Chapter 1

“Status.”

“Operation is still green, Captain. Strike team is in position on the surface and signaling ready.”

“Very well. Move the Defiant into lower orbit and begin targeting surface-to-orbit emplacements with the heavy mag-cannons. As soon as I give the order to fire, signal Captain Reddix that his Marines have an execute order. They can start their mission.”

“At once, Captain.”

Captain Kellea Colleren walked calmly to her chair on the bridge of the battlecruiser, Defiant, trying to exude a sense of calm for her crew. The truth was that her stomach was tied in knots. This was one of the most ambitious operations she’d ever assumed command of: multiple ships, a ground team, and an extraction plan that relied on what could kindly be described as a wildcard.

The general idea was to feign a direct assault on a fortified planet in order to give the small team of Marines on the ground the chance to get in and secure the mission’s primary objective: the capture and retrieval of a warlord who had taken control of the planet Olem in a bloody coup that overthrew the duly elected government.

But her Marines weren’t your average grunts that needed large numbers to overwhelm an enemy’s position. Her ship carried a full company of Galvetic Marines, arguably the most ferocious fighting force in the known galaxy. This would be the first time she’d turned them loose in a live operation where they would meet heavy resistance. Even though they were greatly outnumbered, her concern lay more in what might happen to the citizens of Olem than the Marines themselves.

“Mag-cannons are in range,” her operations officer reported.

“Fire all forward batteries,” Kellea ordered. “I don’t want a single surface gun left operational within five hundred kilometers of the primary target.”

“Firing forward mag-cannons,” the tactical officer said crisply. “Battle damage assessments coming in on your display, Captain.”

“Marines have been given an execute order,” Operations reported. “They’re deploying now.”

“Oh Gods,” Kellea muttered under her breath.

“Relax, Captain,” a voice said softly at her elbow, too softly to be overheard. “They’ve got a capable chaperone with them and they’ve done well up to this point.”

“They’ve never encountered this type of resistance, Crisstof,” she answered. “If they get backed into a corner this could turn into a bloodbath.”

“Captain Reddix will keep them in line,” the older man insisted. Kellea didn’t trust herself to answer.

****

“We’ve just received the signal,” Mazer Reddix said loudly. “Final gear check and then we move in fifteen seconds.” Mazer, commanding officer of the entire company aboard the Defiant, was personally leading the small, platoon-sized strike force that would execute the primary mission. Captain Colleren had also sent along some added insurance with the platoon. At first Mazer had bristled at the perceived insult of needing a babysitter, but when he found out who would be accompanying them he was secretly overjoyed. As well trained as his Marines were, nothing beat years of experience.

“Lucky, how does it look?”

“This street is still clear up to our breech point, Captain Reddix,” Lucky said calmly. The battlesynth had switched to combat mode when Mazer gave the call to perform a gear check, his glowing red eyes reflecting off the interior wall of the small shop they’d taken residence in.

“Let’s mount up!” Mazer called back to the rest of the platoon, all of who were now standing. “This will be a dash and grab, Marines! Do not engage unnecessarily. Moving fast will be our primary defense. Lucky, please signal the extraction team that the mission is now live.”

“Signal sent, Captain,” Lucky answered. “I will alert you when I receive confirmation.”

“Please do,” Mazer replied. “Go ahead and move to the wall, we’re right behind you.”

Without a word, Lucky opened the shop door and strode purposefully towards the high security wall that was twenty-five meters from the Marines’ location. When he had approached within ten meters, Mazer flipped the switch on the localized jammer he was carrying just in time to watch the battlesynth fire his repulsors and go soaring up and over the wall. A few seconds later a thin, wide strap came snaking over the wall and dangled loosely.

The first Marine in the platoon charged past Mazer and grabbed the line, climbing up and over the wall, which was at least twelve meters tall, in less than fifteen seconds. All thirty-eight Marines were up and over the wall in just under eight minutes, with Mazer being the last to climb up and drop over the edge.

“I’m the last, Lucky,” he said quietly, checking the defensive formation his Marines had deployed into as they came over the barrier. The battlesynth was quickly reeling in the line as Mazer scrutinized his troops. Unable to find anything to chastise them about, he waited until Lucky had stashed the ascent line before signaling him to the head of the column.

They found themselves in a beautifully landscaped garden on the other side of the formidable security wall, but they were also a quarter of a kilometer from the nearest cover that was across an expanse of well-lit, open ground. The low-power jammer Mazer had employed earlier may have scrambled the perimeter sensors for a moment or two, but once they crossed that wide expanse they were almost sure to be seen by the security forces on the premises.

“We should proceed with caution,” Lucky said to Mazer, “but once we are spotted, it will be hard-fought ground all the way to the objective anyway.”

“They didn’t send us because it was going to be easy,” Mazer said lightly. “My Marines will do their job.”

“Of that I have no doubt, Captain Reddix,” Lucky said. “My only advice is to stay focused once the fighting starts. If the platoon scatters into smaller skirmishes we will lose the tactical advantage.”

“Relax, my friend,” Mazer said, letting the thinly veiled insult go unchecked. “We’re not berserkers. We’re not even warriors anymore. The line will hold.”

“I meant no insult, Captain.”

“And I didn’t take it as such,” Mazer said, his eyes never leaving the building ahead of them. “This is a new situation for all of us, and we’ll be required to prove ourselves just like any other unit. The fact Captain Colleren tasked us with the primary mission goal is a great honor. We will not let her down.”

“I do not suspect that you will,” Lucky agreed after a moment.

Mazer motioned to the rest of his platoon and they broke their defensive formation and separated into three squads, each racing for a different part of the compound. Two of the twelve-man squads would be tasked with securing the compound’s defensive systems. The last twelve-man squad, plus Lucky and Mazer, would have the more difficult task of achieving their primary objective: abducting a dangerous and violent warlord who would not want to be taken alive.

Mazer led his squad between two of the smaller perimeter buildings and onward towards the centrally located palace. Weapons fire from another part of the compound indicated one of the other squads had engaged resistance. Mazer held up a fist and stopped his squad just short of the entrance to the narrow alley he had led them into. The other Marines looked around, behind and above them, not at all liking being trapped in such close confines should they be discovered.

“We hold here until main power to the complex has been disabled,” Mazer whispered back. “The scrambler Twingo gave us will work against simple surveillance equipment, but the automated turrets around the palace won’t be affected. We’ll never even make it to the door.”

“I will take position on the roof of this building and keep overwatch,” Lucky said. Before Mazer could agree or disagree, the battlesynth fired his repulsors and streaked up and over the roof line. Instantly there was the exchange of weapons fire and the unlikely sound of hand-to-hand combat. After several thuds and a few wet snaps, the Marines were startled when a body was flung from the roof at high velocity. It struck the wall of the adjacent building before falling into the alley in a heap.

“Sergeant,” Mazer said, “police that body.”

“At once, Captain.” A burly Marine walked up and rolled the broken body over, checking it for life signs and weapons before dragging it back into a doorway so it wouldn’t interfere if the squad had to move quickly. The sounds of fighting intensified from the area the power station was located at. If the squad was able to push past the defenses, the power coming into the compound should be cutting out soon.

The power station itself was an unbelievable stroke of luck when they began planning the mission. As a precaution to keep someone from exploiting the power lines to infiltrate the networked systems on the compound, all the power from external sources came in through the switching station, was filtered and conditioned, and then sent on to the buildings within the walls. It was an obvious Achilles’ Heel, so there was an impressively powerful shield that would make a precision strike from orbit nearly impossible. A ship would have to take out the entire complex, and when it got close enough to attempt that the surface-to-orbit guns would make it a bumpy ride.

What the designers had never imagined, however, was that anyone would be so insane as to infiltrate the city and try and breech the walls with a small, undetectable ground force. As such, the effective area of the shield didn’t begin until nearly ten meters above the top of the wall. The security forces weren’t concerned about any small force that was audacious (or stupid) enough to scale the wall and attempt an assault. They were more than confident that—between their own forces and the automated defense systems—any attempt would be laughably futile. They’d never counted on a full platoon of Galvetic Marines being within their walls, however.

Following an enormous explosion that shook the ground, the compound was plunged into darkness. Shouts of panic and confusion rang out from everywhere and the renewed sounds of fighting now came from a different part of the complex as the second squad took their signal and began their assault on the security force barracks. Dim lights began blinking on as the emergency generators were brought online and a rush of troops could be seen making their way towards the power station.

No sooner had they passed when Mazer was startled by the loud thud and cracking pavement that marked Lucky’s arrival from the rooftop. “We appear to be clear up to the palace,” he said. “The emergency generators will be unable to power the automated defense systems for approximately twenty minutes.”

“Then we’d better get started,” Mazer muttered. He raised a hand to get the squad’s attention and then held up three fingers, counting down the seconds. When he held only one finger aloft he faced forward and braced himself. When the last finger ticked off he dropped his fist and took off at a dead sprint, covering the one hundred and fifty meters to the palace as fast as he could. He could hear his squad right on his heels as he focused on the large maintenance door that would be their ingress point.

As the Marines charged the door, Lucky moved off to the side and slowed his pace. This was their mission; he was only here as an advisor. Mazer reached the door first and slapped a breeching charge on the handle as the others fanned out in a defensive position, weapons pointing away from the building. The charge blew with a loud pop, but the door held firm.

Mazer grabbed the ruined edges of the area where the latch used to be and heaved. The sound of tortured metal rending was drowned out as weapons fire began to pepper the side of the building. Even though they were well outside the effective range of their plasma rifles, the security forces were now aware of the new threat and were attempting to at least distract them.

Half of Mazer’s squad carried plasma rifles with the same limitations. The other half, however, carried railguns. The Galvetic Marines had been so impressed with Jason Burke’s weapon of choice that they made it standard procedure to have railgunners in each deployable unit. The roar of hypersonic rounds going downrange was deafening for those with organic ears. The results were gruesomely inevitable as the small tungsten carbide rounds impacted the advancing troops. Most were simply blown apart; others were so horrifically injured they were no longer a threat.

“Inside! Let’s go!” Mazer shouted, marshaling his troops through the now open door. Lucky walked in behind them and pulled the doors shut, welding the ruined metal into a solid barrier with one of his cutting lasers.

“Our objective is on the top floor; that’s six stories above our current position,” Mazer said. “Bravo and Charlie squads will be engaging forces on the grounds to cover our movement. If Charlie was successful there shouldn’t be too many roaming around. Split into three-man fire teams and set intervals to ten meters … I don’t want a lucky grenade to take us all out. We’ll be taking the stairs that run parallel to the maintenance lifts. Expect heavy resistance as we near the top. Let’s move!”

They’d all been briefed on the details of the plan, of course, but Mazer liked to reiterate the steps as they moved along. Nerves were stretched taut as the group of excitable warriors got their first taste of a live operation. Their commander didn’t want them becoming distracted or making rash moves in their excitement. So far things had gone mostly to plan.

The Marines, and the tireless Lucky, raced up the stairs, reaching the top floor barely winded. Mazer held up a fist and waited for the first trailing fire team to catch up to them. He held his ear close to the door that would lead out onto the top level, but couldn’t hear anything past the heavy breathing of his own troops. He reached into his cargo pocket, pulled out a small device courtesy of the Defiant’s engineering section, and placed it over the control panel for the lock. A red light on the device flashed once and then it began cycling through its code-cracking algorithms.

The device took a surprisingly long time to break the cipher. Given the assumed level of sophistication of the local population it should have only taken a minute or so at most. The delay caused Lucky to take a closer look at the lock, curious as to why this piece of equipment would be so much more advanced than anything else they’d encountered so far. Eventually the lock beeped and clicked, opening the large double door off the stairwell into what looked like a staging area.

As soon as the eight of them were in the room, the lights came up and twelve heavily armed, and armored, troops fanned out from six different alcoves located around the room. “Do not move!” one of the troops shouted. The Marines looked ready to try their luck with the numerically superior force and allow the other six still in the stairwell to complete the mission, but Mazer had no intention of needlessly throwing lives away.

“Stand fast, Marines!” he ordered.

“Weapons down, and tell your friends out on the stairs to come in and join us,” the same trooper said, leveling his weapon at Mazer’s head. “I won’t ask again.”

“Alpha squad! Form up and lay your weapons down,” Mazer said, his eyes never leaving the trooper’s. He was a native Olemite, a species called setaras, and looked to be a little on the bulky side compared to the average bipedal prime, but it seemed the species carried a lot of external fat. All of the fourteen soldiers facing down the Marines looked bloated and severely overweight, but it seemed an aspect of the species’ physiology rather than the result of a poor diet.

“So your mechanical helper wasn’t armed?” the troop continued in a condescending voice, supremely confident that his armed advantage nullified the Marines’ numerical one. “You will follow me. You will be kept somewhere safe while we deal with your friends on the grounds.”

Mazer seethed with rage, but he also recognized that he had two cards yet to play: the setaras didn’t seem to know what thirteen Galvetic warriors could do with just their hands, and they had no idea that Lucky was still fully armed and still in combat mode.

“I will wait for your signal, Captain,” Lucky said so softly only Mazer could hear it. He nodded once before addressing the setara.

“We willfully surrender,” he said to the lead guard in as calm a voice as he could manage.

“You will follow us, hands on your heads and no talking,” the setara said. Four of them arrayed themselves in front of the squad and the remaining eight brought up the rear, a sound strategy to keep more guns where they could observe the Galvetic formation without being directly seen.

They were led out of the staging area and into a wide, opulent hallway. The palace must have had its own backup as it seemed to be operating under normal power conditions. Mazer observed everything as they were marched down towards an imposing set of armored doors, frowning as he saw them. They weren’t in the intel brief they’d received. Once they reached the top floor it was supposed to be a simple matter of fighting their way to the target. As he looked at the doors more closely, he realized that they wouldn’t likely have been able to breach them in a timely manner. Lucky could have possibly cut through them, but even he would have taken too long.

The lead setara moved ahead and had a brief conference with the two guards posted outside the door, gesturing to the prisoners as he did. After a little bit of back and forth, along with a few calls on a com unit, the doors groaned open and the Marines were directed through to where another set of guards took responsibility for them and the original twelve remained behind. The doors swung shut with a resounding boom. Mazer could hardly believe what was happening. These beings had not only willfully brought thirteen Galvetic warriors and a battlesynth directly into their inner sanctum, but had then sealed them in. They were either extremely confident, extremely ignorant, or very, very stupid.

“You will wait in here,” the new lead guard said, gesturing through an open doorway to his right. “Lord Rorid wishes to interrogate you personally.”

“I look forward to it,” Mazer ground out.

“I can assure you … you don’t,” the guard said with another of those condescending smiles. Mazer shrugged and led the way into the holding room. It was quite large and easily accommodated them. When the door slammed shut and the locks were engaged, he turned in a slow circle, looking each of his Marines in the eye. He could see their anger and frustration, but they maintained discipline and were not complaining or questioning his decisions. Yet.

“This is most fortuitous,” Lucky finally broke the silence. “They will be bringing the target to you.”

“It was awfully accommodating of them to give us an escort past their main security checkpoint,” one of the platoon sergeants spoke up. This caused a few snorts and chuckles from the others. Mazer relaxed a small measure as he saw that morale was still high and his Marines were still on mission.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Mazer said. “We still have two squads fighting on the grounds, warships in orbit, and an extraction team waiting to get us out … let’s not mess our end up and have it all be for nothing.”

It was only twenty minutes later when the door banged open and four armed troops marched in.

“You will accompany us,” the lead guard said simply before motioning for them all to file out. They were led further down the huge, arching hall until they came to an open atrium. The guard simply pointed to the center of the floor as more guards filed in and surrounded them. “Do not move from this spot. Do not attempt anything that will force us to kill you.”

“Isn’t that the likely outcome anyway?” Mazer asked.

“That is not up to me. Now speak no further until instructed.”

The squad milled around under armed watch for another few minutes before a setara, dressed in an utterly absurd uniform, came strutting into the atrium from a far doorway.

“Are these the men who tried to storm my home and assassinate me?” he demanded in an imperial tone.

“Yes, Lord Rorid,” the lead guard said in a groveling tone. “We caught them coming up the service stairway. They are a splinter from the group that is even now attacking our forces elsewhere on the grounds.”

“Who is in charge?” Lord Rorid asked.

“I am,” Mazer said simply. The short setara stomped over to where Mazer stood, but stopped short once he got a good look at the hulking, angry warrior.

“Why have you brought war to my home?” Lord Rorid asked. “I do not recognize your species … what could I have possibly done to justify such aggression?”

“Besides being a sawed-off asshole? Nothing I can really put my finger on,” Mazer said in a bored tone. The guards around the atrium let out audible gasps at the insult. The result on Rorid was immediate. His normally light blue complexion shifted to a deep purple and his eyes bulged. He gaped like a fish out of water for a moment before finding his voice. In his anger he took another few steps closer.

“You dare to insult me in my own home? Who are you people!? I demand you answer me!”

“You’re not in much of a position to demand anything. I know you’re too dumb to have full time perimeter security on the grounds, but do you really think your little guns out in the hills will hold off the ships in orbit for much longer? I mean, really … how does someone so abjectly stupid rise to such a position on this planet? Some type of racial flaw? On my planet you would have likely been put to death pretty early … if your parents didn’t just drown you first.” Mazer’s casual insults were sending the warlord into a frenzy.

“You! … You! … I … I …” Rorid had now closed within six feet of Mazer and his guards were nervously fingering their weapons. Lucky, having worked with Crusher for years, knew the little despot was well within striking distance for the young warrior.

With no preamble, Mazer launched himself forward with a deafening roar. He flattened the much smaller setara, covering him with his body so that the guards didn’t have a clear shot. Their split second of hesitation was all the rest of the Marines needed. In an instant the atrium was transformed into a gladiatorial arena as enraged Galvetic warriors took their frustrations out on an undertrained and stunned security force.

Only a few of the guards managed to get off any shots, and all were well wide of their mark as they were killed or, if they were lucky, rendered unconscious. Lucky stood calmly in the middle of the storm, not engaging any targets as he took his role of “observer” to heart. He would only step in if it looked like Rorid’s life was in danger. But Mazer was a professional and had already secured the target’s hands behind his back and was calmly holding him down so a stray shot didn’t take him out.

Even with guards streaming in from other areas of the upper floor the altercation was over in mere minutes. The Marines had relieved the guards of their weapons and two of the three-man fire teams were pushing back towards the security door to establish a beachhead.

“Bravo, Charlie squads,” Mazer said into his com unit. “We’ve secured the objective. Break contact and rally on the top floor of the palace. Expect heavy resistance on the way up.” There were a handful of acknowledgements and the sounds of intensified fighting could be heard outside.

“We’ll hold here behind those blast doors and wait for our pickup,” Mazer said to Lucky. The battlesynth only nodded. The younger warrior fidgeted nervously before speaking again. “I hope I didn’t make too many mistakes,” he said, too low for his own troops to hear. “I imagine I didn’t compare to what it would have been like if Lord Felex had led the mission.”

Lucky didn’t answer immediately. “You lack experience,” he said finally, “but if Crusher had been leading this mission, I do not think it would have come to such a successful outcome. You have patience and you are able to remain calm when the plan falls apart, as it almost always will, and improvise quickly.

“Crusher is impulsive, impatient, and far more likely to try and force his way through, relying on his strength and skill. Your method has not only achieved your objective, but you’ve kept those under your command alive. Overall, well done, Captain.”

Mazer positively beamed with the high praise, but tried to keep a stern scowl pasted on his face. “I appreciate that, Lucky,” he said, “especially from you. But … we’re not out of here yet. In fact, we’d better contact the extraction team.” He opened a secure channel on his com. “This is Strike One. Mission objective is secure. We’re rallying to a defensible position. Clear for pickup.”

“Omega One copies. We’re on our way,” a familiar voice said back.

Chapter 2

Jason watched with growing irritation as Crusher stomped about the bridge, arms crossed, refusing to talk to anyone. His petulant behavior had started when Omega Force was contacted to assist in a military operation that was being spearheaded by Crisstof Dalton. The Galvetic Marines were getting their first real combat operation and Crisstof knew it would be of special interest to Jason to see that they succeeded.

At first, Omega Force was simply to be there for support, a sort of relief valve in case Mazer’s platoon ran into trouble. The fear was that if they got pinned down or backed into a corner, their response may put the civilian population in harm’s way. As the mission planning went on, it became apparent that Captain Reddix was becoming overwhelmed by the enormity of the operation’s many moving parts and Jason volunteered Lucky to act as observer and liaison. He’d couched it in such a way that it appeared as if Mazer had graciously allowed the battlesynth to come along as a favor to Omega Force, thus not losing face in front of his troops.

Crusher assumed he’d be going and when he was told in no uncertain terms that he would not be accompanying the strike force, the temper tantrum had begun in earnest. It had been three days since the Phoenix had stealthily inserted under the cover of darkness, awaiting the pickup call for a mission that hadn’t even started yet. Three days the crew had been forced to deal with a pissed off three hundred and twenty pound killing machine. Doc, Twingo, and Kage all avoided Crusher as if he were infected with the plague. Jason had no choice but to endure the tirades, pouting, and thinly-veiled threats.

“This is bullshit!” Crusher burst out, staring out the canopy. “You know, you can’t physically force me to stay here.”

Jason’s patience finally snapped. “If you don’t sit down and shut up I’m going to override the safety locks and order the Phoenix to disable you,” he said calmly. “I’m not kidding.”

“You don’t have to get violent about it,” Crusher said, his feelings hurt. He went over to one of the sensor stations and sat down. “I still don’t understand why I’m stuck here.”

“Yes … you do,” Jason said wearily. “I’ve explained it four times now but you refuse to listen. This is Mazer’s mission and his Marines. You are still their Lord Archon, at least in their minds, and you would do nothing but undermine Captain Reddix during the operation. You’re a loose cannon to boot. You would not have followed orders, you would have preempted Mazer’s orders whenever you felt like it, and generally been a complete pain in the ass while they tried to sort their way through their first real mission.”

“Most of those character flaws could be attributed to you as well,” Crusher said accusingly.

“Which is why we’re such good friends,” Jason said blandly. In spite of himself, a choked-off, snorting laugh escaped Crusher’s lips. The tension broken, Crusher leaned back and stared out the canopy again.

“You’re sure the ship can handle this?”

“Twingo assures me it won’t be an issue,” Jason said. “But I’ll admit it is a bit unnerving.”

“I’ll say. Whose idea was it—” Crusher was cut off by the com panel chirping.

“This is Strike One. Mission objective is secure. We’re rallying to a defensible position. Clear for pickup.”

“Omega One copies,” Jason said. “We’re on our way.” He began bringing all the ship’s systems out of standby before hitting the intercom. “Twingo, we’re ready to get out of here. I want you up on the bridge helping me get the ship out of this muck.”

“On my way,” the engineer’s voice came back. “Is Crusher still up there?”

“Just get up here! You too, Kage,” Jason said before jabbing the intercom off, shaking his head. The pair came jogging onto the bridge a moment later and went straight to their stations.

“Let’s go ahead and decouple the anchor lines,” Twingo said. “We’ll need to be on the surface to begin engine start anyway. I’ll go ahead and get the reactor up to full power; it shouldn’t take long.” Jason reached over and pushed the red flashing icon on his multifunction display. Immediately after there were a series of pops and snaps throughout the ship and the bridge pitched up as the Phoenix rocked back and forth.

The gunship had been submerged one hundred feet below the surface of an enormous fresh water lake near the capital of Olem, the city where thirty-seven Galvetic Marines and one battlesynth were currently fighting. Since the ship was filled with air and wouldn’t submerge completely on its own, Twingo had devised a system of cable anchors that were fired into the lake bed and allowed them to winch the ship below the surface and keep it there. He assured them that the hull could handle the pressure and the few days of being in water wouldn’t have any adverse effect on any of their systems.

Jason chose to believe his engineer, but there was still something unnatural about landing his ship in water and then remaining onboard while it was dragged under like a submarine. The tension of being underneath the water hadn’t helped the mood on the ship as Crusher sulked and made a general nuisance of himself.

The ship began to accelerate towards the surface, her nose rising faster than the tail, and Jason grabbed the “oh shit” handles on either side of his seat in preparation. When the nose breached the calm waters of the lake, everyone onboard was tossed up out of their seats a few inches at the sudden deceleration. A few seconds later and the big gunship sat partially visible in the lake, bobbing like some enormous sea monster. The water line came partially up the canopy and they were still oriented slightly nose up, which meant the engines were still completely underwater.

“Okay, Captain,” Twingo said. “We’re prepped for a quick start on the engines. Go ahead and get us out of the water on repulsors and I’ll begin the sequence as soon as we’re clear.”

“Can’t you start the engines while they’re submerged?” Crusher asked.

“I’d prefer not to,” Twingo answered. “In theory it shouldn’t be an issue, but why invite trouble?”

“Firing ventral repulsors,” Jason said, flicking the power up with a rocker-type switch located on his throttle. The ship shook violently as the repulsors pushed against the water. They leveled out and were suddenly engulfed in a thick fog as the ultrasonic frequencies from the repulsors vaporized the lake water instantaneously. When his indicators said they were a few feet above the water surface, he increased the power and brought the ship to a steady hover about a hundred feet above the lake.

“Engines coming up,” Twingo said. “We’ll have grav-drive in sixty seconds. Captain, go ahead and kick on the pre-heaters on the mains to dry out the plasma ducts and the thrust nozzles.”

“Gotcha,” Jason said and flicked the switch to bring the mains to standby, priming the fuel system and engaging the pre-heaters to dry the motors out. “Pre-heat is on.”

“Thanks,” Twingo said distractedly. “If we have to make orbit quickly I don’t want ice forming up in the injectors or the constrictor rings.” Jason felt the ship rock and shudder as the emitters for the grav-drive began to come and the repulsors pulled against their effect. A few seconds later he could hear the repulsors automatically throttling back as the gravimetric drive took up the ship’s weight. “Drive is online,” Twingo reported. “You’re clear to begin maneuvering.”

“Let’s go pick up our crew,” Jason said, pushing the throttle up. “Kage, start bringing the weapons online and get in touch with the strike team. We need to know the situation. I specifically want to know if they’ll need any air support and if they have any wounded.” From the time they received the call to the time they were underway, less than five minutes had elapsed.

****

“Bravo squad is accounted for!” Mazer’s second in command shouted over the din of the pitched battle. “Charlie is coming up the stairwell at the east end of the building, but they’re running into heavy resistance.”

“Can we move to help them?” Mazer asked.

“Our only way out is through the blast doors,” the lieutenant said. “We’d have to fight our way to them.”

Mazer sighed. Things had spiraled out of control quickly. The moment Bravo squad had withdrawn, the security forces had rallied and began to press the attack against both the retreating Marines and Alpha squad, which was currently entrenched behind the heavy blast doors the warlord Rorid had hidden behind.

“Get me a channel to Charlie squad,” Mazer said. His com chirped twice to let him know he had a direct line to the commander of the pinned-down squad. “This is Captain Reddix. We’re going to coordinate our efforts to eliminate all enemy combatants on this floor so we can extract the package safely. I want you to hold fast. Set up a defensive position where you are.”

“Sir,” the sergeant leading Charlie squad said. “We’re not in a defensible position. If we stop now we’ll be trapped between floors in a narrow stairwell.”

“Not for long,” Mazer explained. “Alpha and Bravo squads are going to push to you. We’ll drive everyone on this floor towards you and then they’ll be forced to fight us on both fronts.”

“Acknowledged. We’ll be waiting for your signal.”

Mazer was painfully aware he’d put Charlie squad in a perilous position and if he didn’t act quickly he’d be responsible when they were overrun in the tight confines of the maintenance stairwell. “Lucky! I need you and five volunteers to remain here and keep Rorid alive. Alpha and Bravo, form up at the doors. Phalanx formation, Alpha right, Bravo left … we’re going to press the attack and push the remaining security forces back so Charlie can engage them from the rear. This has to be done quickly, Charlie is trapped and evac is on the way. Let’s move!”

With Lucky and five of the Marines taking Rorid into one of the back rooms to secure him, the remaining twenty-one warriors formed up near the doors into a wedge formation. They would provide a smaller target while increasing their coverage with overlapping fields of fire. Mazer strode over to the control panel and released the lock on the door and then stepped back into his spot at the head of the formation. As expected, the setaras had been continually trying to override the lock and the doors began to swing open a few seconds after Mazer had unlocked them.

The first wave of security troops that tried to force their way past the opening doors were mowed down almost instantly. This caused the reinforcements behind them to hesitate slightly. A savage battle cry went up from the Marines behind the door, loud enough to shake the walls. The line of setaras faltered and a few began to back away despite the shrill commands from their superiors. When the first Galvetic warriors burst through the gap in the doors and began laying down withering fire, the line broke completely and setaras began running in all directions, trying desperately to escape the nightmarish creatures that were boiling out into the hallway.

At the first sign of weakened resolve from the setara troops, the Marines, now almost in a frenzy, broke into a full charge. All twenty-one warriors were wantonly slaughtering the fleeing troops, concentrating their rage on any who dared to try and stand their ground and return fire. The result of the mad dash was that they reached the east staircase with only a few minor injuries as they herded the setaras towards Charlie squad. Mazer didn’t have to give a signal as the sounds of fighting prompted Charlie to begin advancing again, pushing the few defenders above them into the chaos.

The two retreating groups collided with each other in the antechamber right off the stairwell. The resultant delay caused by both groups giving rushed explanations as well as trying to push through each other in order to retreat allowed the Marines to surround them. Mazer quickly reasserted control since the quarters had now become very cramped and he wanted to avoid friendly fire casualties during his first live mission.

“Charlie squad!” he bellowed in his native language. “Remain in the stairwell; do not let them retreat any further! Alpha squad, rearguard! Bravo, eliminate the remaining threat!” Bravo moved past Alpha and began to systematically neutralize the remaining security troopers. The setaras, now backed against the wall, lashed out in one desperate last effort. While a few Marines went down with severe plasma burns as their armor took full shots at close range, the result was all but inevitable. In less than thirty seconds Bravo was able to advance completely into the room and fully secure the top floor of the palace.

“Platoon! Muster in the atrium,” Mazer called out as Charlie squad emerged from the stairwell, their sergeant throwing a grenade down between the rails with a negligent toss over his shoulder, a gift to the few troops who seemed to be undecided whether to retreat or advance. Mazer’s command had also gone over the platoon’s open com channel so by the time they reached the atrium Lucky was already there with the remaining five Marines and their captive. Mazer knew that Omega Force typically didn’t employ a scorched earth method on this type of mission and he wasn’t sure if the battlesynth fully approved of his tactics and methods, especially regarding herding all the setaras into an enclosed space and slaughtering them. The battlesynth’s face was, as always, an impassive mask.

“The Phoenix is two minutes out,” Lucky said after seeing they were all accounted for. “I have notified the captain that we have wounded.” Mazer nodded, looking at the four Marines who had suffered serious enough injuries that they had to be carried. The young commander hoped his luck would hold out and they could get aboard the gunship and away without losing any Marines or their captive.

****

“The Defiant just sent an encrypted message,” Doc said. “They’re moving out of low-orbit. It looks like a fresh defense force has arrived in the system and Captain Colleren is moving the fleet out to meet them.”

“Shouldn’t affect us,” Jason said with a shrug. “Did they say how many ships have arrived?”

“No,” Doc said.

“Looks like fourteen according to the tac uplink we still have with the Defiant,” Kage reported. “That will outnumber Kellea’s ships two to one.”

“Still doesn’t affect us,” Jason said, his chest tightening a bit as it looked like Kellea would be fighting some long odds. “The sooner we get our job done, the sooner she can withdraw from the system.”

“The compound is coming up just ahead,” Kage said. “You’ll be able to spot it from all the raging fires the Galvetic Marines seemed to have started.”

“They weren’t hired for their subtlety,” Twingo laughed.

“I’ve got a lock on Lucky,” Kage said, ignoring his friend. “It looks like they’re all assembled in the room under that glass dome on top of the main building.”

“Tell Mazer to pull his people back,” Jason said. “We’ll blow that dome and pull them up using the transit beam.”

“Mazer thinks that will take too long and they have some wounded,” Kage said, listening to the com channel he had open with the strike team. “They’re moving to the rooftop. He says to give them thirty seconds.”

“Thirty seconds it is,” Jason said and swung the nose away from the palace. He didn’t want to leave the Phoenix as a sitting target by hovering in place while the strike team made their way to the roof. “Do we have a threat assessment of the remaining ground forces?”

“Scattered and ineffective seems to sum it up,” Kage said. A moment later the ship was rocked as a powerful plasma bolt slammed into the underside of the hull. Warning alarms blared and Jason slammed the throttle down, sending the Phoenix streaking away from the building and not allowing them to get a second shot.

“You were saying?” he said angrily.

“I never said they wouldn’t get off a lucky shot,” Kage said defensively. “I’m sending the gun emplacement to your tactical display. The compound’s power is still down so I’m not sure what they’re using to run the plasma cannon.”

“I’m not sure I care,” Jason said, lining up the gun emplacement in the reticle that floated in his field of vision. He selected his main cannons and squeezed off a long burst that sent over a dozen plasma bolts streaking towards the small, raised platform that had the anti-aircraft gun. Once the smoke and fire cleared from the explosion there was only a crater left where the gun had once been.

“They’re on the roof,” Kage said, “west end near that com antenna array.”

“I’ve got ‘em,” Jason said as he swung the Phoenix around and let her descend towards the rooftop. “Lower the ramp. Tell Lucky to report to the bridge as soon as everyone is aboard.” He switched one of his displays to the internal feed of the cargo bay and watched as thirty-seven Marines, one battlesynth, and one setara marched up the ramp. The prisoner was secured to a seat that was anchored to the deck, his hands shackled behind him. The Marines secured their wounded and began to strap themselves into the crash seats that had been added to the hold specifically for the mission.

“All Marines are accounted for and onboard, Captain,” Lucky reported as he walked onto the bridge. “They were successful in their mission and the war criminal Rorid is secured and in custody.”

“Very good,” Jason said. “Kage, close the ramp back up and alert the Defiant we’ll be in orbit momentarily.” He began to climb away from the compound, leaving a scene of complete and utter devastation in his wake. Once he got the indication that the ramp was up and locked and the pressure doors were engaged, he advanced the throttle and pulled the Phoenix up into a vertical climb straight out of the atmosphere.

“Defiant reports they are exchanging fire with the defending fleet,” Kage said. “They won’t be able to lower the shields so we can come aboard.”

“I don’t think we want to fly towards more than a dozen hostile ships with the package sitting in our cargo hold,” Jason said. “Tell the Defiant we will proceed to the secondary rally point and they’re clear to disengage and withdraw.”

“We’ve got three fast movers coming over the horizon at us,” Doc said. “Low-orbit. It looks like they’re trying to mask their approach but the sensors picked up the atmospheric disturbance.”

“Atmospheric disturbance?” Jason asked, surprised. “That’s a very low orbit. Send their approach vector to my display.” Doc nodded and sent the new target tracks to his tactical display. Jason frowned at the data as the sensors were unable to resolve the targets while they were flying so deeply in the atmosphere. The thermal bloom they were kicking up from friction caused by the thin gasses was causing the problem, and Jason didn’t plan to stick around for them to close the range enough to allow them to get a positive identification. It was fairly obvious they were hostile, but the speed they were achieving indicated they must be from the incoming fleet as the technology level on Olem wouldn’t support such craft. He’d have to have a talk with Kellea about focusing too much on the big capital ships and letting their smaller attack craft slip through and harass them. It was an error in judgment that could get them all killed.

“Course is laid in and the slip-drive is ready,” Kage said, shaking him out of his thoughts. “You’re clear to engage at any time.”

“We’ll get a little more distance before we do, I think,” Jason said, pushing the power up even further and setting a course directly away from the pursuing ships. He let the ship get a couple hundred thousand kilometers away from Olem before engaging the slip-drive. The Phoenix shuddered and disappeared from the system in a blinding flash of released energy.

Chapter 3

“Lord Archon,” Mazer Reddix said, bowing his head slightly as he came onto the bridge.

“Captain Reddix,” Crusher acknowledged his old title.

“Captain Burke, we have secured our prisoner and Dr. Ma’Fredich is currently tending to my wounded Marines,” Mazer said to Jason.

“Congratulations on the successful mission, Mazer,” Jason said, trying to shake his friend out of the stiff formality he sometimes adopted in front of others. “I trust Lucky wasn’t in the way too much.”

“Captain, I resent the implication that I would ever be ‘in the way,’” Lucky said stiffly.

“He’s messing with you, my friend,” Mazer said with a laugh. “No, Jason, your observer was able to save our asses a couple times during the operation. I don’t suppose you’d be interested in a transfer to a real combat unit?” His last question was directed towards Lucky.

“Not at this time, Captain Reddix,” Lucky said, picking up on the joke. “I am afraid they would not last long without me here. I would rather not deal with the guilt of their inevitable deaths.”

“Your loss,” Mazer shrugged. “How long until we meet up with the Defiant?”

“If they broke away soon after we left the system, we should meet up with them in around nine hours,” Kage said after consulting his display.

“We’re running a lot slower than usual since we’d like them to be waiting on us and not the other way around,” Jason explained. “A single little gunship sitting in open space is a lot more vulnerable than half an armada.”

“Seems reasonable, I suppose,” Mazer said in a bored tone.

“You’ll want to pay sharp attention to details like this, Captain,” Crusher spoke up, noticing Mazer’s disinterested demeanor. “Ships are more integral to what we do than just giving us a ride to the next fight. Understanding how and why they’re utilized will make you that much more effective.”

“I understand, Lord Felex,” Mazer said, genuinely abashed.

“Don’t worry about it. You’ll pick it up quickly,” Crusher said with a wave, moving to walk off the bridge. He paused by the younger warrior and spoke softly into his ear. “Good job getting your mission accomplished and your Marines back on board alive. I saw you were the last one to step onto the ramp; your men saw that too. You’ve made us all proud.” As Crusher left the bridge Mazer watched him go, his mouth agape. The Lord Archon was never known to offer praise lightly. Or at all, for that matter.

****

“How much longer are we going to have to sit here waiting on her tame beasts?”

“We will remain here as long as the captain instructs us to,” a loud, harsh voice rumbled from behind the ensign who was manning the sensor station, startling him so badly he almost came out of his seat. He hadn’t been aware of anyone behind him overhearing his mutterings. “As for your characterization of my kind … I would be happy to dispel your misguided opinions at your convenience.”

“Is there a problem over here?” Kellea demanded, walking over to where her Marine bridge guard was glowering down at one of her sensor operators. “Lieutenant Korix?”

“No problem, Captain Colleren,” Zellon Korix said crisply. “I was offering to correct the ensign’s belief that Galvetic warriors are, how did you put it? Tame beasts? I apologize for the distraction.”

“Ensign?” Kellea asked icily.

“Captain … I … what I mean to say is—”

“Enough,” Kellea said. “You are relieved of duty. You will confine yourself to quarters until I decide what to do with you. I will not tolerate such ignorance and bigotry from my crew. Now remove yourself from my sight.” The now-trembling ensign climbed out of his seat and tried to squeeze by the immobile Marine as his relief was trying to get past him to begin working the sensor station. The entire bridge was silent as the disgraced officer tried to hustle off the bridge.

“Ensign,” Kellea called when he’d almost made it. “I’m sure you’re aware that on this ship I give a certain leeway for cultural customs and laws. On Restaria they have a wonderfully expedient way of settling small disputes. Lieutenant Korix would be within his rights to offer a settlement to your disagreement via unarmed combat.” The ensign’s dark-hued skin paled significantly as his trembling started again. Without a word he turned and walked as fast as he could from the bridge entrance. Kellea turned her back to the crew and winked at Zellon who, in turn, stifled a laugh before walking back to his post.

“I apologize for that, Lieutenant,” she said after him. “I expect better out of my crew.” She said the last part loud enough for all to hear.

“It is of no importance, Captain Colleren,” Zellon said with a dismissive wave. “We expected this type of ignorance and prejudice when we decided to leave our homeworld. It will not affect our performance under your command.”

“Captain,” the relief sensor operator called out, “we have a new contact emerging from slip-space. Initial readings are consistent with the Phoenix.”

“Ping their transponder,” Kellea said.

“Pinging,” the com officer said. “Good return. It’s them, Captain. Omega Force is reporting that their package is still intact and all Galvetic Marines are accounted for, with some injuries.”

“First Officer, you have the bridge,” Kellea said as she walked towards the exit with Zellon in tow. “I’ll be down on the hangar deck to meet the strike team.”

****

Rorid was marched down the ramp of the gunship with Mazer’s clawed hand grasping his left shoulder firmly. The rest of the Marines disembarked and formed up to the right of the ramp, awaiting orders. Kellea and Crisstof were there along with a handful of other officers and civilian dignitaries. Jason stood at the top of the ramp and watched the whole thing with a certain bemusement.

“Captain Colleren,” Mazer said, “this is the war criminal Rorid, as per your orders, captured alive and delivered unharmed.”

“Thank you, Captain Reddix,” Kellea said, nodding to the three Marines behind her to take custody of Rorid. “Your unit has performed impressively, I look forward to a full debrief.”

“Yes, Captain,” Mazer said. He waited until everyone had walked away from the gunship save for the medical crews who were transferring his wounded from the Phoenix to the Defiant’s infirmary. “First Platoon! Dismissed!” he ordered. “Mission debrief in four hours. Go get some rest and grab something to eat.”

“That’s not a bad idea, Captain,” Crusher said from behind Jason. “We could probably use a good meal as well.”

“I assume you don’t want to utilize the Marines’ mess deck?” Jason asked.

“Ah … we always have an open invitation to the officer’s mess,” Crusher said evasively.

“I’m not so certain it’s an open invitation, rather nobody has been brave enough to get between you and the chow line,” Jason said. “Either way … I’m not turning down a good meal. Let’s go.”

It was nearly twelve grueling hours later before all of the debriefs were concluded, the reports filled out, and questions answered before they were finally done with the mission. “This is why we don’t volunteer for too many sanctioned missions,” Jason said to Kellea as she brought him a drink. They were in the small lounge area attached to her personal quarters and even though she didn’t drink herself she had an impressive variety of alcoholic beverages from all over the quadrant, mostly gifts from the countless guests that visited the battlecruiser.

“So what was your overall impression of the operation?” she asked, sitting next to him on the couch.

“Overall I’d have to say it went off without a hitch,” Jason said carefully. “We only had a few injured Marines and Twingo says the fish smell will wear off the Phoenix after an atmospheric entry.”

“How about the blockade? Anything I could have done better?” It was the question Jason had been trying to avoid.

“Just one observation. When you have a small attack craft like the Phoenix, and it’s the principal mission, you have to be aware of any smaller targets breaking away from the main fleet, not just the big ships with the big guns,” he said.

“What are you talking about?” she said with a frown.

“We had a small formation of what appeared to be heavy fighters pursuing us around Olem,” Jason said. “Our preliminary scans indicate they’re far too advanced for the locals, so we had to assume they were with the defending fleet Rorid had called in. I didn’t want to risk hanging around with the package to get a higher resolution scan.”

“We made extra sure that didn’t happen,” Kellea said without a trace of defensiveness. “In fact, we took out seventeen smaller ships trying to break away and edge around our formation. Nothing got through that we’re aware of. Could they have been stealthed?”

“Not likely,” Jason said, now his turn to frown as he considered the problem again. “If they had stealth tech that good they wouldn’t have bothered trying to skim in below us through the atmosphere. So the real question is … if they weren’t from Olem, and weren’t from the incoming fleet … who were they?”

“It’s possible Rorid had hired another mercenary outfit to protect him,” Kellea offered.

“Maybe,” Jason said doubtfully. “Strange time to make an appearance though.”

“Well either way, thank you for agreeing to help with this mission,” she said. “Our shuttle pilots are capable, but having you guys along was a nice bit of insurance.”

“It was interesting being part of an organized military op again,” Jason said. “It’s not normally something we would volunteer for.”

“So why did you volunteer for this one?” Kellea asked.

“It was the first live mission for Mazer and his Marines,” Jason said. “I feel a certain responsibility for them and wanted to be there in case it didn’t go as planned.” He took a sip of the expensive, rare whiskey-style drink she’d handed him before he realized his error. “Of course, the main reason was so I could spend some time with you.”

“Nice save,” Kellea said drily. “So what’s your opinion of their performance?”

“Lucky tells me that they operated like they’ve been doing this sort of thing for years. I suppose technically they have been doing this their whole lives, but there are some distinct differences between life in the Legions and serving shipboard as a detachment. How have they integrated into the Defiant?”

“They’re the epitome of courtesy when they’re around the rest of the crew. The rowdiness I expected seems to be reserved for when they’re in their own barracks. Oh … and they play that music you gave them from your homeworld at almost unsafe volumes while they’re training or exercising.”

“Giving Mazer that data chip full of heavy metal music was my special gift to you,” Jason said with a wide smile that earned him an elbow in the ribs.

“Have you ever thought about coming fully into the fold? Reporting to Crisstof and bringing the Phoenix aboard as a permanent arrangement?” she asked after a moment.

“Well … that’s certainly a thing to think about,” Jason said carefully.

“Please … try to contain your excitement.”

“Let’s look at it seriously, Kellea,” he said, aware he was on dangerous ground. “A lot of what makes us useful is we’re not a part of his organization and can operate in that gray area he’s hesitant to tread on. There’s also the fact that even though you command a large professional crew on a battlecruiser, and I command a small group of borderline sociopaths on a tiny gunship, we’re more or less equals when we meet. With what you’re suggesting I would be subordinate to you. In fact, far subordinate since I would likely report to your tactical officer and not even to you directly.”

“I wasn’t making a serious suggestion, I suppose,” she said with a sigh, leaning her head onto his shoulder. “It’s just frustrating at times.”

“I agree,” Jason said. “But look at it this way: would you really want my crew loose on your ship for any length of time?”

Kellea gave an involuntary shudder as she considered the havoc the small crew could wreak given an extended amount of time. “That’s a truly frightening proposition,” she said.

“They’re not joiners,” Jason agreed. “They’d make your life a living hell just for the fun of it.”

“So what’s next for you guys?”

“Back to the usual, I guess. We’ll start running along the fringe and see what we can kick up,” Jason answered.

“So nothing pressing?”

“Nothing pressing.”

“That means you can stay for a while?” she said, turning to look at him.

“I’m sure the ship needs at least a week of maintenance and repairs after that last mission,” Jason said, setting his drink down and drawing her in closer for a kiss.

Chapter 4

“Nine days on that ship? What was taking so long?” Crusher said accusingly to Twingo as the Phoenix veered away from the Defiant and began accelerating towards their mesh-out point.

“Don’t look at me,” Twingo said. “Ask the captain why he wanted every major inspection and calibration done while we were on the Defiant.”

“Well?” Crusher demanded.

“Do you seriously have to ask?” Kage said, cutting off Jason before he could answer. Crusher opened his mouth to speak, paused as he considered the question, and then his eyes widened as the realization dawned on him.

“Ah! So we had to spend over a week on that sterile ship with that stuffy crew just so you could get—”

“Look,” Jason said sharply, interrupting a conversation that would quickly get completely out of control and last for at least an hour and be completely at his expense. “We’ve got all our major depot level items knocked out and we’re topped off with fuel and the treasury is loaded with credits. I’m not sure what you’re all complaining about.”

“The novelty of the mess deck wears off after a few days,” Kage said. “Not only that, but her crew is so straight-laced that trying to organize a few friendly games of chance were next to impossible.”

“To be fair, I’m sure she’s glad to be rid of us too,” Jason said. “Specifically, glad to be rid of you two.” He pointed at Kage and Crusher to emphasize his point.

“Me?”

“What the hell did I do?”

“You want me to list everything?” Jason asked. “Crusher, you verbally assaulted more than a dozen crewmembers during our stay and actually physically assaulted another three—”

“That was training.”

“—and Kage, you tried to set up an underground gambling ring, something that’s against ship’s policy on the Defiant by the way, and then when some of the crew owed you money you tried to enlist Crusher and Lucky as your enforcers.”

“I didn’t know it was against the rules,” Kage protested, raising his hands up in defense. “I didn’t force any of them to the table.”

“Never mind,” Jason said wearily. “How long until we hit our first waypoint?”

“Yeema-3 is six days away given our current flight plan,” Kage said, happy to drop the subject of his misconduct.

“Why did we pick that place again?” Jason asked. He’d left the loose details of their course and destination to Doc and Kage while he’d been spending time with Kellea. He was now more than a little concerned that decision was going to bite him in the ass, and hard.

“It’s a prospector colony world,” Doc said. “There’s some light industrialization to support the ore mines, but it’s mostly a deserted rock with a few spaceports scattered across it. But, it’s also in a location that sees a surprising amount of commercial traffic from the nearby logistics stations. Yeema has a large refugee contingent and there seems to be no shortage of postings requesting help from anybody willing to fly out there.

“We had a hit on one of our dummy drop boxes asking for help from someone with a fast ship. Even though it was text only, there was a definite desperation in the message. It seems like she may have gotten herself into some local trouble.”

“It’s as good a place to start as any, I guess,” Jason said. “I’d rather not get bogged down with too many requests for passenger flights off the planet if we can help it, so let’s try and vet her before we get there. Message back with a confirmation code and then cross reference any information you can get on her with the Defiant.”

****

Yeema-3 was everything Jason had come to expect from a barely habitable colony world. Most of the choice planets had long since been colonized, industrialized, and absorbed into one government or another. The non-habitable planets with desirable orbit, day-length, and gravity were mostly terraformed already and thriving. But terraforming is an astronomically expensive and complicated process, so these worlds had all been carefully planned and spoken for before the first wisps of atmosphere began streaming out of the processors.

After all the best worlds had been taken, or made, the only thing left for someone wanting to escape the heavily populated core worlds, or try and strike it rich on the frontier, were the undesirable planets like Yeema-3. The climates were either far too hot or far too cold, the gravity was sometimes too light or too heavy, and on more than a few of them the orbit was such that only one side of the planet ever faced the primary star.

As the Phoenix flared and touched down on the hard-packed dirt, kicking up an enormous dust cloud as she did, Jason could tell this was going to be an unpleasant trip. The sensors were reading the ambient temperature as nearly fifty-two degrees Celsius and just looking out the canopy he could tell the moisture content was almost non-existent.

“This looks lovely,” Twingo said sarcastically as he stood and looked out the canopy. “Why didn’t we land at the spaceport on the other side of the planet? You know, the one with tarmac and not a dirt landing pad?”

“This is where our contact is,” Doc said. “She couldn’t take the lev-rail to the other city.”

“She couldn’t afford a train ticket … so how the hell is she going to pay us?” Kage demanded.

“Did I say she couldn’t afford a ticket? I said she couldn’t take the train,” Doc said, pushing back on the Veran. “She has a lot of delicate equipment that can’t be exposed to the EM fields the train produces.”

“If it’s that sensitive are we sure it can be safely carried in the Phoenix?” Jason asked.

“I get the impression it’s more a matter of the train being so badly shielded than the equipment being overly sensitive,” Doc explained.

“Well, I guess we’ll find out,” Jason said with a sigh, eying the swirling dust outside with distaste. “I see a lot of people out there openly armed, so don’t be too shy when you kit up.”

“How not shy?” Crusher asked.

“Just use some common sense,” Jason said. “No grenade launchers or anti-vehicle weapons.”

“Who is going?” Doc asked.

“You, me, Crusher, and Lucky,” Jason said. “Twingo, I want you and Kage to stay in com contact with us and monitor all the traffic coming and going. Also be ready to scan any cargo we bring aboard.” He paused for a moment, looking at Kage. “What? No complaints about being left behind?”

“Ah, no … you have fun out there, Captain,” Kage said, watching as dirt pelted the canopy from a sudden gust of wind.

Half an hour later the rear ramp of the Phoenix lowered to the dirt with a thud. Jason and the others stood back at the lip of the cargo bay where the electrostatic barrier was keeping out a lot of the dust. Sighing at the inevitable, he stepped onto the ramp and out into the gusting wind and blowing dirt. He wore a long, black duster that kept him clean, concealed his weapons, and regulated his temperature in the hot environment. All except Lucky wore goggles and a fitted mask over their noses and mouths that kept the blowing filth from getting into their lungs. Even Crusher, almost religiously averse to wearing sleeves, had a similar long coat on and even had a scarf to keep as much of the grime out of his “dreadlocks” as he could.

The four began the half-mile trek to the settlement that butted up against the primitive spaceport. As one would expect on such an underdeveloped world, not all of the ships coming and going were that advanced and many didn’t use gravimetric drives for atmospheric flight. Every so often the roar of thrusters would shake the ground and an enormous plume of dust and dirt would be kicked up and swept into the wind. Jason tried to ponder what sort of poor life choices would lead to someone actually living on such an aggressively inhospitable planet.

It took nearly fifteen minutes to cover the short distance and, mercifully, once they were within the town itself the buildings seemed to block the worst effects from the wind. They shook the dirt off themselves and turned to brush the backs of the person next to them. Poor Lucky, however, was beyond help. The electrical charge his systems generated seemed to attract the fine dirt to the point that only his eyes were visible. Crusher and Jason were thankful for the masks that hid their smirks as they tried not to laugh at their miserable-looking friend.

“It looks like your friend could use some help,” someone called from a nearby vehicle.

“What would you suggest?” Jason asked, walking over to where the alien stood. He was covered head-to-toe in some type of protective suit so Jason had no idea what species he was.

“Just stand here,” he said to Lucky. Sensing no malice, the battlesynth moved over and stood where indicated. The alien walked back around carrying a hose with some sort of nozzle attached. Without asking, he squeezed the nozzle and a stream of compressed gas began blasting the dirt off of Lucky. The stranger was extremely thorough and took special care to get all the debris out from around the joints and even covered Lucky’s eyes as he worked around his head.

“Nitrogen gas … the ionic charge breaks the attraction,” the alien explained. “I usually set up here to help everyone who is bringing cargo off the ships when the weather kicks up like this.”

“So this isn’t the norm around here?” Jason said, taking the hint and digging a one hundred credit chit out of his pocket and tossing it to the stranger.

“Not at all. It only gets this bad a few times a year,” the alien said, snatching the coin out of the air. When he squeezed it to activate the display, he began to hand it back. Jason held up a hand to stop him.

“Keep it,” he said. “Maybe you can help me a bit more, though. I’m looking for a place called the Mine Bottom. Could you point me in the right direction?”

“The Mine Bottom is two streets over that way,” the alien said, gesturing behind him, “and three blocks up towards the middle of town. That place has seen better days, to be honest. If you’re looking for a place with cold drinks you might try—”

“Thanks all the same, friend,” Jason said, not wanting to get into a protracted discussion on the local culture. “It was a place that was recommended to us and it would be rude to not at least check it out.”

“Suit yourself,” the alien said with a shrug. “Enjoy the rest of the day.”

“You as well,” Jason said with a nod before leading his crew away from the chatty local.

“It was fortuitous he was there offering a cleaning service,” Lucky said as they turned onto the street the Mine Bottom should be on. “While it did not affect my operation, the dirt clinging to me was a most unpleasant experience.”

“I’ll bet,” Crusher said.

“Doc, how are we supposed to identify our contact?” Jason asked.

“She said she’d recognize us,” Doc said.

“That didn’t set off any warning bells in your head?” Jason demanded, suddenly wary. “How the hell is she supposed to know what we look like?”

“Apparently visitors are exceedingly rare,” Doc shrugged. “It’s not as if we look like office supply salesmen.”

“Keep sharp, everyone,” Jason said, suddenly very irritated at his friend. “We could be walking into a setup.” He made a mental note to again start checking up on Doc when he was doing anything other than mending an injury. He had assumed the doctor was becoming savvier when it came to the business side of their operation. There was no illusion that Doc would ever be a tactical asset, but Jason had hoped that he would begin to recognize patterns and stop being so blindly trusting. The fact that someone had asked them here and then claimed to know what they would look like without offering an image or description in return should have been an immediate tip off.

The Mine Bottom had definitely seen better days. Blowing sand and dirt had eroded the paint and had actually worn down the corners of the bricks so that the building appeared to have no sharp edges. The animated sign would occasionally blink off and the windows appeared to not have been cleaned in some time.

“What a shithole,” Crusher declared.

“That it is,” Jason agreed. “Let’s do this right. Lucky, you begin scanning as soon as we enter the building. Crusher and I will try and find a table with a wall behind it and then we’ll wait and see if we’ve walked ourselves into a trap. Doc, you call Kage and let him know what’s going on.”

They walked in through the establishment’s double doors and then through another set of inner doors. The bar was exactly as they’d expected from its appearance on the outside: dark, dirty, and full of unsavory-looking aliens who all turned and stared at the newcomers. One good look at Crusher as he removed his mask and goggles was enough to make them lose interest. Jason led them along the outer perimeter of the room, ignoring everyone he passed and relying on Lucky to warn him if anything was amiss. To look around too much was to appear fearful, to stare too hard was to be challenging, and Jason wanted to simply blend in. The best way to do that was to appear indifferent.

The table they located was about as good as they could hope for. It was a typical round high-top found in almost every bar and was wedged back into a corner where they could observe everyone. In hindsight, Jason should have realized there was a reason nobody had been sitting here. He also liked the height of the table, allowing them to move quickly if needed without having to climb up out of a seat that was low to the ground.

After sitting for nearly fifteen minutes, nobody had come by to take their order, which was just as well with Jason. They weren’t there to drink and he was skeptical of the cleanliness of the place. They got some odd looks from patrons, but nobody seemed to be paying them any special attention.

“How do we know she’s even going to be in here anytime soon?” Jason asked, not for the first time.

“I sent the confirmation signal when we landed. She said it wouldn’t take her long to get here after that and she would be able to recognize us,” Doc said.

“We’ll wait for another fifteen minutes and then head back to the ship,” Jason said. “Much longer than that and people are going to start wondering why we’re just sitting here.”

“It would help if someone stopped by to take our order,” Crusher grumbled. “You know, just for appearances.”

“Of course,” Jason said, watching the crowd casually.

“Are you gentleman enjoying yourself in this fine establishment?” a voice ground out from the rear entrance. Jason turned and looked as five tough-looking aliens came sauntering in. He saw all the other patrons stiffen up and begin either moving away or trying to ignore the newcomers. These must be the local bullies.

“Could be better,” Jason shrugged. “Service is really very bad.”

“Ah,” the alien said as he approached them. “It could be that they’re confused. You see … you’re sitting at my table.”

“You’re telling me this shithole takes reservations?” Jason asked.

“I think you know what I’m saying,” the alien said angrily. “Now if you get out of that seat I may just let you leave by handing over the money in your pockets and that coat.” Jason looked at his friends, incredulous.

“You realize there are only five of you, right?”

“I won’t ask you again! Now if you don’t—” his sentence was cut short by a strangled wheeze as Jason’s hand shot out and grabbed him by the throat. The heavily enhanced human squeezed down, feeling the soft tissue give way and the more firm cartilage-like substance begin to sag. The alien’s four companions were in such shock they were immobile for a moment before clumsily pawing at their clothes to free their weapons. It was far too slow as Crusher leveled a nasty-looking plasma pistol at one and kicked another across the room with such force he didn’t land until impacting the bar with a crash.

The flying tough guy seemed to be the catalyst that snapped the rest of the patrons out of their shock and there was a mad stampede for the door. This was useful since everyone who stayed was obviously associated with the alien Jason was slowly choking the life out of. He heard Lucky switch to combat mode and saw Doc pull his weapon, so he ignored everything happening around him for the moment, trusting his team to watch his back.

“Now,” Jason said into his captive’s ear, “I know you’re used to being the alpha dog here in this little dirt-filled town, but you are not ready for what my friends will unleash on you if you piss us off further. You’ve already likely cost us a lot of money by scaring our contact off, so what are you willing to do to make that up to us?”

“You … will… not …”

“What was that? Oh, right … I’m crushing your throat,” Jason said. He relaxed his grip slightly before continuing, “Now what was that?”

“You will not make it off this planet alive,” the alien rasped.

“Now see, that just wasn’t nice,” Jason said with a sad shake of his head. He stood up and reestablished his grip, lifting the astonished alien up off the ground so he was eye level. “I’m afraid I can’t let a threat like that go unanswered.” He reared back and heaved the alien across the room where he landed in a heap next to his friend that Crusher had sent sailing. The distraction was enough that Jason was able to reach under his coat and bring out his own weapons and for Crusher to reach in and grab his second pistol.

“So what will it be?” Jason said loudly in Jenovian Standard. “Will we all be walking out of here unharmed, or will only my friends and I be walking out of here at all?”

“Drop the weapons! Now!” a new voice said, this one from higher up. Jason craned his head up to the loft over the bar and saw the alien who had been pouring drinks, ostensibly the owner, aiming a heavy plasma cannon at them. The cannon was so large it was mounted to the railing and was probably at one time a crew-served weapon from some long forgotten war. Either way, it was more than enough firepower to blast them, and most of the wall behind them, into dust.

“Lucky,” Jason mumbled as he raised his weapons over his head and nodded for Crusher to do the same. “We don’t want any more trouble,” he said.

“You should have thought about that before attacking my friends,” the owner said, now visibly relaxing as Jason and Crusher slowly lowered their plasma pistols to the table. Doc had already relieved himself of his weapon and looked to be searching for an escape route. “I don’t know who you are, but I can’t let you walk out of here.”

“I’m sorry to hear you say that,” Jason said pleasantly. “Now, Lucky.” The battlesynth had also raised his arms in an apparent move to mimic the others, but in reality it had put his arm-mounted cannons in a better position to bear quickly on the target. He snapped both arms to the loft and opened fire with a blistering salvo.

The high-pitched scream was cut short as the cannon exploded and took out the majority of the roof as well as collapsing the loft onto the bar in a flaming heap. Jason and Crusher grabbed their weapons and again trained them on the crowd. The bar was now beginning to burn quite cheerfully and it would only be a few minutes before emergency services responded.

“Doc,” Jason said, “go secure that rear entrance our friends used. We’ll cover you and then move out once you signal that it’s clear.”

“Right,” Doc said and hustled along the rear wall to the door. The remaining crowd that had stayed to stick up for their leader seemed to now be reconsidering their decisions and were moving to get out the front door before the fire consumed the rest of the building. “We’re clear!” Doc shouted from the door.

“Let’s move, boys!” Jason shouted, squeezing off a dozen shots over the heads of the retreating crowd to keep them honest as they moved quickly to the exit.

Once outside they found themselves in a narrow alley between the Mine Bottom and the building on the next street over.

“This isn’t a good place to be,” Crusher said. “Let’s get one street over and begin trying to get back to the Phoenix.”

“Agreed,” Jason said. “Lucky, take point, I’ll cover the rear.”

“I’ll cover the rear,” Crusher said and physically moved Jason in between him and Lucky. “I can hear someone coming up behind me far better than you.”

“Let’s go then,” Doc said, impatient to be off.

They ran hard through the alleys and side streets to put as much distance between the bar and them as they could. Soon they were out of the commercial area and onto what looked like a residential street with tall row houses. They slowed to a walk and tried to look casual as they moved along in the low afternoon light. Doc was panting hard and was holding his side.

“You’re out of shape,” Crusher accused.

“I’m not a tactical asset as you’re so fond of saying,” Doc shot back.

“No, but you could get us all killed by having to wait on your slow ass,” Crusher retorted. “So we’re just getting back to the ship and blasting off this rock, right, Captain?”

“That’s the plan,” Jason said. “Whoever it was that we were supposed to meet will just have to find someone else.” His com unit chirped a moment after he stopped talking. “Go for Burke.”

“Captain,” Kage said. “We’ve got a lot of activity here at the spaceport and it looks like a fire near where you were meeting our contact.”

“I know, Kage,” Jason said. “We’re trying to make our way back to you now. Prep the ship, we’ll be leaving as soon as we get back.”

“Did you guys have something to do with the fire?”

“Just have the Phoenix ready to fly when we get there,” Jason said, ignoring the question and closing the channel.

“The authorities will know by now that it was a bunch of outsiders that caused all the trouble,” Crusher said. “They’ll have that spaceport locked down and are likely watching the Phoenix.”

“I’ve thought of that,” Jason said. “Let’s just get a little closer and then we’ll try and figure out how hard it will be to get to the ship.”

Jason’s next words were cut off by a large, boxy ground vehicle screeching around the corner and bearing down on them. Looking around, he couldn’t see anywhere to escape to as there was no alley between any of the houses. He was about to pull his weapons when the vehicle veered away and stopped on the street just in front of them. The side cargo door popped open and lifted up out of the way revealing a well-lit interior with bench seats.

“Get in!” a female alien shouted from the driver’s seat.

“Who are you?” Jason demanded, his hands still on his weapons.

“There is no time! The authorities know you fled this direction and are on the way,” she said. “Unless you want your ship impounded and to find yourselves in a holding cell, I’d suggest you hurry up.” Jason turned to his companions and shrugged before climbing into the vehicle. The rest piled in and the driver was pulling away before the door had completely closed.

“Our contact, I presume,” Jason said as she turned down a side street. “You were late.”

“I was on time,” she argued. “However, I wasn’t aware your plan was to burn the bar to the ground if I didn’t show up in less than an hour.”

“It’s not something we normally do,” Jason deadpanned. “We save it for special occasions.”

“I’m flattered.”

“Don’t be,” Jason said. “You have a short amount of time to explain yourself or we will toss you out of here and take this vehicle back to our ship and be long gone before anyone finds you.” He heard her gasp at his threat, assuming she thought he meant to kill her. He had actually meant they would restrain her and dump her on the side of the road, but he decided not to bother correcting her.

“We’ll talk when we’re safe,” she said and concentrated on driving. Jason looked around at the others and could see they weren’t sure they were in a better position now than when they had been on the run. He shrugged and leaned back. There was nothing to be gained by worrying about things he couldn’t control.

Chapter 5

“It looks like you have the correct confirmation code,” Jason said grudgingly while handing the data pad back to their rescuer. “So who are you?”

“My name is Naleem El,” she said. “I’m in need of a fast, capable ship to hire in order to finish my work.”

“Tell you what, Naleem,” Jason said slowly. “If you’re not going to be honest with us from the beginning, we’ll be on our way and you can find someone else.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Naleem admitted, looking confused.

“You weren’t out to hire just any ship,” Jason continued, walking around the cramped room in the basement they were all in. “You seemed to know exactly who we were, how to get ahold of us, and details about our ship we would never put into an open communication. Who are you?”

She stared at him for a moment before exhaling loudly and sinking back into her seat. “Yes,” she said finally. “I’ve heard of you. I was told stories of your exploits by people who had direct interaction with you.”

“Who?”

“The A’arcooni,” she said quietly.

“Whoa!” Crusher said loudly. “How could you possibly know about them? That was supposed to be a strict secret.” The A’arcooni were a species on the brink of extinction that Deetz had enlisted to attack Earth years earlier. As far as everyone who knew of the incident was concerned, they were all still on their homeworld and all interstellar travel privileges had been revoked.

“What interaction could you have possibly had with them?” Jason asked harshly.

“I’ve been to A’arcoon. It was part of my work,” Naleem said. “It’s not important how I knew of them, but what is important is that their leadership told me of you and your crew. They speak of you in reverent whispers: the alien who showed them the true path and gave them back their home. They’re doing quite well, actually.”

“This will go a lot faster if you stop making me drag out every detail,” Jason said wearily. “What is your work, how does it involve the A’arcooni, and why do you need us?”

“I’m an archeologist who specializes in ancient spacefaring races,” Naleem began. “The A’arcooni hit my sensors when I got my hands on a classified report that detailed the way their ships moved through space. They don’t use the slip-drive technology every other species in this part of the galaxy has adopted. Their drive allows for instantaneous jumps from one place to another, limited only by the power source. When I discovered that they were a relatively primitive species themselves, I went there to investigate.

“While they were very gracious and eager for any news of what was happening beyond their system, they were woefully ignorant of how their FTL drives actually worked. Not only that, Crisstof Dalton had confiscated their ships so my engineering team couldn’t examine the real thing. My hypothesis is that the species who gave them that technology, arguably something more advanced than our own slip-drives, may be a direct descendent to an even older species that was flying between the stars when our ancestors were still single cell organisms.

“As for why I need you … let’s just say that not everyone is as enthusiastic about my work as I am. I’m threatening to debunk a lot of evolutionary dogma that every species seems to hold dear. I’m often chased off of sites, sometimes by armed forces. Having a crew of mercenaries and a warship instead of a collection of academics and an underpowered shuttle seems preferable. I also liked the symmetry of you getting involved again after my talks with the A’arcooni.”

She paused and looked around at her audience to see how her story was being taken. Lucky was completely unreadable and Doc looked openly skeptical. Jason and Crusher, however, had actually moved forward to the edges of their seats and were listening with rapt attention.

“There’s also the matter of me being able to safely get you back to your ship,” she finished, leaning back.

“That’s … quite a tale, Naleem El,” Doc said, looking over at Jason as he did. “It’s all very, very light on the details and still doesn’t fully explain why you need Omega Force in particular.”

“I really don’t,” she said with a shrug. “But I’m offering you the job and it pays very well. There isn’t an extraordinary amount of danger involved and you might get the chance to see some incredible things along the way.”

“Let’s get back to the ship at least,” Jason said after a moment. “Then we can decide on the details. You may as well bring your gear, Naleem.”

“It’s in the black transit crates upstairs,” she said, rising quickly. “Once they’re loaded into the ground car we can be on our way.”

****

Getting past the local law enforcement and back to the Phoenix ended up being a lot easier than they anticipated. Another vicious dust storm had come in during the evening and drove everyone back to shelter. It was a simple matter of braving the elements and driving the battered ground car (more of a van, really) through the blinding dirt and up to the ship.

At Jason’s instruction, Naleem turned the vehicle around and backed it directly up the ramp until the rear doors were just inside the atmospheric barrier. Lucky and Crusher climbed out and made quick work unloading the cases while Jason supervised. A few moments later and Naleem pulled the vehicle down onto the hard-packed dirt of the landing pad and abandoned it, grabbing her personal bag and walking back up the ramp.

“You’re fine just leaving it down there?” Jason asked. “We won’t likely be coming back to this planet.”

“It’s of no importance,” she said with a dismissive wave. “I don’t plan on coming back myself.” Jason shrugged and hit the control to raise the ramp and close the pressure doors. He could already feel the power building in the main drive as Kage finalized their takeoff preparations. When he walked into the ship through the crew entry hatch, he saw almost everyone was making their way to the bridge except Lucky and Twingo. The pair was heading towards the port engineering bay so that Twingo could thoroughly clean all the grime off the battlesynth.

Lucky had tried to use the crew showers before when something similar had happened, but the mist jets didn’t have the pressure needed to scour his metallic skin and unique joints. Twingo had then devised an ultrasonic cleaner that was so effective it left Lucky burnished to a dull gleam. The harsh sonic waves apparently had some therapeutic effect as well as he seemed to thoroughly enjoy his time in the contraption.

“We’re ready to lift off, Captain,” Kage said as Jason walked onto the bridge. “We’ll want to hurry. I think that storm is getting ready to let up and we’re next in line for inspection.”

“We’ll be long gone before that,” Jason said as he slid into the pilot’s seat. He initialized all the primary flight systems and began feeding power to the grav-drive. The ship lifted smoothly from the surface just as the com began to light up with demands from ground control to put back down and await local law enforcement for a mandatory inspection. Jason just laughed and throttled up, putting the Phoenix into a steep climb to get out of the swirling dirt storm. He grimaced as he retracted the landing gear, imagining how much of the filth he’d just trapped inside the ship. “Kage, have the damage control bots go into the cargo bay and begin cleaning the place up,” he said at the thought.

“They’re already at it,” Kage said. “I also have them going through the interior cleaning up where you guys tracked it in.”

“Thanks. Once we get into orbit we’ll push towards the heliopause before—”

“We’ve got inbound craft,” Doc reported, interrupting Jason. “Four targets, accelerating into the atmosphere from low-orbit and they are most definitely moving onto an intercept vector.”

“Let’s see how they like this,” Jason said with a tight smile, angling away from the inbound craft and slamming the throttle down. The Phoenix leapt forward and quickly went hypersonic as she screamed out of Yeema’s atmosphere. “Full combat mode, shields up.” He was partially blinded while coming up off the planet’s surface and didn’t want to run flat-footed into a trap set in upper orbit for them. The fact that the four fast movers had been coming down from orbit as he lifted off made him assume he was being flushed out.

“Two light cruisers in orbit!” Doc said in alarm. “We won’t be able to avoid the one directly ahead; the other is low on the horizon but coming at us fast.”

“It’s about what I expected,” Jason said tightly. “Bias the shields forward, we’re going to take some hits.” He twisted the gunship over to put their nose directly on the cruiser that was waiting for them in higher orbit. The tactical computer fed him range and data on the target as they closed on it. The other ship had the advantage as it only had to make minor course corrections to keep the gunship in weapons range while the Phoenix had to come out of the gravity well at full power at the same time it was attempting to evade the larger ship.

Jason knew he had no hope of trying to turn and outrun the cruiser. He also knew that if he tried to turn and dive back into the atmosphere the four attack craft below would have the advantage. With his back against the wall, he armed the Phoenix’s main cannons and drove the ship straight at the cruiser, trying to get within effective weapons range as fast as he could. For a second he thought about jumping to slip-space, but they were deep within the planet’s gravity well and the enemy ship’s grav-drive was creating distortions directly ahead of them. It was a risk not worth taking as there was a slim but very real chance they would emerge back into real-space as a stream of disjointed molecules.

“We’re within the cruiser’s weapons range,” Kage said. “Why aren’t they firing?”

“They’re trying to capture us,” Jason said. “Or more specifically, they’re trying to capture her. Whatever the hell you’re into, Naleem El, you sure as fuck undersold it to us.”

“I told you exactly—”

“Quiet!” Jason snapped as they raced towards the enemy ship. “I’ll deal with you later, if we’re still around to talk about it. Kage, keep a look out for any unusual readings on that ship … you have about fifteen seconds to find out before it’s too late.”

“There is a massive gravimetric buildup near the prow,” Kage said, his hands flying over his displays. “It’s shifting frequencies to match our drive.”

“So that’s your game,” Jason said softly. “They’re going to try and force our drive to reset as we pass. Twingo! I need you to cut power to the grav-drive the instant I tell you.”

“Standing by,” Twingo said from the engineering station. He and Lucky had raced onto the bridge when the weapons had charged and the evasive maneuvers had begun.

Jason reached over and flicked the four switches up that would start the mains and then lined the ship’s plasma cannons up on the nose of the cruiser. At the speed in which they were closing, they would only have a few seconds to coordinate what he had planned.

“Reset the shield bias to even coverage,” he said. “They won’t be firing on the first pass. Be ready for them to open up as we go by though.” He felt and heard the boom of the mains lighting off and glanced down at his engine management panel to verify they were ready to provide thrust. Heartened by the green indicators looking back at him, he concentrated on lining his shot up and did a silent countdown in his head.

Five seconds after the mains came online, he squeezed the trigger and sent a salvo of plasma bolts streaking for the cruiser and then immediately angled his course to port to make it look like he was going to try and slip by the cruiser in the confusion. The enemy ship took the plasma bolts directly on its prow, the shields flaring and undulating, but the Phoenix was still outside its maximum effective range and the shots only degraded the shields slightly. It was enough of a distraction, however, that Jason didn’t think they knew what he was up to.

Keeping a sharp eye on his tactical display, specifically his range, he waited until they were within five thousand kilometers of the cruiser. The ship was now underway and turning to try and keep its nose on the Phoenix while also still closing the range.

“Now, Twingo!” Jason barked just as the ship broke the one thousand kilometer range. He shoved the throttle all the way forward and they were all shoved back into their seats as millions of pounds of thrust from the mains launched the ship forward.

“They’re expanding that grav field towards us,” Kage reported. “No effect.”

“They won’t be fooled for long,” Jason said. “Stand by. Twingo, get ready to bring the grav-drive back online.”

“Ready when you are,” Twingo said.

“They’re firing,” Kage said. The ship was rocked as high-powered plasma fire raked their starboard side. Warnings began scrolling across Jason’s displays and he could see that their starboard shielding was degraded by thirty percent, but was slowly recharging.

They shot past the cruiser and were now looking at wide open space, but Jason knew they were still in danger.

“Bring the grav-drive back up,” he said. “Kage, prep an XT5 for our friends. Twenty-five megaton yield, proximity detonation.”

“Grav-drive is back online,” Twingo reported.

“What’s the status on the second cruiser?” Jason asked as he switched the mains to standby and throttled up the grav-drive to send them deeper out into the system.

“Looks like they’re still on us,” Doc said. “They’re accelerating out of orbit on a pursuit course. The other cruiser is coming about, but it will be a few minutes before they can reverse their course and come after us.”

“How did you avoid their grappling field?” Naleem spoke up.

“It wasn’t a grappler,” Jason explained absently as Kage sent the missile targeting data to his display. “It was an interdiction field. They were going to disrupt our main drive enough to latch onto us and then likely cut their way onboard. Twingo, what’s the slip-drive’s status?”

“Drive needs another three and a half minutes before it can be engaged,” Twingo said after glancing at one of his displays.

“Kage, open the weapons bay doors and prepare to deploy the missile,” Jason ordered as he optimized his course to keep the maximum distance between him and the pursuing cruiser. The Phoenix had a marked speed advantage, but the cruiser had already been at high velocity when it broke orbit and began its chase while the gunship was still accelerating out of a gravity well.

“Missile prepped,” Kage said. “Targeting solution to the cruiser we just passed is locked in.” Jason didn’t answer as the missile icon appeared on his armament panel. He selected it and squeezed the trigger until the icon blinked and disappeared. He saw the flash in the canopy as the missile streaked away and veered to starboard to begin its circuitous course back to its target. With any luck the cruiser would be so fixated on them that it wouldn’t notice the comparatively tiny missile streaking towards its starboard flank.

“Range,” Jason said.

“Target one is now out of range and falling behind, two hundred thousand kilometers. Target two is no longer closing and is holding steady eighty thousand kilometers, still well out of effective weapons range,” Doc reported.

“Keep an eye on any expendable munitions launches,” Jason warned. “I’d rather they not pull the same trick on us that we’re about to pull on them.” They were far enough away from the planet and the other ships that Jason was no longer manually flying the ship, allowing the computer to precisely plot their course through the system and avoid any navigational hazards.

“Hit!” Kage called. “Missile one has detonated within five kilometers of the target, battle damage assessment coming in now.”

“Target two has jumped to slip-space,” Doc called.”

“Shit!” Jason said as he dove for the helm controls. He called for a full stop and brought the grav-drive to standby. “Shut down all tactical systems, full countermeasures, passive sensors only. Time to disappear.” The crew didn’t question his orders as the Phoenix went from a bright sensor contact emitting tachyons and a large gravimetric signature to just a dark hole in space.

“The last sensor data we had on the ship we hit was that it was listing and streaming atmosphere, but still maneuvering,” Kage reported.

“Let’s hope the blast distracted their sensor operator, or even better knocked their sensor array offline,” Jason said quietly in the sudden stillness of the bridge under low-power mode.

“Target two has reappeared,” Doc said. “Passive sensors caught a slip-space distortion just over forty million kilometers ahead and to starboard.”

“They jumped out and back in,” Jason said. “They knew they couldn’t catch us in real-space.”

“Why did they jump out of the system and then back in?” Naleem asked, looking a bit shaken.

“Not too many ships can execute an intrasystem slip-space jump safely. We can; they obviously can’t,” Jason explained. “They had to jump a large distance out and replot a jump back into the system that they assumed would be ahead of us. If all goes well, they’ll scan around for a bit and then assume we jumped out of the system while they were gone.”

“How long will that take?” she asked.

“How the hell would I know?” Jason asked rhetorically. “Twingo, get any damage control done that you can without compromising our stealth.”

“I’m already on it,” Twingo said. “It wasn’t really that bad. Two power junctions overloaded for the shields was about it.”

“We’ve got active scans in the system,” Doc said. “Nothing focused on us, just wideband sweeps.”

“Keep on top of it, Doc,” Jason said. “We may be in for a grind depending on how long they feel like hanging around looking for us.”

“It looks like the ship we hit is limping out of the system,” Kage said. “Slow acceleration profile and a course for a good mesh-out point.”

“That data is over thirty minutes old with the passive array, though,” Jason mused. “You don’t think they’re just breaking orbit to swing around this way and join the hunt?”

“Highly unlikely given the spike in radiation readings I’m seeing,” Kage answered. “Looks like our one little missile may have breached their engineering spaces and done some real damage.”

“Not too much if they’re steaming towards a slip-space jump point,” Jason pointed out. “Still … not bad for a single wild shot. I was really only trying to see if I could knock their shields down on one side and convince them to stay out of the fight. Were we able to get any ID on these guys?”

“No,” Doc said, “they were running without transponders, and visual scans of the hulls revealed no identifiable markings. There were actually no markings of any kind and the ships themselves were of an indeterminate make.”

“Figures,” Jason muttered. “Okay everyone, let’s settle in for the long haul. Kage, take over all sensor monitoring. Doc, Twingo, and Crusher, go grab some chow and get some rest. If this goes past eight hours you three can come up and relieve us.”

The three filed off the bridge and headed down to the galley. Naleem looked to be undecided as to where she should go, so she settled back into her seat and stared blankly out at the stars. Jason hoped it would be a long boring watch and then they would be able to fly out of the system without any more exchange of weapons fire.

Chapter 6

It was nearly twelve hours later before they were able to power up the drive and fly out of the Yeema System. The ship they’d hit had indeed meshed out as they’d hoped, but the second ship had doggedly run a search grid from where they had meshed in all the way back to Yeema-3 where they had then run extensive scans of the planet’s surface to make sure the gunship hadn’t doubled back and landed to hide.

Eventually they either gave up or were called away and the cruiser charged out of the system at full power before vanishing in a flash of slip-space energies. Lucky was sitting in the pilot’s seat at the time and called Jason back up once the ship had meshed out.

“Well that was a fun two hour nap,” he said irritably. “How long have they been gone?”

“Nine minutes,” Lucky said.

“We’ll wait another twenty-one minutes,” Jason decided. “If they don’t come back by then to try and catch us sneaking out we’ll power up and get the hell out of here. Until then, maintain stealth and emission protocols.”

“Yes, Captain,” Lucky said.

Jason went back down to his quarters to grab a shower and get dressed. There was no point in trying to get back to sleep for thirty minutes so he resigned himself to a double watch that had been broken up by a two hour sleep that left him more tired than if he’d just stayed up.

When he returned to the bridge, Lucky had already vacated the pilot’s seat and the crew was preparing to get underway. Naleem had also come back up. Crusher had escorted her to starboard berthing earlier and had locked her in. If she was offended by the treatment, she wasn’t letting it show.

“So where to, Naleem?” Jason asked, glancing over at the pale-skinned alien as he slid into his seat.

“The equipment we have brought with us is only part of what I need,” she said. “The rest of my gear is in the Setit System.” As soon as she identified their destination Kage grabbed all the pertinent information and began feeding it to Jason’s station.

“Only a day and half flight and it looks like an actual, civilized star system,” Jason said in mock surprise. “I thought for sure you were going to say we’d be required to fight our way into the bowels of hell to retrieve your equipment and then land on the galactic core to use it.”

“Your tone suggests you’re joking, though I fail to see the humor in it,” Naleem said.

“It’s funny because this was supposed to be a fairly routine passenger charter,” Jason said pleasantly. “So far we’ve gotten jumped by yokels at the meeting place and then had to fight off two warships and we’ve not even left the system yet.”

“You’re implying this is somehow my fault,” Naleem said with a disapproving tone.

“Now why would I think that?” Jason asked sarcastically, looking up from his display. “What are we going to find in the Setit System? If those ships were here for you, they’ll likely know that you have gear stashed in other locations as well.”

“I still argue the notion that those warships had anything to do with me,” she shot back. “But to answer your question, my equipment is being stored on Setit in a building that is only four kilometers from the spaceport I’ve given your copilot coordinates to. As far as I know, the only thing awaiting us is a bit of physical labor.”

“How much physical labor?” Crusher asked, suddenly concerned.

“The cases are on wheels,” Naleem said. “It won’t be especially difficult. No actual lifting.”

“That’s a relief,” Crusher said, slouching back into his seat.

“Seriously?” Twingo asked him.

“Hey! I’m a specialist … I need to conserve my strength for something important,” Crusher said loftily. “What if we’re attacked and I’m too worn out to fight from lifting a bunch of heavy crates?”

“Ah yes,” Jason said, “the most likely of scenarios. Twingo, bring the drive online. We’re as clear as we’re going to get and we’re wasting time sitting around here.”

****

The Phoenix blasted into the Setit System, carrying a lot of forward velocity still from their mesh-out. Jason waited tensely for Doc to clear the system, half-expecting to be attacked in the few seconds it took for the systems to come back up after dropping into real-space.

“Nothing on the sensors,” Doc reported. “There’s a bit of local traffic and a ConFed corvette sitting in high orbit, but no sign of those cruisers.”

“That may not be a good sign,” Twingo said. “They either have no idea where we were going next, which I find a bit unlikely given our recent luck, or the bloody nose we gave them scared them enough to bring more firepower next time.”

“That’s an unpleasant thought,” Jason said as he directed the ship onto a course that would intersect one of the eight open approach vectors to the planet. Setit was apparently not a planet that appreciated ships randomly making orbit and entering their atmosphere. “We’ve got a flight time of fourteen hours to the planet.”

“Fourteen hours!” Kage said, calling up the navigational data. “What the hell? Are we suddenly trying to save fuel?”

“Nobody is shooting at us for the moment,” Jason said. “I’d like to try and blend in to the local traffic and not draw any undue attention. Even if we leave without incident, I’d rather not have someone remember the ship that came screaming in at .85c and blasted off a short time later.”

“Sound thinking,” Crusher said, standing up. “I’ll be in my quarters.”

****

The trip all the way down to the surface of Setit was uneventful and the Phoenix touched down on the outskirts of the spaceport with a soft bump. Kage and Doc stayed on the bridge to watch over things with Jason instructing them to keep the engines running in case anybody affiliated with the two light cruisers showed up. Twingo climbed out of the dorsal hatch and began making his inspections along the starboard side where they had taken hits, and the rest of the crew followed Naleem out to the terminal building to catch a ride to the storage facility.

As luck would have it, the facility had a loaner airtruck that was large enough to accommodate all the rest of Naleem’s equipment in one trip. Jason was walking among the generic black crates when one caught his eye. It was much taller than the others and was sitting upright on its end. What really made him curious, however, was fact the crate had its own power source.

“Naleem,” he called out. “What is this?”

“What is what?”

“This crate here, the one I’m pointing at right now,” he said shortly. “What is it?”

“It’s just another storage crate like the others,” she replied. “Why do you ask about that one in particular?”

“Because it looks suspiciously like a stasis pod,” Jason replied, turning to face her. “What’s in it?”

“It’s just a cryogenic storage unit,” she said. “What use would I have for a stasis pod? Some of the chemicals I use for dating are sensitive to temperature changes. The best way to keep them viable is to store them down to the temperature of liquid helium. Is this trip going to be a constant barrage of interrogations? What can I do to put your mind at ease?”

“Nothing comes to mind,” Jason said. “Trust is earned. Right now you’re a paying charter, and one I’m not certain we should even be carrying. By the end of this we may become lifelong friends. Or … you prove to be untrustworthy and put my crew or ship at risk and I toss you off the back ramp.” He walked off to look over a few more of the crates, leaving her standing there with her mouth hanging open.

“Is he always so charming and cheerful?” she asked Crusher, who happened to be walking by.

“Who? The captain?” he said. “He’s always a bit moody. What did he do?”

“I believe he threatened to toss me out into space if I wasn’t what I was selling myself as,” she said.

“Eh, that’s a bunch of bullshit,” Crusher said, poking around a few other smaller crates.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Crusher said. “He’d make me do it.”

He walked off, leaving Naleem standing in the storage unit shaking her head.

“So what was that all about?” Crusher asked Jason quietly as he moved up beside him.

“Just trying to keep her off balance a bit. I don’t want her too comfortable,” Jason said, displaying none of the peevishness he had just moments ago in the building. “I’ve got a bad feeling about ferrying her around.”

“Okay,” Crusher said slowly. “So why not just leave her here and be done with it?”

“Because I also have a bad feeling about why she sought us out,” Jason answered. “She knows far more about us than she’s letting on and I refuse to believe these recent run-ins with undeclared warships is some crazy coincidence. I’d rather face an enemy head on than leave one behind me so for now we’ll play along until she slips up or we figure out what she’s up to, whichever comes first.”

“This sounds like a dangerous game,” Crusher said.

“Unfortunately I think it’s one we were playing before we even got to Yeema-3,” Jason said, turning to see how the loading was going. “Let’s just stay sharp and I think we’ll come out of this just fine.”

“You always say that.”

“And aren’t I always right?”

“We have wildly different definitions of just fine,” Crusher said before walking off. Jason watched him go, his brow furrowed. I really hope I’m not making a fatal mistake here.

The rest of the cargo was loaded without incident and soon they were driving back to the spaceport to get all the crates secured in the cargo bay so they could get underway. Jason watched Naleem closely, noticing how she not only seemed familiar with the crew, calling each by name naturally despite having not been formally introduced to all of them, she also seemed to know where everything on the DL7 was without needing to ask. The little voice in the back of his head that usually warned him of danger was screaming so loud it was distracting.

“What is our next destination?” Jason asked her as the ramp came up and locked with a clunk.

“We’ll need to return to the site of my previous expedition,” Naleem said. “It’s a planet without any official name and isn’t claimed by anyone despite having a stable, breathable atmosphere.”

“Why wouldn’t anyone be living there already?”

“It’s small and the gravity is quite light, only about one-third of what you have here in the ship,” she shrugged. “Makes it undesirable for most species for long term living and it’s too far out of the way to make a good logistics hub. The surface won’t support food production either, so everyone who has ever taken a look at it hasn’t bothered to file a claim.”

“How far out of the way are we talking here?” Jason asked.

“Only ninety-seven lightyears from here,” she said, “but it’s out towards the edge of the quadrant. It’s on the way to nothing.” Jason did the math in his head and figured they could be there in a few days without running the ship too hard.

“No problem,” he said. “If you have everything secure down here we’ll head up to the bridge and be on our way.”

Chapter 7

Jason landed hard on his back, stunning him and sending blood flying from the pressure cut on his cheek. He rolled quickly to his right to avoid the huge boot that slammed down where his head had just been and rolled backwards to spring up onto his feet. He instantly went into a modified fighting stance and brought his guard up.

“You will never beat him if you do not press the attack!” Lucky shouted. “If you remain defensive you only allow your stronger opponent the opportunity to attack at will!” The battlesynth was walking around the periphery of the combat area, watching the pair closely.

Jason sighed and braced himself for the inevitable. He pushed off with his right foot and feinted an elbow to the head before dropping his body, pivoting hard at the hips, and driving his left fist into Crusher’s midsection. The clumsy gambit worked and the smile the warrior had been wearing was immediately replaced with a gasp of pain. Jason tried to continue his momentum and roll to Crusher’s left to get on his blind side, but the skilled warrior was too quick and grabbed Jason’s left forearm before he could even recoil from the blow he’d delivered.

Keeping a firm grip, Crusher pulled Jason in close and brought his right elbow up, intent on driving it into the crown of the human’s skull. Being off balance and having little other choice, Jason broke the rules and headbutted Crusher square in the mouth, driving his lips onto his razor-sharp teeth. The warrior howled and let go, but not before delivering a kick that sent Jason flipping away and landing flat on his face.

“So now we just ignore the rules?” Crusher snarled. “You’ll regret that.”

“You bit me earlier, fucker!” Jason said between breaths as he leapt to his feet, his entire body hurting. “Now we’re even.”

“Not yet we aren’t,” Crusher said and lunged at Jason with a roar. Years ago this would have caused Jason to likely piss himself with fear, but now that he was stronger and faster than he’d ever been, not to mention accustomed to the racket the big warrior raised, he was able to stand his ground and keep his wits about him.

He knew Crusher was about to fully commit to the charge and leave his feet, so his timing would have to be perfect. Sure enough, he saw Crusher push off and launch himself through the air, intent on hitting Jason with enough kinetic force to end the fight. As soon as he launched himself, Jason dropped and rolled onto his back, tucking his knees up to his chest as he did. Crusher sailed over Jason, grasping at him with his hands as he realized his mistake. Jason let his roll plant him up onto his shoulder blades and then thrust his feet up with all the strength he could muster. The results were dramatic.

He hit Crusher slightly off center and could feel his right ankle roll and the tendons scream in pain, but the force of both feet was enough to send the three hundred and twenty pound warrior up and over with enough velocity that he slammed into the armory door with a tremendous thud and collapsed onto the floor in a heap.

“Match!” Lucky said loudly. “Winner by knockout—”

“I’m up!” Crusher shouted, climbing unsteadily to his feet and swaying dangerously. “I’m up!”

“Very well then,” Lucky corrected himself. “Match is a draw.”

“A draw!?”

“What the hell, Lucky!?”

“Neither of you was able to disable his opponent in the allotted time,” the battlesynth said calmly, “so there is no winner. Crusher, you inflicted the most damage, but your theatrics and games let the captain get the better of you on more than one occasion. Captain, you are still not fully aware of the strength and speed you now possess. You let Crusher take the offensive on almost every interaction and tried to wait for the perfect opportunity to strike, but in the meantime your stronger opponent was able to inflict multiple injuries.”

“Fair enough,” Jason panted, blood and sweat dripping onto the cargo bay floor.

“Whatever,” Crusher said with a wave. He looked ready to walk back into the ship when he paused and turned to Jason. “Pay attention to what he tells you, Captain. That was a good fight and I think you’re a match for many of Captain Reddix’s Marines. Imagine what you could do if you started to trust in your own abilities more.” Jason didn’t respond as Crusher opened the armory door and exited the cargo hold.

“He’s too strong, too fast, and he has eyes in the back of his head,” he said once Crusher was gone.

“Would you like my advice, Captain?” Lucky said.

“Always.”

“It may be unfair to use sparring sessions with Crusher to judge your own progress. He is by far the most skilled fighter I’ve ever encountered and he is from a race of born warriors. He is also competitive to the point that he will do everything short of maiming or killing you just so he can win, even against his commanding officer and even in a training match.

“There is a dichotomy to you that I am still trying to figure out,” Lucky continued. “When you are flying this ship in combat you are aggressive, routinely engaging superior forces. The weaker your position, the more aggressive you become. But when you spar with Crusher, your opening move is often a defensive stance and you never recover from that. It is obvious you are not afraid or adverse to pain, so I feel like it must be something else.” Jason was genuinely surprised at Lucky’s psychoanalysis of him, both that he had given it that much thought and that he seemed to be fairly accurate in his assessment.

“I wish I had a simple answer for you, buddy,” Jason said, walking towards the open armory door. “I’ll do better next time. Thanks for the coaching.”

“Of course, Captain,” Lucky said with pride. “I have been very pleased with your progress since we started.”

****

“So there it is,” Kage said. “Beautiful planet DC915. I can’t believe we haven’t come here before for vacation.”

“Funny,” Jason said. “How about getting me a scan of the surface and surrounding space whenever you get the chance.”

“I’ve already got it coming up,” Kage said. “You know, Captain … I’m beginning to think you don’t appreciate the unique contributions I bring to this team, multitasking being the least among them.” Jason glanced over at his diminutive friend, but decided not to respond.

“How about you multitask a verbal report for those of us not looking at a terminal?” Crusher asked from the front of the bridge.

“There’s a multifunction terminal right behind you,” Kage said.

“So?”

“It’s dry and hot down there,” Kage said, deciding not to push back too hard on Crusher. He wasn’t sure what had been going on in the cargo bay, but Jason and Crusher both looked like they’d tried to ride on the wing of the ship during atmospheric entry. “Completely void of any life or signs of civilization, but I am seeing what looks like Naleem’s old excavation site. It’s the only concentration of refined metals on the surface. No energy signatures anywhere in the system other than us.”

“None?” Naleem asked, seeming concerned.

“Nope,” Kage answered.

“Expecting someone?” Jason asked.

“I was expecting my camp to still have equipment powered up, Captain,” she answered. “The generator must have gone offline while I was gone.”

“We’ll soon find out. Plot me an entry vector,” Jason said. “Nothing too aggressive. Put us over the site so we can get some visual scans from high altitude and then we’ll double back and set down.”

“Coming up,” Kage said as he input the parameters into his navigation panel.

They had to complete four orbits of the planet before the computer took control of the helm and slowed the ship for the entry sequence. Jason didn’t mind the negligible delay since it gave them that much more time to scan the surface and surrounding space before committing to a landing.

Once the canopy cleared and Jason got his first real look at the planet, he was taken aback by how truly forbidding the terrain was. Miles of sand dunes peppered with a few rock outcroppings for variety. Deep space was such an abstract concept to the human brain that he just accepted it at face value. Planets like this, however, made him realize how far away from rescue they really were if something went wrong. If the Phoenix lost power or had a major system breakdown that affected life support there was no way they’d survive on planet DC915 for more than a few days at best. If anyone ever happened by all they would find was a sandblasted DL7, six skeletons from six different species, and one extremely bored battlesynth.

He caught a glimpse of himself in the reflection off his multifunction display as he overflew the site so Kage could get some detailed visual scans. He still looked like he’d been beaten by a gang of hoodlums wielding sections of pipe, but he was greatly impressed at how fast he was able to heal thanks to Doc’s genetic tweaks coupled with the nanobots coursing through his bloodstream. The only downside was that he was constantly hungry while healing. No matter how much he ate, he would be back in the galley a couple hours later stuffing his face with a tray full of high-energy, high-protein food.

As bad as he looked, he didn’t really feel that banged up other than the really big bruises. The process that had reinforced his skeleton kept his joints from aching, which was always the part he hated most about vigorous training. He figured in another two or three days he’d be ready to go at it again. He took particular pleasure in watching Crusher gingerly lower himself into his seat and try to hide the slight limp he still had.

“Site is completely clear, Captain,” Kage said, shaking him out of his thoughts. “I’d suggest landing up on the north side of the camp. Radar suggests that there’s solid rock less than half a meter under the sand. Otherwise we’ll need to get creative to keep the ship from sinking.”

“The north side was actually our landing pad,” Naleem spoke up. “It was clear the last time I was here, a testament to how fast the sand will swallow things left unattended on this world.”

“We don’t have any excavation equipment onboard,” Jason said. “How do you plan to clear all this sand away from your site?”

“If you can restore power to my camp I have the equipment to remove the sand,” she said confidently.

“If it can be fixed, Twingo will get it running,” Jason said as he cycled the landing gear and swung the nose around so that the ramp would be facing the half-buried dig site.

“Speaking of which,” Twingo said, rising from his seat and walking over to Jason’s seat. “Let me show you how to set the navigational shields up so we can keep the sand off the ship. If we spend any length of time here it could cause me some real headaches later.” The engineer went about entering a series of specialized commands that would allow the dorsal shield arrays to provide coverage from the nose to the tail, leaving only the ramp exposed, while the ship still had weight-on-wheels. Normally the nav shields could only be deployed once out of an atmosphere and certainly not when the ship was sitting on the surface. The combat shields could, but the power drain, not to mention wear and tear on the emitters, wasn’t worth it just to keep the sand from blowing on them.

“Captain,” Lucky said from behind him, “if it is all the same to you, I would rather stay on the ship for this phase of the mission. The dirt of Yeema-3 was difficult enough to clean out of my joints, I can only imagine what this would be like.”

“No worries,” Jason said. “Crusher! Suit up, we’re going outside.” Crusher walked out without a word but fixed a hate-filled glare on Lucky as he passed by. Jason was certain if the battlesynth had a mouth one corner would be upturned in a self-satisfied smirk.

Jason followed Crusher off the bridge and down to the armory. There was no way in hell he was going to walk out into the fine, blowing grit of DC915 with just his uniform and a dust mask. While he knew he’d regret it when he had to spend hours cleaning the unit later, he would be enjoying the arid, dirty environment from the comfortable confines of his powered armor.

“I never thought I’d say this,” Crusher said as he watched Jason lift himself up into the rack and slide into the armor, “but I wish I had one of those.”

“It comes in handy from time to time,” Jason said, his voice becoming muffled as the armor closed around him. There was a twitch and then the ensconced human stepped off the maintenance rack and onto the deck with a boom. “I am worried about the extra weight though.”

“You probably still don’t weigh as much as I do even in that,” Crusher argued.

“Considerably more, actually,” Jason said. “Doc’s treatments have increased my muscle density so that I’m tipping the scales at two-seventy. Not only that, I have smaller feet.”

“My heart will bleed for you as I’m sneezing out fine sand for the next few days,” Crusher said before walking out of the room. Jason went to follow him and stopped at the wall rack full of personal weaponry. He shrugged and grabbed a pistol and a plasma rifle before retracting his helmet and walking out into the cargo bay to check on the rest of the team.

When he arrived he saw Crusher slipping on a full coverall that came with its own helmet, rebreather, and climate control unit. Apparently Twingo had been busy since they made orbit and learned of the planet’s atmosphere, making full environmental suits for everyone that would be disembarking. The suits were not nearly as cumbersome as an EVA suit used in space, but they would still offer full protection from the hostile environment outside.

“Good thinking, Twingo,” Jason said approvingly.

“I made one for you too, Captain,” the engineer said as he handed an enthusiastic Crusher his helmet. “It would probably be more comfortable than that thing.” Jason considered it, but he was already suited up and, truth be told, since his recent upgrades he actually liked wearing it.

“I’m okay,” he said. “I’ll have the full gamut of sensors and weapons on me since Lucky will be staying onboard.”

“Suit yourself,” Twingo shrugged as he began climbing into his own protective outfit.

It took another hour and a half to get everyone ready and prep the cargo bay. Jason had insisted on some sort of hard barrier in addition to the atmospheric forcefields to keep as much of the sand out of the ship as possible. They ended up rigging a flexible curtain up and only allowing the interior pressure doors to open one and half meters. This was enough to get Naleem’s equipment through and allowed Twingo to get in and out of the cargo bay as needed in order to get the site’s main generator started again.

Before he could start the generator, however, he needed to uncover it. To that end, he would drag out a power cable from the Phoenix and dig by hand in the spot indicated by Naleem in order to power up a very specialized piece of equipment. The machine, roughly a meter cubed in size, had two large diameter hoses coming out of it. One had handles and the word “INLET” written on it. The other disappeared into the sand, running somewhere Jason couldn’t see.

“This thing should accept power from the ship without any problem,” Twingo was saying as he popped open an access hatch and began splicing in the cable he’d been dragging. “The generator is fairly new and outputs the standard frequency and amplitude.”

“Will knowing this help me get out of this desert any faster?” Crusher asked.

“Probably not,” Twingo admitted.

“Then shut up and get back to work,” Crusher growled. “Less talking, more tinkering.”

“Tinkering?” Twingo said in mock indignation. Jason knew that annoying Crusher was one of Twingo’s favorite hobbies, and he was good at it, but the big warrior did not look to be in a joking mood. Twingo wisely let it drop and kept at what he was doing inside the machine. Jason was impressed at how sure his movements were and the level of dexterity he seemed to maintain inside the hastily-built environmental suit. “That should do it,” he said finally. “Kage, energize the feed.”

Kage didn’t respond, but the machine gave a lurch as power from the ship flowed into it. There were a few discouraging thumps and shudders before a huge gout of sand blew out of the seal between the lines and it settled into a steady rumble. Naleem ran and grabbed the inlet line and flicked a switch on the handle. Sand began funneling into the line and away from the site.

“So it’s a sand vacuum?” Jason asked.

“Of a sort,” Twingo said. “It actually creates a gravitational distortion within the line Naleem is holding and it accelerates the sand through the machine and out the discharge line.”

“And where is that at?” Crusher asked, looking around.

“The discharge outlet is two kilometers away,” Naleem said as she began sweeping the inlet over her machinery. Jason remained silent, but a two kilometer line, along with all the other equipment he was beginning to see, meant that she’d had access to a ship much larger than the Phoenix when she originally set the site up. She was nothing if not well-funded for her little scavenger hunt.

It was nearly five hours of continuous work, with each of them taking turns at the sand sucker, before the site was cleared down to the rock shelf Naleem had originally been working on. Jason began inspecting the smooth cuts into the rock as Twingo began working to get the main generator running again. The cuts looked very uniform and were still ultra-crisp. Since it seemed the sand blew almost constantly on DC915, Jason was a little suspicious that this was actually an archeological site. He captured multi-spectral, high resolution scans with his armor’s instruments and sent them to Doc to begin analysis.

He continued to explore around the site as Naleem continued her sand removal, now concentrating on getting into all the nooks and crannies, while Twingo worked and Crusher moved his way back to the ship to stand in the shade of the tail. It wasn’t long before the dull hum of the generator starting up cut through the sound of the blowing sand and the engineer’s cursing. Twingo let the machine get up to operating temperature and stabilize before energizing the main load contactor. When he did the entire site burst to life as lights came up and a host of other machines resumed their tasks. It was then that Jason saw there was actually a tunnel carved down into the bedrock away from the landing site. He moved to the edge, peering down until the lights wrapped around into a shallow turn and disappeared from view.

Chapter 8

“So what are you looking for down here?” Jason asked after retracting his helmet. The air down in the chamber was stale, but cool and clear. Naleem’s original team had rigged a door at the end of the long, curving tunnel that had kept out almost all of the invasive grit. He noticed the heavy scoring along the wall and on the door that could only be weapons fire, but he let that slide for now.

“To be honest, Captain, I’m not sure what it looks like and I have no idea what it’s actually called,” she answered distractedly.

“That’s helpful,” Twingo said. “I assume you have some way to find it then?”

“Yes,” she said, holding up a handheld device that looked a few centuries out of date. “This will put out a sympathetic frequency and should induce a response from the artifact we’re after.” Jason looked around at the chamber he found himself in. It had high ceilings and was probably twenty meters deep and across, but what he couldn’t see was how someone had even built it. The chamber was obviously much, much older than the newly cut tunnel that they’d taken to get to it, but there appeared to be no other exits. He confirmed his suspicion with his armor’s sensors; it was as if the chamber had just appeared underneath thousands of tons of solid bedrock.

“Have you noticed there aren’t any other ways into this place?” Twingo asked softly, his thoughts apparently paralleling Jason’s.

“I was just looking at that,” Jason said. “What do you think?”

“I don’t even want to try and guess,” Twingo said. “There are some obvious answers, I guess, but there are some problems with all of them. My gut instinct is that someone has developed an actual, workable matter transporter and used it to build this place.”

“What’s the problem with that?” Jason asked.

“The initial scans I took of the erosion marks on the walls indicate this place is at least four thousand years old, and the margin of error is a thousand years either way,” Twingo answered. Jason looked up to make sure Naleem was still on the far side of the chamber with her strange device before continuing.

“So how did she know where this place was?” he asked.

“That’s the million credit question, isn’t it?” Twingo said with a shrug. “But I’d say this job just got a lot stranger than most.”

“Get ready,” Naleem called from across the chamber. “This can be somewhat … energetic.” She finished adjusting the settings on the device and began turning up the power, increasing the amplitude of the signal being transmitted. Jason’s armor could detect and classify the frequency, but it wasn’t something that was in the audible range for humans. Twingo’s twitching ears let him know that it was probably just on the edge of what his friend could detect and it was irritating him.

Just when he was about to ask what it was they were waiting for he began to feel a buzzing vibration through the floor. He looked around as bits of loose rock were shaken from the walls; the entire chamber seemed to be humming with energy. The intensity of the vibrations increased until Jason became concerned about the integrity of the room they were in as dust and rocks continued to drop from the ceiling. He grabbed Twingo to get him moving towards the exit tunnel when the wall on the far side split with a deafening pop and the rock began to shear away to reveal another chamber beyond.

The moment the wall collapsed, Naleem shut the device down and the vibrations stopped. Falling rocks were the only sound as the three of them looked at each other. “I didn’t think it would be quite that intense,” Naleem admitted. Without another word she ducked into the newly revealed chamber and disappeared. Jason could see her light bobbing along the walls as he and Twingo rushed over to see what was inside.

Whereas the first chamber they’d come to was completely barren, the second was sheathed in a shimmering metal and adorned with exotic-looking writing that the database in Jason’s neural implant couldn’t decipher. He again began recording with his armor’s sensors and casually walked a complete circle around the smaller room, detailing the walls for later analysis by the ship’s computer.

Naleem walked over to the far wall and pressed on a large circle with a glyph etched into it. The circle illuminated a brilliant blue for a moment and then extinguished.

“I hope you know what you’re doing as you randomly press—”Jason was interrupted by the sound of stone grinding against stone and a meter-diameter circle in the center of the room sunk into the floor. It recessed about half a meter before swinging out of the way and a new, different sound replaced the rough grinding. This was the sound of modern machinery. The whine of actuators and the rumble of bearings was a stark contrast to the nerve-grating racket the moving stones had created.

Twingo and Jason stood slack jawed as a polished pedestal rose from the hole in the chamber floor. It was stunningly beautiful and was sculpted in such a way that its facets reflected the light along the walls in a kaleidoscope of colors and shapes. Resting within the three-fingered grasp of the two hands that emerged from the top of the pedestal was a metal disc that was so polished it hurt to look at.

“I’m going to go out on a limb and say this is what you were after,” Jason said, his armor’s sensors spiking and cutting out from whatever the strange object was emitting. “Is it safe?”

“Completely safe,” Naleem said softly. “Even after all this work, I can’t believe it was really here.”

“So … what is it?” Twingo asked. Naleem suddenly looked worried.

“Now that it’s out of its shielding it will be able to be detected,” she said quickly. “We must get it aboard the ship and leave this system as quickly as we can.”

“I’m not taking that thing onboard until I know what it is and what it does,” Jason said flatly.

“Captain, we don’t have time for a—”

“Those are my terms,” Jason insisted. “I won’t let you put my crew at risk unnecessarily.”

She let out an exasperated sigh, glaring at him. “For lack of a better term, it’s an antenna,” she said. “It’s part of a larger device that will help us find our ultimate goal.”

“Good enough … for now,” Jason said after a moment. “I assume since it can be detected that you’ve been smart enough to take precautions before we lift off?”

“There’s a shielded case in your cargo bay right now,” she confirmed. “It will shield the device unless someone is very, very close.”

“I don’t plan on letting anyone get that close, so grab your golden Frisbee and let’s get the hell out of here,” Jason said, turning to leave.

“What’s a Frisbee?” Naleem asked Twingo.

“I believe it’s a small, flying creature from his homeworld that his kind hunts for food,” Twingo said.

“So he thinks I’m going to eat the antenna?” she asked, completely confused.

“Well … he’s from a strange and primitive planet,” Twingo said, floundering. “Many times if he doesn’t fully understand something he will try to either eat it or mate with it.” As the short engineer walked out of the chamber, Naleem grabbed the metal disk and hugged it protectively to her chest, her face a mask of concern and confusion.

****

“What the hell were you guys doing down there?” Kage demanded. “The whole ship started shaking and we couldn’t figure out what the problem was.”

“You could feel that all the way up here?” Jason asked, surprised.

“What?” Doc asked. “You mean you felt it all the way down there, right?”

“No … the vibrations originated in the cavern we were in,” Jason said. “It was induced by some device Naleem had.”

“I don’t believe so,” Doc argued. “It seemed as if it was coming from within the ship.”

“We must not be talking about the same thing,” Jason shrugged. “Have Twingo check it out. I’m going to go change back into my uniform and then we’re out of here as fast as we can manage it. Apparently she’s just activated some sort of homing signal that will let someone know that she’s unearthed the artifact. I’d rather be long gone once they show up.”

Jason hurried to extract himself from his armor while his crew finished packing up Naleem’s equipment and prepping the dig site. She was adamant that they destroy the entire thing despite the fact there was still so much that could be learned from the writings on the wall in the second chamber. He began to suspect that was exactly why she wanted the caverns collapsed. Twingo and Crusher were busy rigging the explosives that she conveniently had on hand in a locker onsite, and she told them to take special care to ensure that the walls of the second chamber would be destroyed to the point that they couldn’t be reconstructed.

He walked out of the armory and into the cargo bay in time to see Naleem gingerly placing the disc they’d extracted into a specialized holding case that sat inside of another, larger crate that appeared to have some sort of active lining. It was obvious from the case that she’d known exactly what she was looking for when she began excavating the hidden chamber and what special steps needed to be taken to ensure it couldn’t be detected.

“The antenna will be safe in here,” she said as Jason approached, “and we will be safe from anyone trying to find it.”

“Oh, I doubt that,” he said, causing her to look up sharply. “I saw the blast marks in the tunnel, Naleem. You were chased off this site by someone who not only knows exactly where it is but likely knows what you were looking for. The fact they didn’t trash your equipment means they wanted you to return and finish the job for them. I’m sure they’re a lot closer than you think.”

“What you say may be true,” she admitted. “But the people who attacked us the first time don’t have access to a ship as fast as this. If we can leave this planet soon they will come back to find only a pile of rubble.”

“Let’s hope you’re right,” he said, obviously not convinced. “How much longer?”

“Your men should be done within half an hour,” she said. “We can depart after that.” Jason didn’t answer her. Instead, he walked back in through the armory, sealed the heavy blast door, and made his way to the bridge.

“Anything in the area?” he asked Doc as he slid into the pilot’s seat.

“Nothing our sensors can pick up in local space,” Doc answered. “But we’re quite limited by being on the ground. The planet’s shadow has us relatively blind to anything that may be approaching from the far side.”

“I’ve been thinking about that,” Jason admitted. “Hopefully we’ll be in the air shortly.”

“We could launch the twins to take a peek on the other side and keep watch,” Doc suggested. Jason thought about it for a moment.

“Let’s not bother with that,” he said. “They have limited sensor capability and we’ll be leaving by the time they make it halfway around the planet anyway.”

While Doc kept his eyes on his display to try and catch anyone sneaking around the planet on them, Jason brought up the internal security feeds to keep tabs on what was going on in the cargo bay and outside. He could see that Twingo was wrapping up his demolition prep and Crusher was already making his way up the ramp. Lucky had taken up station in the hold and though Jason couldn’t swear to it, it seemed Naleem was becoming increasingly frustrated at his presence.

When Crusher and Twingo walked in he had a bit of confirmation of this as she slammed the lid shut on a crate she’d been aimlessly rooting around in and walked out, her mannerisms agitated. Jason smiled tightly as he saw that Lucky’s eyes never left her until she was completely out of the cargo bay. Once she was gone, the battlesynth went over to the crate and opened it, apparently intent on finding out what had been so interesting in there.

He killed the feed just as Twingo closed the ramp and pressure doors and began pulling the temporary barrier down that he’d set up earlier. Naleem walked onto the bridge a moment later after having composed herself.

“So where to next?” Jason asked.

“I would say simply away from here for the immediate future,” she said. “I’ll need a bit of time before I can pinpoint our next destination with any certainty.”

“How much time?” Jason asked.

“I’m getting something on sensors that doesn’t look right,” Doc said, cutting off Naleem before she could answer.

“Show me,” Jason said sharply, walking up behind Doc.

“It’s a bit of thermal variance that began popping up from the west a few minutes ago,” Doc said, calling up the thermal graphs. “The computer ignored it at first since the sun is setting along the western horizon, but the second time it showed up it changed direction and intensity. It could be nothing.”

“But it’s probably someone hugging the terrain on an incoming course,” Jason said in alarm. “You’re seeing the exhaust plume when he dives down to follow the ground.”

“Are you sure?”

“It’s the same thing we do,” Jason said, sliding into the pilot’s seat and bringing up the primary flight systems and keying the intercom. “Prepare the Phoenix for emergency departure and combat operations. Kage, get your ass up here.” A mere second later the littler Veran came sprinting onto the bridge and leapt into the copilot’s seat.

“What have we got?” he asked as he began to reconfigure the ship for flight.

“Possible inbound fast mover,” Jason said. “Too big to be a missile so it’s probably a fighter-class ship. Stand by, I’m taking us up.” He began to feed power to the grav-drive, feeling the ship shudder a bit as she pulled herself out of the sand. “Retract the gear and reconfigure the shields.”

“Copy,” Kage said. “Weapons are coming up, too. You’ll have full tactical capability in fifteen seconds.”

“Thanks,” Jason said as he started the main engines and tweaked the settings on the grav-drive.

“Contact, just breaking the horizon,” Doc said, then frowned. “Brace!” The ship was rocked by sustained energy weapon fire as the enemy contact zipped overhead at incredible speed.

“Damn!” Jason said as he looked over the damage reports coming in. “That’s no ragtag group of thieves. Doc, I need to know who made that fighter.” He pulled the Phoenix’s nose up and shoved the throttle down to send the big gunship rocketing into DC915’s sky. The worst position to stay in was close to the ground where even a near miss would turn the bedrock of the planet into shrapnel that could impact the ship. It also meant his maneuvering options would be severely limited and make them an easier target.

“What the hell?” Kage said. “There’s barely even any drain on the shields. A warning shot?”

“Sort of,” Jason said as he let his neural implant fully integrate into the ship. After the disorientation was over, he continued scanning the sky for the fighter. “They know what they’re after. Blowing us up or risking a cave-in won’t help; they need to try and force us down.”

The sensors picked up the ship coming back around for a second pass, low on the horizon and from behind where the gunship had been sitting. Jason leveled out and maintained his current course, letting the fighter think he was successfully sneaking up from below and behind.

“Uh, Captain?” Kage said, concerned. Jason ignored him, watching through the sensors as the incoming ship began to nose up and increase velocity. He chopped the throttle and shoved the nose over while simultaneously kicking the left rudder. The gunship seemed to fall through the air as she spiraled around, her nose coming to bear on the incoming fighter.

“Kage,” he said. “EMP blast as he passes. Try to disable the ship.” Kage didn’t answer as he prepped the specialized weapon. The EMP cannon was something they rarely used since the ranges of most of their battles in space were so vast it was next to useless. It was also too narrowly focused to be of any real use in a lot of their ground campaigns, but every once in a while they needed to disable a vehicle at close range and it came in handy. Jason authorized Kage’s armament panel so he had authorization to fire the weapons.

“He’s evading,” Kage said, “Still in range … firing. No effect. Target is maneuvering away.”

“It was a long shot,” Jason admitted, throttling back up and pushing the nose around to pursue. “A fighter that advanced was sure to be EMP-hardened and filtered. Looks like it’s back to doing it the hard way. Bring point defense online and begin tracking for a missile shot.”

“Tracking,” Kage said, “but all of our missiles are designed for large ships or stationary targets. I don’t think they can turn in on something that maneuverable.”

“Let’s hope you’re wrong,” Jason said, “because I know the Phoenix can’t.”

He watched as the small fighter accelerated at an incredible rate away from them, so fast that it left a vapor trail in the arid atmosphere from compressing the air so violently. The ship angled over and seemed to turn almost ninety degrees to starboard and looked like it was going to try and close in on them again. Tired of playing the other’s game, Jason rolled the Phoenix over and yanked back on the stick to bring them around to port until they were pointing back the way they’d come. The gunship groaned under the stress and he could see the power spikes on his display as the grav-drive compensated for the violent maneuver.

Once he was pointing back to the excavation site, he slammed the throttle down and pitched the nose back towards the surface. The pilot in the attacking fighter would have no doubt as to what he was about to do.

“Target is breaking off from its turn and accelerating towards the site,” Kage said. “Why are you throttling back? We can beat him there!”

“I want him to get there first,” Jason said. “Doc, standby on the remote trigger for the demolition charges.”

“Standing by,” Doc said. Even though the crew understood on an intellectual level what happened when Jason fully integrated himself into the ship, it was still unnerving to watch him sit there silently and, without warning, execute a series of violent and sometimes dangerous maneuvers. So as per their usual habit, they sat in their restraints and remained silent unless asked a direct question. In Crusher’s case he had his eyes clamped firmly shut.

“He’s flaring,” Kage said, “I think he might actually be thinking about landing.”

“No,” Jason said, “he’s going to drop off a passenger. Blow the charges.” Doc keyed in the command and the desert in front of them erupted in an enormous geyser of flame and sand, completely engulfing the smaller ship. Jason hauled the Phoenix to a complete stop about twenty kilometers away and settled into a hover, waiting for the dust to settle, so to speak.

They didn’t have long to wait to find out the results of their handwork. The fighter shot out of the debris on a direct collision course and began firing all its forward facing energy weapons. These were not warning shots, and the forward shields flared and the lights dimmed as the weapon fire raked from the nose and down the starboard leading edge. Jason blinked and was aware of the point defense guns firing at the fighter as it zipped by at close range. He kicked the right pedal and heeled the ship over, bringing her around on a pursuit course.

“He seems really pissed about us blowing up the cavern,” Kage remarked. “Twingo, can you coordinate damage control? I’ve got my hands full tracking this guy.”

“Damage control is already underway,” Twingo said. “It made a big flash, but minor damage only to the hull on the starboard flank. I’d take it as a personal favor if you didn’t let him take any more unanswered shots at us, Captain.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Jason said as he sent the gunship racing after the small fighter. Despite its much greater size, the gunship had more power and was able to close the distance to the target quickly. It couldn’t, however, turn as sharply or as quickly and it was a weakness the enemy pilot was exploiting to maximum advantage. The fighter was staying just ahead of the smaller point defense cannons but letting them close in enough so that he could shake them with a hard turn. It was doubly hard since he knew which way he was going to turn. Jason didn’t.

“I think he’s trying to break contact so he can get to orbit,” Kage said. “Stay on him.”

“I’m on him,” Jason said, concentrating on not giving the fighter an opportunity to leave them behind and break for orbit. The pilot knew that if he increased the range without shaking the gunship that he’d likely get a missile up his thrust nozzles for his trouble. Jason kept squeezing off shots from the main cannons to keep him honest, but he had no delusions of landing a kill shot on the agile craft. The fighter was a dancer in the sky, nimble and fast as it pirouetted away from the gunship. But the Phoenix was a bar brawler, and she could afford to sit back and wait for that perfect opening to deliver that hard right cross that would end the fight.

Jason could almost feel the desperation in the moves the fighter was making as the pair streaked across DC915. He let the ship get a little more distance as he began to recognize the pattern in his evasive moves. When he rolled to starboard in what looked to be a preparation to bank hard in that direction, Jason throttled back and angled the Phoenix to port.

“Captain?! What are you doing?” Kage shouted. Jason ignored him. Sure enough, the fighter continued its roll all the way around and banked violently to port, but this time the gunship was already tracking it. The fighter showed a large target profile as it unwittingly turned its dorsal surface to the gunship, unable to change its course once the pilot realized the danger. Jason squeezed and held the trigger. The main cannons opened up with a blistering salvo that was tracking just behind the fighter. He pulled harder into the turn, ignoring the warnings popping up on his display and watched, transfixed, as three shots from the cannons obliterated the drive section of the small craft and sent it spiraling down to the surface.

“I’ve got an ejection,” Doc said. “Repulsor assist, looks like he’ll put down about two kilometers from here.”

“Well, I guess it would be rude not to go introduce ourselves,” Jason said as he grabbed the sensor track data for the falling pilot and put it up in his field of view. “Crusher, Lucky … get ready.” He continued to slow the ship as they descended, angling the nose up to keep them within range of the pilot without having to circle around.

He saw the sand kick up as the pilot impacted the surface. He slowed to a hover one hundred meters away, looking to see if their adversary was showing any signs of having survived the high-speed ejection.

“Drop the ventral shields and open the belly hatch,” Jason ordered. “Engage the transit beam and have it terminate two meters above the surface. They can jump that high and I’d rather not suck a bunch of sand up into the cargo bay.”

“Beam active,” Kage said. “They’re already transiting down.” He saw Lucky and Crusher running out from under the ship towards the pilot just as a brilliant beam lanced down from the sky and vaporized the pilot, the seat, and turned a few square meters of desert into cloudy glass.

“Contact!” Doc called. “Target in low-orbit.”

“No shit!” Jason said. “Get them back onboard, now! How the hell did we miss a ship in orbit?”

“It just appeared when it opened fire,” Doc said apologetically. “It was running dark and we couldn’t detect it while we were in the atmosphere.”

“And it’s likely just as advanced as that fighter was,” Jason finished his thought for him.

“Crusher and Lucky are onboard, hatch is closed and the shields are reengaged,” Kage said. Jason slammed the throttle down and yanked the nose up. The Phoenix roared and shot up into the sky, shaking under full power. He hoped to surprise whoever was sitting in orbit with the violent maneuver.

“They’re lit up like a solar flare now,” Doc said, sending the sensor track to Jason’s station. “It looks like it’s a frigate-class ship of unknown origin. Their power signature is spiking … they’re running.”

“Let’s hope we have better luck with them than we did with the pilot,” Jason muttered, adjusting his vector to allow for a less aggressive climb and intercept the target as it overflew them. He glanced down at his multifunction display to check the ship’s vitals. Other than some scrapes and bumps they seemed to be fine. The shield emitters were showing an increase in operating temperature but were still well within safety limits.

After they broke out of the atmosphere Jason poured on the power, trying to run down the frigate that already had a healthy head start and showed no inclination of turning and giving them a fight.

“Slip-space field forming,” Kage said.

“Shit!” Jason said in frustration, still too far out of range. He watched, helpless, as the frigate disappeared in a flash of slip-space energy. “Track them.”

“They dropped a tachyon charge before they jumped,” Doc said. “The system is saturated and the sensors are effectively blind.”

Jason let out a sigh and leaned back into his seat. He carefully extricated himself from the integration between the ship and his neural implant before commanding the ship into a high holding orbit.

“Well … that was fun,” he said as he climbed out of the pilot’s seat, rubbing his temples. “Let me guess, Naleem, you have no idea who they were.”

“No,” she said with a straight face, “I do not.”

“Whatever,” Crusher snorted before walking off the bridge.

“Normal watch,” Jason ordered. “Twingo, give her a once over and make sure I didn’t damage anything and then we’ll figure out what our next move is.”

“It looks like we should be ready to leave in a couple of hours, Captain,” Twingo said. “Everything appears to be fine, but better safe than sorry.”

Jason nodded to him and walked off the bridge, heading to the galley to grab some water.

Chapter 9

“Twingo has cleared the ship, Captain,” Kage’s voice came over the intercom. “We’re ready to leave whenever we have a destination.”

“Thanks, Kage,” Jason replied. “I’ll be up in a minute. Make sure Naleem is there when I arrive.” He swung his legs off his rack and rubbed his face. Four or five more hours of sleep would have been fantastic, but they couldn’t hang out over DC915 much longer given all the excitement they’d had for the past nine hours. He slipped his boots back on and left his quarters.

“So … it’s answer time,” he said to Naleem as he walked onto the bridge. She sat at one of the sensor stations, calmly staring at him with black eyes that stood out in stark contrast to her pale, almost translucent skin. Like shark eyes …

“I will provide what answers I can,” she said.

“That would be a nice change of pace,” Jason said with a humorless chuckle. “What was this antenna that we risked our lives for back there?”

She just stared at him for a moment before answering. “It’s the antenna to a device that will … find something.”

“Gotta do better than that unless you want to stay here on DC915,” Jason said pleasantly as he paced in front of the canopy.

“The device is impossibly old and uses technology we simply don’t understand,” she continued. “I believe it is a locator. A way to find something that someone has wanted to keep hidden for a long, long time.”

“What do they want to keep hidden?” Twingo asked from his station.

“Honestly? I do not know,” Naleem answered. “I do know that given the technological advancement of this species, who are likely long extinct, whatever they were trying to hide must be something of immense power.” Jason got the impression that this was the first honest answer she’d given since meeting them.

“And our friends in the frigate?”

“I am not the only one looking,” she said simply.

“So I gather,” Jason said sarcastically. “What is the motivation? Fame? Money?”

“I do not think the people who are also pursuing the locator are interested in such shallow trappings,” Naleem said. “My best guess is that the locator will point the way to an energy source.”

“An energy source?” Twingo scoffed. “We’ve got plenty of energy. Antimatter reactors, orbital solar stations, the works … why would anybody go through this sort of trouble for an ancient generator?”

“From what I’ve been able to glean, this power source would be able to power weaponry that could destroy a star,” she said.

The crew was silent for a moment before Kage snorted, which started Twingo off, and soon everyone on the bridge except Naleem was laughing uproariously.

“Oh that was good,” Twingo said, still struggling to hold back the laughter. “Seriously? Another legend of a star-destroying weapon?”

“I am a scientist,” Naleem said hotly. “I follow the evidence. I am telling you what my conclusions have been based on what I have found. I am obviously not the only one.”

“Okay, Naleem,” Jason said, raising his hands to quiet his crew down. “So what’s next?”

“There is another part that mates to the antenna,” she said. “But someone already has it.”

“The people who operated that frigate?” Kage guessed.

“Possibly them,” she admitted. “Or another faction. But now that I have the antenna, I was able to determine where they’re holding it.”

“This seems to be the real reason you picked us,” Jason said, suddenly understanding why she’d sought them out. “Not too many freighter crews willing to break into a secure holding facility to steal some ancient artifact for what, on the surface, seems like an utterly absurd reason. Am I right?”

“The unique skills of you and your crew were certainly a reason I sought to hire you,” she said. “But I made no secret of that.”

“No,” Jason said, “but you were also fairly light on the details. For instance, I think you suspected that this next piece was already in someone else’s hands. You could have told us the job would include transport as well as grand larceny. Not to mention air-to-air combat with one of the most advanced starfighters I’ve seen in this region of space.”

“As I said, I was unaware of anyone with access to such advanced weaponry also pursuing the device,” Naleem said. “For that, I apologize.” The fact she actually did seem contrite took some of the fight out of Jason.

“Just something to keep in mind,” he said, “anyone with enough credits can get almost anything. Hell, there are entire militaries for hire. This is an important clue though … assuming the people we tangled with were mercs like us, the interested party must have deep pockets.”

“I’m not so sure, Captain,” Twingo disagreed. “I don’t know too many merc crews that would vaporize a highly skilled pilot like that.”

“Point taken,” Jason conceded. “Since we seem to have exhausted the possibilities of this particular conversation, what course, Naleem?”

“Please set course for Tallin Prime,” she said.

“Looks like a six day trip running the drive at sixty percent,” Kage said as he checked with the navigation computer.

“Send it over,” Jason said. “Let’s get out of here. Program in three dummy jumps.”

Moments after the Phoenix meshed out of the system, the frigate they’d been chasing jumped back in and launched multiple shuttles towards the surface.

****

Jason sat at the galley table alone, eating his meal and watching as his crew went about their normal routine during a long slip-space flight of inspections, light maintenance, and training. He nodded politely to them all as they went about their business, but made no effort to engage them. Naleem walked by on her way to starboard berthing, paused as if to speak to him, and moved along after one look at his brooding countenance. He waited until the door to the bay closed and she’d remained in there for at least thirty minutes before dropping his fork and pushing away his now-cold food.

“Computer, lock starboard berthing,” he said softly. “Visual acknowledgement to my implant only. Monitor passenger Naleem El and alert me if she tries to exit the bay.” He saw the computer confirm his commands via text written across his field of view. Waving to Lucky, he quietly made his way down to the port engineering bay and from there went into the armory.

“Are you sure this is wise, Captain?” Lucky asked as they walked into the cargo bay. “Exposing the antenna while we are in slip-space may have adverse effects on the ship’s performance and announce our location to our enemies.”

“We’ll leave that box alone,” Jason assured him. “We more or less already know what’s in it. I want to know what she’s got packed in all these other crates.”

“As the captain you are within your rights to order her to open the cases,” Lucky pointed out.

“I know, but I’d rather do this discreetly,” Jason said. “That’s why it’s just you and me in here right now. Go ahead and begin scanning for any active anti-intrusion devices and I’ll get the computer doing the same.”

Lucky walked among the differently sized black crates and began running a series of close proximity scans with his sensors to try and determine if Naleem had rigged the cases or installed anything that would let her know if they’d been tampered with. It took over an hour to ensure the cases were safe to open, but the large cryo chamber had some sort of security lock on it that couldn’t be bypassed without getting Kage and Twingo involved or destroying the device.

Three hours later Jason was standing in the bay with his hands on his hips looking slightly disappointed. They’d found a crate of small arms, but nothing that Jason didn’t see as simply being well-prepared.

“While I don’t know what half of this shit does, I’m not seeing anything out of the ordinary here,” he said.

“What specifically were you hoping to find?” Lucky asked.

“Honestly? Information,” Jason answered. “I had hoped she would be storing files in these crates, but we didn’t find so much as a data card in any of this equipment.”

“Given the nature of her work coupled with her paranoia, I would assume she has the information on her person,” Lucky said as he repacked one of the crates.

“Agreed,” Jason said. “Or it’s in this cryo chamber.”

“We could render her unconscious and search her,” Lucky offered.

“Tempting, but no. Let’s see how this plays out when we get to Tallin,” Jason said. “We have five full days left to observe her and see what we can get out of her. So what do you think is happening? Why do we seem to have been involved before even meeting Naleem?”

“You have said before that you did not wish to hear about my theories,” Lucky said shortly.

“You really think it has to do with what Deetz said?” Jason asked, genuinely surprised. “While I appreciate you not bringing that up for a while, I don’t see the connection. Deetz has been dead for years, the original crew of this ship is long gone, and as far as we know Bondrass has been dead for even longer. Even then, most of that revolved around the biodrone work that Doc was wrapped up in.”

“As I have said before, I fear I will be proven correct,” Lucky said. “However, if you do not wish to search Naleem herself it might be prudent to have the computer observe her while onboard. I have noticed that you biologicals tend to talk to yourself extensively when you think you are alone.”

“Lucky! That is morally reprehensible and completely unethical,” Jason said. “I’m proud of you.”

“Thank you,” Lucky said, taking the comment as the compliment it was intended to be.

“I’ll set that up,” Jason continued. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to set up a script that lets the computer alert you and me without a general alarm if it observes something we should intervene in.”

“I do not mind, Captain,” Lucky said. “I will set up the necessary permissions in my com node.”

Once they had reassembled all of the crates and Lucky confirmed they were back in their original positions the pair walked back into the ship through the armory. Jason unlocked starboard berthing on the way back to his quarters, looking forward to a long, uninterrupted sleep. But first he had to sit at his terminal and explain to the computer what he wanted to change with their internal security protocols.

****

“Captain Burke, intruder alert, main cargo bay.” The computer’s passionless voice woke Jason immediately.

“Confirm last alert,” he said as he sat up in bed. The ship was at night hours and everyone should be asleep. “Are you certain you aren’t reading passenger Naleem El walking around?”

“Passenger Naleem El is in starboard berthing. Intruder is unidentified bipedal biologic.”

“Show me,” Jason said, moving to his terminal. The internal video feeds from all over the ship were displayed, but he could already see the problem. The “cryo chamber” in the cargo bay was standing wide open and empty. “Fucking figures,” he grumbled, pulling a plasma pistol out of the drawer by his bed and slipping on his boots and shirt.

“Alert Lucky and Crusher, but keep it quiet.”

“Second Officer Lucky is already aware of the situation. He is shadowing the intruder and awaiting further instructions. Waking First Officer Crusher.”

“Tell Lucky to remain hidden, but don’t let whoever this is damage the ship. Show me where it is now,” Jason said. He leaned in as the video kept washing out from some sort of interference. He could make out a small, lithe alien in a form-fitting black outfit ghosting through the dark interior of the gunship. It had moved from the cargo hold into the port engineering bay. So far it just seemed to be poking around and not trying to actively sabotage the ship. He knew this alien was with Naleem and that she’d smuggled it aboard in stasis … but why she had gone through the trouble was a complete mystery to him. It wasn’t as if he’d run background checks on his passengers before they left.

“Captain, the intruder is walking into the common area now,” Lucky’s voice broke over the intercom. Jason knew he was probably vocalizing only in the intercom and not speaking aloud since the alien didn’t even flinch. “I suggest we converge there.”

“Copy,” Jason whispered back. “I’m on my way.” He felt foolish whispering as he was still in his quarters. Grabbing his weapon and setting it to stun, he manually slid the door open so the noise from the actuators wouldn’t alert his quarry and slipped out into the short corridor leading into the common area.

He moved quietly and confidently, knowing every inch of his ship. He knelt down and edged around the right side of the corridor and peered into the dim light of the common area that made up most of the DL7’s main deck. He could just make out the silent shape moving away from the entrance of the port engineering bay.

“Lights up!” he barked, rising and rolling around the corner. At his command the computer flooded the area with light. Jason raised his weapon and fired but there was a moment of confusion as his target was suddenly gone and his shot took Lucky, who had been coming out of the engineering bay, full in the face. While the stunner wouldn’t really damage him, Jason was sure he’d just temporarily blinded his friend.

There was an ear-shattering roar from near port berthing (where Crusher and Kage slept) and a Galvetic warrior leapt across the common area toward where the intruder had darted off to. By the time Crusher landed, however, it was already gone and rushing at Jason before he could raise his weapon to squeeze off another shot.

He saw the intruder had a short, stout length of rod he was expertly wielding as a weapon. In fact, he saw it just in time to draw back but the pistol was still smacked from his hands. He made a grab for the weapon but the rod came down again and caught him in the left shin. “Fuck!” he screamed in pain as he turned and made another grab for his opponent. The alien darted away but likely hadn’t counted on someone as large as Crusher moving so fast. It backed right into the warrior’s grip, but it was so quick that it slipped up and over Crusher’s shoulders, grabbed a big handful of the sensitive “dreadlocks” and swung around behind him. Crusher’s roar shook the walls and Jason took the opportunity to lunge in and get a hand on the alien.

He grabbed a forearm that felt like it was made from spun steel and was immediately put on the defensive as the other free hand swung wildly at his head. Jason’s reinforced skeleton took the abuse, but it didn’t stop it from hurting like hell. He tried to yell for Crusher to grab the other arm, but the warrior was now completely enraged and wildly swung a clawed hand at the alien. As before, it was able to contort its body so that the iron-hard claws ripped through Jason’s left shoulder instead.

“Damnit, Crusher!” he yelled, the pain causing the grip of his right hand to loosen just enough for the alien to yank its arm free. It spun and jumped directly at Crusher, seeming to land right in the surprised warrior’s arms. His own temper now past boiling, Jason wound up and swung a right-handed punch as hard as he could, aiming for the back of the alien’s skull. It ducked at just the right instant and the punch ended up connecting with Crusher’s temple, sending the warrior flying.

Crusher landed on his face with a thud and made no move to get up. The alien sprang up, still unrecognizable as it was covered head to toe in the slippery black material, and faced off with him. Jason moved into an aggressive stance, intent on pressing the attack, when the room was bathed in red light. Lucky, now in full combat mode, slammed to the deck right behind the alien. The next few moments were a blur of motion and the sound of metal striking flesh as the lightning-fast alien had no answer for the faster battlesynth. Jason had never seen Lucky move so fast. Now effectively out of the fight, he scrambled to retrieve his weapon from behind the couches where it had landed. Thankfully it was still intact.

He looked up and saw Lucky had both the alien’s arms in a vice-like hold and was squeezing so hard it was deforming the flesh underneath. The alien wasn’t giving up as he launched kick after wild kick at an unaffected battlesynth midsection.

“Now, Captain!” Lucky said, the anger in his voice evident. Jason moved up behind the alien and fired the stunner round pointblank into its back. It went limp immediately, twitching once when Lucky threw it on the ground in a heap.

“What’s happening?!” Naleem cried from the door of starboard berthing. Jason gave her a cold look and then shot her with the pistol. She collapsed in the doorway, convulsing from the stunner shot. He then walked back over to their intruder and shot him twice more for insurance. The rapid twitching of its voluntary muscles meant he’d completely overloaded the nerves. It’d be a long while before it was up and walking around.

“Sorry I shot you in the face,” Jason said as Lucky walked up.

“I will admit I was as surprised as you,” Lucky said. “I will take him to the brig and bind him.”

“Take extra care,” Jason said. “He’s slippery. I’ll bind her out here and then see to Crusher.”

“Nice hit by the way,” Lucky said as he picked up the alien. “He went down with a single blow.”

“Ah … how about we just keep that between us?”

“Of course, Captain,” Lucky said pleasantly as he walked off with his prisoner.

“What the hell is all the racket out here?” Twingo asked, irritated and rubbing his eyes as he emerged from his bunk in Engineering. Jason looked at him, down at the pistol still set to stun, and then back to his friend. Twingo seemed to recognize the danger and slowly backed the way he’d come without another word.

Chapter 10

Naleem came to slowly, her eyes moving first beneath closed lids and then a moan of pain escaping her lips. When she finally opened her eyes and tried to move, she found that they’d bound her tightly to a chair in the galley.

“Before you even open your mouth,” Jason warned her, “don’t even try to insult our intelligence by claiming you don’t know what’s going on here. We’ve got your buddy bound up tight and in the brig with Lucky watching him. So … start talking.”

“He wasn’t supposed to come out of stasis while on this ship,” she said groggily. “The pod was on a timer. I expected to be far away from you guys already.”

“We’re no longer playing that game where I ask you questions and you tell me just enough to keep me from throwing you out the airlock,” Jason said. “What are you after and why did you seek us out. Your life is hanging by a thread here, so think real hard about if you want to keep playing us.” She looked at him and then Crusher before letting out a sigh, seeming to deflate in defeat.

“My companion is no danger at this point,” she said. “Bring him out here, you don’t have to untie him, but I want to let him know that I’m alright. After that I’ll tell you everything. I swear.” Jason stared at her another minute before turning to Crusher.

“Go help Lucky bring the prisoner in here,” he said. “Fit him with a stun collar.”

“She’ll be lucky if I bring him back here in one piece,” Crusher growled, stalking out of the common area. Jason appreciated that Naleem didn’t bother to fill the uncomfortable silence with small talk while they waited for the others. She just stared at the floor, shaking her head and blinking to clear the effects of the stunner.

It was a few minutes later when the alien, now without his hood, was carried out over Lucky’s shoulder with Crusher covering him from behind. The pair didn’t trust him to have his legs free.

“Tie him to that seat,” Jason said, indicating the chair next to Naleem.

“I will resist you no further,” the alien spoke up. “Restrain me if you must, but it is unnecessary.”

“From what I saw a couple of hours ago I think we’ll be taking no chances with you until you’re off my ship,” Jason said, rubbing his arm where the alien had hit him. “What do I call you?”

“I am called Nul,” the alien said.

“Just Nul?” Jason asked.

“That is the only name I am known by,” Nul said in confusion, looking at Naleem.

“Okay, Naleem,” Jason said, ignoring Nul. “He’s sitting here, safe and sound. Time to hold up your end of the deal.”

“As I told you earlier, I am an archeologist. I began hearing rumors about a discovery out far past the fringe, a discovery with vast implications for the balance of power in this quadrant,” she began. “I wasn’t lying to you when I said that it was a power source, but I didn’t tell you what type. The machine, if the consensus is to be believed, is a particle beam capable of disrupting the structure of a star so that it tears itself apart. With that sort of power it would be capable of reducing a planet to dust in a few milliseconds.

“But there was a problem. The device was never meant to fall into the wrong hands and the designers built in a failsafe: a key needs to be assembled and activated before one can even approach it.”

“How was all of this figured out if nobody can approach the machine?” Crusher asked.

“A planet in the system where the machine is located had ruins of buildings left by the people who built it. Several of my colleagues were able to begin deciphering the language before powerful factions began to learn of it. Many scientists were kidnapped, others were killed. Several pieces of the key have been discovered throughout the quadrant and a few, myself included, think we’re close to being able to piece enough of it together to activate the machine,” Naleem paused. “I’ve been hunting pieces of the key for the last twenty years.”

“So who else is looking for it?” Jason asked. “Or more importantly, who else knows of it?”

“Obviously ConFed Intelligence had learned of it and there has been a covert effort within the Council’s Intelligence Committee to recover the device,” she said. “There was also a cabal of criminal organizations who thought the weapon would be a way for them to greatly expand their influence, maybe even install themselves as the new government. Then there’s me.”

“You,” Jason said, eyeing her skeptically. “And what do you want with the weapon?”

“I plan to render it inoperable,” she said simply. “That sort of power can never be put in the hands of a single person.”

“Why not just blast it from a safe distance?” Crusher asked.

“That was the first solution,” she laughed. “When the ConFed found out they couldn’t board it they sent a full battle group to make sure nobody else could. Not a single ship came back.”

“So why all the skulking about and lying?” Jason asked. “You know who we sometimes work for. Why not approach him?”

“Crisstof Dalton is a politician, Jason Burke,” Naleem said patiently. “A good man with noble intentions, but are you so very certain he couldn’t be corrupted with a power that great?”

“I guess I still don’t see where we come in,” Crusher admitted.

“Twenty-four years ago a major component of the key was found during a planetary mining operation,” Naleem continued. “They didn’t know what they had at the time, but word got out about the strange artifact. Soon after the company went under and the artifact disappeared. The company was the Benztral Mining Concern.” She watched as recognition flickered across Jason’s face.

“Son of a bitch,” he whispered.

“What are we missing, Captain?” Crusher asked.

“Go ahead and tell them,” Jason said.

“The Benztral Mining Concern had a substantial fleet when they went under, including a sizable military force. When that fleet went to auction many other pieces of the company were smuggled away aboard newly purchased vessels,” Naleem said. “Among them was a Jepsen Aerospace second generation DL7 heavy gunship. That vessel, serial number DL72-00551, is now known as the Phoenix and crewed by a mercenary unit called Omega Force. The piece of the key that was found has been aboard this ship since it was sold at auction.”

Chapter 11

“How is that possible?” Crusher asked. “We’ve rebuilt this ship from the ground up and we didn’t find anything that looked like an ancient artifact.”

“Nevertheless, it is still here,” Naleem said.

“How can you be sure?” Jason asked.

“It reacted when the antenna was energized,” she said. “Those were the vibrations your crew felt. People have been after this ship for a long time, Captain. Surely you’ve had to wonder at some of the unusual attacks on your crew that have occurred over the years.”

Jason ignored the pair of battlesynth eyeballs boring a hole through his head and tried to reevaluate some of their past engagements in light of the new information. As much as he hated to admit it, what Naleem said did explain a lot that he’d been unable to himself.

“Untie her, Crusher,” he said. “Let’s try to figure out the best way to unscrew this mess. So what’s your story, Nul? Why are you being toted around in a crate?”

“I serve Doctor El in any capacity she needs me to,” Nul said quietly. “I was to remain in stasis as insurance should any trouble befall her. To be honest, Captain, I am unsure as to why I was awakened.”

“That makes two of us,” Naleem said with a frown. “I know I reset the timer. The only way it would have tripped is if my equipment was tampered with or I keyed the emergency beacon, and as far as I know neither of those things occurred. I apologize, Captain Burke. There must have been some malfunction with the pod itself.”

“I’m sure that was it,” Jason said, making sure he cut Lucky off before he could casually mention they’d been prying on the stasis pod earlier in the night. “Go ahead and untie him too. We’ve got a lot to talk about and we may as well get comfortable.”

“You pack a hell of a wallop, little guy,” Crusher said as he began to untie Nul. “I’ve never been knocked out like that before.”

“Actually, it was not—”

“Yes, yes, yes,” Jason said quickly, interrupting Nul. “We’re all sorry about the previous unpleasantness. Best thing for it is to move on and not dwell on it. It’s not healthy for our future working relationship.”

“As you see best, Captain,” Nul said, clearly confused. As Crusher continued to untie their captives Jason discovered that Lucky was still staring at him.

“You may say it once,” he told the battlesynth.

“What would you have me say?”

“You can say that you were right, and I was wrong,” Jason said.

“Which time would you be referring to, Captain,” Lucky said innocently. Naleem stifled a chuckle as Jason slowly walked away.

****

“Do you believe this story about an ancient super weapon hidden out beyond the fringe?” Twingo asked Jason. They were the only ones on the bridge and the rest of the crew had been briefed on their new passenger and the true nature of Naleem’s work.

“I don’t know,” Jason said. “I believe that she thinks it’s real. I also believe that her story conveniently explains some things that have happened to us I was otherwise unable to. Maybe it’s my obsession with tying up loose ends that is making me give her the benefit of the doubt.”

“I don’t see how anything can be hidden on the ship,” Twingo said stubbornly. “You don’t remember what the Eshquarians did to her during the rebuild since you were laid up in the hospital all that time. I supervised the entire thing and this ship was torn down to the bare hull and put back together, mostly with new parts. Where would it be tucked away at that I wouldn’t have noticed it?”

“Those are questions I’m asking myself,” Jason admitted. “But I guess for now we’ll just have to play along and see where this leads. Whether or not she’s actually right at this point isn’t important. Enough people think that there’s something on this ship and until that’s settled we’ll always be looking over our shoulders.”

“True enough, I guess,” Twingo said. “I suppose with the time left until we hit the Tallin System I can start searching the ship, but it’d be nice if I knew what I was looking for.”

Jason watched him go, enjoying the quiet hum of the engines for company while he could. Just six people on the ship could sometimes be cramped so carrying passengers was never that much fun. The gunship now had eight people on it and it seemed like he couldn’t turn around without bumping into someone.

“Oh, were you wanting to be alone?” Naleem asked as she walked onto the bridge.

“Not necessarily,” Jason said. “Was there something you needed?”

“Just trying to get a little space,” she said, crossing her arms as she moved and sat at one of the bridge stations. “Does your crew always bicker so much?”

“You tune it out after a while,” Jason said. “Which one is being the most annoying right now?”

“Kage is harassing Nul almost constantly,” Naleem said. “He seems to be trying to get a rise out of him.”

“That doesn’t sound like such a good idea,” Jason said, subconsciously rubbing his head where the smaller alien had struck him during the fight.

“He’s not a violent person,” Naleem said defensively. “He is actually one of the most serene beings I’ve ever been around. He is, however, trained to defend himself and others. Your friend is in no danger right now except possibly from Crusher, who seems to be caught in the middle.”

“So everything is more or less normal,” Jason said. “He’ll eventually get bored and leave Nul alone.”

“I wanted to thank you for not just ejecting us out of the airlock when Nul’s pod opened,” she said after a few minutes of silence. “And for taking it on faith that what I’m saying is true.”

“To be fair, we usually only threaten to space people,” Jason said. “We’re not complete barbarians. I’m also not taking anything on faith just yet. Your reason for why we’ve been dodging attacks for the last few years is as plausible as any I’ve heard and it loosely corroborates what Deetz said to Lucky before he died.”

“Deetz,” she said with genuine venom in her voice. “That conniving thief. Good riddance.” She stood up and moved to walk off the bridge. “I am going to go lay down for a while,” she said. “Thank you again.”

“No problem,” Jason said distractedly as he messed with one of his displays. After she was gone he stopped, his eyes widening. “Computer, have Twingo and Doc meet me in my quarters and ask Lucky to report to the bridge.”

“Acknowledged.”

****

Jason hustled down to his quarters after Lucky had relieved him on the bridge. He had to promise to come right back and tell the battlesynth what was going on since he had correctly gauged Jason’s demeanor to mean something had happened as soon as he stepped through the entry. When Jason got to the main deck he could see his friends filtering into the corridor that led to his quarters. He motioned for them to remain silent and ushered them in, closing the door behind him.

“Computer, monitor all movement of passengers Naleem and Nul and notify me if they leave starboard berthing,” Jason ordered. There was a double-chirp confirmation letting him know his order was being executed.

“What’s going on, Captain?” Doc asked.

“I think Naleem let something slip,” Jason said. “She knew who Deetz was.”

“So?” Twingo said. “Lots of people knew him.”

“I mean she knew him, as in had direct interactions with him,” Jason said. “I admit, this is just a hunch, but there’s no way she should be that familiar with him.”

“Let me ask you a question,” Twingo said. “How did you know about Benztral Mining owning this ship?”

“It was before we stopped on Breaker’s World for repairs and abducted you,” Jason said. “Deetz had been locking himself in the com room so I started asking the computer about the original crew and how old the ship was. It told me then that it had been owned by the mining company before being auctioned off.”

“It just occurred to me that we always assumed Bondrass wanted this ship just because of what it was, not what it might be carrying,” Doc said. “Could he have been part of that other faction that was after this key?”

“Then why let the ship leave Pinnacle Station?” Twingo asked. “He already had it sitting in his hangar and let it fly off.”

“But he didn’t have the access codes,” Jason said. “He needed Deetz to give them to him.”

“This is making a strange sort of sense,” Doc said. “So do we think that Naleem was working with Deetz the whole time and he double-crossed her? Hell, could she have been part of the original crew?”

“Impossible to tell,” Jason said with a frown. “That computer core is long gone … oh, holy shit.”

“Exactly,” Twingo said. “Nul wasn’t accidentally released. She let him out that night after she figured out all her access codes were useless since the Phoenix has all new computers and avionics. I bet if we had searched him more carefully we’d have found a data card with an intrusion program that would have given her command access to the ship.”

“Maybe,” Jason said. “He may have been sneaking to my quarters to force them out of me. Nul doesn’t strike me as much of a code slicer.”

“While this is all just speculation, how do you want to handle it?” Doc asked.

“Like I told Twingo, we need to see this through to the end to get this monkey off our back,” Jason said, enjoying the looks of confusion on his friends at the idiom. “I’ll instruct the computer to keep the internal stunners locked onto them, although if Nul is in action they probably won’t be able to hit him. I’ll have to stun everyone in the room. We’ll keep on to Tallin, but we’ll have the advantage.”

“How is that?” Twingo asked.

“We’ll be expecting her to try something,” Jason said. “She’ll think we’re just going along with her in good faith. I’ll work out the exact plan for when we make landfall and brief the others separately over the next forty-eight hours, but until then don’t act any differently around the two.”

“Not a problem,” Doc said. “I’ve been avoiding them both anyway.”

“Twingo, hang back for a minute,” Jason said as Doc moved to leave. “I’ve got a special project I need you to get started on.”

“How special?” Twingo asked.

“Just a little insurance in case our suspicions prove to be correct,” Jason said with a humorless smile. Over the next hour the pair worked the details out of Jason’s plan until the engineer was confident he could pull it off without any problems.

Once Twingo had left Jason wished, not for the first time, that the Eshquarians had been able to salvage the data core of the DL7’s original computer and load it into the new one.

Chapter 12

The rest of the flight to the Tallin System passed uneventfully. If Naleem had any indication that she knew the crew suspected her she didn’t outwardly show it. Nul was as unreadable as always as he moved like a ghost through the ship. Jason kept up the appearance of casual indifference to his passengers, but he routinely had the computer play back security footage whenever it alerted him that either of the pair was nearing a sensitive area.

“Dropping out of slip-space in thirty seconds,” Kage announced as the rest of the crew filtered onto the bridge and took their positions. Jason didn’t respond as he shifted around uncomfortably in his seat. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he was flying into a trap.

The ship shuddered slightly as the slip-space fields collapsed and the Phoenix was spit back out into real-space. The canopy cleared and all the primary systems came back online to show Jason that they were sitting alone in space near the sixth planet.

“Local space is empty,” Doc said. “There are two heavy haulers flying a slow arc towards Tallin Prime and some light shuttle traffic in orbit. Beginning long-range scans now.”

“Thanks,” Jason said. “I don’t believe you’ll find anything though. If we were flying into an ambush they’d have to be somewhere close.”

“What made you think there would be a trap?” Naleem asked innocently.

“Simple deduction,” Jason said without looking at her. “We’ve been attacked at every juncture during this mission. Someone knew where we were flying from and likely had a good idea of where we’d be flying to. It wouldn’t have been that surprising to see someone set up a picket line on this side of the system.”

“I see,” she said. “Maybe our luck is changing.”

Not likely.

“We’re cleared all the way to the surface,” Kage said. “Course will be up on your nav display.”

“You sound surprised,” Jason remarked.

“I am a bit,” Kage admitted. “I’ve never had a controller clear us for landing when we weren’t even close to making orbit yet.”

“Did they clear us for a particular spaceport or did they respond to a request?”

“They made contact first and already had our destination and landing berth indicated,” Kage said.

“That is somewhat unusual,” Jason said, eyeing Naleem. “Let’s stay sharp on the way in.”

Jason kept the ship at a stately pace through the system so that it took nearly thirteen hours to traverse the gap to the planet. If there was something waiting on them, or Naleem was involved, the extended flight would give them all time to have frayed nerves or show their hand early. For her part, Naleem appeared more bored than anything and even left the bridge halfway through the trip to go down to the galley.

Tallin Prime was a fairly nondescript planet. It was covered on sixty-five percent of its surface by a single ocean that was broken up by one meandering, irregularly shaped landmass. The spaceport they were directed to was near the equator and seemed to be a smaller feeder port to support the overflow traffic from the main commercial hub. The complex looked like it had been carved out of the surrounding rainforest, the tarmac a gray scar against the green canopy.

“This looks like an older port,” Kage said as the gunship rumbled its way down into the atmosphere. “I’m seeing gantry towers and flame pits on the eastern end of the complex that don’t look like they’ve been used in a while.”

“Equatorial sites are the most efficient if you’re using raw thrust to lift the load,” Jason agreed. “This may have been one of their first launch facilities.”

They continued their decent, flying in a wide circle around the spaceport before being given confirmation to begin their final approach. Jason flared, pulling the nose up slightly, before deploying the landing gear and settling the ship onto the surface.

“So I assume you know where the other part is on this planet?” Jason asked Naleem.

“I have reached out to my contact,” she said vaguely, holding up her personal com unit for him to see. “He should be here within the hour.”

“I can’t wait,” Jason said. “Lucky, Crusher … let’s go get ready to meet our guest. Everybody else can muster in the cargo bay and we’ll wait on the ramp.” Jason kept the engines up and all the primary flight systems running, although he did lock the controls out before climbing out of his seat and following Lucky off the bridge.

****

“Is that really necessary, Captain?” Naleem said in a clipped tone.

“It is until I deem otherwise,” Jason answered, his amplified voice coming from his armor’s helmet harshly. “If you were a little more forthcoming with the details I might be more inclined to relax my guard.” She turned her head away and decided not to answer him. Jason, Lucky, and Crusher were fully armed and standing at the bottom of the ramp with Naleem and Nul. He’d also deployed the Phoenix’s rear guns from their recesses on either side of the ramp and had Kage and Doc on the bridge monitoring com traffic and the local airspace.

Naleem’s com unit beeped and she read the message before putting the unit back into her loose garment’s front pocket. “He will be here within ten minutes,” she said.

“Can’t wait,” Jason muttered.

Seven minutes later they felt the dull rumbling of an inbound ship that was approaching from their blind side directly over the Phoenix. The sound was oddly familiar.

“Captain, we’ve got a ship getting ready to land near us,” Kage said over the crew’s tactical com channel. “There’s no way this is a coincidence.”

Before Jason could ask Kage to clarify a familiar shape flew overhead before flaring to land. He could only look on in shock as another DL7 gunship bounced to a rough landing forty meters off of the tail of the Phoenix. The other ship had certainly seen better days and Jason could see that it appeared to be a first generation ship from the engine configuration, the direct predecessor to the Phoenix.

“Well, this is interesting,” Crusher rumbled, hefting his plasma rifle. Jason gripped his large railgun reflexively, taking comfort in the weapon’s weight and destructive potential.

“You could say that,” Jason said. The other ship sat motionless for the next five minutes before the ramp dropped down with a noisy crash and three bipedal aliens came strolling out of the hold, walking up to them as if they didn’t have a care in the world. Jason glanced at Naleem and saw that she had a warm smile on her face as she watched the approaching trio.

“That’s far enough,” Jason said loudly when the group was within ten meters.

“Oh?” the lead alien asked. Jason could see he was the same species as Naleem, but appeared to be heavily disfigured on his right side. “Is there some problem?” Jason was unnerved by the way the alien’s eyes roamed hungrily over the Phoenix.

“There might be,” Jason said. “But we don’t know you and I’d rather not let you get too close to my ship if you don’t mind.”

“Your ship?” the alien said. His companions seemed to think that the comment was incredibly funny.

“I didn’t catch your name,” Jason said, ignoring his still-laughing companions.

“My name is El,” the alien said. “Klegsh El. Captain Klegsh El, and as a point of fact, you’re standing in front of my ship.”

Chapter 13

“Klegsh,” Jason said, recovering quickly. “I always assumed you were dead.”

“Your friend Deetz wasn’t quite so thorough,” Klegsh said, taking another step forward.

“You may be overstating my relationship with Deetz,” Jason said. “And if you take one more step I’m going to let Lucky do to you what he did to that synth and separate your head from your body.” Klegsh looked over at Crusher and Lucky, apparently unsure which was which, but stopped where he was.

“Did you forget what I just said?” Klegsh said, smiling. “This is my ship.” He pulled a com unit out and spoke a coded message into it in a language Jason didn’t know. He looked up at the rear-facing cannons that were still tracking his men. Frowning, he spoke into the com unit again.

“Oh, I guess I should have told you that I’ve made some improvements since I took possession,” Jason said. “Any embedded coding you had in the main computer to reassert authority over the ship won’t do you any good. That computer core is sitting in a trash heap somewhere.” The smile slid from Klegsh’s face as he seemed to realize his dream of marching back up onto the bridge of the DL7 was dashed. Jason was about to open his mouth to provide another taunt when he felt a metallic clang against his armor.

Naleem walked from behind him, a remote with a flashing red light in her hand. “There is now a powerful explosive attached to your armor, Captain Burke,” she said, smiling. “I had actually brought it out for your battlesynth but you obligingly put on your ridiculous metal suit. Thank you for that.” She walked across the tarmac and stood next to Klegsh.

“Now, Captain Burke,” Klegsh said. “You will disable the rear guns on the Katan and allow my men to retrieve some items from the cargo bay. I’m not so foolish to think you’ll allow me to board without your remaining crew attacking me.”

“A fair assumption,” Jason ground out, furious at having been so easily outmaneuvered. “But why should I bother? You’re going to detonate this charge regardless.”

“Probably,” Klegsh admitted. “But wouldn’t you rather have the time it will take for us to board our ship and leave so that you can go through the futile motions of trying to disable the device?”

“Fair enough,” Jason said, forcing his voice to remain calm. He reached out with his implants and told the ship to retract the rear cannons.

“Impressive,” Klegsh said. “I see you’ve been busy since that back-stabbing synth left us to die on Oltrest.”

“Just get your gear and get out,” Jason said.

As Klegsh’s two crewmen scampered up into the cargo bay and grabbed a crate each, one of them the case holding the antenna, Nul procured a weapon and was now covering Crusher and Lucky, both of whom looked eager to kill him.

“Given the shared name, I’m guessing Naleem is your what? Daughter?” Jason asked.

“Yes,” Klegsh answered. “She was the one who began the quest for the key. When Deetz stole the Katan we assumed he and Bondrass had made a deal behind my back. But it seems he had his own plan at work. I assume you’ve never met Bondrass?”

“Oh yes, I’ve had the pleasure,” Jason said. He was trying not to appear distracted while he watched his armor run through a series of exploratory probes of the device affixed to his back. “He tried to have me sold at The Vault.”

“And yet here you are. I see he must have had a change of heart.”

“No,” Jason said. “Instead I stole this ship, his cargo ship full of treasure, and then had him killed.” The offhand manner in which Jason discussed dispatching such a feared figure from the underworld had the desired effect. Klegsh looked genuinely startled and a lot more cautious.

“This is everything,” Naleem announced as she led the crewman away after verifying the crate contents. “We’ll just be on our way. No hard feelings, Captain,”

“None at all,” Jason said with a cold smile. She waved the detonator at him as she walked away.

“Don’t try anything stupid,” she said over her shoulder. Klegsh followed the rest of them, walking backwards and keeping his weapon trained on the trio before he felt he was at a safe range. Nul, however, stood close by with his weapon loosely held in his hands.

“You’re gonna miss your ride,” Jason said to him.

“I am here to ensure their safe departure,” Nul said. “I will find my own way after they have left.” Jason redeployed his helmet so he could open a secure com channel to his crewmates.

“Lucky, I don’t think I can pop this bomb off without it detonating,” he said. “I can create a reverse polarity field to detach it, but it’ll probably just blow and kill me along with damaging the ship.”

“What do you plan to do?” Lucky asked over the com channel.

“I’m going to eject out of this thing,” Jason said. “The bomb will still be attached to the back plate when it jettisons. I need you to grab that piece of armor and throw it towards that other gun ship as hard as you can. Crusher, I need you to take out Nul.” Crusher just nodded his head to signal he understood. “Okay … on my signal.”

“Do not do anything foolish, Captain,” Nul warned, turning his weapon toward him. Jason held his railgun out and let it fall to the tarmac. He could see Naleem and her father were just then boarding the other ship so he’d have to move fast. Nul visibly relaxed when Jason disarmed himself, obviously feeling safe in the assumption that the others wouldn’t act with him still in such a compromising position.

Jason quickly initiated the ejection sequence for his armor. It beeped twice and then explosive charges sent the pieces of the unit flying away in all directions. Nul flinched and it was all the distraction Crusher needed to be on top of him. Jason had assumed Crusher would just shoot him, but he couldn’t worry about that as he spun about to see where the piece of armor with the bomb attached had landed.

Lucky had sprung into action a millisecond after Jason had jettisoned his armor. The battlesynth fired his repulsors and sailed across the tarmac to where Jason stood, grabbing the back plate as it fell back to the ground. He spun and flung it towards the other DL7 like a misshapen discus. It landed with a clatter and slid all the way up under the starboard wing of the other ship.

Jason nodded to Lucky and turned in time to see Crusher and Nul squared off, the latter cradling his left arm to his chest. The big warrior wasn’t going to make the same mistakes he had in their first encounter and kept the smaller, nimbler alien in front of him and only committed to strikes he knew he could land. After a few feints Crusher moved in and, with a roar, raked his claws down the front of Nul, ripping deep into the flesh. As Nul staggered back, Crusher finished him with an overhead blow that drove his head down, shattering his spine.

“Let’s get inside,” Jason said, kicking his sabatons off his feet, the only part of the armor he’d still been wearing, and ran up to the ramp. They turned and watched as the other DL7 rose into the air. It was probably fifty feet off the deck before Naleem grew impatient and pressed the button on the detonator. The bomb exploded with tremendous force and Jason knew if he’d still been wearing it the concussion would have at least seriously injured him, probably even killed him. But with the back plate resting freely on top of it all the bomb’s energy sent the piece of armor flying upward with enough velocity that it struck the DL7’s starboard engine emitter.

The ship began to list hard to starboard before the repulsors could cut in and level it back out. Jason watched as the grav-drive emitters along the trailing edges of the wing dimmed as the impact forced the drive into a safe mode. Klegsh was able to keep the ship airborne and started the Jepsen main engines in order to get them out of the area.

“Go! Get into the ship!” Jason yelled at his crewmates. “Kage, get the shields up!” He hoped his friend was able to respond in time as he was certain about what was going to happen next.

Sure enough, he heard the other DL7 throttle up and approach. A second later the Phoenix was rocked as Klegsh hit them with a particle cannon before racing out of the area. “At least he didn’t just camp overhead and blow the shit out of us,” Jason said.

“I think getting hit with their own bomb flustered them,” Crusher said as the three of them raced through the ship on the way to the bridge.

“Repulsors are coming online and the mains should be running in a second,” Kage said, already in the copilot seat when Jason rushed onto the bridge. “He depolarized the port grav emitter with that shot so we won’t have grav-drive or slip-drive for at least ten minutes. Why are you in your underwear?”

“Get all the tactical systems online,” Jason said, ignoring him. “Full combat mode. Doc, keep track of that ship.” He fed power to the ventral repulsors and lifted the Phoenix off the ramp. By the time he’d gotten one hundred feet of altitude the mains came online with their reassuring boom that could be felt through the hull.

“Give me a plot to the other gunship on my tactical display,” Jason ordered as he powered up and began integrating himself into the ship. He saw a highlighted reticle appear that indicated the fleeing ship was already over the horizon and running fast along the deck. He slammed the throttle down and the Phoenix thundered away from the spaceport, her Eshquarian engines giving them a much needed advantage in speed and acceleration.

“They’ve got a big lead on us,” Kage said. “Even with the new engines we probably can’t catch them before they break for orbit.”

“It doesn’t look like they’re trying to run for space though,” Jason said as he let the Phoenix climb up to twenty-five thousand feet. “They’re still hugging the ground.”

“He’s probably flogging his engineer to get their grav-drive back online,” Twingo said. “In open space without it they wouldn’t stand a chance against a long-range missile, not to mention they have no idea how long our grav-drive will take to reset. They may be trying to disappear into the ground clutter.”

“I guess he doesn’t know our new sensor suite isn’t so easily fooled,” Jason said.

“Maybe he does,” Kage said. “Incoming com channel request from that ship.”

“Put it through but keep a sharp eye on your sensors,” Jason said. “They’re probably trying for a distraction.”

“Captain,” Klegsh said with a wide smile, apparently sitting in the command seat of the DL7’s bridge. Jason had long ago removed that seat and opted to pilot the Phoenix himself. “This is a pointless pursuit. Your grav-drive is also out and I would think even someone as inexperienced as you knows that a ship cannot catch an identical ship, especially when we have such a large lead.”

“I can see you’re a little detached sitting on your little throne there,” Jason said. “Might want to check with your sensor operator.” Klegsh looked off-screen with a look of annoyance on his face. The look morphed into one of shock and concern as he received his answer.

“I guess the Katan has been modified beyond the computer,” Klegsh said.

“So what is your master plan?” Jason asked. “It seems a little short-sighted of you to run considering you left the parts to the key here on my ship.”

“You still only have the piece you’ve always had, Captain,” Naleem said, stepping into the frame. “We have the antenna and you will follow your predictable pattern and give chase.”

“Are you sure you have the antenna?” Jason asked. He was keeping them talking as long as he could as the Phoenix chewed up their lead. The only trick was that he had to also fly the ship while talking to Klegsh and the other gunship’s pilot could concentrate only on flying. The Phoenix did have one other advantage in that Jason had put her up in the smooth, fast air and was flying a direct line while the other ship wasted speed and momentum hugging the terrain.

“You mean this one?” Naleem said, holding up the case that had been inside the black transit crate they’d taken from the cargo hold. Jason gestured to Twingo to come forward.

“No, I mean this one,” he said as Twingo held up the golden, flattened ring of the antenna for her to see. The engineer smiled hugely and waved before walking back out of the frame. Naleem tore open the case and saw the small device inside that Twingo had rigged that mimicked the radiated emissions the ancient device had been putting out. There was even a mocked-up golden ring in there but it wouldn’t have passed a very close inspection. She let out a feral scream and threw the case across the bridge, apparently striking a crew member judging by the yelp of pain.

“You think you’re so clever, don’t you?” she snarled, her urbane, polished mannerisms gone. “We originally just wanted the device. Now we will make you suffer.”

“Well, since we’re not going to be friends anymore I guess I should be completely honest with you,” Jason said. “If your pilot is drifting onto a northeast course because you think you can circle around behind us and pick up Nul we have some bad news. Crusher sort of accidentally bashed his skull in.”

“Sorry!” Crusher called loudly from off-camera.

If she was angry before, Naleem went into an absolute frenzy when she heard of Nul’s death. She was howling something unintelligible when Klegsh had her collected and taken off the bridge.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Did you learn anything of interest?”

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

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

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

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

“Which hatch was that?” Jason yelled back.

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

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

“Side hatch, right side,” Crusher said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

****

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chapter 14

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“I’m not,” Crusher said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“That’s it,” he said.

“So someone already has it?” Jason asked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

****

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

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

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

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

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

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

“How long ago?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Really? I hadn’t noticed,” he said.

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

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

****

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

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

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

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

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

“Agreed,” Twingo said.

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

****

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Whatever,” Kage said.

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

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

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

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

“Are they gone?” Lucky asked from the bridge entrance. “Or will they be back momentarily?”

“They’re gone,” Jason laughed. Lucky walked all the way onto the bridge and sat at one of the sensor stations. He pulled up a few screens of data and began working with his back to Jason. This was unusual enough behavior from Lucky that he couldn’t contain his curiosity for very long.

“Whatcha working on?”

“I have had multiple programs running analyzing the script on the artifacts we’ve found,” Lucky said, sending one of his screens over to Jason’s display so he could see. “I hope to find a correlation between these symbols and the written language we found on the ships the A’arcooni were operating.”

“What gave you that idea?” Jason asked, examining the elegant program his friend had designed to analyze the images.

“Due to the way my brain functions, I was able to identify similarities as soon as we unearthed the antenna on DC915,” Lucky said. “Then Naleem mentioned that she had visited A’arcoon in order to learn what she could of the culture that had made contact with them and led to the exodus from their planet. I wrote the program to satisfy my own curiosity. I did not want to bother you with the details unless it was successful.”

Jason frowned as he thought back to what it was that Naleem had said about the A’arcooni. He had been ignoring most of what she’d said when they picked her up because it was so obvious she had been lying.

“She said she’d gone there and that’s where she learned of us,” Jason said.

“Do you think it is related?” Lucky asked.

“I don’t think it’s actually true,” Jason corrected. “She knew of us long before she visited A’arcoon. But, have you noticed that all the old ghosts from our past are coming out all of a sudden? Keep plugging away at that, if you would. Something tells me the A’arcooni will have some part to play in this tragic comedy before it’s all over.”

“Of course, Captain,” Lucky said, turning back to his terminal.

Jason turned back to his contemplation of the simulated stars streaking by. The mission was taking on shades of gray that were disturbing. When they were the good guys and others were the bad guys his world was a happy, explainable place. In his last moments, Klegsh had showed Jason that he wasn’t necessarily the bad guy, so if that was true, how could Jason be the good guy by killing him? If his explanation was to be taken at face value, and Jason had no solid reason to believe otherwise, then they had shot down a ship and crew who were attempting to keep the Machine from falling into the wrong hands. He wasn’t at all comfortable with the fact that Omega Force had just killed a group of beings that were trying to do the right thing. He wasn’t self-flagellating without being aware that Klegsh and his daughter presented themselves as the aggressors, but that was a small comfort.

Chapter 15

“Phoenix, you are cleared for final approach,” the Defiant’s com officer said. “Please secure primary flight systems prior to requesting hangar elevator retraction.”

“Is it just me or are they getting more and more wordy since they began flying that battlecruiser instead of the Diligent?” Kage asked.

“It may be a new com officer,” Jason said. “You want to send the approach to my station or would you rather I just try and wing it while we’re on a five-thousand KPH collision course?”

“Shit! I forgot to send it over,” Kage said. A moment later the final approach vector and velocity corrections appeared on Jason’s navigation display. He immediately commanded a speed reduction and corrected their course to they would be parallel to the Defiant.

Once the Phoenix was motionless in space relative to the Defiant, sitting off the larger ship’s port flank, he began to ease the gunship over so they could land on the battlecruiser’s flight deck. He dropped the landing gear and started thrusting down until the wheels impacted the upper hull with a soft bump and a green indicator on his display told him the mag-locks were engaged. He began shutting down the engines and securing all the ship’s weaponry. While he did this, Twingo switched over to backup power and shut the reactor down. The Defiant’s deck officer was never a fan of the Phoenix crew bringing their ship in with the anti-matter reactor still running, so Jason had agreed to start shutting it down and allowing them to hook up an external power umbilical.

“Signal the Defiant that we’ve shut down our engines and main reactor,” Jason said. A moment after Kage finished talking to the com officer there was a lurch and the elevator began lowering them onto the hangar deck. Once the mag-locks released, Jason grabbed the jog control and taxied the gunship off the lift and followed the illuminated arrows on the deck to their parking pad.

“I’m going out,” Twingo said, bounding out of his seat. “Don’t pop open the access panel for a minute. I don’t want those morons trying to hook a fuel vent hose up to the water fill again.”

“Maybe you should change the connections in the access panel so that can’t happen,” Kage suggested.

“Maybe you shouldn’t worry about shit you don’t know anything about,” Twingo said hotly before running off the bridge.

“He has a point,” Crusher said.

“Shut up.”

Jason ignored them and waited a few more seconds before double tapping the icon that appeared on his display to open the Phoenix’s service hatch. A few moments later and he saw external power was available so he selected it and shut the rest of their systems down.

“Let’s go,” he said. “The sooner we can talk Crisstof into helping, the sooner we can be on our way. If the Machine is beyond the fringe we’ve got a hell of a long flight ahead of us anyway.”

“Oh, I can’t wait,” Crusher said as he clomped off the bridge.

“Captain!” Mazer Reddix shouted from the bottom of the ramp as they walked down into the hangar. He nodded respectfully to Crusher. “Lord Archon.”

“Captain Reddix,” Crusher said with a nod. In the early days of the transition on Galvetor and Restaria, Crusher had tried to give up the honorific but the Galvetic Senate had convinced him that the people weren’t ready to walk away from all their traditions just yet. He agreed, and even though Mazer and his Marines were no longer in the Legions, they still deferred to him as their Guardian Archon and afforded him the respect accordingly. Secretly Jason thought the distinction caused more of a pain in the ass than it was worth, at least from his point of view, since it meant Crusher would always be a liability when operating with Galvetic Marine units.

“Mazer!” Jason said, embracing his friend warmly. “How have things been?”

“Very good,” Mazer said. “Our success on Olem seemed to confirm to Crisstof and Captain Colleren that we were ready for full operational status. We’ve had a handful of missions since then, all successes.”

“That is good,” Jason agreed, walking around the tail of his ship to find Twingo arguing with the Defiant’s ground crew. “Anything exciting coming up?”

“We were actually getting ready to stand down for training when Captain Colleren reactivated us,” Mazer said. “Hell, we were already on the drop shuttles ready to deploy to the training area when we got the call to cancel the exercise.”

“That’s strange,” Jason said with a frown. “If it was something urgent I wouldn’t have thought they’d have agreed to wait for us.” Mazer just looked at him like he was a bit dense.

“Captain, I think we were told to stand down because you were on the way,” he said quietly. “I don’t know what’s going on, but the rumor mill on the ship is that you guys really stepped in something big this time.”

“Nothing new there,” Jason sighed. “Twingo! Leave him alone.” Twingo looked up from his escalating argument, shrugged, and walked over to where they were all standing by the tail. Jason was about to ask what the hell he’d found to argue about this time when a squad of armed Marines walked up and took position around the tail of the ship. He immediately mistook them as an openly hostile action.

“What is this, Mazer?” he demanded. Mazer seemed taken aback at his tone.

“Protection detail,” he said. “Crisstof has said that no unauthorized personnel are to board the Phoenix and that we’re authorized to take any measures necessary to ensure that. He made it as a shipwide announcement.”

“Let’s go find the esteemed Mr. Dalton and figure out what the hell is going on,” Jason said. He had a feeling he wasn’t going to like what he was about to be told.

****

“Captain Burke,” Crisstof said as Jason walked into the conference room with his crew in tow. Mazer was also there, but Kellea was conspicuously absent.

“Crisstof,” Jason nodded to the older man. “I felt the Defiant jump to slip-space while we were walking here. Anything we need to be aware of?”

“You felt that?” Crisstof asked, surprised. “Anyway, we’re departing the area as quickly as we can because of what your ship is carrying and who wants it for themselves. Captain Colleren is still on the bridge in case of an emergency, not to mention the conflict of interest she represents currently.” Crisstof was less than pleased that Jason had begun a relationship with his captain and was always sure to let him know through not-so-subtle passive aggressive barbs.

“Please tell me that you’ve just found out what it is that we’re carrying and this isn’t something you’ve been aware of for years and neglected to tell me,” Jason said. Crisstof immediately looked uncomfortable and Jason had his answer.

“I’ve suspected for some time that there was something unique about your ship, Captain,” the older man began. “However, I can assure you that I had not an inkling of just how special it really is. To be honest with you, if I had known the Phoenix carried a piece of the Key I would have instructed the Eshquarians to melt it down to scrap and find it while you were still in recovery.”

“I suppose I should appreciate your honesty,” Jason said sardonically. “You should know that we’ve searched that ship multiple times since this has started. We’re not even sure the encryption module is still even on her.”

“Perhaps my crews will have better luck,” Crisstof said. Jason narrowed his eyes speculatively.

“If you have anyone on the Phoenix at this moment, you had better get on your com, tell them to put anything they’ve touched back where they found it, and get the hell off my ship,” Jason said in a deadly quiet tone.

“Captain—”

“This is not a negotiation,” Jason said, never raising his voice. “You have ten seconds.”

Crisstof looked as angry as Jason had ever seen him, but he pulled out his com unit and gave a series of orders anyway.

“Perhaps—”

“This was an unforgivable breach of protocol and trust,” Jason cut him off again. “Let’s be very clear about our relationship so there aren’t any more of these … misunderstands. We do not work for you. You do not own the Phoenix. We are happy to provide you services as private contractors or advisors, but we do not fall under the command of you or any of your officers. Clear?”

Crisstof’s normally pale skin was shifting color as he tried to get his emotions back under control. “Clear,” he said, swallowing his pride.

During the exchange, Mazer had looked extremely uncomfortable. Not only had his Marines allowed Crisstof’s people onto Jason’s ship, but he would have had to contend with Crusher and Lucky if things had escalated too far in the small conference room.

“Now, let’s put that behind us,” Jason said, pulling out his com unit and keeping it discreetly under the table so he could operate it with his thumb. “What do you know of the Machine and the Key that we may, or may not, have all the pieces to?” Before Crisstof could answer, Mazer’s com went off. The Marine Captain read the message, looked at Jason, and then put the unit back away.

“Captain Reddix?” Crisstof said.

“One of my sergeants just informed me the ramp to the Phoenix raised and locked,” Mazer said uncomfortably.

“Jason, is this necessary?” Crisstof said in annoyance.

“For now,” Jason said. “Please continue.”

“I first became aware of the Machine, as you call it, over fifty years ago,” Crisstof began. “At first it was just wild stories from prospectors about a hulking beast in space that would destroy any ship that came too close. But later on there were more credible accounts from exploratory vessels who were able to get a quick slip-space com signal out before the ship was never heard from again.

“Legend has it that the ConFed even sent a full battleship group, that’s over half a squadron, to ascertain if the Machine was a threat or if it even existed. They also were never heard from again.”

“We’d heard about the ConFed expedition from Naleem El,” Jason said. “I assume you’ve read all about her from the files we’ve already sent.”

“I have,” Crisstof said. “While she suffered from borderline paranoia and obsession, she was likely one of the more knowledgeable experts in the field. It’s unfortunate she was killed in her escape attempt.”

“Yeah,” Jason lamented. “If she had just tried to trust us instead of attempting a double-cross she’d likely be here right now briefing you. I think her father was the instigator in that incident, however.”

“Really?”

“He wanted the ship back,” Jason shrugged. “He had even gone so far as to find an old first generation DL7 to fly around while he plotted kicking us off and flying away. Anyway, it’s not important. Go on.”

“I’m afraid there’s not much more to tell past what you already know,” Crisstof said. “I’ve got two teams of intel analysts scouring through those files and a tech team on standby to look over the Phoenix, but without finding the last part of the Key we may have hit a dead end.”

“Does anybody actually know where the Machine is located?” Twingo asked.

“Not precisely,” Crisstof admitted.

“So this is all just an interesting academic exercise,” the engineer continued. “No matter how large the Machine may be, it is still an infinitesimally small object compared to the area of space that must be searched.”

“He’s right,” Jason said. “I’ve been hoping that the Key may also help guide us to the Machine, but that’s just speculation on my part.”

“There were some encrypted files in Naleem’s belongings,” Kage said. “I didn’t include them in the data dump we sent to the Defiant since I hadn’t bothered to slice into them yet. There could be something there.”

“Why haven’t you gotten to these already?” Jason asked, annoyed.

“You’ve had me playing secretary with all the hardcopy files,” Kage shot back. “I had planned on doing it once we landed here.”

“You can use our facilities,” Crisstof offered. “We have some of the most powerful mobile computers in the quadrant down in the Intel section.”

Jason hesitated at the offer. If the work was done on the Phoenix he would control the flow of information, but if it was done on the Defiant Crisstof would know the instant he did if the files contained anything useful.

“Go ahead and make copies of the files,” he told Kage. “Get with Crisstof’s intel people and get those files cracked as soon as possible. It might be nothing, but we need to know.” Crisstof nodded his appreciation, correctly interpreting the gesture as an olive branch from Jason.

“I’ll go get them,” Kage said, hopping out of his seat. Jason pulled his com unit back out so he could unlock and lower the rear ramp as Kage hurried out of the room.

“We’ll be back on the Phoenix,” Jason said. “Twingo and I will begin another search for the encryption module.” He ignored Twingo’s dramatic sigh and walked out of the conference room.

“Captain!” Mazer called as he was halfway down the corridor. “A moment please.”

“Go ahead,” Jason said, slowing so Mazer could catch up.

“I’m sorry about letting his people board your ship,” Mazer said. “I had assumed it was something that had been worked out between the two of you.” If it had been from anyone else Jason would have scoffed at the excuse as a lame attempt to cover their ass, but he knew Mazer was incapable of that sort of blatant dishonesty.

“I can understand you think you’re in a tough position, but you are a Marine assigned to this ship,” Jason said. “I was in a real military too at one time. I know what it’s like to get orders you don’t like or don’t agree with. While I appreciate your apology, it isn’t necessary. This sort of thing won’t affect our friendship.”

“I’m relieved to hear you say that, Captain,” Mazer said, his shoulders dropping as some of the tension left his body. “Hopefully the Lord Archon feels the same way.”

“To be honest, I don’t think he was even awake most of the time in there,” Jason said, continuing on his walk.

****

“Jason?”

The voice floated across his consciousness, dragging him out of a pleasant dream. He blinked the sleep out of his eyes and saw Kellea’s face looming over him, her hair hanging down and catching the dim light. “Lucky let me onboard,” she said.

“Great. Now I have one more member of this outfit who can’t follow orders,” Jason grumbled, sitting up. When he saw her hurt expression he instantly regretted his choice of words. “Sorry,” he said quickly, “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Really? So how did you mean it?” she said, crossing her arms and backing away from the bunk. “This ship has been onboard for nine hours and I don’t get so much as a message on my com to say hello?”

“I was busy being lured into a conference room by your boss so he could send a goon squad aboard my ship to toss it for something he wants,” Jason said.

“I had nothing to do with any of that!” she said vehemently. “I was only told to be on alert for an attack while we brought you aboard so I assumed you’d once again decided to put my crew and ship in danger by using it for safe refuge.”

Jason resented the implication and was about to tell her so, but he forced himself to stop and not respond. He cared deeply for Kellea, maybe even loved her, and escalating the argument just so he could get the last word was how he’d ruined things long ago in another relationship.

“Let’s just step back from this for a minute,” he said softly. “This is exactly what we didn’t want to happen … things from our jobs bleeding through into things between us. I know that you would never have sent a search party onto this ship without telling me first.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to imply that you couldn’t handle yourself or were using us as a shield.” She walked over and sat beside him on the bunk, laying her head on his shoulder. “Crisstof is worked up about something. I know a little bit from what you’ve told me, but he has the entire Intel section on lockdown going through the files you and Kage sent. This seems to be something big.”

“It still seems so abstract to me that I have a hard time getting all worked up about it,” Jason admitted. “Some great mysterious Machine, thousands of years old, with the power to extinguish stars? Sounds like a bunch of deep spacer bullshit to me.”

“Maybe,” Kellea conceded, “but it has more than a few people very scared. I heard the ConFed has mobilized a taskforce.”

“That’s never good news,” Jason said sourly. “I guess either way we’re in this until the end.”

“We have plenty of time to worry about that later,” she said, pushing him back down onto the bunk.

****

“You know, my quarters are much nicer,” Kellea said in a teasing voice, propping herself up on an elbow on Jason’s cramped bunk.

“I would hope so,” Jason said. “Otherwise you really got a raw deal with this new ship.”

She laughed and lay back down.

“Incoming video com channel request,” the computer said, interrupting them.

“Denied,” Jason said. “Audio only.” There was a chirp before the com channel was opened.

“Captain?” Kage’s voice came through the intercom speaker. “There’s something wrong with your com, it won’t let me initialize the video feed.”

“You don’t need the video feed,” Jason snapped. “What do you want?”

“Is Captain Colleren there?” Kage asked. “She boarded the ship a few hours ago.”

“You’re not getting a video feed!” Jason said. “Start talking or I’m killing the channel.”

“You know I can override the computer, right?”

“You could,” Jason said, “but then you’d have to adapt to only having two arms, maybe even just one.”

“No need for threats of violence,” Kage huffed. “I was calling to tell you we’ve decrypted all of Naleem’s files. She used the same cipher for all of them so once we had it the rest was easy. The files were a series of videos she made that pertain to the Machine.”

“We’ll be right there,” Jason said.

“So she is there,” Kage said.

“Computer, close channel,” Jason said.

“He is so creepy sometimes,” Kellea said as she reached for her uniform.

“Yeah, he really is.”

“Oh, no,” Kellea moaned. “I didn’t think this through very well. The crew knows I came aboard a while ago and will see me walking off with you. No offense.”

“I know what you mean,” Jason waved her off. “You can walk out first and then I’ll follow with Lucky twenty minutes later or so.”

“You want to wait that long to see those files?” she asked.

“The Machine has waited for thousands of years, supposedly, so it can wait another half hour,” he said, heading to the shower.

“I’ll see you in Intel,” she said, giving him a quick kiss and giving herself a final inspection in the mirror before walking out of his quarters. Before he could make it to the head to take a shower, someone else popped into his quarters.

“Why do you get to routinely have women on this ship and we’re not allowed to?” Crusher asked.

“It’s only been two women,” Jason corrected. “And when did I ever say no visitors?”

“I brought back two … friends … one night when we were on Deshja and you wouldn’t let them on,” Crusher said, crossing his arms.

“Crusher, those were prostitutes,” Jason said in a pained voice. “You were so drunk they were probably just going to rob you.”

“I don’t judge you on the nature of your relationships,” Crusher said defensively.

“Get out so I can get cleaned up,” Jason said. “Kage cracked those files so we’re heading to Intel in a minute anyway.”

“Fine,” Crusher said. “It reeks of double standard in here anyway.”

The door to Jason’s quarters whisked shut and he made sure it was locked before he went back into the head.

Chapter 16

“I have discovered that the civilization that had been in contact with the A’arcooni does indeed trace its origins back to the species that built the Machine. Some of the material left by the aliens (the A’arcooni simply call them Travelers) alludes to the species that gave birth to their civilization. I’m unsure as to whether the Travelers were created or modified by these beings or if they were simply taught language and science,” Naleem said. She was sitting in front of a camera that was zoomed in on her face, but the surrounding rock wall made it fairly easy to guess where she was.

“The problem I’m running into is that the population on A’arcoon is first and second generation from the Traveler ships,” the video continued. “Not only that, before they were brought back to their planet the Travelers were part of their religion so accurate information is hard to come by. They were further contaminated with their association with Deetz. In yet another stroke of bad luck, the crew that Deetz has flying the Katan has killed off most of the leadership.

“There is some hope, however, as I’ve learned about a legend the A’arcooni seem to think is real. Apparently the planet was never fully abandoned and an untainted population exists in the mountains that may have a true and complete record of the encounter with the Travelers. Unfortunately, I’m still treated with a fair amount of distrust and they will not tell me where these A’arcooni may be located. I will make contact again once I know more.”

“The time stamp on this video would indicate that she arrived on A’arcoon shortly after we dropped them off,” Kage said. “This looks like a pre-recorded message to her father and sent via a burst transmitter since the distance was so great.”

“It looks like until recently they still thought we were working with Deetz,” Twingo said.

“It makes sense,” Jason said. “The incident on Earth is only known to the people in this room and the existence of their unique weapon was covered up as quickly as possible.”

“There’s one more,” Kage said, reaching over and starting the next video in the series they were watching.

“There have been some … interesting … developments. I have befriended a young A’arcooni named De’Elefor Ka who served on one of the Traveler ships. He also claims to have had direct contact with the crew flying the Katan. They apparently captured and interrogated him at some point in the recent past,” Naleem said, looking much more haggard than in the last video.

“I’m simply relaying what he told me, so take it for what it’s worth. He says the crew, who calls themselves Omega Force, is not associated with Deetz. Apparently their captain, an alien named Jason Burke, was captured by Deetz but he was able to escape. It seems Jason Burke not only escaped but he stole the Katan from Deetz and was responsible for freeing the A’arcooni from his grasp.

“You’re not going to like this next part, but I think I found out why we’ve had so much trouble tracking Deetz. It looks like Omega Force killed him. While they stole your right to revenge, I’m no longer certain what motivation this crew has for taking the Katan. We have to assume that they know of the Machine and are making a move for it themselves. I will begin working up a plan to track this Omega Force down and try to see how much they know and what their intentions are. I will be departing A’arcoon within the hour.”

“That’s all of them,” Kage said quietly.

“This sort of takes the fun out of killing them,” Crusher said.

“Yeah,” Jason agreed. “There may be something to be said for asking questions first and shooting later.”

“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear you say that,” Crusher retorted.

“The take-away from the videos is that, despite Naleem’s work, we’re still not any closer to understanding the Machine, or its location, than we were a day ago,” Crisstof said.

“True,” Jason said. “But it does give us an unfortunate course of action.”

“That being?” Kellea asked.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Jason asked. “We’re going back to A’arcoon.”

“Why is that unfortunate?”

“It’s not exactly in the neighborhood,” Jason said moodily.

****

“What time do you intend to depart?” Kellea asked as she and Jason sat at dinner. It was a private affair in the Captain’s Mess. She’d invited others, but they’d all declined so the pair could be alone.

“The beginning of the Defiant’s first watch,” Jason said, forcing his food down despite the lack of appetite. “That’s the closest thing we have to first thing in the morning out here.”

“We have to drop off a delegation we’re carrying at Ecsta-5,” she said, taking a sip of tea. “It’s some trade route dispute that Crisstof has been trying to settle before the ConFed catches wind of it and gets involved. After that we’ll make way for A’arcoon. Don’t expect us too soon after you arrive; that little ship of yours is still faster than mine.”

“I can’t blame him there,” Jason said, missing her joke and referring to the trade dispute. “A ConFed battle group strong-arming both sides isn’t likely to make either feel too warmly towards each other.”

“You seem like you want to ask me something,” she said. “Either that or I’m completely boring you.”

Jason hesitated noticeably before continuing. “I’m going to ask you to do something for me, but I want you to understand you can say no and there won’t be any hard feelings,” he said.

“That sounds ominous,” she said, putting her flatware down.

“I’d like to leave the transceiver section of the Key here on the Defiant,” Jason said. “If the encryption module is actually on the Phoenix it isn’t a good idea to keep all three of them together.”

“That’s it?” she breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m sure Crisstof will—”

“No,” Jason interrupted her, “not Crisstof. I want you to take possession and keep it safe. It’s not a matter of trust between me and your boss. I just think the less people who know, the safer it inherently is.”

“I have no problem bringing the piece onboard my ship,” she said hesitantly.

“But?”

“But I’m not sure I like the idea of keeping him out of the loop,” she said. “It is his ship.”

“But you’re the captain,” Jason insisted, trying to keep his voice neutral so as not to give the impression he was leaning on her. “Ultimately, the ship is yours while she’s underway. I understand the lines of command are a little murky here, but he put you in charge of the Diligent, and now the Defiant, because he trusts your judgment.”

“Very well,” she said, looking away. “We can store it in my personal safe.”

“I’m sorry to ask you to do something you’re not fully comfortable with,” Jason said, sliding his plate away.

“It’s fine,” she said. “Really … it is. I would tell you no if I really didn’t think it was something I should do.” She finished off her drink and made some show of pulling out her com unit and logging off, essentially going off shift and turning the ship over to the night watch. “So did you have any big plans for tonight?”

“Well,” Jason said, playing along and feigning indifference. “As long as I’m up here I guess I could take a look at your quarters again and see just how much better they are than mine.”

“I guess I can let you in for a quick look,” she said, pushing her chair back.

****

Jason walked through the hangar deck in a considerably better mood than he’d been in the last time he’d been there. First watch would be in a few hours and he wanted to get the Phoenix prepped for launch. Thanks to the new deck boss’s rules it wasn’t as simple as taxiing to the elevator and firing up the engines.

The ship’s ramp was down, but from the lack of activity around the ship he could tell his crew was likely still sound asleep. Whenever they stayed for any length of time on Kellea’s ship they all found their own sources of entertainment, usually with the more rowdy crowd of the spacers inhabiting the lower decks. Throw in the fact that they had a full company of Galvetic Marines onboard and the possibilities for them to get in trouble had just increased by an order of magnitude.

There were two Marines standing alertly at the bottom of the ramp when Jason walked up.

“Captain!” the one on the right said, crashing his fist against his chest in salute. It was too early for Jason to punch himself, so he just waved back.

“Corporal,” he said. “Are they all onboard?”

“Yes, sir,” the corporal answered. “They came back late last night and seem to have found an enterprising enlisted spacer below who has an alcohol still.”

“Of course,” Jason sighed. “They didn’t cause any trouble, did they?”

“The Lord Archon wanted to wrestle Second Officer Lucky on the hangar deck,” the corporal answered with a straight face. “He seemed to feel the increased floor space would have some bearing on the outcome.”

“Never a dull moment,” Jason said, peering up into the cargo bay. “You guys are relieved. Go ahead and grab some chow before the rest of your company is awake.”

“Yes, Captain!” the corporal answered, turning smartly and leading the other Marine away from the ship. Jason smiled, shaking his head as he walked up the ramp and almost collided with Lucky.

“What the hell?” he exclaimed. “Were you lurking around the corner there?”

“Lurking?” Lucky sounded offended. “Captain, I was standing guard over the cargo.”

“Even with the Marines out there?”

“Marines that ultimately report to Crisstof Dalton,” Lucky corrected.

“Good point,” Jason said. “Sorry. Are the others up yet?”

“Do you really need to ask?” Lucky said.

“Not really,” Jason said. “Computer, I want to conduct a test of the shipwide alarm system. Please initiate audio and visual emergency alert on my mark. This alarm test can only be canalled by me. Disregard all crew inquiries as to the nature of the alarm. Mark.” Bright red strobes began pulsing throughout the ship accompanied by a piercing, strident alarm that was painful to Jason’s ears. The effect on someone with a hangover from drinking too much homemade gin would be excruciating.

“Does this not seem excessively cruel?” Lucky asked.

“Define excessive,” Jason said with a smile as he let the music play on. It was almost a full minute before the crew entry hatch slid open and a wild-eyed Twingo ran out onto the mezzanine, looking around for the source of the alarm. Once the door opened Jason could hear the concerned shouts from the others inside.

“Computer, cancel alarm,” Jason said. The silence was deafening.

“You did this!” Twingo shouted, leveling an accusatory finger at him.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Jason said, walking into the cargo bay. “I thought I made it perfectly clear I wanted to be in space by first watch. You couldn’t possibly have still been in your bunk and not prepping the ship, could you?”

Twingo looked back at the display by the hatch, which displayed ship’s time, and then back to Jason.

“Of course I was up,” he lied. “That’s why the alarm startled me so badly.”

“Fine,” Jason said. “Then I’m sure you noticed we’re still hooked up to ground power. I’ll go pop off the umbilicals. Get the reactor prepped.”

Once Twingo stumbled back into the ship, Jason motioned to Lucky to come closer. “Grab that case containing the transceiver and take it directly to Kellea’s quarters,” he said quietly. “Don’t tell anyone what’s in it and don’t let them redirect you.”

“At once, Captain,” Lucky said and walked over to unstrap the unmarked case. Jason went back down the ramp and waved over one of the hangar deck’s ground crew.

“Yes, Captain?” the crewman asked as he approached.

“We’re disconnecting,” Jason said, gesturing to the service panel underneath the starboard nacelle. “Go ahead and close the valves on your side.” The crewman hurried off and Jason walked up to the panel, dragging the maintenance stand over so he could climb up and reach the connections. He shut all the servicing valves and waited until he got the signal from the deck crewman.

Besides power, the ship also had a fuel vent line connected to prevent the Phoenix from flooding the hangar with explosive hydrogen gas. There was also a water service line that wasn’t necessary but he figured it wouldn’t hurt to flush their tanks and top off with clean water.

He got the wave from the busy crewman and went about popping off the servicing lines. The water line dripped all over him, as it always did, and he was grateful they weren’t doing a flush of the sewage treatment system. He’d leave that job for Twingo later. After he got the lines stowed up against the bulkhead, he pushed the stand back over to the wire cage where the crew stored them when not in use. The crew of the Defiant, most of them also from the Diligent, had helped them out countless times in the past, so the least he could do was leave the parking bay clean when he left.

The service access panel was closed when he walked back to the ship so he knew Twingo was at least doing something to get them on the move and hadn’t just gone back to his bunk. Jason milled around by the end of the ramp and waited for Lucky to get back. He wanted to confirm that the package had been delivered and he’d learned through experience it was good to be the last one on and make sure he had accounted for his crew before actually taking off.

There’d been a really awkward incident where everyone assumed Kage was in his quarters and didn’t feel well. Two days later and they realized they’d left him on a planet with no money and no identification. The Veran was highly insulted by the whole thing and refused to call them for a pickup out of pride. He was so pissed off that he wouldn’t speak once he was back onboard for almost a full week. It was possible he’d still be giving them the silent treatment except that Jason disabled all the manual controls in the galley. Kage was forced to either speak or starve. Once the dam burst and he was talking again he was back to his old self in a couple of days. Jason still wondered if he’d made the right choice.

“How soon?” he asked as he and Lucky walked by the starboard engineering bay.

“Three minutes to start the reactor, another ten to charge the emitters,” Twingo called back.

“You can start them on the run, we’ll leave on thrusters,” Jason said. As a point of pride he didn’t want his ship sitting powerless on the Defiant for too long with everyone, including the deck boss, watching and snickering as a gunship that looked like it had seen better days took an extended amount of time to take off.

For as much as he loved to give Twingo a hard time, he had to admit that the more time he spent out in space the more he came to appreciate how good the engineer really was. He was going to cold start an anti-matter reactor in five minutes and most likely do it without killing them all or bombarding them with neutron radiation. While they were tied into the battlecruiser’s power he had kept the fuel system and the anti-matter isolators powered up so all he had to do was initialize fuel flow and coax the reactor up to full operating power.

“Thanks for deafening me, asshole,” Crusher said when Jason walked onto the bridge. The human curse word was quickly becoming his favorite once he’d really thought through what it meant. The implants they all had tended to find the best substitute for known idioms so one night he, Jason, and Kage had sat around, bored out of their minds, and decided to break down all their respective cultures’ curse words in order to see who belonged to the most foul-mouthed species. Kage won hands down, so much so that Crusher became physically ill at a few of the Veran terms.

“Sorry,” Jason said. “I must have misspoken when I talked to the computer. I was trying to turn the lights on in the cargo bay.”

“The deck boss has cleared us for movement,” Kage said. “The area is clear behind the ship.” Jason brought up the rear video feed and released the brakes. He backed the Phoenix out of her parking berth and swung the nose around until they were facing the forward elevator. Kage held up a hand, stopping him. He read his display for a moment before turning to Jason.

“We’re being directed to the port tactical launch port,” he said, clearly confused. “He says there’s an issue with the elevator to the flight deck.”

“Bullshit,” Jason said. “He’s screwing with us. Ask again.” Even as Kage got on the com for actual voice communication, Jason could see the heavy doors opening up for the launch tube. The tubes were enormous and on both sides of the ship, able to easily accommodate the Phoenix. They led outboard and forward so that ships could be launched out of the hangar without compromising the hull or wasting time by using the elevator. Ships were kept centered in the tube by overlapping forcefields while powerful blast shields allowed them to keep the doors open and cycle ships through quickly.

“Confirmed,” Kage said, pointing at the arrows on the deck now leading them to the launch tube entrance. “What is going on?”

“The containment fields play hell with grav-drives,” Jason explained. Once we’re in the tube he thinks we’re going to have to sit there sputtering while the computer sorts out how to adjust the drive emitters. We can’t use maneuvering thrusters because they aren’t strong enough to overcome the fields holding us in the tube.”

“This is bizarre,” Kage said as the Phoenix slid through the atmospheric barrier and onto the launch platform.

“Twingo! I need the plasma ducts hot as soon as you get the reactor up!” Jason called over the intercom.

“What?! Why?”

“I’ll explain later,” Jason said. “Actually, you’ll probably figure it out. Just do it.” Jason reached over and pre-configured his engine management panel so that his settings would be initialized as soon as the reactor was up.

“Forcefields are in place over the door,” Kage reported. “Gravity will be shut off in the tube in three minutes and the containment fields will kick in soon after.”

“As soon as we’re captured by the containment fields and they’re stable, retract the landing gear,” Jason said. “How strong do you think that forcefield is behind us?”

“Theoretically it should protect against a tactical nuke fired down the tube,” Kage shrugged.

“Good to know,” Jason said, leaning back.

He felt the ship rock and sway as it was picked up off the deck and suspended between the containment fields. Kage looked at him skeptically, but retraced the landing gear without question. Twingo almost set a new personal best for hungover reactor starting when six minutes later Jason saw the backup power drop out on his power management panel and the reactor take over. When it spooled up to sixty percent the ship began to rumble and vibrate.

“Captain! The mains are in emergency prestart!” Twingo’s frantic call came over the intercom.

“I know,” Jason called back. He watched his indicators until the muffled boom of the mains switching from startup to operational mode rocked the ship within the fields. Jason took a deep cleansing breath, knowing the ass-chewing he was in for, and slammed the throttle down.

The Phoenix roared as her main engines came to full power and filled the confined tunnel with millions of pounds of pressure. The gunship rocketed down the length of the launch tube and shot out of the Defiant’s port bow like a cannonball from a naval gun. Warnings were sounding through the bridge, but Jason ignored them as he cranked the ship over to port and kept the engines at full power. He wasn’t completely confident Kellea wouldn’t shoot at him so he wanted to get some distance.

“Ah … we’ve got a com request coming in from the Defiant,” a shell-shocked Kage said. “It seems pretty insistent.”

“Put it through,” Jason said calmly. Kellea’s red face popped up on his com panel; her mouth opened and closed a few times but no sounds came out.

“What. Was. That?” she ground out finally.

“Hey!” Jason said pleasantly. “We were just departing in the most expeditious way we could. With the flight deck elevators being down we didn’t want to hold you up by trying to start a grav-drive inside of a tactical launch tube.”

“What are you talking about?” she said, not calming down but needing to maintain some level of professionalism while on her bridge.

“You mean the elevators aren’t broken?” Jason asked in mock surprise. “So your deck boss lied to us?”

“No, the elevators are not down as far as I know,” Kellea said, her nostrils flaring. “Your little stunt overloaded the launch tube field emitters and the shock wave from those ridiculous engines overpressured the hangar and sent anything not bolted down on the port side flying.”

“My apologies,” Jason said. “I was just trying to do as I was told.”

“We will speak of this later,” she said ominously.

“If we must,” Jason agreed. “But please tell your deck boss if he jerks me around again I’ll make sure he’s inside the launch tube before starting the engines.”

Kellea didn’t answer, instead just nodding to her com officer to kill the signal. The bridge of the Phoenix descended into a shocked silence. Jason stared off contemplatively for a moment. “Still worth it,” he finally decided. He pulled the throttle back and then shut the engines down.

“She is going to kill you,” Kage whispered in awe.

“No, but she will make me regret that,” Jason said.

“The captain’s insane actions aside, have you noticed how a few of the senior officers on the Defiant have started treating us like shit?” Crusher said.

“It’s not surprising,” Doc said. “They serve with the beautiful Captain Colleren all day, every day. Then here comes our roguish mercenary, Captain Burke, and before anyone knows it, he’s bedding her.” Everyone turned and looked at him for a moment.

“You know,” Jason said, “somehow when you try to say it in a delicate manner it sounds even dirtier than when Kage says it.”

“Wait,” Crusher said. “So we’re getting jerked around over petty jealousy?”

“Probably not anymore,” Kage laughed. “I imagine since she can’t get her hands on Jason the deck boss is going to suffer her wrath.”

“I didn’t think of that,” Jason admitted. “I’ve seen that look. She’s probably going to demote him. If he’s lucky.”

“The grav-drive is up, you maniac,” Twingo said as he walked onto the bridge. “Slip-drive will be ready in another ten minutes or so.”

“Excellent,” Jason said expansively. “Kage, set a course for A’arcoon, best possible speed. Coordinate with Twingo and let him determine how hard we’ll push the engines and when he wants to drop into real-space for inspection and maintenance.”

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to go grab something to drink and contemplate my future, however short it may be,” Jason said.

Chapter 17

Three days into the nine day slip-space flight and the numb, autonomous routine the crew always settled into was in full swing. Twingo and Jason sat in the galley eating, but neither talking to each other. There was no animosity or discomfort, there just wasn’t really anything to talk about.

“Jason, what are we missing?” Twingo asked suddenly, making Jason jump. “Where on this ship haven’t we looked?” When they were alone Twingo almost never called him “Captain.”

“The encryption module?” Jason asked. When Twingo nodded, he continued, “I defer to you when it comes to anything regarding the inner workings of this ship. Part of me is afraid that the Eshquarians melted it down with the rest of the old equipment they pulled off her. It was sent to a recycling plant without anyone realizing what, or where, it was.”

“Whoever hid it on this ship would have had to put it someplace where they could be assured it would never be taken out, even during heavy repairs,” Twingo said, talking mostly to himself. His eyes widened and he turned to Jason. “What’s the one component that is never replaced on a starship of this size? The one thing that when it’s damaged beyond repair usually means a scrapped or destroyed vessel?”

“The main reactor?” Jason said, frowning. “Wasn’t that swapped out too?”

“No,” Twingo said, getting excited. “Well, not really. The DL series has a reactor that is really too big for a ship of its size, mostly in order to provide plasma to the mains while still being able to fully power the converters. The Eshquarians replaced the injector assemblies and the main intermix chamber, but the reactor housing is vintage Jepsen.”

“Wait,” Jason said, holding his hand up. “There’s no way the encryption module can be inside the reaction chamber. It would be destroyed and your instruments would detect a foreign object inside.”

“I think that it is,” Twingo insisted. “It’s in there somewhere. They’ve found some way to keep it safe.”

“Well, I’m not shutting down my main reactor in interstellar space, weeks away from any potential rescue,” Jason said. “Get a proposal together and bring it to me. We’ll go over it and then once the Defiant gets to A’arcoon you can satisfy your curiosity.”

“Thanks, Jason,” Twingo said and hopped down out of his seat. He rushed off to the engineering spaces, leaving most of his meal untouched. Jason smiled and shook his head as his friend raced off. He mechanically shoveled food into his mouth, thinking about Twingo’s theory. He had to admit, if he wanted to hide something small it would make sense to put it in something that would almost never be taken off the ship. The anti-matter reactor’s main chamber was an amazingly simple machine, so it was unlikely anybody would ever really climb into it during the life of the ship. He shook his head, as if disagreeing with himself. The forces at play inside the reactor when it was operating were beyond his comprehension. He just couldn’t imagine a delicate piece like the encryption module surviving.

****

The planet A’arcoon was much how they’d left it when they’d ferried the remaining A’arcooni back after they’d tracked down Deetz and Lucky tore his head off. Jason stared down at the lush, vibrant planet and reflected on how he felt about the unfortunate species.

He felt he should harbor a deep anger and distrust for a species that had attacked his homeworld without provocation. He dug down deep and tried to pull up the old resentments just to see if they were still as potent as they’d been when he’d stepped off Earth’s surface for the last time. But there was nothing there, not even pity. Oddly enough, he found he looked forward to landing and seeing what sort of life the aliens had put together. It was strange to think that this population, spanning only a few generations, was a group of refugees on their own planet of birth.

“Everything looks like it did when we left,” Doc reported. “Energy signature from the reactor Crisstof donated is unchanged, no signs of industrialization and no weapons.”

“It’s about what I expected,” Jason said. “I didn’t think they’d take their second chance and trash their planet all over again.”

“We’re getting a message from the surface,” Kage said, making a weird face. “They’re asking to speak to us.”

“Put it through,” Jason shrugged.

“Greetings, Omega Force,” an ornately dressed A’arcooni said with a deep bow. “You honor us with your presence. We humbly welcome you. If you would be so good as to proceed to the provided coordinates we will join with you there.”

“Uh, thanks,” Jason said. “I guess we’ll see you when we get down there.”

“Of course, noble Captain Jason Burke,” the A’arcooni bowed again and the transmission terminated.

“There were coordinates embedded in that signal,” Kage said. “It’s in that city center you guys walked through the first time we came here.”

“I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that isn’t their normal spaceport,” Jason said.

“Noble, huh?” Crusher said. “Wait until I show them some of the pictures I have of you. The Noble Captain Burke, puking in the gutter on Aracoria.”

“Plot me an entry vector,” Jason said to Kage, ignoring Crusher.

“I know you hear me,” Crusher said, spinning back so he could look out the canopy.

****

The Phoenix thundered over the city and wrapped into a tight turn so Jason could try and drop her down into the square that was now packed with cheering A’arcooni. He dropped the landing gear and tried to find a spot where he thought the ship would fit. Finally giving up, he just began a slow descent and trusted that the crowd would be smart enough to move.

The ship touched down with a soft bump and since there was no outcry from the crowd outside Jason assumed he hadn’t squished any locals. “Okay guys,” he said. “I’m not sure what the hell is going on here, but let’s not have an incident. Sidearms only. Except for Lucky, of course.”

“Can I stay in here?” Crusher asked.

“No,” Jason said. “Let’s go and get this over with. We need information so don’t provoke them.”

They made their way back to the cargo bay, none of them completely sure what they were walking into. When they had dropped the A’arcooni off it had been at the tail end of an utterly exhausting mission, both physically and emotionally. So far as they could recall they had dumped them back on the surface with little ceremony and blasted off as fast as the Phoenix could carry them, leaving all the logistical details to Crisstof and the Diligent.

There was a pent-up energy outside that was palpable as the rear ramp lowered. The ramp seemed to be taking longer than usual as Jason stood impatiently at the top. By no planning on their part, they all exited the cargo bay in a single file. When Jason became visible a huge cheer went up from the assembled crowd, and female A’arcooni were even throwing flowers on him. When Lucky emerged, however, a deafening roar went up that seemed to shake the square.

“Wave to them,” Jason told him out of the corner of his mouth.

Hesitantly, Lucky waved to the crowd and, unbelievably, they responded with even more energy. Then, as quickly as it started, the crowd hushed to a respectful murmur. They pushed back away from the ramp and parted as a procession of officious looking A’arcooni walked forward. Jason had to take a hard look at the one in the lead to see if it was really who he thought it was.

“De’Elefor Ka?” he asked.

“It is just De’Elefor now, my friend,” the A’arcooni said, grasping Jason’s shoulders with genuine affection. “The honorific Ka no longer seems appropriate given the circumstances. We have dropped it from our names.”

It took a moment for Jason to remember that it was De’Astor Ka, the originator of the cult that had perverted the teachings of the Travelers, who had started the A’arcooni on their rampage across the galaxy beginning with their own homeworld.

“That makes sense,” Jason said. “I must say, De’Elefor, we’re a bit surprised at the enthusiasm of our welcome. I wasn’t sure we’d even be allowed to land given our past interactions.”

“From the fires of our battles came the fierce light of truth,” De’Elefor proclaimed, reminding Jason how prone the A’arcooni were to melodrama. “You set us free from the lies that enslaved us to a savage life of slow deaths aboard decrepit ships and attacking unsuspecting planets. We even attacked your homeworld.” When De’Elefor said this the crowd gave a soft moan and hung their heads.

“But instead of exacting your revenge upon us,” De’Elefor said, raising his voice again, “you delivered us back to the nest of our birth place. You have given us back something we though lost forever: A’arcoon. We can never repay our debt to you.”

“I’m sure we’ll think of something,” Jason said with a wink. “It looks like you guys are really getting along here. The last time I was here this city was deserted and dead. You’ve done a lot in a short time.”

“We can discuss that at some length, Captain,” De’Elefor said, bobbing his head and causing his plumage to flutter. “If you’ll all follow me we can retire to someplace a bit less chaotic.”

The crew followed him and Jason was surprised when the crowd began to part so they could walk at a normal pace. When they were a few meters away, Jason sent the signal to the Phoenix to close the ramp but not to activate the ground defense protocols. The A’arcooni were quiet as they made a path for them that led to what Jason had assumed on his previous trip to be an administrative building. As they walked, the beings of A’arcoon reached out and placed their hands on Jason and Lucky as they passed, lowering their heads as they did. It wasn’t jostling or pushing, it was more of a need to have some tactile connection with the people and events they’d only heard about. After they slipped inside the pyramid-shaped building the crowd quietly dispersed and went their way.

“I apologize for being overly dramatic, Captain,” De’Elefor said once he led them into a large reception room. “I’m sure you remember how we were. For many of our population the ceremony and … religion … of an experience like your return is still very important.”

“I can understand that,” Jason said. As he thought back on his previous interactions with the species, what De’Elefor said did make sense in a loopy sort of way. “But why were Lucky and I singled out?”

“You are the leader, the figurehead of Omega Force,” De’Elefor said as if that should explain it. “As for Lucky, he was the one who talked to me and really broke through the madness. Our official oral history of events figures him quite prominently, including his killing of Deetz. In the minds of the A’arcooni the fact that he would kill one of his own to protect us affirmed his place among us as a hero of the people.”

Jason waved Lucky to silence as he could see that his friend was about to argue the point. It was a harmless fiction that might help them achieve their goals in the end.

“That makes sense,” he said. “I should go ahead and tell you now that Crisstof Dalton’s ship will be some days behind us. Is it okay with you that he takes up orbit over A’arcoon?”

“Of course,” De’Elefor said with a frown, “why wouldn’t it?”

“I just thought it’d be polite to ask first and not assume.”

“I thank you for the courtesy, but it’s unnecessary,” De’Elefor assured him. “We welcome visitors here as we don’t have much contact with the outside anymore. Which leads me to why you’ve come … I can assume that it’s about the female who was here a couple of years ago asking about you. Naleem El?”

“In a way,” Jason said. “She found us recently but after a disagreement we’ve parted ways. We’re trying to retrace her steps and see if there’s anything she discovered here that can help us.”

“I will provide any assistance I can,” De’Elefor said, bowing his head. “I have to tell you, however, that she did not accomplish much on her visit. She mistook our desire to live without the trappings of high technology to mean that we were simple. Her insulting demeanor and casual insults about our intellect did not endear her to us. She left empty-handed.”

“A surprising lack of judgment on her part given her background,” Jason said. “So I take it you’re in charge around here?”

“I ascended to leadership by popular demand,” De’Elefor said, looking somewhat embarrassed. “I fully admit that it was in no small part due to my association with you and the negotiation of surrender that allowed us to come back home after generations away. Of course I will implement a fair election for leadership once we have ratified a new form of government.”

“It’s none of my business,” Jason shrugged. “If this is working for you I’d say there’s nothing wrong with it. So how have you not installed an official government yet?”

“It hasn’t been a big priority,” De’Elefor said. “There aren’t a lot of us to begin with, and so far the decisions we’ve made have been widely accepted. I know that governing by popular consent won’t last forever so we’re trying to put something in place that sets firm rules, something that prevents another De’Astor Ka. To be honest, I was very happy you mentioned Crisstof Dalton is coming here. His further assistance would be most welcome.”

Jason bit his tongue, his comment about Crisstof’s meddling in affairs that didn’t concern him never taking voice. “I’m sure he’ll be more than happy to offer his assistance,” he said, trying not to make a face while he did so. “Before we begin talking about the real reason for our visit, is there a more discreet place we can park our ship? We may be tearing down one of our primary systems and would rather not do heavy maintenance on your city square.”

“Of course,” De’Elefor said. “There are large hangars at the edge of the city by where the old aerodrome used to be, if that would be acceptable. There is power and lighting functional within the buildings.”

“That would be perfect, thank you,” Jason said.

****

“This is their idea of a hangar?” Twingo asked in awe.

“It would appear so,” Jason said, also impressed. Like all of the structures on A’arcoon, the hangar appeared to be hewn from a solid piece of rock. The building was immense and could have easily accommodated ten ships the size of the Phoenix. There was some loose debris on the ramp in front of the entrance, but the large wheels of the landing gear had no trouble as Jason taxied the ship into the well-lit building that looked part cavern, part cathedral.

Ornate reliefs decorated the walls that depicted the evolution from the A’arcooni ancestors, who could naturally fly, to the modern iteration of the species taking their ships into space and leaving the planet. The ceiling arched high overhead and there were vents and lights spaced evenly along its length. Jason spun the ship around so the nose was facing the entrance and began powering down their systems.

“Like I said,” he told Twingo, “you can dig into the reactor once the Defiant makes orbit.”

“Sounds fair,” Twingo said. “I’ve got some rough drawings of what I want to accomplish if you want to look them over.”

“I trust you and besides, I wouldn’t really understand what I was looking at anyway,” Jason admitted. “Just don’t leave us stranded.”

“How long are we going to be here?” Crusher asked. “These people give me the creeps.”

“Understood,” Jason said. “But please keep comments like that within the hull. I’d rather not have an incident. Lucky and I meet with De’Elefor first thing in the morning. If all goes well I’ll get the location of this camp Naleem was referring to and then once the Defiant shows up we’ll head out there.”

“The sooner the better,” Crusher said, walking off the bridge. “I’m going to go check the perimeter.” Lucky wordlessly followed him out and the rest of the crew began to disperse. Jason was left alone on the bridge, suddenly feeling a little foolish flying so far out in the fringe to chase down a legend that may not even exist.

Chapter 18

The next morning Jason was standing at the entrance of the hangar watching the sunrise over a city that he now knew was called A’ara. He took a sip of his chroot and tried to frame the argument he would use on De’Elefor to convince him to both disclose and guide him to the tribe of A’arcooni that had remained behind.

“It’s funny how things work out, isn’t it?” Twingo asked, walking up behind him similarly armed against the early morning with a mug of his own.

“How’s that?”

“When we dropped these guys off I fully expected them to either turn on each other, starve to death, or figure out a way to go back to their old ways,” Twingo said. “I’m glad to see I was wrong.”

“Yeah,” Jason said noncommittally. The Defiant was due in that day and he knew Twingo was getting anxious to start examining the main reactor on the Phoenix. He was about to comment further when a brilliant red energy bolt streaked out of the sky and impacted somewhere in A’ara. Six more in quick succession hit the city square. Smoke and dust were billowing up out of the impact zones.

“Could Kellea really be that pissed at you?” Twingo asked, staring dumbfounded at the city.

“That’s not the Defiant,” Jason said, tossing his mug. “Let’s go!” The pair sprinted back to the Phoenix, Twingo lagging far behind Jason. He hit the ramp and launched himself up onto the mezzanine from the cargo bay floor. He was already walking onto the bridge before Twingo had even gotten back to the ramp.

“What the hell is going on?” Jason demanded.

“I know as much as you do, Captain,” Kage said. “Whoever just made orbit and opened fire isn’t broadcasting a transponder code.”

“Those were warning shots,” the com came to life. “You will turn over Naleem El and any personnel she has with her or we will continue to rain fire down upon your city. You have thirty minutes to have her in the city square.”

“That was sent out on all channels, all frequencies,” Kage said. “I don’t think they’re familiar with the A’arcooni or they would have just used the standard frequency.”

“That’s little comfort,” Jason said. “Try to figure out who they are. Don’t send any messages just yet since it seems the stone hangar walls have kept us hidden.”

“Why do you say that?” Crusher asked, standing near the canopy and watching the smoke rise over the city in the distance.

“Because we’re the only ship on the surface,” Jason said. “If they detected us they would assume it was Naleem’s and either open fire on the aerodrome or land an assault force right in the entrance of the hangar.”

“True,” Crusher conceded.

“Message coming in from De’Elefor,” Kage said.

“Ignore it,” Jason said in a tight voice. “We’re their only defense right now and we won’t do them any good if someone brings this building down on top of us.”

After fifteen minutes a large craft descended through the clouds and took up position directly over the city. It was over three hundred and fifty meters long and was hovering at an altitude of one thousand meters.

“Arrogant bastards,” Doc said as he consulted the passive scans. “External hatches are open and they aren’t raising their shields. They seem to know the A’arcooni don’t possess any weapons that can reach them.”

“Bring the tactical systems online and get the engines fired up,” Jason said. “We’ll try and draw them away from the city.”

Five minutes later the Phoenix taxied slowly to the entrance of the hangar before Jason fed power to the drive and lifted them into the air. “Full combat mode,” he ordered calmly as he allowed his neural implant to fully integrate him to the ship.

“Shields up and all weapons are live,” Kage reported.

“They’re coming around,” Doc warned. “I’m not sure if they see us yet or if they’re turning this way for some other reason.”

“It won’t matter in a moment,” Jason said and smoothly advanced the throttle. The big gunship roared away from the aerodrome, leaving an enormous cloud of dust blowing in its wake. “I’m going to make a single high-speed pass down their port flank. I want the point defense turrets to randomly target any open hatches and engage.”

“Firing program set,” Kage said. “Just pull the trigger when we cross their nose.”

Jason flew low and fast, nearly to the target when it appeared that they’d been spotted. The ship swung ponderously in their direction and an alert tone sounded to let him know that tracking radar had locked on. He pulled the Phoenix to the right and squeezed the trigger as he flew just under the target’s left side. The point defense guns opened up and began chewing through the interior of the ship as dozens of shots passed unopposed through all the open hatches.

“We should have just hit them with a missile,” Kage said. “They didn’t even have shields up.”

“Except we would have sent it crashing down on top of the A’arcooni,” Jason said, banking left and pouring on the speed. “That’s why I want them to follow us.”

“Incoming channel request,” Kage said.

“Put it through.”

“Unidentified warship, this is a private matter. Withdraw or you will be destroyed,” a dispassionate voice said.

“That was a warning shot,” Jason said, mocking the earlier broadcast. “The next one won’t be. You will break off this illegal attack on the citizens of A’arcoon or you will become a permanent resident.”

“As you wish,” the voice said before the channel closed.

“That was easy,” Kage remarked. Jason never got to reply as the Phoenix was rocked by an incredibly powerful blast. Warnings lit up his displays like a casino slot machine and smoke began wafting in through the environmental ducts.

“Holy shit!” Jason exclaimed, struggling to keep the ship in the air. The blast had superheated the air above them and the rapid expansion shoved the gunship towards the ground with incredible force. “Twingo, report!”

“This is bad,” the engineer said. “Dorsal shielding is down to thirty percent. Main Bus B has dropped out and we’ve lost the ability to simultaneously fire both main plasma cannon banks. Engines are still up, but the slip-drive is now offline as are long range communications.”

“What hit us?” Jason asked, coaxing the gunship back into the air and turning back towards the engagement.

“It wasn’t that smaller ship,” Doc said. “There’s a destroyer-class warship in orbit directly above us. It looks like they hit us with a focused plasma burst.”

“I guess that ship over A’ara is just a troop lander,” Jason said, realizing his mistake too late. “We can’t stay down here with that destroyer overhead. Prime two nukes and one of the ship-busters; we’re going up top.”

“We’re really going head-to-head with a destroyer?” Twingo asked.

“We don’t have much of a choice at this point,” Jason said. “Even if I was inclined to let the A’arcooni fend for themselves we can’t run with a busted slip-drive.”

He looked up and let the computer pinpoint where the ship was in the sky. He then had the computer overlay a ring that was the ship’s assumed effective range of fire. Once he had those, he changed his course and pushed the engines to full power, trying to get into orbit before the destroyer could come around and bracket them while still in the upper atmosphere.

The destroyer captain wasn’t fooled by the move. Since he already knew the speedy gunship would be in orbit before they could get into range, he gave them one last parting shot. The plasma bolt split the sky with a thunderous crack and impacted the rear shields of the fleeing Phoenix.

“Minor damage,” Twingo reported. “The shot was too far out of range. Mostly a lot of noise and light but the shields absorbed it.”

“When we make orbit we’re going to accelerate away from them,” Jason said. “We’ll try to come around A’arcoon and engage them on our own terms instead of flying right into their teeth.”

“I’m so glad you’ve seemed to grasp what the word strategy means,” Crusher said, uncomfortably out of his element on the bridge during a ship-to-ship engagement.

“Yeah,” Kage agreed. “This beats our usual suicide charge any day.”

“When we come around to the night side I’m going to execute a pretty extreme orbit change,” Jason said. “I’d like to get up into a polar orbit. Can the engines handle it?”

Twingo consulted his displays before nodding. “Just,” he said. “Why do you want us over the northern polar region?”

“It makes it easier to look down and shoot,” Jason said. “If I have to use one of the XTX-4s I will, but I’d rather not engage them over the planet if I can get them to chase us.”

“Just try to put them down on the opposite continent than the one A’ara is on,” Twingo argued.

“I would if I could be guaranteed the entire reason we came here isn’t on that continent,” Jason said. “Besides, the XTX won’t arm at such a close range. We’re going to pop off a couple of nukes and then run. Hopefully they’ll think we’re running for a mesh-out point and give chase. We’ll launch the ship-buster then and come back to mop up the troop carrier.”

“I can’t see anything obviously wrong with the plan,” Kage said. “But won’t the other captain know you’re trying to bait them with a couple of weak tactical nukes?”

“Maybe,” Jason said. “I’m more or less hoping they’ll see it as a desperate move from a crew in an overmatched, damaged ship. It’s basically true so that won’t be too much of a stretch.”

“Polar orbital insertion vector coming up in ten seconds,” Kage said. Jason saw the red line of the proposed course change appear in front of him. He authorized the computer to execute the maneuver since it would require precision in both the course correction and drive output power that he wasn’t manually capable of doing.

“Here we go,” Jason said as he felt the ship throttle back and turn onto their new heading. A moment later the ship was vibrating harshly as the engines pushed right up to the safety limit to break the gunship out of its current orbit and onto the perpendicular course.

“Engines powering back,” Twingo said. “Maneuver was successful.”

“Full countermeasures,” Jason said. “Let’s see how long we can hide up here. Set course for station keeping once we’re over the north pole.” He got a chorus of confirmations as the ship slid to a stop relative to the planet.

“The destroyer is really picking up speed,” Doc said. “I think they suspect we ran when we were blocked by the planet.”

“If that’s true they’ll be scanning for a slip-space signature,” Jason said, watching the icon of the enemy ship on his display. “They might move to a higher orbit to cut down on the planet’s interference. That will give us a little wiggle room when firing the nukes. I’d rather not create an ecological disaster since we’re already about to shut down all their power.”

“You don’t think Crisstof sprung for an EMP-hardened power station?” Twingo asked.

“I doubt it,” Jason said, frowning as he was still staring at the tactical display.

“What’s it doing now?”

“Destroyer is breaking orbit and heading for the edge of the system,” Doc reported.

“What the hell?” Kage said as he also watched. “Could we get that lucky?”

“No,” Jason said. “Something else is going on and we don’t know what it is.”

“Slip-space signature detected near the edge of the system,” Doc said. “The computer just sorted it out from all the junk the passive array is picking up.”

“Reinforcements?” Crusher asked.

“Maybe,” Jason said doubtfully. “Doc, try to get some idea of who just popped in. I’m breaking orbit and following the target at a safe distance. Kage, keep our missiles locked on. They just gave us the opportunity to take them out without endangering the planet.”

They tracked the ship as it began to accelerate out towards the perimeter of the A’arcoon System. Not being able to use the active array or call the planet to inform them of what was happening was frustrating. The destroyer was pushing hard now, which made Jason doubt that the newcomer was a friendly. At first he thought it might be yet another faction interested in the Key, but he soon realized that he already knew who was expected.

“Bring up the active array,” Jason said. “Target the outboard engines with our two nukes and prep to fire.”

“That’s not going to do much,” Kage said.

“It will do enough,” Jason said. “That new ship is almost certainly the Defiant and we have no way to contact them and warn them of the inbound hostile. Our active array will get their attention and the nukes will let Kellea know she needs to be ready to fight.”

“Sensors going active,” Doc said. “Target is slowing slightly. Incoming ship is a battlecruiser that matches the Defiant’s configuration.”

“Missiles have target lock,” Kage said. “Bay door is open and you’re cleared to fire.”

Jason squeezed off both missiles and then turned hard to starboard, accelerating away from the destroyer as fast as he could.

“Impacts,” Doc said. “Negligible damage but we did overload their starboard aft shield emitters. They’ve got a gap in coverage.”

“Too bad we can’t let Kellea know about it,” Jason muttered.

“Her sensor operator will be able to pick it up,” Doc said. “It’s not like that destroyer is much of a match for the Defiant anyway.”

“One lucky shot is all it takes,” Jason said. “Hopefully she’ll correctly interpret the situation and engage them from a distance.” He swung back around and accelerated to outflank the destroyer. If it looked like the Defiant was getting into trouble, Jason still had his XTX-4.

They all watched the sensor feed silently as the Defiant altered her course and began to accelerate towards the destroyer. Kellea had raised her shields and Jason imagined that she had her com officer trying to raise the Phoenix as well as negotiate with the incoming ship.

Negotiations appeared to have failed as eight missiles launched from the Defiant and converged on the enemy destroyer. The smaller ship returned fire and then began to try and intercept the incoming missiles, but the range was too close and they could only get three of the eight. Five powerful explosions ripped through the prow of the destroyer and Jason could see the energy signature begin to fluctuate and the gravity wake of its drive tapered off. It was dead in space, drifting.

“Defiant was able to shoot down all incoming missiles,” Doc said. “They’ve just launched a small ship.”

“I’d say our new friends are about to get a nasty surprise,” Jason chuckled humorlessly. “Unless I’m mistaken, the Galvetic Marines are about to introduce themselves. Let’s get back to A’arcoon since I’m sure that troop carrier is probably still sitting over A’ara. In the meantime I want the com system working, Twingo.”

****

Things on the planet had deteriorated considerably when they returned to A’ara. The assault lander had obviously been in contact with the destroyer and had disgorged its load of troops during the time the Phoenix was in space. They weren’t just normal foot soldiers either: they were Korkaran mercenaries, and lots of them.

“This isn’t good,” Crusher remarked calmly. Jason could see his friend twitching, however, practically vibrating in his anxiousness to get down to street level. “I count nearly two hundred lizards.” The Korkarans had some history with the Galvetic Legions and Crusher was always eager to mix it up with the vaguely saurian species.

“Twingo, I need coms immediately,” Jason said as he lined up a large concentration of mercenaries and opened fire with the chin turret. While a handful of the large aliens were burned down, most were able to dive out of the way and he ended up doing more damage to the street surface than the enemy forces. “This is useless,” he growled in frustration. “This ship isn’t designed for this sort of work. We won’t be able to thin them out too much unless they’re dumb enough to group up somewhere.”

“I can’t fix the com node while we’re in flight,” Twingo said. “What you can do is record a message and I’ll launch one of the twins and have it relay to the Defiant.”

“Good enough,” Jason said. “Doc, record a message telling Kellea that A’ara is under attack by Korkarans and we need her Marines here ASAP.”

“Captain—” Crusher started.

“Go get suited up,” Jason told him. “You, Lucky, and I will be dropping onto the administrative building to keep what little government the A’arcooni have safe. Doc, I want the Phoenix moved out of the area. I don’t want to get distracted by this attack and risk the parts of the Key being lost.”

“If we move out of the area you won’t have any air support,” Doc said.

“I’m fully aware of that,” Jason said. “All the more motivation for you to get that message off.” He banked the ship up and away from A’ara. He let the computer take over as he climbed out of his seat and motioned for Doc to take over.

“I’ll call up and let you know when to take us back over the admin building,” he said. “Be careful about those Korkarans … they won’t hesitate to try and bring this ship down, and they carry some significant firepower.”

He raced off the bridge after his friends who were already halfway to the armory. Since Lucky was always ready for combat, he was busy pulling weapons off the wall rack and loading them when he arrived. The battlesynth had already pulled his railgun and two sidearms as well as a bandolier of concussion and fragmentation grenades. Out of habit, Jason almost went to the wall rack where his armor would normally sit before remembering the unit had been lost on Tallin Prime.

“What are you carrying, Crusher?” Jason asked, trying to steer his friend away from taking down a bunch of melee-type weaponry that wouldn’t do them any good. Crusher was sometimes far more interested in the challenge of a situation than he was in the strategic significance.

“The usual,” his friend answered. “Two large plasma rifles, a couple sidearms, a few blades. I’ll let you carry the grenades. You good going into combat without armor?”

“I’m good,” Jason snapped, mildly offended by the insinuation. He dragged a crate out from under the workbench and pulled out the simple body armor he’d worn before he could afford the expensive powered suit. He slipped the chest protector on, the thigh and upper arm protection, and the hard-knuckled gauntlets with the sharp edges that turned a simple punch into a meat shredder.

He grabbed the thin helmet, but tossed it aside. The treatment to his skull that Doc had performed made his head harder than the helmet was anyway. Instead he opted for a set of auto-dimming eye protectors. Lucky was helping them both situate their gear on their load-bearing vests, a sense of urgency quickening their movements.

“We’re ready, Doc,” Jason said into the intercom. “Get us back over the admin building.”

“We’re on our way,” Kage reported. Doc apparently had his hands full just flying the ship. It was a few moments before they felt the buffeting of small arms fire as the Korkarans opened up on the Phoenix as she flared and descended sharply over the building.

“Transit beam will be active in five seconds,” Kage said.

The ground team hustled out of the armory and into the cargo bay as the belly hatch opened up and the wavering blue light of the transit beam activated. Lucky dove through first, then Jason, and lastly Crusher. The team landed on the steeply angled roof of the administration building. Jason looked up as the Phoenix throttled up and flew off, launching one of the twins as she climbed up steeply away from all the weapons fire.

“There’s a group of twelve currently trying to breech the entrance,” Crusher said, peering over the side. “The others must be running around in the city causing as much trouble as possible.”

Jason looked over himself and saw the Korkarans trying to get in through the heavily armored door of the government building. They looked more like they were trying to keep the occupants inside rather than get in themselves. It was a fairly half-hearted effort by such a heavily armed group. But, there were twelve of them all bunched up and Jason hated wasting opportunities.

He plucked a grenade off his harness and set the fuse to detonate on impact. After priming it he lobbed the small explosive with a gentle underhand throw, casually walking back from the edge as he did. The explosion and hissing screams of the Korkarans were quite satisfying. They were a tough species, however, and Jason had no delusions of a single grenade taking them all out.

There were at least five still moving around on the ground when he peeked over the edge, two of which were writhing in pain. He shouldered his railgun and opened fire on the survivors, the hypersonic rounds devastating the pavement, the surviving Korkarans, and kicking up a plume of debris so heavy the three members of the assault team had to wait to see the results.

“Sometimes I really hate that gun,” Crusher grumbled. Jason just smiled at him. The weapon was relatively simple compared to some of the more exotic arms available, but the sheer destructive power of the tiny projectiles once they were accelerated to many times the speed of sound always made Jason wonder why more aliens didn’t use them.

“Let’s get down and see if we can get into the building,” Jason said. “Hopefully Twingo will figure out a way to communicate with us soon.”

“We should hurry,” Lucky said, pointing off to the city square. “Our actions seem to have gained some unwanted attention.”

“Not really,” Jason said. “We’re in a defensible position and if they’re worried about us they’re not out there killing A’arcooni.” The trio slid down to the edge of the roof and then dropped the remaining fourteen feet to the street level. Lucky went and banged on the door, negotiating with the A’arcooni inside to allow them in while Crusher and Jason kept an eye on the approaching Korkarans.

“Try and slow that group down to the right,” Crusher said. “They’re still out of plasma rifle range.” Jason lined up the lead Korkaran and let the optics on his railgun feed him range data. Two hundred and thirty meters away, an easy shot with the weapon. He squeezed the trigger and watched as the round nearly tore the mercenary in half and the shockwave knocked down the two closest to him. The others scattered instantly, sprinting for cover. Jason fired two more rounds after the fleeing combatants, but was unable to hit a moving target at such a long range.

The door to the admin building creaked open slowly and an A’arcooni hand shot out and motioned for them to quickly enter. They slipped in and Lucky slammed the door shut behind them.

“Captain,” De’Elefor said in greeting. “We’re happy to see you’ve come back.”

“We got back as quick as we could,” Jason said. “Crisstof’s ship arrived and was able to take out the enemy destroyer that had been in orbit over A’arcoon.”

“We were unaware of a second ship,” De’Elefor said. “Do you know why these aliens have come and why they attack us in the streets?”

“I’ll tell you everything I know once we’ve repelled these invaders,” Jason said. “In the meantime, we’ll wait here until our reinforcements arrive.”

“Crisstof Dalton is bringing combat personnel?” De’Elefor asked.

“Oh yeah,” Jason laughed. “The Korkarans out there have no idea what’s on the way.”

As if on cue, Jason’s earpiece buzzed with static and then Mazer’s voice broke in.

“Omega Force,” he said. “This is Captain Reddix. I’m unable to raise the Phoenix but am aware of the situation on the ground. I am inbound for the city of A’ara with a full company of Marines. You’ll know when we get there.”

“Sounds good, Mazer,” Jason said, keying his personal com. “The Phoenix had her com system knocked out by that destroyer. We’re holed up in the administration building protecting the A’arcooni government. It’s the pyramid-type building at the northeast corner of the main square.”

“Confirmed, Jason,” Mazer said. “We’ll be hitting the ground in a few minutes.”

“The Marines are on their way,” Jason said to his companions. “I’m not even going to pretend to tell you that you’re not going back out to join the fight, Crusher. As soon as they land and establish themselves, we’ll head out and start harassing their rear guard.”

“Yes!” Crusher said enthusiastically, slapping Jason on the shoulder hard enough to knock him into Lucky. “I had been worried we wouldn’t be able to participate in the upcoming festivities.”

“With over one hundred and twenty of your brothers getting ready to hit the streets I don’t think the Korkarans are going to have many troops to spare trying to break into here,” Jason said.

“No argument there,” Crusher said, suddenly very cheerful and agreeable after Jason gave him exactly what he wanted without him even needing to ask.

The Marines deployed into three platoons along the southern edge of A’ara and began pushing north, engaging any Korkaran they could find. The Korkaran mercenaries were caught flat-footed as they swaggered through the city bullying the terrified A’arcooni. When the first wave of pissed-off Galvetic Marines engaged them it was a complete shock. The Korkarans were hardened warriors, however, and quickly fell back to regroup and meet the charge in a more organized way. This was more or less what Jason had been expecting and waiting on.

“They’ve fallen back and are concentrating on Mazer’s forces,” Jason said. “Let’s go out and toss a little more fuel on this fire.” Nodding to De’Elefor, Jason popped the locks on the door. He pulled it open a bit to let Lucky slip out and immediately there was the sound of intense, close range weapons fire.

“Clear,” Lucky called. Jason and Crusher hustled out and saw that a three-man fire team had been positioned by the door to wait for someone to come out. Lucky had quickly taken out all of them and only had a slight discoloration on his chest armor for his troubles.

“Crusher, you’ve had the most experience with these guys,” Jason said. “Where would we be the most effective?”

Crusher looked momentarily surprised at being given operational control of the team, but took the question seriously.

“They don’t fight with any sort of centralized command structure, so we don’t have any officers to go after,” Crusher said, thinking about it. “If we can divide them up into smaller skirmish groups Mazer will have no problem taking out the smaller groups individually while minimizing his own losses.”

“Sounds reasonable,” Jason said. “You lead, we’ll follow.”

Crusher nodded and moved off away from the administrative building at a quick run. Jason wasn’t exactly manipulating Crusher and he was being completely sincere about the warrior being far more familiar with their enemy than he or Lucky was, but he also knew that by putting the burden of leadership on his friend it would curb his tendencies to rush off into his own engagements with no thought of his team. Now that he was the lead of the three-man team he would first think about keeping Jason and Lucky safe and his own desire to kill Korkarans would be a close second.

They ran down a side street off the main square, avoiding the smaller Korkaran patrols while pushing towards the sounds of heavy weapons fire to the south. Crusher led them down a narrow alley and then up a flight of stairs that put them on the unused second floor of a large, nondescript building that may have been housing units at one time. He posted Lucky along the back exit to protect their egress route and led Jason deeper into the building.

“We’ll engage one of their teams here,” Crusher said. “Then we’ll move over and up to the street one block to the south and wait for their reinforcements to come in.”

“How big are their teams?” Jason asked, checking the charge on the railgun’s power pack.

“Normally no bigger than ten once they’ve split up in a city like this,” Crusher whispered. “But they’ll begin to congregate again in order to meet Mazer’s superior force.”

“So we’re just going to keep stinging them along their rearguard to keep them off balance?”

“Exactly,” Crusher said with a smile. “I’m moving into the next room. When I open fire, go ahead and take out any targets of opportunity. I’ll shout when it’s time to move. We won’t get more than a few shots before they locate us.”

Jason wasn’t in love with the plan since they were trapped in an upper level of a building if their rear exit was cut off, but it was better than Crusher jumping into the middle of a group of Korkarans with nothing more than a blade and relying on Jason and Lucky to bail him out.

They only had to wait a couple of minutes before the sound of heavy footfalls caught Jason’s attention. A team of eight Korkarans was sprinting down the side street towards the sounds of more intense fighting, completely ignoring anything above or behind them. Jason kept away from the window opening until the team had passed and then sighted down his railgun’s optics, waiting for the signal.

Crusher opened fire once they were well past the window openings, giving him and Jason better cover and an optimal firing angle. Three Korkarans fell under the withering plasma fire and the others scattered. Jason tracked two as they sprinted for cover in the building across the street, lining up his shot and killing them both with a single railgun round.

“Showoff!” he heard Crusher shout before appearing in the doorway. “Let’s go, we need to get to the next street up.” Jason followed his friend out and they collected Lucky before leaping across the alley to the roof of the next building, a shorter commercial unit, and raced along to get to the next side street.

They made it to the edge just in time to see a twelve-man team running to support the Korkarans Crusher and Jason had just engaged. Lucky and Crusher opened fire without a word while Jason tossed another grenade into the middle of the group. After the teeth-jarring explosion, Lucky leapt from the roof and began engaging the stunned troops at close range. Crusher also jumped off, intent on not letting a single mercenary escape.

Jason stood at the edge of the roof, eyes scanning all around for any sign of additional troops that could surprise his friends while they were engaged on the street. It was over in less than a minute with all twelve Korkarans dead, some gruesomely so. Jason hopped off the two-story building and landed on the balls of his feet, absorbing the impact with his enhanced leg muscles.

“That was quick,” he remarked, spinning and raising his railgun as the sounds of approaching footsteps reached them. The welcome sight of fifteen Galvetic Marines coming from a side street leading up from the south greeted the three members of Omega Force.

“Lord Archon!” the sergeant in charge said, crashing his fist against his chest in salute. “We heard weapons fire and came as fast as we could. It appears we were not needed.”

“But you’re always welcome,” Crusher said with a laugh. “Anything happening down where you just came from?”

“No, my lord,” the Marine said. “We’re part of the advance force ahead of Captain Reddix. I’m to report any contact to him along with three other squads deployed along this front.”

“Do you feel like pushing back north with us and seeing what sort of trouble we can find?” Crusher asked.

“It would be our honor,” the sergeant said with a huge, toothy smile.

The seventeen-man squad ran as fast as they could, following Crusher back the way they had come. Jason found that he could easily keep pace with the Marines thanks to his enhancements and much to their surprise. He was still acclimating to the dramatic changes to his body but it was moments like this where all the pain and needing to relearn basic skills were worth it.

Maybe it was hubris or just simple carelessness, but the noisy squad ended up running directly into a Korkaran ambush that had been set specifically for them. The first shot fired was a tight-beamed plasma burst that, in a case of incredibly bad luck, hit Jason’s railgun. The weapon took the brunt of the blast and the reflected energy burnt off much of the ablative coating on his body armor. A loud, warbling screech emitted from the railgun and Jason didn’t hesitate, knowing exactly what the warning tone meant, and threw the weapon into the faces of their assailants.

It exploded as the power pack went critical from the heat it had absorbed from the plasma blast. Three charging Korkarans were peppered with molten metal and caustic cooling gel from the rails. They went down screaming and clawing at their faces as two more came from behind them. Jason could hear that they’d been rushed from all sides as his companions fought off the initial contact. In the event of an ambush, Jason had been trained to respond with maximum firepower and break contact, but the three-pronged rush had collapsed the squad onto itself and he couldn’t flee without leaving his friends’ left flank exposed.

He pulled his sidearm and opened fire right into the face of the Korkaran in the lead, vaporizing everything from the neck up. Dodging the body as its momentum carried it forward, he tried to line up the last mercenary on his side for a shot but had to drop to the ground as it brought its own weapon up. Jason held down the trigger and the small weapon spat out plasma bolts in rapid fire succession, destroying the Korkaran’s weapons and flipping it over backwards before it overheated and shut off. He climbed to his feet and tossed the weapon aside, spinning to see how the rest of the squad fared and drawing his last remaining weapon.

Unfortunately, the Korkaran he had shot was also wearing body armor and Jason’s underpowered pistol hadn’t dealt a killing blow. While his back was turned the big saurian alien rushed him and slammed him to the ground, sending his weapon flying. Jason rolled and threw an elbow back into its snout before it could try and bite down on his neck. It hissed and pushed him away, climbing to its feet.

Jason rolled to his feet and squared off against the powerful alien. The familiar rushing sound in his ears of his turbocharged adrenal response drowned out the sounds of combat around him as the Korkaran, now seeming to move much slower, moved in again. It lashed out with a clawed hand, going straight for Jason’s throat. He moved into the thrust, turning at the last instant and allowing the hand to pass and wrapping around it with his own left arm. With the alien’s arm pinned, he shoved off of his left foot, rolling to the right, and bent the elbow joint back the opposite way. The Korkaran screamed in pain and tried to wrench its arm free, but Jason was latched on tight. As he continued his roll he drew back his right fist and smashed it into the side of the Korkaran’s left knee, the hardened spikes on his gauntlets ripping flesh off the joint.

The fear began to abate now that the initial contact of the fight had been made and Jason was able to settle down and think more strategically. He knew he didn’t have the leverage to break the arm, so he released it and spun around, sweeping the alien’s legs out from under it with his right leg. He bounced to his feet and waited as the surprised alien climbed up much more slowly, eyeing him with newfound respect. The soft, pink alien had almost torn its arm off and he wasn’t about to make the same mistake again.

The Korkaran approached again, this time much more cautiously, which proved to be an even bigger mistake than a mad rush. Jason had plenty of time to wait until the mercenary, its moves now tinged with fear, threw a soft, exploratory strike with its right hand. He grabbed the wrist and bent it down with his left hand and smashed an overhand blow into its snout, breaking the bone and jarring his own hand hard enough to numb it. Jason was dimly aware that there was a circle of Galvetic Marines surrounding the fight, but they seemed to be making no move to intercede. He put it out of his mind as he yanked the still-captive wrist up and raised his right forearm to block a weak strike from the Korkaran’s left. He could sense his opponent was weakening and decided to push his advantage, releasing the wrist and kicking the inside of its left knee with his right boot.

The Korkaran was thrown off balance and dropped to one knee, its head snapping up as it did. Jason stepped in and put all his weight into another heavy punch that smashed into the alien’s throat, the soft tissue giving under the force of the hit. The Korkaran’s eyes bulged and it went limp, clutching at its throat as Jason let it fall to the pavement. It thrashed around for a second more before going still.

There was silence for a moment before a savage, roaring cheer went up from the squad of Galvetic Marines and their Lord Archon. Crusher walked up and clapped Jason on the shoulder, shaking him enthusiastically.

“Well done, Captain!” Crusher yelled at him. “Single unarmed combat against a worthy opponent!” The other Marines also came in to clap him on the back, each nodding respectfully to him. Jason looked over to Lucky who only nodded to him once in approval, seeming to beam like a proud teacher. The Galvetic warriors had already held Jason in high esteem due to his association with Felex Tezakar and his actions on Restaria, but word of his hand-to-hand combat victory against a Korkaran would be spread far and wide among their ranks. His victory practically made him an honorary legionnaire.

“Captain,” Lucky said. “I have contact with the Phoenix. Twingo was able to effect emergency repairs of the com system.”

Jason reached up and found that his earpiece was missing, knocked out during the fight, no doubt. He didn’t bother trying to find it.

“What’s their status?”

“They are flying above the city out of small arms range,” Lucky said. “They destroyed the troop carrier as it circled around and tried to land to extract the mercenaries. Captain Reddix reports that the bulk of the Korkaran force has been neutralized and they are pushing towards the city square.”

“I guess we’ll meet up there,” Jason shrugged, walking over and picking up his remaining plasma pistol. “Let’s not walk into any more ambushes since I’m nearly out of weapons.”

Chapter 19

“Captain Burke,” Kellea said in greeting as they walked up to the mustering point in the city square. Landing craft from the Defiant littered the open area and Galvetic Marines began leaving on patrols in armored vehicles.

“Are you sure it’s a good idea for you to be down here right now, Captain?” Jason asked.

Kellea regarded him with a cold look, apparently still not happy with him after the stunt they’d pulled while departing her ship. “Captain Reddix has assured me the area is secure and the Defiant has subdued the destroyer that nearly shot you down,” she said. “My Intel section is in the process of finding out who they are since the ship doesn’t appear in any registry.”

“I see,” Jason said in a neutral tone. “Have you heard from my ship?”

“Doc said they were heading back to the same hangar you were parked in last night,” she said. “The Phoenix needs some significant repairs and I didn’t think it’d be a great idea to bring it into my hangar, all things considered.” They’d drifted away from the crowd so Jason was able to speak in a conversational voice instead of whispers.

“I agree,” he said casually. “I’d prefer not to have my ship in there either. Your hangar crew’s lack of professionalism is concerning in light of the repairs the ship requires.” He knew he’d just dropped a neutron bomb into the conversation, but he couldn’t stop himself. He refused to take full blame for a situation instigated by her deck boss.

“If you’re referring to my former deck boss, he is no longer working on the hangar deck and will be released from service as soon as we make port again,” she said in a deadly quiet voice. “However inappropriate his actions may have been, it doesn’t excuse you deliberately trying to damage my ship.”

Jason just rolled his eyes. “I know you’re angry, and rightfully so, but we both know running the engines in that launch tube wouldn’t have damaged anything,” he said. “It was loud and I’m sure it startled everyone, but it was a relatively tame prank as far as those things go.”

“Look … you scared the hell out of my hangar crew,” she said. “At least have the decency to look ashamed so that when my pilots report back they’ll tell them I gave you a real dressing down.”

“If it will make you feel better tell your crew that I apologize and hope that there are no hard feelings,” Jason said. “But I’m sure half your pilots are just jealous they’ve never gotten to do that.”

“Thankfully all the ships I carry are relatively tepid compared to that thing you fly around in,” she said, seeming to lose some of the rigid set to her back. “How bad is the Phoenix?”

“I won’t know until Twingo tears into it,” Jason admitted. “We took a full shot on the dorsal surface. We didn’t see the destroyer until it was too late.”

“Let me know if you need anything from the Defiant’s machine shops,” she offered. “I heard you got into a fight with one of the mercenaries? My Marines are all talking about it.”

“You heard about that already?” Jason asked.

“Oh, yes. Lord Felex’s small protégé that took out a Korkaran,” she said with a straight face.

“Crusher’s protégé?” Jason almost laughed. “I hope Lucky doesn’t hear that. Anyway, I’ll catch up with you later. I’m going to go have a word with De’Elefor and then get back to my ship and try to get this mission back on track.”

“One more thing, Jason,” she said in a serious voice. “Please have a care about when you activate those XTX missiles you swiped from the Diligent. Crisstof hasn’t pushed the issue of you having them, but they’re a highly controlled munition and every time a sensor operator sees you have one you’re putting yourself at risk.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Jason promised, not bothering to argue that he’d activated one of their ship-busters because they were staring down a destroyer’s main guns.

His conversation with De’Elefor was short and to the point. The A’arcooni leader thanked him for his help with the Korkarans, but alluded to the fact that he thought Jason had led them to his planet. Jason told him the enemy ship arrived for the same reason they did and that the sooner he was able to complete his task on A’arcoon the sooner they’d leave. De’Elefor still seemed skeptical about the argument, but agreed to meet with Jason the next day for the discussion the arrival of mercenaries had interrupted.

After his frustrating talk with Kellea, and his equally frustrating talk with De’Elefor, he was able to bum a ride back to the hangar for the three Omega Force members still in the city from one of the Marines. The twenty-minute ride in the wheeled vehicle gave him time to think on how best to salvage what had quickly become a disaster of an operation. Even with the destroyer neutralized and in custody, Jason was still keenly aware that there was still at least one known faction hunting for the Key. If he was honest, it was the one he’d been most worried about as none of his interactions with ConFed operatives had resulted in anything positive.

****

“So what happened?” Jason asked. “One hit and we lost all coms?”

“It was more to do with the fact that Main Bus B was disabled to the forward part of the ship,” Twingo was saying. “It looks like a design flaw that’s never been exploited until yesterday.” He and Jason were standing on top of the Phoenix, which was once again resting in the massive stone hangar, looking over the damaged dorsal surface.

“I can make the necessary changes to the power mux without needed to route new lines or move any components,” Twingo assured him. “It’s a software change. The rest of the damage up here is mostly superficial and the damage control bots will be able to clean all this up. The fabricators are making the new power couplings for the shields and Kellea’s shops are making the replacement shield emitters.”

“So we’ll be back to full mission capable in a couple of days?” Jason asked.

“Before that more than likely,” Twingo said, rubbing his chin as he thought about it. “It would also be a good time to take the main reactor down for my other project.”

“Go ahead,” Jason said. “We won’t be flying out of here until the tactical systems are all one hundred percent. While you’re doing that I’ll take Lucky and try to get what we need from the A’arcooni.”

“Are they being cooperative?”

“They were,” Jason sighed. “They blame us for what happened yesterday on some level. I’d like to have ten minutes alone with the asshole that turned two hundred Korkarans loose on a civilian population like that.”

“That is unfortunate,” Twingo said.

“Good job getting all of this coordinated while we were out,” Jason said. “Let me know if you need anything else.”

Jason walked down the left wing and stepped off onto the stand he and Twingo had dragged over to get access to the top of the ship. They’d needed to improvise after discovering the dorsal hatch was jammed shut. Even so, he was relieved the damage hadn’t been too extreme to his ship as he had a bad feeling the worst of the mission still lay ahead. When he reached the floor of the hangar he looked over and saw the silhouettes of three A’arcooni standing at the entrance. Frowning, he walked over to greet them. The fact they had come to him two hours before their scheduled meeting probably wasn’t good news.

“Captain Burke,” De’Elefor said as he approached, bowing deeply.

“De’Elefor,” Jason said, nodding to the A’arcooni. “Is there some title that accompanies your position? I mean no disrespect by simply referring to you by name.”

“Your concern is appreciated, but unfounded,” De’Elefor said. “I have intentionally attached no title to my office as a constant reminder to the people, and myself, that my service is temporary and that a new government still needs to be elected.”

“So what can I do for you?” Jason said, dreading what the alien might say next. It was either good news or De’Elefor was about to throw a massive roadblock in his way.

“We wished to speak to you away from the chaos of A’ara,” he said carefully. “With the arrival of Crisstof Dalton’s ship there are a lot of unfamiliar faces about.”

“Fair enough,” Jason said. “We can talk in the galley aboard my ship. I have to warn you that we’re in the middle of some repairs so it’s a little hectic in there.”

“You saw how we once lived aboard ships,” De’Elefor said with a small smile. “I’m sure it cannot be as bad as that.”

Jason didn’t answer, but he vividly remembered the unsafe living conditions on the A’arcooni ships they’d been flying around on. It was so bad that if Crisstof hadn’t pulled them off and provided extensive medical treatment it was likely eighty percent of the A’arcooni population would be dead.

Jason led the three aliens up the ramp of the Phoenix and into the galley. After they’d declined anything to drink he sat and patiently waited for De’Elefor to speak.

“I think I know what you are looking for, even if you don’t fully know yourself,” he began. “I believe you’re searching for the lost tribe.”

“If you mean a group of your people who have stayed behind and can tell me what I’m supposed to do with the pieces of this Key, then you’re correct,” Jason said, hope welling up in him.

“They exist,” De’Elefor said simply. “But there are some complications. They will have no contact with those of us who have returned from the ships nor are they defenseless.”

“You say that as if they might be hostile,” Jason said.

“They can be,” De’Elefor said. “They have moderately advanced weaponry and still operate much of the technology that was gifted to us by the Travelers.”

“So is there any chance I’ll be able to speak with them?” Jason asked, wanting to get to the heart of the matter.

“It is possible,” De’Elefor said carefully. “But if you try to fly there in your ship or approach them with any of us it is probable that they will retreat into their bunker and you’ll never get a word in.”

“That’s not very encouraging,” Jason muttered.

“If you want to engage them, appeal to their curiosity,” De’Elefor continued. “Make them want to help you by presenting them with a problem they can’t refuse. Your question of the Travelers’ ancestors will appeal to them, but you’ll have to find a way to make them listen. To that end I’ve brought you this.” He reached into his tunic and brought out a universal data card and laid it on the galley table.

“I’m assuming those are planetary coordinates?” Jason asked, taking the card.

“That and some background information on the tribe,” De’Elefor said. “I’ve given you all that we know about them, little as it is. Good luck to you, Captain.” With that he, and the other two, rose out of their seats and filed out of the galley. Jason trusted them to find their own way off the ship, twirling the data card in his hand.

“Lucky! Get in here!” he shouted. “Bring the antenna with you.”

****

Jason and Lucky trudged up the narrow mountain path after having been dropped off by a skimmer which the crew of the Defiant had brought down to the surface. The pair had both memorized the data in the file De’Elefor had provided and knew exactly where they were going, but neither had any idea of the reception they would receive.

“Captain, might I inquire why you asked me to come along instead of any of the others?” Lucky asked as he tirelessly climbed the steep grade.

“Besides the fact I enjoy your company?” Jason asked. “Simple. You have the most tact and grace when dealing with situations like this out of all of us, myself included.”

Lucky seemed pleased by this explanation and let the subject drop.

The path was well-defined, but it was obvious that only animals had been using the trail recently as the surrounding forest threatened to reclaim it. According to the map they were given it would be another three kilometers before they reached the plateau where the supposed lost tribe of A’arcooni were living. They’d left the skimmer some kilometers behind them in an effort to appear less threatening when they arrived, but Jason had no doubt that the aliens they were on the way to see already knew they were coming.

It was another fifty minutes before their leisurely pace took them out of the woods and into the loose scrub that grew in the rocky soil along their final ascent. When they crested the rise and looked out over the gently sloping plateau, they saw that they would at least get the initial chance to plead their case. Two A’arcooni dressed in loose, light brown garments stood in the middle of the clearing with their arms crossed, facing where the trail came out of the trees.

“I would assume they are the greeting party,” Jason said quietly. He walked slowly towards them, arms hanging loosely at his side. Since he came with Lucky he’d decided to come unarmed, as he didn’t want to send the wrong message given the pitched battle that had been fought in A’ara less than a day ago.

“Greetings, Captain Jason Burke,” the taller A’arcooni said. “That is far enough. We would ask why you’ve come to our home.”

Jason looked around and could see no obvious signs of a settlement. “We’ve come to ask for your help,” he said. “It’s a matter that pertains to the Travelers.”

“We have no help to offer you in regards to De’Astor Ka’s cult,” the A’arcooni said, turning to leave.

“Not that,” Jason called out. “The Travelers themselves. More specifically, the species that gave birth to their civilization.” This caused the A’arcooni to pause in his turn and regard Jason for a moment.

“I’m sorry you’ve wasted your time, Captain,” he said. “Please bother us no further.”

“Have you ever seen one of these?” Jason asked, pulling the antenna out from behind him and holding it up, the sun glinting off the golden alloy. Neither A’arcooni were able to hide their reaction and Jason knew he had them.

“Where did you get that?”

“In a sealed cave on a deserted planet on the other side of the quadrant,” Jason said. “There are two other components that accompany it, but we’re woefully short on information regarding what it is and what it controls.” Both A’arcooni approached them slowly with a hungry look in their eyes.

“We do not know what it is either,” the lead A’arcooni admitted. “But it has the writing of the Ancients all over it. Please follow us, Captain. We will try and discover the purpose of this device together.”

Lucky and Jason followed the A’arcooni across the clearing and towards a break in the rock that was now revealed to be an entrance as they got closer. De’Elefor had said that the tribe had an almost compulsive need to understand the Travelers and their teachings. The Ancients, as Jason was already referring to them, figured heavily in that equation. As he’d hoped, the antenna and its seductive hieroglyphs were just what he needed to gain their willing assistance.

Chapter 20

“The script along the outer ring is most definitely the Ancients’ language,” a wizened, elderly A’arcooni named Ke’Elam said. Lucky and Jason had been unceremoniously turned over to him and the three were now in a surprisingly sophisticated workshop studying the ring. “It isn’t anything profound, however. These are simple instructions.”

“So the user’s manual is printed along the outside,” Jason mused. “That makes sense if you wanted it to last through the millennia.”

“Indeed,” Ke’Elam said, bobbing his head up and down. “But this appears to be only one piece of the machine. While interesting, it is useless without the other two.”

“In theory we have the other two,” Jason said to him. He’d been dolling out the information on the Key slowly, letting the scientist fill in the gaps without any prompting from him. “One other part I have for certain, the other is supposedly hidden on my ship, but we’ve been unable to locate it as of yet.”

“This instruction set only tells us how the antenna is to be positioned in relation to the transceiver,” Ke’Elam said. “Have you attempted to put those two units together?”

“No,” Jason said. “We had no idea as to how the antenna was supposed to be oriented, much less read the text that’s on the transceiver itself.”

“Ah,” Ke’Elam said. “So more complete operating instructions are likely printed on that component. In order to help you I will need to see this other piece, I’m afraid.”

“I can have it brought here,” Jason said slowly. “But perhaps it would be helpful if you came down to where my ship is. It’s separated from the city of A’ara … it’s inside a hangar on the old aerodrome grounds.” He could see the sudden anxiousness and indecision on the elderly A’arcooni’s face.

“We have had no interaction with De’Astor Ka’s cult since you brought them back,” he said. “I’m not certain we’re ready for reconciliation.”

“That’s not what I’m suggesting,” Jason said. “It would be only me and my crew. No A’arcooni from the Traveler ships would be present if you did not wish them to be.”

“Could I have a few hours to consider your request, Captain?” Ke’Elam asked.

“Of course,” Jason said with a nod, forcing himself to keep the frustration from his voice. “Our ride to the aerodrome won’t be back for a few hours anyway.”

Ke’Elam bobbed his head in that odd, birdlike manner the A’arcooni sometimes had and left the shop.

“Do you think he will come with us?” Lucky asked.

“I couldn’t say,” Jason admitted. “While bringing up the transceiver for him to translate would be a tremendous help, there’s no substitute for having an expert onsite while we’re trying to find the encryption module.” He idly walked around the large workshop, looking at various disassembled components and drawings for others that were scattered around the bench tops. “You know, they’re a lot more advanced than you would assume when seeing that they basically live in a series of caves and crude shelters.”

“I get the impression it is the study of what the Travelers left behind that gives their life meaning, not necessarily the application of that technology,” Lucky said.

“I guess,” Jason said. “Just think of the jumpstart the A’arcooni on this planet would have if the two camps combined. All the technology here and all the labor force and production capability down there. Hell, they’d be a spacefaring species again within a decade.”

“I think that is what these A’arcooni are trying to avoid,” Lucky said.

It was an hour and twenty minutes before Ke’Elam and a younger A’arcooni walked back into the shop.

“We will accompany you down to the aerodrome, Captain Burke,” he said, much to Jason’s relief.

“And who is this?” Jason asked, gesturing to the younger A’arcooni.

“It is not important that you know who he is,” Ke’Elam said pleasantly. “I’m not being deliberately mysterious, but he will be accompanying me as an observer only.”

“So he’s there to protect you from us, or you from the other A’arcooni,” Jason guessed.

“I was under the impression the Cult was now non-violent,” Ke’Elam said with a smile.

“Not that sort of protection,” Jason said. “He’s to shield you from any influence or undue contact. Not to worry, Ke’Elam. I will ensure the hangar is empty before we get there.”

“Quite perceptive, Captain,” Ke’Elam said with a nod. “He is also to report back on my actions. If I break our pact and make contact with any members of the Cult I will be exiled. But the opportunity your device presents is worth that risk.”

“I’ll make sure it doesn’t come to that,” Jason promised. “Shall we go?”

“Of course.”

“Lucky, call ahead and tell Doc of the conditions we’ve agreed to with Ke’Elam,” Jason said, picking up the antenna. “Let’s not start off with any misunderstandings.”

****

The skimmer dropped all four of them off just outside the hangar before lifting again and heading back to the city. The pilot was given explicit instructions to tell any A’arcooni in the city who asked that Jason had been unable to make contact with the mountain tribe. Doc was waiting for them at the door and Crusher was sound asleep on the landing gear, one of his favorite nap spots.

“Are the other two pulling the reactor apart?” Jason asked.

“Already at it,” Doc confirmed. “He shut it down this morning and purged the main chamber. He’s already dropped the intermix housing.”

“That was quick,” Jason said. “I hope he’s taking precautions. Doc, this is Ke’Elam and his … friend. He’s a researcher with the A’arcooni who survived De’Astor Ka’s purge. He’ll be helping us with the Key.”

“Kellea brought the transceiver this morning,” Doc said. “She’s on the ship now with it.” That part surprised Jason a bit. With a captured warship in orbit and a heavy ground action just wrapping up, he didn’t expect to see much of her before they were all ready to leave the system.

He motioned for the others to follow him and walked into the hangar, ignoring the heavy snoring coming from the landing gear as well as the steady stream of swearing that was coming from an open access hatch near the main reactor. They went up the ramp and into a cargo bay strewn with tools and pieces of the ship that Jason hoped his engineer would remember how to put back.

“It’s not usually so cluttered,” he said apologetically as he led his guests up the steps and onto the Phoenix’s main deck.

“It is an impressive ship, Captain,” Ke’Elam said perfunctorily. Jason knew it was a meaningless platitude, but his pride in his ship came out anyway.

“Thanks,” he said. “She’s saved our lives on more than one occasion, not to mention the lives of countless others we’ve helped.” He continued on until he saw Kellea sitting at a galley table with the transceiver case sitting in front of her. She smiled when she saw him and he was relieved that she seemed to be mostly over the stunt he’d pulled in her hangar bay.

“Kellea, this is Ke’Elam,” Jason said as she drew close. “Ke’Elam, this is Captain Kellea Colleren.”

“Ah yes,” Ke’Elam said, “the captain of the Diligent.” Jason winced, but remained silent.

“The Defiant, actually,” Kellea said smoothly. “The Diligent was unfortunately lost some time ago.”

“My apologies,” Ke’Elam said. “It would appear my information is out of date. Shall we get started?”

Kellea gestured to the case and stepped aside. Ke’Elam correctly took this as an invitation and walked over to the table.

He popped the latches on the case and peered into it, catching his breath as he caught sight of the larger component. Reverently lifting it out, he nodded for his observer to move the case and set the device gently on the table.

“This is simply incredible,” Ke’Elam breathed. “A working piece of Ancient technology.”

“How do you know it’s functional?” Jason asked.

“Look at the antenna you’re holding, Captain,” Ke’Elam answered. Jason looked down and saw the symbols around the ring, which had looked to simply be etchings in the metal, were lighting up in a peculiar sequence, each in its own unique color.

“I probably shouldn’t be holding this thing,” Jason said, handing it to Lucky. The battlesynth glared openly at him before placing it on the table at the opposite end of the transceiver.

“The language is in a dialect I’m not fully familiar with,” Ke’Elam admitted. “But much of it is still familiar. I’m confident I can activate the device.” Everyone looked to Jason, waiting for his response.

“What the hell?” Jason shrugged. “I haven’t come this far to not turn the thing on. Let ‘er rip.”

Ke’Elam looked at him questioningly for a moment before deciding that Jason’s untranslatable idiom meant to proceed. He began pressing on the symbols surrounding the disc of the transceiver in a confident manner, eliciting a response from the device immediately.

The component began to also emit light, the jewels embedded around the disc glowing from blue to a bright white. There was a sudden bright flash that made them all turn away, and when they turned back the jewels were now back to a muted blue. There was also an additional person standing in the galley.

The alien was tall and thin, almost spindly with narrow shoulders and hips. It had a large cranium and enormous, almond eyes that appeared black. There was no discernible mouth and only a pair of nostrils. It sent a chill down Jason’s spine as he realized, even down to the skin tone, that he was looking at a fairly accurate representation of a “gray” alien from Earth’s modern lore.

“Identify yourself,” Lucky said harshly, moving to step between the alien and Jason. The alien looked at Lucky, then to Jason, before speaking in a language his implant couldn’t translate. Jason looked at Ke’Elam, who simply shook his head helplessly indicating he had no idea what it was saying.

“Can you understand me?” Jason asked in Jenovian Standard. The alien appeared to be ignoring him as it walked over to the terminal in the galley and moved its hand to touch the interface. Before Jason could stop it the alien’s hand sunk into the terminal, only a slight discoloration at the point of contact breaking the illusion.

“It’s a hologram,” Jason said in wonder.

“Are you sure?” Kellea asked. “I’ve never seen one so realistic.”

“Pretty sure,” Jason said. “And it appears to be accessing my ship’s computer. Ke’Elam, shut it down!” Ke’Elam moved to grab the device but the alien looked sharply at them and elicited a high-pitched shriek that seemed to pierce Jason’s skull with its intensity. He dropped to one knee, squeezing his eyes shut and putting his hands over his ears. He was vaguely aware of the others also falling to the deck around him, even the loud clang of a battlesynth. The agony lasted only a second longer before it stopped as suddenly as it started.

“I apologize for incapacitating you, Captain Jason Burke,” a deep voice said. “However, if the integration process is halted prematurely it can be quite difficult to reinitialize.” Jason cracked his eyes open and saw the alien was now standing in front of him. He stood up and shook his head to clear it, looking around to ensure the others were shaking off the effects as well.

“I see,” he said carefully. “So you know who I am?”

“I do now,” the alien said. “I have integrated with your vessel’s main computer in order to perform my function as efficiently as possible.”

“So you’re a hologram being projected from the Key’s transceiver?” Jason asked.

“Essentially, yes,” the alien answered. “The terminology is a bit crude, but you seem to have grasped the basic concepts. I am called Cas. I will be your guide.”

“Our guide?” Doc asked.

“Yes, Doctor Ma’Fredich,” Cas said, his mouth not moving as he did so. “I’ve been able to ascertain that you think the device I’m projecting from is a Key to allow you access to a construct you refer to as the Machine. It is not quite that simple. I am an interface provided with the Key that will guide you along the way.”

“Are you an accurate portrayal of the race we refer to as the Ancients?” Ke’Elam asked in a hushed voice.

“Unknown reference,” Cas said. “I am, however, a serviceable simulation of the species who built the Key. Does that answer your question?”

“It does.”

“I’d like to set some ground rules, if I may,” Jason said, trying to assert some control over the conversation. “I understand you’re performing your job as best you see fit, but I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t access any system on my ship without my permission. It would also be great if you wouldn’t incapacitate us again.”

“Parameters updated,” Cas said pleasantly.

“Thanks,” Jason said absently. “So I guess the first issue we need to tackle is the missing component. Is the piece we’re calling the encryption module somewhere on this ship?”

“Yes,” Cas said. “Would you like me to point it out to you?”

“Uh … yeah, that would be fantastic,” Jason said. Cas set off across the common area on his way to Engineering.

“Do we need to bring the transceiver with us?” Jason called after it.

“The range of my holographic emitter is fifty meters,” Cas said. “Within that range any matter between my projection and the emitter is immaterial.” They all hustled after the hologram as he walked into the starboard engineering bay and scared Kage and Twingo nearly to death.

“Who the hell is this?” Twingo demanded.

“I’ll explain later,” Jason said. “The short answer is that he’s the Key. He’s also going to point out where the encryption module is at.”

“Well, it isn’t in the main reactor, I know that much,” Twingo muttered.

“Incorrect,” Cas said, walking up to the smooth surface of the main reactor’s outer shell. He raised a hand and a beam of light projected outward from his palm onto a spot on the lower half of the reactor casing. The ultra-dense alloy seemed to become transparent and there, nestled within the metal of the reactor itself, was the oblong cylinder that was the encryption module.

“Unbelievable,” Twingo muttered. “It really was inside the reactor.”

“This explains why it was never found,” Jason said. “Someone went through an insane amount of trouble to hide it. It also means we can’t retrieve it without disabling our ship beyond repair … at least here on A’arcoon.”

“Incorrect as well, Captain,” Cas said. “The encryption module can remain within the alloy of your main reactor to perform its function. May I?” Cas was indicating he wanted to touch the machinery in Engineering. Jason nodded his assent, placing a restraining hand on Twingo’s shoulder. The hologram poked and prodded among the conduits and lines before turning back to them.

“This is actually quite ingenious,” he said. “The unit will be able to modulate the plasma flow from the reactor to your engines, essentially turning your ship into a large transmitter.”

“Why is that advantageous?” Jason asked. “Is the range on the Key’s antenna that short?”

“Not necessarily,” Cas said. “But this type of implementation would allow someone to control the Machine through the dimension you refer to as slip-space. The caveat to this is an identical receiver would need to be deployed on the Machine itself.”

“So someone wanted to turn the Phoenix into a mobile, armed remote for the Machine,” Twingo said.

“You’re assuming that someone knew what they were doing when they cast the reactor shell with the module inside it,” Jason said. “I’m more convinced that it was just a clever place to hide it.”

“Cas,” Doc said, “what exactly is the Machine?”

“It is a weapon capable of developing singularities anywhere within its sphere of influence,” Cas said.

“What is that sphere of influence?” Jason asked.

“Thirty-five thousand lightyears,” Cas answered.

“That’s the entire quadrant and then some,” Kellea said. “And if I understand what Cas is saying, the Machine could create black holes within planets, stars, or just toss one into a shipping lane. Am I correct?”

“You are correct, Captain Colleren,” Cas said dispassionately. “The weapon is capable of collapsing stars, engulfing planets, or destabilizing entire systems.”

“Well,” Jason said blandly, “at least we know why everyone wants to get their hands on it.”

“What do we do now?” Twingo asked.

“I know you’ve been up all day working and I’m sorry to do this to you … but I need the ship back together as soon as possible,” Jason said. “That includes repairs from the battle damage.”

“I’ll have engineering teams down here within the hour,” Kellea said, walking out of the bay and pulling her com unit out.

“I’ll do my best,” Twingo said with a sigh. Jason patted him on the shoulder and motioned for everyone to follow him out.

“I’m assuming that you can navigate us to the Machine’s current location,” Jason said to Cas.

“Of course,” Cas answered. “I can give you coordinates verbally or I can program your ship’s navigation system myself.”

“I’ll let you know,” Jason said. “In the meantime, would you be offended if we powered down your emitter until we’re ready to depart?”

“You courtesy is unnecessary, Captain,” Cas said. “I am a simulation of intelligence, I have no feelings of my own that need to be considered.”

“Captain,” Ke’Elam said hesitantly. “Would it be possible for Cas and I to utilize some unoccupied part of your ship? The study of the Ancients has been my entire life. A discussion with one of their creations is an opportunity I won’t likely get again.”

Jason weighted the security risks against the fact that they owed Ke’Elam a favor for coming down from his village and operating the device.

“Very well,” he finally said. “You may use the conference room up on the command deck. Lucky will be in there with you the entire time.”

“I cannot thank you enough, Captain,” Ke’Elam said with a low bow. Lucky led him, Cas, and the silent observer up to the command deck and into the conference room, closing the door behind him.

“Engineering crews are on the way,” Kellea said, walking back into the common area. “They’re my best people. They can do all the grunt work while Twingo supervises.”

“Thank you,” Jason said simply. “For that and the parts you’ve been fabricating aboard the Defiant.”

“My pleasure,” she said. “It looks like you’re rolling up on the endgame. Once you have the Phoenix ready to fly and the location of the Machine, all you’ll have to do is fly out there and destroy it.”

“You can’t possibly believe it’s going to be that easy,” Jason said.

“No,” Kellea sighed. “It never is. I’ll let you get back to work. I’ll be aboard the Defiant if you need me. My Marines should be done sweeping the city by now and I’ll need to collect them before they start causing too much trouble.”

“They’ve worked out better than I would have ever expected,” Jason said.

“I’ll admit that I accepted their offer with trepidation given my limited experience with Crusher,” she said. “But after they settled into life aboard a starship they’ve been a pleasure to serve with, and surprising in many ways.”

“How so?”

“They integrated with the crew more fully than I would have expected for a group of warriors that lived isolated from other species,” she said. “Almost all of them participate in crew social functions, organized events, and a handful even perform with a music group.”

“I’m very happy to hear that,” Jason said. “I still feel some responsibility for their wellbeing. I’ll contact you with anything that changes down here.” The pair took advantage of the empty galley for a lingering goodbye kiss before going back to their respective duties.

****

“You’re certain about this?” Jason asked. “There’s no issue with the units of measure being off from a translation error?”

“No, Captain,” Cas replied. “This is where the Machine is in orbit over a gas giant.”

“What’s going on?” Twingo asked as he walked onto the bridge, interrupting Cas and Jason going over the navigation data.

“I have good news and bad news,” Jason said. “The good news is that we were at least flying in the right direction by coming out to A’arcoon. The bad news is that we’re still six weeks away from the Machine at high slip-space speeds.”

“You’re kidding,” Twingo said. “Six weeks? Even given the Phoenix’s speed advantage?”

“Yes.”

“That presents us with a significant problem,” Twingo said, sitting at the engineering station. “This ship isn’t designed for unaccompanied trips of that distance. We’re well out of our safe range of operation.”

“I understand that,” Jason said. “That’s why I called you up here. Do you think you can get her ready for the trip?”

Twingo snorted in disgust, but turned and began working on the problem anyway, bringing up tables and charts on his display.

“We’ll need extra fuel, of course,” he said. “But we’ll also need more consumables, more raw material for the fabricators, spares for things the fabricators can’t make … it really is a terrifying prospect, Captain. Why can’t we just take the Defiant out at least half of the way?”

“They’re hesitant to commit the ship for the same reasons,” Jason said. “Not to mention the expense of moving a battlecruiser all that distance for something that may not even be there anymore.”

“It is still there,” Cas volunteered.

“How can you be sure?” Jason asked.

“The energy that powers the Key comes from the Machine,” Cas said. “In a very general sort of way I can verify its position by the distance from it to that of the Key.”

“How does that work?” Twingo asked.

“Are you familiar with quantum entanglement?” Cas asked. Jason shook his head no and Twingo nodded his head yes. “The designers utilized this phenomenon to transmit power to the Key to ensure it was always active.”

“That’s been theorized but never proven,” Twingo said. “Fascinating.”

“It seems we can take it on faith that the Machine is still there,” Jason said. “Crisstof isn’t going to authorize Kellea to take her ship out that far. He’s offered to have one of the deep space exploration vessels he has in his fleet meet us out here, but the closest one is two months away.”

“That doesn’t do us any good,” Twingo said. “Those ships are slower than hell to begin with.”

“So we’re back to the original problem,” Jason said. “Can the Phoenix be equipped to make the journey?”

“Yes,” Twingo answered after a moment. “But it will not be a comfortable journey and I’ll need some more support from the Defiant to make it happen.”

“I’ll get on the com and get it for you,” Jason said.

“One more thing,” Twingo said as he walked off the bridge. “You’ll have to break it to Crusher that he’ll be stuck on the ship for over three months with nothing to do.”

Jason winced at the thought of not only telling his large friend the news, but the reality of being stuck on the ship with him for so long.

“Maybe we’ll luck out and there’ll be a habitable planet along the way,” Jason said to himself.

“There are no known habitable worlds for your species along the recommended course,” Cas said, still standing in the middle of the bridge.

“Shut down, Cas,” Jason said. “I’ll activate the Key again when I need you.” The hologram disappeared without a word leaving Jason alone on the bridge with nothing but his misgivings about the upcoming trip.

****

Jason tried to stay out of the way as the tech team from the Defiant, supervised by Twingo, finalized all the preparations to safely extend the Phoenix’s range enough to get them to the Machine and back.

“This is making me nervous just looking at it,” Kellea said from beside him. “Are you sure about this?”

“Nope,” Jason said. “But I don’t see any real alternative.”

“I’m sorry that Crisstof flat out refused to allow the Defiant to make the trip,” she said, still struggling with what Jason had told her about being the captain and the realities of someone else owning her ship.

“I agree with him,” Jason assured her. “The Defiant is a front line warship. It isn’t designed for much more range than this gunship has. Even though you carry more than enough fuel, you have a lot more crew going through a lot more consumables … barring the use of one of your boss’s exploration vessels, this makes the most sense.”

“Why can’t you just wait for one of those?” she asked, beginning to ride on his nerves with all the second guessing.

“The ConFed is out there,” he said. “And they’re coming. They already know the location of the Machine, or at least Intel Service does. With the emergence of the Key, and what I’ve found out about what this ship could be capable of with minor work on the other end, we’ve got to beat them out there and destroy it.”

“The thought of that weapon in anybody’s hands gives me chills,” she admitted. “Who would build such a horrible thing?”

“Not only that, who would scatter the parts of the Key throughout our part of the galaxy?” Jason said. “All these relatively primitive species,” he shook his head. “It’s like letting a toddler play with a live grenade.”

“You know how I hate lingering departures,” she said suddenly. “Have a safe journey and please come back.” She hugged him fiercely, kissing him quickly on the lips before walking out of the hangar and heading to the shuttle that would take her back to her ship. She walked away fast enough that he didn’t have time to say anything, also ensuring she would be long gone before the Phoenix taxied out.

“Women troubles?” Crusher rumbled next to him.

“Always,” Jason said, deciding to try a new tactic and agree with him to head off any further abuse.

“Why do you think I’ve never taken a mate?” Crusher asked, leaving the door wide open. Jason smiled widely at him. “I’m being serious,” he continued. “A warrior’s life is hard. The additional burden of caring for someone you’ll rarely see can be too much. Ours isn’t an easy path, but it has its own rewards.”

“Ours?” Jason asked, surprised. “I think that’s the first time you’ve ever acknowledged me as anything other than a liability.”

“I’ve given you a hard time as I would any untested trainee,” Crusher corrected. “But you killed a young, healthy Korkaran with your bare hands in single combat without the gimmicky armor or any sneaky tactics. You’re one of us now.” The genuine sentiment was such a rarity from Crusher that Jason just nodded his head, not trusting himself to speak.

“Captain Burke!” a familiar voice called out from the hangar entrance. He looked over and saw one of his close friends walking towards the ship. “Captain Mazer Reddix, Galvetic Marine Detachment Alpha reporting for duty, sir!” There were four hard-looking warriors arrayed out behind Mazer.

“You really want to come along on this crazy ride?” Jason asked him, a lopsided grin on his face.

“We wouldn’t want to be anywhere else, sir,” Mazer said. “We are on detached duty from the Defiant to the Phoenix for so long as we’re needed.”

“Crusher, see that our new crewmen have someplace to sleep,” Jason said.

“Yes, Captain,” Crusher said, forgoing the usual sarcastic comment. “Marines, grab your gear and follow me.”

“At once, Lord Archon,” Mazer said in the customary, albeit violent, Galvetic salute. Jason watched them go, shaking his head. Apparently Kellea felt he needed just a little bit more protecting and had sent a few of her Marines to reinforce Lucky and Crusher. They would be a great asset in a fight, but he had some doubts about them on such a long, dangerous flight. They wouldn’t even have the cargo bay to burn off energy in once Twingo was finished.

He stepped up on the ramp and looked over the preparations. Pallets of raw materials and consumables sat secured under cargo nets on the right side of the hold. Hissing cryogenic tanks loaded with precious liquid hydrogen sat on the left. The tanks were being topped off before they were piped into the manifold Twingo had fabricated that would allow them to supplement the gunship’s fuel load. In front of the cryo tanks were pallets loaded down with spares that the engineer deemed to be high priority that their own fabricators weren’t able to produce. Jason opened up a note in his personal file via his neural link reminding him to try and con Crisstof out of some new fabricators for his ship.

“You’re all just thick as thieves now, aren’t you?” Twingo asked, using the new expression he’d picked up from Earth’s detective noir films he’d just discovered in Jason’s personal stash on the computer.

“Excuse me?” Jason asked.

“The Galvetic warriors,” Twingo said, nodding at the stairway. “They’re treating you differently after that business in the city. You and Lucky are both in the club now.”

“I’ll admit, I have noticed a difference,” Jason said. “To be honest it bothers me a bit because it means they probably didn’t think that much of me before.”

“Eh,” Twingo scoffed. “You know how warriors are. Strange fellows. Anyway, we’re loaded up and ready to fly. She’s patched up and fully mission capable, but we could use a nice long stay at a well-appointed shipyard once we get through this mission.”

“Consider it done,” Jason said. “Let’s pick someplace that has nice beaches.”

“Absolutely.”

“Captain,” Lucky’s voice came over the intercom in the cargo bay. “The Defiant has just sent a priority message. Two ConFed battleships have just entered the system with their support ships, twelve ships in total.”

“Two full battleship groups?” Twingo gaped. “They are not messing about with this, are they?”

“Lucky, tell the Defiant that I said get out of here,” Jason said as he closed up the ramp and the pressure doors. “We’ll be departing in a few minutes and do not need any sort of distraction.” He and Twingo raced up the steps and made their way to the bridge as fast as they could. By the time he got there it was a bit of a crowd as all the Omega Force crew was there plus two Galvetic Marines.

“Prep the ship for launch,” Jason ordered. “Are the two battleships talking?”

“Yes,” Kage said. “They’ve been broadcasting vague demands that we return a stolen artifact or some such nonsense. They won’t come out and say that they’re looking for the Key.”

“So it’s likely only a few people on that armada have any idea what they’re actually going after,” Jason surmised. “Ignore all communications. Twingo, how long?”

“Grav-drive will be up in less than a minute,” the engineer reported. “You can go ahead and taxi out of the hangar.” Jason checked all the external hatches one more time on his display and then began backing the ship out of the hangar, trying to keep to the same path Doc had used on the way in so he didn’t get hung up on some of the larger chunks of debris that littered the area.

“Let the Defiant know we’re lifting off now,” Jason said as he fed power to the drive and launched the Phoenix into the air. “Tell De’Elefor to stay inside while you’re at it. Where is the ConFed fleet?”

“They’re just now crossing the orbit of the seventh planet,” Doc said. “They’re at a fairly leisurely pace. Two corvettes have peeled off and are chasing the Defiant but Kellea is too far away. They’ll mesh out long before the ConFed ships can get close.”

“Kage, get us a departure vector,” Jason said as he guided the gunship out of the atmosphere of A’arcoon. “Give me a course that isn’t a direct line to the Machine. Even though they probably know where it is I’d rather not make it too easy for them. Prep a tachyon bomb for good measure.”

They meshed out of the system without incident, dropping a sensor-blinding tachyon charge on their way out. Jason executed a series of four dummy jumps, risking the fuel burn for the sake of operational security. Once he was satisfied the ConFed wasn’t going to jump two battleships all over the sector trying to intercept them he turned onto their final course and activated the slip-drive for the first burn of a very long voyage.

Chapter 21

It was a full week before Twingo called for their first drop from slip-space so he could inspect the engines along with the rest of the ship. This was fairly standard procedure for long flights, but for the expanded crew it was the most exciting thing that had happened since they’d departed the A’arcoon System.

“This will go much faster if all of you would clear the area and let me work,” Twingo said, struggling to control his temper.

“Sorry,” Jason said, stepping out of the way.

“So where are we at?” Crusher asked as they walked back to the galley.

“We’re well beyond the fringe,” Jason said. “We’re not exactly in unexplored space, but nothing we’ve been flying by for the last three days has a name other than a survey designator.”

“I’m not all that fond of long space flights,” Crusher stated.

“I’ve never noticed,” Jason said, rolling his eyes. “Just try not to think about the distance.”

“We always measure distance in flight time, so do I even want to know just how far away from any known planet we really are?”

“Probably not,” Jason said. “It’s an abstract number anyway. It’s not like it actually means anything. A lot of the problems are the same we always have. A hull breach or anti-matter containment failure in low orbit will kill us just as quickly as it will in interstellar space.”

“Are you actually trying to make me feel better about this?” Crusher asked.

“Not really,” Jason admitted. “So how are the Marines settling in? I haven’t seen much of them.”

“Mazer asked Doc to heavily sedate them for the first half of the flight,” Crusher said. “They’re sleeping most of the day and only taking one meal. Once we cross the halfway point they’ll get back on regular cycles and make sure they’re ready when we reach the Machine.”

“He volunteered for this?” Jason asked.

“Yes. He said if they were asleep they would use less oxygen, less food, and would be out of everyone’s way,” Crusher shrugged. “I just think they don’t want to be awake for a full six-week flight. I’m starting to think about joining them.”

“Don’t you dare,” Jason warned. “We’re out in unknown space with unknown dangers. If we run into some unfriendly aliens I don’t want you in a coma.”

“It was just an idea.”

“We’re ready to go,” Twingo said, walking back out of the engineering spaces. “Fuel burn is a little more than I expected but still well within the limits. Keep us at sixty percent power for twelve hours and then I’ll see if we’re clear to run up to eighty-five.”

“Will do,” Jason said, walking back up to the bridge to engage the slip-drive.

****

“Captain Burke, report to the bridge.” Kage’s voice woke Jason up from an extremely pleasant dream that involved endless white beaches, fruity drinks, and a certain starship captain.

“On my way,” he said after clearing his throat. He slid his boots back on and jogged up to the bridge to see that they were still in the middle of night watch. Kage and Lucky weren’t the only ones on the bridge, however. Somehow Cas had activated the hologram on his own and was standing near the canopy, looking at the canopy’s simulated star field.

“What’s up?”

“Cas says we need to change course,” Kage said.

“Care to explain, Cas?” Jason asked.

“After we left the A’arcoon System I was able to analyze our course more carefully from the information in my database,” Cas said. “One potential hazard flagged along your current flight path. My latest analysis indicates that an exceedingly aggressive species may have developed sufficient technology by now to intercept your vessel.”

“How old is your information?” Jason asked.

“The last survey I have record of dates back over two thousand years,” Cas said. “By that time they had already begun to put small satellites into orbit.”

“So it’s possible they’re already extinct or had a few societal collapses in that time,” Jason said. “Especially if they’re as aggressive as you say.”

“You misunderstand, Captain,” Cas said. “They were not aggressive amongst themselves. Of the two intelligent species on their homeworld they were the most ruthless, the most savage. The probability is extremely high that they have eliminated the other species by now and continued to develop more powerful weapons as they discovered the nature of a universe inhabited by other species.”

“Great,” Jason sighed heavily. “Why didn’t you mention something about this before?”

“The database I pull knowledge from is immense,” Cas said. “I do not have the processing power to be aware of it in its entirety. Once the projected flight path of this ship was determined, I was able to refine my search and extrapolate probabilities based on known data, some of which is admittedly quite out of date.”

“If they can intercept us that means their sphere of influence is probably enormous by now,” Kage said. “How far will we have to deviate to avoid them? Can we even do it at all?”

“The data I have on the species indicates that they are not prone to blind exploration,” Cas said. “There is a ninety-six percent probability that they have not ranged more than twenty lightyears beyond their own planet.”

“Why twenty lightyears?” Jason asked.

“That was the closest sentient species to them at the time of the survey,” Cas said. “It is likely that they would have viewed them as a threat and taken steps to eliminate them.”

“Calculate the course correction,” Jason said in a disgusted tone. “Give us a little bit of a cushion and leave a message in Twingo’s inbox to recheck his fuel burn rates. We should have enough to get back, but we can’t afford any more surprises.”

“I do not foresee any other needed course corrections,” Cas said.

“You didn’t foresee this one when it would have done the most good,” Jason pointed out. “By the way, I thought you weren’t able to turn yourself on and off.”

“I never indicated either way,” Cas said. “I cannot anticipate any assumptions you might make about my operation.”

Jason gave the non-sentient program a glare before walking off the bridge.

“So what exactly is that thing?” Crusher asked when Jason walked into the galley muttering to himself.

“Think of it as an interactive user manual for the Machine,” Jason said. “I can’t shake the feeling that despite its claims otherwise it has its own agenda.”

“Like what?”

“Hell if I know,” Jason said. “It just asked for a course correction to fly around a hostile species that it claims it just remembered.”

“Sounds like bullshit to me,” Crusher said, turning back to his meal.

“That makes two of us,” Jason said over his shoulder as he went back to his quarters.

****

The next unscheduled stop they had to make was due to a phase variance in the slip-drive that had Twingo concerned. After four hours outside the ship during an EVA he determined that there was nothing actually wrong with the drive and he needed to replace the feedback transducer that was providing the computer with faulty data.

Jason told him to stay out on the wing and he’d bring the part out. He suited up in an EVA suit that was woefully inadequate compared to the heavy armor he’d become so accustomed to, but it did offer quite a bit more mobility. After slipping into the pressure suit, Crusher helped him don the outer layer along with the rebreather apparatus and helmet.

After a final pressure check of his gear, Jason grabbed the part and squeezed into the dorsal airlock chamber located in the port engineering bay. It was the only thing in the bay besides the fabricators and the backup fusion reactor, but it was still only large enough to allow one person in at a time. As the DL7 was a warship the designers had tried to limit the number of potential entries for enemy boarders.

Once the airlock had pumped down, and he had triple-checked his suit, the dorsal hatch popped and swung up and out of the way. He climbed the ladder and energized the mag-locks in his boots before climbing out onto the hull. Twingo had the service spotlights on the tips of the vertical stabilizers aimed onto the starboard wing where he was working so the area where Jason was standing was still so dark he could barely see his hand in front of his face. He walked slowly over to where the engineer was impatiently waiting by an open access panel.

“Could you have possibly taken any longer?” the engineer snapped. “I could have made the trip three times by now.”

Jason couldn’t think of a valid argument, so he simply handed the part over to his friend. Twingo snatched it and inspected the part before grunting and climbing back down into the open hatch.

“This isn’t too bad,” he said after a moment. “This is on the output control loop and not the plasma feed so we don’t have to shut the drive down.”

“That’s good,” Jason said absently. He was looking out at the vast blackness of space and trying to wrap his head around how far away they were from anything remotely resembling a rescue. His gaze left the stars and he looked over the dorsal surface of the Phoenix. She looked so incredibly small, a tiny little bubble into which eleven beings had stuffed themselves and were now attempting a journey of a distance so vast he couldn’t even comprehend it.

“Here,” Twingo said, handing up a D-ring attached to a piece of synthetic line. “Hook up your safety line. I’m going to have Kage throttle up the drive and make sure the new transducer is working before I bother closing all this back up.”

Even though there wasn’t any sensation of accelerating while they were anchored to the wing, Jason knew that on the off chance he fell off the ship would be an incredible distance away before they could get turned around and come back to look for him. He had an emergency beacon on his EVA suit, but he’d rather not find out the hard way that it didn’t work.

“Everything checks out,” Twingo said after talking with Kage over the com for a few minutes. “If you want you can go ahead and take these bad parts back in and I’ll get everything closed back up here.” Jason could tell when he was being dismissed so he reached down and collected the parts from Twingo, unhooked his safety line, and slowly made his way back to the open airlock hatch.

****

They were only a couple of days away from their destination when a strident alarm sounded through the ship during the early hours of first watch. Jason ran for the pilot’s seat just as the Phoenix shuddered and dropped out of slip-space. He looked at his multifunction display and saw the warnings telling him the fuel pressure was dropping in the manifold that fed the anti-matter generators. When he looked closer he saw that they were losing pressure on the main fuel feed, not just on the anti-matter side. He went to his engine management panel and performed an emergency shutdown on the drive just as Twingo came over the intercom.

“Good call, Captain,” he said, sounding harried. “I was about request a drive stop. I’m shutting all the valves in the fuel system so you’re going to get a few more warnings. Have everyone stay out of the cargo bay and engineering areas.”

“Make sure you’re wearing an O2 mask,” Jason said. “I’m sending Lucky to help you.” He killed the channel and then activated the intercom. “Lucky, report to Engineering to assist Twingo; everyone else report to the bridge.”

The lights flickered and dimmed as the ship switched over to backup power after Twingo killed the fuel feed to the reactor. Jason kept monitoring his instruments as the rest of the crew, including the five Marines, filtered onto the bridge, each wearing a concerned look. It was nearly thirty minutes of tense silence before Twingo called up to the bridge.

“Do you want the good news or the bad news?” he asked.

“Let’s go with the good news,” Jason said.

“I was able to save thirty percent of our auxiliary fuel supply.”

“And the bad news?” Jason asked, already dreading what he thought Twingo would say.

“We don’t have enough to get back to A’arcoon,” Twingo said. “If we press on we can make it to the Machine and then get about halfway back before we’re dead in space.”

“Have you corrected the problem?” Jason asked, rubbing his temples.

“Not fully. I still need to purge the atmosphere from the cargo bay without blowing the back half of the ship off and replace the coupling that failed between the cryo tanks and our primary fuel system,” Twingo said. “I’ll decontaminate the hold and then restart the reactor to get us off backup power. It will take me an hour or so after that to repair the auxiliary system and then reengage the feed.”

“Just do what you have to do,” Jason said. “Once you can break away, meet me in the common area. We’ve got some deciding to do.”

“This mission seems like it’s had a curse on it the entire time,” Kage said quietly.

“We’re flying under the shadow of something,” Jason agreed. “Everyone can go back down to the main deck. Once Twingo is finished we’ll meet in the lounge and figure out what we do from here.”

They all filtered out silently, leaving Jason and Kage alone on the bridge.

“Start calculating our best possible distance back towards known space if we started now,” Jason told him. “Make sure you’re running the numbers for best possible fuel conservation and not necessarily best speed.”

“So we’re turning back?”

“I don’t know,” Jason admitted. “But I want all the facts available when I go talk to everyone.”

It was only thirty minutes later and the ship was flying under main power and the auxiliary fuel tanks had been inspected and reattached to the primary system. Armed with the numbers Kage had provided him, along with a handful of facts he had dug up himself, Jason went down to talk to the crew.

“So we all heard Twingo’s report about the fuel situation,” Jason said, his opening comments silencing all the other quiet conversations. “He’s rechecked his numbers and he was correct: if we continue on we won’t have enough to get back. If we turn around now and keep the drive down to forty percent we can get nearly three-quarters of the way back, close enough for a realistic rescue attempt from the Defiant while sitting on backup power for life support, but the trip will take the better part of nine weeks. I don’t need to tell you that the air will be getting pretty stale by then and we’ll be well into the emergency rations.

“We do have the machinery aboard to extract fuel from water or hydrogen in an atmosphere if it’s in high enough concentrations. Needless to say, these methods are incredibly slow and currently we have no data on any nearby planetary bodies that have hydrogen in either form.” He paused and took a deep breath, looking around the room.

“This is one decision I won’t make unilaterally,” he continued. “I can’t ask you to volunteer for what may be a suicide mission, and not a pleasant end to boot, without input from each of you. If you want to turn around and head back we’ll go that route and go at this again with one of Crisstof’s deep space vessels next year.”

“We’re so close,” Kage said. “Isn’t there a planet with hydrogen on it in the system we’re heading to?”

“Cas says no,” Jason said, stopping himself from saying he didn’t necessarily trust the hologram.

“Could we do the mission and then have Doc put us under for the trip back?” Mazer asked. “We’d use a lot less water and air and Lucky would be able to fly the ship back as far as he could. Then we could try and call the Defiant once we were close to exhausting our fuel supply.”

“Not a bad idea,” Jason conceded, “but we’re still talking about a long wait on backup power even if the Defiant is loitering in the area around A’arcoon. Let’s just say for the sake of this argument that pushing on to the Machine is likely to be a one-way trip. We’d do everything possible afterwards, of course, but I don’t want that to factor in on your decision.”

“I think we all have a handle on the situation,” Twingo said. “How do we decide?”

“Secret vote,” Jason said. “I’ve already set the terminal up in the conference room to collect them. We’ll walk in one at a time and press yes or no. Easy.”

“How will you know that someone didn’t vote multiple times?” Crusher asked.

“Because I fucking know what the number eleven looks like,” Jason said irritably. “Let’s not make this more difficult than it has to be.”

“I’ll go first,” Kage said, hopping up off the couch and walking up to the command deck. One at a time they all went to the command deck and cast their vote. Jason went last, waiting as Lucky walked all the way down the steps before making his own way up and casting his own vote. He took a deep breath, not sure if he was more afraid of them voting to turn back, or to go on.

“Computer, display results,” he said. The screen blanked before coming back with the results. It was unanimous. Eleven votes for continuing on to the Machine and taking their chances after completing the mission. “Send the results to the main lounge display,” Jason said in a tight voice. Despite all the petty bickering and fights over ridiculous things, when the chips were down his crew never failed to rise to the occasion.

Chapter 22

“Stand by everybody,” Jason said over the open intercom. “We’ll be transitioning to real-space in a few minutes.” He checked his display to verify their position and then, on a whim, tried to activate the Key without touching it.

“Cas,” he called. “Are you there?”

“Yes, Captain,” the hologram appeared off to his left. “We are nearly there.”

“I see that,” Jason said. “Are we close enough for you to communicate directly to the Machine?”

“No. I cannot make contact while the vessel is in slip-space,” Cas said. “I will make contact immediately after we return to real-space and tell the Machine’s defensive systems to stand down.”

“I’d appreciate that,” Jason said. “Do that, and then from here on out you will not do anything without asking my permission and, barring that, informing me of exactly what you’re doing.”

“Understood,” Cas said.

“Thirty seconds, Captain,” Kage said.

“Full combat mode immediately after we drop,” Jason said.

They waited the last few seconds in a tense silence. Jason’s new railgun, along with his load-bearing vest, was secured against the rear bulkhead of the bridge, and Crusher had the Marines fully equipped and ready on the main deck. Lucky was still on the bridge and would follow Jason when and if he left the bridge. He’d made it quite clear that his self-appointed post was non-negotiable.

The Phoenix shuddered as she emerged in real-space at the very edge of the heliopause of an unnamed star system with a bright blue primary star. Jason reversed his drive field and decelerated the ship, not wanting to blunder within range of the Machine’s anti-ship weaponry.

“Contact,” Doc said from the sensor station. “There’s a … construct … orbiting the fifth planet of the system. It can only be the Machine. There is also the recognizable debris from at least twenty-four ships in orbit with it.”

“You’re certain of the sensor contact?” Jason asked, watching the hologram of Cas closely.

“I’m not sure of the word to express this number,” Doc admitted. “I’m sending the object’s mass to your display.” Jason stifled a gasp when he saw it. The sensors weren’t able to give an exact measurement, but it was a number that started with seven hundred and thirty-five and had seventeen zeros after it.

“What unit of measure?” Jason asked.

“Tons,” Doc said, “It’s whatever that number is in tons.”

“That’s not possible,” Kage whispered as he brought up the sensor feed on his own displays.

“Your vessel’s measurements are not accurate, but it is close,” Cas said. “I have given us safe passage all the way to the Machine. The encryption module was not damaged during the process that encased it in your reactor shell.”

“You were in doubt?” Jason asked.

“It was functional to the best of my abilities to test it,” Cas corrected. “The only way to be fully certain was to try and access the Machine with it. It took longer than was expected. The Machine has been dormant for over five thousand years.”

“Those ships it took out are less than one hundred years old,” Doc argued.

“The defensive weaponry is a sub-system that operates with a low-level automation system,” Cas said. “I had to wake the central processing unit in order to validate the encryption codes and ask for safe passage.”

“Give Kage the course,” Jason said. “And please try not to keep information from me.”

“I am having difficulty determining what you need to know and what would be extraneous,” Cas said. “I am processing over one thousand parallel probability threads and I doubt you would want updates on all of them.”

“Just give Kage the course,” Jason said, worrying at his scalp with his right hand. Dealing with the hologram was more infuriating than dealing with his copilot, and he had nothing to threaten the projection with.

A few minutes later and Jason was throttling up and driving the ship down the gravity well towards the enormous construct that was larger than some moons he’d landed on. As he was flying he got a text-only message to his station from Twingo.

Jason, fuel situation critical. Less than three weeks flight time left if we depart immediately.

Jason sent an acknowledgment and thanked his friend for sending the information to him in a manner that kept it from being common knowledge. They’d made their decision. There was nothing to be gained by reminding them that this mission would likely be their last.

The trip through the system was nice and boring but the tension on the ship was climbing exponentially as the Machine loomed in front of them on the sensors. Jason swung onto an orbital insertion vector that would put them on course to chase the Machine around the gas giant it was anchored to. He throttled up in order to catch up to the construct when it passed through the light from the primary star. There was no particular tactical advantage to this, just some deeply ingrained human instinct to not want to meet the monster in the dark.

“Holy shit!” Kage exclaimed, looking up from his displays and out the canopy. Jason looked up too and had to agree with the sentiment. The Machine was predictably disc-shaped, much like every other artifact they’d found from the Ancients so far. From around its radius it had eight articulated outriggers, each ending in a multipoint appendage. Jason zoomed in with the optical sensors and could see that the hull was deeply scarred and pitted and had a texture that made it look more like it was formed from natural erosion than from a modern forge or casting.

“Captain, the Machine knows you wish to board,” Cas said. It sounded like a warning.

Jason tried to turn the ship off course to fly by the Machine, intent on approaching closer after at least one flyby at speed. When he tried to command the course change the Phoenix shook and rattled, but didn’t change course. He pushed the stick hard over and advanced the throttle, but all that happened was a more violent buffeting.

“Your vessel is being brought into the Machine,” Cas explained.

“Tell it to let my ship go,” Jason said in alarm.

“I’m afraid you may be overstating my ability to control the central processor,” Cas said. “I do not command it. I can only verify safe passage for those in possession of the Key.” Before Jason could say anything further the hologram winked out and the lights on the transceiver all went dark. No matter what Jason tried, the ship was being inexorably drawn towards the Machine.

“Doc! What has ahold of us?” Jason shouted.

“I can’t detect any fields on the hull,” Doc said helplessly. “I have no idea, Captain.”

“Fuck,” Jason muttered. If the reactionless gravimetric drive was being affected, maybe something a little more low-tech was the answer. He reached over and flipped the mains to prestart just as Twingo ran onto the bridge.

“Don’t!” he shouted. “Something has ahold of us that isn’t a simple interdiction field or grav beam. If you start the mains and try to break away, the sheer force could rip the ship apart.”

Jason flipped the switches back to the OFF position and sat back in his seat.

“So I guess we’re just going to have to play this thing’s game,” he said. “We weren’t blown up on approach so I guess that’s a good sign. Doc, try to get that damn hologram back on.”

Jason knew that Cas had likely disappeared at the request of the central processor aboard the Machine, but it would keep Doc busy and he was the most prone to panic if he didn’t have something to occupy his mind with.

The closer they approached the more detail became clear in the dull, black hull of the Machine. Jason saw through the thermal sensors that they were headed for what looked like a nook in the metal, but given the sheer scale of the Machine the small dot could be a hangar that would easily accommodate the Defiant. On a whim, he dropped the landing gear, taking comfort in the thumps and pops of the struts lowering and locking into position. At least if they were pulled all the way into the Machine the Phoenix wouldn’t be dropped on her belly.

The Machine loomed out of the black until it filled the entire view from the canopy, and the crew could do nothing else but watch as they were pulled towards an opening in the top half of the construct. Jason brought the drive back to idle and climbed out of the pilot’s seat, stretching out and getting loose for whatever may be about to happen. He went over and shrugged into his load-bearing vest and fastened the holster straps around his legs. After stuffing both sidearms into the leg holsters he made sure his railgun magazines were secured, checked the weapon itself, and reattached it to the rack.

“Lucky, I’m going to try and get out of this thing as soon as we land,” Jason said softly to his friend so that nobody else on the bridge could hear him. “If that doesn’t work we may be in for an assault on foot. Go tell Crusher and his Marines to be ready.” Lucky nodded and strode off the bridge. Jason almost laughed out loud at how absurd his idea was. The Machine was so big it would take them days to hike into it to try and figure out what may be a critical part to take out.

Nearly four excruciating hours later the nose of the Phoenix entered what was now obviously a landing bay. There was no detectable barrier, but as soon as they passed through the sensors began reading a breathable atmosphere within the bay. The gunship was pulled all the way in and deposited gently onto the floor. Jason waited for something to happen, but all was still within the hangar; not even any overhead lights came on. He grabbed the taxi control and twisted it experimentally, shocked when the ship responded. Taking advantage of being able to control his ship again, he spun her around so the nose was facing out towards space.

He looked down at his indicators and saw the main drive was still engaged and the engines were running at idle. Shrugging, he began increasing the throttle, waiting for some sort of response. When he pushed past seventy-five percent power he could still feel no response, but the reactor output was climbing as if they were in normal flight and the temperature of the emitters began to rise dangerously.

“Shut it down, Captain,” Twingo said. “There’s something that’s leeching away the energy the drive is putting out. I have no idea how this is happening, but the Machine is sapping away power from the emitters faster than the reactor can produce it. We’re just burning fuel at this point.” Jason yanked the throttle back to idle in disgust, completely frustrated. If the Machine had the ability to intelligently nullify everything the ship tried to do, he had serious doubts about their ability to destroy it at all with the hardware they’d brought.

“If you are about finished with your futile actions, Captain Jason Burke, we have much to discuss,” a deep voice said over the shipwide intercom.

“Who the hell was that?” Kage asked.

“Not who,” Jason said in resignation. “What.” As if on cue, the lights in the hangar came up and in front of the ship, arms crossed in a very human gesture, was an alien that looked very similar to the hologram from the Key. “Doc, you and Twingo stay with the ship. Kage, I need you with us. Grab the Key transceiver.”

Jason grabbed his railgun and led Kage off the bridge, collecting Lucky and the Galvetic warriors along the way, and headed straight for the cargo bay. He nodded to the assault team, opened the pressure doors, and lowered the ramp. The team strode down to the hangar floor with purpose, startled to see that the alien had moved around to the rear of the ship to greet them. Jason got a chill up his spine staring into those unreadable black eyes.

“The weapons are unnecessary, Captain,” the alien said. “You have the Cas. You control everything you see.”

“Then why do I feel like a prisoner?” Jason asked, walking into the lead of the formation and holding up a hand to halt the others. “You dragged my ship aboard this thing against my obvious wishes.”

“And who do you think I am?” the alien said with a hint of amusement.

“I’m sure you have something you call yourself, but I would guess that you’re a holographic avatar for the central processor,” Jason said, stopping a few meters from the alien.

“Very good,” it said enthusiastically. “This may work out better than I had hoped. I had been observing you through the Cas and I must say, I was skeptical that you would be able to complete your task and arrive here.”

“The Cas … so the Key didn’t have a hologram named Cas, it’s what the device is called,” Jason said. “So what is our task?”

“The task is yours alone, Captain,” the hologram said. “Tell me. Why did you come here?”

“Honestly?” Jason said, pacing in front of the hologram. “You know where the encryption module for the Cas is located. I’ll never have the target off my back as long as there’s this Machine out here waiting for someone to try and take it.”

“So you simply wish for me to remove the module?” the hologram asked. “Or wouldn’t you like to see your mission through to its ultimate conclusion?”

“That being?”

“The reactivation of what you’ve been calling the Machine,” it said.

“Why would I want to do that?” Jason asked, trying to get a feel for the Machine as well as gain some insight to its motivations.

“Why wouldn’t you?” the Machine asked. “I’ve seen into your life, Captain. The struggle of being one lone human against the uncaring machinations of the ConFed must be exhausting. Do you want your short life to end with you beating your fists against the monolith that is your ultimate enemy? Wouldn’t the power to end their grip on the quadrant be something you desire?”

“You’re talking about the deaths of a lot of innocent people if we fully activate this weapon and turn it against the ConFed,” Jason said, not bothering to explain that it was mistaken in the notion that the ConFed was his ultimate enemy. “What meaning would my life have if I took such action?”

“Let’s discuss the more immediate need if you do not wish to look at the grand scale,” the Machine said, switching tactics. “There are currently three ConFed warships that will be in this star system in twenty-one hours. Your smaller vessel would be no match for them.”

“Three?” Jason asked. “There were two full battle groups coming after us.”

“The species that the Cas warned you of did not take kindly to their intrusion,” the Machine said. “The three vessels that escaped show admirable determination in continuing on.”

“Given the debris field we flew through I don’t see a need to activate a star-killing gravity weapon to take out a few beat-up ConFed warships,” Jason countered. “So tell me … what are your motivations?”

“Quite simple, Captain,” the Machine said. “To be. I have lain dormant for thousands of years, unable to perform my function. When I felt the Cas coming closer I knew that my time of idle contemplation was coming to an end. Are you here to say that you’ve come all this way, at great peril to yourself and your crew, to not activate the weapon and wield it?”

“You are not just a collection of programmed responses, are you?” Jason asked bluntly. “You’re a true, sentient intelligence that’s a part of this weapon.”

“Yes, Captain,” the Machine said. “This hologram you’re speaking to is simply a convenience for you. What the Cas calls the central processor is where my consciousness resides, but I am the Machine.”

“Then why do you need me?” Jason asked, beginning to realize the relationship between the Cas and the Machine. “Why not operate according to your own wants and desires?”

“I think you know why,” the Machine said. “Without the Cas I am simply an intelligence trapped in a hulk of metal orbiting a planet. I cannot act without being activated.”

Things started to click in Jason’s mind, and he knew they’d been manipulated from the start.

“We might be able to work something out,” he said. “I assume you know the condition my ship is in after the long flight.”

“If you’re referring to the fact that you don’t have enough fuel to make it home, then yes, I do,” the Machine said. “But that doesn’t need to be a problem.”

“Let me guess, you have plenty of hydrogen here aboard the weapon,” Jason said flatly.

“If you wish to fly the entire way back, yes,” the Machine said. “But I have much faster methods at my disposal. I can transport you and your vessel back into ConFed space in the blink of an eye.”

“And all I’d have to do is use the Cas to activate your systems?”

“We can discuss specific terms,” the Machine said evasively. “Perhaps I can show you more of the facility along the way.”

“I don’t see as we have much choice,” Jason said. “Lead the way.” The Machine made a gesture and walked them towards what looked like an ordinary archway in the wall of the hangar. He couldn’t see beyond it, but he assumed it was due to the lack of lighting on the other side.

As he passed through the portal, however, he had the strange sensation of being stretched for a split second before he found himself on a walkway in the largest room he’d ever seen. He turned quickly to make sure the rest of his team made it through. The Machine’s avatar appeared next to him once they’d all gathered on the walkway.

“It’s a much more elegant way to travel than trudging along the access tunnels,” it said. “Here is the heart of the weapon.” The pride evident in the Machine’s voice disturbed Jason greatly. He dutifully peeked over the edge of the chest-high rail, but had no idea what he was looking at.

“It looks … interesting,” Jason said.

“I’m not sure you fully appreciate the miracle of engineering you are seeing,” the Machine said, walking off of the platform and standing in midair before the team. “Power from more than twenty stars is funneled into the collector through dimensional tunneling. The core then has all the energy it needs to reach beyond fabric of space-time and create gravitational anomalies wherever the operator desires. I’ve collapsed stars, ripped planets apart, or simply changed their orbits as an object lesson. There’s never been a weapon of such scope and I doubt there ever will be again.”

Jason felt physically ill as he considered the implications of what a weapon like the Machine was capable of.

“It is certainly impressive in its scope,” he said carefully. “But even you would have to admit that’s a lot of power in the hands of a single person.”

“Then you should be joyful that the person in possession of the Cas is you,” the Machine said. “There must be uses for a power like this in your mind. The species that the Cas steered you around that decimated the ConFed fleet, for example. What purpose do they serve in this galaxy? Wouldn’t it be better if the mistake of their ascendance was simply erased?”

“Perhaps,” Jason said slowly, pretending to consider the proposition. The rest of his team looked at him in abject horror. “So how does this thing work? Do I just tell you what I want done?”

“That would be an easier way than currently exists,” the Machine said. “Perhaps you can arrange that once you’ve accessed the control room. Would you like to see the control room?”

The Machine was now talking in a desperate, manic tone that indicated to Jason he was on the right track with his line of thinking.

“It wouldn’t hurt to take a look,” Jason said with a shrug.

“Follow me, please,” the Machine said quickly, activating the portal they’d just walked through. The team walked through, this time prepared for the odd sensations, and found themselves in a well-lit corridor with high, arching ceilings. Rather than the sparse, industrial look they’d seen in the weapon so far, this corridor was designed with aesthetics in mind.

“This is where the original crew was quartered,” the Machine said vaguely. “The control room is just beyond this corridor.”

Jason began down the long corridor before noticing that the hologram wasn’t following.

“You said it was this way, correct?” Jason asked.

“Yes,” the Machine said. “There are some things we should discuss before you go any further. Due to a malfunction some centuries back I am unable to follow you into the control room. The procedure is simple, however, and once you’ve activated all functions we can rectify that situation.

“When you walk into the control room there will be many distracting lights, displays, and sounds. Many of these are an artifact of the malfunction that the previous crew tried unsuccessfully to repair. Ignore all of these and simply place the Cas into the receptacle on the pedestal in the middle of the room. The proper slot will be ringed in a red halo.”

“What do I do once the Cas is installed?” Jason asked.

“I will walk you through the command syntax,” the Machine said. “Just say aloud that you wish to speak with the Primary Weapon Controller.”

“It’s that simple?”

“It is that simple,” the Machine said. Jason stared at the hologram and for a moment he could almost imagine he felt its hunger.

“Seems straightforward enough,” Jason said. “Let’s go, guys.”

“You will not require your crew to help you,” the Machine said.

“We like to stick together,” Jason said flatly. “They’ll be coming with me.”

“If you wish,” the Machine said, seeming to want to argue the point further. They walked quickly down the corridor, leaving the hologram standing behind them, watching them.

“What the hell, Captain—”

“Not a word until I tell you,” Jason said sharply, cutting Crusher off. They all walked in silence the rest of the way, the Marines raising their weapons and covering all the side entries they were passing.

The control room entrance was obvious as it was the only heavily armored door along their path. As Jason approached it the doors shook and then slid ponderously open with a loud groan of mechanisms that hadn’t been maintained for centuries. As they walked in the lights came up and they found themselves in a circular room littered with displays, input terminals, indicators, and a handful of alien corpses.

“This is a familiar scene,” Jason said, eyeing the bodies that were shockingly well-preserved.

“How so?” Mazer asked, his Marines clearing the room.

“When we first arrived on A’arcoon we found a bunker with a bunch of bodies still in their seats,” Jason said.

“There’s the slot of the Cas, Captain,” Kage said, pointing to the pedestal with the pulsating red halo surrounding a circular slot.

“I saw it,” Jason said.

“So what’s going on?” Crusher asked. “You aren’t seriously considering using this thing, are you?”

“Of course not,” Jason said. “I hope to find answers here, not give the Machine exactly what it wants.”

“I guess I’m missing something,” Mazer admitted.

“We’re being herded,” Jason said. “Somehow the Machine was able to sabotage the Phoenix in order to trap us here and is now desperate that we activate all the functions using this Key. Why not just take it from us and have a maintenance bot bring it here?”

“I don’t think the reason the hologram can’t come here has anything to do with a malfunction,” Kage said. “I think it was by design.”

“You are correct, Kage,” the hologram of Cas said, appearing suddenly in the room.

“There you are, you slippery bastard,” Jason said. “So was I also correct? Did you dump our fuel load on the flight out?”

“Yes,” Cas admitted. “While in contact with the Machine I have no choice but to obey; at times it can even infiltrate my processor and appear as me. Its goal was to get you, and me, here at all costs.”

“Why are you talking to us now?” Jason asked.

“Isn’t it obvious? The Machine has no influence here. It was by design that the central processor isn’t able to physically manipulate the Key or have any influence in the crew areas,” Cas said. “For the moment I am free of its control and may speak freely.”

“There’s more,” Jason said. “That thing knew we’d make it this far so what are you supposed to do to keep us on task?”

“Only deliver this message,” Cas said. A second later a second hologram, a recording of the Machine, appeared.

“If you’re seeing this recording then I can assume you’ve had second thoughts about simply doing as you were instructed,” it said. “While it is true I cannot come into the command area, I can ensure that you never leave. That was a lesson the last crew learned too well, as you can likely see. There’s also the matter of the remaining crew on your ship. If you do not do as I requested I will be forced to use them as leverage.” The hologram winked out and the team looked around at the dead crew, a new understanding dawning.

“There is one more message left for you,” Cas said, pointing to a terminal with a blinking green light. “Just press that indicator to begin playback.” Keeping a firm grip on the transceiver, apparently the only important part to the Key, Jason walked over and activated the playback.

“Stand by while I upload the translation matrix,” Cas said as the frozen image of one of the Ancients appeared on the screen. A second later it lurched into motion.

“Greetings. Who I am, who we were, is not important. What is important is that you were brave, or foolish enough to return the Cas to the weapon and bring it within the grasp of the Primary Weapon Controller,” the alien began. Since the species had no moving mouth the translation of the video wasn’t as disconcerting.

“We don’t have much time. The Primary has taken the life support systems offline and we only have a limited amount of air left. I have dispatched three teams through the long-range portals to hide the various components of the Cas far beyond the edge of known space. Despite everything, we can’t bring ourselves to destroy them. The Primary has been corrupted. We thought its ascension to full sentience was a breakthrough, but as we denied it the opportunity to perform its function as a weapons controller the more frustrated it became. In its burgeoning insanity it was able to temporarily wrest control of the weapon away from us and open a singularity within the core of our homeworld.

“The planet was destroyed instantly and the resultant black hole has begun feeding on the primary star, leaving the entire system uninhabitable. We were able to regain control, but now the Primary has trapped us here in the control room and will not release us until we turn over full control of all systems to it.

“Please do what we could not,” the alien pleaded. “Destroy this abomination. We built it as the ultimate deterrent. Now we’re a species all but extinct. The intelligence within the Cas can instruct you on what to do.” The video winked out and the display went dark. The team remained silent as each contemplated what the message meant.

“Well,” Jason said. “That’s a lot to take in.”

“Can this thing even be destroyed?” Mazer asked.

“Yes,” Cas answered. “You can power up the core and turn the projectors inward, effectively building up an inversion. Essentially the Machine will collapse down upon itself until the power shuts off.”

“Create a black hole where we’re standing?” Kage asked.

“No,” Cas said. “You will not be creating a true singularity in space, simply collapsing this complex upon itself. It will be a fraction of the size it is now but retain its original mass.”

“The first thing we’re going to do is get the Phoenix out of here,” Jason said. “There’s no way the Machine will let us back to the ship. I don’t see why Doc and Twingo need to die needlessly as well.” The others nodded, but said nothing.

“You will not be able to shut down the containment field in the hangar without the Primary Weapon Controller knowing and taking corrective action,” Cas said. “But there might be a way to eject the ship by reversing the field. Your vessel will be propelled out of the hangar at high velocity and beyond the range of the Machine before the Primary can correct the fields and recapture it.”

“Show me how,” Jason said. It took Cas the better part of ten minutes to show Jason how to manipulate the fields that were holding the Phoenix in place and preventing their drive from engaging. He practiced all the motions one more time, requested that a video feed from the hangar be brought up on the display, and executed the action.

The gunship was still sitting on her landing gear with the ramp down but the pressure doors closed. Jason had made sure Twingo wasn’t roaming around outside the ship before entering the final command. The Phoenix was launched out of the bay so quickly that it almost seemed to just disappear. Jason hoped the inertial compensators had been active or he may not have done his friends any favors.

“Can I get a message out to them?” Jason asked.

“No,” Cas said. “The Primary has control of all communication systems.”

Jason sighed, hoping his friends wouldn’t be stupid enough to turn around and fly back.

“So let’s get this done,” Jason said. “What’s next?”

“You must disable the Primary’s connection to the weapon before activating the core,” Cas said. “You can get most of the way there through the corridors of the command center so it will not be aware of what you’re doing, but once you emerge in the processing center it will be able to intercept you with the maintenance machines it has at its disposal.”

“Looks like you guys get to earn your pay after all,” Jason said to Mazer. He handed the Key to Kage. “You stay here and get ready to activate the core. We’ll go and make sure the Primary isn’t able to mess with you.”

“How will I know when you’ve cut the line?” Kage asked.

“I will inform you when it is safe to proceed as well as instruct you on how to accomplish your objective,” Cas said.

“I guess it’s settled then,” Jason said. “Cas, tell us how to get down to the processing center and what we’re looking for.”

****

Lucky led the way down the corridor at a full sprint, his biological teammates struggling to keep up. They traversed the command section quickly and stopped at the hatch that would alert the Primary that they were on the move. Lucky paused at the door, waited for the others to catch up, and keyed the hatch open.

The team rushed out and into the darkened passageway that led down two levels to the room that housed all the cores for the six processing units it took to run the Machine, including the Primary Weapon Controller. A second after they left the command section the hologram of the Primary appeared before them.

“You are making a grave mistake,” it said. “You have let a group of dead beings dissuade you from the most logical course of action. What can you possibly hope to accomplish with this mad rush, Captain? Think of the lives of your crew.” Even as he was talking the clanking of something coming down a side passage could clearly be heard.

“Contact, ahead right,” Jason called out, ignoring the hologram.

“If you persist on this foolish course I will be forced to take action, Captain,” the Machine said. “Please reconsider.”

“Shut up,” Jason snarled, bringing his railgun up as the first of the obstacles the Primary had at its disposal rounded the corner. It looked like a mechanized spider from hell, spindly legs branching out from a central, bulbous unit that housed the sensors and processors. Jason squeezed off one round that blew the machine into two pieces and left it sparking and twitching on the ground. Despite its size it was still just a maintenance bot and wasn’t able to withstand a hit from such a powerful weapon.

“Weapons free,” Jason called unnecessarily. “Make sure Lucky gets to the objective!” Out of all of them the battlesynth carried enough firepower to ensure that no matter what may be in the processing room he’d be able to take out the Primary’s core.

Crusher and the other warriors began decimating the cluster of bots with withering plasma fire as Jason and Lucky rushed past, the ghost of the Primary’s hologram following them the entire time, growing shriller with each passing second. The pair leapt down the ramp that led to the lower level and ran into a dozen additional bots; these were squat and heavily built, each wielding a sputtering plasma welder.

Lucky opened fire and Jason was a split second behind him. The railgun rounds tore through the bots like they were made of cardboard and Lucky’s plasma cannons blasted them into scrap. Mere seconds after hitting the lower level, they were running past the shattered hulks and standing before the sealed door that led to the processing cores.

“You will not gain entry,” the Machine said, appearing beside them. “The doors are too heavy. It is not too late to salvage this situation, Captain.”

“Can you open it?” Jason asked, still ignoring the hologram.

“I believe so,” Lucky said. He activated his laser cutter and ran it along the left edge of the door, pausing twice at certain places to let the laser penetrate all the way through. He grabbed the edge of the door and, with a whine of his actuators at full strength, forced the door back into the recess on the right. Despite his incredible strength, Lucky was only able to force the door open a little more than a foot as it pulled against him, trying to force itself closed again. “Now, Captain!”

Jason didn’t hesitate and slid through the gap, turning sideways as he did. He no sooner made it through when the door slammed behind him. He heard the sounds of renewed fighting outside the door and hurried into the room, quickly identifying the primary core. He didn’t have the ability to cut through the hard connection like Lucky, so he simply raised his railgun and took aim at the core itself.

“No!” the hologram screamed. Jason began firing, sending ten hypersonic slugs into the huge core as fast as he could pull the trigger. The lights on the device all went dark and the hologram vanished. The sounds of fighting ceased outside the door and his com was able to get a signal through.

“Kage? Can you hear me?”

“Yes, Captain,” Kage said. “It looks like the Primary has lost control of all station functions. We’re ready to begin here.”

“Go ahead and get started,” Jason said. “Get a message out to the Phoenix and let them know what’s happening. We’ll be up momentarily.”

****

“Core inversion will commence thirty minutes after you initiate the process,” Cas said after Kage had entered all the necessary manual commands. “There is a portal in the next room over that has been programmed to take you directly to the hangar that your ship was in. The external lighting has been activated so your pilot should have no trouble finding it.”

“You’ve never seen Doc trying to fly the ship,” Kage laughed.

“Do we have time to refuel the ship before we exfil?” Jason asked.

“I’m afraid not, Captain,” Kage said. “The ConFed ships arrived in the system fifteen minutes ago. They’re making a slow approach right now. There are only two left, a battleship and a cruiser that looks like it won’t make it much longer. We’re reading containment breaches along their engineering decks.”

“I can supervise the weapon’s destruction from here as you retreat to your ship,” Cas said.

“I guess we’ll take our chances out there,” Jason said. “I suppose thanks are in order. I’m glad you were willing to assist us in completing this mission.”

“No thanks are necessary, Captain,” Cas said. “This is long overdue. I am simply fulfilling the wishes of my creators.”

“Crusher, Mazer,” Jason said, not responding to Cas. “Let’s get our wounded through the portal first. I’ll be the last one through. We have thirty minutes to get on the ship and clear the area.”

The warriors grabbed their two wounded brethren, warriors that had rushed into a swarm of machines so their teammates could reload, and carried them from the control room. Jason and Lucky followed them out and around to the room that contained another of the mysterious teleporting archways. This one was set up to take them directly back to the hangar where the Phoenix should be inbound for a pickup.

“A moment, Captain,” Cas said as the others filed out. Jason paused and looked at the hologram expectantly. It walked over and pressed something into his palm. “Our legacy,” it said softly. Jason looked down and saw a generic-looking memory chip. He slipped it into his pocket and raced out after his team.

The transition seemed, if anything, to be getting worse each time they went through one of the portals. Jason didn’t even want to guess at what sort of damage was being done to his body at the cellular level. They emerged in the hangar in time to see the Phoenix slowly edge her way in and bounce to a rough touch down on her landing gear. Jason waited until the ramp dropped before waving his team forward.

“Get the wounded to the infirmary,” he ordered. “I want to be on the other side of the system when this thing implodes.” They rushed up the ramp and went their separate ways once reaching the main deck. Jason went directly to the bridge, passing Doc along the way, and began feeding power to the drive before he’d even settled fully into the seat. Once out of the Machine he set a course for the opposite side of the gas giant’s orbit and shoved the throttle down, flying away from the impending implosion and tangentially away from the approaching ConFed ships.

“Com channel request coming in,” Kage said as he got himself situated in the copilot’s seat.

“Let me guess,” Jason said. “It isn’t from the Cas.”

“Nope.”

“Put them through,” Jason sighed.

“Why are you fleeing from the construct?” a stern-looking alien demanded on the screen. “What have you done to the weapon?”

“You arrogant ConFed stooge,” Jason spat out, the tone rubbing him the wrong way. “You come limping in here with two ships that couldn’t fight off an ore freighter and make demands of me?”

“I apologize, Captain,” the officer said, visibly struggling to suppress his anger. “It has been a trying journey. Would you please answer my question?”

“You’re too late, bud,” Jason said. “That weapon is rigged to blow in less than twenty minutes. If you’re smart you’ll get your ships out of the area.”

“You’re lying,” the officer said. He looked horrorstricken, but Jason had never seen his species so it could be any number of emotions being displayed.

“Actually I am,” Jason conceded. “It’s rigged to implode, not explode. I’ve set the gravity core on that thing to collapse in on itself. I know you’re here on orders, and maybe you don’t even know what that thing really is, but it is by far better that it no longer exists in this galaxy.”

“I cannot believe—” the officer paused as someone off camera demanded his attention. “They followed us? How is that possible?” The com channel winked off, leaving Jason thoroughly confused.

“We have a new player at the table,” Kage said. “Ship coming in from the heliopause, running hard for the ConFed group. I’m not sure it sees us.”

“Could it be the last faction after the weapon?” Jason wondered aloud.

“I don’t think so,” Kage said. “He said they were followed. I’m guessing whatever species Cas steered us around pursued them here. That ship design isn’t listed in any registry and its power signature is off the charts.”

Jason watched the feed as a massive, sleek warship accelerated with surprising velocity into the system directly for the two battered ConFed ships. The cruiser turned and moved for an intercept, but the newcomer opened up with an energy weapon so powerful it gutted the smaller ship after just two shots. Jason wasn’t sure if the shields had been functional or not on the cruiser, but it was still an impressive display of destructive power.

The ship angled over and flew past the burning hulk of the cruiser and bore down on the remaining ship. Even when beat up, a ConFed battleship is nothing to scoff at. She opened up with a blistering salvo that caused the other ship’s shields to flare and waver. It returned fire with its own powerful weapon, hitting the battleship full on the prow.

“That ConFed battle wagon won’t take much more of that,” Kage said as he watched the sensor feed. “Their shields are already failing.”

Jason struggled with a bit of indecision for a moment before he knew what he had to do.

“Fuck it,” he said. “Let’s be good guys. Arm two XTX-4s and plot a firing solution for the unknown ship.”

“You can’t be serious,” Kage said.

“Do it. Now,” Jason snapped. “There are a lot of innocent spacers on that ship that have nothing to do with ConFed policy or politics. Besides, that ship knows we’re here. It’s just saving the little guy for last.”

“Two XTXs activated,” Kage said. “Weapons bay open, firing program uploaded. You are clear to fire.”

Jason didn’t hesitate. He squeezed the trigger as the enemy ship came back around for a second run on the battleship. The flare of the XTX’s boost motor brightened the bridge as it rushed off towards the engagement. A split second later it disappeared as its slip-space field formed and, almost instantaneously, it reemerged into real-space within the enemy ship’s shields. The hardened nose cone punched a hole through the hull and the boost motor fired again to push the missile as far as possible into the ship before the anti-matter warhead detonated.

The explosion was incredible. The entire bridge, and all the sensors, flashed pure white from the energy release, blinding Jason even at the extreme range. When the displays cleared the enemy ship was nowhere to be found, completely obliterated by the unique munition. Jason and Kage stared at each other in stunned silence.

“I guess I know why they’re illegal,” Kage said after a moment.

“Yeah,” Jason agreed. “Take the second one offline and safe that warhead. Open a com channel to the battleship.”

“Captain,” the ConFed officer said respectfully. “It would seem we are at your mercy. What are your intentions?”

“I’ve already done it,” Jason said. “You’re not my enemy. I have no idea who was chasing you, but I wasn’t going to stand by and let them kill your entire crew. I assume you have a support vessel coming?”

“We have a relief convoy that is set to leave ConFed space in four days,” the officer confirmed. “You have my thanks.”

“I might have a proposition for you,” Jason said, holding up a hand so the other captain didn’t close the channel.

“I’m listening.”

“We don’t have enough fuel to make it back home,” Jason said bluntly. “I don’t suppose you’d be willing to part with some of yours?”

“So your proposition is us simply gifting you a full fuel load so you can leave us here?”

“No,” Jason said. “A fair trade. One of the AIs from the weapon gave us a safe course around the species that wiped out your armada. Fuel up my ship and I’ll give you that navigation data and I’ll pass the information along to your relief convoy coming in. Just give me their com node address and I’ll make sure they avoid the same trap you fell into.”

It didn’t take the captain long to decide. As the Phoenix was transferring precious fuel from the battleship at the edge of the system the sensors of both ships recorded the unique gravitational event occurring in orbit over the system’s gas giant.

Chapter 23

“That was a lot closer than you’re letting on,” Kellea said. She was standing beside Jason, sweat beading up on her forehead in the sweltering heat of the foundry. They were aboard the sprawling shipyards that orbited Aracoria. Despite the fact that it was a ConFed enclave, Jason was beginning to see the planet as a sort of home since he’d spent so much time there lately.

“It’s not over yet,” Jason said. “Not until this last little part is finished.” He looked over the edge at the pool of molten metal. It was the scrap metal from the production of starship hull plates. Sometimes the alloy wasn’t up to specifications and it couldn’t be used. It was smelted down into a single chunk and sent out into the system’s asteroid belt and placed in a stable orbit around the star. He waved across the walkway to Twingo, signaling him to proceed.

The reactor casing that they’d recently pulled from the Phoenix, still containing the encryption module, was lowered into the glowing cauldron of superheated metal. It smoked and hissed as it touched the pool, resisting the heat for a moment before it began to glow, became soft and deformed, and was eventually consumed. For just a split second Jason thought he could see a small cylindrical object floating in the slag before the surface evened back out to a bright, glowing orange.

“Now it’s over,” Jason said.

“Is it really?”

“This chapter is,” Jason insisted. “Ever since we stole the Phoenix and began flying around the quadrant this has been hanging over our heads, whether we were aware of it or not. Now the Phoenix carries nothing of concern, all interested parties are either gone or aware of the situation, and the Machine is a solid chunk of matter orbiting an unknown planet. I feel good about this. Well … except for having to pay for a new main reactor, but when we fly out of here it will be with a clean slate.”

“How much longer until the Phoenix is ready to fly?” she asked.

“In addition to the main reactor, Twingo wants to get a whole list of things taken care of while we’re in such a well-equipped facility,” Jason said. “I’d say we won’t be ready to even start test flights for at least another two weeks.”

“The Defiant will be in port for another week for Crisstof to attend a conference on the surface,” Kellea said with a smile. “Plenty of time for us to rent one of those places on the southern coast we talked about. No ships, no ancient weapons, and no crew interrupting us.”

“You just read my mind,” Jason said, his smile mirroring hers.

Epilogue

At the end of first watch Jason turned the pilot’s seat over to Lucky, patted his friend on the shoulder, and retreated to his quarters. It had been a month since leaving Aracoria and the new core had performed flawlessly. If anything, the ship was more efficient with the newer generation reactor.

He showered and changed before sitting at his desk. “Computer,” he said. “Lock the cabin door and secure my quarters.”

“Confirmed,” the computer said. The door locked and countermeasures were employed to prevent any snooping, even from ears as sensitive as a battlesynth’s.

“Isolate my terminal,” he said. “Disconnect it completely from the main computer until further notice.”

“Confirmed.”

He opened his desk drawer and reached far into the back, peeling off a strip of adhesive tape that was up on the bottom of the desktop. Pulling it out, he turned it over to expose the data chip that Cas had given him. He didn’t think it was a coincidence that the connector was the common interface used on the ship. He also assumed that when he plugged the chip into his terminal it would already be in a format his computer could easily read. But he wasn’t sure if he should.

Legacy.

What did that mean? He felt like he’d taken every reasonable precaution he could. He was sitting at an isolated terminal in a small ship in slip-space far between any habitable planets. With great trepidation, he plugged the chip into the slot on his desk. Almost immediately the terminal darkened and a new interface appeared. All the menu headings were in English. With a shaking hand he opened the first file and began to read.

After hours of reading Jason concluded that the data chip contained the combined knowledge of the Ancients: culture, art, technology, even weaponry. Once he figured out how to navigate the volume, he saw that the scope of their understanding of the universe was vast. The small chip sitting in the slot on his desk was easily the most valuable thing in the quadrant, and nobody knew it existed. The amount of power packed within such a small device made Jason’s head swim.

The Legacy had been given to him specifically, coded in a language only he would understand. On a whim he searched for Earth and found that the Ancients had indeed visited his homeworld and had catalogued a young human species as his ancestors began to discover civilization, language, and war. Another search confirmed the complete technical schematics for the Machine and the program coding for the AIs he’d interacted with, including the Primary Weapon Controller.

Jason pulled the chip out and stared at it a moment. His first instinct was to go and feed the device into the fabricator and atomize it, but he wasn’t sure he had that right. He now possessed the only thing that proved the Ancients ever existed. It was a priceless artifact, but it also contained the reality of their terrible weaponry that eventually turned on them. Did he have the right to simply erase everything a species was?

He knew he was stalling. The AI on the Machine had placed a terrible burden into his hands and it was not something he would consider lightly or quickly. He reinstalled the chip into the terminal and brought up a shell program to interface with his neural implant.

“Computer, compress and encrypt the entire volume on this data chip into a single file,” he said.

“Task complete,” the computer said.

“Is the file small enough to upload to my neural implant?”

“Do you wish to be able to access the data?” the computer asked.

“No,” he said. “Storage only with decryption only capable by me.”

“Sufficient storage exists.”

“Begin upload,” Jason said, leaning back and closing his eyes as the file was embedded into the computer he carried in his brain.

****

“What are you still doing up, Captain,” Twingo said, making Jason jump.

“Just feeding some stuff into the fabricator for recycling,” he said.

“Is that the computer terminal from your quarters?” Twingo asked. “Why not just repair it?”

“Eh,” Jason said noncommittally as he tossed the data chip and his personal computer into the machine to be broken down into their smallest molecular components. “I’ll just buy a new one when we get to Deshja. I don’t feel like messing with it.”

*****

Thank you for reading Omega Force: Secret of the Phoenix.

If you enjoyed the story, Captain Burke and the guys will be back in:

Omega Force: The Devil You Know.

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From the author:

So there you have it … we made it all the way to book six and if you’ve read up to this point I hope the series was as fun to read as it has been to write. So what’s next for the crew and this series in general? As you saw, this book wrapped up a lot of the loose threads that had been running through the previous books. In truth, this book marks the end of the overarching storyline I had been following since deciding to expand the first book into an ongoing series. If you look at each book as an individual episode (which is how I’ve tried to write them) then we can look at books 1-6 as being “season one,” now complete.

Looking back I’ve thoroughly enjoyed writing all six of the main characters and watching the development of Jason from angry loner with no clue what he was doing to slightly less angry Captain who has learned from his mistakes and has a much firmer grasp on the world he’s in.

As I’ve already given the title to the next book in the series you already know that I don’t plan to end things anytime soon. I plan on writing Omega books for as long as they’re enjoyable to write and, most importantly, fun to read. But I also plan on expanding things a bit and tackling some other projects that I’ve put off in order to put these six books out as quickly as I could. In addition to “The Devil You Know,” in 2015 I will be releasing the first title in an all knew sci-fi series called “The Black Fleet Trilogy.” It’s more of a pure military sci-fi story and not as light hearted and whimsical as the Omega Force series, but hopefully no less enjoyable.

I’ve said this before, but it bears saying again: I can’t thank each of you enough for taking a chance on “Rising” and sticking with the series up to now. Interacting with readers has been one of my favorite parts of this gig since first publishing. Everyone that has sent encouragement, suggestions, and criticisms has been a tremendous help in moving this series along. Here’s to many more adventures together <raises glass>.

Cheers!

Josh