The Phoenix War (14 page)

Caerwyn knew he had to get Lady Florence
derailed at all costs from convincing the Assembly to vote to
support Kalila’s claim. If they allowed Kalila even temporary
powers, Caerwyn doubted the cunning would-be Queen would surrender
those powers to Caerwyn later, even if he did have the support of
the Assembly and was elected King by the Great Houses.

“I call a motion,” said Caerwyn, cutting in
abruptly while Lady Florence paused for breath between
sentences.

Representative Tate smacked her gavel. “The
Floor recognizes Representative Martel from Capital World. What
motion do you call?”

Caerwyn took a moment to consider his words
carefully. “I call a motion to declare Kalila Akira an enemy of the
state.”

The Assembly Floor erupted into a chaos of
voices. Caerwyn couldn’t quite tell from the noise whether most of
it was positive or negative. He looked at Lady Florence who stared
at him stupidly, evidently shocked by what he’d just said. Caerwyn
knew if he could get Kalila declared an enemy of the state, it
would undo whatever credit she’d earned herself with the common
people through the broadcast she’d made, and it would also make her
ineligible to serve as the interim monarch until a proper one was
elected. Such a motion was rare, but required only a simple
majority of the common Assembly members to pass.

“Order.
Order
,” Representative Tate
smacked her gavel several times. “Order!”

The chamber fell silent.

“That is a bold motion, Mister Martel. On
what basis to you propose to support the motion?”

“Against the former princess I lay the
following charges,” said Caerwyn, clearing his throat. “By
broadcasting to the people of the Empire and calling on them to
disregard the legal mechanics of this Assembly, and the law itself,
in favor of supporting her and her rule, she has circumvented the
rule of law and is guilty of sedition.” There were murmurs but he
spoke over them, raising his voice slightly. “Further, she is
engaged in an enterprise clearly designed to split the Empire in
two and bring about civil war, this is treason. And it may cost the
Empire immeasurable loss of life. And finally, I have evidence that
she, and those in her charge, under her banner, acting with her
authority, have brutally murdered several innocent civilians,
including my own brother Zane Martel. I therefore charge her with
murder and abuse of power.”

This final charge was met with gasps. The
first two charges, of sedition and treason, were far more serious.
But only the third charge, of abuse of power and murder, was truly
a surprise.

“And I suppose you have evidence of these
claims?” asked Representative Tate.

“I do,” said Caerwyn. When he’d heard about
the grim and gruesome scene police had found where Zane and several
other “wealthy citizens” had been discovered, it had sickened
Caerwyn and he’d had no stomach for it. But even as he’d been told
the gruesome details of that grim business, and was shown the
photos at his own request, he knew Zane had overreached himself, as
he often did, and made more dangerous enemies than he had powerful
friends. It was his Phoenix Ring nonsense, that cult of his, that
had been his downfall. And Caerwyn was quite certain that it was
the enemies of the Phoenix Ring, and not the Princess’s bulldog
Executor who had murdered Zane and his colleagues. But that hadn’t
kept Caerwyn from paying the right people to plant the right
evidence to implicate Kalila’s people. After all, Calvin and his
men had been on Zane’s trail and had both means and opportunity to
have created the slaughter. It wouldn’t take much to invent a
motive.

Caerwyn had also paid to suppress the news
story so he could bring it to light at the ideal moment. Now the
time had come.

“Is there a second to this motion?” asked
Representative Tate. “So that Mister Martel may bring forth his
evidence supporting the charges he raises against Kalila
Akira?”

Caerwyn knew there would be. They were all
too curious now. And, sure enough, not five seconds later,
Representative Conroy stood and seconded the motion.

“The motion has a second,” Representative
Tate observed. “We will recess for thirty minutes to allow
Representative Martel to arrange for his evidence to be brought
before us.”

Caerwyn resisted a smile. He had them. They
were in the palm of his hand. And once they saw the evidence he’d
arranged, they would surely declare Kalila and her henchman
Executor, Mister Cross, enemies of the state, along with anyone who
supported her ridiculous notion of winning the throne. That throne
had sat five Akiras including Hisato, but Caerwyn would sit in it
next, he promised himself. And that chair would never see another
Akira as long as he lived.

The Empire I will make will be
glorious
, Caerwyn thought. He only needed to coax it a little
more and it would inevitably accept his leadership.

And who knows… perhaps the true killers who’d
butchered Zane and his associates would see his placing the blame
for their evil deed on Kalila’s shoulders as a favor, and decide to
think of Caerwyn Martel as a useful ally.
I could be a very
useful ally indeed
.

***

To Shen’s amazement his foot had healed
almost completely. Some redness persisted, as did a small break in
his skin, but the injury itself was much farther along in the
healing process than it had any right to be.
At least there’s
some small benefit to being a monster
, he thought.
Cuts and
bruises don’t bother me the way they used to
.

Shen felt nervous standing in the otherwise
empty elevator as it zoomed to the top of the ship. He shouldn’t
have been nervous. This was something he’d done countless times.
But somehow, this time was different. He felt oddly sick as he
stared at the sealed door, dreading the moment it would slide
open.

I don’t belong here
, he thought.
Wondering for the thousandth time where his place was in the
galaxy—if he even had one.

Eventually the elevator came to a halt and
the door slid open, revealing the lights of the bridge. He took a
deep breath and stepped onto the deck, walking as calmly as he
could to the ops controls. He’d barely gone three feet before Sarah
noticed him.

“Hey Shen,” she said, giving him a pleasant
smile.

“Hello,” he replied softly. Unsmiling. Trying
hard not to notice Sarah’s supple lips, rich dark eyes, and
chocolate-brown hair… he felt something within him stir, so he
averted his eyes and took his seat without another word. Relieving
the current ops officer. It was his first official shift since
the
incident
on Remus Nine, and the beginning of what
was sure to be a long, cruel experiment determining whether or not
he could return to human society as a functioning member of the
crew, despite the changes he’d endured. As he grappled with his
deepest worries, he found himself guardedly pessimistic.
I’m a
monster
, he thought again.
A monster in human skin
.

“It’s great to see you buddy boy,” said a
familiar loud voice. Shen turned his chair to see Miles beaming
from the XO position. He looked rather proud of himself and a
toothy smile reached from ear to ear on his big round face. He sat
next to Summers Presley, who looked a bit too comfortable in
Calvin’s chair, and to Shen’s surprise Summers wasn’t ripping Miles
a new one for being in the XO’s chair. Shen took that to mean that
Miles had been raised to the position of Acting XO in Calvin’s
absence.
The universe is indeed a strange place
…

“Yes, Mister Iwate, it is good to have you
back in your proper place at the ops station,” added Summers.

“Thanks,” said Shen quietly. He turned his
chair back to center and began looking over his controls. He
silently set about re-adjusting the layout which annoyingly had
been changed by the previous ops officer.
Honestly, why do they
do this?
The computer was smart enough to keep three discrete
layouts in its memory, one for each shift, but whenever someone
else covered for him on White Shift they always seemed to mess
everything up.
Can’t they see how inferior and inefficient their
methods are
?

“Shen,” he heard Sarah’s voice call to him
from behind. He ignored the impulse to swivel his chair and give
her his undivided attention and instead kept his focus on the ops
control adjustments. “It’s… it’s good to see you,” she continued.
Her voice was warm and seemingly a little bit cautious. “I tried to
visit you, honestly I did, but I never seemed to come at the right
time. You were always away.”

He knew that she’d tried to visit. And to her
credit, she’d tried several times. But whenever his chime rang and
he saw that it was her, he’d been perfectly silent and pretended
not to be there. Waiting until she inevitably went away. He’d felt
conflicted doing that, a part of him wanted nothing more than to
slide the door open and invite her in—the same part of him that
wanted to scoop her off her feet and bury a kiss on her lusciously
beautiful lips—but the smarter, more realistic part of him had won
out. He remembered all too vividly how Sarah had rejected him.
She’d made her feelings crystal clear when he’d tried to ask her
out after cooking a romantic meal for the both of them.
It can
never be
, she’d told him in no uncertain terms. Though not in
those words, the message had been clear. And that was before the
incident
. At least then she’d felt genuine feelings of
friendship toward him, even if friendship was the limit of what she
could give him. But now… now that he was a monster… surely all she
could feel for him was pity. Pity and sympathy and sorrow and a
host of feelings Shen didn’t want from her. So he’d ignored her.
Ignored her visits, ignored her calls, and was half-tempted to
ignore her now. Wanting desperately to pretend she wasn’t there,
sitting behind him, not too far away, radiating warmth and
beauty…

But he couldn’t ignore her. Not here. Not on
the bridge. Whatever else he was, and whatever else he’d become, he
was still a professional officer. And that small struggling part of
him that remained human, the Shen he’d used to be, was desperate to
cling to his identity as the ops chief on the Nighthawk, the genius
who knew the ships systems better than the original designers. He
couldn’t let that go. Which meant he had to act the part of a
professional bridge officer.

“That was very kind of you,” said Shen. “And
very bad luck that our timing wasn’t better.” The words didn’t
sound as forced as they felt when he spoke them.

“Yeah that really is too bad,” said Sarah.
“But I’m glad I get to see you now. White Shift just hasn’t been
the same without you. And you look so well!”

Much to Shen’s relief, Summers interrupted.
“All right, cut the chatter,” she said. “Status report, all
stations.”

“Alteredspace jump remains stable, holding
course, depth of eighty-five percent potential,” said Sarah. “As
for comms, all is silent, no kataspace traffic whatsoever.”

“Defense systems are prepped and ready,”
reported a stranger who sat in Miles’ usual seat. “The stealth
system is engaged and is working within normal parameters.” Shen
assumed this man was the replacement defense officer but he wasn’t
someone that looked familiar. Then again that wasn’t too
surprising. Shen didn’t exactly go out of his way to acquaint
himself with the red shift or green shift duty officers. Especially
now that there were so many new faces.

“Good,” said Summers. “And what about
ops?”

Shen looked at his controls, everything
seemed to check out. “All systems are on primary power. Auxiliary
and tertiary power show good. Sensors, life-support, and all
systems are online and functioning within ideal parameters.”

“Excellent,” said Summers. “ETA?”

“Time to destination… just over twenty-three
hours,” reported Sarah. “We’ll drop into the Kynar System two point
three million mc’s from the sun, after that we can reach the
asteroid field in mere minutes but I’ll have to slow us down to
basic thrusters once we’re inside the field.”

“Very good, Lieutenant,” said Summers.

Shen was surprised to hear that they were
going to the Kynar System. He’d hoped they were heading somewhere
closer to Capital System, so they could pick up Calvin wherever he
and the princess were hiding, but Kynar was completely the other
way. In fact, if Shen remembered correctly, it wasn’t even inside
Imperial space. Which made it unlikely he’d get to see his friend
again anytime soon.

He only vaguely knew what Calvin was up to,
but what he had been able to glean had truly surprised him. Shen
used the news services, the network, and everything at his disposal
to fill in the gaps. He now understood why Calvin hadn’t been there
when Shen had awoken from his Remorii sleep, supposedly recovered
from the toxin. He’d been on Capital World, entangled in the
Empire’s politics at the highest level. No doubt he’d tried to
expose and eliminate the conspiracy within the government. But that
hadn’t gone well by any measure. And now that the Office of the
Executor had been disbanded—almost as swiftly as it’d been
created—it seemed reasonable to think Calvin would rejoin them. But
apparently Summers had other plans…

“Can anyone please tell me,” said Shen, after
a few minutes of silence on the bridge. “Why are we going to the
Kynar System?”

“Lieutenant Winters, please brief Mister
Iwate regarding our current mission,” said Summers.

Great. She picked Sarah.

Shen did want to know the details of their
mission, he disliked being out of the loop, but he didn’t feel like
talking to Sarah right now. And was half-tempted not to listen.

“We’re on our way to the Kynar Asteroid Belt
because that is where the last remaining isotome weapons are
supposed to be,” said Sarah.