The Phoenix Crisis (18 page)

Calvin would have liked to do a further,
more thorough examination, but he was apprehensive about leaving
Kalila alone and out of sight for too long. Especially in a foreign
environment with only himself around to protect her. So he left the
computer mainframe and returned to the bridge. Kalila was still
there, in the captain’s chair, but now she was being chatted up by
the young mercenary who’d apparently found his way back to the
bridge. Calvin felt a growing wave of dislike and suspicion toward
the man. Calvin interrupted them. “Honey,” he said.

“
Yes, what is it, Dear?” she
looked up.

“
How is everything?” he
asked, he shifted his eyes back and forth, as if using them to
point to the mercenary.

“
All is well,” said Kalila.
She seemed to understand what he was truly asking. Did she feel
threatened or unsafe around the strange mercenary? Apparently she
didn’t. All the same, Calvin decided to stick close to Kalila for
the rest of the journey. It wouldn’t be a comfortable couple of
hours, but at least it would be over soon.

Chapter 11

“
Shouldn’t we be
coordinating with Second Lieutenant Vargas and arranging for
resupply and repair?” asked Cassidy. She sat at the ops position
with her chair slightly turned so she could face Summers at the
command position

“
Yes and we will,” said
Summers. She knew Cassidy was only raising a valid concern and not
directly challenging the orders she’d been given. “But not before
we carry out our current orders.”

“
Commander, if I may,” said
Jay. “Do you really think it’s wise for us go into Polarian space
like we are? No ammo to speak of, crippled armor, and most of our
repair staff gone?”

“
You raise a good point,
Mister Cox, but so long as our stealth system is operating at
capacity there won’t be a problem,” said Summers. She looked away
from the helmsman and toward the defense officer. “Mister Brown,
what is the status of our stealth system?” Seeing him, his giant
round head and thick, stupid face, it was all she could do to
suppress the involuntary gag reflex.

“
Working well, Cap’n,” said
Miles. He spun his chair to face her and beamed. Calvin’s final act
before departing the ship had been to instate Miles as acting XO.
Now that she was acting CO—at least for as long as Calvin was
away—Summers originally had half a mind to demote Miles back down
and raise someone else, someone more competent, to the position of
acting XO. Unfortunately there were not many choices. Of those who
outranked Miles, or else shared his same seniority, Lieutenant
Iwate was incapacitated and in the infirmary, Lieutenant Winters
was away and emotionally compromised to boot, and Second Lieutenant
Vargas was off commanding the Arcane Storm. There was still
Lieutenant Cowen—who Summers was truly a millimeter away from
raising to the position of XO in Miles’ place—but Mister Cowen was
also the ship’s chief engineer and so long as the ship was damaged
and her repair crew understaffed, Summers knew Mister Cowen could
not afford to be anywhere else but engineering. Which left Second
Lieutenant Brown and a host of junior officers. If Summers had had
her way, she would have chosen Midshipman Dupont for the position,
but Cassidy was one of the lowest ranking people on the ship and
instating her as acting XO violated far too many protocols for
Summers to be comfortable with. So, as much as she hated it, she
was stuck with that idiot Miles as her XO.

“
Let me know the instant
there is any sign of trouble with our stealth operations,” said
Summers. “We are relying entirely on the stealth system for our
safety on this mission, and so it is vital that it be kept in
perfect working condition.” The Polarian border was open, and
entering it wasn’t unsafe in the same sense that going into the DMZ
was, but considering their destination, and what they hoped to see,
Summers was sure there were powerful people out there who would
gladly destroy the Nighthawk to keep their dark truths hidden. It
was best for everyone if the ship remained effectively invisible
throughout the mission.

“
Yes, ma’am!” Miles saluted.
Normally he was more antagonistic toward Summers but now that he’d
been raised to Acting XO, the temporary promotion had put him into
a state of jubilee and nothing seemed to bother him.

“
Sir…” said Summers with a
soft sigh.

“
What?” asked
Miles.

“
In the military you address
your superiors as
sir
, even if they are female. Always
sir
, never
ma’am
.” She didn’t know why she even
bothered correcting Miles, he was certainly a lost
cause.

“
I’m
pretty
sure as the XO I can call you
ma’am if I want.”

“
That’s
it
,” Summers snapped. She shot to her feet
and pointed an accusing finger at Miles, who looked surprised by
her sudden movement. “
You
. In my office. Right now.” She
spun on her heels and headed to the CO’s office, expecting Miles to
follow.

Once she was inside and had taken her place
at the CO’s desk, and the door had closed behind Miles, leaving the
two of them alone, Summers cleared her throat. Before she could
launch into what she had to say, Miles interrupted her.

“
I know what this is about,”
he said. “And... I’m not comfortable with it.”

“
Of course you aren’t
comfortable with it,” said Summers. “No officer should be
comfortable with a dressing down from their commanding
officer.”

“
Dressing down?” he eyed her
suggestively. “As in taking off clothes? I thought so. I see how
you’ve been looking at me,” said Miles. “And… I can’t say I blame
you,” he took a moment to pose, flexing his upper body for a
moment. “But I think, now that we’re both the XO, any romance
between us is probably not appropriate. So… this has to be shorter
than two minutes.” He grabbed the front of his trousers, as if to
unbutton them.

Summers’ eyes widened with confusion and
rage. What he’d just said… she didn’t know where to begin! “No,”
she said sharply, stopping him. “Don’t… ever, ever, ever, ever do
that.”

“
Your words say that,” said
Miles. He stared at her chest for a moment then looked back at her
face. “But your body says something totally different.”

“
No
,” she shook her head. Feeling more repulsed than she’d ever
been.

“
Okay so… I’m having trouble
sorting through all these mixed signals you’re sending my
way.”

“
That,” Summers glanced at
Miles’ hands which were still poised over the buttons of his
trousers. “I don’t want that. No woman in the galaxy wants that.
Not from you. Not ever. Is that clear?”

He looked at her with hurt
puppy-dog eyes. She didn’t care. “And secondly,” she continued.
“What do you mean now that we’re
both the
XO?
We aren’t both the XO, you’re the
XO.”

“
Okay… so then what are
you?” asked Miles.

“
The CO!”

“
Well…” Miles shrugged. “Not
really. I mean, Calvin’s the CO.”

“
I am the Acting CO in his
place!”
You thick idiot
!—she wanted to add. “And right now you are the Acting
XO—because Calvin made you the acting XO—and, whether I like it or
not, I’m stuck with you.”

“
I guess we’re just a couple
of people stuck with each other,” he gave her a dopey grin. “A
couple of steamingly attractive... bored people, with nothing to
do.”

Summers spoke over him.
“While I am in charge I want you to understand
one
thing. I’m not going to tolerate
any of your shit,” Summers almost couldn’t believe such an unseemly
and unprofessional word had come out of her. Yet she stood by it.
When dealing with Miles, professionalism and courtesy were as
useless as medicine on the dead. “I need you fulfilling your duties
in the XO role, as well as in the defense officer role, and I’m
going to give you a chance—for Calvin’s sake—”

“
Good man, that
Calvin”

Shut up for two
seconds!
“But if you cross me, or give me
even the slightest cause, I will toss your ass into the brig and
leave it there to rot. Do you understand me?”

“
Calvin won’t like that very
much—”

“
I said
, do you understand me?” her eyes narrowed sharply. The
intensity of her gaze seemed to disarm him and, for a moment, he
looked terrified.

“
Yes ma’am—err,
sir
. Yes, sir!”

“
That’s more like it. Now
shut up and get back to the defense post. Keep your eyes on that
stealth system. I don’t want to hear a peep out of you unless it
has to do with our stealth capability.”

***

The Ice Maiden dropped them off at Orbital
Platform 203-B as agreed. When Kalila and Calvin cleared the jetway
and entered the orbital station, Calvin glanced behind him to see
Reginald re-sealing the airlock of his ship. He saluted Calvin once
and Calvin nodded. He would have returned the salute but thought
the gesture might draw attention to himself—and make him look less
like a civilian. He’d given the old man his concealed pistol as
thanks for the safe journey, since he couldn’t bring it through
Customs, and the old man had seemed grateful.

“
So far so good,” Calvin
said to Kalila as the two of them entered the thick busy crowds of
people. Calvin dragged the wheeled luggage bag with his right hand
and took Kalila’s hand with his left, partially so she would stay
close and to help sell their cover story to any curious onlooker,
but he also did it because he wanted to. He liked the soft, warm
feel of her seemingly tiny hand in his.

“
The most dangerous part is
yet to come,” she whispered back. Her words were nearly lost under
the sea of ambient conversations, footsteps, and noise surrounding
them.

Orbital Platform 203-B was one of seemingly
countless orbital stations circling Capital World. Such stations
managed and facilitated all travel to and from the planet’s
surface. Since it was the most populous planet in the galaxy, the
stations never slept, and the crowds never diminished. The faces
changed, but there were always plenty of bodies hustling and
bustling, hurriedly going about their business. Moving through
Customs. Arranging travel. Many of them waited for deep space
transports to ferry them to the far reaches of the Empire.

“
This way,” said Calvin as
he followed the signs. “Going through civilian procedures and
arranging civilian transport were foreign to him, since nearly
everywhere he went he did as an officer of the military and on
official business, not pleasure. But, as foreign as things were to
him, he was sure they were even more alien to Kalila. She’d been
born an Akira, and as such had a ship at her private disposal since
she was scarcely old enough to talk and say where she wanted to
go.

For a couple of amateurs, though, they found
their way into line and at the right end of the station easily
enough.

As they waited in a host of people to be
processed through Customs, Kalila freed her hand from his and wiped
it once on her jeans—obviously she was unaccustomed to sweat.

For a pampered noblewoman, Kalila had
surprisingly good tactical sense. She kept her head down and
avoided looking people in the eyes directly, which was wise
because—despite her altered appearance—she still had features that
might be recognized if someone looked close enough.

“
I appreciate what you’re
doing,” she said quietly, as they shuffled a few paces forward in
line. A voice over a loudspeaker along with station personnel in
bright uniforms directed the queue of people.

“
It’s my pleasure,” he said
with a smile.

“
You’re a good man,
Calvin.”

To pass the time, and out of a desire to get
to know her better, Calvin got a conversation going with Kalila. He
talked to her about things she liked, and how it felt to be back,
but he avoided any questions that might give away who she was, or
challenge their cover story. He spoke to her like a man might his
new bride, and she went right along. It made him wonder if her
answers were her true thoughts and feelings, or if she were merely
roleplaying the character of Ava Green.

“
Gate Twenty-Three Open,”
said the voice over the loudspeaker.

One of the staff members waved at them.
“Next,” he motioned for them to hurry along.

Kalila took Calvin’s hand, probably to make
it clear that they were together, and the two of them approached
the vacant gate. A bar had been lowered to block access to the far
side of the station, and a man in a security uniform with a badge
on his lapel sat at a desk.

“
Papers?” the security man
asked.

Kalila took out their paperwork, which she’d
kept in her satchel, and handed it over. The man glanced it over,
checking for several things, and then put it into the computer
scanner for analysis. He next instructed them on how to place their
thumbs to the plate for identification, and how to stand for the
retinal scanner to work. It was intuitive and obvious but Calvin
supposed the staff were bound to explain it to everyone who passed
through.