Omega Force: Savage Homecoming Read online

  "So ... what's the story with him?" Jason asked the Veran when he had reclaimed his seat in the lounge. He had to wait for the fit of giggles to subside before he got an answer.

  "He passed out early so Crusher and I were going to tie him up naked to the gantry crane in the cargo bay," Kage said, unable to keep a straight face.

  "You guys really have to stop doing that to him," Jason admonished while trying to bite back his own laughter. "You know he controls all of the systems on this ship, don't you? That includes where the sewage is routed to, how much breathable air your quarters have, what chemicals end up in your drinking water ... You keep messing with him, don't come crying to me when the inevitable happens."

  "Noted."

  "I'm going to go get cleaned up. I want to be off-world in a couple of hours," Jason said as he stood up, feeling an order of magnitude better than he had when he had awoken. "Rouse these guys up and ... Where's Lucky?"

  "He said something earlier when I woke up the first time about going for a walk in the spaceport terminal."

  "You're shitting me," Jason said incredulously. "Why?"

  "I dunno. Something about facing your fears or some such nonsense."

  "He needs to tell me if he's leaving the ship like that," Jason said to nobody in particular, as he was already walking back towards his quarters. Over the last two years, Lucky had made tremendous strides when it came to being in large groups of beings. Despite being one of the most powerful soldiers Jason had ever seen, the details of his life up to that point had left him distrustful of the motivations of others and he preferred to avoid large public gatherings.

  Once in his quarters, he stripped off his clothes, wincing at the smell that the previous night had imparted, and tossed them into the corner for the cleaning bot to grab. He had no idea where he got the hat he was wearing, but he did see it was too large for his head and seemed to have holes in the top that had likely accommodated a pair of large ears at one time. He tossed it on his desk and decided he probably didn't want to know the details. Before walking into his private head to shower, he saw a blinking red light on his console. That usually meant the computer had identified an Earth broadcast he might be interested in or, on rare occasions, it meant a direct communication from an email address he had set up. There was only one person who knew that address, and the possibility set his heart pounding in his chest as he stepped into the misting jets of the shower.

  He had left a small, discreet payload in high orbit above Earth a few years ago that continuously monitored and collected radio, television, and some internet traffic, and forwarded those to the ship via a burst slip-transmitter. He had put the small satellite there at Twingo's advice and he was exceedingly glad he had listened. While he never regretted his decision to leave Earth and work out on the fringe of civilization as a mercenary, he did suffer from a bought of homesickness from time to time.

  After drying off and dressing, and feeling much better in the process, he sat at the terminal and logged into the transmission packet, a sense of anticipation tingling in his gut. He was completely unprepared for what he found. There were indeed several emails from Taryn, but there were also several emergency news broadcasts on a global scale. With trembling hands he started with the first one from a UK news organization and watched.

  "It's unclear as to what the aliens want; so far the government has been tight-lipped on whether there has been any direct communication. All we can report is what you likely already know: three large spacecraft entered Earth's atmosphere yesterday and have taken up position over three major cities in the United States, including Washington, D.C."

  Jason tuned out the talking head as he stared at the high-definition video of an enormous ship braking to a stop over the Potomac River. It looked like it might have been a cargo hauler at one time, but Jason had never seen that particular make of ship. His blood pounding in his ears, he selected the next one.

  "... has shot down three helicopters that have approached the ship. This is day two since the visitors have arrived, and the actions this morning have officials wondering as to their intent. We'd like to remind our viewers to please, please remain calm and to take no action until advised ..."

  And then the next one.

  "On this third day since what some are dubbing 'The Arrival' we have now learned that the ships appear to be accessing our communications networks and have been downloading—"

  The picture pixilated and wavered and then was replaced by a black screen before a new voice came over the broadcast. It was a voice that sounded quite familiar to Jason even after all the time that had passed.

  "—People of the planet Earth. I'd like to say we come in peace, but that will be entirely up to you." The picture scrambled into another fit of static before resolving into the face of the speaker who had hijacked the broadcast. Jason's blood turned to ice when he saw it and realized who it was.

  Deetz.

  "DAMN! DAMN! DAMN!!!" Jason raged and slammed his fist into the screen as hard as he could, his augmented strength sending his arm through the display in a shower of sparks. He slumped back in his seat, blood trickling down his arm onto the floor.

  "CAPTAIN?!"

  Jason's vision was tunneling and his ears were ringing; in his state of shock he didn't hear Lucky override his door and rush in, weapons charged. Doc rushed in right behind him and took in the scene. He looked over Jason's shoulder and saw Deetz's smirking visage frozen on the remains of the display. In spite of the cracks and the hole punched through it, he could still recognize who it was.

  "Oh, shit."

  Chapter 2

  After calming Jason down as much as they could, the crew met in the small conference room on the command deck and began watching all the news feeds the relay satellite had forwarded. From what they could tell, a formation of three starships had entered Earth’s atmosphere and spread out to cover the continental United States. After three days of communication silence and a few attacks on U.S. military aircraft, they broke com silence and broadcast on all media channels simultaneously as Deetz issued his ultimatum.

  “We have no desire to destroy you, or your way of life. We’re here for one man; if we get him … we’ll leave with no further hostilities. The man I’m looking for is an American named Jason Burke. He would have returned to Earth nearly three of your years ago in a small but powerful ship, and likely returned to seclusion in the Rocky Mountain region of North America …”

  Deetz was droning on, obviously relishing not only being the center of attention but also being in such a superior position to everyone else on the planet. His broadcast was interrupted with various still shots of Jason that appeared to have been taken onboard the Phoenix when he had first boarded her. Jason observed it all through a haze as his crew, somewhat separated from the situation, prattled on about what the synth wanted or whom he had allied with. He listened to them until he could take no more.

  “ENOUGH!!” he roared, slamming his fist down onto the table with enough force that his crew’s conversation stuttered to a jerky stop. They all stared at him in stunned silence. “This conversation is getting me nowhere. Here’s what is going to happen; this ship is wheels-up in less than ten minutes. Earth is my home, none of you have any stake there so you have those ten minutes to decide if you’re going to stay or leave. If you leave you can pull money from the treasury to buy passage wherever you want and if I make it back I’ll come pick you up again.” He stood up meaningfully and went to the door. “That’s all I have to say on this subject until this ship is in slip-space.”

  He stomped onto the bridge and began stabbing forcefully at the controls, waking the Phoenix and beginning the pre-start on her primary flight systems. The ship hummed and vibrated as power coursed through her and displays began blinking on throughout the bridge giving him status. He had no idea what he planned to do, but he knew he was a solid six-day flight from Earth and he could try and come up with something along the way.

  As he slid into the pilot
’s seat and tried to find comfort in the routine task of prepping his ship for flight, the other members of the crew walked onto the bridge and silently moved to their usual stations. Jason looked at them all a moment before speaking. “This may be a one-way ticket, boys. We have no idea who those ships belong to, and if we have to ditch you have to understand that Earth may not be a safe harbor for you.”

  “Just get us in the air and on our way, Jason,” Twingo said gently. “Your people need us.” Five grim, determined alien faces looked back at Jason and he was nearly overcome with emotion for a moment.

  “Thank you all,” he said simply. “Kage, get us cleared to leave. Twingo, make sure she’s ready for this flight; it’s going to be brutal.”

  Twenty seconds later, Kage began to feed him navigational data and Jason taxied off the pad onto the active ramp. They were third in line and lifted off smoothly after a private courier ship had cleared the area, climbing up into the pattern and holding for clearance to burn for orbit. Another fifteen nerve-grating minutes crawled by before Kage forwarded him the course and speed to get them up out of Fournier Prime’s atmosphere. Jason wanted nothing more than to simply stand the Phoenix on her tail and blast away from the planet, but the air traffic was so dense he knew he had an equal chance of plowing into another ship as he did of making it off-world.

  “We’re at departure altitude, one more half-orbit and Fournier Control will release us. Course change coming up on your display now,” Kage said, snapping Jason out of his reverie. He was dangerously distracted right now and he knew it, so he did something that was utterly out of character for him: he accepted Kage’s navigational inputs and engaged the autopilot. Twingo and Doc exchanged a meaningful look as the Phoenix’s computer took over flying duties to get them to their mesh-out point.

  “How long until we can engage the slip-drive?” Jason asked.

  “Four minutes,” Kage answered as the computer veered them away from the planet and accelerated them into open space. After a few more moments, Jason got the indication they were cleared for slip-space transition and hit the control on his right. There was a hum that climbed in pitch and intensity before the canopy darkened and the Phoenix smoothly meshed out of the system on its way to Earth. They slowly ramped the drive up to full power until there was a perceptible, constant vibration as the ship strained for all she was worth to shave time off the trip. Twingo closely monitored his displays for any sign the drive or the powerplant wasn’t able to handle the abuse.

  “I’m going to call Crisstof,” Jason said as he walked off the bridge. “He’ll need to know we’re off the grid for a while.” He walked back along the command deck until he came to the com room, a small nook crammed with communications gear, stand-alone computer cores, and a tabletop-style touch panel display. He sat in one of the console seats and began the process for establishing a secure link with the Diligent, one of Crisstof’s ships. Even if he wasn’t aboard, it was likely they could patch him through. It only took a moment for the Diligent to decode and accept his com request.

  “Hello, Captain Burke.” Kellea Colleren’s face appeared on the display. The slip-link was excellent and there was hardly any distortion or lag. “I thought you and your crew were taking some down-time. I hope this isn’t a call requesting we intercede on your behalf with local law enforcement.”

  “I’m afraid not, Captain,” Jason said, not in the mood to be prodded or teased. “There’s been a situation and I’m calling to let you, and Crisstof, know that we’ll be out of touch for a bit. I can’t say how long, exactly.” Captain Colleren actually managed to look mildly concerned as she sat up a little straighter, no mean feat given her usual ramrod-like posture.

  “Maybe you’d better give me a little more detail,” she said. Sighing, Jason began his explanation.

  “My home planet was attacked recently by an unknown force. Three starships and one soon-to-be-dead synth arrived at Earth and are demanding that I be turned over.”

  “Three ships against an entire planet?” She seemed skeptical, but she had no idea how comparatively primitive Earth was.

  “That’s more than enough … believe me,” Jason said. “If I wanted to I could rule Earth with just the Phoenix. We’re not even a space-faring culture; I’m the only one out here as far as I know.”

  “So what do they want with you?”

  “I don’t think it’s a ‘they’ as much as a ‘he’. The synth and I have a history, and it appears he wants some sort of revenge, but I would have never believed he’d go through this sort of trouble. We’re heading there now at maximum slip velocity, but we’re still days away.”

  “Crisstof will be back aboard within a day, I’ll inform him of the situation. Good luck, Jason … I hope you’re not biting off more than you can chew.” Jason smiled at the Earth colloquialism she had picked up from him, probably without realizing it.

  “I don’t really have a choice now, do I?” he asked sadly.

  “No, I guess you don’t. Happy hunting. Diligent out.”

  When the screen blanked he just sat there and stared into it. The reflection on the black surface unnerved him a bit. His body was jam-packed with alien wetware and genetic manipulation, and his mannerisms and outlook had changed drastically by living with other species for so long … how human was he, really, at this point? More importantly, how did he reconcile the fact that his decision to let Deetz go had likely cost untold lives on his own planet? He had been insufferably smug about his superior morality when he had let the synth go; now it appeared he had grossly underestimated the being and humanity was paying the price for his hubris.

  “How are you holding up?” Jason jumped slightly at the interruption and turned to see Doc standing in the doorway.

  “As well as I can. Gonna be a long flight, though, that’s for sure,” Jason said with a sigh.

  “That’s what I want to talk to you about. Pacing for six days is not going to do anything but leave you exhausted and drive us insane. I’d like to help you get some rest and keep you on a normal sleep cycle,” Doc said tentatively, fearing a blowup he felt sure was coming.

  “That may not be a bad idea,” Jason agreed, much to his shock. “Won’t my implants just filter out any sleep agent though?”

  “You can command them not to. Come to the infirmary and I’ll show you the proper syntax. May as well get some sleep now. Lucky, Crusher, and Kage are poring through the news broadcasts you downloaded from Earth, and will start trying to get an identification on those ships. It’d be best if you let them work without interruption or bias.”

  “That’s blunt enough,” Jason said huffily. “Fine, let’s get started.”

  Forty minutes later and Jason was sound asleep in his quarters as the Phoenix plowed on.

  Chapter 3

  Jason awoke in a full flop sweat panic as he had no idea how long he’d been asleep. It was an unusual sensation for him, since his implants kept him aware of the time down to the second. After a moment he remembered he had disabled some of the functions so he could rest. His quarters were dark and he could still feel the slip-drive thrumming at high-output, so they were still in transit to Earth. It’s not like he thought his crew would actually let him sleep through the upcoming festivities, but those first few moments after waking up were quite disorienting. After going through the process to reinitialize most of his implants’ functionality he felt much better.

  He slipped his legs over the edge of the bed and grabbed his boots, bloused his grey cargo pants into the tops out of habit, and walked out to see where they were. According to ship’s time he’d been asleep a little over ten hours and, though he hated to admit it, he did feel more focused and ready to face whatever was hovering over his planet. He jogged up the stairs to the command deck and heard voices coming from the conference room, including one from someone who wasn’t actually on the ship.

  “Hello, Crisstof,” he said by way of greeting as he entered the room, nodding to the members of his crew that were alrea
dy there and seated.

  “Captain Burke, you have my most sincere sympathies at this moment,” the always urbane Crisstof said. “In fact, we were just discussing how I might be able to help. Doc sent us your news footage and I must admit, we’re a little stumped as to who is attacking your planet.”

  “You didn’t recognize the ships?” Jason asked.

  “Nope,” Twingo volunteered before Crisstof could answer. “They don’t match up to any known manufacturer that is common in this region. Not only that, but they look like antiques. The visible drive signatures on the video are consistent with a type of plasma drive that hasn’t been used for a few centuries.”

  “That still puts them centuries ahead of anything Earth has,” Jason said sourly. “Could Deetz have found them somewhere and automated them? Is he just sitting in one of them and controlling the other two remotely?”

  “It’s possible,” Twingo conceded, stressing the second word. “But improbable. Those ships are just too old, and the older a ship the less automation it will have. If he was going to go through that sort of trouble, and he knew he was attacking Earth, why not just get a couple of modern freighters with some light armament?”

  “Captain,” Crisstof interjected, “you know how this Deetz thinks, why do you think he’s coming after you now after all this time?”

  “I wish I could tell you,” Jason said. “To say I know how he thinks is giving me too much credit. He had me fooled up until it was almost too late the first go-round. I do know he’s entirely self-serving and a coward. I still have trouble believing this is really just about me.”

  “We’ll keep trying to identify whom the ships belong to,” Crisstof said. “In the meantime, I’d like to position the Diligent closer to your location. Could you send Captain Colleren the location for the Solar System? We’ll head towards you in case we’re needed.” Jason’s hesitation didn’t go unnoticed.