The Phoenix Reckoning (The Phoenix Conspiracy Series Book 6) (43 page)

“Thank you, Captain,” said Summers. “For understanding.”

“Of course, Commander.” With that, he left.

CHAPTER 21

“Sound General Quarters,” said Calvin. “All decks, condition one.”

“Aye, aye, Cal,” said Miles, as he adjusted the
Nighthawk’s
alert status.

They had emerged from alteredspace once again, only this time it was not to avoid a minefield of thousands of black holes. No, this time, what awaited them was something truly bizarre, mesmerizingly beautiful, and far more dangerous.

“We have reached the Veil,” said Rez’nac. He stood on the bridge, to Calvin’s right, with arms folded as he watched—as they all watched—the wall of flickering lights and colors that filled the entire window seem to grow closer.

“That thing is enormous!” said Calvin, as he stared out the window at it, trying to make sense of just what it was—and finding it impossible to do so. His eyes flicked to the 3D display, which apparently was also unequal and unsuited to the task, as its rendering of the Veil was incoherent, garbled chaos.

“It’s beautiful,” commented Rain. She’d come to the bridge about an hour ago to deliver a report and had simply stayed. Perhaps her own curiosity about the Veil—the keeper of Polarian Forbidden Space—was what had compelled her to remain, so she could see it for herself.

“It truly is,” said Cassidy from her seat at the Ops controls. “Like a colossal, cosmic, chaotic work of art.”

Now that they drew nearer, Calvin could more plainly see what the walls of the Veil—if one could accurately describe them as walls—looked like. Every color seemed to be represented, including, no doubt, the colors that defied the visible spectrum. Numberless bolts and arcs of energy seemed to leap about, entirely randomly, creating some sort of field, or matrix, of energy that seemed to stretch on eternally as a plane in all directions. From their perspective, the Veil looked entirely flat, like some kind of monstrous curtain that separated them from the space on the other side, and, by any measure, there was no way around the Veil. To get to, or even see, what lay beyond the sparking, firing, glowing bands and beams of light and color and energy, one had to go directly through the Veil, somehow penetrating it.

“Shields are raised, Calvin,” said Miles.

“Based on my scans,” said Cassidy, “those surges of energy dead ahead are of such magnitude that they will have no trouble ripping through our shields and incinerating the
Nighthawk
in less than a millisecond.”

“No
way
,” said Miles, looking at her argumentatively. “I’ve pumped up our shields by augmenting them with all our excess auxiliary and tertiary power. They could take a direct hit from the primary beam weapon of an alpha-class dreadnought. Are you telling me that those lightning bolts out there—or whatever they are—are more powerful than that?”

“Yes. By about a billion times,” said Cassidy. “I recommend we divert course. And…the sooner the better.”

“Stay the course,” said Calvin. “Don’t accelerate, don’t decelerate, proceed ahead exactly as Rez’nac instructs.”

“Aye, aye, sir,” said Jay, looking nervous at the helm. Calvin was ready to relieve him at a moment’s notice, should the need arise.

“The shields are irrelevant,” said Rez’nac. “Keep them up if it makes you feel more comfortable, but your woman at operations is correct, the Veil cannot be stopped by mere shields and armor.”

That was a chilling thought to Calvin, who was about to risk his life, the lives of everyone on his ship, and the
Nighthawk
itself on the claims by one Polarian that he could navigate them safely through the impenetrable wall of energy that stretched out before them. This being the same Polarian who believed that said wall of energy was not a mystery of nature, but rather a gift from the divine. In short, he was placing his fate, and everyone else’s, in the hands of an extremely superstitious person.

I have no choice
, he reminded himself, as the chaotic wall of energy seemed to loom large before them,
this is the only way
.

“Approaching the Veil,” said Jay. “Contact in one minute and thirteen seconds.”

“Steady as she goes, Mister Cox,” said Calvin.

“Aye, aye, sir.”

Summers, who was sitting in the XO’s chair to Calvin’s left, grabbed his arm to get his attention. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” she asked, mouthing the words quietly, so as not to seem to alarm the others—or appear to undermine his authority.

“You know the answer to that,” was his reply.

“One minute,” said Jay.

“At this point, I should take over the helm,” announced Rez’nac; he looked to Calvin for permission.

Calvin nodded. “Rez’nac, the ship is in your hands. Jay, stand down.”

Jay looked intensely relieved as Rez’nac seated himself in the pilot’s chair and strapped the headset onto his overly large Polarian head.

“I will also require access to the kataspace transmitter,” said Rez’nac.

“It’s all there,” said Calvin. “Just do what you have to do.”

“I shall.”

By this point, it looked like their vessel would strike the wall of energy at any moment. It was so vast and so chaotic, it seemed impossible to tell exactly where its boundary began. Calvin fidgeted restlessly and wiped the sweat from his clammy palms onto his uniform pants. He couldn’t tell if he was profoundly excited or stupefyingly terrified—probably some of both. Either way it was becoming harder to appreciate the raw, awesome majesty that was this galactic marvel, the Veil, as their ship drew ever nearer.

“Just how big is this thing?” asked Calvin, hoping to get their minds—especially his own—off the fact that these might be their last few precious seconds of life.

“The Veil encloses a volume of space that is just under twenty-thousand cubic parsecs.”

“Twenty-thousand!” exclaimed Calvin. “That’s large enough to make a Dyson sphere look like…well, a speck!”

“Indeed.” Rez’nac was so confident he almost sounded bored. What was a novel, incomprehensible, and terrifying experience for the rest of them, to him seemed like just more of the same.

It was enough to make Calvin wonder what other marvels the Polarians had stumbled upon, or built, that would make most people in the galaxy drop their jaws, but to the Polarians were merely business as usual. Above all, he wondered if the Polarians had stumbled upon the Veil by accident—and somehow discovered the secret of how to pass safely through it—or if they had, even more incredibly, built the damned thing. Either way, it was enough to convince him that the masses of Polarians out there—a species that greatly outnumbered humans and Rotham—were not just the tribal, superstitious, backwards simpletons they were most often categorized as, but rather a deeply complex people with a rich culture, a gift for bountiful unique innovation, and access to some of the universe’s most arcane mysteries.

Just as their ship was about to be swallowed up by the electric, radiant chaos that was the Veil, Rez’nac began to transmit a message over kataspace. He spoke the words—if they were words—into the headset and repeated the same sounds over and over. It did sound vaguely like he was speaking in Polarian, but if so, it was a strange dialect, one that Calvin had certainly never heard before.

The entire display would have seemed ridiculous if not for the fact that his efforts appeared to be working. The
Nighthawk
passed into the Veil, a fact Calvin confirmed by glancing at the positional display, and they proceeded, deeper and deeper into the glowing, colorful, almost blinding electrical storm. The bolts and arcs of energy were closer than ever before; he could see them leaping, sparking, and exploding out the window, just beyond reach of the ship, but somehow, no matter how far they travelled into the Veil, the energy would only come so close and no closer. Always just beyond reach of their shield radius. Calvin knew the energy wasn’t striking the shield because the shield never lit up, which would have happened had it absorbed an impact from the Veil’s strange cosmic energy.

Rez’nac continued speaking his sounds, in almost chant-like rhythm and the
Nighthawk
continued to sail through the energy field, completely unmolested. After a minute or two of this, Calvin couldn’t help himself and he started laughing, humored and amazed by the sheer incredulity of the entire experience.

Finally able to relax, he soaked in the view out the window, which was one of indescribable awe and splendor. There were magnificent bursts of light and color, all of it seeming to jump about randomly in all directions; it was a colorscape of seemingly pure chaos, full of arcs and bows and jagged, frantic lightning.

Other than Rez’nac and his chanting, the bridge was deathly silent, as all eyes were fixed on the spectacle, the mighty wonder which they traversed, going where perhaps no human had ever gone before—or very few, at that.

Eventually, after only a few more minutes, the colors seemed to fade, the lightning bolts grew more disparate, and then, after one final, spectacular flash of light, there was nothing more to see but blackness and stars.

“We have passed through the Veil,” said Rez’nac. “It is a good omen. It means the Essences approve of our quest. We are doing the right thing.”

“How did you do it?” said Calvin, too curious not to ask. “And be straight with me.”

“I know how he did it,” said Cassidy. “I was studying the behavior of the energy fields as we passed through. Rez’nac, using the kataspace transmitter and very specific sounds, was able to transmit an exact pattern that had the harmonic resonance effect of repelling the energy fields from around the source of the harmonic resonance—in this case, the
Nighthawk
. Quite clever, actually.”

“Indeed, you are clever,” said Rez’nac, “but you are also wrong, human female.”

Cassidy looked on the cusp of arguing, but upon seeing Calvin subtly shake his head, must have thought better of it.

“You see,” continued Rez’nac, “the Veil was placed here by the Essences to protect those of the light from the corruption of the Dark Ones, and so only a child born in the light, who is taught the phrases of the ancient language, only he may pass safely into the Veil.”

“And is it the same phrases going out of the Veil?” asked Calvin.

Rez’nac looked at him with momentary confusion. Then he seemed to understand. “I forget that you are ignorant to the ways of the Essences, and the meanings of the phrases I just spoke to get us in. There is no phrase needed to exit this sacred orb. The Veil only protects the inside from the out, it does not exist to protect the outside from the in.”

That all sounded rather cryptic to Calvin. “So, to clarify,” he said, “anybody can leave the Forbidden Space and the energy will not affect them, but anyone who tries to enter it, they must know the right phrases and broadcast them the right way, using the right frequencies and so forth, to pass safely.”

“That is correct,” said Rez’nac.

“Tell us, what do the phrases mean?” said Calvin.

“Yes, I was wondering that too,” added Summers.

Rez’nac bowed. “Although you are my master here, Calvin, and my life is forfeit, except for whatever purpose it may serve to you, there are some things I cannot reveal to you. I hope you accept my humble apology.”

Calvin was disappointed, but he understood. “Of course, think nothing of it. I’m just glad to have been able to witness this Veil. I’ve seen a lot of strange things out in this galaxy, but that one might well have been the most beautiful.”

“The Essences, were our eyes able to look upon them, would be so stunning in their glory that it would kill us instantly to gaze upon them. Likewise, their gifts to us, such as the Veil, are of such splendorous and transcendent beauty that—even though they are mere shadows next to the glory of the Essences themselves—they are spectacular to our imperfect, mortal eyes, and strike awe in our hearts and souls to behold them. As a matter of fact, many a ship has been destroyed by the Veil—lured into it by its tremendous beauty. Sometimes the act is done deliberately, as a more beautiful way to die is difficult to find.”

“Like moths into a flame,” remarked Rain, she seemed moved by Rez’nac’s words, as if he’d just recited poetry. No doubt she found his whole culture and religion to be utterly fascinating. Calvin tried not to think about Rain, so he looked away. Her rejection of him still stung too much and he didn’t enjoy reliving it in his mind.

“Well, now we are officially in the most forbidden part of Polarian Forbidden Space,” said Calvin, pressing his hands together. “Which means it’s time we make way for the Forbidden World itself. Rez’nac, course and heading, if you would, please?”

“It is a dangerous journey, but I can guide you there. I know the way, but I must warn you, many things may have changed since last I took this path.”

“Duly noted,” said Calvin. “I accept the consequences and the risks. Jay, please return to your station. Rez’nac, course and heading as soon as you’re ready.”

***

Fleet Admiral Isolda Ravinder stood on the bridge of the stalwart ISS
Hyperion
, overlooking the Imperial battle fleet that had gathered at Centuria System. Now that the civil war had ended, Imperial fleets—although battered—now stood together, side by side, as brothers once more…ready and willing to defend the Empire that was so preciously dear. An institution that represented all the hope and security for humanity, and again it was under threat. Only this time, rather from turmoil within, it was from some menace on the outside.