“We don’t operate this far outside of the gray line, Captain,” she said through clenched teeth, showing the first bit of emotion Jason had ever seen from her. Perhaps it was this loss of control that led to her next mistake; “Take him.” Bostco and the other crewman came forward, weapons raised and pointed at Jason’s chest. He could see quite plainly they were simple stun rifles, so he almost felt bad for what was about to happen.
“We don’t want any trouble, Jason,” Bostco said as he stepped forward slowly. “Just call up to your…” An ear shattering roar cut him off as he cleared the threshold of the hatch. Crusher slammed his palm down on the stun rifle and clamped the other massive hand around Bostco’s neck and yanked him off the floor, slamming him hard against the opposite bulkhead. The roar distracted the other crewman so Lucky grabbed the stunner out of his hands and broke it in half like it was a twig, showering the room, and the crewman’s face, with sparks.
Jason hadn’t stood idle during the exchange, he roughly grabbed Captain Colleren, spun her around, and wrapped his arm around her throat in a vise-like choke hold. He could feel her reaching for a weapon so he dug the end of his plasma pistol into her temple. “This is not a stunner,” he snarled into her ear. She was struggling to breath, but Jason wasn’t stupid enough to let up and risk her going for her weapon. He saw Bostco trembling in utter shock and terror as Crusher held him off the floor by his throat. The other crewman had fainted, so Lucky turned and aimed one of his arm-mounted plasma cannons directly at Crisstof, who seemed to be at least somewhat in control of himself.
“What’s it going to be, Crisstof? My crew is listening in right now, any further aggression and they have orders to turn our guns on the Diligent. We’re too close for your shields to come up and save you,” Jason said.
“Please, everyone! Stop this! There’s no need…”
“Oh yes there is, you piece of shit… you boarded my ship with an armed party with the intent to take me by force. I’ll drop all of you and do it with a clear conscience. This is not a stalemate; start talking, and fast, or bodies start hitting the floor.” Crusher punctuated Jason’s words with another snarl and a snapping of his jaws that was straight out of a nightmare. He felt Colleren squirm a bit so he dug the pistol in harder until she went still.
“Please!” Crisstof pleaded again. “Let’s defuse this misunderstanding. Let’s you, I, and Kellea find someplace to talk about this where the threat of death isn’t imminent.” Jason stared at him a hard moment before releasing Captain Colleren and shoving her towards Crisstof before she could turn and draw on him. When she spun she saw that Jason already had his weapon raised and trained on her head.
“Your men go back to your ship. We talk in my galley with Crusher present. Lucky stands guard at the airlock, which we’ll leave open as the only show of good faith at this point,” Jason said calmly. “Understand your situation is still not good. I view this boarding as nothing more than an unprovoked assault, which we don’t take kindly to.”
“I agree to your terms,” Crisstof said, his arms raised, palms out, in a calming gesture. Jason couldn’t miss the death stare that Captain Colleren sent his way. I do have a way with the ladies…
“Very well. Crusher, gently lower and release Commander Bostco. Lucky, wake up the other one.”
“He appears to have urinated himself—“
“--that’s fine, Lucky,” Jason interrupted, closing his eyes and shaking his head. “Just get him up. He can walk in wet pants.” Bostco went and picked his fallen comrade up, gave Jason an unfriendly glare, but quickly exited the airlock as Crusher saw the look and gave another growl. The other crewman seemed to be almost walking under his own power when they were halfway down the gangway. After holstering his sidearm and handing his plasma rifle to Crusher, Jason gestured for the remaining two members of the Diligent's crew to follow him. He was supremely confident nobody would do anything stupid while Crusher had two weapons pointed at their backs.
Once they were seated in the galley, Jason began, “As you can see, we’re not a helpless, soft target despite only being six people on a tiny ship. My crew will not allow you to take me into custody for doing what you essentially hired us to do. If you want to fire us, that’s up to you, but any further attempt at an arrest will be met with a violent response. Is that clear?” When they nodded he continued, “Good. Captain Colleren, I sincerely apologize for physically assaulting you. In a way, you can look at it as a complement; you were one of the most dangerous people in the room and needed to be neutralized quickly.”
“I’m flattered,” she said in a tone that indicated she was anything but.
“Captain Burke,” Crisstof began. “I’m afraid I own you an apology. I let Kellea convince me you had gone rogue and needed to be neutralized before you could do any more damage. It seems you still feel you’re working towards our mutual goal, but I am somewhat appalled by your methods.”
“Speaking of,” Jason said, holding up a hand. “What are you talking about, specifically? We’ve mixed it up a little bit, and I emphasize the word little. To be honest this has been one of our more tame jobs so far.” Captain Colleren wordlessly handed over a tablet computer with a series of reports from various local law enforcement agencies and a collection of images. The first thing that stood out was that the supposed actions were on worlds that they had yet to visit within the Cluster, the other was that the included images of one of the suspected ships bore a striking resemblance to the Phoenix. “Twingo! Get down here,” Jason yelled over the intercom. He held up a hand to silence the other two as the engineer hustled down the stairs. When he arrived Jason handed him the tablet with an enlarged image, “What is that?”
“Hmm, it’s a Jepsen Aero Mk XII rapid transport,” Twingo said. “Looks to be in pretty bad shape. Too bad, that’s actually a rare ship these days.”
“So that ship is not the Phoenix?” Jason pressed.
“The Phoenix? Hell no,” Twingo scoffed. “It looks similar if you’re ignorant and don’t see very well, I’ll admit, but this is a high-speed courier ship. They were sometimes used as executive transports as well. It’s a Jepsen, so it has some design cues similar to our own DL7, but this thing is a butterfly compared to a heavy gunship.”
“Thanks, that’s all I needed,” Jason said, grabbing the tablet back. Twingo just stood there until Jason turned and gave him a pointed stare.
“Oh. Yeah,” he stammered, “I’ll just be on the bridge if you need me.” Crusher rolled his eyes and shook his head as Twingo strolled off.
“Anyway,” Jason continued. “Can we agree that the ship in these law enforcement alerts is not my ship?” When Crisstof and Captain Colleren nodded mutely he continued, “For now we’ll treat the existence of this ship as a wild coincidence, like Twingo said; all Jepsens will look similar at a distance. So… why is this particular ship so special?”
“It isn’t especially so, Captain,” Kellea Colleren spoke up, managing to look somewhat abashed at her armed incursion into his ship on such flimsy evidence. “It has been involved in the continuation of the raids in the Cluster, but it hasn’t been involved in some of the more serious actions. While we assumed incorrectly that you had been involved, there is something you may not be aware of; the raids are not only happening at greater frequency, but they’ve taken a disturbingly violent turn.”
“Please, go on,” Jason prompted, not at all sure he wanted to hear what was coming next.
“These raiders have moved on from attacking lightly crewed commercial freighters and have concentrated almost entirely on passenger starliners,” Crisstof said quietly. “While this wasn’t unheard of, there have been a number of civilian deaths. The political climate on Eshquaria is of growing concern to us, the population is demanding action on these attacks and now the Prime Minister’s opposition is coalescing around a certain few vocal representatives.”
“What is the opposition demanding?” Jason asked, wishing not for the first time the job didn’t includ
e so much political intrigue.
“For now, only action. They aren’t being specific about what action that should be, content to let Colleston face the brunt of the public backlash alone. For now,” Crisstof answered. “Colleston has dispatched a few small patrol fleets from the Eshquarian System, but they’re too few and far between to make much of a difference. His fleet advisors warn that these attacks may be designed to draw Eshquarian forces away from the homeworld and leave them vulnerable to attack.”
“That makes no sense,” Jason said with disgust, rising quickly from his seat and startling the other two. “If the goal is to attack Eshquaria you don’t give them months to put their forces on alert by harassing their commercial fleet with a ragtag bunch of wannabe pirates. The change in tactics to attacking passenger ships is the main clue here; this is a terroristic action, it’s meant to drive the Eshquarians onto a particular course of action. The trick will be to find out what that is.”
“Easier said than done,” Captain Colleren said. “They’re a fiercely independent bunch, and often unpredictable. Besides, I can’t imagine any major power wanting to disrupt anything on that world; nearly all of them are supplied with Eshquarian weapons, at least in this quadrant of the galaxy.”
“Ok, so is this an internal or external push?” Jason asked rhetorically.
“Indeed,” Crisstof agreed. “We could be looking at a power grab within the government.”
“Wait,” Colleren said, holding up her hand. “They’re a republic; any power grab would have to be geared towards rigging an election, one way or another. This is an off cycle, Colleston isn’t up for reelection for another three years. If someone tried to mess with that they’d have a full blown, planet-wide insurrection on their hands. I can’t imagine that would benefit anyone.”
“All I’m taking away from this discussion is that we desperately need more intel,” Jason said, staring at the ceiling and worrying at his scalp. “Are we still on the job?” Crisstof and Captain Colleren looked at each other sheepishly before answering.
“Yes, Captain Burke,” Crisstof said. “For now, you’re still our inside team. But things have taken a dangerous new turn, we need you to turn up the heat and expedite the results. Any further civilian casualties may push Colleston into a rash action and until we know what we’re dealing with that’s the last thing we need.” The three stood and made their way back to the airlock, all anxious to get back to what they were doing before the detour. Crisstof nodded to Lucky before entering the gangway and crossing over to the Diligent. Captain Colleren paused at the hatch and turned to Jason.
“Captain, I do sincerely apologize for this… misunderstanding,” she said, almost displaying genuine emotion as she offered the apology. “I hope this won’t affect our working relationship.” Jason, never one to be totally swayed by a pretty face, wasn’t so fast to let it drop.
“No problem, Captain,” he said in a deadpan voice. “I’d have regretted putting holes in your big, shiny ship. Tell Commander Bostco and Crewman Piss-pants that we offer our apologies as well.” Her eyes instantly hardened again and a not-quite sneer curled her lip.
“I will tell them,” she said, turning and storming down the gangway. Jason closed the outer hatch, and then the inner pressure hatch as soon as she made it across.
“His name was actually Piss-pants?” Lucky asked from behind him. Jason closed his eyes and just shook his head. He opened his mouth to answer, then decided against it, turned and walked out of the airlock chamber. “What?”
“Do we really believe that they mistook a light freighter for the Phoenix?” Crusher asked as Jason walked back onto the main deck and turned to walk up to the bridge.
“I’m not sure,” Jason admitted, continuing up the stairs with Crusher in tow. “It seems unlikely that a few blurry images were all they had to go on. No transponder codes, no markings, no real proof other than a vague shape that their computer still should have been able to resolve as a different model than a DL7.”
“Is it possible they’re that incompetent that they didn’t even run a crosscheck?”
“I’d like to hope not,” Jason said as he slid into his seat. “That wouldn’t bode well for a successful outcome. I’m going operate under the assumption that Colleren is naive and not incompetent, for now. She seems to run a tight ship, but tactical thinking and the like don’t seem to be her thing.” He shrugged to himself, “We’ll deal with that later, right now we have a drop-off to make and payment to collect. Hopefully this leads to something useful.”
“We’re clear of the Diligent,” Kage spoke up. “You’re free to maneuver. New plot laid in for the drop-off.”
“Thanks,” Jason said his hand came down on the control to engage the slip-drive. “Luckily this was nearly on our way, but we’re still going to need to make up some time.” He ignored Twingo’s grunt of disapproval as the ship meshed out of real-space and the slip-drive wound up to its maximum output.
* * * * *
With an especially bright blast of leaked slip-energy, the Phoenix roared back into the Oorch System, the location of their drop-off. Jason turned onto a course for Oorch Prime, confident they were expected, and settled in for the forty-minute flight from the jump-in point to the planet. He was pleased he didn’t need to say anything to Crusher and Lucky, they both exited the bridge together to head for the armory to gear up.
The landing was as uneventful as their in-system flight and they settled on a landing pad at the planet’s smaller spaceport that was well away from the cluster of buildings that housed operations and security for the facility. Both of these were things Omega Force liked to avoid; mandatory inspections and overzealous cops were never good for business. Kage accessed Oorch’s planet-wide data network and sent a one word message to the recipient account that had been provided on the chip Dowarty had given them. Jason then went down and got himself prepped for anything that may, and probably would, go wrong during the exchange of stolen goods for credits. Once he was dressed in his body armor, armed, and had retrieved the case from the ship’s safe, he walked out into the cargo bay to meet up with the other two.
It wasn’t long before Kage called down to alert them they had a ground car inbound and they had received a reply message telling them to expect company. Jason handed the case, still in its padded bag, to Lucky and told him to remain to the side and out of sight. He then opened the cargo bay up and motioned for Crusher to follow him out to the bottom of the ramp, ordering the Phoenix to deploy the rear-facing cannons as he did. A few minutes later a sleek, long ground car pulled up with a deep, subsonic hum. Must be some sort of performance model. The door popped up and slid back to reveal a familiar face, although not necessarily a welcome one.
“Dowarty,” Jason said, with a nod. “You get around.”
“Part of the job, I’m afraid, Captain,” Dowarty said. The prissy man climbed out of the car and looked around the grimy landing pad with distaste. “My employer was distressed when you didn’t collect your upfront bonus. We were somewhat surprised to hear from you, although you seem to be empty handed.”
“All in good time,” Jason said calmly. He saw the two bodyguards still in the vehicle, and he was sure Crusher saw them as well, so he concentrated on Dowarty. “We don’t like upfront payments as a rule. It makes it impossible to walk away if the target has been misrepresented or has been alerted.”
“Prudent, if nothing else.”
“So before we start the show-and-tell, I’d say a renegotiation may be in order.” Jason had been watching Dowarty closely and didn’t miss the flicker of anger in his eyes at the mention of a renegotiation. It was only there for a split second, and it didn’t fit with what Jason thought he knew of his personality.
“I see,” Dowarty said slowly. “What did you have in mind, and please remember who it is you’re working for.”
“As far as I know I’m working for you, or a few guys with bags on their heads, so it’s not a lot to keep in mind. What I was thinking
isn’t so outlandish, however. I’d simply like the proposed upfront bonus tacked onto the final payment,” Jason said placatingly.
“That seems… only fair,” Dowarty said, a slight, relieved smile touching his lips. “I can authorize that myself. So may I see what my bosses paid for?”
“Lucky!” Jason enjoyed the uncomfortable squirming of the armed guards in the vehicle at the appearance of a battlesynth coming down the ramp. Lucky walked up and handed Jason the bag and then moved back and away to cover both him and Crusher. After pulling the bag off of the intricately carved box, Jason carefully handed it over to Dowarty, whose hands were twitching greedily at the sight of it.
“Oh my, my, Captain. You guys actually pulled it off,” he said quietly. After opening the box and staring into it lustfully for a second, he motioned for one of the bodyguards to come and collect it. “That box is worth more than ten of you. Treat it accordingly.” The offhanded comment startled Jason a bit, he’d never seen the little man puff up and actually threaten anyone like that in their other interactions. “So… should I enquire as to the health of the item’s previous owner?”
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