Omega Force 6: Secret of the Phoenix (9 page)

“Copy,” Kage said. “Weapons are coming up, too. You’ll have full tactical capability in fifteen seconds.”

“Thanks,” Jason said as he started the main engines and tweaked the settings on the grav-drive.

“Contact, just breaking the horizon,” Doc said, then frowned. “Brace!” The ship was rocked by sustained energy weapon fire as the enemy contact zipped overhead at incredible speed.

“Damn!” Jason said as he looked over the damage reports coming in. “That’s no ragtag group of thieves. Doc, I need to know who made that fighter.” He pulled the
Phoenix’s
nose up and shoved the throttle down to send the big gunship rocketing into DC915’s sky. The worst position to stay in was close to the ground where even a near miss would turn the bedrock of the planet into shrapnel that could impact the ship. It also meant his maneuvering options would be severely limited and make them an easier target.

“What the hell?” Kage said. “There’s barely even any drain on the shields. A warning shot?”

“Sort of,” Jason said as he let his neural implant fully integrate into the ship. After the disorientation was over, he continued scanning the sky for the fighter. “They know what they’re after. Blowing us up or risking a cave-in won’t help; they need to try and force us down.”

The sensors picked up the ship coming back around for a second pass, low on the horizon and from behind where the gunship had been sitting. Jason leveled out and maintained his current course, letting the fighter think he was successfully sneaking up from below and behind.

“Uh, Captain?” Kage said, concerned. Jason ignored him, watching through the sensors as the incoming ship began to nose up and increase velocity. He chopped the throttle and shoved the nose over while simultaneously kicking the left rudder. The gunship seemed to fall through the air as she spiraled around, her nose coming to bear on the incoming fighter.

“Kage,” he said. “EMP blast as he passes. Try to disable the ship.” Kage didn’t answer as he prepped the specialized weapon. The EMP cannon was something they rarely used since the ranges of most of their battles in space were so vast it was next to useless. It was also too narrowly focused to be of any real use in a lot of their ground campaigns, but every once in a while they needed to disable a vehicle at close range and it came in handy. Jason authorized Kage’s armament panel so he had authorization to fire the weapons.

“He’s evading,” Kage said, “Still in range … firing. No effect. Target is maneuvering away.”

“It was a long shot,” Jason admitted, throttling back up and pushing the nose around to pursue. “A fighter that advanced was sure to be EMP-hardened and filtered. Looks like it’s back to doing it the hard way. Bring point defense online and begin tracking for a missile shot.”

“Tracking,” Kage said, “but all of our missiles are designed for large ships or stationary targets. I don’t think they can turn in on something that maneuverable.”

“Let’s hope you’re wrong,” Jason said, “because I know the
Phoenix
can’t.”

He watched as the small fighter accelerated at an incredible rate away from them, so fast that it left a vapor trail in the arid atmosphere from compressing the air so violently. The ship angled over and seemed to turn almost ninety degrees to starboard and looked like it was going to try and close in on them again. Tired of playing the other’s game, Jason rolled the
Phoenix
over and yanked back on the stick to bring them around to port until they were pointing back the way they’d come. The gunship groaned under the stress and he could see the power spikes on his display as the grav-drive compensated for the violent maneuver.

Once he was pointing back to the excavation site, he slammed the throttle down and pitched the nose back towards the surface. The pilot in the attacking fighter would have no doubt as to what he was about to do.

“Target is breaking off from its turn and accelerating towards the site,” Kage said. “Why are you throttling back? We can beat him there!”

“I want him to get there first,” Jason said. “Doc, standby on the remote trigger for the demolition charges.”

“Standing by,” Doc said. Even though the crew understood on an intellectual level what happened when Jason fully integrated himself into the ship, it was still unnerving to watch him sit there silently and, without warning, execute a series of violent and sometimes dangerous maneuvers. So as per their usual habit, they sat in their restraints and remained silent unless asked a direct question. In Crusher’s case he had his eyes clamped firmly shut.

“He’s flaring,” Kage said, “I think he might actually be thinking about landing.”

“No,” Jason said, “he’s going to drop off a passenger. Blow the charges.” Doc keyed in the command and the desert in front of them erupted in an enormous geyser of flame and sand, completely engulfing the smaller ship. Jason hauled the
Phoenix
to a complete stop about twenty kilometers away and settled into a hover, waiting for the dust to settle, so to speak.

They didn’t have long to wait to find out the results of their handwork. The fighter shot out of the debris on a direct collision course and began firing all its forward facing energy weapons. These were not warning shots, and the forward shields flared and the lights dimmed as the weapon fire raked from the nose and down the starboard leading edge. Jason blinked and was aware of the point defense guns firing at the fighter as it zipped by at close range. He kicked the right pedal and heeled the ship over, bringing her around on a pursuit course.

“He seems really pissed about us blowing up the cavern,” Kage remarked. “Twingo, can you coordinate damage control? I’ve got my hands full tracking this guy.”

“Damage control is already underway,” Twingo said. “It made a big flash, but minor damage only to the hull on the starboard flank. I’d take it as a personal favor if you didn’t let him take any more unanswered shots at us, Captain.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Jason said as he sent the gunship racing after the small fighter. Despite its much greater size, the gunship had more power and was able to close the distance to the target quickly. It couldn’t, however, turn as sharply or as quickly and it was a disadvantage the enemy pilot was using to maximum advantage. The fighter was staying just ahead of the smaller point defense cannons but letting them close in enough so that he could shake them with a hard turn. It was doubly hard since he knew which way he was going to turn. Jason didn’t.

“I think he’s trying to break contact so he can get to orbit,” Kage said. “Stay on him.”

“I’m on him,” Jason said, concentrating on not giving the fighter an opportunity to leave them behind and break for orbit. The pilot knew that if he increased the range without shaking the gunship that he’d likely get a missile up his thrust nozzles for his trouble. Jason kept squeezing off shots from the main cannons to keep him honest, but he had no delusions of landing a kill shot on the agile craft. The fighter was a dancer in the sky, nimble and fast as it pirouetted away from the gunship. But the
Phoenix
was a bar brawler, and she could afford to sit back and wait for that perfect opening to deliver that hard right cross that would end the fight.

Jason could almost feel the desperation in the moves the fighter was making as the pair streaked across DC915. He let the ship get a little more distance as he began to recognize the pattern in his evasive moves. When he rolled to starboard in what looked to be a preparation to bank hard in that direction, Jason throttled back and angled the
Phoenix
to port.

“Captain?! What are you doing?” Kage shouted. Jason ignored him. Sure enough, the fighter continued its roll all the way around and banked violently to port, but this time the gunship was already tracking it. The fighter showed a large target profile as it unwittingly turned its dorsal surface to the gunship, unable to change its course once the pilot realized the danger. Jason squeezed and held the trigger. The main cannons opened up with a blistering salvo that was tracking just behind the fighter. He pulled harder into the turn, ignoring the warnings popping up on his display and watched, transfixed, as three shots from the cannons obliterated the drive section of the small craft and sent it spiraling down to the surface.

“I’ve got an ejection,” Doc said. “Repulsor assist, looks like he’ll put down about two kilometers from here.”

“Well, I guess it would be rude not to go introduce ourselves,” Jason said as he grabbed the sensor track data for the falling pilot and put it up in his field of view. “Crusher, Lucky … get ready.” He continued to slow the ship as they descended, angling the nose up to keep them within range of the pilot without having to circle around.

He saw the sand kick up as the pilot impacted the surface. He slowed to a hover one hundred meters away, looking to see if their adversary was showing any signs of having survived the high-speed ejection.

“Drop the ventral shields and open the belly hatch,” Jason ordered. “Engage the transit beam and have it terminate two meters above the surface. They can jump that high and I’d rather not suck a bunch of sand up into the cargo bay.”

“Beam active,” Kage said. “They’re already transiting down.” He saw Lucky and Crusher running out from under the ship towards the pilot just as a brilliant beam lanced down from the sky and vaporized the pilot, the seat, and turned a few square meters of desert into cloudy glass.

“Contact!” Doc called. “Target in low-orbit.”

“No shit!” Jason said. “Get them back onboard, now! How the hell did we miss a ship in orbit?”

“It just appeared when it opened fire,” Doc said apologetically. “It was running dark and we couldn’t detect it while we were in the atmosphere.”

“And it’s likely just as advanced as that fighter was,” Jason finished his thought for him.

“Crusher and Lucky are onboard, hatch is closed and the shields are reengaged,” Kage said. Jason slammed the throttle down and yanked the nose up. The
Phoenix
roared and shot up into the sky, shaking under full power. He hoped to surprise whoever was sitting in orbit with the violent maneuver.

“They’re lit up like a solar flare now,” Doc said, sending the sensor track to Jason’s station. “It looks like it’s a frigate-class ship of unknown origin. Their power signature is spiking … they’re running.”

“Let’s hope we have better luck with them than we did with the pilot,” Jason muttered, adjusting his vector to allow for a less aggressive climb and intercept the target as it overflew them. He glanced down at his multifunction display to check the ship’s vitals. Other than some scrapes and bumps they seemed to be fine. The shield emitters were showing an increase in operating temperature but were still well within safety limits.

After they broke out of the atmosphere Jason poured on the power, trying to run down the frigate that already had a healthy head start and showed no inclination of turning and giving them a fight.

“Slip-space field forming,” Kage said.

“Shit!” Jason said in frustration, still too far out of range. He watched, helpless, as the frigate disappeared in a flash of slip-space energy. “Track them.”

“They dropped a tachyon charge before they jumped,” Doc said. “The system is saturated and the sensors are effectively blind.”

Jason let out a sigh and leaned back into his seat. He carefully extricated himself from the integration between the ship and his neural implant before commanding the ship into a high holding orbit.

“Well … that was fun,” he said as he climbed out of the pilot’s seat, rubbing his temples. “Let me guess, Naleem, you have no idea who they were.”

“No,” she said with a straight face, “I do not.”

“Whatever,” Crusher snorted before walking off the bridge.

“Normal watch,” Jason ordered. “Twingo, give her a once over and make sure I didn’t damage anything and then we’ll figure out what our next move is.”

“It looks like we should be ready to leave in a couple of hours, Captain,” Twingo said. “Everything appears to be fine, but better safe than sorry.”

Jason nodded to him and walked off the bridge, heading to the galley to grab some water.

Chapter 9

“
Twingo has cleared the ship, Captain
,” Kage’s voice came over the intercom. “
We’re ready to leave whenever we have a destination
.”

“Thanks, Kage,” Jason replied. “I’ll be up in a minute. Make sure Naleem is there when I arrive.” He swung his legs off his rack and rubbed his face. Four or five more hours of sleep would have been fantastic, but they couldn’t hang out over DC915 much longer given all the excitement they’d had for the past nine hours. He slipped his boots back on and left his quarters.

“So … it’s answer time,” he said to Naleem as he walked onto the bridge. She sat at one of the sensor stations, calmly staring at him with black eyes that stood out in stark contrast to her pale, almost translucent skin.
Like shark eyes …

“I will provide what answers I can,” she said.

“That would be a nice change of pace,” Jason said with a humorless chuckle. “What was this antenna that we risked our lives for back there?”

She just stared at him for a moment before answering. “It’s the antenna to a device that will … find something.”

“Gotta do better than that unless you want to stay here on DC915,” Jason said pleasantly as he paced in front of the canopy.

“The device is impossibly old and uses technology we simply don’t understand,” she continued. “I believe it is a locator. A way to find something that someone has wanted to keep hidden for a long, long time.”

“What do they want to keep hidden?” Twingo asked from his station.

“Honestly? I do not know,” Naleem answered. “I do know that given the technological advancement of this species, who are likely long extinct, that whatever they were trying to hide must be something of immense power.” Jason got the impression that this was the first honest answer she’d given since meeting them.

“And our friends in the frigate?”

“I am not the only one looking,” she said simply.

“So I gather,” Jason said sarcastically. “What is the motivation? Fame? Money?”

“I do not think the people who are also pursuing the locator are interested in such shallow trappings,” Naleem said. “My best guess is that the locator will point the way to an energy source.”

“An energy source?” Twingo scoffed. “We’ve got plenty of energy. Antimatter reactors, orbital solar stations, the works … why would anybody go through this sort of trouble for an ancient generator?”

“From what I’ve been able to glean, this power source would be able to power weaponry that could destroy a star,” she said.

The crew was silent for a moment before Kage snorted, which started Twingo off, and soon everyone on the bridge except Naleem was laughing uproariously.

“Oh that was good,” Twingo said, still struggling to hold back the laughter. “Seriously? Another legend of a star-destroying weapon?”

“I am a scientist,” Naleem said hotly. “I follow the evidence. I am telling you what my conclusions have been based on what I have found. I am obviously not the only one.”

“Okay, Naleem,” Jason said, raising his hands to quiet his crew down. “So what’s next?”

“There is another part that mates to the antenna,” she said. “But someone already has it.”

“The people who operated that frigate?” Kage guessed.

“Possibly them,” she admitted. “Or another faction. But now that I have the antenna, I was able to determine where they’re holding it.”

“This seems to be the real reason you picked us,” Jason said, suddenly understanding why she’d sought them out. “Not too many freighter crews willing to break into a secure holding facility to steal some ancient artifact for what, on the surface, seems like an utterly absurd reason. Am I right?”

“The unique skills of you and your crew were certainly a reason I sought to hire you,” she said. “But I made no secret of that.”

“No,” Jason said, “but you were also fairly light on the details. For instance, I think you suspected that this next piece was already in someone else’s hands. You could have told us the job would include transport as well as grand larceny. Not to mention air-to-air combat with one of the most advanced starfighters I’ve seen in this region of space.”

“As I said, I was unaware of anyone with access to such advanced weaponry also pursuing the device,” Naleem said. “For that, I apologize.” The fact she actually did seem contrite took some of the fight out of Jason.

“Just something to keep in mind,” he said, “anyone with enough credits can get almost anything. Hell, there are entire militaries for hire. This is an important clue though … assuming the people we tangled with were mercs like us, the interested party must have deep pockets.”

“I’m not so sure, Captain,” Twingo disagreed. “I don’t know too many merc crews that would vaporize a highly skilled pilot like that.”

“Point taken,” Jason conceded. “Since we seem to have exhausted the possibilities of this particular conversation, what course, Naleem?”

“Please set course for Tallin Prime,” she said.

“Looks like a six day trip running the drive at sixty percent,” Kage said as he checked with the navigation computer.

“Send it over,” Jason said. “Let’s get out of here. Program in three dummy jumps.”

Moments after the
Phoenix
meshed out of the system, the frigate they’d been chasing jumped back in and launched multiple shuttles towards the surface.

****

Jason sat at the galley table alone, eating his meal and watching as his crew went about their normal routine during a long slip-space flight of inspections, light maintenance, and training. He nodded politely to them all as they went about their business, but made no effort to engage them. Naleem walked by on her way to starboard berthing, paused as if to speak to him, and moved along after one look at his brooding countenance. He waited until the door to the bay closed and she’d remained in there for at least thirty minutes before dropping his fork and pushing away his now-cold food.

“Computer, lock starboard berthing,” he said softly. “Visual acknowledgement to my implant only. Monitor passenger Naleem El and alert me if she tries to exit the bay.” He saw the computer confirm his commands via text written across his field of view. Waving to Lucky, he quietly made his way down to the port engineering bay and from there went into the armory.

“Are you sure this is wise, Captain?” Lucky asked as they walked into the cargo bay. “Exposing the antenna while we are in slip-space may have adverse effects on the ship’s performance and announce our location to our enemies.”

“We’ll leave that box alone,” Jason assured him. “We more or less already know what’s in it. I want to know what she’s got packed in all these other crates.”

“As the captain you are within your rights to order her to open the cases,” Lucky pointed out.

“I know, but I’d rather do this discreetly,” Jason said. “That’s why it’s just you and me in here right now. Go ahead and begin scanning for any active anti-intrusion devices and I’ll get the computer doing the same.”

Lucky walked among the differently sized black crates and began running a series of close proximity scans with his sensors to try and determine if Naleem had rigged the cases or installed anything that would let her know if they’d been tampered with. It took over an hour to ensure the cases were safe to open, but the large cryo chamber had some sort of security lock on it that couldn’t be bypassed without getting Kage and Twingo involved or destroying the device.

Three hours later Jason was standing in the bay with his hands on his hips looking slightly disappointed. They’d found a crate of small arms, but nothing that Jason didn’t see as simply being well-prepared.

“While I don’t know what half of this shit does, I’m not seeing anything out of the ordinary here,” he said.

“What specifically were you hoping to find?” Lucky asked.

“Honestly? Information,” Jason answered. “I had hoped she would be storing files in these crates, but we didn’t find so much as a data card in any of this equipment.”

“Given the nature of her work coupled with her paranoia, I would assume she has the information on her person,” Lucky said as he repacked one of the crates.

“Agreed,” Jason said. “Or it’s in this cryo chamber.”

“We could render her unconscious and search her,” Lucky offered.

“Tempting, but no, let’s see how this plays out when we get to Tallin,” Jason said. “We have five full days left to observe her and see what we can get out of her. So what do you think is happening? Why do we seem to have been involved before even meeting Naleem?”

“You have said before that you did not wish to hear about my theories,” Lucky said shortly.

“You really think it has to do with what Deetz said?” Jason asked, genuinely surprised. “While I appreciate you not bringing that up for a while, I don’t see the connection. Deetz has been dead for years, the original crew of this ship is long gone, and as far as we know Bondrass has been dead for even longer. Even then, most of that revolved around the biodrone work that Doc was wrapped up in.”

“As I have said before, I fear I will be proven correct,” Lucky said. “However, if you do not wish to search Naleem herself it might be prudent to have the computer observe her while onboard. I have noticed that you biologicals tend to talk to yourself extensively when you think you are alone.”

“Lucky! That is morally reprehensible and completely unethical,” Jason said. “I’m proud of you.”

“Thank you,” Lucky said, taking the comment as the compliment it was intended to be.

“I’ll set that up,” Jason continued. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to set up a script that lets the computer alert you and me without a general alarm if it observes something we should intervene in.”

“I do not mind, Captain,” Lucky said. “I will set up the necessary permissions in my com node.”

Once they had reassembled all of the crates and Lucky confirmed they were back in their original positions the pair walked back into the ship through the armory. Jason unlocked starboard berthing on the way back to his quarters, looking forward to a long, uninterrupted sleep. But first he had to sit at his terminal and explain to the computer what he wanted to change with their internal security protocols.

****

“Captain Burke, intruder alert, main cargo bay.”
The computer’s passionless voice woke Jason immediately.

“Confirm last alert,” he said as he sat up in bed. The ship was at night hours and everyone should be asleep. “Are you certain you aren’t reading passenger Naleem El walking around?”

“
Passenger Naleem El is in starboard berthing. Intruder is unidentified bipedal biologic.”

“Show me,” Jason said, moving to his terminal. The internal video feeds from all over the ship were displayed, but he could already see the problem. The “cryo chamber” in the cargo bay was standing wide open and empty. “Fucking figures,” he grumbled, pulling a plasma pistol out of the drawer by his bed and slipping on his boots and shirt.

“Alert Lucky and Crusher, but keep it quiet.”

“Second Officer Lucky is already aware of the situation. He is shadowing the intruder and awaiting further instructions. Waking First Officer Crusher.”

“Tell Lucky to remain hidden, but don’t let whoever this is damage the ship. Show me where it is now,” Jason said. He leaned in as the video kept washing out from some sort of interference. He could make out a small, lithe alien in a form-fitting black outfit ghosting through the dark interior of the gunship. It had moved from the cargo hold into the port engineering bay. So far it just seemed to be poking around and not trying to actively sabotage the ship. He knew this alien was with Naleem and that she’d smuggled it aboard in stasis … but
why
she had gone through the trouble was a complete mystery to him. It wasn’t as if he’d run background checks on his passengers before they left.

“
Captain, the intruder is walking into the common area now
,” Lucky’s voice broke over the intercom. Jason knew he was probably vocalizing only in the intercom and not speaking aloud since the alien didn’t even flinch. “
I suggest we converge there
.”

“Copy,” Jason whispered back. “I’m on my way.” He felt foolish whispering as he was still in his quarters. Grabbing his weapon and setting it to stun, he manually slid the door open so the noise from the actuators wouldn’t alert his quarry and slipped out into the short corridor leading into the common area.

He moved quietly and confidently, knowing every inch of his ship. He knelt down and edged around the right side of the corridor and peered into the dim light of the common area that made up most of the DL7’s main deck. He could just make out the silent shape moving away from the entrance of the port engineering bay.

“Lights up!” he barked, rising and rolling around the corner. At his command the computer flooded the area with light. Jason raised his weapon and fired but there was a moment of confusion as his target was suddenly gone and his shot took Lucky, who had been coming out of the engineering bay, full in the face. While the stunner wouldn’t really damage him, Jason was sure he’d just temporarily blinded his friend.