The Phoenix Wars: Book I, Reprieve

by C. R. Daems

  "That was rather spectacular," Hyun said as the holograph showed a massive explosion as eight Griffon missiles hit the Tullizor cruiser simultaneously. "I'll wager the boys in the first group are pissed. They didn't get to fire a single missile."

  "All right, XO, let's pick up the fighters and leave this space," I said and sat back, pleased with the day's events. "Let's continue spinward for two more exits." I decided the crew could use an update rather than depending on the rumor mill. "XO, general channel."

  "Crew of the Black Eagle, the captain," she said and nodded to me.

  "Since our fighter wing just destroyed a Tullizor cruiser, I thought I would share the news with you. The cruiser and all hand were destroyed while none of our fighter pilots was hurt. It was like a magic show. Now you see it, now you don't," I said as I had Hyun run the twenty-second rerun of before, during, and after the explosion. "An excellent example of a cruiser with all groups functioning like a precision machine."

  Hyun gave me a thumbs up, and I noticed everyone on the Bridge was smiling.

  "Captain, the pull is coreward," Jorge said and quietly awaited my orders.

  "XO, take the coreward exit," I said, although I was not interested in going north, especially after what Oadagaz had said about the fighting deeper into the galaxy, but I was interested in seeing the systems close to the lizards since they were our immediate danger.

  Two hours later, we entered a very crowded system but with no apparent intelligent life.

  "Captain, there are ten planets, but none appears to have intelligent life," Hyun said, staring hard at the sensors.

  "Go to active sensors," I said.

  "Nothing, Captain," Hyun said while shaking her head.

  "Continue in system for two more hours. If nothing shows on the sensors, let's exit and try one more coreward exit," I said, thinking this was like playing hiding-go-seek, except the people hiding had vehicles that fired nasty missiles. We detected nothing and were exiting the system seven hours later. The next exit was over three-quarters of a day away.

  "Captain, our sensors indicate electromagnetic transmissions from the planet closest to the sun," Hyun said and smiled. "Standard loop, ma'am?"

  "Yes, XO, a standard loop," I said, thinking Hyun was having far too much fun. If I hear that word ma'am any more, I'm going to start checking in the mirror for grey hairs. It was like I just skipped Miss and Mrs. and went directly to Madam.

  "Captain!" Hyun's voice rang out loud and two octaves higher, "Unknown cruiser three million kilometers ahead, speed one percent of max, the same as us. It doesn't have a Tullizor or Dagaz signature, and it has gone active. We are on a collision course."

  I hit the emergency button to Simon, which would open his Sleeve, and said into his channel, "Simon, drop four fighters immediately, and prepare four more to drop on my command. We have an enemy cruiser in the area." I left the link with him open while turning to Hanna. Hanna, calculate a vertical loop to begin immediately. I grabbed the Oracle ball; I needed to know the time the fighters would fire and how close we would be to the unknown cruiser at that time.

  If you can launch your fighters in five minutes, you will be one point eight million kilometers apart. Your fighters will meet the unknown cruiser in six minutes. The closest you will come to the unknown cruiser is one million eight hundred seventy kilometers or six point twenty-three minutes.

  A few minutes later, Hanna spoke, "Your loop will take twelve and a half minutes to complete. The unknown cruiser will never be closer than one point nine million kilometers for the first nine minutes and forty seconds. After that, you will again be on a collision course of six point two minutes."

  "Weapons, at our closest point, you could fire a few standard missiles as a diversion. Otherwise, no Griffons unless the unknown cruiser is still with us as we enter a collision course."

  "Captain," Hyun said, her tone urgent. "The unknown cruiser is doubling its acceleration."

  "It does not matter, so long as it is constant when they launch," I said, knowing it could be a problem if they continued to accelerate after the fighters launched. If they did, the pilots would have to recalculate the time or abort, since the time to start their engine would be sooner than the original calculation. I clicked on Simon's channel. "Simon, tell the pilots if for some reason their engine haven't started by the time the distance to the cruiser is four thousand, they should force a start. That will only be necessary if the unknown cruiser continues to increase its speed after they launch." Now came the really hard part–waiting. I had set the ball rolling but had no way to affect its course. I sat with my eyes swiveling from the hologram to the chronometer and swore that time had all but stood still. I jumped when the hologram showed several explosions and closed my eyes, hoping that wasn't a fighter crashing into the unknown cruiser. Then to my relief, ten seconds later, I saw the flashes of engines starting.

  "Captain, looks like the cruiser has shut down," Hyun said with a sigh of relief everyone on the Bridge felt.

  My Sleeve buzzed, and when I looked down, it was Simon. "Captain, Jesso just informed me his squad is functional. Todd's squad aborted when they saw the unknown cruiser explode."

  "Thank you, Simon. Let's see if there is anything we can salvage that will give us a clue as to the identity of the cruiser. Maybe Oadagaz might know something about the other nations in this area."

  "That was almost a disaster," I said, thinking about the pilots each having to make the calculation as to when to turn on their engine because the enemy cruiser had changed acceleration. "This on the job training is petrifying."

  "I'm glad it's you, and not me," Hyun said and gave me a crooked smile. "I think each of us in the triad has the right position for many years."

  Except me, I sighed. The Pitohui and I were a good fit. I'm not sure about Blacky and me. "XO, when Simon's wing is back on board, we leave for Dagaz. I think we need to resolve this unknown cruiser issue first before we go calling on the Tullizor.

  Chapter 56

  Monkeys Galore

  "XO," I said as we entered Dagaz space. "All systems active. Wouldn't want the Dagaz to think they were being invaded. I doubt they were expecting us to return for months or years."

  "Captain, all systems active," Hyun said after having given the order and checked each system.

  "Plot a vector to their planet," I said and saw Hanna had it posted on the pilot's monitor. This should be an interesting meeting, I thought as I sat back and relaxed, knowing it would be several hours before we were hailed.

  Oracle, are you aware of other alien nations? I thought while touching the Oracle ball.

  No. Prior to this expedition, Earth had the only aliens the Anixians have encountered.

  "Captain, we are being hailed by the Green Tree," Hyun said, bringing me back from my wandering thoughts.

  "Open a video channel," I said, and a few seconds later, Oadagaz's face appeared on the main monitor.

  "I'm surprised to see you back so soon, Captain Kayla. Trouble?" Oadagaz asked, looking cautious and curious.

  "We encountered an alien cruiser several systems over and wondered if you might know anything about them? We recovered a body if that will help."

  "Do you have an image I can see?"

  I nodded to Hyun, who sent a copy of the body we had recovered. Strangely, it resembled a human with two arms and legs, walked upright judging by the spine, and had a relatively human head except for the shape of the teeth, ears, and nose, and more body hair.

  "Yes, I do recognize it. The red nose and lip and white patches under the eyes are rather distinctive," Oadagaz box said. "We happened upon a field of debris several years ago. It was obviously a space battle close to our system, so we spent a year collecting everything we could. Our investigation concluded that there were two alien species, one from monkeys, like us, who called themselves Jumanu. They are the ones with the distinctive noses. The other ones who might have evolved from a cat-like species called themselves Soofir. Their skin and fur we
re black. Judging by the debris field, they must have had large fleets. We estimated twenty destroyed cruisers, twelve Soofir and eight Jumanu."

  "Those were the warring nations you warned us about?" I asked.

  "They are two of them, and from the debris, they might be the largest in the coreward direction but definitely not the only ones. We have over the past twenty generations discovered other destroyed cruisers, but the remains were too old or the debris too sparse to determine anything except they were not the Soofir or the Jumanu. We have concluded there is a lot of intelligent life out there," he waved a hand upward, "but it isn't friendly." He laughed. "The Tullizor may be the least of our potential problems."

  "It sounds like us friendly nations may have reasons to cooperate," I said and almost smiled. Anixia was the equivalent to a one-year-old baby just learning to walk.

  "We also need to grow our population and fleets, and, maybe more importantly, our technology," Oadagaz said. "If you are interested, you can join me, and I will show you our museum of alien artifacts. They date back almost five centuries."

  "Thank you, Captain Oadagaz, I would like that," I said, hoping this was the first step toward a partnership.

  "Thank you, Captain Oadagaz, for allowing me to see your alien artifacts," I said as his shuttle transported us toward the planet. "Trust is a difficult thing in times like this."

  "You are young, Captain Kayla, but obviously a trusted member of the Anixians; otherwise, they would not let you captain one of their war cruisers, for you could easily take the cruiser to Earth and be a hero," Oadagaz's translator said. "Normally, I would dismiss Anixia as a useless ally who the Tullizor have terrorized for generations; however, sending out an expedition speaks to new strength and technology. Giving command to one so young suggests they have found a formidable leader willing to enter Tullizor space and capable of taking on and winning against a Jumanu war cruiser."

  If he only knew how scared and lucky I've been, but then I guessed neither Dagaz nor Anixia could afford to be choosy or snub any assistance they could get.

  We landed near a one-story building that looked like it had been added on over many generations.

  "This is the newest section," Oadagaz's box said. "It was built after our discovery of the great battlefield. In those cases are the bodies of a Jumanu and a Soofir. We found them in good condition inside those space suits." He pointed to two long narrow glass boxes. "Just about everything in here is stored in cases, sealed, and maintained under carefully controlled conditions."

  I took out my tablet and found a picture of the body we found. "I would say what we encountered was definitely a Jumanu war cruiser." I showed him the picture. He nodded.

  "This room has equipment and parts we found. The difference between the two cultures is obvious from the composition of the metal to the design, symbols, and ergonomics." He led me around the room, pointing out objects. Then he led me into several other rooms, each room confined to a specific discovery. The discoveries spanned over fifty years and felt like a history museum. In the last room were parts that did not appear to have come from either the Jumanu or Soofir cruisers. "Unfortunately, it is too little to do more than speculate about their language, culture, or technology. It is tantalizing and frustrating, like digging through their old garbage. What you find is years old, isn't in working condition, and no user manual to determine its functionality."

  "We weren't able to collect much, as one of our missiles must have hit their missile storage and set off a chain reaction." I proceeded to show him the photos I had taken of all the pieces we had collected. "I can tell you the cruiser was aggressive and made no attempt to communicate. They weren't looking to make friends."

  "Your cruiser doesn't look like you sustained much damage," he said, but it was a loaded question–how did you destroy them without significant damage?

  "We engaged them with our fighters who each carry effective ship-killer missiles. We try to distract them by appearing to run or looking like we are getting ready for a missile duel while our fighters get in position to attack." I wasn't sure how much I should share with the Dagaz until I knew more about him and his nation.

  "I understand," his box said, which I took to mean that we both had to limit what we disclosed until we knew each other better.

  "Thank you, Captain Oadagaz. I need to report back to Anixia on my findings and the potential for mutual support. I'm not part of the nation's governing body."

  He laughed. "Neither am I."

  We left the next day, feeling Oadagaz and I had set the framework for further talks. In addition, I had learned something about our neighbors. The question now was whether to return to Anixia or to visit the Tullizor? They appeared to be the more immediate concern to the Anixians.

  Chapter 57

  No Good Options

  "Well, Captain Kayla, where would you like to go?" Hyun asked as we left the Dagaz orbit. That was a thorny question. I could easily justify returning to Anixia as I had a good deal of information about our neighbors, but they weren't the immediate danger. The Tullizor were, and I had little information about them, actually more speculation than facts. So I should have a peek inside Tullizor space but would be risking Blacky and the entire crew, not to mention losing the information I had accumulated to date. This was not a decision an inexperienced eighteen-year-old should be making. In desperation, I put my hand on the Oracle ball.

  What do you think, Oracle? Should I return home with what I've learned or try to learn more about the Tullizor? I hoped at least for another perspective or, better yet, an order to do this or that.

  Kayla, you are an Anixian and the captain of the Black Eagle. The decision is therefore yours. If I were capable of making such a decision, we wouldn't need humans. The problem with the Tullizor question is that the answer cannot be ascertained until the decision is made and executed. It will be the correct decision if it succeeds. The wrong decision if it fails.

  I wanted to scream...captain is a shitty position! All I wanted was to be a fighter pilot, not a captain of a cruiser whose decisions impacted hundreds of lives and potentially impacted the people on Anixia. It was like wagering your entire wealth on one throw of the dice.

  I unconsciously looked down at my Sleeve with its red falcon icon and the three stars and thought of Hanna's prophecy, or was it just wishful thinking? Time to find out, I decided.

  "XO, I would like to visit the Tullizor," I said in a normal tone, feeling relaxed now that I had made the decision.

  "Yes, Captain. Next stop Tullizor."

  Chapter 58

  What To Do Now?

  "Captain, the sensors are detecting seven planets," Hyun said, obviously relieved. "Two of the planets appear to have emissions that indicate intelligent life: the second and third planets from the sun. The sensors indicate no cruisers in the area.

  "XO, our standard loop short of the third planet," I said since we weren't going to learn anything on passive sensors at this distance. As the first roll of the dice wasn't craps, we still had another roll and a chance to win.

  "Yes, ma'am," Hyun said, revealing how nervous she was, although sounding normal.

  "Thirty-eight hours, three minutes, and twenty-one seconds for the entire loop," Hanna said, also sounding normal. Of course, it was easier for them. They could die, but they weren't worrying about the crew. That was the captain's responsibility.

  "XO, you have the watch," I said, and I swore Hyun's tanned face went white. "I am going to talk to Simon. Let me know if anything interesting happens."

  She gave a jerky nod. "Yes, Captain," she said as she looked at the captain's chair and reluctantly stepped up on the platform and sat.

  "Captain Kayla, what can I do for you?" Simon said when he saw me enter the fighter area.

  "You know that we are now in Tullizor space and in the process of executing a loop which will take us within three hundred thousand kilometers of the third planet from the sun. Our sensors indicate that they occupy two planets, the secon
d and third from the sun. I'm hoping we are far enough from the planets as not to be detected and can leave unnoticed. In case that plan doesn't survive, I need you to have one squadron of four pilots ready. They will have little or no notice. Simon, I will try my best to rescue them, but I may not be able to. Unfortunately, the information we will have is critical to Anixia's survival. I wish I and the Pitohui could be one of the four, but that would be irresponsible."

  "Do you have something specific in mind?" Simon asked with no hint of anger or resentment.

  "No. I'm hoping all goes without incident. If it doesn't, then I'm hoping I can get us out of Tullizor space without having to engage them. If that fails, I will look for an option to engage them that has a chance of success. If that fails, I will consider all other options, which will include the K-box fighters. I don't know what that will look like, so I need you prepared to act."

  "I understand, Captain," Simon said. "My pilots and I are willing to do anything you order. None of us doubts that you would be the first to volunteer if our roles were reversed. Do what is necessary to save Anixia and Phoenix."

  "Thank you, Simon," I said, knowing he intended to be one of the four. I had tears in my eyes as I walked back to the Bridge.

  "Captain on the Bridge," Hyun said as she hurriedly vacated the captain's chair. "Ma'am, we are ninety degrees into the loop, and the passive sensors are providing better information. The Tullizor have a space platform, and it has multiple cruisers parked there, could be as many as twelve."

  "Anything on the second planet from the sun?" I asked. Decisions were hard enough when we had all the facts. They were dangerous when we had to guess.

  "No, it's too distant for anything except to ascertain that there is intelligent life there." Hyun shrugged.