Omega Force 5: Return of the Archon (2 page)

“There aren’t many alternatives. Without Kage, we’d be forced to purchase an insanely expensive, less effective AI. Or … another synth that’s been specialized in code breaking and network intrusion. What are the chances we’d end up with another Deetz? While he’s an enormous pain in the ass at times, Kage is one of the very best at what he does.”

“You’re not telling me anything new. It’s why I’ve had to get his identity changed half a dozen times,” Jason said. “Like you said … he’s a pain in the ass, but he’s
our
pain in the ass. Let’s get him through this and then he can tell us what he needs to get back to full mission capable.” He left Doc so he could go check on Kage and made his own way back to the quarters he’d been occupying since arriving at the medical facility.

*****

Jason took the long way back to his temporary quarters, a circuitous route that led him back outside and along some footpaths where he could enjoy the beautiful Aracoria weather and the facility’s stunning landscaping. If he ignored the sound of the air traffic overhead he could almost make himself believe he was back on Earth. The fact that this was a manufactured world that so closely resembled his own home boggled his mind a bit. There were some differences, of course. The atmosphere had a higher oxygen concentration, thanks to the terraformers still running as atmospheric conditioners, and the trace gas composition was different. But, in all the important ways, it was a pleasant reminder of home for the dispossessed human.

The fact he could reminisce so freely without feeling the pangs of homesickness reinforced in his mind that he’d made the right choice in staying where he was. He would have never been left in peace on Earth, and too many people depended on him now. His mismatched crew was closer to him than any family had been in his previous life. They lived together, fought with each other almost constantly, but any one of them would lay his life down for the others without hesitation. This gave Jason no small amount of pride when he considered that half the crew had no military background, although Kage had been a career criminal when they’d found him.

Sweeping his ident chip over the scanner, Jason stepped through the doorway into his quarters as the hatch whisked out of the way with a slight hiss. He tossed his stuff on the desk and made his way to the shower to get cleaned up, but the display on his com unit stopped him before he made it to the restroom. It was showing three separate times: local,
Phoenix’s
time, and
Defiant’s
time. The battlecruiser
Defiant
was currently just ending first watch. On a whim, he synced his com to the desktop display and punched in a slip-space com address he knew by memory.

He waited while the “Please Standby” message flashed on the screen for a few moments as he leaned back into the seat and ran his hands through his now-dry hair. He tried not to think of whatever it was that Kage had hacked into his face earlier. After a minute more, he reached for his com unit to break the connection; just then, the display lit up.

“Captain Burke,” said the stunningly beautiful Captain Colleren with a smile. “I hope this is a social call and you’re not in some trouble.”

“No trouble, Captain,” Jason said with a smile. “Just checking in to make sure you don’t need us grubby mercs to come bail you out again.” Her laughter was musical as she also leaned back in her seat and reached for what appeared to be a mug of tea.

“So how are things going? I can’t really tell a difference from the neck up,” she said. “I figured Doc would have made you unrecognizable by now.”

“I asked for a more subtle touch,” Jason laughed. “You can’t really see it just by looking at me, but I’m as good as I’m going to get with all the parts I was born with.”

“Was it worth it? It had to hurt.”

“Yes, and yes.”

“How is Kage?” she asked.

“He might not make it,” Jason said, holding up his hand as she bolted upright in her seat. “No … he came through the procedure well enough. But his behavior afterwards has made him the number one candidate to suffer an ‘accident’ while he recuperates. It probably won’t even be me that does it.”

“Oh, poor little guy,” Kellea said. “Cut him some slack, he’s not a big tough soldier like some of you guys. Speaking of … have you been in contact with the
Phoenix
recently?”

“No,” Jason admitted with a tight voice. “I’m trying to maintain the illusion that I trust them with the ship and not check in every day.”

“I was a bit surprised when you let them take it, if I’m honest,” she said. “You know that Crusher and Twingo together without supervision may be disastrous.”

“I’m hoping that Lucky will continue to be the voice of reason and not let them bully him into going along with a stupid idea,” Jason said. “But keeping them here on Aracoria for months with nothing to do while Kage and I were getting upgraded would have been equally bad. Who knows what trouble they would have gotten into. Letting them take the job to train that Baron’s security force made sense and will bring in a little cash.”

“You have unfettered access to Crisstof’s account when it comes to operational expenses and yet you still act like starving independent operators,” she said, shaking her head.

“It’s a good habit to keep up,” he said with a shrug. “I’m sure they’ll be fine.”

“Who are you trying to convince?” she laughed at him again. “So, by the way, you never did tell me about the favor you owed Councilman Scleesz. You didn’t have to assassinate anyone, did you?” Her tone clearly indicated she was teasing him, so he took no offense.

“I wish,” he said. “Let’s just say that his species’ divorce proceedings require that documents be hand-delivered into the other party’s hand with a witness present. His estranged wife was well aware of this fact and led us on a merry chase through the underbelly of The Portcha Expanse for the better part of a month. That’s not even an especially large region of space.”

“Maybe you guys are losing your touch,” Kellea said before looking off-camera for a moment. She looked back with a clearly annoyed expression. “I’ve got to head back to the bridge. We received clearance for docking a lot faster than I expected. Thanks for sending me a signal.” She smiled hugely before reaching over and disconnecting the link.

Jason sat for a moment and stared at the screen as it reverted back to the main menu. The relationship between himself and Kellea had been progressing at a comfortable, if glacially slow, pace. There were some complications, of course, such as the fact they were two different species. Another was that they were routinely separated by no less than hundreds of lightyears at any given time. But they put no pressure on each other and were able to reconnect every so often thanks to the miracle of slip-space com nodes.

Since he and his crew had saved her life a little less than a year prior, she had let her guard down quite a bit and allowed him to see a side of her she would never show her crew or even her employer. He had no idea how far things would go between them, or if it would ever go further than exchanged messages and vid links until one of them met someone else, but he was happy with that. He went to scratch his nose, but instead punched himself forcefully in the face.

“Damnit!”

He still wasn’t fully accustomed to the way his body now moved, and if he wasn’t concentrating, it seemed to have a mind of its own. It would take his brain a bit to recalibrate itself to the increased speed and strength. He stood up, stretched his back out, and made his way to the restroom where he intended to take an obscenely long, hot water shower before grabbing Doc and maybe hitting up one of the local pubs in the nearby entertainment district.

“How’s he doing?” Jason asked for the fourth time.

“Captain,” Doc said impatiently. “Please … quiet.” Jason went back to his seat in a huff. They were in a room in the lab section of the medical facility that was packed full of medical and computer equipment. Doc and his partner, Doran, were peering through the large window that made up the entire far wall. On the other side, hooked up to a host of medical machines, was Kage. His skull was now fully closed back up and the machines were hooked to him via passive connections only, a far cry from when Jason saw him with his head split open and full of wiring and tubing.

It had been two weeks since then and now Kage was putting his new neural implant through its paces. This was the second day of trials and the Veran was already drawing a crowd of astonished medical staff and technicians as he began to far exceed not only their test plan schedule but the generally accepted capabilities of the device itself. The training had started easily enough with the specialists asking Kage to simply ping a networked computer with his neural implant, but the Veran, true to his nature, had quickly broken out of the confines of the supposedly secure network and began wreaking havoc with the facility's systems. Why? Because he could.

As captain, one of Jason's most challenging tasks was keeping his crew out of trouble. They were all a little high-strung and bored easily, a serious problem when their ideas of entertainment ranged from petty theft to physical assault. Of them all, Lucky was by far the easiest to trust. Kage was far and away the worst. The smallest among them, he had a quick brain and an even quicker temper that manifested itself with him using his unique talents to make the person that angered him completely miserable. Toss in a gambling addiction for good measure and you had a volatile little package that needed near constant monitoring.

"He's already through the primary and secondary firewalls," one of the technicians reported. "I can't tell what he's doing now. He's somehow split his presence in the network into four separate entities that are attacking different nodes simultaneously. How can he do that?"

"Let's keep the speculation and conversation to a minimum," Doc said sternly. "You need to be focused on what he’s doing or you'll miss it." There were a few more minutes of silence as everyone studied their displays, and Jason tried to find a comfortable position in a chair that was in no way meant for humans.

"That's impossible!" a technician exclaimed.

"Stop him! Shut the system down," another said, stumbling out of his chair and trying to reach the switches on the banks of computers. Jason stood and looked in on his friend through the window. The faintest ghost of a smile was playing across his wide mouth.

"He's outside the lab and on the public net! The hard lines are disabled, how is this even possible?"

"Captain," Doc said, "you should probably go in and tell him stop. He's had his fun and I think he proved his point. Tell him the testing phase is over. I'm not sure what he has in mind, but this
is
a ConFed enclave." Jason just nodded and stepped in through the door separating the two rooms.

"All right ... what are you up to?" Jason asked, standing at the foot of the reclined seat Kage was secured to. He received no response from his friend. "I know you can hear me." At this, one of Kage's eyes cracked open and an impish grin emerged.

"I'm just having a little fun," Kage said. "Nothing illegal or immoral. By the way, we have dinner reservations at that place we saw in Aracoria Center. The place at the top of the tower."

"Kage, that place is nearly a thousand credits a plate and it was booked solid for the next three months," Jason said in a pained voice.

"I took care of it," Kage answered. When he saw the look on Jason's face, he elaborated, "I didn't steal the funds ... exactly. I routed it from Crisstof's expense account that he has us tap for operational expenses. It will look like a fuel and service charge for the
Phoenix
."

"The
Phoenix
is four-hundred lightyears away right now, and you said this wasn't immoral."

"It isn't," Kage insisted.

"You're siphoning thousands of credits from Crisstof Dalton so we can go have a good time," Jason said sternly, crossing his arms over his chest. "That's stealing."

"We steal all the time," Kage said. "Besides, wouldn't it be nice to go there at least once? Just to say we did it?" Jason's admonition died on his lips as he considered Kage’s words.
It
has
been a long few months.

"You can guarantee Crisstof's bean counters won't figure it out?"

"You have no faith in me," Kage said in a mock-hurt tone. "It's handled, Captain. Now, can I get unhooked from all of this and go get cleaned up?"

*****

"How can we afford this?" Doc asked in a hushed voice after a prissy, olive-skinned alien ushered them to a private table in the upper level of the venue. The entire outer ring of the floor slowly revolved, affording them a three-hundred and sixty degree view of Aracoria Center as they ate.

"It was just—"

"I have a special 'Captain's Fund' for things like this." Jason cut Kage off. Doc had made his opinions on Kage's creative accounting very clear over the years.

"How special?"

"Relax, Doc," Jason lied smoothly. "Just some slush funds I picked up from things like selling off my outdated armor." Doc was about to protest again when he saw a tray loaded with expensive drinks and delicacies move past on its way to another table. The life of a mercenary didn't present him with many opportunities to enjoy the luxuries of the life he had left behind as a preeminent geneticist.

"Well, if you're sure we can spare the credits," Doc finished lamely as his eyes followed the tray. Jason knew he had him, so he let it drop and began keying through the interactive menu that had been placed in front of him.

It was nearly three hours, and six courses, later and all three of them were leaning back in the plush seats, watching the city of Aracoria Center drift by. Jason recognized at least three high-ranking committee members also dining on the private floor and had to wonder exactly how much cash Kage had skimmed off the top of their operational account to cover it. His com unit's persistent beeping shook him out of his post-meal lethargy as he dug the small device from the pocket of his expensive suit pants. He read the message twice and compared it with local time before clearing his throat and addressing his friends. "Kage, go ahead and pay up. Let's head back and all of us grab a good night of sleep."