Omega Rising (16 page)

              “Well,” Ma’Fredich began, looking at the info on a tablet computer, “the translator works, obviously. The primary neural implant is also working since that’s what is allowing the translator to interface with your brain. Some other subsystems are still organizing themselves so we’ll give them a little more time before we activate them. Your ocular display system looks almost ready to activate…” As the doctor droned on Jason realized that he was relating to him in an entirely different way. When they had first met, the doctor had seemed openly hostile. It was as if Jason had given some great insult, but now there was almost a friendly quality to the interaction that was reinforced by the not-quite buddy-buddy vibe he was getting from him and Twingo. When he realized Ma’Fredich had stopped talking and was looking at him he felt compelled to say something.

              “Well, I feel ok now. Whatever you gave me must be kicking in.” The doctor gave him an odd look, but hit the restraint release nonetheless.

              “Ok, let’s just take it easy then. We’ll stop by the galley and then it’s back to your quarters where we’ll check up on you from time to time.” The pair helped him into a sitting position.
We? When the hell did these two become joined at the hip?

             
“How long was I out?” Jason asked instead.

              “About twelve hours,” Twingo volunteered. “Not too bad really, I know when I got my first set I wasn’t up and about for a day or two.” Jason really did feel better as whatever the doctor had injected him with began to kick in. He put on the proffered hospital-style slippers with as much dignity as he could muster and shuffled out between the shorter doctor and engineer towards the galley.

Suddenly ravenous, Jason ate with gusto as his two friends chatted away and one of the ubiquitous security guards at the other end of the table tried to ignore them, occasionally throwing a glare their way after a particularly raucous bout of laughter. After his second helping, Jason felt himself growing sleepy and almost nodding off at the table as Twingo and Ma’Fredich prattled on like a couple of teenage girls. Looking more closely he could see the doctor was very similar, but obviously a different species than Twingo. The ears were the giveaway; Twingo’s large expressive ears that fluttered to emphasize parts of his speech were smaller and passive on Ma’Fredich.
Interesting. Not enough to keep me awake though…

              “Well boys, I’m hitting the rack,” he said as he pushed away from the table. “See you later.”

              “We’re not going anywhere,” Twingo said. Jason rolled his eyes and trudged off to his quarters for some sleep.

              --beep-beep--

              Jason rolled over, not quite awake, but not fully asleep.

              --beep-beep--

This better be fucking good...
He knew The Vault was still a few days away even with the incredible speed the DL7 was cruising at. He wanted nothing more than to sleep the "implant crud" off, but his door chime seemed to have other ideas. "Come in!" Jason shouted to the wall. The computer unlocked and slid the door open to reveal Twingo and Ma'Fredich standing in the passageway. The lights behind them were dimmed, indicating it was "night hours" onboard. The pair slid in and managed to look a little sheepish as they saw Jason sprawled out on his bed and staring at them through heavy lidded eyes.

              "We need to talk," Ma'Fredich was the first to speak as they entered his quarters and slid the door shut. Twingo held up a finger to his lips.

              "Computer, disable all auditory monitoring devices within these quarters," Twingo instructed the computer.

              "Authorization needed," the emotionless tenor informed them. Twingo looked to Jason.

              "Do it," he said.

              "Acknowledged. Monitoring systems disabled in the captain's quarters under authorization of First Officer Commander Burke." The ship fell silent.

              "I take it this isn't a social call," Jason said. The vibe in the room was heavy, whatever was on their mind had put them both in a somber mood. Twingo gestured to Ma'Fredich that he should do the talking.

              "From what Twingo has told me, this isn't the type of work you guys normally do. I'm putting not an insignificant amount of trust in you by telling you this," he took a deep breath and stared at the ceiling for a moment before continuing. "Do you know what the containers in your cargo hold are? No? Well I'll tell you; they're stasis pods, designed to hold biological entities intact for long term storage or movement. These are typically used for dangerous prisoners or medical patients. The pods in your hold contain neither; you've unwittingly been drawn into the trafficking of sentient beings against their will." Jason's stomach tightened and performed a somersault at that last bit. He stared at the doctor, not wanting to believe what he had been told. Ma'Fredich continued, "Before I continue, I suppose I should know what your views are on this practice."

              "The trafficking of people represents a blight on my peoples' soul," Jason said softly, solemnly. "Some of our darkest chapters involved the enslaving of our fellow man, I can't overstate the revulsion most of us feel at this."

              "Most?"

              "Unfortunately, it does still exist even today," Jason said uncomfortably. "We're not a unified planet, and not all regions feel the same. There are some countries that still look the other way." As he said it out loud, he felt a profound sense of shame for the human species.

              "They really are a relatively young species," Twingo came to Jason's defense, making him feel all the worse for it.

              "I see," the doctor continued. "Your homeworld and its internal politics aren't germane to this particular conversation. What are important are
your
views on the subject, of which you seem quite sincere. Twingo and I have been discussing some possible options we have, but we're going to need your help."

              "You're going to try and free them." Jason wasn't asking, he was stating the obvious.

              "You wouldn't? I need to reclaim my honor, Jason, it's all I have left."

              "How did you get mixed up in this?" If he was going to stick his neck out, he needed to know his co-conspirators were on the level.

              "I'm a geneticist by trade and but I have a background in molecular biology and even a smattering of surgical experience. I was approached by Bondrass some years ago to enhance some of his security personnel and find a way to circumvent the rules concerning bio-enhancements in a hand-to-hand combat sport he has a major stake in. I refused outright, and let him see my disdain for the whole idea. Bondrass is not someone you insult, as I found." He seemed to be breaking down as he tried to finish his tale; "He took someone very close to me: my sister. He used her as leverage to get me to perform the tasks he wanted. It wasn't enough just to have my servitude, he wanted to break me. ...and break me he did. While I toiled away he made certain I knew all horrors he had heaped upon my sister, and that if I attempted to break away, call the authorities, or rescue her... she would be killed. My arrogance had cost her everything, and my cowardice made sure she never got it back."

              "Doc, why are you deciding to take action now?" Jason's voice was gentle, but he felt he needed to convince the doctor to abandon any rash plans that would endanger his sibling and himself.

              "Bondrass no longer has any hold over me. My sister finally succumbed to the constant abuse. His only leverage is to threaten my life directly... so he has no leverage."

              "I guess you'd better start from the beginning," Jason said, now fully awake.

              Over the next hour and a half the doctor laid out what he knew of the operation. Most of the beings that were stored at, and shipped to, The Vault were to be of some use, either as payment or direct entertainment for Bondrass and a handful of other crime bosses that made up the cadre. Many were pit against each other in a type of blood sport that sounded like a vicious version of mixed martial arts tournaments on Earth, others were used as shocktroops once the proper behavioral controls were put in place. There were also the usual mix of what one would expect; sex slaves, trophies, and leverage against those being extorted, like Dr. Ma'Fredich.

The stasis pods were all eventually transferred to The Vault as a staging area before being sent off to their final destination. The security was somewhat lax, according to the doctor, since nobody in their right mind would dare cross any of the powerful bosses that controlled The Vault, much less all of them at once. This didn't mean it was going to be easy, however. The Vault was usually heavily populated and, from what Jason was hearing, it was often a free-for-all of true wild west style proportions. The three sat in the Captain's quarters for a few more long hours hashing out the plan and using the station schematics the doctor had stored on his personal computer; they didn't want to risk that one of the goons onboard had the ability to monitor their use of coms and data networks, so they stayed off the main computer. Once they felt they had it down, Jason leaned back on his bed and laced his fingers behind his head, staring from one of his companions to the other. There was a long, heavy pause before he spoke.

              "You know we're probably going to be killed for this, right?" Jason felt he needed to cut right to the heart of the matter.

              "It's a good plan, Jason," Twingo protested. "Your species is quite adept at subterfuge it seems."

              "It's only a good plan because it's based on nothing. Doc's the only one who's been to The Vault, and even he admits he wasn't as observant as he should have been. If there's one thing in covert ops I've learned as a constant, it's that no plan survives first contact. This is likely to go sideways on us almost immediately."

              "So you would rather not be a part of this," Ma'Fredich stated flatly, but without rancor. Jason stared at the ceiling a moment before blowing out a huge breath through pursed lips, startling the two others.

              "No," Jason said, "I just want you both to understand exactly what the consequences of our failure are. Or our success. Getting caught on the station is easy, we'll probably just get burned down and that'll be it. If we manage to pull this off
and
get away..." He shook his head, "I might be able to get back to Earth and hide, but you two will be marked men. Beings. Whatever."

              "We've thought that through," Twingo said. "After learning what I have... I'm not sure how comfortable I'd be just walking away. It's easy to turn a blind eye to those you don't know and don't see, but we're hauling a load of them to what amounts to a life of anguish and torture. That makes each of us culpable in some way or another." Jason could only nod his agreement at the engineer's point of view. He reflected quietly for a moment, and then his eyes snapped wide open.

              "Where the fuck has Deetz been during this flight? He hasn't been on the bridge for the entire time, I've checked."

              "While you've been getting your implants and recovering he's locked himself in the com room for much of that time," Ma'Fredich said.

              "I'm not sure I like that he's being so secretive. He's the one loose thread in this plan; he wants this deal to happen, so it's likely he'll be a hindrance more than anything." Jason still didn't fully trust the sardonic synth.

              "You know, we can find out what he's up to." Twingo was looking speculatively at the others. "It might not be such a bad idea to see who he's been talking to, and what about." He laid out what commands Jason needed to give the ship's computer to gain access to the com logs. Deetz had made an oversight when he named Jason as First Officer, he hadn't realized that as far as the ship was concerned Jason was the de facto commanding officer in the absence of a Captain, far outranking the administrative assistant who only spoke for the captain on certain matters. Either way, the First Officer had access and privileges to nearly all parts of the ship, something Deetz probably hadn't expected Jason to discover on his own.

              "Shit. Here are the com logs, the date and times are recorded but he deleted the message bodies," Jason said, dismayed. "The fact he bothered deleting the logs indicates whatever he's up to isn't something he wants us finding out about."

              "That's true. I wouldn't be surprised if..."

              "He's going active now!" Ma'Fredich was pointing to the new entry to the com log that had a flashing **ACTIVE** next to it.

              "Computer, display active com traffic to this terminal and record." Jason said as he leapt off the bed and rushed to stand over Twingo's shoulder to look at the display. One of the monitors divided into two sections, one showed Deetz quite clearly, the other showed Bondrass in far less resolution. The crime boss was talking:

              "...is going well on your end. I'm trusting you with some high value cargo this time."

              "Everything is still on track, sir." Deetz's tone was servile and made Jason cringe in disgust.

              "And what about our side deal?" Bondrass leaned into the camera so it appeared to zoom in on his face.