Omega Force 7: Redemption (15 page)

"So did Crisstof really change so much or have we just had our eyes opened to how ruthless and underhanded he really is?" Crusher asked after a moment.

"I'd say it has to be a combination of both," Jason said. "We let ourselves believe that everything we did for him was for a greater good or a noble cause. It let us do some pretty horrible shit and wipe our hands clean afterwards ... but the truth is we may have broken our own code more than a few times because we didn't check up on what he was telling us. I will say that when he made the clear decision to refuse help when we lost track of you in De'Moltia I was extremely surprised. He's never been able to offer an acceptable explanation for that other than to remind me that we were an expendable asset."

"It's always good to figure out who, and what, people really are," Crusher said.

Jason wasn't sure what was meant by the comment, but before he could ask Crusher reached out and squeezed his left shoulder in a friendly manner and walked back to the other side of the cargo bay to finish his workout. Jason decided to leave well enough alone and made his way back to the bridge to wait on Twingo's report.

"It's definitely from the
Defiant
," Kage said after spending the better part of an hour studying the device Lucky had found affixed to the upper surface of the
Phoenix's
right wing. "If you give me enough time, I could probably even tell you which of Crisstof's engineers copied the original ConFed design."

"I'm more interested in what we can do with it," Jason said. "We don't carry any drones capable of slip-space flight, but there has to be a way to screw with Crisstof and lead him on a wild goose chase with this thing." The others all nodded while Kalette only looked confused.

"I have an idea for a diversion," Lucky said. "We could deviate from our current course towards an obvious populated planet and let the device report in on the new course. We then drop out of slip-space, attach the device to a missile that has been fitted with a slip-com node, and then let it report one more time on the current position before the missile detonates."

"That's good," Twingo said, nodding. "The tracker has no way to know what velocity it's actually travelling at, it just detects a slip-space field and begins broadcasting. A few short start-stops could give the appearance of drive troubles and then we rig the missile to blow mid-transmission. It'll look like we hopped back into slip-space and then blew up. We could even dump some debris in the area so that by the time the
Defiant
shows up they might actually believe it for a time."

"I don't see any obvious problems with the plan," Jason agreed. "It doesn't have to be airtight, just keep them in the area and confused long enough that they'll have to try and backtrack to pick our trail up again."

"Even a short diversion will suit our purposes," Kage said. "There is no way that Crisstof is taking the risk of putting the
Defiant
in orbit over Vyrt."

"True," Twingo said. "That's what he used us for. Those pirates would begin to get very brave with a bright, shiny battlecruiser hanging above them."

"We're not hoping to get anyone killed," Jason reminded them, "just off our back long enough to see if our objective is on the surface."

"We made it into the system undetected as far as I can tell," Kage said as he studied his displays. "I'm not seeing any movement from the planet and no active scans are being concentrated in this area."

"Good," Jason said. "Let's go silent. Full countermeasures and passive sensors only. We'll creep in as close to the planet as possible while listening for the netjere's signal."

"It may not be that easy," Kalette said. "The range of the device is very limited and if they have her in a well-shielded room it might not be detectable."

"A bit of a short-sighted design," Kage said. "But don't worry. The passives are extremely sensitive and we're listening to a part of the band that nobody else is transmitting on. Even a bit of leakage on that carrier wave and we should get a good general location."

"Does the existence of the signal mean that she's at least still alive?" Jason asked.

"Yes," Kalette said. "The device is symbiotic in nature ... it will cease to function if the host dies."

"We'll find her," Kage said confidently. "Assuming, of course, that she's still alive and that she's actually on this planet."

Kalette began to softly cry, trying to hide it behind her hands. Jason pretended not to notice as he didn't want to embarrass her. Crusher had no such qualms.

"You've made her cry, you inconsiderate bastard!" he charged loudly, standing up and pointing his finger. "Apologize for your behavior!"

Kage looked completely baffled. "What?!"

"You heard me!"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Kage said quickly in a high-pitched voice. He leaned up and over so he could see around Jason to the seat in front of a monitoring station where Kalette was now trying to hide her face with both hands. "Oh! Kalette, I'm sorry ... better?" He seemed to cast his question to both Crusher and Kalette. When she didn't answer, Jason climbed out of the pilot's seat and slid a hand under her upper arm to guide her off the bridge.

"How about we head down the galley and grab a cup of tea," he said.

She stood without protest and allowed herself to be led. "I am sorry," she said, her face still splotchy from crying. "I have been trying to hold it in, but to even consider the fact that the netjere might be dead ... I will have lost the closest person to me and failed at my sole purpose in life."

"No need to apologize," Jason said. "This has to be an enormous burden on you."

"What type of tea do you have aboard?" she asked, wanting to change the subject as she tried to regain her composure.

"Well ... I may have lied about the tea," Jason admitted. "We have something called
chroot
that has a similar stimulant effect."

"Does it taste similar to the tea you had at your house on S'tora?"

"If you strained it through one of Crusher's dirty socks then yeah ... it's very similar," Jason said without a trace of humor.
I really need to get this food synthesizer upgraded or replaced.

The next thirty-two hours were nothing less than mind-numbing as the
Phoenix
silently glided into the system towards the second and only habitable planet in the system. The chaos of Vyrt was already reaching them as the com board lit up with near constant traffic and the optical sensors picked up the occasional random explosion in the upper atmosphere.

"I'm starting to remember why we always avoided this place," Kage said.

"Me too," Jason said, never taking his eyes off the tactical display. "I'm guessing that in another hour we're going to be visible to all the active sensor scans coming from the planet even with our countermeasures deployed. It looks like we have at least three factions duking it out in high orbit and I doubt they'll be courteous enough to allow us safe passage for a few leisurely orbits ourselves while listening for the netjere's implant ping."

"If you could keep us in space I'd appreciate it," Kage said. "I've got the passive listening array fully deployed. If you rig for atmospheric flight I'll have to retract it flush with the hull or it'll be torn off in the slipstream."

"No promises," Jason said. "Just do the best you can with what I give you. Even if the passive array is partially retracted we'll get an advantage being closer to the signal if we're flying low."

"Not by much," Kage said before surrendering from the glare Jason gave him. "Fine, fine. I'll try to narrow the filter a little bit more and make do."

"I think we've been spotted," Doc said. "We were hit with a concentrated tachyon burst and now two ships are breaking away and moving out this way, slow but steady."

"I've got 'em," Jason said. "We'll let them commit a bit more before breaking for the planet. Twingo, stand by to bring all our tactical systems online and drop the countermeasures when I say."

"Isn't that Kage's job?"

"He's busy trying to find a needle in a needle stack," Jason said calmly. "Today it's your job."

Twingo grumbled something about "having four arms for a reason," but still turned to reconfigure his station to control the ship's tactical systems as well as monitor engineering functions.

The crew fell silent as they watched the approaching ships on their respective displays with the exception of Crusher, who apparently still had no interest in keeping track of what was happening outside of the ship. Jason adjusted his course a little to port to see if the contacts would turn in on him and to give him a better angle to reach the planet and avoid the main body of the conflict that seemed to be moving towards one of Vyrt's three moons.

As expected, the ships turned in to tighten their own approach and accelerated, blasting the gunship with active sensor scans. "Drop the countermeasures, Twingo," Jason said. "Give me full engine power and bring all the tactical systems up."

"You've got engines," Twingo said. "Full combat mode in just a second."

Jason smoothly slid the throttle forward and watched on the tactical display as the
Phoenix
raced ahead of the two raggedy "combat" shuttles that had been running as hard as they could to meet them. Jason effectively put the gunship behind them as he flew past their intercept vector and turned to starboard before they could react.

"They won't be an issue," Doc said. "The sensors show that even if they'd opened up with everything they're carrying it wouldn't have even weakened the shields."

"Just remember, they have overwhelming numbers on their side and a ship this modern is an even more enticing target than the
Defiant
would be," Jason said. "If they think they have a good chance of capturing her intact they may set aside their differences for the moment and come after us."

"Atmospheric entry in thirty seconds," Kage called out. "Kalette, if there's anything you need to do to get her implant singing, now would be a good time."

Jason could see the young female close her eyes and furrow her brow in concentration before all his attention was on dodging the bulk and trailing debris field of a derelict ship in a low, decaying orbit. After that it was smooth going as the
Phoenix's
shields slammed into the mesosphere and the canopy was temporarily obscured by the superheated plasma generated by their entry.

"I'm executing pre-plotted course Bravo," Jason said to Kage. "I want to keep in the dark as much as possible and Alpha takes us across the terminator and into daylight."

"Adjusting sensor profile," Kage said. "I'm feeding deviations to your nav panel now. There are a couple of cities that look more promising than others."

"Making corrections now," Jason acknowledged. He and Kage had worked out four possible courses they could execute once down in the atmosphere, each flying a snaking route over the surface of Vyrt at an altitude of seventeen thousand meters. The passive sensor array in its retracted mode of operation should still be able to pick up the faint signal.

"Anything, Kalette?"

"Nothing yet," she said tensely.

"Don't hesitate to call out if you pick something up and our sensors don't catch it," Jason told her.

"I will tell you if I detect anything," she said. "Now please leave me be. This takes all my concentration."

The statement brought another question to Jason's mind, but he let it go and concentrated on flying the ship. He gritted his teeth and reached out with his neural implant, trying to sync up to the
Phoenix
. This time, despite the horrific pain in the front of his head, the computer coupled up successfully and soon he was able to look down "through" the ship as the sensor feeds were piped into his visual cortex.

"I can't believe this used to be a thriving planet of billions," he remarked as they overflew deserted cities dotted with the flashes of sporadic weapons fire, weak portable lights, and fires that seemed to mark encampments.

"It is depressing," Kage agreed. "I see you managed to restore your connection. I'll populate your threat board for you." Immediately blue circles and green hexagons began popping up in Jason's field of view to mark points of interest or potential threats. A few red triangles flashed twice over certain things to mark an imminent threat.

"I'm getting something," Kage said.

"I think I have something," Kalette said a split second later.

"I'm sending you a marker," Kage said. "The city to the south. I picked up a momentary blip in the right frequency range."

"I have no way to pinpoint direction so precisely," Kalette said apologetically. "But I
felt
something that was consistent with the netjere's implant responding to my own."

"Good work you two," Jason said. "That may have been the easy part, but at least we have strong evidence that the netjere is alive and here on Vyrt. Kage, refine your sweep and I'm going to give you a high speed, high altitude pass over the city. I want you to pinpoint a building or whatever that she may be held in."

"Wouldn't low and slow be better?" Doc asked.

"It sure would," Jason said. "But then we'd be assured that they would spot us and likely get a few shots off. Let's not kid ourselves, gentlemen ... these are not amateurs. They may be hiding out with the bush league but these are motivated and skilled professionals ... I think."

"You think?" Crusher asked.

"Look ... all I'm saying is that anybody with enough juice to steal a princess from a neighboring superpower is likely able to afford ground-based sensors and weaponry that would cause us a problem if we went bumbling in there," Jason said.

"Then they also likely have an entire regiment down there guarding her," Crusher pointed out.

"I'm hoping they're trying not to attract attention," Jason said. "Everything has a price on this planet, especially information. You roll in here with a professional army and half the sector will know about it within the week. Standby, we're going up to thirty thousand meters. Kage, this will be a small window for you to get a fix."

"I'm ready," Kage said.

"What the hell is a bush league?" Twingo whispered to Doc, who only shushed him and never looked up from his terminal.

Jason pulled the nose up as he banked to the south and advanced the throttle all the way to the stop, sending the
Phoenix
screaming off into the night. The gunship quickly went hypersonic and within minutes was approaching the city that wasn't even visible to the naked eye, but the multi-spectral optics let Jason see the crumbling ruins in stark detail.

The altitude helped them stay on target for a bit longer, but it seemed as soon as the city came within range they were already over it and continuing south, hopefully sounding like a ship re-entering the atmosphere to any attentive observers on the ground. The heavy and chaotic traffic over the planet was a constant risk, but it seemed like it might actually work in their favor this time.

"I've got it down to what appears to be two city blocks," Kage said, shaking his head in frustration. "Sorry, Captain ... that's the best I can do with such a weak signal at that speed and altitude."

"That's good enough," Jason said. "That's much, much better than narrowing it down to just a planet or just a city."

"So what's next?" Crusher asked, his knee bouncing in anticipation.

"We're going to get dropped off outside the city and then we'll make our way in to see what's what," Jason said, pulling the throttle back and nosing them over into a spiraling dive that would get them away from the sensors of the space battle that seemed to still be in full swing overhead.

"It would have been advantageous to have brought a ground vehicle," Lucky said. "We do not have much darkness left and it will be a long walk to the spot indicated by Kage."

"We may have to find a spot to hole up during the day," Jason said. "Let's ration for at least a two-day trip with the expectation of being extracted on site by the ship. A vehicle will draw too much attention and roaming around through the gang-controlled areas in the daylight wouldn't be smart."

"You're worried about some backwater thugs who can't even get a generator running to light up their block?" Crusher asked.

"I'm worried about being delayed to our objective," Jason corrected. "This is a three-man incursion, in and out, and if we do it right they'll never know we were there until we're leaving. I have no desire to fight my way across this city for no reason."