OMEGA Allegiance (18 page)

I gestured towards the console. "Let's get the pressure back up in here and see if we can get anything out of that console. The suit was taken from two dead soldiers."

Dovit turned. "I don't recall seeing any Grumar of that size. Perhaps they were mercenaries."

"You've seen the Grumar?" I said.

Dovit nodded. "When I was first captured. They come from a heavy gravity world, so they are short and stocky. They have ridges going down their backs like you, only their head is wider and their face flatter, with beady eyes and a small mouth. While your appearance is intimidating, theirs is sinister. Their skin tone is slightly darker than the Human's."

Joni replied, "Humans come in a variety of skin tones. It's one of the things that makes us unique when compared to most other species. I've heard some say it shows our adaptability, while others say it points to an obvious weakness in our genetics. There's probably a bit of truth in both theories."

Dovit stood silent for a moment. "Yes, well, I could talk for hours about the variety of skull protrusions on my own people, but let's get back to the console."

Joni returned a slight scowl. Hours were spent looking over the console screens, and then attempting to move further beyond into the networked system that controlled them. Every attempt to move past the basic screens led us to a login screen.

As I looked over Dovit's shoulder I took note of the dual cameras looking back at us. "Tobik, depressurize the room. I'm going out for a minute. I'll see if I can find something to help us get access."

I stepped out into the hallway and began to walk. I was looking for a dead local that I could hold up in front of the cameras. Each body I came across was far too decayed to be recognized by the computer system. Most of the bottom floor of the building we occupied had power from the generator. I caught a lucky break after walking into a food storage area and opening a large freezer. Two locals that had been badly injured had made their way inside, only to later die of their wounds. I grabbed a body by its suit collar and made my way back to the generator room.

I banged on the door. "Hey, it's me."

Once inside, I stood the frozen body up in front of the cameras. "OK, try to access one of the screens that sends us to that login."

Dovit touched several buttons on the console and the login screen came up. As I had hoped, an image of the dead local appeared, followed by a listing of his credentials.

Dovit let out a cry of success. "Yes! Brilliant idea, Emperor! Now, let's see what we can find!"

After several minutes of jumping between screens, it became apparent the local we had retrieved was one of the kitchen staff. The systems we had gained access to were all food service related: shipment schedules, current inventory, menus for the coming week and recipes. It was hardly the treasure trove of information we had been looking for. After a short trip back to the freezer to recover the second body, we found the same access granted. The two dead locals were probably cooks who'd sought refuge in the freezer only to have it be their final resting place. I grabbed the two bodies and began to drag them towards the door.

Dovit spun around in his console chair. Where are you taking them?"

I replied, "I'm putting them back in the freezer. If we ever get any scientists this far out, maybe they will be useful for study."

Dovit half smiled. "You have an interesting mind, Emperor. Always one eye to the future. That is a good leadership quality."

I laughed as I dragged the bodies through the open door. "Yeah, it's a quality. I can't say much about leadership though. Look where I got us."

Dovit stood. "You got us off that planet. The Grumar may be watching our every move, but at least we are being allowed to move. As those Doomlight ships from the surface showed, we do have at least five minutes of freedom to do with as we will."

I spoke as I continued down the hall. "When I get back we should go exploring. The ship's sensors showed two more power sources deep in this complex. If they have nothing to offer, we can always return to here."

I laid the two dead cooks back where they had taken their last breaths. As I closed the freezer door, I looked around the room. I imagined it was not dissimilar to a thousand other food storage areas on a thousand other planets. For all the differences the sentient species in the galaxy had, there were always similarities, similarities that would allow most of us to live together peacefully if we so desired.

As we explored the ruins of the moon complex, the third power source proved to be another small generator whose output ran a computer system. The system was an environmental control which required the backup power system should the main system fail. The environmental systems that it was to power had been destroyed, but the small generator continued to do its job.

The fourth generator was located on the basement floor of what had at one time been the administration building for the complex. As we rounded a hallway corner I caught a glimpse of movement at the far end of the hall. I grabbed Joni, pulling her hard back around the corner.

"Hey! What was that for?" she said.

I held a finger up in front of my face shield. "Quiet. I saw movement down that hall. Someone else is here."

Dovit pulled his laser pistol. "What did you see? Was it more than one person?"

"I can't be certain. All I saw was a shadow."

Dovit gestured towards my helmet light. "Are you sure it wasn't from your own light? I've had that happen several times to me today."

I shook my head. "No, this was movement unrelated to my light. The three of you should stay here. I'll go investigate."

Joni grabbed my arm. "I'm going with."

I shook my head. "You should remain here. If something were to happen, one of us needs to make it back to tell the Alliance of the happenings out here. If we both go around that corner and we both die, that information dies with us."

Joni sighed. "OK. That's a poor excuse, but I can accept it. I'll wait."

I made my way down the hall, clinging to the wall. When I reached the far corner where I'd seen the shadow, I slowly peered around. The hallway beyond was empty. I looked back to the others and waved them forward.

As I traversed the next hall I checked each door as I went. All were locked. When I reached the next corner and peered around, there was again movement at the other end of the hall. I sprinted, stopping just short of the corner.

For some reason I turned off my helmet camera and enabled the external speaker on my helmet. "Who's out there?"

Silence came back.

Again I called. "Who's out there? If you are alone, perhaps we can help. Show yourself."

I took a step back as a figure stepped into the light. It was Garrett!

I turned off my comm. "Why were you running from us?"

Garrett shook his head. "I didn't recognize that battle-suit. I didnt know it was you."

I gestured with my hands. "Is the
Jess
nearby?"

Garrett replied, "Yes, about two hundred meters from here. After slipping away from the planet I doubled back and landed here. I've been trying to figure out if this place could be of use to us."

I turned on my comm to the others. "Wait where you are while I investigate further. I should only be a minute. It might be a false alarm."

I again disabled my comm.

"Garrett?" I said. "How long could the
Jess
sustain five passengers?"

Garrett was silent a moment. "Mmm. Two months, tops. Are there four of you?"

"Yes. Joni and I have a Moddle General and one of his officers with us. If we leave this place I think it's important that we take them along. We may find allies where we've had enemies."

Garrett replied, "OK, well, we need a better way to communicate than this. How do we get you out of those suits?"

"Do you still have the signal detection gear on the
Jess
?"

"Yes."

"OK, this is what I think we should do. I want to disable anything on this suit that has a connection back to our ship or that emits a signal the Grumar can track."

Garrett stepped closer to the corner. "The Grumar? That's our enemy?"

"Yes. Can you get the detection gear from the
Jess
? We should start on this immediately. Once the Grumar suspect something is wrong here, they'll swarm this place in about five minutes time. Get me one of those signal detectors, I'll wait here."

Garrett turned away. "Be right back."

When Garrett returned he ran a scan. "That suit shows a standard comm channel, a video channel, and … wait. There's another locator beacon, it's way off the normal frequencies. Probably used for ship-board tracking or ID. Turn around and I'll see if it can be disabled."

I turned to face the other way as Garrett stepped closer.

"There's a device on the back of your helmet. Hold still."

My head jerked forward as an unanticipated blow struck the back of my neck.

I rocked forward. "What the..."

Garrett laughed. "Sorry, I had to use the butt of my blaster rifle. It's no longer functional. Here's the scanner. I would be as discreet as I could be with its use. If they have cameras set up on that ship, you don't want them to see that you are using it."

After heading back to the others I enabled my camera and comm.

I came around a corner to the others. "We need to get back to the ship."

Joni gave me a confused look. "Well, what was it? What did you see?"

"I was just chasing shadows, as Dovit suggested."

Dovit gestured forward. What about the power source?"

"We can check it later. I think we should go back to the ship and allow our suits and oxygen supplies to recharge. We don't know if we might get caught out here for a while."

Joni pressed. "You are acting a bit strange. Why is your helmet light off?"

I reached up, flipping it on. "Sorry. I turned it off to let my eyes adjust to the darkness. Nothing of interest was there."

Once on the ship the others took a break to eat. I walked around with the scanning device tucked neatly in the palm of my hand. Logging every camera and listening device was no easy task. As suspected, the shuttle was flooded with cameras, microphones, and any number of other signal gathering devices. There would be no way to disable the prying eyes of the Grumar without alerting them to the fact that we knew they were watching.

I stopped in front of the others. "When we are done here, I think we should transport our supplies down to the generator room and then lock ourselves in there for a couple months. I don't like the exposure of this ship."

Dovit looked up. "How is down there going to be any different?"

I replied, "I can't say. But I think we need to be off of this ship for a while. At least down there they are probably only watching us on our helmet cameras. Perhaps we can figure out how to disable them."

Dovit shook his head. "You take these cameras offline and the Grumar are going to come in here to either turn them back on or take us back. I say let them watch."

Joni stood. "I tell you what … Knog and I will take half the supplies down to the generator room while you two remain here with the other half. I want another crack at that computer system down there. You two can go explore that fourth power source while we work on breaking into that computer. That way we have both places to fall back on should something happen. If the time comes for us to leave, we'll carry the supplies back up and head out."

I interjected, "On your way to the power source, stop and check every room for anything of interest."

Dovit thought for a moment. "That is a reasonable suggestion. We will assist with the supplies and then explore as we make our way to the other power source."

As we carried several boxes out of the ship and into a stairwell, Joni spoke. "What are—"

I shook my head, and gestured that she should remain silent.

When the last box of our half of the supplies was placed in the generator room, Dovit and Tobik left to explore. I sealed the door and pressurized the room, removing my helmet when the chime sounded on the console that the pressurization task was complete. I gestured for Joni to remove her helmet. When she set it on a countertop, I turned it to face away from us. I used my fingers to spell out a message in the air.

Garrett is here
.

Joni stepped back in disbelief before crafting a message of her own.

Where
?

I pointed towards where I had seen the shadow.

We need to move all of the supplies off that shuttle and onto the Jess.

Joni offered a perplexed expression.

Why?

I again spelled out:

That's the only way we can leave this place without the Grumar knowing.

Joni looked around the room, locating a pen and a set of paper reports to draw upon.

How are we going to manage moving these supplies without them knowing? We can't leave this room without our helmets.

I took the pen.

We don't have to move the supplies. Garrett will. What we have to do is get the other half off that shuttle so he can pick them up. The moment the Grumar suspect something is up, we'll only have about five minutes before they are swarming this place. If we can get all of the supplies on the Jess, we can leave and disappear before they know we're gone. It will be cramped on that small ship, but at least we will have the supplies to last us for what should be long enough to get us back through the portal.

Joni retrieved the pen.

And how do we get Dovit and Tobik on board with this?

I replied to Joni's scribble.

We don't. They can't know anything until the moment comes for us to leave. We give them ten seconds to make their decision. If they can't decide, we'll have to leave them.

Joni winced at the thought.

OK, I'm in. Just tell me what you need and when you need it.

I gestured for her to sit next to her helmet. "Let's see if we can make any progress on this computer system."

When Joni sat, I took the pen and wrote out my plan for Garrett.

"I'm heading out to explore for a bit while you do that. Put your helmet back on and let me out of here."

Joni nodded. "Sure thing. Just knock on the door when you want back in."

As I moved down the hallway towards where I had seen Garrett, I turned a corner just in time to see Dovit and Tobik as they headed for the fourth power source. As soon as they passed the corner where I had met Garrett, I stopped following and began to look around. I disabled my camera and comm.

Several minutes passed before Garrett let himself be known. "Don't turn around. I'm right behind you."

I flipped to my external speaker. "This is our plan. We have a room with a generator and air supply that we have offloaded half of our supplies into. We want you to carry them from there to your ship. When you are done, I'll contact you for the other half. I scanned that shuttle we are flying, there are far too many bugs for us to try to remove. We're all going to have to leave here on the
Jess
.

"The space on her is very limited," Garrett replied. "We'll have to get creative. Our biggest issue might be the oxygen generator, keeping up with a supply for five, not with our food supplies. In the meantime, I have tracking devices for both you and Joni that will let me know where you are. Place this piece of tape up under your arm, on the outside of that suit. I should be able to safely track you without you spewing a signal for everyone to see."

I raised my arm. "Put it there for me. I'll add the other to Joni's suit. Follow me back to the room where our supplies are being kept. Once we leave, start moving them to the
Jess
. Take a route that is other than the way I take you, we don't want to run into the others. If all goes well, we will convince them to leave with us."

Garrett replied, "And if they don't agree to leave?"

I shook my head. "Then we leave them here. They will still have the shuttle to take them back to the planet, although, I believe they would prefer to go with us."

Shortly after my conversation with Garrett, I knocked on the door to the generator room. "Hey, it's me."

When Joni answered, I directed her to turn around and to raise her arm. The tracking tape was applied.

I gestured towards the door. "Let's go explore for a bit."

Joni nodded as she reached to close the door.

I held up my hand. "Leave it open. In case Dovit and Tobik return."

Joni replied, "OK, where are we headed?"

I pointed in the direction of the fourth power source. "Let's pay Dovit and Tobik a visit. See what they found."

After a short walk we came to a door in the middle of a hallway. The fourth power source was located just beyond.

As Joni reached for the knob, I grabbed her arm. "Hold on."

I spoke over the comm. "Dovit? Tobik? Are you there?"

The comm channel remained silent.

"Look at this wall. Those pock marks are from someone taking shots from behind that door," I said.

I looked up and down the hall and pointed. "See that camera down there? I'm guessing there is someone on the other side of that door, who knows their way around the still-functioning systems of this complex. I would bet they are watching us right now. I think we need to go back to the shuttle. If we don't meet up with Dovit and Tobik, they are probably behind that door."

When we arrived at the shuttle, the two Moddles were nowhere to be found.

I sat in the pilot's chair and looked over the displays. "Well, if the Moddles were taken, the Grumar don't seem to care."

Joni replied, "Let's go ahead and move the other supplies down to the generator room for Garrett. I don't like leaving them here on the shuttle."

I spun around in the chair. "Agreed, but let's wait for an hour or so. Give Dovit and Tobik a chance to return. If they don't, we'll move the supplies. After that, we'll go back to check that room."

Joni nodded. The hour passed quietly. The time was needed to allow Garrett a chance to move and store the first half of the supplies. Before we began our second supply drop I set up the nav console on the shuttle so that I would be alerted when and if any Grumar ships approached. If the alarm sounded, it would be our five minute warning to make haste for the
Jess
. I had hopes that Dovit and Tobik were alive. With our supplies secure, we would make an attempt at finding them.

Not long after, I set down the final box, containing an uncomfortable Raptor, just outside the generator room. I remained outside the room as I feared giving the watching Grumar an image of our missing supplies. I had to assume that Garrett had completed or was near completion of his task and that he would recognize the new boxes needed transport as well.