The Phoenix Project (27 page)

    
“So it was this war that led to your limited
technology today?” Bourgeois asked.

    
“Yes.”

    
“Your weapons should still surpass ours in
destructive capability given your species’ past experience,” Bell interjected.

    
“After the violence of the past, our people
swore to never be so lethal or bloodthirsty ever again. All standing armies
were dissolved. Over the following centuries we became pacifists consumed by a
hunger for knowledge rather than war. Today our people are scientists,
artisans, and explorers. We deliberately left weapons research out of our
government. The PBCs aboard our ships are designed for use against navigational
and environmental hazards.”

    
“But my understanding is that you are at
war again Lathiel,” Bell
said.

    
“Not by choice.”

    
“How so?” Bell asked.

    
“A race called the Nevargh has forced us to
defend ourselves.”

    
“The Nevargh,” Bell said and paused while he quickly
consulted one of his links. “Yes, there is very little information concerning
them. Who are they?”

    
“They were once a member race of an
organization called the League that we also belonged to.”

    
“I was under the impression that you
represented the Ferine Assembly,” Bell
said.

    
“The League is gone,” Lathiel said.

    
“I see. Why was it dissolved?” Bell asked while he
looked at one of his links.

    
“It was annexed by the Nevargh over the
past year.”

    
“Why didn’t the League mount a defense?”
Mary asked.

    
“The League was an economic union only.
There was no mutual defense pact or common fleet to confront the enemy.”

    
“Please educate us on the events of the past
year,” Mary said.

    
Lathiel exhaled a long breath and launched
into the story. “The League comprised over three hundred inhabited worlds and
ninety—eight member races at its height. Over the last several years, the
Nevargh became dissatisfied with the League and secretly constructed an armada
of three hundred thousand warships over a period of ten years.”

    
“And a year ago they began their invasion,”
Bell interjected.

    
“They left only a tiny fraction of their
fleet to defend the twenty—seven planets already under their control. The
Prinax we were able to speak with said the fleet resembled a massive cloud of
stars in the sky. The planet fell to the Nevargh in less than an hour,” Lathiel
said and looked to the ground in remembrance of lost souls.

    
“That was the first planet invaded?” Bell asked while Mary
continued to look at the two Ferine with a sympathetic gaze.

    
“Yes. Within one week a dozen planets were
taken,” Ranik interrupted him to continue the tale. “They moved from system to
system with that terrible armada. Many friends among those species fought
despite insurmountable odds.”

    
“You have my condolences, Ranik. If you
need a recess,” Mary said.

    
“No,” Ranik said after a pause, “I can
continue.”

    
“Please,” Mary said, softly.

    
“That fleet was a wave crashing through planets,
systems, and civilizations. We watched for a year while they murdered our
allies,” Ranik said and found his voice choked.

    
“You stood by while they destroyed allied
nations?” Bell
demanded.

    
“Yes,” Ranik said and dizzily got to his
feet, “and you would have too, because the Nevargh always promised to stop with
every system they conquered. We were too scared to defend our allies and be
named accomplices. We were too frightened to watch the slaughter. So we turned
away and did nothing.” He finished, feeling tired and sat down.

    
“We are a passive culture, Mister Bell, as
I have said. To revert to our previously violent ways would invite the same
destruction we have already faced. We no longer even have the capability to
wage war because we are not able to conceive of it now,” Lathiel said to
supplement Ranik’s speech.

    
“But you decided to conceive of it once you
were directly threatened by it,” Bell
said.

    
“We are scientists. We can repair an
ancient device. Six of our colonies are already occupied,” Lathiel said.

    
“They’re occupied by the Nevargh?” Bell asked.

    
“They are. One point seven billion Ferine
are under the rule of the Nevargh Empire.”

    
Another murmur of disquiet filled the
gallery and began to escalate. The bang of a gavel silenced them. “Quiet
please. Lathiel, won’t your species even try to defend itself?”

    
“Each colony had one thousand explorer
ships to defend it.”

    
“They weren’t viable against this fleet of
three hundred thousand warships?” Bell
asked.

    
“The Nevargh fleet left behind a minimum
force of ships at each annexed plant to protect their interests. They also
suffered loses to the individual Old League planets. There were one hundred and
twenty thousand by that time.”

    
“The Ferine fleets were outgunned one
hundred and twenty to one?” Mary asked in horror.

    
“Each fleet had only low level PBCs to
defend themselves with. They were no more effective than to provide target
practice,” Lathiel said.

    
“Why didn’t you better arm them?” Bell asked.

    
“With what, Mister Bell? We have only Level
Three Particles Pulse Cannons. The Nevargh have far superior weapon
capabilities compared to us,” Ranik replied for Lathiel.

    
“This led to the invasion of your home
world, Cartise?” Mary Bourgeois asked.

    
“We were the next target on their list,
simply due to our location. This last leg of their campaign was to be more of a
celebration and nothing more. We gathered together two thousand of our ships to
defend our home world, but knew it would never be enough.”

    
“So why bother?” Bell asked.

    
“To buy time.”

    
“For?”

    
“To bring the cannon online,” Lathiel replied.

    
“These soldiers bought you time to reactivate
the weapon?” Mary asked.

    
“They weren’t soldiers, Ma’am. They were
explorers who sacrificed themselves for all our kind. So were many in the
cannon complex that died.”

    
“Forgive me for the misnomer. Our culture
does tend to make militaristic assumptions. Why did people, Ferine, die in the
complex?”

    
“We were able to reactivate the weapon in
time, but it was still unstable. The recoil couldn’t be avoided. If we had more
time to fully repair it,” he paused at the decision he had made, “but we
didn’t. It resulted in the loss of hundreds of my colleagues.”

    
“You knew them personally?” Mary asked.

    
“I led the expedition to reactivate the
weapon,” Lathiel said.

    
The gallery erupted in a cacophony of
discourse at the realization that the director of Luna’s destruction was in the
room.

    
“Quiet! Quiet, please!” Bell yelled. The sound continued to escalate
into clamorous hatred. Many spectators began to stand and yell from their
places in the room. “The inquiry is adjourned for the day. Bailiffs, clear the
room.”

    
The bailiffs hesitantly looked back and
forth between Bell
and the crowd, fearing for their safety.

    
“Now!” Bell roared.

    
The bailiffs moved to the imperative and
were relieved to have a dozen UN soldiers join them to escort the rebelling
crowd to the door.

    
“Good first day,” Elliot said while he
craned his neck to view the emptying room behind him.

    
“Admiral,” Nadine said as Elliot rose to
escort the Ferine from the room. “could I have a word with you?”

    
“Certainly,” Elliot said and motioned to
two guards. The pair of sentries escorted the Ferine from the room.

    
“It occurs to me that the two of us will be
working together for the next few months.”

    
“Are you going to blame me for that?”

    
“No, I just wanted to,” Nadine said and
found herself tripping over her tongue, “I mean, I would like to invite you
over tonight so that we can get better acquainted.”

    
“Do you mean a date?”

    
“Not necessarily, but let’s make this a
casual meeting. We don’t have to like each other to work well together, but it
does help.”

    
“I don’t know about that,” Elliot said.

    
“For the Ferine’s sake, then?”

    
“This isn’t some sort of trick is it?”

    
“What am I going to do on an Alliance warship,
Admiral?” Nadine asked.

    
“I suppose so. When would be a good time?”

    
“Nineteen hundred hours?”

    
“I’ll see you at my quarters at seven.”

    
“Let’s make it my quarters,” Nadine said.

    
“Is there something wrong with mine?”

    
“No, I just don’t get to entertain very
often. You can choose what to have for dinner.”

    
“Fine.”

    
“I’ll see you then, Elliot.”

    
Elliot stopped at the use of his first name
before heading out of the court as quickly as his legs could take him.

    
The Easter Island Agreements’ leveling of the UN
office at Geneva
was their last act of defiance.
 
They had
only a few battered cruisers left after the climatic battle at Phobos had
obliterated their fleet. Even as they gathered the remnants of their forces
over Geneva, a
combined Alliance-Coalition fleet closed in on their capital. The EIA knew that
it wouldn’t accomplish any military objective; they attacked the UN complex for
one reason only: it was the site where the last peace treaty between their
nation and the others had been signed over fifty years previously.

    
The symbolic attack is
remembered to this day. The Coalition and Alliance
obeyed their mutual defense pact to the end of the war, but the damage of 2151
had been done. They were never allies again.

Phantoms by the Twenty Third Century: The EIA’s Loss
of the Fifty—One Year War

by Margaret Spinney

Chapter X

Elik sat in his
favorite chair in the game room where he had played Scholars with Lathiel weeks
before. He missed playing Lathiel. He had no other worthy opponents to play the
game with now. Elik looked at the dusty pieces for a moment while he considered
the fate of his friend thousands of light years away. He returned his attention
back to his itinerary for the next day. His grey, slit eyes involuntarily
blurred after the long hours he had spent staring at requests and reports. He
placed the electric paper on a dark wooden end table at his right and placed
both hands over his eyes in an attempt to rub the fatigue out of them.

    
He stopped at the sound of a faint beeping emanating
from the main lobby. He groaned as he lifted his carriage out of his seat and then
crossed to the wooden doors. A brief exertion turned the latch. Elik squinted
in the brighter light of the main lobby and found his suspicions confirmed by
the flashing light under a small monitor which sat on the wall next to one
sporting three tall main rectangular windows opposite the ornate main door. He
pressed the receive button on one corner of the device and found himself
looking at the distinctly angular features and gray skin of a member of the
Wallick race.

    
“Elik,” the sharp face said.

    
“Ambassador Cahn.”

    
“Not Ambassador anymore, Elik. You have to
have
 
a nation to be an ambassador.”