Omega Force 7: Redemption (13 page)

"I'm guessing this is being done without Crusher's knowledge," Jason said.

"I couldn't say," Kage said. "I would assume so. I think he feels bad for how it went down in there."

"I guess we all do," Jason said. "Lead on."

****

The hard knock on the door nearly made Jason jump out of his skin. He trusted Morakar, but he was still not completely comfortable staying in the boarding house and even less comfortable that Kalette was in a separate room, even if it did have an adjoining door.

"I'll get it," he said as Lucky stood up. Jason had wanted the battlesynth guarding the First Attendant, but both had steadfastly refused and he was once again reminded that "Captain" was a completely honorary title among his crew as they routinely refused any orders they didn't feel like following. Lucky was more concerned about Jason's safety and Kalette was still a little uncomfortable being around Lucky alone for some reason.

As soon as Jason pulled the handle back on the wall to disengage the door latch it was kicked in with such force that it sent him airborne. He landed in the middle of the room on his back hard enough to knock the wind out of him and when he looked up Crusher strode through the doorway, dressed in black casual clothes and eyes blazing with anger.

"All this time and this is how you come to me?" Crusher snarled. "Walk into my home and insult me in front of my people? Is this what you've been reduced to?"

"Well, well, well," Jason said, climbing to his feet as he felt his own anger begin to boil inside, the familiar rushing sound in his ears welcome this time. "Looks like they didn't neuter you after all when they stuffed you into that idiotic outfit. Takes a real hard-ass to blindside someone with a door, doesn't it pretty boy?" Jason's obvious reference to the scars Crusher still bore from his time in Duat was the final straw. Crusher roared and came at him, but Jason had been expecting it and rolled to the side and backwards, able to get himself at an angle where he could drive his knee square into the top of Crusher's head.

They both went down in a heap, each struggling to get purchase on some vital area on the other. For his part, Lucky simply crossed his arms and stood in the doorway, watching. Crusher was technically stronger, but he was horribly out of shape. Jason hadn't exactly been taking care of himself either, but he had the advantage of Doc's genetic tweaks keeping him lean and fit. Once Crusher realized that he wouldn't be able to simply overpower Jason he resorted to more underhanded means.

"Ow!" Jason screamed. "No biting you fat bastard!" He grabbed and handful of the sensory organs on Crusher's head that resembled dreadlocks from a distance and twisted. Crusher immediately let go of his hold and arched his head up, trying to relieve the pressure and when he did Jason delivered three short chops right into his throat.

"Ah!!" Crusher gasped, shoving Jason away. "I'll show you fat you ugly, pale little worm! You left me on that planet to die!"

The big warrior leapt up and tried to use all his weight to drive his fist down into Jason's chest, but the human rolled to the side with surprising speed and Crusher's fist slammed into the reinforced concrete floor, the sound of either the floor or bones breaking was heard clearly. Crusher looked at Jason in surprise as he realized the sound might have come from his arm. Jason wasted no time and planted his left palm down so he could swing a wide, powerful kick right into the warrior's face.

Crusher saw it coming and lowered his head enough that Jason's ankle smashed right into the hardened crest that ran down the warrior's forehead. Jason howled in pain and grabbed his ankle, blood already soaking the socks he was wearing. Although Crusher was able to save his face, the blow from Jason's enhanced muscles and reinforced skeleton had still scrambled his brains a bit. Jason rolled over onto him and began driving hard punches down into his face while he was too dazed to defend himself.

"I gave up everything to save you!" he bellowed as he hit him. "I lost my girl! I lost my crew! I lost everything to get you back you ungrateful fuck!"

Crusher managed to get a leg up and around Jason's neck and heaved, flipping him over backwards and into the floor. Jason rolled back up to come at him again, but Crusher managed another kick as he was back peddling that sent Jason to the floor again. The big warrior tried to stand but crumpled back against the wall, his eyes glazing over as he fought to remain conscious. Lucky observed the entire thing with an air of boredom, actually looking out the window at one point.

Jason hobbled over to the bed, sucking air in through his teeth as he gingerly peeled the sock back to look at the damage. He may as well have tried to kick a hole through a starship hull for as much as Crusher's head gave. While he did this Crusher shook his head a few times, trying to clear the cobwebs. Both combatants eyed each other wearily, seeing who would be the first to react.

It was Crusher who broke first, a small snort escaping his mouth and a small smile playing across his face. Jason was able to hold his angry glare for a moment longer, then a chortle escaped before he could stop it. That broke the dam and soon both were laughing so hard tears were streaming from their eyes. While the pair laughed uproariously at how ridiculous they both were Lucky went to the small kitchenette and retrieved a pair of bottled brews, some towels, and a few ice packs that he wordlessly distributed to the fighters.

"Ah, shit," Crusher said after a moment. "Maybe we just should have done that and got it over with a couple of years ago."

"I think it's better we waited until we were both slow and out of shape," Jason said, wrapping the towel around his ankle to stop the bleeding. "How's the arm?"

"Not broken," Crusher said, moving his wrist experimentally. "I guess it was the floor that gave."

"Nothing broken here," Jason said, flexing his ankle. "Just tore the skin open."

"I was so scared, Jason," Crusher said quietly, looking his friend in the eye. "It's one thing to be in battle or to know you're about to die, but being locked up in a place like that knowing there's no escape ... I've never known fear like that. It changes a person, I think.

"At first I held out hope that rescue was coming, but as the weeks went by and nobody came, I began to lose hope. Soon, I was blaming all of you for leaving me there. My anger towards you kept me going as they would come again and again to torture me and force me to fight the pathetic creatures that inhabited that place.

"The day I was dragged into a cage with a pair of nyphens I knew that it was my day to die, and I was determined to not go out without a fight. When I heard your voice that day and realized that you had come back for me I was so ashamed of the months I had spent hating you. After you pulled me out of that hell, I knew I wouldn't be able to stay." Crusher's story trailed off as he ran out of steam, leaning back against the wall and staring off into space.

"I won't pretend to know what you went through," Jason said after a moment. "I'm also not sure I wouldn't have taken the easy way out after the same amount of time you were in there."

"You're a survivor, like the rest of us," Crusher said. "You'd have been miserable and eventually went insane, but you'd have kept on going. So what now?"

"What do you mean?" Jason asked. "If you want a second round you're going to have to give me a week or so to heal up."

"I mean what happens now with us?" Crusher asked.

"We were always good," Jason said. "Maybe if we both weren't so stubborn and prideful we'd have talked before now. I'll admit that I was angry you left even though I understood why. I've spent the last couple of years blaming you for the crew splitting up and a half dozen other things. Let's just agree we both weren't without blame and move on."

"Agreed," Crusher said, wincing as he climbed to his feet. "The reason I actually came down here was because I think we may have what you're looking for."

"But you attacked me instead?" Jason said.

"It was sort of a spur of the moment thing when I heard your voice," Crusher said with a sheepish look. "Sorry."

"Never mind," Jason said with a wave. "What is it you think you have?"

"We had a small expeditionary unit filling a contract as a security force on a planet near the ConFed boundary," Crusher said. "They reported a ConFed agent taking a special interest in what appeared to be a trafficking exchange, but could have been an abduction just as easily. The handoff of two bipeds with hoods over their heads to someone flying a ship that Crisstof claims matches the description of the one Kalette escaped from."

"It's always good to have independent confirmation, but I don't think this puts us any closer to the netjere than we were before," Jason said.

"We still have the agent," Crusher said with a smile.

"Well now, that's a whole different thing," Jason said. "Why would your troops abduct an agent?"

"We've been expanding our intelligence operation fairly quickly," Crusher said. "We snag targets of opportunity like this when we can."

"Still seems like a risky game to play with ConFed Intel Section," Jason countered.

"It's minimal," Crusher said. "We don't plan on letting him report back what happened. Do you want to see him or not?"

"I didn't come all this way for nothing," Jason said. "Let me figure out how the hell I'm going to put my boot on over this balloon that used to be my ankle and we'll be on our way."

"Take your time," Crusher said. "I'm still seeing double and I can't feel the left side of my body."

****

The trip to the detention area wasn't an especially long one, but the security measures they had to go through made it time consuming. There had been much concern about Jason's neural implant and the possibility that it could record anything he saw or heard. While he knew for a fact it could, Jason didn't contradict Crusher when he explained it couldn't and bluffed his way through all the checkpoints.

"I don't technically have any authority over the intelligence service, but I'm well enough connected that nobody wants to press the issue," Crusher said as they walked down a dark, dank passage lined with heavy alloy doors that was so cliché as a prison Jason almost laughed. "This is it."

The agent was sitting on the small bunk and looked like he hadn't been very well fed or allowed to clean himself. Jason bit down the admonishment that was on the tip of his tongue and let Crusher handle things. This wasn't his planet or his culture, but he wasn't all that comfortable with how Galvetor's expanding influence included illegal abductions and imprisonments. He realized that his own trail of bodies behind him made that mildly hypocritical, but there was something about the fact this agent wasn't grabbed for a specific purpose that didn't sit well with him.

"We'd like to know about that abduction I talked to you about earlier," Crusher said without preamble. "Don't leave out any details."

"I'm not--" Crusher didn't let him finish the sentence. He motioned for orderly outside, who then came in and pressed an injector to the agent's neck and pressed the button.

"He'll be more compliant in a few minutes," the orderly remarked before leaving.

"Seriously?" Jason asked, unable to keep silent any longer.

"What?" Crusher asked.

"This is so unethical and immoral that I--"

"Do we really want to get into a conversation about comparative morality right here, right now?" Crusher asked. "Let me remind you that you're the man who tossed an agent from the back of a ship that was at ten-thousand meters altitude when it suited his purpose."

"Fair enough," Jason said, raising his hands. "I'm just making sure my objections are noted."

"He's coming around," Crusher said. Jason looked closely and the agent's eyes seemed to have trouble focusing, but he couldn't be sure since his species had enormous eyes with three pupils that could see in multiple bands of the spectrum.

"Are you referring to the abduction of the two young Avarian females?" the agent said in a wooden voice.

"Yes," Crusher said slowly and clearly.

"I was assigned to watch over the Galvetic Legion units that had been assigned to that world," the agent began. "There has been much concern to the fact that Galvetor has decided to enter quadrant politics. While there I witnessed two ships land near the logistics hub the Legionnaires were guarding and two bipeds were dragged forcibly from one to the other.

"As the receiving ship took off I moved to the remaining ship to investigate as trafficking of slaves has become an issue in that sector recently. I overheard one of the crewmembers state that she was glad to be rid of their cargo and that Avarians had such a high opinion of themselves. Another mentioned that the money was good and all they'd had to do was take the females and run them a short distance to the planet." Jason was about to interrupt to ask a question but Crusher put a hand on his chest and shook his head.

"The crew the Avarians were handed off to was not their final destination," the agent continued. "I could not hear the full conversation, but I specifically heard the word
Vyrt
before I had to retreat to prevent being discovered. I placed a tracker on the ship's hull and was crossing the landing area when two Legionnaires grabbed me. That is all I remember from the incident."

The agent stared straight ahead after he had concluded his recitation. Jason waved a hand in front of his eyes and saw that they didn't even flicker to track the movement.