Omega Force 6: Secret of the Phoenix (12 page)

“I can see you’re very pleased with yourself, Captain,” Klegsh said quietly. “But you have just made an enemy today that you may regret. I will never rest until I see you dead and the
Katan
in flames.” Jason looked down and saw Kage had sent him a countdown to when they would be in range. Fifteen seconds at the current speed differential.

“I don’t think you’re going to be around long enough to worry about it to be honest, Klegsh,” Jason said. “You’re welcome for killing Deetz. It’s too bad you couldn’t just leave well enough alone.” He made a chopping motion for Kage to kill the channel and concentrated on finding the optimum intercept angle as he nosed the
Phoenix
over to begin their initial run on the fleeing DL7.

“Kage, lock the main guns onto their starboard nacelle,” Jason said, pushing the engines to full power to cover the last bit of distance as quickly as possible.

“Firing solution locked and loaded,” Kage said. Jason could see the fine correction arrows appear in his field of view. He allowed the ship to close the range a bit more, just before he would have to pull out of his dive, and squeezed the trigger on the stick. He held it down to give the computer fire control command. He would try and get the reticle onto the target, but the ship would fire the plasma cannons when it felt they were in the best position to land a hit. The cannons were far and away the most powerful energy weapon in the
Phoenix’s
arsenal, but they couldn’t be aimed by any other means than actually pointing the ship at the target.

He’d been holding the trigger down a full second while he concentrated on putting the nose onto the tail of the other ship when the plasma cannons opened fire, actually startling him. The first two bolts missed and ripped up a massive section of rainforest, but the subsequent four smashed into engines three and four as the starboard nacelle was shredded. He released the trigger and yanked the
Phoenix
into a climbing turn to the right, chopping the throttle as he did.

With his full neural integration active he was able to look down through the hull and see the older DL7 yaw hard to the right. The pilot was able to compensate, but they’d been flying too low. The starboard wing clipped the tops of the trees and put the ship into a tumble. Soon it was completely obscured by the foliage, dirt, and smoke that was kicked up as it fell through the trees. Jason pulled around and settled into a hover a kilometer away, watching the smoke and dust continue to rise. Panicked avian creatures were also fleeing and Jason absently noted that they didn’t have feathers like birds from Earth. They looked more like miniature dragons.

“Full power is available on the grav-drive,” Twingo said. “You can change over on your engine management panel.”

While Jason engaged the grav-drive and disabled the repulsors, an enormous gout of fire erupted from the forest. It was a pillar of white hot flame that reached up into the sky and showed no sign of diminishing.

“They just lost fuel containment,” Twingo remarked. “Something must have ignited it.”

“I guess they’re completely powerless,” Jason said. “No backup or emergency power either unless all the compressors failed simultaneously.”

“Do we just lob a missile down there or do you want to go check it out?” Crusher asked, yawning in his seat.

“We’ll go down there once the fuel burns off,” Jason said. “If someone happened to get out of the wreck and escape the flames I’d rather not leave them behind to make trouble for us later.”

“Good thinking,” Crusher grunted. “I’ll go get our stuff ready.”

It was another forty seconds before the fuel supply was exhausted and the flames died down. Jason nudged the
Phoenix
closer and settled down just behind the wreckage and hovered about ten meters above the treetops. He stood and walked over to the edge of the canopy to look down at what was left of the DL7.

Shockingly, the ship didn’t look to be in that bad of shape other than the obvious crumpled areas from where it had sheared off tree trunks that were a few feet in diameter. He was about to say so, but he didn’t want to leave himself open to Twingo and Kage mentioning that he’d crashed their own ship through a factory and it was still in one piece.

“Doc, take over,” Jason said. “Lucky, let’s go with Crusher and check this out.”

The transit beam couldn’t find a clear way down to the forest floor because of all the branches and other obstructions so Jason and Crusher had to harness up and ride cables the few hundred feet down. Lucky just stepped off the edge through the belly hatch and fired his repulsors to arrest his decent, landing in the soft loam with a heavy thud.

The ship had flipped over when it tumbled and was sitting on its back. The starboard nacelle was still sparking and smoldering, but the rest of it simply looked lifeless. The trio made their way around to the nose, intent on trying to gain entry through the port airlock, but instead saw that the main canopy hadn’t survived the impact. The older model ship must not have had as tough a transparent material as the
Phoenix
.

They cautiously moved around and peered into the smoke-filled bridge. Lucky stepped in first and Jason followed, motioning for Crusher to patrol the outside and try and see if anyone had gotten out. Even though the crew looked to be wearing their restraints, the impact and imploding canopy had killed most of them.

Jason found Naleem crushed under a large section of tree trunk that had come inside the right side of the canopy when the ship was crashing through the forest. He stopped over her broken body, looking down with a feeling of sadness that surprised him. She may have been playing them and was absolutely ruthless in her quest to get what she wanted, but he didn’t necessarily think she was evil. He understood what happened when one was consumed with a desire and passion for something. No action was too extreme and there were no lengths he wouldn’t go to in order to achieve his goals.

A soft moaning brought him out of his reverie. Klegsh, still strapped to the command chair above Jason’s head, was beginning to stir. Lucky had already moved further into the ship to clear it so Jason walked over and looked up, trying to figure out how to get him down.

“Try not to move,” Jason said. “I’ll let you down when Lucky gets back. Otherwise you’ll fall and further injure yourself.” Klegsh just laughed bitterly.

“You have no idea how many times I’ve fantasized about killing you and reclaiming the
Katan
,” Klegsh said with a bitter laugh. “Now here you are … trying to render aid. Just pull that weapon and end this, Captain.”

“Don’t think I’m not considering it,” Jason said, craning his neck up. “Did it ever occur to you or your daughter to just make contact and ask me for help? You’d have never gotten the gunship back, but we could have come to an agreement on whatever you think that ship is carrying.”

“Everything is so simple in hindsight,” Klegsh said with a sigh. “Listen to me closely, Captain, as I don’t think I have a lot of time left. I’m not the one who hid the part of the key on that ship, so I can’t tell you where it is, but I know it has to still be on there. Look closely in the places that haven’t been replaced since you’ve … assumed ownership.” He paused as he coughed to clear his airways and Jason saw a viscous stream of what he assumed must be mostly blood land near his feet with a disgusting splat.

“You’ve got to find that machine, whatever it is, and destroy it. I’ve been watching you … I know this is something you and your crew can handle.” Another bout of coughs and when he was done, Klegsh looked to be somewhat diminished. “I suppose I should thank you for killing Deetz. You can imagine my confusion when I learned that’s what actually happened … I’d always assumed you and he had an arrangement to steal the ship. Take care of her, Captain. Keep her safer than I could.”

It was strange to see someone’s life fade while they were hanging upside down. Klegsh’s arms went slack and hung over his head and Jason could then see that his abdomen had been pierced by a large shard of the canopy, pinning him to the seat.

“There is some material in the cargo hold we may wish to recover, Captain,” Lucky said as he walked back in. “There are no other living beings on the ship and no hazards for you or Crusher. Is there something interesting up there?”

“Captain Klegsh was still alive,” Jason said softly.

“Did you learn anything of interest?”

“Only that things aren’t always as they seem,” Jason answered. “Here, lift me up to the pilot’s station. I’m going to blow the explosive charges for the ramp so we can get the stuff out of there more easily.”

Lucky bent down and waited as Jason climbed up onto his shoulders so he could reach past the dead pilot and find the emergency hatch jettison controls. Jason rooted around, but the station on the older ship was different than on a newer model DL7 and
much
different than the modified station on the
Phoenix
. He finally found the correct panel, but wasn’t sure which handles controlled which hatch since the lettering had been worn off from years of the pilot’s lower leg brushing against them.

He opted for a trial and error approach. He pulled the pin from the first bright red handle, turned it ninety degrees and then pulled it out as far as it would go.

“Hey! What the fuck!?” Crusher’s bellow coincided almost exactly with the muffled explosion of a hatch departing the hull.

“Which hatch was that?” Jason yelled back.

“Did you have something to do with that?!” Crusher shouted, now standing by the open canopy. “You almost killed me!”

“Settle down and help out for a change,” Jason said. “Which hatch?”

“Side hatch, right side,” Crusher said.

“Would that be the right side of the ship if it’s sitting upright or as it sits now?”

“It was over there!!” Crusher roared, gesticulating wildly to the left, meaning that it was the starboard hatch that had been blown. Unfortunately, the information didn’t really help Jason figure out which handle was the rear ramp. The handle he pulled was the second from the left, so he grabbed and turned the handle furthest to the right, thinking that the handles might go in order according to location on the ship.

There was another muffled explosion but it was impossible for them to figure out which one it was.

“Kage,” Jason said over the com, “which hatch just blew off.”

“
Belly hatch
,” Kage answered. “
You almost flattened Crusher with the starboard hatch. He looked pissed
.” Jason ignored him and grabbed the handle next to it. This time the explosion was much more substantial and he knew he had the right one. He nodded to Lucky and was lowered back to the ground.

“Let’s pull the stuff out of the cargo bay and get the hell out of here,” Jason said, trying to keep Lucky between him and Crusher.

****

“Clean get away,” Kage said. “There weren’t even any sensor sweeps of the outer system before we meshed out.”

“Good enough,” Jason said. “I’d like you and Lucky going through all the stuff we pulled out of Klegsh’s gunship, specifically the files. We’re now back to flying blind and we need to know what’s happening.”

“Wouldn’t Twingo be the obvious choice to help?” Kage asked.

“I’ve learned my lesson with that,” Jason said. “You two goof off together more than you work, and as long as we’re being honest, Lucky is probably smarter than either of you anyway.” The look Kage gave him as he exited the bridge was priceless. It wasn’t often Jason was able to really get under the little Veran’s skin, but when he did it was something to be savored. Lucky walked off the bridge after him, his head up a little higher than usual.

“We’re still going through with this mission?” Crusher asked. He seemed to have gotten over his previous bout of anger over almost being smashed flat. “It seems to me that this would be a good opportunity to cut our losses and head for a better paying job.”

“This is still a good paying job,” Jason pointed out. “Naleem paid us up front. But regardless, we’re still involved. I’m inclined to believe her when she said there were other forces looking for these parts and we’ll never be rid of these random attacks until we deal with it. This is as good an opportunity as any.”

“Except we’re short one expert on ancient alien cultures,” Crusher pointed out.

“That’s why I’m hoping those two can dig something out of all that information we pulled off her dad’s ship,” Jason said. “If what she said is true, we were quickly coming up on the end of her expertise anyway.”

“I guess we’ll find out,” Crusher shrugged before walking off the bridge.

“I guess we will,” Jason said to nobody.

Chapter 14

“This is a bit unusual,” Twingo said as he sat in his usual chair around the conference room table. “You know … we barely even use this room. We should use the space for something else.”

“Like what?” Jason asked as he snagged the “Captain’s chair” at the head of the table before Crusher could make a grab for it.

“A secondary armory would be nice,” the warrior said, glaring at Jason as he folded himself into the seat by the curved outer hull. “How many times have we had to sprint to the other end of the ship to grab a weapon in an emergency?”

“I’ll think about it,” Jason said, scooting in so Doc could slide around behind him. “We’d have to beef up the door given the low-life nature of some of our passengers.”

“Why did Kage call us all up here?” Doc asked. “And since when does he call meetings anyway?”

“I don’t know,” Jason shrugged. “But I’ve got nothing better to do than indulge him.” Before Doc could respond, Kage walked into the room and activated the main display with his neural implant.

“You’re probably wondering why I’ve called you all in here,” Kage said, making a steeple with his fingers on both pairs of hands.

“I’m not,” Crusher said.

“The captain asked me to scour the data files we grabbed from the wrecked DL7,” Kage said in a self-important tone.

“I believe I was asked to assist as well,” Lucky said from the door. “In fact, it was I who—”

“Yes, Lucky was also quite helpful,” Kage said quickly.

“Kage, you have thirty seconds to get to the point and then I’m leaving,” Jason said. “I’m pretty sure nobody else is going to stay either.”

“Fine,” Kage said, deflated. “We dug through the insane ramblings of an obviously disturbed woman. While there didn’t seem to be any sort of organizational method we could discern, we did manage to extract a few key pieces of information that will hopefully give us some direction.

“First thing we found out is that she knew exactly what the
Phoenix
is supposedly carrying. There are three major components to the key: the transceiver, the antenna, and, most importantly, the encryption module. The encryption module is what everyone assumes is on this ship.”

“Do we know what it looks like?” Jason asked.

“There were some hand sketches from people who claimed to have seen it,” Lucky spoke up. “It follows a similar construction methodology to the antenna we found on DC915. It will be an ovoid cylinder thirty centimeters in length and with the same symbology etched into the alloy.”

“Correct,” Kage confirmed. “According to some other information we found that Naleem seems to have stolen from another researcher, the components only need to be in proximity to each other to function; no hard connections and no external power sources are needed.”

“Do we have any idea what the transceiver looks like?” Doc asked. Kage pulled a high resolution image up on the display.

“That’s it,” he said.

“So someone already has it?” Jason asked.

“Yes. We do,” Kage said with a smile. “It was in another of the cases we pulled off Klegsh’s ship.” The transceiver had the same exotic construction the antenna did. It was a disc, no surprise as all the other constructs were circular in some form or another, but this one had six gems arrayed around the perimeter.

“Is the case it’s in shielded as well?” Jason asked.

“Yes,” Lucky said. “We had to open the inner cover before the sensors detected the transceiver. We were sure to keep the antenna locked up during that time so the devices did not interact with each other.”

“Thank you for taking the precautions,” Jason said. “So other than trying to find the encryption module on this ship, do we need anything else to activate the machine?”

“Not that Naleem was able to determine,” Kage said. “There are a lot of files that look to be speculation on the species that built the machine—”

“I want you looking through those, Doc,” Jason said.

“—and little else. I have a lot of other stuff that is just supporting details for what I just told you, but nothing else as far as an overview.”

“So why did you cram us into this room if that’s all you had?” Crusher demanded.

“I never get to call meetings and discuss strategy,” Kage complained. “I just get told to shut up and then get all the shit work.”

“Speaking of shit work, get back down to the hold and start running through the technical details with a finer filter,” Jason said. “You blew through that pretty quick even with Lucky’s help. Twingo, we need to find that encryption module. Let’s get a plan of action together and start hitting the areas the Eshquarians really didn’t access much for the rebuild. If we need to drop out of slip-space or even land to access some of these places we will.”

“We’re going to need to find another subject matter expert,” Doc said. “This is so far out of our collective areas of expertise that our usual method of blundering blindly into yet another disaster could get us all killed.”

“I’d like to avoid that, if possible,” Crusher said.

“Unfortunately I don’t think there’s really anyone available that would be able to help us,” Jason said.

“The other two factions should have their own experts,” Doc argued.

“I said
available
. Unless you want to team up with the people who’ve tried to blow us out of the sky I’d say we’re still in the same shape we were in before Naleem tried to blow me up,” Jason said.

“I would argue that we are in a considerably better position,” Lucky said. “Theoretically, we possess all we need to approach and activate the machine. We also have access to most of Naleem El’s research. We are also well aware that two well-equipped groups are planning on trying to take the key from us.”

“While all that is true, it doesn’t necessarily make me feel any better,” Jason said. “But, I suppose putting in a call to Crisstof wouldn’t hurt. Maybe he’ll have an idea of someone who could help.”

****

“Hello!” Kellea said brightly as she saw Jason’s face resolve on her screen. She looked over at the other person in the frame and her expression dropped to flat, almost unfriendly. “And hello, Kage,” she said in a monotone voice.

“Hello, Captain Colleren,” Kage said brightly. He and Jason were sitting in the com room so they could quickly and efficiently funnel information to the
Defiant
. Jason contacted Kellea first to make sure Crisstof was available and able to help. Plus it was an easy excuse to get to see her, even if it was over a vid chat from almost a thousand lightyears away.

“To what do I owe the … pleasure,” she said, trying to force a smile.

“We’ve sort of gotten ourselves into a situation that we’re not sure how to get out of,” Jason began.

“For the love of the Gods, Jason,” she said in clear exasperation. “You must be doing this on purpose at this point.”

“To be fair, we stepped into this trap long ago and it seems to just now have caught up with us,” Jason explained.

“How long ago?”

“When we stole the
Phoenix
,” Jason said. “Apparently there’s a part of an ancient device hidden onboard that can start up a machine of nearly unlimited power. It’s out somewhere beyond the fringe and built by a species that may have gone extinct millennia ago.”

She just stared at him blankly for a moment. “I expect this sort of thing from him,” she said, pointing at Kage, “but I would hope you’d know better. That’s the most absurd story I’ve ever heard. This sounds like some scam you’ve fallen for.”

“Unfortunately, it’s true,” Jason said. “We’ve received quite a bit of independent confirmation. The short version is that the expert we were working with was actually the daughter of the last captain of this ship when Deetz stole it. She tried to kill me, so we’re not working with her anymore. We need to see if Crisstof might know someone who is an expert in ancient alien cultures who may have heard of the legend of this machine.”

“Give me what you have and I’ll see what we can do,” she sighed.

Jason and Kage transferred files over the slip-space com link for the next half an hour before signing off.

“I sometimes get the impression that Kellea is annoyed by me,” Kage said as they got ready to leave the com room. Jason had to actually bite the inside of his lip to keep from saying his first thought aloud.

“Really? I hadn’t noticed,” he said.

“The next time we’re on the
Defiant
I’m going to make an extra effort to win her over,” Kage said. “I’m doing it for your sake, really.”

“Thanks,” Jason said, not trusting himself to say anything else.

****

“I can’t find anything, Captain,” Twingo said. The engineer was covered in a variety of lubricants, debris, and dirt that can be found in the far recesses on any starship. “I just can’t imagine where something like that would be hidden.”

“Maybe if we pull the other pieces out we can figure out where it is,” Kage said. He’d been walking by on his way back to the cargo bay and had stopped to give Twingo a hand reassembling an access panel.

“That makes me a bit nervous,” Jason said. “We don’t know how they’ll react. Not only that, but we have no idea how to operate it even if we get all the parts together.”

“Well, other than that I don’t have any idea of what else I can do,” Twingo said. He looked like he’d been up for days and was swaying on his feet.

“Okay,” Jason said. “If you think that’s the only way we can work something out. We’ll be changing course soon to intercept the
Defiant;
maybe we can find an uninhabited chunk of planet to give your idea a shot. I’d rather not do it while we’re in slip-space.”

“Agreed,” Twingo said.

“Go get some sleep, buddy,” Jason said, slapping him on the shoulder. “You look like you’re about ready to fall out where you stand.”

****

Finding a testing ground to mess with the key devices proved more difficult than it had seemed when Jason had tossed the idea out there. The search highlighted the fact that despite working on a deep space warship for years, he still had trouble conceptualizing just how vast the galaxy really was. They were no habitable planets along the way to their rendezvous with the
Defiant
unless he wanted to crank the ship up to full power and still fly two full days out of their way.

In truth, he had been surprised at how quickly the battlecruiser had made contact again after his initial talk with Kellea. It had been less than two hours when Crisstof himself had appeared on the screen and came just short of insisting that he meet with them and discuss everything that had happened since picking up Naleem. The look in the older man’s eye made Jason slightly apprehensive, but he’d never had any reason to distrust him so they’d changed course and slowed their speed down in order to meet up with the larger ship at the correct place and time.

“Did he actually say we were now under com silence?” Kage asked. “I mean, in those actual words.”

“Yes,” Jason said. This caused Kage and Twingo to laugh uproariously.

“Someone has been spending too much time with ConFed spies,” Twingo said. “Does he really think we’re out here just broadcasting away as we fly along? Who did he think he was talking to?”

“To be fair, we have been trailed for some time now,” Doc said. “It may be our indiscriminant use of the com node that’s allowed them to pop up in a lot of the places we’ve been, even a planet like Restaria.”

“I think what he is concerned about is leaks on his end,” Jason said tiredly. Twingo and Kage had been working tirelessly in the cargo bay on the material regarding the key and that meant they’d ingested an unhealthy amount of chroot. It had now hit critical mass where the pair were slap happy and were wearing down the nerves of their crewmates. Crusher had actually demanded they be sedated and when Doc refused he stormed off the bridge. “The
Defiant
is an enormous ship and it’s impossible to keep that close of an eye on every crewmember without creating a hostile work environment.”

“Whatever,” Kage said.

“You guys have been working pretty hard,” Jason said. “Maybe you should hit the rack for a few hours. We’re half a day away from the
Defiant
.”

“We’re good, Captain,” Twingo assured him. “We can sit up here and keep you company during your watch.” Jason sighed heavily and Doc walked off the bridge without a word to any of them.

After a few hours, the stimulant effect of all the chroot wore off and the pair began nodding off. At a bit more prodding from Jason they headed for their quarters and a blissful silence descended on the bridge.

“Computer, set ambient lighting for overnight watch,” Jason said. The lights dimmed down to just enough to keep him from tripping over things in the dark. He watched the stars streak by in silence, thoroughly enjoying the simulation he’d programmed for when they were in slip-space. He had the computer use real visual spectrum data it had on where they were in space and create a simulated, moving star field on the main canopy so that it seemed they were flying though the universe instead of moving outside of it. He’d gotten the idea from a science fiction show from Earth and the others ridiculed him to no end when he’d initialized it. Now he caught them all sitting up on the bridge staring out at the hypnotic effect.