Omega Force: Rebellion (OF11), стр. 5
Noryant had no idea if the people chasing the ship were his own security contractors, incompetent as they were, or if the people he'd been selling starship fuel to off the books were trying to silence him. Either way, now that he'd left the Nabia System, he doubted his customers or the cartels he normally dealt with would believe he wasn't cooperating with the strange crew that had just abducted him. If he survived, he'd have to disappear and start all over again someplace else.
"Pull the hood off," Jason said. He sounded weary, and his face was streaked with grime.
"What's happening?" Noryant asked, blinking against the flickering lights of the cargo bay.
"We eluded the people tracking you somehow," Jason said. "They looked like cartel enforcers. We're on our way to a safe system. This can still be salvaged. If you help us out, we can put you in contact with someone who can help you disappear and reemerge as someone else."
"Are you with a rival cartel?"
"Doesn't matter who we are. I just need to know about the large fuel load you helped move through the distribution center"
"Why?"
"This will go quicker if you don't keep asking pointless questions," Jason said. "I want to know the ship that picked up the load and who your contact was. If we knew how they paid, that would also be helpful. I'll be honest, we were just supposed to ask you this in your home. You surprised us with the hired goons, and then again with cartel enforcers coming after you. You're already far more trouble than you're worth, and my first inclination is to drop out of slip-space and toss you out the back of the ship."
"The records are in my com unit, the larger one," Noryant said, seeming to deflate. "The data is useless without the decryption key and, even then, I'll have to explain my record keeping system for it to make any sense."
"And you're willing to do this?"
"You're still willing to let me live and set me up with a new identity?"
In reply, Jason just pulled the com unit out of his pocket and nodded for Crusher to untie Noryant's arms. After he had the device, the alien quickly logged in and brought up the information they were after. He turned the display so Jason could read it, the human storing a snapshot of the information in his neural implant.
This looks legit. Tanker registry shows it belongs to a shell corporation that operates on contract for a mining concern, but it's definitely Eshquarian in origin. Your pet Veran can run down the names of the contacts Noryant gave you.
Jason wasn't sure how Cas knew about the tanker's origins unless the data was knocking around in his implant without him being aware of it. As far as he knew, the hitchhiker in his head wasn't able to reach out and connect to external networks.
"This isn't even a cartel order," Noryant said. "I-I don't understand."
"That's okay," Jason reached out and ruffled his sensory ridges on top of his head. "All right, guys, show's over."
The vibration of the deck immediately ceased, and the lights stopped flickering. A second later, the rear pressure doors slid apart, and the ramp dropped to show that the ship was still sitting in the same hangar on Nabia-2 they'd brought him into in the first place.
"Don't worry," Jason said. "You're not the first person to fall for this."
"I still can't believe this dumbass plan works as much as it does," Crusher grumbled.
"What happens—"
"To you? Nothing," Jason cut Noryant off. "We're leaving, you're free to take that groundcar back to your house, and we can act like none of this ever happened. Just between me and you, I'd definitely hire a new security company."
"I can't believe you're just letting me leave."
"Why not?" Jason asked. "You can't exactly report us without risking your own little off-the-books operation here. We don't care about you selling fuel to smugglers and pirates, so you don't even have to quit that. Even if you reached out to this contact and told them we're looking for them, you have no idea who we are. So, no hard feelings?"
2
"Omega Force has made some progress in tracking down the hidden Eshquarian units."
"Oh?" Saditava Mok asked, not looking up from the holographic display in front of him. "And?"
"They tracked down a fuel tanker that took a full load from the Nabia System distribution yards, all off the books," Similan said. "Burke thinks it's likely a support ship supplying hidden combat units and is going to keep following that thread."
"It will do him little good if he finds them," Mok sighed. "The Eshquarian fleet will not jump to our side. They haven't even launched a retaliatory strike against the enemy occupying their own space. Burke thinks he can convince them to strike back at a ConFed target, but they're more likely to blast the Phoenix out of the sky before it gets close enough for him to even talk."
"Would you like me to suggest to them that they leave this alone, sir?"
"Not in those words. Tell them that I'm…asking…if they would be so kind as to grace me with their presence. I want to make sure Burke isn't about to go rogue and do something so radical that the ConFed feels compelled to hit back. Given the lack of a big enough target, they'd likely take it out on any worlds they suspect have given us aid."
"Understood, sir," Similan bowed and left.
Mok continued to stare at the hologram but was no longer paying attention to what it displayed. From their last conversation over slip-com, Mok knew Burke was anxious to take the fight to the enemy, but he'd been in the business of toppling regimes and fighting insurrections for a long, long time, while Burke had a relatively short career as a mercenary, working small along