The Phoenix Darkness (53 page)

He didn’t know how he’d gotten here; his
memory of recent events was clouded at best. But he felt compelled,
emotionally, to race over to her, even though he wasn’t entirely
sure why.

He’d made about four steps before one of the
medics, who'd been checking on the various patients, took note of
him.

“Look, you’re up,” said the medic. She looked
at Calvin with a smile, which suggested she was pleased with this
outcome, but also made anxious by his abrupt removal of all the
medical equipment. Calvin did not recognize her.

“Yeah, I’m up,” he said, walking past
her.

“If you don’t mind, sir, I’d like to check a
few things before releasing you,” she said, following him.

“I’m
fine
.”

He arrived at Rain and sat on the stool next
to her bed. He reached over and instinctively took her hand,
holding it. At their touch, he remembered kissing her in the hold
of the Rotham shuttle, although he didn’t recall much of what had
led up to that moment. “Is she all right?” he asked, looking back
at the medic, who was standing next to him.

“Dr. Poynter is going to be just fine,” said
the medic happily. “She’s suffered a very mild case of generalized
hypoxia and lost consciousness as a result of it. Actually, that’s
true for all of you,” she glanced around at the various patients,
all except the mysterious fourth patient.

“What does that mean,
hypoxia
?” asked
Calvin.

“It means that you all became oxygen
deprived. When we found you, the life-support systems on your
vessel were not functioning. Luckily, we got to you quickly.”

“Is that why the masks?” asked Calvin.

“Yes, it’s for oxygen therapy, a treatment
most of you have responded well to. Dr. Poynter should wake up soon
and make a full recovery.”

“Wait,” said Calvin. “
Most
of us?” He
glanced over at Rez’nac and Rafael, knowing that meant one or both
of them was in trouble.

“Yes, all of you except for Imperator
Rez’nac, who has experienced worse complications,
unfortunately.”

“It’s just Rez’nac,” said Calvin, “not
Imperator.” He knew Rez’nac had lost his Imperator title, along
with most of his pride and self-respect. “What complications?”

“Rez’nac has suffered a pulmonary edema as a
result of his oxygen deprivation,” said the medic.

“That sounds serious,” said Calvin.

“It can be,” said the medic. “We already did
an aspiration procedure and hopefully removed all of the fluid from
his lungs, and we’ve administered preload and afterload reducers.
We’re planning to catheterize him and introduce a regimen of loop
diuretics. Luckily, so far anyway, the oxygen therapy has been
sufficient to supply him with necessary O2, although if he worsens
Dr. Andrews has said mechanical ventilation may be necessary. But
that seems unlikely.”

Calvin did not follow, beyond the implication
Rez’nac was being treated and there seemed to be hope for him, but
he was still in dangerous woods.

“When will you know if he’ll be all
right?”

“If all goes as it should, he
will
be
all right,” the medic reassured him.

“And you’ll know that when?”

“He should quickly recover.”

Calvin didn’t know if
quickly
meant
minutes or weeks, but he decided not to press the issue further.
“Thanks.”

“Happy to help, sir.” The medic wandered
away, ostensibly to go check on Rez’nac.

After a minute or two, Rain stirred, waking
up. She squinted, looking a bit confused, then, upon seeing him,
she smiled.

“You’re okay,” said Calvin, feeling more
relief than was probably warranted.

“I’m okay,” said Rain happily, her voice
muted by the oxygen therapy mask. She looked confused as to her
whereabouts.

“Do you know where you are?” asked
Calvin.

She glanced around. “The infirmary on the
Nighthawk
,” she said, putting it together faster than Calvin
had. “Why am I here?” she looked back at him.

“We had a hyperpoxia,” said Calvin.

“Hyperpoxia?” Rain looked at him with a
confused, furrowed brow. “Do you mean hypoxia? How did that
happen?”

Calvin suddenly wondered if he’d remembered
the correct term. “We lost oxygen back on the shuttle but the
Nighthawk
found us. That’s why we’re here.”

“Oh,” said Rain, then she smirked at him.
“Generalized
hypoxia
.”

“Yeah, exactly. That’s what I said.”

She narrowed her eyes at him, teasingly, but
did not argue. “In that case, I give myself a clean bill of
health,” she said, removing the mask. She started to get out of the
bed and he helped her to her feet, letting go of her hand once she
was standing.

“Is everybody else all right?” she asked,
looking at the others.

Of course that would be her first real
question
, Calvin thought. Rain was always more concerned for
others than she was for herself.

“I’m going to go check on them,” she said,
looking back at him with her pert smile.

“I should go anyway,” he said, “I need to be
on the Bridge.”

She nodded and they parted ways.

He’d just reached the infirmary door when it
slid open and, to his pleasant surprise, he saw Sarah and Shen.
Shen looked a little ill. Calvin couldn’t quite put his finger on
it, but something seemed just a bit off about him. Sarah, though,
seemed to be her usual self. Upon seeing him, she beamed.

“We heard that you were down here,” she said.
“I’m so happy not to see you in one of those beds.”

“And I’m just glad you’re back,” said
Shen.

Calvin smiled at them. It hadn’t been that
long, not truthfully, yet it had seemed like forever since he’d
seen them. And now, finally, he was back to command the
Nighthawk
. And he could work with his friends once more.

“It’s so great to see you both!” He
instinctively pulled Sarah in for a hug. When he let go, Shen
reached out to shake hands, but Calvin hugged him anyway. “You have
no idea how happy I am to be here.”

“And we’re thrilled to have you back,” said
Sarah.

“Now, you’re staying with us this time,” said
Shen, looking momentarily worried. “This isn’t another one of your,
‘
Hi, I’m just dropping in for a bit, see ya later,
’ kind of
visits, is it?”

“No, I’m here for good,” said Calvin.
“There’s not a thing in this galaxy that's going to get me off this
ship ever again.”

“Good,” said Shen, looking genuinely happy.
“Because we’ve spoken about it and decided if you tried to leave us
again, no matter how important and galaxy-saving the assignment, we
weren’t going to let you go. You’d have to do it over our dead
bodies.”

Calvin laughed. “God, it really is good to be
back and see you two. What have you kids been up to?”

“
Kids
?” asked Sarah. “I’m a year older
than you!”

“And I’ll never let you forget it,” he said,
still all smiles. “But seriously, what have you two been up
to?”

They looked at each other almost awkwardly,
then back at him. “Let’s just say I’ve been trying to get this
one,” Shen nodded his head toward Sarah, “to accept my apologies.”
In response, Sarah’s face turned scarlet.

Calvin almost asked “
for what?
” but
decided he’d rather not know. “Well this has been a good reunion,”
he said. “But I’d better get to the Bridge.”

“Do you even remember the way or should one
of us guide you?” asked Sarah.

Calvin laughed. “You two…speaking of which,
shouldn’t you be on the Bridge anyway? With the both of you down
here, is anybody even up there?”

“It’s Red Shift,” said Shen. “But you’ll be
happy to know,
or maybe not
, Summers is still up there.
She’s taken to commanding two shifts, and sleeping…God knows
when.”

“Ah,” said Calvin. “I had been wondering why
she wasn’t down here rolling out the red carpet to greet me.”

After another laugh, he parted ways with
Sarah and Shen and hurried to the elevator. He expected to run into
one or more crewmen in the corridors along the way, but he didn’t.
The entire deck felt hauntingly empty, like instead of the lively
Nighthawk
he’d mistakenly gone aboard an eerily similar
ghost ship.

When he stepped onto the Bridge, which felt
like walking back inside an old home, he’d expected to see Jay Cox
at the helm, Cassidy Dupont at the ops controls, Patrick O’Conner
at the defense post, and even Vincent Rose in the command position.
It was like a splash of ice water when he saw different faces
occupying the stations, some of which he didn’t even recognize.

Vincent Rose and Patrick O’Conner weren’t
there for obvious reasons: they were both deceased. Calvin knew
this, but had somehow repressed it in his mind. He mourned the loss
of Mr. Rose, who had fallen nobly in Abia, but he felt considerably
less grief over the loss of Mr. O’Conner, who had proven both an
annoying upstart and a traitor.

Still…in Mr. Rose’s tragic absence, it should
have been Second Lieutenant Vargas who sat in the command position
or, at the very least, the XO’s seat, since Summers had taken
command of this shift, but neither Vargas nor Summers was anywhere
to be found. Instead, Cassidy Dupont, a mere midshipman, sat in the
XO’s chair. Jay Cox had the helm, like he was supposed to, but two
unfamiliar officers sat at Ops and Defense. If Calvin had seem them
before, he didn’t recall.

“Captain on the Bridge,” said Cassidy, rising
to her feet. The others officers also stood.

“Now that isn’t necessary,” said Calvin,
fighting a grin as he walked to the center of the Bridge. This
tradition of greeting the CO so ceremoniously was something he’d
long eliminated from the
Nighthawk
. He had no doubt in the
world this recurrence of it had been the brainchild of Summers,
both as a way of teasing him for his unconventional methods, and
also a friendly way of welcoming him back.

“Commander’s orders,” said Cassidy with a
salute.
Commander’s orders
, he thought,
well, that
confirms my suspicions
.

“At ease,” said Calvin. The crew returned to
their seats.

He considered taking the command position and
asking for a status report if for no other reason than to remember
how good it had felt commanding this ship, but he supposed there
was time for that later.

“The Commander wanted us to inform her at
once when you arrived,” said Cassidy, walking toward the command
chair where the intercom controls were.

Calvin stopped her. “Don’t.”

“Sir?”

He smiled. “Just trust me.”

Calvin walked to the CO’s office and pressed
the chime. He could have just entered, it was
his
office
after all, but he had something better in mind.
Time to see if
the Commander can get as well as she can give
.

“Come in,” he heard Summers call out, through
the door.

He pressed the chime again.

“
Enter
,” she said, more loudly this
time.

He pressed it a third time.

“Either come in or stop pressing that damned
chime!”

He pressed it a fourth time, then waited. He
imagined angry footsteps marching his way, even though he couldn't
hear them.

The door slid open. “What in the hell do
you—” Summers stopped midsentence and her anger vanished from her
face, although the pretense of anger remained in her voice. Calvin
smiled at her, feeling a little underprepared for the shock of
seeing her and remembering just how stunningly, illegally beautiful
she actually was.

“Calvin…I should have known you were behind
these juvenile antics.”

“Thank you,” said Calvin, feeling his smile
widen. “It’s wonderful to see you too!” Then, taking her completely
by surprise, he scooped her up in a massive hug and gave her a
squeeze, lifting her in the air. “Oh, it’s so great to see
you!”

“Put me down, Calvin,” she said, still
feigning disapproval in her tone, but clearly finding it difficult
to do so. For an instant, she almost lost it as he spun her around,
very nearly getting her to break into laughter. Meanwhile, she
maintained her best efforts at sounding annoyed, “This isn’t
appropriate…we’re officers…”

After completing a full circle, he set her
back down. She bit her lip to keep from smiling, obviously not
having hated his over-the-top greeting.

“I’m shocked,” he said, looking past her and
noticing the décor of the CO’s office. “It looks like you finally
got a proper decorator. The CO’s office has never looked better!”
He stepped inside, amazed to see Summers had spent the energy
returning the office back to the exact state it was in when he’d
left it, or nearly so. The desk had been rotated back, the star
charts, duty rosters, and timekeeper had been removed from the
walls, stacks of poorly organized papers sat on the desk and the
floor, and there was even a crate of water bottles set to the
side.

She followed him into the office and the door
slid closed. “Last time you were here, I promised you that I hadn’t
gotten too comfortable in that chair,” she pointed to the chair
behind the desk;
his
chair. “This is my way of proving it to
you and of saying…welcome home.” She looked up at him and smiled.
Her pert face and perfect lips, seeing her happy, being back here
in this place, it was all so overwhelming.

Calvin went to the chair, almost feeling a
tingle as he pulled it out from the desk and, after what he knew
had been too damned long, finally took his seat. He was
back
. In
his
office. On
his
ship. And it felt
good
.

Summers took the seat opposite him. “I guess
that means you owe me one,” she said.

“For redecorating the office back to
normal?”

“No, Calvin. For saving your ass from that
sentry ship. It was lucky we arrived in time to destroy it and get
you off that shuttle before you all asphyxiated.”