Omega force the human fa.., p.21
Omega Force: The Human Factor (OF8), page 21
“Deal,” he said finally.
Chapter 21
“I remember him,” Russ said.
“So do I,” Crusher rumbled, startling everyone standing near the dropship. After they were able to take control of the base outside of New Panama with surprisingly little bloodshed and with no reinforcements coming in from the city the team really had very little to do. The only excitement was when Jason Burke had led out a familiar man in a poor-fitting suit.
“You do?” Russ asked in English. “From when you were here before?”
“No,” Crusher said. “When the captain saved your planet the first time that snecka was pretending to be a military officer when your government tried to confiscate our ship.” Russ didn’t bother translating the comment to Marcus. There was already an underlying tension between the two crews even as they learned that they’d been lied to about Burke’s activities. Though they’d seemingly made peace, Russ didn’t blame Burke and his crew for harboring a bit of a grudge.
“What the hell is a snecka?” he asked instead.
“A small, eight-legged rodent from my homeworld,” Crusher said. “They are very sneaky and very destructive.” Russ wasn’t sure if he was being screwed with so he stayed silent. One thing he’d learned during his time as a “guest” on the Phoenix was that the crew seemed to thrive on lying, stealing from each other, and a whole creative litany of borderline dangerous pranks. He’d quickly found that Kage and Crusher were by far the least trustworthy of the six with Jason coming in a distant third.
“This is Agent Michael Welford,” Jason announced when he walked up to the group. “He’s here to give the Director of the CIA an unvarnished version of things happening here on Terranovus.”
“How’s that going?” Marcus asked Welford.
“Not as well as I’d like,” the agent admitted.
“Kage, have Doc bring her down right behind the dropships,” Jason said over the team channel.
“On our way.”
“What’s your plan?” Crusher asked.
“I think it would be helpful if he made his report,” Jason smiled to the utter confusion of everyone else.
****
“This is Martin-Two-Two requesting a high-res secure channel with Mother,” Welford said when the two-way audio channel had been established to the slip-com node address he’d provided.
“What’s your condition, Martin?”
“Alpha, Oscar, Kilo,” Welford said with a quick look to Jason.
“Stand by.”
“I don’t think I have to tell you what will happen if you screw us,” Crusher leaned in and whispered menacingly to Welford. The agent paled and looked at the up-close visage of the warrior, a slight tremble starting in his hands.
“For the last time, Crusher … they can’t understand you,” Jason rolled his eyes. Crusher’s well-meaning gesture to keep the agent honest only succeeded in terrifying the man to the point that Jason thought he might piss himself.
“Stand by,” the voice over the channel said again just before the monitor in the main conference room on the Phoenix flickered and they were looking at the haggard face of a middle-aged human sitting in what looked like the confines of a SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility.)
“Director Stiles,” Welford said. “We’ve had some developments.”
“You don’t say,” Director Richard Stiles said flatly. “Ah … the video is resolving on this end—what the fuck?!”
“Director, may I introduce—”
“Jason Burke,” Stiles finished, recovering his composure. “And the rest of his crew and a couple members of Margaret Jansen’s private team of assassins. This promises to be quite the story, Mr. Welford.”
Jason noticed the tick of Marcus Webb’s cheek when he’d been so casually referred to as an assassin.
“Yes, sir,” Welford said. “But first I feel that I need to alert you to a grave and imminent threat heading your way. We believe that Margaret Jansen is heading to Earth as we speak with a large fleet of warships that she’s constructed in secret here at Site B.”
“We’ve assumed as much when you dropped off the grid,” Stiles nodded.
“She’s also being accompanied by a sizable contingent of ships from an alien power, specifically the species that has been … mentoring … us here on this planet,” Welford said.
“My God,” Stiles leaned back in his seat.
“We don’t have enough firepower to stop her,” Jason interrupted. “She’ll have over two dozen ships when she arrives and I think we can both guess her plan. The ull, the species that’s been helping you will only go along with this for so long. If they don’t get the alien jump drive from the ship I shot down the last time I was there, I’m not sure how much longer their patience for the alliance will last.”
“What can we do?” Stiles said.
“Honestly? Nothing,” Jason said bluntly. “Alert the President and be prepared to take defensive actions with what you have … just blasting the surface from orbit will not accomplish their goals so eventually they’re going to have to land troops. When that happens you’ll have a numerical advantage.
“We’ll be working things from this end, but whatever happens please don’t start shooting nuclear missiles into the sky. Your fusion warheads won’t pack enough punch to damage a ship with modern shields, and the EMP and fallout will just come back on you.”
“So we’re screwed?” Stiles asked, sounding resigned.
“Pretty much,” Jason said. “Time isn’t on our side here. If you have to concede to their demands in order to save lives, I would suggest doing it. I’d prefer the Traveler drive and inhibitor weaponry not fall into ull hands, but I also don’t want them taking out entire countries as an object lesson. Like I said … we’ll keep working things from this end.”
“What good will that do?” Stiles laughed humorlessly. “Unless you just happen to know somebody with a fleet of warships laying around.”
“I know two, actually,” Jason said.
****
“Kage … you’re up,” Jason said after everyone had filed out of the conference room and Lucky had escorted the non-Omega Force people off the ship. “I need to know where the Defiant is.”
“That’s your big plan?” Kage asked incredulously. “Can’t you ask your princess in the Avarian Empire if her father could loan you a battlefleet or two?”
“Annada doesn’t command her father’s military,” Jason said. “And they’re too far away to make it here in time since they’d have to skirt around ConFed space. Kellea might allow me a moment to talk if we can get within sensor range of her ship.”
“Or … more likely … she’ll blow us out of the sky as soon as we mesh-in,” Kage argued.
“Just get me the information I need, then we’ll worry about the details,” Jason said. “It may turn out that her fleet is halfway back to Galvetor and won’t be any closer than an Avarian taskforce.”
“I’ll try, but that won’t be an insignificant task,” Kage said. “She’s made sure we can never repeat our little game of hacking in through their unsecure com nodes. I’ll have to try and track them down by—”
“I have faith in you,” Jason cut him off. “Consider this your highest priority.”
“Sure,” Kage shrugged and reversed his course to go back to the com room instead of onto the bridge.
Since Crisstof Dalton’s death the shakeup within his immense organization had been a shock to many, including Jason. Apparently the eldest daughter had stepped into a place of prominence within the family after the Firstson, Steader, had been killed in a scheme he’d been working on to destabilize independent planets and bring them into the ConFed’s warm embrace.
With the continued decay and rot at the core of the ConFed, the Firstdaughter, Seeladas, decided to declare the Dalton financial and commercial empire sovereign in a bold move that took many by surprise. Overnight they’d gone from being one of the most influential organizations in quadrant politics to a major power, complete with a fleet of advanced warships to put the muscle behind their declarations. So instead of being down and out, Kellea Colleren had been advanced within the organization, now a government, and given much leeway to project the influence of the Cridal Cooperative, as they were now known, and to make sure everyone knew they were serious.
The name may have sounded like a purely corporate enterprise that they’d made up by smashing their patriarch’s name together, but Jason knew how much military power Crisstof had that wasn’t necessarily widely known. The first group to step up and challenge them would be in for a very nasty surprise. He’d never met Seeladas, but from what he’d been able to glean from afar she was shrewd and ambitious. He just hoped that she also had a strong moral center. Crisstof had begun with grand ideals and Jason had no doubt that every little slip had been justified to himself along the way until the end when the poor bastard found that he was standing on the opposite side from where he started.
Jason also gave another brief thought to reaching out to Annada for help, the heir apparent to the monarchy of the Avarian Empire, but quickly dismissed it. He was still very fond of the spirited princess, but she had no real authority when it came to sending ships and their crews into potential combat. Her father, the Sovereign, had made some noise when he’d returned Annada to them safe and sound about returning the favor if he ever needed anything, but Jason recognized that for what it was: a one-time offer with an expiration date.
Even if he was so inclined—and if he didn’t have reservations about his daughter consorting with a known criminal and mercenary—Jason knew that the Avarian fleet was simply too far away. It would take a convoy three months of hard flying just to get to Terranovus. The expense would be daunting for something that was of no strategic or economic importance. The Avarian Empire might technically be a monarchy, but Jason didn’t think the Sovereign would last long if he began committing forces on such inexplicable causes.
As he walked back to his quarters, his mind wandered further and he thought that maybe Saditava Mok might have the necessary forces at his disposal to repel the ull/human invasion force. He quickly shook his head at that thought. Mok probably did have the firepower and would be willing to use it, but at what cost? The strange alien that had stepped into Bondrasss place had motivations that were all his own, and Jason had yet to guess what they might be. He seemed to have power and influence, but where that stemmed from was a mystery. Jason operated along the dividing line of the seedy underbelly of the quadrant and legitimate enterprise and he’d yet to find anything tangible Mok seemed to actually have his hands in. Besides, just repelling a single medium-sized fleet wasn’t the answer. Earth didn’t need just saving, she needed an ally.
That final though cemented his decision. It was Kellea Colleren or nothing. If he could convince her to help this time than maybe he could convince her to petition her boss on behalf of Earth and offer some sort of declared protection that would keep the ull from getting any ideas after things settled down. If he couldn’t do any of those things it looked like Earth was on its own for the time being.
Chapter 22
“We’ve lost contact with Terranovus, ma’am.”
“Again?!” Margaret wanted to throw something.
“It could be an equipment issue on their end, ma’am,” her aide said. “We still have slip-space com capability with the rest of the fleet.”
“Plausible, but doubtful,” Margaret said. “We have to assume that Burke has made his way back. If he discovers a skeleton crew and no human ships in the system he may try and push on to Earth.”
“Will that be an issue?” the captain of her flagship asked. “His one little gunboat against the entire Terranovus Starfleet?”
Margaret gave him a withering look until he turned back to the monitors that surrounded his seat. The man was intelligent and competent, but he was a born bootlicker and she feared that was going to cause problems later.
“Have the com section notify our ull liaison that we’ve lost contact with home,” she told her aide, ignoring her captain. “Ask them if they might ask the ship they left behind if there have been any developments.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
****
“You’re not going to believe this.” Kage walked into Jason’s quarters without asking or announcing himself.
“I might,” Jason ignored the breach in manners. “What’ve you got?”
“I was actually able to track them down,” Kage said proudly, holding up a tablet. “Through a press release, no less. Apparently Crisstof’s former empire is bringing another planet into the fold.”
“Which planet?” Jason continued dressing.
“Ka’am,” Kage said. “Heard of it?”
“Nope. How close is it?”
“Looks like a little under seven days without pushing our damaged engines any more than is wise,” Kage tossed the tablet on Jason’s bunk. “I already ran the numbers with Twingo.”
“Thanks.” Jason grabbed the tablet and read the details. Ka’am was a relatively insignificant planet if you looked at population and level of technology; even its location wasn’t especially helpful. But digging deeper Jason could see that the mean temperature, total landmass, and atmospheric composition were almost perfect for serious agricultural production. For a farm planet it would be quite a grab for Seeladas.
“Go ahead and start getting our departure set up. I’ll go talk to Marcus about provisions and maybe borrowing Russ Johnson for the trip,” he said. “I have one more detail to take care of and then we can be on our way.”
****
Jason left the Phoenix, made a big show of checking his armor over, and then walked back off towards the detention center. Special Agent Welford watched him curiously from where he was restrained, but said nothing. Jason didn’t look around or make eye contact with anyone, but he made sure his gait and demeanor telegraphed that he was in a hurry and that it might be something urgent.
His armor’s sensors told him that the ruse worked, so he kept on. He wasn’t at all looking forward to what was coming next. He’d rationalized it in his head over a dozen times, but it was still something that was just instinctually repugnant to him.
“So … what’re you looking for in here?” he heard Carolyn ask from behind him as he made it to the first cell. He held up a small, rectangular device with only a few buttons on it.
“What’s that?” she asked just before he pressed the red button. “Ungh!” He heard her collapse onto the floor like someone had dropped a sack of flour.
“I think you know what this is about,” he said, turning around. “Kage was not only able to dig out the details of your deal with the ull, but he was also able to backtrack the origin of your cybernetic augments. Once he sliced all the specs out of the manufacturer’s database it was fairly easy for Twingo to make this device that allows me to shut down your primary and secondary systems at will.” Jason’s voice was emotionless as he grabbed her and propped her up on the steel shelf that doubled as a bunk.
“That means that with another press of a button your autonomous systems stop and you go to sleep and never wake up,” Jason said. Her eyes were tracking him, but she was helpless to move. The augmentations she’d had done over the decades had been so invasive that they could be controlled to the point that even the parts of her that were still human were affected. “I’m going to give you back your ability to talk, and then we’re going to have a discussion about how far you’ve gone in selling us out. I truly hope that I’m going to like the answers you give me. I’m sorry to have to do it this way, but you’re too dangerous to try and take head-on without both of us getting hurt.”
“I’ll understand if you kill me,” Carolyn said after Jason had pressed another series of buttons on his device. “I’d do the same in your shoes. I’ll tell you everything, but it isn’t likely much more than you found out from the ull ship’s computer. Just promise me one thing.”
“What’s that?” Jason asked.
“Don’t tell Abiyah what happened here,” she said, a tear sliding down her cheek. “And don’t let me die like a wounded animal unable to move. Give me a clean, soldier’s death.”
****
“Doc, get us in the air and the hell off this planet,” Jason said into the intercom as the rear ramp closed and locked. The thought of what he’d just done left a hot, sour taste in his mouth and his stomach was in knots. He could intellectually justify his actions due to Carolyn’s willing betrayal and the damage she could do if directly confronted, but it gave him no solace. Reaching in with that device and controlling her body to subdue and scare her had been a violation. He could not have felt grubbier if he had physically struck her … at least then she would have been on equal footing and able to defend herself.
“Did it work?” Twingo asked as Jason was climbing down out of his armor.
“Yes.”
“Did she have anything more to say that we didn’t already know?” his friend pressed.
“No.”
“So where’s the remote?” Twingo seemed to getting irritated with Jason’s monosyllabic answers.
“I gave it to her with the promise that we would destroy all knowledge of the remote coding here and that Kage would erase it off the manufacturer’s database,” Jason said as he stripped off the base layers.
“Wait, what!?” Twingo said sharply. “You left her alive?”
“Yes, I did,” Jason turned to face the engineer. “She didn’t deserve to die for taking the job. She came clean when she realized what was at stake and she’s risked as much as we—”
“She tried to kill you with a bomb!” Twingo argued.
“Oh, that … actually she didn’t,” Jason said. “She planted the mine on her own ship as a precaution. It’s part of her SOP when she’s on a hostile planet. It was proximity detonated. When that ull grabbed her and took off in its shuttle the hold signal was lost and it went off.”
