Garrett began to punch coordinates into his console. "The planet should make a decent shield against detection. That gunship has been broadcasting for help nonstop for the past six hours. I would guess that we have less than a day before help begins to arrive."
I replied, "Get in here and get us out. There is a full slave revolt going on right now, which should give us cover for some time. The Talisans are not good slave managers. We may not even be missed."
Garrett took the Jess out and circled back in, coming from the opposite side of Telfor. Less than an hour after our conversation, he was landing on the field beside the downed freighter.
As the hatch opened, Garrett stepped out. "Let’s get a move on. I picked up a second ship on the sensors just as I hit the atmosphere. We have fifteen minutes before they will be able to see us leaving. How many are we taking with us?"
I replied, "We have twenty here with us."
Garrett shook his head. "We can’t fit twenty on here, maybe half that, a dozen tops. It’s four days to the nearest colony that is not run by the slavers."
I turned back to the Feldons. "This ship is small. Besides myself, Jallis, Garmon, and Layda, we might be able to take six more of you with us. We will leave all the blaster rifles behind."
One of the Feldons stepped forward. "We are free to fight; you have already given us that. Take your ship and make your escape. We will remain here with our people."
The Feldon looked around and received nothing but nods in return. I wasn't sure about the Feldons before that moment. With that single decision, they had gained my full respect.
I replied. "I will do my best to return to help in any way I can. This freighter will fly if taken up slowly. With the opened hull it cannot make orbit. If you can somehow close her up, you may be able to use her to leave this planet. Good luck to all of you."
We hurried Jallis, Garmon, and Layda onto the Jess and lifted off. The flight to orbit and then out of the Telfor system went quietly. Two more Talisan gunships appeared on the sensors as we pulled away.
Jallis said, "With those gunships, it will be a slaughter. Had I been able, I would have stayed."
I replied, "You have given your people a fighting chance; that is far more than they had only a few days ago. The only way we can help now is if we have a warship. There are no warships in Omega."
I looked up at Garrett. "Perhaps we could travel to the Theta shipyards and steal a destroyer?"
Garrett laughed as he shook his head. "That would be a suicide mission. That place is locked down tight. Besides, it would take us months to get there and months to come back. I don’t think the Talisans are going to wait that long to attack."
The cockpit of the Jess was silent for several minutes.
Garrett said, "If I could get back to the original Jess, I could take on any of those gunships out there. Her armor and weapons are far superior."
I replied, "Even if we could get you through the portals to get her, you would have to fly her back and again. That would take months. Unless—"
Garrett raised an eyebrow as he turned around. "Unless?"
I thought for several more seconds before responding. "What we need is a way to get that ship back here with portal sweeps. I can’t do it, you can’t do it, but I think I know who might be able to. My maintainer, Go, has the credentials that would allow him to request portal sweeps. If we could make that ship appear as if it was supposed to be headed to this sector, he could get it out here in a matter of hours."
Garrett nodded. "I have a transponder right here that would ID the ship as an Omega ship. He would need a good cover as to why it was out in Alpha sector and why he was bringing it back."
I leaned back in my chair. "What if the ship was on a trade mission for the Governor and it broke down? Go is a maintainer; it would be legit for him to be sent out to repair it and bring it back. All we would need is the Governor’s signature. That is easily faked."
Garrett smiled. "That might just work. The portal administrators might balk a little at it, but a security station Governor’s signature would be a powerful thing. Nobody wants to get involved in the politics of it all anymore. It’s too easy to make enemies."
Our first stop was on Effica. We dropped Jallis, Garmon, and Layda at the same location we had previously left the Governor. It would have adequate accommodations and enough food to keep them alive for several weeks if not longer. After that, they would have to scavenge to survive.
After a run back to the station, Ded Williams requested docking on SS241. I stayed on the ship as he went looking for Go. Half an hour later, he returned.
Go spoke as he came onto the Jess. "I don’t know how I can help you, Mr. Williams. I am not familiar with—"
Go’s eyes lit up. "Mr. Beutcher! What? Where—"
I placed my hand on his shoulder. "Sit. We have much to discuss."
A call then came over the comm for Garrett. "You two, go back in the cabin and be silent. It’s the Governor on the comm."
We moved back out of view of Garrett’s comm camera.
Garrett spoke. "Hello, Governor. How can I be of assistance?"
The Governor smiled. "Mr. Williams, I have a new item to be shipped from Deko II to here. I am eager to take possession of this item, as it is something that I have sought for some time. I would like the package picked up and delivered here to me as soon as possible.
"And Mr. Williams, you have been one of my better captains of late. You seem different from the others, more refined, I should say. I will be hosting a dinner party tomorrow evening, and I would very much like you to bring me the item before that begins. If you have formal wear, you may attend the party and take part in the feast that will be served. Make haste, Mr. Williams; I am eager to have this item in my hands."
Garrett replied, "I will do my best, Governor. Send the coordinates and any data related to the pickup, and I will start on this immediately."
The Governor smiled, nodded, and closed the comm.
Garrett spoke. "That was odd. I haven’t seen him so excited about loot before. This must be something special."
I sat in the copilot’s chair. "The Governor’s treasure can wait. I need you to give Go everything he will need to bring the original Jess back here."
Garrett shook his head. "I have to go in the next few minutes, or we lose my being able to visit this station. I am only here because the Governor wants my services. Take those away, and they probably wouldn’t even let me dock."
I turned to Go. "What were you working on?"
Go replied. "I was working on making sure Roger wasn’t stripping my ship bare. I don’t have a new partner yet, and until I do, I need to stay close, or they will steal everything they can take off her."
I again placed my hand on Go’s shoulder. "I need you to go with Mr. Williams, here, right now. That will mean the Mabel is left for them to pick over. I know you love that ship, but the Mabel can be repaired. The missions we need you for are far and above the needs of that ship. You could be responsible for the freeing of thousands, if not millions of slaves."
Go nodded. "If you need me, Mr. Beutcher, I will do whatever you ask. My family, going back for centuries, haven’t done much of anything of worth. Maybe I can be the first to bring honor to my family name in ten generations."
I smiled. "You have already brought honor to your family name, Go. Your work ethic is tireless, and your kindness to others shows you to be a humble and admirable person. This mission is not without danger. If the Governor’s signature is questioned anywhere along the way, you will spend the rest of your life in prison, or worse yet, you will be sent back here to face the Governor."
Go stood. "I need to collect a few things. When I return, I will be ready to do whatever you ask of me."
Go departed the Jess. I wondered if I was sending a boy to do a man’s job. He was naive in so many ways, and yet he still managed to get done whatever it was he set out to do. The condition of the Mabel was evidence of that.
Whe
n Go returned, we got under way. On the ride out to Deko, we plotted out as many of the situations we could that Go might encounter. Garrett transferred the information he would need to his arm pad and talked almost endlessly about the ship and what it was capable of. Go absorbed it like a dry sponge.
When we arrived at the rendezvous point for the pickup of the Governor’s item, Go and I stayed on the Jess while Garrett stepped out to get the package. He returned shortly after, holding a steel case by a handle.
As the hatch closed, Garrett spoke. "The guy I picked that up from seemed almost paranoid to have it. He was constantly looking in every direction and seemed relieved when I took it from his hands. Whatever it is, it must be something that others want badly."
I replied, "I would say that warrants us opening it up. If it's something of tremendous value, perhaps we can gain favor by returning it to its rightful owner."
Garrett shook his head. "Not without sending the Governor into a rage. We have already seen that he is an enemy that we don’t want to have."
I looked over the case. "It has a cipher lock. I would guess the Governor has a data key to open it."
Go reached forward. "Give it to me. My father made a living getting into places that he shouldn’t have. He taught his trade to my sisters and me. I was the only boy, and he was disappointed that I didn’t want to go into the family business. I just couldn’t get myself to take things that were not mine."
Garrett smirked. "And yet here you are, doing exactly that."
Go shook his head. "No, the Governor is dirty, and I’m sure he acquired this through less-than-honorable means. It’s not stealing if it’s already stolen and your intent is to return it to the rightful owners. Believe me, I have thought about this long and hard, and there is a big difference."
Garrett sighed. "I apologize if that came across the wrong way. I was trying to be funny. I didn’t intend to impugn your character."
Go looked up as he flipped the lock. "No offense taken."
The case was opened to reveal a bright, silvery-white suit. Go held it up.
"That’s strange. Is there anything else in there with it?", I said.
Go pulled out a data store and transferred the contents to his arm pad. "It says this battle suit has been dated to two thousand years ago. It looks like it would fit a Human about my size. And it has an arm pad!"
Garrett pointed at the chest area. "Looks like this was for a woman. You know, there are all those rumors that say the Humans who started the AMP were some kind of supermen and superwomen as compared to the rest of us. If this is from back then, and if this is a battle suit for fighting, it sure doesn’t look very impressive."
Go reached back into the case. "It comes with strange gloves and these packs. Looks like they would fit on that belt."
Garrett spoke. "No helmet? What good would a battle suit be without a helmet? I’ve seen the ones the Saltons were outfitting the conscripts with. They all had hardened helmets."
I pulled at the fabric. "It’s lightweight and flexible. The material on the feet looks to be at least a little more rugged. And the feet are closed in. Go, see if that arm pad works."
Go studied the arm pad for several seconds, pressing it in different areas. "I don’t think it has power. Let’s put these packs on the belt and see what happens."
The first two packs clicked in place with no result. When the third pack snapped in place, the arm pad came to life.
Go grinned. "This is exciting!"
Garrett looked closely at the arm pad controls. "It isn’t much different than what we have today. Let’s see if it has a holo-display."
Garrett pressed the necessary buttons, and a holo-screen soon floated just above the arm pad. "Hold on, I’m going to try something."
Garrett pressed several buttons on his arm pad, and a holo-display popped to life just above his arm. Several swipes later, Garrett Rourke began to smile.
I said, "What is it?"
Garrett turned his display in my direction. "It allowed a direct link to my arm pad. I can explore everything it has from my own display. Hmm, this looks like the same Help icon we have. I wonder what we can learn from it. It looks to have a complete tutorial section."
The next four hours were spent trolling through tutorial after tutorial about the battle suit, the gloves, the packs for the belt, and the missing helmet.
I again tugged at the fabric of the suit. "Do you think the Governor knows what he's getting?"
Garrett swiped at his display. "I don’t think so. The logs say the last time this was powered up was two years shy of two thousand years ago. We are the first ones to see this since that time. Wow, I would have to say that is exciting, just as Go said."
Garrett continued, "Whoa. This says the suit can be activated, which makes the wearer not only invisible, but immune to all natural forces, so long as the power capacity of the suit is not overwhelmed. It seems that when something comes in contact with the suit, it consumes energy at a higher rate. The glove on the right has some drive mechanism that allows the wearers to power themselves around, while the glove on the left has a kinetic weapon of sorts. Says it fires tungsten pellets at half the speed of light."
Go sat back. "If this is true, that’s crazy!"
I sighed. "It means we can’t let the Governor get his hands on this. It also tells me that the Governor may be collecting artifacts, and if those artifacts are similar to this, he might be unstoppable if he decided to use them. You know, the texts that we all studied as children all mention that the AMP had its origins in this galaxy when a foe of unimaginable power was defeated in battle. We are all taught how it took a number of species grouping together to do it. They must have been armed with these suits."
Garrett spoke. "It says to make use of it, there is a bio-gel that has to be pumped into it, and the helmet has to be securely fastened. We don’t have the helmet or the bio-gel."
I released the suit and sat back in the chair. "Go, how good are you at dealing with memory stores?"
Go replied, "I know my way around. Have to when dealing with Mabel’s systems."
I nodded. "Do you think you could copy this data to your and Garrett’s arm pads?"
Go grinned. "That I can do. Here, Garrett, give me your arm pad."
Go continued, "It looks like we have about three orders of magnitude more storage than this. I can encrypt the entire thing and copy it to each of our storage units. I could also reset the operating system to a base configuration. All the tutorials and information linking this arm pad to this suit would be gone. It would just be a blank arm pad, waiting for input."
Garrett swiped at his display. "Do you think you could set this last access log date back so the next guy thinks he is the first to see this in two thousand years?"
Go nodded. "I can set that, and I can run a scrubbing algorithm on the memories so that anything that was there before will not be recoverable. The Governor will just think this is an old arm pad, and he won’t know what the gloves do either."
I spoke. "Should we risk keeping the gloves or the packs?"
Garrett shook his head. "I would bet the Governor is expecting those. Without all the tutorials and the control files we have taken, he won’t be able to make use of the gloves anyway. Without this software, it will likely just hang on the wall as part of a collection."
Garrett handed the gloves back to Go. "Put them back in there the way you found them. And check that data store to see if it has anything else hidden on it. If it’s clean, we at least know that the Governor has no way to make use of this suit. If it ends up on a wall in his collection, we will at least know where to find it if we figure out a use for it."
When the battle suit was neatly locked away, we turned our focus back to instructing Go on how to recover Garrett’s ship. A quick detour was made to Effica, where I was dropped off to be with Jallis, Garmon, and Layda. If all went well, Go would be back with the ship in three days’ time.
Chapter 12
Jallis’s
condition continued to improve; however, with a torn back muscle, the pain manifested itself in a howl whenever he attempted to move in the wrong way. The three had chosen what had previously been a lavish hotel on Effica. Many of the rooms had been raided by salvagers, but an entire floor had somehow been missed.
The food situation was less than desirable. Runs out into the city to look for food would be the priority job of the day. The cache of food that the Governor was privy to had been raided several weeks before. Garrett left me his spare blaster. Garmon and Layda had both seen salvagers landing in the city. It was almost inevitable that we would have an encounter.
As we prepared for a food search, I said, "There has to be some emergency food rations stashed around this city. Have you checked the security offices and hospitals?"
Layda replied, "All that we could locate. I think there may be other people that are still living here in the city. When the salvagers come in, they seem to destroy everything that they have no desire to take with them. We have come across only a few locations where only the food was taken; everything else was left as it had been. The salvagers don’t operate like that, so it's probably locals who remain."
Garmon spoke. "I used to work in a moderate-size factory. We made hats. We had a cafeteria for the workers so the bosses could monitor lunch breaks. This city has a number of such factories. If any have cafeteria kitchens, we may find food."
Layda replied, "I will search the city directory on the wall comm."
After several minutes of search, Layda spoke. "OK, it lists twenty-six factories with a hundred or more employees. We have two within a kilometer of this hotel."
I nodded. "We try those first and then work our way back towards here if we don’t find anything. I don’t want to leave Jallis alone any longer than we have to."
Jallis spoke. "I’ll be fine. Just go find us some food. We will have used up the rations you took from your friend’s ship by tomorrow morning."
OMEGA Guardian Page 12