Omega Force 7: Redemption (20 page)

"Nice," Jason said with a nod. "Let's head out that way—" Before he could finish his sentence a metallic scraping sound caught his attention. He spun and in the thermal optics of his helmet he saw a synth with a badly damaged leg trying to sneak towards them along the edge of the building. Jason snapped his weapon up and fired a single round into the machine's head, dropping it instantly.

"Damnit!" Crusher shouted, holding his ears. "Dial that thing back!"

"Sorry," Jason said, flicking the selector down a notch. "Let's go, they'll know we're on the move." As they ran he opened a general frequency on his com unit. "Lucky, change of plans. We're travelling topside to the rally point. Get the objective safely there and do not wait for us."

"
Acknowledged
."

"Doc, what's your status?"

"
Standing by
," Doc said. "
Engines are hot and weapons are armed
."

"Go ahead and get airborne," Jason said. "We'll call when we're ready for pickup." He closed the channel and concentrated on what was happening around him. Those they'd passed so far showed no inclination of trying to stop them, but he doubted his luck would hold out for the entire trip.

"You think that block war has died down?" Crusher asked, barely winded from the all-out sprint they were doing.

"I hope so," Jason said. He was about to ask about taking an alternate route when something slammed into his back with tremendous force, sending him flying. He lost his grip on the railgun as he tumbled across the pavement with such velocity he saw sparks being kicked up by his armor. When he came to a stop he was face down, his faceplate was cracked, and there were a series of warnings scrolling down his HUD. He heard weapons fire in the distance, including his own railgun, and tried to stand, but the actuators wouldn't respond. Before he could try a systems reset a strident tone sounded in his ears letting him know one of the powercells had been ruptured and was going critical. Without hesitation he initiated the ejection sequence and closed his eyes as parts of the armor were blown off him in a precise sequence until he was able to stand.

He pulled the helmet and gauntlets off, tossing them aside as he walked over to where Crusher was, smoke curling up out of the railgun's barrel. "I can see why you like this thing so much," Crusher said, handing it back to him. "That last synth hit you with a light anti-personnel missile. Glad he was aiming at you and not me."

"Me too," Jason said, eliciting a raised brow from Crusher. "I'm not going to lie, it hurt like hell, but I survived it. You wouldn't have," he explained.

"We better get moving again," Crusher said. They turned and began running again, more slowly this time so as not to blunder into another situation. Jason felt very conspicuous running in the thin, form-fitting undergarment that was only designed to wick moisture away from his skin while wearing armor. "Cute outfit," Crusher said as they ran.

"Shut up."

They only had to run another few minutes to realize that not only had the block war not abated, it seemed to have grown and now involved a third faction. Jason motioned to a narrow, filthy alley to his right. He switched his ocular implants to thermal mode, something he hadn't done in over a year, and scanned the passage. The alley looked clear save for the still-warm footprints of something that had run through at high speed judging by the stride length.

"Call Lucky and ask where they are," Jason said as he pressed further up the alley.

"Lucky, where are you?" Crusher asked into his headset. After a pause, he said, "He says they're already in Jer-An's hiding place."

"Tell him to coordinate with Doc and have the
Phoenix
pick them up in that alley with the transit beam," Jason said, clearing a couple of recessed doorways as he passed. "We'll try to find a clear pickup point ourselves but we're not getting through that mess."

"They're on their way," Crusher said. "Doc is already coming down. Does this alley dump out somewhere that the ship can get into?"

"I've never been here before, Crusher," Jason said patiently. "Lucky had the map in his head."

"That seems shortsighted that we all don't have a copy," Crusher said. Jason ground his teeth together, but said nothing. A moment later they were walking out of the alley into a large, open area that looked like a delivery yard for the surrounding buildings. Unfortunately, they weren't alone.

Some of the participants in the night's festivities had spilled over from the main streets into the side alleys and there were a couple dozen shabbily dressed aliens with crude weapons facing off against each other. They all stopped and stared when Jason and Crusher walked out from behind the retainer wall of a loading dock.

Jason realized a couple of things at once. One was that it looked like nobody had anything more sophisticated than a flechette pistol among them, nothing compared to the advanced armament he and Crusher had with them. But the other thing was that he was standing there, at close range, in his underwear, and even a flechette pistol was going to hurt like hell. It seemed the mob came to similar conclusions as they all turned towards him and began advancing.

"Not another step!" Jason shouted, shouldering his weapon. The response from the crowd was to shout for their friends to come and help, multiple calls going out from competing factions trying to get their hands on the weapons they were all now eyeing greedily.

"This is going to be close," Crusher said, raising his weapon. Just as it looked like they might be getting brave enough to try a mad rush there was a violent gust of wind and a powerful blaster shot impacted the pavement between them and the crowd. Jason looked up in time to see the
Phoenix
swing over and around and descend into the open spot between the buildings.

Surprisingly, many of the armed members of the mob opened fire on the gunship. From the rippled impacts along the ventral surface Jason could see that Doc had been smart enough to make his approach with the shields up. The
Phoenix
opened up again with one of the belly turrets, red bolts of raw energy vaporizing five or six locals and ripping up huge chunks of pavement. That did the trick as there was an immediate and frenzied exodus from the area until after half a minute only Jason and Crusher were standing there.

A few seconds later Jason was riding the transit beam up, trying to ignore the weird sensations it caused on his exposed skin, followed closely by Crusher. "
Captain, you better get up here
," Doc's voice came over the intercom. "
We've got some inbound traffic that seems to be focused on us
."

"On my way," Jason yelled and ran out of the cargo bay. He nodded to Kalette as he ran by the galley, but she was entirely focused on the netjere, who was huddled miserably under a blanket from berthing.

"Any idea who they are?" he asked as he slid into the pilot's seat and waited for the station to reconfigure to his preferences.

"No," Doc said. "They aren't running with any transponders. We picked them up with an active scan."

"Get me a clear scan of the sky above," Jason said, pulling the nose up and advancing the throttle. "Thanks for the pickup by the way ... your timing couldn't have been better."

"We've got some minor traffic in orbit," Kage said. "Nothing that looks like it's interested in us, but the three small contacts coming in from the southeast are climbing to match your maneuver."

"Keep trying to get a profile on them," Jason said. "I'm not sticking around long enough to find out who they are." He slammed the throttle against the stop and even with the inertial compensators he was pressed back in the seat for a moment as the
Phoenix
blasted away from the ruined city and the bloodbath they'd left behind while rescuing the netjere. "She better be worth all this," he muttered. Kage looked over at that, but said nothing.

"Did you drop off the package we had prepared for Jer-An?" Jason asked, suddenly remembering his fourth teammate on the surface.

"No need," Lucky said from behind him. "I brought him aboard when we made our escape. When I tried to extract the netjere we were spotted by locals. One opened fire with a primitive projectile weapon and Jer-An stepped between it and us. He is in the infirmary now receiving treatment."

"Good, good," Jason said absently. "Least we can do. We'll drop him off somewhere safe and populated and have Crusher get him a ride wherever he needs to go."

"Reconfiguring the ship for exoatmospheric flight," Kage said, seeming to be utterly disinterested in the conversation. "I'm sending updated orbital traffic to your display." Jason gave him an inquiring look, figuring he'd be more interested in what was happening to one of his own, but Kage was staring at his displays with his jaw set.

"Standby," Jason said. "I'm taking us up hot. We'll be driving hard for the mesh-out point. Twingo, would I be correct in assuming the slip-drive is ready?"

"You would be," Twingo confirmed. "Drive is charged and ready."

"Then let's get the hell away from Vyrt and never come back," Jason said. "Status on inbound enemy craft?"

"They broke off pursuit and are loitering over the building the netjere was being held in," Doc said. "I'll lose sensor contact in less than a minute."

"No matter," Jason shrugged, beginning to relax marginally. "We'll be well away from here soon."

"New contact!" Doc said in alarm. "Big ... huge energy output ... resolving sensor data now."

"Where is it?" Jason said, equally alarmed.

"Near the edge of the system, but it's not along our projected course," Doc said.

"It's the
Defiant
," Kage said. "Picking up their transponder now. They're flying in loud and proud."

"Two more contacts coming out of slip-space," Doc said. "ConFed destroyers, flying up into formation behind the battlecruiser."

"What the hell is going on?" Jason demanded. "Since when does Crisstof get a pair of ConFed fleet destroyers to fly escort for him?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," Doc said, correctly surmising the question was aimed at him. "I was either in the lab or in my quarters the entire time I was on that ship."

"We're getting a com request from the
Defiant
," Kage said. "Three requests actually. One general hail, one specifically to you, and another to you from a private node address originating on that ship."

"Ignore them all," Jason said with a wave. "Prep a tachyon bomb and get ready for a series of randomized dummy jumps. Crisstof probably thinks he can predict what I'll do, so dump the old algorithms and input the course corrections yourself."

"Coming up now," Kage said. "Tachyon charge is loaded and ready. Accelerate to mesh-out velocity and engage slip-drive at your discretion."

Jason raced along their current course and squeezed the trigger on the stick to release the tachyon charge just before the
Phoenix
shuddered and disappeared from the Vyrt System. The tachyon bomb would wash out the sensors on any ship in the area and also cause so much localized interference determining the slip-space trajectory would be impossible.

"Maybe we should have talked to them," Doc said.

"Don't start," Jason said, pointing a warning finger at him. "I'm going to go check on our passengers."

"Maybe you could put some clothes on first," Twingo suggested. Jason stood beside the pilot's seat with his hands on his hips, considering it.

"Nah," he said and walked off the bridge.

"How do you feel?" Jason asked.

"I feel so great!" Jer-An said dreamily. "There's so much good food on this ship."

"You poor, poor bastard," Crusher said. "I'm going to make sure you at least get one decent meal before we part ways." He was leaning against the hatchway of the infirmary with his arms crossed over his chest. He seemed to have developed quite a soft spot for the half-starved little Veran.

"That may be the drugs talking," Jason said.

"I'm not giving him any narcotics," Doc said absently from the small desk in the room where he was working on a computer terminal. "I think he's literally giddy on nutrients."

"I want to thank you for bringing me onto your ship and flying me away from that hellish existence," Jer-An said, his voice tight with emotion. "You're truly a man of honor, Captain Jason Burke. I won't forget what you've done for me."

"It's what we do," Jason said, patting him on his uninjured shoulder. "You were instrumental in our rescuing the young female out there, so this isn't charity. You've earned your passage with your own bravery." He left so the Veran could talk with Crusher and they both could annoy Doc. He wanted to see how his other passengers were doing.

"How's your friend?" he asked as he sat in the overstuffed chair in the lounge.

"She is not my
friend,
" Kalette said in a voice that had some heat to it.

"Twingo said you two were crying when you saw each other again," Jason said. "That's sounds like it's something more than employer-employee."

"Did you weep with joy when you were reunited with Crusher?" she asked tartly.

"Nope," Jason said. "Those were tears of pain from when he hit me. Come on ... what's going on?" Kalette looked over the couch to the door that led to the starboard berthing bay before answering.

"I believe she blames me not only for our abduction, but for abandoning her when I left and boarded your ship," she said quietly. "She is happy to be away from her captors, but she has been very cold towards me." A single tear slid down Kalette's cheek and Jason gripped the arms of the chair to keep himself from going over and putting his arm around her.
Bad idea.

"She's gone through a traumatic experience," he said instead. "She may just be trying to process it all."

"You know her so well already that you can make such statements?" Kalette asked. Jason was smart enough to realize he'd made a big mistake, but not so smart that he knew exactly what that was.

"Uh ... no?"

"Well I do," Kalette said, angrily wiping the tears from her eyes. "I've been with her my entire life. When she's sad, I comfort her. When she's angry, she yells at me like I'm an animal. Whatever whim the spoiled creature has, I'm the one who has the burden of making it happen. If she doesn't get her way, I am the one who suffers her wrath." Jason realized that he was in way over his head. This was a long-running cold war between two young women that had just gotten its catalyst to go hot.
Uh oh.

"Maybe I could go talk to her," he said lamely. Kalette looked at him with an amused look.

"By all means, Captain Burke," she said with a humorless laugh. "Please go talk sense to a being that has been raised from birth to believe that she can do no wrong and that mere mortals are as the dirt beneath her feet."

"Is this really how you see me," a new voice said from behind Jason. He turned and saw the netjere standing there, tears streaming down her cheeks and eyes that burned with an untapped rage.

"Oh fuck," Jason whispered softly, fearing he might be noticed, and tried to squeeze himself down into the chair. He would rather walk through a mile of incoming than try and get between two spoiled, rich young women when they decided it was time to throw down ... at least if Earth's reality television was to be believed.

The ensuing fight was nothing short of spectacular. They screeched at each other, hurled insults that made Crusher blanche, teamed up momentarily and attacked Kage when he tried to get between them once it looked like it might get physical, and in the end wound up sobbing in each other's arms, each professing their love for the other. All the while Twingo kept looking from the two ladies fighting to Jason and Crusher, and then back again. Jason could already see the parallels his friend was drawing up in his mind and he wasn't particularly happy that he had to agree.

"If you hug me, I will hurt you. Badly," Crusher rumbled. Apparently he wasn't the only one who could connect the dots.

****

"Now that we've all calmed down a bit we need to discuss what our next move should be," Jason said once everybody had made their way to the galley and sat down. "Before that, though ... how are you coming with the stuff we stole from the group holding the netjere, Kage?"

"Running decryption routines on everything now," Kage said. "I'll get an alert when something cracks."

"Keep at it," Jason said. "I have a feeling that there will be some information in that pile that can help guide us."

"Excuse me, Captain," the netjere said hesitantly. "Won't we simply be going back to my father's planet now?"

"I wish it were that simple," Jason said, avoiding eye contact with her. "We have strong reason to believe that someone within your father's government might be responsible for your abduction. As long as they still believe that you're being held in ConFed space we'll have a significant advantage when it comes to keeping you safe and maybe finding out what's actually going on."

"Won't those mercenaries have already called in the attack to their handlers?" Jer-An asked.

"Not likely," Kage scoffed, giving the other Veran a decidedly unfriendly glare. Jason looked at Twingo, but his friend only shrugged and shook his head.

"I planted an EMP burst bomb in your tunnel when we were on our way in," Jason said. "It went off as soon as the hold signal from the
Phoenix
stopped, so about three minutes after we left. It had a six-kilometer range and would have taken out any long-haul com systems they might have had.”

“So they are only out of contact unless they find equipment outside of the burst range or they have a scheduled flight arriving soon,” Jer-An insisted.

“How about you leave the strategic planning to the experts?” Kage said.

“I apologize if I spoke out of place,” Jer-An said, confused.

“Moving along,” Jason said. “The point of the EMP bomb was just to give us a head start leaving the system, otherwise I would have flattened the entire city block with the
Phoenix’s
main guns. Since I couldn’t be guaranteed that there weren’t locals down there, no matter how grubby they are themselves, I didn’t risk it.”

“But you risked the netjere’s life?” Kalette asked, sounding concerned bordering on angry. “What if someone catches this ship?” There were a few chuckles around the table that only increased her agitation.

“Ain’t nobody catching
this
ship,” Twingo said, slapping the table. “Certainly not a bunch of scrubs hanging out on Vyrt.”

“Is the ship really that fast?” the netjere asked Jason directly.

“It really is,” Jason said. “That’s not just an idle boast, her slip-space velocity is significantly higher than even the new ConFed cruisers.”

“Then we should at least be heading towards the frontier between our two empires,” the netjere insisted. “If this ship is so fast it will put us in Avarian space before they would believe possible once they discover I’ve gone missing.”

“That’s ... actually not a bad idea,” Jason said, trying to poke holes in the plan. “We’ll need to make a couple of stops along the way. We should probably drop off Jer-An somewhere immediately so if they figure out where he came from they can’t just draw a line on a starchart and figure out the plan.”

“This isn’t really much of a plan,” Crusher pointed out. “Just fly to Avarian space?”

“Well, it’s the framework we can build a plan on,” Jason said evasively. “We can’t just fly in circles until we think this has blown over ... we’ll eventually need to go to the Empire and the element of surprise might be useful. Once we drop off Jer-An we’ll make one more stop for fuel and provisions and then run her hard across the expanse. How are the engines, Twingo?”

“We’re clear for maximum slip,” Twingo said, sipping his chroot and making a face. “Damn this stuff is awful.”

“Yeah,” Jason agreed. “I don’t remember the food on this ship being so bad before.”

“Compared to Lucky’s cooking anything is going to seem bad,” Doc said from the end of the table. “But it’s always been pretty horrible. That food synthesizer is original equipment from Jepsen and I don’t think it’s been working properly for a few years.”

“If everyone thought it sucked so bad why didn’t anyone say anything?” Jason said, throwing his hands up. He was hit with a broadside almost immediately.

“I did!”

“I brought it up twelve times."

"It was the main reason I left."

"Remember when I was always sick?"

"I do not eat, so I could not care less."

"Are you sure about this crew?" the netjere tried to say quietly to Kalette, who simply shrugged as if to say, '
What other options do we have right now?'

"So we've got an immediate set of tasks we need done now," Jason said, reasserting control over the loose meeting. "Doc, I need a good planet to put Jer-An on. Crusher, are you good to fund his way home?"

"Absolutely," Crusher said without hesitation, earning him a respectful bow from Jer-An and a reproachful look from Kage.

"Kage, you keep at it with the data cards and tablets we pulled off Vyrt," Jason continued. "Twingo, keep doing what you can to prep the
Phoenix
for crossing the expanse ... I think that's it for now."

"What would you like us to do, Captain?" the netjere asked. Jason almost told them to simply hang out and relax, but he realized he would need to give them a task or the boredom would lead to either more fights or the pair getting into trouble elsewhere.

"Please assist Doc in plotting our course," he said. "We'll need to know what planets within the Avarian Empire would be best to avoid."

"Of course," the netjere said brightly, actually smiling. Jason smiled back stupidly until he saw Doc's angry glare. Apparently being saddled with the two young women wasn't something he was especially happy about.

****

"It looks like we found a place to drop Jer-An off that's not especially out of the way," Doc said as Jason walked onto the bridge.

"Where are your assistants?" Jason asked, looking around. Doc gave him a flat, unfriendly stare.

"I'm glad to see you haven't matured appreciably," Doc said, turning back to his terminal.

"Sorry," Jason laughed. "What have you got?"

"It's a planet called Chiphae-3," Doc said. "It's less than ten lightyears from here and has a major hub for a starline that has connecting flights back to his homeworld."

"Seems about as good as we could have hoped for," Jason said. "The sooner the better. I don't know why, but Kage hasn't exactly been the soul of hospitality towards our guest."

"You noticed that too?" Doc chuckled. "It's something in the Veran character. They're overly sociable in mixed groups, but when they come into contact with each other there's a strange jealous, competitive streak that comes out."

"It might have something to do with the species having litters," Jason shrugged. "I had a puppy that acted the same way when I was a kid."

"But your young pet wasn't capable of slicing into government databases and adding a criminal record or deleting your funds," Doc pointed out. "Anyway, we may also have a slight tactical advantage with this."

"I'm listening," Jason said, sliding into the pilot's seat.

"Jer-An will have to use his real name and identity to buy a transit pass," Doc said. "He will also need to submit a complete travel record with the Veran authorities. He's agreed to help us out since when he enters his last location as Vyrt it will almost certainly flag with ConFed Intel."

"That sounds like the opposite of helping us," Jason pointed out.

"He's agreed to have his memory altered in order to provide them with false information," Doc said.

"You can do that?" Jason said, alarmed.

"It's not exactly as I've described it," Doc admitted. "And it won't work with a really in-depth scan or rigorous interrogation. Essentially, I disrupt his memory chemically, and then put him into a drug-induced state in which he is extremely susceptible to suggestion. We'll put on a little show for him while he's strapped down in the infirmary and then dump him off on Chiphae-3 with a handful of credits and a schedule for slip-space flights."

"What sort of show?"

"While he's semi-conscious we'll discuss how we abducted him against his will, but that he's outlived his usefulness so we're going to dump him on the first planet we come to," Doc explained. "They we'll also mention that we're heading to the Eshquarians to see if they'll offer the netjere sanctuary."

"That's plausible," Jason said, nodding his head. "Even if they don't buy it and really dig into him that still gives us a decent lead. He's willing to do this?"