The Phoenix Rising (9 page)

“
Fair enough.”

“
Now tell me more about your
lead.”

“
I’ve heard rumors, whispers
of rumors really,” said Tristan. “From my brothers in the clan. The
Arcane Storm is in the DMZ. And carrying something important. I
have no doubt that means it is carrying the isotome
weapons.”

“
And you think it’s at Echo
Three? What is special about Echo Three anyway?” A military ship
such as the Nighthawk entering the DMZ was technically an act of
war against the Rotham Republic. It wouldn’t be the first time
Calvin had violated the agreement, Intel Wing ordered stealth ships
into the DMZ every now and then. But the utmost discretion was
needed.

“
Echo Three is my home,”
said Tristan. “It’s an asteroid colony around the QH-212
star.”

“
And the Arcane Storm is
there?”

“
No, but some of my people
claim to have seen it. We must go there and question the one who
will know.”

Chapter 7

Their faces were mere echoes now. Nimoux
remembered the woman’s blonde hair but not many of her other
features. As for the two men, they were even less clear in his
mind. One had been short with brown hair, the other was average
height and a bit overweight. The subtle details were long gone, but
what was clear as day—what he could never forget—was the horror in
their eyes. He knew what it was when he saw it. He’d felt it too.
The cold, brutal realization that one was about to die. And at the
hands of a friend, no less. He recalled the firm resistance of the
trigger as he curled his finger around it and pulled. The slight
blowback. The sound of the reports splitting the air. Shot after
shot. For each victim it had been the same. One in the head, two in
the chest. Nine bullets. Three corpses.

They hadn’t deserved this end. They’d been
innocent people. And he hadn’t delighted in giving it to them. In
fact, it was the worst thing he’d ever done. The guilt haunted him
every day since. Tormenting him severely, in ways no one knew and
few could understand. It consumed him. Entered his thoughts.
Invaded his dreams. Always on the back of his mind. Stalking him.
Even years later the feeling hadn’t lessened, and he knew he’d
never forgive himself. Nor should he. He fantasized for the
millionth time about placing the barrel of his sidearm against his
own head and squeezing the trigger. Such a small action on such a
tiny piece of metal. And yet maybe, afterwards, he would finally
have peace.

The communication panel chirped, startling
him out of his meditation. He took one final deep breath then
uncurled his legs and stood up. Stretching briefly as he came out
of the lotus position. He wanted to reach for his tea and ignore
the comm panel, but knew he couldn’t.

“
Yes what is it?” asked
Nimoux.

“
Notifying you as you
requested, sir. We will be dropping out of alteredspace in a few
minutes,” said the on-duty ops officer.

“
Thank you, I’m on my
way.”

He exited his quarters on deck five and took
the nearest elevator to the bridge. When he arrived, a crewman blew
a whistle announcing “Captain on the bridge.”

Nimoux moved immediately to the command
position and relieved his XO, a salty, no-nonsense forty-year old
man who’d thrown himself into his military career to escape two
ex-wives and several unwanted children. Despite his domestic
issues, or perhaps because of them, the commander had made a
reputation for himself as the most hardworking and enthusiastic
member of the crew. Nimoux was glad to have him.

“
ETA?” asked
Nimoux.

“
Forty-five
seconds.”

It was time to see what all the fuss was
about. He could only guess at what they’d find there. But one thing
was certain, Intel Wing wanted it swept under the rug. The IWS
Desert Eagle was to clear the area before continuing on mission.
Fortunately it wouldn’t prove much of a delay; their destination
was also the last known location of their quarry.

“
Entering the system in
three,” his pilot counted down, “two, one. We are now in Abia
System.” The window filled with stars and, in the distance, the
light of the local sun could be seen just larger than the
rest.

“
Ops, what do we see?” he
asked, gazing out the window at the nothingness.

“
Commencing deep scan,”
replied his ops officer. “Preliminary report, no ship signatures,
however there are some large objects near the planet.”

“
In orbit?”

“
Negative, the only thing in
orbit appears to be the station which is powered down and
unresponsive. If anyone is still onboard—they’re dead by
now.”

“
What are these
objects?”

“
Looks to be… debris, sir.
Destroyed starships.”

Nimoux felt his heart rate accelerate but he
remained a disciplined calm. “Helm, bring us in closer; Defense,
keep our stealth system engaged but standby to power weapons and
shields; Ops, let me know once the high-intensity scan is
complete.”

“
Aye sir.”

Before leaving Capital World, the Desert
Eagle had been re-fitted with a new type of scanner. It was only a
prototype, but had enormous potential. It increased the strength of
the Desert Eagle’s already state-of-the-art scopes by a factor of
five. Allegedly it could totally negate the best stealth
technology, which was why it had been rush installed onto the
Desert Eagle. The Nighthawk couldn’t hide from them.

“
Scan complete,” said the
ops officer. “I confirm that there are no other ships in the
system. As for the debris, it looks like destroyed warships. Some
of it is imperial in design, others are alien. Most likely match:
Rotham battleships.”

“
Rotham?” It made no sense
for foreign warships to be so deep inside Imperial space.
Apparently there had been a battle here—one that Intel Wing and the
Fleet had successfully kept quiet.

“
Can you identify which
Imperial ships were destroyed?”

“
No, sir.”

“
Coming about,” said the
pilot.

The Desert Eagle maneuvered
closer and Nimoux caught his first glimpse of a giant piece of
debris. The burned out husk rotated eerily in space, the corpse of
a ship that had, probably quite recently, been home to several
hundred souls. Nimoux put his hand over his heart. These were
Imperial citizens who’d paid the ultimate price.
Perhaps that long list of missing starships isn’t
so long after all…
He wondered how many of
the disappeared ships had made Abia their final resting
place.

“
Incoming transmission from
Intel Wing,” said the pilot. “Highest priority.”

“
On speakers.”

“
IWS Desert Eagle, what is
your status? Please inform.” The voice crackling over their
speakers belonged to Director Jack Edwards, handler for all
phantom-class stealth ships in the Empire. Edwards sounded
somewhat...
different
, Nimoux couldn’t put his finger on why though.

“
We have arrived in Abia
System, sir,” said Nimoux. “Commencing sweep
operations.”

“
Good. Destroy all the
debris you find. Leave no trace that any ships were ever
there.”

“
Understood,” said Nimoux,
though he thought it a strange order. He knew better than to
question Edwards, though. “Will comply. Also be advised that we
have had no contact with the station and it appears to be
inoperable—possible unmanned.” He hoped to glean some information
about what had happened here, what they were covering
up.

“
Don’t worry about the
station, or anything else. Conduct sweep operations, then proceed
to Gemini System. A probe dispatched to the region several days ago
positively ID’d jump signatures in Abia that targeted Gemini
System.”

The fact that Intel Wing wanted Nimoux to
take care of business in Abia before proceeding to Gemini was very
interesting, especially since the longer they waited the colder the
trail would get. “Yes, sir.”

“
Intel Wing out.”

“
You heard the man,” said
Nimoux to his bridge officers. “Set up a thorough pattern and
commence a sweep. Destroy anything large enough to be
detected.”

“
Yes, sir.”

“
And Mister Jorgensen,” said
Nimoux to his Ops officer, “if you happen to identify any of the
debris before it’s destroyed and make a log of it... I won’t hold
it against you.”

“
Yes, sir,” replied the ops
officer.

Something very strange had happened here.
Something Intel Wing was desperate to keep a lid on. Nimoux
couldn’t help but wonder what. There was obviously more to the
story than he’d first anticipated.

***

The bridge of the Nighthawk felt like home
in a way that no other place could. Now that they were leaving
Gemini and returning to where they truly belonged—the stars, Calvin
felt a surge of energy. felt excited.

“
Sarah, put in a departure
request,” he said.

“
Yes, sir.”

“
Miles, get a status report
from every deck. Let’s make sure all hands are aboard and we’re
secure for launch.”

“
Way ahead of you, Cal,”
said the round-faced man at the defense post. “All crew is aboard
and all decks report
go
.”

“
Very good.” Calvin looked
over his senior staff—his friends—and smiled. It was a good moment.
No matter how many dangerous, uncertain roads lay ahead of them, he
felt he could weather any storm with friends like these. Only one
person was missing to make the picture complete.

“
Ops, give me a status
report on all critical systems,” he looked at the man who sat where
Shen should be. The newcomer was human, about middle-aged, and thin
as a tree-branch.

“
Sir, all systems are
functioning within expected parameters.”

“
Excellent. Sarah, as soon
as we get the word, let’s get out of this behemoth and into open
space.”

“
You got it,” she said. Then
she spoke into her headset. “Confirmed, Control. Initiating launch
sequence.”

Out the window Calvin could see the massive
metal doors that separated the drydock from open space. An alarm
was flashing, warning all personnel to clear the deck. Once all
hands were safely on the other side of the airlock, the massive
chamber depressurized.

“
We’ve decoupled from the
deck. Lift thrusters firing.”

As the Nighthawk separated itself from the
deck, the massive door—like tremendous jaws—opened, revealing the
blackness of space.

“
Firing forward thrusters,”
said Sarah. “Ten mc’s per second and accelerating.”

They approached the open door quickly and
plunged into open space.

“
We’re clear of the
drydock.”

Calvin saw a projection of the mighty Gemini
conglomerate on the 3d display. Their ship looked tiny, like an
infinitesimal wasp, as it flew away from the station. “Take us a
safe distance from the planet and then commence alteredspace
jump.”

“
Aye, aye. What is our
destination?” asked Sarah.

“
Yeah, Cal, what kind of a
wild goose chase are we on now?” asked Miles. “Gonna meet up with
Raidan?”

“
No,” said Calvin. “Set
course for the DMZ, most direct jump. Ninety percent
potential.”

“
Yes, sir.”

“
The DMZ?” asked Miles. His
face beamed with excitement. “What are we going there
for?”

Calvin’s officers obviously expected him to
tell them everything he knew. They had proven trustworthy, and none
had been more loyal than Miles.

“
Don’t worry about it for
now,” said Calvin, noting a look of approval on Tristan’s
face.

“
If you say so,” said Miles,
looking confused and disappointed.

Calvin looked back at Tristan and shot him a
scowl. He’d keep Tristan and Raidan’s secrets for now, but consoled
himself that he wouldn’t keep Miles and the others in the dark
forever. “Once we get inside the DMZ, Tristan will provide flight
instructions to our destination.”

“
The werewolf?” Miles looked
at Tristan with disdain, and perhaps a little fear.

“
That’s right,” said Tristan
with a slight grin.

“
Jump distance reached,
commencing alteredspace transition in three, two, one...” said
Sarah.

The view of stars vanished into pure
darkness. They were on their way to the DMZ.

“
We are now in
alteredspace.”

“
ETA?” asked
Calvin.

“
Just over fifty-three hours
until we cross into the DMZ...” said Sarah. “And commit an act of
war.”

Fifty-three hours... Calvin took a deep
breath and relaxed, thinking that was plenty of time to squeeze
more information out of Tristan and figure out their next move.
Special Forces and the Polarian Division would have to begin drills
so they could breach the Arcane Storm when the time came. Calvin
decided the best thing he could do now was get to know the new
crew. Making sure they assimilated properly fell under the duties
of the XO, but Calvin was happy to help if he could.