“Quiet,” Crusher said, cutting him off. “Right now I need people around me who are going to be honest. Don’t back down because you think I won’t like what you have to say.
“Back to the issue you’ve raised … I feel you may be on to something. I’ve had the feeling there’s something at the perimeter of all this that I’m not seeing. If you think you can dig that up then that is exactly what you will do.”
“Of course, my lord,” Morakar said, somewhat relieved that the Archon wasn’t angry with him. “I assume it will be the same arrangement as before; report only to you.”
“You assume correctly,” Crusher said. “Now get to work … we might not have a lot of time.”
Chapter 21
“Captain, we have another incoming message from Kage,” Lucky said. “Text only.”
“Short version, Lucky,” Jason said. “We’re about to mount an assault on a fortified position with a handful of people and no heavy weaponry.”
“He says we need to hurry,” Lucky said simply.
“You can’t be serious with that,” Jason deadpanned.
“You said short—”
“Just give me the message in its entirety, please,” Jason said with a patience he didn’t feel.
“A fire team made up of non-geltens attacked the safe house,” Lucky said. “They seemed to know exactly where he was. He was able to escape and even take out the assault team, but is now adrift in Ker. He is also concerned that Crusher may not be safe but is having a difficult time getting to him.”
“I see,” Jason said, hefting the plasma rifle he was planning on carrying. “So it looks like things are now in motion on Restaria, which means we haven’t got long here either.”
“Indeed,” Lucky agreed. “I do not think it will be long before we get a look at the real reason we are here.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Mazer said defensively.
“It means that no matter what you were told, or your intentions, it’s almost certain that we’ve been dancing along to someone else’s tune this entire time,” Jason said. “Now that someone tried to take Kage out and things within Ker seem to be moving quickly, it won’t be long before we’ll see who’s been calling the shots.”
“So you don’t think the Order has been on the level about keeping Restaria out of Galvetor’s internal politics?” Mazer asked.
“No offense, my friend,” Jason said, “but I didn’t believe that when Connimon first told us about it. But I don’t doubt that’s what you were told.”
“Gentlemen,” Kade said urgently from the rear hatch, “night does not last long, and the longer we sit in here the more likely that we will be spotted.”
“Understood,” Jason said. “Let’s go.”
When the hatch popped open, the blast of heat almost knocked Jason down. He immediately began to sweat profusely and watched as the dry air wicked it away almost as fast. This was a dangerous environment, even at night. He had landed on a small outcropping that was above and behind the cave entrance and would allow them to take advantage of what minimal cover there was as they approached what Kade had assured them was the entrance.
He switched his ocular implants to simple light amplifications since the ground was still so hot it was washing out his thermal mode to the point that picking his way carefully around the loose rocks and scrub was difficult. The descent wasn’t especially long, but within ten minutes the geltens were panting and struggling and he didn’t feel like he was faring much better. Lucky led the way down with his sure footing and imperviousness to the heat. Jason wished, and not for the first time, that the combat shuttle had been better equipped past the standard small arms locker.
Once they were all down through the narrow pass and standing at the cave entrance, Jason got his first good look at the tracks that were all around. While there were the tracks from what looked to be various ground vehicles, there were also larger tracks that could only have come from landing gear. Very large landing gear and, in fact, he could make out six deep ruts that could have very well been made by a DL7’s tricycle landing gear.
Without speaking, the team moved to the right side of the cave opening and entered, hugging the interior wall. The passage looked to be mostly natural but Jason could make out tool marks on the walls where irregularities had been smoothed out and a larger clearance cut into the indigenous rock. They had moved into the tunnel about fifty meters when they came to a synthetic wall that completely blocked their way. He reached out with the butt of his rifle and knocked up against it, watching it shimmer as waves from the impact propagated outward.
“This is only an environmental barrier,” he said. “It’s not made to keep anybody out that’s determined to get in.”
“Do we try to breach here?” Kade asked quietly.
“Negative,” Jason said back. “There will be a crew entrance somewhere near here. This won’t be the only way in or out. Spread out along both sides of the tunnel.”
They split up and began searching the walls of the tunnel. The structure was sixty meters wide and at least as tall, so it wasn’t a necessarily fast search. Unsurprisingly, Lucky found the crew entrance on the left side of the tunnel a short way back from the thermal barrier. It was a small, irregular tunnel that branched off from the main passage and ended in a heavy alloy door.
“I do not detect any anti-intrusion devices or alarms, Captain,” Lucky said quietly.
“Let’s go ahead and make entry,” Jason whispered back. He looked back over his shoulder at the two geltens and made a hand gesture he hoped they would interpret correctly as, ‘Be ready when the door opens.’ Lucky turned the handle and the hatch unlocked with a painfully loud clank before swinging outward. After shuffling backwards to allow the door to open, the four of them peered inside at what looked like a small antechamber with an identical door on the other side.
“It’s an airlock,” Jason murmured. “They’re going through a lot of trouble to keep the environment on the other side of that barrier stabilized.” He nodded to Lucky and raised his weapon slightly as the battlesynth went and opened the second door even as Mazer was closing the first one. They timed it so that the latches moved at the same time and minimized the individual sounds they were making. Jason was impressed. That wasn’t something they had prearranged, but the young Galvetic warrior seemed to have a natural instinct of how to operate within small-unit, covert teams. Kade was a pilot and the captain of a ship that had long outlived its usefulness, and it wasn’t even a tactical vessel, but he was still a member of the warrior class and would be a force to be reckoned with if things turned out badly inside.
Beyond the second door was another tunnel, this one much longer than the first. They moved quickly down its length until they emerged into a dimply lit alcove that had protective equipment and suits hanging along one side. Jason grabbed one of the suits and held it out at arm’s length: two legs, two arms, one head (or at least one neck); all much smaller than an average human adult. A quick look at the others confirmed they were all of a similar size and configuration. While he wasn’t foolish enough to judge a species by its size alone, he was mildly relieved that they wouldn’t be facing a force of heavy gravity bruisers the deeper they went into the facility. He was about to say so to his team when his neural implant gave him an alert. He was surprised to see it was an incoming message and hoped it was one of his crew before authorizing his wetware to accept it.
**STATUS**
DEFENSIVE PROTOCOLS ACTIVE
EMERGENCY POWER: 72%
Jason blinked in surprise as the message scrolled across his field of view. It wasn’t exactly one of his crew: it was his ship. The Phoenix rarely initiated contact with him on its own, but the fact he got a message at all was heartening. “The ship just contacted me,” Jason said. “She’s on emergency power, which is dwindling, and the defensive protocols are still active.”
“So that means it’s still operational?” Mazer asked.
“Likely, but not
guaranteed,” Jason shook his head. “Hell, the computer core could be sitting plugged into a power source by itself and send that message. But it detected my tracking signal so I’m inclined to believe it’s still intact.”
“What about Doc and Twingo?” Lucky asked. Jason tried to query the ship, but got nothing useful in return.
“They’re not onboard,” he said. “Other than that I don’t know. She just keeps giving me the same status message in response to anything I ask. The range may still be too great or there’s some interference somewhere in here.” He turned and waved for them to follow him out of the alcove and they emerged on the other side of the synthetic barrier. Jason tried to estimate how long the tunnel was they’d just come out of and figured that the ship-sized airlock must be nearly one hundred meters long. The main tunnel led off further into the mountain and appeared abandoned. “Let’s get moving while it’s still night hours. We may be able to catch them by surprise.”
They picked up a brisk pace, hugging the left side of the tunnel, and each incredibly thankful for the cool, dry air on the inside of the barrier. It was another few hundred meters before they came upon the first thing of interest. It was the remains of a DL7 gunship, stripped down to the frame spars; the slag from the cutting tools was in random, solidified pools all around it.
“That’s not the Phoenix,” Jason said, taking a closer look. “This ship was completely original. Let’s keep moving.” They moved quickly by the dismantled vessel, the members of Omega Force deliberately avoiding the grim sight and trying not to ponder what may be happening to their own ship.
Past the first gunship the cavern opened up into a chamber so large the artificial lights couldn’t reach the ceiling and even the walls barely reflected their glow. “This entire mountain must be hollow,” Mazer remarked as they crowded up against the wall, out of the light.
“Let’s hope not,” Jason said. “Otherwise any of our normal escape methods will bring the top down on our heads.” He reached out with his neural implant again and pinged the Phoenix. This time the ship was able to fully receive his burst transmission and respond.
**STATUS**
CORE: OFFLINE
WEAPONS: OFFLINE
MAIN ENGINES: OFFLINE
FUEL STABILITY: 4 HRS UNTIL COMPRESSOR FAILURE
HULL INTEGRITY: 100%
He looked around in the gloom at all the ships littering the cavern floor. There was another early model DL7, a DL9, a pair of DL6s and even the dilapidated hulk of an Mk XII transport. All of them were Jepsen Aerospace ships of various vintages and similar configurations. Most of them looked to be in various stages of disassembly, although butchering would be a more apt term for the damage being inflicted to these spacecraft.
But Jason wasn’t looking at any of these very closely. The reason for that was tucked far back in the corner, only her nose sticking into the weak cone of light: the Phoenix.
“There she is,” he whispered, “back in the corner.”
“It looks like your ship is intact,” Mazer said.
“I think whoever is running this Jepsen chop shop is waiting for the emergency power to run down to the point that the weapons and internal shielding will fail,” Jason said. “I just received an updated status and the main reactor is offline.”
“What is the status of the Phoenix’s emergency power?” Lucky asked.
“Low seventies,” Jason said. “But we have a bigger problem. In four hours the power will drop to the point that the compressors will fail and the fuel load will vaporize and get vented.”
The Phoenix, like most modern starships, used liquid hydrogen as fuel in its antimatter reactor. It required a series of compressors and chillers for it to remain a stable liquid, and if those failed the hydrogen would boil and vent harmlessly out of the exhaust ports. The only issue after that would be a starship with an empty fuel tank. Jason was equally worried about trying to get the core started with less than ninety percent emergency power, but he kept that fear to himself for now.
“We seem to have plenty of time to get to the ship and begin the startup sequence,” Lucky said.
“No,” Jason said, raising a hand. “We need to get to Twingo and Doc first. If we get the ship started then they will either use them as hostages or kill them outright.”
“Do you know where they’re at?” Mazer asked.
Jason reached out to the ship again with his link. The answer was good and bad news.
**CREW STATUS**
CAPT. BURKE – FULL MISSION CAPABLE
FIRST OFFICER CRUSHER – UNKNOWN
SECOND OFFICER LUCKY – FULL MISSION CAPABLE
MEDICAL OFFICER “DOC” – INJURED, NON-LIFE THREATENING
CHIEF ENGINEER TWINGO – INJURED, CRITICAL
COPILOT KAGE – UNKNOWN
“The ship isn’t able to get a location fix,” Jason said. “But they’re both injured … Twingo seriously. We need to move. We’ll keep going along this wall and down towards what looks like a set of temporary buildings. I’m guessing those are quarters for whoever is running this little operation.”
The small team moved out, skirting along the edge of the lit area and relying on Lucky’s sensors to warn them of any danger in their path. The work area was vast and it was taking them longer to move around the perimeter than Jason would have liked, but he would be of no use to Twingo if he walked into an explosive booby trap or headlong into a heavily armed patrol. Knowing his friends were alive renewed his energy and focus, but also knowing one of them was gravely injured fueled his impatience.
They had moved right up against the cheap, temporary buildings when the first sounds of life reached their ears. It was a pair of voices coming from one of the doorways closest to the floor where the ships were parked. Apparently this was the night watch, and they weren’t very concerned about security within their facility.
“Your turn,” voice one was saying.
“Don’t you know any better games?” voice two answered.
“Nope,” One said. “Just roll them. Our shift is almost over anyway. How much longer do you think we’ll be stuck in this horrible place? After that last ship is torn down I can’t imagine we’ll have to stay much longer.”
“Unless they bring in more Jepsens,” Two said.
“Don’t even say that,” One said. “That last one was bad enough. Whoever owned it must have supplemented the emergency power cells.”
“Maybe,” Two said with indifference. “It would go a lot easier if that little bastard they captured with it would give up the security codes. I’ve never seen someone so small take so much punishment.”
“Torture is an inexact science,” One said. “You may have overdone it. He has to be convinced that there is a way out for him. If you make him believe that he’ll die no matter what, he has no incentive.”
“I was tired of his stonewalling,” Two said. “I guess it doesn’t matter anyway since I doubt he’ll live through the night. We’ll have to start on the other one after that, I guess.”
Jason had heard enough. He could feel his blood pounding in his veins as his heart began to race. His vision began to gray out around the edges and there was a loud rushing sound in his ears. “Captain…” he heard Lucky call, but he seemed far away.
He circled around and slipped in through the doorway, looking down at the two seated aliens. He vaguely registered that he knew this species and that they thrived in hot climates, their green, pebbled skin reminding him of certain lizards on Earth. They looked up at him in complete shock, their game forgotten.
“Who are—”
The voice Jason recognized as voice number one was cut off as he took two strides into the room and backhanded him hard enough to send him flying out of the plastic chair and into the wall on the far side. Jason continued the crossing motion until he was turned and facing the second alien who was still too shocked to move, much less reach for his weapon.
Jason grabbed him by the throat and lifted him easily out of the se
at. The alien’s survival instincts finally kicked in and he tried to pull a stubby sidearm out of a waist holster, but Jason saw it and grabbed the offending hand and slammed it into the table until he felt the bones break. The alien howled and Jason picked him up as high as he could reach before slamming him bodily down into the table and pinned him flat, his hand crushing the throat just enough to dissuade any further resistance.
He heard a grunt followed by a sharp impact and looked up in time to see Mazer standing over the other alien with a balled fist. Jason nodded to him and turned to his captive.
“Now … are you going to tell me what I want to know? Or am I going to have to try out some of that inexact science your friend was talking about?” he asked in Jenovian Standard.
“I’ll talk,” the alien wheezed.
“Where are the two captives you were just talking about torturing?”
“This building, one level up.”
“How many guards?”
“None, they’re secured to the walls,” the alien said, trying to shift his body to get the pressure off his throat. Jason tightened his grip and lifted him by the throat and waistband before tossing him across the room into a heap by his partner.
“Lucky, with me,” Jason snapped. “Mazer, watch these two. Any sign they try to call for help …”
“Kill them,” Mazer finished with a savage snarl. “Gladly.”
Jason and Lucky sprinted from the room and back out into the open cavern. He’d spotted the external stairwell leading up the next level when they’d initially approached the building. He tensed and launched himself up the stairs, landing only two steps from the top. As soon as he cleared out of the way, Lucky followed suit, easily clearing the entire flight and landing next to Jason with a surprisingly soft impact.
“I detect no security systems or possible traps,” Lucky reported. Jason grabbed the locked handle and twisted it until the metal crunched and the latching mechanism gave way. He put his shoulder into it and burst into the room … he was not prepared for what he saw.
Omega Force 5: Return of the Archon Page 20
