The Phoenix Crisis (53 page)

Calvin scrambled into the front seat of the
cockpit and began prepping the fighter for launch. Rafael climbed
into the back seat and, once his head was clear, he sealed the
cockpit. The soldiers on the ground opened fire at the starfighter
but even their biggest weapons—fifty caliber—didn’t punch through
the ship’s armor.

“
Now it’s time to see what
this pretty lady can do,” said Calvin. He fired the
thrusters.

***

Kalila sat at the center of the shuttle’s
cockpit. Her pilots flew the ship but she was in charge. As the
shuttle cleared the outer atmosphere and broke free from the
planet, plunging them into the black ocean of space, she could make
out several lights glowing in the distance. Ships in battle
formation.

“
We are being hailed by the
ISS Andromeda,” said Glenn Hayes, the shuttle’s main
pilot.

“
On speakers,” said
Kalila.

“
ISS Andromeda to all
approaching vessels, power down your engines and prepare to be
boarded. Refuse and be fired upon.” The message
terminated.

“
What do we do?” asked Glenn
Hayes. He was a civilian pilot. No doubt he wasn’t used to defying
orders from a warship, especially one so fierce as the Andromeda.
But the Andromeda’s terms were unacceptable. Kalila would rather
die than be taken. Especially since, if she was taken, she’d almost
certainly die anyway. And not half so swiftly or
painlessly.

“
Stay the course,” she said.
Her voice firm. “And tell the other ships to do the same.” Her
shuttle led a small convoy of civilian craft fleeing the planet.
All of the ships carried members of the Akira family and their
sympathizers. “And tell the Black Swan to double its
pace.”

“
Yes, Princess.”

She knew she could still count on the
loyalty of Captain Adiger. The Black Swan was a decent match for
the Andromeda in terms of sheer strength, and the King’s own
dreadnought—the ISS Victory—the mightiest ship in the galaxy—was at
port nearby, and doubtless still loyal to the Akira House.
Unfortunately there were dozens, even hundreds of other ships in
Capital System, including warships of all sizes. And Kalila could
not be sure which of them were still loyal, and which would fire on
her and her allies. She trusted none of them.

“
Make for the Black Swan,”
she’d ordered her shuttle and convoy. “Dock with that ship. No
nearer ship can be trusted.”

“
Princess, there is a
starfighter emerging from the planet. It has matched course with us
and is accelerating to intercept,” said Margaret Hatch, the
co-pilot.

“
One of ours?” she asked.
Wondering if her shuttle could reach the Black Swan’s firing range
before the fighter was upon them.

“
The fighter’s pilot is
identifying himself. It’s Mister Cross.”

Kalila felt a wave of relief. She’d worried
for Calvin, had wanted him to escape the planet. But in that
moment, when all their plans had failed, there’d been no means and
no time to find and extract him. She’d been forced to leave him to
his own devices. Apparently that had been sufficient. Perhaps this
meant he’d get the chance to explain to her, face to face, why he’d
failed to deliver the evidence of the conspiracy like they’d
planned. “Tell the Black Swan to mark that starfighter as friendly.
I don’t want it getting shot down.”

“
At once,
Princess.”

“
Inbound shuttles abort your
approach,” transmitted the ISS Andromeda. “This is your final
warning.”

“
Ignore them,” said
Kalila.

The view out the window
flashed bright for a second and an explosion erupted off their port
bow. Far enough from the convoy shuttles to not cause anything but
superficial damage, but the message from the Andromeda was
clear.
We could destroy
you
.

“
Princess, the Andromeda has
fired a warning shot. Shall I power down our engines?” asked Glenn
frantically.

“
I said stay the course,
Mister Hayes!” Kalila snapped.

“
There’s another ship on our
scopes, bearing one-zero-two-mark-six,” said Margaret. “Small
frigate, weapons armed. It’s on an intercept course with the
convoy. Firing range in thirty seconds…it’s the IWS Desert
Eagle.”

That was Lafayette Nimoux’s ship… would a
hero such as him truly fire on the princess and her convoy? She
doubted it. But then again, she’d been surprised by his damning
testimony against Calvin before the Assembly.

“
The Black Swan is launching
fighters to bring us in,” said Glenn.

As the mighty black dreadnought and its
fighters moved rapidly to close the distance, desperately rushing
to protect the vulnerable shuttle convoy, the Andromeda and its
flotilla of warships moved directly in between. Forming up in an
aggressive posture. Kalila had no military experience, she didn’t
know if it was possible for her ships to get around the flotilla,
but she had to believe. Had to have faith. Even in the shadow of
the darkest of moments.

“
The Andromeda is firing,”
said Margaret. The view lit up again and Kalila was forced to
squint.

“
What happened?” she asked,
once the flash was gone.

“
Princess…” Glenn looked as
though he was at a loss for words. “The Andromeda… it fired on the
Lavender Fox…”

“
And?” asked Kalila, feeling
a knot in her throat. She had cousins and friends on that
shuttle.

“
The shuttle’s been
completely destroyed…”

“
Shall I power down our
engines?” asked Margaret.

“
No,” said Kalila. “Live or
die… we stay the course.” The slaughter of members of the Akira
House would not stand. Neither would the usurpation of the
government. Those responsible would pay for this. She swore
it.

“
The Desert Eagle is nearly
upon us—” said Margaret.

Kalila tightened and
untightened her fists. Knuckles white.
They’d do well to kill me now, if they can
. She didn’t know whether her father would step down quietly,
and thus allow for the chaos of succession to swoop in and descend
upon the Empire along with hungry alien fleets, or if her father
would fight to maintain his throne, and thereby doom the Empire to
the chaos of civil upheaval. But one thing was abundantly clear.
There would be war. And when it came, Kalila promised herself, she
wouldn’t forget what had happened here today. Nor would she
forgive. Not now. Not ever.

Chapter 36

“…
Two…
One
…”

The blackness out the window disappeared,
replaced in the blink of an eye with the image of a planet—half lit
by the local sun—and the lights of several starships. Raidan had
ordered their descent from alteredspace to be so deep inside
Capital System they’d run the risk of colliding with an object, or
having the gravity from the planet destabilize them. As Raidan
looked at himself and his crew, realizing they were all still
intact and breathing, he knew they were safe on both counts.

“
We are now in normal
space,” said Mister Watson.

“
Tell me what we see,”
snapped Raidan. His operations crew was already working the many
scanners of the Harbinger and busily trying to make quick sense of
what was happening. A cursory glance at one of the 3d displays told
Raidan that several dozen ships were near the planet, many in
orbit. And some of them were exchanging fire.

“
A tiny convoy of
shuttlecraft is attempting to flee the planet and dock with the ISS
Black Swan,” reported Mister Ivanov. “They are being escorted by
several small starfighters which have engaged the IWS Desert Eagle.
As for the Black Swan itself… it’s exchanging fire with the ISS
Andromeda and a flotilla of destroyers and support ships. It’s
being driven back…”

“
Move us in,” said Raidan.
“Mister Watson, give us maximum sublight speeds—combat maneuvers.
Mister Demir, bring all weapons to bear and lock every one of our
batteries onto the Andromeda. Order all gun crews to their
stations. Mister Mason, shields up, condition one, clear for
action.”

“
Sir, yes, sir!” His crew
responded to his orders and the lights on the bridge snapped to red
and an alarm klaxon could be heard.

“
Weapons range in twenty
seconds,” said Mister Demir.

Strictly speaking, Raidan wasn’t entirely
sure what was going on. But he knew the Andromeda and the Fleet
were now the enemy. They were attacking one of the king’s own ships
and that made them traitors in his eyes. Yes, he’d heard the news
from the Assembly; the whole Empire had heard how the legislative
body of sycophants and self-serving bureaucrats had taken it upon
themselves to declare an end to the king’s reign—and Raidan had
expected nothing less. In fact he’d feared this very day would
come. But, now that it was here, he wasn’t about to roll over.

“
Firing range
now
,” said Mister
Demir.

“
To all gun crews—fire at
will.”

“
All batteries
firing.”

“
The Andromeda is altering
course,” reported Mister Mason.

“
Stay on target,” said
Raidan. He didn’t know if the king planned to resist the Assembly’s
demands or cooperate. But Raidan supposed it didn’t truly matter.
Death by fire or death by ice. Either way… the Empire he’d loved
was doomed.

***

Calvin swung the fighter around, angling the
starship for another pass. The craft was small enough—like a
missile—that it could glide through the Desert Eagle’s alternating
shields and do attack runs against its hull. He unleashed a
hailstorm of high caliber bullets and an energy beam as he flew by,
cutting into the underside of the Desert Eagle where, once the
armor was gone, he’d be able to knock out some critical systems.
Fighting the Desert Eagle gave him a strange feeling; it made him
feel as though he was firing upon his own ship.

“
Watch it!” said Rafael from
copilot behind him as Calvin shot their fighter along the
underbelly of the Desert Eagle’s hull, less than a meter from
contact.

“
Relax, I’ve done this a
time or two,” he said. And it was mostly true, he’d trained as a
pilot. But this was only his second combat engagement. And he’d
forgotten how intense it could be in a starfighter, seeing the
bright glow of enemy fire so up close and personal, feeling the
ship thrown from the force of nearby explosions that—if they’d been
a little closer—would have decimated the craft. Perhaps most
terrifying of all was watching a missile lock on and pursue. Like a
silent black shark, ripping through space—only visible because of
its propulsion system—fast on his trail. Unwilling to be thrown or
confused by his evasive maneuvers. Twice now he’d had to dispense
chaff to confuse a missile that was coming too close. And both
times the countermeasure had worked. But his chaff supply was
running low, and this craft had no other anti-missile
countermeasures built-in.

As he finished his most recent pass, doing
his best to stay clear of the Desert Eagle gun-mounts so he’d take
only minimal fire, Rafael informed him that their ammunition was
running low. And they’d lost a chunk of their aft armor
plating.

“
One lucky hit and they’ll
punch a hole in our air supply and depressurize the whole thing,”
said Rafael.

“
All right, I’ll keep my
distance,” said Calvin. “In truth they’d accomplished their
mission. His fighter, even with the help from the fighters launched
by the Black Swan—many of which the Desert Eagle had destroyed—had
no chance of disabling or destroying the Desert Eagle. Their goal
had been only to distract the mightier vessel, to force it to abort
its pursuit of Kalila’s shuttle and the rest of the convoy. Which
they’d succeeded at. Now though, the Desert Eagle hunted the pesky
starfighters with extreme prejudice.

As he sped the starfighter away, trying to
escape the Desert Eagle’s weapons range, he saw the hint of a flash
and his systems blinked, losing power for a moment.

“
That
was a direct hit,” said Rafael. “Desert Eagle’s beam weapon.
We’re lucky we weren’t instantly irradiated to death.”

Calvin didn’t feel so lucky. His controls
started to glitch out on him, losing responsiveness, and then his
forward thrusters sputtered and died. “I have no propulsion systems
now…” he said, unsuccessful at restarting the thrusters. Their
fighter soared forward only because of inertia now. Which meant
they could easily be overtaken. Calvin could still steer but he
dared not use the braking thrusters for fear that they’d stop in
place. Waiting for death like a fish in a barrel.

“
Don’t slow us down; the
Desert Eagle is still behind us.”

“
I won’t,” said Calvin. He
tried to think quickly. Suddenly the joy of piloting a starfighter
was gone and he wanted nothing more than to escape the situation.
He looked out the windows and tried to spot the nearest friendly
ship. It was hard to distinguish one ship’s lights from another
with the naked eye, but in the far distance—still docked at port—he
was sure he caught a glimpse of the massive ISS Victory.
Why is it just sitting there?
He wondered.
Why doesn’t the king
order it deployed to help defend his family?