The Phoenix Crisis (19 page)

“
State your business on
Capital World,” said the man in a bored-sounding tone. Kalila
placed her thumb to the plate and allowed the computer to scan her.
Once she was finished, Calvin did the same.

“
We live here,” said Calvin.
“Home address is in the documents, and should be on file in the
computer.”

It had taken some effort for them to add new
information to the Imperial Network, especially without the help of
the Intel Wing Archives. But, through persistence, expertise, and
extreme caution, the Nighthawk’s quartermaster and Cassidy had been
able to manage it. Or so they’d thought. If there was a problem,
Calvin supposed he was about to find out.

The man’s eyes shifted from Calvin to
Kalila, and then lingered on her for a moment. “You look sort of
familiar,” he said, stroking his chin thoughtfully.

She blushed. “You might have seen us on our
way out last week. We’re just getting back from our honeymoon.” She
gave Calvin an adoring look, like a smitten teenager, then she
reached her hands around his head and pulled him in, kissing him.
The way a young, infatuated bride would kiss her brand new husband.
He kissed her back, pulling her in tight. Feeling all sorts of
emotions firing wildly inside him. Not the least of which was
surprise.

“
All right, enough of that,”
barked the security man. With seeming reluctance, Kalila pulled
away, leaving Calvin in a bit of a daze. Apparently embarrassed by
the public display of affection, the security man avoided looking
at them. Whatever spark of familiarity Kalila had struck in him
seemed long extinguished, and now he just wanted to hurry them
through. The computer beeped, approving of the couple’s paperwork,
and the security man handed it back to them, barely making eye
contact. “Up there, to the right, through the gate, and you can go
to the kiosk and arrange transport from there,” he pointed. “Ask
the staff in yellow if you have any questions.”

“
Come on, Dear,” Kalila
said, taking Calvin’s hand once more. They did as the man said and
walked toward the gate, which he raised for them to pass
through.

“
Next,” they heard from
behind.

Kalila continued holding Calvin’s hand and
he pulled her close, giving her hand a gentle squeeze. “Not bad,”
he said.

“
I can think on my feet when
I need to,” she smiled up at him. He smiled back.

Booking passage was easy once they’d cleared
Customs and, when the time came, they boarded a basic shuttle and
took their seats. There was a constant stream of shuttles coming
and going—for that matter this was probably their particular
shuttle’s twentieth trip that very day, but despite all of that,
there were still far more people trying to come and go than there
were shuttles ready to take them. So it was quite crowded, every
seat filled. Calvin let Kalila take the seat by the window and he
sat next to her, separating her from the throng of other
passengers—businessmen, families, all sorts of people of every age
and description. They strapped in and, after a short wait, the
shuttle sealed its airlock and broke free from the station.

Kalila rested her head on Calvin’s shoulder
and the shuttle descended. Calvin watched the view out the tiny
window as best he could. The view was mostly blue sky, white
clouds, and dark ocean. But once the shuttle adjusted its course,
the glittering mass of Capital World Proper came into view. It was
like a shiny, massive anthill, home to billions of people.
Massively tall skyscrapers that stretched into the heavens,
covering seemingly every inch of the small continents. As for the
oceans, they made up the lion’s share of the planet, and seemed to
stretch on eternally.

They hit minor turbulence on the way down
but, to her credit, the pilot kept their descent extraordinarily
smooth. It took longer than Calvin would have liked; had he been at
the stick he would have dived for the surface with a lot more
enthusiasm. Really pointing the nose of the shuttle down and giving
gravity some help with the thrust of the engines, only opening the
flaps and cutting their descent when he had to. Of course that
style of flying wouldn’t be suitable to most passengers here,
who—based on a quick survey of them—would undoubtedly be puking
their guts up.

When the large part of the city became
visible, and they glided at an altitude of about two-thousand
meters—low enough to have to avoid some of the taller buildings—the
sights became very familiar to Calvin and he felt a wave of
nostalgia tug at him. It had been a long time since he’d been here.
But this planet, more than any other, was home. A flood of memories
poured through him, from his childhood all the way up through
attending Camdale.

He took in a deep breath and allowed himself
to relax. Thinking that, no matter what dark conspiracies awaited
him, in some ways it was still good to be home.

Chapter 12

The fierce-looking ISS Wolverine was
partially visible out the window. By battleship standards it was
enormous—nearly the size of a proper dreadnought—and compared to
the Desert Eagle it seemed to stretch on forever. Nimoux looked at
it, his eyes watching the white-and-blue identifier lights as they
cut through the blackness, bouncing off the hull of the mighty
warship.

“
ISS Wolverine has changed
its heading and is accelerating,” reported the ops officer. “It is
on course to intercept us and has commenced docking
preparations.”

“
They’re hailing us,” said
the helmsman.

Nimoux pressed his hands together as he
watched the monstrosity before them yaw to starboard. “On
speakers,” he commanded.

“
IWS Desert Eagle, this is
Commodore Elias Hill of the ISS Wolverine. You are hereby ordered
to dock with this vessel.”

“
Understood,” replied
Nimoux. Intel Wing had already informed him that he was to dock
with the Wolverine. “Will comply.” He maintained calm but felt
suspicious and unsettled.

“
Captain Lafayette Nimoux,
you are ordered to come aboard the Wolverine as soon as docking
position has been established.”

Nimoux knew this already as well, though it
still didn’t make sense to him. “Commodore, what purpose is being
served in my going aboard the Wolverine?” asked Nimoux.

“
You will obey your orders.”
With that the communication terminated.

“
Shall I bring us into
position to dock, sir?” asked the helmsman.

“
Do it,” said Nimoux flatly.
He watched the two ships on the 3d display, the massive Wolverine
and the tiny Desert Eagle angling to connect their airlocks. He
wondered what he could expect once he’d gone aboard the Wolverine,
and what purpose could possibly be served by bringing him aboard
the other ship. Perhaps it was a legitimate purpose—maybe
information had to be given to him that couldn’t, for whatever
reason, be trusted to kataspace.

The whole thing smelled too foul, though,
for him to truly expect this operation was entirely legitimate. He
was more certain than he’d ever been that Calvin had been onto
something when he’d warned Nimoux about the conspiracy within the
military. Now Nimoux believed he was witnessing a piece of that
plot firsthand. The question was… what did they have to gain in
summoning Nimoux here? If they captured him, his absence would be
noted. His name carried far too much weight across the Empire for
his disappearance to go unanswered and unexplained. Surely the
conspirators couldn’t move against him directly—if they indeed had
determined him to be a threat.

For the same reasons, he didn’t think they
could kill him. Unless it was made to look like an accident…
perhaps then they could get away with it.

“
You’d better get down
there, sir,” said his XO. There was a look of slight concern on the
hardened man’s face and Nimoux knew that he too smelled something
strange about this whole situation.

“
I suppose you’re right,”
Nimoux tapped his fingers together pensively for another moment,
then he tapped his direct line to Special Forces HQ.

“
Major Rask here,” came the
voice of the special forces commander on his ship.

“
Major, I want you and an
escort of your best soldiers to meet me at airlock four. We’re
going aboard the ISS Wolverine.”

“
Aye, sir,” she
replied.

If there were to be a fight,
a handful of special forces soldiers wouldn’t make any kind of
difference. The purpose of bringing them along was to lessen the
chances of any
incident
befalling Nimoux by creating witnesses and, hopefully, an
unacceptably high collateral risk.

Nimoux stood up and dusted out the wrinkles
of his uniform. He looked his XO in the eyes. “You are to await my
return, no matter what. The ship will not leave this sector of
space until I am back on the bridge, is that clear?”

His XO saluted. “Of course, sir,” he seemed
almost surprised that Nimoux would even have to say that. But he
had his reasons. If he were being brought aboard the Wolverine for
the purpose of keeping him off the Desert Eagle—perhaps in
custody—he wanted the Desert Eagle’s crew to make a fuss about it,
and do everything in their power to find out why and what was going
on.

With that, Nimoux left the bridge.

He arrived at the airlock and his soldiers
were already there. Major Rask, looking strong and athletic, was
certainly one of the fiercest looking women Nimoux had ever seen.
She’d brought four of her soldiers with her, three men and a woman.
All were armed and appeared ready for anything.

“
Major,” Nimoux
saluted.

“
Captain,” she saluted back.
“Are we expecting trouble over there?”

“
To be honest, Major,” said
Nimoux as the hatch began to pull back, “I have no idea what to
expect.”

The hatch opened fully and an escort of
Imperial marines was waiting for them, along with the Wolverine’s
XO—Commander Nelson.

“
This way, Captain,”
Commander Nelson said with a salute. She had short brown hair and
wore the full navy uniform, including the hat.

Nimoux returned the salute and stepped
aboard the deck of the Wolverine. His escort of soldiers came
along.

Commander Nelson led them down the corridor
and toward one of the many elevators. Nimoux walked at her side,
his soldiers followed, flanked by about fifteen marines.

“
Welcome aboard the
Wolverine, sir,” said Commander Nelson.

“
Do you know what this is
about, Commander?” he asked.

“
I’m afraid I don’t,” she
replied. “I just know my orders, it’s not my place to question
them.”

The group went around the corner and ran
into a column of marines with weapons drawn. Nimoux felt his heart
race as he spotted them, their weapons brandished at him and his
escort, there had to be at least twenty marines. Not to mention the
fifteen at the flanks who, he noticed, had also raised their
weapons. To their credit, Major Rask and her men had raised their
own firearms and looked willing to fight—if it came down to it,
even though they were hopelessly outmatched.

“
Drop your weapons!” ordered
one of the marines; his fatigues showed the insignia of Master
Sergeant. “Hands on your heads!”

“
What is the meaning of
this
?” Nimoux looked at Commander
Nelson.

“
I’m sorry, Captain,” she
said. “Orders are orders.”

“
Drop your weapons or we
will open fire!” commanded the marine.

“
I’d do what he says,” said
Commander Nelson. She stepped out of the line of fire and behind
the column of soldiers.

Nimoux looked around; his tiny group was
surrounded on all sides.

“
Sir, your orders?” asked
Major Rask. She held her rifle square to her shoulder and was
peering down the iron sights, ready to open fire if he commanded
it. He was grateful for her loyalty but saw no need to throw their
lives away. Besides, they wouldn’t get away with this… not Captain
Hill, not Commander Nelson, not the Fleet. This would not stand.
It
couldn’t
.

“
Stand down,” ordered Nimoux
and he raised his hands to his head.

Major Rask and the other special forces
soldiers lowered their weapons. Several of the marines rushed
forward and seized them. Disarming the group from the Desert
Eagle.

“
Now, Captain, if you’ll be
so kind as to come this way,” said Commander Nelson. Two Marines
went to Nimoux’s sides to make sure he complied. Nimoux did not
resist. He stepped toward Commander Nelson, like she’d asked. All
the while thinking she would answer for this.

“
This is unacceptable,” said
Nimoux.

“
Don’t worry, Captain, your
people will not be harmed. They will wait for you here. Now step
lively and follow me. What you’re about to see is for your eyes
only.” She gave him a wicked smile and led the way.

***

After their shuttle landed, Calvin and
Kalila made their way through the terminal and out into the public
street. Once they were outdoors and Calvin felt the humid air of
Capital World on his skin—making him instantly feel like he needed
a shower—he couldn’t help but smile and take everything in.

He walked beside Kalila, who seemed to know
where she was going, and he kept his eyes vigilant. Now that he was
unarmed, if they did run into any kind of serious trouble there
wasn’t much Calvin could do to protect Kalila—or himself—but he
intended to be ready for it anyway. He glanced suspiciously from
person to person in the thick crowds, and from vehicle to vehicle,
searching for the tell-tale signs of surveillance, or that they
were being followed, or for anyone that just plain seemed out of
place.