Omega Force: Legends Never Die (OF10)

by Joshua Dalzelle

  "And if your suspicions are false?"

  "Then I'll likely be dead before I make it back to my ship."

  Over the course of the rest of the day, Alocur laid out the quadrant's current political landscape from a perspective that Mok didn't have. Much of it he already knew, but the parts he didn't added context that didn't paint a pretty picture for the future of freedom-loving species everywhere. By the time Alocur wrapped up his presentation, Mok was feeling the first twinges of real fear at what the regime change within the ConFed could mean.

  "I can't commit much at this point," Mok said. "Despite rumors and appearances, I'm still subject to the will of the leadership within this organization. If I make moves that are too radical or not profit-oriented enough for their tastes then they will waste no time in replacing me. I don't do anybody any good dead… especially not me."

  "Understood," Alocur said. "I still appreciate you listening to what I've said and any help with transportation and locations for manufacturing would be more helpful at this point than direct aid that can be traced back to you."

  "Agreed." Mok stood, indicating the meeting was at an end. "Be careful, Alocur… you're only one pru. Pick your battles wisely."

  Alocur just smiled and nodded before walking out of the office.

  Once he was gone, Mok entered his credentials into a secure terminal and began going through a detailed listing of his organization's assets. He started with the big ones: planets, moons, orbital facilities, and ships. It was an impressive list, but in light of what he'd just learned, it might not be enough.

  Chapter 20

  "Impressive bit of tech," Kage said. He was holding a specimen container that held a state-of-the-art slip-space position tracker, still covered in human blood from the extraction.

  "It's not as small as I'd assumed given that none of our normal scanners picked it up," Jason said, rubbing his right buttock where the device had been imbedded.

  "It's actively shielded and when it detects scan fields it goes dark," Kage said.

  "How did you not notice the incision scar?" Crusher asked. "They didn't do a great job patching you back up."

  "How often do you turn around and stare at your own ass in the mirror?" Jason asked. "You know what? Don't answer that."

  "So do we just incinerate it or have a little fun first?" Twingo asked. "We have three of those slip-space decoys from the Oosjono mission in the cargo hold unless you two sold them for booze money."

  "What do they look like?" Crusher asked.

  "About two meters long, sort of a flattened cylinder with a sensor bulb at the front," Kage said.

  "Doesn't ring a bell. They should still be there," Jason said, pulling up his pants and trying to maneuver around everyone crammed into the infirmary. "Go set one up and send Jurg on a merry chase while we figure out where we're going next."

  "So," Kage said after he and Jason were along in the com room.

  "So?"

  "There was something … interesting … knocking around in your neural implant during that procedure. I was monitoring its output while Doc was probing around in your backside." Kage's seemingly casual interest raised alarm bells in Jason's head.

  "Just the usual crap that you've put in there," he said. "And we're not using the word probed anymore after that parasite issue on Irakol-4, remember?"

  "Don't remind me." Kage shuddered. "But back to the subject at hand. There was something else—" The computer alert cut him off and a new list of cross-referenced data popped up on a fresh display. "Got him."

  "Really?"

  "Yep. We were able to bounce his image across multiple databases on the station to get his compartment number for the starliner he rode out of here on, the destination, and the name he used," Kage said.

  "Venda Seh," Jason read off the screen. "Fairly generic verben name. So now we have a species too. Any way you can check to see if he's still on Thalia Prime?"

  "Not through this many nexus nodes if we want to keep this discreet. It'd flag for sure if anyone had part of that data and was also looking for him," Kage said. "We'll either need to get closer to the source or kick this up to someone like Mok or Alocur."

  "I think we'll do both," Jason said after a moment. "After Twingo sends his decoy, we'll begin heading towards the Thalia system. I want you to compose a message to both Mok and Alocur and tell them what we have so far and see if there's any additional intel we need before arrival."

  Jason left quickly before Kage could complain or change the subject again. He knew what the shifty little code slicer must have detected within his implant, and he wasn't ready to divulge that information just yet. Partially because he wasn't sure what he was going to do about Cas, but mostly because it would force him to admit that he'd been carrying around the combined knowledge of an extinct super-species in his head for years and he hadn't used it to make them rich, as that's how those conversations tended to go.

  An hour after they had a new destination in mind, the decoy was ready to be heaved out the back of the cargo hold where it could trail behind the Phoenix for a bit before zipping off on its own mission. Kage and Doc had pulled another half a liter of blood from Jason so that the tracker would still be in sufficient biomass that it wouldn't alert the owner that it had been removed… or Jason had fallen for another cruel joke at his expense. Either way, there he was, light-headed and woozy, tossing the decoy off the back ramp and through the electrostatic barrier.

  "I appreciate the honest assessment, Kellea," Seeladas Dalton said, passing a hand over her face. She'd summoned her favored taskforce commander in to get her opinion on the ConFed move against the Eshquarian Empire. The news wasn't good.

  "I wish I had better news," Kellea said. "But at our current strength, and even taking into account a possible alliance with the Protectorate, we just don't have enough warships to hold against the ConFed fleet if they come against us. Even with the humans churning out their new Defender-class destroyers at an impressive rate, it would be too little, too late."

  "Crafty little creatures, those humans," Seeladas said. "I'm curious how in the span of ten cycles they're fielding more advanced starships than we have access to through some of the best commercial yards in the quadrant."

  "I have… suspicions," Kellea said flatly.

  Seeladas looked at her appraisingly but said nothing more on the matter. She was well aware of the failed relationship between her admiral and a human that, despite his many qualities, had managed to get her father executed by a foreign government. She knew the whole story, of course, but it didn't help her settle her feelings on the matter. Her muted rage was directed more at the arrogant Avarians than it was at Jason Burke himself. The man had a right to defend himself though she felt he could have been a bit more even-handed about the matter. Even now she still thought her father had been acting in the best interests of all despite the evidence that he'd participated in the kidnapping of the Avarian sovereign's daughter.

  "So what do you suggest we do, Admiral?" she asked.

  "This is far outside my area of expertise or comfort, Chancellor," Kellea said. "Tactics I can do, long-term strategy between nations is something I actively avoid."

  "You know my father had been grooming you for just that, don't you?" Seeladas asked. Kellea said nothing. She was uncomfortable with the tone her boss took when she talked about the relationship the then-captain had with Crisstof Dalton. "I think he knew his offspring might be … ill-suited … for the job. At least that's how I interpreted it."

  "I… couldn't speak to your father's motivations in most things, Chancellor," Kellea said carefully.

  "Of course not." Seeladas smiled humorlessly before changing subjects again. "I think it's likely, necessary even, that we'll be forced to bend to the ConFed's wishes when they come. Given our small stature and the fact we've been careful not to be seen as competing for the same resources, I'm hopeful that they will just wring unfair economic concessions out of us, but we'll maintain our autonomy. However, please
be sure the fleet is ready for any action required of it."

  "I will, Chancellor," Kellea said. She would normally answer that question with a perfunctory "of course," but that response seemed to enrage her boss of late. The last time she'd uttered it Seeladas dressed her down in front of the other flag officers about the dangers of assuming she knew what the Chancellor wanted.

  "You may go, Admiral."

  Kellea swiftly left the office, collecting her aide in the outer lobby as she did. Seeladas was becoming increasingly unpredictable the more the pressure mounted from the changes within the ConFed. She waffled from being the hopeful, benevolent leader she was when the Cooperative was founded to being angry and bitter that her father's death had left the mess in her lap.

  One thing the admiral didn't doubt: The wolves were at the door. Things had been happening within the ConFed and, against her advice, Seeladas had withdrawn much of their presence within their own borders. The “consolidation,” as she called it, left them vulnerable and made them appear weak. They had no intelligence apparatus to speak of, most of their information coming from an increasingly bold Earth military that was sending out scout ships faster than any other colonizing species. The problem with the human intel was that their data lacked a lot of context and it was sometimes difficult to gauge the true severity of a threat from their reports.

  What she needed was a reliable, close perspective of the recent troubles. She would normally reach out to Jason, even given how things had ended between them, but the last she'd heard he and Crusher had gone on a rage-fueled warpath along the frontier after Lucky had been killed on Khepri. She'd watched him during similar bouts of self-destructiveness and she knew that much of what she'd get from him would be useless if he was living on anger and alcohol. Hells, he probably wasn't even aware that the Eshquarian Empire had fallen with little more than a whimper. Maybe she could try to use back channels and reach out to one of his friends within Earth's new military. If nothing else they'd likely been tracking ConFed fleet movements. For all their faults, humans seemed to have a knack for espionage and fighting… and being stubborn d'zeforns that couldn't admit when they were wrong.

  "Just received word back from Mok," Kage announced. "Weirdly enough, his people and Alocur's worked together to get this intel."

  "So what's the good word?" Jason asked.

  "Chenyx Six might have been the least of our problems," Kage said. "Word is that a ConFed strike team is on its way, too. They must have figured out who and where this Venda guy was through other means."

  "An actual strike team, or one of those hit squads from Intel Section," Crusher asked.

  "I'm reading it how it was sent," Kage said. "Mok said strike team."

  "That's not good," Jason said. "We're way under-manned to be taking on a pack of those psychopaths. Any chance either of them can send help now that we have a good location for this guy?"

  "Mok is sending the closest crew he's got, but they won't get there until well after we do. Alocur has no resources available. His unhelpful addition was to tell us that any risk we took to grab Venda would be worth it," Kage said.

  "Worth it for him," Twingo muttered. "He's got no skin in the game."

  "We'll have to hit hard and fast and that means having an accurate detailed layout of the planet's orbital control system, defenses, and average military or law enforcement response time." Jason looked squarely at Kage as he said this.

  "Point taken," Kage said. "But that last time was a fluke, you have to admit. I'm usually spot on when it comes to threat assessments."

  "No comment," Jason muttered. "Anything else?"

  "Am I to plan the ground op assuming that our friend here won't be joining us?" Crusher asked, nodding towards the battlesynth that was now staring at the simulated starfield on the main canopy but not interacting with any of them. Jason couldn't tell if it was an improvement or not. Cas kept telling him to remain patient and hopeful. Jason was neither.

  "You would assume correctly," he said sadly. "We'll be there in four days and he's not showing any real level of improvement or that he even understands what's happening around him."

  "You called him 'he' instead of 'it,'" Doc said quietly. "That's at least some sort of improvement right there."

  Jason looked over at his friend but said nothing. He just rolled his eyes and walked off the bridge.

  Chapter 21

  Minister Scleesz paused outside the chamber where the Master—a title he was certain the being hadn't picked for itself—held audience. He'd been summoned and cleared through security, but there had still been someone in there and he didn't want to intrude. Unable to help himself, he listened in to what was being said. He recognized the voice of Starfleet's head of operations, the person who was the direct intermediary between the ConFed's civilian government and its military arm. The second person in there sounded familiar, but Scleesz couldn't place where he'd heard the voice.

  "—only take the Solas seven days to get there if we issue movement orders now. The strike team is already days ahead and will reach the planet shortly."

  "Excellent," the Master said. "The redundancy of both forces will ensure that the traitor is not given the chance to slip from our grasp again."

  "My forces need no… redundancy." Now Scleesz knew the voice. She was the Director of Special Operations. Her office was under the umbrella of Intel Sector to keep the budgets opaque, but her resources were more often at the disposal of Starfleet as Intel Sector had their own operators that were a bit more restrained for their type of work.

  "This is no time for territorial squabbles," the Master chided. "Too often in the past, objectives have not been met because of ego and artificial boundaries. You are allies, not competitors. No matter whose forces execute the traitor, it is our victory. Now please, go about your tasks and allow me to speak to the Minister who is waiting outside."

  Scleesz stood impassively as the two filed past him with little more than a curious look before he went into the chamber and waited. When he'd first been summoned and the disembodied voice began issuing him directives, he'd laughed at the melodrama and absurdity of the whole thing… right up until the newcomer showed him the video proof it had of his own indiscretions. He knew at that moment he'd do anything he was told to keep his offspring from learning of his less charitable attributes.

  "This isn't like you, skulking about in the corridor."

  "I was—"

  "Yes, I know you were cleared by security," the Master said. "I wanted you to hear what you did."

  "So… we found our missing Fleet captain?" Scleesz asked.

  "We did. He's on Thalia Prime."

  "Never heard of it," Scleesz admitted.

  "It's not a significant world and it doesn't fall within your sphere of influence. He's been living under the name Venda Seh. I've sent a strike team to handle him, and should they fail, there's a contingency plan that will eliminate any chance of him escaping."

  "I heard. The Solas is a battleship. Is that not a bit… excessive?"

  "Considering the rate of failure when it comes to finding this wayward officer I'm inclined to excess this time around," the Master said with what almost sounded like a chuckle. "Our intelligence service managed to backtrack him when he made a mistake and reached out to someone in his old life… someone we had under observation. Sometimes all it takes is just one, tiny mistake and the whole thing comes undone. Isn't that so?"

  "I suppose it is, Master. Was there something specific you needed from me?"

  "The Thalia operation may have some unintended consequences… political consequences," the Master said. "Your job will be to make those go away with minimal disruption. This cannot be allowed to delay our schedule."

  "What sort of consequences?" Scleesz asked, dreading what the answer might be.

  "Civilian casualties are a distinct possibility depending on who Venda Seh has enlisted to aid him."

  "Then perhaps it would be wise to hold off—"

  "No!" the Mast
er thundered, its voice distorting under the volume. "This man must die and I will not pass the opportunity given to us. He was there with me, at the beginning, and then betrayed me. I will not allow that to go unpunished."

  "As you wish," Scleesz said, his voice trembling. "I will make preparations at once." Without waiting for a dismissal, he fled the chamber before he completely lost control of himself from fear. It seemed that the ConFed's new … dictator? emperor? … had severe impulse control issues. All this time Scleesz thought they were pursuing a renegade Fleet officer because he held state secrets that couldn't be allowed to leak out. Killing one military officer for the greater good wouldn't make him lose much sleep, but now it looked like the new boss was willing to kill civilians over what amounted to a personal grudge from being rejected. It didn't even look like the captain was much of a threat at this point: If he hadn't spilled any secrets he'd known by now, it would seem that he was content to live out the rest of his life in secret.

  "Damn that idiot for breaking cover," Scleesz fumed, referring to Venda Seh. "If he'd just stayed underground nobody would have ever found him."

  "Sir?"

  "What? Oh, nothing," he said to his ever-present assistant. "I need you to do me a favor… I need a face-to-face meeting with someone named Saditava Mok. Do it as discreetly as if your life depended on nobody finding out … because it does."

  "Not the Saditava Mok?" The assistant was appropriately scandalized at the mere thought of a senior councilman requesting a meeting with one of the quadrant's most notorious crime kingpins.

  "Yes," Scleesz said. "That one. The contact information is in my personal files. You'll have to jump through some hoops, but he'll eventually answer. When he does, come directly to me."

  "May I ask what this is regarding?"

  "Correcting the biggest mistake of my life."