The Phoenix Conspiracy

  ***

  Vincent Rose sat at the command position. He’d been on the ship for five months, and he still felt like he was wearing shoes that were too big.

  It wasn’t bad when he didn’t have the deck. He had full confidence in Calvin and the XO—at least when it had been Anand—but since Rose had command a third of the time, he knew he had a one-third chance of being in that chair when a major crisis happened. And, knowing that all life on the ship depended on him during such a moment, he felt uncomfortable.

  It didn’t help that Calvin had been replaced by someone who was, more or less, a complete stranger. She wasn’t even part of Intel Wing; she was a navy officer! Rose didn’t know Summers well, but he already didn’t like her. She was uptight, rigid, condescending, and dispassionate. Like a machine.

  He especially hated how his eyes would sometimes flick to her. And notice aspects of her beauty. And she was beautiful. Even around other beautiful women, she would stand out like a rose among daisies, and here … in the middle of space … she contrasted the gray bolts and grim metal of a starship like light against darkness. He couldn’t help noticing that. And he hated it. So, whenever he realized he was looking at her that way, he’d think of his lovely wife and child back home. That strategy worked most of the time. But he held it against Summers when it didn’t.

  And now she was CO! The whole change in power felt wrong. Everybody sensed it. If a two-time Silver Star recipient like Calvin could get the ax, no one was safe. Which only added to Rose’s anxiety.

  “Status?” he asked, wanting to break the silence.

  “Flight controls normal,” Jay reported from the helm.

  “Defense systems operational,” said Patrick, flashing a youthful smile.

  “And … all internal systems are good,” Cassidy said from the ops station.

  “Good,” said Rose.

  Several more minutes passed in silence, and he did what he always did. Thought about home. Anne cooking his favorite meal, pleased to see him after a long deployment. And little Selene rushing down the apartment steps as fast as her tiny legs could carry her, screaming ecstatically, “Papa, papa!” How cute she was … he hadn’t seen either of them for almost three months and wouldn’t for at least another three. He’d missed Selene’s birthday again … if only he could explain in small-enough words for her to understand.

  “I’ve got something here, sir,” said Jay with a hand on his headset’s speaker. He looked confused. “Message coming in on all stations and all decks.”

  “Display video,” Rose said casually.

  “I … can’t.”

  “Then on speakers.”

  “It’s text only … for some reason.”

  Rose sat forward. “What?”

  “Yeah, priority one message from Intel Wing, Office of the Director.”

  “I see it too,” said Patrick, his gaze fixed on his monitors.

  “Something seems … odd about it,” Cassidy said from operations.

  Rose agreed that it seemed unusual, but not unheard of, for Intel Wing to broadcast a text-only message. Its reasons could be any and probably not worth speculating about. Orders were orders.

  “Can you confirm the message is from Intel Wing?” Rose asked.

  “That’s what the computer says …” Cassidy replied, a whiff of skepticism in her voice.

  “Then read it.” Rose sat back again.

  Jay cleared his throat. “Attention all hands of the IWS Nighthawk. This is Director Jack Edwards regarding a previous order from Fleet Command to terminate the current mission and change command. You are to disregard that order. Intel Wing has command of the Nighthawk, not Fleet Command. Lieutenant Commander Cross is the active CO of the Nighthawk, and his orders stand. End Message.”

  “Well, that was short and sweet,” said Rose, scratching his head.

  “Intel Wing contradicting the fleet … and in such an unusual way?” asked Cassidy. “Doesn’t that seem odd to you?”

  “A little,” Rose agreed.

  “Even though the computer said the message came in with the proper encryption from Intel Wing,” Cassidy spoke, “that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be a fabrication. I suggest we contact Intel Wing, just in case.”

  Rose nodded. He didn’t want to think of it as a possible fabrication, but it was his job to be sure. “Very well,” he said. “Send a message to Capital World. Hail Intel Wing, priority one.”

  “Yes, sir,” said Jay, and then, a moment later, he looked dumbfounded. “Something’s not right here.”

  “What now?”

  Jay looked even more flustered. “I’m not picking up any audio, but the computer says we’re receiving 16,000 hails. No … twenty-nine million hails increasing exponentially. Now it’s well over a billion.”

  Rose became alarmed. “What are you talking about?”

  “I don’t know,” Jay said, looking completely bewildered as he scrambled over his controls.

  “Where are these hails coming from?”

  “Beats the hell out of me. The system just crashed. It’s completely off-line. I have no contact outside the ship period.” He slapped his computer station, teeth clenched in frustration.

  “Can you bring any of those hails over the speaker? Patch us through to one of them.”

  “No, I can’t,” Jay said. “The kataspace connector is off-line. But before it crashed, all I got from them was white noise. Not sure what to make of it.”

  Rose nodded, his mind racing to control the situation. “Patrick, are there any ships or structures nearby?”

  “Negative.”

  “So outside communication is dead, but we still have inside communications, right?”

  “Correct.”

  Rose was completely clueless. “We need to get the CO in here,” he said.

  “Which one?” asked Jay.

  Rose didn’t know the answer to that. He instinctively tapped his line to the CO’s office, because of its proximity. “Commander,” he said. “We’ve got a situation here.”

  “On my way.” Summers’s voice crackled over the speaker. And, not more than five seconds later, she was there.

  “What’s the situation, Mr. Rose?” she asked as he relinquished the command position.

  “A moment ago the ship received a message from Intel Wing, broadcast on every deck. Have you seen it?”

  “No.”

  Cassidy pointed to her screen, and Summers read the message. “This is wrong,” she said, ice in her tone.

  Rose continued. “After that the ship received billions of hails, and now we can’t send or receive outside communication.”

  “Why not?” Summers looked to Cassidy who was more than busy at the ops station.

  “I’m doing a diagnostic now.”

  “Try again to contact the fleet,” Summers ordered Jay.

  “It won’t do any good.”

  “I gave you an order, mister!”

  After an exaggerated display of trying, he turned back to the center of the bridge and waved his hands. “Voila, nothing.”

  Summers looked perplexed. She glanced at Rose. “What’s your opinion?”

  She was asking him? He almost laughed. “I have no idea what’s wrong.”

  “I’ve restarted the system a few times,” Cassidy said. “But it just times-out because it’s overloaded and then crashes again. Oh, wait, my diagnostic just finished.”

  “What does it say?” Summers again stared over Cassidy’s shoulder.

  “It … “ Cassidy paused, looking stunned. “I don’t know. All systems operating normally.” She scratched her head. “Maybe … I think I could make this happen if I wanted to, if someone tampered with—”

  The elevator door whisked open, and Calvin, Miles, Sarah, and Shen stormed the bridge looking pleased.

  “Make way,” said Miles as they moved to their stations. Rose looked from them to Summers—whose confusion had only intensified.

  “This isn’t White Shift,” said Summers. “And, Cal
vin, you can’t be here.”

  “Not according to the latest message from Intel Wing,” he said as he took the command position and sat down.

  Summers was on him like a hawk, standing over him and glaring. Like an invader had just squatted on her nest.

  Calvin’s only reaction was to look up at her and grin.

  “It’s true,” said Shen. “The official word is that the fleet’s decision to revoke Calvin’s command was illegitimate and has been reversed by the proper authority, Intel Wing. Since this is, after all, an Intel Wing ship.”

  She gave Shen a menacing glare. “There’s no way that message came from Intel Wing.”

  He shrugged. “Could have fooled me.” He glanced briefly at Calvin. “Cassidy, did the computer verify the message’s authenticity stamp?”

  “Yes—” she said, unconvinced.

  “There, you see!” said Miles. “Now move over, ex-boss lady.” He moved closer to Summers, and she shifted her attention from Calvin to him, taking up a defensive posture, as if thinking Miles would strike her. But Miles stopped a few feet away, and they just glared at each other.

  “And we can’t call Intel Wing to confirm this because, conveniently, outside communication is off-line,” said Cassidy.

  “That’s technology for you,” said Calvin.

  “Right, now move over,” said Miles again, inching closer.

  Summers looked like a cat trapped in an alleyway full of dogs. “What I find interesting,” said Summers, refusing to back down, “is that we haven’t heard anything from Special Forces yet.” She dared a quick glance at Calvin.

  Calvin ignored her comment. “As CO of this ship, I order you to go to my office and remain there until I say otherwise.”

  “Since you are not legitimately the CO of this ship, and I am,” said Summers, “I refuse.”

  “Well, you heard her,” said Miles. “You all heard her.”

  “For disobeying a direct order from your superior officer,” said Calvin, “I arrest you for insubordination, and you are now a prisoner on this ship, until we make port and you are transferred to the proper authority.” He stood up.

  “Insubordination?” she said the word like she’d never heard it before.

  “Lock her in my office.” He waved to Miles.

  “With pleasure.” He closed in.

  She took up a defensive stance again.

  He charged her but relied too much on size and brute strength, and Summers used his momentum against him. She deflected his hands and darted aside as he passed, giving him a firm shove in the direction he was headed. Unable to stop, he crashed into the CO’s chair.

  Calvin darted aside in the nick of time.

  Before anyone could stop her, Summers ran for the elevator.

  Miles scrambled to his feet and charged her way, almost overtaking her, but the door closed before he could snatch her. He slammed his hands flat against the elevator door to keep his head from crashing into it.

  “That slippery witch!” he said, looking more embarrassed than angry. He turned to face Calvin. “I’m sorry.”

  Calvin said nothing for a few seconds. “This does present a problem.”

  Shen moved to the center of the bridge, looking nervous. “We needed to keep her here so she wouldn’t contact the major. I was going to disable the office’s comm and everything.”

  “I said I was sorry.”

  “That’s not our only problem,” said Calvin. “The beacon.”

  “Oh, right,” said Shen.

  “Is there anything we can do about that?” Calvin asked. “Block it somehow?”

  “No. Not unless you have a room with tungsten walls a hundred meters thick. We’d do better to capture it. If we had it, we could keep it from being turned on.”

  “What are you talking about?” asked Miles.

  “The emergency beacon. A silent signal that can only be picked up by Imperial Military starships,” said Shen. “It’s a fleet standard. It came aboard when Summers did. And she’s the only one here who’s been trained how to use it. How do you not know this stuff?”

  Miles shrugged. “I dunno. I’m a government employee. I don’t have to know everything.”

  “Even when your business is all about acquiring information?”

  While they discussed it, Rose’s eyes moved from them to the other Red Shift members, who seemed equally confused and quiet. They too weren’t sure what to make of it all.

  “So what do we do?” asked Shen.

  “We have to seal off the bridge and engineering.”

  The whole thing felt suspicious to Rose, who also saw that feeling in the eyes of his fellow Red Shift officers. But none of them spoke. Calvin seemed to pick up on this.

  “I have command,” Calvin insisted. “Legitimately. But I’m afraid there really is a fight going on between Intel Wing and Fleet Command. And Summers, an agent of the fleet, will try and trick the major into thinking the fleet has control of the ship and not Intel Wing.”

  “How could they be fighting?” asked Patrick. “They’re on the same side!”

  “You have a lot to learn now that you’re in Intel Wing,” said Calvin. “But let’s just say, it’s no secret the fleet and Intel Wing don’t see eye to eye on this investigation. Now the fleet is making a play for control of the ship, but it isn’t going to work. Because we won’t let it. Set a new heading—Abia System. Let’s do a deep jump, maybe 95 percent potential. Miles take your station. Sarah, give engineering the order to seal themselves off. Red Shift, you’re relieved. Shen, put up those defense walls once Red Shift is gone.”