Omega Force: The Enemy Within (OF4) by Joshua Dalzelle

Author:Joshua Dalzelle [Dalzelle, Joshua]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2014-02-08T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

Jason was on the bridge alone during “night hours” while the rest of the crew slept, sitting at one of the side stations and puzzling over a way to defeat the ConFed detection apparatus they’d erected around RU933. He’d come at the problem a few different ways, but the result was always the same: the Phoenix wouldn’t be able to get close enough to the Diligent to make the extraction without the defending ships being alerted and engaging them. If the intel was accurate, the defense force around the planet was light, but would still cause major problems for a single gunship trying to sneak in.

He toyed with the idea of trying to mesh-in beyond the boundary of the detection network, but a few computer simulations later he abandoned the idea. Attempting to come out of slip-space so close to such a large gravity well was borderline suicidal. The results could be anything as mundane as popping out near the planet’s core to the more exotic, like being extruded back into the universe in a stream of disassociated molecules. At least either would be painless, but not especially helpful.

“I see you have not made significant progress on the problem, Captain.” Jason didn’t jump, but his muscles clenched up in surprise at the voice.

“How the hell did you sneak up on me, Lucky?”

“It was not difficult. You are completely distracted by your simulations,” Lucky said. Jason looked up and the battlesynth was standing stock still, had no discernible facial expressions, yet he looked like he had more to say. The fact that he could now read the synth’s body language spoke to how far he, and Lucky himself, had come in recent years.

“There was more?” he asked.

“I may have a solution to the problem, but it is neither easy nor safe,” Lucky said after a moment of hesitation.

“Go on.”

“Your idea of drifting the ship through the grid is the right approach, but the wrong execution,” Lucky said. “The Phoenix will always end up being caught because it simply has too much mass. But, I don’t. And neither do you when you’re encased in your armor.” Jason swallowed hard at the implications, but pressed ahead.

“The fact you’re approaching me about this tells me you’ve already thought this out to the last, tiny detail,” Jason said. “You’ve done this before?”

“Many times,” Lucky affirmed. “I was once in a cadre of other battlesynths who took part in specialized raids. We would drift through open space for weeks at a time in order to execute an unexpected attack against orbital facilities or even other ships.”

“There were a group of you that did this?” Jason shuddered at the thought of being boarded by a group of soldiers like Lucky. There’d be no stopping them short of scuttling the ship.

“Yes. Ten individuals including myself.”

“How old are you, Lucky?”

“Eighty-four years. Is that relevant in some way?” Lucky asked.

“Just a passing curiosity,” Jason said. “We’re all still carrying around a lot of baggage from our previous lives. Anyway, go on.

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