Omega Force 7: Redemption (10 page)

"Have you ever wondered how we get ourselves involved in these situations?" Twingo asked without looking up from his terminal. "While we're somewhat unique in makeup, there's nothing so special about us as a group that explains why we've had so much hinge on our actions more times than I can count on one hand." He waggled his double-thumbed hand at Jason for emphasis.

"I think maybe you're exaggerating our role a bit," Jason said. "We've been a part of some dramatic situations, sure, but always on the periphery. And how many other larger events have happened that we were nowhere near? Remember that group of fundamentalists that set off that planet buster?"

"I wasn't implying we always save the galaxy," Twingo said. "I'm just saying we seem to attract more than our fair share of—" He broke off and frowned at the display for a moment before jumping up and sprinting off the bridge without another word.

Jason immediately jumped up and ran after him. Logically he knew that if it was a real emergency his friend would have probably warned him to run, but years of being in the military and working as a mercenary had honed a very specific instinct to the point that it was hard-wired in his brain. When he saw a group running from, or to, something he had to assume that it was
from
something horrible or
to
something fantastic. Either way it was better to run first and ask questions later. In this instance it turned out to be nothing more than a minor technical glitch, but Jason still felt the theory was sound.

"Reactor is now up to sixty percent output," Twingo said as he and Jason took a break to get something to eat from the galley.

"Will the main drive give you any trouble?" Jason asked.

"It shouldn't," Twingo said. "You actually did a pretty good job of properly shutting everything down for long-term dormancy. My initial check on the grav-drive emitters shows no detectable variance between the two."

"The computer did most of the work," Jason admitted. "It did take me a bit to explain exactly what I wanted."

"So who owns this ship right now?" Twingo asked after a moment. "I heard you talking to Lucky about someone named Saditava. Are we just borrowing her for a bit?"

"No," Jason said firmly. "The
Phoenix
is still mine. Saditava gave me a place to safely store her for a time, but there was never any agreement to handing over the access codes."

"That's an awfully big favor on top of the four million credits to buy Crusher's release," Twingo said.

"You sound like Lucky now," Jason said irritably. "Yes, I'm fully aware that it isn't smart to get involved with yet another gangster and nothing is ever free, but my options at the time were limited. Just getting us into that event on Duat bankrupted us."

"So why spend even more money to buy a second ship to use in your new cargo delivery business?" Twingo asked. "The hold in that ship isn't a whole lot bigger than what you have here on the
Phoenix
."

"The
Phoenix
is incredibly expensive to operate and without the full crew she's difficult to keep maintained," Jason said, deciding not to mention he thought that Kage and Twingo would have started a fight over who actually owned the vessel. "It's also a tad unsubtle when we're dropping off light cargo to underdeveloped planets. A fully armed gunship dropping out of the sky to hand over a load of Torvellian blue lettuce for some high-end restaurant would raise more than a few eyebrows."

"Let's agree to disagree," Twingo shrugged.

They were soon interrupted by a stream of cursing from the com room that went on for the better part of a minute followed by Kage appearing at the top of the stairs that led to the command deck.

"Captain, this damn ship won't let me do anything! What's wrong with the computer?"

"Oh, shit! I completely forgot," Jason said, hopping out of his seat. "Stand by, Kage!" He jogged down to the port engineering bay where one of three command level terminals was located. The other two were on the bridge and in his quarters, respectively.

"Computer, command level interface," he said, holding his palm against the screen. "Authorization: Burke seven-seven-one-one-eight."

"Confirmed," the computer said. "Proceed with request."

"Restore all Omega Force permissions and command codes, effective immediately," Jason said.

"Omega Force command codes reactivated," the computer said. "Crew manifest updated."

"Exit command interface," Jason said, waiting for the double-beep confirmation and a blank screen before leaving. "Try again!" he shouted up to Kage as he walked back to finish his meal.

"You forget to reset all the command codes?" Twingo asked.

"Yeah," Jason said. "How have you not run into any problems?"

"I did at first," Twingo said. "My personal authorization was locked out so I went in under the generic maintenance codes. It let me do everything I needed but the computer kept strict control over everything."

"Why didn't you say something?"

"I didn't know if you were deliberately keeping us off the crew roster," Twingo said, pushing his tray back. "We all didn't part on the best of terms."

"I'd hope that's all in the past," Jason said. "Honestly, I can't even remember what everyone got so bent out of shape about."

"A lot of little things can add up to one big thing," Twingo said. "When Crusher left I knew it was only a matter of time before the crew fell apart."

"I wonder how he's doing," Jason mused.

"I talked to him about a year ago," Twingo said. "He's fully immersed in Galvetor's politics right now. I'll be honest, if it wasn't for the scars he still has from the time in Duat I wouldn't have believed I was even talking to the same person."

"Hope he's doing alright," Jason said, getting up to head back to the bridge and finish up his work.

"It wasn't your fault, Jason," Twingo said. "You not only argued against that De'Moltia mission, but you sacrificed more than anyone to get him back."

"He doesn't see it that way," Jason said. "Let's get the rest of the primary flight systems online and then we can worry about the tactical systems once we make orbit. This planet isn't so nice that I want to stay another night."

****

Jason sat in the pilot's seat going over individual subsystems and making adjustments as Twingo made them available. Even though he hadn't stepped foot onto the DL7 in over two years it felt as comfortable as the day he'd last disembarked and sunk her into a pit to be stored.

He wasn't sure what his plan had been; all he knew was that he couldn't bear the thought of giving the ship up and he'd rather it sit on some desolate planet than permanently part ways with it. Maybe deep down he always knew this day would come and he and his friends would come back together for one more mission and the
Phoenix
would be needed once more.

As he was fiddling with the attenuation to his neural implant he saw the light inside the hangar change through the canopy. Mildly curious, he looked up. At the far end of the cavernous building a door slid up and four squat, armored vehicles rolled in.

"This can't be good," he muttered, keying the intercom. "Is everyone aboard?"

"
Yes, Captain
," Kage responded a moment later. "
Why?
"

"Get up here, I need you," Jason said without explaining. "Twingo, how long for the main drive?"

"
Another hour, give or take
," Twingo replied, the sounds of the engineering present in the background.

"You've got a few minutes to get me something," Jason said. "I have a feeling things are about to go to shit."

"
Of course
," Twingo sighed into the audio pickup. "
I'm surprised they waited this long. I'll try to have repulsors and main engines in a few minutes
."

"What's going on?" Kage asked as he jogged onto the bridge followed by everyone else except Twingo. Jason just nodded in the direction of the vehicles that were now deploying themselves into a shallow wedge and rolling slowly towards the ship.

"I can make out some sort of armament turret on the tops of those vehicles," Doc said as he slid into his normal spot at one of the sensor stations. "Can't tell much more than that since the sensors aren't fully online."

"Almost nothing is fully online yet," Jason said. "Let's not panic until we see what they want."

The message came through a moment later demanding that they shut down power and exit the ship.

"That's it?" Jason asked. "No mention of the netjere or the First Attendant?"

"No mention of either, Captain," Kage said. "It looks like they just want the ship."

"That's sort of a relief that they don't actually know who we are or who we have with us," Jason said.

"What about the part where they have four armored vehicles and we have a ship that has no tactical systems or flight systems available?" Doc asked.

"I'm less relieved about that," Jason admitted. "Twingo?"

"
In a MINUTE!
" came the angry reply before the intercom channel was switched off abruptly. Jason looked down at his status panel and was greeted with many blinking red indicators and only a few green ones to let him know the few systems that were actually operational.

"Doc, send me over a top-down view of this spaceport," he said. "It'll be in the most recent navigation sensor data file from when I landed here the last time."

"Looking for it now," Doc said, still a little rusty at operating his station. "Got it, sending it to your station."

"Captain, I'm not sure how much longer I can stall them," Kage said, still keeping up a text-only conversation with the would-be shipjackers. Jason ignored him for a moment as he studied the layout of the spaceport, confirming that he remembered it like he thought he did. Sure enough, he found what he was looking for: an enormous runway that was nearly twenty kilometers long that extended out to the west. It was in serious disrepair since the old ground-effect cargo haulers that used to cross the western desert hadn't been used in over fifty years, but their runway still existed mostly intact.

"Ignore them," Jason said. "We're leaving. Close the ramp and prep for atmospheric flight."

Kage gave him a strange look, but went about the task without any argument.

"Here they come," Doc warned.

Jason looked up and saw the four vehicles begin to accelerate across the hangar floor towards them. He didn't hesitate, grabbing the taxi control and pulling it back sharply. The
Phoenix
lurched before the drive actuators on the landing gear struts caught up and the spherical wheels spun, struggling to gain purchase on the slick floor.

The
Phoenix
burst out of the hangar and into the fading daylight, rolling backwards at thirty kilometers per hour and accelerating. Jason angled them over so that they would roll down the taxiway and from there they would have direct access to the abandoned runway. He knew from talking to people at the spaceport when he’d brought the gunship in that the old aircraft that used it were extremely heavy, so he had to assume that the tarmac would be thick enough to support the
Phoenix's
bulk.

A sharp
crack
reverberated through the hull and Jason looked up in time to see vapor streaming out of one of the turret cannons. "Warning shot," Kage said. "No damage. You mind filling me in on the plan?"

"Just be ready to give me anything I ask for," Jason said tensely. He was having to steer looking at the video feed on one of his monitors since his neural implant still wouldn't fully integrate with the ship's computer. His original plan had been to stop and get his nose pointed down the runway, but now he was afraid if he stopped he'd get boxed in by the pursuing vehicles and he wasn't all that wild about giving them an unfettered shot at his engines.

The ship was traveling backwards along the taxiway at nearly fifty kilometers per hour when Jason angled the jog stick over and made the thirty-degree turn to the left that put them on the main runway. Ignoring the screams of his passengers, he reached over and flipped the four main engines to
START
and watched as they began to flash red while the mains went into their pre-start sequence. After a moment a message flashed on another display that diverted his attention from the high speed reverse taxi.

**WARNING**

**WARNING**

MAIN ENGINE START FAILURE

MAIN ENGINE FUEL FEED FAILURE

The lights on the switches went out, so he reached over and flicked them up to the start position again, waiting to see if the fault would clear out on its own.

"
Stop flipping switches!
" came the scream over the intercom from an irate Twingo. "
I will let you know when the engines are available!!
"

"Attackers are keeping pace," Doc said. "The two outer vehicles are moving up closer."

"They may take a shot at the landing gear," Jason said, pushing the taxi control back as far as it would go. The sound from the landing gear trying to absorb the bumps at the speed they were traveling at was horrendous. It wasn't long before the
Phoenix
let him know the abuse wasn't appreciated.

**WARNING**

**WARNING**

LANDING GEAR MAX VELOCITY EXCEEDED

REDUCE GROUND SPEED IMMEDIATLY

LANDING GEAR FAILURE IMMINENT

Before he could call down to let Twingo know he was about to burn up their taxi motors he could feel a new, different rumble begin to vibrate up through his seat. The lights on the switches that controlled the main engines lit up again, this time flashing amber.

MAIN ENGINE PRE-START INITIATED

"Thank you, Twingo," he muttered even as vapor from the exhaust nozzles began blowing past the canopy. He carefully twisted the taxi control while simultaneously rolling it up from the six o'clock to the nine o'clock position. The ship pivoted around until they were now rolling sideways down the runway, still traveling far above the accepted safe speed for taxiing. He continued this carefully choreographed move with his hand until the
Phoenix
had her nose pointed down the runway as the rumbling from the aft became more pronounced. The engine switches began to flash green to let him know that they were close to operational.

"I cannot believe you're doing this," Twingo said as he came up onto the bridge and strapped himself into the engineering station to continue monitoring the engine start. "This ship was never designed to do this."