The Phoenix Conspiracy (41 page)

"It's either that or we sit here doing
nothing. If that happens, we lose by default. We should at least
try."

"Can you make him listen to reason?"
Sarah asked, looking at Calvin now.

"Don't look at me," said Calvin,
raising his hands.

"But we do need an executive call on
this," said Shen. "We need you to make a decision."

Calvin knew that was true but a no-win
scenario sat before them. He was content to wait a bit more, hoping
to find some way to dull either the rock or the hard
place.

The trouble was, Special Forces'
position offered no obvious weaknesses for him to exploit. He had
the loyalty of most of the crew, he thought. And, if he could rally
them, he had superior numbers. But whether or not they'd be willing
to put it all on the line for him was another question. They did
like him better than Summers. And several of them, most likely, did
believe they were under orders to assist him. But they might not be
convinced of it enough to fight hand to hand, especially against a
superior adversary like Special Forces.

"You're both right," said
Calvin. "Unless the situation changes somehow, a fight is
unacceptable.
But
,
if we don't fight, we might have no other choice than to surrender.
Which is also unacceptable. Our job, then, is to change the playing
board so a fight is practical."

"And how would we do that?" asked
Shen.

"Deceive, cheat, lie, make our
position look better than it is." Before Calvin could pitch any of
his zero ideas, the vents turned back on and began sending air to
the bridge again.

"Now, what do you suppose that's
about?" asked Shen.

"I don't know, but I don’t like it,"
said Calvin as he saw white smoke pouring onto the
bridge.

Shen looked at him, "you don't
think..."

Miles, who was closest to the gas,
began coughing violently and let out a wail, red eyes streaked with
tears. "Son of a..." his words were lost as he coughed
again.

The smoke spread quickly and Calvin
felt a surge of pain in his nose, mouth, and throat, as his eyes
watered. He too began coughing and wheezing and all of them,
instinctively, retreated away from the main vents.

"Tear gas," said Shen, spitting up
mucous.

Sarah kept herself together the best,
but her eyes were brimming with tears and she was too busy sneezing
and coughing to do anything else.

The burning sensation was
overwhelming. Calvin felt like the insides of his nose and throat
were literally on fire; his eyes watered and burned. He waved
toward the exits. "We can't..." more coughing "…
can’t...stay."

Shen nodded. Miles rubbed at his eyes
and cursed.

"You... go down... the... ladder,"
said Calvin, wiping his eyes and clearing his throat—or trying to.
Shen and Sarah were closest to that exit and, Calvin was sure, one
of them would know how to unseal the hatch and retract the defense
wall manually. They followed his orders and went into the corridor
where the ladder was.

Calvin waved for Miles to follow him
and they entered the elevator, unwilling to cross through the
noxious gas to get to the ladder. And Calvin hoped that if they
split up, maybe some of them wouldn't be caught.

Once inside, with the door sealed,
they could breathe a little easier, but that didn't stop them from
coughing, wheezing violently, and tearing up. Miles re-enabled the
elevator and sent it below—to a much lower deck. Hoping they could
shoot past whatever security Special Forces had waiting for
them.

But, now that the elevator wasn't
disabled, the main control overrode their order and the elevator
came to a forced stop one deck below the bridge. The door slid open
and Calvin caught sight of Summers and four soldiers, including
Captain Pellew. Shen and Sarah were there too, already in
restraints. A look of defeat on their faces. Seeing them only made
Calvin more desperate.

"Hands on your heads," Pellew ordered.
He and the others brandished stun weapons; only Summers was
unarmed.

Calvin did as he was told and marched
out of the elevator, his hands on his head. They took his wrists
and cuffed them behind his back. For a moment he was worried Miles
might try to resist and get hurt, but even he knew they couldn't
win this fight. Despite all the big talk, Calvin knew Miles wasn't
actually stupid.

"Confine them to quarters," said
Summers. Then she gave Calvin a very disapproving shake of her
head. "Why did you make me do this?"

Calvin didn't reply except to look
away. This must have upset her because, for whatever reason, she
felt the need to whisper "checkmate" under her breath as he
passed.

"You're all a bunch of cowardly mangy
dogs," Miles bellowed and they shoved him along. He stuck out his
tongue at Summers when he passed.

"Double guard on that one," Summers
snapped. She seemed to enjoy seeing Miles reduced to
this.

V
ery well, Commander,
Calvin
thought
. You win this round. But the game
isn't over...

Chapter 24

Summers sat in the command position
watching Red Shift closely.

The tear gas had been cleared out and
the bridge was again safe to operate. On her left stood Lieutenant
Commander Rose who, normally, would have command of this shift.
But, given the situation, Summers thought it best she take the deck
for now. Either this precaution, or the presence of two soldiers on
the bridge, seemed to make Lieutenant Commander Rose nervous and he
had a habit of pacing back and forth.

"Please, sit down, Mister Rose," said
Summers. Seeing him anxiously move about made her feel uneasy, even
though she knew she had the situation well in hand. Ever since
Calvin and his mutineers had been locked away, everything had been
calm and uneventful—aside from Miles’ several vain attempts to
bribe his doorguards with liquor.

"Ops, any progress on getting outside
communications back online?" she asked. Cassidy spun her chair to
face Summers.

"Maybe," she said. "I figured out what
is blocking communications. Someone put a subroutine into our
communications software that is causing it to think it's getting
hailed over and over when it isn't. I cleared it out but it's in
there redundant times. Hopefully," she said spinning back to her
console "this is the last time."

"Keep me informed," said Summers. She
turned her attention back to Lieutenant Commander Rose who had
taken a seat but somehow managed to look even more
uncomfortable.

"You're not in any trouble," said
Summers. "So keep it together. Follow my orders and we'll be back
on mission in no time."

The Lieutenant Commander didn't say
anything. He didn't even make eye contact.

"Mister Rose," Summers raised her
voice.

"Yes, Commander?" He snapped to
attention in such a start it seemed his mind had been elsewhere
completely.

"Are you able to perform your duties
here?" she asked.

"Yes, Commander."

"Then look alive," she debated whether
or not she should relieve him. He didn't seem unfit, necessarily.
He wasn't tired or intoxicated or anything. Just nervous—a bad
trait for the new acting XO to have.

"I did it, Commander," Cassidy said.
"We have outside communication again!" she beamed, obviously
thrilled she'd been able to solve the problem. Summers was at least
as happy.

"Excellent work, Midshipman
Dupont.”

Practically the instant communications
were restored they received a message from Capital World, this time
from the office of Fleet Admiral Tiberon—one of only eleven such
admirals, one for each fleet. The lighting in his room seemed a bit
unusual, making his face a little harder to see but it was still
recognizable. The diamond emblem of his rank gleamed and reminded
them all of his absolute authority.

He kept his message short, expressing
concern over their recent loss of communications—a situation
Summers assured him was under control—and gave them new orders.
Rather than going to Xerxes they were to meet up with the Andromeda
and a flotilla of warships. Summers was surprised the Andromeda was
deployed this close to their position but was all the happier for
it.

***

Calvin felt trapped in his
quarters—not just physically, but psychologically also. He mulled
over the situation, trying desperately to think of some new
strategy he could implement. He thought about challenging his
guard, his arms were free now, and Calvin—like all Intel Wing
agents—was proficient with a mixture of martial arts. But the armed
guard was probably at least as experienced, probably even more so.
And should Calvin manage to beat him, what would that buy him? He
had nowhere to go; he certainly couldn’t defeat all of Special
Forces with his bare hands.

Another thought he considered was
that, should he be able to get to Shen, perhaps they could adjust
the navigational software to trick the ship into
auto-course-correcting its way to Abia while appearing to still be
on course to Xerxes. But he didn’t get too excited about that idea
since he had no way to access Shen, no way for Shen to get inside
engineering, and no reason to believe such an idea was even
possible to implement.

As much as he hated it, and blamed it,
his impulse was to take some equarius. It always had a way of
making everything seem better. It could force him to smile for
absolutely no reason in even the worst situations... but all the
pills had been seized while he was away—and probably for the best.
His open safe was as barren as the prison he was destined for. His
weapons too, few that they'd been, were gone.

It was all too frustrating,
to the maximum degree, that this was happening to
him
, on
his
ship, right when they
were so very, very close.
Damn the
Fleet!

He was surprised to hear his door
open, and even more surprised to see who had entered.

“I told the guard I had to sweep your
room for weapons,” said Captain Pellew.

Calvin looked at him, his room had
already been thoroughly cleaned out. "Why are you really
here?"

Pellew made sure the door was closed
before he spoke. "I'm on your side."

Calvin felt his heart
quicken.

"A lot of us are still on your side, I
think."

Calvin felt a surge of hope but at the
same time a hint of suspicion. In his experience, nothing in life
came that easily. "Why would you help me?"

Pellew smiled. "The good of the
Empire, right?"

Calvin didn't say anything.

"Look, my reasons are my
own. But I
am
offering you help, I suggest you accept it otherwise it may
not be offered again.”

Calvin nodded. Suspicious as he was,
he couldn’t afford to be picky.

"Then we need to figure out how to
retake the ship," said Calvin. "Before we get to
Xerxes.”

"Actually we’re on course to
rendezvous with a flotilla of warships led by the
Andromeda."

"That's not good,” said Calvin. He
wasn't sure why those in command thought meeting the Andromeda was
preferable to going to Xerxes, unless the Andromeda was closer.
Making it all the more important for them to beat the clock. "How
far out are they?"

"I don't know," said Pellew. "Probably
a few hours still. Maybe less."

Calvin nodded, that made sense.
Especially if the Andromeda had been sent after them the minute he
declared his intention to go to Abia. "Okay then. How much of
Special Forces will side with me if you're behind me?"

"Six guys. Only a fourth of Special
Forces but proven men all. Some of the best.”

"I see," said Calvin. He was grateful
for the newfound help—if they really were on his side. “We have to
regain control of the strategic points. If we take the bridge we
can lock it out and keep only a skeleton force there, but
engineering will be harder to defend. I’m going to need all your
men there. As for taking those areas, coordinating two simultaneous
strikes would be best.”

“Yes, though that may not be
possible,” said Pellew. “Without freeing your people, or else
recruiting more sympathizers from the crew.”

Calvin nodded. “In the meantime you’d
better get some extra weapons so, should we get more help, we can
arm people.”

“I already have a guy on
it.”

“Good. And, if we can, I’d like to
avoid causing fatalities. We’ll need non-lethal weapons. Hopefully
that will be the Major’s strategy too.”

“It will be. The Major is a by the
book CO and the book is very clear on this. Because the enemy
combatants—that’s us—are Imperial citizens, we have to be taken-in
as non-violently as possible. If we don’t switch to lead they won’t
either. They can’t.”

The door whisked open again and in
stepped Calvin’s door guard.