The Phoenix Rising (49 page)

For the moment, though, he had to set aside
those concerns. And focus on the Arcane Storm. Hopefully it would
be in their sights soon.

***

The Desert Eagle sat in open space. The
nearest star was light-years away. For the most part, the rest of
squadron held position nearby. Awaiting orders. One ship was
missing.

“
It’s been twenty minutes,”
said Nimoux, glancing at the CO’s computer screen. “Still no sign
of it?”

“
Affirmative, sir,” said the
ops officer. “The Phoenix is not at the rendezvous coordinates and
there are no ships on our scopes approaching this
position.”

Nimoux folded his arms. It was disappointing
but not unexpected. “I think it’s safe to assume Commander Datar is
not coming.”

“
I concur,” said the
XO.

The question remained, had the Phoenix gone
elsewhere? Or had it stayed behind in the Remus System? When the
Desert Eagle jumped away, the Phoenix hadn’t left yet. So Nimoux
didn’t know for certain if the ship escaped or not. The last to
leave Remus—the Spirit and the Trogon—both reported that they
didn’t see the Phoenix jump away either. But that didn’t mean the
ship didn’t escape the system. Just that it took the ship longer to
calculate its destination and fire up its alteredspace system.

So unless Datar had some reason to believe
the Rotham fleet was not a threat to him, which seemed unlikely, he
almost certainly had jumped from Remus. Which meant he could be
anywhere. Adding another deadly warship to the growing list of
renegade and disappeared vessels.

“
Now what do we do?” asked
the XO. “We have no leads on the Nighthawk.”

“
Our priorities have
changed,” said Nimoux. “A hostile military force has crossed
through the demilitarized zone, in defiance of the peace treaty,
and invaded Imperial space. That is threat number one. Now we make
a report to both Intel Wing and the Fleet and await new orders. No
doubt the squadron will be sent to meet up with forces from the
Fifth and Sixth Fleets to repel the invasion.”

“
Does that mean—?” asked the
ops officer, no doubt wondering the same thing that was on all of
their minds.

“
Yes,” said Nimoux. “As of
this moment, we are likely at war with the Rotham
Republic.”

***

“
There it is. Just like the
man said,” said Tristan.

Nothing was visible out the window except an
endless array of stars, but on the 3d display there was a tiny blip
which grew as the Nighthawk approached.

“
Status of the ship?” asked
Calvin, leaning forward.

“
Looks powered down and
adrift,” said Cassidy. “All defenses are offline and it is flying
no colors and displaying no lights.”

“
All stop,” said Calvin,
wanting to get a better sense of the situation before coming any
closer.

“
Answering all stop,” said
Sarah.

“
Can we confirm its
identity?” asked Calvin.

“
Affirmative,” said Cassidy,
reading something on one of her displays. “The ship is a perfect
match for the Arcane Storm. We’ve found it.”

Calvin had hoped to find the ship but hadn’t
expected to find it dead in space, in the middle of nowhere, almost
like someone stashed it here to hide it. “Can we tell if anyone is
on board?” he asked.

“
The ship is giving off some
residual heat so it’s possible some of its life support systems are
still functioning,” said Cassidy. “But nothing can be determined
for sure.”

“
Hail the ship,” said
Calvin.

“
Aye, sir,” Sarah attempted
to contact the ship repeatedly. “No response.”

“
Any sign that the ship set
off a distress beacon?” Calvin doubted it, but it was
possible—after all,
something
had happened to the ship.

“
If they did, it is no
longer functioning,” said Cassidy.

“
Is there any visible
damage?” asked Calvin. “Any indication that the ship was in a
firefight?”

“
No sir. The hull seems
perfectly intact. There is no sign that it sustained any hits or
that another ship boarded it.”

“
Take us the rest of the way
in, Sarah,” said Calvin. “Nice and easy.”

“
Aye, sir.”

“
Cassidy, keep monitoring
the ship. Let us know if anything changes.”

“
Yes, sir.”

“
Miles, disengage the
stealth system and raise the shields. Full strength forward. Keep
them powered until the ship is just outside our shield radius.”
Calvin doubted it, but it was possible the Arcane Storm was rigged
to explode if it detected a ship sized object in too close of
proximity. If so, the shields would only be partially effective
and, given the state of the Nighthawk’s crumpled armor, an
explosion on the Arcane Storm was likely to destroy both vessels.
Calvin had half a mind to simply fire at the Arcane Storm and be
done with it, but he wanted to confirm that the isotome weapons
were indeed still aboard—and he believed the ship represented a
mountain of new intelligence. Not the least of which were clues
regarding its disappearance.

“
Aye, aye. Stealth disabled.
Shields up.”

“
Nearing the ship,” said
Sarah. “Distance of point two million mc’s and closing. Adjusting
speed.”

Out the window, the ship was now visible. It
was a re-converted old warship and still had the fierce contours of
the Imperial military showing in its outer hull design.

“
One hundred thousand mc’s
and closing.”

“
Lowering shields,” said
Miles.

“
Message the boarding party,
let them know we’re approaching the ship.”

“
Aye, sir,” said Sarah.
“Captain Pellew confirms that the away detachments are ready and
standing-by at airlocks two and three.”

“
Commence boarding
operations.”

Chapter 28

The Arcane Storm’s internal systems were
online and functioning, including all elements of its life support.
So the original plan—to have a specialized taskforce of soldiers
and engineers breach the ship, go to engineering, and restore
gravity systems—was scrapped and only soldiers were cleared to
board the drifting ship. Unsure what to expect.

The men donned full climate gear—in case the
life support failed—and entered with weapons drawn. Pellew led the
men and breached the ship through airlock three. He’d assigned
Adams to lead the team breaching from airlock two. Twelve people
total—all human. The Polarians who’d survived the bloodbath of
Remus Nine were in no condition for another operation and Pellew
didn’t want to mix SF soldiers with the Polarians, for fear a fight
would break out.

They swept the room, checking it over
quickly but thoroughly for anyone hiding in ambush. The white
lights and blank walls seemed normal and uninteresting, and nothing
about this deck—which was an observation lounge—seemed out of the
ordinary. All the furniture seemed in its proper place, nothing
seemed out of order, and Pellew saw no signs of distress. If a
fight had happened on this ship, it hadn’t been here.

“
Deck is clear,” said a
soldier on his right. His lapel showed the insignia of a
PFC.

“
Move out,” Pellew gave the
order.

His team took up positions and moved out
into the corridor. It seemed as lonely as the observation lounge,
not a person in sight, and no indication that anything had been
disturbed. The lights glowed at the normal level and the fixtures
were all in place. Without so much as a scuff mark on the
floor.

His team did a cursory search of every room
as they continued up the ladders and onto the next deck, slowly
winding their way to the ship’s bridge—he didn’t trust the
elevators.

They tossed offices and quarters, even a
mess hall, and found nothing of interest—except for the sheer lack
of crew.

“
What do you see, Captain?”
Calvin’s voice came over the speaker in his helmet.

“
The ship seems to be in
fine working order,” said Pellew, transmitting back. “The lights
are on. Everything is in its place. But we’ve searched multiple
decks now and found no sign that anyone is aboard.”

“
Any indication of a fight?”
asked Calvin.

“
Not that team one has
found,” said Pellew. “Team two?”

“
Team two here,” Adam’s
voice crackled over the speakers. “Negative, no signs of a fight.
We’ve searched three decks, working our way down to the bottom of
the ship and haven’t found anybody either. Everything is on and
powered up, but nobody’s home. Hell, in the lower mess some of the
food was still set out on the tables half eaten. It’s like everyone
just... disappeared all of a sudden.”

“
Did they abandon ship?”
asked Calvin.

“
I hope to know the answer
to that in just a minute,” said Pellew. His team reached the
shuttlebay and had to force the door open. There they found three
of the ship’s four shuttlecraft still on the deck. There was no
indication that any of the three had been used recently. “Only one
shuttle is missing,” said Pellew. “If they did abandon ship, no
more than fifteen could have gotten off this way.”

“
Escape pods?” asked
Calvin.

Pellew sent someone to check the computer
records while the rest of his team secured the flight deck. It was
like stalking the halls of a ghost ship. Even here, which was sure
to be the largest deck on the ship, there was not a person to be
found.

“
Computer reports that all
escape pods are accounted for,” said the soldier after performing a
check.

“
That could be a
fabrication,” said Calvin. “The escape pods will have to be
visually accounted for.”

“
We’ll check into that after
we take the bridge and secure the rest of the ship,” said Pellew.
He ordered his men to form up and they headed back out into the
corridor, toward the ladders.

“
Team two has reached the
cargo bay,” said Adams. “There’s no one here either.”

“
What about the isotome
weapons
?” asked Calvin urgently. “Please
tell me they’re there.”

“
I’m sorry sir but there’s
nothing here. Just a big empty space. Not even standard supplies
and food. It’s like the entire cargo was blown out into
space.”

“
Or transferred to another
ship,” said Pellew.

“
If they did meet up with
another ship, it wasn’t recorded. There’s no mention in the ship’s
log,” said Adams.

“
Dammit
,” said Calvin. “So that means there’s another batch of star
destroying weapons out there, unaccounted for.”

“
Maybe,” said Pellew. “Or
maybe not.”

“
What does that mean? You
think they’re elsewhere on the ship.”

“
No, I doubt they’d fit
anywhere else. But our captive might have been lying to Alex when
he said the Arcane Storm had ‘
the
rest
’ of the isotome weapons. Could have
been a bargaining tactic. We won’t know for sure until we get more
information out of him.”

“
That’s true,” said Calvin.
“He’s in the infirmary now undergoing treatment for injuries he
received on Remus Nine. Rain says he won’t be able to handle any
more interrogation for a while.”

“
Until then...” said
Pellew.

“
At least we have the ship,”
said Calvin. “And with it, hopefully, some answers.”

“
All I know…” said Pellew as
his team searched more rooms—and still found no one. And no bodies.
Despite the fact that nothing seemed wrong with the ship. “Is this
is the eeriest damn place I’ve ever seen.” The ghost ship gave him
the creeps.

“
Keep me informed,” said
Calvin. “Let me know when you take the bridge and secure the entire
ship.”

“
Wilco,” said Pellew. It
would be another hour, he estimated, before his teams had checked
every room on the ship thoroughly enough to deem it secure. And
even after doing that, it would take days of combing every square
millimeter of every deck with specialists and advanced equipment
before they could get any definite answers.

“
Once the ship is secure and
all systems are confirmed to be functional,” said Calvin, “I’ll
send over a skeleton crew to take control of the ship. We’re
bringing it with us.”

***

Calvin released the most fatigued members of
White Shift from duty and then went to his office. There he waited
for the complete sweep of the Arcane Storm to be finished. He
passed the time by organizing a report to himself of everything he
wanted to investigate.

Were there more isotome weapons? If so,
where were they? What had happened to the Arcane Storm? Who were
the members of the Phoenix Ring? Where were they? And what was
their plan now? Had more replicants replaced government officials
and military officers? What about the situation on Renora—had
princess Kalila attacked the planet? What was her game?

He also wanted to know more about Raidan’s
Organization—which Calvin only cautiously trusted. And he needed to
identify the murderer on his ship. And the mole—who might or might
not be Patrick.