The Phoenix Project (15 page)

    
What is the real answer to
the equation?

    
The Alliance was a generation ahead in
technology.

The Dawn of a New Century

by Matthew Finny

Chapter VI

Forty warships
slowed to a tiny fraction of the speed of light as they neared Outpost
Fourteen. A wide, thousand yard long box of a carrier occupied the center of
the battle group. Maria’s flagship, the
Excalibur
, led the sphere of
ships in standard formation.

    
“Outpost Fourteen is intact and signaling,”
her communications officer said.

    
“Acknowledge the signal, Mister Hennessy.”

    
“Yes Ma’am. We have audio only; no video.”

    
“Excalibur, this is Outpost Fourteen,” an
anxious voice said over the bridge’s speakers. “We suggest you redirect your
sensors to the local coordinates of seventeen, four hundred twenty—one, by
three hundred nineteen.”

    
“Acknowledged Fourteen. Do as he said,” she
directed to her officer at the science station.

    
The viewer changed from the image of
Outpost Fourteen’s silhouette of a flashlight with attached sails to one of
space with a small cloud of green specks occupying it.

    
“Zoom in.”

    
The ship’s computer magnified the image and
revealed the cloud to be a fleet of ships resembling hers but with a deep olive
color. The Coalition carriers contrasted theirs, resembling tall upright boxes.
The older designs of the Coalition warships had sharp edges and elongated necks.

    
“Coalition warships,” she exhaled on her breath.
“There’s more than one battle group out there. How many warships does the
science officer record?”

    
“One hundred and twenty.”

    
“Three battle groups?”

    
“Yes, Ma’am. There are three carriers at
the center, nineteen cruisers, thirty—eight destroyers, and sixty frigates.
They’re sitting just beyond the outpost’s weapons range.”

    
“Get me Fleet Admiral Nelson,” Maria
directed to her communications officer. Admiral Nelson appeared on the primary
monitor a moment later.

    
“Maria, what’s your report?”

    
“Three battle groups, just beyond weapons
range.”

    
“What’s their status?”

    
“Their shields are up and they have armed
weapons.”

    
“I see,” Nelson said, putting a finger to
his lips while he considered his options. “Proceed to a set of coordinates
that will place you between their fleet and the outpost. Allow a distance of
one million clicks between your battle group and their fleet.”

    
“That is within weapons range, Ronnie.”

    
“I am aware of that. Await further orders
from me while I consult with the Senate. Maria, do not fire a single shot
before they do.”

    
“Yes, Sir,” she said. He nodded and ended
the conversation with a press of a button on his desk.

    
“You heard him men. Take us a million
clicks from the enemy and hold position.”

    
The fleet changed its heading and moved out
towards their destinations.

    
“Orders?” her helmsman asked once they
arrived.

    
“Hold position and maintain status.” Maria
regarded the view of one hundred and twenty dark boxy ships. “I’ll just sit
here with my thumb up my ass,” she whispered to herself.

    
“We have need of you.”

    
“Do tell,” Peter said.

    
“I swear we should have had you garroted
when you were young,” Alexander said, chewing on his bottom lip, “or
disemboweled. I would take a certain level of personal satisfaction from your
screams for mercy.”

    
“I’d never do anything to give you pleasure,
Councilor.”

    
“Just because you’re her son doesn’t give
you this amount of leeway. You are a failed sensitive unlike the others. I
remember your file said you were too sociopathic to be psychic.”

    
“So my mother told me. Do you want to read
me Mother Goose now?”

    
“I can’t see you enjoying something like
that. Dante’s Inferno would be more appropriate. Catherine must have been drunk
when she expelled you from her womb.”

    
“A demon begot from another demon. Give her
my love. Now what do you want?”

    
“The particle warhead is a definite threat
to us. Since you are fortuitously on the
Excalibur
, you are in a prime
position to affect change,” Alexander said.

    
“Is this what the oracle has seen?”

    
“Despite your personal behavior, you do
have the experience we need to be in a crucial place at a crucial time.”

    
“We are out on the edge of the solar
system, in case you didn’t know.”

    
“Yes, but after this the Second Battle
Group is the force assigned to protect the warhead once it is operational.”

    
“And what am I supposed to do then?” Peter
asked.

    
“If I interpreted what I saw correctly then
you will be the lever that moves a mountain. Does that interest you?”

    
“Why would you tell me something like that?
It’s out of character for you.”

    
“I have plans for myself and if they help
you, well every silver lining has a cloud.”

    
“This will displease Catherine in the end?”
Peter asked.

    
“Oh, it will.”

    
“Then I’m in,” Peter replied.

    
Alexander gave him a wry smirk and
deactivated the channel.

    
“The deadline has passed,” Napoleon said, glancing
at the timepiece strapped to his wrist.

    
“There is no further communication from the
Prime Ministers?” Catherine asked a nearby acolyte standing near her chair. The
woman shook her head in answer.

    
“What will we do then?” Victoria asked from her seat opposite
Catherine.

    
“How long would it take for our ships to be
in position for the assault?”

    
“They can be ready to start their assault
in less than an hour,” Napoleon said from his chair.

    
“Instruct General Henderson to consolidate
his fleet and prepare to take Outpost Fourteen.”

    
Three ships flashed into existence outside
the solar system. Alliance
and repaired Coalition sensor platforms transmitted their new data.

    
A transmission was received aboard the
Endeavour
within a minute of the event. Elliot broke onto the bridge out of breath.

    
“Commander?” he gasped at the on duty
communications officer.

    
“Admiral Nelson for you.”

    
“Put it on the main monitor.”

    
Elliot regarded the larger than life
representation of Fleet Admiral Nelson on the main screen.

    
“Eli,” Nelson said. “I’ll get to the point
since this is an emergency situation. We have detected three ships near the
position of the collapsed wormhole. We have no other battle groups available to
look into this. We need you to investigate immediately.”

    
“Do you think it’s alien, Ronnie?”

    
“Keep that to yourself, Eli. Reserve your
judgments until you get there.”

    
“Yes, Sir.”

    
“Oh and Eli, the Coalition has these sensor
readings as well. They’re sure to send their own ships to investigate.”

    
“Understood.”

    
“I don’t want a confrontation and I don’t
want anyone firing on Coalition ships. We’ve got enough trouble right now, as
it is.”

    
“Yes, Sir.”

    
“Good luck,” Nelson said and closed the
channel.

    
The Third Battle Group left orbit jumping
to a speed one hundred times that of light and headed for the area near the
collapsed wormhole.

    
Joshua and Madison burst onto the bridge,
their navy blue uniforms having been hastily thrown on.

    
“Eli, we heard about Fleet Admiral Nelson
calling.”

    
“I’m taking temporary command of the battle
group.”

    
“You are?” Joshua asked.

    
“Nothing personal, Josh. Orders from the
brass. Something has appeared in the vicinity of the collapsed wormhole.”

    
“Like what?”

    
“Three ships.”

    
“Alien?”

    
“We don’t know. That’s why we’re going.”

    
“When do we arrive?” Madison asked.

    
“We’ll be there in thirty seconds.”

    
The ship exited to sub—light with the rest
of the warships of the Third Battle Group close behind. Three small blue
starships of gentle curvature with two sets of wings joined at their tips
glided across the star field.

    
“Identify,” Elliot ordered from his corner.

    
“The computer can’t identify the ship
profiles,” the science officer said.

    
“Send a signal.”

    
The tactical officer behind him
interrupted. “Captain, a Coalition battle group is approaching.”

    
“Where?” Joshua demanded.

    
“Directly behind us, Sir. A General Nadine
Hanover wishes to speak with you.”

    
Nadine had received only a stunningly quick
order from her communications line instructing her to depart immediately with
the Alpha Two Battle Group. Two officers were already waiting at the door of
her office and nearly manhandled her to a shuttle. They rushed her to the
Coalition Warship
Yamato
in orbit. The aging flagship’s olive colored
hull enlarged in the window at a frightening rate. She barely had time to stand
before the officers grabbed her again in haste for the bridge.

    
The doors barely got out of her way once
surprise began to turn to anger at her sudden abduction. The commander of the group,
a relatively young Brigadier General named Ronald Park turned around from his
center chair on the compact bridge. The area was reasonably well lit but did
not dispel the claustrophobia of a cluttered command center of consoles and
impeding support posts.

    
Park stood up from his command chair.

    
“General, welcome to the
Yamato
,” he
began before she cut him off.

    
“Why was I taken from my office without any
information?”

    
“I’m sorry, General. I did not give the
command to transport you here. The orders came directly from the General of the
Air Force and were marked as urgent.”

    
“I want to see those orders.”

    
“Yes Sir,” he replied and handed a link to
her. She perused the document and then looked up to the now superfluous one—star
General.

    
“I’m taking command,” she said to Park and
walked away. She folded the link and put it into the right pocket of her dark
navy trousers. “Helm, set a course for the coordinates of the collapsed
wormhole.”

    
“Set,” the helmsman answered after tapping
a few buttons.

    
“Execute, push the engines to one hundred
and ten percent.”

    
The ship and its surrounding group jumped
to many times the speed of light.

    
“What is our ETA?”

    
“Arrival in forty—four seconds.”