Omega Rising

by Joshua Dalzelle

  Once showered and dried, he grabbed his new clothes off the bed. He was quite proud of his new threads; he had managed to program one of the ship's fabricators to produce them himself. Well, mostly with the help of the ship's computer if truth be told. The clothes closely resembled the uniform he had worn in the military, but instead of a terrestrial camouflage pattern he had opted for a flat, dark grey that matched the interior bulkheads of the ship. The boots were a soft, black synthetic material that resembled suede leather and the pants were bloused over them. The base layer was even more impressive, however, as it incorporated technology not found on Earth. While it resembled the newest commercially available base layers that were designed to wick moisture away, these undergarments were also capable of regulating his body temperature by monitoring heat and perspiration and adjusting the material temperature accordingly. Jason could see no discernible power source, yet he could feel it cooling off as soon as he put it on, compensating for his still elevated skin temperature from the workout in the cargo bay and the hot shower.

  After donning his new "uniform" he made his way to the bridge by way of the galley (although they were in opposite directions) and grabbed a mug of chroot. Wishing for a touch of vanilla creamer to go with it, he took his drink with him as he ambled up to the bridge. Nodding to Deetz as he walked in, he paused to look at the main canopy. It was still blacked out while in slip-space, but now the entire surface showed an enormous holographic projection of a planet, ostensibly their destination, and some scrolling data along side it. Over that a timer counted down to what Jason assumed to be their arrival. He slid into his seat next to Deetz and watched as his displays came to life, it looked like they had a little more than two hours remaining until they made orbit. He hid his grin behind the mug as he took a drink, the excitement was building the closer the ship got to the first exoplanet to be seen by humans.

  "So what's this planet called?" He really did expect some exotic, unpronounceable name with a ton of consonant sounds.

  "Breaker's World."

  "You said what?" Jason knew he had to be mistaken, or Deetz's translation was off.

  "Breaker's World. You look horribly disappointed, what were you expecting?" Deetz was looking at him with his metallic brow furled.

  "Well, something a little more... I don't know...," Jason was floundering while Deetz just stared at him with one brow cocked up. He moved on, "So what does the name mean?" Deetz slowly turned back to the displays.

  "Presumably someone called Breaker colonized it. It's not a very important or even useful planet by most standards. While it's a nice, medium sized rocky world with an atmosphere, it's also pretty far out in the spiral arm. Also, for some reason, non-indigenous crops will not grow there nor are the local plants edible by most species. So, Breaker's World is largely ignored by most governments and corporations, which makes it attractive to certain parties who like to work in private."

  “That sounds like said parties are engaged in less-than-legal activities,” Jason said. Deetz gave a non-committal shrug and continued to watch the displays. As the countdown timer reached zero the ship gave barely perceptible shudder and the canopy returned to fully transparent as it streaked into the star system, now flying in real-space. There was nothing of note outside the canopy, however. Just a nondescript star field that could have been anywhere. As he strained his eyes to see anything outside the ship his console beeped and the section displaying navigational data went from having a red border to green. The scrolling text announced that the ship’s location had been verified and then a stylized representation of the star system came up showing the location of both Breaker’s World and the ship in relation to the primary star. It looked like they had dropped out of slip-space just outside the heliopause, well away from the system’s equivalent to the Kuiper Belt.

  After days of hearing the constant drone of the ship’s slip-space drive, the bridge felt deathly quiet once it had shut down. Jason assumed that there were either safety or procedural reasons as to why they had exited slip-space so far away from their destination, so he didn’t bother asking Deetz. A few minutes after all the displays had greened up Jason could feel the main engines fire up and watched the acceleration indicator in front of him climb, the rumble from the four mains was distinctly different than the more high-pitched whine of the slip-space drive. Eying the holograph of the star system, Jason noticed that they wouldn’t pass close to any other planets on their way to Breaker’s World so he ignored the view outside and set about re-configuring his console now that he had a better handle on how to get the computer to do what he wanted.

  Once he had the displays showing all the information he felt was pertinent, and in units he understood, he was dismayed to find that they were still sixteen hours from reaching orbit even at the incredible rate of acceleration they were achieving. Not a chance in hell I’m sitting here for sixteen more hours literally staring off into space. He hopped out of his seat and headed for the galley without a word to Deetz who, for his part, didn’t even acknowledge that Jason was leaving the bridge.

  Chapter 8

  Jason stood on the bridge of the gunship and gazed at the planet below through the canopy, his face was a stoic mask of calm and confident, sentiments that were the polar opposite to how he really felt. The alien planet, while similar, could never be mistaken for Earth. The land masses were obviously different but there was a slightly greenish tint to the oceans rather than the deep blue of his home planet. I’m the first human to see another planet outside the Solar System. Well… probably, if you don’t believe any of the Area 51 bullshit. They had been in a slowly decaying orbit while waiting for clearance to land from the surface, so Jason had been given the opportunity to orbit the planet a multiple times to get a good view of it in its entirety. He was excited beyond belief to get down on the planet and poke around, but there was also a sense of apprehension as the real reason for him even being there was quickly approaching. If Deetz had tricked him for some nefarious reason, he would soon know. Adding to his discomfort, he felt itchy all over, a side-effect of the inoculations he had been given in the medical bay. They would ensure the alien microbes on Breaker’s World didn’t overwhelm his system and cause serious problems once he was on the surface. With the limited facilities on the ship Deetz told him that he would still probably feel like crap for a few days afterwards, but that would be the extent of it.

  After a few more orbits he heard Deetz talking to the surface controller in a language he didn’t understand. He assumed it meant they would be landing soon so he made his way back his seat. He had no sooner sat down when he heard the engines throttle down and the nose pitched over towards the planet and the indicated velocity on his display began to decrease. As the ship descended altitude a mild buffeting could be felt through the seat and plasma strings began to dance along the forward collision shields. Soon the entire canopy was awash in superheated gas as the engines throttled back up and pushed the big gunship down into the atmosphere. They leveled out around 35,000 feet and banked gently north, away from the equator. Jason noticed a conspicuous lack of civilization below them as the ship roared North at twice the speed of sound, so he asked Deetz about it.

  “This planet has two fairly large moons that anchor its rotation, but when their orbits overlap the gravitational forces can trigger seismic activity around the planet’s equator. There’s nothing there but rainforest so it’s largely left unsettled. By the way, this planet has a slightly higher oxygen content then what you’re used to on Earth, not by much, but enough that you may notice the effects.”

  “Better too much than too little,” Jason mused out loud as he watched the alien landscape pass by.

  Soon Jason could tell that they were descending towards what looked like a fairly well developed settlement. With the ship’s artificial gravity and constant pressure it wasn’t like descending in a commercial airliner; there were no physical sensations other than visual cues from the displays and the view outside. Deetz cycled th
e landing gear and swung the ship around over a large airfield and brought it to a rock solid hover thirty feet off the tarmac. After a short conversation with the ground controller he eased them around and over their landing pad and touched down.

  Jason stood up and walked back over to the canopy as Deetz shut down the engines and put various systems into a standby mode. When he was finished he looked up at Jason, “I have a gift for you.” Saying nothing else, he rose and walked off the bridge with Jason in tow. They wound their way down to the lower deck, through one of the engineering spaces, and into the armory, a place Jason hadn’t been allowed to explore during the trip. He looked around in surprise at the amount of infantry weaponry that was onboard the vessel, but his eyes were instantly drawn to the work bench on the far wall and what was sitting on it; his AR-15 that had gone missing.

  “Rather than try and bring you up to speed on the finer points of energy weapons I decided we’d stick to what you know,” Deetz said as he hefted the weapon. “I modeled this after the chemical propellant slug thrower you boarded with.” So that isn’t my rifle. Deetz continued, “This magnetically accelerates a tungsten-carbide projectile at hypersonic velocities. It’s strictly a kinetic weapon, so your line-of-sight aim is just as critical as before. It feeds the projectiles out of a detachable magazine like you’re familiar with, but this magazine holds one hundred and fifty rounds as well as the power pack.”

  It took a moment for the significance of Deetz’s sales pitch to sink in. Holy shit! It’s a hand-held rail gun! The amount of destructive force even a small projectile at hypersonic speeds could unleash was awesome. It both thrilled and terrified Jason to be able to hold that power in a package the size of an M4. Jason grabbed the weapon and noticed immediately that it was nearly half the weight of his rifle. The barrel was also quite different; the diameter was so large it looked almost like an integrally suppressed M4. The fore grip appeared to be the same as his JP Industries carbine grip he had on his own weapon, but it felt distinctly non-metallic in his hands.

  "The fire selector works the same as your own rifle, it has two settings: off and fire. There's also an emergency mode button behind that that will allow the weapon to fire continuously as long as you keep it and the trigger depressed simultaneously. However, it will not only deplete the power pack rapidly, it will also permanently damage the barrel. This was a bit of a rush job so I didn't have the opportunity to design a cooling system for such a small unit." Deetz was watching Jason's face as he continued his explanation.

  "This is absolutely incredible, Deetz. But why upgrade me to such a powerful weapon?" Jason snapped the rail gun up to his shoulder and sighted down through the optics, as soon as he did an active display lit up and began feeding information about whatever he sighted on. How fucking cool is that?

  "You're my backup on this run," Deetz was explaining, "No matter how unlikely it is that it will be needed, if something happens I'd like you to be able to provide some level of defense for me." Jason fixed him with a sour look. "...and yourself," the synth amended quickly. After snapping the weapon up to his shoulder a few more times to get a feel for how it seated into his shoulder and the eye relief he set it back on the bench and began to attach the single point tactical sling that had been sitting next to it. He noticed right away that this item was his from when he originally boarded the gunship. "I also have taken the liberty of making you body armor that will protect your vital organs," Deetz said as he walked across the armory to a closed wall locker. The mere mention of the words "body armor" brought a sneer of disgust to Jason's face as well as an involuntary shudder. He remembered his heavy, hot, smelly plate carrier that he wore during his multiple tours in the Middle East. While necessary, it was an unpleasant proposition nonetheless.

  As with his new weapon, he should have known that any armor that had been produced by the ship's miraculous fabricators would have next to nothing in common with the clunky plate armor of his recent past. When the door to the locker slid back into the wall he was looking at what closely resembled the lightweight chest protector a motocross racer might wear, albeit with a little more coverage. It also looked to be made of some sort of composite material and reflected the light oddly as he viewed it from different angles. Jason stood patiently and waited for Deetz to explain the apparatus to him.

  “It’ll protect against moderate impacts and also has an ablative layer that should protect against most energy weapon blasts that you’d expect to encounter on this planet,” Deetz was saying. Should? Not sure I like the sound of that. Jason kept his misgivings to himself as the synth helped him into the armor. He was quite pleased at not only the diminutive weight but the full range of motion it allowed. The outfit included not only the chest protector and pauldrons but a set of hard-shell gloves, forearm, and thigh protectors that strapped on. He looked at himself in the full length mirror that was in the armory and was immensely happy with the overall effect. The dark grey of his new “uniform” went well with the shimmering darker grey/black of the armor. While he was a firm believer in form over function, every warrior still liked to look like a badass. “If you’re happy with the fit, there’s one more thing we need to take care of,” Deetz continued, walking over to another touchpanel terminal that looked like it had been added to the bulkhead as an afterthought.

  “This terminal, for lack of a better term, is the ship’s vault. I’ll need to add you to the access list in order for you to be able to authorize payment for our cargo delivery and secure its release, this is the main reason you’re here.” Deetz had activated the terminal and then spoke aloud to the ship’s computer, “Computer, please add Jason Burke to the crew manifest and grant access to the treasury terminal.”

  “Jason Burke, human.” After a moment the computer asked, “What rank will be assigned to Crewman Burke?” At this Deetz paused and looked at Jason speculatively.

  “First Officer.”

  “Confirmed. Commander Burke has been added to the crew manifest and has been given the appropriate levels of clearance to the armory, engineering, and treasury.” As the computer called him Commander Burke a thrill went up Jason’s spine and all of the sudden he was eight years old again; Jason Burke, Space Commander. He smiled to himself as he enjoyed a moment of pure, adolescent joy.

  “There. That should grant you enough privilege to perform your task.” Deetz had a knack for ruining a moment.

  “Thanks,” Jason said drily, slinging his weapon over his right shoulder.

  Commander Burke followed Deetz to a door other than the one they had walked in through, this one was quite a bit larger and much more formidable in its construction. Once it was keyed open Jason immediately recognized the ship’s cargo bay; this was the lower door he had seen earlier that he couldn’t open during his subsequent trips into the hold. That made sense now, it was direct access to the armory from the cargo bay and rear loading ramp.

  After the pressure was normalized to outside ambient (slightly lower than what it had been during the flight) and the ramp began to lower Jason’s excitement was dampened by the wash of smell that assailed him from the open cargo bay door. It had a sickly sweet tang to it that was quite strong. Deetz looked over and explained, “Every planet has its own unique smell, some more pleasant than others. You get used to it after a of couple hours.” The pair walked down the ramp and onto the tarmac. Looking around the space port, Jason couldn’t help but be struck by the similarity between it and any modern airport you would see on Earth, complete with an elevated control tower. He wondered if he should be armed or not, but Deetz had made no move to stop him as he walked out of the armory with the new rail gun.

  “I need to go and secure delivery of our cargo. It would be expected that I would be the one to go and handle the details,” Deetz explained. “I’ll be back well before it arrives and will talk you through what you need to do to both accept it and make the payment. I’ve also scheduled engineering services to come out and complete the repairs on the drive emitters and slip
reactor. Again, I'm sure I’ll beat them back. For now, just stay here at the foot of the ramp or inside the cargo bay and try to look like you belong here.” The synth then turned and walked towards an approaching vehicle that looked oddly similar to an oversized golf cart. Once the vehicle drove off and was out of sight Jason walked the perimeter of the ship, both as a security sweep and to get a complete 360˚ view of the area.

  He was beginning to get bored of walking around the cargo bay when a loud yell from the bottom of the ramp nearly made him jump out of his skin. He turned and saw a strange little being staring at him with large, black eyes and hesitantly waving at him with a six-fingered hand. Despite having been on the ship for awhile, and talking to Deetz for hours about alien cultures, seeing his first biological alien in the flesh set his heart to pounding. Trying to appear like this was old hat to him, he gave a friendly wave and walked over to the little guy. Gal? “Hello there, can I help you?” The being’s oversized, pointed ears fluttered like bird wings and it cocked its head to one side. It then answered in a language that Jason had not a prayer of trying to decipher. Oh boy…

  Now that he was closer, Jason could see that though it was short, the alien was solidly built and had a bluish, mottled skin. It had a small mouth and a nose that was not nearly as prominent on its face as Jason’s own. Despite the exotic color and appendages, it didn’t look that alien, bipedal, bilateral symmetry, and sporting a set of black coveralls that looked like they belonged on any mechanic. Mechanic… shit, the engineering service. The being eyed Jason’s rifle nervously and repeated the noise it had made before. When the human shook his head helplessly it tapped at its own ear and then pointed to Jason’s ear. Not understanding the meaning, Jason dumbly shook his head again, wondering if the universal head shake for “negative” was really all that universal. The alien approached and peeked around both sides of his head before emitting another bizarre sound and walking back down the ramp and out of the ship.