Search for the Phoenix: Phoenix Series Book 2 (22 page)

Boo heard the hum just seconds before a shadow passed over the ground. Looking up into the bright, midday sky, she could just make out the silhouette of a ship passing over, but she couldn’t identify it. She wasn’t expecting anyone today. “Damn!” she said. Scrambling to her feet, she ran to the house and grabbed her rifle, then dashed across the yard to the hangar. Quickly ducking inside, she ran across the floor to the back door. Peering through the window, she watched as the ship sank gently to the ground. “Him,” she said under her breath when she recognized the ship.

She stepped outside, moved into a shadow, and waited for the ramp to open. Silence returned as the ship’s retrograv drive and main power converter shut down. After a while, she began to wonder if anyone was coming out. Finally, the ramp motors hummed and the ramp began to lower. When the end rested on the ground, a man hobbled down the ramp helped by a tall, muscular woman with dark skin and curly, brown hair.

“I usually shoot anyone dumb enough to land here unannounced!” Boo yelled.

Megan froze.

Nolan laughed. “Go ahead. After what I’ve been through, you’d be doing me a favor.”

Boo walked to the end of the ramp and looked him up and down. “You look like hell, boy!”

“Thanks. That’s a compliment, considering how I feel.”

Shouldering her rifle, Boo nodded toward Megan and asked, “Are you going to introduce me to your friend?”

“Of course. Boo, this is Megan. Megan, this is Boo.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Megan.”

“Likewise,” Megan said. “Nolan has told me a lot about you.”

Boo laughed. “I doubt that. Nolan doesn’t know squat about me.”

“She’s a woman of mystery,” Nolan said.

Boo looked at Nolan, and her expression suddenly became serious. “Did you find Carl?”

“Not yet. We’re still looking. Things got… complicated,” he said.

Boo looked him up and down again. “So it would appear. Who beat the snot out of you?”

“I was
questioned
by SACOM,” he said. “As I said, things got complicated.”

“Oh, I know that. In fact, things are probably more complicated than you realize,” she said.

Nolan’s forehead creased. “How’s that?”

“It’s funny that you should turn up right now. I was trying to think of a way to contact you without attracting SACOM’s attention. Step into the hangar,” she said as she turned and headed to the door. Megan steadied Nolan with an arm around his waist as they followed Boo inside. She led them to a large room off the side of the hangar. With the exception of some narrow walkways, the entire floor of the room was covered with the wreckage of something—torn, twisted, and charred metal and polymer, frayed electrical cables—in short, it looked like a large spaceship had exploded and this was the result.

Nolan looked at the piles for a moment, and then said, “This isn’t your usual goods, Boo.”

Boo nodded. “At first, I thought it was just a load of scrap metal, and I was going to tell the salvager to go away. Then he called my attention to a few details. Have a closer look.”

Nolan moved slowly up and down the aisles, examining the pieces. “This is part of a pressure hull from a spaceship. It looks alien,” he said. “The fabrication techniques are not Galactic.” He continued his examination. “The material is wrong, too. It looks like titanium. And here… these markings are definitely not Galactic.”

“They’re Xetian,” Boo said.

Nolan stared at her. “Xetian? Where did you get this?”

“A salvage ship stopped by last week. The captain said he picked this stuff up near the asteroid belt in your home system,” she said.

He waved his arms around, “These are parts from the ships that attacked the SACOM First Fleet!”

Boo nodded. “I think so.”

He continued along a row surveying the wreckage. A large, green, metallic box bolted to a jagged floor panel had a metal tag attached to the side, which had been wiped clean of dust and grime. Stepping closer, he realized the tag was engraved in Galactic Standard. He read aloud, “Ion beam aiming module. Revision 1B. SACOM WDG.”

“What does WDG stand for?” Megan asked.

“Weapons Development Group,” Boo said.

Nolan looked at Boo. “Do you know what this means?”

“Yes. SACOM supplied the weapons the Xetians used against the First Fleet,” she said.

“How can that be?” Megan asked. “It makes no sense.”

“Do you remember what Mick told us?” he asked. “SACOM was transporting some sort of super weapon, or parts for one, when they were ambushed.”

“Is this the super weapon?” she asked, pointing to the aiming module.

“Not likely. If this is what the Xetians used against the First Fleet, it’s a lot more powerful than their own weapons. It’s some sort of prototype, probably SACOM’s next generation weapon,” he said.

“How do you know that?” Megan asked.

“If this were standard issue, it wouldn’t have that tag on it from their development group,” he said. He bent down and raised the end of a severed cable from the aiming module. “Also, look at this. See the individual wires? They’re all different colors.”

“What does that mean?” Megan asked.

“It’s another indication it’s a prototype. During field testing, having the cables color-coded makes it easier to troubleshoot problems and make repairs. Once the design is finalized and standard-issue units are produced, all the wires are dark grey,” Nolan said.

“I don’t understand,” Megan said.

“If I find the other half of this wire, I can reconnect everything and possibly make the weapon functional again. If all the wires are the same color, I can’t easily do that,” Nolan said.

“Ah, so it makes it hard for someone to repair salvaged weapons,” Megan said.

“That’s right.”

“Someone in SACOM wanted that super weapon for themselves, and they were willing to destroy the First Fleet to get it,” Boo said.

“Even if it meant arming the Xetians with high-tech weapons,” Megan said.

Nolan began examining more of the wreckage. “There are more pieces to this weapon here. This large box is the ion beam generator. Do you have the complete system?”

Boo shrugged. “I don’t know. That big section with the focusing unit was the first piece the salvager picked up. One of his cargo handlers noticed the tag, and they made sure they grabbed anything with a SACOM marking on it. A lot of Xetians ships were blown up. There could be duplicates here from several ships, and parts could still be missing. Without a system diagram, I can’t be sure.”

Nolan looked around. “There’s so much stuff here. There’s bound to be enough parts to make at least one working system. Is this everything you bought?”

“No, there’s more in the yard. I put all the SACOM parts I could find in here to keep them out of sight. There could be more pieces buried out there,” Boo replied. Then she gave Nolan a knowing smile. “Are you thinking about building a working weapon from all this?”

Nolan smiled. “It’s tempting, isn’t it?” He began to sway. Megan ran to him and grabbed him.

“Come on. Let’s go into the house where you can sit down and we can talk more comfortably.”

Megan supported Nolan as they followed Boo to the house.

Nolan sank into a thickly padded chair in Boo’s living room and sighed.

“Someone really did a number on you. Broken ribs?” Boo asked.

“Yeah. How can you tell?” he asked.

Boo nodded. “The way you wince when you move certain ways. I won’t even ask about the bruising on your face.”

Megan said, “He looks a lot better now. You should have seen him when we left Caldon.”

“Well, you’re safe here. As safe as you can be anywhere, I suppose. What I’m wondering is, how did you get away? They didn’t do this to you and then let you go to show the world their handiwork.”

“Some SACOM people got him out,” Megan said.

Boo looked at her for a moment. “Another puzzle, like the SACOM weapons on the Xetian ship.”

“We think a coup is about to take place inside SACOM. There’s no way anyone would risk getting me out of there unless they were confident their current leader was going down,” Nolan said.

“Do you know who the good guys are?” Boo asked.

“I know who got Nolan out. Does that make them good guys?” Megan asked. “Who’s to say the group fighting for power is good? They could just be a different brand of evil.”

“What’s your gut tell you?” Boo asked.

Megan sighed. “The group I met seemed decent. I think they got Nolan out of there out of compassion. I think they’re good people.”

Boo nodded. “Then you need to let them know what happened to the First Fleet.”

“Nolan needs to recuperate first,” Megan said.

“Boo is right. We need to go back and tell that captain about the Xetian’s weapons,” he said.

“Not yet,” Megan insisted. “You need to heal, and we need to let things on Caldon settle down.”

“When will that happen? It could be a long, bloody battle spilling out into the streets before it’s over,” Nolan said. “Waiting won’t help, and it could make things worse.”

“A few days, then,” Megan said. “Take a few days to rest and to make a plan.”

“No, we can’t wait,” Nolan said. He tried to stand, groaned in pain, and sank back into the chair.

“A few days,” Megan said. “You can’t even walk back to the ship in your condition.”

“Okay, a few days,” he conceded. “Do you know the captain’s node address? I could send him a message.”

“Not from here, you won’t!” Boo yelled. “The last thing I need is someone contacting SACOM from my place. If you want to send a message, you better get in the Griffin and go a long way from here to send it.”

“Okay, no message. In a few days, we’ll go to Caldon and we’ll contact him then,” Nolan said. “Tomorrow I’d like to take some pictures of the wreckage as evidence. I doubt the captain will believe me without proof.”

* * * *

Megan stepped onto the porch and looked around. Lengthening shadows were beginning to fill the spaces between the neat piles of equipment and scrap metal. A faint banging noise came from somewhere out there in the shadow world. Following the sound, she wound her way through the maze of equipment. Rounding a large pile, she found Boo sitting on a stool, working on some device that Megan didn’t recognize.

Boo looked up and smiled. “Where’s Nolan?” she asked.

“In bed. I gave him his pain medication, so he’ll sleep soundly for hours.”

Boo nodded. “Pull up a seat.”

Megan looked around for a stool, and then settled for a metal box sitting nearby. She dragged it over and sat. “What’s that you’re working on?” she asked.

“It’s a food synthesizer. I’ll get a decent price for it after I refurbish it.”

“Do you do all your own work?” Megan asked.

“It’s all me. The nearest town is a three-hour drive. My closest neighbor is two hours away. That doesn’t give me much of a labor pool.”

“Isn’t it lonely out here?” Megan asked.

“A bit. I have visitors, though. My suppliers come by pretty regularly. If I were close to town, they’d take their goods somewhere else. In this business, discretion is important. Salvagers come here to sell for credit chips or trade for goods. It lowers their tax burden, if you understand me. The last thing they want is prying eyes watching them come and go.”

“You and Nolan seem to know each other fairly well.” Megan said.

“Just through the business. Carl came here regularly to deal. Nolan was usually with him.”

“Nolan is pretty reserved,” Megan said. “I’m surprised he didn’t stay hidden in the ship when they were here.”

“Oh, Nolan isn’t outgoing, that’s true. But he’s perceptive, and he appreciates talent. I remember his first visit here. It was just Carl and Nolan that time. They had just come from a tough salvage job, and Carl had taken the crew back home to rest before coming out here. He practically dragged Nolan out of the ship by the arm. They found me in my shop repairing a plasma focusing unit. Let’s just say Nolan came right out of his shell and before long, he was helping me. We talked about this and that. He’s quite special.”

“I know,” Megan said with a smile.

“So how do you know him?” Boo asked.

“Through the business, as you’d say. I’m Megan Carson—John’s widow.”

Boo stopped working and looked into her eyes. “I’m sorry for your loss. Nolan told me what happened last time he was here. John was a good man.”

“You knew John?” Megan asked.

“The whole crew was here on several occasions. After they offloaded the cargo, John always helped me move stuff around and sort. The others mainly sat aboard the ship eating and drinking… you know, taking a bit of a holiday.”

“That sounds like my John. I’m surprised Carl didn’t have everyone help out, though.”

“That isn’t how it works in this business. Once the cargo is off the ship, it’s the buyer’s responsibility. Carl and I both understood the rules and stuck to them. John just liked to help.”