The Phoenix Project (56 page)

    
“We have decided on a solution, yes. We
will use the particle warhead to our advantage.”
    

    
“That is a piece of Alliance technology at the heart of the
Phoenix Base. How could you use it to your advantage?” Nadine asked. She
reviewed the information on the link and then looked up once the truth hit her.
“An agent?”

    
“Very insightful, Nadine. Yes, we do have a
spy and he will use the particle warhead to devastate the face of the Earth.”

    
“How will this help?”

    
“The numbers are on page twenty of the
report. The intentional detonation of the warhead will spur the Alliance citizens to turn
against their own government and side with us. The losses will be cut to five
billion instead of eight.”

    
“I see,” Nadine said as she brought up the
recommended page on the link.

    
“You disapprove?”

    
“You’re going to kill billions of our own
people?” Nadine asked.

    
“In order to save billions more. The
results can’t be refuted.”

    
“And we will be heroes to the entire Human
race,” Alexander said.

    
“With a fabrication. We will be personally
responsible for this act,” Nadine said. “One that approaches genocide.”

    
“Only we will know that to preserve the
peace. Three billion more people will still be alive. How can you argue against
that?” Catherine asked.

    
“Five billion people will still die.”

    
“People die every day,” Alexander said from
behind her. “Why should today be any different?”

    
“There must be an alternative to this!”

    
“I am open to suggestions,” Catherine said,
“but as far as we can see we have only two options: five billion dead or eight
billion dead.”

    
“We could sue for peace and stop this now,”
Nadine said, before placing the report in the breast pocket of her uniform. “If
I am to be your successor, it must be for a Council that doesn’t have this destructive
lie in its closet.”

    
“No one will ever discover this,” Catherine
said.

    
“You’d build an Empire on the ashes of our
home?”

    
“What has happened to everything I’ve
taught you? The numbers dictate the results. Five billion dead is far more
preferable to eight. The decision is simple.”

    
“Except that you can’t see a third solution.”

    
“Surrender is out of the question.”

    
“It’s not surrender! It’s called a peace
process. Everyone here and within the Alliance
can be happy without any blood being spilt. Why can’t you see this?”

    
“Your time with the Alliance has affected you. We will not endure
another attempt at peace. We will not have another hundred years of cold war.
This will end now!”

    
“Then it ends without me!” Nadine looked
around the shocked faces of the circle and calmed her voice to a near whisper
as she spoke to Catherine. “Whether it’s in a month or a decade, this decision
will be our downfall. This sort of foundation for supremacy over the Colonized
Sphere can only lead to our destruction. When you build maliciously on death,
you will only ever know death.”

    
 
“They have spoiled you,” Catherine said in a voice
hoarse with anger. “They have taken my greatest student from me. You are only a
shadow of yourself and as transparent as one of them.”

    
“Not as much as you may think mother,”
Nadine said and ripped the Order of the Coalition medallion from her neck.
“Tell me do you sense any deception from me? You who have always known whenever
I was lying, can you see any lies now?”

    
“No,” Catherine spat out in disgust.

    
“I helped the Ferine escape,” Nadine said
in a low voice that only Catherine would hear.

    
Catherine looked up at her, mouth agape. Nadine
threw the medallion to the floor. “I’m done here. Train that whelp over there
to follow you and your fragile kingdom,” she said, gesturing to Alexander.

    
Nadine walked out of the chambers before
anyone could recover. She walked with a speed and ease from having the weight
of the Council and a dark future lifted from her shoulders. For the first time
in her life, she felt truly free.

    
Inside the Council chamber, Catherine leaned
forward and picked up the Order of the Coalition medallion.

    
“Alexander, she needs to be stopped. With
what she knows, she could bring everything down on our heads.”

    
The order brought him out of his stupor. He
got to his feet and went towards the doors to issue commands to the guards.
Alexander stopped just short of the exit and turned towards Catherine.

    
“What do we do with her?”

    
Catherine stared at the shining medallion
in her palm for a moment before she responded in a morose tone. “Nadine Hanover
has betrayed the Council. She has shown that she is too much like her father. Have
her brought to Detention Room E.”

    
“Yes, Prime Counsel.”

    
Nadine walked back towards her quarters
with the intention of packing her things and moving on to better fortunes. On
her way she didn’t think of any reprisal other than the possibility of prison
for an untold time. Catherine was after all, her mother. She wasn’t surprised to
discover six MERA troops waiting outside her quarters.

    
“General Hanover.”

    
“You’re here to escort me to a holding
area, correct?”

    
“Yes, Ma’am,” the soldier of the senior
most rank responded. All six were armed with PBRs, though their barrels were
pointing to the floor. Nadine took note of the informal stances and body
language, indicating they believed there was no threat here.

    
“Very well, Major,” she said. The Major
took her PBP from its holster at Nadine’s side. As the soldiers began to
surround her for escort, she thought to ask for specifics. “Which detention
cell am I to be escorted to?”

    
“Detention Room E.”

    
The memories of escorting her father to
certain death in that very room flashed across her mind. She instinctively
seized all of the soldiers’ minds. They were among the elite of MERA but didn’t
have the training and expertise of a person with twenty years of mind probes
and interrogations behind her.

    
All six of them froze in place and
 
Nadine took her PBP back and aimed it at the
first soldier. She checked to make sure the weapon was set to its highest stun
setting and discharged the weapon at the first man, sending him to the floor in
paralysis. She caught the Major, who was the most experienced of the group,
beginning to break free of the paralysis. He began to raise his rifle to
disable her as he fought for control of his body.

    
Her weapon swung around with a fierce speed.
A pulse of energy brought the Major to the ground. Four more dim thuds were
heard down the hallway as Nadine quickly dispatched them all to an hour’s
enforced rest. She took one of the guard’s rifles and changed the setting to
stun. Nadine hefted it across one arm and then sprinted down the hallway.

    
Her mind raced for a solution to her
conundrum, as death was on her heels. The immobilized bodies of the guards
would be discovered within a minute, perhaps two at most, and then the hunt
would begin. Nadine’s mind began to reference anything from her experience that
would help her in her escape.

    
A memory flashed into her mind of her as a
young girl accompanying her mother on a tour of the more secret areas within
the building. There were several escape passages leading to little known launch
bays throughout the complex. Nadine remembered the location of one only a short
way away.

    
She had to avoid a few patrols but quickly
found the hallway she had remembered from her childhood. It was easy to recall
this one from the others, as it had a three sided corner with a tall window of
colored glass depicting the first Prime Counsel of the Twelve. She walked down
the empty corridor to its midway point and felt a wood panel for the soft spot
she remembered. A quick search revealed it to be the wrong one. She moved to
the next panel and felt again for the soft area in the wood.

    
As Nadine searched she heard footsteps
approaching the hallway. She counted four pairs of occupied shoes approaching
her position. She increased the speed of her search and was rewarded to find an
oddly soft circle in the wood that gave way under pressure. The entire panel
retracted from the tip of her finger and then slid behind the wall. She jumped
into the passage, ignoring the cob webs across the entrance. The door silently
slid back into place behind her.

    
Nadine froze in the disused corridor and
listened intently to the footsteps approaching the spot outside the hidden
door. Relief set in once they continued without pause and gradually faded into
the distance beyond her hearing range. She carefully felt around in the dark
and located an old touch sensitive panel that activated once her fingers
brushed across its surface.

    
A series of fluorescent lights flickered on
one by one down the long concrete corridor. She was relieved to find the
cobwebs surrounded only the entrance and, although dusty, the rest of the
corridor was unfettered. She walked at a careful gait and finally found the
corridor’s end. It led into a room some forty feet square with a small and
rather old shuttle waiting at its center. It had not seen any maintenance or
cleaning for years but she was certain it would still work. It would have to.
Nadine knew its speed was not the same as more modern additions to the large
fleet of shuttles, but it would get her where she needed to go.

    
The interior of the small vessel was cool
and musty. Once she was seated and activated the ignition switch, the shuttle hummed
to life. Nadine checked all the systems to ensure they were functional and then
activated the short range signal that would trigger the ceiling doors. They
emitted a grinding sound at first but then slowly opened, to Nadine’s relief.

    
The small ship launched high into the air
above the gothic domes of MERA headquarters and then accelerated away towards
the horizon. Moments later, the sensor display alerted her to three squadrons
of approaching green fighters. The old shuttle was still in good shape, but it could
not possibly outrun the state of the art fighters gaining on her with each
second.

    
Nadine accessed the communications console
in the hope that someone within the Alliance
would respond.

    
“Mayday, mayday. This is an eastbound
shuttle in distress. I am General Nadine Hanover seeking political asylum with
the Alliance.”

    
“When do they launch?” Joshua asked Madison. He scrutinized
the enemy battle groups on the main monitor of the
Endeavour’s
bridge.

    
“The new fleet launches in under twenty
minutes. We’re still set to launch at the same time.”

    
“I hate waiting. I just wish this was
over.”

    
“Careful what you wish for,” Madison said and looked
back to her link.

    
“Sir,” his communications officer said from
his station, “I’ve got a distress signal.”

    
“Where is it coming from?”

    
“It’s weak, but it’s coming from a small
shuttle out from the east coast of Asia.”

    
“Put it through,” Joshua said.

    
The speakers scratched out static for a
moment before the transmission came in. “I am General Nadine Hanover seeking
political asylum with the Alliance.”

    
The message brought both of them to
attention.

    
“Do we have any fighters available?” Joshua
asked.

    
Madison
consulted her link before responding. “No, and there are no other ships
available. We have to go.”

    
“Into the atmosphere.”

    
“It’s your call,” Madison said.

    
“No it isn’t. Eli would kill me if I didn’t
do something.”

    
“So would I.”