TASCOM Book 4- Return to Omega

By Christopher Vickers

The Iowa is on a mission to the remains of Omega 550 on what seems to be a salvage operation. The mission quickly turns into a search and rescue mission when Captain B'Laeis receives telepathic evidence that she wasn't the sole survivor like she had always believed. Now she has to help with the rescue, and wrestle with the demons of her past as well!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christopher Vickers
• Release date: Feb 24, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310877209

Christopher Vickers

Christopher Vickers was born in Omaha in 1971; and was raised in Colorado Springs. He currently lives in Colorado Springs with his wife, Dorothy. He enjoys spending time with both sides of the family, and occasionally shooting pool with his brothers and his grandfather.

Book preview

TERRAN ARMED SERVICES COMMAND

BOOK #4

Return to Omega

Written by Christopher Vickers

© 2013 by Christopher Vickers

Published by Two If By Sea Productions via Lulu

ISBN Number [To Be Assigned]

First Release, First Edition

Cover art by the author on 3ds Max 9.0

The following is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is unintentional and coincidental.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Other Terran Armed Services Command Books:

Resurrection

System of the Lost

Avenging Angels

In loving memory…

The entire TASCOM series is dedicated to the memory of SPC William L. Bailey III (1977-2007). He was a hero in every sense of the word, and died as such serving the United States in Iraq. He was a cousin, a son, a brother, a husband, a father, a firefighter, and a soldier. He has family that misses him dearly to this very day, and to that end I dedicate my work to his memory.

I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

Philippians 4:13, NIV

special acknowledgments

In light of recent circumstances, a special acknowledgment goes to Doctors J. Christopher Pruitt and Joel Ernster for their continued effort in helping me battle Ludwig-Angina Syndrome. A special acknowledgment also goes to the doctors and staff of Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs for their efforts in my treatment of this infection.

I also must acknowledge the family members, be they by blood, marriage or extension thereof, for their continued prayers into the matter; if not for them, I would not have been out of the hospital so quickly.

Finally, my wife, Dorothy, also receives an acknowledgment into this matter for not only making the call that saved my life, but for being there at bedside every moment she could get. Her love and support can’t go unnoticed for a moment. Most of the time you don’t realize what you have until it’s gone, but it had been observed way too many times in the years we’ve been married: you’re a wonderful woman, Dorothy, and your steadfast love and support will not go unnoticed.

Ludwig’s Angina is a rare form of strep throat that goes into a staph infection rapidly, and could cost more than it did my person. It could, if left untreated, cause death fairly rapidly. The best weapon against any illness is awareness thereof, and rapid treatment. Mine was the fastest recovery in the state of Colorado, but it could have been much worse. To that end, I thank everyone that was involved in my treatment with all my heart, and thank God for being with my wife in making certain it was treated with dispatch.

Part I:

Cold Inferno

Prologue

SPACE STATION OMEGA 550

LOCATION CLASSIFIED BY GSA CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE

18 JANUARY 2508, 22:01 HOURS INTERSTELLAR ZULU TIME

THREE YEARS AGO

It was turning out to be a day like any other on the approach of the night cycle on Station Omega 550. The yeoman was making her rounds with the coffee cart, as that was all that kept some of the people going on that station. It was also the only thing that Commander Dylan Trent would allow to keep the people warm on the station, as the ambient temperature on the station was a mere five degrees Centigrade.

Ensign B’Laeis was looking forward to this end of her shift rotation; it was now 2201 hours, and she had a knack of spending from 2230 to 0600 in Operations, and she saved the compartment as the last one she delivered coffee to from the galley. She hated the last five years on the station, but did her best anyway, as she was trying, perhaps a bit too hard, to make an impression with Commander Dylan Trent, the current commanding officer of the station.

She had made an impression already, having used all of her universal training on the station in spite of the fact she was assigned as a yeoman. That universal training had her in the Academy for six years instead of the chartered four. She had graduated a lieutenant, but she accepted a downgrade to ensign on what was promised as a temporary basis. Unfortunately, that was to last as long as she was assigned to the station, and once she was assigned elsewhere, the rank would be reinstated to her.

The graduation rank of lieutenant was made abundantly clear to Dylan Trent, who kept her at the ensign grade so that she wouldn’t mouth off to Diego Martinez, the executive officer of the station. Cheryl Manning was secondary and chief of security; she was the one that B’Laeis had confided in more times than she cared to admit, as something was telling the ensign not to trust Mr. Martinez.

According to the Programming staff, Belle was right not to trust him; they had evidence that Martinez was a traitor in communications with the Keirenev Cell. This was cause to have him shown the front door, but Trent didn’t know what else to do with him, and even showing him the front door had to be sent off to TASCOM High Command, and the communications was suspect since CID was the founding organization of the station, and they were suspect even at this time.

Trent was suspicious of CID, as most of the reports that he’d sent had come back as they were taking the reports into advisement, including the planetary science reports of the core samplings. Even B’Laeis knew that the planet only had 1,300 Terran days left to it. That report had only been delivered within the past 24 hours, and she had spent the first of her time rotation in the science labs. The report was in turn sent to CID High Command, and Trent suspected that the message was intercepted.

She brought the cart into the Operations center and said, How about some coffee, Mr. Fischer?

Make it a double shot of bourbon, Fischer said, and you’ll have a deal.

You know Dylan, she said. He doesn’t allow booze on duty.

Dylan Trent doesn’t allow a lot of shit, Fischer said. That includes our being married, B’Laeis. Since when were you on a first-name basis with Commander Trent?

Since I began to use my universal training; he’s considering me as a replacement for Diego Martinez, should he get the authorization to show him the front door.

It’s better to put him into stasis in the security section, Brandon said. At least with the cryo-stasis, we can bring him back for trial.

And we can’t with simply showing him the main hatch, is that it?

"Belle, I’m here because I had beaten a target man the AJC wanted alive; he didn’t survive the pummeling, and although my reasons were justified by the captain of the Wellington at the time, the AJC sentenced me here."

Apparently, the AJC didn’t know the circumstances behind what you had done.

They knew all right, Brandon said. They just couldn’t justify beating a man to death. The doctor tried to revive him, but couldn’t. The captain testified that the man threatened not only my life but the captain’s as well. The AJC still wanted the man alive. Therefore, I was sent here, where there wasn’t a chance in hell of that happening again. This same thing is prevalent among 70 percent of the crew. The other 30 volunteered.

I’m in on the 30 percent that volunteered.

You have about as much reason to be here as a screen door on an airlock, Brandon said. And the fact that you’re Biaarnian makes your reasons to be here even more non sequitur.

Keeps the Matriarch off my trail, she jested.

Don’t even joke about that, Brandon said.

Part of me wasn’t joking, she said. I was exiled from my home planet as a child, under the care of my oldest sister, Y’Naeis. All three of us were given orders never to return to Biaarnia Prime under penalty of death.

That’s so wrong! Brandon said. Exiled from the time you’re a baby, and told coming back to your home world, even under the spark of curiosity, would result in your death? That’s just wrong!

It’s kept my sister’s ship from going there, Belle said.

It’s still wrong, Brandon said. I know; don’t bad-mouth another planet’s laws, but that’s pure bullshit.

I’ve known you well enough to know that if I was to marry you, and you ordered me to the surface…

Please! he said. "I’d never give you an order that would harm or kill you!"

I know you wouldn’t, she said. That’s why I had to fill you in on that in case CID ever got the damned message about this planet.

Something tells me that High Command would rather see us blown to bits before doing a damned thing about it.

Granted this planet has only about 1,300 Terran days left to it, but I don’t think that High Command will allow this planet to blow up with so much as one life form on it. TASCOM High Command isn’t built that way, and you know it.

It’s not TASCOM High Command I’m talking about; it’s CID Command.

I don’t think the director would allow this planet to blow with one life sign on it, Belle said, "even if the base is 70 percent TASCOM criminal element."

CID would allow the planet to blow, Brandon said. They seem to be doing just that right now, or they’d have dispatched a cruiser to salvage the station by now, and disperse the crew of the station.

Something tells me that over the past several months, Belle said, communications had been intercepted by the Empire; and Diego Martinez is at the center of that.

Lt. Commander Moron Martinez? Brandon said. The whole damned station is onto his traitorous behavior. The only one that wants more evidence is Commander Trent.

Tell me about it, Belle said. Warlock’s got the evidence on his laptop computer, and Trent isn’t listening; he is blind to the facts!

He’s blinded to the facts for a reason, Brandon said. Otherwise, you’d be a lieutenant instead of a damn ensign. Belle shot him a puzzled look, and he said, Yeah, I knew that you accepted a downgrade in rank to ensign to sign aboard, or you’d be a lieutenant commander yourself by now.

Yeah, she began to jest. If he’d taken me at lieutenant, I’d be gunning for Diego’s job.

And he wouldn’t mind marrying us as much, Brandon said.

Probably not, she said, almost amorously as she leaned in to kiss him. Before their lips could even touch, the alarms sounded, and Brandon said, Fine faarghing time for a drill!

Belle checked the instruments and said, Dylan’s good, but not to this level. I’m reading 20 starships and 200 smaller craft, all fighter size. They’re also signed to the Keirenev Cell.

Smart money is on Moron Martinez, Brandon said.

Yeah, Belle said. I’d bet my engagement band on that.

No bet, Dylan said, walking into the Operations Center. Report status.

We have incoming, and I’m willing to bet a week’s pay on Martinez being at the center of it, Brandon said.

I’m reading 20 starships and 200 fighter-size craft, all Keirenev Cell.

Pricks, Dylan said. Belle, sound the alert; all hands to battle stations. Once you’re done with that, clear the deck.

Aye-aye, sir, she replied.

Get a move on it, Lieutenant, he said. Brandon shot Dylan a puzzled look, and Dylan said, I’m not as blind to the facts as you might think. I’ve relieved Diego Martinez of duty, and named Belle his successor, reinstating her to the grade of lieutenant commander.

I’ll be on Deck Two Operations before you know it, Belle said. I’ll have the distress probe dispatched before they even get here.

She tried to get to the exit to the stairwell, but Martinez appeared at the door and said, I don’t think so, Ensign. Back on the deck now. He produced a pistol and said, Move it!

She pinched the barrel, and a surge of power locked Diego’s grip on the gun. He was being electrocuted in self-defense, which meant he was only being stunned. He collapsed onto the deck in a heap like a sack of potatoes, and Belle said, Nice try asshole.

"That’s going to teach me to underestimate you again, Trent said. Commander."

No shit! Brandon said.

You still need to get to Deck Two to dispatch the probe, Trent said. That just tells me that they’re closer than the scope report indicates; you’re going to have to fox-hole it, Commander.

Aye sir, she replied.

How damn long, Dylan said, does that stun effect last?

I never knew I had the ability, Belle said, so the proper answer is I don’t know, sir.

He’s going to attempt an act of heroism, should he survive this attack, Brandon said. Just like all the other criminals on this base. What was the reason he was sent to this base, Commander Trent?

"According to his file, he had betrayed the Eddington to the Empire some 20 years ago. His survival of that incident was listed as a cut and run; otherwise he’d be dead."

He’s better off that way, Brandon said. Unfortunately, any form of execution is too good for that loser.

Be nice! Belle said.

About a damn traitor? Brandon said. I may have beaten one to death, but I’ve never been called one myself! I would never side with those bastards!

Neither would I, Belle said.

That’s because they think women should be in the kitchen, butt-naked and pregnant.

That’s only the tip of the proverbial iceberg, Trent said. I can’t believe that Martinez would betray us to them; but the evidence against him speaks volumes, and no amount of doing the right thing on his part would make up for it. I’ve already noted such in my official logs, as well as his being relieved of duty, and Belle’s appointment to the XO position.

Maybe you can marry us if we get out of this situation then, sir? Brandon said.

Sorry; can’t afford to let either of you go. If you were to be married, one of you would have to accept deportation from the station, and right now she’s the only one that can leave.

Told you, Belle said.

Commander, clear the faarghing deck!

She crawled into the ventilation duct, and Brandon sealed the grate to the bulkhead behind her. Dylan then said, Hide yourself until you can get to Deck Two and dispatch the damn probe. CID wants to keep this station hidden from TASCOM High Command, but there’s no helping that now. Get that probe sent out!

What about a side-arm?

Wait on that until you get your pretty little ass to Deck Two, Brandon said.

Nothing little about my bubble-butt, she thought as she crawled into the duct.

It was a damn mistake, Dylan said, demoting her to ensign to get her here. She should have taken Diego’s job right off the bat.

Belle knew not to say a word in reply to the compliment to her abilities that Trent had just paid her. She deserved much better and didn’t get the job until too late. The Imperial soldiers raided the base, and she was pinned down inside the duct until she unleashed a massive surge of power that turned everyone on the top two decks of the base into piles of ash.

* * * * *

TCNV Iowa

1,250 days later, Present Day

Sunday, 21 June 2511

20:14 hours Interstellar Zulu Time

B’Laeis, now a sub-lieutenant in TASCOM service, was speaking to a counselor on the ship about the dreams she’d been having for nearly a year at this time. The counselor, a lieutenant herself, leaned forward at the table in the lounge and said, Lieutenant, how long have these dreams been going on?

About a year, she admitted. I never thought anything of it at the time.

But the detail you’re going into is staggering, she said. Including your battlefield promotion to lieutenant commander. By all rights, you should outrank your sister right now.

I accepted the fact that it was a battlefield commission from the word go, Belle said. There wasn’t any use in arguing with Admiral McBride about the commission at the time.

Mike overheard the conversation from the next table over and said, If you had argued it, you’d outrank your sisters…you’d be Captain of the Yeoman Department.

There is no captain of that department, Belle observed. I’m the highest ranked one in there at present, and I rate sub-lieutenant.

I’m going to put in a battlefield commission to match the one Dylan Trent gave you over coded channels, Mike said. That is once I get back to my office, Lieutenant.

You don’t have to…

Don’t give me that, Mike said. The fact you’re getting those dreams is an indication there are more survivors on that base. This means you’re up for the Silver Order of Heroism, if enough survived. Next time, ask a few questions of the people that are sending the message. Find out how many lived through it.

I already know, Belle admitted. There are 55 people living on that base even as of now. The consoles are shot up to hell and back, but only 25 people paid with their lives in that attack.

That’s more than enough for the Silver Order medallion, and a promotion beyond what I’m planning to grant you, Belle. Both of you need to accompany me to my office so I can do this; but it’ll have to wait for the mission to be accomplished. You’re coming along because you are required to enter it into your officer’s log as closed, and that can only be done by revisiting that planet.

That’s too bad, Belle said. I logged it closed once I was rescued from that overgrown snowball.

That may be, Mike said. Unfortunately you have to go back and close it off in your mind as well.

It’s good that you get that closure, the counselor said. There’s evidence suggesting you’re more of a heroine than you care to admit.

I was only doing my job, Belle said. I did what any other officer would have done.

That, Mike said, is bullshit. You saved 55 people.

I still mourn the 25 that died, Belle said. Including Lieutenant Fischer, the one I almost married.

Another reason for you to revisit that planet, the counselor said. To at last bury the love you lost in that attack. God only knows it was a traumatic experience for you, and one you’d sooner forget. However, you should return to it. There is, after all, only about three Terran weeks left for that planet to survive.

Actually, she said, when I saw the report three years ago, there were 1,300 days left to the planetoid before the volcanic and tectonic stresses of it would literally tear it to pieces.

Would you describe the planet as habitable?

It barely passes for Alpha Class, she said. Its temperature outside of the base is a mere 300 Kelvin. The base heaters worked overtime to keep it at a mere five degrees Celsius.

They’re still operating, Mike said. That is according to your sister’s reports on the station.

We don’t have a hell of a lot of time to rescue those people, the counselor said. And when they are rescued, they’ll need severe counseling to be able to report to their next command posts…wherever they may be.

* * * * *

Space Station Omega 550

Time Index 22:19 hours Interstellar Zulu

Lieutenant David Hyde, the leader of the Programming staff on the base, had been working on setting up in the Operations center, getting the laptops rigged to aid in running the station, since he was the only one that had command capability. Lieutenant Commander Manning was needed in her current position in security, with Lt. Commander Martinez being relieved of duty. It was a wonder that the man was still alive, but he had somehow managed to find himself on the Main Deck of the base instead of in Operations when Belle unleashed a surge of electrical power.

Lt. Commander Manning was searching for Lt. Commander Martinez, as he was behind the attack on the base. Since the rescue, he had gone into hiding. He knew that once he was on the Iowa, Belle would identify him as a traitor and he would be in the cryo-stasis chamber awaiting trial; therefore he had to try to contact them one more time, as most of the crew had survived. He was to be rescued from a base that was left with no survivors.

The fact that 55 people had survived the attack meant that Belle’s little electrical attack hit the soldiers early, and the people had all made a run for it. This was a fact that couldn’t be ignored, and Martinez, the one who betrayed them, was left without an option, since the armory was dangerously close to the security section, and Manning was not going to allow him anywhere close to either one without first being frozen. Manning was not one to condone a suicide; she’d rather have dealt with the man in stasis. Frozen people didn’t talk of the Empire, but her orders from Trent were to keep Martinez thawed. Frost announced that the ship was a mere twelve hours from the planet, and she was wishing for a portable stasis unit, but that was in the last supply requisition…the one that the Empire destroyed before coming after the station.

Manning had to find some way of detaining him once he was found, but she was holding out a hope that Belle’s attack killed him, as the stairwell was the only way to the Operations Deck. Belle took a service elevator to the Ops Deck, to which Manning did not have the code. However, being out of coffee troubled all of the Programmers on the Operations Deck, as they lived on coffee. Belle maintained that if they were to be cut open, they’d bleed the stuff.

Ensigns Edwards and Hilton, who ran under the aliases Warlock and Duck, were busy with getting the people that survived the ordeal into the Mess Hall to make certain that they were transported to the ship. Fortunately, Diego Martinez knew that his actions were treason, and that if not for them, he wouldn’t have had to try to save as many people as possible, at extreme risk to his own life for siding with the Empire in the first place. He had helped with herding them into the caverns if they were non-essential three years ago. He was reluctant to help them into the Mess Hall, but when the news was that the magma was going to begin invading into the caverns, he helped them to prevent their deaths. He then retained his sidearm, but knew that he did so foolishly.

As Manning performed her rounds in the Mess Hall, he handed the sidearm over to her and said, Commander, I can’t carry this anymore, knowing that there was a terrible cost to my needing it. Take it before I use it on myself.

Diego…

Cheryl, I’m the damn traitor; if I hadn’t betrayed the station to the Keirenev Cell, I wouldn’t have needed it. One right can’t make up for that, no matter how many were saved in the process.

You’re right, she said, taking the gun. She produced a set of wrist and ankle shackles, and ordered one of her men to bind him to a chair and continued, On the charge of treason, you, Diego Martinez, are under arrest. You are stripped of rank and privileges and confined to this chair until the ship gets here, where the commanding officer thereof will deal with you. You have the right to remain silent, and anything you say in this matter will be used as evidence against you in your court martial. You have the right to legal counsel in this matter, and if no one will take the case, an officer of JAG will be appointed to your defense at no charge. Do you understand these rights?

I do, Commander.

Good. She motioned for a chair and said, Bind him to the chair, and then weld it to the deck. We’ll cut him loose once we’re en route to the shuttle.

Aye-aye, Commander, the security guard said as he did what he was told.

One

The time was being passed with work on not only making certain the people were ready for transport to the ship, but preparing a weapon proposal that Trent had deemed infeasible. Warlock had the dishes deployed, and was using them as a lightning rod to capture the ion bolts and convert them to power to fire a disruptor charge from. He knew that the Empire was going to send out another group if they discovered even 1 survivor of the attack three years ago, let alone 55.

Warlock was also keeping an eye on the magma flow of the caverns they found 30 people in, which was flowing at a snail’s pace of only half a meter per six-hour period. They had plenty of time before the ship got there, and even then, they had time before the planet destroyed itself. Channing reported to Frost that Martinez had turned himself in as the traitor, and he said, That puts him as out of the way; is he locked up?

As close to it as we are going to get, Channing said. The magma is already enveloping the Security Section. I had him chained to a chair that was welded to the deck.

Good, Frost said. That reduces his chance of escape. How are the others?

Grateful to be alive, she replied. But I don’t know how much longer I can take their singing 99 Bottles of Beer. I’m hoping that someone picks another song. Hell, even Doo Wah Diddy Diddy would do.

Frost chuckled and said, Yeah, I know what you mean, Commander. I don’t know how long I could take the same song repeated for hours on end.

Me either, Warlock said.

Check your libido at the main hatch, Warlock, Frost said.

I did, he said. There are some things I can’t stand, and the same song repeated for hours on end is among them.

Manning, you think you can get something that even resembles coffee up here?

The food stores are totally wiped out, Manning said.

Shit, Frost said, almost exasperated.

* * * * *

Mike’s office was almost crowded with three people and a holographic image in it. The message had to be encoded to prevent the cell from getting their hands on the signal. Admiral Hudson was in the holographic projection circle. Mike said, Jack, there are new considerations with the base we’re on the way to salvage.

What sort of considerations?

Belle reports that, in the form of psychic messaging, she was told that 55 people had survived the ordeal, and that she was field commissioned to lieutenant commander before the attack. If that had been taken into consideration, Belle and Ren would at least be at the same grade by now.

As of right now, in light of the number of survivors and the unofficial commission she was granted before the attack on the base, Sub-Lieutenant B’Laeis to attention. B’Laeis complied with the order, and Hudson continued, Sub-Lieutenant B’Laeis, in light of recent reports from the base you were assigned to, you are hereby granted full official commission to the rank of captain, and you are hereby awarded the Silver Order of Heroism.

With all due respect, sir, B’Laeis said, "I’d like to remain on the Iowa."

That’s your choice, of course, Hudson said. You don’t think you’re ready for command as yet?

Not only that, sir, she began, but Admiral Stone would be lost without me.

You pain in the ass! Mike thought.

Chuckling, Jack said, That’s your choice, Captain.

Thank you, she said. Sir.

Mike, noticing that Belle was in a work uniform, pulled out the devices for captain from his desk and said, These are yours, Belle. Replace those sub-lieutenant devices with the captain devices.

Aye-aye sir, she said, doing what she was told.

You’ll receive your Silver Order medal once we’re on Earth, Mike said. We’re heading to the planet with dispatch to commence the rescue and salvage operations.

There’s nothing to salvage from there, Hudson said. Just get the people off that planet, and don’t worry about salvaging anything; the planet’s going to be rubble in about three weeks anyway, so there’s no need to worry about the equipment; just the people.

Aye-aye, Mike said, saluting.

* * * * *

KEIRENEV CELL HEADQUARTERS

TIME INDEX 09:12 HOURS INTERSTELLAR ZULU

Lord Alexi Keirenev stood at the tactical display table, wondering why a starship was heading for the planet they attacked three years ago. The people that boarded the station were now dead, and