Omega Force 6: Secret of the Phoenix (23 page)

“You’re talking about the deaths of a lot of innocent people if we fully activate this weapon and turn it against the ConFed,” Jason said, not bothering to explain that it was mistaken in the notion that the ConFed was his ultimate enemy. “What meaning would my life have if I took such action?”

“Let’s discuss the more immediate need if you do not wish to look at the grand scale,” the Machine said, switching tactics. “There are currently three ConFed warships that will be in this star system in twenty-one hours. Your smaller vessel would be no match for them.”

“Three?” Jason asked. “There were two full battle groups coming after us.”

“The species that the Cas warned you of did not take kindly to their intrusion,” the Machine said. “The three vessels that escaped show admirable determination in continuing on.”

“Given the debris field we flew through I don’t see a need to activate a star-killing gravity weapon to take out a few beat-up ConFed warships,” Jason countered. “So tell me … what are
your
motivations?”

“Quite simple, Captain,” the Machine said. “To
be
. I have lain dormant for thousands of years, unable to perform my function. When I felt the Cas coming closer I knew that my time of idle contemplation was coming to an end. Are you here to say that you’ve come all this way, at great peril to yourself and your crew, to not activate the weapon and wield it?”

“You are not just a collection of programmed responses, are you?” Jason asked bluntly. “You’re a true, sentient intelligence that’s a part of this weapon.”

“Yes, Captain,” the Machine said. “This hologram you’re speaking to is simply a convenience for you. What the Cas calls the central processor is where my consciousness resides, but I
am
the Machine.”

“Then why do you need me?” Jason asked, beginning to realize the relationship between the Cas and the Machine. “Why not operate according to your own wants and desires?”

“I think you know why,” the Machine said. “Without the Cas I am simply an intelligence trapped in a hulk of metal orbiting a planet. I cannot act without being activated.”

Things started to click in Jason’s mind, and he knew they’d been manipulated from the start.

“We might be able to work something out,” he said. “I assume you know the condition my ship is in after the long flight.”

“If you’re referring to the fact that you don’t have enough fuel to make it home, then yes, I do,” the Machine said. “But that doesn’t need to be a problem.”

“Let me guess, you have plenty of hydrogen here aboard the weapon,” Jason said flatly.

“If you wish to fly the entire way back, yes,” the Machine said. “But I have much faster methods at my disposal. I can transport you and your vessel back into ConFed space in the blink of an eye.”

“And all I’d have to do is use the Cas to activate your systems?”

“We can discuss specific terms,” the Machine said evasively. “Perhaps I can show you more of the facility along the way.”

“I don’t see as we have much choice,” Jason said. “Lead the way.” The Machine made a gesture and walked them towards what looked like an ordinary archway in the wall of the hangar. He couldn’t see beyond it, but he assumed it was due to the lack of lighting on the other side.

As he passed through the portal, however, he had the strange sensation of being stretched for a split second before he found himself on a walkway in the largest room he’d ever seen. He turned quickly to make sure the rest of his team made it through. The Machine’s avatar appeared next to him once they’d all gathered on the walkway.

“It’s a much more elegant way to travel than trudging along the access tunnels,” it said. “Here is the heart of the weapon.” The pride evident in the Machine’s voice disturbed Jason greatly. He dutifully peeked over the edge of the chest-high rail, but had no idea what he was looking at.

“It looks … interesting,” Jason said.

“I’m not sure you fully appreciate the miracle of engineering you are seeing,” the Machine said, walking off of the platform and standing in midair before the team. “Power from more than twenty stars is funneled into the collector through dimensional tunneling. The core then has all the energy it needs to reach beyond fabric of space-time and create gravitational anomalies wherever the operator desires. I’ve collapsed stars, ripped planets apart, or simply changed their orbits as an object lesson. There’s never been a weapon of such scope and I doubt there ever will be again.”

Jason felt physically ill as he considered the implications of what a weapon like the Machine was capable of.

“It is certainly impressive in its scope,” he said carefully. “But even you would have to admit that’s a lot of power in the hands of a single person.”

“Then you should be joyful that the person in possession of the Cas is you,” the Machine said. “There must be uses for a power like this in your mind. The species that the Cas steered you around that decimated the ConFed fleet, for example. What purpose do they serve in this galaxy? Wouldn’t it be better if the mistake of their ascendance was simply erased?”

“Perhaps,” Jason said slowly, pretending to consider the proposition. The rest of his team looked at him in abject horror. “So how does this thing work? Do I just tell you what I want done?”

“That would be an easier way than currently exists,” the Machine said. “Perhaps you can arrange that once you’ve accessed the control room. Would you like to see the control room?”

The Machine was now talking in a desperate, manic tone that indicated to Jason he was on the right track with his line of thinking.

“It wouldn’t hurt to take a look,” Jason said with a shrug.

“Follow me, please,” the Machine said quickly, activating the portal they’d just walked through. The team walked through, this time prepared for the odd sensations, and found themselves in a well-lit corridor with high, arching ceilings. Rather than the sparse, industrial look they’d seen in the weapon so far, this corridor was designed with aesthetics in mind. 

“This is where the original crew was quartered,” the Machine said vaguely. “The control room is just beyond this corridor.”

Jason began down the long corridor before noticing that the hologram wasn’t following.

“You said it was this way, correct?” Jason asked.

“Yes,” the Machine said. “There are some things we should discuss before you go any further. Due to a malfunction some centuries back I am unable to follow you into the control room. The procedure is simple, however, and once you’ve activated all functions we can rectify that situation.

“When you walk into the control room there will be many distracting lights, displays, and sounds. Many of these are an artifact of the malfunction that the previous crew tried unsuccessfully to repair. Ignore all of these and simply place the Cas into the receptacle on the pedestal in the middle of the room. The proper slot will be ringed in a red halo.”

“What do I do once the Cas is installed?” Jason asked.

“I will walk you through the command syntax,” the Machine said. “Just say aloud that you wish to speak with the Primary Weapon Controller.”

“It’s that simple?”

“It is that simple,” the Machine said. Jason stared at the hologram and for a moment he could almost imagine he felt its hunger.

“Seems straightforward enough,” Jason said. “Let’s go, guys.”

“You will not require your crew to help you,” the Machine said.

“We like to stick together,” Jason said flatly. “They’ll be coming with me.”

“If you wish,” the Machine said, seeming to want to argue the point further. They walked quickly down the corridor, leaving the hologram standing behind them, watching them.

“What the hell, Captain—”

“Not a word until I tell you,” Jason said sharply, cutting Crusher off. They all walked in silence the rest of the way, the Marines raising their weapons and covering all the side entries they were passing.

The control room entrance was obvious as it was the only heavily armored door along their path. As Jason approached it the doors shook and then slid ponderously open with a loud groan of mechanisms that hadn’t been maintained for centuries. As they walked in the lights came up and they found themselves in a circular room littered with displays, input terminals, indicators, and a handful of alien corpses.

“This is a familiar scene,” Jason said, eyeing the bodies that were shockingly well-preserved.

“How so?” Mazer asked, his Marines clearing the room.

“When we first arrived on A’arcoon we found a bunker with a bunch of bodies still in their seats,” Jason said.

“There’s the slot of the Cas, Captain,” Kage said, pointing to the pedestal with the pulsating red halo surrounding a circular slot.

“I saw it,” Jason said.

“So what’s going on?” Crusher asked. “You aren’t seriously considering using this thing, are you?”

“Of course not,” Jason said. “I hope to find answers here, not give the Machine exactly what it wants.”

“I guess I’m missing something,” Mazer admitted.

“We’re being herded,” Jason said. “Somehow the Machine was able to sabotage the
Phoenix
in order to trap us here and is now desperate that we activate all the functions using this Key. Why not just take it from us and have a maintenance bot bring it here?”

“I don’t think the reason the hologram can’t come here has anything to do with a malfunction,” Kage said. “I think it was by design.”

“You are correct, Kage,” the hologram of Cas said, appearing suddenly in the room.

“There you are, you slippery bastard,” Jason said. “So was I also correct? Did you dump our fuel load on the flight out?”

“Yes,” Cas admitted. “While in contact with the Machine I have no choice but to obey; at times it can even infiltrate my processor and appear as me. Its goal was to get you, and me, here at all costs.”

“Why are you talking to us now?” Jason asked.

“Isn’t it obvious? The Machine has no influence here. It was by design that the central processor isn’t able to physically manipulate the Key or have any influence in the crew areas,” Cas said. “For the moment I am free of its control and may speak freely.”

“There’s more,” Jason said. “That thing knew we’d make it this far so what are you supposed to do to keep us on task?”

“Only deliver this message,” Cas said. A second later a second hologram, a recording of the Machine, appeared.

“If you’re seeing this recording then I can assume you’ve had second thoughts about simply doing as you were instructed,” it said. “While it is true I cannot come into the command area, I can ensure that you never leave. That was a lesson the last crew learned too well, as you can likely see. There’s also the matter of the remaining crew on your ship. If you do not do as I requested I will be forced to use them as leverage.” The hologram winked out and the team looked around at the dead crew, a new understanding dawning.

“There is one more message left for you,” Cas said, pointing to a terminal with a blinking green light. “Just press that indicator to begin playback.” Keeping a firm grip on the transceiver, apparently the only important part to the Key, Jason walked over and activated the playback.

“Stand by while I upload the translation matrix,” Cas said as the frozen image of one of the Ancients appeared on the screen. A second later it lurched into motion.

“Greetings. Who I am, who we were, is not important. What is important is that you were brave, or foolish enough to return the Cas to the weapon and bring it within the grasp of the Primary Weapon Controller,” the alien began. Since the species had no moving mouth the translation of the video wasn’t as disconcerting.

“We don’t have much time. The Primary has taken the life support systems offline and we only have a limited amount of air left. I have dispatched three teams through the long-range portals to hide the various components of the Cas far beyond the edge of known space. Despite everything, we can’t bring ourselves to destroy them. The Primary has been corrupted. We thought its ascension to full sentience was a breakthrough, but as we denied it the opportunity to perform its function as a weapons controller the more frustrated it became. In its burgeoning insanity it was able to temporarily wrest control of the weapon away from us and open a singularity within the core of our homeworld.

“The planet was destroyed instantly and the resultant black hole has begun feeding off the primary star, leaving the entire system uninhabitable. We were able to regain control, but now the Primary has trapped us here in the control room and will not release us until we turn over full control of all systems to it.

“Please do what we could not,” the alien pleaded. “Destroy this abomination. We built it as the ultimate deterrent. Now we’re a species all but extinct. The intelligence within the Cas can instruct you on what to do.” The video winked out and the display went dark. The team remained silent as each contemplated what the message meant.

“Well,” Jason said. “That’s a lot to take in.”

“Can this thing even be destroyed?” Mazer asked.

“Yes,” Cas answered. “You can power up the core and turn the projectors inward, effectively building up an inversion. Essentially the Machine will collapse down upon itself until the power shuts off.”