"Who's joking?" Jason insisted. "I have no idea what the hell you're talking about. We got back last night from an eight-day delivery cycle and I've been at the local bar and my bed since then."
"The Sovereign's daughter was being held captive on a ship, apparently, and four days ago she was able to transmit a brief slip-com message," Crisstof said. "She described the ship she was being held on and the ship she was running towards to try and escape. The planet was Tetara-4, and the ship matched the description of the cargo ship you and Lucky have been operating."
"Whoa, whoa!" Jason said, raising his hands and shaking his head. "We were with the ship the entire time the cargo hatch was open and we departed immediately. That ship doesn't have any place where she could have hidden for the entire flight back here."
"I concur," Lucky said. "It is highly unlikely that we would have not detected the presence of a stowaway for the entire flight back to S'tora."
"Given your backgrounds, we're operating under the assumption that she wouldn't have been a stowaway," Doc said.
"You're suggesting we kidnapped her from her original kidnappers?" Jason asked, confused.
"We're suggesting that she may have approached you for help and you took her off Tetara-4," Crisstof said.
Jason laughed mirthlessly at that. "She'd be about three years too late for that sort of treatment," Jason said. "Now if she approached with a couple million credits maybe we'd have something to talk about."
"So you're claiming to have no knowledge of her whereabouts?" Crisstof persisted.
"I had no knowledge of her existence up until five minutes ago," Jason said. "So no, have no clue where your kidnapped princess is."
"Could we take a look in your ship?" Doc asked. "We've come this far, may as well do a thorough search before breaking orbit and leaving."
"Be my guest," Jason shrugged. "Lucky, give them the access codes for that heap."
"Perhaps we should accompany them," Lucky suggested.
"Why?" Jason asked. Lucky didn't answer. Instead he just stared Jason down. "Fine!" the human said disgustedly. "Let's get this over with."
The drive out to the spaceport was tense as Crisstof and Doc kept seeming to want to start a conversation, would take one look at Jason's face and remain silent. Lucky drove and Jason just stared out the side window. It was a long thirty minutes before they rolled through the gates and out to the landing pads. The cargo ship, a vessel Jason and Lucky had never bothered to name, sat in shadows in the failing light of S'tora's setting sun.
"This isn't as bad as you described it," Doc said diplomatically as he exited the ground car and approached the squat, ugly ship. Jason gave him a look that quickly shut him up.
"Lucky, walk the perimeter and look for signs anyone may have gotten into one of the maintenance hatches," he said as he keyed in the twelve-digit security code that would unlock the cargo hatch. It opened with a pop and swung down to the tarmac with a creak of actuators needing lubricant, jerking as it went.
"Welcome aboard," Jason said sarcastically as he walked up the ramp into the cargo bay. He keyed an access code into another panel inside the ship and lights began flickering on all over the interior. He made some show of poking around in the cargo bay, seeing if there could have been a stowaway. The pile of cargo netting in a corner gave him pause, but he dismissed it as something that must have shifted in flight. Normally they would be hanging up on hooks that lined the bulkhead.
"There is no evidence that anyone forced their way aboard through any of the external hatches," Lucky said, his heavy footfalls booming in the empty hold.
"What do Avarians look like?" Jason asked Crisstof.
"Quite similar to you and I, actually," Crisstof said. "Unlike my species, their skin pigmentation can vary wildly, as can their hair color. Unfortunately we don't have a very good physical description of the Sovereign's daughter."
"I don't care about that," Jason waved him off. "I'm just making a point. A young female from a species of bipeds similar to us isn't strong enough to force her way aboard this ship."
"Shall we inspect the interior?" Crisstof asked. Jason just rolled his eyes and yanked open the hatch on the forward bulkhead, waiting as the overhead lights in the central corridor flickered on, the two in the middle that he kept meaning to replace buzzing before fully illuminating.
"Follow me," he said. "Don't mind the mess. Lucky tends to be a slob." The stoic battlesynth ignored his friend and began inspecting the compartments on the starboard side of the ship while Jason made a perfunctory look in those on the port side.
When he got to the head, however, he paused. The basin had standing water in it. It wasn't much, but it looked as if the faucet had been turned on within the last hour or so. He ran a finger up under the faucet and it came back wet. There weren't any leaks in the system as far as he knew.
"Lucky," he said quietly, motioning for his friend to look at the basin. The battlesynth took one look at the water, tested the knobs that controlled the water valves, and nodded to Jason. Someone had turned on the faucet since they'd landed and locked the ship up.
The cold water system worked simply by pressurizing the fresh water tank. There would have been plenty of residual pressure left in the system to operate the faucet even a few days after they'd powered down the ship.
"Something?" Doc asked.
"Nah," Jason said, putting his finger to his lips and nodding his head. "Just forgot to clean up when we left the last time. Let me show you the flight deck." He walked out and began walking towards the front of the ship. Pausing just outside the ship's only living quarters, he shoved the hatch open as fast as he could.
There! He'd just heard a rustle when the hatch banged open. There weren't many places to hide in the cramped stateroom so he went directly to the closet, noting the covers on the bunk were mussed, and yanked open the closet door. He saw one of his shirts move a different direction than the others when the air from the door opening disturbed them. Without hesitation, he thrust his hand into the clothing and was rewarded with a piercing squeal of surprise, then the unpleasant sensation of teeth sinking into his forearm.
"Shit!" he swore in surprise, yanking his arm back. Before the culprit could recover he shoved his arm in, lower this time, and grabbed a handful of material that he knew didn't belong to any clothing he owned. With a yank he pulled out the struggling form of a small female sporting bright purple hair. He'd used enough force that she flew from the closet and landed on the deck with a thud, knocking the wind out of her.
"Have you lost your mind!" Crisstof shouted from the hatchway. "You just threw the future Sovereign of the Avarian Empire on the ground like last week's garbage!"
"No," Jason corrected, holding up a finger. "I just threw a stowaway and trespasser on the deck. We have no idea who this is."
"I am not the netjere," the shape on the floor said in broken Jenovian.
"What's that?" Jason asked, nudging her with his boot. "What's a net jeer?"
"I am not the netjere, you brute!" she said angrily, shoving his leg away. "The daughter of the Sovereign."
"Then who the hell are you and why are you on my ship?" Jason asked.
"If you let me up, I will tell you," she said, rising to a sitting position with her hands up defensively.
"Go ahead and have a seat," Jason motioned to the bunk. "But make it quick. I'm missing happy hour."
"What is 'happy hour?'" she asked as she stood and moved over to the bunk.
"Ignore him," Doc said. "From the fact that you knew who we were talking about a moment ago, I'm assuming you're associated with the Sovereign's daughter, the netjere?"
"Yes," she said, nodding. "I was her attendant."
"Before this gets started, how about we adjourn to someplace more comfortable for the interrogation than a stateroom that's already too small for one person?" Jason asked, rubbing his temples. "If you promise no more biting or high-pitched screams we can go back to our house where you can get something to eat
and tell your story."
"I would be most grateful," she said, nodding vigorously at the mention of food. "Thank you."
****
The girl turned out to be ravenous and Jason was forced to leave to grab more food from the market since she ate her way through his sparse bachelor's cupboard in no time. Once she had eaten her fill and became relaxed enough to stop flinching every time Jason moved suddenly he ushered everyone out onto the large deck that faced the ocean.
"This is a beautiful home," she remarked. "I wouldn't have expected it given the ship that you—" she trailed off as Jason gave her a flat, unfriendly look.
"Hard times," he said simply. "Now if you'd like to take a seat and begin telling us just who you are and why you're here, that would be great."
"Please know that by telling you these things, I'm condemning myself to death," she said in a quiet but clear voice. "To divulge this information to outsiders will make me an outcast among my people, so there is no reason for you to doubt my words."
"Of course there is," Jason disagreed. "But we'll get to that if and when it comes up. Just dive right in and we'll sort the mess out later." Despite his previously combative attitude, there was one thing Jason Burke loved and that was a good story. Somehow he could sense that this one was going to be exceptional.
"My name is Ka'lett'ele-Asti'appörte—" she began, pausing as she saw the looks the others in the room gave her at the long and convoluted name.
"You may simply call me Kalette," she said, finally understanding the problem. "That wouldn't be appropriate if there were others of my family present, but for now it should simplify things. As I was about to say ... I am the first attendant to the netjere, the first daughter of the Sovereign. She had decided that, as her father aged, it would be appropriate for her to see the furthest reaches of the Empire.
"With the help of the Imperial Guardsman who protects her we planned a route that would take us through the core worlds and all the way out to the border colonies. We left without fanfare and on a ship with a generic registration, hoping to escape notice. Right away I saw that when we would land someplace there seemed to be people who not only knew who she was, but were expecting her.
"I raised my concerns to the Guardsman, but as a mere attendant my concerns were scoffed at. It wasn't until we began stopping at the border planets, the places where outsiders are more common than on the core worlds, when I knew there was a problem. We were being followed. I began seeing the same faces despite their attempts to disguise themselves.
"This time I went to the netjere with my concerns, but she is without guile and laughed at my paranoia. It was that night that a group of outsiders forced their way onto our ship, killing the Guardsman and his two subordinates. They roughly restrained us before taking control of the vessel and launching off the planet."
"You're sure they were outsiders?" Crisstof asked.
"Absolutely," she said. "Three of them were of a species I've never seen before, and two were from a race that the border worlds sometimes trade with."
"We can try to figure out who this unknown species is later," Jason said absently. "What happened after they stole the ship?" He was so engrossed in the story he didn't notice Doc elbow Lucky and nod his way with a suppressed grin.
"Much is unclear after that," Kalette said. "We were restrained and given narcotics to make sure we were only just functional enough to eat a little bit and sleep most of the day."
"How is it you escaped?" Lucky asked.
"One of the ruffians detaining us had developed an attraction for me," she said shyly, her eyes downcast. "He would lessen the amount of the drug I was given each day, trying to find a dosage that would leave me still disoriented, but more lucid and compliant.
"We had landed on an unknown planet and this time he didn't administer the drug to me at all, believing that we had developed a rapport and mistaking my fear for acceptance. I was able to access the ship's com system while they were outside preparing to transfer us to a different vessel for security reasons. I was unable to move the netjere. She was always given the full dosage of the drug and was restrained to the walls of the cell.
"After setting the com system on the ship to transmit an automated distress broadcast, including a description of your ship, I snuck out of an emergency hatch and ran across the landing pad. I snuck in while you were near the front of your vessel watching the events I had put in motion."
"So the troops that surrounded the other ship and then chased us up out of the atmosphere were—" Jason left the question hanging.
"Tetaran Security," Crisstof said quickly, perhaps even a bit evasively. "They were contacted by ConFed Intelligence when Kalette's signal was first detected."
"I'm certain I don't want to know any of the details about that," Jason said with a wave. "So after that you just hid in the cargo bay for the rest of the flight?"
"Essentially, yes," Kalette confirmed. "I pulled down some of the cargo netting and hid under it in case your cargo hold had active surveillance. I was able to hold out there until we arrived on this planet, though I'm not sure which planet this even is, and then found I was locked in. Thankfully your ship still had water and dried rations in the galley. I had planned to sneak out again when you came back aboard and reactivated main power."
"Well, it sounds like you've had a hell of an adventure," Jason said, leaning back in his seat. "I assume this satisfies the accusations that we were harboring the Avarian Sovereign's daughter?"
"It does," Crisstof nodded. "It may take some time to sort this out, however."
"Not from where I'm sitting," Jason shrugged. "The Defiant has lots and lots of space for you to do your sorting. I'm not being deliberately rude but I'm not getting dragged into this."
"Understood," Crisstof said with a curt nod before standing up. "I wasn't inclined to ask you anyway."
"Take care of yourself, bud," Jason said, ignoring Crisstof and holding his hand out to Doc. "Don't let them drag you into something stupid like I used to."
"This is something that we would have jumped on without asking back when Omega Force was still operating," Doc said quietly.
"Those days are gone," Jason said with a forced smile. "No more Omega missions and no more blind charges into suicidal situations. We'll all live longer for it, I'm sure."
"Yes, well ... I suppose there had to be something positive to come from it all," Doc said, nodding to Jason one more time before stepping aside to speak with Lucky. Not really having anything else to do, nor a desire to talk to anyone, Jason descended the steps from the deck to the beach and began walking along in a generally southward direction, trying to blank his mind. When the walk didn't do it, he found a small cantina near the docks where the fishing vessels operated out of that had a lively crowd and a loud band playing. Two hundred and fifty credits later and he had successfully purged his mind of all uncomfortable thoughts and memories.
Chapter 4
Jason stood on the back deck, still in his clothes from the previous evening, and watched the surf as he sipped on a mug of tea. Chroot was prohibitively expensive on S'tora, as were most imported goods, and he had not bothered to purchase a food synthesizer. Instead, he decided to subsist entirely on the local fare. It wasn't much of a loss as he'd never been all that fond of chroot; it was just the next best thing to actual coffee. Since neither was an option on his new home he adapted to the local custom and drank a few mugs of high-potency tea each morning.
"Good morning," a voice said from behind him. He turned and stared in slack-jawed horror as Kalette walked out of the house ... wearing one of his shirts.
"What ... how ... why are ... did we?"
"Excuse me?" she said, clearly confused and looking at Jason in the concerned manner one might adopt when trying to speak to a victim as they were having a stroke. "I apologize if I've startled you. Lucky told me I could stay last night. I do not fully trust Crisstof Dalton or know how he is gaining his information about my situation. He also gave me one
of your shirts since I have no clothing of my own with me."
"I see," Jason said, both relieved and irritated simultaneously. Maybe I should have just let him keep calling me Captain. It might have cut down on his making decisions that annoy me. "You did startle me, but I'm fine now. Please, have a seat."
"Thank you, Jason Burke," she said, curling up gracefully on one of the overstuffed deck chairs.
"So ... there were a lot of holes in that story you told us last night," Jason remarked, sitting on the deck railing.
"Yes," she said without hesitation. "As I said, I do not trust that Crisstof Dalton has conveniently come to this planet at the exact instant I needed him to. So I provided just enough truth to be able to stop the story at a place of my choosing."
"So why trust me with even that much information now?"
"I had a long conversation with Lucky last night after you left to inebriate yourself," Kalette said in an offhand manner that embarrassed Jason somewhat. Was he really that predictable now? "I asked him of this ‘Omega Force’ Jorvren Ma'Fredich had mentioned last night and if they might be able to help me. He told me they didn't exist anymore."
"That doesn't answer my question," Jason said.
"I will eventually have to trust someone," Kalette said with a sigh. "If you and he were really once as he described then maybe you could help me get in touch with my people. I fear all others I have encountered have ulterior motives."
"You're probably not wrong there," Jason said with a nod, finishing off his tea with a slight grimace. The stuff was quite disgusting as it came closer to room temperature. "Although I would be careful about whom you get in touch with within the Empire."
"Why?" she asked, her brow furrowed in confusion. It was a very human-like expression that Jason found adorable on her face. He shook his head to clear away unhelpful thoughts before continuing.
"From the little information you provided last night I would bet heavily that this is an inside job," he said. "The likelihood of someone from within ConFed space sneaking all the way into your territory, and then following along behind you to all the different Avarian-held worlds ... it just doesn't scan. But, someone within your government, or a splinter faction, cooperating with someone outside to grab the netjere ... that's something I've seen more than once."
Omega Force 7: Redemption Page 2