The Phoenix Conspiracy

by Richard L. Sanders

  "Contact the station and bring us within fifty thousand mc's of their operating range. Let's find out exactly what happened."

  "You got it," Sarah again spoke into her headset and Summers' gaze met Calvin's. Meeting his sharp eyes, which weren't as bloodshot as before, made her defensive—like he was challenging her. He didn't say anything, but she couldn't shake away the impression that he wanted to. She blinked and looked away.

  "Connected to the station's Deputy Administrator, General Hesso."

  General? Must be a marine base.

  "General Hesso here. Welcome to Iota, IWS Nighthawk. I'm afraid I'll have to make this brief but, as you can see, we have a lot of cleaning up to do."

  "I understand, sir," said Calvin. "I just want to know the details of the engagement."

  "You should direct those questions to Captain Anderson. She was in charge of our field response and led the counter action. She has more information than I do about the Harbinger's attack."

  “Where is she?”

  “Her starfighter is still deployed.”

  "Can you have her dock with my ship and come aboard?"

  "Affirmative, I'll give her the order. Now, is there anything else?"

  "Yes, one thing," said Calvin. "Did anyone from the Harbinger, at any point, go aboard your station or to the colony below?"

  "No. They arrived, blocked communications, engaged our ships, attacked the Rotham freighters, disabled one and destroyed two. Then you showed up and the Harbinger withdrew."

  "Can you give us the identities of those Rotham ships and any information you have on them? It would be very helpful to our investigation."

  "I'll send you what I can, but it isn't a lot. For some reason, someone above me has thoroughly classified everything, I can't make heads or tails of it. But I can at least get you the names of those ships."

  "What about their cargo."

  "I'll do what I can," the general said with a smile. He didn’t look hopeful.

  "Thanks," said Calvin. The transmission ended.

  “That was short and sweet,” said Sarah.

  Calvin nodded. “Begin a standard survey pattern, see what we can find. Especially comb that debris nice and well. When Captain Anderson comes aboard, send her to my office. Summers, you have the deck."

  Summers wasn't surprised by this. Calvin avoided being on the bridge like it was a disease.

  Chapter 18

  Captain Anderson arrived in no time. She was a thirty-something year old woman with curly dark hair wearing a minimally decorated flightsuit. She held her helmet tightly against her side in one hand and saluted with the other. He saluted back and waved for her to sit down. When she did, he got a closer look at her.

  Her eyes were steel grey and her face was firm and unbending; Calvin recognized her kind. A leader who meant business and wouldn't accept any grief for any reason. He wondered if Anderson and Summers would get along or if they'd see each other as rivals for tightass of the universe.

  "Captain Anderson reporting as ordered, sir."

  "Thank you, Captain, please take a seat."

  She did and somehow managing to look less comfortable sitting than standing.

  "I understand you were in charge of the action against the Harbinger. I have a few questions."

  "Yes, sir."

  "Who fired first?" Calvin paid close attention to her eyes, wanting to make sure she was completely honest with him.

  "We did. We had orders from the top to follow a shoot-on-sight policy." She didn't hesitate. In fact, she didn't seem bothered at all. She was an officer doing her duty and felt no need to apologize for it. Calvin doubted she was knowingly involved in any kind of conspiracy, if there was one.

  "Walk me through the whole engagement."

  "The ship showed up at about 0400 L.T. and six million mc's out with a basic heading and speed, similar to a Winske approach."

  "Toward the base?" asked Calvin who, not being a pilot anymore, wasn't sharp on his maneuvers.

  "Yes, the Harbinger immediately activated its communication dampening technology and then flew directly toward the base where three Rotham ships were in a holding pattern. They'd just left the dock, you see, and were preparing to clear the system and jump to whatever their destination was. This was all scheduled."

  "Do you know what their destination was?"

  "No, that was classified."

  Calvin frowned, he'd expected that. "Go on."

  "When the Harbinger arrived, we had five sentry ships on a basic patrol pattern with three corvettes as support and that's all. The ships were in a cluster pattern supporting each other, so they couldn't cover a lot of area. I made that call, because knowing the Harbinger's firepower I felt that, individually, these ships were no match for it."

  "Makes sense."

  "I wish the General had been as understanding," Anderson said. Calvin resisted smiling, the ground forces always seemed to hate being subject to navy commanders for interstellar defense. "Anyway, the problem was that, when the Harbinger arrived, our defense force was patrolling the wrong side of the station. The Harbinger was able to close most of the distance before our ships could get around the planet and intercept it. By then, it was too late to cut through its shields and disable its engines, given the weak firepower of the corvettes and sentry ships. These aren't capital ships, sir. They just don't have the punch you need to get through those shields."

  Calvin was more than familiar with the relative firepower of basic starships, but he humored her by not interrupting.

  "So we scrambled our fighter divisions hoping to distract the Harbinger long enough for the Rotham ships to escape. They began an orderly and speedy retreat but we were outmatched."

  "Is it your opinion," asked Calvin, "that the Harbinger knew about your position and chose to enter the system from the best angle to avoid your defense patrol?"

  She was silent for a few seconds. "No. My pattern was whatever I thought of at the moment, random and unplanned. I don't like committing to maneuvers on paper for exactly the reason you suggest."

  "Sometimes even the bad guys get lucky," said Calvin.

  "But I think the Harbinger deliberately arrived right when the Rotham ships were scheduled to leave."

  Calvin agreed, but wanted to hear her reasoning. "Please explain."

  "The Harbinger headed straight for the Rotham ships and opened fire, like it knew they were there before arriving. I expected the freighters to be destroyed within seconds but, and this is strange, the Rotham pilots performed an evasive maneuver. A military pattern. With more skill than I would have suspected from civilian crews. And when they did take hits, their shields and armor took a beating consistent with modern corvettes. Much more than I'd expect from freighters."

  Calvin smiled. This further supported his hypothesis that the ships were carrying something important, and that they shared a common link.

  "Two ships were destroyed," said Calvin. "But the third Rotham ship survived."

  "The third managed to get a bit further away and there was a kind of cat and mouse exchange. They moved in and out of our station's defenses for protection, looking for an opening to jump from the system but the Harbinger kept edging it out and closing that window. Eventually the ship was disabled. Then you showed up and the Harbinger withdrew."

  "Is it your opinion the Harbinger was unable to destroy the third Rotham ship?"

  "No, the Harbinger had more than enough firepower and opportunity. It was deliberately disabled and then ignored. I have no idea why."

  "Do you know what its cargo is?"

  "No."

  "Let me guess... classified?"

  "Affirmative."

  “Anything else strange stand out about this engagement?” he asked.

  “Yes, one other thing,” she said. “I don’t believe the Harbinger meant to cause any permanent injury to Imperial property or personnel.”

  This also didn’t surprise Calvin. “Go on.”

  “The Harbinger tried not to e
ngage us. It did everything it could to out-maneuver us. Give us bad shots. It spent most of its energy boosting its shields and thrusters. The only casualties we took were a few fighters. But it's really hard to disable something as small as a fighter without blowing it up. I don't think the Harbinger shot at our fighters except when it absolutely had to, to protect its engines. I expect you know that some fighters, like most missiles, can slip through alternating shields?"

  "I do."

  "That was something we tried. But the dreadnought’s perimeter guns wiped out anyone who got too close. As long as we stayed outside its shields, however, no one was harmed. In total, fifteen fighters were lost and twenty-eight personnel were killed in addition to thirty-two others who sustained injuries."

  "What about damage inflicted on the Harbinger?"

  "Negligible."

  “Thank you, Captain, you’re dismissed.”

  She saluted and left. When she did, Calvin decided it was time to check in with his staff. But first—

  He connected to Grady Rosco’s private line. "Have you got anything new for me, Grady?"

  "Yeah a few people were persuaded into telling us who some of the fellas were that Raidan's team met with. We used their descriptions and ID’d a few of them. Mostly they were who we thought, ex-Imperials. But one of them was a guy named Yanal Kemmer. A hotel tycoon from Capital World who was here incognito. He transferred a very large sum of money to Raidan's team. And I mean very large. Like a billion q. We just checked through some of our... lesser known... you could call them 'banks', and it's true, that kind of money was moved through here about that time."

  So now Raidan had a real motive for going to Aleator. He needed funding. Perhaps that was the purpose of the whole visit? Calvin honestly couldn't hazard a guess yet one way or the other. He wrote down the name Yanal Kemmer to research later. "So where is Yanal Kemmer now?"

  "Vanished. I think he left the same time as the Harbinger. Nobody matching his description went aboard their shuttle but that doesn't mean he didn't go with them. Wherever he is, he isn't on Aleator now. I'm more than sure."

  "So did you find out anything about CERKO?"

  "Yeah, we nabbed a guy, the only survivor. And we got a little from him. He needed some encouragement too but eventually he talked."

  Calvin knew what Grady meant. Calvin also knew that information extracted from torture was occasionally useful but often unreliable. People would say anything to stop the pain, even if they didn't know anything. Torture led to more bad information than anything else in the business, but try telling that to a Rosco.

  "CERKO is being organized by someone outside the group's leadership. They're being paid to take jobs mercenary style and paid a lot. Not just in q but in weapons and equipment. They've been organized into cells and given discreet orders to do specific tasks. The guy here had never met or spoken with whoever's organizing this. Each CERKO member in a cell reports to a handler and gets assignments and pay from him. We don’t know the name of this guy's handler, but we did confirm his cell was equipped, hired, and transported to Aleator to kill you. And that the hit came from someone outside of CERKO."

  So someone wanted him dead and it wasn't CERKO, though CERKO was more than happy to pull the trigger for the right price. Calvin also found it interesting that a protest group turned terrorist had now turned mercenary. Were they that desperate for cash or was someone planting a false flag? "I need to find out who's organizing them," said Calvin. "See if you can get the handler's name."

  "Can't help you there, sorry."

  "What do you mean?"

  "I mean our source is dead. We were trying to get the handler's name when he keeled over, just like that."

  And that was the other problem with torture. And though it may have been effective at getting something, it ultimately prevented them from getting everything.

  "Well, thanks for what you did find out," said Calvin. "We're square now."

  "Are you kidding?” asked Grady. "This is all just trying to make it up to you that you were attacked in my house. We haven't even begun to repay the favor we owe you."

  Calvin expected that answer and decided it wasn't worth arguing. "In that case I'd like you to look into a guy named Titus Antony. He was on Aleator One using the alias ‘Jacobi’ when I was there. I played a card game at the Rodeo Den and one of the dealers seemed to know him. That dealer looked like—” Calvin thought back. “He was male, tan skin, mid-forties, large physique, about one-point-eight meters tall, short brown hair, big round face… that’s all I remember. He seemed to know Titus as Jacobi, and I’m looking for any connection between Titus and CERKO. That dealer may have been involved.”

  “No problem, Calvin. Any particular reason why Titus is that interesting?”

  “He died saving my life.”

  “Ah. Well then, I’ll see what I can do.”

  "Thanks." Calvin closed the comm and left his office.

  Chapter 19

  When he entered the bridge, Calvin took the command position from Summers.

  “Yesterday I gave some of you intel assignments and now I want updates,” he said.

  "I have to remind you," said Summers, "that our mission is to assist in finding and capturing the Harbinger and anything else, including a detailed investigation of what Raidan's been trying to do, is off-mission."

  If Calvin didn't know better he'd almost think Summers was in on it at some level, that she didn't want Raidan's true motives known. After all, it seemed like if there were a conspiracy, the Fleet had to be compromised to some degree. How hard would it be to buy off one more officer, plant her on the pursuing ship, and encourage her to disrupt his investigation? Curtail his efforts and keep an eye on him. It was only logical.

  But he saw through Summers enough to know she was a hardened duty zealot, which meant she had too much integrity to be bought off or coerced. If she were someone's tool, which Calvin thought likely, she wasn't even aware of it.

  "Investigation is what we do here in Intel Wing," said Calvin. "And every scrap of information we can get our hands on will get us that much closer to finding and capturing Raidan. If we know what his motives are then we can predict his behavior." Calvin was mostly speaking hot air. The more he learned, the less he wanted to trap Raidan. And he still had a commitment to the Royal Family—or, at least, to Kalila Akira—not to bring Raidan in, for now.

  Summers' eyes narrowed; she saw through his thin layer of excuses and he knew it. But he didn’t really care.

  "Thank you, Commander, for your pointless reminder." He cleared his throat and avoided making eye-contact with her. “About those intel assignments, I'll give you a few minutes to collect your notes and organize your thoughts if you need them. When you're ready, let me know."

  "I'm ready," said Miles.

  "OK good," said Calvin. "Now, your task was to look into Tristan and find out everything you can."

  "Yeah, and I got nothing."

  "OK that's not so good."

  "I did my best. I searched every database, the network, everything. Tristan as a general search pulled up too many results, but tagging the name with lycan, werewolf, remorii, anything else pulled up too few. I couldn't get anything from the rotham either. They gave me some police files from Aros Five, but nothing stood out. My guess: Tristan lied to you. Either that or the Rotham already whitewashed the files. Without more information to go on, I'm at a dead end. I'm sorry, Cal."

  Calvin nodded. "Okay," he said. He wasn't too surprised. Tristan still was as big a mystery as anything else. "What about the Remus System? How are the remorii getting off it?"

  "I'm not sure. Once the Empire cracked down on Remus they surrounded the system with mines and left everyone there. No trials, no investigations, no sentences. Anyone still alive was just left there. Their fate is listed as unknown, presumed dead. Remus has even been removed from most starcharts; the whole area is flagged as a hazardous Do-Not-Fly-Zone. How any of the remorii escaped is beyond our Intel Wing files. And
unless we find someone who was there, I don't think we’ll ever know."

  "OK," said Calvin. "Anyone else ready? What about you, Shen? Find out anything useful about the ships Raidan destroyed?"

  "Yes," said Shen. "But my impression is that, instead of being classified, a lot of the info publicly available about these ships is just fiction. They're all owned by the same company, a corporation that operates across Rotham and Imperial space called..." he stared at his computer and read what was certainly a very butchered pronunciation. "Yut'hama'za... it's a mishmash of the Rotham words for Service and Excellence. It's a pretty small freight company that hasn't attracted much attention. Supposedly they've operated for about ten years and have delivered ten thousand shipments from Rotham space to Imperial space, but the earliest shipment I could actually verify was only a few months ago. The simple explanation is that, if the deliveries were to some of the smaller colonies, like in The Corridor or along The Rim, they might not keep data on shipments for more than a few months.

  “But I couldn't get anyone to give me a specific list of places these shipments went or what they were. Just a figure from customs that agreed the company had exported about eleven thousand convoys of cargo. At an estimated worth of 87 billion q. The company doesn't export anything from the Empire, it just brings in imports. All of its buyers are wholesale distributors that are privately owned."

  "So who was buying the cargo Raidan destroyed?"

  "Kemmer Associated Goods, they—"

  “Tell me everything you found out about them,” said Calvin. The Roscos had mentioned Yanal Kemmer only moments ago. The tycoon who'd given Raidan a fortune on Aleator.

  “Kemmer Associated Goods was started by the Kemmer family almost a hundred years ago but, recently, they sold the company to MXR at a loss."

  Calvin raised an eyebrow. "How much of a loss?"

  "About two-thirds of the stock's value. Still an enormous fortune, but less than they could have gotten, especially since the company was making strong profits. I couldn't find any kind of public statement from them explaining why they sold. All I know is that the whole family sold out and then spread their new fortunes into all kinds of new, random investments. Real estate, car factories, environmentally-friendly technology, medical research, charity. They just kind of went their separate ways. Most people on the nets think there was some kind of family dispute and they couldn't keep it together so they sold out while the going was good."