OMEGA Allegiance (4 page)

Go pulled on the glove and flexed his fingers. "It's comfortable."

Extending his arm, Go aimed his fist at the doorway.

I said, "Are you planning on going somewhere?"

Go laughed. "Sorry, I was just thinking about how it might feel."

I powered off the arm pad and held the suit out. "Put it on."

Go returned a startled gaze. "What?"

"Put it on. We'll power it up and see what happens."

"What happens? I don't know if I like the sound of that. Can't we power it up without me wearing it?"

"I thought you thrived on adventure?"

Go took the suit in his hand. "I do. But I like to know a little about what I'm getting into before jumping in."

"Just put it on. It's a suit. Nothing bad is going to happen or they wouldn't have worn it before."

Go stepped into the leg openings and pulled the suit up over his shoulders. Other than the obvious stretchy nature to the suit around his chest, it was a good fit. I connected the belt modules as Go pulled on the gloves.

Go said, "It's not very comfortable. The fit is good, but the material doesn't feel all that great on the skin."

I clipped the power cell in place. "You have your clothes on still. The only skin it's touching is around your neck. You know, I sometimes wonder how you Humans ever survived with such sensitive skin. You are either itching or getting yourself cut or scraped, followed by bleeding."

Go snapped. "Yeah, well, excuse us if we weren't born with borak leather for skin."

I laughed. "We are much tougher than borak hide. Anyway, everything's in place. Bring up the display that details suit activation. Let's see exactly what we are dealing with."

After several swipes a display popped up showing the suit activation parameters. I gestured towards a setting for the percentage of activation. Go set the level to 3 percent.

"Give it a shot," I said.

Go pressed the activate button. In an instant the suit snapped on, rendering Go, except for his exposed head, translucent.

I stepped back as Go looked through his arm. "This is freaky!"

"Run the level up to 6 percent."

Go's translucent arm and hand moved to where the holo-display had previously been. After an effort, the activation level was set to 6 percent. When the apply button was pressed, except for his head, Go was completely invisible.

An effort was made to return the setting to 3 percent. "Hey, I can't touch the display. I can't see my arm, but I can feel it. It's right there where the display should be, only I can't make contact!"

I reached for the area where the holo-display should have been. "Hold still and I'll try to set you back ... if I can find it."

Go replied, "I don't think you can. Hang on."

Twenty seconds passed as Go's facial expressions showed that he was struggling to accomplish something. What that was I wasn't sure. In an instant, the suit reappeared.

Go was standing with the power cell in his hand. "I had doubts that I was going to be able to do that."

I said, "We shouldn't activate this suit again until we have a full understanding of how to use it."

Go nodded. "I'll agree with that! Help me out of this thing!"

Once removed, several hours were spent viewing the tutorials on the suit's functionality. When active, the wearer would be able to drift through solid objects. Energy weapons, such as our blasters, and kinetic weapons, like a club or knife, would have no effect on the wearer. If a blaster were fired at the suit, it would be absorbed by its active sodium skin. The ion bolt would then travel around the outer layer of the of the sodium coated skin and would then exit as if nothing had impeded its progress. The physics that told of how the suit was able to do what it did were only explained at the highest of levels.

Go said, "Maybe we can have a team of Talisans look this over. They seem to be good at understanding how things work. Although, I don't think they are very good at developing technologies of their own. Most of what their fleet can do was derived from ships they captured. They are good at adapting technologies that they have in hand."

I shook my head. "I don't think we should share this with anyone. At least not until we have a better understanding of its use. An individual wearing this suit, with the helmet, could walk freely throughout this station killing everyone in sight. There would be no defense against it. I can see why the founders of the AMP would have hidden it away. It's only real use is to conduct war, and the War of Wars was supposed to be the last time that happened."

The remainder of the day was spent wandering through the information contained in the data memory of the arm pad. After several short discussions with Go, it was decided that we would not attempt to activate the suit again until sufficient study of the data had been conducted, or a helmet could be found. The suit and gloves were placed back where they had previously been stored and the artifact room was locked up tight.

Two days later a comm call came in from Garrett. "Jontik is on the ground and has been collected by the security forces there. They have been grilling him hard for the past two hours. Thankfully, his story seems to be holding up. They are all busy, so I expect they will dump him into the general population before the day is out. To them, he's just one more body to send on up the line."

I replied, "Let's hope he is able to make contact. Go and the Talisan engineers are beginning to look over the data you collected on that damaged destroyer. Have the transports that came through with it shown up at Contonal?"

Garrett shook his head. "Not yet. I'll be taking a swing back closer to the shipyards to gather info from a probe I left there. If they are preparing to pull the Adicans to send them on to Andromeda, we should have some advance warning. That is, if we have all the bases covered."

I gave an inquisitive look. "Why would you say that? Do you think there may be other bases near that portal?"

Garrett nodded. "That thought occurred to me the other day. We have a good handle on the happenings at the portal, at Contonal, and at the shipyard. I haven't had a chance to explore the surrounding areas. It wouldn't be out of the question for there to be another base like Contonal out here. And with Jontik on the surface of Contonal now, I don't want to leave this area."

I said, "Unless something comes up that we weren't planning on, I believe we should have our fleet ready for maneuvers in a few days. I will be the first to say that I don't have a good feel for what constitutes good military or fleet strategy. There is little information to be had in the AMP libraries on the subject. If all these species were fighting beforehand, the founders must have put a lot of effort into scrubbing the archives of that kind of information. I read a number of historical accounts and they were all written at the highest of levels, no details. I find it disconcerting that I never noticed that before."

Garrett half laughed. "Well, they did a great job of getting everyone to play nice for two thousand years. What need is there to study war when you have galaxy-wide peace?"

The following day I was standing with Go on a platform that overlooked the construction yards on Dallex. The last of our new destroyers was leaving the construction bay where it had been under final assembly for the prior week. I remained in disbelief that anyone could manufacture a ship of that size in a month's time.

Go said, "That's the last of them. You have your fleet, Mr. Beutcher."

I shook my head. "I still find it difficult to believe that a destroyer could be put together from the frame up in a month."

Go replied, "They are a remarkable people when it comes to construction. Take that, and the fact that they worship their emperor, and you can see why they are able to do what they do. As soon as this destroyer joins with your fleet, I've ordered the yards to be closed for a week in celebration. After that they're going to be needing new orders."

I placed my forearms on the top of the railing in front of me, resting my weight on the tubular steel that kept me from falling to my death. "Build a few hundred of those fighter craft and send them to Layda for use by the security forces to police this sector. After that, maybe build a medical ship and a few good ore haulers. If those automated miners produce like we think they will, we will need means to transport the ore for sale in the other sectors."

Go leaned forward on the rail. "What do we do if the New Alliance comes out here and tries to take control while you are gone?"

I stood with my hands on the rail. "I've had that concern as well. I instructed Layda to put together a media team. Their mission will be to feed misinformation to the other sectors that make it appear as though the Omega sector is as bad as ever. That has kept others away up until now. If we're lucky, it will continue to do so while we reorganize and strengthen ourselves."

Go sighed. "I hope you are right. The New alliance would not be tolerant of us building armed ships out here. That in itself would give them ample excuse to take all of this from us. I know you think we need the New Alliance to keep us all at peace, but I think we could keep that peace here in the Omega sector all by ourselves. We're already starting to see that."

I shook my head. "Others will see that peace and the prosperity that will follow as opportunity to enrich themselves. Our threat won't come from this sector, it will come from the New Alliance partners who will want continued control over us. If we were to declare our independence we would be caught up in a war that would likely rage for years, killing millions. That's precisely why I want the New Alliance to stay united."

Go stood and crossed his arms. "You don't think our freedom is worth fighting for?"

I watched in silence for most of a minute while the new destroyer powered up her engines and headed for orbit. "Freedom is indeed worth fighting for. I'm just not certain this sector is ready to fight for it. If we are able to successfully strengthen ourselves while remaining in the New Alliance, we can control our own destinies to a large extent, just like the other sectors, all without millions of lives being lost. We won't reveal ourselves to the rest of the Alliance until we are strong and secure."

Go turned away from the rail. "I'll order up a shuttle to take you up to your new fleet."

As I began to turn away I stopped. "You want to go along, don't you?"

Go half smiled. "I know there is a lot to get done here, but I'm mostly just standing around now. Going out there and rescuing your friend does seem adventurous. I know it probably sounds more exciting than it will be, but I wouldn't mind tagging along."

I nodded. "Well, if we want to get right down to it, I think we might have a need for a chief engineer. You know most of the systems going into these ships. If we have any issues along the way, it might be advantageous to have someone who knows how to fix things."

Go grinned. "I was hoping you would say something like that! I'll grab my duffel bag and meet you at the landing deck of the tower in about fifteen minutes!"

Go smacked his hands together and hurried away. I lost myself in thought as I made my way to where the shuttle would be waiting. Were we doing the right thing by going after Joni in this way? Would she be willing to go with us? And how would we pull off a rescue? We weren't at war with the people who had her. They were our own people. I wondered if taking our small fleet was a wise choice or one that would get us deeper into trouble.

A comm call from Layda pulled me back to the moment. "Mr. Beutcher, the five people I assigned to the media team came up with a brilliant plan. We have all of the status and tax transmittals that Marcos sent up to the security headquarters. It looks like he only had two distinct reports in the last five years. They were alternated each month, with only the dates and a few of the names changed each time. The numbers contained in them are rubbish. They make this sector look even worse than it is. I'd say Marcos was also cheating on the taxes for this sector and had been doing so for a long time."

I shook my head. "You'd have thought they'd have auditors to check for those things."

Layda laughed. "Oh, they had an auditor all right. He's been logged as living on the station during that period and sending in his own reports. Only thing is, he's not here. I have to wonder if Marcos did away with him and sent the reports in himself. It wouldn't be hard to do from out here if no one else came out to see him, and we haven't uncovered any visitor logs that would suggest that. My guess is he's been dead for as long as Marcos was cheating. We have access to his files and computer, so I guess we'll be self-auditing as well."

When my conversation with Layda had ended, I found myself standing in front of the shuttle.

Go came up the ramp-way with his duffel and gestured towards the shuttle door. "I took the liberty of having your stuff put on the next shuttle going up after this. We'll be tied up checking all the systems for a few hours before we are ready to take her out of orbit. When we meet up with the others, you and I will be transferring over to the
Garmon
, our flagship. And yes, Jallis was OK with naming it that."

I walked up the four steps into the shuttle. "I can hardly believe I will be commanding a fleet of a dozen destroyers and fifty fighters."

Go slapped me on the back as he passed me by and stowed his duffel. "Oh, and there is one more surprise for you. The
Heap
will be joining us, unless you have issue with that."

I sat in a seat up close to the cockpit. "Is the
Heap
ready for a run all the way to Theta?"

Go nodded. "She is more than ready. She has four of the same engines we built into the fighters; she has one of the high output ion cannons, as well as eight multi-blaster turrets; and her armor plating is actually just as thick as it is on those destroyers. I had some updated ion modulators added to the wingtips as well, so she might even be able to take a bit more than one of those big ships. I think she's ready."

I could feel the subtle change in gravity that came with switching on the shuttle's gravity generators, then the small ship lifted from the deck and shot skyward. Two minutes later we were pulling alongside the
Hasp
, our newest and last addition to the fleet. The pilot rolled the shuttle on its side as we entered the aft-oriented docking bay. Having gravity running in a different direction from what your eyes told you it should be was a strange sensation. As we set down on the deck I had to look away from the windows until my equilibrium returned.

Go slung his duffel over his shoulder as he moved towards the door. "If you want, I'll take you on a tour. The crew will be performing operational checks for an hour or two before we head out to join the fleet."

I replied, "A tour sounds good. I should know some of how these ships are built if I want to command them. And for what it's worth, I'm glad you are the one to advise me on her systems. You have a way of explaining systems that takes away some of their complexity."

Go nodded. "I appreciate your saying that, Mr. Beutcher. You have been nothing but kind to me since you first showed up on SS241. I think you might be the first person that has treated me with any respect."

I smiled as I grabbed and gently shook his shoulder. "You have shown yourself to be kind, humble, hard working, and professional. I would say you deserve to be right where you are, but I'm not yet sure this venture is going to turn out the way we would like. I have to hope I'm not just getting all of these people killed for something that Garrett and I should be doing alone."

Go stepped back and shook his head. "Pffft! You already risked your life for everyone in the Omega sector! I'll have to admit that doesn't really apply to the Talisans, but they will get what they deserve, and if fighting for a good cause redeems them from their past atrocities, then this mission is a good thing. Besides, they kind of worship you now, whether you like it or not."

Our first tour was to the ion generators. I found it humorous that the hair on Go's head stood straight up due to the static field generated in and around the ion magnetos. The science involved was beyond my knowledge. I knew that it worked, and for that I was grateful. The generators on the
Hasp
would be tasked at 60 percent under a full load, leaving room for improvements in the field if we should find a use for the excess power.

Next up was the ion gravity engines. Again I had no idea of how the engines produced the gravitational force they did. They produced enough of a push to move us through space at insane speeds. They also powered the inertial dampeners that kept us from certain death when the ship accelerated, slowed or turned. And, as two final fantastic uses, they created a gravity shield in front of the ship that would protect against small particles that would destroy our hull if struck while at the speeds we traveled, and they provided the standard gravity that kept us walking about as though we were planet-side.

A large hydroponics and recycling lab fed the ship's crew. With recycling, our destroyers could stay out for six months before needing to replenish supplies. All waste was recycled and used time and again. I marveled at how such a small lab could sustain a ship with a thousand men aboard. I reasoned that without that ability, few wars in space would ever have been fought.

After seeing a half dozen other attributes of our latest ship, we ended the tour on the bridge. A single large holo-display shone on the wall ten meters in front of the captain's chair. Two consoles with holo-displays of their own covered the walls to the right and left. In the Talisan fleet, no crew was allowed to sit behind the captain.

Go pointed to the right. "That's the nav and comm stations over there. These two are the weapons station, which includes defenses, and the engineering station, where the full ship is monitored. The soldiers and their commanders have their own war planning room down on the training deck."

"The training deck?"

Go nodded. "During their time in the slave trade, the Talisans figured out it was good to keep their men at the ready by offering them a training facility. Deck five belongs to Commander Effis and his Marines. I'm not sure what they are doing is good or not, but I guess it beats sitting idle for months on end if you are heading somewhere to fight."

"It's a good thing I wasn't designing this ship," I laughed. "We would have run out of food after a week. And if we still made it to our destination, our soldiers would be too out of shape to fight!"

Go gestured towards the captain's chair. "The big screen up there shows all systems are green. Have a seat and take us out to the fleet."

I sat, looked over at the two Talisans running the nav console and nodded. The holo-display showed shrinking Dallex as we rapidly sped away. Three hours later we rendezvoused with the fleet. After a transfer to the
Garmon
we were ready to begin our training.

I opened a comm to all ships. "This is ... your Emperor. For the past few weeks we have had teams working on strategies and tactics for this fleet. If at some point we need to defend ourselves, I want us to be ready with planned, precise movements. I've briefly looked over a number of the suggestions from our teams and I believe it to be of utmost importance for us to become familiar with them. I had planned on taking two days to practice some of these maneuvers before our departure for Theta; however, I have since concluded that any training should be conducted as we travel.