The Phoenix Rising (17 page)

Summers sensed Calvin felt threatened by her
unexpected questioning. It was time to get to the point. “No, that
is the worst possible threat,” she agreed. “But how can we be sure
that any of it, the Arcane Storm, the QH-212 star, and so on, is
anything but a red herring? Or that Tristan isn’t using you—and all
of us—for some ulterior purpose that Raidan wants achieved?”

Calvin leaned back in his
chair and placed his hands behind his head. “I can’t
know
, in the strictest
sense. But it is my only lead, so I have to follow it.”

“
I understand that, and I
agree,” said Summers. “But I want to know one thing.”

“
And what is
that?”

“
How far are you willing to
go?”

Calvin frowned. “I don’t understand the
question.”

Summers wasn’t going to let him dodge so
easily. She needed to know that there was some kind of line in
Calvin’s mind that he was unwilling to cross. A limit to what
Tristan, and by extension Raidan, could make him do. Only then
could she support him. “I need to know that you aren’t going to let
yourself be led around by the nose, doing whatever Tristan and
Raidan ask.” She was unaccustomed to addressing her superior
officer in such a bold and challenging way, it defied all of her
training and instincts, but somehow dealing with Calvin was
different. She didn’t see a superior when she looked in his eyes.
She saw a young, well-intentioned boy, who was not as bright as he
thought he was.

“
I assure you,
Commander
,” said
Calvin—the use of her title rather than her given name was the
appropriate protocol but very unusual for Calvin, a sign that he
was irritated by the sudden questioning, “I expect results from
Tristan. If his intelligence proves worthless, then I will have
difficulty trusting anything he says in the future.”

It wasn’t much of an answer, but it was
something. And Summers had achieved what she’d wanted—to plant a
new seed of doubt in Calvin’s mind. She knew the question of
Tristan’s motives would haunt Calvin now, even if he wasn’t
prepared to admit it to her. “I—”

She was interrupted by the beep of the comm
panel.

“
Very sorry,” said Calvin as
he tapped the button. “What is it?”

“
You’d better get in here,
sir,” said Sarah. “Shen says there’s something here you should
see.”

“
On my way.”

Summers followed Calvin out the door and
back onto the bridge. Shen looked flustered at the ops post. The
command position was vacant. Tristan was still on the bridge but he
stood off to the side, like an unnecessary, unwanted observer.

“
What is it?” asked Calvin,
approaching the ops station. Summers followed.

“
Look at this log,” said
Shen. He pointed to a series of entries that Summers couldn’t quite
understand—she had no ops training and the console wasn’t exactly
user friendly.

“
What does it say?” asked
Calvin. The series of numbers was clearly no more transparent to
him.

“
Our ship sent a broadband
kataspace message to Gemini System a few hours ago.”

“
What?
” asked Calvin incredulously.

“
That’s right,” said Shen.
“I’m guessing that message was not approved by you?”

“
No it most certainly
was
not
.” Calvin
kept his composure but Summers could see the distress in his eyes,
it even leaked into his voice as he turned to Tristan. “What is the
meaning of this?” he demanded.

“
I know of no communication
to Gemini,” replied the Remorii coolly.

“
You didn’t contact Mira
Pellew or anyone else?” asked Calvin suspiciously.

“
No. Why would
I?”

“
If I may,” said Shen. “It
looks like the message was designated to target Intel Wing
channels. So I don’t believe Tristan could have sent the message,
unless he knows more about our operations than we
thought.”

“
Lockout all outbound
communications at once,” said Calvin. He and Shen then used their
respective command-codes to prevent all future outgoing
communications, though the ship could still receive messages.
“
Damn
, I should
have done this sooner,” said Calvin, looking annoyed with
himself.

“
I appreciate your speaking
up on my behalf, operations officer,” said Tristan, now walking
over to Shen. “But unfortunately you are circumstantially the prime
suspect.”

“
Just what the hell are you
implying, werewolf?” demanded Shen.

“
Classic guilt-driven
over-compensation,” said Tristan. “Tisk. Tisk. And very convenient
that you happened to discover the communication first. No doubt
thinking that would throw suspicion off of you. And clearly you had
all the technical knowledge and ability—the means and
opportunity—to contact Intel Wing.”

“
But not the motive,” said
Shen.

“
I could think of several,”
said Tristan.

“
Okay,
enough
,” snapped Calvin. “Shen is
loyal to me and I won’t tolerate any accusations against him. You
see those bandages?” Calvin pointed to Shen’s wounded shoulder and
upper arm. “He got those burns fighting by my side. Questioning his
loyalty is not acceptable.”

Summers didn’t know Shen particularly well
but based on his proven, almost zealous, loyalty to Calvin, she
agreed it was unlikely that he would betray them.

“
If you say so,” said
Tristan with a curious expression. “But then, Captain, you are
forced to explain how someone contacted Intel Wing, and who it was.
I think it’s self-evident why they did it.”

“
Yes,” said Calvin. “There
is a mole on this ship. Someone stayed behind to relay intelligence
to Intel Wing.”

“
Whether or not it is the
operations officer, a traitor
is
in our midst,” said Tristan.

“
I know who it was!” yelled
Miles, turning his chair to face the center of the bridge. “It was
her,” he pointed at Summers. Swiftly reminding her why she hated
him the most.

“
No, Summers doesn’t know
the Intel Wing channels either,” said Calvin, quickly dismissing
the accusation. “Besides, she wouldn’t betray us,” he looked her in
the eyes, as if testing her. “Isn’t that right?”

“
If I had wanted this ship
captured, I would have contacted the navy,” she said, folding her
arms. “And I wouldn’t be here.”

“
There, you see,” said
Calvin.

Miles looked at her suspiciously. “I’ve got
my eye on you,” he said. “And not just because you have a smoking
body.”

Summers flushed with annoyance but decided
not to dignify Miles’ idiocy with a response. She was beginning to
realize that Miles was the type of fool who thrived on attention,
and not giving it to him was the easiest way to deflate his wanton
displays of public stupidity.

“
With the communications
lockout,” said Calvin, looking intensely in thought, “he—or
she—shouldn’t be able to relay new information to Intel Wing. The
mole shouldn’t have knowledge that our destination is the QH-212
star—that was a closely guarded secret—so all we can expect is that
Intel Wing knows we’re in the DMZ. That’s still a huge region of
space.”

“
But the traitor could hurt
us in other ways, for instance sabotaging our ship,” said
Tristan.

Calvin nodded. “Shen help me draw up a plan
to secure all critical systems. I will then ask Pellew to setup a
rotation of soldiers to guard those systems at all times.”

“
And what is your plan for
finding the traitor?” asked Tristan.

“
One thing at a time,” said
Calvin.

Chapter 11

“
What is it?” asked Calvin.
It was the second time since they arrived in the DMZ that he’d been
summoned to the bridge. “Why are we at condition one?”

“
We’ve got something on our
scopes. Looks like a formation of three ships on an intercept
course, moving fast,” said Shen.

Calvin took his seat at the command position
and turned to Miles. “What’s the status of our stealth system?”

“
Seems to be working fine,”
said Miles with a shrug. “I don’t know how they can see
us.”

“
It’s possible,” said Shen,”
that the depth of our alteredspace jump is creating a detectable
distortion.”

“
We’re at ninety percent
now, how much do you recommend we scale it back?” Calvin didn’t
want additional delay, but he wanted a battle even less.

“
Maybe eighty percent to be
safe,” suggested Shen.

“
Do it.”

“
We’ll have to drop out of
alteredspace to make the transition. When we do, the intercepting
ships might be upon us.”

“
How can they see us if
we’re in stealth when we drop out?” asked Calvin.

“
They might not be able to
see us but they can see where the distortion stopped—if that is how
they’re tracing us.”

“
Need I remind you all that
our stealth system was next to worthless in Abia,” said Sarah.
“Maybe they’re detecting us the same way.”

“
I doubt it,” said Shen.
“The intercepting ships are crude in design. Probably pirate
raiders. I doubt they have that kind of advanced
technology.”

“
Sarah, can we outmaneuver
them?”

“
Possibly,” said Sarah. “In
an alteredspace state there isn’t much I can do, but I can adjust
course and maybe skirt around them that way. But I can’t make any
major adjustments without dropping out of alteredspace.”

“
Do what you can,” said
Calvin.

“
Aye, aye.” Sarah’s fingers
fluttered over the controls as she input a series of new waypoints
for the ship to follow.

“
Is it working?” asked
Calvin.

“
Negative,” said Shen. “The
three ships have broken off and are coming at us from three
distinct angles. Interdiction is unavoidable.”

“
Time to intercept?” asked
Calvin.

“
Thirty seconds.”

“
I say we blow them away,”
said Miles. “If they are no good pirates, we’d be doing the galaxy
of favor.”

“
Give me a tactical
analysis, Miles.”

“
Our ship has more armaments
than anything they’re carrying, we can maneuver better in normal
space, and our shields are stronger.”

“
But there are three of
them,” said Sarah.

“
I didn’t say it wouldn’t be
messy,” said Miles. “But I could kill them.”

“
Looks like we don’t have
much choice,” said Calvin. He had no sympathy for pirate raiders,
who preyed on hundreds of civilian transports every year—especially
in the DMZ where military forces were scarce—but he didn’t want to
enter an unnecessary engagement. Especially because it might result
in loss of life on his ship, not to mention unnecessary damage.
However, if a fight proved unavoidable, he would show no
mercy.

“
Interception in ten
seconds. What are your orders?” asked Shen.

“
Sarah, drop us out of
alteredspace and then calculate a new jump path at only eighty
percent depth. Miles, clear the ship for action. As soon as we drop
into normal space, disengage the stealth system and raise the
shields. Arm all weapons and get a target fix on them the first
moment you can.”

“
Aye, sir.”

“
Dropping out of
alteredspace now,” said Sarah.

“
Why don’t we just keep the
stealth system on and try to avoid the fight?” asked
Summers.

“
Because if they drop right
on top of us—and they do somehow detect us, we’d be defenseless.
I’m hoping to scare them off by flashing our teeth,” said
Calvin.

“
Three...
two
...”

They waited, watching the projector display
anxiously. Expecting to see three unforgiving raider ships
converging on them.

“
One
.”

Nothing.

“
The raiders have shot right
past us,” said Shen.

“
Like they didn’t even see
us,” said Sarah happily.

“
Dammit!” said
Miles.

“
They definitely saw us
raise our shields,” said Shen. “Most likely they didn’t expect a
craft our size to be a military vessel and as soon as they got a
good look at us, they changed their minds.”

“
Dirty rotten cowards,” said
Miles.

Calvin was relieved.

“
On they go to prey on some
other weaker victim,” lamented Summers.

“
It’s sad that there are
people like that out there,” said Calvin. “But unfortunately we
don’t have the time to hunt them down and bring them to justice. We
have a weapon of mass annihilation to destroy.”

“
Course has been
re-inputted,” said Sarah. “Standing by to engage alteredspace jump
on your mark, eighty percent potential.”

“
Stand down to condition
two, lower the shields, re-engage the stealth system, and then
proceed with jump,” said Calvin.