The Phoenix Crisis (9 page)

“
What was there to decide?”
asked Grimka with wide eyes. “The Blu-qi is our way!”

“
But the humans do not
follow our ways!” said Rez’nac.

“
No father,” Grimka said,
now drawing his ceremonial dagger. “It is YOU who does not follow
our ways.”

“
You forget yourself again,
Grimka,” said Rez’nac, reaching for his own blade.

Grimka looked to the other Polarians. “I
declare an Arahn-Fi!” The others looked up in shock.

“
You
would challenge me?” asked Rez’nac in disbelief. His son, who
had never known true war, and had never bled true blood, was no
match for him. Why dishonor himself further?

“
The Essences demand it,”
said Grimka. “You have become lost, father. You may no longer lead
us. For you are no longer guided by their light.”

“
How dare you?” Rez’nac felt
a surge of anger, strong as tidal forces, pour through
him.

“
You bring us into the
unclean company of humans, you submit us to them—that they may be
our masters, you shed our blood to die in their wars, you poison
our souls with their tainted politics and interests—none of which
are our concern,” said Grimka, citing a list of accusations that
struck Rez’nac as too ready not to have been prepared—clearly
Grimka had been planning this rebellion for some time. “And you
take us far from our homeland, away from the souls of the Essences.
Ever since we have left I have not felt them. Have you?” He looked
from Rez’nac to the others. “Have any of you?”

“
No,” they both
admitted.

Rez’nac felt his fury boil over. “And what
would you have me do? You and all your wisdom of a newborn
child.”

“
It is clear what we must
do. We must return to pilgrim. It has been nigh six months since
last any of us pilgrimmed. Already our skin is beginning to show
it.” He looked down at himself and then at the others. “You see how
faded we have become?”

Rez’nac did not see. As far as he could tell
Grimka and the other youthful Polarians were as blue-hued as they’d
always been. True, any time spent away from the Stars of Pilgrimage
would cause the skin to lose some of its vibrant blue color, but it
was not something to be concerned about. The Polarian youths had
made the blueness of their skin a symbol of their piety and worth,
a foolish belief. One that was at its core self-centered and vain.
But one that Rez’nac knew had been taking hold of this younger
generation. And, as the three youths before him took sight of him,
and judged him for the greyness of his skin—its blue almost
completely faded away—they took it as a sign of infidelity.
Clearly, in their minds, he ought to be more pious. Like they saw
themselves.

“
No matter how many trips
around the Pilgrimage Stars you make, whether it be one or
ten-thousand, no number is enough to achieve the calling of your
birth, nor will it satisfy the duties of your birthright. It is in
how you treat others, and yourself, and how faithfully you follow
the truest spirit and purpose of our ways that decides whether you
join the Honored Dead or the Forgotten Ones when you die. No
pilgrimage will be enough to permit you back into the
Essences.”

“
The words of a lost sinner
who has forgotten his heritage,” said Grimka. “No number of words
will ever justify your lack of fidelity to our ways.”

Rez’nac did not want to slay his son, every
fiber of his soul went against it, but all that he knew and
understood of his ways demanded it. The Essences themselves
demanded it. The wrongly slain human soldier demanded it. It was
the unflinching, unyielding, uncaring truth. And he had to submit
to it. “You may have your Arahn-Fi,” said Rez’nac, though the words
were difficult to form. “And on the morrow we will allow the
Essences to decide.”

Grimka bowed. “And decide they will.”

Chapter 6

Of the original twenty-four hour window that
Kalila had given him, Calvin had about four hours left. Fortunately
the Nighthawk had made good time and was scheduled to arrive at the
rendezvous in just under two hours. That left an additional two
hours for Kalila to explain to him what was so urgent.

The ship had followed a set of interstellar
waypoints that Kalila had provided, the end destination was a star
called Virgo Major. From what Calvin could dig up about the site it
wasn’t home to anyone, or anything. There were some satellites,
mostly rocky debris, and out in a distant orbit there was a large
gaseous planet, but all things considered, Virgo Major was not a
site of interest to anybody. Perhaps that’s why Kalila was there,
somewhere nobody would think to be looking for her.

He reviewed the message
she’d last sent him. “
Calvin
, we have to meet right away.
Time is short. Follow these coordinates. I regret I can only give
you twenty-four hours. After that, it will be too late. I pray you
get this message in time.”

He wondered if there was more to the
message, perhaps another more specific message buried within the
text. He doubted it, but on the off chance there was, he had the
computer run an analysis. It was still ongoing but so far no useful
patterns had emerged.

“
After that, it will be too
late,” he repeated in a thoughtful whisper. What would be too late?
Did she have news of something big? Something she expected him and
the Nighthawk to get involved with? He hoped not. Given the state
of the ship: several systems offline, most of the weapons shot, and
nearly all of the port armor destroyed, not to mention half the
crew away, he hoped Kalila wasn’t calling the Nighthawk into a
combat engagement. If she was… princess or not, Calvin might have
no choice but to engage his cloaking system and his engines and get
to safety.

The door to his office opened and Calvin
looked up to see Summers. She took a step inside, just enough for
the door to close behind her. “I thought I might find you here,”
she said.

“
Summers,” he greeted her.
“What brings you here?”

“
I just wanted you to know
that so far our scanners haven’t been able to get any conclusive
images of Virgo Major, other than the celestial bodies.”

Calvin doubted that was the reason Summers
had come, more likely she’d come to make sure she had the latest
information about their current mission. In case Calvin had learned
something new, perhaps by receiving another message from Kalila,
Summers wasn’t about to be left in the dark. But, for as suspicious
as Calvin was, he was surprised how glad he was to see Summers.
“Please, sit down.”

She did, taking the chair opposite his
desk.

“
It’s funny…” Calvin said,
more looking through her than at her. “I talked it over with you,
and we made a decision, and we agreed on the logic behind it, but…
I can’t get past the feeling that maybe we made the wrong
choice.”

“
It’s too late now to change
it,” she replied. “There’s no sense in having self-doubt at this
stage.”

He nodded.

“
Our mission, the
only
thing that matters,”
said Summers, “is to root out and eliminate the corruption that has
poisoned the military and taken hold of the Empire. Everything
else… Raidan, Kalila, they’re all just variables. Ants in the big
picture. Right now what we need is information, and Kalila can give
us information Raidan can’t, information that might make all the
difference between success and failure. That’s why we made the
choice we did.”

“
I suppose,” said Calvin. He
picked up the chargeball that was lying on the floor next to him
and he began spinning it gently on the table. It was a mindless
habit he sometimes fell back on when his thoughts were
preoccupied.

“
You should let me come with
you,” said Summers.

Calvin finally realized the real reason why
Summers had come to visit him. To get herself invited along for the
away mission—assuming there was one. He didn’t blame her and would
probably try to do the same thing, but he also believed it was
better that she not go. “I need you to stay here and have command
of the ship,” he said. Before she could protest he added, “Kalila
will probably ask me to go alone. Just like before.”

“
You could refuse,” Summers
folded her arms.

Calvin looked at her curiously. “Can I?” He
resumed spinning the chargeball, believing that if he were to get
any information from Kalila he would likely have to play her
game.

Summers didn’t say anything more for a while
but when she did her voice did not challenge his. “It’s your
decision.”

Calvin stopped spinning the chargeball and
looked at her, giving her a good long search with his eyes. Was she
finally starting to trust him? He didn’t know what to say so he
simply nodded.

Eventually Summers got up to leave. Just
before she exited the office, Calvin spoke. “I will promise you
this much,” he said, catching her attention. “Whatever information
Kalila gives me… I’ll share it with you.”

Summers looked pleased. “Better to have two
pairs of eyes than one.”

“
Exactly.”

***

“
ETA one minute and five
seconds,” said Jay from the helm. It was odd seeing him there, with
him there and Cassidy at ops, things felt out of place. Only Miles
remained of the White Shift; he sat at the defense post monitoring
the stealth system.

“
Standby to exit
alteredspace,” said Calvin.

“
Standing-by,” replied
Jay.

“
Stealth system status?”
asked Summers. She hovered over Miles’ shoulder, a favorite perch
of hers. Calvin noticed how she would ride the man, almost like it
was a game to her. If there was anyone on the ship Summers still
hated it was Miles, but he hated her right back and then
some.

“
All defense
systems—
including
stealth
—look good,” said Miles. “Of course
we don’t have piss for ammo and only have one working weapon, oh
and half our armor is gone, but yeah. We’re doing all
right.”

“
Cut the chatter,” snapped
Summers.

“
All right, go easy on him,”
said Calvin. Even though his peace treaty with Summers seemed to be
developing into a kind of alliance, Miles was still his friend and,
as far as Calvin was concerned, the best defense officer in the
Empire.

Summers left Miles’ shoulder and returned to
her seat at the XO position. Miles dared a glance back and shot
Calvin a looked like a cross between “Thank you,” and “It’s about
time!”

“
Thirty-five seconds,” said
Jay.

Calvin rubbed his chin as he stared out the
forward window into the blackness of alteredspace. They were about
to arrive at Virgo Major and when they got there, he wondered what
they would see. Their ship had been scanning the system since they
were close enough to do so but so far nothing had stood out. The
violet star could be seen on the 3d display as well as the equally
lavender gas giant that circled it—though it wasn’t displayed to
scale.

“
Fifteen seconds,” said
Jay.

“
Condition Two,” said
Calvin, ordering an upgrade in their alert status. He didn’t expect
a hostile encounter but he decided to be careful when maneuvering
into an unknown position.

“
Aye, Aye, Cap’n,” said
Miles and he adjusted their alert status. It wasn’t enough to
warrant a change in their defense configuration—Calvin didn’t want
to raise the shields or arm the energy weapon for fear that that
would eliminate their stealth advantage, but he wanted critical
personnel to be standing by and ready in case an ugly scenario
unfolded before them.

“
Five seconds,” said
Jay.

Calvin leaned forward in his chair, eager
eyes sharply focused on the window before him.

“
Two. One.”

The view filled with stars. The portside
view showed the glowing violet star at a healthy distance. As for
the gas planet it was too far away to be seen.

“
We have arrived,” Jay
announced.

“
What do we see?” asked
Calvin.

“
Short range scan in
progress,” said Cassidy. And then, a moment later, “there is a very
large ship in close orbit around the planet. Imperial markings.
Attempting to identify it now.”

“
Display it,” said Calvin.
The image on the 3d projector switched to show a large dreadnought
in a parking orbit around the gas giant. It had dark markings and
fierce contours, but despite the edginess it also showcased a
sleekness and elegance that most ships couldn’t dream of. Calvin
recognized the ship at once.

“
It’s the ISS Black Swan,”
said Cassidy, though probably every soul on the bridge recognized
it.

“
Is there anyone else
around?” asked Calvin.

“
No sir. The Black Swan
appears to be the only other ship in the system,” said Cassidy.
“Our scanners most likely didn’t detect it during alteredspace
flight because of its proximity to the gas giant.”

“
Deactivate stealth system,”
said Calvin. It was almost refreshing to encounter a ship
that
couldn’t
see
through the Nighthawk’s stealth technologies.

Immediately the Black Swan reacted by
breaking orbit with the planet.

“
Ship is changing heading,”
said Cassidy. “It’s coming our way.”