Jason knew that things worked differently on Restaria, in the Legions, and especially where the Archon was concerned, but he was becoming increasingly worried about the shift in Crusher’s demeanor. He was thrilled his friend was back among his people and shocked, as well as proud, to learn what he was to them, but he could feel the tight cohesion of his unit beginning to slip. Relationships and discipline that had been honed over years together and countless hours of live operations were shifting as Crusher’s tendency towards command began to reassert itself. It wasn’t that Jason’s ego was so big that he felt threatened, but he knew what happened when there was confusion about the chain of command. This was a worst case scenario: Lucky and Kage would follow Jason without question, while the gelten contingent would only listen to Crusher. He hoped their careful planning would negate this fundamental flaw in their team’s structure.
“Why are we meeting in here?” Zetarix said, looking around the Phoenix’s hold with undisguised disdain.
“This is the only truly secure location on all of Restaria,” Crusher said. “If word of this leaks out and compromises the mission, we’ll know it was one of you.”
“I’m not sure I appreciate the insinuation, Lord Felex,” Fostel said. “What’s to say it isn’t any of your people?”
“Because we have no motivation to betray you,” Jason said, looking the older warrior in the eye.
“And because the integrity of Omega Force is absolute,” Crusher finished forcefully. “The Archon’s Fist, however, is a huge question for us. While I may appreciate what its intention is, you cannot guarantee the order has not been infiltrated. The fact that I still have an unclear picture as to what the hell is going on between Galvetor and Restaria only heightens my distrust.”
“Let’s get back to the op,” Jason suggested. “Morakar?”
“Thank you, Captain Burke,” Morakar said with a nod. “In order to get close to Casguard Prison we will, of course, need to get to Galvetor undetected. This means we won’t be able to take something obvious like a legion shuttle or this fine warship. Instead, we’ve procured a standard supply shuttle and made the necessary modifications for a discreet infiltration.”
“What sort of mods?” Twingo asked.
“Scanner masks to hide how many lifeforms are aboard as well as any weaponry,” Mazer answered. “Upgraded engines and layered armor added to the inside of the hull.”
“Do you mind if I take a look at it?” the engineer asked.
“Of course not, but time is short,” Mazer said with a frown.
“I won’t need long,” Twingo mumbled, already making notes on his data pad.
“We also have a current transponder code that will allow us to land at Cessell Spaceport, which is only fifty kilometers away from the prison,” Morakar continued. “Our necessary, and more illicit, equipment is already on Galvetor with a sympathetic contingent on the homeworld.”
“What the hell?” Jason interrupted. “We’re parking our getaway ride right next to the scene of the crime?”
“We’ll get picked up for sure,” Kage piped up. “They’ll lock that spaceport down first thing.”
“If I may continue,” Morakar said in a pained voice, “we will not be using the shuttle for exfil, and it is meant to be found.
“We will move directly from Cessell City to the outlying settlement of Ketallis, which is near a lake to the north. There we have a fully operational tactical spacecraft that has been equipped with the best sensor-stealthing technology we could afford. That will get us, and Fordix, back to Restaria where the Archon’s Fist stands ready to keep us hidden as we plan the next phase of our operation based on what information Fordix gives us.”
“Why hasn’t Fordix briefed you on this information before now?” Crusher asked.
“Your mentor, while sympathetic to our cause, has never fully aligned himself with our order,” Morakar said. “He said it was for our own protection. His frequent travels to Galvetor and interaction with the government made him paranoid. He was sure he was being watched and feared that even casual contact with us could compromise the entire movement.”
“He was probably right about that,” Crusher conceded. “Although I can’t believe the relationship with Galvetor has become so contentious that they would have the intelligence service keep tabs on an elder statesman like Fordix.”
“We never believed they would have you exiled,” Mutabor said quietly, the first time he’d spoken during the entire brief. Crusher just nodded and gestured for Morakar to continue.
The briefing lasted for another hour as all the team members asked questions and committed the details to memory. Jason was not happy about the lack of time to rehearse or prepare, but the Praetores insisted that there was no time to delay. Their fear was that, even in a prison of mostly non-warrior geltens, Fordix’s life could be in danger. The same forces that were able to bypass the Galvetic justice system and have him imprisoned could no doubt reach out and have him quietly executed as he slept in his cell.
*****
“Looks like you’re good to go, Captain,” Twingo said as he pulled off a set of heavy work gloves. “They did a decent job of the upgrades and I was able to fix the issues they were having with the power generators and the flight stability systems. They put so much additional armor near the cockpit that it was a bit nose heavy.”
“Power generators?” Jason asked, eyeing the shuttle skeptically. “So you’re saying—”
“Yep,” the engineer confirmed. “This old bucket still uses the engines to provide system power to the rest of the ship. No standalone powerplant. Nothing to worry about though on a flight this short through such well-traveled spacelanes.”
“While true from a technical standpoint, I’m not sure being picked up by a Galvetic patrol ship will be helpful with three aliens and a political exile onboard,” Jason pointed out.
“True,” Twingo conceded. “So why are Doc and I stuck here?”
“Why would I need you along?”
“Well, if this Fordix character is hurt Doc would come in handy,” Twingo said.
“I didn’t just ask about Doc,” Jason said as he continued his walk around the small intrasystem shuttle.
“I’m a good luck charm,” Twingo said. “Things tend to go much more smoothly if I’m along.”
“Really? I’ve never noticed that,” Jason said. “In fact, I’d say the last two major screw ups were directly attributed to you.”
“Yes,” Twingo admitted, “but we were still able to successfully complete the mission. That’s where the luck comes in.”
“You’re not going,” Jason said. “I need you here.”
“Doing what?”
“Not being in the shuttle,” Jason said. “What do you have for me, Lucky?”
“I completed the gear inspection as you requested, Captain,” Lucky said as he walked up to the pair. “My own sensors were unable to detect anything that should not be there.”
“What’s this?” Twingo asked. “Distrustful of our new friends?”
“Distrustful is a strong word,” Jason said, “but no, I trust nobody that isn’t Omega Force at this point in the operation.”
“Which is a good thing I installed three different passive trackers on this bird that the Phoenix can activate remotely and track,” Twingo said.
“Clever,” Jason said approvingly.
“Like I said … lucky,” Twingo said, pointing at himself with his four thumbs.
“What?” Lucky asked as he walked up.
“No, I was saying … eh, never mind,” Twingo said.
“Did I miss something?” Lucky asked as the engineer walked away.
“Yes, but nothing important enough to repeat,” Jason said. “Let’s go get the others and get this show on the road.”
*****
The small transit shuttle was surprisingly nimble as it rocketed up through Restaria’s atmosphere, even with the additional weight the tech crews had added in armament and armor. J
ason flew up and through the thermosphere towards their intersect point for one of Restaria’s standard transfer orbits. He accelerated along the designated vector before the computer picked up the planet’s nav system beacon and took over. This particular shuttle didn’t allow him to retain manual flight authority like the Phoenix did, so he just sat back to enjoy the ride.
There had been some heated debate about who would fly the shuttle. Crusher said Jason was the obvious choice and the most skilled pilot in the group, but Mazer thought Morakar should do it since he had been the mission planner and team leader up to the moment Crusher was brought back into the fold. In the end Jason presented it to the group in a manner that made it look like he was accepting piloting duties as a favor to Morakar so the latter wouldn’t have to deal with inconsequential details like babysitting the flight computer of a cargo shuttle. Morakar made a show of thanking Jason for his generous offer, thus saving face in front of the group that had gathered around the discussion.
“We were just accepted by the nav system so it looks like our credentials are still good,” Jason announced, kicking the seat release with his foot so he could back it away from the console and swivel around to see everybody. “Now it’s a long and hopefully boring flight until Gaveltor’s traffic system picks us up.”
“Any chance our credentials won’t pass scrutiny there?” Mazer asked.
“Practically none,” Jason said. “When I entered our destination of Cessell Spaceport, there was a handshake between the two systems before it was accepted. If there was an issue on that end it would have kicked us out of the pattern here and alerted your fleet.” Since Restaria and Galvetor shared such similar orbits, with the former’s apogee extending out several hundred thousand kilometers further than the latter’s, the usual procedure was to depart one and essentially begin decelerating immediately, slowing while the other came around Galvetor Prime and caught up. It was a bit more complicated than that, but the end result was that a flight that would take the Phoenix less than ten minutes was going to be the better part of fifteen hours.
“I can’t believe we’re still using this ridiculous system to get between planets,” Crusher grumbled.
“If we were a government or military flight we wouldn’t be,” Morakar corrected. “We’d have access to one of the new grav-drive shuttles and just make a direct flight. But with the limited amount of traffic that isn’t accommodated on scheduled ferries there hasn’t been much of a demand that the government upgrade the system or loosen the restrictions on privately operated grav-drives.”
“I wasn’t aware of that,” Jason said with concern. “Will we be searched when we land at Cessell? If flights like this are so rare, a bored official may send out a customs team when we touch down.”
“This is a scheduled flight,” Mazer said. “We simply swapped transponders with the shuttle that normally runs the route and cosmetically altered this one to match.”
“What’s the other shuttle running?” Jason asked.
“Diplomatic mail,” Morakar answered. “There are still items that need a witnessed signature or are too sensitive to transmit over the nexus, so controlled copies are flown between the two planets. It’s an antiquated method, but the bureaucrats on both sides seem to enjoy the perk of a private service.”
“All things considered, I would say it is fortunate they do,” Lucky said from the back of the cargo hold. Even though the shuttle was shielded against lifeform scans, Lucky’s unique physiology had concerned Jason. Twingo mounted a crash seat against the rear bulkhead, near the engines, and assured him that any chance of the battlesynth being detected would be negated by the propulsion system’s interference.
The conversation tapered off as each began to review their own role in the upcoming mission, running the details of the briefing through their heads over and over. There were only six people in the spacious shuttle: Crusher, Morakar, Mazer, Lucky, Kage, and Jason. Of those six, only the members of Omega Force had ever seen any actual combat. Even though this wasn’t a combat op, exactly, it was still the first true operational experience the pair would have seen. Jason was also concerned about the fact none of them had ever even so much as performed a dry-run with the pair of warrior brothers and had no idea how they reacted to stress or the inevitable moment when the plan fell apart and had to be improvised. I guess we’ll burn that bridge down when we get to it.
“That’s Galvetor,” Mazer said after an extended silence. The drone of the engines in the cabin had lulled everyone except Lucky into a drowsy half-sleep as the shuttle hummed merrily along the orbital plane.
“Where?” Jason asked, rubbing his eyes and sitting up.
“There,” Mazer said, pointing at a bright prick of light moving much faster than the other stars visible through the canopy. “It won’t be long before we’re picked up by their orbital traffic control system.”
“Are we likely to be contacted for a verbal confirmation of cargo or destination?” Jason asked.
“No,” Mazer said. “The system is completely automated. There is only a minimal crew in the operations center in case of catastrophic failure, but the system requires no controller interaction.”
“A smuggler’s dream,” Kage murmured
“Hardly,” Morakar laughed. “The punishments far outweigh the risks. We’re a fairly isolationist society and only deal with a few approved brokers for our imported goods and services. There are no illicit shipments or sales to Galvetor.” Jason and Kage looked at each other a moment before both broke out in a hearty laugh.
“Whatever you say,” Kage said, still laughing.
“What do you mean?” Morakar said darkly.
“He simply means that criminals are the most enterprising people you’ll ever meet, especially when it comes to a closed market like a planet that restricts free travel,” Jason said. “We smuggled ourselves to Restaria, we’re now smuggling you to Galvetor, and we’ll then be smuggling Fordix off of that planet. I can say with certainty that there is an underworld of Galvetor that is serviced by someone willing to take the risk for the pay.”
“You’re talking about narcotics,” Morakar said. “You’re operating under the assumption geltens are prone to such vices.”
“It may not be widespread due to your strict control, but it’s there. It always is,” Jason said.
“As a people, we’re not prone to such weaknesses,” Crusher declared, drawing incredulous looks from his three crewmates.
“Really?” Kage asked. “So how is it I’ve had to go and steal a cargo load lifter on no less than three occasions to get your drunken carcass back to the ship?”
Crusher glared at the Veran, but made no effort to answer him either.
“Let’s settle the chatter,” Jason said. “We’re beginning our braking maneuver. Shouldn’t be long before we hit Galvetor’s upper atmosphere.”
He got his first good view of Crusher’s homeworld as the shuttle closed quickly on the planet, allowing itself to be captured by its gravity and slung into a high holding orbit. The traffic control system automatically began firing the thrusters to slow their velocity and allow them to descend to a lower transfer orbit before holding them for their turn to enter the atmosphere.
It was another full hour before the braking thruster fired once again to deorbit the shuttle. As the ship began to rock and bounce in the increasingly dense atmosphere, the interior began to heat up noticeably. Jason was surprised at this and hoped that this was just a design flaw and that the techs hadn’t stripped away too much of the shuttle’s original shielding to make room for the enhanced armor. They had been flying through space fairly close to Galvetor Prime; if the thermal shielding was compromised or lacking, he had to assume the radiation shielding wasn’t much better. He put the thought out of his head and watched the altitude continue to decrease as the orbital control system brought them in across the largest continent on the planet.
He got a beeping alert from the navigation panel letting him know the automated
system was about to relinquish control of the ship. After he spun around and locked his seat in position, he acknowledged that he was ready and waited for the indicators to green up. It was another fifteen minutes before he got the final trilling alert and the manual controls for the ship were activated. He kept it along the designated flightpath towards Cessell City and allowed the atmospheric friction to scrub off the excess speed as they streaked over Galvetor.
The planet was stunningly beautiful, much like its sister, Restaria. The major population centers seemed to be well-planned and spaced in a manner that was harmonious with the natural lay of the land instead of at odds with it, something you often saw on developed planets where the prime species tried to bend nature to its will. The geltens seemed to embrace their home and lived upon it as unobtrusively as possible. He mentioned this to Crusher.
“Some of that is our nature, some just practicality,” Crusher answered. “Our ancient ancestors revered the planet and believed it had a soul and a consciousness. Some still do hold this view, actually. Our civilization was built around that belief and, thanks largely to a small population, we had no need to change this. By the time we began to industrialize, we were already well aware of our impact on our environment and what the consequences would be to disrespect that.”
“Why the small population?” Jason asked. “That seems unusual for such an advanced species.”
“A natural checks and balances that’s a holdover from when we roamed the planet as wild nomads,” Crusher said. “Just one of our evolutionary ancestors required a large amount of range, and those ranges didn’t overlap between males. So gelten pregnancies, while more than sufficient to propagate our species, are far more rare than in others.”
“Must be nice,” Kage said. “I was one of twenty-eight siblings. Being hungry was a near constant on my world.”
“Twenty-eight?” Mazer asked in disbelief.
“Our evolutionary history is quite different than yours,” Kage said with a smile. “My ancestors were hunted for food. We didn’t have the luxury of single births if we were to survive. Now there are so many that Ver is more or less a slum and we’re desperately trying to colonize surrounding space.” Jason filed away that little insight into Kage’s previous life and motivations for being what he was. Hunger is a powerful motivator when it comes to deciding between slaving away on an overpopulated world for next to nothing or striking out and taking a chance at a life of crime.
Omega Force 5: Return of the Archon Page 9
