OMEGA Conscript (7 page)

Garrett nodded. "You know, I guess I never really thought about it. I don't think I've ever heard of a Grunta riot or even a Grunta murder. You all seem so laid back, which is why I was shocked to see you move and act the way you do in difficult situations. It's almost like you were trained for it."

I sighed. "Truth is, Harden Salton was right. My people have been preparing for war ever since the New Alliance came into power. Every child and every adult is trained for combat. During the AMP, we had a strong subculture of always being prepared. Sometimes those who practiced it fully were looked down upon as being psychotic. When the AMP fell, those 'psychotics' became our leaders."

Garrett chuckled. "Well, your people are definitely planners, I'll give you that. I pity the Moddle if your people make it to the battlefront. They have no idea what's coming their way."

"Which is another reason we need to stop them. The moment the Greens know of our existence, our struggle to survive truly begins. They will see us as an immediate threat and will attack without mercy. Even if the Greens believed we could conquer a dozen star systems before turning on them, they would instead kill us immediately. They will see no value in even a single Grunta being alive."

Garrett crossed his arms. "All the more reason we need to get back in the
Jess
and head for the gate."

I leaned back. "Why is it you are continuing this fight? Joni is back safe with her family. You have no obligation to continue. I think we both know that Harden Salton won't pardon you. I can see you wanting to leave because you are a fugitive in this galaxy, but you could easily disappear if you wanted to."

Garrett shook his head. "They have my DNA. The first time a med scan was performed on me I would be thrown in jail, tried and executed. Believe me, I've thought about this a lot. The things that keep going through my mind are 'Where would I go?' and 'What would I do?' At least I have purpose with what we are doing here. Besides, I kind of like the adventure. And I don't think I could sit still on some quiet world knowing what's going on. I don't know if that makes me a freak or a fool."

Go popped into existence, stretched out on a table with his fist and elbow supporting his head. "It doesn't make you a freak or a fool. It makes you a sidekick!"

Garrett pointed his finger. "First, I'm not a sidekick, and second, how did you get there? The video feed shows you flying around."

Go spun around throwing his legs over the edge of the table. "Hey, that's what makes me a superhero and you a sidekick. With that helmet, I was able to record a minute’s worth of video and then substitute that for the live feed. If you had been watching, you would have noticed that my image circled the building five times. Oh, look, there's number six!

"With the comm open between the three of us, I was listening to your conversation. While it's true that Joni is safely back with her family, I think you, Garrett, just like me, recognize that we have to do something about the current war. We have to do something because we
can
do something. We aren't the types to just sit back and watch. We have to be involved."

Garrett waved his hand and frowned as he looked off at a far wall. "No, I'm not the hero type. I do want things right, though. And in reality, there is no war in this galaxy. We are exporting that war elsewhere. So I could live out my entire life right here without being involved in a war. You two can go off and try to be heroes. It might be time for me to quit."

Go smiled. "And yet you are still here with us."

Garrett shook his head. "That's because I'm a bad liar and a poor actor. I thrive on this crap and you know it. I will say this though, all this waiting around just puts me on edge. I say we take one of the Talisan destroyers, put the
Jess
in her hold, and head out to the portal. That destroyer will give nimrod here more than enough walls to practice flying through. When we get near the gate we take the
Jess
out and send the destroyer home."

Go turned to face me. "Why didn't we think of that before?"

I replied as I stood. "Besides practice, we needed the bio-gel and the sodium. Go, keep the BGS on and keep it active. We'll meet you back at the
Jess
. The ship should be stocked, so we should be ready to head out."

I opened a comm to the Talisan military commander. "Bring a destroyer into orbit above the city. Make sure it's fully stocked. We will only be in need of a crew and not a complement of soldiers. How soon can you be ready for departure?"

The commander replied, "We are fully prepared now. Give me fifteen minutes to shuttle the soldiers to the ground and we will be ready to depart, my Emperor."

The commander pounded his chest once in a salute as the comm channel closed. After a short ride on our helocycles, I joined Garrett on the
Jess
as Go hovered invisibly behind us.

As we lifted off, Go laughed over the comm. "Hey, wait up! You guys took off and I'm still in the same spot!"

I replied, "I guess we didn't quite think that through. You'll have to set your activation level off or at least to a minimum that will allow the ship's gravity to pull you along. Otherwise you'll be thrown outside every time we make a turn or change speeds."

Go nodded. "Just stop where you are, I'll come to you."

We soon landed in the docking bay of the orbiting destroyer. The bottom five levels of the ship were made off limits to the crew. Cameras and internal comm devices were turned off as well. During our Journey out to the portal gate, Go would be free to practice.

   Chapter 7

After a week in space, we had just completed a full day of practice. Go joined us in the cafeteria. I pushed a bowl of soup in his direction.

Go pushed it back. "Nope, not hungry. It's funny, I have the mental urge to eat but not the physical one. I was looking over my stats on this BGS. My blood pressure and heart rate are both down significantly, and physically I feel great. The tutorials said that I should be able to function with less than half of the sleep I did before. And I discovered something very cool today."

Garrett glanced up from his borak steak. "What's that?"

Go smiled. "We are traveling at full speed. If I physically go outside the ship, I will drift along at the same speed. Using the BHD glove I can accelerate, decelerate, and turn. I circled the ship three times, ran out ahead and then dropped behind before drifting back aboard. With the glove, I can go faster than this ship if needed. It gives a constant pull, and the longer it's on, the faster I go."

I set down my fork. "Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

Go replied, "What? No, why? The BGS functions perfectly out there."

I nodded. "We still don't know half of what that suit is capable of. However, one thing that we do know: at the speed we are traveling, it only takes a tiny piece of space debris to overwhelm the active skin of that suit. This ship has a gravity wave riding in front of it that diverts potentially damaging particles, but that suit doesn't. Even though it seems to function normally out there, it won't if you take a hit. The tutorial says the sodium skin can be overwhelmed by a sufficient force. It can only handle whatever the power cell can support."

Go shrugged. "Sorry, I hadn't read that yet. I did notice a couple energy spikes of 10 percent or so. I just thought it was something on the suit switching on or off."

Garrett took in a large bite and began to chew. "I think you should let us know beforehand if you will be trying anything different or unusual. Between the three of us, we can decide whether it's a good idea or not. The fact that you can travel faster than this ship is interesting. That says you could do a ship-to-ship transfer while at speed without having to worry about falling back. Might come in useful someday."

The rest of the thirty-eight day trip to the portal gate went by quickly. After pulling up short of Contonal, the
Jess
exited the docking bay and the Talisan destroyer was turned back toward Omega.

The Contonal colony was again busy with a newly-conscripted species. Three million unruly citizens from the Fargreen Colony in the Delta sector were the newest forced enlistees. A trade dispute with the Motlin corporation and the subsequent rioting that followed had sealed their fate. Fargreen was 98 percent Igari, adding further pressure to the growing rebel movement in the Alpha sector.

Our ride to the portal gate was quiet. No ships of any kind showed on the deep scans we continuously ran.

As we closed on the gate's location, Go said, "It should be showing on the display any second now. So, just to make sure, we attempt to shadow the first ship coming this way. When at the gate, I'll drift out and then I'll power my way into the structure. Once inside, I'll set the activation level to a minimum amount that will allow me to walk the halls of the station without being seen. I'll locate the portal launch button and then signal you that I'm ready."

I nodded. "Right. From there we determine how we get you through the portal before pressing the button. If it takes us a week to figure that out, then so be it. The suit will sustain you for that period of time without issue. All we have to do here on the
Jess
is not be seen. Once we figure out how to get you out of there and back on here, we open the portal and go through."

Garrett gestured toward the display. "Shouldn't we be seeing the gate by now?"

Go looked over the data. "Yeah, it should be up. We passed maximum range about thirty seconds ago."

I began to nervously scratch my chin. "They moved it."

Garrett replied, "What? No!"

I frowned. "This is not good news. If the gate has been moved, it could be anywhere. And chances are good that it may no longer be opening in the other galaxy at the point it was before."

Go sat back in his chair. "We have to find it!"

I nodded. "Indeed we do. Our problem now is that a galaxy is a big place. It could be anywhere in Theta, or perhaps it has been moved to Alpha."

Garrett replied, "I know someone who knows. Harden Salton. I say we pay him a visit. Go can drift in, catch Harden on the john, and threaten to end it all if he doesn't tell us where it is."

Go grinned. "I could do that!"

I looked over my shoulder at the two of them. "So he gives you the information. What happens next? Do you think the gate will still be there when we get there? And if he tells you, and you make him disappear with that BGS, what happens if he lied?"

Garrett sat back in his chair, crossing his arms. "Sounds like we need to grab him and bring him with us then. We'll take him through the portal and space him on the other side."

Go nodded. "I like that idea even better!"

I sighed. "If we did that, chances are that whoever the successor is would just shut down the operation. The portal would never be opened again, travel home would be impossible. I think we just need to send Go down to the Salton compound to do some eavesdropping. They have to have discussions about this every day. Garrett, maybe you could tap into the outgoing comm channels from there and pick up the info that way."

Garrett shook his head. "Not gonna happen, Chief. Those comms will all be heavily encrypted. I think Go listening in on their conversations is our best bet."

I punched in the coordinates for Alpha Prime. "Let's hope we can get that info quickly. Go, I can give you data recordings from my arm pad from when I was there. They failed to take it away from me before Garrett sprung me, so the data is both intact and somewhat current. You should be able to pilot yourself around that complex without much trouble."

Garrett said, "And don't be burning holes in the walls. They would find that suspicious."

Go smiled. "They won't even know I'm there."

During the ride to Alpha Prime, I stepped into Garrett's cabin for a chat with the Green. "I find it interesting that you have not made an attempt to escape. That isn't what I would have expected from a Grotus."

Balt Mergus replied, "Our history was very clear about your kind. You would stop at nothing to kill us. You were bent on domination, and you were ruthless in your attempts. To most, you were only legend, as your kind disappeared from our history books more than three thousand years ago. From what I learned, we were glad to be rid of the scourge of the galaxy."

I was shocked by Balt Mergus' statement. Was that what his people were taught? That we were the aggressors? That we were the brutal thugs who were bent on total domination? His version of history was exactly the opposite of my own.

I sat in a chair across from him. "I believe you have been given a false accounting of what actually happened. It was you Grotus who were the aggressors. You outnumbered the Grunta, and we were the only thing standing in between you and domination of our planet. Our two peoples had been fighting one another for thousands of years and had only just achieved peace when you turned on us in an unprovoked attack."

The Green scowled. "You destroyed our home world of Horus! You killed every man woman and child on the planet! Yours was the unprovoked attack! We have historical texts, images and video footage going all the way back to that time. Newsreels display the results of the atrocities your people conducted upon ours that started the war. How do you explain that? How can you explain away the evidence that our archives hold?"

I cleared my throat. "I cannot. We have none other than an oral history of that time, passed down from generation to generation."

Balt Mergus made an angry face. "Before that one heinous event, our records spoke of a time of peace and free trade between our peoples. I was taught that a political dispute over a newly colonized planet led to the Night of a Billion Sorrows. Only our small colony off-world survived.

"What you did not plan on was our resilience, our willingness to survive. We returned and found our world empty. Your people were gone and your fleets adrift. What sits before me here is no more than a legend of cowardice and shame. Given the opportunity, I would crush your skull with my fist and grind your splattered brains into the floor with the heel of my boot!"

I shook my head. "It seems even our histories are at war. The history I learned was that the Grotus were aggressive expansionists, ruthless in their tactics and immoral in their treatment of my people. You brought war upon us. I think we can see those same traits in the Grumar."

Balt offered a sly smile. "The Grumar chose to worship us as gods. They are a species of weak intellect, easily awed by our strength and courage. I suppose our existence gives them purpose. It gives them reason to do more than just wallow in their own ignorance. Neither you nor I is a god. We are born and we die just like everyone else."

I pulled up an image of the Moddle on my holo-display. "How do you explain your attacks on the Moddle? I must say I find it brilliant that you are able to use resources from the New Alliance in your fight against them, while at the same time you have the Moddle off fighting for you in another system."

The Green scowled. "The Moddle are a foul species, just as your own. They attacked Doomlight, wiping out most of the population. The Grumar had an alliance with the Doomlighters. Before we arrived the Humans showed up and wiped out the remaining inhabitants. After that act of cowardice, they began warring with the Moddle over who would get the spoils. I would say you were losing that fight when the Grumar arrived at Doomlight. Your side was eager to negotiate peace for assistance against the Moddle. The Grumar gave it, and you moved on to fight the Moddle on their home worlds."

I replied, "And explain why it is that our fleets are attacked each time they arrive at Doomlight."

The Green laughed. "It was an agreed-upon penance for your atrocities against the Doomlighters. The Grumar insisted on taking upwards of 30 percent of your incoming troops for a period of six years. They would be given a fighting chance though, not just a simple slaughter. It would be up to the Grumar to decide if they wanted to end it early."

I asked, "And what of your involvement in all this? Why are the Grotus at the battlefront? Why were you yourself involved?"

Balt Mergus looked to the side. "We are merely advisers in this struggle. I was given the assignment to observe a culling fight with the Alliance fleet. I was neglectful of my location and was preoccupied with my study of one of your ships. My ship malfunctioned, leaving me unable to move before it was completely disabled. I should not have been as close to the battle as I was."

I looked on with suspicion. "Why are you now telling me all this?"

The Green smiled. "Because I have had time to think. The information I give here cannot be used against my people or the Grumar. And I believe that you on this ship are operating outside the New Alliance. Who you are or what you are doing I will eventually figure out. Or perhaps you would just like to tell me your version of events?"

I shook my head. "I don't think so. Whatever you wish to say to me, I can choose to accept now or go verify on my own later. You are the prisoner here and do not have that luxury. I do have additional questions, though. I understand the agreements you have with the New Alliance and why they are fighting the Moddle. What I don't understand is, why are the Moddle fighting in that other system?"

The Green sighed. "The Moddle are an evil species. When the Grumar confronted them on Doomlight, they were quickly and utterly defeated. Those who surrendered were given a choice of immediate death or going off to fight in this other battle. The Grumar have other enemies, enemies who attack their colonies. The system the Moddle are fighting in was once one of those peaceful Grumar colonies. The Moddle are merely repaying their debt to the Grumar."

Garrett came in the room behind me. "I was listening over the comm. If the Moddle surrendered, why were a handful of their officers left on Doomlight?"

Balt Mergus scowled. "The general and his officers are the barbarians responsible for the slaughter of Doomlight. They are being held until their worlds have been crushed and their people enslaved. The Grumar decided their punishment would be to see their worlds destroyed and their people utterly defeated before they die a death of starvation like so many of their victims."

Garrett tilted his head to one side and expressed a skeptical smile. "I don't know what to believe coming out of you. When first questioned, you were belligerent and hateful. You seethed with every response. Now you are calm and cool."

The Green offered a stoic reply. "This is war. What would you expect of me?"

With that comment I stood and exited the room. Garrett followed, closing the door behind him.

I plopped down in my chair. "I'm concerned."