“Do you want us to let you know when we have anything new?” Doc asked. Although a medical doctor, Doc had a good amount of knowledge of the synthetic race known widely as synths. He was holding a tablet computer displaying a schematic of Lucky’s power system, as well as a full readout of specs on the power requirements.
“I think I’ll just stay and sit with him for a bit,” Jason said. “I don’t have much else to do.”
The three sat in silence and watched the indicators on the instruments that were ensuring they didn’t damage Lucky’s power cells. Jason took the time to reflect back on the few years he had spent with the synth. When he had freed him, Lucky didn’t have a name, a home, or much trust in biological beings. He was almost shy and fearful around them, only coming out of his shell when he interacted with Crusher. The more time he spent as a member of Omega Force, the more he began to see the crew as his adopted family, a wholly foreign concept to him. With them he had been free to explore what it meant to be a free-thinking being, even developing a keen sense of humor along the way.
Jason knew his time could be better spent checking the Phoenix over, or making sure Kellea and Taryn weren’t in the same vicinity as each other, but Lucky had been by his side from the beginning with unflinching loyalty. The least he could do was show the same respect and be there during the delicate operation to bring him back online.
A foot twitched. Then a finger curled under. Soon, the skin around the opening began to ripple and undulate. “This is what I was waiting for,” Twingo said sharply. “Help me disconnect him, Doc.” The two worked in tandem to disengage the power transmission lines and probes from Lucky’s back even as the metallic skin began to close the hole and repair itself to seamless, burnished silver. “Let’s roll him over,” Twingo instructed the group. It seemed easier to move the battlesynth this time than it had been when he was collapsed on the floor in the Phoenix, probably because his actuators were no longer frozen up.
Once Lucky was on his back, they could see he still wasn’t awake. Other than a few involuntary twitches, he was still unresponsive. Twingo coupled up a power source to the battlesynth’s external inlet and cranked up the juice, allowing Lucky’s own internal power management subsystems to complete the recharging process.
“These are good signs,” Twingo explained to Jason. “His hard-wired subroutines are running; things like power management and skin integrity are active. But,” the engineer held a finger to emphasize his next point, “his brain is a largely unknown mechanism that could take a lot longer to reset, if it ever does.”
“Meaning what?” Jason asked, not wanting to hear it spoken aloud.
“He may never wake up from this. He was never meant to be completely powered down at any point in his life; the damage to his brain may be too severe for him to recover from. I’m holding out hope since as a battlesynth he has more redundancy built into his systems than someone like Deetz does.” Jason just stared at his friend without saying a word. He placed a hand on Lucky’s chest for a moment before turning and walking out of the shop area. Twingo watched him go before turning back to his borrowed work crew made up of Diligent crewmembers. “OK, we need to get started on the Phoenix now. There’s nothing more we can do for him at this point.”
Jason wandered the passageways of the Diligent before making his way down to the main infirmary to check on Taryn. He tried to imagine what captaining such a large ship would be like. The large open spaces, top-notch mess deck, and creature comforts would be tempting, but dealing with such a large crew would wear him down. Even though there were times the Phoenix almost couldn’t hold the six of them without nerves becoming frayed, he had trouble imagining himself living anyplace else.
That line of thought led him to something else he had been avoiding; he knew he could never return to Earth, but he didn’t know that Taryn would ever understand that. She might say something impulsive about wanting to stay with him, but having her aboard his ship was an unacceptable risk, and dropping her off at some other planet that he might never come back to seemed cruel beyond measure. In the end, he was going to have to convince her to go back to where she belonged. His throat tightened up and there was a pain in his chest as he realized that when he dropped her off he would never see her again.
When he arrived at the infirmary she had already undergone the procedure and was resting comfortably. The attendant let him in to the partitioned area she lay in and brought him a chair. He nodded his thanks and sat down to wait a bit and see if she awoke. Watching her features in repose, all the stress and fear erased, he knew he was making the right decision for them both. But a more primal, selfish part of him wanted to find a way to make it work no matter what.
He sat with her for the better part of an hour, with her giving no indication she would be waking up soon. He checked her monitors, gave her a soft kiss on the cheek, and left the infirmary to try and find something useful to do. He strode out towards the hangar deck to see what the status of his ship was. The setback they had suffered likely meant Deetz had slipped away again, and they were back where they started with no clues and no ideas.
The first thing he noticed when he opened the hatch to the hangar deck was that it was unusually busy. He also noticed that his ship was missing. The berth the Phoenix should have been occupying was being scrubbed clean by some maintenance bots. After staring dumbly for a moment, he spun and went back through the hatch, walking quickly through the maze of passageways and stairwells that would take him to the bridge.
The bridge of the Diligent was located at the top of the super-structure and overlooked the flight operations deck, which was on the upper hull. The classic design reminded Jason of a large ocean-going cargo ship from Earth. The entrance to the bridge was also guarded by two serious-looking beings with equally serious-looking sidearms. There had been more than a couple of altercations between the two crews from time to time, so the pair eyed Jason apprehensively when he approached.
“Permission to enter the bridge,” Jason stated, stopping before the pair.
“We have standing orders to allow you entry, Captain,” the guard on the right said. “Go on ahead.”
“Thanks.” He walked on and looked out the huge floor-to-ceiling windows that made up the forward bulkhead of the bridge. “I’m looking for a wayward gunship,” he announced to the officer of the watch. “You haven’t seen one, have you?” The officer smiled at him and pointed out the window before she turned and went about her duties. He approached the transparent material (he assumed it was some sort of alloy) and looked out over the flight deck. It was hard to miss his sleek ship as she was perched on the forward elevator. Looking at how small his ship was compared to the Diligent, he felt a little silly at wearing the title of Captain.
“Twingo and some of my engineers are ready to bring the engine core back online,” a voice said quietly behind him. “They thought it best to move it to the flight deck where we could better contain any … mishaps.” Kellea walked up to stand next to him and gaze out at the view. “That’s one tough little ship, Captain.”
“Little?” he said in a mock hurt tone. She gave him a half-smile before looking to see if any of her crew were watching. They seemed to be making a concerted effort to ignore them as they stood together. Rumors had been floating around for months, but they respected their captain enough to not simply stare.
“So … how is Taryn faring though all of this?” Kellea forced the name out through slightly clenched teeth, causing Jason to cringe inwardly. He and Captain Colleren had become close over the last year but each had a natural aloofness that had made it slow going. So why do I feel like I got caught doing something wrong?
“She’s overwhelmed, much like I was when I first discovered all of this,” he said neutrally. “The attack on Earth along with finding out what I’ve been doing the last few years has been a bit of a shock to her system.”
“I can imagine,” Kellea answered noncommittally. “So what are her plans after all of this is
over?”
“I couldn’t say, really. I assume she’ll return to Earth with her parents and try to rebuild some sort of life for herself,” Jason said. “The hell of it is, she didn’t ask for any of this. Deetz flashed her picture all over the airwaves back home and has made it impossible for her to return to her old life.” Kellea was quiet for a moment after that.
“That’s a difficult position to be in,” she said with genuine sympathy. They looked out the window and fell into a comfortable silence as the engines of the Phoenix’s grav-drive began to pulsate with a blue glow that increased in intensity.
“I guess Twingo got the core restarted,” Jason said with some relief. “It’ll probably take him another few hours to get everything aligned and calibrated. I’ll let you get back to work. Thanks for the talk.”
Kellea raised a hand as if to reach out and touch his arm and then stopped herself short. “Anytime,” she said as she spun and walked back to one of the stations that lined the aft bulkhead. Jason strode off the bridge, ignoring the looks her crew gave him, and made his way back to the infirmary to see if Taryn had stirred yet.
“Hi!” Taryn was disgustingly chipper after the implant procedure. Jason looked at her skeptically.
“How do you feel?”
“Honestly, great! I’ve been chatting with the staff here, this thing is great.”
“So no headache or general shitty feeling?”
“Nope.”
“So was she an especially easy install or something?” Jason asked the med tech as she walked in to begin unhooking Taryn from the monitoring machines.
“Not especially so, why do you ask, Captain?” The tech seemed genuinely confused.
“I thought everyone felt horrible after getting the primary neural implant put in,” he said, a suspicion growing within him.
“I’d not heard that. It’s usually a pleasant experience if the proper drugs are administered. Will there be anything else?”
“No,” Jason said with a forced smile. “Thank you.”
“What was that all about?” Taryn asked.
“Oh nothing,” Jason said, recalling his own horrific experience of getting his implants installed. “I just need to remember to beat the shit out of Doc when I see him again.”
They went straight to the mess deck and grabbed something to eat before heading back to the engineering shop to check on Lucky. Doc was still there fiddling with some instruments and passive probes he had attached to Lucky’s head, but other than that there was no change in the battlesynth’s condition. His eyes seemed to flit about randomly, but that might have been due to Doc’s sensors.
“Twingo almost has the main drive back up,” Jason informed Doc. “We’ll be leaving shortly.”
“What are we going to do with him?” Doc asked, gesturing towards Lucky.
“We’re taking him. We’re basically just waiting to see if he’ll wake up on his own. He can do that on the Phoenix just as well,” Jason said. Doc only nodded.
“Where’s Crusher been?” Taryn asked, looking around.
“This ship has extensive training facilities,” Jason said. “He’s been burning off some frustration there. I just hope there haven’t been any incidents.”
With the help of some passersby, they managed to transfer Lucky onto another hover cart and strap him down for his trip back to the Phoenix. Just as Jason was about to suggest they go round up the rest of the crew, the intercom came to life. “Crew of the gunship-class vessel, Phoenix, please report to the hangar deck. Again, Phoenix crew members to the hangar deck.”
“I guess that’s our cue,” Jason said. “Let’s go ahead and bring him with us.” Together the three moved the prostrate synth out of the workshop and down the wide service corridors towards the hangar deck.
They were out of the hatch and milling about when a loud klaxon sounded three sharp blasts and the forward elevator began to lower the Phoenix back into the ship. Jason smiled as his ship looked alive again, hissing in the sudden temperature change with her marker lights blinking slowly. Once the elevator stopped, the ship taxied backwards off the platform and stopped in the middle of the deck, lowering the ramp to the cargo bay. Jason nudged his team into action and they began to push the cart towards the gunship as half a dozen of the Diligent’s engineering crew piled out of the ship, dragging pieces of equipment with them.
“New record on a core restart,” Twingo boasted from the top of the ramp. “It’s mostly those new engines you extorted out of the Eshquarians though, they charge three times as fast as the Jepsen emitters. How is he?”
“No change,” Doc said. “We’re going to strap him down in Engineering and continue to monitor him.” Twingo just nodded and led the way back into the ship. They were in the middle of transferring Lucky off the cart when a sweaty Crusher made his appearance and lent his strength to move his friend.
“Kage,” Jason said. “Go pull our sensor logs from the last encounter with the A’arcooni ship and give it to the Diligent’s operations officer. I want them to start analyzing it. Everybody else; let’s get this thing ready to fly. I want to be back on track within a couple of hours.”
“On it,” the small Veran said, being no real help in man-handling the heavy synth off the cart. They got Lucky up and strapped down on one of the benches in the engineering bay and continued the power feed. After a moment of quiet reflection they began to filter out of the bay, leaving Twingo to finish up the details. Crusher headed to berthing to get cleaned up, and the rest went back through the cargo bay to meet the growing contingent at the bottom of the ramp. Crisstof and Kellea were there, as were Taryn’s parents.
“We’re about ready to depart,” Jason told them. “Kage is sending you our sensor logs; hopefully you’ll be able to find something useful in them.”
“Where are you heading next?” Crisstof asked.
“The source of the second signal we were tracking before we were knocked out. It’s a populated world so there may be some reason Deetz was there,” Jason told him.
“You’re certain it was Deetz on the other side of the transmission?” Kellea asked. “It may have just been the other ship.”
“True, but it’s all I have and I don’t think Deetz will be too far out of the area. That ship was waiting for us, and if you hadn’t been there the Phoenix would likely have been destroyed, or on its way back to him this very moment.”
“I think it’s time we talk about something,” Taryn interjected suddenly. Jason got a panicked look in his eyes for a moment before realizing she wasn’t talking about Kellea. “I’m not staying here.”
“You most certainly are. You stowed away the first—”
“This is not a debate,” Taryn said with iron in her voice as she reiterated her original argument. “I’m just as vested in this as you are and I have a right to be here.”
“What right do you have to be aboard my ship—”
Jason was cut off as Taryn simply walked by him and went up the ramp, making it obvious that the only way she was coming back off the Phoenix was by physical coercion. He could feel his crew holding in their laughter even as Crisstof pretended to be fascinated by the marker light on the starboard wing. Even Kellea seemed to be trying very hard to hide the smirk on her face.
“So … we’ll be leaving now I guess,” he said helplessly. He gathered up the tattered remains of his dignity and turned to walk back up the ramp. Once up on the bridge, he busied himself preparing for departure and fighting down the urge to call Taryn’s bluff, grab her, and deposit her in restraints back on the Diligent’s hangar deck. He keyed the intercom. “Prepare the Phoenix for departure; everyone to your post.” It wasn’t long before Kage and Doc walked onto the bridge followed by Taryn and Crusher. Twingo remained in Engineering to monitor the core as well as keep an eye on Lucky. The fact that the battlesynth remained catatonic was a great weight on Jason’s heart, but he put it aside and focused on the task of tracking Deetz down and eliminating him before he could cause any mor
e trouble.
“We’re cleared to depart,” Kage said, looking up from his display. “Taxi onto the forward elevator.”
Jason thumbed the taxi-control forward to creep the big gunship back onto the platform. He set the brakes and waited as, with a lurch, they began to rise up to the flight deck. He always loved the moment they emerged from the larger ship and the universe was spread out before him, inviting him.
“Phoenix, you are clear to engage primary flight systems and depart at your discretion. Happy hunting.” Instead of the Diligent’s operations officer sending them off, it was Captain Colleren herself. Jason just shook his head as the main drive came online with a throbbing hum that increased in pitch until it evened out, and Twingo called up informing him they were clear to fly.
Jason inched the throttle up a smidge before disengaging the mag-locks in the landing gear, giving the Phoenix a little forward bias in relation to the flight path of the Diligent. He thrusted up gently and began to drift off lazily to starboard. After retracting the landing gear, he shoved the throttle forward and shot away from the frigate along the course Kage had provided.
“Slip-drive is available, engage at will, Captain,” Kage said from the right seat. Jason didn’t look down as he slapped the control, sending power surging though the slip-engines and causing a localized space-time distortion that allowed the Phoenix to transition into the ether of slip-space.
“Doc, tell me about the planet we’re heading towards,” Jason said as the canopy darkened.
*****
Torestellia was not a planet that was part of the Confederated Planets, nor did it wish to be. It reluctantly allowed contact with the outside world, but the population was mildly xenophobic and there was a general distrust of off-worlders. Many thought this was because Torestellia was a somewhat unique world in ConFed controlled space: its population was indigenous to the planet and was not the result of settlement or colonization. The dominant species, called twarlans, had evolved, and largely preferred to stay, on the planet.
Omega Force: Savage Homecoming Page 10