Free OMEGA Allegiance by Stephen Arseneault Page A

closure."
    The Captain stood. "Why would you let me see your bridge, and see the power of your weapons?"
    I replied, "As I said, we are on the same side. We have a critical mission to accomplish, so I can't waste any more time here discussing this with you. If you want to see the bridge, and to develop at least a small amount of trust, follow me now. Otherwise, the Sergeant can escort you to our guest quarters."
    The Captain looked back at his crew. "The Molitar served us well. We might as well see her off. We'll follow you, Mister…?"
    I gestured for the Captain to join me and the Sergeant to follow. "I suppose it doesn't matter. My name is Knog Beutcher. I work for the Saltons just like everyone else. Only, they don't know that I'm out here in Theta."
    The Captain asked, "Why did you call yourself Emperor earlier?"
    I replied, "It's a long story, but I essentially overthrew the prior emperor of Dallex, and by default I was crowned as the new emperor. So, long as I am alive I will remain the Emperor of the Talisans and their home world Dallex. It's in the Omega sector."
    The Captain winced. "Omega? I didn't think there was much out there? And what is this fleet of ships? I thought all warships, except those going to war in Andromeda, were illegal."
    I nodded as we walked. "They are. I said I have a mission to accomplish. We have to rescue someone who has been conscripted. This person, it's important that we remove them from a fleet of transports that are about to pass through the portal to Andromeda. The hard part of doing that will be the fact that there are more than two dozen destroyers waiting there with them. We don't want to harm anyone, just rescue this one individual."
    The Captain gestured towards the ship that surrounded us. "They won't release anyone from conscription. We are getting our asses kicked too badly in Andromeda for them to do that. Unless it's some major corporate CEO or something."
    As we walked onto the bridge, I said, "It's Joni Salton, Harden Salton's niece. She was on Adicus when it was conscripted. The family doesn't know she's there, and for whatever reason she isn't telling them."
    The Captain replied, "They conscripted Adicus? That's in Alpha, and it's not that far from Alpha Prime!"
    I nodded as I sat in my chair. "It seems they are using conscription to rid themselves of populations that are rebelling. The Alliance is having a lot of those lately. I think they think this war can be used as a tool for ending the worst of the unrest."
    I gestured to a set of chairs. the Captain sat. "Wow. You're gone for five years and the whole place changes on you."
    I looked down at the Captain. "You have been fighting in Andromeda for five years?"
    The Captain smiled. "Me and these four. They've been with me through dozens of skirmishes, attempting to get transports down on the surface, and twenty-six major space battles. We managed to survive that, so they gave us the assignment to capture the enemy ship. If you are truly with the Alliance, we really do need to get that ship back to the shipyards. They are kicking our asses out there, and until we know how to fight them, we are just going to keep losing people and ships needlessly."
    An image of the destroyer came up on the main holo-display on the bridge.
    "We are ready, Mr. Beutcher," Go said.
    I nodded. "Have the weapons officers fire at will."
    Several seconds later a barrage of ion cannon bolts began to cut the exterior of the once-powerful destroyer into pieces. A violent explosion signified the destruction of a locked-down ion generator. That explosion was followed a few seconds later by an identically large pyrotechnic display. Within minutes, no pieces of the destroyer bigger than five meters diameter were left.
    I turned towards Go. "Send out a salvage beacon. Delay activation for a couple hours, and get us back underway."
    Jack Carson looked up at me. "That was actually an impressive display of firepower, Mr. Beutcher. I wish we'd had those