The Phoenix Conspiracy (23 page)

“How do you know someone didn’t doctor
all of this footage?” asked Summers.

“I’ve had the computer analyze it for
any signs of tampering and haven’t found anything. The data agrees
with what the Phoenix’s computer recorded.”

“Okay,” said Shen. “I think we’ve
established the ships were upgraded, but where does that leave
us?”

“We need to find out who upgraded them
and why,” Calvin smiled. “Shen, I want you investigate what
corporation sponsored this convoy, who owns the ships, who pilots
them, find out everything you can. Since they were heading to
Capital World, that means humans purchased their cargo. If the
shipment was something sinister, some humans must be in on it. Find
out who they are."

"Consider it done," he set to
work.

"As for you, Miles," said Calvin. His
defense officer turned his chair to reveal a disappointed look. He
was as good of an investigator as the others but hated doing it.
"Look into Tristan. Search every database for his name and check
with any Rotham Police Records that are available, specifically on
Aros Five. Tristan told me he had issues with the law there,
probably a lie but maybe not. I want to know who he is and where he
came from. As part of that, look into the proliferation of remorii
from Remus. That system is shut down and nearly impossible to enter
or exit. I want to know how he, and everyone like him, got out into
the galaxy. That shouldn't have been easy."

"Why?" asked Miles.

"Because it's surrounded by a huge
minefield," said Sarah.

"No I mean why do
I
have to do it," said
Miles. "Just kidding, I'll get on it ASAP."

"Good," said Calvin. "And there is one
more thing. I've been looking into the time logs, trying to make a
chronology of all the events, and there is something that just
doesn't add up to me. The Harbinger left Praxis at approximately
1010 hours Standard Time and made for Aleator. It detected
interceptors from the Fifth Fleet and changed course to outmaneuver
them. Something like that might add another three hours depending
on how far it had to move, maybe even as many as five. But the
Harbinger arrived at Aleator eight hours later than expected. That
leaves between three and five hours unaccounted for. The question
is, what could it have been doing?"

"Repairs?" suggested Sarah.

"Putting down a mutiny," Miles
shrugged.

"Docking at a station," said
Summers.

“Meeting up with another ship,” said
Shen.

Calvin shrugged. “I don’t know. My
working theory is that Raidan went to Aleator to meet up with
someone. Perhaps Raidan had to conform to that person’s schedule.
Maybe they’d prearranged for the Harbinger to get there at a
designated time.”

“Could be,” said Shen.

“Sarah, we know the ship's speed,
general position, and the window of time they had, we should make a
range of possible places the Harbinger could have been. Try to
narrow that down and see if there are any systems, bases, or
structures within its reach. If you don't find anything like that,
check the shipping records and see if any vessels had a charted
route through that region and could have passed the
Harbinger."

"Will do," she said. "But what if it
met up with an unchartered ship?"

“Then there’s nothing we can do about
that.”

"So what are
you
going to do?" asked
Summers.

"I'm going to look into
CERKO."

Just then the comm started flashing
and Sarah heard something through her headset. She turned to
Calvin. "Priority message from Intel Wing. They have some results
of a query you made. Something about what it takes to destroy a
star."

"I'll take it here, put it on
display," he said and sat down in the command chair.

A pre-recorded message of a man
talking directly to the camera popped up. He had a professorial
look about him: receding hairline, neat beard, glasses, and greying
hair. "Message start. To Lieutenant Commander Calvin Cross. I read
your request for information on what it would take to destroy a
star, specifically TR-301. That's a pretty strange request, but an
interesting question. TR was a class three star and, after
reviewing the information your sensors picked up about its
collapse, it's not unlike other star collapses that happen every so
often. What usually happens is a change in mass. You could think of
it as... all of the star's energy sources being exhausted. I'll
send you over more specific notes on this but let me just say that
collapsing a star artificially is not within the practical limits
of known technology.

"However, there is a theoretical way
this could be done. A star could be compressed using magnetic
fields. Ships of high magnetism could orbit the star opposite its
polarity and spin, but such a process might take a million years—if
it worked at all. It's never been tested. Intel Wing's opinion is
that TR-301 collapsed of natural causes, despite its relatively
young age and seemingly healthy ratio of hydrogen to helium. End
Message."

The screen blinked off.

"You heard the man," said Miles,
"nothing suspicious."

"Magnetic ships..." Calvin stared at
the blank display, as if seeing past it. "I wonder if that’s
possible." For some reason, even in the face of good scientific
reasoning, he couldn't get past his nagging intuition that the
star's destruction was not just some random event. He decided to
look into it a bit more anyway when he had the chance. If nothing
else, to put the issue to rest in his mind. "Shen, launch one of
our probes to do a deep search of the region. Maybe a volume of two
cubic clicks."

"You're chasing after ghosts, Cal,"
said Shen. "But I'll do it."

"Maybe…” said Calvin, deep in thought.
"Make sure it gets a good look at any stellar formations in that
region."

"That's a pretty wide volume," said
Shen. "But the probe should be programmed and ready to launch
within the hour. Although, it’ll take some time to get
there."

"That’s fine. Just make sure it
doesn't stray too close to the black hole, if there is one
now."

Shen smiled. "I'll keep that in
mind."

"There's just one other thing," said
Calvin and he tapped his direct line to the Major's office at
Special Forces HQ. "Major," he said.

"I'm here," the man's gravelly voice
replied through the comm.

"Even though the lycan isn't on our
ship anymore, I'm still concerned about his escape from the brig
and what happened to your two men who were guarding him. I asked
them several questions but neither seemed to remember anything
important. And let's not forget the swapped surveillance tape. I
need you to get to the bottom of this."

***

Calvin was asleep in his quarters when
the alert came. A blinking red light on the panel with an obnoxious
chirping. He rolled out of bed and crashed onto the floor. "Oh
dammit," he said, his voice a bit hoarse. He got to his feet and
answered the call.

"Yeah, what is it?"

His Second Officer, Lieutenant
Commander Vincent Rose, spoke from the other end. "Distress call
from Brimm Station, sir. Along with a report."

"Are they under attack?" asked Calvin,
feeling his heart quicken. He grabbed for a shirt and pulled it
over his head.

"They were. I think you'd better get
up here."

Rose was a good junior commander and
he knew how to handle his crew, the Red Shift, but Calvin had
always gotten the distinct impression Rose had little confidence in
himself. Part of Calvin wanted to give Rose as many opportunities
as possible to command the ship in difficult situations, but an
Imperial Station under attack wasn't going to be one of
them.

"On my way," said Calvin and he darted
for the bridge.

When he arrived, his junior officers
saluted him. The Red Shift was "second watch" and mostly composed
of petty officers and junior grade lieutenants, none of whom had
even the full bronze of First Lieutenant except Rose whose uniform
boasted the same silver bar Calvin wore. Their group had been on
shift since White Shift was relieved five hours ago and Calvin
didn't miss the eagerness on their faces.
"Captain on the bridge," one said.

"OK, Rose, what have we
got?"

"The Harbinger entered Brimm about six
hours ago. The station sent out several patrol craft and ordered it
to stand down. When the Harbinger didn't respond Brimm launched
fighters, but only fifteen were on standby and they didn't have
weapons that could pierce the dreadnought's defenses.

"The Harbinger attacked, disabled, and
boarded a Rotham starship, which was there on an exchange program.
Its crew of nineteen was captured and taken aboard the Harbinger.
The alien ship was then destroyed. After that, the sentry ships
engaged the Harbinger but it ignored them and maneuvered straight
for the station, boarding it. There was a small arms battle and the
Harbinger's crew broke into the station's computer systems and
copied several terabytes of data. They returned to their ship
before more security forces could arrive. Then the Harbinger left
the system. Brimm had no ships able to mount a pursuit."

"Okay," said Calvin, taking his seat.
"What kind of casualties did the station take?"

"Three dead and six wounded. Eleven
others were incapacitated but received no major injuries. Mostly
the Harbinger's assault team used non-lethal weapons. Some of the
deaths are reportedly from friendly-fire."

"Did the station's security forces
take down anyone from the Harbinger?"

"At least two were shot but the
Harbinger didn't leave anyone behind."

"OK, contact the station and tell them
their security teams need to carefully comb the area where the
fight occurred. Have forensics check it over, and tell the base to
review any surveillance footage. We need to know if these
people—presumably working for Raidan—are the Harbinger's crew or if
they're outsiders who commandeered the ship. Also they should
identify what data was stolen specifically and give it to us so we
can look it over." Calvin looked to the helmsman, a Second
Lieutenant named Jay. He was an experienced forty-something year
old ex-marine more than capable of being a ship's primary
pilot—held back only because Sarah was the best in the
business.

"I'm on it, sir," said Jay and he
contacted Brimm Station.

"Now, about that alien ship that was
attacked," Calvin turned his attention back to Rose who still stood
rigidly at alert nearby. "What do we know about it?"

"It's the T'orma, a Rotham sloop
working in our territory under the joint jurisdiction of the
Republic and Brimm Authorities. As I said, part of an exchange
program. We have one of our own in Rotham space operating under
similar conditions."

"Is its crew rotham, human, or
both?"

"Rotham, sir, to the last
man."

Calvin scratched his chin wondering if
Raidan had attacked the ship simply because it was Rotham owned and
operated or because it was engaging in some kind of activity Raidan
didn't approve of, perhaps carrying something he didn't
like.

"Rose, I want you to run a check on
all the individuals who were aboard the Rotham ship—the ones
captured and dragged away onto the Harbinger. See if anything
interesting pops up."

"I can't do that, sir," said
Rose.

Calvin tensed. "Why not?"

"Brimm Station won't release the
identities of the Rotham crew or any information as to their cargo,
operations, past activity, or current mission."

"That's... interesting," Calvin found
it very unusual that an Imperial Station would refuse to assist an
Imperial investigation. "We can force them by inciting the
Intelligence Privilege Laws. They're obviously hampering our
investigation and that's illegal."

"I already tried that, sir. It seems
they have special circumstances. The Rotham ship is still property
of the Rotham Republic. The exchange treaty allows for complete
anonymity and lets the Rotham Republic withhold information about
their ship from us as per their request. We can do the same thing
with our ship in their space. It's a gesture of good
will."

"It's a gesture of bullshit. Did you
check with Intel Wing to see if they can circumvent that treaty?"
asked Calvin, even though he knew the odds were not
great.

"They said their hands are
tied."

"
Of
course...”

"Sir, we're approaching Brimm System
in one minute," Jay said from the helm.

"Shields are up and weapons hot," the
Red Shift defense officer said. He was the rookie of the bunch,
hailed as a prodigy at the academy and only nineteen. Patrick
O’Conner, a red headed, hot-tempered, unbridled, albeit talented,
sometimes defiant midshipman.

"Keep the shields up until we know the
area is secure," said Calvin. "But power down the
weapons."

"With all due
respect,
sir
,"
said Patrick. "The Harbinger could still be out there, and we need
to play it safe."