The Phoenix Reckoning (The Phoenix Conspiracy Series Book 6) (34 page)

The Committee President looked to the other members of the committee, each of whom seemed as baffled, scared, and confused as the Committee President was pretending not to be. None of them offered any word of suggestion; however, it was customary for the President of a Committee, when interviewing summoned witnesses, to lead in the questioning.

“It may have been your judgment that such sweeping abductions—or
arrests
as you call them—were in the best, or necessary, interest of the Republic; however, I ask you, by what authority do you make such arrests?”

“To that end,” said the Grand Nau. “We cite the Security of the State Act, which this senatorial body has passed into immediately effective legislation today.”

“And how does such an Act grant you so much sweeping authority as to despoil the Senate itself?” asked the Committee President, as he and the rest of the committee pulled up copies of the Act that, unbeknownst to them, the Advent had pressured various members of the Senate to support.

Alex himself had been the one to persuade Senator Ze’lo to not only support the Bill—which the Advent had carefully drafted themselves—but also to introduce it before the Senate and ensure that it passed. Of course, to perhaps a bit of irony, Senator Ze’lo himself had been among the senators the Advent had arrested and taken away. He protested—claiming that they had gotten the wrong man—but he held his silence about the deal he had struck with Alex, the claim that should he do this, and get the bill to pass, then the wrath of the Advent would pass over him. Not so, Senator Ze’lo, not so. All Rahajiim members and sympathizers deserved the sword of justice, and it would make no sense to allow a little of the rot to remain in order to cut out the rest. No, all of the rot had to be gutted out. Operation Purge took everyone even remotely connected to the Rahajiim. A few might be let off, Alex knew, but better to take too many than too few and allow the Rahajiim to work its slimy way back into positions of power.

The Grand Nau, in his reply, referred to specific articles and clauses in the Act, ones that gave the Advent broad and sweeping powers to do “
whatever necessary
” to preserve the Republic from “
the enemy within.
” The Committee President seemed to have no adequate response for this.

“And where did you take our colleagues whom you arrested?” he asked, his voice was still hard as iron—there would be no hint of weakness—but Alex could detect the subtlest undertone of defeat.

“The arrested have been taken into custody and shall stand trial before the Tribunal of Criminal Affairs,” said the Grand Nau. “They are entitled to due process and will receive a fair opportunity to prove their innocence, just as it falls upon the Advent to demonstrate their guilt.” In the Republic, there was neither a presumption of innocence or guilt; judgments were based upon the greater probability after considering evidence from both sides.

“When are these trials scheduled to take place?” asked the Committee President.

“That is still being determined,” said the Grand Nau. “Until then, however, the prisoners’ seats in the Senate must remain vacant, as I’m sure you know.”

The President of the Committee nodded. When a senator stood accused, and a trial was necessary to determine his fate, he lost the privilege of being able to vote on any motion until the trial was resolved in his favor. Similarly, he could not be replaced by another senator, even one in an acting capacity, as, to do so, would be considered a sign of guilt to the Rotham people. And so, until the matter was resolved in the courts, which could take some time, the Senate was operating with only two-thirds of its members, and only they could vote.

The Committee President dismissed the Grand Nau and continued his line of inquiry with the Supreme Proxitor and Nau T’ahne. With the first, he continued to challenge the validity of the arrests, but his arguments became weaker and more resigned. He then wanted to know what the strategic implications were for the safety of the Republic after such a massive political upheaval. The Supreme Proxitor was reassuring, but made it clear the threat that was being handled was pervasive, elusive, and had managed to get a stranglehold around the throat of the Republic, but now the Advent had stepped in in time to rescue it and, eventually, all would be made right.

The Committee President dismissed the Supreme Proxitor, but she elected to stay, stating that she had an order of business to raise with the Committee at the earliest opportunity. The Committee President forced her to wait—mostly out of spite, as far as Alex could tell—until he was through interviewing Nau T’ahne about the diplomatic implications of this mass arrest, and whether that would weaken the Republic in the eyes of the other nations, particularly the Empire. Nau T’ahne was reassuring and insisted that, even if Intel Wing had spies in place that had, or would, discover the sweeping arrests made throughout the Republic, the Empire—although its civil war had rumoredly come to an end—had problems enough of its own to deal with. There was no cause for alarm.

“That brings me to my order of business,” interjected the Supreme Proxitor, once it was clear the Committee President was through interrogating Nau T’ahne. He waved Nau T’ahne away and then gave the Supreme Proxitor his attention again.

“What is it?” he asked, still making every effort to appear strong and in command, but his tone was the slightest bit deflated and a little bit of fear cracked through his otherwise iron voice.
I wonder if he has something to hide
, thought Alex, as he squinted and examined the Committee President as shrewdly as he could from this distance. Either he is afraid the Advent will come for him eventually, or else he is simply afraid that the Senate had given the Advent too much power. Power that would prove difficult to take away with a third of the senators—the ones most likely to vote to rescind the Act—locked away in dungeons awaiting, what could prove to be, a very long series of trials. Until they cleared their names or were pronounced guilty—allowing replacements to be elected in their steads—it was doubtful the Senate would be able to marshal the votes it would need to scale back the Security of the State Act, which was very good for the Advent. Provided they used their power the way they were supposed to.

We need to get the Republic back on track, restore relations with the foreign powers, discourage war, and reinstate the balance of power that existed after the Great War
, thought Alex.
Only then can we depend on being left alone to peacefully mind our own affairs
.

“I have reports from our deep space scouts,” said the Supreme Proxitor. “I have confirmed them with our long range listening posts and found the results to be consistent.”

This piqued Alex’s interest; whatever she was about to report, it referred to intelligence that Alex had not yet personally learned about.

“Is it a military threat?” asked the Committee President.

“It could be,” replied the Supreme Proxitor. “It’s too early to tell for certain.”

“Imperial?” asked the Committee President. No doubt thinking the newly-united Empire still had a bone to pick with the Rotham Republic, especially in response to the total annihilation of one of their Corridor star systems. Even though the Republic had had nothing to do with it, Alex was certain. Though that didn’t mean the Rahajiim weren’t behind it…

“Not Imperial,” said the Supreme Proxitor. “Polarian.”

This sent a shock throughout the room, except this time, rather than stunned silence, the chamber broke out into a chaos of panicked murmuring.

“Silence!” ordered the Acting Speaker. The chamber fell quiet.

“Where are these Polarians and how many are there?” asked the Committee President. “And can you provide us with your intelligence that supports this claim?”

“I can and I will,” said the Supreme Proxitor. “To answer your other questions, it is a very large Polarian war fleet.”

The feeling of fear was almost palpable. The Rotham had committed many atrocities against the Polarians during the Great War; Alex suspected that most Rotham, be they old or young, often had nightmares that one day the Polarians would come to return the favor.
Had that day finally come?

“How large? One hundred ships?” asked the Committee President. “Two-hundred?”

The Supreme Proxitor hesitated before replying. “Our best intelligence indicates…it is the Dread Fleet, sir.”

One of the senators could not help himself and actually screamed.

“Silence!” the Acting Speaker demanded once more. Everyone was hanging on the Supreme Proxitor’s every detail.

“The ultimate destination of the Dread Fleet is unknown, but it was last seen in Gemini System.”

“Gemini…that’s a Polarian System, is it not?” asked the Committee President.

“It was. The entire planet and all structures were razed and methodically burned. It is doubtful there were any survivors.”

“No survivors? They would do that to their own system?” the Committee President asked incredulously.

“Yes, and it is not the first. There have been several star systems that have fallen completely silent, each along a winding path that leads from the Polarian core worlds all the way to Gemini,” said the Supreme Proxitor.

“They are slaughtering their own planets?” again the Committee President sounded darkly astonished. And he wasn’t the only one who looked confused by this revelation.

“We are working to confirm this,” said the Supreme Proxitor. “But that appears to be the case.”

“
Damned barbarians
…” someone muttered from the stands above Alex’s head. He wasn’t sure who, but he didn’t fault them the sentiment.

“Where is the Dread Fleet headed now?” The Committee President asked the question they all were dying to ask, but afraid to know the answer to.

“It appears to be currently headed toward…”

Here it comes
, thought Alex. The announcement of their doom.
The Dread Fleet is headed toward Ro, isn’t it?

“…human space,” said the Supreme Proxitor, to everyone’s surprise. “It is following a serpentine path, seeming to target star systems with large populations. By now, the Dread Fleet has likely entered human space.”

There was a feeling of palpable relief that flowed through the room, though Alex remained tense.
Serpentine path…targeting highly populated worlds…a willingness to torch their own people
…he put it all together and realized that no one was safe. The humans might be the first on the chopping block, but they were in no position to stop the Dread Fleet—not after their bloody civil war. And when the Dread Fleet was finished with Capital World and the Corridor, and wherever else, those marauders would no doubt be on their way here. To Ro. To the Republic.
And after our losses at the Battle of Thetican System, when the dying star wiped out nearly an entire Rotham fleet…we won’t be ready
, he realized.
They will come for us too and we won’t stand a chance. Will we?
Suddenly, he had to know.

“Good, let the humans deal with them,” said the Committee President, and the Supreme Proxitor did not disagree.

Alex listened to what he could as he made his way hurriedly toward the exit. By the sound of it, the consensus was for the Republic to do nothing, to let the humans and the Dread Fleet wipe one another out. Some of the voices even seemed to suggest that this was a blessing.

This is no blessing
, thought Alex as he reached the chamber’s exit. He flashed his credentials to get past the guard.
This is only a delayed death sentence. If I’m right. And, sadly, I usually am
…

As he raced toward the nearest intelligence center, he thought of the Dread Fleet laying waste to human systems, what the slaughter would look like. It made him think of Calvin and the others on the
Nighthawk
and, although he’d betrayed them his share of times and they him, he still felt a measure of compassion toward them. They and theirs didn’t deserve the merciless wrath of the Dread Fleet any more than a Rotham world did, or even a Polarian one for that matter.

This is exactly the kind of bullshit you get when you mix technology with fanatics undeserving of it because they insist on living by their dark age values…

***

“Ithcar! Rythu!” One of the lycans knelt over the bodies of their fallen comrades. Others were beaten up, bruised, bleeding, some even had major-looking wounds, but only two had been killed. Shen looked down at them, surprised that the grisly sight of torn flesh and crushed bones didn’t affect him more. Perhaps he had become desensitized to it, what with all the slaughtered corpses strewn about, shredded and torn remains of the nightmarish Type I Remorii.

“We have to go,” said Tristan sternly. “Move out.
Now
.”

“But these…these are our
brothers
,” said the kneeling lycan, seemingly stupefied by grief.

There was no doctor in their party to make an official death declaration but, given the gruesomeness and brutality, the amount of the blunt force trauma the two lycans had endured, the situation hardly called for an expert to certify that the journey, for these two at least, had come to its end.