The Phoenix Rising (35 page)

“
Mister Pellew is taking
care of it but wanted you to know. Apparently the tension between
the Polarian soldiers and the Human soldiers is at an all-time
high.”

“
What did they do?” Calvin
imagined another melee in the mess hall. Perhaps he’d been a fool
to think the two species could integrate successfully. By all
reports, the distrust and tension between the two groups was an
eternal constant, not something a few speeches and demerits could
quickly remedy.

“
Two special forces soldiers
interfered with the Polarian religious rite. They got in an
argument with them, made a mess of things, and interrupted some
kind of Polarian spiritual ritual.”

“
And the humans were the
unquestionable aggressors this time?”

“
According to reports,
sir.”

Calvin shook his head with
teeth clenched. Of all the stupid things... “
Unacceptable
.” He didn’t blame anyone
for not finding any meaning or purpose in the Polarians’
ritualistic ways—he himself thought them superstitious—but such
ways were their customs and traditions and needed to be respected.
Interfering with them, especially when the Polarians had explicit
permission from the CO to perform their rites, was only asking for
trouble and conflict.

“
Where are the perpetrators
now?”

“
In SFHQ with Captain
Pellew. He told me to inform you that he has this under control,
but you’re welcome to come down if you want.”

Calvin clenched and unclenched his right
fist. A lot of frustration and anger poured through him; it was one
thing to deal with genuine problems that arose but... his own men
manufacturing unnecessary conflict simply because of intolerance
and suspicion? That was the last thing he needed to be dealing with
as they raced toward Remus Nine—while Nimoux was possibly right on
his heels. Calvin managed to keep his voice calm, despite his
anger. “Thank you, Sarah. Please inform Pellew that I am going down
there at once.”

“
Yes, sir.”

He doubted there was
anything he could really do, but he wanted to make an example out
of these men. The infighting would stop
now
. These particular men were not
under his direct authority so their discipline would be managed by
Pellew, but Calvin would insist that their punishment be public and
severe. He had no time for further bigoted nonsense. From either
side.

***

The Desert Eagle slipped into Tyburian space
unnoticed. Its advanced stealth system was more than a match for
the Alliance’s detection technology, but Nimoux insisted they keep
a safe distance anyway, just in case.

“
Any sign of the Nighthawk?”
asked Nimoux.

“
Negative sir. If the
Nighthawk is here, we’d be able to see it with our advanced
scanner. But we’re not picking up any ships that match its
signature, or any sign that a ship is stealthed anywhere in the
system.”

“
So they’ve already left
then...” he rubbed his hands thoughtfully. Word had reached them
that Calvin and members of the Nighthawk’s crew—along with a few
unknown persons—had been positively identified on both the main
station orbiting Tybur and on Tybur itself. They’d chosen to use
fake identities that were flagged by Intel Wing and that had given
them away. The core collectors on the Waeju Canton had sent out the
encrypted alert. It had been brief out of necessity and so the
question remained what Calvin and the Nighthawk had been doing
here, and where they’d gone.

“
Can we positively identify
any of the alteredspace jump signatures as belonging to the
Nighthawk?” asked Nimoux.

“
No, sir. This system is so
heavily trafficked, and the Nighthawk’s mass is so similar to so
many other ships, it would be total guess work,” replied his ops
officer.

Nimoux hoped they wouldn’t be forced to
crunch the probabilities again and make another educated guess at
where Calvin went. They’d never catch him at that rate. No, this
time they had to do better.

“
Very well, then,” said
Nimoux. “Contact the safehouse on Waeju Canton.”

“
Aye sir,” replied the
ship’s pilot. It took him a minute to configure the appropriately
secure and discrete channels that allowed their signal to piggyback
off normal communications without being noticed by Tybur’s tight
security.

It took several minutes before a reply
came—as expected.

“
This is Mi-Cha,” a voice
came over the speaker.

“
Core collector Mi-Cha, this
is Captain Nimoux. You are ordered to relay all intelligence
gathered on the following subjects.” He then told his ops officer
to transfer the pictures and names of Calvin and what appeared to
be a shore party that had landed on Tybur for whatever
reason.

“
Message sent,” confirmed
the pilot.

Again they waited. When an appropriate
communications window opened up again, Mi-Cha replied. “The
subjects visited the Enclave. A bribed listener told us that they
are interested in something on Remus Nine. And are going there
now.”

There it was. Calvin’s destination. And what
an unusual place to be going… With any luck they could beat him
there. Nimoux was about to order the channel cut and an immediate
departure when another communique from Mi-Cha arrived.

“
The subjects were also
involved in a violent firefight with Khan soldiers and a member of
the Enclave—all of whom were killed. At least one of the subjects
was also killed. His corpse was found in the garbage chute on its
way to incineration. PFC Robert Clarke. That is all.”

The Khans? Of course Nimoux knew about them,
they were one of the most dirty-handed, pervasive, ubiquitous
criminal outfits in the galaxy. But what business would Calvin have
with them? Had he picked the fight? Or had it been bad luck that
he’d crossed paths with them? Nimoux wasn’t sure what to make of
this news—except to infer that Calvin’s hands were even dirtier
than he’d thought.

“
Cut the line. Then set a
pursuit course and calculate jump.”

“
Yes, sir.”

“
Lieutenant, once we’re
clear of Tybur’s listening outposts I want you to send the
following message to the rest of the task force.”

“
Aye, sir. Go
ahead.”

“
To all ships, converge on
Remus Nine. Coordinates will be provided. We will enter the system
in containment pattern bravo two. More instructions to follow. That
is all.”

His pilot nodded. “The message will transmit
as soon as we’re in alteredspace. We’ll be clear to jump in fifteen
seconds.”

“
Very good, Lieutenant. Jump
as soon as you’re able. Eighty-five percent potential for now and,
as soon as we’re clear of the DMZ, accelerate to one-hundred
percent.”

We’re not far
behind
.

***

The two soldiers responsible for disrupting
the Polarians’ religious service turned out to be Specialist
Alldroit and Staff Sergeant Patterson. Calvin recognized their
faces from seeing them around the ship but didn’t know either man
personally. He remained quiet as he observed Pellew’s
discipline.

“
... and this kind of
conduct is not acceptable from his majesty’s special forces, is
that clear?” Pellew ranted. The two men stood very rigid, faces
blank, as Pellew lectured each of them, leaning in very close to
their faces.

“
But, sir,” said Specialist
Alldroit.

“
You’d better have a damned
good reason for interrupting me,
specialist
.”

“
It’s just... are we even
really his majesty’s special forces anymore? I mean—working
alongside aliens. Hunted like dogs by our own people—”

“
You had the chance to leave
and you chose to stay,” snapped Pellew. “Is that not
correct?”

“
Aye, I did, sir. But that
was before I knew we were bringing aliens aboard ship.”

“
If you choose to serve in
this detachment you choose to accept all orders, and all
inconveniences, that come with them, you do
not
have the right to pick and choose
them as they come. Is that clear,
specialist
?”

“
Sir, yes, sir!”

“
And you,
Staff Sergeant
. I
am
especially
disappointed in you.”

Calvin folded his arms, continuing to watch
from several feet away. The way these two men held themselves so
still and attentive, hanging on Pellew’s every word and movement,
it was like Calvin wasn’t there at all.

“
Sir, with respect,” said
the staff sergeant. “Did you not yourself lead a mutiny against
Major Jenkins—”

“
That was for the good of
the ship and the mission,” Pellew cut him off.

“
Specialist Alldroit and I
were acting for the good—”

“
That’s bullshit and you
know it,” Pellew glared at the staff sergeant with narrow eyes.
“You and Alldroit were being intentionally disruptive. You wanted
to provoke a fight. You’re lucky the Polarians didn’t rip you apart
limb for limb... they could have, you know.
Easily
. You would have deserved it
too.”

Both men did a good job of hiding their
emotions. Their years of training had drained them of the instinct
to break down in the face of such intense scrutiny and
criticism.

“
You are both relieved of
duty and confined to the barracks until further notice. You will
have no contact with any of the Polarians,
ever
, from now on. Is that
clear?”

“
Sir, yes, sir!”

“
Anything you want to add,
Captain?” Pellew turned to Calvin.

Calvin maintained his frown as he looked
each of the disruptive soldiers in the eyes and showed his dismay.
“No.”

Pellew nodded. “Dismissed.”

The two men filed out and the door closed
behind them.

“
I wish there was a way to
make more of an example out of them,” said Calvin.

“
That seems rather
vindictive coming from you.”

“
I just don’t want any
future incidents,” said Calvin. “There is no good reason whatsoever
that humans and Polarians can’t co-exist peacefully.”

“
You’re right. But I can’t
punish these men any further, that would only anger them—and those
who sympathize with them—even more.”

“
Perhaps you’re right,” said
Calvin. But he still was upset that any of this had ever happened,
especially because he had given the Polarians explicit permission
to use the observation deck for their cultural rituals. “Maybe you
should have the men apologize to the Polarians in
person.”

“
I don’t think that would be
a very good idea,” said Pellew. “I think seeing their faces will
only provoke the Polarians and invite reprisals, and any apology
would seem forced and insincere. At best an empty
gesture.”

“
In that case, I will go see
Rez’nac myself and apologize. And, Pellew, this had better not
happen again.”

“
It won’t.”

***

Rez’nac proved more than understanding. He
showed more tolerance and forgiveness than Calvin would have, had
their positions been reversed.

“
They are young and
strangers to our ways,” said Rez’nac. “I accept your apology and
your promise that it will not happen again. Now I must go and
re-perform the rite.”

That was the extent of their conversation.
Calvin doubted the younger Polarians were as understanding and
magnanimous as Rez’nac, but so long as Rez’nac was their leader,
Calvin believed there would not be retribution. The problem was
over.

Calvin went to his office. And waited.

It had been nearly twenty-four hours since
his last contact with Rafael. His next communique was due any
minute. Calvin had locked the door as a precaution so no one would
interrupt him and discover who his intelligence source was. There
wasn’t much he could do to protect Rafael if Intel Wing were on to
him, but he’d do everything he could. That meant keeping Rafael’s
identity a secret from the mole on Calvin’s ship—whoever it
was.

The time came. But no transmission was sent
to the Nighthawk. No one connected to Calvin via secure channels.
He double checked his console and terminal, making sure it was in
good working order—it was.

Perhaps Rafael was
indisposed. Perhaps it wasn’t safe for him to transmit.
Very well, I’ll wait
.

Calvin took a deep breath and tried to
relax. He emptied his mind and tried to find solace in the vacant
silence. His chair creaked as he leaned back and listened to the
slight hum of air blowing through the vents.

Minutes passed. The waiting drove him crazy.
After fifteen minutes of trying to relax he resumed planning his
away mission to Remus Nine. He wanted to bring an adequate force
with him but knew that transport off the orbital station down to
the planet would be limited. And if he brought any Polarians, they
weighed more and that was a necessary consideration.

Hours went by. Calvin finalized most of the
details of the operation and sent orders electronically to Pellew
and other relevant department heads. Still no word from Rafael. By
now he was incredibly overdue. Calvin double-checked to see if he’d
somehow missed the call. He hadn’t.