Omega Force: Legends Never Die (OF10)

by Joshua Dalzelle

  "I get the point, Doc."

  "—I mean, the smell in the common area is enough to—"

  "Doc!"

  "Oh, sorry… what I'm saying is please don't kick me off the team because you think that's what's best for me. I can still be useful to Omega Force."

  "You're part of the family, Doc," Jason said. "I'd never kick you out even if you stayed here. I've got the Phoenix over in that small aerodrome by the warehouse district. You want me to wait for you or do you have your own ride?"

  "I'm ready now," Doc said. He opened a cabinet and tossed a pack on the counter, pulling out the grey uniform they all wore. When he saw Jason's expression he smiled sheepishly. "I hoped you'd come back for me eventually so I've kept go-bags stashed around… just in case."

  Jason just smiled and shook his head, trying not to laugh. Only Doc would be so fussy that he assumed if he wasn't ready to leave a millisecond after being asked that they'd leave him behind.

  Chapter 9

  "They've been in there for fifteen hours at a time breaking it up into shifts. It takes so long to prep and go in that they're all working extended hours."

  "Any word of how it's going?" Doc asked.

  "None," Crusher said.

  The Phoenix had barely touched down on the landing pad from the trip to pick up Doc when Twingo came out of the hangar, already dragging a power cable as thick as Jason's arm up the ramp and grumbling about him holding up their schedule. Now, nearly five days later, exhausted engineers and technicians were walking around with a little more zip in their step and Jason could feel the energy crackle in the air. Without being told, he knew that today was the day… raw power from the heart of the Phoenix would pour into Lucky and fire up his own powerplant. Once it was running, the battlesynth's systems would begin to initialize and soon after they would know if the reward was worth the risk.

  "You'll likely want to remain outside the hangar in case there's a… mishap," one of the pru engineers called from the opening of the temporary cleanroom they'd built.

  "No argument here," Jason shouted back.

  For the first two hours nothing happened. Then, without warning, the Phoenix rumbled and shook a bit and the crew backed away from where they had been resting under the wing. Jason looked up and saw that the exhaust vents had opened up on the dorsal hull and superheated gas was pouring into the muggy evening air. The reek of ozone and the prickle on his skin were additional signs that whatever was going on inside that shelter, it was taking a prodigious amount of power and his ship had throttled up her main reactor to keep up with the demand. The onslaught lasted for another twenty minutes before they heard the Phoenix settle down and the cryogenic tanks placed near the third sealed-off chamber began hissing.

  "That's it," Twingo said. "They're cooling him down now. That means they were able to start the powerplant and that all his individual subsystems began booting up on their own. That’s a positive sign since the primary processing matrix has to be stable and functional for that to happen, otherwise the power systems just shut back down."

  It took a moment for what his friend said to sink in. Jason's heart began pounding and he felt lightheaded at the fact that his friend was alive and lying not fifty meters away from him. The tension of thinking of all that could go wrong was giving him a headache, but all he needed to know for right now was that Lucky was more alive now than he was after that ill-fated assault on a Kheprian military base. After a bit, the engineering team began filtering out of the makeshift lab complex even as technicians began breaking it down now that there was no longer a need for it. Tauless saw them milling about by the ship and jogged over.

  "We're cautiously optimistic," the exhausted young pru said. The answer sounded forced and rehearsed. None of them were buying it.

  "What do you think," Jason pressed.

  Tauless looked around and shifted uncomfortably before continuing. "I couldn't begin to guess whether or not he makes a full recovery, if that's even the right word," he said. "His matrix reinitialized as it was supposed to and it's stable, all their instruments show his higher functions are all within acceptable limits… but when he awoke it was obvious he had no idea who I was. I've only been around him a short time so I'm not reading too much into that right now.

  "This procedure hasn't been done since the very early days of the battlesynth program before they realized how individualistic these beings are, and despite the equipment saying he's completely fine, there's no way to predict what sort of psychological damage was done to Lucky from both his death and now waking up inside of a new and unfamiliar body."

  "Has he said anything?" Twingo asked.

  "No," Tauless said. "The tech team lead said it would maybe be a good idea for one of you to go in there with him now and see how he reacts. I suppose you'll need to decide who amongst—"

  "Jason." The other four members of the crew spoke in unison and without hesitation.

  "Okay then… Captain Burke it is," Tauless said. "We can just walk in there without any special precautions. The atmosphere has been purged with ambient air and the temperature is normal."

  "Are his weapons active?" Crusher asked.

  "Of course… that's what makes this so dangerous," Tauless said. "There's no way to deactivate a battlesynth's weaponry without putting it into a stasis pod."

  "Maybe we should—"

  "No," Jason said firmly. "If Lucky is going to come through this, he has to know that we believe in him and trust him as much now as we ever have. If we stick him in a box and begin turning things off right after he's reawakened, there's no telling what further damage we might do."

  "For the record, the lead engineer agrees with your assessment," Tauless said.

  "Let's go." Jason didn't wait for any further protest from the others or for Tauless to catch up.

  He wasn't sure what he expected, but the being lying in a reclined position wasn't it. It occurred to Jason that he hadn't really looked over the new body his crew had stolen. It was shorter than the battlesynths he was used to and less bulky as well. The armor seemed to be smoothly integrated and there weren't any visible joints or creases. Not even the covers for the arm-mounted cannons could be easily picked out. Overall the new body had a lithe, graceful look to it even while lying still on the table.

  When the door closed softly behind him, the being turned its head and stared at him, sending Jason's heart to racing. For a long, long moment the two just stared at each other, neither moving.

  "Lucky?"

  Nothing. Not even a twitch. The longer it went on, the more unnerved Jason became.

  "Can you hear me? Lucky… it's me, Jason. You saved my life on Khepri… we've been friends for years… ring any bells?"

  After a few moments the battlesynth—was it even really Lucky?—turned its head away and began looking at the ceiling again. Jason had been ready for this sort of thing after talking to the technical crew, but the emotional punch in the gut was no less painful. He was unsure how to proceed to try and see if his friend was still in there and he realized how uniquely unqualified he was for the task.

  "Captain?" Alocur said from the doorway. Jason hadn't heard him enter. At the new voice, the battlesynth swung its head about again and stared at the newcomer. Alocur seemed to shudder slightly.

  "Yes?"

  "I don't wish to rush you during this delicate time, but we have fresh intel on your objective," Alocur said. "If you wish, he could remain with us and my engineers can assign a team to stay behind and observe him."

  "No… he comes with me," Jason said firmly. "No offense, Alocur, but there aren't many people in the galaxy I trust right now to have his best interests at heart, and all of those people are leaving on the Phoenix with me."

  "No offense taken, Captain," Alocur said, sounding relieved he wouldn't actually have to honor the offer he'd made, likely in haste. "About that intel?"

  "Yeah… let's get started," Jason sighed. "I'll meet you up in the mezzanine—" He was interrupted by the battlesy
nth rolling smoothly from the table and coming to stand near him. "Shit! Don't make any sudden moves like that, Lucky… my nerves are about to snap as it is."

  The battlesynth just stared past Jason directly at Alocur.

  "I'll meet you up there, Captain." The Kheprian spy made as dignified an exit as he could, just short of sprinting from the room and leaving Jason alone with the battlesynth that was now standing very close. Unlike the previous generation, this one didn't seem to fill the room and tower over him.

  "Was your intention to follow me, or am I standing in your way?"

  Nothing.

  Jason bit back a sigh and turned calmly to leave, not looking back. As he'd hoped, the battlesynth padded softly after him. He walked out of the second lab area and into the hangar, waving for the rest of the crew to play it cool as the battlesynth paced behind him a few meters away, mostly ignoring everything around it.

  The first snag was when Jason stepped onto the lift to go up to the mezzanine and it didn't get on with him, at least not all the way. It was half on, half off, and not responding to verbal or non-verbal coaxing to move the rest of the way on. Gritting his teeth, Jason reached out and grabbed its upper arm, pulling gently and hoping that it wouldn't take the gesture as a threat and rip his head from his torso.

  Thankfully, it accepted the guidance and moved fully onto the car, stopping where Jason put it. He activated the lift and saw it flinch and look about, but it was otherwise still on the ride up. It wasn't until he'd guided the battlesynth over near where he would sit around the large circular table that he realized he'd been holding his breath for the last two minutes and his ass was clenched so tight it could have started a fusion reaction with a bit of deuterium.

  "Well?" Crusher asked softly as they all approached.

  "I… I just don't know," Jason admitted. "If Lucky's in there, he's not acknowledging when spoken to and I'm not sure how much of what I'm saying it even understands. Tauless?"

  "There's so much that's not known about this procedure," Tauless said helplessly. "The entire thing was abandoned in favor of just making more units and the conventional wisdom says that what we're attempting is impossible. I still feel that Lucky's strength and desire to be with you will allow him to overcome the challenges we've put in front of him, but I couldn't begin to say how long that might take. Don't forget that Lucky is a Type Four matrix; his above-average intelligence could be a big factor in how this goes."

  "It might not happen at all," Alocur said when he walked up on the tail end of the conversation. "My engineers have said it's shown no overtly aggressive moves, even when mildly provoked, so I'm fairly confident it won't try to kill you all once you're underway… but keep in mind that all synths, especially battlesynths, had a high rate of matrix instability. Or insanity, if you prefer the term."

  "I thought you didn't know much about them," Jason said.

  "I've been briefed extensively by my engineers while I was deciding if we should allow it to continue as it is or put it back in stasis."

  At Alocur's words the battlesynth's head snapped over to stare at him. While terrifying, it also gave Jason some hope that Lucky was indeed in there and understood some of what was being said around him. If anything would provoke a response it would be the threat of a stasis pod.

  "We'll not be doing that," he said. "When I met Lucky, someone had put him in one of those things… I promised him back then that I would never let that happen to him again."

  Alocur seemed to consider the statement before slapping his arms lightly on his thighs, a gesture Jason had learned was roughly equivalent to a human shrug of indifference.

  "All I'm saying is that it may seem harmless right now, but more than a few people have found out the hard way that they can be unpredictable and—"

  "There are no variabilities within 777's primary processor matrix," a deep voice boomed across the mezzanine. Jason turned as the two battlesynths that had come with Alocur strode forcefully towards them. "We have verified this ourselves. He is free to leave with his compatriots and try to rediscover what he once was." Jason noticed that Lucky never turned or even reacted to his cousins walking up and standing near him.

  "The politics involving battlesynths is unbelievably convoluted, but essentially 499 and 302 have the final say in this matter." Alocur slapped his thighs again. "If they say he's safe to be out in the general public, I have to accept that recommendation."

  "Very well," Jason said. "He comes with us and that's final."

  "I would have a word with you before you depart, Captain Burke," 302 said, turning and clomping off before Jason could even answer.

  "I think we'd best get this brief started," Alocur said. "The sooner I disseminate this information, the sooner you can get to work paying off the debt you owe me."

  After two days of frenzied preparation for their mission, the crew was finally ready to board the ship and get started. Jason remembered the days when it wouldn't take more than an hour to get the ship ready and be gone. He hoped they'd all get back into the groove of things before too long. During that time the battlesynth—Jason still couldn't bring himself to think of it as Lucky—had become more compliant and followed his verbal instructions without much fuss, but only Jason's. The others took this as a hopeful sign, but Jason remembered a group of ducklings he'd rescued as a kid. They'd imprinted on him and treated him like their mother up until they were old enough to go their own way. Like the ducklings, just because the battlesynth was following him around and listening to him didn't necessarily mean anything more than mistaken identity.

  "A word, Captain?"

  "Sure," Jason said to Combat Unit 302. "These morons will be arguing for another two hours before everything is packed into the ship."

  "Is your unit always so… disorganized?"

  "I'd like to say no, but I don't want to lie to you," Jason sighed. "You… go up there and help them move those crates." The battlesynth turned to look where Jason pointed and then back again. It took a bit of hand signaling and physically pushing it away before it moved off. Jason watched its liquid smooth movements and a display of its potential strength as it grabbed a munition crate off the loader and walked it up the ramp. "It's a lot stronger than you guys are, isn't it?"

  "Significantly so," 302 said without a trace of defensiveness. "Its power systems are also far more advanced and it carries weaponry that puts mine to shame. That particular model also has some unique properties. We think it may have been designed as an infiltration unit, which explains its smaller stature."

  Jason thought back to the conversation he'd had with Tauless and the other engineers about how the second generation of battlesynths weren't uniform in construction. Apparently whoever was leading the new program had opted for specialized soldiers rather than just one type of body.

  "What did you need to talk about?"

  "I can see you are trying to hide your frustration and I would ask that you continue to contain that, especially in front of 777."

  "So you think he's really in there?" Jason asked.

  "I do," 302 said. "Our minds work so differently from each other's that it is difficult for me to convey why I think that, likely as difficult for you to explain to me why you feel certain things: We just do and each of us is certain in that feeling. 499 and I were present when his matrix initialized since we were the only two who could withstand the environment, and we saw the spark when he awoke."

  "I wish I could be as certain as you." Jason watched as the battlesynth, inexplicably, grabbed one of Crusher's packs and threw it across the tarmac from the top of the ramp and looked to be going back for another when Twingo ran up and stopped it by waving his arms. "But I won't give up on him, if that's what you're concerned about. I owe him my life and I'll repay that debt."

  "That is all we can ask of you, Captain," 302 said. "777's life was unprecedented before, now even more so. He is fortunate to have friends like you."

  "I can already see this is going to be a lot of fun," Crushe
r complained from where he was picking up his clothes. The bag hadn't survived its high speed impact with the ground and had burst open, spilling clothes everywhere.

  "Why the hell did it throw your bag?"

  "I only mentioned something about how the old Lucky was a lot more fun to be around and that one thing he used to do was clean the crew quarters and common areas," Crusher said as he chased a sock that a local avian had taken an interest in. "Then the bastard just started throwing my stuff out of the ship!"

  "You could be right," Jason said to 302. "Lucky may be in there right under the surface."

  "I think I left my house unlocked."

  "You mean my house?" Doc asked. "I haven't signed everything back over to you yet."

  "You know what—"

  "Enough!" Jason barked. They were barely out of the S'Tora system and he was already regretting his decision to get the entire crew back together. He glanced over his shoulder and saw that the battlesynth had taken up station just inside the bridge entrance, its feet easily fitting within the barely perceptible depressions on the deck from countless hours of Lucky standing in the same place.

  He shook his head to clear out the fluff. 302 had been right. If he was going to help his friend, he needed to start considering the strange battlesynth behind him as Lucky and not wait for some obvious sign that his friend was in there. It was difficult, however, as the last words Alocur's head engineer had given him were still bouncing around his head: the odds were even that whatever would emerge—if anything ever emerged—would no longer be Lucky. It had something to do with how extreme the neural pathway rerouting was when the processing matrix adapted to the new body. They could be looking at an entirely different being with its own personality and motivations. The thought chilled him.

  "So what was that garbage Alocur was blathering on about the ConFed?" Crusher asked. "Something about a restructuring?"