Omega Force: Savage Homecoming (19 page)

For once, they were rewarded with some luck. As they rounded a curving passageway, they arrived just in time to see two A’arcooni trying to swing a massive blast door shut. Jason broke into a full sprint, his armored feet leaving dents in the deck plating, while Crusher fired on the two trying to close the door. Jason exploded onto the bridge but was unable to stop himself before crashing headlong into a console, destroying the controls and displays in a shower of sparks. By the time he got up, Crusher had downed another three and was advancing on the last two. One of them was still firing sporadically to try and distract them from the fact the other was frantically working the controls at his console. Jason didn’t doubt he was either trying to crash the ship into the planet or simply blow it up in orbit. He took careful aim and shot him with a stun bolt. The A’arcooni flopped against the console and crashed onto the floor. The last remaining crewmember seemed torn as he obviously wanted to end his own life but wasn’t sure if he should finish off the other first. Crusher decided for him with a well-placed shot to the chest.

“Check that the other one is still alive and then restrain him,” Jason said, still trying to yank his leg out of the demolished console. “Don’t forget to search him.”

“I think I can handle it,” Crusher said sarcastically, “but thanks, Captain.”

“Damn, you’re getting oversensitive,” Jason muttered as he looked about the bridge, trying to make sense of the controls and displays he was looking at. “I wish I could access internal sensors to see if there are any more crew members hiding onboard.”

“You think they’d actually work?”

“Good point.”

Lucky strode into the command room a few moments later. “The
Diligent
is on its way back at maximum velocity. I see you captured one. Very good, Captain.”

“Yeah … I think this one is the captain,” Jason said as he pointed to a dead A’arcooni with an especially elaborate uniform on. “So I’m guessing our friend here might be the first officer, or whatever their equivalent is. The others were trying to protect him until he could sabotage the ship when we came in.” The A’arcooni in question stirred slightly, so Jason shot him again with a stunner. Crusher looked up at him, his eyebrow raised beneath his clear helmet visor.

“I don’t know if they have some suicide device planted in them. I figure it’s best if Doc scans him first.”

“If they had those, don’t you think they’d have used them instead of shooting and stabbing themselves to death?” Crusher asked.

“Where were you with that brilliant insight five minutes ago?”

“If you two are done, the
Phoenix
will be docking on the starboard airlock within the next few minutes,” Lucky said. “We should move our captive and secure him in the brig while he is still unconscious.”

“I think he needs to see the infirmary first and let Doc deal with the radiation he’s been soaking up,” Jason said as he lifted the smaller being up to put him over his shoulder. “Let’s move. You know where the starboard airlock is at?”

“The right side of the ship, I believe,” Lucky answered as he exited the bridge. Jason turned to Crusher with an incredulous expression.

“Was that a joke?
From him?” Crusher just shrugged and walked past him. Jason followed closely after, grumbling about being sick of smart ass synths.

The ship was laid out unlike other vessels Jason had been on, in that the command center was buried deep within the ship instead of near the bow or in a flying bridge atop the stern. It actually made far more sense to have it protected, but most species seemed to like large windows on their command decks to look out, despite the fact that in interstellar space there wasn’t much to see. In fact, he couldn’t remember seeing a single window on any of the ships they’d encountered so far. Being near the center of the ship meant they didn’t have an overly long walk to the starboard airlock. After only three wrong turns they made it, even as the
Phoenix
was linking up.

“Nobody comes on board this thing,” Jason warned over the com once the outer hatch was opened and he could get a signal out. “It’s contaminated to hell and back. We need to go through cleanup once we come aboard.”

“Copy that, Captain,”
Kage’s voice came back.
“We’re clearing the port airlock now and initiating cleanup protocols.”

It was another few minutes before Crusher cranked open the inner hatch so they could traverse the short gangway into the
Phoenix
. The decontamination system on the DL7 was far more advanced than the sprayers they had gone through before. As each person entered, a series of overlapping
scrubber
fields swept over them until the internal sensors deemed them clean. It took nearly fifteen minutes to cycle everyone into the gunship, an indicator of how bad it really was on the enemy ship.

Jason carried his prisoner directly to the infirmary and strapped him down securely to the bed. Doc was there to begin scans, and administered a sedative once he had verified dosage and reactivity. He looked to have things well in hand, so after activating the security protocols the others filed out and milled about in the common area.

“Lucky, go back aboard the other ship and guard that nursery until the
Diligent
arrives and we can start transferring them off,” Jason ordered. “We’ll stay linked up until they arrive in case you need anything.”

“Of course, Captain,” Lucky said, turning at once to leave.

“So how bad was it?” Twingo asked as Jason popped the seals on his armor and retracted the helmet.

“You wouldn’t believe how
bad,” Jason told him seriously. “I don’t know how that ship is even able to still fly. It looks like decades of no maintenance and shoddy emergency repairs. Containment on the main reactor and the drive conduits is nearing critical, so the entire aft section is sealed off, but the whole ship is already contaminated.”

“Were there any other species aboard or only A’arcooni?” Taryn asked.

“We only ran into A’arcooni, and not that many of them,” Crusher answered. “It explains why they weren’t able to repair the ships properly.”

“Perhaps,” Jason said. “I think there’s more to the story than just a general lack of technical knowhow. Between that and the suicides, it’ll be an interesting conversation when our friend wakes up.”

“I’ll give you two to one odds that he doesn’t say anything useful,” Crusher said to Twingo.

“You’ve already been around them, so I don’t trust you making odds.
Ten to one.”

“Five to one.”

“Deal,” Twingo exclaimed and stuck his hand out, wincing as Crusher squeezed it with his armored glove. Jason just stared flatly at the two of them.

“I take it this isn’t the first wager regarding my success or failure at … things?”

“It’s the first time about something important,” Twingo said. “You want to know what the others were about and who won?”

“No, I really don’t.”

The
Diligent
meshed back into the system nearly twelve full hours after she had received the call from the
Phoenix
regarding the enemy ship. Kellea wasted no time, or fuel, traversing the system and slipping the big frigate into orbit off the
Phoenix’s
starboard side. Jason spent some time explaining the nursery they’d found on board and the critical condition they were in. After a short technical meeting, it was agreed that the
Phoenix
would detach from the airlock and allow one of the
Diligent’s
heavy cargo shuttles to move in so medical crews and engineers could see to the infants.

Lucky had found three more A’arcooni in hiding, but each committed suicide wordlessly before he could reach them. Their prisoner was still under heavy sedation while Doc treated him for a host of issues, not least of which was the near fatal dosage of radiation he’d absorbed. Despite Jason’s pestering, Doc insisted that the patient wouldn’t be available for questioning for some time. With nothing else to really do, Jason clomped up to the bridge, still in his armor. It wasn’t especially comfortable to sit while in the contraption, so he walked up to the edge of the canopy and looked out over the enemy ship as the cargo shuttle made its final approach. He turned to his right and saw the gleaming white
Diligent
keeping pace, keenly aware that Kellea was likely looking down on the
Phoenix
that moment.

“I’m surprised you’re taking this delay so well,” Taryn said from the pilot’s seat. Jason flushed guiltily as he heard her voice while thinking of another.

“My hands are tied until I can get to Doc’s … patient … so I can’t do anything but wait,” he answered as he turned towards her.

“You have changed.” It wasn’t a question. “The Jason I knew would have already been tearing across space just to do something.”

“I guess I’m mellowing out in my old age,” he smiled. She smiled back and then became serious again.

“This is a good thing you’re doing … saving these infants.”

“That’s what we do, try and protect the innocent,” Jason said self-deprecatingly. “There are hardly any that are more innocent than the young ones in those tubes.” They fell into an easy silence as she continued her inspection of the pilot’s station while he watched the operation below.

He stood around on the bridge for another thirty minutes before heading back down to the armory to strip out of his gear. He left it open and hanging on the rack so he could come down later and clean it. As he was getting ready to leave, Crusher walked in to deposit his own gear.

“Captain,” he nodded respectfully. “Good work down there realizing that crazy bastard was going to try and kill those children. You were right; the tank was full of an inert gas that would have suffocated them within minutes.”

“How did you find that out?”

“Lucky called to give us a sitrep,” Crusher answered while pulling off his own protective gear. “He said there were thirty-eight infants still alive, and that the transfer was going slower than he thought since each incubator must be decontaminated before being taken aboard the
Diligent
.”

“So I’ve got time to go get cleaned up,” Jason said cheerfully. “I’m sure our dear friend Crisstof will want to talk this to death once the transfer is complete.”

“I’m certain of it.”

*****

Dressed and refreshed, Jason walked up onto the command deck to see how things were going. It had been twenty minutes since he had left Crusher in the armory. He was just in time to see Crisstof’s face come up on the main display as a com channel was opened.

“Ah, Captain,” Crisstof said. “I was told I might have to wait for you. Anyway, would you care to come aboard the
Diligent
for a quick face-to-face meeting on recent developments?”

“I’d been sort of expecting this call,” Jason said with a smile that didn’t touch his eyes. “We’ll dock at your starboard airlock so we’re not interfering with the cargo shuttle’s access to the flight deck.”

“That was just what Captain Colleren had suggested. Thank you, Captain. I’ll meet you there within the hour.” The com channel closed and Jason sank into the pilot’s seat with a weary sigh. He was exhausted, and another lecture by Crisstof Dalton wasn’t high on his list of things he wanted at the moment.

“Twingo, I’m bringing the main drive online. We’re docking with the
Diligent
in a few minutes,” Jason said over the intercom.

“Knock
yourself out,”
came the disinterested reply. Jason clenched his jaw in irritation while Taryn hid her smile behind her hand. After letting a breath out, he reached over and flipped the drive to active mode and waited until all his indicators went green.

He dipped the ship’s nose down and slid the gunship under the frigate at a slow relative speed while he stayed out of the flight path of the cargo shuttle. When he came up on the ship’s starboard side, he let the computer take over for the delicate docking maneuver. A few minutes later he felt a slight bump as the
Phoenix
pressed into the
Diligent’s
extended gangway. Once the mooring clamps were activated, he switched the drive back to standby mode and climbed out of his seat.

“Kage, Twingo, Taryn, you’re with me,” he said over the intercom. “Doc and Crusher, you stay here with our guest. We’ll try to be back shortly.”

*****

The members of the
Phoenix’s
crew had been sitting in the well-appointed conference room for nearly thirty minutes when Crisstof, Kellea, and Commander Bostco rushed in.

“My apologies, Captain,” Crisstof said. He looked positively harried. “You’ve given us a situation that has stretched our resources to the limit.”

“Now you can see why I called you back,” Jason said, not bothering to remove his boots from the table. While Crisstof didn’t seem to notice, the look he was getting from Captain Colleren let him know she was less than amused.

“And rightly so,” Crisstof agreed hurriedly. “Out of the thirty-eight infants you rescued, it seems all have a good chance of surviving, but it was close. The amount of cellular damage from exposure on the other ship is significant.”

“We understand you have another survivor,” Kellea said with her arms crossed. It wasn’t a question.

“We currently have whom we believe to be their first officer in our own infirmary, and Doc is treating him for the same exposure and dehydration,” Jason confirmed, meeting her stare. “Before you ask, we won’t be handing him over to you. Not yet.”

“Now, Captain—” Jason cut Crisstof’s bluster off by simply raising his hand.

“Relax. He will not be mistreated in any way. We don’t abuse prisoners no matter what your opinion of us may be,” Jason said. Crisstof actually managed to look slightly
embarrassed; apparently that was exactly what he had thought. “We also don’t have time for you to torture him with kindness until he submits. He will be treated, questioned, and then turned over to you, as I have no interest in letting him live in my brig rent free.”

“You’re just going to turn him over?” Bostco asked skeptically.

“Why wouldn’t I? He’s no longer a combatant so it would be in poor taste to just toss him out the airlock,” Jason replied with an edge to his voice.

“I think the conversation is going astray. This isn’t what I’d asked you over to discuss,” Crisstof said as he sensed the growing hostility from Jason. “I simply wanted to express my gratitude at the work you’ve done. The recovery of both the last recorded message from the A’arcooni government as well as safely securing so many young … a lot of questions will be answered, but it raises others. The A’arcooni in your infirmary cannot be from the same group that turned on their own planet so many years ago.”

“I’d assumed that already,” Jason said. “Doc tells me they don’t live much longer than any of us, so he’d be third or fourth generation. It’s obvious the original crews that captured those ships didn’t know much about their operation, and the condition they’re in shows they never bothered to learn.”

“It seems they turned the ships into generation-ships despite the fact they couldn’t maintain them and the vessels were never designed to be in service that long without major overhauls at a proper shipyard,” Crisstof agreed. “That is why we’d like to talk to the adult when we can, as he can shed some light on their culture and lifestyle.”

“I’ll let you know when he wakes up and after we talk to him,” Jason said, rising from his seat. “We’ll stay docked with you for now. I’m not certain how long this may take but we’ll keep you apprised.” He walked out of the room without waiting for a response, followed closely by his own crew and Taryn. She ran to catch up with him as he moved quickly down the corridor.

“I’m going to go check on my parents,” she said as she fell in beside him.

“OK,” he said simply. “Tell them I said hello.” She kissed him on the cheek and moved off down a side-corridor that led to the berthing suites typically reserved for dignitaries. Jason knew how luxurious that part of the
Diligent
was Her parents were likely having quite a relaxing time, all things considered.

Once back on his own ship, Jason was happy to see the patient was responding positively to treatment and would be ready to regain consciousness within a few hours. He took the time to grab something to eat and a power nap since Taryn was over on the
Diligent
. He didn’t bother taking his boots off as he crashed backwards into his rack and was asleep in minutes.

“Captain,” Lucky’s voice penetrated the fog as Jason struggled to wake up fully. “The prisoner is awake. Doc asked me to come inform you.”

“Thanks,” Jason said, “but why didn’t you just use the intercom?”

“We tried. You didn’t answer.”

“Damn, I must have been out of it. OK, tell him I’ll be there in a minute.”

After splashing some water on his face and shocking himself fully awake, Jason headed to the infirmary. He walked in with what he hoped was an air of authority and confidence. “He
have a translator in?”

“Yes, Captain,” Doc said. Jason was thankful he’d decided to forego the lecture about the patient being weak and needing rest.

“You can understand me?” Jason demanded of the being still strapped on the table. “Prop him up.” At his order, the bed contorted itself so that the A’arcooni was in a sitting position while still being strapped down.

“I’m going to ask you again—”

“I understand your words,” the A’arcooni prisoner said simply.

“Good. I’m going to ask you a few questions. It will be in your best interest to answer them honestly and quickly. Where is the last ship in your armada? Where is the being called Deetz?” Jason could see a flash of recognition at Deetz’s name, but little else.

“You will have to kill me before I give you any answers,” the prisoner spat out.

“Oh, no … I know that’s what you want anyway,” Jason said lightly, walking around behind the bed. “The little suicide stunt on your ship was creative, but I still got you, and one is all I need.”

“Really?” The alien was trying to crane his head around to see Jason, who stood just out of sight.

“Really.
Now, I could go through all the trouble of hooking you up to a mind probe, but to be honest it’ll be a lot quicker for both of us if you just start talking. Less painful too … at least for you.” At the mention of a mind probe Doc and Lucky looked at each other in confusion, and Jason wanted to slap the hell out of both of them.

“Do to me what you will.”
Damnit. Didn’t think it was going to be that easy.

“Tell you what … since you’re so talkative
anyway, let’s talk about something you’re interested in. Why are you flying around attacking defenseless planets?”

“You have no idea how true your words are,” the A’arcooni’s eyes lit up with a zealot’s fervor that was truly frightening. “The planets
are
defenseless. They cannot defend themselves from your industry, your pollution, your overpopulation … We are restoring the universe to harmony one corrupt planet at a time.”

“I notice you don’t pick on anybody that can hit back,” Jason said drily. “So you’re a fanatic, I understand that, but why are you saddled up with bottom-feeding scum like Deetz? What did he promise you?” The alien’s eyes clouded at the mention of the synth and he looked less sure of himself.

“The mechanical man helped us repair our flagship and then told us he knew of many planets that needed saving. He said he would join us in our quest.”

“Let me guess … you’ve been running around hitting targets that he dictates and only those targets. I’m betting you were getting tired of that. I’ll bet there was even some talk about tossing him out on his shiny ass, but then he pulled out his last trick. He made you an offer you couldn’t refuse: a new weapon that would allow you to take your crusade to more advanced planets. Am I getting close?” During Jason’s narration the A’arcooni was becoming more agitated and began thrashing around in his restraints, making unintelligible noises all the while.