Chapter 1

“You can inspect the cargo on your own time. Please sign the release so my associate and I can be on our way.”

Jason Burke wasn’t known for being a patient man. In recent times he had become even less so. Standing in the sweltering sun of Tetara-4, waiting for a fussy alien of an indeterminate species to simply press the “accept” icon on the tablet he had stuck in its face, he could feel his thin veneer of civility slipping.

“This will take as long as it takes,” the alien said, giving Jason a disgusted look, “and you’d do well to learn your place.” The human ground his teeth in frustration and checked the time again for the tenth time since they’d landed. This pushed their schedule back again and it looked doubtful he’d make his last delivery on time.

Jason watched the alien really begin to drag the delivery inspection out, making it quite obvious that it had no intention of hurrying things along for his sake. He was about to address the alien again when he heard a sudden commotion on the ramp near his small cargo ship.

He gave the alien one last hostile glare before walking around the yawning cargo doors and towards the blunt nose so he could get a better view. From what he could tell, a group of well-equipped soldiers had just executed a raid on another nondescript cargo hauler, its crew now lined up and restrained on the tarmac. It looked like the whole thing went down so quickly that it was over before anyone knew it had started. He heard the crew of the ship complaining bitterly while soldiers clad in dark, form-fitting uniforms began searching the vessel.

“Pilot,” the alien behind him said in a voice that made Jason have to count to ten before answering. “I am done with my inspection and have accepted the shipment. You may leave.” Jason gave one last look to the raid taking place less than a hundred meters from his ship and walked back to the cargo bay entrance. He grabbed the tablet without a word and motioned for his partner to follow him aboard the ship, slapping the control to close the cargo doors, wincing as they creaked and moaned.

“Let’s get prepped to fly,” he said. “We might have a slim chance of this last delivery being made on time if we leave now.”

“Yes, Captain.”

“How many times have I asked you not to call me that anymore?” Jason asked with a weary sigh. “It’s just Jason now.”

“My apologies, Jason.”

“Just start the engines. I’ll be up in a few minutes,” Jason said, making some pretense of checking the cargo over until the heavy footfalls receded into the interior of the ship and he was alone. He leaned against the bulkhead of the aging cargo hauler and let out another heavy sigh. This wasn’t how things were supposed to be. Before he could really get down to the business of wallowing in self-pity he heard the engines begin to spool up, shaking the spars and vibrating up through his boots. With one last look around he turned off the lights in the cargo bay and set the environmental system to drop the ambient temperature back down to twenty degrees Centigrade before exiting the hold and sealing the hatch.

He walked up the narrow corridor that ran the entire centerline of the ship, squeezing his shoulders in as he passed the galley and climbed the short set of steps that led to the flight deck. The ship had originally been designed with a crew of five in mind, but Jason and his single partner had no problems managing without the extra help.

“Did we already get our clearance, Lucky?” Jason asked as he slid into the pilot’s seat.

“It just came through … Jason,” the battlesynth replied from the seat next to him. They’d had to pull the original seat and replace it with something a bit more substantial to handle Lucky’s bulk and height. “You can lift off as soon as the engines complete their startup cycle.”

“On this state of the art machine that should be quick,” Jason said sarcastically. In truth, the cargo ship was in desperate need of an overhaul on many systems, the standard drive engines not being the least among them. “Go ahead and contact the client for this last delivery. There’s a chance we’ll make it on time, but the last two stops have put us behind a bit.”

“I will let them know,” Lucky said. “We loaded this cargo near the front of the hold because the deadline was not as strict as the others.”

“Yeah,” Jason said disinterestedly. “We’re certainly becoming masters of logistics … or at least of packing shit in the right order in our tiny cargo bay. Stand by for liftoff.” He grabbed the manual flight controls, which were obviously not made with humans in mind, and throttled up the ship’s ventral repulsors. With a groan and a shudder the ship grudgingly hauled itself into the air. Jason double checked his projected course and fed power to the main drive, pushing them away from the spaceport.

“Start prepping the slip-drive,” he said as he put the ship into a shallow climb. “I’d like to leave this system behind as soon as possible.”

“Of course,” Lucky said agreeably. The fact his friend could take to such a mundane job with so much enthusiasm had, at first, impressed Jason. Now it made him want to punch the battlesynth in the face despite the fact all he would get out of it was a badly damaged hand.

“I’m taking us up top,” Jason said, pulling the pitch control back and throttling up the main drive to full power. “Keep an eye on the air pressure in here. I’m still not sure I trust that patch we fixed last week.” The ship lumbered up out of the atmosphere as the main drive shook the ship and its occupants harshly. Even though the main drive was only meant to push the ship out of an atmosphere so that the slip-drive could be engaged, it was still woefully underpowered. “This thing is such a piece of shit.”

“This was the only ship that was in our price range at the time,” Lucky said.

“Don’t remind me,” Jason said bitterly.

“Perhaps next year we can—”

“What’s that?” Jason interrupted Lucky before he could launch into another lecture about fiscal responsibility. “On the sensors. We’ve got something coming up under us from the direction of the spaceport.”

“It could be traffic along our same course,” Lucky said. “But they are increasing velocity and pitching sharply to match our ascent.”

“Figures,” Jason muttered. “We almost made it all the way through a run without someone trying to jack our cargo. Any idea who they are?”

“Negative,” Lucky said calmly. “They are not running with a standard transponder signal and this ship’s sensors are unable to determine the type of craft, only that there are two.”

Jason suppressed another sigh. “I’m pushing this heap to full power,” he said. “Get the slip-drive nacelles deployed and the emitters charged. As soon as we’re out of the thermosphere we’ll hit our first jump.”

The ship complained mightily as Jason overrode the safety interlock on the drive power control and pushed it just beyond its normal operating range. He watched Lucky’s fingers dance nimbly over the controls on his side despite the heavy buffeting they were experiencing. He checked their velocity and nearly laughed out loud. Despite all the noise and shaking the ship had gained a negligible bump in acceleration. Even so, it looked like they would be able to outrun their pursuers unless they were willing to risk attracting attention from Tetara-4’s orbital control authority.

“We are receiving a com channel request from our pursuers,” Lucky said, looking at the com panel that sat between them. “They wish to discuss terms if we turn back towards the surface and land.”

“Ignore them,” Jason said. “I’m not entertaining a conversation with a bunch of damn pirates. We’re almost to our mesh-out point. How’s the drive looking?”

“It will be sufficiently charged for our first jump,” Lucky assured him. “Course is entered and ready.”

“Standby,” Jason said, reaching for the slip-drive controls. “Jumping out in ten.”

Ten seconds later the emitters that had extended from either side of the small cargo ship flared with a bright, white light and the ship disappeared from the Tetara System even as the two smaller tactical vessels that had been chasing them pushed up out of the planet’s orbit. Without hesitation they swung onto a new course and also disappeared in a brilliant flash.

****

“At least there was something to break up the monotony that time,” Jason said as the ship touched down softly on S’tora, the planet he and Lucky were calling home at that particular moment.

“True,” Lucky agreed, “but that could hardly be called exciting, even by our current standards.”

“We’re delivery boys now, Lucky,” Jason said as he climbed out of the seat. “No matter what clever titles we attach to our business, we take shit from one point and leave it at another. Being chased is about as much excitement as I want anymore.” As he walked off the flight deck and into the narrow corridor Lucky watched him with an expression that could almost be sadness despite the fact his facial features never changed. The battlesynth finished securing the ship and locking out the computer with a complicated, randomized cipher. They’d found, surprisingly, that the dilapidated cargo hauler was more of a target for thieves than their previous ship.

“I will say one thing for this planet,” Jason said, scratching at a couple months’ worth of beard as Lucky joined him outside. “Not too many other places in the galaxy where a beachfront house would be so cheap.”

It was true. As frugally as the pair were living they were able to afford a well-appointed house that opened up to a beautiful beach with light pink sand. The indigenous species on S’tora had a fear of the sea that was hardwired into their evolution. Coastal towns were considered undesirable and only those who were unfortunate enough to make a living attached to the planet’s oceans lived there.

When Jason and Lucky had first arrived the human couldn’t believe how nice the house was for how little they paid. The battlesynth, who needed very little in the way of living accommodations, was indifferent.

“How soon do you want to try and arrange for another run?” Lucky asked.

“Let’s take a bit of time off,” Jason said. “We have enough money to get by for a while without dipping into our savings. C’mon, let’s go grab the car and get the hell out of here.”

Lucky said nothing as he turned to follow his partner and former captain. He’d been subtly pushing at the edges over the last few months to see if he could nudge Jason out of the rut his life had crashed into. He’d never regretted his decision to stick with his friend, but he wondered how long the human could carry on like he was.

“You want to hit that bar by the beach that’s on the way?” Jason asked innocently. “We don’t have anything pressing to do in the morning.” Lucky said nothing as he climbed into the open air ground vehicle. This too was following the now-predictable pattern in Jason Burke’s downward spiral. If something didn’t change soon, he would have no choice but to take more drastic measures.

Chapter 2

“Jason! Wake up!”

The voice was barely penetrating the fog in Jason’s mind. It was somewhat familiar, but it wasn’t usually so harsh. Or loud. He rolled over and decided to ignore it for a little longer when he felt steel claws wrap around his left ankle and, before he could react, felt himself flying through the air. He crashed into the far wall of his bedroom, somehow landing in a sitting position.

“What the hell, Lucky!?”

“You will get up and make yourself presentable,” the battlesynth said imperiously. “We have visitors on the way and you will not greet them looking as you do.”

“Visitors? Who the hell is coming to see us?” Jason said, trying to kick start his brain. “I told you I didn’t want to take another job for a little bit.”

“The Defiant has just made orbit,” Lucky said. “I was told to expect a landing party within the hour.”

“Making an awful lot of decisions unilaterally aren’t you?” Jason asked hotly. “I have no desire to speak to anyone on that ship.”

“As you have so often told me recently, you are no longer the captain,” Lucky said. “This domicile is equally mine, and I do wish to see them. If you feel you must leave, that is your business. If you stay, however, you will clean and shave yourself.” Lucky spun and walked out of the room, leaving a stunned human in his wake.

“I’m not fucking shaving,” Jason muttered under his breath, hoping Lucky didn’t hear him. He took an exploratory sniff and had to admit, however, that a shower probably wouldn’t kill him.

****

After showering and putting on clean clothes, a generic civilian ensemble that fit in with the locals, Jason was mildly surprised to see that they did indeed have visitors. He’d half-thought Lucky had been bluffing in an attempt to get him to quit looking like a vagabond.

“Jorvren,” he said with an enthusiasm that surprised even him. “It’s good to see you. And hello Crisstof.”

“Ah,” Crisstof said with an arched brow, the subtle jab not going unnoticed. “How have you been, Jason?”

“Can’t complain,” Jason said, gesturing expansively to the modest dwelling. “Got my own beach house, a good partner, and a business that pays for most anything I could want. So what brings you to the ass crack of the galaxy? Last time I talked to you it seemed pretty clear you no longer had any use for me. Is bringing some of my former crew supposed to soften me up?”

“I was already aboard the Defiant,” Jorvren “Doc” Ma’Fredich said, sitting on one of the comfortable chairs without being offered. “I’ve been working with his organization on a relief project for a pair of worlds being devastated by a fast-evolving pathogen. Where’s Twingo? He was with you two the last I heard.”

“I’m not sure,” Jason admitted with a frown. “He stuck around for a few months and then packed his stuff and hopped on a commercial flight to somewhere.”

“Twingo went back to his home planet to try and reconcile things with his family,” Lucky said. “He and I have been in touch. Sorry, Jason, but you were a bit … incapacitated … during the week when he made the decision to leave.”

“I see,” Doc said smoothly, glancing at Jason’s disheveled appearance before pressing on. “Crusher went back to Galvetor, but I can assume you’ve had no contact with him all things considered. Kage is currently serving a four-year prison sentence for tampering with elections on one of Ver’s colony worlds … I can’t remember the name of it off the top of my head.”

“If any of us were bound for jail it was always going to be him,” Jason said with a shrug. “He’s a survivor, he’ll come out okay.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Doc said with a shake of his head. “This was his fourth major offense on his home planet so they stuck him in some penal colony on a barely habitable world. No guards, no fences … just an automated air defense system, a few food drops a month, and thousands of miles of desert in any direction.”

“He’ll be fine,” Jason insisted, his tone making it clear he wanted to change the subject. During the conversation Crisstof stood at the edge of the room and looked on with an unreadable expression on his face.

“While it is always good to see you, what beings you to S’tora?” Lucky asked diplomatically.

“What do you know of the Avarian Empire?” Crisstof asked, taking his cue and fully entering the room.

“Never heard of it,” Jason said.

“It is on the boundary edge of what we consider to be known space,” Lucky offered. “Not much is known about them, but it is said they rival the ConFed in pure military power and dwarf the Eshquarian Empire.”

“Very true,” Crisstof said, nodding. “They also have no interest in outside contact. The vast region of space between the ConFed’s recognized outer border and their own has made this an easy proposition, although there is always the steady flow of certain intrepid traders.”

“But something has changed,” Jason guessed.

“Yes,” Crisstof confirmed, “but before I go into that you probably need a little bit of context. The Avarians are an empire in every sense of the word; they’re even still ruled by a single monarch called the Sovereign, roughly translated. Rumor has it that they’ve destroyed entire civilizations for as little as an implied threat against the reigning Sovereign.”

“They sound like a delightful people,” Jason said sarcastically. “I’m still not sure what this has to do with us.”

“The daughter of the Sovereign, the next in line for the throne, has been abducted,” Doc said. “Best intelligence says it was someone within ConFed space. The Avarians are mobilizing and there might not be much time to head off a war.”

“So the Avarian Empire is going to march on the ConFed capital and burn it down?” Jason asked with a smile. “This seems like a problem that solves itself.”

“Ignoring the fact that you seem gleeful for the quadrant to be drenched in blood, the point of our visit is that we know you have the Sovereign’s daughter,” Crisstof said coldly. Jason blinked twice, his face a mask of utter confusion.

“How drunk did I get last night?” he asked Lucky.

Chapter 3

“This is no joking matter, Jason,” Doc said.

“Who’s joking?” Jason insisted. “I have no idea what the hell you’re talking about. We got back last night from an eight-day delivery cycle and I’ve been at the local bar and my bed since then.”

“The Sovereign’s daughter was being held captive on a ship, apparently, and four days ago she was able to transmit a brief slip-com message,” Crisstof said. “She described the ship she was being held on and the ship she was running towards to try and escape. The planet was Tetara-4, and the ship matched the description of the cargo ship you and Lucky have been operating.”

“Whoa, whoa!” Jason said, raising his hands and shaking his head. “We were with the ship the entire time the cargo hatch was open and we departed immediately. That ship doesn’t have any place where she could have hidden for the entire flight back here.”

“I concur,” Lucky said. “It is highly unlikely that we would have not detected the presence of a stowaway for the entire flight back to S’tora.”

“Given your backgrounds, we’re operating under the assumption that she wouldn’t have been a stowaway,” Doc said.

“You’re suggesting we kidnapped her from her original kidnappers?” Jason asked, confused.

“We’re suggesting that she may have approached you for help and you took her off Tetara-4,” Crisstof said.

Jason laughed mirthlessly at that. “She’d be about three years too late for that sort of treatment,” Jason said. “Now if she approached with a couple million credits maybe we’d have something to talk about.”

“So you’re claiming to have no knowledge of her whereabouts?” Crisstof persisted.

“I had no knowledge of her existence up until five minutes ago,” Jason said. “So no, have no clue where your kidnapped princess is.”

“Could we take a look in your ship?” Doc asked. “We’ve come this far, may as well do a thorough search before breaking orbit and leaving.”

“Be my guest,” Jason shrugged. “Lucky, give them the access codes for that heap.”

“Perhaps we should accompany them,” Lucky suggested.

“Why?” Jason asked. Lucky didn’t answer. Instead he just stared Jason down. “Fine!” the human said disgustedly. “Let’s get this over with.”

The drive out to the spaceport was tense as Crisstof and Doc kept seeming to want to start a conversation, would take one look at Jason’s face and remain silent. Lucky drove and Jason just stared out the side window. It was a long thirty minutes before they rolled through the gates and out to the landing pads. The cargo ship, a vessel Jason and Lucky had never bothered to name, sat in shadows in the failing light of S’tora’s setting sun.

“This isn’t as bad as you described it,” Doc said diplomatically as he exited the ground car and approached the squat, ugly ship. Jason gave him a look that quickly shut him up.

“Lucky, walk the perimeter and look for signs anyone may have gotten into one of the maintenance hatches,” he said as he keyed in the twelve-digit security code that would unlock the cargo hatch. It opened with a pop and swung down to the tarmac with a creak of actuators needing lubricant, jerking as it went.

“Welcome aboard,” Jason said sarcastically as he walked up the ramp into the cargo bay. He keyed an access code into another panel inside the ship and lights began flickering on all over the interior. He made some show of poking around in the cargo bay, seeing if there could have been a stowaway. The pile of cargo netting in a corner gave him pause, but he dismissed it as something that must have shifted in flight. Normally they would be hanging up on hooks that lined the bulkhead.

“There is no evidence that anyone forced their way aboard through any of the external hatches,” Lucky said, his heavy footfalls booming in the empty hold.

“What do Avarians look like?” Jason asked Crisstof.

“Quite similar to you and I, actually,” Crisstof said. “Unlike my species, their skin pigmentation can vary wildly, as can their hair color. Unfortunately we don’t have a very good physical description of the Sovereign’s daughter.”

“I don’t care about that,” Jason waved him off. “I’m just making a point. A young female from a species of bipeds similar to us isn’t strong enough to force her way aboard this ship.”

“Shall we inspect the interior?” Crisstof asked. Jason just rolled his eyes and yanked open the hatch on the forward bulkhead, waiting as the overhead lights in the central corridor flickered on, the two in the middle that he kept meaning to replace buzzing before fully illuminating.

“Follow me,” he said. “Don’t mind the mess. Lucky tends to be a slob.” The stoic battlesynth ignored his friend and began inspecting the compartments on the starboard side of the ship while Jason made a perfunctory look in those on the port side.

When he got to the head, however, he paused. The basin had standing water in it. It wasn’t much, but it looked as if the faucet had been turned on within the last hour or so. He ran a finger up under the faucet and it came back wet. There weren’t any leaks in the system as far as he knew.

“Lucky,” he said quietly, motioning for his friend to look at the basin. The battlesynth took one look at the water, tested the knobs that controlled the water valves, and nodded to Jason. Someone had turned on the faucet since they’d landed and locked the ship up.

The cold water system worked simply by pressurizing the fresh water tank. There would have been plenty of residual pressure left in the system to operate the faucet even a few days after they’d powered down the ship.

“Something?” Doc asked.

“Nah,” Jason said, putting his finger to his lips and nodding his head. “Just forgot to clean up when we left the last time. Let me show you the flight deck.” He walked out and began walking towards the front of the ship. Pausing just outside the ship’s only living quarters, he shoved the hatch open as fast as he could.

There! He’d just heard a rustle when the hatch banged open. There weren’t many places to hide in the cramped stateroom so he went directly to the closet, noting the covers on the bunk were mussed, and yanked open the closet door. He saw one of his shirts move a different direction than the others when the air from the door opening disturbed them. Without hesitation, he thrust his hand into the clothing and was rewarded with a piercing squeal of surprise, then the unpleasant sensation of teeth sinking into his forearm.

“Shit!” he swore in surprise, yanking his arm back. Before the culprit could recover he shoved his arm in, lower this time, and grabbed a handful of material that he knew didn’t belong to any clothing he owned. With a yank he pulled out the struggling form of a small female sporting bright purple hair. He’d used enough force that she flew from the closet and landed on the deck with a thud, knocking the wind out of her.

“Have you lost your mind!” Crisstof shouted from the hatchway. “You just threw the future Sovereign of the Avarian Empire on the ground like last week’s garbage!”

“No,” Jason corrected, holding up a finger. “I just threw a stowaway and trespasser on the deck. We have no idea who this is.”

“I am not the netjere,” the shape on the floor said in broken Jenovian.

“What’s that?” Jason asked, nudging her with his boot. “What’s a net jeer?”

“I am not the netjere, you brute!” she said angrily, shoving his leg away. “The daughter of the Sovereign.”

“Then who the hell are you and why are you on my ship?” Jason asked.

“If you let me up, I will tell you,” she said, rising to a sitting position with her hands up defensively.

“Go ahead and have a seat,” Jason motioned to the bunk. “But make it quick. I’m missing happy hour.”

“What is ‘happy hour?’” she asked as she stood and moved over to the bunk.

“Ignore him,” Doc said. “From the fact that you knew who we were talking about a moment ago, I’m assuming you’re associated with the Sovereign’s daughter, the netjere?”

“Yes,” she said, nodding. “I was her attendant.”

“Before this gets started, how about we adjourn to someplace more comfortable for the interrogation than a stateroom that’s already too small for one person?” Jason asked, rubbing his temples. “If you promise no more biting or high-pitched screams we can go back to our house where you can get something to eat and tell your story.”

“I would be most grateful,” she said, nodding vigorously at the mention of food. “Thank you.”

****

The girl turned out to be ravenous and Jason was forced to leave to grab more food from the market since she ate her way through his sparse bachelor’s cupboard in no time. Once she had eaten her fill and became relaxed enough to stop flinching every time Jason moved suddenly he ushered everyone out onto the large deck that faced the ocean.

“This is a beautiful home,” she remarked. “I wouldn’t have expected it given the ship that you—” she trailed off as Jason gave her a flat, unfriendly look.

“Hard times,” he said simply. “Now if you’d like to take a seat and begin telling us just who you are and why you’re here, that would be great.”

“Please know that by telling you these things, I’m condemning myself to death,” she said in a quiet but clear voice. “To divulge this information to outsiders will make me an outcast among my people, so there is no reason for you to doubt my words.”

“Of course there is,” Jason disagreed. “But we’ll get to that if and when it comes up. Just dive right in and we’ll sort the mess out later.” Despite his previously combative attitude, there was one thing Jason Burke loved and that was a good story. Somehow he could sense that this one was going to be exceptional.

“My name is Ka’lett’ele-Asti’appörte—” she began, pausing as she saw the looks the others in the room gave her at the long and convoluted name.

“You may simply call me Kalette,” she said, finally understanding the problem. “That wouldn’t be appropriate if there were others of my family present, but for now it should simplify things. As I was about to say … I am the first attendant to the netjere, the first daughter of the Sovereign. She had decided that, as her father aged, it would be appropriate for her to see the furthest reaches of the Empire.

“With the help of the Imperial Guardsman who protects her we planned a route that would take us through the core worlds and all the way out to the border colonies. We left without fanfare and on a ship with a generic registration, hoping to escape notice. Right away I saw that when we would land someplace there seemed to be people who not only knew who she was, but were expecting her.

“I raised my concerns to the Guardsman, but as a mere attendant my concerns were scoffed at. It wasn’t until we began stopping at the border planets, the places where outsiders are more common than on the core worlds, when I knew there was a problem. We were being followed. I began seeing the same faces despite their attempts to disguise themselves.

“This time I went to the netjere with my concerns, but she is without guile and laughed at my paranoia. It was that night that a group of outsiders forced their way onto our ship, killing the Guardsman and his two subordinates. They roughly restrained us before taking control of the vessel and launching off the planet.”

“You’re sure they were outsiders?” Crisstof asked.

“Absolutely,” she said. “Three of them were of a species I’ve never seen before, and two were from a race that the border worlds sometimes trade with.”

“We can try to figure out who this unknown species is later,” Jason said absently. “What happened after they stole the ship?” He was so engrossed in the story he didn’t notice Doc elbow Lucky and nod his way with a suppressed grin.

“Much is unclear after that,” Kalette said. “We were restrained and given narcotics to make sure we were only just functional enough to eat a little bit and sleep most of the day.”

“How is it you escaped?” Lucky asked.

“One of the ruffians detaining us had developed an attraction for me,” she said shyly, her eyes downcast. “He would lessen the amount of the drug I was given each day, trying to find a dosage that would leave me still disoriented, but more lucid and compliant.

“We had landed on an unknown planet and this time he didn’t administer the drug to me at all, believing that we had developed a rapport and mistaking my fear for acceptance. I was able to access the ship’s com system while they were outside preparing to transfer us to a different vessel for security reasons. I was unable to move the netjere. She was always given the full dosage of the drug and was restrained to the walls of the cell.

“After setting the com system on the ship to transmit an automated distress broadcast, including a description of your ship, I snuck out of an emergency hatch and ran across the landing pad. I snuck in while you were near the front of your vessel watching the events I had put in motion.”

“So the troops that surrounded the other ship and then chased us up out of the atmosphere were—” Jason left the question hanging.

“Tetaran Security,” Crisstof said quickly, perhaps even a bit evasively. “They were contacted by ConFed Intelligence when Kalette’s signal was first detected.”

“I’m certain I don’t want to know any of the details about that,” Jason said with a wave. “So after that you just hid in the cargo bay for the rest of the flight?”

“Essentially, yes,” Kalette confirmed. “I pulled down some of the cargo netting and hid under it in case your cargo hold had active surveillance. I was able to hold out there until we arrived on this planet, though I’m not sure which planet this even is, and then found I was locked in. Thankfully your ship still had water and dried rations in the galley. I had planned to sneak out again when you came back aboard and reactivated main power.”

“Well, it sounds like you’ve had a hell of an adventure,” Jason said, leaning back in his seat. “I assume this satisfies the accusations that we were harboring the Avarian Sovereign’s daughter?”

“It does,” Crisstof nodded. “It may take some time to sort this out, however.”

“Not from where I’m sitting,” Jason shrugged. “The Defiant has lots and lots of space for you to do your sorting. I’m not being deliberately rude but I’m not getting dragged into this.”

“Understood,” Crisstof said with a curt nod before standing up. “I wasn’t inclined to ask you anyway.”

“Take care of yourself, bud,” Jason said, ignoring Crisstof and holding his hand out to Doc. “Don’t let them drag you into something stupid like I used to.”

“This is something that we would have jumped on without asking back when Omega Force was still operating,” Doc said quietly.

“Those days are gone,” Jason said with a forced smile. “No more Omega missions and no more blind charges into suicidal situations. We’ll all live longer for it, I’m sure.”

“Yes, well … I suppose there had to be something positive to come from it all,” Doc said, nodding to Jason one more time before stepping aside to speak with Lucky. Not really having anything else to do, nor a desire to talk to anyone, Jason descended the steps from the deck to the beach and began walking along in a generally southward direction, trying to blank his mind. When the walk didn’t do it, he found a small cantina near the docks where the fishing vessels operated out of that had a lively crowd and a loud band playing. Two hundred and fifty credits later and he had successfully purged his mind of all uncomfortable thoughts and memories.

Chapter 4

Jason stood on the back deck, still in his clothes from the previous evening, and watched the surf as he sipped on a mug of tea. Chroot was prohibitively expensive on S’tora, as were most imported goods, and he had not bothered to purchase a food synthesizer. Instead, he decided to subsist entirely on the local fare. It wasn’t much of a loss as he’d never been all that fond of chroot; it was just the next best thing to actual coffee. Since neither was an option on his new home he adapted to the local custom and drank a few mugs of high-potency tea each morning.

“Good morning,” a voice said from behind him. He turned and stared in slack-jawed horror as Kalette walked out of the house … wearing one of his shirts.

“What … how … why are … did we?”

“Excuse me?” she said, clearly confused and looking at Jason in the concerned manner one might adopt when trying to speak to a victim as they were having a stroke. “I apologize if I’ve startled you. Lucky told me I could stay last night. I do not fully trust Crisstof Dalton or know how he is gaining his information about my situation. He also gave me one of your shirts since I have no clothing of my own with me.”

“I see,” Jason said, both relieved and irritated simultaneously. Maybe I should have just let him keep calling me Captain. It might have cut down on his making decisions that annoy me. “You did startle me, but I’m fine now. Please, have a seat.”

“Thank you, Jason Burke,” she said, curling up gracefully on one of the overstuffed deck chairs.

“So … there were a lot of holes in that story you told us last night,” Jason remarked, sitting on the deck railing.

“Yes,” she said without hesitation. “As I said, I do not trust that Crisstof Dalton has conveniently come to this planet at the exact instant I needed him to. So I provided just enough truth to be able to stop the story at a place of my choosing.”

“So why trust me with even that much information now?”

“I had a long conversation with Lucky last night after you left to inebriate yourself,” Kalette said in an offhand manner that embarrassed Jason somewhat. Was he really that predictable now? “I asked him of this ‘Omega Force’ Jorvren Ma’Fredich had mentioned last night and if they might be able to help me. He told me they didn’t exist anymore.”

“That doesn’t answer my question,” Jason said.

“I will eventually have to trust someone,” Kalette said with a sigh. “If you and he were really once as he described then maybe you could help me get in touch with my people. I fear all others I have encountered have ulterior motives.”

“You’re probably not wrong there,” Jason said with a nod, finishing off his tea with a slight grimace. The stuff was quite disgusting as it came closer to room temperature. “Although I would be careful about whom you get in touch with within the Empire.”

“Why?” she asked, her brow furrowed in confusion. It was a very human-like expression that Jason found adorable on her face. He shook his head to clear away unhelpful thoughts before continuing.

“From the little information you provided last night I would bet heavily that this is an inside job,” he said. “The likelihood of someone from within ConFed space sneaking all the way into your territory, and then following along behind you to all the different Avarian-held worlds … it just doesn’t scan. But, someone within your government, or a splinter faction, cooperating with someone outside to grab the netjere … that’s something I’ve seen more than once.”

“You have?” Kalette asked, clearly surprised.

“You have to understand that even though the ConFed claims to be an umbrella under which we all fall, they more or less allow independent systems to govern themselves, including fighting with each other, so long as it’s contained and they continue to pay their taxes,” Jason said. “We had a front row seat to much of the underhanded dealings between individual planets while Omega Force was still operational.”

“Everyone speaks of this Omega Force as if it was something great,” she said carefully. “Why is it no longer something you do?”

“It’s complicated,” Jason said.

“Most things are,” Kalette said, a challenge in her voice.

“This more so than most,” Jason said, turning to look out at the green waves crashing against the shore. Kalette leaned forward to climb out of the chair, intent on leaving him with his thoughts, when he spoke again and stopped her. “Omega Force was always something that was balanced on a razor’s edge. There had to be trust, desire, and dedication … if any of those faltered it was doomed to fail, and failure in that business is usually a gruesome death on some godforsaken world nobody cares about.”

“Which of those three things was the first to fail?” she asked, sliding back into her seat.

“It’s a long story,” Jason shrugged, surprised he was talking about this with a complete stranger. He wouldn’t even talk to Lucky about it no matter how many times the battlesynth tried to broach the subject.

“It would appear we have some time to spare,” she said, her eyes boring into his. Months and months of pent up frustration and heartache suddenly became too much for Jason to hold in anymore. He exhaled loudly as he sat down in the chair across from her, collecting his thoughts.

“Well, it all went to shit like this …”

30 months prior …

“We’re coming up on the drop off,” Jason said. “How are we looking?”

“I’ve got the confirmation signal from our contact,” Kage reported. “Let’s go ahead and make one more orbit before our final approach and it will give them time to settle into position.”

“Copy,” Jason said and pushed the throttle up. He angled the Phoenix over and slid back into a lazy, circular course above the city that wouldn’t attract much attention. The settlement was perched up on the top of a mountain and landing spots were at a premium for the myriad of ships that were coming and going. As such, there seemed to be a permanent halo of circling spacecraft and even some aircraft.

The city was important for a few reasons, one of which was that it had been the seat of power for all of the planet’s many, many governments. The other was that the supermax prison, De’Moltia, was inside the mountain the city was perched on. An ancient house of horrors carved into the heart of the rock that held some of the most feared criminals from around the sector as well as more than a few political dissidents. It was the latter that was the reason the Phoenix was slowly circling.

“We’ve just received a coded signal from the contact,” Doc said. “We’re clear to proceed.”

“Turning in now,” Jason said, eager to get this mission over with. There were aspects of the mission that he had never been happy about, but he had allowed himself to be overruled by his crew and Crisstof’s assurances. He struggled to keep his composure and not come in so hot that it would attract attention.

“Looks like we departed the orbit at a good spot,” Kage said. “I see our contact’s shuttle now. I’m highlighting it on your tactical display.” Jason looked as a red, pulsing ring was imposed over a small cargo shuttle that was settling down on a landing pad which belonged to a logistics business that serviced the city.

“I’ve got it,” Jason said. “Lucky, get down to the cargo bay and get ready. I’m not dropping the landing gear, so as soon as the ramp hits the dirt you’re clear to get our package.”

“Yes, Captain,” Lucky said and strode quickly off the bridge.

“They just touched down,” Kage said, watching his monitors. “Shit! They just tossed something out and they’re taking off!”

“Stand by!” Jason barked, yanking the nose up and bringing them in on a steep, fast glidepath down to the surface. “Kage, drop the ramp and track that ship.”

“Ramp down,” Kage said. “Lucky jumped out.” They all watched on the monitors as the battlesynth sprinted across the tarmac at incredible speed, checked the large lump that had been bundled in a tarp, and sprinted back to the ship after tossing it over his shoulder. Jason’s anxiety was building by the second. He knew for certain that something had just gone horribly wrong.

“Captain,” Lucky’s voice came over the intercom. “The package is dead and Crusher is nowhere in sight.”

“Fuck! I knew it!” Jason roared. “Close us back up! Get me a vector for that ship!”

“Ramp is back up,” Kage said. “Tracking arrows coming to you.” An instant later two arrows appeared, hovering in Jason’s field of view thanks to his ocular implants, and told him which way the small shuttle had escaped. He slammed down the throttle and sent the Phoenix rocketing over the city, drawing the attention of every law enforcement craft in the area.

“They’ve gone over the edge,” Doc said. “Tracking them as they fly down the southern face of the mountain.”

“All the better,” Jason said, concentrating as he shoved the nose of the gunship over and dropped them off the edge of the city and down the mountain. “Those traffic enforcement skimmers won’t follow us.”

“It looks like our package has been dead for some time,” Lucky said as he walked back onto the bridge. “His body temperature was below outside ambient.”

“So he was killed and put on ice until they tossed him out of that shuttle,” Jason said, yanking the Phoenix over into a sharp bank to close on the shuttle at an inside angle.

“And no Crusher,” Twingo said. “I have a bad feeling this was a message for someone.”

“You and me both, bud,” Jason said, pushing up his speed a bit as they leveled out into the flats of the desert that surrounded the oddly solitary mountain. “Do you think it’s safe to bring that shuttle down?”

“I highly doubt that Crusher is on there, Captain,” Doc said.

“I agree,” Twingo said. “They likely thought we would be held up inspecting the body at the pickup and wouldn’t notice them escaping.”

“I think we arrived a bit earlier than they thought as well,” Kage said. “Take ‘em down, Captain.”

“Knock down it is,” Jason said. He pushed the throttle up and lined up behind the fleeing shuttle. The pitiful little craft had no chance of outrunning the powerful gunship, and soon it was bouncing around in the air as the Phoenix drew in so close she was disrupting the airflow over the aft stabilizers. “Kage, you’re up,” he said, squeezing the trigger and holding it for a three-count to let the computer know the copilot’s station was authorized access to fire control.

“Watch this, Doc,” Kage said as he deployed the Phoenix’s point-defense turrets. “Like a surgeon.” He fired a single, low-power salvo that he’d assumed would degrade the port, aft repulsors enough that it would force them down in a controlled landing. But Jason had been much too close and the sudden loss of lift, coupled with the Phoenix compressing the air between them, sent the small ship into an uncontrollable tumble. They watched it fall from the low altitude and bounce across the desert floor in an impressive eruption of dust and parts.

“Damnit, Kage!” Jason snapped as he yanked the stick back into his lap and shoved the throttle up. The Phoenix shot up off the deck in a vertical “yo-yo” maneuver with Jason chopping the power at the apex and rolling them around, braking hard so they didn’t overfly the crash site.

“I’m pretty sure that wasn’t my fault,” Kage said as he scanned the debris field. “Look! It had an ejectable crew capsule.” Jason looked and saw the forward section of the shuttle had broken away and was sitting on a set of spindly looking landing struts, the retrorockets underneath still belching out smoke and steam.

“I’m putting us down just on the other side of where the fuselage hit. We’ll use it for cover,” Jason said as he extended the landing gear and raised the nose, flaring just before landing. “Lucky, grab me a couple of guns and meet me at the ramp.” Once he felt the bump of the wheels touching the hard-packed dirt and the ship’s weight settling he popped off his restraints and raced off the bridge without bothering to tell everyone else what he wanted. They knew what to do without him by this point.

“The ejected capsule is just over one hundred meters behind us,” Jason said as he accepted his railgun and a plasma sidearm from Lucky. “Our only priority right now is getting Crusher back. Everything else is now a secondary concern.”

“Understood, Captain,” Lucky said, switching to combat mode as Jason walked over to open the pressure doors and drop the ramp.

“Let’s go,” he said, jogging down into the dry, cool air of the desert evening and skirting around the edge of the main wreckage. He was shocked to see signs of life as they approached the capsule. One of the pilots had managed to pop the canopy open and was trying to climb out of his seat. Jason lined up on the open canopy and fired a single, low-velocity round from his railgun into it. It only put a small hole in the composite material, but the crack from the round hitting froze the pilot where he was, his eyes wide and fearful.

“Don’t even think about moving,” Jason said as he approached within ten meters. “Is your partner dead?”

“I … I believe so,” the pilot said. “Why would you do this? We’re just delivery pilots.”

“Shut up,” Jason snapped. “Lucky, check the other one. I don’t want a faker shooting me in the back while I question this one. So you’re claiming you’re just an innocent delivery pilot?”

“I am just an innocent delivery pilot!” the alien claimed shrilly.

“So the loosely wrapped corpse you tossed out earlier is normal for your company?” Jason asked casually. “And the unorthodox high-speed escape you performed afterward?” The alien flinched, dropping his hands slightly.

“This one is indeed dead, Captain,” Lucky reported.

“This one is about to be,” Jason said, stuffing the muzzle of his sidearm up under the alien’s chin. “Talk. We don’t have much time before we have to run, so you’ll either be here telling this to the authorities later or they’ll be scraping your plasma-cooked brains off your canopy.”

“I don’t know who the contractor was,” the pilot said, seeming to deflate and resign himself to his fate. “It was a cash transaction and we were simply told where to be and when.”

“Was there any other cargo?” Jason pressed. “Specifically a Galvetic warrior? Or another tarp that was four times as large as the one you tossed out?”

“No. I’d have remembered something like that,” the pilot said. “One of the trio that loaded our shuttle was talking on a com unit about ‘moving the other one’ before we were given our destination coordinates. I’m not sure what that meant. Listen … I’m in bad shape here. You’re going to kill me anyway, could you make it quick?”

“That’s the spirit,” Jason nodded. “I like realists, even pessimistic ones. But sorry, champ … you get to sit here and suffer until someone bothers to come see what happened out here. I owe you that much. Let’s go, Lucky.”

“The pilot will almost certainly die of his injuries before the authorities can arrive,” Lucky said as they climbed back up the ramp.

“Not my problem,” Jason said. “What is my problem is that I’ve got a missing crewmate and no leads.”

****

“While I sympathize with your situation, Captain Burke, there’s not much I can do,” Crisstof said, his hands spread wide.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Jason demanded. “Of course there is. Talk to your contact in De’Moltia, the one who arranged for the prison break.”

“Unfortunately that contact is no longer viable,” Crisstof said. “With the unsuccessful conclusion of your mission she has ceased responding to messages.”

“Don’t put this back on us!” Jason said hotly, almost in a manic state. “This was a setup from the beginning. That body was dumped as a message to either you or her. Crusher was convinced to go into that hellhole to extract the package and he never came out. I need to know if he’s still there or if they moved him as the delivery pilot seemed to think.”

“I still don’t understand what you would have me do,” Crisstof said.

“Go through official channels,” Jason said. “You must have contacts on this world. Talk to them.”

“And admit that I hired mercenaries to break a prisoner out of their maximum security detention facility?” Crisstof asked incredulously. “Do you really think they’d be inclined to cooperate after that?”

“You and I both know there are ways you could probe around without asking directly,” Jason said, struggling to control his temper. It had been six hours since the Phoenix had landed back aboard the Defiant and he was no closer to locating Crusher than he had been when he downed the fleeing shuttle.

“Jason, De’Moltia isn’t exclusively owned by the government of Faulli,” Crisstof said, referring to the planet they were orbiting. “Not only that, we’re right in the middle of a delicate negotiation. While that might not mean much to you—”

“Try nothing.”

“—certain considerations have to be taken so as not to destroy years of work, both mine and many others. I’m not at all making light of the fact that Crusher is missing, but you can’t expect me to upend the whole project over it.” Jason’s look plainly said he did, in fact, expect just that.

“I hope you don’t expect me not to try and get the information myself,” Jason said, crossing his arms. It was mostly an idle threat since he had no idea where to even begin.

“I most certainly do,” Crisstof said, raising his voice. “Captain Burke, I hire you as a subcontractor because of your ability, and willingness, to assume risks that my organization cannot. I expect you to honor that arrangement.” Jason just stared at the older man for a moment before standing up and walking to the door of the conference room. “We all have responsibilities and obligations,” Crisstof said to his back.

“I only have one responsibility right now,” Jason said before walking out. He heard footsteps behind him and knew who it was.

“I hope you can understand the position he’s in, Jason,” Kellea Colleren said, standing just behind him. “It’s not that he doesn’t care about the fact that Crusher is missing.”

“That’s the difference between him and me,” Jason said with a forced indifference. “To him, everybody is expendable to accomplish his goals.”

“If I could I would have Mazer take his Marines and storm the gates of De’Moltia,” she said. “But—”

“I know,” Jason said bitterly. “We all have responsibilities. We’ll talk about it later. I know you have to get back to the bridge and I have to talk to my crew and figure out what we’re going to do.”

“Please don’t do anything rash, Jason,” she begged. “We don’t know if he’s still down there or if he’s even still alive.”

“We won’t make any moves until I’ve had a chance to talk to you again,” Jason promised. “But we can’t just sit in your hangar bay forever no matter what we decide.”

“I’ll see you this evening?”

“This evening,” Jason said with a nod before continuing on his way. The Phoenix was once again out of sync with the Defiant since Jason ran his ship on a twenty-five hour day and Kellea operated with a thirty-two hour day, so her “evening” would be early morning for him. Years of being in space had conditioned him to adjust quickly to sudden time changes since they couldn’t always predict when they’d reach whatever planet or space station they were going to.

He’d been both surprised and disappointed that Kellea hadn’t spoken up on his behalf in their initial debrief with Crisstof. It was expected that the old man would put whatever business he had with Faulli over the lives of a bunch of grubby mercenaries no matter how much he professed to care about them personally. Jason had walked into the debrief thinking he held two aces: Crusher’s status on his homeworld as near-royalty, and Kellea’s habit of siding with him to convince Crisstof to agree to his demands. He walked out worse off than when he went in since now he’d been expressly forbidden to take direct action. If they did it anyway (which they would) he would not be able to innocently claim he wasn’t aware he’d caused any problems.

****

“How’d it go?” Kage asked as Jason walked up onto the main deck of the Phoenix and closed the hatch behind him.

“Not well,” he admitted. “Crisstof is stonewalling me, I’m certain of it, but the main thrust of it was he won’t help and he doesn’t want us taking action on our own.”

“I find that somewhat surprising given the fact the Guardian Archon of Galvetor has just gone missing on a mission he had convinced him to take part in,” Doc said with a frown. “There could be some serious ramifications from that.”

“Maybe a lot more immediate than if Galvetor finds out,” Twingo said. “Could you imagine what the company of Marines aboard this ship would do if they found out Crisstof left Crusher out to dry?”

“We could—” Kage began.

“Absolutely not,” Jason said firmly. “I will tell Mazer when the time is right, if ever, but I don’t need them tearing the Defiant apart and getting a bunch of people killed. It wouldn’t help anyway. We need information more than anything else.”

“Given what I have to work with I’m stuck,” Kage said. “De’Moltia is on an isolated network and I’m not able to gain access from here.”

“What do you need?” Jason asked.

“A hard line into the prison’s administrative mainframe would be fantastic,” Kage said. “But barring that I could use the access codes to the Faullian governmental network. From there I could bore into the reports coming out of De’Moltia.”

“Who has those codes?” Twingo asked.

“Captain Colleren does,” Kage said. “The Defiant has had a constant, high-bandwidth connection to the surface since she made orbit. The codes were provided to her by the Faullian representative that’s onboard. Normally I would just slice into the Defiant’s systems and ride their connection down, but that would leave too much evidence that I was there.”

“She won’t give them to me,” Jason said.

“She won’t?” Twingo asked, clearly surprised.

“Well … I didn’t actually ask,” Jason admitted, “but in the debrief she made it pretty clear she was siding with Crisstof on this. Here’s the problem: if I ask and she says no, we’ll have tipped our hand that we’re about to try something. Why is this network so hard for you to get in and out of without being seen?”

“It’s not the network,” Kage said. “It’s the connection from the network to the prison. There isn’t much traffic on it so they have the luxury of sniffing every data packet that comes and goes without choking throughput. If I have legitimate access codes, however, I can be in and out and they won’t know until the logs are audited. By then we’ll be long gone and I can create enough havoc they won’t know what I was actually looking for.”

“Would it be possible to steal the codes from Captain Colleren?” Doc asked. “No offense intended, Captain, but we’re racing the clock right now. If Crusher’s still alive we don’t have long to find out where he is and try to extract him.”

“No offense taken,” Jason said. “I happen to agree with you. My relationship with Kellea is secondary to getting our crewmate back, so anything short of actually harming her is on the table.”

“She has a terminal in her quarters that is connected to the Defiant’s central core, right?” Kage asked.

“I believe so,” Jason said. “I’ve never seen her do anything but check her messages with it, but I would assume she has the capability to check on the ship’s systems from her quarters. I know I would want that if I was in charge of this tub.”

“I can gain access to the Defiant’s network from that terminal and then extract the codes from there,” Kage said confidently.

“That’s all well and good, but how are you going to get in there?” Jason asked. “She locks her quarters when she leaves and it would be a bit odd for me to show up with you in tow later this evening.”

“There’s another possibility,” Doc said, looking uncomfortable. “I could give you something to dose her drink with. It’d knock her out for a few hours, Kage gets in and gets the codes, and she wakes up none the wiser.”

Jason almost bristled with indignation at the thought of drugging Kellea, but as he considered it he had to admit the plan had a certain elegance to it.

“Could you develop a counter agent I would be able to administer once numbnuts—”

“Hey!”

“—has the codes and is out?”

“I don’t see why not,” Doc said. “I have her bio scans on file so it’s just a matter of synthesizing the compounds. Why not just let her sleep it off?”

“For one it would arouse suspicion,” Jason said. “She doesn’t drink, so passing out for the night with no memory of what happened would cause her to get a full workup in her med bay. That would likely expose the traces of whatever you want me to give her still in her system. For another it’s too dangerous to leave the captain of the Defiant incapacitated. I need to be able to bring her out of it quickly.” As he spoke, Jason couldn’t believe he was even considering the plan, but he needed something to work with and he needed it fast. Crusher’s life was likely hanging by a thread, if he was even still alive, and he owed it to his friend to exploit any advantage he had. He knew in the back of his head that this was going to have profound ramifications down the road, but he shoved the thought aside and concentrated on the present.

“I’ll get to work on it now,” Doc said, hopping up from the galley table and rushing towards the infirmary.

“And I’ll get my stuff ready,” Kage said.

“I can’t believe we have to resort to this,” Twingo said once they’d left. “Why won’t Crisstof help on this? I’d say he owes us at least that much.”

“I don’t know what’s going on with this project he’s involved in, but he seemed distracted at the debrief,” Jason said. “Once he’d learned the package we’d been hired to get out of De’Moltia was killed he became completely disinterested in anything else I had to say, including the fact Crusher is now MIA.”

“Always nice to know where you stand with people, I guess,” Twingo said. “I’ll start getting the ship prepped for launch. I have a feeling we’ll be leaving in a hurry.”

“I will assist you,” Lucky said and followed Twingo out of the galley. Once they’d gone, Jason began rubbing his temples with the palms of his hands, trying to alleviate the stress headache he could feel coming on. Crisstof had been distant, almost cold towards him and his crew for some time now, but Jason was still mildly shocked at the man’s seeming indifference to the fact that Crusher hadn’t come back from an extremely dangerous mission that had been at his request.

With a snort of disgust he pushed away from the table and headed towards his quarters to get cleaned up. He wasn’t at all looking forward to the deception he was about to play a part in. His feelings for Kellea were complicated, to say the least. They rarely saw each other in person, they weren’t even from the same species, and there were times he felt she was embarrassed about being seen with a hired gun no matter how laudable his missions might be. Be that as it may, he still felt grubby at the thought of drugging her so he could steal confidential information that she wasn’t willing to give to him freely. But he knew Crusher would do no less for him if the roles were reversed, so he squared his shoulders (figuratively) and pushed all doubts out of his mind. Whatever happened would happen, but he would always know he did everything in his power to save his friend.

****

“You seem a bit distant tonight,” Kellea said as Jason twirled his drink glass in his hand. As soon as the words left her mouth he could see the regret etched on her features. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “It was completely selfish of me to ask you here when Crusher is still down on the surface in that prison. I apologize, but we get to see each other so rarely that perhaps my judgment was clouded.”

“It’s fine,” Jason assured her without much enthusiasm or sincerity. “Unfortunately, there’s nothing else I could be doing right now without knowing what happened to him. The person we were hired to smuggle out of De’Moltia was killed and dumped as a statement … but I’m not sure what that means for my guy on the inside.”

“I wish I could do something,” she said, putting her hand over his. “But Crisstof hasn’t felt it necessary to tell me what is going on down on Faulli. He’s sequestered himself in his own suite and seems to only come out and go directly to the hangar bay where his shuttle is on alert around the clock.”

“Seems very mysterious,” Jason said. “Did he even give you a hint how much longer you’d be here?”

“Not directly,” she said. “He intimated that with our contact now murdered the Defiant should be ready to break orbit at any time.”

“I see,” Jason said. “I guess we’ll need to come up with a realistic plan of attack soon then.”

“I wish there was something I could do,” Kellea said for the second time in just as many minutes.

“I don’t suppose you’d allow me to access the Faullian network through your downlink?” Jason asked, holding his breath. It was a risk exposing his intentions in such a way, but he felt she deserved a chance to help him on her own terms before he took drastic and underhanded measures to get what he needed.

“You know about the connection we have to the capital on the surface?” she asked with a frown. “That was protected information.” Jason sighed inwardly. If she had any intention of allowing him access to the link she would have said so. Instead, she was more worried about internal security leaks on her end.

“I’m not sure where I heard it,” Jason said with a shrug. “I want to say it was part of the initial brief we had before we inserted Crusher into De’Moltia.”

She looked at him suspiciously before continuing. “The downlink is being carefully monitored on both ends,” she finally said. “There’s no way I could allow you access to it without analysts on this ship alerting Crisstof and the Faullian government detecting it on their side.”

“It was just a thought,” Jason said. “It would have simplified things, but we have other means available to us.”

“I’ll get you another drink,” Kellea said, snatching the glass from his hand and walking to the small bar. Steeling his resolve, Jason pulled a small tab, not even the size of a pinhead, from under his left thumbnail and, while never taking his eyes off her, dropped it into her tea mug with a seemingly negligent toss. The tab instantly dissolved as it hit the hot liquid, not leaving so much as a bubble in its passing.

“There is every possibility that Crusher has gone to ground if he witnessed our contact being killed,” she said, handing Jason another strong whiskey-type drink. “It could just be a matter of time before he makes contact and you can figure out a new plan to extract him.”

“That is a possibility, but I’m still going to need some type of confirmation that he’s still here on Faulli or still alive before I decide if we’re going to stay or not,” Jason said. He rose from his seat and walked over to the plush sofa that lined the wall facing the tall window, wanting to get Kellea away from the table and in a comfortable seated position as quickly as possible.

As he’d hoped, she grabbed her steaming mug and walked over to join him on the couch. They sat in comfortable silence, each lost in their own thoughts. By the second sip of tea Jason could tell the drug was beginning to take effect. By the third sip her head began to loll back and forth and he was able to deftly catch the mug just as it slipped from her grip.

He placed the tea on the small table in front of them and gently positioned Kellea so that her body was in a natural, relaxed position and her neck wasn’t bent at an odd angle that would make her breathing labored as it slowed. He quickly went to the door to her quarters and keyed it open. After he signaled with his com unit Kage could be seen coming quickly up the corridor a few minutes later.

“You don’t have long,” Jason said as the Veran walked into Kellea’s quarters.

“I don’t need long,” Kage replied.

“The terminal is in there,” Jason gestured to the small attached office as he closed and locked the door. Kage wasted no time setting up and directly accessing the secure terminal by patching directly in via his neutral implant.

“I’m in,” Kage said with a distant look on his face. “That was a lot easier than I thought it would be.”

“I doubt there’s much security on this end,” Jason said. “Just hurry up.”

“I just uploaded my query bomb. They won’t know where all the requests came from or what we were actually after. It will be just a second and I’ll download the responses we need,” Kage said. “I’ll analyze it on the Phoenix.”

“I’m aware of the plan,” Jason said in exasperation. “Just get on with it and get out. If anyone spots you up here it won’t take them long to figure out what we’ve done.”

“I’m so underappreciated,” Kage muttered. “I’ve got it. I’m backing out now and removing all the evidence from the local terminal. It’ll take their analysts a while to figure out the traffic spike on the downlink originated from the Defiant … if they ever figure it out.”

“That’s great,” Jason said. “Now get down to the ship and start breaking that down. I’ll wake up Kellea and then we’ll launch as soon as possible without arousing too much suspicion.”

“I’m on it,” Kage said, rushing for the door. “Hopefully I’ll have something by the time you get back.”

Once he was gone, Jason gave the office another onceover, wiping off Kage’s carelessly placed handprints on the desk before walking out to check on Kellea.

She was as he’d left her, on the couch and still sound asleep. He grabbed his own drink and dumped it down the drain before taking special care to scrub her mug out thoroughly. Unfortunately, she had her own blown glass tea mug that she reused so he had to clean it rather than just toss it down the chute to be sent to the recyclers. The fact he’d cleaned it might cause some suspicion, but it was far less of a risk than leaving the laced tea inside of it.

Once he’d cleaned it all up in what he hoped appeared to be a natural-looking scene, he pulled another tab out from under his right thumbnail and gingerly pulled Kellea’s lower lip down and placed it inside. He then quickly sat down and put his arm around her, assuming a pensive look as he stared out on Faulli circling below them.

“Did I fall asleep?” she asked suddenly, almost startling Jason. The speed at which Doc’s concoctions worked was impressive.

“Just for a little bit,” Jason said, his stomach twisting into knots as he lied to her. “You seemed tired so I just let you sleep.”

“That’s a bit disturbing I can just pass out like that with everything going on,” she said, sitting up and looking around. “Thanks for staying with me.”

“Of course,” he said, forcing a smile. “But I should probably get going. I’d like to have a meeting with the guys and then we’re going to have to decide what we’re going to do. Since Mazer and his people report to you, I’m going to dump off the unpleasant task of telling them about Crusher on you.”

“How noble of you,” she said sarcastically.

“Burdens of command, Captain,” he said with a laugh as he stood up. “I’ll try to keep you in the loop as to what we’re doing.”

“I appreciate that,” she said, moving in closer to him. “We never seem to get any time for ourselves when we meet up anymore.”

“Maybe that can change soon,” he said, mouthing the empty platitude as he knew the chances of him ever seeing Kellea again were quite slim. He didn’t know how, but he was sure she would eventually learn about what he’d done and it would mean the end of whatever they had.

****

“Tell me some good news,” Jason said as he walked up onto the bridge of his ship.

“I know where Crusher is,” Kage said, looking like he was pronouncing a death sentence.

“Judging by your expression I’m going to guess it isn’t someplace close or easy to break into,” Jason prompted as he took in all the grim faces around him.

“It’s Duat,” Doc said quietly.

“Fuck me,” Jason muttered quietly, feeling the blood drain from his face. Duat was a notorious prison that made De’Moltia seem like an all-inclusive vacation resort. It was on an average-sized planet that had an exceptionally long orbit around a main sequence red dwarf star. As a result, the planet was dark and very, very cold. The prison itself was deep within the crust where it took advantage of the small amount of geothermal energy and heat available. Not only did Duat have a reputation for brutality and short life expectancy for its guests, it also wasn’t a place that was easily accessed. For obvious reasons a frontal assault wouldn’t work, and gaining access through back channels was usually just as hard.

“He was included in another prisoner transfer and sold to the Watchers for six million credits,” Kage said. “He wasn’t mentioned by name, but the description leaves no doubt it was him.”

“This might be completely unrelated to our package being dead,” Jason said, rubbing his chin. “Those animals that run Duat don’t give a shit about politics on any level. In fact, someone may have recognized Crusher, or just recognized what he is, and he was the reason the contact was killed, not the other way around.”

“If they paid that much for him we can assume it wasn’t just because they wanted a Galvetic corpse,” Twingo said. “This means his chances of being alive still just increased exponentially.”

“But not for long,” Jason said as he slid into the pilot’s seat and began bringing the individual systems online. “I’ve heard some rumors about what they do for fun in that hellhole. Even as good as he is, Crusher is still in serious, serious trouble. Get the ship ready to fly. Kage, get our departure clearance taken care of. We’re out of here as soon as possible.”

“Good,” Kage said. “I can’t guarantee how long it will take them to untangle the mess I left behind on the Faullian networks.”

As it turned out, not long at all. The Phoenix had no sooner cleared the upper orbits of Faulli when the com panel lit up with requests that they either return to the planet or return to the Defiant. Jason ordered his crew to ignore all of them and continued to push out towards the edge of the system as if everything were normal and he simply hadn’t received the incoming messages.

“The Defiant is breaking orbit,” Doc said after a few more strident messages hit their com node. “She’s coming about and looks to be pursuing.”

“So much for being long gone by the time they found out,” Jason said.

“Don’t blame me,” Kage said. “I can only do so much. There wasn’t enough traffic on that downlink to hide in. They were always going to find out I’d been there.”

“I wasn’t blaming you,” Jason said. “Instead of whining about it, why don’t you get our slip-space vector ready and I’ll get the drive online.”

Jason could see on his display that the Defiant was making a good show of trying to catch him, but Kellea knew her ship didn’t have a chance of running the Phoenix down. Given the headstart they had on the battlecruiser he assumed they were just trying to make it look like they’d done everything in their power to catch the fleeing gunship.

“Course is ready and locked in,” Kage said.

“Let’s go get our boy,” Jason said and slapped the control pad near his right thigh. With a slight shudder the Phoenix jumped into slip-space and far away from the trouble they’d caused in the Faulli System.

Chapter 5

Jason walked back into the com room and shut the door, dreading what was coming next. He’d seen from the pilot’s seat that there were two messages waiting in his queue, each from a familiar com node address. He selected the least distasteful message first.

“Captain Burke,” Crisstof greeted him cordially though his face showed a barely contained fury. “I’m not going to pretend I don’t sympathize with your situation nor am I particularly surprised by the extreme nature of the action you’ve taken … but I hope you fully understood the ramifications of those actions before you took it upon yourself to violate the trust of myself and my ship’s captain.

“You have destroyed our negotiations with the Faullian government. I won’t bother going into what that means since you quite obviously do not care about the larger scope of things around you. As of now I am cutting all ties with your organization. Your operational accounts are suspended, all our resources will be made unavailable, and all my carefully cultivated contacts across the quadrant will be notified that you no longer represent me or my interests.” Crisstof paused, looking away from the camera as if collecting his thoughts.

“As I said … I am not unsympathetic. I just don’t have the luxury of indulging in my every impulse without a moment of thought. I hope you find Crusher alive and well. Goodbye, Jason.”

“That man loves the sound of his own voice,” Jason muttered as he flipped over to the message he was dreading. He wasn’t sure what emotional state Kellea would be in, but he could see right away from her face that it was a good thing that he was a few lightyears away at that moment.

“You bottom-feeding asshole,” she said without preamble. Jason winced. So it was going to be that kind of message.

“I cannot imagine what was going through your head to think that drugging me was somehow a good plan. You have put my career, my entire life at risk. I now have to prove to Crisstof that I am not a security risk, but thanks to your selfishness that’s going to be exceedingly difficult. Did it ever occur to you to just ask for my help so we could work on the problem together? At the first bit of difficulty your first solution was to betray me and run away like a coward. Do not bother replying to this message, and in case you’re so dense you can’t figure it out, whatever was going on between us is finished.” She closed the channel with a vicious stab of her finger and the display went dark.

Jason leaned back in his seat, trying to sort his feelings out about both messages. He couldn’t care less about pissing off Crisstof, though losing the resources he provided was a major blow to their operation. The end of his relationship with Kellea, however, was something he had mixed feelings about. He wasn’t happy it was over, of course, but he also firmly believed that he’d done the only thing he could to guarantee they got the information they needed to find Crusher.

“I thought the bottom-feeding asshole part was a bit harsh,” Kage’s voice came over the intercom just as one of the monitor’s lit up, showing the Veran’s face.

“Are you kidding me?” Jason snapped. “Is there nothing sacred to you?”

“Oh please,” Kage said. “You think you’re the first one to get dumped by a woman because you drugged her and stole something?”

“I don’t even want to entertain this conversation,” Jason said. Just as he reached over to switch the feed off, he heard a muted snort. “Who else is there enjoying the show?”

“Hey, Captain,” Twingo said, his face coming into the frame. “We were just checking to make sure you were okay.”

“I’m fine,” Jason said, rolling his eyes. “You two can stop eavesdropping and start finding us a way into Duat.” This time he did kill the video feed. Despite how he felt, he had to chuckle. He’d begun to understand that a lot of Kage’s behavior wasn’t simply to annoy him, but often to distract him when things turned sour in his life. He was like the sibling who acted up to deflect blame and anger towards himself. As annoying as he could be, Jason had come to appreciate the effort once he understood that it was simply a misguided attempt to keep the peace in a “family” that had a lot of strong personalities.

With a final snort of disgust, Jason pushed himself away from the console and left the com room. Finding where they took Crusher was only the first step in what promised to be a very unpleasant and dangerous mission. Despite everything that had just happened he had to stay focused and concentrate on not only getting one of his friends back, but not losing any others in the process.

****

The Phoenix burst into the Corzit’el System with a flash, one of many ships to enter the system over the span of a few hours. It had taken them nearly seven weeks and had practically emptied the ship’s treasury, but they finally had found a way into Duat, the infamous prison that was below the surface of the fourth planet in the system.

Through their various connections in the quadrant’s underworld they discovered that the wardens of the prison, called Watchers, organized a biannual tournament that featured fights to the death of their most violent prisoners. While that sort of spectacle happened much more often than civilized people would care to admit, the scope of the Duat tournament seemed to draw an especially large—and dangerous—crowd from all over the sector.

While the tournament generated a lot of money for the Watchers, the real reason behind it was to thin out the population. Duat had some of the most dangerous beings in known space and a fairly large population, many more prisoners than there were Watchers. It was in their best interest to make sure the most violent among them didn’t stick around long enough to cause any trouble. After they’d learned all of this Jason had no doubt that the next round of fights would feature his friend. It had taken them weeks, and almost all of their money, to discover when it was taking place and secure themselves an invitation under assumed aliases. He wasn’t sure if Crusher’s abduction was simply an opportunity too great to pass up for the guards at De’Moltia or if the Galvetic warrior was recognized specifically. Either way, it was smarter to enter the prison as someone else.

“We’re getting our landing instructions,” Kage said. “They’re bringing in everyone staggered and not letting more than three land at any one time.”

“Makes sense,” Jason said. “Their landing field isn’t big enough for everyone to just make a mad dash for it.”

“We’re in the third group, landing pad eight-alpha,” Kage said. “They’re sending a ground shuttle out to the pad since the surface temperature is negative two hundred and fifty-six degrees Kelvin.”

“That’s a bit brisk for a walk,” Jason agreed. “Any word yet on the security procedures?”

“Nothing other than they state everyone entering will be scanned,” Kage shrugged. “They don’t even specifically say no weapons.”

“Our contact told us that this used to be a favorite spot for crime bosses to assassinate each other,” Doc said. “There used to be a strict no-weapons policy in place, but after the third death in the spectators’ area they became a bit more lenient. Private security is allowed, but no heavy weaponry and they’re checking to make sure nobody is sneaking in a bomb to take out everyone at once.”

“That plays well for us,” Jason said. “I’ll play the part of the up and coming gangster and Lucky will be my hired muscle.”

“That’s not much of a stretch for you two,” Twingo said. “What will we be doing?”

“Keeping the ship hot and ready to fly,” Jason said. “I have a feeling we’ll be leaving in a hurry.”

After making orbit they were finally given clearance to begin their approach after three hours of cooling their heels. Jason waited until the expensive luxury transport ahead of them had called their final approach before dipping the Phoenix’s nose into the atmosphere and pushing the throttles up.

When he saw the ships that were lined up on the landing pad he felt singularly conspicuous. The gunship was something that these types hired, not rode around in themselves. Despite the sleek shape the Phoenix was unmistakably a tactical vessel and stuck out among the glistening personal ships of the wealthy beings around them. Jason touched down softly on their designated landing pad and spun the ship around on her landing gear so that the nose was pointed out and away from the incoming traffic.

The red dwarf barely lit the surface of the planet, even at midday, and a gloomy pall seemed to hang over the tiny starport.

“Not much of a vacation spot on the surface,” Kage remarked as Jason climbed out of his seat.

“I don’t think it gets much better under the surface,” he said.

“You guys be careful in there,” Doc said seriously. “Not only are the Watchers dangerous in their own right, you’ve got an entire room full of ruthless criminals to contend with.”

“We’ve been through worse,” Jason said flippantly.

“I’m serious,” Doc pressed. “If it looks impossible to get him out, think about walking away and we’ll take another run at it a different way.”

“I appreciate the sentiment, Doc,” Jason said. “But it’s all or nothing this time. There won’t be a second chance.”

“We’ll be ready to do our part,” Twingo assured him. “Just make sure this isn’t all for nothing.”

“We will get Crusher out of here,” Lucky declared confidently as he walked off the bridge. The battlesynth was always a bit on the quiet side, but since Crusher had disappeared he’d hardly spoken a word.

“You heard him,” Jason shrugged as he slipped his jacket on. He was dressed in one of the expensive suits he still had as a perk from a mission during which he’d had to pose as a wealthy playboy moonlighting as an arms dealer. “We’ll be fine. I’m more worried about the shape Crusher is in now or if we’ll even be able to get to him without blowing our cover.”

The ground shuttle the Watchers had sent to pick them up was sparse, but warm. Lucky strode from the ramp of the Phoenix to the vehicle without issue, but Jason could feel the cold bite deep into his bones as he tried to hurry across the frozen surface. As the shuttle pulled away he realized the dangerously cold conditions on the surface were another factor he hadn’t considered. If Crusher were injured or otherwise unhealthy it could be problematic to move him across the ramp to the ship. Lucky could easily carry him, but then they’d have no weapons. Jason could lift the big warrior, but he wasn’t sure how fast he’d be able to move in these condition himself, much less shouldering over three hundred pounds while avoiding incoming fire.

“We cannot control all factors,” Lucky said quietly beside him.

“We’re spending too much time together if you can read my mind like that,” Jason muttered back. They fell silent as the shuttle made four more stops and a total of ten more aliens climbed aboard: four dressed to kill, four who were obviously security simply looking to kill, and two of what Jason assumed to be escorts. They all eyed each other with distrust as the shuttle rolled its way across the frozen tarmac to the first security door.

Once they’d entered the facility they were ushered out of the shuttle, past the processing area stained a multi-colored pattern from the blood of dozens of species, and to a series of lifts that would take them down into the bowels of Duat. As the doors closed Jason fought down a momentary bout of panic as the reality of where he was willingly going sunk in. He then thought of his friend being trapped in there for weeks and his resolve hardened and the feelings of panic and fear evaporated.

“Welcome to the seventeenth occurrence of the Duat Invitational Tournament,” a ridiculously dressed being said as the lift doors opened and they walked out into an enormous chamber that had been carved out of the planet’s bedrock. Jason wasn’t sure what it was normally used for, but currently the area was decorated in an incredibly gaudy fashion and a hemispherical cage was erected in the center. The graduated seating all around the cage left little doubt what its purpose would be.

“A drink, sir?” someone said from Jason’s elbow. He looked over, and then down, at an alien with mottled orange skin.

“Why not?” Jason said with a forced cheerfulness. He was struggling to get himself into character and he knew if he didn’t get it together soon others might begin to take notice that he didn’t belong. All the other guests to the event were exuberant and well on their way to intoxicated; a brooding and sullen person standing apart and eyeballing all the security measures was definitely going to draw the wrong kind of attention.

“What will you have?”

“I’ll just take one of whatever that group is drinking,” Jason said, gesturing to one especially loud cluster that had just had another round delivered.

“Very good, sir,” the server said with a low bow. “I shall return promptly.”

“They can’t hide what this place really is, no matter how much scrubbing they do,” another voice said from Jason’s right.

“No, they can’t,” he agreed quickly, looking the newcomer over. “But I suppose it’s nothing we’re not used to in a lot of ways.”

“Indeed,” the alien said. Jason couldn’t think of the name of the species off the top of his head, but he was sure he’d had interactions with them at some point. “My name is Saditava Mok, imports and exports. And you are?”

“George Washington,” Jason said with a nod. “Much the same business, I’m sure.”

“I’m sure,” Saditava said in a tone of voice that indicated he was skeptical. He turned to his bodyguard as the server handed Jason his drink,” Leave us for a moment. I’m sure George Washington’s security can cover the two of us for a short time.” The well-dressed Korkaran simply bowed his head and walked apart from them, watching both Jason and the crowd around them.

“Was there something specific you wished to talk about?” Jason said, his nerves tingling.

“I know who you really are,” Saditava said quietly with a smile. He quickly held his free hand up as Lucky turned towards him. “Wait! Let me explain before your guard does something rash.”

“Go ahead,” Jason said.

“I don’t know you by name, of course, but I was there at The Vault the day you destroyed the facility and made off with Bondrass’s storage ship,” Saditava said quietly.

“I wouldn’t exactly say we destroyed the place,” Jason protested mildly, “and from what I understand it was more than just Bondrass’s loot on that ship.”

“True, but it was mostly his,” Saditava insisted. “I also know those actions led to his death and the subsequent collapse of his considerable empire.”

“I think we’d better move along to the point of this pretty quickly,” Jason said, not sure he liked where this was heading.

“I was one of those who moved in to fill the void he left,” Saditava said. “I’ve always wanted to meet you, to return the favor for what you gave me.”

“I don’t see the need for that,” Jason shrugged. “It certainly wasn’t my intent to make room for others by eliminating Bondrass.”

“Yes, I have heard the rumors about you and your crew,” Saditava said. “Your ship is still quite recognizable for the few that know the truth of what happened at The Vault. Which brings up an interesting question … why are you here? If what I’ve learned of you is true, this isn’t something you would normally partake in unless there was a target involved.”

“It’s not something I wish to discuss openly, obviously,” Jason said. “But I’m not here for any of the spectators. In fact, it’s a completely internal matter.”

“I see,” Saditava said. “Well, I will not keep you. Please keep my offer in mind. It was good to finally meet you.”

“I’m not sure if this complicates or helps matters,” Jason said to Lucky as Saditava walked back over to where his guard stood.

“How so?” Lucky asked.

“If he recognized me by sight there’s a chance he was in the hangar when we escaped The Vault,” Jason said. “If that’s true, he might recognize Crusher too.”

“There is nothing we can do to minimize that risk now,” Lucky said. “We will continue with our plan until circumstances force us to change.”

“Agreed.”

****

The first three matches of the event showed it to be as brutal as Jason had feared. Prisoners were led out in chains, deposited in the cage, and basically told that the only way to get back out was to eliminate the other. The teaser matches with small, weak prisoners struggling to kill one another turned Jason’s stomach. To make matter worse, for a small fee the spectators could have the fun of tossing a weapon to their favorite combatant.

The prisoners were led from a tunnel that was partially obscured by the stands so Jason couldn’t see a clear way to sneak into where the combatants were being staged. Even if he could, he had no weapons, and even with Lucky’s abilities a large group of Watchers with energy weapons would be a problem. As he was wracking his brain to think of a way to get to Crusher the answer presented itself as if a gift from Heaven.

“Since it was so popular last tournament, the winners of the main event pyramid matches will be available for auction after their respective fights,” the announcer said as he strutted around the cage while crews cleaned up the blood (and the body) of the most recent loser. “Please inquire at the betting tables if you are interested. Now … onto the night’s main event!”

“Holy shit!” Jason exclaimed, tuning the announcer out. “Could it actually be this easy?”

“Assuming Crusher is alive, featured in this event, and wins, we still have a significant problem,” Lucky said. “I doubt that he will sell cheaply and we have no money left after buying our way in here.”

“I know that, and you know that, but the Watchers have no idea how much money is left on the Phoenix,” Jason said, struggling to keep his voice low as his excitement grew. “Either way, this is by far our best bet to get within proximity of Crusher and then try to make our way out from there.”

“I am not disagreeing with your point,” Lucky said. “I am just making sure you do not overlook the obvious pitfalls in your exuberance.” Jason just made a face at him, but decided not to respond. He needed to keep up the appearance that he was only here for the bloodshed. There was also the fact that he was the only one in the room actually speaking to his “bodyguard.”

They sat through eleven brutal, bloody fights before the stands began to get crowded and there was a buzz of excitement in the air. Jason, having been trying to ignore the barbarism on display in the cage in front of him, straightened up and watched as two struggling aliens were dragged into the cage. Both were restrained and both were still putting up a hell of a fight against the handlers.

“We have a special fight for you this evening to start the upper tier pyramid tournament,” the announcer said, deftly avoiding the snarling aliens as they were secured to the far side of the cage. “Remember that this isn’t part of the pyramid. If you wish to bet on this fight you must place a separate wager. Tonight you will see a spectacle not witnessed by many.”

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Jason said as he looked at the two saurian aliens still trying to get at their handlers.

“As do I,” Lucky agreed.

“Fighting as a tandem this evening are two brothers,” the announcer went on, “Nyphen twins born from the same clutch. These two killed more than eighteen people during a weeklong reign of terror deep in the Concordian Cluster.”

“What are nyphens?” Jason asked Lucky.

“Closely related to Korkarans,” Lucky answered. “Stronger and far less intelligent; however, they are fearless and vicious.”

“And to go head to head with these two beasts we have found a being rarely seen away from their home planet,” the announcer said as a hulking biped was led into the cage with a bag over his head and shoulders. It didn’t stop Jason from recognizing him instantly. “Banished from his homeworld for a long list of violent crimes, one of the legendary Galvetic warriors!” The bag was ripped off and Crusher stood there, arms bound behind his back, muzzled, and eyes blazing with an insane rage.

“This can’t be happening,” Jason whispered. Crusher looked like he’d lost a considerable amount of weight, and his body bore many fresh scars. The feral, nearly berserk look he wore told Jason all he needed to about how his friend had fared in Duat. “Can he win?”

“It will take all his skill and strength,” Lucky said, considering the odds. “But I believe he has a chance of winning.”

“It looks like they’ve starved him and beat the living shit out of him,” Jason muttered. “He doesn’t have all his strength.”

“Then let us hope his skill will be enough,” Lucky said, his eyes never leaving his friend. “It is possible for me to move to the other side of the cage and intervene if necessary. They would be well within my weapons range.”

“And you’d be blasted by those cannons up above us,” Jason said. “Even you would have a hard time walking away from that. I’d lose you both … it’s not worth the risk.”

The pair looked on in horror as the announcer and all the handlers rushed out of the cage and the door swung shut and locked with a resounding clang. The crowd waited in near silence as one of the handlers pressed a button on a remote he carried and Crusher’s restraints popped off and dropped. The warrior instantly reached up and ripped the muzzle from his face before leaning back and letting out a bellowing roar that echoed off the walls. The hairs on Jason’s neck and arms stood at attention as the primordial part of his brain recoiled in fear from the sound. Crusher was enraged beyond reason and Jason could only imagine what his life had been like the last couple of months.

Another button was pressed and the restraints holding the nyphens to the cage wall popped off. One of the pair charged Crusher in a mindless rush, clawed hands out in front of him. Crusher balanced on the balls of his feet and waited, timing his strike perfectly. He knocked the nyphen’s arms down with an overhand sweep with his left forearm while simultaneously bringing his right fist down in a savage strike on the alien’s face.

The nyphen hissed loudly in pain and Jason could see that Crusher had smashed its left orbital socket, obliterating the eye in the process. As the crowd jumped on their feet and cheered, Crusher delivered a kick to the writhing alien’s midsection that sent him tumbling backwards onto the floor before he squared off with the more cautious of the pair.

“This is a promising start,” Jason said. “Maybe it’ll be over quick.”

“I do not think the Watchers will allow that,” Lucky said and pointed to a pair of guards holding a variety of melee-style weapons. “If it looks like Crusher will win too easily I am sure their job is to handicap him somehow.” Jason looked around quickly for the vendors that had been there during the previous fights where spectators could purchase weapons for the combatants. Apparently they had been removed from the floor for this special match.

The second nyphen kept circling in, moving closer to Crusher gradually. Jason couldn’t understand the tactic until he remembered the pair were brothers. The second was trying to lure Crusher away from the injured first. Crusher seemed to realize this as well as he stood his ground by the first one, turning to face the second. After another couple seconds of this he backed up a step and kicked the first nyphen in the head, eliciting another hissing scream of pain.

It seemed to have the effect Crusher wanted as the second nyphen charged at his brother’s scream of pain. The two met each other in the middle of the cage and there was a flurry of claws and snarls as they each tried for a quick kill. When they separated the nyphen could no longer stand on both legs, a major tendon having been severed near the ankle, and Crusher was holding his left arm in close to his side while blood flowed freely from several deep wounds.

“He’s losing steam,” Jason said with concern. Crusher looked winded and weak, a pale shade of the powerful warrior Jason was used to seeing.

“He has disabled both opponents,” Lucky said. “Hopefully he can win a decisive victory.”

Crusher came in fast again, sweeping the good leg out from under the second nyphen and landing on top of him, pinning both arms with his knees. The big warrior forced the chin of the lizard-like alien up and plunged his right into the side of its neck multiple times, his claws penetrating until on the fourth hit a fountain of blood erupted from the wound. What he didn’t see, however, was the first nyphen roll slowly to his feet and stalk across the cage towards his turned back.

“Behind you!” Jason shouted over the crowd, stopping himself just before saying his name. Two things happened simultaneously that he hadn’t intended. He saw Crusher stiffen up at the sound of his voice, freezing at a critical moment. The other thing was the crowd turning on him, hurling insults and threats for interfering with the match.

Ignoring the plethora of violent crime bosses threatening to disembowel him, Jason watched in horror as the remaining nyphen clamped down on Crusher’s neck with its powerful jaws. The warrior howled in rage and pain as he fought to dislodge the nyphen, but the effort only caused the curved teeth to sink in further and strengthened the grip.

In an incredible display of sheer will, Crusher rose to his feet and, with the nyphen still hanging off his neck, dragged himself over to the side of the cage where the pair had been restrained. Before the armed Watchers could react, Crusher had pulled one of the sets of restraints off from around the bars and with his left hand whipped it over his head. Despite the fact the lizard was clamped down on the blood supply to his brain, Crusher was able to swing the manacles twice more until the heavy end hit the already demolished orbital socket with a wet smack.

The result was instantaneous as the pain caused the nyphen to involuntarily cry out, opening its mouth in the process. It fell to the floor, clutching at its ruined face and hissing out in pain. Crusher somehow stayed on his feet, despite looking like he might go down at any moment, and walked up to stand over the nyphen, straddling its head. With as much strength as he could manage, Crusher repeatedly swung the heavy restraints into his opponent’s head. Over and over until spectators were actually looking away and the meaty smacks of steel hitting the nyphen’s head gave way to wet squishing sounds as its skull split open. Crusher didn’t stop until three Watchers rushed in and hit him in the back of the head with a cudgel, dropping him instantly.

“We have to go,” Jason said as Crusher’s inert form was unceremoniously dumped onto a sled and the announcer tried to proclaim the results of the fight over the sounds of the crowd. Many people were still angry at Jason, mostly the ones who’d bet heavily on the nyphens, but one look at his battlesynth bodyguard kept their anger retrained to loud insults and not physical violence.

Jason led Lucky down to where the auction would take place for the victorious combatant. He’d hoped since Crusher looked to be near death that there wouldn’t be many bidders. His hope turned out to be in vain as a crowd of about fifteen people were jostling their way up to the table.

“Shit,” he muttered, elbowing a few people out of the way.

“Technically, the Galvetic warrior is still alive,” the auctioneer said just as Jason found a spot close to the front. “We’re selling him as is … no medical treatment will be administered and no refunds if he dies before you can collect him.”

While not at all like any auction Jason had ever seen on Earth, he quickly learned how it worked. The bidding quickly went very high until it was only Jason and one other person bidding on what could end up being a poorly kept Galvetic corpse. After another two rounds the other bidder, obviously quite angry, bowed out and stalked off.

“Sold to the … whatever you are,” the auctioneer said. “The agreed amount will need to be paid in an accepted currency, ConFed Universal Credits included, and before you take delivery.”

“I have it on my ship,” Jason said. “I can pay you when he’s delivered to my cargo bay.”

“That’s not how it works,” the auctioneer said firmly. “You’ll pay me here, and now, and then you can worry about how to get the body back to your ship.” This put Jason in a serious bind since the amount of the winning bid far exceeded the total amount of money aboard the Phoenix. “I hope you did not bid an amount you have no means to pay,” the auctioneer said ominously. In truth he was just another Watcher in a ridiculous suit and very obviously armed. At his tone, two more stepped forward and gave Jason a decidedly unfriendly look.

“Of course he didn’t,” a voice said smoothly from behind him. “He was simply entering a proxy bid for me. I will be paying the full amount.”

“Of course, Saditava Mok, sir,” the Watcher said, his tone shifting from aggressive to servile in an instant. “My apologies to your associate.”

“It’s fine,” Saditava said with a dismissive wave. “I’m sure you weren’t hired here for your intelligence. Please speak to my bodyguard about securing payment.”

“What’s this all about?” Jason asked suspiciously as the Watcher walked over to the bodyguard with a tablet to transfer the funds.

“I told you,” Saditava said with a smile. “I owe you a favor. This paltry sum is just one way I may repay that favor.”

“You must have inherited a fairly lucrative chunk of Bondrass’s operation,” Jason said, swallowing at the amount of money the gangster was tossing around like it was nothing.

“You have no idea,” Saditava said, still smiling. He reached into his coat and pulled out a thin data card. “Here, take this. There are various points of contact on there by which you can reach me should you ever need my help again.”

“Thanks,” Jason said slowly, taking the card. He knew something like that didn’t come without strings attached, but it would be rude not to accept it. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Please do,” Saditava said. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I wish to return to the fights and I’m sure you would like to tend to your friend. Until we meet again, George Washington.”

“Sir, if you’ll come with me I can show you to your prize,” the now-respectful Watcher said as Saditava and his Korkaran guard departed.

“Lead the way,” Jason said as he and Lucky fell in behind the smaller being.

They followed the Watcher down through a series of roughhewn corridors, the floors as smooth as polished marble from centuries of feet shuffling over them. The Watcher stopped at a security door and keyed it open, waving them through. Crusher still lay on the wheeled sled, his blood dripping steadily on the floor.

“Here he is,” the Watcher said without interest. “If your plan was to keep him alive you probably should hurry to your ship. I have to tell you though … any plans you might have of using him as a soldier should be abandoned. He’s killed seven Watchers since he was brought here, even after our … enhanced … security measures. You’re better off killing this one, but if you let him live, never turn your back on him.”

“Thank you, that will be all,” Jason said coldly, his hands beginning to shake as his anger built and his turbocharged adrenal response began to cloud his reason. Recognizing the signs, Lucky intervened quickly.

“We would like to take the Galvetic warrior to our ship immediately,” he said. “Do we use the same passage we came in through?”

“No,” the Watcher said, looking at Jason closely. “Go left out of here and all the way to the end of this corridor. Go right and then it’s straight on from there to the security exit that will let you out onto the landing pad.”

“You have my employer’s thanks,” Lucky said. “We have no further need of your assistance.”

“Sure,” the Watcher said, backing out the door. “No problem.” Once he left the pair moved quickly to the sled.

“He’s still alive,” Jason said. “Hold him down and I’ll dose him.” Lucky leaned over and gently restrained Crusher as Jason pulled out three auto-injectors that Doc had rigged up, each containing a cocktail of drugs and nanobots that were designed as a catchall for whatever condition they might find him in.

Jason pulled the safety caps off with his teeth and pressed the devices firmly into the thickest part of Crusher’s shoulder. The big warrior grumbled and shifted as the heavy needles deployed and the injectors shoved the viscous mixture into his bloodstream.

“These will start working fast, but we’ve got to get him to the infirmary quickly,” Jason said. “Let’s go … you lead and I’ll push him along.”

Lucky opened the door and Jason maneuvered the unwieldy sled out and to the left, waiting for the battlesynth to move ahead of him and take point. He should have known better than to think things would go so easily, as if they could just wheel Crusher out to the Phoenix and be on their way. As soon as they made the right turn into the last corridor they could see the path was completely blocked.

“You have something I want,” the same alien who had been in a bidding war with Jason called out. “I intend to take it.” He had at least twelve bodyguards with him, their bulk completely obscuring the view ahead.

“I don’t think the Watchers would appreciate you trying to strongarm one of their paying clients within their own walls,” Jason said. “Do you?”

The alien thought this extremely funny for some reason, laughing in a bizarre cough/wheeze sort of way. “Who do you think paid them to have you make your way down this back corridor with my prize?” he said. “They are fully aware of the situation.”

“Please let me handle this, Captain,” Lucky said, walking calmly towards the group. They all tensed up, but held their ground.

“I know what you are, battlesynth,” the alien said. “But you know as well as I do that any energy weapons fired in this corridor will trigger the security measures and we’ll all die, including your boss. You’re nothing more than another strong body here.”

“I am fully aware of the restrictions placed upon us,” Lucky said calmly, still walking. He pulled off the tunic he’d inexplicably been wearing to reveal two of Crusher’s wickedly curved long blades fastened to his back. “I have no need of energy weapons to dispatch you and your hired muscle.”

Jason watched with fascination as Lucky reached behind his back and grabbed both blades, releasing them with an audible snick and bringing them around, crossing them in front of his chest.

“You don’t want it to go down like this!” the alien called shrilly. “Just give me what I want and I’ll be on my way.” Lucky was only ten feet away at this point so Jason just stayed silent and watched to see what his friend had in store.

Lucky stopped and held his arms wide, the blades angled down slightly. Once he saw the battlesynth had no plans to let them by, the auction loser signaled to his security detail to attack. The results were much as one would expect.

The first two to reach Lucky were hurt, badly. The battlesynth smoothly stepped up and crashed the pommels of both blades into the sides of their heads. This eliminated two threats, but it also let the remaining ten know that a battlesynth wasn’t just a synth with energy weapons bolted on. The strength and agility had taken them by surprise and now they were exercising much more caution, trying to use tactics over brute force to take him down.

It didn’t matter. Lucky was a blur of motion, disabling three more guards with a combination of two well-placed slices and another bone-crunching hit with the base of a knife. A shuddering moan caught Jason’s attention and he looked down in time to see Crusher convulsing so hard he almost flopped off the sled, a mixture of blood and saliva foaming out of his mouth.

“No more playing Lucky!” Jason shouted. “He’s dying! We have to move!”

Lucky responded immediately and changed tactics from disabling to annihilating. Both blades whistled through the air, decapitating one guard and biting deep between the neck and shoulder of another. He bodily lifted the latter in an effort to dislodge the blade, the body crashing into the boss who had been trying to sneak along the wall and escape. Jason began pulling the sled quickly towards the fray, stopping long enough to lean down to the now-blubbering losing bidder.

“What the hell was so important you’d kill all these people to get him?” Jason snarled.

“He was to be a gift for my father,” the alien blubbered. “I was to have him preserved and hung.” When it sunk in that he meant to have Crusher stuffed and mounted like a big game animal, Jason reared back and kicked the alien in the throat, the toe of his boot caving in the soft tissue and tearing one of the major blood vessels.

Jason looked up in time to see that Lucky was down to the last three. He reversed his grip on both knives and plunged both blades into the chest of one, using the knives as handles to pick up the hefty guard and fling him out of the way where he lay and gaped like a fish out of water as his lungs filled with blood. The remaining two seemed undecided whether to flee or try and take on the battlesynth together. Their hesitation was their final act in life as Lucky leapt across the gap and killed both with two armored fists.

“We are clear,” he said, turning to Jason.

“Great,” Jason said, pulling the sled along. “Now make me a path through the bodies and don’t forget to grab Crusher’s blades.”

The rest of the way was clear although the security gate sentries looked startled as a battlesynth holding two enormous knives and soaked in three types of blood walked around the corner and politely asked that they open the gate. As soon as the shielded doors parted Jason heard his com unit beep as it reestablished a connection with the Phoenix.

“Twingo!” he practically shouted into the device. “We’re at an entrance approximately two hundred meters west of the main security gate. Taxi the Phoenix over as close as you can get her and make sure Doc is waiting for us in the cargo bay.”

“We’re on our way!” Twingo said.

It wasn’t even a minute later when the ground began to tremble and the Phoenix rolled into view. Jason watched as Twingo skillfully swung the nose over and rotated the ship even as the ramp was dropping so that they would have a minimal distance to expose Crusher to the dangerously cold conditions. As soon as the ramp slammed into the tarmac, Jason and Lucky both moved him as fast as they could, the stronger battlesynth pulling the sled and the human sprinting alongside stabilizing his friend.

“Move aside!” Doc barked as the sled rolled to a stop in the cargo bay. Jason smacked the controls to raise the ramp and close the pressure doors while Lucky gently picked Crusher up and placed him on the bed of the makeshift trauma center they’d rigged up in the cargo bay. The thought was that should they have to blast their way out of Duat it would be better if Crusher could be immediately stabilized and treated instead of having to be carried up to the main deck and all the way to the infirmary.

“Twingo, we’re in!” Jason said over the intercom. “Get us the hell out of here as fast as she’ll fly.” Even before he’d released the intercom button the deck began to vibrate as the engines built power and he felt the ship lift herself off the ground.

“How’s he going to be?” Jason asked, approaching Doc and Lucky, almost afraid to look down on the bed.

“I don’t know how, but he’s still alive,” Doc said. “The level of trauma is severe; some of it occurred well before today. He has a long way to go, but I’m tentatively saying that if he makes it through the next twenty-five hours he has a much better chance of pulling through. I’ll know more after a few hours and he’s had a chance to stabilized.”

“I’ll take first watch with him,” Jason said. “Lucky, you go get yourself cleaned up. Doc, grab some rest and chow … you’ll need to be at your best in the coming few days, I think.”

It was some time after the other two left when he heard Crusher stir next to him. As he watched he was amazed as the warrior’s eyes simply popped open, fully alert, albeit confused. He looked around the cargo bay for a few moments before fixing Jason with an intense stare.

“I’m out,” he said simply. “No more. I don’t want any more.” Jason sat back in his chair and tried to ponder what he had meant as Crusher fell back into a deep sleep.

Chapter 6

“After Crusher left we tried to keep it together for a bit longer, but it was never really the same,” Jason said. “Kage was the first to leave afterward and then Doc decided he wanted to return to doing research in a lab. Twingo, Lucky and I ended up out here shuffling light cargo until eventually it was just Lucky and I running a few hard-won contracts.”

“This ship you spoke of, the Phoenix … that cannot be the same ship I snuck onto,” Kalette said.

“Actually—”

“Good morning,” Lucky said before he could answer. “I apologize for not informing you that Kalette requested to stay here last night, Jason.”

“No problem,” Jason said. “We were just having a talk.”

“Oh?” Lucky asked, his interest obviously piqued. “Might I ask what about?”

“Just telling her some war stories about the old crew,” Jason shrugged. “Something to pass the time.”

“I see,” Lucky said. “We have received a message from the Defiant. Doc is on his way back down to speak with Kalette.”

“He is the ‘Doc’ you spoke of from your old crew?” she asked. When Jason nodded, she continued, “Why does he now work with Crisstof? Does he have no loyalty for Crusher?”

“He does,” Jason said uncomfortably. “But it’s a bit more complicated than all that. Doc is an idealist before anything else and he’d lived the sheltered life of an academic before we were all tossed in together. If there’s a chance to accomplish something good, like helping people affected by a plague, he’ll swallow his pride and do whatever it takes to get it done.”

She seemed to consider this for a moment. “I suppose that has a sort of dignity all its own,” she said.

“Well said,” Lucky said. “I am going to the market for breakfast. I will return before Doc arrives.” He turned and left before Jason could put in a special request or Kalette could make any dietary requirements known.

“Is he always so imperious?” she asked Jason.

“You have no idea,” Jason groused. “He continually claims I’m in charge of this operation, but I’ve never been bossed around so much in my life. He does enjoy getting out among the locals, though. That wasn’t always the case.”

“Don’t they find it odd that a metal being comes into their market center to buy food?” she asked.

“They’re used to it by now,” Jason said. “The locals aren’t overly sophisticated and I’m beginning to suspect some have started worshiping him as a shiny, well-spoken god.”

“You jest!” she said with a bright laugh that Jason found adorable. Where the hell did that come from?

“Mostly,” he said with a smile, the expression actually feeling odd on his face after wearing a permanent scowl for so long. “There’s only a single bathroom in this place. If you’d like to go get cleaned up first I’ll see where Lucky put your clothes.”

“Thank you, Jason Burke,” she said, rising from the chair. “I will not be long.”

Jason just shook his head as she walked into the house. He had a bad feeling his life was going to be seriously disrupted by the girl. It wasn’t that he was particularly fond of his existence as it was currently, but at least it was familiar.

****

“No Crisstof this time?” Jason said by way of greeting as Doc walked in the front door.

“He felt his presence was an uncomfortable disruption,” Doc said as he and Jason embraced. The pair had had their many differences, but Jason was genuinely happy to see his old friend.

“Hey! He’s not as stupid as I thought,” Jason said as he walked back into the kitchen area where the surreal vision of a battlesynth cooking breakfast over an antique stove greeted them.

“You know that’s a lot of the problem, Jason,” Doc said, blinking as he watched Lucky flipping an assortment of local vegetables in a pan like a professional chef.

“Don’t ask,” Jason muttered. “He’s taken a real shine to cooking recently for some reason. Anyway … what’s a lot of the problem?”

“You’re always so combative,” Doc said as he took a seat. “We made our choice, but Crisstof also had to make his. He had a lot more at stake than a single person’s life.”

“We’ve talked this to death,” Jason said, dismissing the subject with a wave. “Crusher deserved a better effort than Crisstof gave no matter the circumstances. He’d earned that much. By the way, how are the Galvetic Marines doing?”

“They’re gone,” Doc admitted. “I keep mostly to myself when aboard the ship, for obvious reasons, but I heard there was serious discontent in the ranks after they’d discovered what happened on Faulli. Mazer learned that Crusher had returned to Galvetor and gave Kellea notice that they intended to depart as soon as their contract was up.” Doc looked at Jason expectantly, waiting for him to ask the obvious question after he’d mentioned Kellea’s name. Jason refused to take the bait.

“Was it Crisstof’s lack of concern for their Guardian Archon or his trying to hide the facts afterwards that pissed them off the most?” he asked instead.

“I’d say a sixty-forty split of both those factors,” Doc said. “Crisstof had been beside himself that he’d lost control of such a valuable asset. In the end he released them early and took them back to—could you be any less obvious with that smile on your face?”

“Hmm?” Jason asked innocently. “Oh, sorry. Please continue.”

“As I was saying,” Doc went on, rolling his eyes, “he released them from their contract and had them flown back to Restaria. They had made it pretty clear they had no intention of giving much of an effort on any new missions Crisstof had for them.”

“Poor Crisstof,” Jason said in mock sympathy. “He had to learn the hard way that there are consequences to using and manipulating people.”

“I don’t think that’s a fair—”

“Hello, Doc,” Kalette said as she walked out into the main living area. She had put Jason’s shirt back on while her hair dried.

“Good morning, Kalette,” Doc said, giving a Jason a look that was equal parts exasperation and disgust. Jason shook his head emphatically at the unsaid accusation and pointed at Lucky’s back. Doc waved off Jason’s protestations and made a choking motion with his right hand, the old Omega Force gesture for when someone was screwing things up beyond all measure.

“Am I interrupting?” Kalette asked as she watched the silent conversation of hand gestures for a moment.

“Not at all,” Doc said. “Please, have a seat.”

“Jason has been entertaining me this morning with tales of your old crew,” she said as she slid into one of the chairs surrounding the table.

“Really?” Doc asked in genuine surprise. “How was I portrayed in these tales?”

“A reluctant participant, maybe,” Kalette said, squinting her eyes as she gave the off-the-cuff question serious consideration.

“That describes most of my adult life,” Doc muttered sourly. “Anyway, while I’m thrilled at the chance to visit with my old friends, I did come back down to the surface to talk specifically to you.”

“Let me save you some time,” Kalette said, raising her hand in the galaxy’s universal sign for stop. “I do not trust Crisstof Dalton. There are many reasons for this, not the least of which is his convenient timing in showing up here almost the exact instant I did. I will not go with him willingly.”

“What would be your preferred outcome at this juncture, Kalette?” Lucky asked as he walked from the kitchen balancing three plates on one arm and clutching three sets of flatware in the opposite hand.

“I need to find a way to get word back to the Empire,” she said. “They need to know the exact details of what happened to the netjere. But I need to do this without escaping from one bad situation and immersing myself into another.”

“So simple transport would be your main priority?” Lucky asked. Jason dug into the plate in front of him, completely oblivious to where Lucky was leading the conversation, as Doc picked at the food suspiciously with the two-pronged fork he’d been given.

“Yes,” Kalette said.

“So if you were to find someone who had an interstellar ship capable of transporting you somewhere from which you could make contact with your people, that would be acceptable?” Lucky asked.

“Yes,” Kalette said again, this time with more hesitation and confusion at the convoluted questioning. The words had been flowing around Jason while he ate, but his eyes popped open as they finally sunk in and he nearly choked on his food.

“Now wait a damn minute!” he started, only to be interrupted by a moaning from Doc that stopped the conversation cold and made them all wonder what the hell he was doing under the table. “You alright there, buddy?”

“Lucky, this is incredible,” Doc said, talking around a mouthful and ignoring Jason completely. “I haven’t eaten anything this good since the last time we were on Aracoria. Where did you learn to do this?”

“When I inquired about how to prepare local foods at the market the vendors were kind enough to instruct me. I have been experimenting on my own since then,” Lucky said, beaming. “I am very pleased you like it.”

“Like it?!” Doc said. “This is exquisite, and I’m not just saying that because I’ve been eating ship food for a month.”

“The Defiant’s mess deck isn’t exactly ‘ship food,’” Jason said, waving at Doc to shut up and go back to his meal. “I see where you’re steering this, you sneaky bastard, and the answer is no, for a few reasons.”

“Such as?” Lucky pressed.

“That pile of garbage can’t make the flight, for starters,” Jason said hotly. “At least not if we all want to survive the trip. Second, we can’t ignore the contracts we have here. Third—”

“Would I be correct in assuming there would be a substantial reward for your return?” Lucky asked Kalette.

“Oh yes,” she said, nodding emphatically. “The Sovereign would be most generous.”

“That’s not the point!” Jason insisted.

“Then what is your point, Jason,” Lucky said calmly, not letting up.

“This isn’t what we do anymore!” Jason shouted. “Omega Force is gone, Lucky. You and I are just a couple of junk haulers now.”

“No, this is just what we are doing at the present,” Lucky insisted. “This is not who we are.”

“Why can’t you just accept—”

“Please! Stop!” Kalette cried out sharply. “I do not wish to be the reason for this fighting among friends. I will find another way.”

“I apologize for our lack of manners, Kalette,” Jason said calmly, standing up. “If you’ll all excuse me.” Without waiting for an answer he walked out the back door and down onto the beach, trying to put some distance between himself and the conversation he’d left behind.

He walked aimlessly along the beach for a bit, lost in his thoughts. The nice thing about having a local population that had an inherent fear of the open water was that the beach was almost always deserted. He found a place to sit where he could watch the waves, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t push the intruding and unwelcome thoughts from his head.

“That annoying bastard,” he said in disgust, kicking an offending pile of sand as he stood up. “He can never just leave well enough alone.”

The sun was pushing up to its midday zenith so Jason knew he must have been sitting for a couple of hours, but he could hardly account for the time, so lost was he in his own head. He retraced his steps back to his house, unsure about how to proceed once he got there. Part of him wanted to wash his hands of the entire mess that had, literally, dropped into his lap. But Lucky’s words had burrowed into his mind and had been turning over and over ever since he’d stormed out of his own kitchen like a petulant child.

“This is not who we are …”

Chapter 7

Jason could hear murmured voices as he walked up the back steps to his house. Despite all the other fantastic tweaks and enhancements Doc had performed on his body, his hearing was still vintage Homo sapiens, although all the damage that had been done to them over years around loud machinery and weapons fire had been repaired. He was relieved to hear three voices still: Lucky, Doc, and Kalette. When the second step from the top creaked loudly all conversation inside ceased.

They were all looking at him as he walked into the house a bit shamefaced. Kalette wore an expression of hope while Doc looked at him expectantly. Even Lucky, who had very little in the way of facial expression, seemed to watch him with a certain satisfaction as if he already knew what Jason had decided.

“Sorry for walking out earlier,” he said. “I suppose we need to figure out the best way to go about getting this done.”

“Does this mean you will help me?” Kalette asked.

“It does,” Jason nodded. “Even though I’m standing by everything I said earlier, we can’t very well send you out alone and just hope for the best. There are a lot of predators out there and too many lives hang in the balance to leave this to chance.”

“What’s our first move?” Doc asked.

“We relax,” Jason said. “There are some arrangements that need to be made and plans to be finalized. First thing you need to do is make contact with the Defiant and tell them that you think you’re making real progress and to standby for further updates. How did you get down here?”

“They let me borrow a short-range shuttle,” Doc said. “Why?”

“Perfect,” Jason said. “Take my ground car and head to the shuttle, then pull up the Defiant’s orbital data. The nav computer should have an updated course for the ship. Download it to your com unit and then get back here.”

“Why do you need the Defiant’s orbital data?” Doc asked.

“You are rusty at this, aren’t you?” Jason said shaking his head. “If we fly our ship out of here and that battlecruiser is sitting up there waiting on us, we won’t make it very far.”

“Oh, right,” Doc said. “I’m not used to those considerations since we were always the fastest thing in the sky.”

“Get used to it,” Jason said. “Not only are we now in the running for least fastest, but we’re also a strong contender for least reliable. Lucky, take Kalette into town and get her some clothes and anything else she may need for an extended space flight.”

“What will you be doing?” Lucky asked.

“I’ll see to getting our ship prepped and fueled for departure,” Jason answered. “I’m going to try to call in a favor at the spaceport. I’m sure the Defiant is keeping an eye on both the house and our ship every time it passes overhead. If the spaceport crews are doing it hopefully it will appear to just be contract maintenance.”

“Thank you, Jason,” Kalette said, bowing her head slightly. “Thank you, all. I cannot fully express my gratitude.”

“I’d hold off on that until we actually deliver something,” Jason said with a half-smile. “The outcome of our missions doesn’t always line up with our original intentions.”

****

Once the trio had left the house, Jason made the call to the spaceport to arrange servicing for his ship, but that only took around five minutes. He looked around the empty house, unsure as to what he should do next. Despite his vocal misgivings and complaining, he was practically buzzing with excitement at the prospect of another real mission. He rarely admitted it to himself, and never out loud where anyone could hear, but he desperately missed his old job. Being a glorified delivery driver wasn’t something he had ever aspired to. It was honest enough work, but it just wasn’t for him.

As he paced aimlessly about the house he caught his own reflection in the mirror and instantly found what he could do next while he waited. His hair hadn’t been cut for at least six months, and he actually couldn’t recall precisely when he’d last shaved. Judging by the full, unkempt beard it had been a while.

After fifteen minutes in the bathroom with a set of clippers and a “razor” that actually used lasers to take out the hair all the way inside the follicle he began to feel like his old self. Now clean shaven and with his hair buzzed up the sides in a sort of “high and tight” style he walked into his room and stripped down before pulling a squat crate from the back of the walk-in closet.

Inside was the familiar gray uniform he’d been wearing when his crew had split up. He pulled out the loose cargo pants and top and set them on the bed before pulling out the soft black boots and a belt that still had a holster with a powerful plasma sidearm secured in it. Omega Force had always tried hard to stay anonymous so there were no insignias or name on the uniform, but Jason had a definite change in attitude as he put his old clothes on nonetheless.

Noise from inside the house broke him out of his reverie and he shook his head with a rueful chuckle, feeling a bit foolish at the introspection. They were just clothes, after all. He shut the lid to the crate after inventorying the rest of the contents, slipped his boots on, and walked out to see who had arrived back first.

Kalette gave a startled yelp when she saw him walk out of the hallway from the bedroom. “Jason?”

“Yep,” he confirmed. “I figured I’d better get myself cleaned up if we’re going to be going out in public. If you’re going to try and stop an interstellar war there’s no point in looking shabby while you do it.”

“You look … striking,” she said.

“Certainly not the worst thing I’ve been called,” Jason quipped. “How was shopping?”

“We were able to find everything Kalette needed and some things she simply wanted,” Lucky reported. “I will admit to not understanding some of her choices, but she insisted that she knew what she was doing. She routinely asked my advice, and then promptly ignored all my suggestions.”

“Is this your first time going shopping with a woman for clothes?” Jason asked, feeling a certain amount of pride at being able to keep a straight face.

“Yes,” Lucky said. “Are you suggesting that this is normal behavior?”

“Well—” Jason started, but one look at Kalette’s face and he changed course immediately. “I wouldn’t know,” he continued lamely. “Each species and culture is unique and what not.”

“I see,” Lucky said, still not any close to understanding. “Were you able to secure services for the ship?”

“Already taken care of,” Jason said. “It’ll be fueled and waiting for us.”

“Where will we be going first?” Kalette asked as she organized her new wardrobe on the kitchen table.

“We’ll need to pick up one more person,” Jason said, looking at Lucky. “I’m going to need Twingo if we’re going to try and push that pile of crap any real distance.”

“I will send him a message,” Lucky said.

“No messages,” Jason said. “I can’t chance that Crisstof isn’t monitoring our com node. Or Twingo’s. He seems to have contacts everywhere and it wouldn’t be unheard of for him to get our slip-com addresses tapped.”

“Very well,” Lucky said. “I know where he is currently living.”

“Now all we have to do is wait for Doc to show back up and make sure his end of things went smoothly,” Jason said.

It ended up being about another thirty minutes before he showed up.

“I think they bought it,” Doc said, handing Jason a tablet computer. “That has the Defiant’s orbital data on it. I transcribed it manually off a general navigation tab in case the shuttle’s computer is being monitored.”

“Good thinking,” Jason said with a nod. “How did you convince him that you’re making progress?”

“The usual way; a little truth mixed in sells any deception,” Doc smiled. “I told him you were being unreasonable and that it was difficult to talk with Kalette with you being such a distraction.”

“He should buy that,” Jason agreed as he flipped through the data Doc had taken from the shuttle. “It looks like our best launch window is right before midnight. The Defiant will be on the other side of S’tora. We can head to the ship a few hours before since they’ll be well past line of sight by then.”

“Where are we heading?” Doc asked.

“Gotta pick up Twingo,” Jason said.

“That’s good news!” Doc said enthusiastically. “In the meantime … Lucky, do you think we could impose on you for a midday meal?”

****

It was just after 2100 hours local time (out of a twenty-seven hour S’tora day) when Jason made a final sweep of his house to ensure it was locked up and everything was secured before walking out to join the others by the vehicle they’d called from town to take them to the spaceport.

“All good,” he reported. “Let’s get out there and get to it.”

The others were quiet, but the tension in the air was electric. For the three former crewmates it was the thrill of working together again; for the displaced Avarian it was the relief of doing something meaningful to help the netjere.

The ride to the spaceport only took twenty minutes thanks to the aggressive driving of the local behind the controls and the complete lack of traffic on the already sparsely traveled roads. The boxy vehicle pulled up to a smooth stop behind the battered cargo ship and everyone piled out while Jason paid the driver in local currency.

“I will go and disable the shuttle so they cannot remotely recall it,” Lucky said, grabbing a tool kit and heading to where Doc had parked the Defiant’s short-range hopper.

“No need to be gentle,” Jason called after him before turning to Doc. “I’m starting to enjoy this mission already.”

“I didn’t realize petty vandalism so thoroughly entertained you,” Doc said.

“It’s like you hardly even know me,” Jason sighed as he keyed open his ship’s rear hatch and waited for it to lurch and whine until it slammed into the tarmac.

“I understand why we are leaving in the middle of the night, but why are we damaging Crisstof’s shuttlecraft?” Kalette asked.

“When they fly back over and see this ship is gone they’ll try to raise Doc,” Jason replied as he helped drag their gear up into the cargo bay. “When that doesn’t work they’ll send a recall signal to the shuttle to have it fly up to the ship on autopilot. Once that fails, they will either have to come down and investigate or abandon the shuttle to try and pursue us, but we’ll be long gone by then. It’s all about taking the small advantages when you can to increase your chances of success. Also … we’re doing it because it’s funny.”

Doc just shook his head as they finished securing their belongings. Even with as little as they were bringing the flight was still going to be cramped thanks to the spartan interior of the older ship.

“I have disabled the short-range communication systems as well as the primary fuel system on the shuttle,” Lucky said. “A competent technician should be able to find and correct both in a few hours and I have caused no permanent damage to the craft.”

“Good enough,” Jason said. “Let’s get engines started and head up top. The slip-drive on this thing takes a good hour or more to charge from a cold start so we need to get moving.”

Chapter 8

The escape from S’tora was blessedly uneventful as their cargo ship lifted off without complaint and managed to get them to the mesh-out point well before the Defiant was expected to come back around the planet. As a bonus, the slip-drive even engaged on the first try.

“Course is laid in for Woakx Prime,” Jason said. “Woakx … so that’s Twingo’s homeworld?”

“I would assume so,” Doc said. “Why?”

“Just wondering,” Jason shrugged. “What type of place is it? Is his species crammed onto the surface like Kage’s?”

“What?” Doc asked, completely confused. “No … it’s his homeworld as in that’s where he was born and raised. His species isn’t from there.”

“Ah,” Jason said, falling silent for a moment. “So I have another question … and this is going to sound bad, so I’d like it answered with no judgments and minimal insults mixed in.”

“This should be good,” Doc said to nobody in particular.

“Um … what species is Twingo, exactly?” Jason asked, bracing for what he knew was coming. Lucky and Doc both wasted no time berating him.

“Are you serious? You don’t know what species your best friend is?”

“You do not actually know?”

“See, that’s why I didn’t want to ask,” Jason retorted with some heat. “I knew it would get blown out of proportion and then you’d all pile on. He was the first biological alien I’d met and by the time I thought about asking what his species was called we’d already been working together for a couple of years.”

“He’s a daemimm,” Doc said. “You could have just asked the computer aboard the Phoenix. It had his complete medical history including species.”

“Well, that seemed like an invasion of his privacy,” Jason said lamely.

“Wait! Do you even know what species I am?” Doc asked. Jason just looked at him helplessly, refusing to answer. “Unbelievable!” Doc got out of his seat and stalked off the bridge.

“Lucky?” Jason asked once Doc had left.

“Doc is a nubhu,” Lucky said. Just as Jason was about to raise his voice to call back into the ship, Doc cut him off.

“Don’t even bother,” he said loudly from the galley. “I heard the whole thing.”

“Are you always such a … spirited … group?” Kalette asked.

“It has been a while since we have seen each other,” Lucky said as if that explained everything.

****

“So there it is, huh? Woakx,” Jason said as the ship slipped into orbit over the average-looking planet. “Are you able to access the local com network from here?”

“I am attempting to do so now,” Lucky said.

“I’ll hang out in orbit for a bit until you know for sure,” Jason said. “I don’t want to land on the wrong side of the planet by accident.”

It was another two hours of sitting in high orbit over Woakx Prime when the com panel chirped and Lucky pulled up the incoming message.

“Twingo has provided landing coordinates for a small spaceport outside of the settlement he lives in that will accommodate the ship,” he said. “He will meet us on the landing pad.”

“Alright!” Jason said, excited to see his friend. “Let’s get our deorbit clearance and get on down there.”

Woakx Orbital Control promptly granted their clearance and gave them a direct flight path down to the city that Twingo had indicated. When they had first started operating the small cargo ship Jason had been amazed at how quickly they always seemed to get landing permits until Twingo explained that most worlds were always reluctant to let heavily armed gunships like the Phoenix land where they pleased.

The ride down through the atmosphere was smooth and Jason could see that the planet wasn’t heavily industrialized or over-settled, which indicated that it was a colonized world and not one with an indigenous space-faring species. He banked gently to take them down over one of the southern continents and put them in a shallow dive that would put them at just twenty-five hundred meters altitude when they reached the city’s outer limits.

“Cycle the landing gear,” he said to Lucky as he turned onto their final approach and fully engaged the repulsors. “Go ahead and secure the engines and the slip-drive from flight mode; I’ll bring us the rest of the way in on thrusters.”

“Shutting down engines and slip-drive now,” Lucky confirmed. “Landing gear deployed and locked.”

Jason lined them up over the indicated landing pad and began reducing power to the repulsors, allowing the unwieldy cargo ship to settle closer to the ground until they felt a few jolts as the landing gear impacted the ground. He pulled the power back the rest of the way and the ship groaned and creaked as its weight was transferred from the repulsors to the landing gear struts.

“Secure all the primary flight systems and lock out the computer,” Jason said as he popped off his restraints. “I’ll go open the rear hatch.” He strode quickly off the flight deck and jogged down the narrow corridor until he was in the cargo bay. Once he unlocked the rear hatch he waited impatiently as it seemed to take even longer than usual to lower to the ground.

“Can’t say I miss this thing,” a familiar voice said from the port side of the ship.

Jason walked out onto the still-lowering ramp and hopped off onto the ground, catching Twingo up in a huge bear hug and lifting him off the ground.

“How’ve you been?” Jason asked him once he set his stout, blue-skinned friend back on the ground.

“Can’t complain,” Twingo said with a huge smile. “But look at you! You look great, cleaned yourself up and everything. I was a bit worried about you when I left S’tora.”

“Yeah,” Jason said, a bit embarrassed. “Dark days, I guess.”

“I have a feeling you showing up here on my homeworld and wearing that uniform isn’t a coincidence,” Twingo said seriously. “What’s going on?”

“We can go over it in a bit when the others get out here,” Jason said.

“Others?” Twingo asked. “It’s not just you and Lucky?”

“No, he’s dragged me along on this as well,” Doc said as he walked down the ramp and embraced Twingo.

“Doc!”

They all took a few moments to greet each other and introduce Twingo to Kalette before heading to the spaceport’s administrative building so they could arrange for transportation enough for the five of them.

Due to his technical skills Twingo had been able to secure a well-paying job at one of the backshops that serviced the spaceport and let him afford a well-appointed home in a good neighborhood. As on most planets, the home resembled a tall, narrow townhouse from Earth with the front up against the street and a tiny yard out back.

After they’d gotten him up to speed on the current situation Twingo sat back in his seat, silently digesting all the information. Jason took the opportunity to look around at the home more closely, noticing that it was unmistakably a bachelor’s residence. He vaguely remembered that his friend had returned to his home to try and reconnect with his family, but he wasn’t sure if that meant a wife and kids or his parents and siblings.

“You’re all sure this is something you want to get caught up in?” Twingo asked, breaking the silence. “This isn’t simply returning a stray to her home. No offense, Kalette, that’s just an expression.”

“No offense was taken,” she said quietly.

“We understand that as least as well as you do,” Doc said. “But good idea or not, we’re already involved. By chance Kalette happened to sneak aboard Jason and Lucky’s ship and we’re not necessarily willing to let her take her chances, all things considered.”

“Fair enough,” Twingo shrugged. “What do you want from me?”

“Our ship isn’t going to make an extended trip like that without some work and probably some major components replaced,” Jason said.

“That could have been done on S’tora,” Twingo said with a frown. “There are plenty of engineers and techs available.”

“Yes,” Jason agreed. “But I thought it would be a good opportunity to come visit and we needed to get out from under the Defiant quickly. If they saw techs crawling around all over the ship it would be a giveaway that we were planning on running.”

“The engineers on S’tora would also require that we pay them, which will be difficult since we have very little money,” Lucky said. Jason shot his friend an exasperated glare, but Twingo only chuckled.

“I had already suspected as much considering the emergency hull patches I put on over a year ago are still there,” he said.

“I have told Jason that he should address that,” Lucky confided. “But he said not to worry about it. Since I do not require a breathable atmosphere I have done just that.”

“Anyway,” Jason said loudly, “we’d appreciate it if you’d take a look at it.”

“No problem,” Twingo said, still laughing. “We can do that in the morning unless this is such an emergency you can’t go out and enjoy a meal with an old friend.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Jason said.

****

As it turned out, dinner had a few surprises included with it. The open air restaurant Twingo selected afforded them spectacular views of the city as well as a direct line of sight into the kitchen, something that commanded Lucky’s complete attention. Twingo looked questioningly at Jason, who only shook his head with an indulgent smile. Jason didn’t at all understand the attraction to cooking by a being who lacked the ability to ingest or even taste food, but it made his friend happy so he chose not to question why and just accept it.

Just as they’d all relaxed and ordered drinks and Jason was about to inquire about who the extra chair at the table was for another familiar voice called out, “Look at this group of thieves and pirates!”

“Kage!” Jason said, so much in shock that he was unable to stop his next comment from coming out. “I thought you were in prison.”

“You heard that, did you?” Kage said, shooting Doc a glare. “You know me … they couldn’t keep me locked up if they wanted to, and as it turned out, they didn’t want to.”

“Kage has been here for the last six months after he called me needing a place to land and regroup after his … release,” Twingo said. “He’s running an investment scam in the next city over.”

“That’s an indelicate way to put it,” Kage said as he made his way around the table to greet everyone. “I prefer to call it a creatively packaged opportunity.”

“Nice to see some things never change,” Jason said with a laugh as Kage slid into his seat. “So are you currently a hunted man?”

“Not at all,” Kage said. “Not only was my sentence commuted, the entire record of all my alleged transgressions has been purged.”

“I’m not waiting for this story,” Doc said. “Spill it.”

“Okay, okay,” Kage said, waving them to silence as he placed a drink order. “It’s possible that I had an emergency plan that automatically enacted should I ever be unable to stop it by, say, being wrongly incarcerated.”

“Kage …”

“It’s fairly simple,” Kage said. “There were some very damaging images, videos, and documents that I might have procured that certain powerful government officials would rather not have disseminated to the media or the public. When I failed to check in these images were sent to them first with a warning that in a week’s time they would be sent to all news outlets unless certain requirements were satisfied.”

“Why am I not surprised,” Jason said, shaking his head. “How did you come by these supposed documents?”

“It’s amazing what I’ve been able to do with the upgraded wetware Doc installed in my head,” Kage said with a smirk.

“Great … so I’m an accessory to blackmailing the Veran government,” Doc said.

“Jason, this is the crew you spoke of in your story?” Kalette said. “They seem like a collection of common criminals … no offense.”

“Some taken,” Jason said.

“Common?” Kage said indignantly.

“That’s the part that bothers you?” Twingo asked.

“I’ve never tried to hide what I am,” Kage said with a shrug. “So what’s good to eat here?”

The next morning Jason, Twingo, and Lucky went back down to the spaceport to look the ship over. Doc had little interest and Kage was still recovering from overindulging the previous night. Jason was surprised at how quickly and easily the group fell back into old patterns and roles. He had to keep reminding himself that after things calmed down it was likely going to be back to him and Lucky, if the battlesynth even stuck around.

“I’ll be honest, Jason,” Twingo was saying as he crawled back out of a maintenance hatch. “This ship is well past its service life and it hasn’t been taken care of very well. Did you know you’ve got structural spars cracked under the deck here?”

“Sure didn’t,” Jason said. “Can that be fixed?”

“Anything can be fixed,” Twingo shrugged. “But the point I’m trying to make is that this thing is far beyond help. Legally I probably shouldn’t even let it leave the spaceport.”

“Can’t you just—”

“You asked for my help, and I’m giving it to you,” Twingo interrupted him. “There is no way for me to patch this ship up enough to make a trip all the way out to the edge of ConFed space, especially on your budget of zero credits. You need to make other arrangements.”

“Fine,” Jason said in disgust. “Do you have a slip-com terminal I can use? I need to make a call and I don’t want to take the chance Crisstof intercepts it.”

“Sure,” Twingo said. “We’ve got one in the shop.”

They locked the ship back up and walked across the tarmac to the row of repair hangars and warehouses that seemed ubiquitous on every spaceport no matter which planet you traveled to. Twingo led them into the on-site facility his company used and pointed to a back office off the main hangar floor. “Back there.”

“I’ll just be a minute,” Jason said. He walked in and closed the door before powering up the terminal and waiting for the slip-space field to stabilize around the antenna. Instead of making a video or voice call he punched in a data address that he had stored in his neural implant and retrieved a specific coded message to transmit. After he was done he wiped the memory on the com node and sat looking around the office for a bit. Once he felt enough time had passed to make it seem like he’d had a two-way conversation he turned the terminal off and walked out of the office.

“I have a line on a ship,” he said. “An old favor I called in. It’s about a three-day flight from here … can our ship make it that far?”

“Shouldn’t be a problem,” Twingo said. “Which system are you heading to?”

“Evvesk-3,” Jason said, watching their reaction.

“Uh, who did you call in a favor from? And do I even want to know?” Twingo asked at the mention of the notorious planet.

“Just someone who happens to have interests there,” Jason said evasively. “It’s all handled and the deal is with me, so don’t worry about anything.”

“I’m not exactly worried, but there isn’t a patch of dirt on that planet that isn’t controlled by very dangerous people,” Twingo said.

“I know,” Jason said. “But desperate times and all that. We’ll head out this evening and get out of your way.”

“So soon? A day is hardly enough time to catch up,” Twingo said.

“Yeah, but Kalette is on a tight schedule,” Jason said. “We’ll be back around once this is all over.”

Chapter 9

“Twingo seemed to think this planet we are going to is dangerous,” Kalette said as Jason slid into the pilot’s seat and began pre-heating the engines.

“It can be,” Jason said. “But we’re heading to a near-abandoned spaceport that doesn’t get a lot of activity. We’ll be fine.”

“Reactor is at fifty percent,” Lucky said. “You are clear for engine start.”

“Hold up!” Doc called out from one of the rear jump seats. “Look.” Jason turned his gaze to where Doc was pointing and saw two figures standing in front of the ship, one waving enthusiastically.

“Keep prepping the drive,” he told Lucky. “I’ll go see what they want.” When he got down to the cargo bay and dropped the rear hatch he saw that they hadn’t come empty-handed. “What’s all this?”

“We’re coming along,” Twingo said, tossing his bag onto the pile already in the cargo bay.

“What about your job?” Jason asked Twingo before turning to Kage. “And your pyramid scam?”

“The people on this planet are cautious investors,” Kage shrugged. “Time to move on to more fertile grounds.”

“And I took a leave of absence,” Twingo said. “We were talking and it didn’t feel right letting you three fly off into a dangerous situation without us.”

“Well, don’t expect me to try and talk you out of it,” Jason said. “I’ll need both of you before this is all over I’m sure. Hop aboard.”

Just shy of two hours later the cramped cargo ship meshed out of the system.

****

“I really, really hope this new ship you lined up is bigger,” Kage complained loudly as the ship shuddered violently as it came out of slip-space and into the Evvesk System.

“What’s wrong, buddy? Is the cargo bay cold?” Jason asked.

“Just tell me the new ship has actual crew quarters for everyone,” Kage said.

“It does,” Jason said. “Not going to guarantee how comfortable or clean they are, but they’re there.”

Evvesk-3 didn’t have an official landing control system, so Jason just picked an open patch of sky near their destination and flew towards it. They were heading to a spaceport that was near a city that had been reduced in population by sixty percent over the last ten years alone due to crime, pollution, and a short but destructive war for control of the northern hemisphere.

The result was one of the most depressing-looking sights Jason could recall seeing since leaving Earth. The buildings were just starting to get that rundown look that seemed to proceed modern ruins, and the reddish hue that air always seemed to overlay the entire place with a “rusty” look.

“This place doesn’t have a whole lot going for it,” Twingo remarked.

“No, but it’s a good place to hide something if you don’t want a lot of people poking around it,” Jason said as he guided the ship over the city and towards the spaceport.

“You’re sure your friend has a ship stashed out here that’s in better shape than this one?” Kage asked.

“It would almost have to be in better shape since this one is barely safe to fly,” Twingo said.

“He’s not a friend,” Jason clarified, ignoring Twingo. “Just someone who owes me a favor.”

“I find this all very odd that someone owes you such an expensive favor and somehow we don’t know about it,” Doc said.

“It’s your right to feel however you want,” Jason said, still refusing to divulge any details. He called the spaceport’s landing control and requested to land near the row of large hangars and not on an actual landing pad. The response was something akin to, ‘Do whatever the hell you want and leave us alone.’

Once the ship had settled on its landing gear Jason turned to his crew. “Lucky, I need you on overwatch,” he said. “Someone may have seen this ship come in and decided that it carried something they might want to take. Twingo, I need you with me. Doc, you and Kage keep an eye on Kalette and the ship. There are weapons in the cargo bay, and nobody wander off.”

“Just like old times,” Kage said enthusiastically as he left the flight deck.

After Lucky had fired his repulsors and took position on the roof of the enormous hangar, Jason strapped on the belt with his sidearm and motioned Twingo to follow him. He walked up to the side of the hangar and opened a nondescript electrical box like the dozens of others that dotted the sides of the rusting buildings. This one, however, had a state of the art biometric scanner and keypad. Jason let it scan his thumb, retina, and even take a blood sample before he punched in the key code.

A few seconds later the whine of a hydraulic pump could be heard and then the harsh, grating rumble of the main hangar doors opening. Jason winked at Twingo and led him back around so they could see what was inside.

“I don’t know, Jason,” Twingo said. “That might be a little cramped.”

“Funny,” Jason said. “Just help me move it.” In the middle of the cavernous building was a tiny, two-seat open cockpit aircraft that was popular with vacationers who wanted an aerial view of wherever they were at. “In fact, we need to get everything out of here.”

“Ah, I see why you needed me,” Twingo grumbled. “Manual labor.”

Despite all the complaining it only took them twenty minutes to empty the hangar out and get the lights and other support equipment powered on.

“So what the hell are we doing? Are we storing your ship in here and the other one is being delivered?” Twingo asked.

“Would you please just be patient,” Jason said, his own patience with his friend beginning to wane. He walked over to the same control panel on the outside wall and punched in a second code. “You might want to not be standing inside.”

Twingo jumped back out of the building just as more pumps could be heard kicking on somewhere else in the hangar. Jason held his hand up just as Twingo opened his mouth to ask yet another question and a second before the floor inside the hangar moved. They both watched as the seemingly solid concrete slab split down the middle along one of the expansion joints and retracted into either side, leaving a grid of support trusses underneath. Once the floor had completely retracted the trusses themselves also pulled away, every other truss retracting to the right and the rest going to the left.

“Smart,” Twingo said, trying to peer down into the black abyss that used to be the floor. “Those trusses made sure the hangar floor could still support heavy loads and nobody would be the wiser.”

“That’s the idea,” Jason said as a louder, deeper groaning could be heard and the ground began to shake. As they watched, the tips of a pair of vertical stabilizers came into view, each canted out at forty-five degrees. Twingo’s mouth began to drop open at the same rate as the lift was coming up from the depths and the top of a ship became visible.

After thirty more seconds the wings and four enormous plasma-thrust engines came into view. The lift finally slammed into the stops, the hydraulics whining slightly to lock it into place, and they were looking at the unmistakable tail end of an extensively modified DL7 heavy gunship.

“No!” Twingo said, wiping his eyes.

“Yes,” Jason said, enjoying his friend’s reaction and feeling equally emotional.

“You said you sold her!” Twingo accused.

“No, I said I got rid of her,” Jason corrected. “A technicality I know … I did mislead all of you, but at the time it seemed like a good idea to stash her in a place only I knew about.” Jason saw Kage and Doc walking up, equally shocked and speechless.

“What ship is this?” Kalette asked, staring at the sleek warship.

“This is the Phoenix,” Jason said. “This is what we’ll be taking to get you back to the Avarian Empire.”

“So do I even want to know what condition she’s in?” Twingo asked.

“I kept power applied from an external source, damage control bots were programmed to keep her clean and parasite free, and I emptied the fuel tanks,” Jason said, struggling to remember what steps he’d taken over two years prior. “The computer cores were put in long-term storage mode and a handful of other things.”

“That’s better than I could have hoped for,” Twingo said, rubbing his chin. “If you go ahead and call for fuel I’ll start prepping the reactor for restart.”

“Okay,” Jason said, clapping his hands together. “Let’s get to work, everybody.”

****

“Look, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” Jason said. After he’d keyed open the Phoenix’s rear ramp so Twingo and Kage could get to work, he’d pulled Lucky aside to try and explain to his friend why he’d kept such a big secret from him.

“I am sure you had your reasons,” Lucky said. “But I will admit to feeling … hurt … by the exclusion.”

“It wasn’t necessarily an exclusion,” Jason said, struggling for a way to explain why he’d hidden the ship. “At least not with you. I didn’t tell the others because I didn’t feel like going through what would amount to a custody dispute. The gunship is an extremely valuable piece of equipment and there were a lot of hard feelings when we all went our separate ways … some of that about the division of money, or lack thereof. I could see at least four of the six of us arguing about who should get the ship, or arguing that we sell her outright and split the money. Despite everything I couldn’t bear the thought of letting her go.”

“Understood. But you are well aware that I am not motivated by money,” Lucky said. “So I can only assume there is another reason.”

“I didn’t want to get you involved with the person I made a deal with to store the Phoenix,” Jason said. “I figured if you weren’t involved it would be plausible deniability if it all went bad.”

“Saditava Mok,” Lucky said. “You made a deal with the gangster that purchased Crusher’s release.”

“Yes,” Jason sighed. “Only I didn’t make a deal. This was another ‘gift.’ What he will want in return is beyond me.”

“You should not have taken on this burden alone,” Lucky admonished him. “We are partners and should share everything equally: risk, reward, and consequences.”

“That sentiment is exactly why I didn’t tell you,” Jason said with a shake of his head. “Sometimes I wish you had a little more self-preservation instinct, my friend.”

“I could say the same for you.”

“There are billions of humans,” Jason shrugged. “There are only a few of you left and you can’t create more.”

Lucky fell silent after that and watched as three fuel trucks, their cryogenic tanks hissing and steaming, pulled up to the hangar and prepared to fill the Phoenix’s tanks with liquid hydrogen.

“What do you think Saditava really wants from you?” Lucky asked after a moment.

“I wish I knew,” Jason admitted. “He doesn’t seem like your average low-life crime boss … but I have no way to tell for sure. Without Crisstof’s intel resources I’m flying blind.”

After the ship was fueled Twingo was able to really dig in and start bringing it out of long-term storage mode and readying it for flight. Despite the massive amount of work involved Jason couldn’t remember a time when he’d seen the engineer so happy. They caught him more than a few times running his hands lovingly over different parts of the ship.

“We’re making anti-hydrogen and the injector manifold isolators are stable,” Twingo said, walking onto the bridge and fiddling with something else at one of the terminals. “Main reactor is up and settling in nicely. We’ll be generating power shortly and then we can start getting the grav-drive online.”

“Take your time,” Jason said from one of the sensor stations. “After the ship is flight ready we’re going to have to make some choices.”

“Such as?” Twingo asked. “We’re just racing to the edge of Avarian space and broadcasting a message, right?”

“It’s not that simple,” Jason said. “I haven’t brought it up until now, but if we take Kalette back she’ll be dead within a week and nothing will change to stop the Avarians from attacking.”

“Can we ever have a conversation where you don’t drop some horrible bombshell in the middle of it?” Twingo complained. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Think about it,” Jason said. “You’ve been involved in all the same situations I have. There’s no way this was a plan that didn’t originate within the Avarian Empire. They likely had a lot of help from interested parties here in ConFed space, but this is internal politics. I’d bet all my money on it.”

“Given that you just spent the last of your money on the fuel we just took on that would be a safe bet either way,” Twingo said. “I will admit it does make more sense than the ConFed just up and deciding that it’s going to go and abduct a young girl from a neighboring superpower that could likely wipe them out.”

“Shit,” Jason said, frowning. “You’ve just made me reconsider this. What if this is ConFed Intel? They’re routinely playing games autonomously or at the request of one councilmember or another.”

“Could be a combination of both,” Twingo said. “Stand by, we’re switching to internal power.” There were some thumps and whines as load contactors were engaged and the main busses were switched over to drawing power from the main reactor instead of the external power umbilical. Displays all over the bridge blinked on and half a dozen other systems began booting up with the availability of main power, and Jason’s station lit up like a Christmas tree with warnings and errors.

“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 hardwired 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.

Chapter 10

“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.”

“That makes it all the more exciting,” Jason said, looking at the rear video feed again as the ground vehicles easily kept pace with them, still firing the occasional warning shot.

BOOM … BOOM-BOOM

The mains ignited, but not simultaneously and the asymmetric thrust pushed the ship around wildly on the runway for a moment before Jason could reassert control. He let go of the taxi handle and grabbed the flight controls, smoothly advancing the throttle to about fifty percent. The engines roared and the ship squatted, the main landing gear struts completely collapsing. The ground speed indicator quickly went into the hundreds and the two remaining vehicles that hadn’t been blown end over end from the engine thrust were quickly left behind.

“You’ll need to get eight-hundred and twenty KPH before the wings will get enough bite to haul us into the air,” Twingo said in a tight voice.

“Shit,” Jason muttered, pushing the throttle up even more and ignoring the tortured scream that seemed to be coming from the nose gear. The Phoenix had a sleek, lifting body design, but the wings were short and raked back at a steep angle so he had to get a lot of speed before even attempting to bring the nose up. He hoped the wheels stayed on the landing gear trucks, and if they did he hoped they didn’t seize up and send them careening across the desert out of control.

Despite the ear splitting shriek from the landing gear Jason watched his indicated ground speed nudge up just past his target speed and pulled back on the stick experimentally. The nose bounced a bit before lifting enough to change the wings’ angle of attack and letting the air compress under the hull. It was a tense millisecond before he could feel the weight of the Phoenix settle onto the wings and the landing gear noise ceased. Now airborne, he shoved the throttle all the way forward and let the ship race along the ground, nearing supersonic before he angled up a few more degrees and climbed up and away from the spaceport.

“Holy shit!” he said, letting out an explosive breath.

“We’re not in the clear yet, you lunatic,” Twingo said. “Get us up into some cooler air and keep the landing gear deployed for a bit longer. I want to cool down the drive motors so we don’t have a fire in the gear bays.”

“How long for repulsors?” Jason asked, concentrating on his flight profile since he was fully dependent on the ship’s aerodynamics to keep them in the air.

“They’ll be up soon along with the grav-drive,” Twingo said.

“I’m heading out over the desert where we won’t be taunting our friends back there by circling over the spaceport,” Jason said, dipping the right wing down and accelerating away.

“I think they may have just been sent to slow us down,” Doc said. “Sensors just came up and we have three inbound contacts.”

“Coming for us?” Jason asked.

“They corrected course to stay on us when you angled away from the port, so I’d have to assume so,” Doc said.

“Why can’t anything ever be easy?” Jason said through clenched teeth. “Any idea what we’re dealing with?”

“No,” Doc said, shaking his head. “The sensor processing subsystem is still booting. All I know is a rough course and speed.”

“Good enough for now I guess,” Jason said. “Retract the gear. Let’s try to stay ahead of them until we can break for orbit.” He continued his long, sweeping bank until he was heading out into the desert and advanced the throttle a bit more, watching the transonic shockwaves play across the canopy and the Phoenix outran the thundering sound of her main engines.

“Enemy contacts are still closing the distance,” Doc said. “Tactical computer is up and running, we should have a positive identification in a few seconds.”

“Repulsors are online,” Twingo said even as Jason saw the status change on his own display. “Grav emitters are almost charged and it will be another five minutes or so after that for them to self-calibrate and engage.”

“Targets are three De’daron Type-4 starfighters,” Doc said as the computer completed its analysis. “Engine profile suggests they’re no more than five years old.”

“They’ll be able to keep up with us within this atmosphere until the engines are at full output,” Jason said.

“That will be a bit, they’ve been cold for a couple years. I also wouldn’t head for space until the grav-drive is fully operational,” Twingo said, “with only the mains you’d be giving them a serious advantage.”

“Noted,” Jason said, watching his tactical display populate with the new threats. They were small and speedy, but no match for the big gunship under normal circumstances. Unfortunately, getting the ship back up to fully mission capable after such an extended time in storage wasn’t as simple as flipping a switch. He was still without most of his tactical systems including weapons and shields.

“Shield emitters are charging as are the energy weapons,” Twingo said as if reading his mind. “You have expendable munitions available now that the tactical computers is running.”

“Thanks,” Jason said, checking on what missiles were sitting in the weapons bays that were in the belly of the ship. While they were carrying an impressive arsenal, none of it was appropriate for something the size and speed of the small fighters. He made a mental note to address that in the future and looked for a terrain feature to use while his other weapons charged up.

He saw that the desert was giving way to the rocky foothills of an impressive mountain range off to the south. The ground mapping radar showed a few deep ravines with some tight twists and turns that would prevent the pursuing fighters from getting a clean shot on the unprotected gunship. There were problems with the plan that Jason was painfully aware of even as he banked left and dipped the nose to take them back closer to the ground. Without the grav-drive running up a canyon was a tricky proposition at best. There was also the fact that the maneuver would only work if the enemy pilots could be convinced to try and follow. If they didn’t take the bait and simply climbed up and over to try and pick the gunship out of the ground clutter they might get a free shot on the dorsal surface.

“That gap off our starboard side looks like it will work,” Kage said, highlighting it on the navigation display. Jason just smiled … they’d all been apart for over two years and already they seemed to be sliding back into old habits and working with a bit of a “group mind.”

“Got it,” he said. “We’ll be hitting the split at speed so I’ll need you standing by to manually control the repulsors. Without the grav-drive some of these turns will be a bitch.”

“Bringing up the interface now,” Kage said.

The Phoenix descended down to a scant three-hundred meters from the desert floor, kicking up an enormous plume of dust and sand as she raced for the mountain range ahead. Jason hoped all the debris they were stirring up, along with the low altitude, would help prevent the enemy fighters from locking on for an easy shot. He rolled the ship to the right and shot through the gap, pulling back almost instantly to follow the natural cut in the landscape. The path they were following wasn’t small, spanning several kilometers across at even its narrowest point, but at the speeds they were traveling it seemed to Jason like he was trying to thread the eye of a needle while sitting on a bucking bronco.

“Grav-drive is ready,” Twingo said, eyeing the view outside the canopy anxiously.

“Hold off on that for a second,” Jason said tightly. “I don’t want to risk switching over while we’re down here. Let me know when we have shields.”

It was another few minutes of tight turns and dodging obstacles, all while bleeding off more speed than Jason could have liked and allowing the pursuing fighters to get closer, before he saw the tactical board light up with a green status on the combat shields.

“Shields up,” he said to Kage before Twingo could open his mouth to let him know the change in status.

“Shields up,” Kage repeated. Jason felt the ship buck a little as the shields disrupted the airflow over the lifting surfaces and the repulsors kicked in to keep them stable. He leveled the wings and snatched the stick back into his lap, sending the Phoenix roaring up out of the chasm.

“Standby to switch over to the main drive,” he said as he continued to pull the gunship into a pure vertical climb. Two quick blasts of weapons fire peppered the aft shields and let Jason know the fighters were much closer than he had anticipated. “Switch over,” he said as he kicked the right rudder pedal and chopped the throttle, pulling the Phoenix into a lazy hammerhead turn. Twingo efficiently switched from main engines and repulsors to the grav-drive so that when Jason pushed the throttle back up to pull out of the dive he had the awesome power of the gunship’s main drive on tap.

Once the ship bottomed out in the dive and was flying level Jason pushed the power all the way up and sent them streaking away from the engagement at an incredible rate of acceleration the smaller fighters simply couldn’t match although they still doggedly pursued. He debated coming back around and keeping the fight down close to the ground, but with the grav-drive now pushing them along he had a definite advantage once they were in space.

“Plot me a course up top,” he said, making his decision. “We’re sure these are just a group of pirates looking for a target of opportunity?”

“Fairly sure,” Doc said. “Those fighters are new, but seem poorly maintained and the fact they haven’t fired any missiles at us makes me think they don’t have any. Someone looking to force us down because of Kalette would almost certainly have deeper pockets and better equipment.”

“Makes sense to me,” Jason said. “Once we reach orbit plot me a course to the outer part of this system. We need to figure out a destination while the slip-drive is charging.”

“We’ll have weapons online in a few minutes,” Kage said.

“I’m not interested in shooting down a bunch of small time criminals,” Jason said. “We can escape without incurring any damage and they’ll be fortunate enough to live and steal another day.”

“Actually, they will likely go back and dismantle our cargo ship and sell it for parts after they realize they cannot catch the Phoenix,” Lucky said. Jason just stared at him in horror as he realized they’d left their other ship parked on the tarmac with the cargo ramp still lowered.

“Son of a bitch.”

****

“So now that we have a faster ship, we have to figure out what our plan of attack is,” Jason said. “We can’t just fly to the edge of Avarian space and begin broadcasting that we have one of the hostages.”

“We need to find the netjere,” Kalette insisted.

“That’s not exactly practical,” Jason said gently. “We’ve not even been able to determine who abducted her, much less where they would have taken her.”

“So that’s where we start,” Twingo said. “We need intel more than anything else at this point.”

“I still do not understand why you can’t simply take me back to Avarian space and allow the Sovereign’s intelligence service to take over,” Kalette said.

“A few reasons,” Jason said. “For one, I’m not sure I want to invite foreign agents into ConFed space to operate freely. I’ve got no love for them, but I also don’t want to be partially responsible for people getting hurt when this inevitably turns bad and the shooting starts.

“The big reason, however, is that I’m completely certain your abduction was an inside job, and your boss’s intelligence agency would be at the top of a short list of suspects. If we fly you back you’ll be squeezed until they get everything of use out of you and then they’ll dispose of you. We would mourn your death if we could, of course, but we’ll have been dead long before that as there is no way they’d let us leave Avarian space after being in contact with you for so long.”

“I see,” Kalette said, paling noticeably and placing her hands flat on the table to steady them.

“And now we’re back to where we started,” Kage said. “Who do we know that would have access to any sort of intelligence service that might have heard something?”

“The Eshquarians?” Doc asked.

“No,” Jason shook his head. “They’ve had two full election cycles since we last helped them. Nobody there is going to talk to us.”

“Crisstof is out,” Twingo said.

“Oh yeah,” Jason laughed. “That’s not happening. Besides, if he knew anything he’d have already acted on it instead of chasing Kalette down at the behest of ConFed Intel.”

“There is someone we could ask for help,” Twingo said hesitantly.

“Who?”

“Galvetic Marine and regular Legion infantry units have been deploying across the quadrant since Mazer’s successful pilot program on Crisstof’s ship,” Twingo said, talking fast before Jason could cut him off. “Crusher is back in command of the legions and is in charge of all the deployed units. Those warriors are likely feeding intel back to him continuously as they go about their assignments.” Jason maintained a neutral face, forcing himself to consider the option before dismissing it out of hand.

“It won’t work,” he said finally. “Even if the deployed warriors had given him something related to this situation I don’t think Crusher would just give it to us.”

“I think you might be letting your own feelings get in the way,” Doc said. “Crusher left on his own terms, but I don’t think he harbors any lasting animosity towards us.”

“Not you guys: me,” Jason said. “For whatever reason, he feels I’m personally responsible for what happened to him. I’ve tried to reach out to him a few times and have never gotten a response.”

“Well we need to figure something out,” Twingo said, sounding annoyed. “We can’t just fly around until we run out of fuel or get lucky. How about this … we go to Galvetor and Doc and I will approach Crusher. He was at least staying in contact with us and might be persuaded to give us the information we need if nothing else.” Jason kicked the idea around in his head for a few moments before answering.

“Fine. Set a course for Galvetor. When we land you two go talk to him and then we’ll leave right afterward,” he said.

Chapter 11

Jason hadn’t been to the Galvetor system for years, not since they’d been instrumental in stopping a military coup by elements of the Galvetic Legion leadership. The Phoenix flew through the system unchallenged, their identification codes still valid for unrestricted travel all the way to the surface of both habitable planets in the system. He was certain, however, that the codes flagged and Crusher was already aware they were in the system. His suspicions were confirmed when neither Doc nor Twingo could raise him with a personal com message.

“Maybe he’s going to meet us at the landing pad,” Kage said.

“I’m sure someone is,” Jason said. “Speaking of, do we have a landing destination yet?”

“It just came in,” Kage said. “We’re being directed to the smaller auxiliary spaceport outside of the capital.”

“Not exactly the VIP treatment considering what we’ve done for them,” Twingo snorted.

“I’ll be happy to be allowed to land, and leave, without too much hassle,” Jason said.

“Does your friend hold grudges for a particularly long time?” Kalette asked.

“He can,” Jason said. “And this seems to be one of those times.”

They flew in the rest of the way to Galvetor without further contact with anyone on the planet. Even the descent through the atmosphere was oddly quiet, all the course correction data coming through the automated systems. The first person they saw was a bored looking gelten, the actual name of Crusher’s species, negligently waving a pair of light-wands letting Jason know he needed to taxi into the hangar in front of him and not to shut down on the ramp.

The gear touched down gently, but when Jason grabbed the taxi control a loud screech came from somewhere in the aft part of the ship and there was a shuddering vibration through the hull, but no motion. He looked guiltily at Twingo, who only shook his head in quiet condemnation.

“Sorry,” he said as the engineer looked away in disgust. Jason reached over and decoupled the drive motors from the wheels and throttled up the drive just slightly to push them into the hangar while the gelten continued to gesticulate wildly, apparently not wanting to stand outside any longer than necessary.

The Phoenix lurched to a hard stop, the actuators on the right main gear hissing and spitting fluid across the hangar floor. Jason switched all the primary flight systems to standby, not wanting to shut them completely down until he was sure they wouldn’t be leaving in a hurry. The others were milling about impatiently on the main deck once he was satisfied with his security measures and walked off the bridge.

“We in a hurry?”

“I am,” Kalette said.

“I could use something to eat that didn’t come out of that food synthesizer,” Kage said, pointing towards the galley. “I’d almost forgotten how bad that thing is.”

“Really?” Jason asked, surprised. “You never said anything.”

“Are you serious?” Kage asked as he fell in line with the rest of the group as they walked towards the hatch that led to the cargo bay. “I complained about it nonstop.”

“That should teach you a lesson about your incessant complaining,” Doc said. “Everyone ignores you.”

“You all ignored me anyway,” Kage griped as Jason opened the rear pressure doors and dropped the ramp. Jason tuned out the chatter. He could sense that everyone’s nerves were stretched a little tight and the mindless banter was simply a relief valve. As the ramp dropped smoothly to the hangar floor Jason could make out another gelten standing near the base, this one much larger and imposing than the lackey that marshaled them to their parking spot. He knew immediately that this wasn’t a normal gelten, but a Galvetic warrior. He could also see that it wasn’t Crusher.

“Greetings, Jason Burke,” the figure said. “Forgive me for excluding any title you may have but I am unaware of your current status.”

“Morakar?” Jason asked with genuine pleasure as he recognized Mazer Reddix’s brother and a friend. “It’s been a while!”

“It has indeed, my good friend,” Morakar said, seeming pleased that Jason remembered him. “Hello to you all. Lord Felex could not meet you personally, but he asked me to convey his best.”

“Did he really?” Jason asked.

“I may be taking liberties with his exact words, but I’m sure the sentiment was there,” Morakar said uncomfortably.

“It’s okay, I’m sure he’d be happy to see … some of us,” Jason said, clapping the big warrior on the shoulder. “How’s your brother?”

“He’s back on Restaria,” Morakar said. “After Crisstof Dalton’s contract was terminated he decided to work at the training center for a while before deciding if he wants to take another contract with a different unit.”

“Will we be permitted to speak with Crusher?” Lucky asked.

“The Lord Archon does not provide me with his schedule,” Morakar said by way of an apology. “I will stress to him that you wish to see him.”

“While that’d be nice, it’s not actually necessary,” Jason said. “Perhaps you’ll be able to help us out. We’re looking for some intelligence on an incident that happened near S’tora … it’s in the Delphine Expanse near the ConFed outer boundary.”

“I am unfamiliar with that area of space,” Morakar said. “Why do you think we’d have any particular information about an isolated incident there?”

“With the multiple contracts you’re now servicing with Legion personnel we had hoped your intelligence service would be taking advantage of the situation,” Jason said.

“I see,” Morakar said slowly. “And I must ask why you think we’d willingly give you access to such a sensitive resource, should it actually exist.”

“As payment for services rendered,” Jason said. “We did avert a civil war for you, after all without so much as asking for you to foot the bill for the fuel and ammo we burned through.”

“I see,” Morakar repeated, his emphasis on the last word changing the meaning. “If it were up to me I would, of course, see to it that you had anything you asked for. However intelligence is something that I do not oversee. I will have to pass this up my chain of command. Could you perhaps give me something more specific to work with?”

“Sure,” Jason said in an offhand way. “Tell Crusher that unless he wants the full might of the Avarian Imperial Fleet to roll over Galvetor and Restaria in the invasion we’re currently trying to prevent then he should probably just give us what we’re asking for, and then we’ll be on our way.”

“I see.”

****

They were sitting around cooling their heels in a well-appointed reception area, drinking a bitter tea and generally becoming more impatient by the moment when an officious looking gelten walked into the room.

“The Lord Archon will now see you,” he said in a bored tone.

“About damn time,” Jason said, tossing his tea mug onto the serving table from five feet away where it shattered into dozens of pieces and knocked a handful of others to the floor. “Let’s go.” The bored expression on the gelten’s face gave way to mild distress as he eyed Jason’s casual destruction of the carefully prepared serving area.

The crew followed the now-huffy gelten out of the room, Kage’s mocking laughter only slightly drowned out by the gasps and mutters of the other beings that were in the reception area waiting their turn to see whichever government official they were petitioning. Although he’d been maintaining a calm exterior, Jason’s temper had been exponentially climbing since arriving on Galvetor. While he understood Crusher’s wish to leave Omega Force, they didn’t deserve to be treated like what happened to him was their fault.

Jason recognized the hall they were led into from the last time he was on Galvetor, but he was still somewhat taken aback by the sheer size and opulence of Crusher’s new office. Well, that and the sheer ridiculousness of the warrior’s new attire. If he wore a costume from a production of Henry VIII while walking through Time Square it wouldn’t have been more absurd than the outfit Crusher was wearing.

“Captain,” Crusher said stiffly. “You’re looking well.”

“You too,” Jason said. “I can see the sedentary lifestyle of a bureaucrat agrees with you.” At the last comment Jason stared pointedly at Crusher’s slightly expanded midsection. The warrior narrowed his eyes and clenched his jaw as Doc just shook his head in resignation.

“Before you two resume hostilities could we possibly take care of why we came here in the first place?” he said, placing himself between the two of them.

“Certainly,” Crusher said, motioning to the warrior standing by a side door. The Legionnaire immediately pulled the door open and out walked Crisstof Dalton, Kellea Colleren, and two troopers wearing uniforms that identified them as being from the Defiant.

“What the hell is this?” Jason demanded, ignoring the sub-arctic glare from Kellea.

“It seems they had the same idea you did, but they were looking for you and not the missing Avarian princess,” Crusher said, smiling and walking closer to his old crew. “It seems they would like the young girl you’re traveling with handed over.”

“That will not happen without a fight,” Kalette spoke up, her soft voice lined with steel.

“First Attendant, perhaps we could—”

“Shut up!” Jason snapped, leveling a finger at Crisstof. The tone in the room changed and the guards all began looking at each other nervously. “You’re not abducting anyone against their will, Crisstof, greater good or not … or whatever bullshit you’re peddling this time.”

“I see some things never change,” Crisstof said coldly.

“And some things do,” Jason said, directing his comment at Crusher. “You fucking coward. What is this? Some petty payback for—” He didn’t get to finish his sentence as Crusher backhanded him across the face with enough force that if he hadn’t turned with it and spun he’d have been taken off his feet. As it was, he was barely able to continue all the way around and maintain his balance. He came back and swung hard, crashing his right fist into Crusher’s face and catching him completely by surprise. But he carried too much momentum and as he was pitching forward the big warrior kicked him hard enough to send him flying.

The room erupted into chaos after that. Crisstof’s troops surrounded him and Kellea, the Legionnaires all tried to move in to protect Crusher, and Kalette simply began screaming. Two warriors grabbed Jason and forced him to the ground. While down there he could see Crusher’s silly boots walking towards him, but there was a pop/whine and the gold on the boots took on a red tinge and he heard Crusher grunt in pain.

“Order your guards to release the captain,” Lucky’s amplified voice boomed, cutting through the confusion. “I will not ask twice,” he said after nobody moved. Jason felt the weight lift off his back and he was able to roll forward and onto his feet. When he bounced up he saw that Lucky was in full combat mode, his eyes blazing red, and had Crusher’s left wrist clamped in his right hand. His left arm, complete with deployed plasma cannons, was aimed at the two guards that were holding Jason down.

“Are you always going to take his side?” Crusher asked, wincing in pain.

“Always,” Lucky said simply. “We will be leaving and taking Kalette with us. Do not attempt to apprehend us or there will be bloodshed.” Crusher angrily shook his arm free from Lucky’s grasp.

“I want you off my planet by tomorrow,” he said. Jason walked back over to where his crew stood, spitting a huge bloody glob onto the carpet right at Crusher’s feet.

“Gladly.”

They were all in the hallway, still somewhat wary, when Jason heard his name called from the door. He turned back and saw Kellea standing there alone.

“I’ll catch up,” he told Lucky. “Make sure Kalette makes it safely back to the Phoenix.”

“It’s been a long time,” Kellea said uncomfortably as Jason approached.

“Two years and nine months,” Jason confirmed. “I hope you’re not wanting an apology from me, Kellea. I understand your point of view, but I stand behind my actions.”

“I know,” she said. “I don’t expect you to. I just wanted to know why you never tried to contact me afterward.”

“Your message was fairly explicit,” Jason said, now thoroughly confused.

“I was angry,” she said. “I didn’t think you would actually listen. You never did about anything else I said.”

“This was different,” Jason said. “And if you really wanted to, you could have contacted me after some time had passed.”

“I could have,” she said with a nod, looking away. “After talking to Doc about how you’d been living I wasn’t sure it was something either of us wanted.” Jason opened his mouth to reply, but could only nod in agreement.

“It was good seeing you, Kellea,” he said instead, turning and walking away. She stared after him for a moment before walking back into Crusher’s office and rejoining an irate Crisstof.

Jason hustled down the hall, hoping to catch up with his crew before they were outside, and nearly collided with Kage.

“We’re not going back to the ship,” his diminutive friend said. “Morakar met us out here and arranged for rooms in one of the boarding halls here on the campus. He’s also arranging for a work crew to repair the landing gear on the Phoenix. Twingo’s on his way back to the hangar to supervise.”

“I’m guessing this is being done without Crusher’s knowledge,” Jason said.

“I couldn’t say,” Kage said. “I would assume so. I think he feels bad for how it went down in there.”

“I guess we all do,” Jason said. “Lead on.”

****

The hard knock on the door nearly made Jason jump out of his skin. He trusted Morakar, but he was still not completely comfortable staying in the boarding house and even less comfortable that Kalette was in a separate room, even if it did have an adjoining door.

“I’ll get it,” he said as Lucky stood up. Jason had wanted the battlesynth guarding the First Attendant, but both had steadfastly refused and he was once again reminded that “Captain” was a completely honorary title among his crew as they routinely refused any orders they didn’t feel like following. Lucky was more concerned about Jason’s safety and Kalette was still a little uncomfortable being around Lucky alone for some reason.

As soon as Jason pulled the handle back on the wall to disengage the door latch it was kicked in with such force that it sent him airborne. He landed in the middle of the room on his back hard enough to knock the wind out of him and when he looked up Crusher strode through the doorway, dressed in black casual clothes and eyes blazing with anger.

“All this time and this is how you come to me?” Crusher snarled. “Walk into my home and insult me in front of my people? Is this what you’ve been reduced to?”

“Well, well, well,” Jason said, climbing to his feet as he felt his own anger begin to boil inside, the familiar rushing sound in his ears welcome this time. “Looks like they didn’t neuter you after all when they stuffed you into that idiotic outfit. Takes a real hard-ass to blindside someone with a door, doesn’t it pretty boy?” Jason’s obvious reference to the scars Crusher still bore from his time in Duat was the final straw. Crusher roared and came at him, but Jason had been expecting it and rolled to the side and backwards, able to get himself at an angle where he could drive his knee square into the top of Crusher’s head.

They both went down in a heap, each struggling to get purchase on some vital area on the other. For his part, Lucky simply crossed his arms and stood in the doorway, watching. Crusher was technically stronger, but he was horribly out of shape. Jason hadn’t exactly been taking care of himself either, but he had the advantage of Doc’s genetic tweaks keeping him lean and fit. Once Crusher realized that he wouldn’t be able to simply overpower Jason he resorted to more underhanded means.

“Ow!” Jason screamed. “No biting you fat bastard!” He grabbed and handful of the sensory organs on Crusher’s head that resembled dreadlocks from a distance and twisted. Crusher immediately let go of his hold and arched his head up, trying to relieve the pressure and when he did Jason delivered three short chops right into his throat.

“Ah!!” Crusher gasped, shoving Jason away. “I’ll show you fat you ugly, pale little worm! You left me on that planet to die!”

The big warrior leapt up and tried to use all his weight to drive his fist down into Jason’s chest, but the human rolled to the side with surprising speed and Crusher’s fist slammed into the reinforced concrete floor, the sound of either the floor or bones breaking was heard clearly. Crusher looked at Jason in surprise as he realized the sound might have come from his arm. Jason wasted no time and planted his left palm down so he could swing a wide, powerful kick right into the warrior’s face.

Crusher saw it coming and lowered his head enough that Jason’s ankle smashed right into the hardened crest that ran down the warrior’s forehead. Jason howled in pain and grabbed his ankle, blood already soaking the socks he was wearing. Although Crusher was able to save his face, the blow from Jason’s enhanced muscles and reinforced skeleton had still scrambled his brains a bit. Jason rolled over onto him and began driving hard punches down into his face while he was too dazed to defend himself.

“I gave up everything to save you!” he bellowed as he hit him. “I lost my girl! I lost my crew! I lost everything to get you back you ungrateful fuck!”

Crusher managed to get a leg up and around Jason’s neck and heaved, flipping him over backwards and into the floor. Jason rolled back up to come at him again, but Crusher managed another kick as he was back peddling that sent Jason to the floor again. The big warrior tried to stand but crumpled back against the wall, his eyes glazing over as he fought to remain conscious. Lucky observed the entire thing with an air of boredom, actually looking out the window at one point.

Jason hobbled over to the bed, sucking air in through his teeth as he gingerly peeled the sock back to look at the damage. He may as well have tried to kick a hole through a starship hull for as much as Crusher’s head gave. While he did this Crusher shook his head a few times, trying to clear the cobwebs. Both combatants eyed each other wearily, seeing who would be the first to react.

It was Crusher who broke first, a small snort escaping his mouth and a small smile playing across his face. Jason was able to hold his angry glare for a moment longer, then a chortle escaped before he could stop it. That broke the dam and soon both were laughing so hard tears were streaming from their eyes. While the pair laughed uproariously at how ridiculous they both were Lucky went to the small kitchenette and retrieved a pair of bottled brews, some towels, and a few ice packs that he wordlessly distributed to the fighters.

“Ah, shit,” Crusher said after a moment. “Maybe we just should have done that and got it over with a couple of years ago.”

“I think it’s better we waited until we were both slow and out of shape,” Jason said, wrapping the towel around his ankle to stop the bleeding. “How’s the arm?”

“Not broken,” Crusher said, moving his wrist experimentally. “I guess it was the floor that gave.”

“Nothing broken here,” Jason said, flexing his ankle. “Just tore the skin open.”

“I was so scared, Jason,” Crusher said quietly, looking his friend in the eye. “It’s one thing to be in battle or to know you’re about to die, but being locked up in a place like that knowing there’s no escape … I’ve never known fear like that. It changes a person, I think.

“At first I held out hope that rescue was coming, but as the weeks went by and nobody came, I began to lose hope. Soon, I was blaming all of you for leaving me there. My anger towards you kept me going as they would come again and again to torture me and force me to fight the pathetic creatures that inhabited that place.

“The day I was dragged into a cage with a pair of nyphens I knew that it was my day to die, and I was determined to not go out without a fight. When I heard your voice that day and realized that you had come back for me I was so ashamed of the months I had spent hating you. After you pulled me out of that hell, I knew I wouldn’t be able to stay.” Crusher’s story trailed off as he ran out of steam, leaning back against the wall and staring off into space.

“I won’t pretend to know what you went through,” Jason said after a moment. “I’m also not sure I wouldn’t have taken the easy way out after the same amount of time you were in there.”

“You’re a survivor, like the rest of us,” Crusher said. “You’d have been miserable and eventually went insane, but you’d have kept on going. So what now?”

“What do you mean?” Jason asked. “If you want a second round you’re going to have to give me a week or so to heal up.”

“I mean what happens now with us?” Crusher asked.

“We were always good,” Jason said. “Maybe if we both weren’t so stubborn and prideful we’d have talked before now. I’ll admit that I was angry you left even though I understood why. I’ve spent the last couple of years blaming you for the crew splitting up and a half dozen other things. Let’s just agree we both weren’t without blame and move on.”

“Agreed,” Crusher said, wincing as he climbed to his feet. “The reason I actually came down here was because I think we may have what you’re looking for.”

“But you attacked me instead?” Jason said.

“It was sort of a spur of the moment thing when I heard your voice,” Crusher said with a sheepish look. “Sorry.”

“Never mind,” Jason said with a wave. “What is it you think you have?”

“We had a small expeditionary unit filling a contract as a security force on a planet near the ConFed boundary,” Crusher said. “They reported a ConFed agent taking a special interest in what appeared to be a trafficking exchange, but could have been an abduction just as easily. The handoff of two bipeds with hoods over their heads to someone flying a ship that Crisstof claims matches the description of the one Kalette escaped from.”

“It’s always good to have independent confirmation, but I don’t think this puts us any closer to the netjere than we were before,” Jason said.

“We still have the agent,” Crusher said with a smile.

“Well now, that’s a whole different thing,” Jason said. “Why would your troops abduct an agent?”

“We’ve been expanding our intelligence operation fairly quickly,” Crusher said. “We snag targets of opportunity like this when we can.”

“Still seems like a risky game to play with ConFed Intel Section,” Jason countered.

“It’s minimal,” Crusher said. “We don’t plan on letting him report back what happened. Do you want to see him or not?”

“I didn’t come all this way for nothing,” Jason said. “Let me figure out how the hell I’m going to put my boot on over this balloon that used to be my ankle and we’ll be on our way.”

“Take your time,” Crusher said. “I’m still seeing double and I can’t feel the left side of my body.”

****

The trip to the detention area wasn’t an especially long one, but the security measures they had to go through made it time consuming. There had been much concern about Jason’s neural implant and the possibility that it could record anything he saw or heard. While he knew for a fact it could, Jason didn’t contradict Crusher when he explained it couldn’t and bluffed his way through all the checkpoints.

“I don’t technically have any authority over the intelligence service, but I’m well enough connected that nobody wants to press the issue,” Crusher said as they walked down a dark, dank passage lined with heavy alloy doors that was so cliché as a prison Jason almost laughed. “This is it.”

The agent was sitting on the small bunk and looked like he hadn’t been very well fed or allowed to clean himself. Jason bit down the admonishment that was on the tip of his tongue and let Crusher handle things. This wasn’t his planet or his culture, but he wasn’t all that comfortable with how Galvetor’s expanding influence included illegal abductions and imprisonments. He realized that his own trail of bodies behind him made that mildly hypocritical, but there was something about the fact this agent wasn’t grabbed for a specific purpose that didn’t sit well with him.

“We’d like to know about that abduction I talked to you about earlier,” Crusher said without preamble. “Don’t leave out any details.”

“I’m not—” Crusher didn’t let him finish the sentence. He motioned for orderly outside, who then came in and pressed an injector to the agent’s neck and pressed the button.

“He’ll be more compliant in a few minutes,” the orderly remarked before leaving.

“Seriously?” Jason asked, unable to keep silent any longer.

“What?” Crusher asked.

“This is so unethical and immoral that I—”

“Do we really want to get into a conversation about comparative morality right here, right now?” Crusher asked. “Let me remind you that you’re the man who tossed an agent from the back of a ship that was at ten-thousand meters altitude when it suited his purpose.”

“Fair enough,” Jason said, raising his hands. “I’m just making sure my objections are noted.”

“He’s coming around,” Crusher said. Jason looked closely and the agent’s eyes seemed to have trouble focusing, but he couldn’t be sure since his species had enormous eyes with three pupils that could see in multiple bands of the spectrum.

“Are you referring to the abduction of the two young Avarian females?” the agent said in a wooden voice.

“Yes,” Crusher said slowly and clearly.

“I was assigned to watch over the Galvetic Legion units that had been assigned to that world,” the agent began. “There has been much concern to the fact that Galvetor has decided to enter quadrant politics. While there I witnessed two ships land near the logistics hub the Legionnaires were guarding and two bipeds were dragged forcibly from one to the other.

“As the receiving ship took off I moved to the remaining ship to investigate as trafficking of slaves has become an issue in that sector recently. I overheard one of the crewmembers state that she was glad to be rid of their cargo and that Avarians had such a high opinion of themselves. Another mentioned that the money was good and all they’d had to do was take the females and run them a short distance to the planet.” Jason was about to interrupt to ask a question but Crusher put a hand on his chest and shook his head.

“The crew the Avarians were handed off to was not their final destination,” the agent continued. “I could not hear the full conversation, but I specifically heard the word Vyrt before I had to retreat to prevent being discovered. I placed a tracker on the ship’s hull and was crossing the landing area when two Legionnaires grabbed me. That is all I remember from the incident.”

The agent stared straight ahead after he had concluded his recitation. Jason waved a hand in front of his eyes and saw that they didn’t even flicker to track the movement.

“Creepy,” he said.

“The drug is quite potent,” Crusher agreed. “You recognize that name, right?”

“Vyrt? Yeah, but he can’t mean the same thing we’re thinking of,” Jason said. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“It’s an Auk’irt word for ‘dirt’ or ‘soil’ so it could either mean the planet we’re thinking of or it could mean any planet an Auk’irt was referring to and that’s what the translation came out to,” Crusher said. “But it’s still a place to start.”

“Maybe,” Jason said doubtfully. “But why would an Auk’irt be involved? That makes even less sense than taking the netjere to Vyrt. They’re literally an endangered species from what I understand.”

“Do you have any better leads?” Crusher asked.

“Fine, I guess we’re going to … Wait! Ask him what sort of tracker he put on that ship’s hull,” Jason said excitedly.

“Ah!” Crusher said, nodding his agreement before leaning back down to his captive. “What type of tracker did you place on the ship?”

“DST-501,” the agent said. “It is capable of transmitting a signal while the ship is in slip-space and utilizing the ship’s own engines to get a signal out.”

“Impressive,” Jason muttered.

“You will provide us with the access codes for the tracker’s transmissions,” Crusher said, waving the orderly back in and miming that he needed something to write on. The orderly pulled a generic tablet of his cart and passed it to Jason so he could hand it to Crusher.

The agent grabbed the tablet and punched in a seventeen digit numeric sequence before handing it back. “The code will do you no good without the listening station decryption routines,” he said. “We are not provided those.” Crusher looked at Jason questioningly and Jason nodded back to him that he had everything they needed.

“You have been very helpful,” Crusher said to the agent. “You may now go to sleep.”

“Thank you,” the agent said before simply falling over onto the bunk. He appeared to be sound asleep even though his neck was bent at an odd angle.

“See to him,” Crusher said to the orderly.

“Yes, my lord,” the orderly said quickly, giving away where his political loyalties lie. Jason quickly memorized the code with the help of his implant and then wiped the tablets memory before tossing it back on the cart. He and Crusher remained silent until they were outside and walking towards the car.

“Will Kage be able to break that encryption?” Crusher asked.

“It’s a ConFed Intel code, but fairly low level I would assume since it’s only broadcasting a position of non-ConFed assets,” Jason said. “I don’t think he’ll have any trouble.”

“So where to first? Find the ship or Vyrt?

“I think finding the ship should be the first priority,” Jason said. “I can’t afford a wild goose chase to a place like Vyrt without something a little more concrete.”

“That makes sense,” Crusher said. “The landing gear on the Phoenix should be fixed by now. It would probably be best to get out of here before Crisstof finds out you have a solid lead.”

“Kicking us off the planet so soon?” Jason joked.

“No,” Crusher said seriously. “I’m going with you. I’ll meet you at the hangar in one hour.” Jason stared at Crusher’s departing back for a moment, slack jawed.

“Well, I guess the band is back together,” he said to himself as he walked to the waiting car that would deposit him back at his room.

****

“Dinner was delightful,” Crisstof said idly as he walked out onto the veranda. “It’s amazing how cosmopolitan Galvetor has become in such a short time.”

“I suppose,” Kellea said without much interest.

“You could always just go to the boarding hall they’re staying in,” Crisstof said, her indifference very obvious even to someone as preoccupied as him.

“I mean no offense when I say this, but I have no intentions of discussing my personal life with my employer,” she said respectfully. “Even one as close as you.”

“Understood,” Crisstof said, sipping from his glass. He seemed oddly unconcerned given the events of the day, and that automatically made Kellea suspicious. Before she could question him further a familiar rumble reached her ears and seemed to be coming from the auxiliary spaceport that was just outside the capital limits.

Her instincts proved correct when an explosive BOOM rolled across the quiet night and the telltale sight of four plasma engines spewing fire rose into the night sky. As she watched, the Phoenix wheeled over and came back across the city, giving a little shimmy as her engines slammed to full power. The big gunship thundered over the quiet capital before pulling up sharply and climbing into the night sky, still shaking the windows and rattling their teeth even after Kellea and Crisstof had lost sight of her. When she looked over at the older a man she saw a slight smile playing over his lips.

“Always the exhibitionist,” Crisstof said. “I suppose that was meant to impress you or insult me.”

“You planned this,” Kellea said flatly.

“Not precisely, but Captain Burke operates along some fairly set probability lines,” Crisstof said.

“Explain.”

“When Burke wouldn’t hand over the First Attendant to us on S’tora we predicted that he would come here and try to get Felex’s help,” Crisstof said. “When he refused to hand her over even here it eliminated all but one possibility: he was going after the netjere himself.”

“How could you possibly predict that so accurately?” she asked.

“Because despite everything they’ve been through and the hardships they’ve suffered … they’re heroes and they can’t help the things they do,” Crisstof said without a trace of irony. “They were always going to try and save the day … all they needed was a nudge. Goodnight, Captain.” Kellea watched her boss depart, not sure if she should be impressed or revolted at how easily he’d manipulated the situation.

“So Omega Force is back,” she said quietly to the night sky. “May the Gods have mercy on whoever is holding that Avarian princess.”

Chapter 12

“Subtle,” Kage said as the Phoenix clawed her way up out of Galvetor’s gravity well. “Did you want to fire a tactical nuke at Restaria to make sure they know we’re leaving as well?”

“Just having a little fun. When did you turn into such a stick in the mud?” Jason asked.

“Stick in the mud,” Kage said, frowning. “Is that yet another human expression that has something to do with your excrement?”

“What? No,” Jason said. “Literally mud. But other than that, I’m not sure how to explain it. It means stop acting like such an old woman.”

“Ah,” Kage said, going back to the decryption he was already working on. “Have you noticed that as a species you have an unwholesome fascination with your own—”

“How’s the code slicing coming?” Jason asked, cutting off the line of conversation.

“Seems fairly straight forward,” Kage said. “Picking up the slip-space signal from the tracker was easy enough … the first six digits were the unique address. The other eleven are part of a standard handshake encryption. I think the agent was being honest; this looks pretty low level.”

“He had no choice but to be honest with Crusher’s zombie drug,” Jason said. “That was creepy watching someone spill their guts without really being aware of it.”

“It could be fun to get a couple vials of that stuff for parties,” Kage said.

“No thanks,” Jason said. “There are things that have happened on this ship, and likely to me, that I don’t ever want to know about.”

“You have no idea,” Kage said with a disturbing laugh. “Remember when you thought that—”

“What did I just say?” Jason snapped. “I have no desire to know what you degenerates did to me in my sleep or put in my food.”

“Good guesses,” Kage nodded.

Jason just sighed and switched over to the grav-drive for the flight to the edge of the Galvetor System, all manner of disgusting possibilities running though his mind, each more horrific than the last until his skin crawled.

“I’m going to go take a shower,” he said suddenly. “And brush my teeth. The computer can fly the ship to the mesh-out point.”

Kage just stared at him like he’d lost his mind as he fled the bridge and made a direct line for his quarters.

****

“It looks like we’re heading to Vyrt after all,” Jason said as he gathered everyone in the lounge area. It was still strange how pristinely the damage control bots had maintained the ship; even after two and a half years it felt (and unfortunately smelled) like the day he’d left it in that smuggler’s hangar.

“Kage was able to capture three complete burst transmissions from the ConFed agent’s tracker and put together a fairly complete picture of where the ship had been travelling. There were six short-duration stops at Vyrt, likely resupply drops.”

“Am I to understand Vyrt is not a desirable place to be?” Kalette asked after the chorus of groans at the mention of the planet.

“It’s about as bad as you can get,” Crusher said. “The planet’s indigenous population was practically wiped out in a biological attack some three hundred years ago. That left a mostly abandoned world that came complete with hundreds of cities and an existing infrastructure.”

“Sounds like a colonist’s dream,” Jason said, “but what ended up happening was a series of bloody wars for control of the planet. The sad irony is that in addition to the loss of life the wars to obtain Vyrt completely destroyed the world. It’s now nothing but a collection of ruins and fortified enclaves populated by pirates, thieves, and killers. ConFed troops leave it alone and even hardened mercenaries think twice about taking jobs there.”

“So of course, we’re now flying towards it as fast as we can,” Crusher finished.

“You think the netjere could be at this awful place?” Kalette asked in obvious distress.

“The evidence suggests she is, and it does make a lot of sense,” Doc said. “It’s going to be difficult to find her on an entire planet.”

“Not necessarily,” Kage said, smiling at Kalette. “Would you like to tell them, or should I?”

“I do not know what you mean,” Kalette said.

“Of course,” Kage snorted.

“Kage,” Jason said in a warning tone. “Spit it out.”

“Did you ever stop and think why everyone was burning so much energy trying to find the First Attendant when it would be just as useful to directly look for the netjere?” Kage asked. The Veran had an irritating habit of “lecturing” when he’d figured out something the others hadn’t or had information he knew they desperately wanted.

“Because she’d seen the abductors,” Jason said impatiently.

“So? Getting eyes on some paid thugs doesn’t accomplish much,” Kage said.

“You will either tell us what you know, or I will pull your lower arms off,” Crusher said calmly.

“Nice to have you back,” Kage said sourly, hurrying on when Crusher started to get out of his seat. “Okay! I started detecting some strange pings far up the EM band, just into the terahertz radiation portion. At first I assumed my implants were malfunctioning, but a full diagnostic came back with nothing. So I started trying to pinpoint the source and found that it was our new friend here. She has a very specialized organic implant that is sending out pulses, probably waiting for some sort of reply.”

“Kalette?” Jason asked.

“It is true,” she admitted. “I have a device under the skin, near my spine that can act as both a homing beacon and a distress call. The range is quite limited, however.”

“That’s what threw me off,” Kage nodded. “This is operating in a part of the band that isn’t normally utilized for communications. Most short-range radio is in the thirty gigahertz range and anything long-haul is over optical cable or slip-com node if it’s leaving the planet.”

“So they put it in a portion of the band that nobody would likely scan for, even in the event of an abduction,” Jason said.

“Right,” Kage confirmed. “If we can get her over the planet I can have the Phoenix’s sensors listening for the specific reply frequency. It should narrow it down to a couple square kilometers.”

“Not great on a planet like that, but much better than searching the entire surface for months,” Twingo said. “I assume you have the precise frequency and modulation for the netjere’s implant?”

“Yes,” Kalette said. “I can provide you with that information when the time comes.”

“That settles it then,” Jason said, standing up. “Twingo, continue getting the ship back up to one hundred percent. Lucky, you and Crusher prep the gear for a surface excursion.”

“Are we packing for stealth or firepower?” Crusher asked as he stood up.

“Use your own judgment,” Jason said. “While I don’t intend to go down there and start a fight, we have to be able to defend ourselves and secure the release of the netjere.”

“Will only six of you be able to get her back safely?” Kalette asked.

“Three of us, actually,” Jason said. “And we won’t know until we get some eyes on her and whoever is holding her. I will promise you that we won’t do anything that puts her in further danger.”

“That will have to do, I suppose,” she said doubtfully as she eyed the mismatched crew. As everyone began to drift off to start on their individual tasks Kalette stayed behind and Jason could tell she had something else she wanted to say.

“I apologize for withholding information about the tracking implants,” she said. “That is a highly guarded secret and I couldn’t risk letting the information out early.”

“Understood,” Jason said. “I would have done the same thing in your place. I’m not going to interrogate your or pry for information; we’re doing this for your benefit as well as to try and stop any potential military action from the Empire, but I hope you’ll make sure we know everything you do when the time comes.”

“Of course,” she said with a slight bow.

Jason patted her on the shoulder without thinking as he walked off towards the bridge, leaving her standing in the lounge a bit wide-eyed at the casual contact.

For the next four days the crew stayed extremely busy as they prepared the ship, and themselves, for action. Jason marveled at how quickly Crusher was able to whip himself back into shape with just some rudimentary equipment Twingo built for him in the cargo bay and by hours of what looked like the most violent style of yoga in the galaxy. Each day, for most of the day, he would punish himself with increasingly brutal regimens of physical training and sparring with a tireless Lucky. There was also the added benefit of their respective activities keeping them apart for most of the flight. Despite having settled things on Galvetor there was still a noticeable tension in the air when they were around each other.

As Crusher quickly morphed back into his more familiar and imposing form, Jason took the time to refamiliarize himself with the contents of the armory. His previous job had been boring, but it did have the benefit of markedly less violence directed at him or his ship. From what he’d been able to learn about Vyrt, he wasn’t fully comfortable going down without armor, or at least a more complete protective system than the simple hard shell body armor he’d been wearing recently.

His advanced (and very expensive) powered armor that he’d most recently purchased had been jettisoned in dozens of pieces during the mission to recover the Machine, an ancient weapon of almost limitless power, and he hadn’t replaced it since the crew had split up shortly after that trip. After a few moments of thought he opened up one of the rarely used storage lockers and pulled out a long, low crate that was so heavy he was grunting and sweating trying to maneuver it over by the bench. He popped open the lid and looked down on a suit of powered armor that, while a bit outdated, still offered excellent protection.

The armor was a direct replacement for the unit he’d lost while doing a job for the Eshquarian Empire. It was actually a bit better since it was customized for his frame size, whereas the other one was too big to just enough of a degree that it would rub his joints raw. He gave an involuntary shudder upon recalling the mission in which they’d stopped a group of lunatics from dropping an orbital platform onto a populated planet and flicked on the display on the inside of the lid to check the armor’s status.

Everything appeared to be more or less intact, but the power levels were surprisingly low for something that had been sitting dormant for so many years. There had to be a minute draw somewhere that had been bleeding the power unit down. He spun the handle at the end of the case to turn the armor over onto its face so that he could open the access panel on the back and pull the depleted powerpack and take it to the starboard engineering bay for recharging. After verifying that the secondary backup cell was fully charged, he ran a power cable from the case to the work bench and had the suit enter a full diagnostic and calibration cycle.

As he was about to leave the armory he felt the telltale shudder of the Phoenix dropping out of slip-space, but it wasn’t accompanied by any alarmed or panicked screams from his crew. He set the powerpack down and walked out into the port engineering bay in time to see Twingo cursing up a storm and pulling an EVA suit out of a locker.

“Trouble?” Jason asked.

“Probably,” Twingo said. “I’ve been detecting a slight anomaly in our slip-space signature ever since departing Galvetor that I can’t account for. After hearing about the tracker the agent that you and Crusher questioned used and how it worked it occurred to me that we could be carrying a similar device.”

“How could someone plant a tracker on the hull with the security measures active?” Jason asked.

“They weren’t active while that gelten crew was helping me repair the landing gear,” Twingo said. “They had a good five hours of unfettered access to the aft end of the ship.”

“Damn,” Jason muttered. “How long until you can clear the ship?”

“Not long,” Twingo said, waving Jason over to help him into the EVA suit. “I’ll take Lucky with me and we’ll each cover half the ship.”

“Try to bring it back intact if that’s possible,” Jason said, handing Twingo the helmet and the scanner he’d had on the bench next to it. “Kage might be able to dig into it and find out who it belongs to.”

“How will that help?”

“It will determine what our response will be,” Jason said. “If it’s ConFed or Galvetic in origin we’ll just toss it into the recycler. If it came from the Defiant we’re going to have ourselves a little fun first.”

“I’ll try to bring it back in one piece, but if it looks booby trapped I’m just going to let Lucky blast it off the hull,” Twingo said, slamming his helmet down into place and locking it. Jason followed him out to the cargo bay where Lucky already had the rear ramp lowered and was waiting. Crusher walked up beside him, drenched in sweat, as the pair walked through the shimmering atmospheric barrier and out into the black of interstellar space. Jason had done a few spacewalks while they were floating between the stars and it was never something he was completely comfortable with.

“There will be hell to pay if there is a tracker on the ship and it turns out to have come from our intel service,” Crusher said.

“It’s possible one of your guys did it out of habit,” Jason said, “but I think we both know who this belongs to. Crisstof likely hired someone on that work crew to slap it onto the hull.”

“So did Crisstof really change so much or have we just had our eyes opened to how ruthless and underhanded he really is?” Crusher asked after a moment.

“I’d say it has to be a combination of both,” Jason said. “We let ourselves believe that everything we did for him was for a greater good or a noble cause. It let us do some pretty horrible shit and wipe our hands clean afterwards … but the truth is we may have broken our own code more than a few times because we didn’t check up on what he was telling us. I will say that when he made the clear decision to refuse help when we lost track of you in De’Moltia I was extremely surprised. He’s never been able to offer an acceptable explanation for that other than to remind me that we were an expendable asset.”

“It’s always good to figure out who, and what, people really are,” Crusher said.

Jason wasn’t sure what was meant by the comment, but before he could ask Crusher reached out and squeezed his left shoulder in a friendly manner and walked back to the other side of the cargo bay to finish his workout. Jason decided to leave well enough alone and made his way back to the bridge to wait on Twingo’s report.

“It’s definitely from the Defiant,” Kage said after spending the better part of an hour studying the device Lucky had found affixed to the upper surface of the Phoenix’s right wing. “If you give me enough time, I could probably even tell you which of Crisstof’s engineers copied the original ConFed design.”

“I’m more interested in what we can do with it,” Jason said. “We don’t carry any drones capable of slip-space flight, but there has to be a way to screw with Crisstof and lead him on a wild goose chase with this thing.” The others all nodded while Kalette only looked confused.

“I have an idea for a diversion,” Lucky said. “We could deviate from our current course towards an obvious populated planet and let the device report in on the new course. We then drop out of slip-space, attach the device to a missile that has been fitted with a slip-com node, and then let it report one more time on the current position before the missile detonates.”

“That’s good,” Twingo said, nodding. “The tracker has no way to know what velocity it’s actually travelling at, it just detects a slip-space field and begins broadcasting. A few short start-stops could give the appearance of drive troubles and then we rig the missile to blow mid-transmission. It’ll look like we hopped back into slip-space and then blew up. We could even dump some debris in the area so that by the time the Defiant shows up they might actually believe it for a time.”

“I don’t see any obvious problems with the plan,” Jason agreed. “It doesn’t have to be airtight, just keep them in the area and confused long enough that they’ll have to try and backtrack to pick our trail up again.”

“Even a short diversion will suit our purposes,” Kage said. “There is no way that Crisstof is taking the risk of putting the Defiant in orbit over Vyrt.”

“True,” Twingo said. “That’s what he used us for. Those pirates would begin to get very brave with a bright, shiny battlecruiser hanging above them.”

“We’re not hoping to get anyone killed,” Jason reminded them, “just off our back long enough to see if our objective is on the surface.”

Chapter 13

“We made it into the system undetected as far as I can tell,” Kage said as he studied his displays. “I’m not seeing any movement from the planet and no active scans are being concentrated in this area.”

“Good,” Jason said. “Let’s go silent. Full countermeasures and passive sensors only. We’ll creep in as close to the planet as possible while listening for the netjere’s signal.”

“It may not be that easy,” Kalette said. “The range of the device is very limited and if they have her in a well-shielded room it might not be detectable.”

“A bit of a shortsighted design,” Kage said. “But don’t worry. The passives are extremely sensitive and we’re listening to a part of the band that nobody else is transmitting on. Even a bit of leakage on that carrier wave and we should get a good general location.”

“Does the existence of the signal mean that she’s at least still alive?” Jason asked.

“Yes,” Kalette said. “The device is symbiotic in nature … it will cease to function if the host dies.”

“We’ll find her,” Kage said confidently. “Assuming, of course, that she’s still alive and that she’s actually on this planet.”

Kalette began to softly cry, trying to hide it behind her hands. Jason pretended not to notice as he didn’t want to embarrass her. Crusher had no such qualms.

“You’ve made her cry, you inconsiderate bastard!” he charged loudly, standing up and pointing his finger. “Apologize for your behavior!”

Kage looked completely baffled. “What?!”

“You heard me!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Kage said quickly in a high-pitched voice. He leaned up and over so he could see around Jason to the seat in front of a monitoring station where Kalette was now trying to hide her face with both hands. “Oh! Kalette, I’m sorry … better?” He seemed to cast his question to both Crusher and Kalette. When she didn’t answer, Jason climbed out of the pilot’s seat and slid a hand under her upper arm to guide her off the bridge.

“How about we head down the galley and grab a cup of tea,” he said.

She stood without protest and allowed herself to be led. “I am sorry,” she said, her face still splotchy from crying. “I have been trying to hold it in, but to even consider the fact that the netjere might be dead … I will have lost the closest person to me and failed at my sole purpose in life.”

“No need to apologize,” Jason said. “This has to be an enormous burden on you.”

“What type of tea do you have aboard?” she asked, wanting to change the subject as she tried to regain her composure.

“Well … I may have lied about the tea,” Jason admitted. “We have something called chroot that has a similar stimulant effect.”

“Does it taste similar to the tea you had at your house on S’tora?”

“If you strained it through one of Crusher’s dirty socks then yeah … it’s very similar,” Jason said without a trace of humor. I really need to get this food synthesizer upgraded or replaced.

The next thirty-two hours were nothing less than mind-numbing as the Phoenix silently glided into the system towards the second and only habitable planet in the system. The chaos of Vyrt was already reaching them as the com board lit up with near constant traffic and the optical sensors picked up the occasional random explosion in the upper atmosphere.

“I’m starting to remember why we always avoided this place,” Kage said.

“Me too,” Jason said, never taking his eyes off the tactical display. “I’m guessing that in another hour we’re going to be visible to all the active sensor scans coming from the planet even with our countermeasures deployed. It looks like we have at least three factions duking it out in high orbit and I doubt they’ll be courteous enough to allow us safe passage for a few leisurely orbits ourselves while listening for the netjere’s implant ping.”

“If you could keep us in space I’d appreciate it,” Kage said. “I’ve got the passive listening array fully deployed. If you rig for atmospheric flight I’ll have to retract it flush with the hull or it’ll be torn off in the slipstream.”

“No promises,” Jason said. “Just do the best you can with what I give you. Even if the passive array is partially retracted we’ll get an advantage being closer to the signal if we’re flying low.”

“Not by much,” Kage said before surrendering from the glare Jason gave him. “Fine, fine. I’ll try to narrow the filter a little bit more and make do.”

“I think we’ve been spotted,” Doc said. “We were hit with a concentrated tachyon burst and now two ships are breaking away and moving out this way, slow but steady.”

“I’ve got ‘em,” Jason said. “We’ll let them commit a bit more before breaking for the planet. Twingo, stand by to bring all our tactical systems online and drop the countermeasures when I say.”

“Isn’t that Kage’s job?”

“He’s busy trying to find a needle in a needle stack,” Jason said calmly. “Today it’s your job.”

Twingo grumbled something about “having four arms for a reason,” but still turned to reconfigure his station to control the ship’s tactical systems as well as monitor engineering functions.

The crew fell silent as they watched the approaching ships on their respective displays with the exception of Crusher, who apparently still had no interest in keeping track of what was happening outside of the ship. Jason adjusted his course a little to port to see if the contacts would turn in on him and to give him a better angle to reach the planet and avoid the main body of the conflict that seemed to be moving towards one of Vyrt’s three moons.

As expected, the ships turned in to tighten their own approach and accelerated, blasting the gunship with active sensor scans. “Drop the countermeasures, Twingo,” Jason said. “Give me full engine power and bring all the tactical systems up.”

“You’ve got engines,” Twingo said. “Full combat mode in just a second.”

Jason smoothly slid the throttle forward and watched on the tactical display as the Phoenix raced ahead of the two raggedy “combat” shuttles that had been running as hard as they could to meet them. Jason effectively put the gunship behind them as he flew past their intercept vector and turned to starboard before they could react.

“They won’t be an issue,” Doc said. “The sensors show that even if they’d opened up with everything they’re carrying it wouldn’t have even weakened the shields.”

“Just remember, they have overwhelming numbers on their side and a ship this modern is an even more enticing target than the Defiant would be,” Jason said. “If they think they have a good chance of capturing her intact they may set aside their differences for the moment and come after us.”

“Atmospheric entry in thirty seconds,” Kage called out. “Kalette, if there’s anything you need to do to get her implant singing, now would be a good time.”

Jason could see the young female close her eyes and furrow her brow in concentration before all his attention was on dodging the bulk and trailing debris field of a derelict ship in a low, decaying orbit. After that it was smooth going as the Phoenix’s shields slammed into the mesosphere and the canopy was temporarily obscured by the superheated plasma generated by their entry.

“I’m executing pre-plotted course Bravo,” Jason said to Kage. “I want to keep in the dark as much as possible and Alpha takes us across the terminator and into daylight.”

“Adjusting sensor profile,” Kage said. “I’m feeding deviations to your nav panel now. There are a couple of cities that look more promising than others.”

“Making corrections now,” Jason acknowledged. He and Kage had worked out four possible courses they could execute once down in the atmosphere, each flying a snaking route over the surface of Vyrt at an altitude of seventeen thousand meters. The passive sensor array in its retracted mode of operation should still be able to pick up the faint signal.

“Anything, Kalette?”

“Nothing yet,” she said tensely.

“Don’t hesitate to call out if you pick something up and our sensors don’t catch it,” Jason told her.

“I will tell you if I detect anything,” she said. “Now please leave me be. This takes all my concentration.”

The statement brought another question to Jason’s mind, but he let it go and concentrated on flying the ship. He gritted his teeth and reached out with his neural implant, trying to sync up to the Phoenix. This time, despite the horrific pain in the front of his head, the computer coupled up successfully and soon he was able to look down “through” the ship as the sensor feeds were piped into his visual cortex.

“I can’t believe this used to be a thriving planet of billions,” he remarked as they overflew deserted cities dotted with the flashes of sporadic weapons fire, weak portable lights, and fires that seemed to mark encampments.

“It is depressing,” Kage agreed. “I see you managed to restore your connection. I’ll populate your threat board for you.” Immediately blue circles and green hexagons began popping up in Jason’s field of view to mark points of interest or potential threats. A few red triangles flashed twice over certain things to mark an imminent threat.

“I’m getting something,” Kage said.

“I think I have something,” Kalette said a split second later.

“I’m sending you a marker,” Kage said. “The city to the south. I picked up a momentary blip in the right frequency range.”

“I have no way to pinpoint direction so precisely,” Kalette said apologetically. “But I felt something that was consistent with the netjere’s implant responding to my own.”

“Good work you two,” Jason said. “That may have been the easy part, but at least we have strong evidence that the netjere is alive and here on Vyrt. Kage, refine your sweep and I’m going to give you a high speed, high altitude pass over the city. I want you to pinpoint a building or whatever that she may be held in.”

“Wouldn’t low and slow be better?” Doc asked.

“It sure would,” Jason said. “But then we’d be assured that they would spot us and likely get a few shots off. Let’s not kid ourselves, gentlemen … these are not amateurs. They may be hiding out with the bush league but these are motivated and skilled professionals … I think.”

“You think?” Crusher asked.

“Look … all I’m saying is that anybody with enough juice to steal a princess from a neighboring superpower is likely able to afford ground-based sensors and weaponry that would cause us a problem if we went bumbling in there,” Jason said.

“Then they also likely have an entire regiment down there guarding her,” Crusher pointed out.

“I’m hoping they’re trying not to attract attention,” Jason said. “Everything has a price on this planet, especially information. You roll in here with a professional army and half the sector will know about it within the week. Standby, we’re going up to thirty thousand meters. Kage, this will be a small window for you to get a fix.”

“I’m ready,” Kage said.

“What the hell is a bush league?” Twingo whispered to Doc, who only shushed him and never looked up from his terminal.

Jason pulled the nose up as he banked to the south and advanced the throttle all the way to the stop, sending the Phoenix screaming off into the night. The gunship quickly went hypersonic and within minutes was approaching the city that wasn’t even visible to the naked eye, but the multi-spectral optics let Jason see the crumbling ruins in stark detail.

The altitude helped them stay on target for a bit longer, but it seemed as soon as the city came within range they were already over it and continuing south, hopefully sounding like a ship re-entering the atmosphere to any attentive observers on the ground. The heavy and chaotic traffic over the planet was a constant risk, but it seemed like it might actually work in their favor this time.

“I’ve got it down to what appears to be two city blocks,” Kage said, shaking his head in frustration. “Sorry, Captain … that’s the best I can do with such a weak signal at that speed and altitude.”

“That’s good enough,” Jason said. “That’s much, much better than narrowing it down to just a planet or just a city.”

“So what’s next?” Crusher asked, his knee bouncing in anticipation.

“We’re going to get dropped off outside the city and then we’ll make our way in to see what’s what,” Jason said, pulling the throttle back and nosing them over into a spiraling dive that would get them away from the sensors of the space battle that seemed to still be in full swing overhead.

“It would have been advantageous to have brought a ground vehicle,” Lucky said. “We do not have much darkness left and it will be a long walk to the spot indicated by Kage.”

“We may have to find a spot to hole up during the day,” Jason said. “Let’s ration for at least a two-day trip with the expectation of being extracted on site by the ship. A vehicle will draw too much attention and roaming around through the gang-controlled areas in the daylight wouldn’t be smart.”

“You’re worried about some backwater thugs who can’t even get a generator running to light up their block?” Crusher asked.

“I’m worried about being delayed to our objective,” Jason corrected. “This is a three-man incursion, in and out, and if we do it right they’ll never know we were there until we’re leaving. I have no desire to fight my way across this city for no reason.”

“I think you’re being wildly optimistic,” Crusher shrugged. “Air support?”

“The Phoenix will be on hot standby near the city, but not in flight directly over it,” Jason said, holding his hand up to ward off the argument he could already see brewing. “Think about it, Crusher … this ship is loud and unique on a planet like this. By the third lap whoever is holding the netjere will be well aware that an attack is coming.”

“Sounds like a blast,” Crusher said, forcing a smile. “I’ll meet you in the armory.”

“What was that all about?” Twingo asked when Crusher and Lucky had left. Jason almost blurted out that he thought Crusher was nervous since it was his first mission since the De’Moltia debacle, but he stopped himself just as he opened his mouth.

“I’m sure he’s just excited to get going,” he said instead. “It’s been awhile since he’s had any action and the last ass he kicked belonged to me.”

****

Jason watched as the Phoenix lifted off, raising the ramp and extinguishing her running lights as she climbed away into the night. Doc had dropped them off near the outskirts of the city, whose original name was long forgotten, and would be repositioning the ship in a lightly forested area fifteen kilometers away where he would leave the engines running and the weapons charged, waiting for word from the three-man strike team.

“Just like old times,” Crusher said as the sound of the gunship receded into the distance.

“Let’s hope we do a little better this time,” Jason said as he checked the charge on his plasma rifle. In addition to the standard infantry weapon he had two sidearms, a large molecular-edge knife, and his trusty railgun secured to his armor’s back. He also carried a light pack with medical supplies, water, and two days’ rations attached to anchor points on the armor. Crusher carried a similar, loadout while Lucky carried a pack of his own with more extensive medical equipment and some other specialized tech that would be of use if they actually found the Avarian princess and she was injured or otherwise unable to move. “Lucky, you have the best sense of direction and sensors so you take point. I’ll bring up the rear. No unnecessary risks or contact with the locals. We’ll move with the intention of bedding down before morning and resuming the next night. We’ll reevaluate if we’re making good time.”

“This way,” Lucky said and walked off towards the dim orange glow of the fires reflecting off the rotting skeletons of the city’s buildings.

The trio made quick progress by skirting up a few back alleys and avoiding the clusters of boisterous toughs that were hanging out in front of the main entrances to what were once beautiful buildings that reached the sky. There was also a lot more debris along their path than Jason would have thought. Much of their time was climbing over substantial chunks of building that had fallen down or had been blown off during one of the wars for control of the planet.

They ran into a few independent contractors in the early part of their mission, single operators who weren’t affiliated with any particular gang, feeling they were better off trying to steal from the few stragglers they would catch out at night. One look at a battlesynth, Galvetic warrior, and one other heavily armored biped, however, was all it took to convince them to wait for the next potential victim. While the interactions were almost humorous, Jason was concerned about the attention they were attracting. He knew they must stick out as not at all belonging to a local crew, and so must the group holding onto the netjere. It wouldn’t take an especially intelligent being to figure out that the two groups were related somehow and try to sell information about one to the other.

The first major obstacle came up only two kilometers into the city. They had heard the sounds of heavy, sustained fighting when ducking down a side street that paralleled a main road, but they were all surprised at the extent of the firefight. There were at least two hundred combatants dug in behind crude fortifications for at least the next four city blocks.

“Son of a bitch,” Jason swore as he crept up behind Lucky, who was peering around the edge of a collapsed entryway to the building next to them. “We’ll have to backtrack all the way down to that first cross street and try to come up behind all these morons.”

“This is a full-fledged battle,” Crusher said quietly as they watched energy weapon fire blaze back and forth. “They can’t go on too much longer like this.”

“But how long are we willing to wait?” Jason asked, popping up his facemask. “Damn, this thing is a piece of shit compared to the last one I had.”

“I do not see any way to wait for this to clear and still maintain our schedule,” Lucky said. “We will have to find another way.”

Jason slammed the facemask back down in disgust. “Let’s go … no point in wasting time watching the yokels,” he said, reversing their column order and taking point. He led them back down the way they’d come and was consulting the map he had projected on his facemask when the proximity alarm on his armor sounded. Up ahead to the right was just a sliver of something much hotter than the surrounding buildings peeking around a corner and showing up on the thermals like a bright flare. He keyed the team channel and made sure the others spotted what looked like someone lying in wait. “You guys see that up ahead, right?”

“Yes.”

“Affirmative.”

“Let’s close up ranks. I want you both close enough to grab or blast them if they try anything when I walk by,” Jason said and slowed down so the other two could crowd up behind him. It wasn’t a smart tactic, as a single explosive round or trap could take out the whole team, but Jason thought it was a minimal risk for the thirty seconds it would take to see what was hiding up ahead.

As soon as he walked by he could see a shadow try to press itself even further into the corner before Crusher, apparently having formulated a plan of his own and neglecting to tell the others, shot his arm into the corner and pulled out a squealing, struggling little Veran.

“You’ll want to be quiet unless you want us to toss you into that melee behind us,” Crusher said. The Veran stopped struggling immediately, but Jason could see the two smaller arms moving up as he thought Crusher was too distracted to notice. He walked over and pushed the plasma rifle against the alien’s midsection.

“We know all about your smaller arms there, friend, and how sneaky you can be with them,” Jason said. “Put them down or we’ll kill you here and move on.”

“I wasn’t doing anything,” the Veran protested. “I had an itch.”

“Looks like all Verans are sneaky, underhanded little thieves,” Crusher said, pulling his captive in close and baring his teeth.

“No need for that sort of prejudice or threats of violence,” the Veran protested, still struggling a bit. “You grabbed me, remember? I was just trying to get back home without getting caught up in the fighting.”

“Is there somewhere we can talk that isn’t out in the open?” Jason asked.

“Yes! Good idea to get off the streets right now,” the Veran said enthusiastically. “Just through that sub-basement entrance. It’s where I was actually heading when you interrupted me.”

“Lucky, you first,” Jason said. “Crusher, keep a tight grip on our new friend.”

They carefully moved back across the street to the short, narrow flight of stairs that led down to the dark maw of the basement entrance. Lucky moved confidently down the steps, stopping at the door and reaching around to grab something before they heard a sharp snap.

“I have disabled the antipersonnel trap that was set up in the doorway,” Lucky reported. The Veran began to wheeze as Crusher squeezed his throat at the news. “I will clear the rest of the room. Standby.”

It was another forty-five seconds before Lucky called the all clear and they moved the rest of the way into the basement. Jason could tell right away that this wasn’t where the Veran was calling home, but it also looked like it didn’t see much activity from anyone else.

“So where is your home?” Jason asked. “Nobody has been staying here for quite some time.” All he heard in response were some wet gurgles. “Go ahead and give him enough slack to breath, Crusher. Actually, just drop him … if he runs go ahead and shoot him.” A moment later there was a light thud and some fevered gasping.

“You have a strange way of saying ‘hey, thanks for the help,’” the Veran complained.

“Oh, was that doorway mine you led us into supposed to be helpful?” Jason asked.

“Helpful to me,” the Veran muttered before getting kicked by Crusher. It wasn’t a hard kick, but for the diminutive alien it still elicited a sharp grunt.

“What’s your name?” Jason asked, waving Crusher back a few steps and offering the alien one of his water bottles.

“Why?” the Veran asked while suspiciously sniffing the water before taking a drink.

“I’m going to be honest; we could use a local guide right now,” Jason said, deciding to go for broke. “You seem to have been able to thrive down here by yourself so I’m sure you know every corner and crack in this city.”

“Why should I trust you?”

“We have a Veran on our crew,” Crusher said. “He could vouch for us if you’d like.”

The Veran stared up at Crusher as if he were completely dense. “What the … so you assume that I’ll just take the word of some random Veran you happen to have with you? That’s more than a little offensive … your Veran could be a complete lying ass head for all I know.”

Jason choked off a laugh at how his implant had decided to translate that for him while the others simply nodded in agreement.

“He does have a point, Captain,” Lucky said.

“Forget about who else is on our crew,” Jason said. “What do you want that you think we’d have for trade?”

“When you say ‘crew’ I’m assuming that you have a ship nearby.”

“Possibly,” Jason said evasively.

“I want passage off this planet,” the Veran said, folding both sets of his arms across his torso.

“That’s not practical right now for a few reasons,” Jason said. “Could we work out a trade for the promise of future payment?”

“We might be able to work something out. If you leave supplies and a transponder I can use to contact you with the promise that you’ll find a way to get me off Vyrt, I’ll be willing to provide some limited tour guide services, but the quality of service will be proportional to what you’re willing to give. My name is Jer-An, by the way.” He pronounced it more like ‘Jur-Ann’ but Crusher couldn’t help making the obvious comparison.

“Jerran the Veran,” he said, laughing as he deliberately mispronounced the name. Jason even had a small chuckle himself before he looked and saw the livid expression on Jer-An’s face.

“NOBODY CALLS ME THAT!!” he screeched before running up Jason’s back, climbing with all six limbs, and launching himself through the air and landing with his legs on Crusher’s shoulders, straddling his face. He was holding on with his two smaller arms and raining blows down on Crusher’s head with the other two.

Crusher, his voice muffled by the small Veran body covering his face, was flailing about the room trying to dislodge Jer-An while the smaller alien was still wildly punching and screaming unintelligibly. Jason just stood there, dumbstruck, as a scenario he couldn’t have possibly predicted was playing out in front of him. Lucky, logical as always, walked over and pulled one of Jason’s sidearms off his belt, making sure it was a stunner and not a plasma pistol, and shot the still-berserk Veran in the back. The caterwauling stopped immediately and Jer-An fell off of Crusher’s shoulders to land in a heap on the floor.

“Nice catch, champ,” Jason said with disgust. “We still need him.”

Crusher looked over with a wild look in his eyes and rushed at him. Jason braced, ready for another fight, when Crusher pulled up short and snatched the water bottle from his hand. He was spitting and making gagging noises while using the entire bottle to flush out his mouth and nose. Still retching, he handed Jason the bottle back.

“What the hell? You used one-third of my water to wash your mouth out?” Jason asked.

“You stick your face down there,” Crusher snarled, pointing at Jer-An. “I don’t think he’s bathed in years and I don’t even want to think about what horrors those pants have seen.”

“You should not have opened your mouth to scream,” Lucky pointed out.

“Let’s just drop it,” Crusher said with one more gagging sound and a shudder. Lucky handed Jason his stunner back as Crusher continued to stomp around and mutter curses.

“Why didn’t you just use your own weapons?” Jason asked.

“Why should I use my own energy when you’re carrying a perfectly workable weapon on your belt?” Lucky asked. Jason just rolled his eyes and reattached the weapon with a metallic click.

“What happened?” Jer-An asked, slurring his words as he sat up and rubbed the shoulder where he’d landed.

“We had to stun you,” Jason said. “I apologize for that, but you attacked my friend over there and didn’t seem to be calming down anytime soon.”

“I attacked him?” Jer-An asked, completely confused. “That doesn’t seem very smart.”

“What’s the last thing you remember?” Jason asked. With any luck, the side-effects of the stunner would have smoothed over the entire incident.

“I remember we agreed to terms for my help, but you never said specifically what you could offer besides a promise of later passage,” Jer-An said. “What could have possibly prompted me to attack a Galvetic warrior?”

“A simple misunderstanding,” Jason said, waving it away. “Nothing to worry about now. Shall we get down to specifics?”

“Sure,” Jer-An said, eyeing Crusher nervously. “What is it, exactly, you need?”

“There’s another group of offworlders about four-point-five kilometers slightly north and east of here,” Jason said. “It’ll likely be a small group, well-armed, and not interested in engaging the locals for any reason.”

“Oh, that bunch,” Jer-An said with a nod. “What do you want with them?”

“We have some business with them that you don’t need to know about for your job,” Jason said in a pleasant voice.

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Jer-An disagreed. “If you go in there, cause all kinds of trouble and then leave, they will find out whomever worked with you and make them talk.”

“If we’re successful they won’t be around to cause any more trouble,” Jason said. “We’re only asking for a discreet approach to their location. We’ll handle everything from there.”

Jer-An tapped his chin with his long fingers, considering the offer. “I’ll still want your promise that you’ll find a way to get me out of here,” he said finally.

“Done,” Jason said.

“But because I don’t believe you’ll keep that promise, I’m going to want some other, more tangible items,” Jer-An said. “First, I want a portable slip-com unit. I also want some of the weaponry I see you carrying around.”

“Here,” Jason said, handing him the plasma rifle he’d been carrying. “Anything else?”

Jer-An’s brows went up a notch as he reached out for the weapon. “An armored vehicle?” he asked hopefully.

“If we had one of those we’d be using it right now,” Jason pointed out.

“Just some rations and a water filtration unit then,” Jer-An said.

“Done,” Jason said, standing up. “How long until we can leave?”

“Follow me to where I stay,” Jer-An said. “I’ll need to grab some stuff, but I know a shortcut that will make the trip quick and safe.”

Chapter 14

“Captain, the only way I can get a portable slip-com unit is to take an antenna from one of the Twins,” Twingo said. “Our fabricator isn’t capable of manufacturing that part.”

“Do it,” Jason said. “We won’t need them anytime soon and they each have two.” The semi-intelligent drones that were in launch bays along the Phoenix’s backbone, referred to as the “Twins” by the crew, weren’t often used but they were exceptionally outfitted, including a pair of redundant slip-com systems each.

“I’ll get on it now,” Twingo said before killing the channel.

“My engineer is working on your com unit now,” Jason said as Jer-An was collecting an odd assortment of gear and putting it into an over-the-shoulder bag.

“I heard,” Jer-An said. “Thank you. That makes me slightly more inclined to trust you.”

They had followed Jer-An from the basement to a narrow passageway that seemed to take them to the next building over. From there they had to squeeze down a vertical shaft via a rusty ladder anchored against the wall into a cramped chamber that had a heavy blast door that could be swung up and latched to seal off the tunnel.

“This place used to be a machine room,” Jer-An explained as he saw his guests looking around. “Backup generators and water pumps, mostly. I stripped the machinery down to trade or repurpose and now I stay down here where it’s safe. Not too many people venturing into the lower levels these days.”

“Why not?” Crusher asked in alarm. His dislike of cramped spaces, and especially underground cramped spaces, was legendary.

“The buildings are beginning to fail,” Jer-An said simply. “Surely you noticed all the recent collapses on your way in.”

Crusher actually let out a pathetic whine as he looked around the cramped space, no doubt thinking of being trapped by hundreds of tons of debris if the building overhead decided to give up the fight.

“Don’t worry,” Jer-An said with a laugh. “This building has a hardened alloy structure, not duracrete. Not only that, but there’s a way to escape from this room that doesn’t involve climbing back up that shaft.”

“Your shortcut?” Jason surmised.

“One and the same,” Jer-An said, still smiling. “Give me a hand with the bed.”

Jason grabbed one end of the small bunk and slid it across the room to reveal what looked like just a steel plate the previous machinery would have been mounted to. Definitely too heavy for him to easily lift. Jer-An walked over to the other side of the room and slid a cable/pulley winch across on a track so that it was over the plate. After he’d let out some slack he slipped the hook through a ring on the steel plate and began to pull.

Once the plate was at about a forty-five degree angle Jason could make out a rough-cut tunnel under it leading out of the small machinery room. The jagged edges of the opening led him to believe that Jer-An had likely done this over many years with simple hand tools.

“You do this yourself?” he asked.

“Yes,” Jer-An confirmed. “It took five years.”

“How did you know there was something under there to get to?” Crusher asked, his curiosity overcoming his anxiety.

“I was part of a team that tried to come in and recover suspected cultural artifacts from the next building over,” Jer-An said quietly. “It was a depository for two museums in neighboring cities. Everything was gone, of course, but the people who convinced us to come were adamant that the vault would have withstood against all that’s happened here.

“I’m the only one of my team left alive. The gangs immediately fought it out over our ship, which of course was destroyed in the process. They then went about hunting us down one by one for sport or food.”

“That’s quite a story, Jer-An,” Jason said with real sympathy. “What was your role on the recovery team?”

“Technician,” Jer-An said as he grabbed a headlight and slipped it down over his smooth, bulbous skull. “I had no real interest in cultural treasures from other species. I was just there to keep the equipment running. Anyway … we had detailed schematics of the buildings in the surrounding area as well as the local infrastructure. Once I found and dismantled my hiding hole here I found that this was three-point-six meters above one of the subterranean transit tracks.”

“Ah,” Jason said. “So the subway tracks were actually unmolested? Where I’m from they’re sort of a shelter for vagabonds even when they were in use.”

“Subway … I like that,” Jer-An said. “Short and to the point.”

“Unlike this story,” Crusher mumbled.

“It’s almost over,” Jer-An said indignantly. “You asked me, I didn’t want to bring all this up. As I was saying … once I figured out I was above the old transit tube I began digging away, mostly because I had nothing better to do than avoid being dinner for a few of the more feral species up there.

“When I broke through I was shocked to find it in pristine condition, but as I explored I began finding old tech diagrams and construction equipment. As it turns out our information was incorrect. The tube below us was part of an expansion project that was never finish before the planet was … depopulated. It’s sealed off from the rest of the system and nobody but me knows it exists.”

“This is too perfect,” Jason said quietly to Crusher and Lucky as Jer-An went about tossing a rope ladder down into the hole. “This means that even if the crew holding the netjere is smart enough to seal off subway access they won’t know about these tunnels. Maybe we’ll get lucky and it’ll take us right up under them.”

“When have we ever gotten that lucky?” Crusher asked.

“Are you kidding me?” Jason said. “You just happened to grab the one being on this planet who knows a direct and unfettered way to get to the objective? That’s pretty damn lucky.”

“Oh yes … I felt the soft, warm embrace of fortune earlier,” Crusher said. “Oh wait, that was a filthy little Veran straddling my face, grinding his unwashed—”

“The point is,” Jason said quickly as Jer-An popped his head back up out of the hole, “we have a direct line now and just gained an element of surprise.”

“Are you three going to talk all night or can we get going?” Jer-An said from the opening.

“Let’s go,” Jason said, shouldering his pack and putting his helmet on. “By the way, do you still have the schematics of the surrounding area?”

“I’ve got better,” Jer-An said. “The work crews left more complete and accurate drawings at the worksite near where you want to go.”

****

“This is nice,” Crusher remarked. “Most tunnels we’ve found ourselves in aren’t nearly so clean. This one still even smells like new construction.”

“It is a nice change of pace,” Jason said. “Normally we’d be slogging through a sewer.”

The tunnel they were in was pristine with walls sheathed in some dull alloy and a concrete track bed. The magnetic rails hadn’t been installed yet so the journey was no more stressful than a stroll down a well-maintained sidewalk. Jason knew Lucky would be keeping a close eye on Jer-An for any sort of treachery so he kept the sensors on his armor scanning the surrounding area and his own eyes on where he was putting his feet.

It was a few kilometers before they came to a Y-junction and two more narrow tunnels split off from the main tube they’d been in. Without a word Jer-An took the right tunnel. Jason walked up and reached into Lucky’s pack, pulling out a small black disc and depressing the button in the middle. He stuck it on the flat portion of wall between the two branching tunnels and hustled to catch up, watching as a green status indicator lit up on his helmet HUD.

“Here we are,” Jer-An said after another kilometer and half. “This is as close as this tunnel gets to your objective. The drawings for the surrounding area are up here near the tool carts.”

“How far away are we?” Jason asked Lucky.

“We should be approximately five hundred meters from the epicenter of the estimated location Kage gave for the netjere’s transponder,” Lucky replied, choosing to talk over coms directly into Jason’s helmet instead of vocalizing out loud.

“Here are the plans for the tunnel network, and here are the prints for the buildings and utilities above,” Jer-An said, handing Jason three large, rolled prints.

“Thank God they were still using hard copies back then,” Jason said as he released and removed his gauntlets so he could manipulate the pages. After a few moments he realized that engineering prints weren’t exactly his strong suit, so he rolled them up and handed them to Lucky without a word. The battlesynth quickly spread each one out, committed them each to memory, and handed them back to Jer-An in turn.

“Do you know which building these unknown mercenaries are using?” he asked Jer-An.

“Not exactly,” the Veran said apologetically. “They’ve secured the entire block and have a tight perimeter. It only took a few probes by the locals to learn they meant business. There aren’t a lot of them, but they’re well-equipped.”

“Species?” Jason asked.

“Multiple,” Jer-An said. “Saw a couple of Korkarans and even a pair of synths. Not like your friend here, just normal synths.”

“That’s a relief,” Crusher said. “A pair of battlesynths would be a real problem.”

“You can say that again,” Jason said. “Normal synths aren’t exactly slouches though. We’ll have to figure out our approach carefully.”

“What’s the access topside like?” Crusher asked.

“There’s a shallow ramp over there,” Jer-An said, pointing to an area behind the jumble of tools and building materials. “It leads up to the basement of the building marked D7-1 on the grid drawing. It looks like they were building a reception area for direct access from this transit line.”

“Is it open to the building?” Jason asked.

“No,” Jer-An said. “There’s a large, heavy security door that was in place to keep people out of the tunnel while it was under construction. It can’t be opened from the outside.”

“We’re only a three-man team,” Jason said, frowning. “I need both of you with me.”

“I’ll stay and wait for you,” Jer-An volunteered. “I have a vested interest in your escaping alive and I would also like to keep tabs on you. Once you’ve accomplished your goal it would be easy to just leave without paying up.”

“True enough,” Jason said. “We’ve both got something to lose so that should keep everyone honest. Show us this ramp.”

Jer-An climbed up the ramp and slid open a plastic barrier that looked like it was designed to keep the dirt from the tunnel construction out of the reception area they walked into. The space was done beautifully in onyx woodwork and brushed alloys, all the lines curving gracefully away from the ramp entrance. Jason felt a momentary pang for the species that had been so quickly wiped out, their unfinished work a sort of vulgar memorial to their passing.

“There’s the door,” Jer-An said. “The two times I’ve been here there hasn’t been anybody in this basement, but we should be careful anyway.”

“Extinguish your light,” Lucky said. “I will go in first.”

“No,” Jason said. “I will. You can’t switch to combat mode quick enough if there are multiple targets in there. My armor’s sensors are at least good enough to clear the room. No arguments about this.”

“Of course, Captain,” Lucky said, his posture indicating he wasn’t happy with the order.

Before an argument could break out Jason nodded to Jer-An, who switched off his light and unlatched the door as quietly as he could. “I’ll knock twice if it’s clear,” Jason said quietly as he slipped by and heard the door close behind him. He froze and let his armor scan the area while he looked in every direction with mid-wave infrared optics. There were no hotspots and nothing was moving, so he walked out and made a closer inspection of the area. The dust on the floor had some small footprints in it that looked months old and obviously from the same being: Jer-An.

So far everything the Veran said and did supported his story and Jason was beginning to relax a bit. If he had any nefarious designs he’d had ample opportunity to take them out or disable them. The fact there wasn’t an armed party waiting for them reinforced that. He walked back over and knocked rapped softly on the door with his gauntlet; two knocks. The door immediately opened and Lucky and Crusher walked through, the former’s eyes blazing red. Apparently he’d switched to combat mode in anticipation of trouble.

“How far did you scout?” he asked, switching back to normal operation mode.

“Just the immediate area,” Jason said. “There’s a set of doors along the east wall and no sign anybody other than our little friend has been in there for years.”

“Do we know the condition of the building above?” Crusher asked, apparently still worried about being buried alive.

“This entire block looked to be fully intact,” Lucky said. “Our initial reconnaissance scans from high altitude even indicated repairs had been done to the roofs of three.”

“I wonder if this merc crew evicted the previous tenants, keeping the best block for themselves,” Jason mused.

“It’s what I would do,” Crusher said, pulling his plasma rifle around. “Let’s get going.”

“Whoa, cowboy,” Jason said, raising his hand. “We’re almost out of darkness. We’ll recon up to the ground floor, then we’re going to report in with the Phoenix and sleep the day off back in that reception area behind the security door. We’ll update our plans depending on what we find, then begin the operation tomorrow night.”

“Great … we get to spend the night underground,” Crusher grumbled, but moved to the far wall and began approaching the doors from the opposite direction as Jason and Lucky.

They quickly found the door that led out of the basement room by following Jer-An’s barely visible footprints. After fifteen minutes of silently stalking through the building they confirmed the building was empty at least up to the ground level. They were hesitant to go any further, not wanting to risk being prematurely spotted by an alert enemy patrol or remote sensor.

Once they retraced their steps and carefully closed the door from the stairs they signaled for Jer-An to let them back in through the security door. The Veran quickly opened it and let Crusher and Lucky in as Jason used a long-handled brush he’d found to disrupt all the dust on the floor so that a casual observer wouldn’t be able to tell they’d gone in through the heavy alloy door.

“We’re all buttoned up,” Jason said. “How do we want to divide watches?”

“You and Crusher may eat and then sleep the entire night,” Lucky said. “I find it … odd … that you still insist on asking this question when you know that I do not require sleep.”

“It’s just good manners,” Jason said. “If I expected you to do the shit work like overnight watches all the time you’d begin to feel unappreciated. Besides, how do I know you don’t want some down time?”

“I see,” Lucky said in a tone that indicated he in fact did not see Jason’s point.

“Jer-An, you can split dinner with me if you’d like,” Jason said. “It’s field rations, so I can’t make any guarantee about the taste.”

“I ate garbage yesterday,” Jer-An said in a flat voice.

“This will at least be a lateral move then,” Jason said and tossed him one of the field kits he’d brought from the Phoenix.

“Jer-An, when we complete our mission and you get your com equipment, I’m going to give you a node address that will be very important to remember,” Crusher said after he watched the Veran tear into the tasteless field rations like he was starving, which he probably actually was. “Since we can make no guarantees about when, or if, we will be back through here to pick you up I am going to arrange for transportation as soon as I am back on our ship.”

“What sort of transportation do you have access to?” Jer-An said cautiously. “While I want to leave more than anything, I don’t know that I could bear the thought of another ship being captured and destroyed trying to pull me out.”

“I will be calling for an extraction team from the Galvetic Legions,” Crusher said. “Trust me, they will have no problem getting you off this hellish world.”

“No,” Jer-An said, awestruck. “No, I don’t suppose they would.”

“You have the authority for that?” Jason asked.

“Technically,” Crusher shrugged. “I don’t know precisely where I’ll end up when this mission is over, but I do know I’m not returning to the Capital. This will likely be my last official order given.”

“At least it’s a good one,” Jason said.

“Indeed,” Crusher agreed.

****

Jason had forced himself to sleep through most of the daylight hours so he’d be ready for the night’s festivities. Even though the tunnel was pitch black the planet’s night/day cycle matched up pretty closely with ship’s time on the Phoenix so he still was trying to sleep while he felt like he should be up. It didn’t help that the tunnel was quite cool, bordering on cold, and he’d taken his armor off and powered it down to save the power cells for any fighting he would be involved in that night.

He heard Crusher scraping around in the dark too and figured he may as well get up and start his preps. “Lights coming up, watch your eyes,” he warned before flicking on the weak lantern Jer-An had brought with him.

“Anything exciting?” he asked Lucky.

“No,” Lucky said. “I stayed near the security door all night so I would be able to detect if anyone came down into the basement, but Crusher’s snoring may have covered up any footsteps.”

“I don’t snore!” Crusher said indignantly as he pulled his own kit together.

“If that wasn’t you then this planet has the biggest damn rats I’ve ever seen,” Jason said. “And they were up to some freaky shit in the dark judging by the noises they were making.”

“I forgot how funny you both are,” Crusher said as he savagely bit into a ration bar.

After eating and doing another systems check, Jason had Lucky help him back into his armor. For the fifteenth time since deploying to Vyrt he wished he’d replaced the unit he lost when he’d crossed paths with the Phoenix’s previous owner. But the older unit passed all its self-checks and the power levels were still good, so he should be fine for the current mission.

“If we are back to this line of work, you will need to replace this unit soon,” Lucky said, giving voice to his own thoughts.

“I thought you were done wearing those things,” Crusher said.

“Normally, yes,” Jason said. “But this is an especially hostile environment and we’re horrifically outnumbered and out of practice and out of shape. This is just one more layer of protection. I can eject this one the same way I did the last one if it takes a critical hit.”

“Then you’ll be rescuing a princess in your underwear?” Crusher asked.

“Not the strangest thing I’ve done,” Jason shrugged.

“You are all exceedingly calm considering what it is you’re about to attempt,” Jer-An said as he watched them.

“Just another day at the office,” Jason said with a smile, feeling the excitement and adrenaline begin to build the closer they got to kicking off the operation.

In another three hours it was just before midnight and Jason gave the signal for Jer-An to kill the lights and open the security door. If they weren’t back in five hours he had instructions to retreat back to his basement hideout and try to make contact with the Phoenix via the handheld short-range com unit Jason had provided him.

The strike team moved quickly and silently through the basement and up to the street level floor. Lucky was on point as he had the building schematics memorized and had sensors far more capable than the ones installed in Jason’s armor. After a moment of observing Lucky motioned them forward, leading them decisively to a stairwell and sprinting up two floors before exiting into what appeared to be an office, though it was difficult to tell.

“We are now fifteen meters above the street level,” Lucky said. “The device Twingo and Kage provided should be able to get a more accurate reading.”

Jason walked up behind Lucky and pulled a small box out of his pack and handed the trailing lead to Crusher, who then moved around and plugged it into an interface jack on the back panel of the armor.

“Here goes nothing,” Jason whispered, pushing the button. At first nothing happened, so he pushed it again and instantly there was a blue dot that appeared in the upper left of his HUD. He turned his head to center the dot and pressed the button one more time. This time the dot was accompanied by range and directional data as well as a set of coordinates that allowed them to specify a location in three dimensions. He fed those coordinates to Lucky.

“Standby,” Lucky said as he applied the coordinates to the model of the city block he’d constructed in his head based on the drawings. “The coordinates fit. If they are correct, the netjere is one building over, fifteen levels up, and in a room located at the center of the floor.”

“The device seems to have given a legitimate return on the netjere’s implant beacon,” Jason said. “Can we access that building from this one via the basement?”

“No,” Lucky said. “But the building is only seventeen levels tall. We can cross over to the roof from this building and descend from there.”

“They’re likely going to have heavy security on the roof,” Crusher said.

“Possibly,” Jason said. “But there will be more on the street level plus fifteen stories to fight our way up. How do we get her out of there though? We can’t very well just walk out the front.”

“Call the Phoenix in?” Crusher asked.

“I am detecting the presence of weaponry of sufficient power to be a significant threat to the Phoenix,” Lucky said.

“So that’s out,” Jason said. “Let’s think about this for a moment … I don’t want to actually make it all the way to where she’s being held and have everything fall apart there.”

They debated different extraction methods for the next ten minutes before reluctantly coming to a consensus. Once they’d decided, they wasted no time ascending to the eighteenth floor, the two biological members of the crew panting from the exertion as they tried to quietly follow Lucky out of the stairwell.

As with the rest of the building, the floor was deserted although it showed signs of recent habitation. They cleared the immediate area and then moved to the north wall and looked at the building that they hoped the netjere was actually in. At first it just looked like another abandoned building, but as they watched they could see signs of movement. Soon it became clear there was a significant presence there trying very hard to remain unseen.

“I see one rooftop sentry, and he’s trying so hard to look like a local that he’s not doing a very good job observing,” Jason said as he zoomed in on the alien huddled under a dirty blanket by the rooftop entrance.

“Unfortunately most of the glass on that building is intact,” Lucky said. “Thermal optics are useless. Low-light is showing some movement on the fifteenth floor and a stronger presence at street level.”

“I’m seeing the same thing,” Jason said. “It looks like with such a small force they’ve had to prioritize and they’ve elected to secure the block rather than keep a watch on the surrounding buildings. I haven’t seen either of the synths Jer-An was talking about.”

“Are we worried about normal synths?” Crusher asked. “They don’t have onboard sensors or weaponry.”

“They’re still strong and fast as well as extremely intelligent,” Jason said. “They’re likely the most dangerous beings over there, so let’s assume they’re near the netjere.”

“Shall we proceed?” Lucky asked.

“Let’s do that,” Jason said, getting up on all fours and crawling through the broken window and out onto the wide ledge that was the main reason they’d chosen the eighteenth floor. “Range me,” he said as he pulled his railgun off the back of his armor and began adjusting the velocity settings.

“Target is seven-one meters,” Lucky said. “Set velocity for two-nine-two-point-six-zero-eight meters per second for current atmospheric conditions.”

Jason made the adjustments to his weapon and then flipped his facemask up. The railgun’s optics wouldn’t sync up to his HUD for some reason and he had no time to mess with it.

“Spot me,” he said as he lay down and lined up his shot, putting the muzzle just over the lip of the ledge.

“Target is talking into coms,” Lucky said. “Standby.” Jason sighted down the scope and watched the target holding something to his mouth as he looked around in a bored, comfortable manner. Such a short shot would normally be a cakewalk, but Jason had to dial the velocity of his rounds down to subsonic as well as take a sharply descending shot without the aid of his armor’s targeting computer. Not the hardest shot he’d ever taken, but still challenging in its own right.

“You are clear for the shot,” Lucky said as the guard put the com unit back on his lap. “Send it.”

Jason exhaled his breath slowly and began his trigger squeeze. The railgun barely made a pfff as the magnetic rails accelerated the round to subsonic speeds. The shot was low and Jason saw the guard double over from the gut shot, writhing in pain.

“Shit,” he swore, sending three more rounds in quick succession. All three impacted the neck and face area, creating a hell of a mess on the roof. “Glad that asshole wasn’t wearing armor. You’re up, Lucky.”

Lucky pulled a spool of monofilament line from his back, secured one end to a structural support near the window, and walked back to the ledge. He and Jason both did another scan of the adjacent building and the street below before Lucky fired his repulsors, arcing up and away from the ledge and firing them again to soften his landing against the roof near the body of the dead mercenary.

The battlesynth quickly secured the line on the opposite side and gave the hand signal to them to proceed. Jason and Crusher both reached up with armored gauntlets and grabbed the near-invisible line, pushing off the ledge and sliding quickly down to the rooftop where Lucky was there to catch them both and keep from making too much noise. Jason hit first and rolled to his right as fast as he could to make way for the heavier warrior behind him. While Crusher secured the doorway, Lucky and Jason completed a perimeter sweep using their enhanced sensors to detect any sign they’d been spotted by the ground teams.

“We’re good,” Jason said. “Cut that line and let’s get going.”

Lucky hit the line with one of his cutting lasers at the point it was anchored, taking a few seconds of direct heat to snap it and send it floating over the edge. The line was so small it would be impossible to detect as it hung from the other building.

They moved to the door, Crusher yanking it open as his armored companions covered him. As it turned out, someone was coming up holding two steaming cups. Everyone froze, looking at each other in surprise until the merc dropped the cups and went for his weapon. Jason’s railgun coughed once and the subsonic round caught the merc in the throat and sent him tumbling back down the stairs before Lucky could catch him.

“Boek’omt?” a voice called out. “What happened?” As another face belonging to the same species rounded the corner at the bottom of the stairs Lucky launched himself from the edge. The alien stared in slack-jawed horror as the battlesynth arced gracefully through the air right up until the instant Lucky’s armored fist caved his skull in. Lucky fired a microburst from his repulsors just in time to keep from crashing into the landing. Even still, the noise was much louder than Jason would have preferred.

“For the love of … how are we racking up this big of a body count already?” Jason asked, exasperated. “So much for a silent dash and grab. Come on, grab that one’s com unit and let’s get moving.”

The trio wasted no time in clearing the top floor, encountering no more mercenaries but seeing enough bedding and refuse to account for at least three times as many as they’d already taken out. The stairs to the next floor down were an open, spiraling style that allowed for them to easily cover their approach, but it also allowed them to be spotted earlier. They made it all the way to the next landing before a shout of alarm caused all hell to break loose.

Four mercs came running out of a side room while the one that shouted the alarm tried to run away down a side hall. Jason shot him first, two rounds in the back, as Lucky and Crusher engaged the four coming directly at them. He heard Lucky switch to combat mode and open fire with his plasma cannons, mowing down three before they could raise their own weapons, while Crusher nearly decapitated the fourth with a wickedly curved blade he’d brought along.

“Gross,” Jason remarked as he walked over, his railgun at low ready. “You know a stab is just as effective, right?”

“Where is this princess at?” Crusher asked, ignoring him.

“Center of the floor,” Jason said as he consulted the map on his HUD. “Let’s take this hallway until we find one that goes left.”

They branched left at the first chance and had a straight shot to a large conference room that had been converted into a prison cell on one half and a guard station on the other. Lucky walked in first and, as the light was poor, the bored-looking guard hardly gave him a second look.

“What are you doing up here?” he asked. “Boss told you both to stay on the first level, I thought.” When Lucky didn’t answer immediately he looked over and his eyes widened as he realized he wasn’t looking at one of the synths on his crew. Crusher had already rolled around to the left and stabbed the merc right in the base of the neck, grabbing his hand as it sought out the red panic button in the middle of the table.

“Happy?” Crusher asked as he wiped his blade off on the merc’s clothes.

“Marginally,” Jason said, removing his helmet. “Guard the door.” He walked over to the cell door, peeking in at a form that was barely visible under a pile of blankets. Thankfully the cell was a simple affair and it opened without requiring a key or passcode.

“Netjere?” he asked softly. The covers rustled a bit, then went still. “Netjere?” he asked again, this time louder.

“What do you animals want now?” an angry, strong voice came from the pile of blankets. Jason was relieved that she hadn’t been kept sedated, otherwise extracting her would have been more complicated.

“We’re not the same animals,” Jason said dryly. “We’re here at the request of your First Attendant to get you out of here.”

This got the covers moving as the netjere sat up quickly and stared at Jason, causing his heart to skip a beat. If Kalette could be considered pretty, the netjere was nothing short of stunning.

“How am I to believe you?” she asked.

“Kalette said to tell you ‘Usai misses you,’” Jason said. “I’ll be honest, I have no idea what the hell that means.”

“Usai is a dear pet of mine,” she said, throwing the covers off. “It is a code we’ve used before.”

“If you say so,” Jason said, trying not to stare at her. “Are you ready to move?”

“I am ready,” she said. “Did my father send you?”

“Not exactly,” Jason said. “We can explain later. For now, less talking and more escaping.”

“Captain, the decoy,” Lucky reminded him, tossing him a device from his pack.

“Ah, shit. Almost forgot,” Jason said, snatching it out of the air. “Could you do me a favor and just sit on the bed? Be very still and stare at that far wall over there.”

“What will that—”

“Please just humor me, we don’t have much time,” Jason said as he set the device up against the near wall where it couldn’t be seen from the door. Once she had sat in a huff, he pressed one of the buttons on top and waited. After ten seconds it beeped twice. “You can get up.”

She leaned forward and stood in an odd blur of motion. After she’d stepped away from the bed she looked back and saw that she was apparently still sitting on the bed.

“Clever,” she said. “It will not fool them for long, however.”

“We don’t need long,” Jason said. “Crusher, police the bodies. Just pick another room on this floor and toss them in.”

“What? Why me?” Crusher demanded.

“Because you’re the one who insisted on putting drain holes in them with that knife,” Jason said, pulling out a set of dark clothes that they’d fabricated for the netjere and handing them to her. “Just toss these over what you’re already wearing. They’ll keep you warm and mask your thermal signature.” While they were hiding the obvious evidence that they’d been there Jason saw a loose pile of data cards and a couple of tablet computers. He grabbed all of it and stuffed it into Lucky’s pack. By the time Crusher got back from hiding the bodies the netjere had already put her clothes on and seemed to be getting impatient.

“What is your name?” Jason asked. “What should we call you, I mean.”

“You should not,” she said haughtily.

“Oh, I can already tell this is going to be so much fun,” Crusher deadpanned.

“Let’s go,” Jason said, ignoring them both. “I’m point this time. Crusher, you hover over the objective, Lucky, you’re last.”

They moved out of the room and to the stairs as fast as they could. Unfortunately, the netjere was wearing shoes that weren’t built for speed or stealth and she raised such a racket when Crusher tried to carry her that Jason just resigned himself to the slow pace.

Just as he put his hand on the door that led to the rooftop the com unit they’d pulled off one of the mercs began squawking. He couldn’t fully make out what they were saying, but the tone of voice wasn’t excited or panicked, so he assumed it was just a normal check in.

“Will a ship be coming to take us from this roof?” the objective asked.

“Not exactly,” Jason said.

“Will troops be securing the building while we wait?”

“Not exactly,” Crusher said.

“What kind of rescue is this?” she demanded imperiously.

“A budget rescue,” Jason snapped. “You get what you pay for, now be quiet and let us work.” Her eyes flashed dangerously as she took great offense to his tone. Despite the fact she promised to be an enormous pain in the ass he had to admire that she still had some fight left in her after being abducted and held captive. After clearing the road that ran between the buildings they were on and the one they came from he waved Lucky over. “You sure about this?”

“It will be no problem,” Lucky assured him.

“Go then. Now. We’ll catch up,” Jason said, keeping watch as Lucky walked over and grabbed a stunned Avarian princess and marched over to the edge of the building. It was only the fact that she was so shocked at his actions that she kept quiet. The battlesynth stepped up onto the ledge and fired his repulsors, this time with much more power, and streaked up and away with one of the most important people in the known galaxy gripped in his arms. Jason watched as he landed gently on the ledge they’d infiltrated from and, seeming to struggle with his charge, disappeared through the broken window.

“So now comes the fun part,” Crusher said, eyeing the broken window six floors down they planned to zip line into. “Have you ever done this before?”

“Not with—” Jason was cut off by a strident alarm coming from the dead merc’s com unit and angry clipped voices shouting commands. “That didn’t take as long as I’d hoped.”

“Do you have time to set up the line?” Crusher asked, sheathing his knife and unslinging his plasma rifle. Before Jason could answer the door to the roof crashed open and two Korkarans burst through, hissing loudly when they caught sight of Crusher. Jason raised his railgun and fired three rounds at the closest one, but he still had the velocity dialed way down so they bounced off the thick armor the saurian mercenary was wearing.

Crusher opened up with his plasma rifle, causing both to run for cover before they could bring their own weapons to bear. As he and Jason both ran for shelter, the latter reset his weapon while the former glared at him in annoyance. Jason smiled sheepishly, ducking behind an environmental unit as shots from the Korkaran weapons impacted the thick alloy of the condenser.

“They ran and hid behind that extraction vent,” Crusher said. “The metal won’t be nearly as heavy as it is with this thing.”

“Why are you telling me that?” Jason asked.

“You’re the one wearing armor,” Crusher said. “And it’s your turn to do a shit job after I dragged those mutilated bodies into that office.”

“But you mutilated them!” Jason said as more rounds pinged off the condenser.

“I don’t believe that was the point we were arguing,” Crusher said loftily as hot slag from the condenser alloy melting landed just past where they were crouched.

“You’re unbelievable,” Jason said, sticking his weapon around the side of the condenser and firing two shots to make the Korkarans duck for cover.

The roar of the hypersonic rounds surprised Jason so much he almost dropped the weapon, as he’d only meant to crank it up to low-velocity mode. All shooting after that ceased as both sides seemed shocked. Jason rolled around the corner of the condenser slowly and saw that one of his rounds had hit the vent and turned it into a shrapnel storm, killing one of the enemy and gravely wounding the other.

“We’re clear,” he said.

Crusher stood and came around the other side, looking at the glowing, sagging metal of the condenser that had taken so many plasma rounds before seeing the remaining Korkaran, legless, dragging himself across the rooftop towards the door.

“I think you owe me an apology,” he said to Jason, nodding towards the gruesome sight.

“I didn’t do that intentionally,” Jason disagreed, lining up his weapon to finish the job. Before he could the door banged open again and a synth came sprinting out at astonishing speed. Jason tracked it and began firing, but was unable to line up a shot as fast as it was moving. It threw something at them and dove off the rooftop, apparently willing to take its chances with the fifty-meter drop rather than Jason’s railgun.

Crusher dove back behind the condenser as the grenade the synth had tossed exploded, the concussive force sending Jason flying backwards and slamming him into the ledge, breaking duracrete. He rolled over, struggling to catch his breath and not wanting to think about what he’d look like had he not been wearing the armor. Strong arms pulled him up off the ground and onto his feet, steadying him as he tried to shake off the effects.

“That’s why I don’t wear armor,” Crusher was saying over the ringing in his ears. “It makes you think you’re invincible enough to eat a grenade. We need to get the hell off this rooftop. Can you move?”

“I’m good,” Jason said a moment later. “Thanks.”

“I think our planned exfil is shot,” Crusher said. “Dangling over the street after we stirred them all up isn’t my idea of a good time.”

“Agreed,” Jason said, thinking fast. “This way.” He ran over to the opposite side of the roof and tied one end of the line to the remains of an antenna mast before tossing the spool over the side.

“Rappelling down isn’t any better,” Crusher said as Jason pulled two friction grips out of his pack and handed one to him.

“We’ll drop down this side and take the surface streets back to Jer-An’s basement,” Jason said. “Think about it … right now they’re massing up on the top floors getting ready to assault an enemy of unknown strength on the roof. There won’t be anybody on the ground floor now that they know their captive is gone and possibly still up here.”

“Maybe,” Crusher said, taking the grip and waiting as Jason hooked his own on the line before stepping up onto the ledge.

“See you down there,” Jason said before hopping off the edge. He squeezed the friction grip gently, arresting his initial plunge until he had his rhythm and then he bounced down the side of the building in a matter of seconds. He dropped his grip, raised his weapon, and waved Crusher down.

The big warrior wasted no time, dropping like a stone off the ledge until the last ten meters when he squeezed down hard on the grip, arresting his fall so quickly that the friction grip was smoking and fused to the line.

“Nice,” Jason said with a nod. “Let’s head out that way—” Before he could finish his sentence a metallic scraping sound caught his attention. He spun and in the thermal optics of his helmet he saw a synth with a badly damaged leg trying to sneak towards them along the edge of the building. Jason snapped his weapon up and fired a single round into the machine’s head, dropping it instantly.

“Damnit!” Crusher shouted, holding his ears. “Dial that thing back!”

“Sorry,” Jason said, flicking the selector down a notch. “Let’s go, they’ll know we’re on the move.” As they ran he opened a general frequency on his com unit. “Lucky, change of plans. We’re travelling topside to the rally point. Get the objective safely there and do not wait for us.”

“Acknowledged.”

“Doc, what’s your status?”

“Standing by,” Doc said. “Engines are hot and weapons are armed.”

“Go ahead and get airborne,” Jason said. “We’ll call when we’re ready for pickup.” He closed the channel and concentrated on what was happening around him. Those they’d passed so far showed no inclination of trying to stop them, but he doubted his luck would hold out for the entire trip.

“You think that block war has died down?” Crusher asked, barely winded from the all-out sprint they were doing.

“I hope so,” Jason said. He was about to ask about taking an alternate route when something slammed into his back with tremendous force, sending him flying. He lost his grip on the railgun as he tumbled across the pavement with such velocity he saw sparks being kicked up by his armor. When he came to a stop he was face down, his faceplate was cracked, and there were a series of warnings scrolling down his HUD. He heard weapons fire in the distance, including his own railgun, and tried to stand, but the actuators wouldn’t respond. Before he could try a systems reset a strident tone sounded in his ears letting him know one of the powercells had been ruptured and was going critical. Without hesitation he initiated the ejection sequence and closed his eyes as parts of the armor were blown off him in a precise sequence until he was able to stand.

He pulled the helmet and gauntlets off, tossing them aside as he walked over to where Crusher was, smoke curling up out of the railgun’s barrel. “I can see why you like this thing so much,” Crusher said, handing it back to him. “That last synth hit you with a light antipersonnel missile. Glad he was aiming at you and not me.”

“Me too,” Jason said, eliciting a raised brow from Crusher. “I’m not going to lie, it hurt like hell, but I survived it. You wouldn’t have,” he explained.

“We better get moving again,” Crusher said. They turned and began running again, more slowly this time so as not to blunder into another situation. Jason felt very conspicuous running in the thin, form-fitting undergarment that was only designed to wick moisture away from his skin while wearing armor. “Cute outfit,” Crusher said as they ran.

“Shut up.”

They only had to run another few minutes to realize that not only had the block war not abated, it seemed to have grown and now involved a third faction. Jason motioned to a narrow, filthy alley to his right. He switched his ocular implants to thermal mode, something he hadn’t done in over a year, and scanned the passage. The alley looked clear save for the still-warm footprints of something that had run through at high speed judging by the stride length.

“Call Lucky and ask where they are,” Jason said as he pressed further up the alley.

“Lucky, where are you?” Crusher asked into his headset. After a pause, he said, “He says they’re already in Jer-An’s hiding place.”

“Tell him to coordinate with Doc and have the Phoenix pick them up in that alley with the transit beam,” Jason said, clearing a couple of recessed doorways as he passed. “We’ll try to find a clear pickup point ourselves but we’re not getting through that mess.”

“They’re on their way,” Crusher said. “Doc is already coming down. Does this alley dump out somewhere that the ship can get into?”

“I’ve never been here before, Crusher,” Jason said patiently. “Lucky had the map in his head.”

“That seems shortsighted that we all don’t have a copy,” Crusher said. Jason ground his teeth together, but said nothing. A moment later they were walking out of the alley into a large, open area that looked like a delivery yard for the surrounding buildings. Unfortunately, they weren’t alone.

Some of the participants in the night’s festivities had spilled over from the main streets into the side alleys and there were a couple dozen shabbily dressed aliens with crude weapons facing off against each other. They all stopped and stared when Jason and Crusher walked out from behind the retainer wall of a loading dock.

Jason realized a couple of things at once. One was that it looked like nobody had anything more sophisticated than a flechette pistol among them, nothing compared to the advanced armament he and Crusher had with them. But the other thing was that he was standing there, at close range, in his underwear, and even a flechette pistol was going to hurt like hell. It seemed the mob came to similar conclusions as they all turned towards him and began advancing.

“Not another step!” Jason shouted, shouldering his weapon. The response from the crowd was to shout for their friends to come and help, multiple calls going out from competing factions trying to get their hands on the weapons they were all now eyeing greedily.

“This is going to be close,” Crusher said, raising his weapon. Just as it looked like they might be getting brave enough to try a mad rush there was a violent gust of wind and a powerful blaster shot impacted the pavement between them and the crowd. Jason looked up in time to see the Phoenix swing over and around and descend into the open spot between the buildings.

Surprisingly, many of the armed members of the mob opened fire on the gunship. From the rippled impacts along the ventral surface Jason could see that Doc had been smart enough to make his approach with the shields up. The Phoenix opened up again with one of the belly turrets, red bolts of raw energy vaporizing five or six locals and ripping up huge chunks of pavement. That did the trick as there was an immediate and frenzied exodus from the area until after half a minute only Jason and Crusher were standing there.

A few seconds later Jason was riding the transit beam up, trying to ignore the weird sensations it caused on his exposed skin, followed closely by Crusher. “Captain, you better get up here,” Doc’s voice came over the intercom. “We’ve got some inbound traffic that seems to be focused on us.”

“On my way,” Jason yelled and ran out of the cargo bay. He nodded to Kalette as he ran by the galley, but she was entirely focused on the netjere, who was huddled miserably under a blanket from berthing.

“Any idea who they are?” he asked as he slid into the pilot’s seat and waited for the station to reconfigure to his preferences.

“No,” Doc said. “They aren’t running with any transponders. We picked them up with an active scan.”

“Get me a clear scan of the sky above,” Jason said, pulling the nose up and advancing the throttle. “Thanks for the pickup by the way … your timing couldn’t have been better.”

“We’ve got some minor traffic in orbit,” Kage said. “Nothing that looks like it’s interested in us, but the three small contacts coming in from the southeast are climbing to match your maneuver.”

“Keep trying to get a profile on them,” Jason said. “I’m not sticking around long enough to find out who they are.” He slammed the throttle against the stop and even with the inertial compensators he was pressed back in the seat for a moment as the Phoenix blasted away from the ruined city and the bloodbath they’d left behind while rescuing the netjere. “She better be worth all this,” he muttered. Kage looked over at that, but said nothing.

“Did you drop off the package we had prepared for Jer-An?” Jason asked, suddenly remembering his fourth teammate on the surface.

“No need,” Lucky said from behind him. “I brought him aboard when we made our escape. When I tried to extract the netjere we were spotted by locals. One opened fire with a primitive projectile weapon and Jer-An stepped between it and us. He is in the infirmary now receiving treatment.”

“Good, good,” Jason said absently. “Least we can do. We’ll drop him off somewhere safe and populated and have Crusher get him a ride wherever he needs to go.”

“Reconfiguring the ship for exoatmospheric flight,” Kage said, seeming to be utterly disinterested in the conversation. “I’m sending updated orbital traffic to your display.” Jason gave him an inquiring look, figuring he’d be more interested in what was happening to one of his own, but Kage was staring at his displays with his jaw set.

“Standby,” Jason said. “I’m taking us up hot. We’ll be driving hard for the mesh-out point. Twingo, would I be correct in assuming the slip-drive is ready?”

“You would be,” Twingo confirmed. “Drive is charged and ready.”

“Then let’s get the hell away from Vyrt and never come back,” Jason said. “Status on inbound enemy craft?”

“They broke off pursuit and are loitering over the building the netjere was being held in,” Doc said. “I’ll lose sensor contact in less than a minute.”

“No matter,” Jason shrugged, beginning to relax marginally. “We’ll be well away from here soon.”

“New contact!” Doc said in alarm. “Big … huge energy output … resolving sensor data now.”

“Where is it?” Jason said, equally alarmed.

“Near the edge of the system, but it’s not along our projected course,” Doc said.

“It’s the Defiant,” Kage said. “Picking up their transponder now. They’re flying in loud and proud.”

“Two more contacts coming out of slip-space,” Doc said. “ConFed destroyers, flying up into formation behind the battlecruiser.”

“What the hell is going on?” Jason demanded. “Since when does Crisstof get a pair of ConFed fleet destroyers to fly escort for him?”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Doc said, correctly surmising the question was aimed at him. “I was either in the lab or in my quarters the entire time I was on that ship.”

“We’re getting a com request from the Defiant,” Kage said. “Three requests actually. One general hail, one specifically to you, and another to you from a private node address originating on that ship.”

“Ignore them all,” Jason said with a wave. “Prep a tachyon bomb and get ready for a series of randomized dummy jumps. Crisstof probably thinks he can predict what I’ll do, so dump the old algorithms and input the course corrections yourself.”

“Coming up now,” Kage said. “Tachyon charge is loaded and ready. Accelerate to mesh-out velocity and engage slip-drive at your discretion.”

Jason raced along their current course and squeezed the trigger on the stick to release the tachyon charge just before the Phoenix shuddered and disappeared from the Vyrt System. The tachyon bomb would wash out the sensors on any ship in the area and also cause so much localized interference determining the slip-space trajectory would be impossible.

“Maybe we should have talked to them,” Doc said.

“Don’t start,” Jason said, pointing a warning finger at him. “I’m going to go check on our passengers.”

“Maybe you could put some clothes on first,” Twingo suggested. Jason stood beside the pilot’s seat with his hands on his hips, considering it.

“Nah,” he said and walked off the bridge.

Chapter 15

“How do you feel?” Jason asked.

“I feel so great!” Jer-An said dreamily. “There’s so much good food on this ship.”

“You poor, poor bastard,” Crusher said. “I’m going to make sure you at least get one decent meal before we part ways.” He was leaning against the hatchway of the infirmary with his arms crossed over his chest. He seemed to have developed quite a soft spot for the half-starved little Veran.

“That may be the drugs talking,” Jason said.

“I’m not giving him any narcotics,” Doc said absently from the small desk in the room where he was working on a computer terminal. “I think he’s literally giddy on nutrients.”

“I want to thank you for bringing me onto your ship and flying me away from that hellish existence,” Jer-An said, his voice tight with emotion. “You’re truly a man of honor, Captain Jason Burke. I won’t forget what you’ve done for me.”

“It’s what we do,” Jason said, patting him on his uninjured shoulder. “You were instrumental in our rescuing the young female out there, so this isn’t charity. You’ve earned your passage with your own bravery.” He left so the Veran could talk with Crusher and they both could annoy Doc. He wanted to see how his other passengers were doing.

“How’s your friend?” he asked as he sat in the overstuffed chair in the lounge.

“She is not my friend,” Kalette said in a voice that had some heat to it.

“Twingo said you two were crying when you saw each other again,” Jason said. “That’s sounds like it’s something more than employer-employee.”

“Did you weep with joy when you were reunited with Crusher?” she asked tartly.

“Nope,” Jason said. “Those were tears of pain from when he hit me. Come on … what’s going on?” Kalette looked over the couch to the door that led to the starboard berthing bay before answering.

“I believe she blames me not only for our abduction, but for abandoning her when I left and boarded your ship,” she said quietly. “She is happy to be away from her captors, but she has been very cold towards me.” A single tear slid down Kalette’s cheek and Jason gripped the arms of the chair to keep himself from going over and putting his arm around her. Bad idea.

“She’s gone through a traumatic experience,” he said instead. “She may just be trying to process it all.”

“You know her so well already that you can make such statements?” Kalette asked. Jason was smart enough to realize he’d made a big mistake, but not so smart that he knew exactly what that was.

“Uh … no?”

“Well I do,” Kalette said, angrily wiping the tears from her eyes. “I’ve been with her my entire life. When she’s sad, I comfort her. When she’s angry, she yells at me like I’m an animal. Whatever whim the spoiled creature has, I’m the one who has the burden of making it happen. If she doesn’t get her way, I am the one who suffers her wrath.” Jason realized that he was in way over his head. This was a long-running cold war between two young women that had just gotten its catalyst to go hot. Uh oh.

“Maybe I could go talk to her,” he said lamely. Kalette looked at him with an amused look.

“By all means, Captain Burke,” she said with a humorless laugh. “Please go talk sense to a being that has been raised from birth to believe that she can do no wrong and that mere mortals are as the dirt beneath her feet.”

“Is this really how you see me,” a new voice said from behind Jason. He turned and saw the netjere standing there, tears streaming down her cheeks and eyes that burned with an untapped rage.

“Oh fuck,” Jason whispered softly, fearing he might be noticed, and tried to squeeze himself down into the chair. He would rather walk through a mile of incoming than try and get between two spoiled, rich young women when they decided it was time to throw down … at least if Earth’s reality television was to be believed.

The ensuing fight was nothing short of spectacular. They screeched at each other, hurled insults that made Crusher blanche, teamed up momentarily and attacked Kage when he tried to get between them once it looked like it might get physical, and in the end wound up sobbing in each other’s arms, each professing their love for the other. All the while Twingo kept looking from the two ladies fighting to Jason and Crusher, and then back again. Jason could already see the parallels his friend was drawing up in his mind and he wasn’t particularly happy that he had to agree.

“If you hug me, I will hurt you. Badly,” Crusher rumbled. Apparently he wasn’t the only one who could connect the dots.

****

“Now that we’ve all calmed down a bit we need to discuss what our next move should be,” Jason said once everybody had made their way to the galley and sat down. “Before that, though … how are you coming with the stuff we stole from the group holding the netjere, Kage?”

“Running decryption routines on everything now,” Kage said. “I’ll get an alert when something cracks.”

“Keep at it,” Jason said. “I have a feeling that there will be some information in that pile that can help guide us.”

“Excuse me, Captain,” the netjere said hesitantly. “Won’t we simply be going back to my father’s planet now?”

“I wish it were that simple,” Jason said, avoiding eye contact with her. “We have strong reason to believe that someone within your father’s government might be responsible for your abduction. As long as they still believe that you’re being held in ConFed space we’ll have a significant advantage when it comes to keeping you safe and maybe finding out what’s actually going on.”

“Won’t those mercenaries have already called in the attack to their handlers?” Jer-An asked.

“Not likely,” Kage scoffed, giving the other Veran a decidedly unfriendly glare. Jason looked at Twingo, but his friend only shrugged and shook his head.

“I planted an EMP burst bomb in your tunnel when we were on our way in,” Jason said. “It went off as soon as the hold signal from the Phoenix stopped, so about three minutes after we left. It had a six-kilometer range and would have taken out any long-haul com systems they might have had.”

“So they are only out of contact unless they find equipment outside of the burst range or they have a scheduled flight arriving soon,” Jer-An insisted.

“How about you leave the strategic planning to the experts?” Kage said.

“I apologize if I spoke out of place,” Jer-An said, confused.

“Moving along,” Jason said. “The point of the EMP bomb was just to give us a head start leaving the system, otherwise I would have flattened the entire city block with the Phoenix’s main guns. Since I couldn’t be guaranteed that there weren’t locals down there, no matter how grubby they are themselves, I didn’t risk it.”

“But you risked the netjere’s life?” Kalette asked, sounding concerned bordering on angry. “What if someone catches this ship?” There were a few chuckles around the table that only increased her agitation.

“Ain’t nobody catching this ship,” Twingo said, slapping the table. “Certainly not a bunch of scrubs hanging out on Vyrt.”

“Is the ship really that fast?” the netjere asked Jason directly.

“It really is,” Jason said. “That’s not just an idle boast, her slip-space velocity is significantly higher than even the new ConFed cruisers.”

“Then we should at least be heading towards the frontier between our two empires,” the netjere insisted. “If this ship is so fast it will put us in Avarian space before they would believe possible once they discover I’ve gone missing.”

“That’s … actually not a bad idea,” Jason said, trying to poke holes in the plan. “We’ll need to make a couple of stops along the way. We should probably drop off Jer-An somewhere immediately so if they figure out where he came from they can’t just draw a line on a starchart and figure out the plan.”

“This isn’t really much of a plan,” Crusher pointed out. “Just fly to Avarian space?”

“Well, it’s the framework we can build a plan on,” Jason said evasively. “We can’t just fly in circles until we think this has blown over … we’ll eventually need to go to the Empire and the element of surprise might be useful. Once we drop off Jer-An we’ll make one more stop for fuel and provisions and then run her hard across the expanse. How are the engines, Twingo?”

“We’re clear for maximum slip,” Twingo said, sipping his chroot and making a face. “Damn this stuff is awful.”

“Yeah,” Jason agreed. “I don’t remember the food on this ship being so bad before.”

“Compared to Lucky’s cooking anything is going to seem bad,” Doc said from the end of the table. “But it’s always been pretty horrible. That food synthesizer is original equipment from Jepsen and I don’t think it’s been working properly for a few years.”

“If everyone thought it sucked so bad why didn’t anyone say anything?” Jason said, throwing his hands up. He was hit with a broadside almost immediately.

“I did!”

“I brought it up twelve times.”

“It was the main reason I left.”

“Remember when I was always sick?”

“I do not eat, so I could not care less.”

“Are you sure about this crew?” the netjere tried to say quietly to Kalette, who simply shrugged as if to say, ‘What other options do we have right now?’

“So we’ve got an immediate set of tasks we need done now,” Jason said, reasserting control over the loose meeting. “Doc, I need a good planet to put Jer-An on. Crusher, are you good to fund his way home?”

“Absolutely,” Crusher said without hesitation, earning him a respectful bow from Jer-An and a reproachful look from Kage.

“Kage, you keep at it with the data cards and tablets we pulled off Vyrt,” Jason continued. “Twingo, keep doing what you can to prep the Phoenix for crossing the expanse … I think that’s it for now.”

“What would you like us to do, Captain?” the netjere asked. Jason almost told them to simply hang out and relax, but he realized he would need to give them a task or the boredom would lead to either more fights or the pair getting into trouble elsewhere.

“Please assist Doc in plotting our course,” he said. “We’ll need to know what planets within the Avarian Empire would be best to avoid.”

“Of course,” the netjere said brightly, actually smiling. Jason smiled back stupidly until he saw Doc’s angry glare. Apparently being saddled with the two young women wasn’t something he was especially happy about.

****

“It looks like we found a place to drop Jer-An off that’s not especially out of the way,” Doc said as Jason walked onto the bridge.

“Where are your assistants?” Jason asked, looking around. Doc gave him a flat, unfriendly stare.

“I’m glad to see you haven’t matured appreciably,” Doc said, turning back to his terminal.

“Sorry,” Jason laughed. “What have you got?”

“It’s a planet called Chiphae-3,” Doc said. “It’s less than ten lightyears from here and has a major hub for a starline that has connecting flights back to his homeworld.”

“Seems about as good as we could have hoped for,” Jason said. “The sooner the better. I don’t know why, but Kage hasn’t exactly been the soul of hospitality towards our guest.”

“You noticed that too?” Doc chuckled. “It’s something in the Veran character. They’re overly sociable in mixed groups, but when they come into contact with each other there’s a strange jealous, competitive streak that comes out.”

“It might have something to do with the species having litters,” Jason shrugged. “I had a puppy that acted the same way when I was a kid.”

“But your young pet wasn’t capable of slicing into government databases and adding a criminal record or deleting your funds,” Doc pointed out. “Anyway, we may also have a slight tactical advantage with this.”

“I’m listening,” Jason said, sliding into the pilot’s seat.

“Jer-An will have to use his real name and identity to buy a transit pass,” Doc said. “He will also need to submit a complete travel record with the Veran authorities. He’s agreed to help us out since when he enters his last location as Vyrt it will almost certainly flag with ConFed Intel.”

“That sounds like the opposite of helping us,” Jason pointed out.

“He’s agreed to have his memory altered in order to provide them with false information,” Doc said.

“You can do that?” Jason said, alarmed.

“It’s not exactly as I’ve described it,” Doc admitted. “And it won’t work with a really in-depth scan or rigorous interrogation. Essentially, I disrupt his memory chemically, and then put him into a drug-induced state in which he is extremely susceptible to suggestion. We’ll put on a little show for him while he’s strapped down in the infirmary and then dump him off on Chiphae-3 with a handful of credits and a schedule for slip-space flights.”

“What sort of show?”

“While he’s semi-conscious we’ll discuss how we abducted him against his will, but that he’s outlived his usefulness so we’re going to dump him on the first planet we come to,” Doc explained. “They we’ll also mention that we’re heading to the Eshquarians to see if they’ll offer the netjere sanctuary.”

“That’s plausible,” Jason said, nodding his head. “Even if they don’t buy it and really dig into him that still gives us a decent lead. He’s willing to do this?”

“He says he is,” Doc said. “I stressed all the distasteful parts of the procedure and made sure he understood that ConFed Intel wasn’t something to be taken lightly, but he insists he owes us.”

“Part of me wants to turn him down flat,” Jason said. “I don’t think he really understands what he’s volunteering for and I’d rather not take advantage of the fact he thinks he owes us. Without him we would have probably failed to rescue our Avarian princess and might not have all gotten out of there alive.”

“It’s up to you,” Doc said. “I’m just giving you all the options and information that’s available. But you may want to keep in mind that he might see it as a grave insult if you turned down his offer.”

“So?” Jason snorted. “After we drop him off we’ll never see him again. He can be insulted all he wants while keeping his freedom and his life by not pushing his luck with an agent.”

In the end Jason was completely overruled as Jer-An pleaded his case and the rest of the crew seemed inclined to go along with it. Each had their own reasons and personal philosophies that caused them to support the Veran’s decision (although Kage’s motives were suspect) and Jason was powerless to try and talk him out if it.

Although he agreed to honor the decision and allow it to proceed, he refused to be a part of it. He told Doc to find someone else to play along in the infirmary, angrily walking out of the galley and back up to the bridge. He flopped down into the pilot’s seat and pulled up the nav panel, entering in the course change and speed increase that would get them to Chiphae-3 within the day.

“Why do you seem so steadfastly against Jer-An’s actions, Captain Burke?” Jason looked over and saw the netjere standing in the entryway to the bridge. Even in the baggy, nondescript gray overalls Twingo had provided her from the fabricator she still looked stunning.

“I’m not sure he’s fully aware of what he’s getting himself into,” Jason said, executing the new course and watching his instruments as the engines slowly built power for the new speed demand.

“Even though he offered this himself?” she asked, walking fully onto the bridge for the first time since she’d come aboard the Phoenix, staring at the simulated moving starfield being projected on the main canopy. “This is quite beautiful,” she commented absently before turning towards Jason.

“I think he volunteered under the misguided notion he owed us a debt for taking him off that planet,” Jason said. “He may have even hoped secretly that we’d turn him down, but when everyone else got involved and was cheering him on he was more or less forced into the situation.”

“You are a peculiar man, Captain Burke,” she said, walking around the bridge and taking everything in before settling into the copilot’s seat, a move that slightly startled Jason.

“How so?” he asked.

“You are capable of horrific acts of violence, killing and maiming whole groups of individuals as you did during my rescue, but yet you are overly concerned about the potential risks to a being you hardly know and will never see again,” she said, staring at him from the seat to his right and making him exceedingly uncomfortable.

“And what is it about that you find confusing?” Jason asked.

“I am not the one confused by it,” she said, turning to look out the canopy. “But I think that you are.”

Jason, never comfortable with being analyzed, even by a beautiful young woman (especially by a beautiful young woman,) remained silent and let the matter drop. The pair spent a silent, comfortable quarter of an hour enjoying the soothing effect of the starfield simulation until they were interrupted by Kage walking onto the bridge and demanding she vacate his seat.

The netjere gracefully climbed out of the seat, gave Jason a polite nod, and walked off the bridge. Kage hopped up into his seat, pulled up a new panel on his multi-function display, and began playing a tile game that was apparently the Veran version of solitaire. When Jason discovered Kage had chased the netjere off the bridge to play a game his hands actually twitched of their own accord with the desire to strangle the life from him.

Chapter 16

Chiphae-3 was a surprising little gem, an independent planet nestled between two competing powers that managed to thrive on its own despite being of no significant use to the ConFed. If they’d had some exportable resource or if the planet itself was in a strategic location the ConFed main fleet would have maintained a presence there to enforce the peace, but other than the indigenous species that called it home there didn’t seem to be anything on Chiphae-3 that anybody wanted.

The starline that operated a logistics hub on the planet had even built an orbital facility that the Phoenix could have docked with and allowed Jer-An to go on his way without the hassle of a planetary landing. But Jason wasn’t so sure that Crisstof hadn’t put all local systems on alert for his ship, so he opted to wait for a landing slot and put the ship down on a lesser-used airfield far from the scrutiny of the main port authorities.

Once the wheels touched down he gave Crusher and Lucky the go-ahead to allow Jer-An to disembark. He didn’t go down himself since the Veran he had come to consider as a friend now looked at him as his abductor, not rescuer. Doc assured him the effects were only temporary and, after a few days of confusion, Jer-An’s real memories would again assert themselves. Despite the fact that the subject had enthusiastically volunteered for the procedure, Jason still looked at it as a violation of the Veran’s trust.

“He’s on his way,” Crusher said as he walked back up onto the bridge and flopped down into one of the seats. “You still in a bit of a state about this?”

“I would think you of all people could appreciate my position,” Jason said, regretting his words as he said them. He hoped his reference to Crusher’s time in two supermax prisons didn’t reignite hostilities between them. To his surprise, however, Crusher merely looked thoughtful at the comment.

“Perhaps,” he conceded. “But this is a calculated risk. We did no permanent damage to him and, honestly, he was likely going to get picked up anyway. It’s likely we’ve helped him more than anything.”

“I suppose it’s a nonissue now,” Jason said, wanting to change the subject. “He’s on his way and there’s nothing we can do about it even if we wanted to.”

“We just got our clearance to leave,” Kage said. “Fairly unspecific, they just want us making orbit above a certain latitude. I’ll plot a course and send it to you.”

“Thanks,” Jason said, feeding power to the drive. “Let’s get airborne in case our little Veran time bomb blows before we’re ready.”

The Phoenix lifted off smoothly from the sleepy airfield and accelerated away to the north just as a confused and upset Jer-An reached the counter to buy a transit pass back to Ver. Jason said a little prayer that his new friend would make it home with little trouble and then tried to put the entire thing out of his mind.

“So what is our next destination?” Kalette asked. She’d been so quiet lately that Jason almost didn’t notice when she was around. The First Attendant had naturally tried to make herself part of the background now that the netjere was back around and beginning to feel and act like her normal, imperial self.

“We’re heading to a planet called Wy,” Kage said. “It’s a trader world near the fringe of ConFed space. We’ll be able to land there and nobody will likely notice that we’ve come or gone.”

“Why must we land there at all?” she asked.

“Standard procedure for us,” Jason explained to her. “Before an extended slip-space flight like the expanse we prefer to land and refuel, resupply, and let Twingo do a full inspection of the drive components.”

“Prudent,” Kalette said with a nod. “How long with the flight across the expanse take?”

“That depends on the destination you and the netjere have worked with Doc on,” Jason said. “But roughly speaking this ship can make the trip in just under two weeks.”

“This is a fast ship,” Kalette said in surprise. “The traders I’ve spoken to before say the trip is normally more than a month.”

“We’re not quite that much faster,” Jason said. “Those traders will be doing the math to determine the most efficient speed they can achieve and not necessarily the fastest. We’re just making a mad dash across space, but we’ll still be in Avarian space well before the ConFed would suspect.”

“But not faster than Crisstof will expect,” Crusher said. “He knows how fast the Phoenix is and he’ll warn his new buddies … unless you already forgot that he arrived with a Fleet escort.”

“We’ve never let Crisstof or Kellea know our actual maximum slip-space velocity,” Jason argued. “They know she’s faster than the Defiant, but they don’t know by what factor. We’re not going to have an insurmountable advantage due to it I know, but between the speed advantage and our little deception with Jer-An I’m hopeful that we can at least get into Avarian space without a welcoming party.”

“You are still convinced that someone in my father’s government is involved?” the netjere said, having walked onto the bridge during the conversation.

“You’re not?” Jason asked as he pitched the Phoenix up to intersect the orbital vector Kage had sent to his nav display.

“Not fully,” she said. “But as I have no other valid theories I am willing to entertain this one for now.” Jason bit back his sarcastic response and instead concentrated on flying the ship.

“I wish we had a way to know what the Defiant was doing,” he said after a few minutes. “Crisstof seems to be involved in a less than altruistic way. If we knew where that ship was we could take an educated guess as to how successfully our plan is working.”

“I’ve actually been giving that some thought,” Kage said as he sent the mesh-out point coordinates to him. “Give me some time to really think it out, but I believe there may be some way to track the ship’s rough location by using their identification and navigation transponder.”

“Just make sure that what you’re doing can’t be used to backtrack our location,” Jason said. “Otherwise, knock yourself out.”

“Great,” Kage said, hoping out of his seat and racing off the bridge. Jason just watched him leave, incredulous.

“That’s your fault,” Crusher said with a laugh. “You should have specified that once you no longer needed a copilot he could go … although you should be grateful he even asked first.”

“I guess,” Jason said as Lucky wordlessly slid into the copilot’s seat and adjusted the station for himself. “Twingo, is the slip-drive ready?”

“Slip-drive is available,” Twingo said over the intercom. “You’re clear for seventy percent power and then we’ll walk it up from there.”

“Our course is clear all the way to the mesh-out point,” Lucky reported. “Drive is charged and ready and com traffic indicates nobody is looking for us.”

“Good enough for me,” Jason said, pushing the throttle up to get a little more velocity before meshing out of the system. “Next stop, hopefully, will be the wonderfully boring world of Wy.” He slapped the control to his right and the Phoenix shuddered her way into slip-space before settling into the steady, hypnotic drone that Jason felt comprised most of his life.

****

As the crew settled into their slip-space flight routines Jason became increasingly concerned about Kage. The code slicer had locked himself into the com room and seemed to be working around the clock on his pet project of tracking the Defiant. Doc assured him that he was only excited about a new and challenging project, but Jason still had fears that Kage could either over-tax himself and/or inadvertently sabotage the mission while he was digging into confidential navigation data.

Crusher bullied Lucky into the cargo bay to resume his brutal conditioning regimen while Doc and Twingo pulled their usual disappearing act into the infirmary and Engineering respectively. This left Jason to entertain two extremely attractive, and extremely bored, young women. There were only so many programs that could be watched in the lounge before the mind-numbing reality of being stuck on a small ship (a military ship at that) on a long slip-space flight began to sink in. Kalette soon lost interest in hanging out in the common area and procured a tablet computer where she could read in berthing alone.

This left Jason the thrilling and terrifying prospect of entertaining the netjere by himself. While he would normally be ecstatic about having such a beautiful female as a captive audience, there were some issues. The most obvious problem was that she was literally royalty from one of the most powerful empires in known space and he was a grubby mercenary, so there wasn’t a lot of common ground for discussions. The other was that thanks to Doc’s genetic manipulation Jason didn’t age like normal humans. In fact, he’d spent so much time in space, and the treatments had actually reversed his physical aging, that he wasn’t really sure how old he even was. Oh, he knew he was somewhere in the thirty-year-old range, but to pinpoint an exact year he’d have to sit and do the math.

The netjere, on the other hand, looked to be anywhere from nineteen to twenty-five, also impossible to tell because, despite their similarity to humans, he had no idea how Avarians matured and he assumed it was probably as bad an idea to ask an Avarian female her age as it was a human.

“So how many species are there in the Avarian Empire?” he asked, hoping to come at the problem from an angle.

“There are over twenty individual species,” the netjere said, staring intently at the cards in her hand. “Are you trying to distract me from this hand, or is there a specific question you wish to ask?” Jason had actually gone to Doc earlier to ask if Avarians might be suspected telepaths since the netjere had an unnerving ability to see past what he was saying to what he actually meant.

“Idle curiosity,” he said. “Am I correct in assuming Avarian is actually your species name?”

“You would be incorrect,” she said. “Avaris was the planet of our birth. We call ourselves nuans, or at least that is the short, non-scientific name of our species. Is it the same with humans?”

“More or less,” Jason said as looked at the card that had been upturned. “I’m from a planet called Earth and we also have a suitably pretentious scientific name for our species.” She laughed lightly at that, arching back in the hard galley chair to stretch.

“I notice you said I and not we,” she said.

“As far as I know I’m the only one from my planet this far from home,” Jason said. “I guess you would say that we’re not an initiated species.”

“How is this possible?” she asked. Before Jason knew it he had spent the next two hours telling her about how he had found the gunship disabled near his home and had gotten himself pulled into the much greater galactic community completely by accident. In turn she told him of growing up in the court of her father and in so doing let him know that she was actually older than he was by a few years, if he had done the conversion correctly in his head.

While he had no delusions that the princess was simply trying to make the best of a bad situation, he had to concede that talking to her was a far more pleasant distraction during the long flight than getting beat up in the cargo bay or watching Twingo putter around on his workbench while cursing to himself.

“What the hell have you been up to in here?” Jason asked some hours after the netjere had gone to bed and he noticed the com room door was open.

“What have you been up to down there with that princess?” Kage asked indignantly.

“Don’t change the subject,” Jason said, crossing his arms. “Let’s have it.”

“You know, I get tired of being suspected of underhanded dealings anytime I just happen to work diligently on something,” Kage said.

“You’re stalling.”

“Look … this is going to sound bad at first, but before you get pissed just let me say that this worked,” Kage said.

“Oh this should be good,” Jason said, rubbing his temples and stepping into the room to sit down.

“You know my original idea to try and access the com logs of wherever we thought the Defiant was flying to verify her position?” Kage asked. When Jason just nodded he pressed on. “This turned out to be a lot less practical than I thought. The ConFed has never set up any sort of centralized reporting for traffic in individual systems. Each planetary government has their own unique system that I would have to break into, and that was assuming I had a place to start. Looking at projected courses the Defiant could have taken away from Vyrt I was left with hundreds of planets.”

“I’m guessing you figured this out almost immediately,” Jason said.

“I actually figured that out before I asked you if I could try this, if I’m honest,” Kage admitted. “But what is the one constant we have here?”

“You’re already giving me a headache,” Jason said, not answering.

“The Defiant’s navigation beacon,” Kage said, ignoring him and become very excited as he explained. “On a new battlecruiser like that the beacon is really just a slip-space com node that reports back far more than just position to the receiving address. In this case, that’s Crisstof’s home office.”

“Oh no,” Jason said, seeing where this was going.

“Don’t worry,” Kage said, holding all four hands up. “I didn’t try to slice into that network. There’s no way to do that from a ship in slip-space with all the security measures he has in place. He’d just as likely backtrack the attempt to us.”

“So you’re saying you didn’t try that?” Jason asked, wanting clarification.

“If you have such little faith in me why do you keep me around?” Kage demanded hotly.

“Easy!” Jason said. “I have concerns about the risks you take in your exuberance … I have no doubt about your skills.”

“Oh,” Kage said, considering it. “I suppose that’s fair. Anyway, would you like to know what I was able to do?”

“Go for it,” Jason said. Kage pulled up a set of screens on his terminal and waited as Jason tried to absorb what he was seeing.

“This can’t be what I think it is,” he said finally.

“Oh but it is,” Kage said proudly. “Apparently all the security concerns Crisstof applied to his home office did not extend to securing the com node that is his flagship’s navigation beacon. I was able to use some of our old codes and create a new exception that allows us in through the navigation beacon. This is all real-time data from the Defiant.”

“Oh my God, Kellea will blow my ship out of the sky if she ever finds out about this,” Jason said quietly, looking at the Defiant’s position, speed, reactor output, and armament. “How extensive is this tunnel?”

“I can dig in quite deep,” Kage said. “I haven’t actually probed the extent of what this link is capable of since I already have what we want and I didn’t want to chance getting caught by pulling too much bandwidth or accessing a system with independent security.”

“I appreciate your self-control,” Jason said. “Theoretically what is this capable of?”

“We could listen in on com traffic, even manipulate some of their systems,” Kage said with a shrug. “All sorts of things.”

“Any chance if they detect the channel open that it’ll lead them back to the Phoenix?” Jason asked.

“No,” Kage said. “I’m bouncing through a relay station back on Woakx and using one of our secondary com systems that the Defiant shouldn’t have any knowledge of.”

“Woakx?” Jason said with a frown. “I thought you were just cooking the books on some investment scam there.”

“I absolutely love how casually you accuse me of serious criminal activity,” Kage said with a dramatic sigh.

“Am I incorrect?”

“No.”

“Then answer the question.”

“My operation was a little more involved than simply selling the same opportunity multiple times,” Kage said. “It involved transferring funds back and forth to off-planet accounts instantaneously.”

“I’m familiar with that type of shell game,” Jason said. “I did something similar with two checking accounts when I first enlisted in the military … it took them over a year to figure out I didn’t actually have any money.”

“Right,” Kage said with a nod. “So to do that I had to have four dedicated slip-space com nodes up and active at all times. When Twingo and I decided to come with you on this mission I left everything up and running thinking it might be useful. As it turns out, I was right.”

“Fine,” Jason said. “Let’s leave this link active and pipe it up to the bridge. Install a killswitch into the interface and any other useful features you think might come up, but let’s not mess up what you’ve already got here. This really was a stroke of genius here.”

“Thanks,” Kage said absently. “While you’re here … what’s going to happen to us all when this mission is over, Captain?”

“I couldn’t say for sure,” Jason said honestly. “Let’s just stay alive through this and we’ll all talk about it afterwards.” He left Kage to wrap up his work, checked the master clock on the bridge, and then walked down to the galley to grab some water before heading to his rack for a few hours.

“Haven’t seen much of you the last couple days,” Jason said to Kalette, startling her as she tried to manipulate the food synthesizer.

“I have tried to stay out of everyone’s way,” she said simply. Jason couldn’t be sure, but she didn’t seem to be especially happy with him.

“I guess we’re in the same boat then,” he said as he poured himself some water. “I’m pretty much the only person on the crew not doing anything useful. You could come out for a game of cards if you get bored sitting in berthing reading.”

“I have long ago learned not to get between the netjere and something she desires,” Kalette said with a small smile. “Goodnight, Captain.”

“Whatever the hell that means,” Jason muttered to himself with a shake of his head. He downed the water and left the cup on the counter for one of the bots to collect. He took one more trip up to the bridge to check on everything, said goodnight to Lucky as the battlesynth settled into the pilot’s seat to begin his watch, and walked off to his quarters to get at least one good night of sleep before they hit Wy.

****

—beep beep—

He wasn’t sure how long he’d been asleep, but he could tell the ship was still on night hours when the door chime woke him up. Almost afraid that Kage was coming to report he’d accidentally called down half the ConFed starfleet onto their heads Jason rose with a bit of trepidation, unlocked the door, and keyed it open.

“Hello, Captain … I am not bothering you, am I?”

“Uh … no,” Jason said, trying hard not to stare at the netjere as she stood in the dimly lit corridor. “What can I do for you, netjere?”

“You may start by inviting me in,” she said, slipping past Jason without asking. “Then we can see what it takes for you to cease calling me netjere.” Jason made a quick sweep with his eyes out into the common area before turning back and keying the door shut.

“I was under the impression that your name wasn’t something an outsider would be permitted to speak,” Jason said, trying to figure out a place to sit since she had placed herself at the foot of his bed, directly in the center. She watched him try and maneuver past and slide himself into the desk chair, turning it slightly so he could face her.

“I may be addressed by whichever name I wish, by whomever I wish,” she said, the corners of her mouth turned up. Alarm bells were ringing in Jason’s head and he knew something had changed between the two of them since they had been playing Rummy earlier in the evening … but the hell if he could figure out what it was. I really need to get out more.

“What would you prefer me to call you?” Jason asked, forcing his eyes up.

“My name is Annada,” she said, leaning back a bit and staring at him.

“Okay,” Jason said, floundering a bit. “That’s good to know—” Uh, oh.

“Would you like me to leave, Captain?” she said with a small frown.

Yes!

“No,” he said, ignoring his common sense and conscience, his baser instincts telling them both to get bent.

“Then maybe you’d be more comfortable sitting over here by me where we can talk,” Annada said sweetly.

There is no way this doesn’t come back to bite me square in the ass.

Chapter 17

“How long until they let us land?” Jason asked. They’d been in a high transfer orbit over Wy for the better part of the day and he was getting impatient. Annada had left his quarters early on first watch, but by the mixed looks he was getting from everyone he could tell that on such a small ship it wasn’t exactly a secret. Either that or he was imagining things. One thing he wasn’t imagining, however, was the openly hostile look he received from Kalette over breakfast. Now he wanted nothing more than to put the wheels on the ground and escape the confines of the ship for a bit.

“Same as when you asked me ten minutes ago,” Kage said irritably. “I don’t know.”

“Maybe there’s something you’d rather be doing in your quarters?” Crusher asked innocently, setting the others to snickering and hiding full laughs with fake coughs. Jason didn’t bother replying; that would only be throwing fuel on a fire that was just itching to really get going. It was another ninety minutes of them poking and prodding him for the reaction they wanted before Kage received their landing clearance.

“Standard deorbit,” he said, sitting up and becoming all business. “We’re coming in over the southern ocean and landing in the medium ship servicing port that’s down and around where the big boys land. Flight path data coming to you now.”

“I’ve got it,” Jason said. “Standby to deorbit.” He dipped the nose down until his indicators greened up that he had the ship oriented correctly and then he allowed the computer to take control and bring them down into the atmosphere. There was a lot of close quarters traffic, or at least close quarters by aeronautical standards, and he wasn’t one to risk a collision because he’d foolishly been manually piloting the ship with other vessels so close.

They all waited as the ship bounced and rocked through the higher altitudes as she decelerated via the friction of the shields slamming into the atmosphere. After only a few moments the plasma cleared away from the canopy and they could see they were in a sharp dive towards the ocean, the traffic around them packed tight enough that it was visible with the naked eye.

“Lots of ships coming in and out of here,” Crusher remarked. “It’ll make it tough to know if the Defiant makes an unwanted appearance.”

“We’ve got that covered,” Jason said, looking down and verifying that the Defiant was still flying towards the Eshquarian Empire. It looked like they’d taken the bait, but Jason could tell from their speed that they hadn’t fully bought it and were loafing in that direction until new intel became available. He only hoped Jer-An had come through the experience unscathed. “What this will do, however, is help keep us nice and unmemorable when someone shows up asking about us.”

“Speaking of,” Doc said. “How are we paying for fuel and provisions?” Everyone turned to look at Crusher.

“Really?” he asked. “You don’t actually have any money left.”

“A little bit for incidentals,” Jason shrugged. “But I’m more or less broke. I’m sure we’ll be able to pay you back once Annada is back with her people.”

“Annada, huh?” Crusher said, looking at Jason the way a cobra would look at a rat at the slip up. “Who is that? Of the two passengers we have aboard that name doesn’t sound familiar.”

“Yeah,” Twingo said, his ears pitching forward. “From what I understand we’re not permitted to know the netjere’s real name, and the other Avarian is named Kalette. Is there someone else we don’t know about?”

“You realize that you’re essentially making fun of him for being the only member of the crew who has been with a woman since this mission started?” Doc asked.

“You realize that you still take all the fun out of everything?” Crusher asked.

“Quiet! All of you,” Jason said, quickly seizing the moment to end the conversation before the Avarian women happened up onto the bridge. “We’ll be landing soon and you all need to get ready for whatever it is you have to do.” They all grumbled about how they wish they’d stayed where they had been before he showed up, but they all went back to their tasks anyway.

“Since I’m paying for this trip, and we appear to be well in the lead, can we at least go get a decent meal before starting across the expanse?” Crusher asked as Jason swung the Phoenix down into a wide, sweeping arc that would put them right over the port.

“You won’t hear me complaining about a night out and off of this tub,” Jason said. “We still need to be careful, however, since the Defiant and her ConFed escorts aren’t likely the only ones looking for our passengers.”

“Doc, could you make the arrangements?” Crusher asked, not taking his feet off the console. Doc, who was working steadily at his terminal on their projected course and destination, just looked at the lounging warrior and shook his head.

“We’re going to be on … pad thirty-six,” Kage said after one more exchange with the landing control authority. “I’ve already called for fuel.”

“Is there any way your accounts can be tracked, Crusher?” Jason asked.

“No,” Crusher said, “I’m using a few different Legion operational accounts. They have thousands of expenditures coming in from all corners of the quadrant. A little bit of fuel and food won’t be noticed.”

“Great,” Jason said. “I know we’ve been flying for a bit and we’re all not used to long hauls anymore, but please, please try to keep a low profile while we’re here.”

“You can count on us,” Kage smiled in a way that chilled Jason to his very core.

“Kage … I’m begging you,” Jason said with as much sincerity as he could muster.

“I’m being serious,” Kage said. “I’m actually going to stay on board and work on our connection with the Defiant. I have a few ideas regarding that.”

“Fine,” Jason said. He thought about reminding Kage not to jeopardize the link with too much wild experimentation, but that would have been unnecessary and insulting. Slicing into impossible-to-crack systems was the world he lived in; he didn’t need Jason standing over his shoulder stating the obvious.

By the time he secured all the primary flight systems and made sure everyone else had taken care of their responsibilities before leaving everyone had already congregated in the cargo bay, milling about while waiting on the fueler to top off their cryo tanks.

“We would like to purchase clothing if we are to be in public this evening, Captain,” Annada said respectfully, a tone that automatically made Jason suspicious. Since she’d been aboard she had remained somewhat aloof and very much imperial, even after she’d come to his quarters that night.

“Not a bad idea,” Jason said, surprising everyone. “The name of the game is blending in. Two young women in gray utility coveralls would draw more attention than Crusher wearing a dress. We’ll need to get you something more appropriate.”

“We? Since when are we paying for anything?” Crusher asked before narrowing his eyes. “Why can’t Twingo just use the fabricator to make clothes that are more stylish?”

“Actually—”

“Absolutely not!” Annada cut Jason off. “Kalette and I have been stuck on this military vessel for long enough. We wish to go out and enjoy the day … we will pick up clothing then.” Jason looked at Crusher and shrugged helplessly.

“Lucky and I will take them,” Crusher said with resignation.

“I need Lucky here,” Jason said. “You can take Doc.”

“What good will that do?”

“Perhaps you could accompany us, Captain,” Annada said.

“I would love to but I’m afraid I’m needed here,” Jason said, trying not to smile at Crusher.

“No you’re not, Captain,” Twingo said with a wave. “Lucky is handling security, Kage is up on the command deck, and I’m supervising the fueling. You’re free to go.”

“Why thank you, Twingo,” Jason said loudly.

“No problem,” an oblivious Twingo said with a smile and a wave.

“So it’s settled,” Crusher said, the smile now on his face.

“Let’s go,” Jason said, trying not to sound so dejected.

****

Later that evening they all sat at dinner in a moderately priced restaurant near the center of the port town on Wy they had landed in. Jason had flatly refused Annada’s request to take the maglev train to the nearest big city for a “night out.” As it was, poor Lucky’s head looked like it was on a swivel as he tracked everyone in the restaurant simultaneously.

They had a nice, quiet meal with everyone more or less behaving themselves. Annada had positioned herself so she could lean back against Jason’s left shoulder, apparently not at all concerned about the impropriety of it now that she was away from her empire.

“Do we really have to leave tomorrow?” she asked in jest.

“Afraid so,” Jason said, sipping on a wine that was very dark, very dry, and packed one hell of a punch. “Long flight ahead of us.”

“I suppose the sooner we get going the sooner this will all be over,” she said. “You should all stay on Avaris for a while as my guests when we get back. We have beautiful beaches, mountains, nothing to do but relax.”

“I’m in,” Crusher said immediately.

“Me too,” Twingo said.

“Nothing to add, Kage?” Jason asked after a moment when the Veran sat stock still at the mention of a free vacation.

“Oh, sorry, Captain,” he said. “I’m running data through my neural implant and it’s taking a lot more concentration than I had anticipated.”

“Ah,” Jason said, setting his glass down. “Everybody ready?”

The walk back to the port was quiet and the attack Jason had been half-expecting all night didn’t come. They made it all the way back to the Phoenix without incident, even those they themselves were known to cause. Twingo pulled out a scanner and began sweeping the hull for any tampering that might have occurred while they were away while Lucky cleared the inside of the ship.

Kalette went immediately to starboard berthing again, not bothering to say goodnight to anybody. “I am going to go talk to her,” Annada said, kissing Jason on the cheek. “This is most unusual behavior from her.” Once she had followed her friend into the bay Kage and Crusher pounced on Jason.

“When the hell did this start?” Kage demanded in a harsh whisper. “One night and all of a sudden you two are an item?”

“Wasn’t there something you were going to do?” Jason said. “Something other than stand here and gossip like an old woman.” From years of practice he knew the expression sent Kage into a tailspin for some reason, and this time was no different. Spluttering indignantly about just wanting to know what was going on with his friends he stormed off, muttering the whole way to the command deck where he shut himself in the com room.

“So what is going on?” Crusher asked once Kage had left.

“Hell if I know,” Jason said honestly, shrugging as he grabbed a couple of bottles out of the cooler for the two of them. “She came to my room last night and now she seems completely comfortable about everyone knowing.”

“Her friend doesn’t seem too happy about it,” Crusher said, taking the bottle. “While you were on S’tora did you … ?”

“Nope,” Jason said, not elaborating that he had been in no shape to put the moves on anyone when Kalette first arrived on S’tora. “Whatever. A few more weeks and this mission will be over.”

“What happens to all of us then?” Crusher asked, echoing Kage’s earlier sentiment.

“We’ll figure it out then,” Jason said. “There’s still some dirty laundry to air out before any of us make any long-term commitments.”

“True enough,” Crusher said, draining his bottle. “Another?”

“Can’t,” Jason said. “We’re lifting off in two hours. I want to be in slip-space as soon as possible. The ship is prepped and we might as well get some distance during the night while most of us are asleep.”

“So? Your metabolism burns it off fast enough.”

“I know,” Jason said. “There’s just something about drinking right before piloting an interstellar combat vessel that makes me nervous.”

Just over two hours after he left Crusher in the galley the Phoenix lifted smoothly from the surface and climbed away into the night sky. Jason wasted no time getting them out of Wy’s orbital traffic and to their mesh-out point. Fifty-five minutes after lifting off the gunship disappeared from the Wy System in a flash of wasted slip-energies.

Chapter 18

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 copilot’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.

The reaction from everyone was more or less what Jason had expected. Kalette and Annada both screamed in fear while the rest of his crew just looked at Lucky as if he’d lost his mind despite the fact they’d heard Jason give the order. He let the chaos go on for a few more moments.

“Shut up!!” he bellowed. All noise stopped at once save for Kalette’s pathetic whimpers even though he knew Lucky wasn’t squeezing hard enough to actually cause her any pain. “All will be explained in due time. Doc, come here for a moment.” When Doc approached he leaned down and whispered instructions into his friend’s ear. Doc nodded twice and then walked off to the infirmary.

“Now, I’d rather not do this with an audience,” Jason said. “But I needed you all in here to give the illusion that things were normal. I need Crusher to go get restraints for Kalette and then the only people I want in the room are her, me, Annada, and Doc once he gets back. The rest of you go to the bridge.”

They were all still so stunned they filed out without complaint, save for the wink Kage gave him to let him know he understood that Jason wanted them watching from the bridge, just not sitting in the room looming over a scared young woman. He looked up and caught the glare from Annada, full of venom and unbridled fury. For a moment he considered having her restrained as well since once the truth came out it was possible that rage would be redirected. In the end he dismissed the idea since even though as captain he was the ultimate authority on a ship underway he figured it probably wasn’t smart to chain the heir to an empire with such a powerful military to her seat.

“Captain, I demand to know what this nonsense is about,” Annada said once she’d calmed down marginally, at least enough to find her voice.

“That is why you’re here, Annada,” Jason said. “This will be quick, I promise.”

“Do not worry, Kalette,” she said to her panic-stricken friend as Crusher latched the manacles around her petite wrists and walked off towards the bridge without a word. Doc came out a moment later with three syringes, each loaded with a clear liquid.

“Let’s get started,” Jason said, sitting down and nodding for Doc to take the seat next to the prisoner. “Kalette, you heard me tell everyone about how we were able to track Crisstof Dalton’s ship?”

“Yes,” Kalette said quietly, her eyes never leaving the needles.

“Kage accomplished this by breaking into the ship’s main computer through an unsecured com-node,” Jason said. “With this we were also able to access Dalton’s personal com system. Would you like to know what messages he exchanged with a certain high-ranking Avarian official? Messages which led us to where we are now, with you chained to a galley chair?” At this Kalette’s eyes widened and she began to tremble, but she held her silence.

“Admirable,” Jason said when she clamped her mouth shut, “but ultimately pointless. While I’d hoped you’d talk on your own, we have other methods. Doc, if you please.” Without so much as a warning Doc picked up one of the syringes and plunged it into Kalette’s arm, quickly depressing the plunger.

“What is this!” Annada said sharply.

“This is a form of the drug that Crusher’s intelligence service uses to get their prisoners to talk,” Jason said. “Unfortunately for someone as small as Kalette there is a fine balance between dosing enough for compliance and a tad too much and causing a brain hemorrhage and, unfortunately, quite painful death. That’s why Doc is standing by with another injector with a fast-acting antidote in addition to the three doses of the drug. Now, Kalette … please tell me about your role in getting Annada out of the Imperial compound on Avaris.” Kalette looked at him with abject fear etched on her face and tears streaming down her face, but kept silent. “Doc.” Once gain Doc grabbed a syringe and plunged it into her arm.

“Please stop!” Kalette said.

“That’s more than we gave the ConFed agent that led us to Vyrt where they were keeping Annada,” Jason said. “You’d better begin talking if you want that antidote.”

“They will kill my parents and sister!” Kalette said, sobbing.

Annada started at this admission. “Kalette? Is there any truth to these claims?”

“I am so sorry, my netjere!” Kalette cried. “I had no choice!”

“Please start from the beginning,” Jason said quietly. “They have no way to know what you say here on this ship.”

“Chancellor Vulem approached me three years ago, right after I had been moved to First Attendant,” Kalette began, talking fast. “He said it was vital that we get the netjere away from the Capital. I asked why, but he would tell me nothing, so I refused.

“Once I refused him I think he became afraid I would tell someone about his request, so the next time he came to see me he had a video of my family being held hostage and told me they would be safe as long as I kept my silence. It wasn’t long afterwards that he approached me again and said it was critical that the netjere be removed from the city. He said it was for her own safety and that I would be helping to protect her.”

“I would assume you were suspicious of someone offering help after they’d threatened to kill your entire family,” Jason said.

“Of course!” Kalette said, looking at Doc fearfully before continuing. “But he insisted that no harm would come to her and that I would be able to go with her. When I tried to refuse again he took me to see my family, where they were being held in cages, and told me time was running short and that I had a choice to make.”

“This confirms much of what we knew,” Jason said, nodding. “You were instructed to get her out of the city, preferably off Avaris … but something went wrong. There was a flurry of messages that seem to coincide to when you were grabbed, but they don’t make a lot of sense. We’re missing the context that we’d like you to fill in.”

“I don’t think the people that took us were working with Velum,” Kalette said, her face flushed and hands shaking. “Two members of the security team that were placed by the Chancellor looked surprised by the attempt and were killed by the abductors when they tried to ward them off. I also overheard members of the crew talking about the need to keep us hidden until the word was given and then they could dispose of us.”

“Someone else grabbed them?” Doc asked, looking at Jason.

“How would they have known unless someone had been working another angle the entire time,” Jason said. “We’ll have to get Kage to cross reference—”

“Can this be discussed after she gets the antidote?” Annada said as she looked at Kalette with concern.

“Oh, that,” Doc said. “There is no antidote.”

“What?! She will die then?”

“Not likely,” Jason said. “Sorry, Kalette, but we’ve injected you with sterile saline. The side effects will include being a little more hydrated, but that’s about it.”

“But I feel ill,” Kalette insisted.

“Psychosomatic,” Doc said. “The body will respond to what the mind believes. You were never in any danger.”

“We assumed you were an unwilling participant since you did risk your life escaping and finding us,” Jason said. “You also could have given us away multiple times now and haven’t, but we needed to scare you a bit to get you to give up what you knew. Sorry.”

“It is I who am sorry,” Kalette said, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I have betrayed you, netjere—”

“You were put into an impossible situation,” Annada said with a dismissive wave. “We will discuss it later when we are both calm. Now come, let us get you lying down so you can rest. Is that acceptable, Captain?”

“Yes,” Jason said. “If she’s willing to work with us later?” Kalette nodded at this as Annada moved to help her out of the seat once Doc reached around and deactivated the magnetically locked restraints.

“We’re still about a week from Avarian space,” Jason said gently. “Go get some rest and collect yourself. Tomorrow we’ll begin planning around whatever information you can provide us.” They watched as Annada took her into the starboard berthing bay and closed the door behind them.

“I may have underestimated the netjere,” Doc said. “She seemed like your prototypical wealthy, spoiled young female, but she showed a lot of character looking past Kalette leading her into a violent abduction.”

“She has all the marks of being a good leader,” Jason nodded. “Let’s hope we can keep her alive long enough to realize her potential.”

****

“The Defiant is still heading straight towards us,” Kage reported. “But she’s decreased her velocity some.”

“Look at these reactor readings,” Jason said. “They didn’t have much of a choice. Engines aren’t looking so great either. I bet Kellea is losing her mind at having to abuse her ship like that.”

“It almost makes me want to try and hack into the internal security feed,” Kage laughed. “How were the conversations with the girls?”

“Kalette didn’t know a whole lot,” Jason said. “Once she had a full night of sleep and something to eat she provided us with all the names that she knew were associated with the abduction, and Annada provided the context as to who they were. Now you and I will need to see where these fit into the messages we stole off Crisstof’s com node and hopefully find out how the ConFed fits into all this.”

“Easy,” Kage said, yawning.

“Oh yeah,” Jason said, rolling his eyes.

“Why don’t we just drop all this in the lap of Avarian Imperial Intelligence?” Kage asked. “Besides your vested interest in sticking around as long as possible, of course.”

“One of the names Kalette heard was the director of the intelligence service,” Jason said. “Go figure.”

Over the next four hours Jason and Kage worked in the cramped com room, trying to put names to messages and slowly building a picture about what was going on in the Avarian Capital. The part that didn’t make sense was that Crisstof seemed to be genuinely surprised when Annada was taken to ConFed space. Some of the messages from the Avarians indicated they clearly suspected Dalton of going rogue for reasons of his own. Kage was also able to dig up a few messages from the Defiant to someone in the ConFed’s defense subcommittee raising concerns about the Avarians kidnapping their own netjere as an excuse to strike.

“This is only reinforcing my intense dislike of governments in general,” Jason said, taking a sip of room temperature chroot and almost involuntarily spitting it back out.

“Not me,” Kage said absently as his fingers flew over the controls. “I love governments.”

“That’s an odd sentiment from you, all things considered,” Jason said.

“Most of my activities are on the wrong side of the law, this is true,” Kage said. “But they also usually involve separating something I want from the person who happens to own it at the time. Strong, stable governments make people comfortable and complacent. Instability makes people hold onto their valuables more tightly.”

“That makes sense in a horrible sort of way,” Jason nodded. “So what do we think about all of this? I can’t tell if Crisstof was trying to kick off a galaxy-wide war or if he’s so stupid he was simply playing an opportunity that presented itself. I don’t know the Avarians well enough to figure out who is screwing who in this deal and the ConFed is far too good at compartmentalizing to know if we have an agency, a councilmember, or an insane agent causing all the problems on that side. Rarely do they act with any sort of unified authority and we’re not seeing the fleet movements to indicate they either plan to invade or even take the Avarian threat seriously.”

“It is a bit of a mess,” Kage agreed. “But I’m starting to see a pattern in all of it. Let me work at it for a few more hours and I’ll get back to you.”

“I can stay,” Jason said, rubbing his hands together.

“I appreciate the solidarity, Captain,” Kage said, “but you’re distracting me with your constant outbursts and inexplicable organization methodology.”

“Blunt, but honest,” Jason said, rising stiffly to his feet and grabbing his mug. “If you need help, call Lucky.”

“Thanks,” Kage said, waving him away with his two left hands.

“Have you made any progress?” Annada asked as he walked back into the galley. He couldn’t tell if she was still angry with him over how he’d treated Kalette during the interrogation. He could try to explain that he had done it to protect her, but he happened to agree with her that the entire incident was terrible. It was also necessary given their time constraints, but that didn’t make him feel much better about it.

“We’re getting there,” he said. “How is Kalette?”

“She is calming down, though I do not believe she will ever forgive herself.”

“It’s a tough thing,” Jason said, sitting at the table across from her. “Being forced to make a choice like that.”

“You think she chose incorrectly?” Annada said. Jason didn’t hear any rancor behind the question, so he considered it honestly.

“I don’t think there was a correct choice for her,” Jason said. “She obviously loves you very much and is extremely dedicated to do what she did in order to save you … but she also loves her family.”

“You said for her,” Annada said. “Don’t you mean for everyone?”

“There’s a reason people like me don’t have families,” Jason said. “Kalette is a gentle soul, picked to be an attendant to an imperial heir … she’ll always look for a way to save everyone. Vulem would have known this and that’s why he threatened her family and not her. I have no doubt that she would have given her life for you; that would have been an easy choice for her to make.”

“Thank you, Jason,” she said. “You have given me clarity in this issue.”

“First time for everything,” Jason shrugged, standing to leave. She reached across the table and grabbed both his hands.

“Stay for a while longer, please,” she said. Jason wordlessly slid back down into the seat.

“Remember when this used to be a combat vessel?” Crusher remarked as he and Lucky walked by.

Chapter 19

“This plan sounds like it carries great risk, Captain,” Annada said. Jason had begun to notice she used his first name and rank interchangeably depending on how irritated she was with him at that particular moment.

“Minimal risk,” he corrected. “She’ll simply be sending a message, but it has to be her, and it has to be believable.”

“I am willing to do this,” Kalette said quietly. “Please, netjere … this is something I have to do.” Annada remained quiet, but still didn’t look happy about the idea.

“Essentially, we need to find out how connected all the players are,” Kage continued the briefing. “If you contact Vulem, our hope is that he will reach out to Crisstof Dalton. His actions will help us determine where the ConFed stands in all of this. Dalton will either react directly, reach out to his ConFed contacts, or both.”

“Only once we have more of a firm grasp on the situation on Avaris will I be comfortable taking the netjere back home,” Jason said. “Otherwise we may well be delivering her to her executioners.”

“And what of her family?” Annada asked.

“We take out Vulem, we save her family,” Crusher said, looking at Jason meaningfully. They both knew that Vulem was smart enough to have a failsafe that they were likely going to be unable to stop. The odds were great that Kalette’s family was going to be killed no matter what they did, or didn’t do. It was tragic and a decision that Jason wasn’t happy about making, but it made no sense to put three people above the safety and stability of an entire empire or the millions that would die if the Empire and ConFed went to war.

“When do we start?” Kalette asked.

“Kage and Doc are going to work with you to craft the message, and then we’ll figure out the best way to contact Vulem,” Jason said. “The sooner we get started the better. If we can push Vulem into making a move we should see it quickly through our downlink from the Defiant.”

“Would Crisstof Dalton actually bring an unaffiliated, privately owned warship into Avarian space?” Annada asked after the three had left for the bridge to work on the message.

“The Defiant was built from the ground up for his purposes,” Jason said. “As such, she can look as innocent as a well-equipped trade ship when he wants it to even though she’s a full-fledged battlecruiser.”

“Did it ever occur to you to question the motives of a man who owns ships like that?” she asked. “Especially when you work for him?” He didn’t answer as she climbed out of her seat and went to the bridge herself, likely to make sure Kalette wasn’t being talked into something that would put her or her family in even more danger.

Had he been completely blind to Crisstof’s obvious ambition all these years? Looking back all the way to when the older man had first hired him Jason had to admit that he’d still been a fresh, naive Earthling that had been impressed with his clout and sense of purpose. The fact that Crisstof had generously paid (and overpaid) for their services and covered their operating expenses hadn’t hurt either. The uncomfortable truth was that Omega Force may have been acting as Crisstof Dalton’s attack dog for all this time, giving him plausible deniability while still accomplishing his goals.

Jason wanted to believe this wasn’t the case, and he knew that they’d helped countless people on their own when they weren’t working directly for Crisstof, but the evidence was mounting that there was much more to the old man’s actions than simple altruism and charity. The sad thing was the evidence has been in front of his face the entire time. How does a man amass and maintain such a vast fortune if the only thing he’s doing is flying from system to system righting wrongs? Omega Force had tried that on a nano-scale by themselves when they’d first acquired the gunship and they’d gone broke within the space of two months. He also began looking back at the fact Crisstof seemed to have very well-placed connections within a lot of governments, enough so that he was able to put considerable pressure on them, and all the while Jason had never really gotten a peek behind the curtain at the man’s shadowy organization.

****

“I don’t have much time,” Kalette said. “It is night hours on their ship, but they have someone on the bridge at all times.”

“And where are you now?” Chancellor Vulem asked.

“I snuck into what looks like a dedicated com room,” she whispered. “They’ve been giving us more free access to the ship over the last few days.”

“What is it they want?”

“I do not know,” Kalette said, her voice taking on a convincing desperate edge. “I don’t even know who they are.”

“Why would you risk contacting me?” Vulem hissed.

“You’re the only person I know to contact,” she cried. “Please … my family—”

“Is alive for the moment,” Vulem said. “Now where are they going? Do you at least know that much?”

“They said something about knowing who to sell us back to,” Kalette said. “I couldn’t make it all out, but it sounds like they intend to hold the netjere for ransom and try to make contact with the Sovereign.”

“That is not what I asked,” Vulem said. “Answer quickly or I will terminate this channel and then do the same to your younger sibling.”

“No!” she whispered sharply. “All I know is that one of them mentioned having an associate on a planet that was almost completely covered in rainforest that could hide them.”

“They said that specifically?” Vulem pressed, leaning forward. “Mostly rainforest?”

“Yes,” Kalette said. “I heard that for certain.” For effect she leaned back in her seat and looked around frantically.

“Keep the netjere alive,” Vulem said, making it sound like a threat. He killed the channel on his end and the display went blank.

“Not bad!” Jason said enthusiastically. “I bought it.” The others were all crowded around the entrance to the com room and nodding their approval as well.

“Thank you,” Kalette said. “Let us hope that he did as well.”

“Have you ever been to Kekisha?” Twingo asked.

“No,” she admitted. “But it is quite famous for its rainforest and it is the only planet like it within a few hundred lightyears.”

“I think he’ll figure it out,” Jason said. “Now we sit back while and wait for him to reach out to Crisstof … if he does.”

“And if he doesn’t?” Doc asked.

“We’ve got bigger problems,” Jason said. “We’ll burn that bridge down when we get to it. Set a new course for Kekisha. We wouldn’t want to be late for the party.” The Phoenix came onto a new course, still in slip-space, and began the short flight to the Kekisha System and hopefully some answers.

They didn’t have to wait long. Crisstof’s personal com node was getting an incoming channel request within the hour from an address that seemed to be coming from within Imperial space, though the method for determining that was a bit imprecise.

“Here it goes,” Kage said. “We’ll see how well my tap on his system works. The video won’t be the greatest since I’m trying to keep the bandwidth to a minimum.”

“Shh,” Jason hissed as the monitor resolved to show the grainy images of both Crisstof and Vulem in split screen.

“Chancellor Vulem,” Crisstof said with a nod. “Am I to understand you’ve found your wayward princess?”

“Not quite, Mr. Dalton,” Velum said. “Your former employees have led us on quite the chase since pulling her away from that group of mercenaries. They have still made no contact with you?”

“They do not work for me anymore,” Crisstof said. “I was unable to convince them to help me with this, so for right now they’re an unpredictable element.”

“I have received information that they intend to hide on a planet called Kekisha, a planet well within our borders,” Vulem said. “It appears they are trying to ransom the netjere back to the Sovereign, but it will be difficult for them to make contact with anyone in the Capital without help. We still have time.”

“Your source of information is reliable?” Crisstof said. “Please be aware that this team has a talent for not only escaping trouble but turning up when they are least expected or wanted.”

“My source is reliable,” Vulem said. “She was compromised long before the netjere was abducted. But I cannot divert any significant forces to the area without alerting someone in the Defense Ministry. Everyone is at a heightened state of alert since the incident.”

“I understand,” Crisstof said. “I’ll order the Defiant to alter course once you send me the planetary coordinates.”

“What about this group that has the netjere currently?” Vulem said. “They know far too much to be allowed to escape even if we recover her.”

“Agreed,” Crisstof sighed, seeming to be in physical discomfort. “I will admit that it pains me greatly, but they may have finally got themselves involved in something they can’t be allowed to walk away from.”

“Thanks, dick,” Jason said.

“Shhh!” Twingo said from behind him.

“Do not waver in this, Mr. Dalton,” Vulem warned. “We are both inextricably tied to this thing. It will either succeed or it will sink us both.”

“I will take care of my end,” Crisstof said. “You make sure all lines of communication to the Sovereign are controlled.”

“I am sending you the coordinates now,” Vulem said. “I am including a route around the frontier listening post. Your ConFed ships should have no problems getting into Avarian space.”

“Very good,” Crisstof said, nodding. “I will send my captain the new course and be there as quickly as possible. Do not risk contacting me again unless it’s an emergency.” Both of them terminated their channels and the monitor went black.

“Good to know where we stand with him,” Crusher said. “I’m somehow not surprised he wouldn’t help you find me after seeing that.”

“Crisstof would shit if he knew we’d used a backdoor to bypass all his carefully placed encryption and security protocols and have him on video colluding with Vulem,” Jason laughed. “What is this guy a Chancellor of, by the way?”

“A cluster of planets that was absorbed into the Empire nearly a century ago,” Annada said. “It’s an honorary title when it comes to any actual power, but the planets were strategically important and the gesture has made their transition into the fold smoother. I would imagine after Vulem dies he will not be replaced.”

“So he has no actual authority,” Jason mused, tapping his chin. “He can’t command your military, I would assume?”

“No.”

“Does he have his own honor guard?” Jason asked. “A small group of ships from his homeworld that are mostly ceremonial that are in orbit over Avaris?”

“Yes,” Annada nodded. “There are four cruisers, not very modern, that ferry him from Avaris to his homeworld.”

“And if he redeployed them all to Kekisha someone would notice,” Twingo said. “Your father’s intelligence service would at the very least follow him.”

“This is true,” she confirmed. “He normally only leaves on one of the ships.”

“So we’ll be staring down the barrel of an outdated cruiser, two ConFed ships, and a modern battlecruiser with the captain’s vengeful ex-girlfriend in command,” Kage said, drawing a sharp look from Jason who was in turn drawing an equally unfriendly look from Annada.

“She’s not all that vengeful,” Jason said lamely. “I can almost guarantee she probably won’t shoot us out of the sky … most likely.”

“That’s okay, Captain,” Kage said with a smile. “I’ve got a little surprise for her.”

“How far out from Kekisha are we?” Doc asked.

“Another two days at our current speed,” Kage said. “We’re just now crossing into Avarian space.”

“And where is the Defiant?” Jason asked.

“Six days behind us,” Kage said.

“They’re making good time,” Jason said. “But we’ll still have quite a while to get set up and wait for them.”

“Do we know exactly what we’re going to do when they show up?” Crusher asked.

“More or less,” Jason said. “But we’ve got a few days to figure all that out.”

****

The Kekisha System was mostly devoid of spacecraft traffic or artificial constructs. It was one of the main reasons they’d fed the location to Vulem: it was a plausible hideout while also being remote enough that he would feel the risk was low for a military interdiction. The Phoenix’s countermeasures suite was more than adequate to keep them hidden from the system’s few traffic control and identification systems.

“Begin a passive scan of surrounding space,” Jason said. “I want to find a good hiding place to sit and watch the fireworks.”

“There are five moons orbiting the planet,” Doc said. “One looks like it suffered a serious meteor impact.”

“Correct,” Kalette said. “The second largest moon was struck so hard nearly one third of its mass was sheared away. The debris now follows along behind it in a long trail. It’s a noted navigational hazard when approaching Kekisha.”

“Damn, that is a hard hit,” Jason whistled. “What’s that moon’s composition? It shouldn’t have even survived a hit like that at all.”

“Spectrometer shows it to be mostly iron ore,” Kage said. “That’s confirmed by the moon’s orbital velocity and distance from the planet.”

“So it’s a moon trailing a cloud of iron chunks?” Jason asked. “That seems like a promising place to hide a ship.”

“It also looks like a promising place to get a handful of hull punctures,” Twingo said irritably. “You can’t seriously be thinking about flying this ship into a field of high velocity iron chunks.”

“I’m considering it,” Jason said. “So find me a way to make it work if you don’t want to be patching holes.” Twingo let out an extended stream of swearing, but turned back to his station and began working out the problems. It was nearly an hour later when he turned and waved Jason over to his terminal.

“Hiding out in the tail debris is suicide,” Twingo said. “That’s completely out, at least if we want to remain hidden. There’s so much flying around in there that we would have no choice but to keep the shields up.”

“Which gives away our position,” Jason said. “So what do you have?”

“There are lots of craters and impressions on the opposite side of that moon,” Twingo said, bringing up a graphic that showed their latest high-resolution scan with various spots highlighted. “The highlighted areas are places we can descend into, put the engines in standby, and be fairly secure while still having the advantage of the moon’s iron content hiding our signature.”

“I get the feeling you’re about to tell me there’s another problem,” Jason said.

“We ourselves will be completely blind down there unless you want to use the active sensors,” Twingo said.

“Which will again completely defeat the purpose,” Jason sighed. “Ideas, anyone?”

“I’ve been thinking about that already,” Kage said. “Even if we went with your crazy plan and hid in the debris tail we’d still be mostly blind. But we can launch one of the Twins out of the interference, use its passive sensors, and then have it transmit that back to us on a com laser.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Twingo said as he thought about it. “The drone is too small to have its power signature stand out and the com laser will be more or less invisible unless someone knows exactly where to look and at what frequency.”

“Let’s begin making preparations around that plan then,” Jason said. “Kage, you prep one of the Twins since you’re the only one who can seem to make them understand what the hell you want. Twingo, you set up the com relay. Doc, plot me a course down to that moon that minimizes our exposure to the planet itself.”

The crew quickly went about their tasks in order to get the ship hidden and waiting. Even though the Defiant and her possible escorts were days away, the two Avarians on board couldn’t say with any certainty how fast Vulem’s cruiser might be so they were operating under the assumption that it could appear at any time.

Jason could feel the endgame approaching as he carefully flew the Phoenix down into the system towards the red moon that more resembled a comet at that distance. Though he had no especially fond feelings for Crisstof after the incident on Faulli, he still was having trouble wrapping his head around how deeply the old man seemed to be in on this. It also made him wonder what Kellea knew about what her boss was up to. She’d been close to him long before Jason had ever met her … could she have fooled him as well as Crisstof seemed to?

Chapter 20

“We’ve got a slip-space signature,” Kage said. “Tracking a single ship on an inbound vector.”

“Let me know when you’re able to get a positive ID on it,” Jason said. They had been nestled down in a crater on Kekisha’s red moon for the last five days and nerves were beginning to fray. Operating the Phoenix in low power mode also meant that gravity and climate control were at the bare minimums so that nobody except Lucky was comfortable.

The new arrival made a leisurely (or cautious) approach to the planet, making orbit over the green planet in just under ten hours before bombarding the surface with high-energy scans.

“They’re definitely looking for someone,” Kage said. “I’m building a profile for the ship but I can already tell you it doesn’t match anything we have on file.”

“Show me a visual representation,” Annada said. She and Kalette had split the day and night watches between the two of them so there was always an Avarian on the bridge in case they were needed for any specific local information. Kage built a three-dimensional model from the sensor data and sent it to her display.

“That’s one of Chancellor Vulem’s ships,” she confirmed. “I can actually see that it is his flagship. The raised observation deck on the dorsal surface is the distinguishing feature.”

“Tactical analysis?” Jason asked.

“Power signature is low for a ship that size, engines don’t appear to be very efficient or powerful, and the weapons that we can detect are two pairs of antiquated ten-point-six micrometer wavelength lasers, fore and aft,” Doc said as he read off his terminal. “The forward laser projectors are leaking quite badly.”

“So it’s an old ship that’s not been very well maintained,” Jason summarized. “Is it any threat to us?”

“Not from what I can tell,” Doc said. “Unless they’re packing some modern missiles in a weapons bay they don’t really have any teeth.”

“That is highly unlikely,” Annada said. “All weaponry of that type is carefully controlled in the Empire. That ship was once a ship of the line; now it is simply a glorified courier.”

They all watched Vulem’s ship sweep around the planet, concentrating high-powered radar on places they thought a ship could hide. After sixteen hours straight scanning the surface all emissions from the old cruiser ceased and it began to move into a higher orbit. Jason watched through bloodshot eyes, trying to figure out what its next move would be. He glanced down at a status panel he’d pulled up to make sure the Defiant hadn’t sent any messages to the ship. From what he could see, the com node on the battlecruiser was completely inactive.

“Kage,” he said, a thought occurring to him. “I’m only watching Crisstof’s personal com node. Use your downlink to see if any of the Defiant’s com nodes have sent a message to the address we have for Velum.”

Kage rubbed his eyes wearily and began his query. “Good call,” he said after a moment. “Crisstof must not see a need for secrecy aboard his own ship at this point. An outbound message went to that node address about twenty minutes before the cruiser halted its scans.”

“Crisstof must have told them not to waste any more time looking for us until he gets here with more modern sensors,” Jason said. “Just a message and not an open two-way channel?”

“Just a message,” Kage said. “Audio only, fifteen seconds long. I could retrieve it but I would have to go in and crack into that particular buffer.”

“Don’t bother,” Jason said, looking at his display. “The Defiant will be here in less than an hour. Let’s not tip our hand with an unnecessary move like that.”

Just as Jason’s countdown timer reached seven seconds Doc alerted them that another, much larger slip-space signature had been detected near the edge of the system. Jason noted the latency of their downlink and watched in real-time as the drone he had stationed above them “watched” the Defiant and two ConFed destroyers glide into the system. It was a juxtaposition that he still found disheartening. He almost hoped Kellea had been removed from command and that she wasn’t actively participating in this debacle her boss had gotten himself into.

“Whoa!” Kage said. “High-power short range com blast coming from the Defiant, all standard frequencies.”

“Put it on,” Jason said.

“Captain Jason Burke,” Crisstof said, his voice distorted until the computer attenuated the signal. “We know you are out here. I know you probably feel you are doing the right thing … in your own twisted way. By now you can see that I’m operating under the authority of the ConFed Council. Surrender yourself, bring your ship aboard the Defiant, and we can find a way to fix this together.” The message began to loop, Crisstof’s haggard face looking especially bad when it was projected up on the main canopy.

“Cut it off,” Jason said. “He’s in deep. Really deep. Whatever he’s been playing at he is in an absolute panic that it’s going to blow up in his face at any moment.”

“So are we ready for the dumb part of this plan?” Twingo asked.

“I suppose we are,” Jason said. “Okay everybody, commence with the dumb part. Bring the Phoenix to full power, fire up the engines and the weapons, and when this shit bomb explodes let’s try not to get any splattered on us.”

Kage just shook his head at the expression.

Status lights all over the bridge began winking on as the reactor ramped up and the engines came out of standby. Power surged to the tactical systems and the targeting computer began tracking all the designated hostiles in the system.

“No change from any of the ships,” Kage said. “It looks like this moon’s interference is still masking us, but they’re closing the range quickly.” Jason looked down at his master status indicator, an amalgamation by the main computer of individual statuses displayed as a single percentage. It was at eighty-three percent and rising.

“No problem,” he said confidently. “They can’t close the gap before we’re fully combat capable.”

“How will a single gunship, fully ready or not, make any difference to a fully armed battlecruiser?” Annada asked, the fear evident in her voice even as his own crew was displaying an oddly misplaced eagerness for the encounter. Jason just winked and smiled at her as the indicator climbed past ninety-five percent.

“Recall our little helper,” Jason said, referring to the drone. “I’m taking us out. Everybody get in their seats and strap in.” As everyone shrugged into their restraints—and Lucky anchored himself to the floor with a clank from his maglocks—Jason fed power to the main drive and brought the Phoenix up slowly out of the deep impact crater they’d been hiding in. “Go active,” he said. The effect was almost instantaneous. When the gunship’s active sensors began broadcasting all four ships in the system turned towards the red moon and began accelerating.

“It looks like they’re committed,” Kage said. “Ready when you are.”

“Standby,” Jason said, throttling up and swinging out and around to move away from the moon and their pursuers. “I’m going to get them moving out into the system first.” He accelerated hard away from Kekisha, ignoring the com panel that was lit up like a fireworks display with incoming requests and watching his tactical panel to make sure the Defiant and her escorts had come about and were pursuing. When the larger ships had completed their turn and were accelerating he pushed the Phoenix just a little harder, opening the gap and reminding Crisstof that he couldn’t catch up.

“Go ahead and let one of those channels through,” he told Kage, taking a deep breath. “Make sure all the ships can see and hear us then get me a mesh-out point.” A moment later Crisstof’s livid face filled up the main display, projected onto the canopy.

“Have you lost your mind?” he hissed.

“You really want to open like that?” Jason asked calmly. “But since we’re talking about it, I could ask you the same thing. Invading a neighboring superpower with a privately owned warship is bad, but bringing two ConFed destroyers along with you? Quite a pair you have, so to speak.”

“I have already told you I am operating under the full authority—”

“And we both know that is utter bullshit,” Jason said cutting him off. “If the ConFed council were to declare war on the Avarian Empire I would at least hope they’d bring a bigger task force. So what was the play, Crisstof? Destabilizing the Avarian government by kidnapping the daughter and … what? Eliminate the Sovereign while he’s distracted? Or did you plan a bloodless coup? What exactly did you and that idiot Vulem have cooked up?”

“I do not think this is the time or place for this discussion,” Crisstof said, his face contorting as he made a herculean effort to appear calm. “Whatever rumors you may have heard—”

“Go ahead, Kage,” Jason said. “Play the rumors for Mr. Dalton so he can know exactly where we’re getting our information.” Kage started a prerecorded montage of their com intercepts of Crisstof’s con node and jumped it onto the channel. When it was over Crisstof’s face was deathly pale and he had a noticeable tremble.

“Whether you have the netjere on that ship or not, I can’t let you leave this system alive,” he said, almost sadly. “I’m sorry, Jason.” Crisstof killed the channel with a wave and Jason didn’t have long to wait to find out what he meant.

“Three … no, four XT-7s locked onto our engine signature,” Kage said.

“We can’t dodge or shoot down that many, Captain,” Twingo warned.

“Let’s get the hell out of here then,” Jason said, engaging the slip-drive. The Phoenix shuddered as she jumped to slip-space and out of the Kekisha System. “See you over Avaris.”

“So I guess Kellea is the sort to fire on an ex,” Twingo said from his station.

“It would seem so,” Jason said. The part of his plan that he hadn’t shared with anyone hadn’t happened. He’d assumed when he played his video evidence showing Crisstof conspiring with a foreign official that Kellea would step in before Crisstof had the chance to take any other action. The fact that not only did nobody seem to make a move on the Defiant’s bridge but instead locked on six ship-killers bothered him greatly.

****

“You’re sure about these access codes?” Jason asked Annada for the fifth time.

“Very sure, Captain,” she said calmly. “These are codes known only to me and members of my father’s inner circle.”

“Well, here goes nothing,” Jason replied as the counter on the canopy hit zero and the Phoenix tore into real-space on the outer edges of the Avaris System.

“We’re being challenged,” Kage said. “Transponder is answering with the code clearance—”

“Well?” Jason demanded after Kage fell silent for more than five seconds.

“We’re in,” Kage said, breathing out in relief. “Codes were accepted and we’re now being given direct clearance all the way to the surface at our discretion.”

“How far ahead of the Defiant are we?” Jason asked.

“Standby,” Kage said. “They’re over a full day behind us. I can’t tell if the ConFed ships are still with them.”

“I can’t imagine the commanders of those ships would be dumb enough to actually fly into the Avarian Empire’s capital star system,” Jason said. “But, they haven’t shown much in the way of good sense or intelligence so far. Go ahead and issue the emergency recall signal.”

“Transmitting,” Kage said.

“I really hope you’re correct about that one,” Jason said to Annada without looking over at her.

“You worry too much,” she said sweetly, obviously feeling much better being back in her home system.

“Maybe, maybe not,” Jason said. “Okay everyone … this is all going to happen very fast once the Defiant makes her way into the system. We have a slight advantage in that Crisstof likely won’t be insane enough to start a shooting war with his single ship, but I’ve been surprised more than a few times on this trip. Stick to the plan and we’ll get through this.”

Jason flew the approach to Avaris no differently than if he was making a delivery in his other ship (if it still existed.) The codes Annada had provided were high level governmental access codes that told the traffic control system to not interfere with them and to grant any requests made. She had said it was likely that the use of the codes would be flagged in her father’s office so they should expect a welcoming party when they landed.

There was nothing especially unique about Avaris. It was typical of a planet that had borne an intelligent species that had subsequently industrialized and afterwards taken steps to minimize their ecological impact. The scars of heavy mining and deforestation were visible from orbit as they swung in under all the traffic that was waiting in queue for their turn to enter the atmosphere.

“I’ve got the launch facility outside of the palace grounds on my screen,” Kage said. “So far no challenges and we’re cleared all the way to the ground.”

“With that code you could even request a hangar and one would be vacated for you prior to our arrival,” Annada said. “In truth, that might not be such a bad idea. A secure building would be better to disembark into than an open field.”

“Do it,” Jason said to Kage as the Capital came into view. Despite Jason’s indifference to the planet from orbit he did have to admit that the city itself was just breathtaking. Gleaming spires reached into the sky near the center as graceful buildings surrounded these in concentric circles, each a lower height than the one that preceded it.

“The Capital was leveled during an attack some three hundred years ago,” Annada said, seeming to read his thoughts—again. “There was talk about moving it to another location, maybe even to a different planet. In the end, as an act of defiance, it was rebuilt literally on the ashes of the old. Since the city was being rebuilt from scratch our architects and engineers made the entire project a monument to the Avarian Resurgence.”

“Fascinating,” Jason said with sincerity. From his long conversations with Annada he could see many parallels between her species and his and between Avaris and Earth. It gave him hope for his birth planet’s future.

“Something is screwing with our planetary positioning system,” Kage said. “I can’t get the coordinate set to apply to the surface of Avaris. Just stay on course and you’ll see the landing field. We’re instructed to taxi directly into the hangar … it’ll be the third one on the right.”

“What’s wrong with the grid?” Jason asked, easing them into a shallow dive towards the open field outside the palace that actually appeared to be a grass landing area.

“I don’t know,” Kage said. “Twingo, take a look at this will you?”

“I’m on it,” Twingo said, turning back to his station.

Jason ignored the problem and lined up with the airfield, now clearly able to see it was grass. Very pretty, but wildly impractical. Did they re-sod the area after a ship landed? He reached over and flipped the switch to drop the landing gear, feeling the Phoenix wallow in the air a bit as she “dirtied up” and the gear dropped with a series of whines and bangs.

He pulled the power back and let the gunship coast in over the area with only her own momentum, not wanting to appear threatening in any way, shape, or form. Nudging the drive in reverse the ship gently stopped into a stable hover before he began pulling the power back, letting her settle onto the soft turf, the hull groaning as the ship’s bulk transitioned from the drive emitters to the landing gear struts.

“Looks like we have a welcoming committee,” Doc said, pointing to the handful of armored ground vehicles that lined the walls of the hangar they were assigned to, each training the barrel of some type of heavy weapon on them.

“Let’s go introduce ourselves,” Jason said, easing the taxi control forward and slowly rolling the ship into the cavernous building. Had he not had so many guns trained on him he might have taken more time to appreciate the intricate stonework of the beautifully designed hangar. He rolled the Phoenix to a smooth stop and put the main drive in standby, not wanting to completely shut it down in a situation with so many unknowns.

“Grab that data card,” he said to Kage. “Let’s go, everybody. Just like we talked about … Annada and Kalette will be between me and Lucky, Crusher next, and then the rest of you. Absolutely NO weapons and keep your composure if they draw on us.”

“Can we just get this over with?” Crusher complained. “I’m feeling a bit conspicuous here.”

“Just let me walk out first and everything will be fine,” Annada argued.

“Stick to the plan,” Jason said firmly. “That’s the whole reason we have the plan … to stick to it.” Annada rolled her eyes but fell in behind him anyway as he led the procession through the main deck and out into the cargo bay. He opened the rear pressure doors and dropped the ramp, watching as it lowered and revealed their official welcome to Avaris.

As expected, ten heavily armed troops were fanned out behind the ramp and one of the armored vehicles had moved over to cover them with its big gun. Jason tried to keep his face impassive as he slowly walked down the ramp with his hands up at waist level.

“Stop there!” the troop in the front called out. “State your identity and business. NOW!”

“We’re bringing something back to your Sovereign I’m sure he’s been missing,” Jason said, ignoring the threatening tone. “Would you like to lower your weapons so there are no mishaps with your netjere? We are not armed.” At this Annada stepped from around Jason and waved familiarly to the trooper.

“Weapons DOWN!” he called to his own men. “Stand down! Stand down!” Annada walked quickly down the ramp and hugged him.

“Captain Alisard!” she said. “I’ve missed you.”

“Not nearly as much as we have all missed you, my netjere,” the captain said. “These men are with you?”

“Yes, very much so,” Annada said with a smile. “They’re my very own heroes. But right now we have to get to my father … there is danger approaching and he must be warned.”

“Perhaps you could just say hello first,” a deep voice said from the back of the group. Jason craned his neck and watched as one of the troops removed his tactical helmet and a shock of long, silver hair fell out.

“Father!” Annada cried and ran to the man, embracing him fiercely. After a moments the intense reunion was over and the Sovereign walked through the guards and up to the foot of the Phoenix’s ramp.

“I believe I have you to thank for returning my daughter safely?” he asked Jason.

“Yes, sir,” Jason said, not sure how he should be addressed. “But as she said … the trouble that took her away from you is on its way here. We have some information that I believe you’ll find interesting.”

“Then let us retire to someplace more secure than an open hangar,” the Sovereign said, motioning to Captain Alisard. “If you would please follow the captain.” With that he led Annada and Kalette away to one of the waiting vehicles while the guard captain made it clear Jason and his crew were to follow him to a different one.

The crew followed the captain to the vehicle, Jason reaching out with his implant and closing the Phoenix up before the guard closed the armored door. He also initiated an unusual defensive protocol that would allow the Phoenix to not only actively defend herself against an aggressive intrusion attempt, but if it looked like the hull might be compromised the ship was authorized to fly itself out of the area. As they all bounced along in the back of the vehicle Jason hoped they would be able to relay all the information to the Sovereign and convince him onto a specific course of action before the Defiant showed up.

****

It took the better part of six hours to explain the entire story to the Sovereign and his advisors beginning from when Kalette was discovered on Jason’s ship. At first, there were openly skeptical looks and the armed guards never left the room, but after Jason had Kage display all the evidence they’d collected, including the direct communications between Crisstof and Vulem along with the sensor feeds from the Kekisha encounter, attitudes had shifted dramatically.

The Omega Force crew were all but ignored as advisors and ranking military officers began shouting for a strike on Chancellor Vulem’s homeworld as retribution. Jason watched as the Sovereign sat impassively in the middle of the chaos, watching him and his crew with an unreadable expression. Jason returned his stare, wondering what was on the monarch’s mind.

“Everyone quiet,” the Sovereign said. He’d said it in a conversational tone and volume, but all the shouting and wild gesticulating ceased instantly. “I want everyone out except my new friends here.” As all the advisors tripped over themselves leaving Jason saw that Annada had no intention of leaving.

“That means you as well, my daughter.”

“But I do not think—”

“I will not ask again,” the Sovereign said, giving his daughter a stern look. While obviously not used to defeat, she also knew when a fight was unwinnable. She stood with as much grace as she could and walked out of the room to where Kalette was waiting for her. As the doors boomed shut the Sovereign stood and walked over to a window that stretched from the floor to the ceiling fifteen meters above. The ruler obviously felt safe in the fact that they’d been searched and cleared of weaponry and that his guards were just a shout away outside the door. He also very obviously had no idea what a battlesynth was.

“Tell me, Captain Burke,” he began. “Do you truly believe this is a plot hatched within the ConFed Council, or is your former employer acting on his own?”

“I’ll admit that I don’t know what Crisstof could possibly be thinking,” Jason said, “it seems wildly out of character for him to act so independently. But since the evidence clearly shows otherwise, I’d have to say that I’m completely unqualified to answer that question.”

“Perhaps,” the Sovereign said. “While I’ll admit we were surprised that anyone moved against my family by abducting Annada, we’ve known that there are forces aligning against us for some time.

“We worked to incorporate Chancellor Vulem’s small cluster or worlds into the Empire as a strategic choke point. While we keep a wary eye on the ConFed border, our real concern is what stirs on the opposite side of our territory. I will also tell you now that the ConFed is on the verge of collapse.”

“I’ve been hearing that for some years,” Jason said with a shrug. “They still seem to keep growing, however.”

“True, but they have now overextended themselves to the point that they will either have to withdraw back to their core worlds or face the complete collapse of the system they’ve put in place,” the Sovereign said, coming back to the table. “Our intelligence from within the Council is solid on this matter, so that is why I have such a hard time believing that the ConFed was involved with whatever is going on here.”

“And I’m just as convinced it wasn’t Crisstof Dalton acting alone,” Jason said. “From what I’ve gathered during today’s session Vulem doesn’t seem ambitious or smart enough to put this together, so who does that leave?”

“That is indeed the question, isn’t it?” the Sovereign said, his face impassive. “But perhaps not the question for today. You claim that Crisstof Dalton’s ship is on its way here … what possible purpose could he have in bringing a warship into orbit over the Avarian Capital?”

“That I think I can answer,” Jason said. “We’ve become a threat. He cannot allow what’s happened here to make it back to the ConFed Council or he’ll lose everything. I’m sure his hope is that he can catch up to us here so he can swoop in and corner us.

“Once he destroys the Phoenix and us he’ll leave the system as fast as he possibly can. His assumption may be that since there are no diplomatic relations currently between the ConFed and the Empire that the incident will not follow him back across the expanse.”

“He would be mistaken in that, but your explanation is at least plausible,” the Sovereign said. “However, it still does not explain why he has done these things at all.”

“I don’t trust Crisstof,” Jason began carefully. “I don’t even particularly like him. But in this case I think he was deceived from the beginning and got caught up in something that quickly escalated out of control. His first instinct would have been to contain it and minimize the damage, but that only led to more problems for him.

“That being said, I’m in no way excusing his actions. I have no complaint against any action you feel you need to take against him.”

“What you say is probably true, but ultimately irrelevant,” the Sovereign said. “His actions are a direct threat to the stability and wellbeing of the Empire. I have no choice but to respond accordingly.”

“Understood,” Jason said with a nod. “But might I suggest a course of action that doesn’t involve trying to fight it out with a top-of-the-line battlecruiser in orbit over Avaris?”

Chapter 21

“This is an impressive ship, Captain Burke,” Captain Alisard said from his seat on the bridge. “A unique combination of firepower and speed.”

“Thanks,” Jason said absently. “She’s gotten us out of more than a few scrapes.” The Sovereign had agreed to go along with Jason’s plan, but had his own backups in place in case it failed. He’d also insisted that a contingent of his personal guard accompany them on the Phoenix. Jason wasn’t offended and just considered it being prudent: trust but verify. Despite bringing his daughter back there wasn’t any reason for the monarch to wholeheartedly trust that his intentions were honorable.

“Five seconds,” Kage said.

“Are you taking the latency into account?” Jason asked.

“Contact,” Doc said, answering the question for Kage. “The Defiant has just entered the system, full active scans. They’re looking for us.”

“Show time,” Jason said. The Phoenix was drifting in high-orbit, giving the impression that they were still having trouble getting clearance to land. Once he was sure the Defiant had been given enough time to pick them out of the traffic he yanked the gunship out of orbit and began racing for the edge of the system. As he did, one of the orbital security ships fired a low-intensity particle beam that impacted with Phoenix’s rear shields.

“Firing charge,” Twingo said. He executed the command that set off a directional plasma burst that had been placed on the starboard wing’s upper surface, just in front of the engine emitters. When it blew the computer automatically dropped the power output to the starboard engine giving the appearance that the Phoenix had been crippled by the blast.

“They’re taking the bait,” Doc said. “Defiant is coming onto an intercept course and pursuing.”

“Keep fluctuating the starboard engine output,” Jason said. “I want them well away from the planet.”

“They shouldn’t be able to catch us in time,” Kage said. “But it will be close.”

The com panel was chirping insistently with com requests from the battlecruiser, but Jason ignored it and kept pushing for the outer edge of the system while the Defiant bore down on them.

“Weapons lock,” Kage said. “They’ll be in missile launch range in thirty seconds.”

“Open the channel, audio only,” Jason said.

“Jason, what can you possibly hope to accomplish with this?” Crisstof said. “Your ship is damaged, your slip-drive is disabled … let us bring you aboard. Do you really want to let the two young women die with you needlessly?”

“You’ve got it all figured out, haven’t you?” Jason said, watching the interval between the two ships closely.

“I will not hesitate to fire, Jason,” Crisstof said. “Please consider your actions.”

“I wish you had considered yours, Crisstof,” Jason said with genuine regret. “You know I can’t just let you walk away from all this. You’ve gone too far this time.”

“You can’t possibly believe that you can—”

“Kill the channel,” Jason said. “Go ahead, Kage … shut ‘er down.” Kage executed another script on his panel just as the Defiant was closing to within the maximum effective range of her missiles. It was another few seconds before they knew they’d been successful.

“Target lock is gone,” Doc said. “Defiant’s engines are faltering and her shields are dropping. Maneuvering has failed and main power is failing on all decks.”

“Signal the Avarian fleet that we’ve disabled the Defiant,” Jason said. Kage sent out the prearranged signal and a few minutes later six destroyers and four frigates flashed into the system, all squawking Avarian transponders. They’d been recalled to the system the day before by Annada’s emergency distress codes she’d had Kage transmit. Any ship in the area would respond to an imminent threat to the homeworld when they received that code, so the small armada had been conveniently available to handle the Defiant when the time came.

“Disabling all security measures and opening the hangar deck doors,” Kage said. “The Avarian troops will have no issue boarding her.”

Jason watched with a clinical detachment as the smaller frigates moved up to secure the Defiant’s uncontrolled flight and began deploying boarding parties intent on capturing, disabling, or killing everyone on the ship.

“This mission sure took a strange turn at the end,” Crusher said, his arms folded over his chest. Jason didn’t answer, just stared at the sensor feed that showed hundreds of Avarian troops pouring into the helpless battlecruiser.

“Captain Burke, the Sovereign is requesting our presence back at the palace compound,” Captain Alisard said.

“Of course,” Jason said. “There’s nothing left for us to do out here. Twingo, reset the main drive so we don’t have to limp back.”

****

The Defiant was captured without incident. Without the Galvetic Marines to repel the boarders most of the crew surrendered immediately and were placed in mass detention on one of the cargo bays. Crisstof and two ConFed officials were arrested and taken off the ship.

To Jason’s immeasurable relief, Kellea had been found in her own brig and had apparently been there for some time. He lobbied heavily for her directly to the Sovereign and was able to have her excluded from the punishment that awaited Crisstof and his ConFed cohorts. She was still on the Defiant, which was now in orbit over Avaris with power restored. When Crisstof had been told of how Kage had used their own navigation beacon to slide in behind the ship’s security protocols Jason could swear he actually saw the man’s will break.

The subsequent interrogations of the three captives revealed much in the way of details, but little in the way of motive. Even when Chancellor Vulem was captured and questioned he couldn’t seem to name who had set everything in motion in the first place. In fact, each party seemed to think they were getting something that the others had no knowledge of. The ConFed thought they were getting a destabilized Avarian Empire to begin exploiting.

Crisstof Dalton actually thought that he was to be named interim ruler when the Sovereign and his daughter were disposed of. Jason was permitted to question him directly and he noticed the old man seemed confused, but clearly remembered that he was approached by the ConFed about the whole thing. Apparently members from the Council had shown him convincing evidence that the “cruel” regime of the Empire was on its last leg and that they were close to throwing their arms open to the warm embrace of democracy, even the ConFed’s own unique brand of it. They’d convinced him that it would be beneficial to all if a temporary regent was appointed with no ties to the ConFed government, but still with executive experience and vast resources to tap into. In the end, they’d appealed to his ego and greed, able to push all the right buttons to get Crisstof to go along with a plan he should have been far more suspicious of.

Vulem’s role was easy to figure out. As likely the last Chancellor of his people he held a special hatred for Avarians and the Sovereign and his daughter in particular. It hadn’t taken much to convince him to go along with the plan, apparently. He was in chains and on the way back to his homeworld where they’d promised a very public and very messy trial, the legislative body already professing its adoration for Imperial rule.

“You seem troubled, my young friend,” the Sovereign said as they rode back to the palace compound in a well-appointed aircar.

“Too much just doesn’t make any sense,” Jason said. “People acting completely out of character, an asinine plan to get you out of the way, and nobody remembering who had thought of it all in the first place … it doesn’t strike you as more than a little odd?”

“I have the advantage of more information than you do,” the Sovereign said with a smile. “The facts you’ve listed in context with what my intelligence service has been able to uncover sheds a certain light on things.”

“I don’t suppose you’d care to indulge me?” Jason asked.

“I’m afraid that wouldn’t be wise at this juncture,” the Sovereign said. “You have impressed me and earned my trust and respect, but I am still responsible for trillions of people on countless worlds. Some things must remain a secret … for now.”

“Understood,” Jason said, looking out the window.

“And what will be next for you, Captain Burke?”

“How do you mean?”

“Annada has told me of the hard times you and your crew had fallen on before taking on the task of rescuing her,” the Sovereign said. “So what will you all do now? Go your separate ways again, or try to again find that common sense of purpose?”

“It’s hard to say,” Jason said uncomfortably, wondering if the whole damn family was able to read him like an open book.

“Well, whatever you decide, just know that I can never fully repay you for what you have given back to me.”

“We can see about that,” Jason said with a smile.

The Sovereign couldn’t help himself and laughed heartily, scaring the attendant in the car half to death.

As they climbed out of the aircar and onto the soft grass of the landing field an explosion rocked the grounds and a fireball erupted from a window halfway up the wall facing the landing area. Security instantly covered the Sovereign and began sweeping the area. A familiar screaming caught Jason’s ears, and it was coming from the blast area.

Without thinking he sprinted across the grass, adrenaline fueling his enhanced muscles so that he quickly blew past the running guards as they approached the building. Jason quickly gauged the distance and leapt from the ground, barely clearing the blasted-out window frame and slamming into the wall of what ended up being a wide, spiraling staircase. He looked down and saw the heavy char marks along the stone, but no real structural damage. There was also a lot of blood.

“Jason!” Annada’s voice called from above him. He looked up and saw her standing at the top of the stairs, crying hysterically.

“What happened?” he asked, leaping up to where she was and inspecting her for wounds, heedless of the fact he would be manhandling the netjere when the guards finally made their way up there.

“It was Kalette!” she cried. “A man from Vulem’s party came up here with a bomb. She grabbed it, trying to wrestle it from him. When she couldn’t she threw herself down the stairs, taking him with her.”

Jason looked down and saw that the bomb must have detonated as they’d rounded the turn, the pressure wave blowing out the window.

“Is Kalette …?” Jason asked, trailing off when she nodded and began sobbing again. Jason wrapped his arms around her, ignoring the guards as they streamed into the room and began sweeping it for any other devices. “She gave her life to save you,” he said into her ear. “Despite anything else she might have done, this should be the act she’s remembered for.”

“Sir, we need to move the netjere to a secure location,” a young guardsman said. “Please step aside.”

Jason let her go and watched as they quickly moved her away so they could continue their sweep of the compound. He took a moment to absorb the enormity of what had just happened as well as say a few words for Kalette. He didn’t know if she was a religious person, and he knew that he wasn’t, but he couldn’t think of anything else to do.

Chapter 22

After weeks of negotiations and messages back and forth the ConFed representatives were sent back to their own side of the expanse with a warning: any more transgressions would not be tolerated. It was also sent with a detailed report that showed that the Empire was well aware of how weak and overextended the ConFed military machine had become.

Crisstof Dalton was executed after a brief trial in which he offered little in the way of defense. The lethal shock to his brain stem was administered mere hours after his trial. Jason stood next to a numb-looking Kellea Colleren, holding her hand as the man who had mentored her and given her the life she enjoyed as a starship captain was put to death for betraying nearly every principle he claimed to live by. If he was honest, Jason was more than a little overwhelmed by the moment as well. He’d spent the last couple of years despising the man, but this wasn’t the end he’d had in mind for him, put down like an ailing pet while strapped to a table after a trial of questionable integrity.

The Defiant was allowed to leave under Kellea’s command, but would be escorted all the way back to ConFed space by Imperial Fleet ships. It was a small concession and Jason didn’t envy her the task ahead. She would have to report back to Crisstof’s enormous family about his death and then watch as the wrangling started for his vast fortune and powerful network. He’d promised to keep in touch with her when they’d hugged and parted ways. He didn’t know what was in her future, but the chances didn’t look good that it would be on the bridge of a battlecruiser.

As promised, Annada had found them a private getaway near the equator of Avaris that was absolutely ideal. It was so much like the Caribbean that he began having pangs of homesickness for Earth, something he hadn’t even thought about in years. Everything was perfect, for at least a few days. But like everything else … it couldn’t last forever. Eventually they all had to get back to their normal lives.

“Looks like rain,” Twingo said as he and Jason walked across the tarmac to the Phoenix. The ship had been moved to the regular starport to make room for all the dignitaries flying in and out in the aftermath of the attempted assassination of Annada and the incident with the Defiant.

“Yep,” Jason said even as a few fat drops started hitting the ground around him. They broke into a jog and hustled up the ramp of the Phoenix before it really started coming down. The crew stood at the lip of the cargo bay and watched as the rain soaked the ground and began to run off the ship in rivulets. The perfect symmetry of the moment was not lost on Jason as he thought back to the last time they’d all stood there and looked out at the rain.

“So,” Kage said, again being the one unable to remain silent. “Are we back?”

“I can’t go back to Galvetor,” Crusher said firmly. “I’ve never been so bored in my life.”

“I’m sure as hell not going back to being a delivery boy,” Jason said. “Besides … I’m sure my ship is in pieces by now.”

“Twingo?” Doc asked.

“It turned out to be an awkward reconciliation with my former mate,” Twingo said. “Especially with her new mate constantly interrupting us. I’m in.”

“Lucky?” Jason asked.

“I may hold out for a better offer,” the battlesynth said. Jason just rolled his eyes as Crusher laughed and slapped his friend on the back.

“Looks like it’s unanimous, Captain,” Kage said.

“Well then … I guess we’re back.”

Epilogue

“Here’s the money I owe you, plus twenty-five-percent interest,” Jason said, sliding a stack of credit chits across the table.

“I thought I had made it clear that it wasn’t a loan.”

“And I made it equally clear that I still intended to pay you back,” Jason said.

“That you did,” Saditava Mok said, vapor curling up from some sort of pipe he kept pressing a button on. “Tell me, Captain … why are you so insistent on throwing my gifts back in my face?”

“To be blunt, I’d rather not owe someone like you,” Jason said.

“Someone like me?” Saditava laughed. “And just what do you think I am?”

“A gangster,” Jason shrugged. “Crime lord. Whatever you want to call yourself, it all means the same thing.”

“And Crisstof Dalton was not?” Saditava asked, seeming amused. “You really think he was just a businessman? Do you realize how many times he showed up and squeezed entire star systems in order to force favorable concessions from them? Do you know how many times you’ve helped him? You really think that you stopped a terrorist attack for the Eshquarians? Do you still believe that Crisstof was innocent when you stepped in and destroyed all the evidence of his son’s side project, getting him released from prison in the process?”

Jason remained silent as Saditava showed him the not-so-shiny side of the coin that was his life.

“So what’s your point?” Jason finally said. “Yes, I’ve come to realize that Crisstof likely misrepresented things to us on more than one occasion. How would working for you be any better?”

“Who says I want you working for me?” Saditava said. “My point in bringing this up is that good and evil are simply a matter of perspective, something I feel you often lack.”

“There’s your money,” Jason said, standing up. “You can take it, leave it, or give it away … that’s not my concern. Just know that you no longer have any pull to ask for favors from me.”

“I never did ask for favors, nor would I have,” Saditava said. “Things are not always as they appear, as well you’ve learned, Captain Burke. It’s a lesson I hope you’ve learned well, considering your new friends. I still may come calling, young captain, but it will not be to coerce you into violent actions against those who might stand in my way.”

Jason paused at the door, listening, but he didn’t turn around. He stepped out of the small restaurant and into the midday sun. Lucky was waiting aboard the Phoenix and the others had scattered across the quadrant to close out their former lives once again. Jason promised himself that this time would be different. Omega Force would actually be what he had envisioned all those years ago standing in the rain on Breaker’s World. Saditava’s words burned into his brain and, for once, he could clearly see all the mistakes he’d made since assuming command of the Phoenix and her crew.

This time would be different.

“How did it go?” Lucky asked.

“It wasn’t what I was expecting, but we’re free and clear,” Jason said as he slid into the copilot’s seat. He’d been allowing Lucky to fly the ship while they were settling everything. It had been a suggestion under the guise of “training” though in truth he knew the battlesynth loved flying the ship but was still hesitant to ask for things he wanted for some reason.

“I was thinking,” he said.

“Should I be afraid?” Lucky asked.

“Funny,” Jason said. “Why did we live on this ship before? We spent most of the time burning fuel and hanging out in some pretty disgusting places just waiting for something to happen. We could just as easily do that back on S’tora.”

“Our house will not be big enough for everyone,” Lucky pointed out.

“True, but we have enough money to get a couple more places so we’d have some room to stretch out,” Jason said, warming up to the idea. “It might cut down on some of the conflicts if we weren’t always piled on top of each other. We could even get a permanent hangar built for the Phoenix.”

“You are trying very hard to convince me, yet I am not disagreeing with you,” Lucky pointed out as the Phoenix shot up through the clouds and hauled ass for orbit. “But with our newfound funds might I suggest that you replace the food synthesizer in the galley? It might go a long way towards crew morale.”

“Yeah,” Jason agreed. “That thing has to go. I can’t believe we’ve been eating that the whole time.”

“What is our next destination?” Lucky asked.

“That was our last stop,” Jason said. “I’m setting course for S’tora and sending it to your station. Let’s go home.”

Thank you for reading Omega Force: Redemption.

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

Omega Force: The Human Factor.

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From the Author:

While I don’t always include one of these after every book I figured some explanations were in order after this one. It’s book seven and the first of a new overarching plotline for the crew. Even though you only get a few clues as to what’s really going on in this book the main point of “Redemption” was to reset the Omega Force universe. By the end of “Secret of the Phoenix” I felt that there were subplots and relationships that were going nowhere, so it was time to prune things a bit and get back to the core group while introducing some new supporting characters and backgrounds.

As I’ve often stated, my goal is to keep this series fresh and running strong for a long time so with this book I wanted to shake up some of the character dynamics a bit while still sticking to the episodic format. Hopefully it was every bit as fun for you as it was for me to write. Thanks to everyone for the feedback and suggestions … as always they’re all appreciated.

Cheers!

Josh