The Ballad of Omega Brown 3:
Omega and the Sorcerer of Space Station 9
by Tom Vaine
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Table of Contents parts: 1, 2, 3 |
part 2
After Omega’s call, Hoonra moved immediately. Recalling the map Omega had shown her, she went with speed and silence down the hallway. Farther on, two Drones rounded a corner, but they were moving in the opposite direction, regarding Hoonra not a bit. The Karackian crouched at the hallway corner, peering around its edge before moving forward. From what she could recall, the survivor’s room should now lie just a little way ahead.
Hoonra counted the doors as she passed, stopping where she thought appropriate. The portal before her looked just like all the others; without Omega’s map, she couldn’t know for sure. Hoonra considered this situation for a moment. Then, she knocked.
The door swished open. Hoonra was greeted not by armaments and military equipment but by long white coats and diagnostic machines. The human man immediately across from her motioned for her to step in. As the door shut behind her, Hoonra took in the rest of the room.
“You are the survivors we spoke to?” she asked.
“Yes,” the man replied, “I’m Kirin. And you are one of the mercenaries the Confederacy sent to help us?”
“Warriors.” Hoonra corrected, her gaze falling now on the balding man she was speaking with. “How did you know who I was?”
As if the answer was obvious, Kirin motioned to the equipment and survivors around him. “We could see you through the hallway surveillance screens. Also, the Drones don’t tend to knock. The Hive has kept us corralled in here. It’s a control room, but I don’t think they care.” Hoonra could hear the resignation behind his words. “Why should they? Nothing our mercs did even seemed to slow them down. ”
“Your mercs? Are you not warriors yourselves?”
“No, goodness no.” Kirin turned from her, shuffling between the consoles and computing stations to stand beside one of the major screens. Hoonra followed. “We’re scientists. This station was meant for research; that’s why it was overrun so easily.” He frowned. “That said, I don’t think that a full squadron of guards would have made much difference. The way those Drones work...” He trailed off, his expression suggesting unpleasant memories.
“What were you researching here?” Hoonra asked, working to keep the scientist focused.
“Oh the planet, of course. The clouds cover an incredible ecosystem, and the planet itself showed signs of having been inhabited by quite an advanced alien race. We managed to send a few expeditions down there, to what looked like an old tomb or religious site of some kind. It was just after we brought some of the relics back here that the Hive showed up.”
“Interesting. I hope for your sake that you found everything you had hoped for.” Hoonra began walking back towards the door. “Now, though, it is time for us to leave.” As she spoke, a number of scientists glanced up from what they were doing. All of them considered Kirin who, in turn, seemed to deflate even further into his own discomfort.
“We can’t go yet.”
“Yes, we can.” Hoonra did not stop moving. “Now.”
“It’s just,” the scientist looked to his peers for aid, but as a group they seemed suddenly interested in their screens, “we can’t leave the relics here. Really. They’re one of a kind artefacts. And the Hive wants them, for some reason, which means they must be something special. We just haven’t had a chance to give them a thorough examination yet.” Before Hoonra could answer, Kirin motioned for her to join him at the nearest console. In it, she could see the burned remains of three different Drones all scattered around a very impressive set of doors. “We’ve been watching that friend of yours,” Kirin continued. “He’s pretty handy with that firearm, but it won’t last. What you see there is the vault door. It seems to be the only thing we’ve got that the Hive hasn’t just burst through. The relics are inside. Look, there’s more than enough of us to carry what we need out of there, and we can be quick. That door is just a block or so away. Help us get what we need from there, and then you can take us out of here.”
“Unacceptable.” Hoonra’s answer was so sharp that Kirin winced.
“Well,” he began, sounding decidedly cowed, “then we aren’t going with you. You can just leave us here. We’ve figured out a way to blow the station.” As he spoke, a few of the other scientists looked over their shoulders. Hoonra could see that none of them was enthusiastic. “We’ve all talked. We’ve put too much time into this for the Hive to make off with it now. They think we’re not a threat, but they haven’t been paying enough attention to us here.” He straightened his back. “If you won’t help us, you might as well leave. We’ll start the sequence once you’re off.”
Hoonra stood there for a moment, regarding the much smaller man before her. She could see the sweat droplets forming on his head. Finally she spoke. “You defend your work out of honour? You would rather die than see it destroyed or undone?”
“Yes,” Kirin managed. Hoonra nodded.
“I understand. We will retrieve your relics. Omega has provided the distraction. And we will be quick. He needs us.” Hoonra scanned the screens. She could see Omega now, moving down another hallway. He was taking the long way back to the ship, buying her all the time she would need to get the scientists away. Behind him, laser blasts flashed, marring the walls as he dodged passed. She raised her communicator.
“Omega.” She called. The communicator spat static back at her. She frowned and motioned to the controls. “I need to speak to him through your device.”
“Can’t. The Hive shut those down shortly after you got here. I think they figured we were up to something when you chose to land. They’re self-assured but not totally arrogant. They don’t think we can make it off-system, but I also think they’d rather we didn’t try.”
“So,” said Hoonra, marching back to the door, “then we must be quick. More than quick. We go for your relics. Be ready.” She opened the door before Kirin could answer, urging the now scrambling scientists into the hallway with her.
* * *
Omega had decided that the next time and, regardless of equipment or feelings of guilt, it would be Hoonra’s turn to be the bait. He dropped to one knee when he heard another Drone approaching. When it rounded the nearest corner, he fired, catching its front leg and severing it. The machine toppled forward and, as it did, Omega fired again, boring a hole through the top of its cylindrical head.
He shifted to a crouch, anticipating the other two Drones in the triad. As he stood, he gave his rocket boots a quick burst, propelling him through the air and past the corridor entrance. He fired a continuous beam as he leapt, slashing the next Drone from one side to the other, darkening its single red lens.
Two of three down, but he nearly fell instead of landing when he saw the other eight or so moving in. He hit the ground running while electricity and laser blasts charred the wall behind him. That trick had worked not one corridor back. The Drones, it seemed, were becoming annoyed. They weren’t too fast, which was lucky for him, but they were tough. And well armed. And, increasingly, they were everywhere.
Omega had finished by the vault door and taken off in what he assumed was the direction of the hanger. This turned out not to be the case. Between the monotone grid of the station’s white and chrome corridors, and the probable concussion given to him earlier, Omega had gotten himself turned around and more and more trapped. The distraction, he decided, had gone on long enough. Omega fired under his arm at the horde that would now be rounding the corner, and keyed his wrist comm.
There was no response.
Cursing, Omega pressed himself into a door jamb, the thin ledge providing scant cover. He tried his comm again, keying the maps as he did so.
Again, no response. Omega remembered the electrical charge that had shot up his arm. He spit.
“Why do these things never go the way I envision?”
He crouched and used his rocket boots to hurl himself into motion once more, but the Drones had learned his technique. Their shots didn’t hit him properly, but they did overload the lighting panel above him. Omega crashed to the floor, his boots forcing him further onwards and into the next intersection. Lasers scorched the floor behind. He reached out, yelling as he went, catching a panel edge of the hallway corner as he zipped passed. He hung on, using his momentum to swing into the corner and slide to the left down this new passage.
There were Drones here as well, but only a triad and, though they fired, their shots were erratic, as if collectively unable to interpret their foe’s new strategy. Omega, meanwhile, tried his utmost to make the best of this literal turn of events. He brought his ray gun around, splashing the hallway with sustained beams. He scorched the lead Drone, but his high speed slide prevented any kind of accuracy. The Drones, seeming finally to appreciate that he was not yet out of the fight, began strafing the floor, blocking the hall as they did it.
Firing again, and laughing now at the sheer break-neck stupidity of it all, Omega decided to double down. He pushed himself upward with his hands and tucked in his legs as best he could, launching himself back upwards, level with their heads. He fired again, drilling one above the lens before flicking his arm, melting a deep gash across the other’s head and torso. This manoeuvre unbalanced his flight, twirling Omega directly into the third Drone. He had just enough presence of mind to deactivate his boots before impact.
The Drone braced, but was clearly unprepared, and the pair of them tumbled backwards rolling over each other and into the wall behind. Omega pulled himself upright, reflecting that he was much better at taking the hits he could see coming. As the Drone began righting itself, he leveled his ray gun. The Drone hadn’t yet stood again before he’d put it back down.
Omega winced a little as he stood, rubbing his shoulder. “I wonder if the guards here tried any of that.” Behind him, at the other end of the hallway, the Drone horde had finally caught up. Omega ducked their first volley and looked around. For once the hallways seemed clear. Trusting his luck, and with little other choice, he jogged towards the most likely route. It was time to get back to the ship.
* * *
Hoonra had managed to herd the scientists along at a fair pace, and without any interference from the Hive. Wherever Omega had gotten to, he’d certainly provided an appropriate distraction. As the team neared the vault door, Kirin emerged from the pack.
“I have the key card,” he said, producing it from one of his many pockets. “I just need to check something first.”
“I am sure you can check once the door is open.” Hoonra stood with her back to the vault , scanning the halls.
“No, it’s not like that.” Kirin leaned close to a tiny readout screen, punching keys as he did so. “This isn’t just a safe. It’s a decompression chamber. The surface pressure on that gas giant is extraordinary. We couldn’t just bring the artefacts out without trying to stabilize them; they’d have exploded. We were waiting for the decompression experiment to finish when the Hive showed up.”
Hoonra glanced over her shoulder. “Did you say experiment? As in, if the experiment fails, there will be nothing of use inside this chamber?”
“Uh” — Kirin but his lip — “well, yes. What we were doing, it’s never been tried before. Nobody’s ever made it to the surface of that world before, let alone brought anything back with them. A major part of our work here was testing to see if it could even be done.”
Hoonra turned fully, regarding the vault door. “And not a mark here from the Hive.”
“It’s extraordinary, isn’t it? Of all the things we had to stop them, I can’t believe it was this door.”
Hoonra shook her head. “It did not stop them. You say they arrived just after the experiment started? They knew. This is why they kept you alive. They wanted you to do the work for them.” The scientists huddled by the door looked at each other in disbelief.
“They weren’t trying to get inside.” Kirin’s face reddened as the realization hit home. “They were monitoring the test. They were guarding it.”
“Is it complete?” Hoonra asked. Kirin looked back at the onscreen readouts.
“Yes, just a few minutes ago, in fact.” He frowned, rubbing his chin. “These readouts are not what I expected. The test is complete, and the sensors say that there is something inside but...” He looked to his colleagues and then back to Hoonra. “Well, only one way to know for sure, right?” Kirin keyed the door control.
There was a rumbling sound in the walls as the pressure locks gave way. The door sank into the floor.
The lighting inside was obscured by the vapours floating around, and Hoonra could see very little. Kirin stepped in, his peers behind him, and began wading through the dispersing fog. Someone moaned.
“What is it?” Kirin asked, and then he too let out a small wail. “No, no!” He lifted the remains of a vase from the floor. Holes spread across its surface and it cracked a little as he held it. “It didn’t work. Not properly anyway. Dammit.” He looked around. “There must be something worth salvaging in here.” He motioned to the other scientists. “Have a look everyone. We have the data records at least, but there must be something physical worth taking with us.”
Hoonra looked back, scanning the halls once more before moving in. The fog at the front of the chamber had mostly dispersed, revealing what looked like a large stone box. Cracks had formed along its sides and the lid was mostly disintegrated.
“What is that?” she asked.
“We weren’t sure. A sarcophagus of some kind, we assumed.” Kirin stepped forward and peered in. “Looks like it’s empty.”
“Yes,” Hoonra agreed, looking past him through the lessening fog, “it is now.”
Kirin looked up, puzzled. “What do you mean, now?”
Hoonra said nothing, pointing behind him instead. Kirin turned.
“Gods of Order.” he gasped.
“No,” said Hoonra, as the hooded figure at the casket’s end stepped forward, “I do not think Order has anything to do with this.”
* * *
Copyright © 2021 by Tom Vaine
