"Boring!" Crusher said. "Screw this. Let me know when we have something interesting to do."
"Let him go." Jason waved him off as he stomped off towards the armory. "Okay, so let's operate under the supposition that the central banking system could be the target … I can't imagine it's something they leave lightly guarded."
"Not at all," Doc agreed. "It's one of the most impenetrable facilities on the planet, and since we're talking about Khepri it could be considered one of the most secured locations in the quadrant."
"So Khepri's intelligence service gets a credible threat to the thing they're tasked with guarding above all others, and they recall the remaining battlesynths for protection," Kage said. "It makes sense on the surface. Lucky's brethren would be a hell of a last line of defense. The facility is no doubt hardened against orbital bombardment so if you want in you're going to have to eventually send troops to try and take it."
"I feel like we're missing something though," Jason said. "Everything you said stands up to the smell test, but if the threat was so credible that they enacted an emergency recall of battlesynths shouldn't they know enough for the ConFed to make a preemptive strike? It's one of their favorite things to do, after all."
"Who says they haven't?" Twingo piped up for the first time since they'd all assembled. "ConFed Intel Section has some powerful ships at their disposal, not to mention a whole host of nasty spec ops units."
"They'd have wanted to make an example," Jason insisted. "They'd have sent a full battlegroup to completely annihilate whomever the target was as a message to everyone else: Play your games with each other, but screw with us and we'll end you. And if that had happened, or was about to happen, we'd have heard about it."
"Maybe." Twingo sounded unconvinced. "What if it's an inside job or another Pillar World making a move?"
"Why the hell would a planet that benefits from the current system try to bring it down?" Kage asked. "That's stupid … you're stupid."
"One more time and—"
"I think we can safely say it isn't another government making a move," Jason said loudly and placed a hand on Kage's shoulder, squeezing hard enough to make him suck in his breath. "No single planet is idiotic enough to do this and any of the other co-ops or enclaves wouldn't be able to keep their involvement out of it. There's also the fact that Saditava Mok has somehow gotten an inside track on this."
"Again … why would a criminal organization want to kill the thing that keeps them in business?" Kage asked. "The ConFed's centralized monetary system means that we can go anywhere if the heat gets too bad, set up shop, and be back in business without a hitch."
"Don't you mean they can go anywhere?" Doc asked.
"Yeah … that's what I said," Kage waved him off with his two right hands. "We still haven't come up with a good reason why someone would want the quadrant plunged into chaos and who would have the means with which to do it."
"The Avarians?" Doc asked. "They're the only major power close enough to care if the ConFed exists or doesn't. Could you ask your princess?"
"Annada isn't going to know anything, and if she did have knowledge about a plot to bring down a neighboring superpower I doubt she'd just tell me because I asked," Jason said. Annada was not actually a princess though the term fit as well as any other. She was the daughter of the elected head of the Avarian Empire, a semi-xenophobic group that controlled over six hundred planets on the other side of what deep space haulers called the Delphine Expanse. When and if the Sovereign died, stepped down, or became unable to lead, the Avarian legislature had the option to ascend Annada to Sovereign without calling for a vote among the member planets. It became a bit convoluted after that, but the thrust of it was that she wasn't guaranteed the top job by birthright. If the legislature deemed her unfit they could block her from assuming office.
"You think Mok knows anything else he failed to tell us?" Kage asked.
"I guarantee he does," Jason said. "But short of assaulting his home and torturing him, I don't see a way of getting to that information if he doesn't want to spill it."
"So what do we do in the meantime? We didn't exactly get the answers we were looking for on Khepri," Doc said.
"For now, nothing," Jason said. "We'll come at this fresh tomorrow and try again. After that, if we're still just as clueless we'll call Mok and tell him what we found out and head out to find a better job."
They all finished eating and the conversation turned away from their current job as they speculated about where the action might be since they'd been out of commission for a bit. Crusher came back and then dinner led into an after-dinner beer, then two, and then it got completely out of hand. Before heading back to his quarters, Jason remembered seeing Lucky quietly detach himself and head up to the command deck; he assumed it was to take the bridge watch since nobody had bothered asking whose turn it was before the party started.
10
"Captain, I think we might have a new lead."
"A lead to what?" Jason asked groggily. "What the hell time is it?"
"2420 ship’s time," Lucky said. The Phoenix ran on a twenty-five-hour day as a compromise for their different physiological needs and differing circadian rhythms.
"Good night," Jason said, rolling over and away from the open door.
"This might be important," Lucky insisted.
"And it can't wait?" Jason asked.
"It can."
"Fine, I'm up," Jason huffed and sat up, instantly regretting it as his head felt like it was going to split. "What've you got?"
"Remember the name the Master gave us? Vulban?" Lucky asked.
"Vaguely," Jason said. "Was that a name or a place?"
"I believe he was referring to Noyut Vulban, one of the lead researchers at the facility where we were created," Lucky said. "He was very young when I left so he would only be nearing middle age now."
"I can already tell from how excited you are … you've tracked him down," Jason sighed. "Where are we heading?"
"Pinnacle Station."
"Fine, go ahead and change course but maintain our current speed." Jason rolled back over and pulled the covers up over his head.
"I already have," Lucky replied.
"Fabulous," was the muffled response. "Now go away."
PINNACLE STATION always caused mixed feelings in Jason. It had been his first real exposure to the wide galactic community after leaving Earth … if he discounted a brief stop on a remote slum called Breaker's World. It was a self-supporting structure that trailed along behind a small, uninhabitable rocky planet in a heliocentric orbit and was massive on a scale that still blew Jason's mind even after so many years travelling between the stars. It was hundreds of years old and had been repurposed so many times that the original structure was buried deep under layers and layers of additions and modifications.
Currently Pinnacle served as a major logistics hub for both freight and passengers travelling through the Tycho Corridor as well as a convenient meeting and layover point for those involved in less-than-legal endeavors. It was that last bit that still gave Jason no small amount of anxiety when he saw the spindly, ungainly structure begin to take shape on the sensors. At one point all of Omega Force had been prisoner there, only two of them not drugged into a coma and strapped into stasis pods. He still vividly remembered how weak and naive he'd been, unable to do anything to save himself. It wasn't a pleasant memory.
"We have a Cridal Cooperative starship holding positon off the station," Doc said. "It's not the Defiant … it's one of Seeladas's Fend-class destroyers, but not one of the ships that came to Earth's defense."
"I would assume she could afford more than a handful of them," Jason said. A few years prior, when Earth had been under threat from a little-known alien species and a human collaborator, he had desperately reached out to anyone that had the means to offer any sort of defense. Seeladas Dalton, the First Daughter of Crisstof Dalton, had come, eliminated the threat, and had taken Earth under her wing as a probationary me
mber of her upcoming alliance. Much more ambitious than her father, Seeladas had split off Crisstof's massive financial empire and reformed it into a sovereign power. He still didn't know what the end result would be, but he felt reasonably comfortable Earth was in better hands with her than the attackers. The Ull would have used humanity as a labor caste even if humanity itself wasn't fully aware of it.
"We're getting a new transponder too," Kage said. "We haven't seen one of these before."
"What is it?" Twingo asked.
"It's … it's human." Kage's shock was obvious. "No class listed, she's registered as the USS Endurance."
"Look at the power readings on that ship!" Twingo said as they all focused on the Earth ship. "That's no fusion-powered barge, they've got antimatter reactors on that thing!"
"That ship is generations ahead of the ships we left over Earth," Doc said suspiciously. "From the sensor readings it looks like your homeworld has ships that would be considered more advanced than most in the quadrant. Am I the only one here who finds that almost unbelievable?"
"Don't look at me," Jason protested when they all turned to look at him. "I've been with you guys this entire time."
"I can't believe that the Cridal Cooperative would just hand over starships more powerful than most of their own," Doc pressed.
"I don't know what to tell you, Doc," Jason pushed back. "Obviously they were able to negotiate with someone to provide them with state of the art hardware. Can we tell what they're doing out here?"
"Looks like they're shadowing that Fend-class destroyer," Kage said.
"Must be sort of a mentoring program Earth agreed to with whatever deal they reached with Seeladas," Jason mused. "Interesting."
"Are you going to say hello?" Kage asked.
"Nope," Jason said. "I was technically declared a fugitive, remember? Chances are good whoever is commanding that ship isn't aware of what really happened, and either way, they've got their job to do and I have mine. Fly the approach as normal."
He ignored the strange looks from his crew and concentrated on watching all the traffic flying around the station. During the approach, his eyes were drawn to the lower level hangars, wondering which one Deetz had flown them into the first time he'd been there. It was then that he had come face to face with the criminal kingpin, Bondrass, and realized that he'd not be just flying back home to Colorado.
They'd already paid for one of the mid-level docking arms to anchor the Phoenix at during their stay. It was the least conspicuous option since full-hangar berths were much more subject to security inspections and upper-level docks were pricey and used for VIPs. As usual, they would want to be on and off the station without anybody recognizing them or taking special interest in what they were doing.
"We're clear all the way to the arm," Kage said. "Fly-to instructions coming from the station's Traffic Control System."
"Check it and then feed it to the autopilot," Jason said.
The Phoenix quickly caught the station as it chased the planet around the primary star at around thirty-seven kilometers per second. Despite that being almost eighty-three thousand miles per hour, everything was relative in space. Pinnacle seemed stationary as the Phoenix decelerated and began to rotate to port to orient herself with their assigned docking arm. The process was drawn out and boring as they were put in hold patterns twice to make way for a higher-paying patron's ship to move clear of the area first.
After a few more delays, the gunship finally bumped up against the extended docking collar and the mooring clamps were engaged. By this time, Jason and Kage were alone on the bridge as everyone else had long since lost interest in the procedure. Kage made sure the airlock settings were all correct before locking out his own station and leaving. Jason took one last look on the sensors at the human ship trailing along behind the larger destroyer before securing all the primary flight systems and initializing the Phoenix's security protocols.
Even knowing exactly where the information came from to build that cruiser—hell, he even recognized the hull design—he was as surprised as his friends at how quickly it had been built, tested, and deployed. Whomever Seeladas had assigned to watch Earth and her fledgling colony world must have put them in touch with one of the bigger commercial shipyards. He'd barely been gone a few years and with humanity's known manufacturing capability they should barely have a sealed hull by now. Maybe he'd try to wheedle some answers from Russ Johnson or Marcus Webb the next time he was in touch with them.
"WHERE DO WE GO FIRST, Lucky?" Jason asked. He'd changed into the casual, generic clothes of a starliner passenger that were loose enough to conceal the discreet weaponry he was bringing with him.
"Engineering Sublevel Forty-four," Lucky said. "From what I was able to determine, it is likely that Vulban works there."
"Forty-four is where the powerplant and propulsion management systems are located," Twingo said. "We won't be able to just walk in there. Couldn't you figure out where he lives? The dormitories are up just below the main promenade."
"I have been unable to discover what alias Vulban might be using," Lucky admitted. "The fact he was on this station was from an obscure, anonymous message I found in the Master's com buffer along with the fact he whispered the name with what he thought was his dying breath."
"IT SOUNDS like you might have let your enthusiasm run away with you," Crusher said without the usual biting sarcasm he reserved for the others.
"He is here," Lucky insisted. "It is also logical that given his background he would be employed working on the complex adaptive AI systems that manage Pinnacle Station's flight profile."
"We still can't go down to the main engineering levels," Jason said, tapping his foot. "And we don't know what name he might be using or what he might look like."
"Sounds promising," Kage said, rolling his eyes.
"But we do have one bit of information: We know his species," Jason went on. "So from a purely physiological standpoint Doc should be able to figure out a good number of the places he might go when he's not at work."
"True," Doc nodded. "In fact there are likely entire sections of the habitat levels we can rule out. After that, I can probably narrow it down a bit more based on what average pru dietary preferences are."
"Good," Jason said sharply and clapped his hands. "Doc, you stay here and get started. The rest of us will split into two teams and start floating through the mid-level galleries and see if there's anything obvious. Everyone link your com units into the local station network and be aware of what you're saying over the channel. If we run encryption all we'll accomplish is gaining the attention of security."
They left the ship and walked the four kilometers through the dizzying number of docking tubes until they reached the main body of the station. Each carried a set of "clean" idents and travel credentials so they passed through the main security checkpoint without incident.
"It's nice now that your people are becoming a little more common out here," Jason said to Crusher. "You hardly get a second look anymore."
"I'm not sure how much I like that," Crusher admitted. "So, fearless leader … how shall we divide and conquer?"
"Lucky and I will go to the right, you three to the left," Jason said. "To be honest, we're sort of wasting time until Doc comes up with something actionable so I'd take it as a personal favor if you stay out of trouble. Please don't try to interrogate any random pru you happen to see."
"We've done this before," Crusher said.
"Yes … hence my warning and pleading," Jason shot back. "Just stay alert, and sober, and report back to Doc anything you see that looks interesting and he'll forward it on to us."
They split up amidst indignant protests and grumbling about wastes of time and went their separate ways. Jason knew the way he'd chosen had a particular gallery along it that had quiet tea shops, booths that traded in the latest literature from all over the quadrant, and a host of clean, comfortable eateries. In other words, some things an intellectual pru well into advanced
age might find entertaining.
"Thank you, Captain," Lucky said as they walked. "Your faith in me does not go unnoticed."
"You've always got the benefit of the doubt with me," Jason said, waving him off. "If you think this is a solid enough lead, we'll check it out. We've gone a lot further on a lot thinner evidence before."
"I believe I am right," Lucky insisted. "I suppose it would be what you have described as a leap of faith."
"I'm more comfortable with the term 'intuition,"" Jason laughed. "It makes us seem more like we know what we're doing."
After two hours of walking, Jason was beginning to have doubts they'd ever find anything worthwhile. It wasn't that he still didn't think Lucky's instincts were correct, it was just that the station was so damn big and they had no idea what the person they were seeking looked like now. Lucky had the vaguest recollection of him from over two centuries prior, but pru were long-lived, not immortal. Vulban would have been reaching an advanced age and the changes were sometimes dramatic.
"Doc must have something," Jason said, showing Lucky his com link that was still buzzing. "Go."
"Okay … I might have tracked Vulban down," Doc's voice came through the speaker. "I'll admit, this isn't optimal for our needs."
11
"Well … shit."
The five of them had converged on the location Doc had provided, thirteen decks down and off a dimly lit corridor. They all stood staring at the plaque in front of them, one of hundreds of identical markers that lined the octagonal chamber.
"'Noyut Vulban, born on the planet Khepri, died on Pinnacle Station in 4731 local,'" Twingo read from the plaque while tapping furiously on his com link. "That means he bit it forty-three years ago."
"So this has been a dead end for some time," Jason said. "Why would Teludal want us to find him? He would surely know that he'd been dead for so long."
"You're still putting a lot of credence in the last gasping words of a dying man, Captain," Doc said over the open channel. "It could have been nothing more than a random memory floating to the surface or something he wished to atone for. It's impossible to say."
Omega Force 09: Revolution Page 8
