The Omega Drive

by Nik Whittaker

  Now, however, she needed to decouple the ship from the Sanctum, if she didn’t manage that then they would all go down with it. Jako had performed his part, but that had put her on the clock.

  Running over to the Navigation console, she swiped a hand over the access point and it lit up. Tapping fast, she found the controls for the coupling.

  “Damnit!” She slammed a fist on the console. It required a counter signal from the Sanctum to decouple, a sensible security measure to prevent unauthorised departures, and to ensure the Sanctums’ shielding was only dropped at specific times.

  “Jako!” She shouted through her Comms.

  “Vittoria, hi,” Jako replied.

  “We need a counter code from the Sanctum to decouple, can you sort it?” she blurted out, her fingers crossed.

  “Damnit, we should have, erm, thought of that. I’m en route to the hanger, I’ll see what I can do,” he replied.

  Vittoria prayed he’d be able to help.

  “Hello Vittoria,” the voice made her jump as she spun round to see Tanner stood at the door to the bridge. Her heart stopped as her eyes stared at the ghost before her.

  *

  Jako had been floating outside of the Sanctum since they had first landed in the hanger. On the approach, he had been on the outside of the Chariot, suited in his exosuit, only this time, with a full oxygen tank to go with it. As they had got close, he had kicked off from the ship, and worked his way around, using the hand-holds on the Sanctum, to get to the main control sector. He’d entered through a service hatch, using the codes he had obtained on the Azure Market, and disabled the stabilisers. Then headed back out the way he’d come.

  Since then he’d been working his way round to Hangar 18, it was a long way, made longer by taking the outside route. He was just coming round to the hanger entrance, when Vittoria had called him.

  He now moved away from the hanger, and towards an access point nearby. The original plan was that he would have entered through the hanger, and gone straight to the ship, but now he needed to get to the supervisor console. Having studied Ezekiel’s designs, he knew each hanger had a separate office where he’d be able to send the signal.

  Floating to the hatch, he typed the access code, and the locks hissed open. The handle twisted, and he pulled it aside. Manoeuvring himself feet first into the hatch, he slid inside, securing the hatch behind him. Halfway down the hatch the artificial gravity took hold, and he felt himself pulled to the ground. A door opened into the station, the office he needed was two meters down.

  Upon arriving he checked for any guards, the way seemed clear as he opened the door. Inside a man stood hunched over the console, another dressed in red beside him. They turned to look at him.

  “Shit,” Jako said, he didn’t recognise the hunched man, but the other was Ezik, whom he’d known from the Coyotes previous encounters.

  Ezik lifted a hand, and a flame burst out towards Jako, who flung the door closed in time to take the blast. He stepped back, and pushed the door shut, trying to lock the two inside. A thud hit the metal, and it began to glow red, heat building up, forcing Jako to step away from it, or be burned.

  The door opened, and Ezik stood, framed in the red metal of the frame.

  “Jako, I recognise you from our files, I wondered where you were hiding,” he smiled. “Always the coward, staying back and away from the real danger.”

  Jako saw a ball of fire form in both Ezik’s hands. He looked closer, and saw that the flames didn’t touch Ezik’s skin, and that he was sweating from the heat. He wasn’t fireproof himself; it seemed.

  “You going to, erm, flame me? With those tiny balls?” Jako mocked.

  Ezik’s eyes flared up as he doubled the size of the flames that were now almost engulfing his hands.

  “Just die,” Ezik shouted, and began to move his fists.

  Jako raised his own hands, activating the oxygen nozzles on his wrists to full power. The oxygen blasted towards Ezik, igniting the flames before they left his hands. The resulting fireball engulfed Ezik’s entire body. As the oxygen continued to fuel the flames, Ezik’s skin began to blister and burn. His screams dying out as the pain became too much for him.

  Only when Jako could see the black, charred flesh of Ezik drop to the ground, did he stop the oxygen flow, breathing heavy he looked down at the black corpse that had been Ezik. He blinked, then stepped over the body, back into the control room. The hunched-over man stood in silence, staring at Jako with pure fear.

  “I… I surrender,” the man raised his hands.

  “Who are you?” Jako asked.

  “I’m, I’m the Prime Leader,” the man said, regretting his words.

  Jako’s eyes widened then, using the exosuit’s power, delivered a punch to the man’s temple. Killing him instantly.

  He got to work sending the decouple codes to Vittoria on the ship.

  57

  Vittoria stared at the man before her, the pale face of the man she knew as Tanner. He had removed his mask, holding it in his hand beside him.

  “It can’t be,” she said looking at him.

  “It isn’t,” the man said, the distraction serving its purpose. Stepping towards her, he threw a punch.

  Vittoria, whilst in shock, wasn’t about to be caught off guard. She ducked the strike and retaliated with a jab of her own into Cero’s rib cage. He doubled over for a moment, allowing her the time to move away.

  At the door, the others had arrived.

  “Stop right there Cero, Tanner, whoever you are!” Dack shouted. The whole team stood facing him, including Jako, who had just arrived.

  “You fools, you think your little adventure is enough to stop me,” the man started to laugh. The wounds on his face weeping blood as the skin moved.

  “We think, your time is up,” Tylr stepped forwards, pushing a button on their gun it began shifting to a shotgun.

  “How the hell is this possible?” Lyla asked.

  Tanner looked across them all, the faces of the Coyotes.

  “When I fell into that generator, the Omega energy flowed through me, just as I believe it has you Dack,” Tanner said nodding to Dack’s hand. “The raw Omega energy is, powerful,” he continued.

  Taking a step closer he opened his hands, palm upwards.

  “My body dissipated, separated into its fundamental particles. Then, the Omega energy infused in the particles pulled me back together, changing them at the most fundamental level.”

  His hands began to glow, then to disintegrate, like dust blown away in the wind. Flipping his hands back over, the dust reversed its flow, returning to his hand and reformed.

  “It took a while for the process to complete, by the time I was reformed, the war was over. The Syndicate successful.”

  “Why didn’t you come find us?” Dack asked.

  “Why would I? I saw the universe in a new light, everything had changed. I see things differently now. I could set parts of myself free, a particle, which I could send out and absorb into others, and control them. That’s where the new Jackal army came from, each member controlled by a tiny particle of myself. That’s how we knew you were coming, we’ve been watching you.”

  “We would have helped you, worked out how to help,” Lyla said, tears forming in her eyes.

  “I didn’t need help, I understood what the galaxy was, what our race is, nothing more than a primitive Petri dish of the weak and dying. There’s a whole universe out there, and the Syndicate were the ones to help me see it.”

  With that he flung a switch on the console beside him, the ship shuddered as another engine powered up.

  “What was that?” Jonir asked.

  “The Omega Drive,” Vittoria said, checking a panel next to her.

  “Let’s see the universe together,” Tanner smiled.

  The engines roared louder, the decoupling codes Jako had sent activated, and the ship dropped from the mag-locks that held it to the Sanctum, which was now shaking itself apart.

  “Tak
e him down,” Dack shouted, they needed to get control of the situation.

  As they approached, weapons primed, Tanner raised his hands, and dropped to his knees.

  “It’s too late, I set the ship to autopilot,” he smiled.

  Tylr and Jonir kept an eye on Tanner while the others took places on the bridge.

  The Journey’s End exited the shields of the Sanctum, dropping under it before moving away.

  “The duel engines are generating enough power for activation,” Vittoria said.

  “Activation for what?” Dack asked.

  “An interstellar jump,” Hixon replied, moving over to the console beside them.

  “How do we override?” Lyla asked, monitoring the ship's life support.

  “I’m trying to hack the NavCom,” Jako shouted, moving as fast as he could on the console.

  “There’s no override, it’s a set routine, not a command,” Tanner said, the pride in his voice echoing out.

  “Coyotes, how can we assist? We’ve evacuated as many of the others from the station as we could,” a voice called through their intercom, on the viewscreen above they could see the Bullet Rose and the Chariot approaching into view.

  “Jenkins!” Dack shouted, “we can’t shut down the engines from here,” he paused as the plan ran through his mind. “Can you target them and take them out?”

  “I can try, but that’s pretty dangerous.”

  “Do it! Otherwise we won’t be around much longer, and worst case we need to stop this ship!” Vittoria shouted.

  “Ok, locking on, and, firing,” blasts of energy fired from both the smaller vessels. They stopped short of the engine.

  “The shield are blocking the firepower,” Valen said from the Chariot.

  “I can take them offline, erm, one moment,” Jako said.

  Another ship appeared in view, the Jackals’ Dreadnaught.

  “Dack, there’s a hail coming in from the Dreadnaught,” Lyla announced.

  “Patch it through,” Dack said, knowing the moment could only get worse.

  On the display in front of them, split into a smaller screen, the face of Shai appeared, behind her the bridge of the Dreadnaught Dos, Cuatro, Cinco and Seis stood at several consoles.

  “Coyote’s, return the ship now, or prepare to be shot down,” she hissed.

  “We’d love to, unfortunately Tanner here has other plans,” Dack said, motioning to Tanner. “He’s rigged the ship to a set course and we can’t override it.”

  “What?” Shai spat out, “Is this true Cero?”

  “It is,” Tanner said, “I have just expedited our plans, the universe is ready to be explored.”

  “No, we need the fleet ready for the invasion!” Shai screamed, “You don’t know what we’d be up against! I can’t let you ruin this!”

  The Dreadnaught powered up its weapons and began to fire, at the same time Jako had just lowered the shields.

  The combined firepower of the trio of ships collided with the engines of the Journey’s End, the explosion was almost instantaneous.

  Tanner stood, the only person laughing as the explosion rocked the ship.

  Deep within the engine room, the two generators were spinning in unison. The power of each was reaching critical mass. Just as they were at maximum capacity, the firepower from the ships outside hit the engines.

  The shielding around the generators cracked, the power from both spilling out. As the uncontrolled merging of the powers triggered, the blast expanded and encircled the entire area in the combined Alpha and Omega energies. The jump drive connected to the Journey’s End funneled the energy, but it couldn't contain it all, the remaining energies overflowed and expanded its radius out into the space beyond the ship.

  The Sanctum was breaking down; shaking itself to pieces without the stabilizing control keeping it together. As the bright light of the energy faded, parts of the Sanctum spun out into the surrounding void.

  There was nothing else in the sector anymore. The Journey’s End, The Bullet Rose, The Chariot and The Dreadnaught had all vanished.

  Epilogue

  The Journey’s End had been traveling for several days, drifting through the open space.

  They’d been traveling with no communications, or signs of life, for over a week. After the Omega Drive exploded, they had seen a bright light from the detonation, before finding themselves in the middle of nowhere.The Bullet Rose, The Chariot, and The Dreadnaught, were nowhere to be found.

  Vittoria had managed to repair the Alpha Drive, so the ship was mobile, but they had no idea where they were. Luckily, the ship was stocked, and the supplies would last them several years before they would need to worry. However, the boredom was taking hold.

  In the depths of the ship, Dack sat in a chair facing the transparent force-field which doubled as the protection against Cero, who sat inside the cell.

  “How are you finding your newfound power?” Cero asked, nodding to Dack’s metal hand. It was still a mess of melted metal, they hadn’t discovered a means of correcting it without damaging Dack’s arm.

  Dack raised the hand, looking over at a metal tray which lay on a table across the room. He concentrated for a moment, the tray vibrated before flying across the room. Dack had to move slightly to catch it with his good hand.

  Cero laughed from inside his cell.

  “Fantastic! You must be starting to understand that there is so much that we don’t understand about the universe! So many mysteries to unravel!”

  “That doesn’t mean we can forget who we are, Tanner,” Dack looked into the eyes of Cero. They had taken his mask, his face a scarred distortion of their friend.

  “Oh I didn’t forget, I simply had my eyes opened, just as you are experiencing now. It won’t be long before you understand, I can see it unfolding inside you.”

  Dack stood, putting the tray back onto the table.

  “I’ll never understand how you could betray us, after everything.”

  “Soon, you will.”

  A hail came from the bridge,

  “Erm, Dack…” Jako’s voice came over the speaker.

  “Yeah, what’s up?”

  “Erm, we’re being hailed…”

  “Hailed by who?” Dack asked.

  *

  Dack had rushed to the bridge, the others were all at their posts.

  “Talk to me,” he said as he settled into the Captain’s chair.

  “No one on scanners,” Hixon said, looking at his console.

  Dack looked around the bridge. To his left Tylr sat, they just shrugged. Vittoria sat to his right, pulled an unsure face. Jonir, sat at the weapon console, gave a similar gesture.

  “Are ya gonna answer the damn call?” Lyla shouted from the Helm console.

  “Yes, answer the call!” Dack said, he would need to get used to this being in charge situation he found himself in.

  “Erm, channel open,” Jako replied.

  “…. Hello?” He began, “This is Captain Alacious Dack, of the Journey’s End. Whom am I speaking to?”

  He glanced at Tylr, who gave him an encouraging thumbs up.

  “Captain. You are in breach of the Inter-Galactic Law of trespass. Please state your reasons for being within this sector, and prepare for immediate transportation to the nearest IG substation.”

  Lyla turned to Dack, and mouthed an expletive.

  Dack felt the adrenaline surge, he needed to understand the situation. He motioned a neck cut gesture to Jako, who cut the comms for a moment.

  “Hix, what the hell are we dealing with here?” He asked the only person who had any experience in this area.

  “Well, it’s been a long time, but the IG is the overarching government of a large majority of the Universe as I knew it. The trespassing law can only mean we are in the Black Skies sector, which is off limits to any civilian vessels.”

  “Right, so what are we looking at?”

  “If we’re lucky, they’ll just escort us to the nearest station, and give us a war
ning.”

  “And if we’re unlucky?” Dack asked, knowing their track record in Luck.

  “They’ll dock the ship and throw us in a prison, for a long time,” Hixon answered.

  “Great,” Dack gave Jako a thumbs up, and waited for him to reopen the comms.

  “Hi, Captain Dack here again. We’ll be happy to follow the orders and head to the nearest substation, if you could give us those co-ordinates we’ll be on our way.”

  There was a pause, far longer than Dack would have liked, before the reply came.

  “Sending the co-ordinates now, please redirect there immediately.”

  “Will do,” Dack replied.

  “In addition,” the voice continued, “Your vessel appears to have no Guild markings, who do you fly for?”

  Dack’s eyes widened, giving Jako another cutthroat gesture, and looked at Hixon.

  “I… I don’t know, there are hundreds of Guild, for all aspects of industry, everyone is part of one.”

  “What’s an obscure one? One that they wouldn’t know enough about to question?”

  Hixon thought for a moment.

  “Captain?” The voice called out.

  “The Trancer Guild is small, only a few hundred planets are under their colours,” Hixon said.

  “You sure?”

  “Yeah, they work for traders, helping keep trade lines clear and safe. Lot’s of admin, no one really looks at them.”

  “Ok,” Dack turned to Jako, who resumed the comms.

  “Hi, sorry, yes we are with the Trancer Guild, our ship had a recent refit, and it hasn’t had the new Guild markings added. Next on the list of jobs!”

  Another pause.

  “We are very sorry for having questioned you, please accept our apologies, and have a pleasant day.”

  The comms cut off, and they were left in silence again.

  Dack looked at Hixon.

  “I don’t know, like I said, I’ve been away for a while!”

  “Jako, did we get the coordinates?”

  “Erm, yep.”

  “Lay a course, we don’t have anywhere else to go,” Dack replied.

  The Journey’s End adjusted its heading, and the ship moved towards the substation. Into an unknown universe, with a stolen Syndicate ship, their old colleague locked in a cell below deck, and no idea of what they were flying into.