The next twenty minutes sitting at a corner table were tense, to say the least. Doc and Jason refused to meet each other's gaze or otherwise acknowledge the other's presence. Crusher watched this as long as he could before rolling his eyes and standing up.
"I'm going to walk the perimeter of this place and get a feel for the layout," he said, glaring down at the pair. "When I get back, this bullshit better be done with. We have things to do that are too important to have them jeopardized with your infantile squabbling." Jason glared at the warrior's departing back; he didn't appreciate hearing that his righteous indignation in reality was making him look like a jackass with a maturity problem. Doc broke the thick silence first;
"I'm sorry I hit you... Captain."
"I guess I deserved it. I'm sorry I brought up your sister, Jorvren," Jason said, using Doc's real first name for the first time since he had given him his nickname. "I was out of line. I hope you can forgive me."
"I understand, Jason, I really do," Doc said, also dropping rank and monikers from their conversation. "I feel much like you do, but I'm used to not being able to directly do anything about it. I don't have the strength or training you and Crusher do, and I was serious about answering to a higher calling. While I would have never dreamed that I'd end up in a crew like Omega Force, I'm committed to the idea that the few of us really can make a real difference."
"Ok," Jason said brusquely, not entirely comfortable with all the soul-baring. "We're both sorry, so let's move on to something that's been bugging me. This space station was purpose-built, and by pros."
"Agreed," Doc said. "And they're also keeping us low-lives segregated from the operational centers and the regular crew. These are significant, but I'm not entirely sure why yet."
It was another fifteen minutes before Crusher ambled back over to their table, the other patrons giving him a wide berth as he didn't bother trying to dodge them. He sat down and leaned in conspiratorially, "This seems to be a holding pen for the pirates and other assorted scumbags being used to pull off these raids. Every once in a while the guards open up the main doors and send a runner in to bring out one person or another, but other than that nobody ventures out of this area."
"We were just discussing that," Jason said. "I'm starting to think the dimwits in here are simply a distraction, or camouflage. If one, or even a few, are caught it just looks like an uptick in crime. These aren't all local boys either; there isn't enough work to go around in the Cluster to support an underworld this extensive. I feel like we're missing some critical piece to all this."
"So where does that leave us?" Doc asked.
"Fuck if I know. But I doubt it's anyplace good. We're either going to be roped into participating in another raid or we're not going to be allowed to leave at all," Jason said glumly.
As it turned out, none of them were entirely correct. A pair of guards entered the small bar area and, after a brief look over the room, walked directly to the three. "We're to escort you outside," the one said simply.
"What for?" Crusher asked belligerently.
"To receive payment for the rescue and transport of Dowarty," the guard said, giving no indication that Crusher's demeanor was getting under his skin.
"Lead on," Jason said as he stood up from the table.
They followed the guards back through the stinking common area they had entered through and into the open space beyond, each taking a refreshing breath of shipboard air that had been scrubbed by the recyclers. Dowarty himself was waiting for them, now changed and apparently feeling much better after a trip through the Complex's medical facility.
"Gentlemen," he smiled broadly. "I believe we have an account to settle up. I don't wish to be rude, but the quicker you're paid, the quicker you can be on your way."
"Can't argue there," Jason said. "We're not making any money sitting around here, as nice as it is."
"Of course. I think you'll find that the amount is far more generous than what we originally agreed to," Dowarty said. "The extra amount is for your... discretion... about what you've seen here. If you agree I'll have it sent to your ship's treasury at once."
"Looks more than fair to me, our added discretion considered," Jason said, not being able to help his eyebrows shooting up at the amount Dowarty had shown him on data tablet.
"Excellent!" Dowarty clapped his hands once, enthusiastically. "Now then, we've got a bit of a situation developing here, so my men will escort you back to your ship where you can await clearance to depart. Know that you have my personal thanks, Captain. Had I or my ship fallen into the hands of the authorities, things could have been quite bad for me."
"Happy to help," Jason said with a forced grin, "and of course happy to lighten your account a tad." Dowarty laughed genuinely at that.
"Worth every credit, I assure you. Between the saving of my life, and creative acquisition of rare antiquities, I'm somewhat sorry to see you depart. I'm including a secured inbox address with your payment, if you ever are looking for work, or even a permanent arrangement, let me know." With that Dowarty turned and walked through a side hatchway before Jason could answer him. Without a word, one of the guards nodded to indicate they should follow him back the way they had originally come towards the lifts that would take them back to the docking arms.
They rode the lift in complete silence until they arrived at the junction that would let them enter the gangway that led back to the Phoenix. When they entered the junction, however, they were unprepared for the familiar sight, and sound, of someone they least suspected to see.
"...needs to understand that timing is everything, too much longer and our fleet will be in position to act. Colleston is losing control of the legislature, the time for half measures is over. Tell Dowarty that..."
The other set of lift doors closed, blocking off the remainder of the conversation. But the man had been unmistakable in his fine suit and slick talking manner. It had been Prime Minister Colleston's Chief of Staff: Mr. Kross. Jason and Doc exchanged a meaningful glance before turning back to their escort.
"I suppose this is where we part ways," Jason said. "Good luck with everything you guys are into. Tell control to let us know when we're cleared to depart." When the guard nodded disinterestedly he spun and walked as fast as he could manage up the gangway where his ship was waiting for him. What the FUCK was Kross doing here? This can't mean anything good.
"Lock her up and meet us on the bridge," Jason said to Lucky as he rushed through the hatch and ran from the airlock chamber up to the command deck with the others on his heels. When he ran onto the bridge, he was pleased to see Twingo and Kage were alert and looked appropriately worried. Wait... they don't know what's going on yet. What are they worried about?
"What?"
"Show him," Twingo said. Wordlessly Kage turned to his panel and projected a time-lapse sensor feed onto the forward canopy. Jason could see three large contacts mesh in, followed by a slew of smaller ships. The passive sensors showed massive energy signatures on the larger ships. That usually indicated one thing: warships.
"Whose are they?" Jason asked, slightly dry mouthed. Three destroyer-class ships was a lot of firepower in the hands of a bunch of "pirates."
"No idea," Kage said. "They came in dark, no transponder squawks. They look to be of the same origin as the ships that make up the station. Same goes for their smaller escort ships. They've parked seventy-thousand kilometers off our starboard side and are holding formation there. This doesn't seem good."
"It's worse than that," Jason said. "Doc?"
"While we were coming back we ran into one Mr. Kross making his way down into The Complex." Doc said.
"Kross? As in Eshquarian Executive Chief of Staff Kross?" Kage asked incredulously.
"One and the same," Jason confirmed. "This was just a few minutes ago. What ships have arrived on this docking junction recently?" Kage's four hands flew over the controls.
"Nothing Eshquarian. There is a private high-speed transport that docked twenty min
utes ago and... now this is interesting... a ConFed VIP transport came in and docked an hour before that."
"What?!"
"No mistaking it, Captain. They're not transmitting ConFed codes, but the configuration is unmistakable," Kage said with raised hands.
"What in the fuck is going on here?!" Jason asked to nobody in particular. "Ok, we're way out of our league here... as soon as we get cleared to leave, we're jumping a short hop and calling Crisstof to turn this over to him. We're not equipped to handle whatever the hell this is."
"If Kross brought a private transport, we can assume he is not here at the behest of the Eshquarian government," Lucky said.
"That's a safe bet," Twingo said. "And I'm sure that ConFed ship is no coincidence either. So are they really just going to let us fly off, Captain?"
"It seems so," Jason said with a shrug. "Between the theft and the rescue, it seems Dowarty has taken a bit of a shine to us. He also seems to be a lot higher up than we originally thought, Kross mentioned him by name when we passed him."
"Ah, the intrigue of politics," Kage said, suddenly leaning forward in his seat. "Captain, quite a large sum of money has been transmitted to our onboard treasury. Should I accept it?"
"What the hell kind of question is that?!" Crusher exclaimed. "Yes accept it." Kage wisely took that as confirmation as he keyed in their access code to accept the payment from Dowarty.
After another two hours passed, the crew began to get anxious, wondering when their clearance would be granted so they could leave. Jason didn't think they were in any direct danger. Whoever was running the operations center seemed to have more pressing issues than a single, banged-up gunship and its six outlaw occupants. That and it made no sense to torture them with an extended wait just to forcibly board and kill them later when they already had half the crew in their hands.
"Ping their controller," Jason told Kage, who typed a message to transmit to the station's docking controller and leaned back to await the reply. When his console chimed he read it aloud;
"Unidentified vessel, remain docked until clearance is granted to power your drives and detach. Fleet movements take precedence."
"What fleet movements?" Jason wondered. Within the next few minutes he had his answer.
"Captain, the docked raider ships are beginning to power their drives," Twingo said. "It looks like they're all getting ready to leave together."
"Shit. I feel like we're running up on the end of something big here and we're stuck to this dock." Jason worried at his scalp with his right hand and glared at the sensor display that showed ships detaching and drifting up into a loose formation above their relative position in space. The members of Omega Force sat on the bridge of the Phoenix, transfixed at the sensor feed of the "pirate fleet" assembling over their heads. For the next sixty minutes different ships within the formation jockeyed for position and the amassed fleet began to separate into three distinct groups and started moving away from the station and towards the edge of the gas pocket they were in.
"There they go," Kage said softly. Sure enough, the indicators on the sensor display started winking out as the raider ships meshed out of the system.
"Fuck!" Jason raged as he smashed his fist into his right-hand console, nearly startling Kage out of his seat. "Where the hell could that many ships be going at one time?"
"Captain, look," Doc said, his eyes also glued to his sensor display. Jason's head snapped around and he saw the recently-arrived fleet of warships also begin accelerating out of the area, obviously preparing to depart the system.
"Get someone on the com and get us out of here. Tell them to ask Dowarty directly if you have to," Jason said to Kage. The Veran began trying to raise anyone in the station's control center that could get them clearance to detach and leave. "Twingo, get us ready to move. I don't care if they know we're powering up the drives or not."
"On it, Captain," Twingo said, sliding into the engineering station on the bridge and sending the necessary commands to bring the Phoenix's powerplant and main drive up to flight-ready status.
"I'm getting stone-walled, Captain," Kage said in disgust. "They say we're not cleared to leave and that Dowarty isn't available." Jason fumed for a moment before coming to a realization.
"He isn't there," he said quietly. "He told them to hold us and then he left with one of those fleets, probably the newcomers in the shiny warships."
"While that's probably true," Doc said, "where does that leave us?"
"Can we raise the Diligent?"
"Nope," Twingo said before Kage could answer. "Slip-space radios won't operate worth a damn this far into the nebula. Too many funky gravitational anomalies."
"Bullshit," Jason insisted. "Slip-drive still works, it's the same principle."
"Captain," Twingo replied in a pained voice. "The energy required to transmit a signal in slip-space is miniscule compared to the massive amount of power the drives need to output in order to transition a whole ship. The signal would just gets lost in the background noise."
"No boosting the signal?" Jason asked, not willing to give up.
"Oh, of course... why didn't I think of that?" Twingo's acerbic tone convinced Jason to abandon the idea.
"A simple 'No' would have been fine." Jason said flatly. "Looks like we're back to doing things the way we usually do them," he said in a resigned tone. Crusher perked up at that.
"Hell yeah! Let's break some shit!" Jason couldn't help but smile at his enthusiasm.
"We can assume they're getting com traffic in and out of the nebula using the relay system we used on the way in," he said, thinking aloud. "Would that be a specialized type of com node that could reach just outside of this mess?"
"Possibly," Twingo said, looking up to the ceiling to ponder the issue.
"I can tell what you're thinking, Captain. It won't work," Kage spoke up. "If we destroy the com node they'll just send a ship from their hanger to make contact. If you really want to leave in secret we'd have to blow the whole station, and we're not carrying the firepower for that."
"When you're right, you're right," Jason conceded. "Ideas?"
"We sould just leave," Lucky said. "Nobody knows that we are reporting to the Eshquarians, or we would be dead already. It is imperative we leave to warn somebody about the fleets that have departed here. We should just blow the airlock seal and mesh out."
"Twingo," Jason said loudly, smiling at Lucky while he did. "Arm us up... tactical condition Alpha."
"Yes, sir!"
The ship's interior lighting dimmed and took on a red tinge. It was to reduce the degradation of their low-light vision, but Jason always felt like his ship was also tensing up for war, becoming angry when the switch was flipped. A steady, building, sonic thrum was felt on the bridge as the reactor poured power into the offensive and defensive systems while simultaneously bringing the drives online.
"Unidentified ship, you WILL power down your drives and weapon systems and remain docked as instructed." The irate voice of one of the controllers broke in over the emergency broadcast channel, causing everyone to look to Jason.
"It's about to get real, boys," he said quietly. "Target the gangway with the port plasma cannon."
"Target acquired and locked. Let 'er rip, Captain," Kage said with a misplaced feral grin on his wide mouth. Jason mirrored the expression and squeezed the trigger on his stick. The massive plasma bolt blew the gangway in half and still had enough energy left to continue on and strike another docked ship on a different junction, destroying it.
"Oops," Jason said as he advanced the throttle and yanked back on the stick. The Phoenix turned her nose up and pulled away from the station on a wave of gravitational distortion before the controllers could even think about raising an interdiction field to stop them. "Shields!"
"We're pulling part of the gangway with us, Captain," Twingo said. "Shields have a coverage gap on the forward, port quadrant."
"Blow it!" The outer airlock couplings were equipped with explosive
squibs that could blow a coupled seal off the hull. He sheepishly realized that he should have ordered that course of action before firing one of his main guns through the gangway.
The squibs blew the remnants of the airlock coupling away from the hull, sending it drifting slowly away from them as it maintained its forward velocity relative to the ship. Once it cleared away enough, Jason steered towards open space and slammed down the throttle, sending the gunship streaking away before a response force from the station had a chance to launch.
"Clear to jump," Kage reported, having already programmed in a short escape hop.
"Jumping now," Jason said, pulling the throttle back to idle and smacking the oversized control on his right to mesh the Phoenix away from The Complex.
Chapter 12
"Still can't raise the Diligent?" Jason asked. They'd been in slip-space for twenty minutes and had been unable to reach Crisstof or Captain Colleren.
Soldiers of Fortune Page 21