The Phoenix Project (44 page)

    
“They haven’t been tested?” Joshua asked.

    
“Not yet. Hopefully, they still won’t have
been by the end of this mission.”

    
The shuttle pulled up next to an airlock on
the
Excalibur
. The familiar clang of docking was heard and the five got
up to exit the vessel. The hatch opened to a woman of average height and a
single ice blue eye. Ranik and Lathiel were taken aback by the steely mask
covering nearly half of her face.

    
“Admiral Fredericks,” Maria said with a
stern expression, “the last time I saw you I was screaming like a mad cow.”

    
“Ah,” Elliot stuttered in surprise, “I
guess so, Admiral.”

    
“I meant to say, as soon as I got the
chance, thank—you. I know you stayed with me as long as you could.”

    
“No problem. Have you met the Ferine
delegates and my adjutants?”

    
“I remember Joshua and Madison from a few
meetings, but I can’t say I’ve met these two,” Maria said and advanced on the
alien pair. She spent several seconds examining the extraterrestrials. “I’m
sorry for staring gentlemen. You’re the first Ferine I’ve ever met.”

    
“Don’t be ashamed. We did our own staring
when we met Eli,” Ranik said.

    
Maria emitted a small chuckle. “Because it
was Eli or because he was the first Human you had ever seen?”

    
“A little of both,” Ranik said and smiled
down at the woman. He shook Maria’s proffered hand.

    
“You are a very interesting race of beings.
I took the time to catch up on the inquiry recordings. I can’t say I
appreciated the way the media sensationalized the proceedings.”

    
“I thought we were the only ones who
noticed,” Lathiel said.

    
“I saw through the media, and we will get
your people back.”

    
“It sounds like you have a score to settle,”
Ranik said.

    
“Those people are responsible for this,”
Maria said, pointing a finger to her mask. “I won’t mind stepping on their
toes.”

    
“Admiral Nelson was clear in his written
orders. No violence if at all possible,” Elliot said.
   

    
“If at all possible, and you don’t need to
remind me of my orders,” Maria said.

    
“Of course, Admiral.”

    
“Things haven’t changed that much, Eli. We
are still on a first name basis as far as I am concerned. You were there when
no one else was after I was wounded. I owe you for that.”

    
“It was the least I could do for a friend.”

    
Maria gave him a warm smile and nod which
seemed out of place next to the hard features of the gleaming mask. She rested
a hand on his shoulder briefly before her professional demeanor reasserted
itself.

    
“Now, we’ve got to get going,” she said and
turned from the group. She walked briskly for the bridge. The five new arrivals
fell into step behind her lead. “We have eighty people to rescue and two ships
to commandeer. Eli, what’s your plan?”

    
“Two squads of troops,”

    
“We received the soldiers this morning,”
Maria interjected.

    
“And two shuttles. We go in, get the
hostages, escort them to their ships, and leave.”

    
“It seems simple enough, doesn’t it?” Maria
said entering the bridge through a small set of doors at its rear. They barely
had time to allow her access as she strode into the command center. “But, it won’t
be that easy. Cali,
give me 3D tactical.”

    
The area in front of the helm of the bridge
became a sphere of empty space with a tiny station at its center.

    
“We can stay off their sensors until this
point,” Maria stated as she headed into the display with an arm extended and
pointing to a red transparent globe encompassing the station and a large area
of space around it. She walked towards it until her index finger touched the translucent
red barrier separating non—detection from stark visibility.

    
“After this point, we’re on their sensors
and all hell breaks loose. This ship may look different from other fleet
vessels, but it’s still easily recognizable as Alliance property.”

    
“I was hoping that you might have thought
of something,” Elliot said.

    
“We might be able to help you there, Eli,”
Ranik interjected. Lathiel gave the Ferine a brief, disapproving look which
Ranik responded to. “We did say we would share our technology.”

    
“What do you have?” Maria asked.

    
“We can hide our probes from most sensor
scans,” Lathiel replied.

    
“How does hiding a probe help us?” Maria
asked.

    
“On our smaller ships, they’re about a
hundred feet long, we have been able to rig the same stealth for a few hours,”
Ranik replied.

    
“But we don’t have any stealth systems
large enough to hide a shuttle,” Lathiel said.

    
“We do have a few of the fin probes.”

    
“It might work,” Lathiel said while he ran
the idea through his head.

    
“Can you let us in on this folks?” Joshua
asked.

    
“Lathiel is right,” Ranik replied, “we
don’t have any of the regular systems to supply your shuttles with, but we do
have the systems on the probes. If we can run them at about three times their
normal output we might be able to hide your shuttles from the Coalition
sensors.”

    
“How long would they stay hidden?” Elliot
asked.

    
“That’s the problem. The systems would burn
out after ten minutes, twenty at the most.”

    
“That might be all we need,” Maria said.

    
“The shuttles wouldn’t be able to stay.
They would have to rush in, drop us off, and head right back to the
Excalibur
,”
Elliot said.

    
“You have to take the Ferine ships back
anyway. Ranik, when can you get started?” Maria asked.

    
“We have to get them delivered here from
our ship. That shouldn’t take very long. After that, perhaps an hour or two,”
Ranik replied.

    
“Get to it right away. The communications
station is over there,” Maria said, indicating the proper console. Ranik nodded
and got to work. “Now, how are we going to get to those hostages?”

    
“If I may?” Elliot asked, with a gesture
towards the interactive model.

    
“Go ahead.”

    
Elliot grabbed the station and then opened
his hand and brought it away from the projection. The station became the focus
of the display and the computer zoomed in. The representation of the waypoint
structure became the size of an inflatable tube, floating in the area between
the helm and the main monitor on the front wall. The station was colored red,
befitting its status as an enemy facility rather than its true color. The
Coalition station resembled a large donut, with spokes sticking out at its
equator. A large round ball was at the center of the donut connected to the
rest of the station by four thick bridges.

    
The representation updated in real time and
showed two small Ferine ships colored blue to reflect their status as allies
docked between two sets of spokes on the outside edge of the donut.

    
With Elliot’s manipulation, the station
model’s hull became transparent and the central globe of the station took
center stage as a three dimensional representation of its interior. He pointed
to a lower deck of the globe. Three large rooms glowed bright red in the lower
portion of the globe.

    
“Our best intelligence says they will be in
these three holding areas.”

    
“And if they’re not?” Maria asked.

    
“We have their signatures programmed into
our scanners. If they’re not there, we’ll find them.”

    
“I hope so or you’ll be trapped in a bad
situation. Once those shuttles are gone, it’s the Ferine ships you take back or
nothing at all.”

    
“We’ll get it done.”

    
“Cali,
turn off 3D tactical,” Maria said. The three dimensional model winked out into
oblivion. Maria turned from the area and headed for her command chair.

    
“We’ll have to wait for the stealth systems
to arrive before we get underway. I’d suggest everyone get ready for what’s
coming.”

    
Many have said that the Coalition’s use of the UN in
an attempt to block Alliance
admission of the Ferine Nation was only an excuse to wage war. I will concede
this point to my associates of long standing.

    
What I believe has been
ignored is the larger historical context of this complaint. The Coalition would
have protested the admission of the Ferine regardless of the situation and had
every right to do so. The standard time period to admit a nation to the Alliance was one year
when expedited and would normally take up to five. To admit a nation in one day
was not only unusual but unheard of.

    
One wonders what the UN’s
final decision would have been had events played out the way they should have.

The Way It Should Have Been

 
by Edward
Cromwell

Chapter XV

The new AWS
Excalibur
burst from faster—than—light speeds and into normal space at a range of seventy
million miles from Waypoint Eleven. At this distant position, the station was
merely one more tiny light in the night. Maria swiveled her seat away from the
screen and towards the complex tactical station behind her. The weapon’s master
was surrounded by overhead monitors and a large console covered in switches and
screens. He looked up from his work, as did two other officers behind him at
rear support stations, to receive orders from their commanding officer.

    
“Let’s not be caught off guard, gentlemen.
Shields up, bring weapons to standby,” Maria ordered. The officers nodded and
returned their attention to the tactical systems.

    
“Shields up, weapon generators at full
power,” the head tactical officer reported.

    
“Just in case you bring any trouble back
with you,” Maria said with a sideways glance to Elliot.

    
“I know, Maria. I hope no trouble comes
looking for you.”

    
“Likewise. Now get to it. The rest of your
team is already aboard the shuttles. Was Ranik able to install the stealth
systems?”

    
“He seems to think so. We’ll find out as
soon as we leave the ship.”

    
“Good luck,” Maria said. She turned her
chair back towards the screen and watched it for anything out of the ordinary.

    
“Same to you,” Elliot said and left the
bridge. He did his best to restrain his nearly head over foot pace to set a
better example for the crewmembers rushing about him. Elliot opened the airlock
with a quick depression of the button next to the hatch and walked onto a
shuttle occupied by Madison and Ranik, accompanied by nearly a dozen well
armed soldiers.

    
“Sir!” a military officer exclaimed once
Elliot entered into the main cabin. He bore the rank of Major and wore the
traditional military fatigues for engagement within an urban landscape.
Various colors of gray and black seemed to blend together across his uniform in
an effort to conceal him against the hull.

    
“At ease,” Elliot said and noticed a small,
disk like device fastened to his belt. The Major smiled and nodded once he
noticed Elliot’s line of sight.

    
“Most people wouldn’t notice that, Sir.
It’s new technology we’re testing out. They’re personal shields. These are the
prototypes. The eggheads told us to use them for no more than a minute or
they’d burn out. We’ve got something else too,” the Major said, and looked over
his shoulder to a young officer behind him.

    
 
“Lieutenant, give the Admiral your rifle,” he
said to a junior officer holding a large and bulky weapon. The officer stepped
forward with a crisp salute and presented his rifle for Elliot’s inspection. He
took the large weapon in hand for his examination. Unlike the black, light
weight Particle Beam Rifles that had a sleek handle and smooth narrow barrel,
this one was wide, fairly heavy and silver in color.