Omega Force 3: The Enemy Within (4 page)

Jason, Crusher, and Twingo split off after a few half-hearted attempts
at gambling, and then found a small table in one of the bars that were butted up against the outer window. An attractive server, whose species’ name Jason couldn’t pronounce even after five tries, seemed to sense the trio had money to burn. She began bringing over increasingly exotic and expensive drinks as the night wore on.

Kage was killing it on the casino floor and, under Doc
’s watchful eye, was bringing in enough money to warrant more than a few careful looks from security. Their attention was divided, however as Lucky surprised them all and began outpacing Kage’s earnings almost two to one. The battlesynth’s keen mind was eminently suited to dealing with multiple variables and calculating odds, so he seemed like a natural at any game he took a try at. He was so successful he’d actually gathered a bit of an entourage that followed him from game to game to see what he’d do next.

When Kage found out that his synthetic partner was putting him to shame
, he didn’t seem to take it well. That was when Doc stepped in and decided it had been enough for the night and went to let the others know they were throwing in the towel. His concern was that in order to even the odds Kage might try and use his specialized neural implants to actively cheat some of the automated gaming tables. He’d done it before, so it was a risk worth noting.

The three gamblers said goodnight to the three drinkers and they
went their separate ways for the evening.

“Oh, God,” Jason moaned. “I think I’ve been poisoned.”

“
I do not believe there are any toxins in your body that you did not put there yourself, Captain,” Lucky said from the small alcove where he was scanning local news sources.

“
How did I get back here?”

“
You arrived leaning heavily on an attractive ktwelan female who said she had been serving you at the bar,” Lucky answered.
Ah, the cute little server.

“
Not a bad night I guess,” Jason said with a smile, looking around the room in confusion.
So where is she?

“
She left when you started snoring,” Lucky answered his unasked question.

“
How soon was that after we got here?”

“
Seventy-eight seconds,” Lucky said, still not looking up.
Damnit.

It was close to sixty minutes later when Jason emerged from the suite
’s bathroom, having indulged in a real, and excessively long, water shower. He had cranked the water temperature up as high as he could stand it and let the steam and water jets take away some of the pain of the previous night’s excess. When he walked out he found his friend still engrossed in the media terminal.

“
Anything interesting?”

“
Captain, you need to see this,” Lucky said in a serious voice. Of course, he always had a serious tone of voice, so Jason didn’t think much of it at that particular moment. That changed when he walked over and saw the video that Lucky had looping.

“
When was this?” Jason demanded, his hangover all but forgotten.

“
Four days ago according to the time stamp,” Lucky said as he backed away so Jason could get a better look. Scrolling across the screen were the words, “Wealthy philanthropist apprehended on charges of inciting rebellion …” Accompanying the ticker was a crystal-clear video of the
Diligent
spinning out of control and venting atmosphere from her lower decks. As the feed continued, two ConFed corvettes closed and began to stabilize the big frigate’s spin, bringing it back to controlled flight over an unnamed planet.

“
Begin collecting all the media feeds on this that you can,” Jason said, grabbing a shirt off his bed. “I’m going to go grab everyone else.”

*****

“
Captain Kellea Colleren is also facing charges for her role in the deadly anti-government riots on Camderan-2, a planet currently applying for membership into the Confederation. She and her first officer were missing from Crisstof Dalton’s ship when it was apprehended by ConFed Fleet warships.”

The news broadcast was showing a picture of Kellea as well as her first officer, Bostco, although the latter wasn
’t named. All the clips were more or less the same. The
Diligent
had been in orbit over Camderan-2 when it was attacked without warning by two ConFed battlecruisers. These were not the usual patrol ships. These were the big boys the Fleet only brought out when they wanted a serious show of force or to drop the hammer on someone who had majorly pissed the council off. Apparently a rash of bloody riots had broken out simultaneously all over the planet to protest the potential entry into the Confederation, and Crisstof was being pinned as the facilitator.

“
So are we assuming this is a setup?” Doc asked as another video came up on the display. This one had a close-up shot of someone who looked strikingly like Crisstof himself, the biggest difference (besides his age) being the hair was streaked and not a solid silver/white.

“
Crisstof Dalton’s First Son, Steader Dalton, expresses his shock and sadness at the charges leveled at his First Father.”

“
… I just can’t believe the charges against him, at least not until I see the evidence for myself. But in any case, the victims of yesterday’s horrific violence have our deepest sympathies,”
Steader was saying in a pre-recorded interview.

“
I seriously doubt Crisstof was fomenting rebellion,” Twingo said with a shake of his head. “That’s the sort of thing he worries about us doing.”

“
I’m inclined to agree,” Jason said. “But we don’t really know a lot about Crisstof to be honest. One thing I would hope is if he’s out kicking hornets nests like that he’d at least be smart enough not to use his flagship.”

“
Are we going to bother doing anything?” Kage asked from where he sat on the bed. “No offense, Captain, but we’re not exactly in the fold anymore. I know you and Captain Colleren are close, but we haven’t heard from Crisstof for the better part of a year.” Kage was right. Although Jason and Kellea kept in loose contact with each other, Omega Force wasn’t really working with Dalton’s organization anymore. Jason had taken exception with Crisstof’s attitude and behavior when Earth had been attacked and, despite some half-hearted apologies, the rift had never fully been healed. When Jason made the decision to move out towards the frontier worlds, both parties fell out of contact.

“
I think we should at least—” Jason’s com unit beeped from the bedside table, interrupting him. He grabbed it and punched in his security code to see what the alert was about. “The
Phoenix
just received a coded message,” he said with a frown. “The computer just alerted me that it’s flagged priority Alpha-1.” The priority flag indicated that whatever was coming in was an emergency. There were more than a few parties that could send them that type of message, but Jason had little doubt as to whom it was from this time.

“
I take it we’re cutting our trip short?” Crusher asked.

“
Hmm,” Jason hummed, tapping his finger against his chin as he thought. “Everybody hang loose here for a little bit and I’ll go check the message on the ship. We’ll decide what to do from there.”

*****

Twingo decided to go with Jason, so the pair walked quickly through the main guest receiving area and towards the external docking arms where the
Phoenix
was latched onto the station. Although he was trying to play it cool, inside Jason was deeply concerned about why the
Diligent
had been attacked and where Kellea actually was. He had serious doubts that she or Crisstof had anything to do with the incidents on Camderan-2, but he did have to wonder at the coincidence of them being there in the first place.

They made it to the
Phoenix
and quickly went about disabling the security systems so they could get into the gunship. With a final beep and a hiss, the outer hatch popped a fraction of an inch inward before swinging inward and allowing them access. Jason hurried in and went to an inconspicuous panel on the far wall and quickly tapped out a simple pattern on the seemingly-inactive control panel. Another double-beep let him know that the secondary security system had been deactivated. Due to the nature of the places they’d operated out of, not to mention the quality of character of some of their clientele, Twingo had equipped the ship with dual, redundant entry security systems on all the main airlocks. If someone managed to get through one of them and didn’t know of the other, they would be in for a nasty, likely fatal, surprise.

“
Damn! Why is it so cold in here?” Jason asked as he walked through the dim main deck on his way to the stairs that led to the command deck.

“
Minimal life support when she’s docked,” Twingo said, his breath fogging in the brisk air. “The cool air allows the moisture to condense and be removed more easily by the air handlers.” They hustled up to the com room that was on the aft, starboard side of the command deck and just behind the bridge.

Jason sat in one of the seats and began bringing the equipment online while Twingo stood at a control panel behind him and did the same.

“I’ll go up to the bridge and wake the main computer up,” he said as he slid by Jason.

“
Thanks.”

A
little over ten minutes later they were finally able to access the com buffer and see what the
Phoenix
had received while they were in the resort. The message had been bounced through six dummy accounts over public com networks before hitting the ship’s slip-space com node associated with their “clean” transponder codes. Jason and Twingo stared at the message for a moment, not completely understanding it.

I won
’t make it home this cycle for the harvest celebration, got held up at work. It looks like I will be putting in some long hours before I can break away. Sometimes I’m not sure I could even if I tried. Hopefully we’ll see each other soon.

The message was terse and unsigned.
“So?” Twingo asked. “Do you know what it means?”

“
It’s definitely Kellea,” Jason answered. “The bit about the harvest celebration is something she told me about the area on her homeworld where her family lives. If you’re asking if we have a secret code prearranged that would explain the rest … no, we don’t. But just some simple deduction tells us that she’s trying to break away and that she doesn’t think she can. In other words, she’s trapped on Camderan-2 and the ConFed is actively looking for her.”

“
Simple enough. Well … except for the part where she only narrowed it down to an entire planet. That’s a bit loose on the details, don’t you think?”

“
We could reply to this message,” Jason said, thinking aloud. “But the ConFed isn’t that stupid. If we try to speak directly, chances are good they’ll see through this clumsy attempt at talking in code and either get to her first or be waiting for us. Although … if we replied to it once we were already there, we could get in and grab her before they had a chance to zero in on us. We could be off-world before they would have time to dispatch a team.”

“
Vacation over?” Twingo asked.

“
Vacation over,” Jason confirmed. “Get her fired up. I’ll go collect the other idiots and grab your stuff while I’m at it. We’ll check out, get our clearance, and be on our way.” Twingo was already heading to the bridge to begin the startup of the main reactor and the engines. Before Jason had even stepped back onto the docking arm the lights in the ship came up fully and the environmental systems were heating the air. He snuck a glance at the
Phoenix
as he jogged back down the gangway and could see her marker lights blinking and the long grav-drive emitters already beginning to glow blue.

It took him a few minutes to fast-walk back to the rooms, trying not to garner too much attention as he went. Thankfully the others were still just lounging around and hadn
’t dispersed throughout the facility yet. “Pack it up,” he said without preamble. “We’re flying out of here within the hour.”

“
We were expecting that,” Kage said as he sipped on something that had been sitting on a room service tray. “We’re already packed up and the front desk is expecting us. We’ll have our departure clearance as soon as we’re back on the ship.”

“
Excellent. Good job,” Jason said as he looked around. Even his own bag, as well as Twingo’s, was lined up neatly on the bed in the room he had shared with Lucky. “If we’re ready, let’s get to it. Twingo is already on board getting the engines hot.”

“
One day …” Crusher sighed.

“
What’s that?” Doc asked as they filed out of the room.

“
One day we’ll actually get to take a full vacation,” the warrior replied.

“
Don’t count on it,” Jason said over his shoulder. “You should have read the fine print on your contract.”