Phoenix Rising: The Covenant (Phoenix Rising Infinitology Book 1)

by Angela Timms

  Joniel arrived on the Argo just moments before the Prince. Joniel turned to look at him quizzically. “I thought you were going back to the Palace?”

  The Prince smiled. “I did, well a MacPrince did. With Rennon’s help we have loaded my bio signature into our own unit and him with his trusty friend and loyal subject Joniel are now on route to the Palace in a shuttle. I am sorry for the subterfuge in the Council Chamber. I didn’t want anything overheard to be misconstrued. It had to be beyond doubt that I was going there and you were going here. I didn’t have time to discuss certain matters with them.” There was a bleep from the Prince’s communicator. “Here, you might as well see this. It’s a relay from the Unit.

  A hologram appeared above the Prince’s wrist which appeared to be the front window of a shuttle. The Prince spoke slowly and clearly. “Testing PA76894, respond when appropriate.”

  The Prince’s voice came back through the intercom on is wrist. “PA76894 responding. I am reporting on activity in the Council Chambers post your departure. The Chamber was completely destroyed by an incendiary bomb located in the Council Chambers. A secondary device supposedly located within one of the Council members detonated almost simultaneously. All Council members are deceased.”

  The Prince looked horrified. “No survivors?”

  The image moved from side to side. “No survivors. Explosions were reported within moments at sixteen locations around the galaxies equating to the sixteen locations of our official rooms. I as your decoy am still functional although I did have to diffuse a bomb which I found located in the aft cargo hold. I have retained it for inspection. We are requested to issue a statement on the hour. I am awaiting your instructions.”

  The Prince switched off the transmitter. He shut his eyes. “I have known those people for so many years. I can’t believe they are all gone. They might have been a right royal pain in the butt but they had to be, it was their job. I can’t see how the bombs got through our security system. That is more than worrying and truly devastating. Hopefully Rennon will have an idea after the debris is analyzed. I’m at a loss here.”

  Joniel looked down on the Prince and tried to smile. “You are doing your duty. You are still alive and we have hope. Let’s hope that this is an indication as to how important this information or whatever it is going to be is. By the way, what are you doing here?”

  The Prince brightened up. “Did I forget to mention I’m on the mission as well? Oh, must have been an oversight. I can fulfil my official function through the Mac Unit, I’ll be of more use here. I’m a soldier, not a diplomat.”

  Rennon came into the galley where they were standing talking. “Oh, you’ve arrived. My Prince I have arranged a room for you in the crew quarters. We have no finer rooms I’m afraid. Joniel, I believe you will make your own arrangements.” He smiled knowingly and Joniel gave him a playful glare. “News has reached us about the bombings. It is a great relief that you are still with us. It must have been a close thing.”

  The Prince shook his head thoughtfully. “Very close. Still, the show must go on. I assume we are on course and everything is in order.”

  Rennon smiled, clicked his heels together and saluted. “Yes My Prince.” The Prince furrowed his brow. “Are you being insolent?”

  Rennon laughed. “No, I just like the sound of it. My Prince.”

  The Prince shook his head. “Even in the darkest of moments you can lift the spirits. Still, better get on. Apparently I have a speech to record. I can record it, make mistakes and then upload the finished version to MacPrince. If I survive this I might just keep him on. Then he can do all my official engagements for me, well the boring ones anyway. Even the excellent cuisine on some planets does not make up for the hours of tedium. What is our E.T.A. at the planet?”

  Rennon looked down at his handheld terminal. “Two hours, fifteen minutes and thirty three seconds. We’ll be in orbit in a little under that time but there is a moon which we will have to navigate around to avoid being seen. I’ve scanned the planet with long range scanners. The planet seems to be devoid of much in the way of any kind of technology. The technology is all around it. It is surrounded by cloaked Follower craft.”

  The Prince shrugged. “So we have choices. We can go in and fight them all or we can teleport down to the planet’s surface and hope they don’t blow the planet out from under us. Or we can do both which I think is basically the plan agreed on so far unless anyone has any other ideas.”

  Rennon looked worried, put his terminal down and started clicking keys. “That is feasibly possible. It is not an eventuality I had logged into the outcome module. I will recalibrate it and see what comes up.” There was a pause while he clicked more keys. “Oh, well that can’t be good. There is a fifty percent chance that this is their preferred plan as they have a battle cruiser capable of the sort of firepower necessary to do that. So, what do we do?”

  The Prince thought for a moment. “Can they read through our cloak?” Rennon thought about it. “Possibly.”

  The Prince sat down. “So, how close can we get without being detected on their scanners?”

  Rennon clicked buttons. “Close enough for what?” There was no answer so he carried on clicking buttons.

  The Prince looked up. “Can a cloaked cruiser get close enough to blow that thing out of space before it realizes we are there?”

  Rennon looked at the screen. “It could but not without alerting the rest of the cruisers to our presence.”

  The Prince smiled. “I am assuming that. Do you still have that Dr Samson Mac Unit on board?”

  Rennon looked worried. “I do.”

  The Prince looked around the room. “Don’t worry, I’m not bringing this ship that close in. I know how attached you are to her. I’ve brought a fire ship along. She’s a D Class Battle Cruiser with retro shift and Eion Drive capability. I am proposing that we drop her out of the Eionisphere, blow the cruiser to pieces and she then jumps back out again. She may be destroyed, she may survive but the only pilot we would need would be the Mac Unit if you can reprogram it. If we lose the ship, we lose the ship. It will give them something to think about while we teleport down to the planet and see what we can find out. We can bring in the fleet to engage the cruisers that are positioned on the outer rim. By the looks of it they have committed their biggest cruisers to the center. A good move, just what I would have done. If the little guys can’t take us out we would be damaged when we got to the bigger cruisers behind. Of course the thought of having to deal with those cruisers is enough to intimidate even the stoutest soul.” Joniel took a deep breath. “Your plan is what precisely? I think I’d like it clarified.”

  The Prince looked around them. “I plan to jump the fire ship in and take out the planet buster. That ensures that we can’t lose the planet in one go and end up standing in mid space. Then I plan to bring in the attack force to keep the rest of the ships occupied. They will hopefully not realize why we took out the planet buster. It is after all the biggest ship with the greatest firepower and the only one that can get the range to hit our fleet while it is engaging the outer cruisers. While the fleet is engaged we’ll teleport down onto the planet and hopefully find what we are not supposed to. Have you scanned the planet for life forms?”

  Rennon looked gravely at the Prince. “I have, there is only one.”

  The Prince looked confused. “Do we have the range to find out anything about this individual?”

  Rennon looked down at his feet. “I have managed a long range bio scan utilizing a divisional relay teleported onto a nearby moon.”

  The Prince looked worried. “So, what is the problem? Who is it?”

  Rennon was looking at his screen. He took a deep breath and then faced the Prince. “This is about as accurate a scan as you can get considering the distances we are covering. Normally we would be unable to affect such a feat of engineering but in this case he is the only signature on the planet so it was a lot easier to pinpoint him. It also eliminates any possibili
ty that we were scanning the wrong person.”

  The Prince glared at him. “You are waffling which means that I’m not going to like what you are going to say. Who is he?”

  Rennon swallowed hard. “I have run the bio signature of the individual through the computer and the data base. As there was only one individual on the planet who is bipedal it made it easy to target him fairly easily of course. There are plenty of other signatures by the way, the place is teeming with animal and plant life. There is no doubt and the computer is ninety percent certain that the individual on that planet is related to you in some way. Now that we have access to medical notes and other information that you provided it is also possible to ascertain that he is the individual known as Erasimus Deck, the Founder of the Fallow Earth Organization. I took the liberty of contacting Nai and with a little device of his we managed to obtain a sample of the individual’s DNA. You are probably not going to like this as where I say relative of yours I mean close relative. It would have to be brother or father.”

  The Prince looked wildly at Joniel as if for assistance. “You have to be kidding me. Holy crap now I’ve got a problem. I’m sure the galaxies are going to love this little family reunion. Are you sure? Could you have made a mistake?”

  Rennon smiled. “Not so fast. What has brought us here is Erasimus’ diary. His intent was pure and the writings of the Fallow Earth Organization were very far removed from what we are seeing today. I think the opposite. I think this is what they are looking to cover up. It could be a whole change of direction for us. If you are the son, I’m going to guess son here of the original founding father that would give us a huge advantage. Particularly as we are planning to expose how the original texts have been corrupted.” The Prince thought for a moment. “Why didn’t they just kill him if they don’t want him found?”

  Rennon clicked on the terminal. “Because there is one commandment they rarely mention. It is a corruption of the original creed of not corrupting the mother earth. In their text it has been translated as not corrupting the “life giver”. I would assume they are taking that to mean their “Father” in a more literal sense. He is down there and by the looks of it he is without any form of communication. I have checked the archives now that I know what to look for. He disappeared about twenty five years ago. One day he was there, next he was eradicated from the records. I’m tracking him by the space he has left, not what I can find. There is a deletion which went through the whole computer system on exactly the same moment on exactly the same day. They took him out of existence and probably brought him here as they could not kill him. There is something specific about that planet and it took Nai’s technology to allow any equipment to enter it and more importantly get back.”

  The Prince looked at the screen. “So if we take him from the island or interfere in any way they will probably try to get us to kill him as they cannot. I would also put money on them hoping that somehow in any firefight the planet gets destroyed. It would then be an accident.”

  Rennon looked surprised. “Why do you think that?”

  The Prince smiled. “Oh, only a hunch but if they can manage to eliminate him they eliminate their only weakness. The one thing we aren’t taking into consideration here is that there is an individual in charge of the Followers. He would be severely challenged by the original founder. Erasimus can command them as he is their “Father”. They cannot corrupt the Father and they have not attempted to do so in their new texts so what he says must be incorrupt. They can’t kill him but they can fire at us and if he or the planet gets caught in the cross fire then they have adhered to their rules. If we speak to him they may well consider him corrupt and that may invalidate the clause that is keeping him alive.”

  Joniel breathed out swiftly. “I’ve got it. The word of the father, the gift of the father is the son. You are his son, his blood. Rennon, how many children did he have?”

  Rennon tapped into the archives. “Only the one but that child and the mother disappeared. As he was removed from the timeline so were the child and the mother. Again, I tracked them by the hole they left in the timeline.”

  Joniel looked relieved. “You are his heir. If anything happens to him do you think that you would inherit his position?”

  The Prince smiled. “Let’s go down there and ask him shall we? I’m totally confused here. So he disappeared twenty five years ago. The Followers appeared then but they already had a strong foothold which seems to have started before they arrived. I would guess via Fallow Earth. I have a father and my mother and I disappeared out of the timeline but I didn’t. Now come on, that is not only confusing, it is crazy.”

  Joniel went whiter than he already was. “You have to be kidding me. You are going to risk them using that planet buster on you?”

  The Prince raised an eyebrow. “No I’m going to continue with the original plan and send the fire ship in to take out the planet buster. I’m then going to take the rest of the fleet in to keep their ships occupied. I’m also going to bring the Mac Prince in on my flagship to act as a decoy. I would put money on them throwing their full arsenal at it to try to eliminate me before I get to my dear father. That leaves us free to go down to the planet and speak to him.”

  Joniel gasped. “You really do know how to come up with them don’t you? Ok so you put a MacPrince on there. They are going to detect no life signs. So I suppose I have some equipment to relocate for you.”

  The Prince smiled. “If you would be so kind to put that into effect after I’ve delivered a rousing speech. I suppose none of you are good at writing rousing speeches are you?”

  Rennon laughed. “We’ll fight for you, we’ll probably end up having to die for you but please do not ask us to write your speeches for you. That is one demand too many.”

  The Prince laughed too. “I thought as much but you can’t blame me for trying. Now, Joniel, you had better go and find Kyla as she won’t be best pleased if I send you off before you’ve had a chance to spend some time together. Rennon, I believe you have some programming to do. I’ve got a speech to write.”

  The door opened and Ma walked in. The Prince looked down at his shoes. “As if that isn’t enough now I’m going to get a lecture. I just know I am. It is good to see you again.”

  Ma smiled and crossed the room swiftly. She straightened his tie and dusted particles off of his shoulders. “Now what have I told you about being smart. Look at you Prince and all. I remember you when you were just a squaddie. This little one came into my troop really wet behind the ears. We soon knocked you into shape.”

  The Prince winced as she pulled a stray hair off of his jacket. “Knocked me out don’t you mean?”

  Ma smiled. “Only the once and you did deserve it. He was a right urchin. Once a child fresh out of the orphanage who was sent out onto the streets and into all manner of mischief over the years. He was sent to us as punishment for crimes sufficiently unlimited in his late teens. Look at my boy now though.” Ma looked around at the stunned faces. “Oh, I’m sorry, My Prince. Have I offended you?”

  The Prince smiled. “You have. Where is my hug? You saved my life enough times to be excused any form of official protocol and I wouldn’t dare try to enforce it on you anyway. Not now that you are retired.”

  Ma smiled. “Who said I was retired? If I’m retired where’s my pension? I’ve been on active service right through, covert ops mostly. After all, who would suspect a sweet little old lady? I wouldn’t tell me the plan, I’m not taking part but you could tell me what time to get dinner ready and don’t you dare be late.”

  The Prince looked down and smiled. “I wouldn’t dare.”

  The Renaissance appeared just within range of the Follower ship with planet buster capability. The Mac Unit that looked like Dr Samson was at the helm, the rest of the ship was on autopilot. His piloting capability was fully activated and his circuitry was more than capable of flying the entire ship without any assistance.

  He stood on the flight deck, a lone figure, standi
ng stock still with cables and wires plugged into ports on his neck, arms and hands. His eyes were shut, his personal motor functions shut down. All he could do was fly the ship at the command of Rennon who was in control of his operating system. Rennon was monitoring all functions of the ship. From the hologram of the crew to intercepting the Follower scanning device and projecting back the vital signs of a whole crew. His fingers flew over the keyboard, his eyes darting from left to right, taking it all in on the twenty or so screens he had open. He flicked from one to the next.

  As soon as the ship materialized he initiated the weapons to fire. Beams of light flared from the ports and the Eion Cannons blasted into the ship which had been completely caught unawares. Joniel’s adaptation of the drive capability had allowed it to jump to its location from a distance and a speed far greater than any scanner the ship had could have picked up. So it had literally leapfrogged the ship to arrive just before the planet buster.

  The battle cruiser with planet busting capability erupted in flowers of flame and fell out of orbit. It crashed into a second cruiser which also burst into flames and that in turn cannoned into a third.

  The cruisers turned their guns on the Renaissance and in unison they fired. It erupted in flames as thirty to forty Eion Cannons hit it simultaneously. Damage reports showed the ship could not jump away. Rennon activated the shielded thrusters and sent the burning ship careering into the enemy fleet. Ships tried to get out of the way but their close proximity meant there was nowhere to go. The burning Renaissance crashed at full thrust into the first ship and the momentum kept it and that ship going until they crashed into the next. Across the panoramic view ships were trying to evade the burning ships and in turn where their inexperienced pilots were unable to control them they ran into other ships. The result was far more successful than Rennon or the Prince could possibly have imagined. Ships began to jump into the corridors and very soon there were very few left in orbit around the planet. Those that were left were either badly damaged or attempting to make a final stand.