The Phoenix War

by Richard L. Sanders

  He knew that she’d tried to visit. And to her credit, she’d tried several times. But whenever his chime rang and he saw that it was her, he’d been perfectly silent and pretended not to be there. Waiting until she inevitably went away. He’d felt conflicted doing that, a part of him wanted nothing more than to slide the door open and invite her in—the same part of him that wanted to scoop her off her feet and bury a kiss on her lusciously beautiful lips—but the smarter, more realistic part of him had won out. He remembered all too vividly how Sarah had rejected him. She’d made her feelings crystal clear when he’d tried to ask her out after cooking a romantic meal for the both of them. It can never be, she’d told him in no uncertain terms. Though not in those words, the message had been clear. And that was before the incident. At least then she’d felt genuine feelings of friendship toward him, even if friendship was the limit of what she could give him. But now… now that he was a monster… surely all she could feel for him was pity. Pity and sympathy and sorrow and a host of feelings Shen didn’t want from her. So he’d ignored her. Ignored her visits, ignored her calls, and was half-tempted to ignore her now. Wanting desperately to pretend she wasn’t there, sitting behind him, not too far away, radiating warmth and beauty…

  But he couldn’t ignore her. Not here. Not on the bridge. Whatever else he was, and whatever else he’d become, he was still a professional officer. And that small struggling part of him that remained human, the Shen he’d used to be, was desperate to cling to his identity as the ops chief on the Nighthawk, the genius who knew the ships systems better than the original designers. He couldn’t let that go. Which meant he had to act the part of a professional bridge officer.

  “That was very kind of you,” said Shen. “And very bad luck that our timing wasn’t better.” The words didn’t sound as forced as they felt when he spoke them.

  “Yeah that really is too bad,” said Sarah. “But I’m glad I get to see you now. White Shift just hasn’t been the same without you. And you look so well!”

  Much to Shen’s relief, Summers interrupted. “All right, cut the chatter,” she said. “Status report, all stations.”

  “Alteredspace jump remains stable, holding course, depth of eighty-five percent potential,” said Sarah. “As for comms, all is silent, no kataspace traffic whatsoever.”

  “Defense systems are prepped and ready,” reported a stranger who sat in Miles’ usual seat. “The stealth system is engaged and is working within normal parameters.” Shen assumed this man was the replacement defense officer but he wasn’t someone that looked familiar. Then again that wasn’t too surprising. Shen didn’t exactly go out of his way to acquaint himself with the red shift or green shift duty officers. Especially now that there were so many new faces.

  “Good,” said Summers. “And what about ops?”

  Shen looked at his controls, everything seemed to check out. “All systems are on primary power. Auxiliary and tertiary power show good. Sensors, life-support, and all systems are online and functioning within ideal parameters.”

  “Excellent,” said Summers. “ETA?”

  “Time to destination… just over twenty-three hours,” reported Sarah. “We’ll drop into the Kynar System two point three million mc’s from the sun, after that we can reach the asteroid field in mere minutes but I’ll have to slow us down to basic thrusters once we’re inside the field.”

  “Very good, Lieutenant,” said Summers.

  Shen was surprised to hear that they were going to the Kynar System. He’d hoped they were heading somewhere closer to Capital System, so they could pick up Calvin wherever he and the princess were hiding, but Kynar was completely the other way. In fact, if Shen remembered correctly, it wasn’t even inside Imperial space. Which made it unlikely he’d get to see his friend again anytime soon.

  He only vaguely knew what Calvin was up to, but what he had been able to glean had truly surprised him. Shen used the news services, the network, and everything at his disposal to fill in the gaps. He now understood why Calvin hadn’t been there when Shen had awoken from his Remorii sleep, supposedly recovered from the toxin. He’d been on Capital World, entangled in the Empire’s politics at the highest level. No doubt he’d tried to expose and eliminate the conspiracy within the government. But that hadn’t gone well by any measure. And now that the Office of the Executor had been disbanded—almost as swiftly as it’d been created—it seemed reasonable to think Calvin would rejoin them. But apparently Summers had other plans…

  “Can anyone please tell me,” said Shen, after a few minutes of silence on the bridge. “Why are we going to the Kynar System?”

  “Lieutenant Winters, please brief Mister Iwate regarding our current mission,” said Summers.

  Great. She picked Sarah.

  Shen did want to know the details of their mission, he disliked being out of the loop, but he didn’t feel like talking to Sarah right now. And was half-tempted not to listen.

  “We’re on our way to the Kynar Asteroid Belt because that is where the last remaining isotome weapons are supposed to be,” said Sarah.

  More isotome weapons? One of the few silver-linings of Shen’s disastrous mission to Remus Nine, where he’d been bitten by a type-one Remorii and many Polarians had paid the ultimate price—was the belief that he and the others had sacrificed in order to protect the galaxy from weapons so lethal that entire star systems could be obliterated. Murder by the billions. But if the weapons survived… then what exactly had the sacrifice been for?

  “I thought we destroyed the isotome missiles on Remus Nine,” said Shen. He remembered the deafening boom as the structure holding the missiles was destroyed by the explosives Calvin’s team had planted.

  “We didn’t destroy them all,” said Sarah. “It turns out there are more.”

  “But not for long,” added Summers.

  Shen recalled how the person they’d met with on the surface of Remus Nine, a man who looked human but had proven to be a replicant, had told them that half the isotome weapons were safely away and only half were in the silo on Remus Nine. Shen had assumed it was merely a bluff. But apparently that was too much to hope for…

  Just my luck, he thought. The mission I go on, the mission that almost kills me, the mission that steals my humanity from me—transforming me into a monster, turns out to be less than completely successful. At least it wasn’t a complete failure...

  “Shouldn’t we be on our way to pick up Calvin?” asked Shen. He hadn’t seen Calvin since the Remus Nine mission and the last moments of that were blurry in his mind. He tried to close his eyes and remember the details, but whenever he did he couldn’t see Calvin. All he could see was Tristan. The self-serving, secretive, slippery lycanthrope standing there, still as silence, waiting just beyond. Watching. Red eyes glowing, almost seeming to call to Shen. Beckoning. Urging him to approach. It made Shen sick.

  “Calvin gave us our orders and we shall carry them out,” said Summers. “We are to follow any lead regarding the isotome weapons and ensure their destruction. That is our mandate.”

  “And what about Calvin?” asked Shen.

  “Calvin is with Princess Kalila aboard the ISS Black Swan. As I’m sure you’re aware, the princess has declared herself Queen of the Empire. No doubt she has put Calvin to use in her effort to assert her claim,” said Summers. “I, for one, am grateful not to have been pulled into the politics. We have bigger fish to fry than worrying about who will sit the empty throne. Whole planets are in our hands, depending on us to protect them. I suggest you focus completely on that, Mister Iwate, and not worry so much about Calvin.”

  “Yes, sir,” he said, somewhat begrudgingly. He missed Calvin. Even though he was afraid to see him, afraid to show his face to his friend and be seen in this state, as the monster he now was, he still wished Calvin were here. Summers had proved herself to be a skilled-enough commander, and loyal on all accounts. From what he’d heard, Summers had apparently saved the Nighthawk while Shen had been on the surface of
Remus Nine with Calvin. And it was true that, so long as isotome weapons remained at large, they were the most urgent threat. But none of that reasoning, no matter how sound, would satisfy Shen. The plain and simple fact was that Summers was no Calvin. And so long as anyone else was sitting in the command chair, the universe felt wrong.

  Be safe, thought Shen as he did his duty and kept watch over the ops controls and all of the Nighthawk’s systems. Don’t die out there, Calvin, whatever you do. Don’t die.

  Chapter 8

  “The ISS Radiant confirms jump,” reported the Black Swan’s comms chief. “That’s all of them, Your Majesty.”

  “Very good,” replied Kalila. She stood resolute, her face unreadable, her expression iron.

  Calvin watched her from across the bridge. She was no longer the warm, enchanting, semi-seductive princess that had charmed him back on Tau Station. Now she was something else, something stronger. And something colder too. He’d noticed the change when Kalila had declared herself Queen of the Empire, but perhaps it hadn’t truly been a change. Perhaps the act had revealed who she really was, and Calvin had simply failed to realize it until now.

  Even though Captain Adiger sat in the CO’s chair, there was no mistaking who held the true command here. Not just over the ship but also over the entire fleet now sailing through alteredspace to their new destination, to rendezvous with the rest of the ships rallying to Kalila’s banner by the dozens. Taken together, they promised to be a terrific force. But will it be enough? Calvin was skeptical.

  Not long after Kalila had proclaimed herself Queen of the Empire, the Assembly had proceeded to declare her an Enemy of the State. The motion passed only narrowly, but pass it did. And now all Imperial citizens were being urged by their elected representatives to render Kalila no assistance, no support, and abandon her. Calvin remembered seeing Caerwyn Martel’s fat face as he was broadcast from the Assembly Floor to all the worlds and ships of the Empire.

  “Kalila Akira and anyone and everyone who is rendering her assistance in any way, including Albert Adiger and Calvin Cross, are hereby declared Enemies of the State! And all citizens of this great nation, all followers of our rich Imperial tradition, all humans everywhere, are charged with the duty to do them harm whenever possible, and to kill them if they are able!”

  Calvin hadn’t been too surprised when his name was read. He’d become a public figure the moment Kalila had chosen to raise him to the position of Executor, and both he and Captain Adiger had been in the frame with Kalila, at her insistence, during the broadcast when Kalila declared herself queen. Calvin understood then, even though Kalila gave different reasons, that the purpose of including both of them in the broadcast was to permanently tie them to her cause. Neither of them could safely revoke her, or defect, since they were now irrevocably anchored to her in the minds and memories of the entire Empire.

  But there was no harm done, Calvin supposed. Captain Adiger seemed completely loyal to Kalila, perhaps to a fault. And as for Calvin himself, he threw in for Kalila as well. Despite the meager whisper of a suspicion—a mere inkling, really—that Kalila might have been complicit in the brutal execution of the king and the other heirs, Calvin stood behind her. At least he knew for a fact that Kalila was not part of the Phoenix Ring conspiracy. And he couldn’t support the Assembly, they were fast proving to be as inept as they were corrupt. Among other things, they’d still failed to elect a “proper” successor to the monarchy, while simultaneously denying Kalila’s claim. Helping them only helped establish a vacuum of power at the summit of the Imperial political structure. With inevitable war against the Rotham Republic looming overhead, an empty throne seemed like an even more terrible idea than usual. And to top it all off, Caerwyn Martel and many others who Calvin was sure were connected to the Phoenix Ring—whatever was left of it—seemed to have the most influence and power in the Assembly. Which meant giving the Assembly more power, especially the powers of the monarchy, meant little else than a guarantee that the reins of humanity’s destiny would be held by fat, corrupt fingers that cared little for the wellbeing of humankind and much for the benefit of a small few.

  And so the die is cast, Calvin thought as he stared at the many officers manning the vast bridge of the mighty Black Swan. Comrades who shared his destiny, and his fate. More and more it seemed that the forces of the once-mighty Imperial war-machine were splitting into two factions, and those factions would soon rip each other apart. And then the one still standing when the dust settled, with whatever forces were left, would need to face down the awesome power of the Republic Fleet, and maybe even the hordes of starships comprising the Polarian Armada, and if the universe was truly, terribly, overwhelmingly cruel… they might have to face the insatiable maw of the Dread Fleet itself.

  We’re dead, thought Calvin. We’re all dead. It no longer seemed like a matter of whether the wars to come would kill him and everyone else, but rather when. Forces everywhere were mobilizing. Starships, fighters, missiles, trained killers, everyone and everything that could be called out and organized and made ready for battle were sharpening their swords. Numberless warships and warriors were gathering, shrouded in the recesses of this deep, black galaxy. He could feel it in his bones. And all the while, humanity, ignorant and stupid, was readying for war against itself... Perhaps it will be lucky if we fall in the first battle…

  Calvin stared out the main windows and all he could see was blackness, which he found oddly appropriate. The officers of the bridge were busy with their various tasks and at the center Kalila and Captain Adiger were discussing some of the finer points of strategy. When and where to engage the Assembly’s fleet, and how to minimize the loss of life while still achieving a clear victory. It would normally have been a very intriguing discussion for Calvin, and if circumstances were different he certainly would’ve wanted to weigh in, but right now, the more he thought about everything, the sicker he felt. Eventually he asked to be dismissed so he could leave the bridge. Perhaps if I got some sleep…

  “You may be dismissed,” agreed Kalila. “But before you go, there is something I would discuss with you.”

  “Of course,” said Calvin, eager to escape the bridge and find somewhere he could be alone with his thoughts.

  “Not here,” said Kalila, looking around at the many bridge officers scrambling about, managing every station. “In my office.”

  When they were both safely away from snooping ears, Kalila opened up to him. “I will get right to the point, Calvin,” she said. “We both know that I’m massing whatever forces I can, any and all ships that remain loyal to the crown, and we both understand that the size and strength of this fleet we are making is what will decide this conflict. Now consider this: right now Raidan and his ships and his Organization are an important part of our fleet. The Harbinger and other ships are currently part of the backbone of the force that, I hope, will restore peace and order to our Empire. But… in light of everything else, do you think…” She seemed uncharacteristically at a loss for words for a moment.

  Calvin tried to help. “You want to know if you can trust Raidan,” he said. “You want me to reassure you that he is loyal to your cause.”

  “What I want to know, Calvin, is if it’s wise to trust Raidan and his allies so implicitly. And if it isn’t, whether or not I have any other choice.”

  It probably wasn’t wise to trust Raidan implicitly. Summers had sternly warned him as much and Calvin knew that Raidan seldom let his grander motives and designs into the light of day. But the second question, as to whether or not Kalila had any choice in trusting Raidan, was much harder to answer. So Calvin gave it a moment’s thought before replying.

  “Raidan is a dangerous man,” said Calvin at last. “And his allies are dangerous too. I already told you about Cepheus, about the slaughter there; you know what he’s capable of. Raidan is clever, and he’s no stranger to guile and misdirection. But I also know that when the chips are down, Raidan is willing to fight, and kill, and do what it tak
es to get what he wants. He and his forces saved my life, and those of my crew, when we were taken captive by a Rotham squadron. Raidan rescued us and fought off our enemies, tooth and nail, so we could live. But I don’t think he did that out of the kindness of his heart, or for sympathy, or for compassion. I think we were useful to him and his plan, and so he was actually acting for his benefit, not ours. The two just happened to coincide.”

  Kalila’s eyes looked at him intently as she hung on every word, listening carefully. He knew they were the same beautiful brown irises he’d stared into before, the same ones that had melted him before her very presence, but somehow they seemed different now. More distant. More commanding. More intimidating… The very thought that he had once longed to take her in his arms and hold her and maybe one day call her wife, as impossible as he’d known that to be, made him feel a thousand-times-over a fool.

  “Raidan is a powerful ally and would surely make a dangerous enemy,” Calvin went on. “And the way things stand, at least right now, he wants you on the throne and not anyone from the Assembly. His Organization has a history of opposing the very conspiracy that you and I fought together down on Capital World. I think Raidan, and the others too, will prove their worth in the battles to come. But I would be careful with him. Don’t take his loyalty for granted, and never take anything he says or does at face value. But so long as he has a reason to want the same thing you want, he’ll serve. And when the fighting heats up, you can bet he won’t run.”

  “And this White Rook who runs Raidan’s Organization, do you know anything of her?”

  “Probably not more than you,” Calvin admitted. “Raidan told me that White Rook was in charge, and that White Rook was a woman, but other than that I know nothing. For all I know White Rook is an alias and Raidan himself runs everything; I doubt it’s the case, but I can’t base that on anything other than my gut intuition and Raidan’s word.”