The Phoenix Rising (10 page)

“
Calvin,” said Miles, in an
unusually serious tone. “If we’re doing this, if we’re really going
into the DMZ, I should have weapons hot when we go in, and the new
crew needs to be put through battle drills.”

“
I’m not expecting a fight,
Miles.”

“
The latest reports on the
DMZ list raiding and piracy as extremely rampant. If anyone sees
us, they will most likely try to capture the ship. And I’m
not
going through that
again.”

Calvin would never forget what it had been
like to surrender his vessel to the Rotham squadron. The torture
and cruelty they’d faced at the hands of the Rotham back in Abia
had cost them many lives and left scars on the survivors that would
never completely heal. “Point well taken, Miles. You may organize
and execute three battle simulations for each shift. Make sure
everyone is tested and ready for what we might find when we get
there. But we won’t be going in hot. Armed weapons will compromise
our stealth.”

“
Good enough for me,” said
Miles. “Though I would feel better with at least some of the
weapons armed.”

“
I’ve been in the DMZ
before,” said Calvin. “Not recently, that’s true—but I know it’s a
big place, and we’ll be better off if we avoid being
seen.”

“
If you say so. Doesn’t
sound like much fun to me,” Miles shot him a grin, telling him the
backtalk at this point was meant as jest not insubordination.
Calvin half expected Summers to begin deriding Miles for his
unprofessionalism, but then he remembered she was below helping to
situate the new crew.

“
Your sense of fun is really
unique, Miles,” said Sarah. “Most people wouldn’t equate violence
with fun.”

“
Yeah, yeah, just cause you
don’t know how to have a good time.”

“
Your idea of a good time
usually ends with the luxurious accommodations of a debtor’s
detention cell,” she fired back.

“
Hey! That only happened one
time!”

Most COs wouldn’t tolerate the chatter,
Calvin knew, and allowing it went against all of his professional
training. But he liked the relaxed atmosphere. And believed that
his officers worked best in a liberal environment where they didn’t
have to worry if their uniforms weren’t pressed well-enough. It was
his command style, always had been, and now that he was a commander
in exile, he felt even less restrained.

“
Carry on,” said Calvin.
“I’ll be below, seeing to the new crew.”

“
Calvin not on the bridge
during his shift? Big surprise there,” said Miles.

“
Sarah, you have the
deck.”

Tristan cleared his throat. “I should have
the deck,” he said, pointing to the gold bar on his uniform—the
insignia of a commander.

Calvin almost laughed. “Yeah, that’s not
happening.” He wondered whose uniform Tristan had stolen.

“
As a point of fact,
Lieutenant Commander,” said Tristan, addressing Calvin with his
technical rank and not his position, “I outrank everyone on this
ship except for Commander Presley. I, at minimum, should be
instated as your second officer, since this ship doesn’t have one.”
It was true; Calvin hadn’t promoted anyone to the position since
Vincent Rose’s death.

“
I don’t know where you got
that uniform,
Remorii
, but as far as I’m concerned you’re a civilian observer.
You’re here because I’ve chosen to tolerate you. But you are not
part of the crew.”

“
That’s a waste of my
natural talents.”

“
Just be happy you’re not
spending the journey in the brig this time.” On Summers’
suggestion, Calvin had decided to allow both Tristan and Alex to
have quarters. Thinking that the appearance of trust would elicit
maximum cooperation from both
guests
.

Tristan frowned, and his eyes searched
Calvin. They didn’t glow red, however, so Calvin knew Tristan
wasn’t actually upset. More likely testing him, and trying to
weasel into as much power as he could. Calvin was going to keep him
under his thumb. Having a Remorii on the ship at all grated against
his better judgment. Unfortunately it seemed to be a necessary
evil. For now anyway.

“
Very well,
Captain
,” said
Tristan.

“
That’s better. Now, Sarah,
the deck is yours.”

***

Some of the crew didn’t take to him right
away. A handful even had complaints already. Mostly pertaining to
their particular shift assignments. “Take it up with the XO,” was
his constant reply.

Several of the men were obviously infatuated
with Summers, and he didn’t really blame them. More like pitied
them. Fortunately he’d gotten a lot better at not letting his eyes
linger on her figure when she came around.

The smitten newcomers repeatedly asked
Calvin questions about her. Is she seeing anyone? Does she date
other crew members? When is she not on shift? Calvin dismissed all
such questions. They weren’t important to him and, truthfully, the
last thing he wanted to be thinking about. If he was going to
strike some kind of harmony with Summers—where he could depend on
her the way he used to depend on Anand, rather than fight her at
every turn—he needed to cast aside all romantic feelings toward
her. And all the animosity he still harbored. Most importantly, he
needed to forget that brief moment on the observation deck, when
he’d opened his heart to her and she’d crushed it between her steel
fingers shortly afterward.

To her credit, she did make a sincere,
though somewhat pathetic, attempt at an apology. So he would try to
let bygones be bygones and make things work.

Considering that several members of the new
crew had no military experience, he was impressed at how quickly
they were adapting to the discipline. Summers had explained the
basics of protocol to each of them, in no uncertain terms Calvin
was sure, and had required them all to shadow existing crew and be
properly trained. Because of this, the shift schedules were thrown
off for the next twenty-four hours—a logistical nightmare Calvin
was glad not to be managing.

After winding his way through the crew
quarters, the analysis lab, and even the mess, he’d introduced
himself to all the human newcomers but one. He found himself
standing outside the infirmary, a place he’d avoided going, and
took a deep breath. Part of him expected to find Monte inside,
grouchy and limping but secretly happy to see him. He’d trusted the
old doc tremendously, and they’d been friends for years. Ever since
Christine’s death.

The clearest image of all
the hellish sights that dominated his memory of Abia was seeing
Monte slip from the deck ladders and plunge to his death aboard the
Rotham warship. Calvin felt a chill thinking about it, and tried to
push it from his mind.
Monte is gone now.
Nothing I can do about it.

He steeled himself and entered the
infirmary, trying very hard not to see the new chief physician of
the Nighthawk as an intruder squatting Monte’s domain.

Dr. Poynter was her name. She was tall,
thin, and had the brightest red hair Calvin had ever seen. It was
curly, wild and clearly unmanageable so she’d tied it together
behind her head. She held a clipboard and was finishing up with a
patient.

“
Take it twice a day orally
and let me know if you have any side effects, okay,
Donny?”

The injured man, who Calvin recognized as
part of the original crew, nodded. He wore a cast and sling around
his left arm from an injury sustained during the fight in Abia. He
was one of six remaining crew who had injuries severe enough to
keep them on reduced duty. Another logistical headache that Calvin
had been happy to leave on Summers’ plate.

“
I want to see you again in
a few days, okay?” said Dr. Poynter.

“
Yes, sir.”

“
No sirs or ma’ams, I’m not
a soldier, just a physician,” Dr. Poynter said with a smile. “Now
you take care, Donny, okay?”

“
I’ll try,” said Donny. He
left, saluting Calvin on his way out. That’s when Dr. Poynter
seemed to notice Calvin’s presence. Her face lit up with
surprise.

“
Captain,” she
said.

“
Dr. Poynter.”

“
Call me Rain.”

“
Right,” he said,
remembering her application. “Rain Poynter. I’m here to see how
you’re settling in, and if there’s anything I can do for you.” He
looked past her to the adjoining apartment reserved for the chief
physician. The door was closed and somehow he still imagined it as
the simple, unkempt environment that Monte had occupied. Complete
with pornographic magazines and all its other
charms
.

“
Actually there is something
you can do for me, Calvin—may I call you that?” she
asked.

“
Please do.” He preferred
the use of given names.

“
I need to see all the new
crew in here, and about half the old crew, so I can create a
medical chart for them, or update their existing one. I’d like to
make sure everyone is current on their inoculations, screen for a
few things, and perform complete physicals.”

“
Tell the XO,” said Calvin,
“and she’ll forward a mandatory signup sheet to all the departments
on the ship.

“
I already have.”

“
Then what do you need from
me?”

She looked him in the eyes. Her irises were
very pale blue. “Calvin, you’re one of the ones I need to see. Your
chart was mysteriously scant on details so you’ll have to get the
works.”

Of course his chart was scant on
details—Monte had needed to hide the fact that he’d been Calvin’s
drug dealer.

“
Including a physical?” he
asked. Calvin was the type who saw no use in being a patient when
he didn’t feel sick.

“
Yep. A full
physical.”

He didn’t care for this idea. “I feel fine,”
he said. “I think you should focus on some of the others.”

She cracked a smile. “Wait a minute. It’s
not that you’re shy, is it?” she looked him up and down briefly. “I
can have one of the male physicians…”

“
No
,” he cut in abruptly. “It’s not that. I just, I don’t care
for physicals. I drink lots of water. I eat pretty healthy. I stay
active. I don’t feel sick. So I don’t think I need one.”

“
There are a lot of things
that a person could have and not even know. By the time you notice
the symptoms, the condition could have progressed severely
and—”

“
I appreciate your concern,
Rain. But I’m fine. I’ll let you know if I have a hernia, or
anything else.”

“
Does that mean your crew
can opt out too?”

He thought about it for a moment. He didn’t
want to be a hypocrite. But then again he wanted his crew to be in
top shape. “No, they can’t. That’ll give you lots to do and make
sure everyone is as fit and healthy as I am.”

She frowned slightly. “Doesn’t that seem
like a double standard to you?”

“
Not really,” he replied.
“If the goal is to make sure everyone is as healthy as I am, and I
am always as healthy as I am, I don’t need to be tested; it’s just
given.”

“
But if we’re using you as
the benchmark, for whatever unwise reason, we would need complete
records on you so we have any picture of how healthy you are.” She
folded her arms.

“
Well then I guess, yeah, it
is a double standard. But one I won’t lose any sleep
over.”

“
Alright, Calvin, as you
wish. But tell me this, how is your equarius situation?” Her eyes
probed him.

He was taken by surprise. It hadn’t sunk in
yet that his dark secret, his personal drug addiction, was now
fairly common knowledge. It had been the forefront issue in his
loss of command, almost resulting in the Nighthawk never arriving
in Abia. Now, probably, all of the original crew was aware of it.
Rain could have heard from any of them.

“
You can be honest with me,”
she said. “I’m only here to help, not to judge, and I understand
what chemical dependency is like. It’s nothing to be ashamed of,
but it is something you should set your mind to beating because
it’s unhealthy.”

“
You’re wrong, it is
something to be ashamed of,” he said, more sharply than he’d meant.
He felt a bit like a wounded animal having his secret talked about
openly and casually by a stranger. “But don’t worry, I have it
under control.”

“
Under control? What does
that mean?”

“
It means I’ve taken
equarius for the last time. And that damned poison is not part of
my life anymore.” For as much as he loved the sweet relief that
came from equarius, it had done nothing but harm him and he hated
the dependency. He loathed it with all his might. It had almost
cost him everything. And, according to Monte, would eventually kill
him.

“
How long have you been away
from it?”

“
Hard to say,” he lied. He
hadn’t taken it since his secret was exposed, in fact he didn’t
have any in his possession to take—it’d all been seized—but that
wasn’t that long ago.

“
Months?” asked Rain
candidly.

“
No,” he
admitted.

“
I’m not so sure cutting it
out cold turkey is healthy. Not with this particular medication. At
the likely dose you were taking.”