Omega Force 7: Redemption (23 page)

The escape from ConFed space was so anticlimactic that Jason began to feel that the mission was turning into a milk run. Dangerous thinking, but he couldn't imagine that it would be too difficult to find loyal security forces rather quickly once they were within the Avarian Empire, turn over the two young ladies, and collect that big fat reward (and maybe even pay Crusher back.)

"You are nervous because things are going so smoothly," Annada said, her voice thick with sleep. It hadn't taken long before she had developed a routine of coming to his quarters later in the night watch. Jason just couldn't figure out why she bothered making a show of going into the starboard berthing bay in the first place, it wasn't like everyone aboard didn't know what was going on.

"Are you sure you can't read my mind?" Jason teased. "But no, I'm not exactly nervous ... but you are right that things are going oddly smooth."

"It will be over soon," she mumbled. "Then we can find some quiet island on Avaris to relax for a few weeks."

"You're certain about the place we're heading to?" he asked. She sighed in mild annoyance and propped herself up onto an elbow.

"Is this a cultural or occupational trait that you wish to repeat conversations over and over?" she asked.

"Maybe a bit of both," Jason said, letting it drop and enjoying her proximity for a few minutes while he tried to let his mind switch off. It didn't work. "Tell me about when you were taken," he said after a moment. "Whose idea was it to take your sightseeing trip in the first place?"

"You are simply determined that I will not get any sleep tonight?" she asked.

"A little bit," Jason said.

"If you want to hear this story again you will need to go out to the galley and get a bottle of that wine you bought on Wy," she said, climbing out of the rack and walking into the head, not bothering to cover up. Jason shrugged and also got up, throwing on the basketball shorts and t-shirt he usually wore while sleeping. He padded silently out through the main deck and into the galley, digging around in the lower cupboard he had hid the wine in.

"How's it going in there?"

"Damnit!" Jason almost shouted, clenching up so hard his calf cramped. "Kage! What the hell are you doing out here?"

"I often sit up during the night watch," Kage said, staring at Jason with an intensity that was bothersome. "It's peaceful."

"That's great," Jason said, grabbing a pair of cups and the bottle he'd nearly dropped.

"It is," Kage agreed, smiling in the dark. "I bet it's also great to keep running into so many compatible species of females. Not much chance of that out here for me."

"Maybe we can figure out a vacation spot near Ver later on," Jason said, wanting nothing more than to escape.

"That would be great," Kage agreed. "Enjoy your evening, Captain." The Veran was still smiling at him as he walked out of the galley and escaped back to his quarters.

"Creepy little bastard," he said under his breath as he approached his door. "I guess some things never change."

"What things?" Annada said as he walked in and quickly keyed the door shut and locked it.

"Just thinking aloud," Jason said, reaching out with his neural implant to ensure the room's security feed was still disabled as he worked to open the bottle. After pouring two cups of the potent wine he dimmed the lights and climbed back into the bunk that was laughably small for two people.

"Now ... what is it you wish to know about my abduction?" Annada asked. "As I told you, I was rendered unconscious almost immediately."

"I know," Jason said. "I was more interested in the events leading up to it, like who organized your trip and who suggested it in the first place."

She frowned as she considered the question. “It is a bit hard to remember," she admitted. "But I know it was kept very secret. All the details were handled by my personal security captain, but he was killed during the abduction so I find it hard to believe he was involved. The idea for the trip came from Kalette. I had been complaining about how bored I was in the Capital and she suggested we make a holiday of disguising ourselves and going out to the other planets in the Empire to get a firsthand feel for things."

"Not much there to go on," Jason agreed.

"No there isn't," she said. "But I'm sure my father's intelligence service will have it all sorted out by the time we get there."

Jason humored her with a smile even though he had serious doubts on that. The rest of his night was blissfully free of worrying about who kidnapped whom and why.

****

"Captain, I have something to show you," Kage said from the com room as Jason walked by on his way to the bridge.

"What's up?" Jason asked, coming in and grabbing the other seat.

"Remember when I said I was messing with our connection to the
Defiant
?" Kage asked. When Jason just nodded he continued, "I was able to set up some simple routines that rode on top of the existing command structure for their main computer—I'll get into that later—and while I was there I came across the com node buffer for Crisstof's personal system."

"The node in his office?" Jason asked, his eyebrows shooting up. "Even Kellea doesn't have access to that one. Hell, I don't even have the address. How were you able to break into it?"

"I wasn't," Kage corrected. "I was able to access the memory overrun where message headers are dumped after he clears them out of his inbox. The message contents are still tightly encrypted and there's no way I can risk cracking them while they're still on the host system."

"What good does this do us?" Jason asked. "Other than future blackmail material?"

"The headers include the origin and destination addresses for each message," Kage said. "There are a lot of messages to this com node that originated within the Avarian Empire, which is odd enough on its own given how isolationist they are, but the bulk of these messages start about two weeks before the netjere and Kalette were kidnapped."

"There's no way in hell that's a coincidence," Jason said, suddenly very interested. "We've got to see what's in those message files."

"That's why I called you in here," Kage said, pressing a key and highlighting about two dozen of the headers in the list he had on one of the monitors. "I've flagged these as being the most promising based on size, date, and origin address. I can try and copy the files to my terminal here on the
Phoenix
without tripping any security protocols on the
Defiant
. The fact I'm in behind the digital barrier helps, but there's still a risk I could be discovered."

"So the question is are those messages worth the risk of losing our telemetry uplink with the
Defiant
?" Jason asked, leaning back. Kage only stared at him expectantly. "No, I was actually asking you."

"Oh ... well yes, I think it is worth the risk," Kage said. "We already know where the
Defiant
is, and she's far out of position, and these messages could be the thing that helps us get our passengers back safely."

"Okay then," Jason said, standing up. "Do it. Let me know the minute you have something."

"Sure thing, Captain!" Kage said, eagerly turning back to what was the first real challenge he'd had in a couple of years. Jason walked out of the com room with a knot forming in his stomach. He had first assumed Crisstof Dalton had been involved only as an intermediary or maybe even trying to open up his own personal lines of communication into the Avarian Empire, but the existence of those messages introduced a whole new probability that he was somehow involved in Annada's abduction. Could the old man have crossed the line this time and tried to manipulate the internal governmental workings of a neighboring superpower?

The bridge was mercifully deserted save for Lucky sitting quietly in the co-pilot's seat, monitoring the
Phoenix's
main systems. He nodded to his friend and climbed into the pilot's seat, pulling up the record of their encounters with the
Defiant
during this mission and trying to see if there was something obvious he'd missed. The com logs from the encounters were brief since he'd declined to speak to them, something he was regretting now. He always been able to get under Crisstof's skin and make him divulge more than he normally would.

He had to include the fact that Crisstof showed up at his home on S'tora before he had even known Kalette has snuck aboard his ship ... how did that figure in? With a snort of disgust he shut off the display and leaned back in the seat, stretching out his back. There was a significant piece to the puzzle he was missing, he was certain of it. But why was he even looking? He certainly knew better than to think his dalliance with Annada was anything that would last longer than the moment her royal feet touched Avarian soil, so it wasn't as if he owed her anything more than what he had agreed to. Was it because Crisstof, and by extension Kellea, might be involved?

His internal musings were interrupted by an alert on his tactical panel telling him that the
Defiant
had changed course. Actually it looked like the battlecruiser had come to a full stop well short of the Eshquarian Empire's border. Either they had technical trouble or they had figured out that the
Phoenix
wasn't headed there in the first place. Regular updates were still coming through the downlink, so Kage hadn't tripped any security measures yet.

Completely enthralled by the fact that he could observe the ship's critical systems and status from so far away, he watched as the shields were brought online and the forward weapons banks charged. There was a short burst from the engines and then, twenty minutes after the apparent hostilities started, the combat shields dropped and the weapons went offline.
Wonder what the hell that was all about ...

As he watched, the
Defiant
swung around onto a new course and jumped into slip-space, quickly running up her reactors to full power and pushing to her maximum velocity. There was no doubt where they were headed.

"Kage, the
Defiant
just changed course," he said over the intercom. "She's steaming full bore for Avarian space. I don't think it's anything you did; something else is going on."

"
I saw that
," Kage said. "
I was able to pull those messages through our link. I'm decrypting them now ... give me another thirty minutes
."

"Will do," Jason said and closed the channel. He sat there for a while longer, watching as the battlecruiser was pushed right up against the safety limit. Whatever had caused them to change course had Crisstof spooked and now he was flogging his ship for all it was worth to try and get to the same place Jason was going. Another coincidence? Not likely.

****

"You'll want to close the door," Kage said when Jason walked back into the com room. Obliging his friend, Jason hit the button by the entryway before taking a seat. "Here, I've queued up the messages in order. I want you to read through them without me interfering and see if you reach the same conclusions I have."

His interest now piqued, Jason adjusted himself in the seat and began reading through the messages. Due to the decryption method it wasn't as easy as simply reading a text file, but he was able to fill in the blanks and take in the bulk of what it said. Once he'd read all twenty-three messages he went back and started through them all again. It was obvious Crisstof was talking to a high-ranking Avarian official, but both were smart enough to never mention the other specifically by name. One person, however, was mentioned by name. An asset they had in place that was to kick off the entire operation.

"What the fuck?" Jason blurted out finally. "Things make even less sense now than they did an hour ago!"

"Maybe," Kage said. "But I think we know what we need to do next."

"True," Jason said, rubbing at his scalp furiously. He reached over and keyed on the shipwide intercom. "All crew and passengers ... please meet in the galley. We've had some developments and we'll need to make some tough decisions."

"Now what?" Crusher demanded as he walked into the galley from the cargo bay, drenched in sweat.

"Just to catch you up on where we're at," Jason began, ignoring Crusher completely, "Kage has discovered a way to track the
Defiant
in real-time and the ship has just turned onto an intercept course and increased well past her maximum safe, sustainable speed."

"So?" Twingo asked. "There's no way they could possibly catch us with the lead we have."

"You're missing the point," Jason said. "How did they figure out we're not actually going to the Eshquarians?"

"Oh," Twingo said. "I see the problem. Were we spotted on Wy?"

"We're not entirely certain if we were or not. But there is one thing we are sure of," Jason said. "Lucky ... grab Kalette and restrain her, please." He said it so calmly that everyone thought it was either a joke or that he misspoke. Everyone except Lucky, that is. The battlesynth reacted immediately, grabbing Kalette's hands and twisting them around her back, securing them in his own iron grip.