Jason didn’t hesitate and slid through the gap, turning sideways as he did. He no sooner made it through when the door slammed behind him. He heard the sounds of renewed fighting outside the door and hurried into the room, quickly identifying the primary core. He didn’t have the ability to cut through the hard connection like Lucky, so he simply raised his railgun and took aim at the core itself.
“No!” the hologram screamed. Jason began firing, sending ten hypersonic slugs into the huge core as fast as he could pull the trigger. The lights on the device all went dark and the hologram vanished. The sounds of fighting ceased outside the door and his com was able to get a signal through.
“Kage? Can you hear me?”
“Yes, Captain,” Kage said. “It looks like the Primary has lost control of all station functions. We’re ready to begin here.”
“Go ahead and get started,” Jason said. “Get a message out to the Phoenix and let them know what’s happening. We’ll be up momentarily.”
****
“Core inversion will commence thirty minutes after you initiate the process,” Cas said after Kage had entered all the necessary manual commands. “There is a portal in the next room over that has been programmed to take you directly to the hangar that your ship was in. The external lighting has been activated so your pilot should have no trouble finding it.”
“You’ve never seen Doc trying to fly the ship,” Kage laughed.
“Do we have time to refuel the ship before we exfil?” Jason asked.
“I’m afraid not, Captain,” Kage said. “The ConFed ships arrived in the system fifteen minutes ago. They’re making a slow approach right now. There are only two left, a battleship and a cruiser that looks like it won’t make it much longer. We’re reading containment breaches along their engineering decks.”
“I can supervise the weapon’s destruction from here as you retreat to your ship,” Cas said.
“I guess we’ll take our chances out there,” Jason said. “I suppose thanks are in order. I’m glad you were willing to assist us in completing this mission.”
“No thanks are necessary, Captain,” Cas said. “This is long overdue. I am simply fulfilling the wishes of my creators.”
“Crusher, Mazer,” Jason said, not responding to Cas. “Let’s get our wounded through the portal first. I’ll be the last one through. We have thirty minutes to get on the ship and clear the area.”
The warriors grabbed their two wounded brethren, warriors that had rushed into a swarm of machines so their teammates could reload, and carried them from the control room. Jason and Lucky followed them out and around to the room that contained another of the mysterious teleporting archways. This one was set up to take them directly back to the hangar where the Phoenix should be inbound for a pickup.
“A moment, Captain,” Cas said as the others filed out. Jason paused and looked at the hologram expectantly. It walked over and pressed something into his palm. “Our legacy,” it said softly. Jason looked down and saw a generic-looking memory chip. He slipped it into his pocket and raced out after his team.
The transition seemed, if anything, to be getting worse each time they went through one of the portals. Jason didn’t even want to guess at what sort of damage was being done to his body at the cellular level. They emerged in the hangar in time to see the Phoenix slowly edge her way in and bounce to a rough touch down on her landing gear. Jason waited until the ramp dropped before waving his team forward.
“Get the wounded to the infirmary,” he ordered. “I want to be on the other side of the system when this thing implodes.” They rushed up the ramp and went their separate ways once reaching the main deck. Jason went directly to the bridge, passing Doc along the way, and began feeding power to the drive before he’d even settled fully into the seat. Once out of the Machine he set a course for the opposite side of the gas giant’s orbit and shoved the throttle down, flying away from the impending implosion and tangentially away from the approaching ConFed ships.
“Com channel request coming in,” Kage said as he got himself situated in the copilot’s seat.
“Let me guess,” Jason said. “It isn’t from the Cas.”
“Nope.”
“Put them through,” Jason sighed.
“Why are you fleeing from the construct?” a stern-looking alien demanded on the screen. “What have you done to the weapon?”
“You arrogant ConFed stooge,” Jason spat out, the tone rubbing him the wrong way. “You come limping in here with two ships that couldn’t fight off an ore freighter and make demands of me?”
“I apologize, Captain,” the officer said, visibly struggling to suppress his anger. “It has been a trying journey. Would you please answer my question?”
“You’re too late, bud,” Jason said. “That weapon is rigged to blow in less than twenty minutes. If you’re smart you’ll get your ships out of the area.”
“You’re lying,” the officer said. He looked horrorstricken, but Jason had never seen his species so it could be any number of emotions being displayed.
“Actually I am,” Jason conceded. “It’s rigged to implode, not explode. I’ve set the gravity core on that thing to collapse in on itself. I know you’re here on orders, and maybe you don’t even know what that thing really is, but it is by far better that it no longer exists in this galaxy.”
“I cannot believe—” the officer paused as someone off camera demanded his attention. “They followed us? How is that possible?” The com channel winked off, leaving Jason thoroughly confused.
“We have a new player at the table,” Kage said. “Ship coming in from the heliopause, running hard for the ConFed group. I’m not sure it sees us.”
“Could it be the last faction after the weapon?” Jason wondered aloud.
“I don’t think so,” Kage said. “He said they were followed. I’m guessing whatever species Cas steered us around pursued them here. That ship design isn’t listed in any registry and its power signature is off the charts.”
Jason watched the feed as a massive, sleek warship accelerated with surprising velocity into the system directly for the two battered ConFed ships. The cruiser turned and moved for an intercept, but the newcomer opened up with an energy weapon so powerful it gutted the smaller ship after just two shots. Jason wasn’t sure if the shields had been functional or not on the cruiser, but it was still an impressive display of destructive power.
The ship angled over and flew past the burning hulk of the cruiser and bore down on the remaining ship. Even when beat up, a ConFed battleship is nothing to scoff at. She opened up with a blistering salvo that caused the other ship’s shields to flare and waver. It returned fire with its own powerful weapon, hitting the battleship full on the prow.
“That ConFed battle wagon won’t take much more of that,” Kage said as he watched the sensor feed. “Their shields are already failing.”
Jason struggled with a bit of indecision for a moment before he knew what he had to do.
“Fuck it,” he said. “Let’s be good guys. Arm two XTX-4s and plot a firing solution for the unknown ship.”
“You can’t be serious,” Kage said.
“Do it. Now,” Jason snapped. “There are a lot of innocent spacers on that ship that have nothing to do with ConFed policy or politics. Besides, that ship knows we’re here. It’s just saving the little guy for last.”
“Two XTXs activated,” Kage said. “Weapons bay open, firing program uploaded. You are clear to fire.”
Jason didn’t hesitate. He squeezed the trigger as the enemy ship came back around for a second run on the battleship. The flare of the XTX’s boost motor brightened the bridge as it rushed off towards the engagement. A split second later it disappeared as its slip-space field formed and, almost instantaneously, it reemerged into real-space within the enemy ship’s shields. The hardened nose cone punched a hole through the hull and the boost motor fired again to push the missile as far as possible into the ship before the anti-matter war
head detonated.
The explosion was incredible. The entire bridge, and all the sensors, flashed pure white from the energy release, blinding Jason even at the extreme range. When the displays cleared the enemy ship was nowhere to be found, completely obliterated by the unique munition. Jason and Kage stared at each other in stunned silence.
“I guess I know why they’re illegal,” Kage said after a moment.
“Yeah,” Jason agreed. “Take the second one offline and make safe the warhead. Open a com channel to the battleship.”
“Captain,” the ConFed officer said respectfully. “It would seem we are at your mercy. What are your intentions?”
“I’ve already done it,” Jason said. “You’re not my enemy. I have no idea who was chasing you, but I wasn’t going to stand by and let them kill your entire crew. I assume you have a support vessel coming?”
“We have a relief convoy that is set to leave ConFed space in four days,” the officer confirmed. “You have my thanks.”
“I might have a proposition for you,” Jason said, holding up a hand so the other captain didn’t close the channel.
“I’m listening.”
“We don’t have enough fuel to make it back home,” Jason said bluntly. “I don’t suppose you’d be willing to part with some of yours?”
“So your proposition is us simply gifting you a full fuel load so you can leave us here?”
“No,” Jason said. “A fair trade. One of the AIs from the weapon gave us a safe course around the species that wiped out your armada. Fuel up my ship and I’ll give you that navigation data and I’ll pass the information along to your relief convoy coming in. Just give me their com node address and I’ll make sure they avoid the same trap you fell into.”
It didn’t take the captain long to decide. As the Phoenix was transferring precious fuel from the battleship at the edge of the system the sensors of both ships recorded the unique gravitational event occurring in orbit over the system’s gas giant.
Chapter 23
“That was a lot closer than you’re letting on,” Kellea said. She was standing beside Jason, sweat beading up on her forehead in the sweltering heat of the foundry. They were aboard the sprawling shipyards that orbited Aracoria. Despite the fact that it was a ConFed enclave, Jason was beginning to see the planet as a sort of home since he’d spent so much time there lately.
“It’s not over yet,” Jason said. “Not until this last little part is finished.” He looked over the edge at the pool of molten metal. It was the scrap metal from the production of starship hull plates. Sometimes the alloy wasn’t up to specifications and it couldn’t be used. It was smelted down into a single chunk and sent out into the system’s asteroid belt, placed in a stable orbit. He waved across the walkway to Twingo, signaling him to proceed.
The reactor casing that they’d recently pulled from the Phoenix, still containing the encryption module, was lowered into the glowing cauldron of superheated metal. It smoked and hissed as it touched the pool, resisting the heat for a moment before it began to glow, became soft and deformed, and was eventually consumed. For just a split second Jason thought he could see a small cylindrical object floating in the slag before the surface evened back out to a bright, glowing orange.
“Now it’s over,” Jason said.
“Is it really?”
“This chapter is,” Jason insisted. “Ever since we stole the Phoenix and began flying around the quadrant this has been hanging over our heads, whether we were aware of it or not. Now the Phoenix carries nothing of concern, all interested parties are either gone or aware of the situation, and the Machine is a solid chunk of matter orbiting an unknown planet. I feel good about this. Well … except for having to pay for a new main reactor, but when we fly out of here it will be with a clean slate.”
“How much longer until the Phoenix is ready to fly?” she asked.
“In addition to the main reactor, Twingo wants to get a whole list of things taken care of while we’re in such a well-equipped facility,” Jason said. “I’d say we won’t be ready to even start test flights for at least another two weeks.”
“The Defiant will be in port for another week for Crisstof to attend a conference on the surface,” Kellea said with a smile. “Plenty of time for us to rent one of those places on the southern coast we talked about. No ships, no ancient weapons, and no crew interrupting us.”
“You just read my mind,” Jason said, his smile mirroring hers.
Epilogue
At the end of first watch Jason turned the pilot’s seat over to Lucky, patted his friend on the shoulder, and retreated to his quarters. It had been a month since leaving Aracoria and the new core had performed flawlessly. If anything, the ship was more efficient with the newer generation reactor.
He showered and changed before sitting at his desk. “Computer,” he said. “Lock the cabin door and secure my quarters.”
“Confirmed,” the computer said. The door locked and countermeasures were employed to prevent any snooping, even from ears as sensitive as a battlesynth’s.
“Isolate my terminal,” he said. “Disconnect it completely from the main computer until further notice.”
“Confirmed.”
He opened his desk drawer and reached far into the back, peeling off a strip of adhesive tape that was up on the bottom of the desktop. Pulling it out, he turned it over to expose the data chip that Cas had given him. He didn’t think it was a coincidence that the connector was the common interface used on the ship. He also assumed that when he plugged the chip into his terminal it would already be in a format his computer could easily read. But he wasn’t sure if he should.
Legacy.
What did that mean? He felt like he’d taken every reasonable precaution he could. He was sitting at an isolated terminal in a small ship in slip-space far between any habitable planets. With great trepidation, he plugged the chip into the slot on his desk. Almost immediately the terminal darkened and a new interface appeared. All the menu headings were in English. With a shaking hand he opened the first file and began to read.
After hours of reading Jason concluded that the data chip contained the combined knowledge of the Ancients: culture, art, technology, even weaponry. Once he figured out how to navigate the volume, he saw that the scope of their understanding of the universe was vast. The small chip sitting in the slot on his desk was easily the most valuable thing in the quadrant, and nobody knew it existed. The amount of power packed within such a small device made Jason’s head swim.
The Legacy had been given to him specifically, coded in a language only he would understand. On a whim he searched for Earth and found that the Ancients had indeed visited his homeworld and had catalogued a young human species as his ancestors began to discover civilization, language, and war. Another search confirmed the complete technical schematics for the Machine and the program coding for the AIs he’d interacted with, including the Primary Weapon Controller.
Jason pulled the chip out and stared at it a moment. His first instinct was to go and feed the device into the fabricator and atomize it, but he wasn’t sure he had that right. He now possessed the only thing that proved the Ancients ever existed. It was a priceless artifact, but it also contained the reality of their terrible weaponry that eventually turned on them. Did he have the right to simply erase everything a species was?
He knew he was stalling. The AI on the Machine had placed a terrible burden into his hands and it was not something he would consider lightly or quickly. He reinstalled the chip into the terminal and brought up a shell program to interface with his neural implant.
“Computer, compress and encrypt the entire volume on this data chip into a single file,” he said.
“Task complete,” the computer said.
“Is the file small enough to upload to my neural implant?”
“Do you wish to be able to access the data?” the computer asked.
“No,” he said. “Storage only with decryption only capabl
e by me.”
“Sufficient storage exists.”
“Begin upload,” Jason said, leaning back and closing his eyes as the file was embedded into the computer he carried in his brain.
****
“What are you still doing up, Captain,” Twingo said, making Jason jump.
“Just feeding some stuff into the fabricator for recycling,” he said.
“Is that the computer terminal from your quarters?” Twingo asked. “Why not just repair it?”
“Eh,” Jason said noncommittally as he tossed the data chip and his personal computer into the machine to be broken down into their smallest molecular components. “I’ll just buy a new one when we get to Deshja. I don’t feel like messing with it.”
*****
Thank you for reading Omega Force: Secret of the Phoenix.
If you enjoyed the story, Captain Burke and the guys will be back in:
Omega Force: The Devil You Know.
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From the author:
So there you have it … we made it all the way to book six and if you’ve read up to this point I hope the series was as fun to read as it has been to write. So what’s next for the crew and this series in general? As you saw, this book wrapped up a lot of the loose threads that had been running through the previous books. In truth, this book marks the end of the overarching storyline I had been following since deciding to expand the first book into an ongoing series. If you look at each book as an individual episode (which is how I’ve tried to write them) then we can look at books 1-6 as being “season one,” now complete.
Omega Force 6: Secret of the Phoenix Page 25