The Phoenix Crisis (20 page)

Calvin spotted a motorcade of dark cars.
They were parked parallel to the main street. Some people in suits
and sunglasses were standing around next to them, many of whom wore
earpieces and most had firearms. Two had concealed
shoulder-holsters, Calvin noted the bulge under their coats, and
several others wore boots that looked almost designed to facilitate
ankle-holstered weapons.

“
We may have trouble,”
whispered Calvin. “Black cars. Ninety-degrees.” He wasn’t sure who
the security motorcade represented, and thought that if they indeed
were here to pick up Kalila and drag her away to some Phoenix Ring
dungeon they had certainly picked a conspicuous way to do
it.

Kalila looked and saw them. In her haste to
get through the crowd, and being quite a bit shorter than Calvin,
she hadn’t noticed them until he’d pointed them out.

“
Good,” she said. And she
changed direction, now cutting perpendicular through the crowd to
get to the street. Calvin followed.

“
So these are the good
guys?” he asked, not sure why else Kalila would want to meet them
head on.

“
Yes these are the good
guys,” she replied. “They’re my father’s men.”

They reached the men standing next to the
lead car and Kalila introduced herself. They didn’t seem to
recognize her—thanks to her altered appearance—but the sound of her
voice, her aura of command, and a passphrase she knew served to
convince them of her identity. From what Calvin could tell, this
meeting had been arranged all along.

“
We’re ready to escort you
to the Capitol District, Your Highness,” the centermost bodyguard
said. He tapped his earpiece and spoke something into it,
confirming that Kalila had safely arrived. He then looked at
Calvin, his eyes unreadable behind his dark sunglasses. Calvin
looked back at him suspiciously. Wondering if it was possible the
Phoenix Ring had gotten to these men and bribed them, or replaced
them…

“
Thank you,” said Kalila.
The men took her satchel and helped her into the car.

Calvin wasn’t about to leave Kalila alone
with these men—not until he was sure they were who she thought they
were—so he climbed into the car after her, leaving the luggage bag
on the curb for the men to take care of.

The car was surprisingly large on the
inside, and unnecessarily luxurious. It even had a working sink.
Calvin couldn’t imagine why anyone would need half the things in
this car while traveling, but Kalila put them to good use. She
immediately opened some bottles and other effects that had been
left waiting for her and she began the process of restoring her
natural appearance.

“
If I am to go before the
Assembly, they will have to recognize me,” she explained. “Feel
free to do the same.”

The car pulled away from the curb and out
into traffic. Calvin instinctively looked around for a safety-strap
but there were none, and he supposed in a vehicle this large and
spacious—and slow—one wasn’t really necessary.

Kalila dabbed some kind of cream on her face
and then let it sit untouched for about five minutes before rinsing
it off. It made her skin look more natural and less pale. Already
she’d managed to restore her hair to the proper color. It made
Calvin think that, for all the advances humanity had
made—journeying into the stars, colonizing distant worlds, curing
complex diseases—cosmetics technologies were apparently the most
advanced of all. Which made Calvin wonder what statement that made
about human society in general.

He grabbed one of the bottles and squirted
some of the goo onto his hand. He looked at Kalila who gave him a
funny look.

“
You don’t know what you’re
doing, do you?” she smiled.

“
Haven’t a clue.” On the
Nighthawk he’d had his trained staff alter his appearance for him.
All he’d done was lie back and close his eyes for half an
hour.

“
Put it on your face, rub it
evenly all over—but keep it out of your eyes.” She went on to give
him directions on how to remove his artificial tan, dissolve the
fake skin that’d been grafted onto his fingers, and un-color his
hair. He was hesitant to remove the mahogany brown, he rather liked
it, but he remembered how Rain had laughed at him and he decided to
return to his usual sandy-colored self after all.

By the time he was very gingerly taking the
green lenses out of his eyes, they were pulling into the secure
parking garage of the Assembly Hall. If he were to ambush the car,
Calvin thought, this would be an ideal place to do it.

He peered out the window at the concrete
walls and barriers, the other cars, and the sparse security
personnel moving about. All the while he held his breath, awaiting
attack, but no attack came.

“
Done,” Kalila announced.
She put down the instruments in her hands—Calvin had no idea what
they were, some sort of makeup tools she’d used to apply makeup to
herself for the last ten minutes of the drive.

Calvin looked at her and saw the same
olive-skinned, raven-haired, brown-eyed, beautiful princess who had
stolen his breath away during their first face-to-face encounter on
Tau Station.

“
How do I look?” she asked,
shifting positions a few times so he could see every side of
her.

“
Stunning,” he
said.

A tiny grin appeared on her lips and, if it
had been someone else, he would have sworn he saw a hint of warm
embarrassment in her eyes.

“
No, I mean did I get
everything off,” she said. “Do I look like myself?”

“
Yes,” he said.
“Flawless.”

She raised an eyebrow.

“
Flawless job,” he
corrected. “You did a flawless job,” he felt his face go red. She
let it slide.

“
So did you,” she said. He
felt his face and ran his fingers through his hair—which was
probably very untidy looking—and took a deep breath.

“
Well, are you ready?” he
asked as the car came to a stop.

“
I’m ready.”

They entered the Assembly Hall through a
rear entrance and their escort followed, though probably not
technically allowed to do so.

Calvin hesitated when they reached the
elegant antechamber. He’d seen the Assembly Hall countless times,
but he’d never been inside before. Kalila, on the other hand,
seemed to regard it like a worn-out summer home. She pushed her way
through the main entrance and Calvin followed her along a carpeted
path that led to the Assembly Floor Proper.

The Assembly Floor was probably the largest
room Calvin had ever seen. Its lush décor included tapestries and
statues, and there were stadium-like seats stacked high in a
semi-circle, balcony raised above balcony, reaching almost to the
ceiling. Enough seats to accommodate the almost four-hundred
members of the Assembly, representing every planet in the
Empire.

The Assembly was clearly in session. Most of
the seats were filled and on the bottom level three senior Assembly
members were interviewing a panel of four expert witnesses. There
was an empty table at the end of the pathway and Calvin was sure it
had been set aside for people entering the Assembly Floor to wait
for the current proceedings to end. When they reached the table
Calvin stopped in his tracks, looking to Kalila for some cue as to
what he was supposed to do. She, on the other hand, seemed focused
and in control. She moved—followed by her escort in black suits—
out to the center of the Assembly Floor, effectively putting a halt
to the current proceedings, and then took a microphone from one of
the four witnesses. Security personnel converged on them and for a
moment Calvin feared there would be a firefight on the Assembly
Floor. But the Assembly’s security personnel stopped in their
tracks the moment Kalila spoke. And then began talking animatedly
into their earpieces, no doubt requesting instructions.

“
Honored Representatives of
the Imperial Assembly,” said Kalila into the mic. Her voice boomed
throughout the chamber. “I am Princess Kalila Akira, and I come
before you in the name of the King.”

There were shocked whispers and dissenting
voices. Calvin scanned the room to try to judge the general feeling
of the crowd, their reaction was neither overwhelmingly positive or
negative, mostly just baffled.

“
Royal Princess,” said one
of the three senior Assembly members who sat on the raised platform
before her. Calvin recognized her as the representative from
Thetican System, Representative Miranda Tate. “You are interrupting
the Defense Committee on the matter of—”

The security personnel formed a tight circle
around Kalila and her men. They still looked confused and in need
of direction, and many were still speaking into their earpieces or
else listening to commands from their superiors. It wasn’t every
day that the daughter of the King, who was also a suspect in a
terrorist strike, interrupted the proceedings of the Imperial
Assembly.

“
The matter I bring before
you all is urgent. I, along with Captain Adiger and the crew of the
ISS Black Swan, stand falsely accused of a terrorist action against
the citizens and government of Renora. Even now the tragic
situation continues, and the culprits responsible must be brought
to justice for their crimes. But know this—the Black Swan did not
participate in the attack on Renora, nor was it a party to that
attack.”

Realizing that opening this can of worms
meant the current matter before the Assembly was going to be
delayed, Representative Tate dismissed the four expert witnesses
and then officially opened up the matter of the Renora Attack
before the Assembly. While it benefitted Kalila by validating her
interruption, and thereby preventing the Assembly Security forces
from seizing her and her men—at least not yet—Calvin suspected the
true motive for opening up the issue of the Renora Attack was to
maintain the illusion of power—to create the impression that Kalila
was standing before all of them today at Representative Tate’s
pleasure.

“
Princess, we saw footage of
the attack ourselves,” said one of the representatives in the lower
balcony. He was Caerwyn Martel, one of Capital World’s three
representatives. Calvin recognized his voice immediately. He, like
all of the other representatives, had a microphone of his
own—though the network of microphones had been cleverly designed
not to allow multiple microphones to be active simultaneously.
Which, given the argumentative nature of politicians, was probably
wise.

“
I have evidence with me
now,” said Kalila, “that will acquit me and all of my people before
you. I stake my name upon it.”

Surprised reactions from the audience
filtered throughout the room. Calvin noted that the various
representatives seemed a lot more alert and attentive than they had
when he’d first walked in.

“
And just how do you explain
away the fact that your ship was
visually
accounted for at the scene of
the crime?” pressed Caerwyn. Calvin knew that Caerwyn, along with
his tycoon brother Zane, were sons of Brinton Martel. And while
Brinton now lived a quiet and peaceful life far way in Thetican
System, his family still owned MXR, which in turn owned other
companies and subsidiaries. These companies had been linked—however
frailly—to the cargo Raidan had destroyed. The cargo of alleged
replicants bound for Capital World. Calvin didn’t know which, if
any, of the claims were true. But he hadn’t forgotten that the link
between the Martels and the Beotan Convoy’s cargo had been
established, which made Caerwyn and Zane both suspects in his mind.
Perhaps neither was a member of the Phoenix Ring, but most likely
they were serving the Phoenix Ring’s interests. Whether they knew
it or not.

“
I’ll explain that,
Representative Martel,” said Kalila, “by saying that the ship that
attacked Renora was not my ship. Indeed it was a replica of the
Black Swan built secretly in Polarian space from military
schematics unlawfully leaked to foreign agents.”

“
That is a fanciful
fairytale if ever I’ve heard one,” said Caerwyn. “How dare you come
before this body and waste our time with this
foolishness.”

“
I am Princess Kalila Akira,
Daughter of the King, Heir to the Andrevine, and Fourth in Line to
the Throne! I
will
be allowed to make the case for my innocence. It is my
right.”

Her bold words provoked a noisy reaction
from the body of Representatives. Caerwyn in particular looked
unhappy, his face burned red. Calvin could see that clearly, even
from this distance.

“
Order,” said Representative
Tate, calling on her peers to settle down. “The circumstances are
unusual, but it is the princess’s right to make her case before
this body.”

“
I have brought with me
evidence of my claims, evidence that clearly shows that foreign
agents accepted our classified military material—including the
schematics for the Black Swan—in exchange for a bribe and
instructions to participate in a conspiracy. I have also brought
further proof that the Black Swan was not at or near Renora at the
time of the attack. This is in the form of months of uninterrupted
flight logs that show exactly where the ship has been, including
recorded images and video—all of which may be computer tested to
ensure they have not been falsified. In addition, I have unedited
flight recordings, computer records, positioning data, recordings
from other ships that witnessed our presence elsewhere during the
time of the attack, and the sworn testimony of the members of the
Black Swan’s senior crew. I also put it to you that the crew of the
Black Swan, and myself, had no motive to engage in such an attack.
However our enemies, wanting to incriminate us,
did
. And those enemies have
infiltrated our government deeply, some of them might even be
seated here among us today.”