The Phoenix Conspiracy

Chapter 13

  When Calvin stepped back aboard the Nighthawk’s bridge, Sarah applauded. “Welcome back, sir, I heard you took out a hundred men.”

  He laughed. “More like a thousand.” He turned to Miles. “And how many did you tell her that you took out?”

  “A million.”

  Miles had been sent ahead to return alone so Calvin could discreetly obtain a datadisk from Grady Rosco containing all the information they had about the Harbinger’s mysterious visit and on CERKO—which wasn’t much. Calvin had held out for more, but Grady insisted that was all he had to give—so Calvin took it for what it was worth. But, not wanting to give away his association with the Roscos—which would appear greater than it was—Calvin kept the disk in his pocket, intending to analyze it himself later.

  “Are you all right, Lieutenant Commander?” asked Summers. She almost sounded concerned.

  “Just a scratch.” Calvin rubbed the bandage he’d received at an Aleator medical clinic. He took out a separate datadisk and tossed it to Shen. It contained all the information extracted from the corpses of his attackers. “Scan through that, run those prints, and get me what you can on these guys. I want to know who they are, where they came from, and how they knew we were Imperials.”

  “How’d you get digital images of their prints?” asked Summers after Shen had plugged the disk into his terminal.

  “Cleverly.” Calvin left it at that. He wasn’t about to admit the data had been handed over to him by the Roscos. Part of Calvin wanted to withhold that disk too, but he knew running the prints and checking into the backgrounds of his attackers was too much to handle in addition to everything else he was investigating.

  “We need to send a report to Fleet Command,” said Summers, “telling them about the attack against you.”

  “We don’t know who was behind it yet or why. So there’s nothing to report.” Calvin didn’t want the fleet to start digging for information regarding him on Aleator.

  “I think it’s pretty obvious the Rosco family is behind it,” said Summers. “I’ve been reading about them, and nothing happens on Aleator without their knowledge and permission. Especially something this big.”

  “I’m going to have to agree with her,” Miles chimed in. “For once.” He gave her a glare.

  “It does seem likely,” Shen added.

  “I’m not convinced,” said Calvin. He searched his mind for some excuse to give. He wasn’t about to explain that he knew the Roscos weren’t involved because he knew them personally. “I saw the attackers. They had custom weapons and didn’t seem to know the area very well. That and they didn’t behave like Roscos. They had to be outsiders.” Calvin did think they were outsiders, but everything else he’d made up. Part of him didn’t want to hurt his investigation by providing bad information, but he needed some excuse to delay reporting to the fleet. “So we’re going to look into it some more before making a report.”

  “Are you sure?” asked Miles.

  “What part of what I said makes me sound unsure?” Calvin became annoyed.

  “Whatever you say.”

  “Summers.” Calvin turned to his XO. “Did your survey of the system find anything?”

  “Yes. The Harbinger was definitely here. Engine signatures about five million MCs out. Also the ship’s name was logged on the arrival manifest. But that’s all we have. We couldn’t get a good enough footprint to determine where they were headed for sure. Our best guess is somewhere in The Corridor.”

  “The Corridor, you say?” Calvin took his seat at the command position. “Let’s try Brimm.”

  “Any particular reason?”

  “Just a hunch.”

  “Based on what, Lieutenant Commander?”

  “We have to start somewhere, and that will do. Now, Sarah, set course and get us underway.”

  “Yes, sir.” She input the new course.

  “ETA?”

  “Ten hours.”

  “So what do we do in the meantime?” asked Miles.

  Calvin looked from him to Summers. “We check up on our friends in the infirmary.”