Omega Force: Savage Homecoming (11 page)

“Nope.”

“So was she an especially easy install or something?” Jason asked the med tech as she walked in to begin unhooking Taryn from the monitoring machines.

“Not especially so, why do you ask, Captain?” The tech seemed genuinely confused.

“I thought everyone felt horrible after getting the primary neural implant put in,” he said, a suspicion growing within him.

“I’d not heard that. It’s usually a pleasant experience if the proper drugs are administered. Will there be anything else?”

“No,” Jason said with a forced smile. “Thank you.”

“What was that all about?” Taryn asked.

“Oh nothing,” Jason said, recalling his own horrific experience of getting his implants installed. “I just need to remember to beat the shit out of Doc when I see him again.”

They went straight to the mess deck and grabbed something to eat before heading back to the engineering shop to check on Lucky. Doc was still there fiddling with some instruments and passive probes he had attached to Lucky’s head, but other than that there was no change in the battlesynth’s condition. His eyes seemed to flit about randomly, but that might have been due to Doc’s sensors.

“Twingo almost has the main drive back
up,” Jason informed Doc. “We’ll be leaving shortly.”

“What are we going to do with him?” Doc asked, gesturing towards Lucky.

“We’re taking him. We’re basically just waiting to see if he’ll wake up on his own. He can do that on the
Phoenix
just as well,” Jason said. Doc only nodded.

“Where’s Crusher been?” Taryn asked, looking around.

“This ship has extensive training facilities,” Jason said. “He’s been burning off some frustration there. I just hope there haven’t been any incidents.”

With the help of some passersby, they managed to transfer Lucky onto another hover cart and strap him down for his trip back to the
Phoenix
. Just as Jason was about to suggest they go round up the rest of the crew, the intercom came to life. “
Crew of the gunship-class vessel, Phoenix, please report to the hangar deck. Again, Phoenix crew members to the hangar deck
.”

“I guess that’s our cue,” Jason said. “Let’s go ahead and bring him with us.” Together the three moved the prostrate synth out of the workshop and down the wide service corridors towards the hangar deck.

They were out of the hatch and milling about when a loud klaxon sounded three sharp blasts and the forward elevator began to lower the
Phoenix
back into the ship. Jason smiled as his ship looked alive again, hissing in the sudden temperature change with her marker lights blinking slowly. Once the elevator stopped, the ship taxied backwards off the platform and stopped in the middle of the deck, lowering the ramp to the cargo bay. Jason nudged his team into action and they began to push the cart towards the gunship as half a dozen of the
Diligent’s
engineering crew piled out of the ship, dragging pieces of equipment with them.

“New record on a core restart,” Twingo boasted from the top of the ramp. “It’s mostly those new engines you extorted out of the Eshquarians
though, they charge three times as fast as the Jepsen emitters. How is he?”

“No change,” Doc said. “We’re going to strap him down in Engineering and continue to monitor him.” Twingo just nodded and led the way back into the ship. They were in the middle of transferring Lucky off the cart when a sweaty Crusher made his appearance and lent his strength to move his friend.

“Kage,” Jason said. “Go pull our sensor logs from the last encounter with the A’arcooni ship and give it to the
Diligent’s
operations officer. I want them to start analyzing it. Everybody else; let’s get this thing ready to fly. I want to be back on track within a couple of hours.”

“On it,” the small Veran said, being no real help in man-handling the heavy synth off the cart. They got Lucky up and strapped down on one of the benches in the engineering bay and continued the power feed. After a moment of quiet reflection they began to filter out of the bay, leaving Twingo to finish up the details. Crusher headed to berthing to get cleaned up, and the rest went back through the cargo bay to meet the growing contingent at the bottom of the ramp. Crisstof and Kellea were there, as were Taryn’s parents.

“We’re about ready to depart,” Jason told them. “Kage is sending you our sensor logs; hopefully you’ll be able to find something useful in them.”

“Where are you heading next?” Crisstof asked.

“The source of the second signal we were tracking before we were knocked out. It’s a populated world so there may be some reason Deetz was there,” Jason told him.

“You’re certain it was Deetz on the other side of the transmission?” Kellea asked. “It may have just been the other ship.”

“True, but it’s all I have and I don’t think Deetz will be too far out of the area. That ship was waiting for us, and if you hadn’t been there the
Phoenix
would likely have been destroyed, or on its way back to him this very moment.”

“I think it’s time we talk about something,” Taryn interjected suddenly. Jason got a panicked look in his eyes for a moment before realizing she wasn’t talking about Kellea. “I’m not staying here.”

“You most certainly are. You stowed away the first—”

“This is not a debate,” Taryn said with iron in her voice as she reiterated her original argument. “I’m just as vested in this as you are and I have a right to be here.”

“What
right
do you have to be aboard
my
ship—”

Jason was cut off as Taryn simply walked by him and went up the ramp, making it obvious that the only way she was coming back off the
Phoenix
was by physical coercion. He could feel his crew holding in their laughter even as Crisstof pretended to be fascinated by the marker light on the starboard wing. Even Kellea seemed to be trying very hard to hide the smirk on her face.

“So … we’ll be leaving now I guess,” he said helplessly. He gathered up the tattered remains of his dignity and turned to walk back up the ramp. Once up on the bridge, he busied himself preparing for departure and fighting down the urge to call Taryn’s bluff, grab her, and deposit her in restraints back on the
Diligent’s
hangar deck. He keyed the intercom. “Prepare the
Phoenix
for departure; everyone to your post.” It wasn’t long before Kage and Doc walked onto the bridge followed by Taryn and Crusher. Twingo remained in Engineering to monitor the core as well as keep an eye on Lucky. The fact that the battlesynth remained catatonic was a great weight on Jason’s heart, but he put it aside and focused on the task of tracking Deetz down and eliminating him before he could cause any more trouble.

“We’re cleared to depart,” Kage said, looking up from his display.
“Taxi onto the forward elevator.”

Jason thumbed the taxi-control forward to creep the big gunship back onto the platform. He set the brakes and waited as, with a lurch, they began to rise up to the flight deck. He always loved the moment they emerged from the larger ship and the universe was spread out before him, inviting him.

“Phoenix, you are clear to engage primary flight systems and depart at your discretion. Happy hunting.”
Instead of the
Diligent’s
operations officer sending them off, it was Captain Colleren herself. Jason just shook his head as the main drive came online with a throbbing hum that increased in pitch until it evened out, and Twingo called up informing him they were clear to fly.

Jason inched the throttle up a smidge before disengaging the mag-locks in the landing gear, giving the
Phoenix
a little forward bias in relation to the flight path of the
Diligent
. He thrusted up gently and began to drift off lazily to starboard. After retracting the landing gear, he shoved the throttle forward and shot away from the frigate along the course Kage had provided.

“Slip-drive is available, engage at will, Captain,” Kage said from the right seat. Jason didn’t look down as he slapped the control, sending power surging though the slip-engines and causing a localized space-time distortion that allowed the
Phoenix
to transition into the ether of slip-space.

“Doc, tell me about the planet we’re heading towards,” Jason said as the canopy darkened.

*****

Torestellia was not a planet that was part of the Confederated Planets, nor did it wish to be. It reluctantly allowed contact with the outside world, but the population was mildly xenophobic and there was a general distrust of off-worlders. Many thought this was because Torestellia was a somewhat unique world in ConFed controlled space: its population was indigenous to the planet and was not the result of settlement or colonization. The dominant species, called twarlans, had evolved, and largely preferred to stay, on the planet.

Unfortunately for the twarlans, large deposits of rare earth elements meant that they could either benefit from trading with outside species or risk a hostile action and have those resources taken by force. For a comparatively underdeveloped species, there wasn’t really much of a choice, and many twarlans had begun to realize how badly they were being taken advantage of. In order to keep the peace between the touchy species and the technology firms clamoring for their mineral exports, the ConFed fleet had a near constant presence in the area. This was not good news for Omega Force.

The flight was a leisurely three days from their last position. Jason didn’t want to needlessly push the engines hard and, if he were being honest, he was more than a little apprehensive about coming up against that weapon again. Twingo and Doc were running simulations based on the sensor data of their last encounter, but so far all they knew was the obvious: the A’arcooni vessel could shut down every power source on their ship and they were helpless to stop them.

Taryn was quiet for the most part, seeming to have realized she had far overstepped her bounds by forcing her way onto the
Phoenix
. Jason let her squirm for a bit as he was still not especially thrilled with her bullying him to get her way, especially in front of his crew. But they were still sharing the bed in his stateroom, and he had to admit he could get used to having her there.

Lucky was still nonresponsive. His eyes would flit back and forth, but Twingo couldn’t be sure if it was some unknown stimulus or just stray sparks in his processors. Crusher moped around the ship, sometimes sitting silently with his friend and other times poking around in the armory aimlessly.

“You know, Captain,” Twingo was saying. “We may need to start thinking about what we’re going to do with him. From what I understand of his species, he may never wake up from this. Or worse, he might.”

“What do you mean by that?” Jason asked.

“Let’s say he does reboot and comes back online, but his mind is wiped clean from the shutdown. We could be looking at a potentially dangerous situation. I have no idea what sort of failsafe programming he may have. He could wake up and tear this ship apart.”

“We don’t have any other options right now,” Jason said hotly. “I’m not shoving him out the airlock. We’ll wait and see happens, it’s too soon for me just to give up on him.”

“I’m not saying give up,” Twingo said with his hands up. “I’m just saying we need to prepare ourselves for the fact we may be a crewmember down soon.”

Jason left Engineering in a foul mood and made his way back up to the bridge. When Doc saw his mood he just raised a single eyebrow questioningly.

“Is there any way to get in touch with Lucky’s creators?”

“I know what you’re thinking, and the answer is no,” Doc said sympathetically. “They’ve made an agreement not to render aid to battlesynths who have been injured.”

“What the hell? Why?” Jason exclaimed.

“There was some controversy with the decision, but Lucky’s species is quite dangerous under certain circumstances, and the ConFed Council decided it would be in everyone’s best interest if they couldn’t be repaired or rebuilt and let attrition handle the problem,” Doc explained. “When they were first emancipated, the normal synths scattered and tried to make a life for themselves the best they could; those like Deetz.
But … well, you remember Lucky when we first found him. He didn’t even have a proper name.

“The battlesynths milled about for a while with no mission and no commander, so naturally someone took advantage of the situation. They were used as shock troopers in some bloody campaigns that left a lot of citizens terrified of them and demanding action. I’ll be honest, the fact he’s been able to move about so freely these last few years has surprised me.”

“You almost sound like you agree with this,” Jason accused.

“I’m giving you the facts of the situation,” Doc said coldly. “You can throw it back in my teeth if you want but that’s
my
friend down there on that slab as well.”

“Shit,” Jason said, turning away. “I’m sorry.
Again. I’m going to go and get some sleep.” Jason trudged off the bridge, emotionally exhausted. He went back to his quarters and showered before slipping into bed. He was so tired he almost didn’t feel the mattress shift as Taryn slid in next to him and wrapped her arm around him.