometers ahead and to starboard.”

“They jumped out and back in,” Jason said. “They knew they couldn’t catch us in real-space.”

“Why did they jump out of the system and then back in?” Naleem asked, looking a bit shaken.

“Not too many ships can execute an intrasystem slip-space jump safely. We can; they obviously can’t,” Jason explained. “They had to jump a large distance out and replot a jump back into the system that they assumed would be ahead of us. If all goes well, they’ll scan around for a bit and then assume we jumped out of the system while they were gone.”

“How long will that take?” she asked.

“How the hell would I know?” Jason asked rhetorically. “Twingo, get any damage control done that you can without compromising our stealth.”

“I’m already on it,” Twingo said. “It wasn’t really that bad. Two power junctions overloaded for the shields was about it.”

“We’ve got active scans in the system,” Doc said. “Nothing focused on us, just wideband sweeps.”

“Keep on top of it, Doc,” Jason said. “We may be in for a grind depending on how long they feel like hanging around looking for us.”

“It looks like the ship we hit is limping out of the system,” Kage said. “Slow acceleration profile and a course for a good mesh-out point.”

“That data is over thirty minutes old with the passive array, though,” Jason mused. “You don’t think they’re just breaking orbit to swing around this way and join the hunt?”

“Highly unlikely given the spike in radiation readings I’m seeing,” Kage answered. “Looks like our one little missile may have breached their engineering spaces and done some real damage.”

“Not too much if they’re steaming towards a slip-space jump point,” Jason pointed out. “Still … not bad for a single wild shot. I was really only trying to see if I could knock their shields down on one side and convince them to stay out of the fight. Were we able to get any ID on these guys?”

“No,” Doc said, “they were running without transponders, and visual scans of the hulls revealed no identifiable markings. There were actually no markings of any kind and the ships themselves were of an indeterminate make.”

“Figures,” Jason muttered. “Okay everyone, let’s settle in for the long haul. Kage, take over all sensor monitoring. Doc, Twingo, and Crusher, go grab some chow and get some rest. If this goes past eight hours you three can come up and relieve us.”

The three filed off the bridge and headed down to the galley. Naleem looked to be undecided as to where she should go, so she settled back into her seat and stared blankly out at the stars. Jason hoped it would be a long boring watch and then they would be able to fly out of the system without any more exchange of weapons fire.

Chapter 6

It was nearly twelve hours later before they were able to power up the drive and fly out of the Yeema System. The ship they’d hit had indeed meshed out as they’d hoped, but the second ship had doggedly run a search grid from where they had meshed in all the way back to Yeema-3 where they had then run extensive scans of the planet’s surface to make sure the gunship hadn’t doubled back and landed to hide.

Eventually they either gave up or were called away and the cruiser charged out of the system at full power before vanishing in a flash of slip-space energies. Lucky was sitting in the pilot’s seat at the time and called Jason back up once the ship had meshed out.

“Well that was a fun two hour nap,” he said irritably. “How long have they been gone?”

“Nine minutes,” Lucky said.

“We’ll wait another twenty-one minutes,” Jason decided. “If they don’t come back by then to try and catch us sneaking out we’ll power up and get the hell out of here. Until then, maintain stealth and emission protocols.”

“Yes, Captain,” Lucky said.

Jason went back down to his quarters to grab a shower and get dressed. There was no point in trying to get back to sleep for thirty minutes so he resigned himself to a double watch that had been broken up by a two hour sleep that left him more tired than if he’d just stayed up.

When he returned to the bridge, Lucky had already vacated the pilot’s seat and the crew was preparing to get underway. Naleem had also come back up. Crusher had escorted her to starboard berthing earlier and had locked her in. If she was offended by the treatment, she wasn’t letting it show.

“So where to, Naleem?” Jason asked, glancing over at the pale-skinned alien as he slid into his seat.

“The equipment we have brought with us is only part of what I need,” she said. “The rest of my gear is in the Setit System.” As soon as she identified their destination Kage grabbed all the pertinent information and began feeding it to Jason’s station.

“Only a day and half flight and it looks like an actual, civilized star system,” Jason said in mock surprise. “I thought for sure you were going to say we’d be required to fight our way into the bowels of hell to retrieve your equipment and then land on the galactic core to use it.”

“Your tone suggests you’re joking, though I fail to see the humor in it,” Naleem said.

“It’s funny because this was supposed to be a fairly routine passenger charter,” Jason said pleasantly. “So far we’ve gotten jumped by yokels at the meeting place and then had to fight off two warships and we’ve not even left the system yet.”

“You’re implying this is somehow my fault,” Naleem said with a disapproving tone.

“Now why would I think that?” Jason asked sarcastically, looking up from his display. “What are we going to find in the Setit System? If those ships were here for you, they’ll likely know that you have gear stashed in other locations as well.”

“I still argue the notion that those warships had anything to do with me,” she shot back. “But to answer your question, my equipment is being stored on Setit in a building that is only four kilometers from the spaceport I’ve given your copilot coordinates to. As far as I know, the only thing awaiting us is a bit of physical labor.”

“How much physical labor?” Crusher asked, suddenly concerned.

“The cases are on wheels,” Naleem said. “It won’t be especially difficult. No actual lifting.”

“That’s a relief,” Crusher said, slouching back into his seat.

“Seriously?” Twingo asked him.

“Hey! I’m a specialist … I need to conserve my strength for something important,” Crusher said loftily. “What if we’re attacked and I’m too worn out to fight from lifting a bunch of heavy crates?”

“Ah yes,” Jason said, “the most likely of scenarios. Twingo, bring the drive online. We’re as clear as we’re going to get and we’re wasting time sitting around here.”

****

The
Phoenix
blasted into the Setit System, carrying a lot of forward velocity still from their mesh-out. Jason waited tensely for Doc to clear the system, half-expecting to be attacked in the few seconds it took for the systems to come back up after dropping into real-space.

“Nothing on the sensors,” Doc reported. “There’s a bit of local traffic and a ConFed corvette sitting in high orbit, but no sign of those cruisers.”

“That may not be a good sign,” Twingo said. “They either have no idea where we were going next, which I find a bit unlikely given our recent luck, or the bloody nose we gave them scared them enough to bring more firepower next time.”

“That’s an unpleasant thought,” Jason said as he directed the ship onto a course that would intersect one of the eight open approach vectors to the planet. Setit was apparently not a planet that appreciated ships randomly making orbit and entering their atmosphere. “We’ve got a flight time of fourteen hours to the planet.”

“Fourteen hours!” Kage said, calling up the navigational data. “What the hell? Are we suddenly trying to save fuel?”

“Nobody is shooting at us for the moment,” Jason said. “I’d like to try and blend in to the local traffic and not draw any undue attention. Even if we leave without incident, I’d rather not have someone remember the ship that came screaming in at .85c and blasted off a short time later.”

“Sound thinking,” Crusher said, standing up. “I’ll be in my quarters.”

****

The trip all the way down to the surface of Setit was uneventful and the
Phoenix
touched down on the outskirts of the spaceport with a soft bump. Kage and Doc stayed on the bridge to watch over things with Jason instructing them to keep the engines running in case anybody affiliated with the two light cruisers showed up. Twingo climbed out of the dorsal hatch and began making his inspections along the starboard side where they had taken hits, and the rest of the crew followed Naleem out to the terminal building to catch a ride to the storage facility.

As luck would have it, the facility had a loaner airtruck that was large enough to accommodate all the rest of Naleem’s equipment in one trip. Jason was walking among the generic black crates when one caught his eye. It was much taller than the others and was sitting upright on its end. What really made him curious, however, was fact the crate had its own power source.

“Naleem,” he called out. “What is this?”

“What is what?”

“This crate here, the one I’m pointing at right now,” he said shortly. “What is it?”

“It’s just another storage crate like the others,” she replied. “Why do you ask about that one in particular?”

“Because it looks suspiciously like a stasis pod,” Jason replied, turning to face her. “What’s in it?”

“It’s just a cryogenic storage unit,” she said. “What use would I have for a stasis pod? Some of the chemicals I use for dating are sensitive to temperature changes. The best way to keep them viable is to store them down to the temperature of liquid helium. Is this trip going to be a constant barrage of interrogations? What can I do to put your mind at ease?”

“Nothing comes to mind,” Jason said. “Trust is earned. Right now you’re a paying charter, and one I’m not certain we should even be carrying. By the end of this we may become lifelong friends. Or … you prove to be untrustworthy and put my crew or ship at risk and I toss you off the back ramp.” He walked off to look over a few more of the crates, leaving her standing there with her mouth hanging open.

“Is he always so charming and cheerful?” she asked Crusher, who happened to be walking by.

“Who? The captain?” he said. “He’s always a bit moody. What did he do?”

“I believe he threatened to toss me out into space if I wasn’t what I was selling myself as,” she said.

“Eh, that’s a bunch of bullshit,” Crusher said, poking around a few other smaller crates.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Crusher said. “He’d make me do it.”

He walked off, leaving Naleem standing in the storage unit shaking her head.

“So what was that all about?” Crusher asked Jason quietly as he moved up beside him.

“Just trying to keep her off balance a bit. I don’t want her too comfortable,” Jason said, displaying none of the peevishness he had just moments ago in the building. “I’ve got a bad feeling about ferrying her around.”

“Okay,” Crusher said slowly. “So why not just leave her here and be done with it?”

“Because I also have a bad feeling about why she sought us out,” Jason answered. “She knows far more about us than she’s letting on and I refuse to believe these recent run-ins with undeclared warships is some crazy coincidence. I’d rather face an enemy head on than leave one behind me so for now we’ll play along until she slips up or we figure out what she’s up to, whichever comes first.”

“This sounds like a dangerous game,” Crusher said.

“Unfortunately I think it’s one we were playing before we even got to Yeema-3,” Jason said, turning to see how the loading was going. “Let’s just stay sharp and I think we’ll come out of this just fine.”

“You always say that.”

“And aren’t I always right?”

“We have wildly different definitions of
just fine
,” Crusher said before walking off. Jason watched him go, his brow furrowed.
I really hope I’m not making a fatal mistake here.

The rest of the cargo was loaded without incident and soon they were driving back to the spaceport to get all the crates secured in the cargo bay so they could get underway. Jason watched Naleem closely, noticing how she not only seemed familiar with the crew, calling each by name naturally despite having not been formally introduced to all of them, she also seemed to know where everything on the DL7 was without needing to ask. The little voice in the back of his head that usually warned him of danger was screaming so loud it was distracting.

“What is our next destination?” Jason asked her as the ramp came up and locked with a clunk.

“We’ll need to return to the site of my previous expedition,” Naleem said. “It’s a planet without any official name and isn’t claimed by anyone despite having a stable, breathable atmosphere.”

“Why wouldn’t anyone be living there already?”

“It’s small and the gravity is quite light, only about one-third of what you have here in the ship,” she shrugged. “Makes it undesirable for most species for long term living and it’s too far out of the way to make a good logistics hub. The surface won’t support food production either, so everyone who has ever taken a look at it hasn’t bothered to file a claim.”

“How far out of the way are we talking here?” Jason asked.

“Only ninety-seven lightyears from here,” she said, “but it’s out towards the edge of the quadrant. It’s on the way to nothing.” Jason did the math in his head and figured they could be there in a few days without running the ship too hard.

“No problem,” he said. “If you have everything secure down here we’ll head up to the bridge and be on our way.”