The Phoenix Rising

by Gary Caplan

  “Commodore Avery, I have detected a potential environmental problem, and it is likely part of larger ruse to distract our security teams. We will need to send some maintenance crew, along with an explosives and toxic substance removal team. I will instruct the team personally. I will also be making contact with my home world, so keep any nonessential communication to a minimum.”

  “Yes, Your Grace, you have no alpha graded communications waiting,” replied Brandon, looking quizzically at the Karratin’s image on his computer interlink display. He wondered how the Karratin had detected this problem.

  C HAP TE R 6

  THE ADMIRALSBOARD

  About thirty minutes before the board meeting, a security officer met Fleet Captain Robert Sheppard at his quarters. Sheppard was in full dress uniform for this occasion. The alliance dress uniform had a longer and more tuxedo-like jacket but was otherwise similar to the duty uniform.

  The security officer informed Sheppard he would be receiving a formal promotion to commodore as well a medal for valor in combat. He had been on Star One for seven days now and had already done some preliminary investigation as to what starship he would select as his new command vessel. Ranks of fleet captain and above received some selection privileges.

  Just outside one of the mag-rail stops for the headquarters complex, his old friend Commodore Brandon Avery met him at the mag-rail station. Brandon still looked fit, though he was getting some more white in his auburn hair. His green eyes had a cautious look.

  “I thought I should escort you personally, now that you will soon have the same rank as I,” stated Brandon.

  “It’s kind of you to come and meet me like this, Brandon,” replied Sheppard. He looked around at some of the other people nearby.

  28 “Bob, you deserve the promotion for your exploits during your recent tour of duty,” Avery said. “You should be commended after you and Fleet Captain Larthe drove a wedge into the Viridian fleet.”

  Sheppard nodded, thinking back on the past few years. “I heard you took over when Commodore Pilat was on medical leave and had to go to the med center,” continued Brandon. He also commended Sheppard for, more recently, leading his own and four other task forces to a tactical victory, in addition to reclaiming an area of Alliance of Worlds space from the Viridians.

  Sheppard said, “Command of several task forces came easy to me, and I had good officers to work with. The whole thing was strange— that battle near the mining station and, not long afterward, the incident with the Starbase 301. Most of the problems all seemed to stem from overzealous Viridian leaders, and unfortunately those commanding at the time were supposedly killed in battle. It’s like fighting individual warlords.”

  Sheppard knew that few of Alliance of Worlds’ largest ships were needed to patrol the borders, as the Viridian worlds did not generally possess the level of technology or shipyards necessary to build extremely large starships. Alliance battlecarriers and dreadnaughts, however, were close to five kilometers in length. Moreover, the Viridian would not win against the full might of the Alliance if it came to a full war as opposed to the occasional border skirmish.

  “Now I’ve heard that Commodore Pilat, along with a few of our and their diplomats, has finally signed a standard nonaggression treaty,” stated Avery.

  Sheppard nodded as they passed into another checkpoint and had to identify themselves. Security officials examined their identification, and performed both retinal and DNA scans.

  Sheppard and Brandon proceeded into the meeting complex.

  “That treaty is no coincidence, Bob,” replied Brandon. “With the Varlon expanding again, our diplomats were dispatched about the same time you were on your way to Star One. Prime Minister Desserix wanted it arranged, and Chief of Staff Orlond helped accomplish the treaty process. Now we can move some ships to other duties and refit a few as well. I’ve heard that the Viridians generally have a reasonable sense of honor and most likely will not break the treaty.”

  “At least not until they have a major government change, which hopefully won’t be for several years from now,” commented Sheppard.

  “It’s also good for us that the Varlon, with their xenophobic ways, don’t have ties with the Viridian—or the Meiosian, for that matter. By the way,” Avery said, “the Meiosian have also been persuaded, with the help of a territory grant, to sign a nonaggression treaty with us.”

  “That’s good news, as the Alliance can concentrate on holding the Varlon back,” replied Sheppard.

  The two entered a series of hallways and were joined by a few other officers. When they got to the actual meeting area, for security purposes both were required to submit to DNA scans again for identification verification.

  “That’s a bit extreme,” Sheppard said.

  Brandon shook his head. “Not if you consider that some of the problems we’re having are due to a morphic species not well known by the Alliance of Worlds; however, I’ve been told the Karratins and the Estrians know of them and have been informing us of how to take precautions,” he said.

  After entering the rather large meeting chamber, Sheppard noted a few Alpha- and Delta-class androids assisting security. The large, non-sentient Deltas were basically robots with weapons, and they were sometimes used as heavy armored security.

  Looking around the room, Sheppard noticed an old family friend talking to one of the sentient and humanoid-appearing Alphas: Fleet Admiral Nigel Braddock. He was another fellow human from Earth and a good friend to both Robert Sheppard and his Star Knight father, Allan. Sheppard had known Nigel Braddock for several decades. To his friends, Braddock was jokingly known as Mister Stasis, because he had spent so much of his life in suspension of one kind or another, since the mid-twenty-first century, until he acquired various anti-aging and rejuvenation procedures from the Karratins.

  Braddock looked in Sheppard’s direction and moved toward him with a hand outstretched for a handshake, a traditional Earth greeting.

  “Good to see you, Bob. And you too, Brandon.” Braddock shook both men’s hands in a formal greeting. He was an older gentleman, clean cut, with dark brown hair lined with many streaks of gray. He had blue-gray eyes.

  Sheppard knew Nigel was much older than he appeared; he had been born in the 1990s, in Scotland, on Earth. By using combinations of everything from early cryo-stasis devices and anti-aging formulas to genetic alteration, tissue regeneration, even temporary cybernetic replacement, Nigel had managed to keep alive.

  Nigel was an engineer and businessman; he was also president of BradCorp, a diversified company building starships and robots, and similar devices. He even had helped design a line of sea and space ships for SEDA—the Sea Exploration and Defense Association—including one called the Oceania-class cruiser, which was also used by the Alliance of Worlds. He was now in the Star Command section because of his reserve status, which had begun when he joined TERRASEC, the Terran Space Exploration Council. Later, when that organization merged with the Alliance of Worlds, Braddock continued an intermittent affiliation. He found it a beneficial one, as three centuries ago Earth had been one of the founding planets of the Alliance of Worlds.

  “Well, it’s good to see you,” Sheppard told his old friend.

  “I heard you had an accident,” stated Commodore Avery.

  “Yes, a saboteur tried to blow up a section of one of my starship refit stations, and I happened to be in it,” replied Braddock. “Luckily, it was one of my own facilities, and I have good security systems and sensors. My droids had detected advanced warning signs, and the explosion was contained partially with force fields. The saboteur’s ship escaped using some sort of masking technology similar to what the Varlon use. Afterward, fortunately, we didn’t lose much data, as some old holographic data crystals were used as backup for the facilities information.”

  “We’re glad you’re alive and well, Admiral,” Avery said, “although you’re not the only one using the old holographic data crystals as backup storage. We have had to implement
that at security central as a result of recent data losses to some of the station’s primary memory systems.”

  “Yes indeed, it’s good you were not personally harmed,” added Sheppard. “Now what are you doing here, sir? I thought you had a command in the engineering branch when you do your reserve time.”

  “Usually I do,” Braddock said. “However, due to the loss of command staff, I have been reassigned to an active command section. I do have experience in fleet command, though not as much as I would like, considering the problem we’re likely to face. You may not be aware of this, but I have been informed the Varlon are again charging forward and looking to take new territory.”

  Sheppard said, “I have some knowledge, and Avery here has informed me of some things as well. I understand part of today’s meeting will be a briefing, preceded by a promotion session. It seems I will be receiving another star cluster.”

  “May I be one of the first to congratulate you on your promotion to commodore, Bob,” Braddock said.

  Just then, Prime Minister Desserix and Chief of Staff Orlond walked into the meeting hall. Sheppard watched as they moved to the central area.

  “There will be some notables here today for a short period of time,” Brandon said. “The Betellians have sent their Ambassador Veisse, who is also one of their admirals. He will be giving a presentation at this briefing. Since the Betellians are here only briefly and may not likely get a longer opportunity to meet with our prime minister separately, the PM decided to come here personally.”

  Sheppard looked around the large room. Several other officers had entered, many of whom were non-human. Some required atmospheric modification and had small devices attached near their breathing orifices. Desserix himself belonged to the Rigezon Alliance another founder of the Alliance of Worlds.

  The Rigezon had been in space somewhat longer than the people from Earth, perhaps by two centuries, and they were fair and generally honorable. The Rigezon were essentially an avian or birdlike people; they had a remnant wing structure but were flightless. All were highly pigmented, mostly in blue or greenish shades, occasionally mixed with oranges and browns.

  Sheppard saw the prime minister’s chief of staff in the hall already. He remembered that Orlond was from the Epsilon Four Confederation, who had also joined the Alliance of Worlds as one of the founding members. They were humanoid in general structure and had light orange-colored skin. Orlond’s people had been spacefarers for a few centuries now, about as long as the Terrans of Earth.

  Others were arriving—a few grand admirals, fleet admirals, vice admirals, and commodores of many different racial groups that comprised the Alliance. A few were humans. Sheppard recognized an old acquaintance, Commodore Tang, whose great grandparents originally came from China, on Earth. Some were here for a briefing and a few for both a promotion and the briefing, like Sheppard.

  Two war-droids were stationed inside the conference hall. The hall itself was large enough for three hundred persons, but approximately a hundred were here today. The oval room had two circles of concentric tables, each with information displays. There was also a head table section close to the speaker’s platform where the most senior personnel would sit, and the rest of the inner circle was for high-ranking officers. The inner circle was arranged with one table for each grand admiral and those fleet and vice admirals in his group. Sheppard and any other commodores or fleet captains invited would be in the outer ring, where other lesser dignitaries would also sit.

  Desserix and Orlond were at the head table, along with Defense Minister Narthag and Interior Minister Preston. The Betellian, Veiss, arrived and made his way, along with two others of his people, to the head table.

  The Betellians walked very gracefully to the head table with their unique, three-legged walk. They were non-humanoid, with red to orangeish-brown skin. They had trilateral symmetry, with three arms, three legs, and a three-sided, largish head, and were about two meters tall. They were known for having psychokinetic and telepathic abilities. A few were Star Knights, but none was in Sheppard’s present Star Knight order. For communication, most Betellians utilized a crystalline translator that produced a voice that spoke in the established language of the Alliance of Worlds. They used this device to avoid invading others’ privacy telepathically.

  Shortly after he had arrived, Sheppard had seen one of the Betellian ships with its trans-dimensional drive appear. No doubt, the Betellians sent a representative to arrange the particulars for this meeting. The representative had to be sent as it was determined that at least one of the Alliance’s main encryption codes was compromised, and communications could be deciphered. The coded communications problem was probably an inside espionage, according to snippets Avery had revealed in a specially secured conversation with Sheppard earlier in the week just after Sheppard disembarked from the Endeavour and was assigned officers quarters for his section at Star One

  Sheppard and Avery moved to sit at a table with their identifiers flashing on the personal information panel. The meeting would start soon; Fleet Admiral Braddock moved to the inner circle of tables and sat next to Fleet Admiral Renhau and Grand Admiral Pendragon. Sheppard noted the lack of high-ranking officers seated at the inner tables and realized what Brandon had been saying about assassination targets.

  Lord Garfield passed behind Sheppard on his way forward, nodded to him, and sent a quick telepathic greeting. He was one of Robert Sheppard’s professors at the Academy, and he was also a fellow Star Knight, although in a different order. Sheppard noted that his former instructor looked pleased with himself. Garfield moved toward the inner circle and sat at the table to the right of the head table.

  Fleet Admiral Peregrine, who would be one of the primary speakers, made an entrance dressed in the formal Alliance of Worlds uniform of dark blue with sections of white trim. The admiral had many medal and campaign ribbons, and he was generally thought to be a physically striking member of the Rigezon people. Peregrine was considered one of the Alliance of Worlds’ best tacticians and was one of the few admirals Sheppard actually admired. Years ago, Sheppard had first served with Fleet Captain Peregrine after his promotion to lieutenant commander. Sheppard also had later served under then-commodore Peregrine as the starfighter wing commander of the battlecruiser Valiant, assigned to one of Peregrine’s task forces. Peregrine once had even turned down a promotion in order to stay out in deep space.

  Now Fleet Admirals Peregrine’s fleet, the Third Fleet, had returned from a tactical engagement with the Varlon. It had not had a positive result; however, most present knew that most of the other fleet commanders would probably have fared worse against the Varlon.

  Sheppard noticed that the room seemed to be quieting, especially after the Betellian Admiral Veiss and Admiral Peregrine entered the hall.

  Minister Narthag, of the feline peoples of Kyz and the Alliance’s present minister of defense, went up to the podium. “I am honored to be able to begin this meeting,” he said. “I realize that these monthly meetings do not usually have quite as many guests, nor does this group usually hold a promotions ceremony in conjunction with an informational meeting. However, some of those present for both the information in this briefing and for promotion will be leaving the Star One soon. I have been informed that this particular meeting is secure, and no problems such as happened at one of these meetings a few months ago should occur here. I am confident that we are very secure today.”

  Sheppard noted that the minister looked at Garfield and Veiss at that point.

  “Now, if you will be patient, we have some awards to present,” Minister Narthag said.

  Sheppard sometimes got slightly embarrassed by being given a medal for doing his job. The defense minister asked several officers to come forward to receive medals, and eventually he got to Sheppard.

  “For valor at the Viridian front and the battle in the system of Hedga Five,” Narthag said.

  Sheppard thought back briefly to the events that surrounded him saving the valuable m
ining facility, its crew, and the mining transports. He walked up and received the embellished medal bar signifying valor, to go along with the several other awards he had already been given. Sheppard recalled that he had actually effectively been in command of an group assault of five task forces for most of the battle until the commanding commodore arrived, and when his own ship’s communication system and main drive were damaged, he took a Valkyrie-class starfighter into battle to command from the battlefront while continuing to direct the larger vessels. It was actually something he had learned partly from Admiral Peregrine.

  After things settled down again, the defense minister asked that, in order to speed things along, those who were to be promoted were to receive their promotions from the officers in their fleet chain of command superior to them now. Minister Narthag then sat down and waited as several admirals got up and moved to those to be promoted. Sheppard received his second star cluster and was officially promoted to commodore, by Grand Admiral Pendragon, as Fleet Admiral Whyte who had been assassinated, and Vice Admiral Wainright who had an accident that had probably been arranged somehow by assassins were not there to perform the promotion. Applause followed for a brief time, a salute to the Alliance of Worlds’ flag followed, and the informational briefing began.

  Grand Admiral Jeroloh, who was chairing the informational meeting, stood up and welcomed everyone and then introduced the speakers of the panel, who included admirals Veiss, Garfield, and Peregrine. First, the admirals dealt with some old business.

  During the few minutes that fleet deployment reports were given, and any logs to be transferred from personal commlinks to others officers were encrypted and sent, Sheppard was lost in thought about the battles that had earned him this recent medal. He had no presentation duties, so he merely watched. The usual board activities were shortened and some omitted in light of the security situation, the special ministerial guests, and unusual briefings to be given today.