The Phoenix Conspiracy Page 16

  "Consider it done," he set to work.

  "As for you, Miles," said Calvin. His defense officer turned his chair to reveal a disappointed look. He was as good of an investigator as the others but hated doing it. "Look into Tristan. Search every database for his name and check with any Rotham Police Records that are available, specifically on Aros Five. Tristan told me he had issues with the law there, probably a lie but maybe not. I want to know who he is and where he came from. As part of that, look into the proliferation of remorii from Remus. That system is shut down and nearly impossible to enter or exit. I want to know how he, and everyone like him, got out into the galaxy. That shouldn't have been easy."

  "Why?" asked Miles.

  "Because it's surrounded by a huge minefield," said Sarah.

  "No I mean why do I have to do it," said Miles. "Just kidding, I'll get on it ASAP."

  "Good," said Calvin. "And there is one more thing. I've been looking into the time logs, trying to make a chronology of all the events, and there is something that just doesn't add up to me. The Harbinger left Praxis at approximately 1010 hours Standard Time and made for Aleator. It detected interceptors from the Fifth Fleet and changed course to outmaneuver them. Something like that might add another three hours depending on how far it had to move, maybe even as many as five. But the Harbinger arrived at Aleator eight hours later than expected. That leaves between three and five hours unaccounted for. The question is, what could it have been doing?"

  "Repairs?" suggested Sarah.

  "Putting down a mutiny," Miles shrugged.

  "Docking at a station," said Summers.

  “Meeting up with another ship,” said Shen.

  Calvin shrugged. “I don’t know. My working theory is that Raidan went to Aleator to meet up with someone. Perhaps Raidan had to conform to that person’s schedule. Maybe they’d prearranged for the Harbinger to get there at a designated time.”

  “Could be,” said Shen.

  “Sarah, we know the ship's speed, general position, and the window of time they had, we should make a range of possible places the Harbinger could have been. Try to narrow that down and see if there are any systems, bases, or structures within its reach. If you don't find anything like that, check the shipping records and see if any vessels had a charted route through that region and could have passed the Harbinger."

  "Will do," she said. "But what if it met up with an unchartered ship?"

  “Then there’s nothing we can do about that.”

  "So what are you going to do?" asked Summers.

  "I'm going to look into CERKO."

  Just then the comm started flashing and Sarah heard something through her headset. She turned to Calvin. "Priority message from Intel Wing. They have some results of a query you made. Something about what it takes to destroy a star."

  "I'll take it here, put it on display," he said and sat down in the command chair.

  A pre-recorded message of a man talking directly to the camera popped up. He had a professorial look about him: receding hairline, neat beard, glasses, and greying hair. "Message start. To Lieutenant Commander Calvin Cross. I read your request for information on what it would take to destroy a star, specifically TR-301. That's a pretty strange request, but an interesting question. TR was a class three star and, after reviewing the information your sensors picked up about its collapse, it's not unlike other star collapses that happen every so often. What usually happens is a change in mass. You could think of it as... all of the star's energy sources being exhausted. I'll send you over more specific notes on this but let me just say that collapsing a star artificially is not within the practical limits of known technology.

  "However, there is a theoretical way this could be done. A star could be compressed using magnetic fields. Ships of high magnetism could orbit the star opposite its polarity and spin, but such a process might take a million years—if it worked at all. It's never been tested. Intel Wing's opinion is that TR-301 collapsed of natural causes, despite its relatively young age and seemingly healthy ratio of hydrogen to helium. End Message."

  The screen blinked off.

  "You heard the man," said Miles, "nothing suspicious."

  "Magnetic ships..." Calvin stared at the blank display, as if seeing past it. "I wonder if that’s possible." For some reason, even in the face of good scientific reasoning, he couldn't get past his nagging intuition that the star's destruction was not just some random event. He decided to look into it a bit more anyway when he had the chance. If nothing else, to put the issue to rest in his mind. "Shen, launch one of our probes to do a deep search of the region. Maybe a volume of two cubic clicks."

  "You're chasing after ghosts, Cal," said Shen. "But I'll do it."

  "Maybe…” said Calvin, deep in thought. "Make sure it gets a good look at any stellar formations in that region."

  "That's a pretty wide volume," said Shen. "But the probe should be programmed and ready to launch within the hour. Although, it’ll take some time to get there."

  "That’s fine. Just make sure it doesn't stray too close to the black hole, if there is one now."

  Shen smiled. "I'll keep that in mind."

  "There's just one other thing," said Calvin and he tapped his direct line to the Major's office at Special Forces HQ. "Major," he said.

  "I'm here," the man's gravelly voice replied through the comm.

  "Even though the lycan isn't on our ship anymore, I'm still concerned about his escape from the brig and what happened to your two men who were guarding him. I asked them several questions but neither seemed to remember anything important. And let's not forget the swapped surveillance tape. I need you to get to the bottom of this."

  ***

  Calvin was asleep in his quarters when the alert came. A blinking red light on the panel with an obnoxious chirping. He rolled out of bed and crashed onto the floor. "Oh dammit," he said, his voice a bit hoarse. He got to his feet and answered the call.

  "Yeah, what is it?"

  His Second Officer, Lieutenant Commander Vincent Rose, spoke from the other end. "Distress call from Brimm Station, sir. Along with a report."

  "Are they under attack?" asked Calvin, feeling his heart quicken. He grabbed for a shirt and pulled it over his head.

  "They were. I think you'd better get up here."

  Rose was a good junior commander and he knew how to handle his crew, the Red Shift, but Calvin had always gotten the distinct impression Rose had little confidence in himself. Part of Calvin wanted to give Rose as many opportunities as possible to command the ship in difficult situations, but an Imperial Station under attack wasn't going to be one of them.

  "On my way," said Calvin and he darted for the bridge.

  When he arrived, his junior officers saluted him. The Red Shift was "second watch" and mostly composed of petty officers and junior grade lieutenants, none of whom had even the full bronze of First Lieutenant except Rose whose uniform boasted the same silver bar Calvin wore. Their group had been on shift since White Shift was relieved five hours ago and Calvin didn't miss the eagerness on their faces.

  "Captain on the bridge," one said.

  "OK, Rose, what have we got?"

  "The Harbinger entered Brimm about six hours ago. The station sent out several patrol craft and ordered it to stand down. When the Harbinger didn't respond Brimm launched fighters, but only fifteen were on standby and they didn't have weapons that could pierce the dreadnought's defenses.

  "The Harbinger attacked, disabled, and boarded a Rotham starship, which was there on an exchange program. Its crew of nineteen was captured and taken aboard the Harbinger. The alien ship was then destroyed. After that, the sentry ships engaged the Harbinger but it ignored them and maneuvered straight for the station, boarding it. There was a small arms battle and the Harbinger's crew broke into the station's computer systems and copied several terabytes of data. They returned to their ship before more security forces could arrive. Then the Harbinger left the system. Brimm had no ships able to
mount a pursuit."

  "Okay," said Calvin, taking his seat. "What kind of casualties did the station take?"

  "Three dead and six wounded. Eleven others were incapacitated but received no major injuries. Mostly the Harbinger's assault team used non-lethal weapons. Some of the deaths are reportedly from friendly-fire."

  "Did the station's security forces take down anyone from the Harbinger?"

  "At least two were shot but the Harbinger didn't leave anyone behind."

  "OK, contact the station and tell them their security teams need to carefully comb the area where the fight occurred. Have forensics check it over, and tell the base to review any surveillance footage. We need to know if these people—presumably working for Raidan—are the Harbinger's crew or if they're outsiders who commandeered the ship. Also they should identify what data was stolen specifically and give it to us so we can look it over." Calvin looked to the helmsman, a Second Lieutenant named Jay. He was an experienced forty-something year old ex-marine more than capable of being a ship's primary pilot—held back only because Sarah was the best in the business.

  "I'm on it, sir," said Jay and he contacted Brimm Station.

  "Now, about that alien ship that was attacked," Calvin turned his attention back to Rose who still stood rigidly at alert nearby. "What do we know about it?"

  "It's the T'orma, a Rotham sloop working in our territory under the joint jurisdiction of the Republic and Brimm Authorities. As I said, part of an exchange program. We have one of our own in Rotham space operating under similar conditions."

  "Is its crew rotham, human, or both?"

  "Rotham, sir, to the last man."

  Calvin scratched his chin wondering if Raidan had attacked the ship simply because it was Rotham owned and operated or because it was engaging in some kind of activity Raidan didn't approve of, perhaps carrying something he didn't like.

  "Rose, I want you to run a check on all the individuals who were aboard the Rotham ship—the ones captured and dragged away onto the Harbinger. See if anything interesting pops up."

  "I can't do that, sir," said Rose.

  Calvin tensed. "Why not?"

  "Brimm Station won't release the identities of the Rotham crew or any information as to their cargo, operations, past activity, or current mission."

  "That's... interesting," Calvin found it very unusual that an Imperial Station would refuse to assist an Imperial investigation. "We can force them by inciting the Intelligence Privilege Laws. They're obviously hampering our investigation and that's illegal."

  "I already tried that, sir. It seems they have special circumstances. The Rotham ship is still property of the Rotham Republic. The exchange treaty allows for complete anonymity and lets the Rotham Republic withhold information about their ship from us as per their request. We can do the same thing with our ship in their space. It's a gesture of good will."

  "It's a gesture of bullshit. Did you check with Intel Wing to see if they can circumvent that treaty?" asked Calvin, even though he knew the odds were not great.

  "They said their hands are tied."

  "Of course...”

  "Sir, we're approaching Brimm System in one minute," Jay said from the helm.

  "Shields are up and weapons hot," the Red Shift defense officer said. He was the rookie of the bunch, hailed as a prodigy at the academy and only nineteen. Patrick O’Conner, a red headed, hot-tempered, unbridled, albeit talented, sometimes defiant midshipman.

  "Keep the shields up until we know the area is secure," said Calvin. "But power down the weapons."

  "With all due respect, sir," said Patrick. "The Harbinger could still be out there, and we need to play it safe."

  "The last thing we want to do is spook Brimm Station by flashing our teeth. Now power down our weapons, that's an order."

  "Yes, sir," he didn't seem happy but he complied.

  “Jay, bring us out of alteredspace ten million mc's from the planet. Cassidy, put us at alert condition two, all hands standby." The trim woman at ops acknowledged him and her lithe fingers fluttered over the controls. She was a quiet one and since Calvin spent most of his time with White Shift—his senior officers—he hadn't yet gauged her skill or picked up much about her personality. He didn't know how far he could push her so he didn't completely trust her yet and suspected she might not trust him whole-heartedly either.

  "Coming out of alteredspace... now," said Jay. The windows were still black except for the burning yellow sun in the distance which obscured all the stars. "Proceeding on direct course to the station at standard heading, the planet should be visible soon."

  "Display it," said Calvin. A projected image of a simple blue and white planet appeared. It had very little land and seemed almost completely oceanic. In a simple orbit was a medium-sized station. If it was damaged from the Harbinger's attack it didn't show it.

  "Incoming message from Brimm One.”

  "Play it on the main speakers and display visual if we're getting that feed."

  The image of a middle-aged blue-and-black uniformed man, with the sapphire emblem of full Commodore, materialized on an alternate display. His light hair was carefully styled and the room he was broadcasting from, a private office, looked immaculately clean and organized.

  "IWS Nighthawk, you're sure a sight for sore eyes."

  "I understand you've been having some trouble here," said Calvin. "Any information you can give me will help us greatly."

  "We already transmitted our official report to you, Intel Wing, and Fleet Command. But if you have some questions, I'm happy to answer them."

  "The Rotham ship," said Calvin. "Who was on it?"

  "I can't release that information, I'm sorry..." he seemed to squint. "Lieutenant Commander."

  "I understand," Calvin lied, still thinking the treaty was stupid. "I hear the Harbinger stole some of your data. It would help us immensely if we could analyze it."

  "I'm sorry, Lieutenant Commander, that data is sensitive in nature and I'm not authorized to release it."

  “Who is?"

  "I can't help you there either."

  Typical... "You understand," said Calvin, "that the less information we have, the less likely we are to track down the Harbinger and prevent any future incidents. We also won’t be able to return the abducted Rotham crew."

  "I can tell you this, the information taken from our computers is not relevant to where the Harbinger is going. In fact, we can't seem to figure out how it could possibly be valuable to those criminals at all. Shipping reports. Personnel manifests. Personal logs. That sort of thing."

  "If it's so trivial why can't you release it?"

  It's complicated and I'm not at liberty to go into the details. Has to do with international politics. But our sentry ships have studied the Harbinger's exit signatures and know it is heading toward the Iota System."

  "I'll have to verify that escape vector for myself.”

  “I assure you it is correct.”

  Calvin smiled. “Nevertheless.”

  “Any other questions?"

  "Yeah I have a few more. Your security garrison consists of what, a few hundred marines and other officers?"

  "Six hundred and ten."

  "How large was the party that boarded your station?"

  "About fifty men and women."

  "So if you knew the Harbinger was headed for your station and about to board, why couldn't your men contain them in the hangar platform? Clearly you have the firepower."

  "That was just it," the Commodore looked embarrassed. "We sent all available units to hold off the hangar platform but the Harbinger didn't dock with us in a conventional way. It hooked itself to the port arm of our base, near where our computer hard drives and main terminals are stored, and more-or-less cut its way in. I've never seen anything like it and somehow they managed not only to cut through the hull of our station but they also sealed the hole to their jetways so their own people could board without pressure suits.

  Calvin did not find this surpr
ising. As an Intel Wing member he’d known about recent progress in ship-to-ship breaching technologies.

  The Commodore continued, "when they cut the hole, we evacuated that deck, not knowing they would keep everything from being blown out into space, letting them come aboard unopposed at first. By the time we could scramble some teams to engage them it was too little too late. They got what they wanted and left. What's really strange is that they set up a portable forcefield to keep our broken hull intact without losing too much pressure or more than fifteen percent of our atmosphere on that deck."

  "So they didn't actually want to hurt anyone or cause any permanent damage," said Calvin.

  The Commodore frowned and said nothing.

  "How did the Harbinger get past your shields?"

  "They fired a barrage of high-impact missiles. We fired back but a lot of our defense systems have been undergoing maintenance this past week."

  "I don't see any damage to your station."

  "They used pulsar torpedoes."

  “That’s a technology meant to disable and not destroy,” said Calvin. “Almost like they meant you no harm.”

  "I wouldn't say that, they did injure several of our people and three of ours are dead from the encounter."

  "I heard that was friendly-fire."

  "I admit," the Commodore paused for a deep breath. "The circumstances of the soldiers’ deaths are unclear and there have been accusations of friendly-fire, but nothing has been confirmed officially. The report you're referring to is the opinion of the commander on the ground and isn't necessarily representative of our station's findings."

  "I see," said Calvin. "And the invaders used non-lethal weapons?"

  "It appears that way, though three of our soldiers did die."

  "You said that already."

  "Well, it looks like we're done here," the Commodore said.

  "One more thing, sir," said Calvin. "Can you transfer us the coordinates of the Rotham ship's wreckage?"