“We probably need to go check on Crusher,” Jason said. “What should we do with him?”
“I can heat his body to the point that not much will be gained in its study. Is that what you are worried about?”
“Yes. So much alien tech has been rained down on Earth lately it’s sure to affect the natural course of things. Let’s not add to it needlessly.” Jason activated his helmet as Lucky placed Deetz’s head gingerly in his body’s lap and stepped back. He extended both arms, and brilliant green cutting beams lanced out and impacted the dead synth. Lucky moved the beams in fast, concentric circles so they heated and melted the material of Deetz’s body rather than just cutting through it as they would if he’d left them focused on one spot for too long. Within minutes the shape of the synth’s body began to deform and sag in places as the alloys melted. After Lucky shut his cutting beams off, Deetz was nothing but a misshapen pile of slag.
Jason had recorded the entire event with his armor’s sensors. It was not to take a trophy, something he found repugnant, but to show the A’arcooni should the need arise to prove that Deetz was gone forever. He reached out and touched Lucky’s shoulder through the heavy smoke and pointed back the way they’d come. His friend only nodded and turned to follow him. Jason began to run as fast as he could manage, now worried about what he would find when he reached Crusher.
*****
“It’s over,” Crusher growled. “This can’t go on any longer.”
“I will go until I can no longer draw breath, Galvetic slime,” the Korkaran hissed as he dragged himself away to try to put space between the two of them. His foot was at an impossible angle and the bones of his lower leg were showing through his tough skin. The break was especially bad since his species’ bones were fibrous, and the break resulted in dozens of needlelike protrusions ripping though his calf muscle on the way out. The pain must have been unbearable, but he wouldn’t quit.
Crusher had lost a lot of blood, and the Korkaran’s venom was beginning to make his vision blur and become unfocused. The tendons in his right elbow were likely torn so he had lost the use of that arm as an effective weapon. He knew he should just walk over and pick up one of the rifles and blow the lizard’s head off, but he’d be damned if he was the one who broke the rules they’d set at the beginning of combat.
Sighing, Crusher hobbled towards his crippled opponent and planted a boot into his chest, sending him sprawling on his back. When the Korkaran tried to lunge up, his previously ravaged abdomen wouldn’t support him and he fell back to the pavement in agony, his head tilting up as he did so. Crusher didn’t waste the opportunity and slashed hard with his left hand, ripping his claws through the comparatively tender skin of the alien’s throat. He jumped back as the Korkaran started thrashing and grabbed at his throat, trying futilely to staunch the blood that streamed out of the wound.
“I see you remain undefeated,” Jason said as he and Lucky climbed down to the parade ground from the lighthouse. Crusher looked over and took the pair in, raising an eyebrow at the scorching marks all over Lucky’s armor plates.
“Deetz?”
“Dead,” Lucky said simply. Crusher just nodded at that.
“Let’s get out of here,” Jason said. “Doc, come pick us up at the same place you dropped us off. Use the transit beam this time.”
“Not a moment too soon,” Doc’s voice came back over the com. “Your military is getting increasingly aggressive and it’s hard to keep that many aircraft from approaching your position.” Jason didn’t answer as he stood there looking out over the bay with his friends. He could see two Apache attack helicopters standing off out over the water, no doubt observing them with their long-range optics.
Within moments, the Phoenix flew over Alcatraz Island in a tight circle, coming to a hover over the parade ground and activating the transit beam. Jason let his friends go first and took one last look around at the carnage before stepping into the beam himself and riding it into the cargo bay.
“We’re in, Doc,” Jason called over the intercom. “Incinerate the Korkaran bodies on the pavement below and then get us into orbit as fast as you can. Don’t run into anything, there’s a lot of junk up there.”
After razing the ground below with a pair of powerful lasers, the Phoenix swung her nose towards the sky and shot up into the darkening sky. Minutes later the U.S. military flooded the island with troops who fast-roped out of Blackhawk helicopters and began canvassing the entire island.
Chapter 17
“You’re too close! Go further down, that’s why I can’t catch anything,” Crusher yelled at Twingo.
“That has nothing to do with it! What the hell do you know anyway?” came the indignant reply. Taryn stood on the porch and laughed to herself, the visual being almost too much for her to bear. She was leaning against the railing of the remote cabin in the Alaskan wilderness, watching two aliens try their hand at fly fishing in the stream that ran in front of it.
“Do you think it’s the fishing, or the arguing that they enjoy?” Kellea asked her as she approached from behind with a steaming mug in her hand.
“It’s impossible to say,” Taryn laughed. The two women stood in silence and watched a bit longer before turning to sit in a pair of the hand-crafted chairs that littered the porch.
After the incident at Alcatraz Island and the global destruction wrought by Deetz, and to a lesser degree Omega Force during the pursuit, the crew of the Phoenix had retreated to the space between Jupiter and Saturn and waited for the Diligent to arrive.
Crusher had been rushed into the infirmary where Doc began to treat him for a host of injuries, all the while remarking that he didn’t understand how the Galvetic warrior was still alive, much less standing. Twingo had taken Lucky to Engineering and was able to clean him up enough to see that all the damage he’d sustained had been mostly superficial.
Jason allowed the nanobots in his bloodstream to work their magic and heal up his hip so he didn’t distract Doc from working on Crusher. More than anything, though, in the days they waited for the Diligent to arrive, they watched the news from Earth with a growing sense of dismay. After having yet another alien attack so soon after Deetz’s original invasion, the populace flew into a near panic and were demanding answers from their governments, the very people who were uniquely unqualified to help.
Footage of the Phoenix ramming Deetz’s runabout was played over and over, as was the missile shot that destroyed the ship and the boat dock on Alcatraz. Speculation ran wild as to who was flying the gunship, but the footage of Crusher standing next to an armored Jason and Lucky put to bed any rumors that it was a secret government craft. A vocal subsect of the population had now become convinced that the Phoenix was sent to protect them and had even taken to calling Jason the “Armored Angel,” a title that caused a derisive reaction out of him every time someone uttered it.
Unfortunately, the U.S. government knew the truth about the ship, or at least who was flying it. It didn’t take them long to put the pieces together when Deetz showed up broadcasting his name and picture. They also knew about Taryn and her family. Her parents were unwilling to relocate to a strange planet, and Kellea didn’t blame them, so steps were being taken to reintegrate them into Earth’s population in a way that would make them impossible to recognize. Taryn had also undergone some mild cosmetic changes. Thanks to Doc, she was now a natural brunette and had different fingerprints. Since she was still young, the changes didn’t need to be drastic to be effective.
The changes to her parents would be more significant, and they were still aboard the Diligent in the medical bay while Doc monitored their progress. With the Phoenix resting in the hangar bay, Jason had the idea to go on a fishing trip. It took some fast talking to convince Crisstof to let him take one of the small, undetectable shuttles the frigate carried, but the idea caught on like wildfire and soon Crusher, Twingo, Taryn, Kellea, and even Lucky were crammed into the tiny shuttle and heading to a remote fishing cabin in the wilds of Ala
ska. The cabin they were “borrowing” could only be reached by aircraft and then a long canoe trip, so it was unlikely anyone would be stumbling upon them. The shuttle was small enough to camouflage among the surrounding trees.
“Do you think we have a chance?” Taryn asked Kellea. The beautiful captain stiffened slightly, misunderstanding the question. “I mean humanity,” Taryn corrected. “Will things get better or are we destined to destroy ourselves?”
“You’re at a tipping point,” Kellea admitted. “It could go either way, but you’re still a long stretch away from eradicating yourselves.”
“I suppose,” Taryn said without much conviction. She had noticed Kellea’s first reaction and knew she had thought Taryn was asking about her and Jason. It proved that it was something that was very much on the captain’s mind. Although it felt like a knife twisting in her guts, she knew that she had to let Jason go. Again. He couldn’t stay on Earth, and she couldn’t run around with him in the stars. The Phoenix was no place for a civilian, and staying somewhere else, waiting on him, the only human for thousands of lightyears in any direction wouldn’t work either. It wasn’t fair. She felt like she had just gotten a second chance to make things right and it was being ripped away from her.
She blinked back the tears quickly and took a drink of her own coffee. Kellea pretended not to notice.
“It’s time to go,” Jason said quietly as he walked out onto the porch, his com unit in his hand. “Your parents are ready and the Diligent needs to get moving.” The sadness etched on his face broke her heart, but Taryn knew that ultimately it was for the best. Jason went down to collect the rest of his crew out of the stream while Taryn and Kellea tried to make it look like they’d never been there.
Thirty minutes later the small shuttle was cruising up towards the Arctic Circle; then Jason pitched the nose up and escaped the Earth’s atmosphere.
*****
Under the cover of darkness the Phoenix ghosted to a quiet landing in a field in the Pacific Northwest. Taryn, Ed, and Jess were all standing expectantly near the pressure doors when Jason made his way to the cargo bay. Inside the bay was a mid-sized SUV that seemed to be ubiquitous on American roads. Jason walked over and opened the ship up, watching as Twingo started the vehicle and drove it down the ramp and onto the dirt service road that ran through the field.
Ed and Jess stood, holding hands and smiling. They looked twenty years younger after Doc’s treatments and seemed to be looking forward to the new lease on life. Kage approached them with all four of his hands full of papers.
“Okay,” he began, “here’s your back stories that I was able to insert into all the applicable databases. Here are your new IDs, birth certificates, and other documents that may come in handy.” As he spoke he was shuffling papers and packages into their hands without waiting to see if they understood what they were for. “This is a lottery ticket that will win a modest jackpot in three weeks’ time,” he went on, handing them a slip of paper.
“How modest?” Ed asked.
“One hundred and ninety million dollars.” Kage pressed ahead as Jess made choking sounds. “The vehicle is registered to you, but I’d ditch it soon anyway. Other than that, it looks like you’re all set to start your new lives. Any questions for me? No? Okay then, it was nice to meet you.” Kage stepped back as Jason walked over to the pair.
“Jason, I can never thank you enough for what you’ve done. Not just for us, but for everybody,” Ed said as he held his hand out. “I know we’ve had our differences, but I want you to know how proud I am of you and what you’re doing.”
“Thanks Ed, I appreciate that,” Jason said as he shook the proffered hand. Jess wasn’t as dignified as she burst into barely controlled sobs and grabbed Jason by the neck, pulling him into a crushing embrace. After a moment she’d calmed enough to let him go, but still wasn’t able to speak. Jason just nodded his head that he understood. After they’d given Twingo back their translator devices, they walked off the ship and went to wait in the car.
Taryn, who had been standing off to the side during the exchange, walked up to the crew at that point. She hugged Kage, Lucky, and Doc, saying something to each of them in turn. When she got to Twingo, however, her self-control failed her and she broke down. Sobbing, she reached down and hugged the blue-skinned alien as he patted her on the back and tried to hold his own tears in even as his ears laid flat against his head, a sign he was in serious distress.
She tried to compose herself as she moved on and stood in front of Crusher, who only stared down at her with his arms crossed over his chest. She crooked one finger at him, looking up demandingly. He grudgingly uncrossed his arms and bent down. She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him firmly on the cheek.
“Please keep him safe,” she whispered into his ear. Crusher straightened and nodded gravely to her, not trusting himself to speak.
“I’ll walk you out,” Jason said in a thick voice. Once at the bottom of the ramp, standing in the cool Oregon night, it was all Jason could do to not just jump into the car with them and leave it all behind. Deep down, he knew this was the last time he’d ever see her.
“You’ll write me once in a while, won’t you, spaceman?” she asked as the tears streamed steadily down her cheeks. He nodded and bent down to kiss her softly on the lips.
“I never stopped loving you, Taryn,” he said. “If you remember anything about me, remember that.” She nodded, but couldn’t speak. With one last squeeze of his hands she turned quickly and walked as fast as she could to the waiting car. Jason turned just as quickly and stomped up the ramp, not waiting to see if she looked back. He smacked the control that would close the ship back up with far more force than was necessary and turned to face the waiting group.
“I want this bird in the air in five minutes,” he said as he walked by his crew.
“You’ve got it, Captain,” Twingo said quietly.
The crew sat silently on the bridge, the hum and rumble of the Phoenix as she pushed up out of Earth’s atmosphere the only sound. They snuck glances at Jason from time to time, but his face was an unreadable mask as he stared blankly out the canopy.
Inside his heart, Jason knew he was making the only choice that was available to him, so in that sense it was the right choice. Had Deetz not crash-landed on his mountain years ago, had he not written Taryn that letter to explain why he was leaving, and had Deetz not come back and attacked Earth, he probably would have lived out his days never having reached out to her. She would have always been his one regret.
As his ship hauled herself up out of Earth’s gravity well, it seemed that the leaden weight on Jason’s heart also lifted. The siren call of that next adventure was enticing him as the sky turned black around the canopy. Knowing Taryn was safe and where she belonged left him free once more to do what he’d been called to do. He looked around at his crew. His family. Maybe he would come back one day and she would be there, maybe she wouldn’t. Hell … maybe he’d be killed on their very next mission and he would never see Earth again. Either way, it didn’t matter. What mattered was finishing what they had started. He laughed out loud, startling his crew.
“Well, boys,” he said with a grin, “I hope you enjoyed the vacation. We’re back on the job.”
Epilogue
“You sure this is a good idea?” Crusher asked Jason as Lucky walked up to join them in the cargo bay. “You saw they have a lot of weaponry hidden out of sight.”
“I did,” Jason said. “But I don’t think they’d be so dumb to try and use it.” Crusher looked unconvinced as Jason lowered the ramp and opened the pressure doors. The acrid desert air assaulted them as the trio strode down the ramp and onto the hard-packed dirt. The rear guns on each side of the cargo bay opening deployed as they moved out and away from the ship. The Phoenix hadn’t extended her landing gear and instead was hovering fifteen feet in the air, using the grav-drive.
Jason stopped and waited as a pair of humans climbed out of a tan Humvee and approac
hed them.
“I see you got our message,” an Air Force colonel with the name “Jackson” on his name tag said as he approached.
“And I see you got our answer,” Jason said, “since here you are in the beautiful Mohave desert. So what can I do for you, Colonel?”
“The President thought it might be good for us to have a face-to-face, to get a dialogue started, as it were,” Colonel Jackson began. His first lieutenant stood silently behind him. “We’d like to come to terms.”
“I’m afraid I don’t understand,” Jason said. “Terms for what?”
“Terms for you relinquishing control of this vessel to the United States government, Sergeant Burke.”
“Oh, I thought this was a serious meeting,” Jason laughed in the colonel’s face. “And it’s Captain Burke, by the way.”
“I wasn’t aware you’d gotten a commission,” the lieutenant spoke up.
“Field commission,” Jason said blandly. “CIA? NSA? You sure as hell aren’t a lieutenant, speaking out of turn in front of a full bird. Let me make this easy for you gentlemen … you’re not getting my ship. After this waste of time I’m climbing back into it and we’re flying out of here, and chances are I’ll never return.”
“Son, you seriously think you have the right to just leave with a piece of hardware like that? What about your country? Would you really turn your back on the millions of Americans that ship could protect?” the colonel asked, trying a different tactic.
“I’m not your son, Jackson,” Jason said, dropping all pretenses at humoring the officer. “By what right do you think you can take it from me? What would you do with it, Colonel? Strip her down to her base components and use the technology to usher in a utopia for all the world? Or would you use it as a bludgeon to keep all the other nations in line while not sharing any of her secrets? I’ll be perfectly clear about this: you are never getting your hands on this ship. Got it?”
Omega Force: Savage Homecoming Page 24