The Phoenix Rising (21 page)

“
Based on?” asked
Summers.

“
A hunch,” said
Calvin.

“
If that’s the case, then
how do we know which lycan to trust?” asked Pellew. “For all we
know they’re
both
lying.”

“
We are not a deceitful
people,” insisted Tristan. “Especially not Afton. He would never
deceive us.”

“
Let’s consider the
logistics. Tybur is a twelve or thirteen hour jump from here,” said
Calvin. “The Vulture Nebula is about fifteen hours in the other
direction. Back the way we came.”

“
Actually it’s eighteen
hours,” said Sarah.

“
If we go to Tybur,” said
Pellew, “there’s no guarantee we could even locate the
Enclave.”

“
I can do it,” said Tristan.
“I know how to contact them. But there’s no point in going there.
The path before us is clear.”

“
I agree, the Tybur lead
feels murkier and is more likely to be a dead end,” said
Pellew.

“
What worries me about the
nebula,” said Miles, “are the tactical considerations. There are
only two, maybe three, fixed points at the edge of the nebula where
we can initiate an alteredspace jump. We won’t be able to see
what’s inside the nebula until we enter it, and even then sight
will be very limited. The stealth system won’t work. The shields
might do nothing. Many of our weapons will fail. The targeting
system might or might not work. If it turns out to be an ambush, or
if the Arcane Storm proves more than a match for our ship... we
might never make it out of there.”

“
Tybur could just as easily
be an ambush,” said Shen. “If the Tybur military was alerted to our
arrival, they could easily capture and destroy us. They haven’t
remained an independent system for a hundred years—stuck in between
the two strongest political powers—by accident. Not only have they
managed to ward off pirates and raiders, they’ve kept claim over
some of the most valuable mineral deposits in the galaxy. If we
jump into a trap there, I doubt we could shoot our way out of
it.”

“
You underestimate me,” said
Miles.

Shen gave him an annoyed look.

“
I’m already familiar with
the relative firepower of the Alliance navy,” said Calvin. “And
you’re right, their best forces are likely stationed at Tybur and
are more than a match for the Nighthawk. But Miles is right too,
the Vulture Nebula might prove to be as fatal a mistake as going to
Tybur. The question is, which die do we roll?”

“
Well, Captain, I suppose
that’s up to you,” said Tristan. “But you know where I stand. Afton
is our honorable chieftain and he gave us a clear lead. Calum is a
wandering fool.”

Calvin agreed that the nebula seemed like
the better lead. But the encounter with Calum had really thrown him
off. He just couldn’t make sense of the encounter. “Summers, what
do you think?”

She seemed momentarily surprised. As if she
expected him to always ignore her advice. “It’s your decision,” she
said.

“
Very well. In that case...”
he paused, weighing the options in his mind one last time. “Set
course for the Vulture Nebula. Eighty percent potential. Set
condition two throughout the ship.” If either were a trap, he
reasoned, the nebula would probably be the easier situation to
escape from. And Afton had seemed like a more reliable figure than
Calum.

Chapter 13

The blackness out the window vanished,
replaced by the awesome colorful majesty that was the Vulture
Nebula. Tremendous swirling clouds of red and violet that seemed to
stretch on forever. Nimoux doubted he’d ever seen anything more
beautiful.

“
Simply breathtaking...” he
said.

“
Jump complete,” said the
pilot. “We are currently one point three million mc’s from the
mouth of the nebula.”

“
Any indication that the
Nighthawk has already been here?” asked Nimoux.

“
No, sir,” said the ops
officer. “Though I am picking up two ships ahead of us, at a
distance of half a million mc’s. Imperial markings. Looks to be the
IWS Rhea and the ISS Stormfront.”

“
I guess the rest of the
party beat us here,” said Nimoux.

“
The other ships are hailing
us,” said the pilot. “Requesting instructions.”

“
Tell them to clear for
action and follow us into the nebula. Once we’re inside, we’ll send
them positional coordinates. Take us in, best speed.”

“
Yes, sir.”

“
Set condition one
throughout the ship.”

“
Aye, sir.”

The nebula filled their window more and more
until its colorful gases surrounded them.

“
Entering the Vulture
Nebula.”

“
Systems check,” Nimoux
turned to the ops officer. He’d never taken the Desert Eagle inside
a nebula before and it was unknown which systems would fail—though
life support, missile batteries, thrusters, and the sublight drive
were likely safe from the ionized gases.

“
Shields are ineffective,
communication is patchy but functional, and I’m unsure if the
energy weapon is usable. All other systems are within normal
parameters.”

“
And our sensors?” asked
Nimoux.

“
Not sure how the other
ships are faring, but our new upgrade is having very little
trouble. The nebula has reduced our vision by less than fifteen
percent.”

“
And will we be able to see
the Nighthawk approach?” asked Nimoux. This was the key
issue.

“
Yes, sir.”

“
Now at sixty-five thousand
mc’s inside the nebula,” said the pilot.

“
All stop.”

“
Answering all stop. The
other ships are decelerating.”

The IWS Rhea glided past their window and
came to a stop, only visible because of its identifier lights. It
was larger than the Desert Eagle—not being a stealth ship—but was
still dwarfed by the mighty battleship ISS Stormfront accompanying
them. All three ships taken together represented more than enough
firepower to deal with the Nighthawk.

“
Ops and defense,” said
Nimoux, “identify the best positions for the other ships and
transmit those coordinates. Once the Nighthawk enters the nebula,
it is critical we do not give it a window of escape.”

“
Yes, sir,” his subordinates
replied.

Only a few moments later, the determination
was made and all three ships were moved into optimal position. The
idea was a simple one, area denial. Once the Nighthawk entered the
nebula, there were only two viable exits that would allow the ship
to initiate an alteredspace jump. With the weapons batteries of all
three warships trained on those vectors, the Nighthawk would expose
itself to a lethal amount of firepower if it tried to run.

“
Tell the other ships to
hold their fire until I give the order to engage,” said Nimoux. The
last thing he wanted was a premature missile scaring off the
Nighthawk before it even entered the nebula. “And remember, the
objective is to disable the ship—not destroy it. Target their
engines. Destroying the ship is a last resort.”

“
Aye, sir.” His helmsman
spoke into his headset and a moment later confirmed that the
message had been acknowledged by the other captains.

“
Now, we wait,” said
Nimoux.

He relaxed in the silence until it was
broken by his ops officer several minutes later.

“
Sir, I‘ve got something on
the scopes. A ship just jumped in and is approaching the nebula.
Imperial markings—
it’s the
Nighthawk
.”

Nimoux didn’t allow himself to get excited.
“Continue tracking the vessel and send all updates of its position
to the other ships.”

“
Aye, sir.”

“
Standby all
weapons.”

***

“
Battle alert status, set
condition one,” said Calvin. “Shields at maximum.”

“
You got it, Cal,” said
Miles. ”All weapons are hot.”

The nebula lay before them, a majestic
display of color and mystery. Its wraith-like specter stretched out
before them eerily. Calvin wondered what secrets it held. And if
the Arcane Storm was truly there.

They’d looked over the minimal data they had
regarding the Arcane Storm and, with the help of Tristan, had come
up with an attack plan designed to disable it. The special forces
and Polarian solders stood-by to board and capture the disabled
ship. The plan seemed airtight, but Calvin remained uneasy. He kept
replaying the encounter with Calum in his mind, and was unsettled
by his whole experience on Echo Three. If only he could trust Afton
as easily as Tristan did. Tristan, who stood tall at Calvin’s side,
showed not even a hint of doubt.

“
Begin approach,” said
Calvin. “Nice and slow.”

“
Slow?”

“
Yes,” he said. “I’m a
little worried about what we might find in there.”

“
The Arcane Storm will be no
match for us,” assured Miles.

“
It’s not the Arcane Storm
I’m worried about.”

“
Afton is no liar,” said
Tristan. “We will only find what we are looking for inside that
beautiful spectacle.” The nebula dominated most of their view now.
And Calvin had to admit, it was awesome to behold.

“
Shen, can you see anything
inside the nebula?” he asked.

“
No, our scanners are
useless.”

“
What about a probe? Can we
send a probe into the nebula to check things out first?” asked
Calvin.

“
We could, but none of our
probes would be able to see anything. It would take a rather large
probe with very calibrated sensors to see anything inside a nebula.
Our ship’s scopes are much better suited to the task.”

“
I see,” Calvin tapped his
fingers nervously. Not the answer he’d hoped for.

“
On the flip side,” said
Shen. “Anyone in there won’t be able to see us either. Not until
we’re inside. So they won’t know we’re coming.”

That was true, Calvin
supposed. But it was little comfort. The whole situation left him
unsettled. Something was simply
off
about it. He didn’t like maneuvering into a deadly
position while blind as a bat and following intelligence that was
questionable at best.

“
What are our escape options
once we get in there?” asked Calvin.

“
There appear to be only two
stable points where an alteredspace jump could be initiated. If we
can get to one of those points, we should be able to calculate a
jump within a few seconds and escape.”

“
What if we punch our own
way out of the nebula and escape once we’re in open space again?”
asked Calvin. “Make an exit wherever we want one.”

“
That wouldn’t be
recommended,” said Shen. “It would take longer and we’d be at
greater risk of being overtaken, plus we’d be going through
potentially much denser parts of the nebula, positing a much higher
risk of systems failure.”

“
I see,” said Calvin. “So
really there’s no way around it, there are only two ways in or
out.”

“
That’s right.”

“
I don’t like the sound of
that.”

“
Two-hundred thousand mc’s
from the mouth of the nebula and closing,” said Sarah. “All teams
report
go
. They’re
at the designated airlocks and prepared to board the target vessel
on your command.”

“
Good.” Getting their
airlocks to align and seal with those of the Arcane Storm would be
a mean feat of flying, especially in a nebula, but Calvin didn’t
worry too much about it. If anyone could pull off such a maneuver,
it was Sarah. Probably the best pilot in the fleet.

“
Now one-hundred and fifty
mc’s.”

Calvin leaned forward in his
chair and rubbed his temples. He stared into the massive veil of
interwoven, colorful gases that filled their view. The whole thing
just felt wrong. The scientific part of his mind didn’t like
putting too much stock in gut feelings, but intuition had saved him
several times before.
Should I listen to it
now?

“
One-hundred mc’s,” said
Sarah.

“
Be ready, Shen,” said
Calvin. “I want to get a good scan the moment we’re inside the
nebula.”

“
I’ll do my best,” said
Shen. “But our sight will still be limited.”

“
Sarah, be ready to initiate
a full about. At the first sign of trouble, get us the hell out of
there.”

“
Yes, sir. Eighty-three mc’s
and closing.”

Calvin took a deep breath, wondering if he
was making a mistake. This was their best lead. They had to follow
it. And he had taken every precaution he could think of. He looked
to Summers for reassurance but found only hardness in her stony
face. She gazed at the nebula too but her mind appeared to be
elsewhere. Fixated on something.

“
Seventy-five mc’s and—”
Sarah cut herself off abruptly and looked down at her instruments.
“Hold on. Incoming message, sir. Maximum priority.”

Calvin jumped up to his feet. “All stop!” he
ordered, the words came out more forcefully than he’d expected.
Perhaps he was just a bit too eager for an excuse to delay entering
the nebula. “I’ll take it in my office,” he said, noting the
baffled expressions on his crew’s faces.