“Captain!” Mazer called as he was halfway down the corridor. “A moment please.”
“Go ahead,” Jason said, slowing so Mazer could catch up.
“I’m sorry about letting his people board your ship,” Mazer said. “I had assumed it was something that had been worked out between the two of you.” If it had been from anyone else Jason would have scoffed at the excuse as a lame attempt to cover their ass, but he knew Mazer was incapable of that sort of blatant dishonesty.
“I can understand you think you’re in a tough position, but you are a Marine assigned to this ship,” Jason said. “I was in a real military too at one time. I know what it’s like to get orders you don’t like or don’t agree with. While I appreciate your apology, it isn’t necessary. This sort of thing won’t affect our friendship.”
“I’m relieved to hear you say that, Captain,” Mazer said, his shoulders dropping as some of the tension left his body. “Hopefully the Lord Archon feels the same way.”
“To be honest, I don’t think he was even awake most of the time in there,” Jason said, continuing on his walk.
****
“Jason?”
The voice floated across his consciousness, dragging him out of a pleasant dream. He blinked the sleep out of his eyes and saw Kellea’s face looming over him, her hair hanging down and catching the dim light. “Lucky let me onboard,” she said.
“Great. Now I have one more member of this outfit who can’t follow orders,” Jason grumbled, sitting up. When he saw her hurt expression he instantly regretted his choice of words. “Sorry,” he said quickly, “I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Really? So how did you mean it?” she said, crossing her arms and backing away from the bunk. “This ship has been onboard for nine hours and I don’t get so much as a message on my com to say hello?”
“I was busy being lured into a conference room by your boss so he could send a goon squad aboard my ship to toss it for something he wants,” Jason said.
“I had nothing to do with any of that!” she said vehemently. “I was only told to be on alert for an attack while we brought you aboard so I assumed you’d once again decided to put my crew and ship in danger by using it for safe refuge.”
Jason resented the implication and was about to tell her so, but he forced himself to stop and not respond. He cared deeply for Kellea, maybe even loved her, and escalating the argument just so he could get the last word was how he’d ruined things long ago in another relationship.
“Let’s just step back from this for a minute,” he said softly. “This is exactly what we didn’t want to happen … things from our jobs bleeding through into things between us. I know that you would never have sent a search party onto this ship without telling me first.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to imply that you couldn’t handle yourself or were using us as a shield.” She walked over and sat beside him on the bunk, laying her head on his shoulder. “Crisstof is worked up about something. I know a little bit from what you’ve told me, but he has the entire Intel section on lockdown going through the files you and Kage sent. This seems to be something big.”
“It still seems so abstract to me that I have a hard time getting all worked up about it,” Jason admitted. “Some great mysterious Machine, thousands of years old, with the power to extinguish stars? Sounds like a bunch of deep spacer bullshit to me.”
“Maybe,” Kellea conceded, “but it has more than a few people very scared. I heard the ConFed has mobilized a taskforce.”
“That’s never good news,” Jason said sourly. “I guess either way we’re in this until the end.”
“We have plenty of time to worry about that later,” she said, pushing him back down onto the bunk.
****
“You know, my quarters are much nicer,” Kellea said in a teasing voice, propping herself up on an elbow on Jason’s cramped bunk.
“I would hope so,” Jason said. “Otherwise you really got a raw deal with this new ship.”
She laughed and lay back down.
“Incoming video com channel request,” the computer said, interrupting them.
“Denied,” Jason said. “Audio only.” There was a chirp before the com channel was opened.
“Captain?” Kage’s voice came through the intercom speaker. “There’s something wrong with your com, it won’t let me initialize the video feed.”
“You don’t need the video feed,” Jason snapped. “What do you want?”
“Is Captain Colleren there?” Kage asked. “She boarded the ship a few hours ago.”
“You’re not getting a video feed!” Jason said. “Start talking or I’m killing the channel.”
“You know I can override the computer, right?”
“You could,” Jason said, “but then you’d have to adapt to only having two arms, maybe even just one.”
“No need for threats of violence,” Kage huffed. “I was calling to tell you we’ve decrypted all of Naleem’s files. She used the same cipher for all of them so once we had it the rest was easy. The files were a series of videos she made that pertain to the Machine.”
“We’ll be right there,” Jason said.
“So she is there,” Kage said.
“Computer, close channel,” Jason said.
“He is so creepy sometimes,” Kellea said as she reached for her uniform.
“Yeah, he really is.”
“Oh, no,” Kellea moaned. “I didn’t think this through very well. The crew knows I came aboard a while ago and will see me walking off with you. No offense.”
“I know what you mean,” Jason waved her off. “You can walk out first and then I’ll follow with Lucky twenty minutes later or so.”
“You want to wait that long to see those files?” she asked.
“The Machine has waited for thousands of years, supposedly, so it can wait another half hour,” he said, heading to the shower.
“I’ll see you in Intel,” she said, giving him a quick kiss and giving herself a final inspection in the mirror before walking out of his quarters. Before he could make it to the head to take a shower, someone else popped into his quarters.
“Why do you get to routinely have women on this ship and we’re not allowed to?” Crusher asked.
“It’s only been two women,” Jason corrected. “And when did I ever say no visitors?”
“I brought back two … friends … one night when we were on Deshja and you wouldn’t let them on,” Crusher said, crossing his arms.
“Crusher, those were prostitutes,” Jason said in a pained voice. “You were so drunk they were probably just going to rob you.”
“I don’t judge you on the nature of your relationships,” Crusher said defensively.
“Get out so I can get cleaned up,” Jason said. “Kage cracked those files so we’re heading to Intel in a minute anyway.”
“Fine,” Crusher said. “It reeks of double standard in here anyway.”
The door to Jason’s quarters whisked shut and he made sure it was locked before he went back into the restroom.
Chapter 16
“I have discovered that the civilization that had been in contact with the A’arcooni does indeed trace its origins back to the species that built the Machine. Some of the material left by the aliens (the A’arcooni simply call them Travelers) alludes to the species that gave birth to their civilization. I’m unsure as to whether the Travelers were created or modified by these beings or if they were simply taught language and science,” Naleem said. She was sitting in front of a camera that was zoomed in on her face, but the surrounding rock wall made it fairly easy to guess where she was.
“The problem I’m running into is that the population on A’arcoon is first and second generation from the Traveler ships,” the video continued. “Not only that, before they were brought back to their planet the Travelers were part of their religion so accurate information is hard to come by. They were further contaminated with their association with Deetz. In y
et another stroke of bad luck, the crew that Deetz has flying the Katan has killed off most of the leadership.
“There is some hope, however, as I’ve learned about a legend the A’arcooni seem to think is real. Apparently the planet was never fully abandoned and an untainted population exists in the mountains that may have a true and complete record of the encounter with the Travelers. Unfortunately, I’m still treated with a fair amount of distrust and they will not tell me where these A’arcooni may be located. I will make contact again once I know more.”
“The time stamp on this video would indicate that she arrived on A’arcoon shortly after we dropped them off,” Kage said. “This looks like a pre-recorded message to her father and sent via a burst transmitter since the distance was so great.”
“It looks like until recently they still thought we were working with Deetz,” Twingo said.
“It makes sense,” Jason said. “The incident on Earth is only known to the people in this room and the existence of their unique weapon was covered up as quickly as possible.”
“There’s one more,” Kage said, reaching over and starting the next video in the series they were watching.
“There have been some … interesting … developments. I have befriended a young A’arcooni named De’Elefor Ka who served on one of the Traveler ships. He also claims to have had direct contact with the crew flying the Katan. They apparently captured and interrogated him at some point in the recent past,” Naleem said, looking much more haggard than in the last video.
“I’m simply relaying what he told me, so take it for what it’s worth. He says the crew, who calls themselves Omega Force, is not associated with Deetz. Apparently their captain, an alien named Jason Burke, was captured by Deetz but he was able to escape. It seems Jason Burke not only escaped but he stole the Katan from Deetz and was responsible for freeing the A’arcooni from his grasp.
“You’re not going to like this next part, but I think I found out why we’ve had so much trouble tracking Deetz. It looks like Omega Force killed him. While they stole your right to revenge, I’m no longer certain what motivation this crew has for taking the Katan. We have to assume that they know of the Machine and are making a move for it themselves. I will begin working up a plan to track this Omega Force down and try to see how much they know and what their intentions are. I will be departing A’arcoon within the hour.”
“That’s all of them,” Kage said quietly.
“This sort of takes the fun out of killing them,” Crusher said.
“Yeah,” Jason agreed. “There may be something to be said for asking questions first and shooting later.”
“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear you say that,” Crusher retorted.
“The take-away from the videos is that, despite Naleem’s work, we’re still not any closer to understanding the Machine, or its location, than we were a day ago,” Crisstof said.
“True,” Jason said. “But it does give us an unfortunate course of action.”
“That being?” Kellea asked.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Jason asked. “We’re going back to A’arcoon.”
“Why is that unfortunate?”
“It’s not exactly in the neighborhood,” Jason said moodily.
****
“What time do you intend to depart?” Kellea asked as she and Jason sat at dinner. It was a private affair in the Captain’s Mess. She’d invited others, but they’d all declined so the pair could be alone.
“The beginning of the Defiant’s first watch,” Jason said, forcing his food down despite the lack of appetite. “That’s the closest thing we have to first thing in the morning out here.”
“We have to drop off a delegation we’re carrying at Ecsta-5,” she said, taking a sip of tea. “It’s some trade route dispute that Crisstof has been trying to settle before the ConFed catches wind of it and gets involved. After that we’ll make way for A’arcoon. Don’t expect us too soon after you arrive; that little ship of yours is still faster than mine.”
“I can’t blame him there,” Jason said, missing her joke and referring to the trade dispute. “A ConFed battle group strong-arming both sides isn’t likely to make either feel too warmly towards each other.”
“You seem like you want to ask me something,” she said. “Either that or I’m completely boring you.”
Jason hesitated noticeably before continuing. “I’m going to ask you to do something for me, but I want you to understand you can say no and there won’t be any hard feelings,” he said.
“That sounds ominous,” she said, putting her flatware down.
“I’d like to leave the transceiver section of the Key here on the Defiant,” Jason said. “If the encryption module is actually on the Phoenix it isn’t a good idea to keep all three of them together.”
“That’s it?” she breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m sure Crisstof will—”
“No,” Jason interrupted her, “not Crisstof. I want you to take possession and keep it safe. It’s not a matter of trust between me and your boss. I just think the less people who know, the safer it inherently is.”
“I have no problem bringing the piece onboard my ship,” she said hesitantly.
“But?”
“But I’m not sure I like the idea of keeping him out of the loop,” she said. “It is his ship.”
“But you’re the captain,” Jason insisted, trying to keep his voice neutral so as not to give the impression he was leaning on her. “Ultimately, the ship is yours while she’s underway. I understand the lines of command are a little murky here, but he put you in charge of the Diligent, and now the Defiant, because he trusted your judgment.”
“Very well,” she said, looking away. “We can store it in my personal safe.”
“I’m sorry to ask you to do something you’re not fully comfortable with,” Jason said, sliding his plate away.
“It’s fine,” she said. “Really … it is. I would tell you no if I really didn’t think it was something I should do.” She finished off her drink and made some show of pulling out her com unit and logging off, essentially going off shift and turning the ship over to the night watch. “So did you have any big plans for tonight?”
“Well,” Jason said, playing along and feigning indifference. “As long as I’m up here I guess I could take a look at your quarters again and see just how much better they are than mine.”
“I guess I can let you in for a quick look,” she said, pushing her chair back.
****
Jason walked through the hangar deck in a considerably better mood than he’d been in the last time he’d been there. First watch would be in a few hours and he wanted to get the Phoenix prepped for launch. Thanks to the new deck boss’s rules it wasn’t as simple as taxiing to the elevator and firing up the engines.
The ship’s ramp was down, but from the lack of activity around the ship he could tell his crew was likely still sound asleep. Whenever they stayed for any length of time on Kellea’s ship they all found their own sources of entertainment, usually with the more rowdy crowd of the spacers inhabiting the lower decks. Throw in the fact that they had a full company of Galvetic Marines onboard and the possibilities for them to get in trouble had just increased by an order of magnitude.
There were two Marines standing alertly at the bottom of the ramp when Jason walked up.
“Captain!” the one on the right said, crashing his fist against his chest in salute. It was too early for Jason to punch himself, so he just nodded back.
“Corporal,” he said. “Are they all onboard?”
“Yes, sir,” the corporal answered. “They came back late last night and seem to have found an enterprising enlisted spacer below who has an alcohol still.”
“Of course,” Jason sighed. “They didn’t cause any trouble, did they?”
“The Lord Archon wanted to wrestle Second Officer Lucky on the hangar deck,” the corporal answered with a straight face. “He seemed to feel the increased floor space would hav
e some bearing on the outcome.”
“Never a dull moment,” Jason said, peering up into the cargo bay. “You guys are relieved. Go ahead and grab some chow before the rest of your company is awake.”
“Yes, Captain!” the corporal answered, turning smartly and leading the other Marine away from the ship. Jason smiled, shaking his head as he walked up the ramp and almost collided with Lucky.
“What the hell?” he exclaimed. “Were you lurking around the corner there?”
“Lurking?” Lucky sounded offended. “Captain, I was standing guard over the cargo.”
“Even with the Marines out there?”
“Marines that ultimately report to Crisstof Dalton,” Lucky corrected.
“Good point,” Jason said. “Sorry. Are the others up yet?”
“Do you really need to ask?” Lucky said.
“Not really,” Jason said. “Computer, I want to conduct a test of the shipwide alarm system. Please initiate audio and visual emergency alert on my mark. This alarm test can only be canalled by me. Disregard all crew inquiries as to the nature of the alarm. Mark.” Bright red strobes began pulsing throughout the ship accompanied by a piercing, strident alarm that was painful to Jason’s ears. The effect on someone with a hangover from drinking too much homemade gin would be excruciating.
“Does this not seem excessively cruel?” Lucky asked.
“Define excessive,” Jason said with a smile as he let the music play on. It was almost a full minute before the crew entry hatch slid open and a wild-eyed Twingo ran out onto the mezzanine, looking around for the source of the alarm. Once the door opened Jason could hear the concerned shouts from the others inside.
“Computer, cancel alarm,” Jason said. The silence was deafening.
“You did this!” Twingo shouted, leveling an accusatory finger at him.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Jason said, walking into the cargo bay. “I thought I made it perfectly clear I wanted to be in space by first watch. You couldn’t possibly have still been in your bunk and not prepping the ship, could you?”
Twingo looked back at the display by the hatch, which displayed ship’s time, and then back to Jason.
Omega Force 6: Secret of the Phoenix Page 15
