The Phoenix Conspiracy (44 page)

"I... can't tell, it's all
scrambled."

Calvin felt his heart quicken. There
was definitely something out there, something that didn't want to
be seen. "How come you didn't see it until just now? We're
practically there!"

"I did, but I thought it was the
planet. Now that we're this close... I can tell it's a scrambled
reading. Very impressive. I didn't know this kind of technology
existed."

"It doesn't," said Shen
grimly.

"Standby condition one."

"Standing by."

"You'd better strap in," said Calvin;
his crew looked surprised. He'd never given the order to strap in
before. But he'd also never had to lead the Nighthawk into a
serious combat engagement before. And since he didn't know what to
expect, he thought a battle was quite possible. "I'm serious," he
continued. "If we have to shift power from gravity, or if the
system is blown, I don't want my bridge officers floating around
the bridge."

"Good thinking," said Shen.

"Oh
very
well
,"
said Miles as they all strapped in. Calvin did too, taking a moment
to figure out how the restraints worked. It really
had
been a long time.
Then he tapped the intercom control and set the broadcast to
ship-wide.

"This is your captain and I want you
to listen very closely to what I have to say," he paused. "I know
there has been tension and even violence among us on this ship. And
that we are divided. But we must unite ourselves right now to
survive. Our ship is fast approaching Abia System and something is
scrambling our scanners. Something that will probably want to kill
us.

"So now I'm asking you...
no, I'm
begging
you to look past our differences and cooperate once more. When
this is over, if it turns out I led us here without good
justification, I will resign my command…"

Miles shot him a glare but Calvin
continued unabated. "You have my word. But for now, let us be
one."

He pointed at Sarah who sounded
General Quarters.

"All hands to battle stations and
strap in, CO out." He clicked it off.

"What? Resign your command?" Miles
looked like he was about to burst.

Calvin nodded. "Yes, if
that's what it takes. If I led us here for nothing then I don't
deserve command. But don't worry about it," he said. "Because
something
is
here."

"Okay... whatever you say."

"Dropping out of
alteredspace into Abia System in four, three, two,
one
," said Sarah.
"
And...
here we
are."

If Calvin hadn’t been tied to his
chair he would have jumped up. "What do we see?"

The view from the window was dark and
empty, despite how deep in the system they were. As the ship rolled
starboard the bright glow of the lonely sun filtered in.

"Large objects," said Sarah. "Two are
directly adjacent to the station, three hundred thousand mc's away.
One is orbiting the dwarf planet and three others are holding
position one point five million mc's out."

"I confirm that," said Miles from his
console.

"Ships?" asked Calvin.

"I think so," said Sarah. "But I can't
be sure. Our sensors are still mostly confused, but based on their
relative gravities I'd say the objects are equivalent in mass to...
heavy cruisers."

"She's right," said Miles. "But, if
they are ships, I don't think they're ours. The mass of each
individual ship puts them between a Telarian Cruiser and a
Whitefire Battleship. We don't have any ships in that
range."

"Not military ships, anyway," said
Shen. "They could be commercial vessels. Heavy
freighters?"

Miles shrugged. "They could be, I
suppose."

"Can we confirm that there are exactly
six objects?" asked Calvin.

"Negative," said Sarah. "Two smaller
objects close together might look like one larger object, plus if
they have anything on the other side of the planet we wouldn’t be
able to see that—"

"And," Miles talked over her. "If they
have anything a lot smaller than these it'll be too small to get
any idea of its gravity so we wouldn't see it, unless we move
closer."

"How is our stealth system
doing?"

"Operating normally."

"Good. Let's move in for a closer
look, nice and easy. I don't want to get noticed."

Now it was time for a peace offering.
He tapped his line to the CO's office.

"Commander Presley," he said, trying
to appeal to Summers' formal nature. "I'm requesting your presence
on the bridge. Your insight at this moment would be most valuable.
Our position is deep inside Abia System and we're approaching
several unknown objects that are not yet identifiable. We're
guessing ships, maybe alien ships. We both know the XO's position
at a time like this is on the bridge. I'm going to release you. I
ask that you help us, but I will not compel you."

***

Summers listened carefully to what
Calvin had to say. Nothing lessened her resentment for him and what
he'd done to her and her ship. But, for the first time, she
wondered if he'd blundered his way into something important. If
there really were unregistered alien ships this deep inside the
Empire, that had serious implications.

Or perhaps Calvin "suspected" alien
ships simply to try and grab some validation for his illegal
takeover of the ship. It might turn out that these objects were
asteroids. Or space junk. Or maybe even nothing at all. When Calvin
finished speaking, Shen came in and unlocked Summers' restraints.
As he did, Summers remained silent, still wondering at Calvin's
ulterior motive. Even when Shen returned to the bridge, Summers
remained in place, thoughtful. Wondering why Calvin should want her
advice now. After disregarding it at every turn since she’d come
aboard.

Most likely Calvin thought the image
of them cooperating would help secure his hold over the ship. Make
the crew think his actions were legitimate. She couldn't allow
that.

But then again... if there
was a danger to the ship, duty was very clear, her place
was
on the bridge. For
now she’d have to swallow her pride and see what Calvin had put
everything on the line for.

***

"Incredible," said Shen, staring out
the window.

"That makes four of them," said Miles
as another large grey object became visible through the window,
gliding almost invisibly in the darkness.

"Emitting very little heat and flying
no identifier lights and giving off no signals," said Shen after
conducting a short scan. "Just like the others."

"They're definitely ships," said
Calvin. "But what kind?" The fast distant glances they caught,
while carefully maneuvering around the strange objects, made it
impossible to get a good view. Most of the hulls were still
shrouded in darkness. And the projector didn’t have enough
information to display them.

"If we move even closer," said Shen.
"We'd be able to get a pretty good scan. The scrambling device
wouldn't be as effective."

"I say we go for it," said
Miles.

"It's risky," said Sarah.

"Relax," said Miles. "They can't see
us. We have the best stealth system in the galaxy."

Despite Miles' confidence, or perhaps
because of it, Sarah looked unconvinced. She glanced at Calvin for
instructions and he hesitated before giving any.

On the one hand, the Nighthawk was no
match for any of these ships. But on the other hand, if he didn't
take a chance, he might lose out on what could be vital
intelligence. He needed to ID those ships to make this worth it.
And the stealth device seemed to be working so far.

"Let's do it," said Calvin.

"Okay," replied Sarah.

The ship closed in, silently and
swiftly.

"What I'm still surprised by," said
Shen. "Is how the station is fully lit up but not reacting to any
of these ships. Its shields are down, weapons powerless,
communications array inactive…"

"Do you think they can even see the
ships with their sensor jamming device?" asked Sarah.

"Probably. All these deep space
outposts have large, powerful sensors."

"Too bad we can't hail them," said
Sarah. "Without giving ourselves away."

“Their comm array is down anyway,”
said Shen.

"I bet they've been boarded," said
Miles. "Even though no distress signal was ever sent to the
Fleet."

"Or a distress call
was
sent to the Fleet and
the Fleet ignored it," said Calvin.

"If they did board it," said Shen.
"The staff would have had no chance to defend themselves. There are
only a handful of scientists and technicians. There are no
sophisticated defenses at tiny outposts like this so deep inside
the Empire."

Sarah interrupted them. "Approaching
nearest object at twenty-five thousand mc's per second, zero range
in twenty-eight seconds."

As the ship swung around, the object
came into view and gradually filled the window. "It's a Rotham
ship," said Miles. "No doubt about it. Thorpian Attack Cruiser."
Calvin knew better than to doubt Miles' knowledge of starships and
their defenses.

"I suspected this," said Calvin. "But
it still surprises me."

"I know…” said Shen. "Rotham warships
this far inside the Empire. It's crazy. How did they even get here?
They should have been spotted by at least a dozen of our listening
posts along the DMZ, unless they came from Polarian
space…"

Sarah was intently focused on her
display and controls, ready to go into a defensive maneuver at any
moment.

"Do all the ships match the design of
this one?" asked Calvin.

"Hard to know," said Miles. "Most of
them seem to. But not all."

Just then the CO's office opened and
everyone looked to see Summers stride to the center of the
bridge.

"Welcome, Commander," said Calvin.
"Take your seat and strap in."

"What for?" she asked, her eyes
flicked to the ship out the window. "Is that a...?"

"Rotham ship," said Miles.

"But how can you tell? There are no
identifier lights."

"
Trust me
," said Miles. "It's a Rotham
warship—Thorpian Attack Cruiser."

"I don't—" Summers was almost
speechless. "What is it doing way out here?"

"That's what we need to find out,"
said Calvin. Then, while Summers sat down and strapped herself
in—with some hesitation—Calvin turned to Miles. "Tell me about
those ships."

"They are full-on warships. Superior
to any destroyer, larger than our battleships but not as much bite,
and nothing compared to one of our dreadnoughts. Though they could
squish us like a bug."

"And what about the ships that are not
Thorpian Attack Cruisers?"

"There are four that don't match the
design. Three ships are light cruisers. The fourth is totally
different."

"What do you mean?"

"It's hard to explain... " Miles
looked flustered. "It's the one orbiting the planet. There’s some
kind of weird energy band or something, it’s in flux, increasing
and decreasing like clockwork. Not sure what to make of
it."

Shen did a quick scan. "I see what you
mean, Miles," he said. "There's some kind of field its main
accelerator is giving off. My best guess is that its propulsion
technology is distinctly different than Rotham or Imperial
standards."

"Bring us in closer," said Calvin.
"Focus on that ship."

"Yes, sir," said Sarah. "Moving to new
position.”

"Do you think that's wise?" asked
Summers. She was now eyeing the XO's personal display.

"What do you mean?" Calvin turned to
her.

"If we move to that position, we'll be
right in the center of those ships. If they are hostile, and they
see us, we won't be able to escape. Their proximity will physically
prevent an alteredspace retreat."

"She's right," said Shen.

"That's only
if
they see us," said
Miles. "And if we do move to that position that will give us the
best view of everything here."

"He's right about that," said Sarah.
"And there is no other really good position to scan from without
dealing with distortion from the planet. Should I proceed as
directed or not?"

"Proceed as directed," said Calvin. He
knew the risks and decided they were worth taking. He had to know
more.

The attack cruiser disappeared from
view, quickly replaced by the dwarf planet. It was dark grey and
only partially lit by the star. It looked like a barren lifeless
husk of a world. A floating rock in the middle of nowhere with
absolutely nothing of interest or value upon it.