The Phoenix Conspiracy (40 page)

“We are flying to Abia to
continue our investigation, but Fleet Command has tried to take
over our ship—even though this is an Intel Wing ship. Obviously, we
cannot let them.” He hated lying to his crew like that, pretending
that Intel Wing really wasn't part of the maneuver to remove his
command—though the Intel Wing he knew would never have been party
to such a thing. It was sickening to think they’d been as corrupted
as the Fleet. But his crew
had
to believe otherwise for now.

"The Fleet thinks it can
control us and keep us from uncovering the truth. But we have a job
to do and
dammit
,
we’re going to do it! Because we’re Intel Wing and we’ve sworn an
oath to protect the Empire—even from itself. An oath that requires
us to do whatever it takes to complete our mission. And right now
that means standing together, as one, to defend this
ship!"

He clicked off the comm, thinking
charismatic speeches were not his forte. But if his words didn’t
rally the crew, they at least helped him rally his own nerves and
desire to fight. Ultimately, he knew, their success depended less
on the crew’s opinion of him than it did on the Nighthawk’s defense
walls.

***

A young soldier with the name “Erdene”
stitched to his lapel marched into the Major's office. "Report from
ODA, sir." He saluted then stood perfectly still, resolute, and
attentive. Summers was glad to see the discipline.

"Go ahead, private," said the Major,
still sitting.

"Unit One was unable to reach
engineering because the defense walls are in place. Unit Two
reports the same about the bridge. And elevator two is
disabled."

Dammit, Calvin. Must you
make everything so difficult?
Despite her
annoyance, Summers kept silent since the Major had command with
regard to security matters.

"Thank you, private. Dismissed," The
Major waved him off. The young man saluted and left. Once the door
closed Summers returned to her seat.

"I had hoped it wouldn't come to
this," said the Major.

"But we
can
get past those defenses can't
we?" Summers asked. "I mean, your men are trained to breach
defenses like that in order to capture hostile ships,
right?"

“Yes there are breaching protocols,
however our equipment and training is more suited to smaller ships
with less advanced defenses. ODB will lead our
response.”

“ODB?”

“Operational Detachment Bravo, they
are more specialized than ODA for this kind of maneuver.“ He tapped
his comm panel. "Jackson, tell ODA to lockdown all access points to
both engineering and the bridge. Then tell ODB to prep for a code
six response."

***

Andre paced back and forth in main
engineering, constantly glancing between the various computer
displays and the main entrance. The great grey doors were sealed
shut and behind them a defense wall had been raised. He was safe
for now. He knew that. But it didn't in any way lessen his anxiety
about this whole ordeal.

Calvin, who before today he
would have considered a great friend, had finally asked too much.
And now Andre was sweating bullets, telling thinly veiled lies to
his subordinates, and had tossed his career completely in the
toilet. Sure Calvin said he would take the fall for them all, and
he and his puppet Shen had made it
seem
like Intel Wing legitimized
Calvin's mutiny, but... given how poorly the deception had worked
on the Major, Andre wasn't about to believe the Fleet would be
satisfied with just Calvin. They were all on the chopping block
now. Easier for some than others. They were mostly single with
almost nothing to lose—even the old doc had no family to speak
of—but Andre had a wife and three children waiting for him on
Capital World. What would their lives be if he were imprisoned? And
all because his friends twisted his arm enough to get him to
participate in what was clearly mutiny.

His thoughts of a dark future haunted
him as he fidgeted, moving about, checking screens that didn't need
checking, trying in vain to distract himself.

But the damage had been done. Even if
he surrendered engineering now, which was tempting, and admitted
the whole message from Intel Wing was a sham, he couldn't avoid
consequences. He'd still be punished in addition to going to bed
every night thinking about how he’d betrayed his friends. No, he
couldn't do that—or so he kept telling himself.

They'd been en route to Abia for about
half an hour now, traveling much faster than what he'd normally
recommend, and all that was left to do was wait.

"Any word from the outside?" he asked
Inaya, his second. The young woman was walking around with a
clipboard giving minor orders to the five other engineers keeping
tabs on the systems. She stopped what she was doing and came over
to his side.

"The bridge made a course correction
that might save us an hour," she said. "But otherwise we've had no
contact from the outside.”

Andre turned his attention elsewhere
and resumed his pacing. It bothered him that things had been this
quiet. Not even a peep from Special Forces, or the rest of the
ship—aside from the bridge—in half an hour. He couldn't decide
which was worse: hearing nothing and waiting in silent hellish
anticipation for something bad to happen, or else seeing that
something happen and getting it over with.

"What is that?" One of the engineers
said and everyone's eyes jumped to the main door. It was sealed
tight but the tiniest sparks could be seen glowing in a round
pattern no larger than a hand.

"I don't know," said Andre, afraid to
go closer. "Everyone get down," he ordered, not sure where to take
cover or how they could possibly defend engineering. They had no
weapons and no hand to hand combat experience outside of basic
training.

A round piece of dark metal, part of
the door, collapsed to the floor. Not large enough for a person to
move through, not even close, but it broke him into a panic knowing
there was a chink in their armor now. "It must have been a laser
drill," said Andre.

He wondered how long it would take
them to carve a hole the size of a door, probably awhile. They were
safe for now... he tried to tell himself. But seeing the hole in
front of them forced them all to realize there was nothing they
could do. If the defense wall and locked door couldn't stop Special
Forces, it was all over. He wished he were on the bridge which was
much harder to breach.

"Now everybody just stay calm," he
waved to get their attention but everyone’s eyes were glued to a
silver canister that slid through the hole and dropped to the
ground. Instantly an enormous shriek filled the air. Andre tried to
cover his eyes but not in time. An incredible blinding whiteness
filled his vision and he stumbled to his knees, completely
disoriented.

It wasn't until he felt firm hands
grip him and pull him to his feet that he began to regain his
bearings. He couldn't walk straight but sound started coming back.
What should have been loud noises were like whispers. And his
vision was blurry. Even the outline of his own feet looked
strange.

"Move along," a soldier said from his
side. Andre watched the man's lips and knew he was shouting but he
could barely make out the words. They were quiet to him, almost
lost in the buzzing, ringing ambience.

They pulled him along toward where the
door used to be. It lay flat on the ground in several pieces. The
angle and condition of the remains, and a few unfired caps, made
Andre suspect plastique explosives. As they cuffed his sluggish
arms into restraints, he realized the answer to his
question.

Watching something bad happen was much
worse than the silent anticipation.

***

"We've captured engineering," Erdene
reported over the comm.

"Good," said the Major. "Send in the
replacement officers and shutdown the engines. When you've overseen
that, leave some soldiers from ODB to stand watch. Once we have
control of the bridge we'll correct the course to... what was it?"
He looked to Summers.

"Xerxes System."

"Right, Xerxes System. Then we'll
power up the engines again but not before."

"Yes, sir," the soldier
said.

The Major closed the comm and let out
a sigh. "Am I correct in assuming the ship's course cannot be
changed from engineering directly?"

"You are," said Summers from the other
side of the desk. "As for these replacement engineers, how do you
know they won't sympathize with Calvin?"

"They won't because the soldiers with
guns won't let them."

"And the captives?" asked
Summers.

"They'll be processed here at HQ.
Where we'll decide which to detain and which to return to
duty."

***

"Our engines have shut down," Sarah
looked up from the helm station. "And I can't contact engineering.
I think we lost it."

"That's probably a safe assumption,"
said Calvin, tapping his armrest.

"Our current position is six point one
light-years from Abia, six point two from Xerxes, sitting in open
space, all stop. Not even a rock on our scopes."

"I wonder how they breached
engineering…” said Calvin.

"Does that mean we're next?" asked
Sarah.

"Over my dead body," said
Miles.

"I don't think they'll have any
trouble with that," Sarah shot him a look.

"The bridge is twice as secure as
engineering," said Shen, his arms folded. "So no I wouldn't say we
are in any immediate danger. Down in engineering the designers
didn’t have enough space to put up as many defensive measures as on
the bridge."

"Well at least that's some good news,"
said Sarah. "But we're still sitting ducks."

"I assume there's no way to override
the controls in engineering and get the engines back online from
here is there?" Calvin asked.

"Nope," Shen and Sarah both
replied.

"So it's a stalemate," said
Calvin.

The comm switch beeped and Sarah
patched the message through the main speaker. Summers' voice came
over the line. "Calvin, we have control of the whole ship apart
from the bridge."

"Well the bridge is really the most
important part," Calvin replied.

"Enough games, Calvin. You had your
shot and you blew it. Now the whole ship is against you and we're
not going anywhere. There's nothing you can do from up there, and
you can't hold out forever. The Major and I urge you to surrender.
Then we can put in our reports that you surrendered voluntarily.
And you will be treated with dignity."

"Dignity my ass," said
Miles.

"We're not going to surrender the
bridge," said Calvin. "For the same reason we started this whole
thing. It has nothing to do with dignity or pride or anything like
that. It has to do with defending the Empire. You'd see that too if
you just looked hard enough."

"You flew the ship off mission and let
a condemned criminal get away. That has nothing to do with
defending the Empire."

"Don't you see? That
has
everything
to
do with it."

"I'm not going to argue. I'm just
going to tell you. Either surrender the bridge or we’ll take it by
force. Your choice."

Calvin motioned for Sarah to
cut the line. When she did, he spoke. "Other ships are certainly
looking for us now, since they haven’t heard from Summers in
awhile. And, with the help of her beacon, they
will
find us eventually. But, in the
spirit of being found as slowly as possible, let's engage the
stealth system."

"Can't they just shut that down too?"
asked Sarah.

"Not from engineering," Shen
replied.

"It's done," said Miles.

The usual purr of the vents stopped
abruptly and, after checking his console, Shen confirmed that all
ventilation to the bridge from life support controls had been cut
off. "But it's not all bad news," said Shen. "We have an emergency
air supply for the bridge. I'd say we have at least six hours
before we begin to suffocate."

"So it's a war of attrition," said
Calvin.

"With time not on our side," Sarah
added.

"If it takes us six hours to
think of something to do then we’re as good as dead anyway. We need
to come up with something
now
. Who knows what’s in Abia and for
how long?”

***

"ODB is prepped for phase two,
requesting clearance to execute, over.”

“Clearance granted.”

***

"I keep telling you that a fight won’t
work, Miles," said Sarah. Calvin glanced from her to Miles since no
one else was talking.