The Phoenix Conspiracy (43 page)

The approaching solders were almost to
the corner now, they were loud enough Calvin could understand their
conversation. It was about “tightening the gap” and the need to
“search some of the rooms.”

The door opened, revealing the
surprised face of Third Lieutenant Rafael Te Santos, one of the
analysts from the lab.

“Can I help you, sir?”

Calvin practically tackled Rafael as
he darted inside and closed the door. Rafael looked both confused
and a little angry. But Calvin didn’t have time for
apologies.

“Do you trust me?” he asked,
tightening his grip on his stunner.

Rafael’s eyes were difficult to read
but he nodded. “Yes. Can I help you somehow?”

“Let me hide here for a few
minutes.”

Rafael agreed, waving for him to go
into the closet but instead Calvin chose behind the bed where he’d
still be out of sight but could fight more easily—if it came to
that.

Unfortunately, from this view, he
couldn’t see Rafael. And wasn’t sure whether the analyst planned to
actually help him—at great personal risk—or give him up as soon as
the soldiers were near.

The seconds passed. It was
too quiet. A trickle of sweat beaded slowly down his forehead. He
didn’t wipe it away until it stung his eye. All the while he tried
to resist the voice inside telling him
Stun him! He’s going to give you up!

Calvin didn’t stun Rafael. He didn’t
even move to where he could see him. Instead he waited, trusted,
and hoped. He’d made a real effort to get to know his crew
personally—including Rafael—and he’d proven himself to them again
and again. Now Rafael had a chance to prove himself to
Calvin.

Seconds turned into a minute and then
two and still nothing happened. But he didn’t let himself relax, he
continued to wait. Feeling the burn in his knees as he crouched,
the pain forcing him to shift positions.

Timing was critical, and judging when
to leave was hard to decide. It had been awhile, but if the
soldiers were searching rooms—like they’d discussed—they could
easily still be in this hall. But if they weren’t searching rooms,
they were long gone.

He decided he’d make Rafael be the one
to step out into the corridor to see if it was clear. Just as he
cleared his throat to speak, the chime rang. Calvin cut himself off
and adjusted his grip on the stunner. Not too tight, not too loose,
finger over the trigger. Ready to pop up with the element of
surprise. Maybe, just maybe, he’d get lucky.

He heard Rafael’s footsteps approach
the door. Then the soft whoosh of it sliding open.

A soldier spoke. “Is Lieutenant
Commander Cross in this room? The Major has ordered his
arrest.”

Moment of truth. Calvin held his
breath and steadied himself. His whole body tense.

“No, he isn’t,” Rafael said
smoothly.

Calvin restrained a sigh of
relief.

“It’s very important we find him,” the
soldier said. “We think someone may be hiding him, and anyone who
is hiding him will stand before a tribunal unless they come clean
now. So, have you seen him?”

“Well, yes, come to think of it,”
Rafael said.

Calvin clenched his
teeth.
No! You’re going to sell me out
after all?

“I heard someone earlier. Not three
minutes before you rang my chime. Sounded like running. I thought
it was nothing but it might have been him for all I
know.”

“You heard running on the other side
of this door?” The soldier asked skeptically.

“It was partially open at the
time.”

“Then did you see who it was?” The
soldier demanded.

“No. It was only partially open. I was
trying to get a little bit of airflow since these vents aren’t as
good as advertised.”

“And you didn’t look when you heard
the running? That didn’t stand out to you as something you should
investigate?”

“I thought it was my imagination. But,
if it wasn’t, the man ran that way.”

Calvin didn’t see which way Rafael
pointed, and for a moment he feared Rafael had pointed at the bed,
where Calvin was hiding. But there was no reason for him to do
that. He’d protected Calvin thus far, so Calvin suppressed his
paranoia and tried to focus completely on what he had to do
next.

“Thank you, sir,” the soldier said and
he left. The door slid closed and Calvin popped up, stunner still
in hand, and saw Rafael looking back at him darkly.

“I hate lying to soldiers, you know,”
Rafael said.

“And I hate running from
them,” said Calvin. “But thank you for your help. And I promise
you, I really
am
on the right side of all of this.”

Rafael just looked at him. “I believe
you.”

Calvin nodded. “Thanks. If everything
goes the way it should, things will be back under control soon.
Now, which way did you send those soldiers?”

“That way,” Rafael pointed. It was the
direction Calvin had hoped, leaving the path to the ladders
clear.

Okay, bridge, here I
come
.

Chapter 26

An explosive bang cracked as the
barricade blew apart and a gust of smoke filled the air. "LOOK
AWAY!" Pellew shouted.

Shen raised his arm to shield his eyes
but too slowly. A bright white flash burned his retinas and a
shrill whine filled his ears, blocking out all sound. He stumbled
backwards and crashed to the ground. He rubbed at his eyes and
slowly his vision returned. He saw blurry images of soldiers
exchanging fire, and smoke filtering through the room. People were
coughing and hiding behind cover, many plugged their ears. Shen
still couldn't hear anything.

He felt a hand grip his shoulder and
looked up to see Pellew shouting at him. Shen couldn't make out a
word and pointed to his ear, which was still ringing. Pellew seemed
to understand and he pointed to a terminal nearby. He wanted Shen
to move to better cover. Before he could, several bursts of energy
flashed their way. Pellew knelt down and returned fire while Shen,
unable to find his stunner, rolled to a prone position and made
himself as small as possible.

Everything was clearer now; most of
the smoke had been blown away by the vents. Several people were on
the ground but it wasn't clear to Shen how many or who. With a pop
his hearing returned.

The Major’s soldiers advanced further
into engineering.

***

The Major took the news without
expression. But deep inside he felt a wave of shame. He’d failed to
defend the ship and now the rightful commander was a prisoner on
the bridge and the ship was in illegitimate hands. And there was
nothing he could do about it.

He had attacked engineering,
of course. But it proved better defended than he’d anticipated.
He’d thought he’d sent an overwhelming force, smaller numbers but
superior training and equipment. His soldiers even reported initial
success—they’d breached engineering. But at the most inconvenient
moment his force was caught unaware from behind, by a force
Pellew—
the traitor
—had hidden in the corridors. The pincer movement was so
successful that the Major’s soldiers had been forced to withdraw.
Now, with many of the men unconscious or unarmed—since Pellew had
stolen or destroyed most of the weapons stockpile—the Major lacked
the resources to try another attack.

The ship was lost.

He tried to think of another way. He
even sent forces to the bridge to begin cutting the defense walls
with a laser drill. But it would take hours, maybe even days,
before they could break through.

So now he waited. Quiet as usual.
Wondering. Would the Andromeda’s flotilla find them? Surely Calvin
couldn’t keep his hold on the ship forever…

And yet there was something else
bothering him. Seeing the unquestioning loyalty several of the crew
and some of the soldiers gave Calvin, despite clear orders to the
contrary, it made the Major wonder—could Calvin be onto something?
He still doubted it. He still believed the crew had been deceived
and that Calvin had no right to command anymore. But he wasn’t as
certain as he’d once been. And decided that, as bad as the
situation was, there was still one benefit. Once they arrived at
Abia, as they surely would, they could all see what—if anything—was
there. And then, and only then, would they know if they’d made the
right decision.

***

With both the bridge and engineering
secure, Calvin gave the order to go to Abia. It felt good to have
his command again, even illegitimately, and he was able to ignore
the consequences of his actions by guessing what he might find in
Abia.

"ETA?" he asked for what must have
been the twentieth time.

"Two hours and fifty-three minutes,"
said Sarah. With the Major’s force in ruins, Calvin had ordered his
White Shift officers to the bridge and relieved the Red Shift,
which was sent below. Fortunately the exchange of personnel had
happened before more Special Forces soldiers appeared—who were now
drilling futilely into the defense walls.

Only Summers had been kept against her
will, she was cable-tied in the CO’s office where, presumably, she
could do no further harm. Miles had taken a break earlier to go and
surprise her with a beanbag round from a shotgun—enough to knock
her unconscious. Only he would think to do such a thing to an
unarmed prisoner. Calvin scolded him and forced him to resume his
station, but deep inside he was a little bit pleased. Not enough to
condone the action, but he also hadn’t forgotten the jagged wound
she’d given him earlier. How she’d slipped into his heart and
crushed it from the inside.

“
Is everything still fine in
engineering?"

"As of last report... one minute ago,"
said Sarah.

"Good, good," said Calvin. He stood up
and started pacing around the bridge.

"Are you okay?" asked
Sarah.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." He hovered
over Miles' screen and examined the defense systems.

"All's good here, Cal," said
Miles.

Calvin nodded and wound his way over
to Shen's station.

"Everything's fine over here too,"
said Shen.

"And is the Andromeda and its flotilla
in sight?" he asked.

"Negative. Nothing on our scopes
bigger than random space debris."

He breathed a sigh of
relief. His biggest concern now, aside from the perpetual threat
that he'd somehow lose control of the ship...
again
, was that the Fleet would
overtake him. The Nighthawk had spent a lot of fuel and taxed its
engines heavily; as a result, they couldn't do as deep of a jump as
Calvin wanted. Their present depth still translated into a fast
speed, but whether it was fast enough was difficult to say. Not
without Andre's input, and the poor guy was still locked away in
HQ.

***

Summers was in a confused state. She
was sitting on the ground, it was cold, and her hands were tightly
restrained, cinching her wrists. She felt a throbbing localized
pain and her muscles were tight.

She wiggled, trying to get
comfortable, and looked through foggy eyes at the vaguely familiar
shapes of the CO's office. She held out hope the Major would retake
the ship, and restore proper order, but as the time went by, her
hopes dimmed. But not her zeal to fight.

She tried to curse under her gag,
despite her self-discipline. She was no longer able to contain the
swirl of boiling frustration eating her insides. She let out a
string of swears with the word Calvin tossed in intermittently. It
sounded incoherent with the gag in place. Eventually she calmed
down but couldn’t hold back a stream of silent tears as she waited
for what felt like an interminable amount of time.

Chapter 27

"Coming up on Abia," said
Sarah.

"Is our stealth system still engaged?"
asked Calvin. He wanted to make sure that, whatever was out there,
the Nighthawk got to see it first.

"You know it is," said Miles. "All
defensive systems are operational and standing by."

"Good. Sarah, drop us deep into the
system. About three million mc's from the outpost. I want a good
look at what out there."

"You got it. Entering Abia System in
five minutes."

Calvin tapped his armrest
nervously. He couldn't believe they were actually going to arrive.
They
finally
were
past the many obstacles that'd stood between them and
Abia...
between Calvin and
Raidan
. Abia was the key, it had to be. He
wouldn't let himself wonder what he'd do if there was nothing
there.

Anticipation filled the room, thick
enough that even Sarah, who was always so relaxed, sat on the edge
of her seat. "I've got something on the scopes," she
said.

"What is it?"