Omega Force 6: Secret of the Phoenix (25 page)

“Do it. Now,” Jason snapped. “There are a lot of innocent spacers on that ship that have nothing to do with ConFed policy or politics. Besides, that ship knows we’re here. It’s just saving the little guy for last.”

“Two XTXs activated,” Kage said. “Weapons bay open, firing program uploaded. You are clear to fire.”

Jason didn’t hesitate. He squeezed the trigger as the enemy ship came back around for a second run on the battleship. The flare of the XTX’s boost motor brightened the bridge as it rushed off towards the engagement. A split second later it disappeared as its slip-space field formed and, almost instantaneously, it reemerged into real-space within the enemy ship’s shields. The hardened nose cone punched a hole through the hull and the boost motor fired again to push the missile as far as possible into the ship before the anti-matter warhead detonated.

The explosion was incredible. The entire bridge, and all the sensors, flashed pure white from the energy release, blinding Jason even at the extreme range. When the displays cleared the enemy ship was nowhere to be found, completely obliterated by the unique munition. Jason and Kage stared at each other in stunned silence.

“I guess I know why they’re illegal,” Kage said after a moment.

“Yeah,” Jason agreed. “Take the second one offline and make safe the warhead. Open a com channel to the battleship.”

“Captain,” the ConFed officer said respectfully. “It would seem we are at your mercy. What are your intentions?”

“I’ve already done it,” Jason said. “You’re not my enemy. I have no idea who was chasing you, but I wasn’t going to stand by and let them kill your entire crew. I assume you have a support vessel coming?”

“We have a relief convoy that is set to leave ConFed space in four days,” the officer confirmed. “You have my thanks.”

“I might have a proposition for you,” Jason said, holding up a hand so the other captain didn’t close the channel.

“I’m listening.”

“We don’t have enough fuel to make it back home,” Jason said bluntly. “I don’t suppose you’d be willing to part with some of yours?”

“So your proposition is us simply gifting you a full fuel load so you can leave us here?”

“No,” Jason said. “A fair trade. One of the AIs from the weapon gave us a safe course around the species that wiped out your armada. Fuel up my ship and I’ll give you that navigation data
and
I’ll pass the information along to your relief convoy coming in. Just give me their com node address and I’ll make sure they avoid the same trap you fell into.”

It didn’t take the captain long to decide. As the
Phoenix
was transferring precious fuel from the battleship at the edge of the system the sensors of both ships recorded the unique gravitational event occurring in orbit over the system’s gas giant.

Chapter 23

“That was a lot closer than you’re letting on,” Kellea said. She was standing beside Jason, sweat beading up on her forehead in the sweltering heat of the foundry. They were aboard the sprawling shipyards that orbited Aracoria. Despite the fact that it was a ConFed enclave, Jason was beginning to see the planet as a sort of home since he’d spent so much time there lately.

“It’s not over yet,” Jason said. “Not until this last little part is finished.” He looked over the edge at the pool of molten metal. It was the scrap metal from the production of starship hull plates. Sometimes the alloy wasn’t up to specifications and it couldn’t be used. It was smelted down into a single chunk and sent out into the system’s asteroid belt, placed in a stable orbit. He waved across the walkway to Twingo, signaling him to proceed.

The reactor casing that they’d recently pulled from the
Phoenix
, still containing the encryption module, was lowered into the glowing cauldron of superheated metal. It smoked and hissed as it touched the pool, resisting the heat for a moment before it began to glow, became soft and deformed, and was eventually consumed. For just a split second Jason thought he could see a small cylindrical object floating in the slag before the surface evened back out to a bright, glowing orange.

“Now it’s over,” Jason said.

“Is it really?”

“This chapter is,” Jason insisted. “Ever since we stole the
Phoenix
and began flying around the quadrant this has been hanging over our heads, whether we were aware of it or not. Now the
Phoenix
carries nothing of concern, all interested parties are either gone or aware of the situation, and the Machine is a solid chunk of matter orbiting an unknown planet. I feel good about this. Well … except for having to pay for a new main reactor, but when we fly out of here it will be with a clean slate.”

“How much longer until the
Phoenix
is ready to fly?” she asked.

“In addition to the main reactor, Twingo wants to get a whole list of things taken care of while we’re in such a well-equipped facility,” Jason said. “I’d say we won’t be ready to even start test flights for at least another two weeks.”

“The
Defiant
will be in port for another week for Crisstof to attend a conference on the surface,” Kellea said with a smile. “Plenty of time for us to rent one of those places on the southern coast we talked about. No ships, no ancient weapons, and no crew interrupting us.”

“You just read my mind,” Jason said, his smile mirroring hers.

Epilogue

At the end of first watch Jason turned the pilot’s seat over to Lucky, patted his friend on the shoulder, and retreated to his quarters. It had been a month since leaving Aracoria and the new core had performed flawlessly. If anything, the ship was more efficient with the newer generation reactor.

He showered and changed before sitting at his desk. “Computer,” he said. “Lock the cabin door and secure my quarters.”

“Confirmed,” the computer said. The door locked and countermeasures were employed to prevent any snooping, even from ears as sensitive as a battlesynth’s.

“Isolate my terminal,” he said. “Disconnect it completely from the main computer until further notice.”

“Confirmed.”

He opened his desk drawer and reached far into the back, peeling off a strip of adhesive tape that was up on the bottom of the desktop. Pulling it out, he turned it over to expose the data chip that Cas had given him. He didn’t think it was a coincidence that the connector was the common interface used on the ship. He also assumed that when he plugged the chip into his terminal it would already be in a format his computer could easily read. But he wasn’t sure if he should.

Legacy.

What did that mean? He felt like he’d taken every reasonable precaution he could. He was sitting at an isolated terminal in a small ship in slip-space far between any habitable planets. With great trepidation, he plugged the chip into the slot on his desk. Almost immediately the terminal darkened and a new interface appeared. All the menu headings were in English. With a shaking hand he opened the first file and began to read.

After hours of reading Jason concluded that the data chip contained the combined knowledge of the Ancients: culture, art, technology, even weaponry. Once he figured out how to navigate the volume, he saw that the scope of their understanding of the universe was vast. The small chip sitting in the slot on his desk was easily the most valuable thing in the quadrant, and nobody knew it existed. The amount of power packed within such a small device made Jason’s head swim.

The Legacy had been given to him specifically, coded in a language only he would understand. On a whim he searched for Earth and found that the Ancients had indeed visited his homeworld and had catalogued a young human species as his ancestors began to discover civilization, language, and war. Another search confirmed the complete technical schematics for the Machine and the program coding for the AIs he’d interacted with, including the Primary Weapon Controller.

Jason pulled the chip out and stared at it a moment. His first instinct was to go and feed the device into the fabricator and atomize it, but he wasn’t sure he had that right. He now possessed the only thing that proved the Ancients ever existed. It was a priceless artifact, but it also contained the reality of their terrible weaponry that eventually turned on them. Did he have the right to simply erase everything a species was?

He knew he was stalling. The AI on the Machine had placed a terrible burden into his hands and it was not something he would consider lightly or quickly. He reinstalled the chip into the terminal and brought up a shell program to interface with his neural implant.

“Computer, compress and encrypt the entire volume on this data chip into a single file,” he said.

“Task complete,” the computer said.

“Is the file small enough to upload to my neural implant?”

“Do you wish to be able to access the data?” the computer asked.

“No,” he said. “Storage only with decryption only capable by me.”

“Sufficient storage exists.”

“Begin upload,” Jason said, leaning back and closing his eyes as the file was embedded into the computer he carried in his brain.

****

“What are you still doing up, Captain,” Twingo said, making Jason jump.

“Just feeding some stuff into the fabricator for recycling,” he said.

“Is that the computer terminal from your quarters?” Twingo asked. “Why not just repair it?”

“Eh,” Jason said noncommittally as he tossed the data chip and his personal computer into the machine to be broken down into their smallest molecular components. “I’ll just buy a new one when we get to Deshja. I don’t feel like messing with it.”

*****

Thank you for reading
Omega Force: Secret of the Phoenix
.

If you enjoyed the story, Captain Burke and the guys will be back in:

Omega Force: The Devil You Know.

Follow me on Facebook and Twitter for the latest updates:

http://www.facebook.com/Joshua.Dalzelle

@JoshuaDalzelle

From the author:

So there you have it … we made it all the way to book six and if you’ve read up to this point I hope the series was as fun to read as it has been to write. So what’s next for the crew and this series in general? As you saw, this book wrapped up a lot of the loose threads that had been running through the previous books. In truth, this book marks the end of the overarching storyline I had been following since deciding to expand the first book into an ongoing series. If you look at each book as an individual episode (which is how I’ve tried to write them) then we can look at books 1-6 as being “season one,” now complete.

Looking back I’ve thoroughly enjoyed writing all six of the main characters and watching the development of Jason from angry loner with no clue what he was doing to slightly less angry Captain who has learned from his mistakes and has a much firmer grasp on the world he’s in.

              As I’ve already given the title to the next book in the series you already know that I don’t plan to end things anytime soon. I plan on writing Omega books for as long as they’re enjoyable to write and, most importantly, fun to read. But I also plan on expanding things a bit and tackling some other projects that I’ve put off in order to put these six books out as quickly as I could. In addition to “
The Devil You Know
,” in 2015 I will be releasing the first title in an all knew sci-fi series called “
The Black Fleet Trilogy
.” It’s more of a pure military sci-fi story and not as light hearted and whimsical as the Omega Force series, but hopefully no less enjoyable.

              I’ve said this before, but it bears saying again: I can’t thank each of you enough for taking a chance on “Rising” and sticking with the series up to now. Interacting with readers has been one of my favorite parts of this gig since first publishing. Everyone that has sent encouragement, suggestions, and criticisms has been a tremendous help in moving this series along. Here’s to many more adventures together .

Cheers!

Josh