Omega Force 3: The Enemy Within (11 page)

“
So the thing that holds your pants up is going to secure a full grown ... whatever that is ... to a sharp hook attached to a machine of questionable intelligence during a eleven kilometer flight?” Crusher asked.

“
Well ... when you say it like that—”

“
We should get going too,” Doc spoke up suddenly. Without waiting for a response, he walked back down the hill to the path they’d forged through the underbrush on their way up.

“
I guess we’re leaving,” Jason said with a shrug and trudged off after the doctor.

*****

Crusher’s near-hysterical laughter was not helping Jason’s mood. Number One was sitting patiently in a hover as he’d ordered, but instead of a dark blue body, the only thing on the landing hook was a section of his belt. The smart-metal had obediently wrapped the section of webbing around the hook securely. He walked over and unwrapped the material and stuffed it into his pocket, still ignoring his friend.

“
RTB,” he said to the done. At the “Return To Base” command, Number One lifted quickly up and over the gunship. There was a loud
clang
as the hook snagged the cradle, then the whirring of the actuators pulling it back into the ship and closing the hatch. He pulled out his com unit and sent the same command to Number Two, which was still buzzing around in its predetermined search pattern.

“
So now what?” he asked nobody in particular. While Crusher had been laughing himself to near incapacitation, Lucky had been scanning the area around the ship.

“
Captain,” he said, pointing to the north. “In the tree, fifteen meters up.” Sure enough, wedged in the crook of a tree far above the ground was a familiar dark blue shape. This only reignited Crusher’s mirth.

“
This gets better and better!” he exclaimed as he walked up the ramp into the ship. “Hey, Twingo!” he shouted. “Come here! You have to see this!”

“
Let’s go get that thing,” Jason said to Lucky. “As in right now.” He was already at a dead run towards the tree with the battlesynth in tow before Twingo could come out to see what the commotion was about.

“
Do you think you can get up there with your repulsors and—”

Jason was interrupted by a sharp crack and he looked up in time to see the body
come bouncing down out of the tree, hitting more than a few large branches before landing in a heap in front of them.

“
Never mind.”

“
Captain,” Crusher said as he walked up with the rest of the crew, “tell Twingo how you
engineered
the carry method for our objective.”

“
This is the body of a sentient being, Crusher,” Kellea said hotly. “I think a little respect is in order.”

“
With all respect, Captain,” Crusher said to her, “but whatever that thing is ... it isn’t a body.”

“
What do you mean?” Jason asked. Crusher tapped the side of his nose with a clawed forefinger.

“
That thing has been sitting for weeks in the woods and there’s not a speck of decomposition, no bloating from out-gassing, no signs of scavengers feeding—not even insects—and it’s still flexible,” he said. “I can smell that it’s certainly organic, but I don’t think this thing was ever
alive
.”

“
What do you think, Doc?” Jason asked.

“
I won’t know until I get it into the med bay,” Doc said distractedly and grabbed at one of the ankles, intent on dragging it back to the ship himself.

“
Allow me, Doc,” Lucky said and scooped the thing up effortlessly. He turned and made his way back to the
Phoenix
with the rest in tow. Kellea put a hand on Jason’s arm to hold him back. Once the others were out of earshot she turned to him.

“
I think it’s time I called Steader Dalton,” she said.

“
The son? Er, First Son,” Jason said. She nodded.

“
He’s in charge of Crisstof’s operations while he’s incarcerated. He’ll need to know about what we’ve found, and be kept up on what we’re doing,” she said.

“
We’ll talk to Kage about the best way to go about it,” Jason said as he continued on to the ship. “I don’t feel comfortable contacting him directly from the
Phoenix
.”

“
Of course.”

Jason decided to fly up towards the northern pole of Solamea before breaking for orbit to avoid the insane traffic around the equator. The flight over the planet was quite relaxing. Since the kelpens didn’t fully embrace technology or industry, the planet was unmarred by mining operations, factories, or the general malaise that seemed to hang in the air over most advanced worlds.

“
I know they don’t develop their own tech, but why are the kelpens still using those old chemical rockets to get to orbit?” Jason asked Twingo. “They’re only slightly more advanced than the stuff we were using on Earth.”

“
If you’re asking why nobody has given them interstellar travel capability, there are two answers,” Kellea said. “Of course you know that they have no interest in exploration or scientific discovery, but there’s also the fact that slip-space drives them insane.”

“
Insane?” Twingo scoffed. “I’ll admit it’s boring as hell at times, but I’ve never fully gone insane.”

“
That’s debatable,” Jason said.

“
It’s not boredom or claustrophobia,” Kellea continues. “As soon as a slip-space field forms it seems to scramble their brains, for lack of a better term. They’re irrevocably turned into raving lunatics just a few seconds after meshing.” The pair fell silent for a moment.

“
Is that a common thing?” Jason finally asked, thinking back to the cavalier attitude he’d had towards interstellar flight when he first found the gunship.

“
This is the only known case,” Kellea said. “Scientists from all over the sector have studied it but nobody knows exactly why it happens.”

“
This sounds like a made-up story,” Twingo accused, looking at Kellea suspiciously.

“
It’s true nonetheless,” she said before walking off the bridge. Jason thought he detected a slight smile tugging the corner of her mouth as she did so. Twingo watched her back for a moment before turning to his terminal and accessing the local network, obviously seeking independent verification to the tale.

“
So,” Jason said to Kage, who was so completely absorbed in his console he hadn’t heard a word of the conversation going on around him, “what do you think is the best way to handle Kellea’s request? I don’t want to call this Steader from our com node if we can help it.”

“
You don’t trust him?” Kage asked without looking up.

“
I don’t know him,” Jason corrected. “But beyond that I don’t trust the ConFed. They had agents and operatives crawling all over Camderan-2 looking for her and Bostco, and I have no doubt they’re monitoring communications to her known associates.”

“
I could play the usual games with fragmenting the signal and bouncing it through multiple nodes, but with actual intel analysts looking for us and this Steader not being aware of our scheme ... there’s significant risk to using that method,” Kage explained.

“
Alternatives?”

“
We need to get to a facility that has a common network repeater node. The sheer volume of traffic going through will mask most of what we’re doing,” Kage said. “They could eventually figure it out, but we’ll be long gone by then. Just make sure Captain Colleren doesn’t give up too much information when she talks to him.”

“
Is there a major repeater node close to our position?” Jason asked as he thumbed through the navigational data on his display. He grabbed the controls and began the climb up out of the atmosphere, throttling up the main drive as the nose came up.

“
We’ll be backtracking a bit, but there is a transfer station six-point-three lightyears away,” Kage said, hardly noticing the ship pushing her way up into space. “This is actually perfect, Captain. The station is almost completely automated. Deep space haulers dock, unload their cargo, and it’s transferred automatically to the receiving ship when it docks. They also have a ConFed class-three slip-space node. That will be out best bet.”

“
I’ll take your word for it,” Jason said. “Give the nav data to the computer and plot us a mesh-out point.” Kage quickly routed him the needed data and waypoints and the
Phoenix
was soon hurtling through slip-space away from Solamea.

Giving the instruments another thorough check, Jason slid out of his seat and went to inform Kellea of their plan.
Upon his arrival at the main deck, he could see the normally transparent walls of the infirmary were an opaque white. When he went up to the door it didn’t open. He could have told the computer to override the lock, but he decided to leave Doc alone for the time being. With one last suspicious glance at the locked door, he walked back out to the common area.

“
We’re on our way to an automated cargo transfer station,” he said as he approached the table where Kellea and Crusher were sitting. As usual, Lucky was standing off to the side. “There’s a com repeater there that Kage wants to use to access the network and get in touch with Steader Dalton. What can you tell me about him?”

“
He’s Crisstof’s First Son, so he’s what you would expect,” Kellea said, putting her mug down. “Polished, urbane, reserved ... he’s been groomed from an early age to take over the family empire, so to speak.”

“
What is this First Son, First Father business?” Crusher asked.

“
Crisstof’s people have possibly the most convoluted family structure you’ve ever heard of,” Kellea explained. “For example, Crisstof has twelve wives, and each of those wives probably has from five to ten husbands each. It’s a web that’s nearly impossible to figure out. Anyway, Steader is Crisstof’s first-born son that is actually from his genetic material. This moved Steader’s mother into the coveted First Wife position and solidified that pairing as the core of Crisstof’s family.

“
Of course, the others are still actively scheming since you never know when Steader could meet with an untimely demise and open up the First Son slot to the first comer.”

“
That sounds like a nightmare,” Jason said with a shake of his head. “But more to my point, you don’t have much direct interaction with the son?”

“
Nothing past being present at the same social functions and him being present at some meetings with his father,” she admitted. “He’s far more interested in the political wrangling and managing the family fortune than he is riding around in a starship for months on end.”

“
Since we are dealing with an unknown quantity in Steader Dalton, is it wise to make contact?” Lucky asked.

“
No,” Jason admitted. “But we’re taking precautions. I also want to make sure that we agree to keep the conversation vague until we can figure out where he stands.”

“
Agreed,” Kellea nodded. “So how long until we can make contact?”

“
We’re not running too hard so we’ll reach the transfer station in just over twelve hours,” Jason said. “After that, I’m not sure how long Kage needs to work his magic.”

“
Then I’m going to go and grab some rack time,” Kellea said, rising from the table. “Gentlemen,” she said with a nod and walked off towards Berthing. Jason watched her go before turning to his friends.

“
Has Doc been locked up in the infirmary since we launched?” he asked.

“
More or less,” Crusher said disinterestedly. “Why?”

“
Just wondering,” Jason answered before heading back to the bridge.

*****

EMERGENCY LANDING CLEARANCE GRANTED. YOU ARE AUTHORIZED FOUR STANDARD HOURS TO MAKE REPAIRS BEFORE YOUR CLEARANCE IS REVOKED.

“
Fairly straight forward,” Jason said as he guided the
Phoenix
(now flying as the
Zephyr
) towards one of the emergency maintenance hangars in the lower levels of the station. They needed to get Kage and Kellea within the station itself in order to get a signal out without putting the
Phoenix
at risk of being discovered. All ConFed Intelligence would be able to glean was a point of origin, but by that time they would be long gone.

“
I should only need fifteen minutes to break in and grab a channel,” Kage said confidently. “If I can’t do it by then, I can’t do it at all.”

“
I don’t want a gaggle of people roaming around the station,” Jason said. “Kage, Captain Colleren, and Lucky will go and try to make contact with Steader Dalton. Twingo ... you, Crusher, and I will be outside in the hangar pretending to inspect something on the ship.” He received a chorus of affirmative responses in return as he flew the ship into the final approach lane. After a few more minutes the blinking navigational lights of the station could be made out.

“
Does this station have a name?” he asked as he peered out the canopy at some of the mammoth freighters docked at various points along the station’s hull.

“
Not officially,” Kage replied. “It’s just a depot that’s given a number designator. I’m sure the deep space haulers have a name for it, and it’s likely something utterly disgusting, knowing that lot.”

“
They are a strange bunch,” Twingo agreed. “Must be something about being stuck on a ship for months on end.”

“
I’ve gone up to two years without leaving the
Diligent
before,” Kellea said evenly.

“
Well,” Twingo floundered, “by
strange
I meant that—”

“
I’d leave it alone,” Crusher advised quietly. Kellea looked at the engineer with a single raised eyebrow, daring him to continue. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valor, Twingo slowly turned his seat back around and pretended to be engrossed in the engine output efficiency graph that was displayed on his terminal.

“
We’re almost to the barrier,” Jason said. “Killing the drive and dropping the gear. Twingo, bring the repulsors online.” There was a split second of near silence on the bridge as the hum of the engines dropped away before the whine and clunks of the massive landing gear deploying could be heard. Using the docking thrusters, Jason made a few fine corrections and then began slowing their forward velocity until they passed through the atmospheric barrier and into the hangar at just over one meter per second forward speed. The computer automatically powered up the repulsors to compensate for the station’s gravity as Jason lowered them down to a soft landing.

After spinning the
Phoenix
around so her nose was pointing out into space, he turned to his crew. “Let’s be quick about this. If your signal is detected it won’t be difficult to figure out the
Zephyr
just happened to land here at the same time.”

The three members of the
“com team” hustled down the ramp and quickly disappeared down one of the service corridors. Jason and Twingo also disembarked, the latter bringing along a repulsor sled. The short engineer hopped onto the device and lifted himself up under the port nacelle that housed main engines one and two and started popping open access panels. After a few moments of rummaging around inside and Twingo’s ever-present string of cursing, Jason couldn’t take anymore.

“
You don’t have to be that convincing,” he said. “We just need it to look like we’re really doing maintenance.”

“
Actually,” Twingo said between curse words and grunts, “you’ve managed to cause real damage with your flying. I’m not acting. I’m re-aligning the injection system for number two’s plasma intake manifold.” Jason decided to leave it alone and veered the conversation onto another course.

“
Did you notice that Doc had the windows to the med bay blacked out?” he asked. “What do you think he’s doing in there?”

“
I couldn’t even begin to guess. But he was acting a little strange since you brought back that ... thing.”

“
Yeah, this is shaping up to be a strange one,” Jason mumbled to no one in particular since Twingo had already buried himself back into the access hatch. With nothing better to do, he walked around the perimeter of his ship and inspected the hull and running gear. He paused and frowned at an especially nasty blaster burn along the forward transition where the hull blended into the starboard wing. Sighing in disgust, he moved along towards the nose cone that housed most of the delicate sensor hardware.

He was moving back around the port side of the ship when Kellea, Lucky, and Kage came back through the service hatch. From their relaxed manner and easy pace
, Jason assumed they had been undetected. “How did it go?” he asked when they were within earshot.

“
Surprisingly easy,” Kage reported. “I was able to bounce our request through the com node of a deep-space freighter that’s docked up above us. I didn’t even have to use the station’s com center.”

“
And you were able to contact Steader Dalton?”

“
Yes,” Kellea said. “Also surprisingly easy. I’ve only met him a few times, but I do know that he’s notoriously difficult to get in touch with in most cases. I sent the request through as Commander Bostco and he himself answered within minutes. The conversation was necessarily short, but informative.”