“We know where the vessel is?”
“Aye, it’s not far.”
“But the Jackals, the Syndicate? They’re on their way to it already?”
“We said that, but the Endlings insisted we report to them.”
Tanner and Vittoria appeared at the door.
“We thought we heard voices! Dack how you feeling?” Tanner said, walking up to the bed.
“Not too bad, though I could do with a hand?” Dack smiled a half-smile, trying to make light of his situation.
“We’ll figure something out, I might be able to cobble something together,” Vittoria said, not revealing she had already been working on a mechanical replacement.
“Thank you Vit,” he said smiling, “so, the Endlings?”
“Yeah,” Tanner shrugged, “they want to ‘debrief’ us on what to expect at the vessel.”
“Erm, guys?” Jako’s voice chimed in, “we’re coming up to range with the Revenant, after our last, erm, visit I think it might be best if we use one of the less intimidating ships.” Jake refered to the escaped from the Revenant.
“Agreed, Lyla, any objections to the Solstice?” Tanner looked over to her.
“Nah, go for it. But I think I should stay here with Dack, he’s in no condition to travel.”
“I’m fine,” Dack protested and began to stand, his legs, not ready for the change to gravity, betraying him. Lyla grabbed him under the shoulder before he hit the ground.
“Good idea, I’ll take Vittoria and Tylr, I doubt we’ll experience any trouble.”
“We’ll keep comms open so you can hear everything,” Vittoria said. If the last few days had taught them anything, it was that they should all stay in contact at all times.
“Sorted, Lyla, do you mind showing me over the Solstice flight deck? It’s been a while,” Tanner asked.
“Sure, let’s go. Dack, stay on the bed, cos if y’move any I’ll throw you back in the Zero-G with a broken leg to stop y’moving about!”
Dack’s eyes widened, then burst into laughter, which infected the whole group.
Vittoria, Tanner and Lyla left the room, wishing Dack a speedy recovery.
A moment later, Tylr walked in. They were silent footsteps, as always, and they were almost at Dack’s side before he saw them.
“Hi Dack,” they said, putting a hand on his shoulder, “how you feeling?”
“Not too bad thanks, Ty,” he smiled.
“I just wanted to say,” Tylr looked uncomfortable, communication was never their strong point, “thank you.”
Dack looked confused.
“For what?”
“Saving my life, if you hadn’t stopped that blade… ”
“There’s nothing to thank for Tylr, you’d have done the same for me.”
“I would,” they nodded, “but that’s the closest to death I’ve ever been. I was sure it was over. Being in a gunfight on a battlefield, or space-combat in fighters, it’s not the same. To stare down a man who is about to kill you, hand to hand. Then to have someone save you from that, no-one has ever put their own life so much at risk for me before... ”
Dack rose to a sitting position on the bed. He’d always know Tylr as being a strong, silent, formidable force, rarely letting others in too much. Whatever caused them to be the person they became, had scarred them, and they had put up walls to protect. He wrapped his arms around them, and hugged.
“You never have to thank me for saving your life, you’re a part of this team, this family, and nothing will break that, or us apart.”
Tylr hugged back, Dack couldn’t tell, but he thought he could hear crying, but a second later Tylr pulled away. They looked him in the eyes and smiled, a warm smile. Then turned and left the room.
Dack lay back on the medical bed, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. He was suddenly feeling exhausted, the sedatives were taking hold now. Another breath, and he was sleeping again.
31
Vittoria, Tanner and Tylr, were travelling the distance from the StarQuake, to the Revenant in the Solstice. The ship was much cleaner, and whiter than any of the others. It had once served as a BMT, Battlefield Medical Transport, when Lyla had commanded it. A reinforced hull, and the main power focused on the shields, allowed it safer travel into heavy attack zones to picking up injured soldiers, and to evacuate them. Along with a full array of medical tech on board, and full three-man crew, it could act as a mobile hospital where needed, holding up to six wounded. Lyla had changed it since joining the Coyotes, but it still had room for three injured, and more attack power than a standard BMT.
“Docking now,” Tanner said, the comms open to the StarQuake.
“Be safe guys,” Dack said. Lyla had allowed him to set up a basic command bridge in the med bay and was monitoring the Solstice’s progress.
“We will. Have the StarQuake ready to head to the coordinates as soon as we get back.”
“Will do,” Jako confirmed.
*
The ship docked, and before long the three Coyotes found themselves in the Council Chamber once again.
Shai, Wyx and Ezik sat in the centre of the room as before.
“You have located our Vessel,” Shai said, her voice low and somber.
“We have, and if you hadn’t pulled us back, we’d be on an intercept course right now. The Syndicate have a two-day head start on us already,” Tanner could barely keep his impatience at bay.
“We understand, but there are, things, you need to know about the Vessel, things we couldn’t risk sending in a transmission,” Wyx croaked.
“We hoped you’d retrieve the cipher before the Syndicate, and thus prevent this situation entirely,” Ezik added.
“The Vessel, it contains the Omega Drive which we informed you about already. Though we didn’t tell you the full information,” Shai continued.
“The Omega Drive, isn’t just a new form of energy. As the name suggests, it is the opposite to the Alpha. An unstable and dangerous power, but when combined with the Alpha, it becomes something else,” Wyx said.
“It has the power to open up a wormhole in space,” Ezik said, “it is how we ended up in your galaxy. A malfunction in our NavSystems caused the Omega Drive to throw us light-years off course.”
“You’re telling us, that this Omega Drive, is the power to allow Interstellar travel?” Vittoria asked, “that’s… not possible?”
“It is,” Shai answered, “the opposition of the two energies allows a rip in the fabric of space. It’s a mode of travel we have been using for eons.”
“Your galaxy is so far away from ours, that it has never been explored by our kind. However, should the Syndicate get to the Omega Drive and activate it, the wormhole technology will trigger. In doing this the vessel will send a homing beacon back to our homeworlds,” Wyx continued.
“And, no offence, but your galaxy would be ripe for conquering from our species. The technology alone is of a level so far advanced from your own, that it would be like wiping out ants,” Ezik didn’t mince his words.
“So, we hid the ship when we arrived here, it was safer for your kind that our homeworlds didn’t know about your existence.”
Tanner held up a hand, pausing the speeches.
“So why did you stay? Why not head back to your worlds?”
“We wanted to help your kind, to help get you ready for meeting with the wider universe,” Shai said, her voice calming compared to Ezik’s.
“Something doesn’t add up,” Dack voiced over the comm, his voice whispering in the teams ears.
Tanner gave a subtle sound of agreement.
“So why tell us this now?” Vittoria asked.
“Because,” Travis spoke for the first time, “if the Syndicate successful get the drive active, it could mean the end of humanity as we know it. To put it basically, you need to stop them, by any means necessary,” he let the words hang in the air.
“Are we ok with this? It was one thing to get the cipher before the Syndicate, it’s a
nother to take them out. We could be up against the entire Syndicate army here.” Dack said.
“And if we don’t, we could have an entire alien force invade the galaxy, and we could have stopped it,” Lyla added, saying what the others were thinking.
“What, erm, choice do we have?” Jako finished, knowing that the others on the Revenant couldn’t speak without revealing the fact they had open comms.
“We need to vote on this,” Dack said, “All in agreement, or we don’t do it,”
“Aye from me,” Lyla said.
“Erm, Aye,”
“Aye,” Dack finished the StarQuake teams voting, “Over to you guys.”
Tanner glanced over at Tylr and Lyla, after a moment they both nodded. Tanner closed his eyes.
“Ok,” he said to the Council, “we’ll be your guns for hire. But our price just doubled. If we’re risking our lives for the galaxy, it needs to be worth our while.”
The Council exchanged glances, but with little time they agreed. It had been an expected request.
“Agreed, godspeed to you all,” Travis said, disbanding the court.
*
The journey back the StarQuake was quiet, the three contemplating what the mission could now entail. If the Omega Drive was as powerful as they’d been told, and the Syndicate knew it, then they’d have as much firepower as they could muster heading to the Vessel in preparation. The Coyotes needed to make up the last days' worth of travel too, it would push the Alpha engines to maximum.
*
In the Spire of the Council Embassy, Shai stood staring out into space, the Solar Assembly forces were amassing, preparing for the worst. She waved a hand over a small comms unit and a hologram appeared of the Prime Leader.
“What news?” Shai asked.
“We are close, our initial forces should arrive within three cycles,” he replied.
“Excellent, don’t forget, once there you need to get the Omega drive engaged so it can charge up. The Coyotes will be there soon, you need to have it ready before they arrive. The Council has authorised them to kill if needs be, make sure that doesn’t happen!”
“Understood, are you prepared for the return?”
“Soon, just be ready.”
32
The StarQuake entered the orbit of Jixon, a small moon orbiting an outer ring planet.
“This is the place?” Tanner asked.
“From the, erm, cipher we got from Oswell and the coded book from the Endlings, this is the, erm, place,” Jako confirmed.
The moon wasn’t anything special, just a mess of rocky canyons, created from eons of debris colliding with it. There were no other ships in orbit.
They had travelled, at full speed, towards the moon as soon as the Solstice had docked, and despite their planning for a stealthy arrival, it had been for nothing.
“Where’s the Syndicate?” Lyla asked, checking every scanner she could find.
“Unless we’re too late?” Vittoria asked.
“We’d have seen a report by now if they had activated the Omega Drive,” Tanner said, “it would have been picked up on one of the SA’s radars.”
They all peered out at the lifeless moon, wondering what they were missing.
“Hey Jako, have we checked the density of the moon?” Dack asked, he was mostly healed now, though his wrist was still bandaged.
“Erm, I have, it has a solid exterior, with a few empty hollows, the centre isn’t showing on scans,” came the reply.
“Any access to those spaces?”
“Erm, only one, but we’re talking the size of a person, not a, erm, ship.”
Tanner and Dack exchanged glances.
“The rock would interfere with any scans for other materials inside the moon, wouldn't it?” Tanner asked to anyone that had the answer.
“Technically yes,” Vittoria said, “depending on the minerals in the rock.”
“Who fancies suiting up for an EVA? I hear the open space is delightful this time of year,” Dack asked.
“Four in?” Tanner asked.
“I’ll go,” Tylr said.
“If the Endling ship is down there, I am not missing seeing that,” Vittoria said.
“Vittoria, how's that hand coming along?” Dack asked, “I’d love to be part of the away team.”
“Sounds ideal for a trial run?” Vittoria smiled back.
“Any objections Jako? Lyla?” Tanner asked, making sure they weren’t also wanting to go.
“I’ll stay, in case you guys need some medical support when you get back, Ah can’t say visiting an alien spaceship without medical decontamination sounds ideal…” Lyla replied.
“I’m, erm, ok up here. I can monitor for any, erm, signs of Syndicate activity,” Jako said.
“Then it’s agreed,” Tanner said, “and Lyla, if we come down with any Alien flu, you have authorisation to put us in containment until we know we’re clear.”
“Excellent, I’ll prep Solstice as a containment ship if it comes to that, y’all can stay in there,” she answered.
“Ok, we’ll take the Bullet Rose and dock back into the Solstice on return. Dack and Vit, go grab a hand. Tylr let’s sort out the best weapons to take down to the surface.”
The team scattered.
Dack sat on the corner of the bed in the med lab, Lyla and Vittoria stood either side of him.
“So, it’s not the most pretty of hands, aesthetics aren’t really my style,” Vittoria apologised before she’d even got the hand out of its box.
“It should connect pretty easily, but it means some small injections into the end of your arm,” Lyla added.
“Just do it,” Dack was torn between nerves and excitement.
Vittoria pulled a box out from under the bed and lifted out the mechanical hand.
It was a perfect match in size to Dack’s other, real hand. However, it was coloured a dark bronze, with lighter highlights.
“So, it has the exact articulation of a real hand, so you shouldn't feel any restrictions, though be warned it will take some adjustment time and don't be afraid of breaking it, it’s pretty durable.”
“It looks beautiful,” Dack admired it.
“That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a fine specimen,” Vittoria deflected the compliment.
“Are y’ready?” Lyla asked.
“As much as I can be, I think, I hope,” Dack smiled.
“That will have to do then,” Vittoria laughed.
She pushed the base of the hand up to the end of Dack’s forearm, metal claws clasped to the skin as it fused. Within seconds he was moving the fingers on the hand, though it took him some concentration to achieve it.
“Over time, it’ll become natural,” Vittoria said, “the neural links need to establish and will become stronger.”
“It’s amazing,” Dack said, barely able to suppress his grin, “thank you both.”
Back on the Bullet Rose, Tanner was completing his final checks to prepare for take off. The moon wasn’t far from the StarQuake, but they could have a shorter EVA by getting the Bullet closer first.
Behind him Tylr entered, they were holding several rifles and an assortment of other devices.
“One Ion Rifle each, three grenades, and two directional explosives in case we need to breach,” they said, placing the items on the floor. The Bullet Rose only had a small cargo space in its centre, which also housed four seats along its side, taking its capacity to six when fully manned.
“Sounds good to me,” Tanner replied, casting an eye over the weaponry.
Dack and Vittoria arrived, Dack waving his new hand.
“Can I lend a hand?” He grinned.
“Looking good,” Tylr put their hand out and took Dack’s, examining it.
“Let’s get this road trip started,” Vittoria said once they’d finishing admiring her handiwork.
Within the hour, the Bullet Rose was in a geosynchronous orbit of the moon, hovering above the small opening. The four Coyotes stood in the airlock doors,
suited up in their EVA suits.
“Comms check,” Dack said.
A chorus of ‘checks’ went round the room.
“All right then,” Dack punched the red ‘evac’ button on the wall and the hiss of the airlock door slide open, revealing the open vastness of space. The moon was twenty metres to the side, the opening visible.
“Tanner, after you,” Dack bowed and offered Tanner the lead.
“Thanks,” Tanner took a small step to the lip of the ship's door, then pushed off into space. He drifted, like a leaf on the wind, using small propulsion jets on either side of the suit, which Jako had designed, to fine-tuned his direction.
He touched down on the asteroid’s surface, turned and gave a thumbs up to others.
“Nice and easy guys.”
Tylr went next, landing next to Tanner. Vittoria moved to the edge.
“Been a while since I’ve done one of these,” she said, double checking her propulsions.
“You’ll be fine Vit,” Dack patted her shoulder.
She took a step forwards and began the journey to the asteroid.
A flash of light appears to their right, far from the asteroid but bright enough to blind them momentarily.
“Oh, shit!” Lyla shouted over the comms.
“What is it Lyla? Talk to us!”
She didn’t need to reply, they could see what had caused the lights.
In the distance, but moving fast, several Syndicate warships had arrived. Including the Royal Freighter.
“What do we do now?” Tylr asked.
“You guys head in,” Dack said, “I’ll take the Bullet Rose away and hope they’ve not seen us yet, or the StarQuake. Keep on comms and I’ll come back to get you later.”
Vittoria had just landed. Tanner grabbed her before she slipped away.
“Ok, stay safe Dack,” Tanner said, as he Tylr and Vittoria went through the passage on the asteroid.
Dack returned to the airlock and began to depressurize the ship for re-entry.
33
Jako was floating around the Azimuth consoles as fast as he could, checking all the scanners.
“Jako, what’s the numbers we’re looking it?” Dack said.
Jako pulled up to a console, then looked up and out into the space which was becoming more occupied every second.
The Omega Drive Page 11
