The Phoenix Crisis (5 page)

The screen went blank.

Nimoux frowned and wondered what the right
thing to do was. He’d passed along the information and spread the
word. Intel Wing and the Fleet had been given fair warning about
the Rotham war fleet, and now the isotome, but was it enough? He
had half a mind to take his squadron and head directly to Capital
World and inform the Assembly of all of this personally.

Clearly there was a war going on in the
shadows and for some reason no one wanted to shine a light on
it.

***

“
Calvin… may I ask you
something?” Rain looked into his eyes. They were seated on chairs
in her quarters on either side of a small coffee table she’d
brought aboard with the rest of her things.

“
Please do,” he said,
lifting his glass to take another sip. Because he didn’t drink
alcohol—he could pick up on the taste of ethanol from a mile away
and had always hated it—his glass was full of a rich dark grape
juice. Rain on the other hand was taking tiny sips from her glass
of red wine. She limited her alcohol intake since she had to return
to duty immediately afterward.

“
How are you holding up?”
Her wide eyes looked into his and there was the hint of the tiniest
smile on her pretty face. Her unkempt hair was as red and as wild
as ever, barely kept in line behind her head by a single elastic
band, and her whole demeanor showed that, despite how fatigued she
was, she had a fighter’s spirit and wouldn’t admit to any
weakness.

“
What do you mean?” asked
Calvin.

“
With everything. You’re
dealing with a lot. You ran into your estranged father, you’ve had
more than your share of Remorii to deal with, and you’ve lost
people under your command recently—including your friends. On top
of it all you’ve been fighting one of the hardest habits in the
galaxy to break.”

“
Wow, when you put it like
that, I feel like I should be passed out on the floor somewhere,
more dead than alive,” Calvin shook his head once and then finished
his drink.

“
I didn’t mean it like that.
I just—I don’t want you to take on too much by yourself. I’m here
for you, if you need anything.”

“
Thanks,” said Calvin, not
quite sure how to respond. It was true that he’d been feeling
pretty haggard lately and that he typically kept his complaints to
himself. And he was sure that Rain was right, that it was healthier
to vent and share one’s concerns with other people, but Calvin also
knew his habits weren’t about to change. So he decided to change
the subject. “So tell me… has there been any change in Shen’s
condition?” He asked the question without flinching, but inside he
felt a great deal of turmoil at the thought of his friend fighting
in vain against the toxins ravaging his body.
First Christine and now Shen, those god damned
Remorii
…

“
Shen’s condition is stable…
but only just.” The hint of a smile that had been on her face faded
and Rain showed some of the frustration that was undoubtedly
boiling inside her. “I admit the virus is persistent, and unlike
anything I’ve ever seen, but… don’t give up on Shen.” Her eyes
pleaded with his. “We can beat it, I know we can!” 

“
I hope you’re
right.”

There was silence for a minute and Calvin
poured himself another half a glass and drank. Rain set aside the
remainder of her glass. “As strange as it sounds, Shen isn’t the
one I feel bad for,” said Rain. “It’s Sarah. That girl has come to
visit at least ten times, and every single time she leaves in
tears. I honestly don’t even know what to say to her.”

Calvin nodded. He’d allowed Sarah to remain
on temporary leave of absence because she was so clearly
emotionally compromised by what’d happened to Shen. The two had
been close, best friends as far as Calvin could tell, and now she
was in severe grief. It was the first time Calvin had seen Sarah
react in such an emotionally striking way to anything. It worried
him. “I’m thinking about sending her along with the crew going
aboard the Arcane Storm. Maybe a change in setting will help her
get perspective and maybe even closure.”

“
I think that’s a good
idea,” said Rain. “I know it’ll make my job easier not having Sarah
staring over my shoulder. And hopefully, when Sarah returns, Shen
will be up and at ‘em, just like old times.”

Calvin couldn’t help but smile at Rain’s
optimism. Even if it was simply wishful thinking.

***

Alex waited until 0320 and then made his way
to the brig. He gave himself a window of exactly five minutes to
get there. And then, right on cue, he saw PFC Tara Larsen setting
up to stand guard. Having just replaced the previous special forces
soldier that’d been assigned to watch the brig. When he was certain
the coast was clear, Alex approached.

“
I had a feeling you’d show
up,” Tara said, getting a long look at him. There was no approval
in her voice but if she’d had any problems with Alex and his offer
he would have known by now. Probably because he’d be on the other
side of the brig’s force field. Since he wasn’t, he assumed all had
gone well.

“
You saw your money then?”
he asked quietly once he stood about a meter away from
her.

“
That I did,” she said. “And
now that it’s too late to take it back I’ll have you know you paid
too much. I would’ve done it for half.”

Alex didn’t say anything. If Tara wanted to
believe she’d gotten the better end of the deal, so be it. In truth
he would have paid double. So he supposed it averaged out. Just so
long as he got what he wanted, all would be well.

“
I won’t get in any trouble,
will I?” the soldier looked him in the eye. She, like most human
females, was smaller than her male counterparts but she was still
taller and broader than the average Rotham, including Alex. And she
made a show of looking intimidating. He wasn’t afraid of her,
despite his size disadvantage he was surprisingly quick and had
trained in countless areas of unarmed combat, but he knew it
wouldn’t come down to that here. The moment she’d used his
passcodes and electronic information to log into one of his slush
accounts and accept the bribe, their fates were eternally tied
together. Lucky for her, Alex had no intention of letting his
actions be discovered. Or hers.

“
Nope,” he replied flatly.
“So long as you get out of my way and let me do my
business.”

Tara nodded. “All right. But be quick about
it. You don’t have more than a few minutes. And should any of this
fall back on me, I’m taking you down with me. You understand that,
lizard?”

Alex ignored the offensive pejorative and
forced a smile. An expression that probably looked more devious
than friendly on his Rotham face.

“
And don’t be gentle,” Tara
said. “The bastard deserves worse as far as I’m concerned.” With
that she made herself scarce and Alex had some time alone with the
prisoner. He walked up to the force field and shut it
down.

The prisoner, a foolish young human named
Patrick O’Conner, looked up at him with surprise.

“
If you try to run I will
use it as a chance to kill you,” said Alex.

“
Nowhere to go anyway,”
Patrick said with a shrug. “So tell me, why am I looking at your
ugly face again? Back for more?”

“
No, the information you
already gave me on Calvin has proven interesting enough. And I’m
quite sure that it’s all you have to offer.”

“
And the information you
gave me about the ship heading to the lycan base on Echo Three
proved most accurate as well.”

“
Our first and last business
together,” said Alex. He’d only exchanged information with the
young, foolish human informant because in his assessment of the
risk there wasn’t much chance the young human could get word out to
his superiors in Intel Wing. Apparently Alex had misjudged the
boy’s craftiness. It was almost worthy of a Rotham.
Almost.

Unfortunately that meant Patrick had become
both a loose end and a liability. A threat to the ship, Alex’s
mission, and now Alex himself. Gaining information about Calvin to
potentially be used as leverage against him—as a means to protect
himself—was only natural, Alex was Advent after all. But the loss
of the Nighthawk, especially if it occurred before the isotome
weapons were totally destroyed, would have been a tremendous
victory for the Rahajiim. And that was unacceptable. Which meant
lights out for Patrick, the only one who could implicate Alex in
the leaked intelligence.

Alex moved into the cell and climbed up on
the bench.

“
What are you doing?” asked
Patrick. He shifted position, tightening up defensively. Perhaps he
expected Alex to attack him. Judging by the bruise on his neck,
rumoredly given to him by the ship’s female XO, Alex doubted
Patrick was interested in another physical melee. So he ignored the
boy and got to work. But he kept his ears alert and would glance
down at the young captive every few seconds, just to make sure he
wasn’t thinking of doing something stupid—and horribly
inconvenient—like escape.

“
I said, what are you
doing?” asked Patrick a little louder this time. Alex continued to
ignore him. He opened the air flow control panel and adjusted some
settings. With tools that Tara had furnished him, that fit
conveniently into his pockets, and the electric discharge of a
common stunner, he sabotaged the alarm, a primary air filter, and
one of the small furnaces.

“
You know when the Nighthawk
is taken into custody, I’ll be free and my name will be clear. And
when it is, I’m taking everybody here down,” said Patrick. Alex
glanced down at him to see the hot fire in Patrick’s defiant eyes.
“Especially
you
.”

“
Well, let me know how that
turns out,” said Alex. When he was finished he replaced the cover
and stepped down. He gave Patrick a Rotham smirk, an expression
that either frightened or disgusted the young human, and then Alex
stepped out of the cell. He closed the force field, then went to an
air access control panel on the other side of the room. He checked
several of the settings, making minor adjustments, and then fried
the non-essential components with the stunner.

“
I don’t know what you think
you’re up to, but I won’t forget that you were here. Next time
anyone comes to question me, I’m spilling my guts and telling them
everything about you. Everything about our little deal. How’s
that?” Patrick said, raising his voice over the hum of the force
field. “That’s right you Rotham scum, your days are
numbered.”

What a coincidence, your minutes are
numbered. And it’s not a big number.

“
Guess you got me,” said
Alex. He gave the prisoner a wave and then left. On his way out he
walked past Tara who’d been guarding the doorway leading to the
elevator.

“
Is it finished?” she asked.
He hadn’t entrusted her with the exact details of his plan, but she
understood that Alex was there for some vengeance—not technically
true, but he supposed it was true enough.

“
It’s finished.”

Chapter 4

Calvin gave his dispatches and final
instructions to the crew members being diverted to the Arcane
Storm. He’d already sent the remaining Polarians over, by now even
Rez’nac had made his way onto the other ship.

Crew morale was still broken among the
special forces soldiers over the gruesome murder of one of their
own, Staff Sergeant Gary Patterson, and now that the Polarian force
had been reduced to a meager handful after the devastating losses
they’d sustained on Remus Nine, Calvin feared that some of the
special forces men would take it upon themselves to avenge
themselves upon the surviving Polarians who, as far as Calvin was
concerned, had already paid dearly. The murder investigation was
ongoing and Calvin intended to get to the bottom of it as fast as
he possible could, but in the meantime he decided it would be best
to separate the human and Polarian soldiers for the time being. The
easiest way to do that was to send the aliens onto the other ship
as its security detail. All of the human soldiers, including
Pellew, would remain here. Alex would need to stay on the
Nighthawk, of course. Since, if he let Raidan and the Organization
get that close to the Rotham by sending him with the others aboard
the Arcane Storm, it was likely they’d take Alex for themselves and
Calvin would lose out on any further intelligence Alex could have
given him. 

It was Summers’ duty, as the XO, to see that
Calvin’s orders were implemented and that the away crew was
properly briefed, equipped, and instructed for their mission on the
Arcane Storm. All of them had been notified by now and many of them
had gone aboard the other ship. All but Sarah, who Calvin intended
to speak with in person. He hadn’t seen her since he’d allowed her
to be relieved of duty and, although he probably could have made
the time to visit her and check up on her, he hadn’t felt
comfortable doing so and had made excuses to put it off. Now
though, since he intended to send Sarah away for a while, he knew
he had to see her. But, before he did, he had one very important
errand to complete first.

He reached crew quarters number 407 and rang
the chime. The door opened and he saw Second Lieutenant Vargas with
a bag under each arm, looking about ready to depart for his new
assignment aboard the Arcane Storm. He dropped one of his bags and
saluted when he saw Calvin.