The Phoenix Conspiracy (11 page)

"Is that a bribe?"

"Consider it a reward. Your mother is
healthy with a good forty more years of life in her. Why wait for
her to die to inherit your own citizenship, when I can give it to
you with a pen stroke?"

"You know a lot about me, princess. I
had no idea I was this interesting."

"Anyone who is in a position to help
the Empire is interesting," she said. "And valuable."

"Valuable enough to ask for full
citizenship before hunting down Raidan?"

The princess raised an eyebrow. "Don't
push your luck. I'm not going to give you something for nothing. As
much as I like you."

"Well, you can't blame a guy for
trying." He tore his eyes away from her and looked at her guards.
Something was odd about one of them, whose face was hidden beneath
his hood. Calvin couldn’t see much but could have sworn he saw a
trace of blue-hued skin. Could it be a Polarian?

The rest of the guards were less
interesting and wore common clothes like the princess, though
Calvin spotted armor behind a tear in one of their shirts. "You
should patch that up if you don't want to give yourself away," he
pointed out.

"Good eye," Kalila said. "Now, Calvin,
you must get started immediately."

He hadn't yet decided how he wanted to
handle this situation, he wanted to distance himself from her
before evaluating how far he could trust her. But he knew better
than to show hesitation in front of her.

"Yes, I will," he said. "But my
superiors are going to need reports, it'll be hard to explain when
I find Asari Raidan why I'm not acting against him right away. Or
why I don't report his whereabouts immediately. Especially since I
have this navy commander on my ship..."

The princess interrupted him.
"Calvin... you're much more likable when you're not making
excuses." She was irresistible. "You're very intelligent, I can
tell. And clever. Don't doubt yourself. We can figure this out if
we work together. You'll find a way. The Empire needs you, and so
do I."

She was so good at slipping past his
armor and, seeing her face-to-face, it was impossible to say no.
Even if she'd been a commoner instead of a Royal Akira, he still
would have folded to her wishes. She just had that gift. Something
about her presence, and voice, and dark eyes...

"I want to get to the bottom of this
too," he said, mostly to remind himself he wasn't in this for her.
"I will do everything I can for the Empire," he bowed, "but I don't
have a way of contacting you."

"And you won’t," she paused.
"In time,
we
will
contact you. Like we did today. Hopefully, when we next meet, you
will have some meaningful information.”

“And if I don’t?”

“I’m sure you will, you’re clever,”
she smiled at him. “And I’ll give you enough time. Just … don’t let
me down.”

He nodded.

"Thank you," her smile faded
and her voice shifted from sweet to sober. "And Calvin, do not
tell
anyone
about
anything we've discussed here. Or that we met. Don't record it in
your log, don't call your friends and brag to them, don't even tell
your officers."

"I understand," he said, realizing
this conversation was wrapping up. "But for the sake of my
investigation, can you give me more details about the threat you
mentioned? I'll need your latest intelligence."

She shook her head. "I'm sorry, I've
already said more than I probably should have. Not because I don’t
want you to know, but because I cannot be certain yet what of my
information is credible. That and some information is deadly to
know."

"Well if you've already said more than
you should have, then where's the harm in saying a little
more?"

"Nice try, but no. All you need to
know is that Asari Raidan is not to be intercepted, interrupted, or
interfered with. Find him, find out what he's doing, and report to
me everything. I promise you it is both for the good of the Empire
and continued human dominance in the galaxy." There was a
dead-seriousness in her voice that was chilling.

“Good of the Empire”… I
seem to be hearing that a lot lately.

"All right, I'll do what I
can."

Chapter 9

"What was that all about, a bathroom
break?” asked Miles when Calvin returned to the bridge.

"Yeah I stopped at Tau Station to use
the head. Nothing gets past you does it." He took his seat at the
command position.

"Well how am I supposed to know what
you did over there?"

"You're not. That's the beauty of
it."

"Too long for a snack, too
short for a booty call," Miles paused. "I
think.
"

Calvin rolled his eyes. "Sarah,
release us from the station and request clearance for departure."
She acknowledged him and began speaking into her
headset.

Miles spoke again. "I mean, maybe it
was a bathroom break." Calvin could tell Miles really wanted to
know why he'd taken their ship on such a tangent and gone aboard
the station alone. They all did. But he wasn't about to
say.

"You were right," said Calvin. "You
backed up all the toilets on the ship forcing me to make a pit
stop. But, now that that's behind us, we can keep
going."

"Must we discuss this on the bridge?"
asked Summers, repulsed.

"You'd rather discuss it somewhere
else? Like the mess hall?" Miles laughed.

Calvin waved at him to be quiet.
"Sarah, what's the word?"

"We're all clear, standard heading.
Not even a floating bolt in our way."

"Kind of nice to be at a port with no
traffic for once, isn't it?” asked Calvin.

"You said it," replied
Sarah.

"As soon as we're clear of the
station, engage the main engines then best jump to
Aleator."

It wasn't the first time he'd used the
phrase but Sarah still gave him an odd look. "What does that even
mean, best speed?"

"It means use your
judgment."

"I hate it when I have to use my
judgment."

Calvin looked to Summers. "I suppose
you want us to go as fast as possible."

"Yes. But it hardly matters now. Like
you said, Raidan will be long gone from Aleator."

Calvin smiled. "You know, Summers,
they say acceptance is a major step in the grief process. I'm proud
of you."

She ignored this remark. "Of
course Raidan's head start is no thanks to your
bathroom stop
."

He laughed and sat back. "What's our
ETA?"

"Eight hours," said Sarah.

Calvin looked at the mounted clock. It
reflected Standard Time. "Red Shift takes over in three hours. How
are you guys holding up?"

"Just fine," Sarah and Shen said in
unison. Summers nodded.

"I'm tired as hell," Miles bellowed
from behind the defense console. "Thanks for asking."

Calvin laughed. "As long as you have
the energy to complain, you have the energy to push buttons." He
stood up. "Well guys, as much as I hate to say it, I need to get
back to reading those files. And this time I'm actually going to do
it."

"Sure you are..,” said
Sarah.

"I'm serious," said Calvin, sounding
more defensive than he’d meant. He looked to Summers. "You have the
deck."

Once inside his office, he grabbed a
water bottle before crashing into his chair and scooping up a pile
of printouts. "Where to begin?" The question he hated the most. Out
of a mountain of boring materials he had to chew through, which
would he tackle first?

He decided to look over the crew
manifest again, beginning with the senior staff. But this time he
was going to thoroughly research the histories of each officer in
great detail. Everything from their economic backgrounds,
conditions growing up, family situations, past employers, various
residences, all the way down to their favorite childhood candy. To
do this he had to get up once more, briefly, to grab his portable
computer. And so began the very tedious task of constructing
psychological profiles of everyone most likely to sympathize with
Raidan.

"All right, Lieutenant Gates, let's
start with you."

Since the Harbinger was an Alpha class
ship, it had a dedicated communications officer. Calvin believed
that was the best starting point since it was that person's job to
alert Praxis of any mutiny attempt going on. If he could prove the
comms officer was linked to Raidan somehow, that would go a long
way toward explaining how the mutiny happened without any word
getting to the station—if there had been a mutiny.

"Born in the Theta Belt to
middle-income parents. Military father, unemployed mother. Moved
around the outer colonies while aged six through fifteen. Attended
small public schools, usually not for more than a year, eventually
enrolled in the Arcadiuo School of Flight and Piloting. Wanted to
fly freighters, eh? What happened to that dream?" He flipped
through some more pages and did a bit more searching on the
computer. "Wow those are bad grades. Then you transferred to a
military academy with a focus on kataspace engineering and subspace
systems. I'm surprised you got accepted. Hmm..."

Strangely Gates' grades at the second
school were top tier. Not perfect, but close. A huge shift in very
little time. "Unusual but not unheard of... did you have a coming
of age experience that forced you to grow up?" Calvin mused. "I
doubt it was joining the fraternity." He checked to see if anyone
else on the Harbinger had been a member of that fraternity. A few
had but he didn't see any meaningful connection there. He kept
notes of the different angles he wanted to investigate Gates and
would then pass that along to his staff who would do the grunt
work.

Before he finished, the alert on his
desk flashed on and off, followed by a shrill whistle. He tapped
the button. "What is it, Sarah?"

"You'd better get in here,
sir."

"All right, I'm on my way." He tossed
his papers aside and darted for the bridge. When the door slid open
he marched inside. "OK, what are we dealing with?"

"Distress call, it's coming in ten
minutes from our position at present speed," said Sarah. "It's
repeating on all channels."

"What's it say?" Calvin moved to the
command position but did not sit down, even though Summers
relinquished the chair.

"It's generic and automated, repeating
over and over. No details. But I recognize it. It's a standard
feature on many civilian craft."

"Too bad it doesn't give us much to
work with," Calvin mumbled. "What's the nearest ship besides
us?"

"The ISS Candle, but she's docked at
Tau station with most of her crew ashore," she looked up. "They
might not make it in time."

Calvin looked to Summers.
"Opinion?"

"Protocol is very clear. All Imperial
ships, military or otherwise, must respond to any confirmed,
authentic distress call if they are the nearest ship or within a
click. We should respond."

"Even though it takes us out of our
way and gives Raidan an even bigger head start?" He tested
her.

"There could be people dying on that
ship, Lieutenant Commander. This takes precedence."

"For once I agree with you so, Sarah,
lay in a course. Nice to see a human side of you, Summers. It looks
good."

Her eyes narrowed. "What's that
supposed to mean?"

He changed the subject. "I trust you
to handle this, Commander. You need experience commanding this
ship," he stepped aside and pointed at the command
chair.

She nodded and took the seat. The
moment she did, she snapped to action. "What can you tell me about
that ship, helmsman?"

"It's adrift, engines and thrusters
are not burning. It's also small, but I can't tell what it is
yet."

"Ops, as soon as you can, get a good
scan of it. Defense, engage the stealth system. Helm, slow to half
a percent at one click's distance." She looked at Shen. "I want to
know if that ship's damaged externally. If it is, there's a good
chance a hostile vessel is out there ducking our
sensors."

"Aye, aye," they acknowledged her and
Calvin was impressed by her command skill.

"OK, we're within one click. Slowing
to half a percent and changing approach vector," said
Sarah.

"Initiate a condition one alert on all
decks, but don't raise our shields yet. I don't want to give us
away."

"You got it, bosslady," said Miles,
and there was a faint chirp.

"I said condition one, mister."
Summers stood up and walked toward the defense console.

"We
are
at condition one!"

Calvin couldn't help but
smirk.

"What, no lights?" Summers looked
around, the bridge seemed exactly as it had been, calmly lit by
soft white lights.