The Phoenix War (47 page)

“You two, you’re with me,” he said to Nassar
and Nimoux.

“Yes sir,” said Nimoux, shielding his eyes
from the dust with one hand and holding the sidearm. He was the
only one not wearing a climate suit.

“Aye aye,” said Nassar, rifle at the
ready.

“The rest of you, secure that building,” said
Nimoux, pointing to the nearest structure.

“Roger.”

As his men breached and stormed what was
probably some kind of command structure, Pellew led Nimoux and
Nassar around the other way. Toward the mysterious black mound he
and Campbell had spotted from the air.

“Stay sharp,” said Nimoux.

“Room clear,” he heard reported over the
radio. Followed by, “southeast corridor secure.”

The dust thinned as they neared the south
side of the largest structure, where the mound had been
spotted.

“Something smells foul,” said Nimoux.

“What is it?” asked Pellew. Thinking his mask
be filtering out the smell.

“It smells like—” Nimoux cut himself off
suddenly. They’d reached the blackened mound. Pellew only had to
examine it for half a second before he realized what it was. “Oh
god no…” said Nimoux.

It was a pile of burned corpses. There were
traces of bones in the ash but for the most part nothing even
remotely human-looking remained. Whole skeletons had been broken
apart and, in many cases, ground up.

“Oh
shit,
” said Nimoux. He ran into
the pile and began sifting through the ashes and debris. “Oh shit,
shit, shit…”

Pellew nodded to Nassar, who hefted his rifle
and went to secure the perimeter, he then bent down and examined
the charcoal-black remains for himself. There was a slimy residue,
he traced it with his gloved finger.

“Looks like they used some kind of chemical
agent to speed up the reaction and intensify the flames,” said
Pellew. He looked at the ground up bone remains. “Not sure how they
shredded all those bones. Could have been the fire I suppose, but
it looks like something they did after.”

When Nimoux didn’t say anything, Pellew gave
the ex-soldier a good hard look. The man seemed off in another
world. He was hunched over a mound of ash and bone not moving. He
was staring intensely at what looked like a skull fragment.

“You all right over there?” asked Pellew. He
approached. Stepping on ash and bones as he walked.

Nimoux didn’t say anything. He still seemed
lost in his own world. His mental faculties were undoubtedly
weakened by his experience trying to live off the land, and now he
seemed to have snapped.

“Hey, I’m talking to you,” said Pellew,
kneeling down next to Nimoux. He snapped his fingers directly in
front of Nimoux’s face and only then did the man respond. He looked
startled for an instant and met Pellew’s gaze with austere
eyes.

“I killed them,” said Nimoux.

“What the hell are you talking about?” asked
Pellew. “That’s ridiculous.”

“Area secure,” he heard over his helmet. “The
structure has been searched and secured.”

“Report,” replied Pellew.

“There’s no one here. And all the computers
and terminals have been smashed to pieces.”

“I’m not surprised,” said Pellew. Obviously
whoever had been here had left in a hurry, and taken care to
eliminate whatever identifying evidence they could. And by the
looks of it, they’d left recently. Perhaps only hours before.

“Requesting instructions. ODB is prepared to
search the remaining structures at your command, sir.”

Pellew looked at Nimoux, how broken and angry
he seemed, as he knelt in the ashes and bones of the people he’d
lived with for the last little while. People who’d been swiftly and
callously destroyed along with the rest of the evidence.

“Don’t bother,” said Pellew. “We’ve found all
we’re going to find. Everyone back to the lander. Campbell, prep
the bird for takeoff. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

Everyone headed back to the lander like he
ordered, everyone except Nimoux who simply knelt there. Staring
blankly.

“Come on,” said Pellew.

No response.

He grabbed Nimoux by the arm and physically
yanked the man to his feet. Nimoux’s eyes narrowed and he gave
Pellew a threatening look.

“Come on,” said Pellew, nodding toward the
LZ. “You can cry about it later. But right now it’s time to
go.”

Reluctantly, Nimoux did as he was told and
started walking back to the LZ. Clenching and unclenching his jaw
as he went. Eyes staring off into the distance, furious and full of
rage.

“And I’ll be taking that back,” said Pellew,
relieving Nimoux of the sidearm. Thinking to himself how very
interesting Nimoux’s interrogation promised to be.

***

There was no visible change out the window,
everything looked as black and empty as ever. But the navigation
display told them very clearly that they’d just crossed the
Zero-Three-X Plane, the border of space denoting the edge of
Alliance territory.

“We have now officially entered Alliance
space,” said Rafael.

“Any sign of activity yet?” asked Calvin. So
far their journey into the DMZ had been eerily quiet and
uneventful. Now that they were entering Alliance territory, he was
sure they’d run into some kind of border patrol.

“Nothing still,” said Rafael. “The kataspace
channels are silent and our scopes remain empty. No one’s out
there. Not even one ship.”

“That
can’t
be right,” said Calvin. An
ominous feeling seemed to hang in the air. Rafael fidgeted
nervously as he stood, keeping a watchful eye on the ops display.
Miles looked rigid, every muscle tense, his face ghost-white. And
even Alex seemed uncomfortable, though it was hard to tell for
sure.

“I agree,” hissed Alex. “The Advent’s best
intelligence has always indicated that the Alliance constantly
patrols the edge of their territory, and sometimes a little
beyond.”

“Intel Wing agrees,” said Calvin, thinking of
the files he’d studied along with what he’d personally observed
whenever he’d been near Alliance space. “But maybe we’re just in
between patrols? You know, lucky timing on our part or something.”
He tried to be optimistic but it was difficult.

“Perhaps,” said Alex, sounding as skeptical
as Calvin felt.

“Dammit I’ll say it if no one else will,”
bellowed Miles, it was the first thing he’d spoken in fifteen
minutes. “They ain’t here because something bad has happened. I
know
it. I can feel it in my gut.”

Calvin thought Miles was probably right. He
recalled the warning Samil had sent them, the chilling claim that
the Alliance would soon cease to be a threat to Rotham Fleets
attempting to cross the DMZ.
Something has definitely
happened
, Calvin knew. But it was hard to guess exactly what,
the Alliance fielded a mighty fleet of warships and was led by a
paranoid regime that would surely utilize its sweeping political
and military powers to defend its domain. What could have
challenged them? All-out war with the Republic? Surely such a war
would be prohibitively costly to the Rotham, and rumors of it would
certainly have leaked across the border. And Calvin had heard
nothing. The more he thought about it, the more sure he was that
something else was going on.
But what?

“Perhaps they’ve withdrawn their patrols,”
suggested Rafael. “Maybe the Republic brokered a deal with the
Alliance to allow their fleets safe passage through the DMZ.”

That sounded the most reasonable to Calvin,
but still grated against everything he understood about the
Alliance’s disposition and famously distrustful nature.

“Preposterous!” hissed Alex. “The Republic
would
never
seek such an arrangement! We are a peace-loving
people.”

Calvin rotated the pilot’s chair and gave
Alex a good hard look. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, of course I’m sure,” said Alex,
obviously resenting the assumption that the Republic was an
aggressive party. “Besides, the Alliance would never agree to any
such deal.”

That point, at least, rang true to Calvin.
“All right, well, then there must be some sort of alternate
explanation. Anyone have any theories?” He looked at each of them
in turn, first Miles, then Rafael, and lastly Alex; none of them
seemed to have any idea why everything had been so eerily
silent.

“Yeah, I don’t have any guesses either,”
mumbled Calvin. He spun back to his controls and made some minor
adjustments to their heading and jump depth.

“So what do we do?” asked Rafael.

“We proceed as planned. We’ll go to Tybur and
then see for ourselves exactly what is happening,” said Calvin.
“For better or worse…”

“And if it’s bad, what then?” asked
Rafael.

“I guess we’ll find out,” was all Calvin
could think to say.

“We should turn back,” said Miles, “take me
at my word, Cal, we’ve got to turn back.” He started pacing back
and forth in what little space remained in the crowded control
room.

“Sadly that’s not an option,” said Calvin.
“We have to see what’s going on and then get the word out to the
queen and her fleet. That’s our mandate.”

“And what about saving our asses?” asked
Miles, stopping in his tracks to stare at Calvin. “What about
that
mandate?”

“We have to find out why the Alliance has
gone dark and see if there is imminent danger to the Empire.”

“Is this really worth dying for.”

“Nobody’s going to die,” said Calvin.
Hopefully
. He kept that last part to himself.

“How can you be so sure?” Miles’ face turned
red. “Don’t get me wrong, you know I’ve always got your back but… I
don’t want die.”

“We’re just an innocent, unarmed, Rotham
cargo ship on our way back to the Republic,” said Calvin in a
reassuring tone. “We’re going to pass through Tybur as part of our
natural flight plan back to Rotham space. No one will think
anything of it.”

Miles seemed to calm down a little at this.
“Okay,” he said. “Okay, yeah. Yeah that should work. We’re going to
be fine.”

“Exactly,” said Calvin. Wishing he could make
himself believe his own words. “Alex here will handle the comm,
we’ve got our cover story all ready to go so no one should trouble
us. We’ll do a quick flyby, see what we can see, and then we’ll be
safely away and send word to the queen.”

Miles nodded. “Yeah. We can do that.”

“Exactly,” said Calvin, showing his friend a
big fake smile. “Piece of cake. After that we’ll take a quick peek
at Rotham space and then we’ll all be back onboard the Nighthawk
before you know it.”

Miles laughed, looking greatly relieved.
“When you put it like that, I don’t know what I was so worked up
over. I guess it’s just tense in here. Oh I know—it’s cause it’s
too hot. Too many people.”

“Yeah it is a little crowded in here, isn’t
it,” said Calvin, adding quickly, “you know what, you’ve been
working hard for a few hours. Why don’t you go take a break. Go get
some rest.”

“Well, I
am
pretty tired. Are you sure
you don’t need me up here?”

“Nah, it’s cool, I’ve got it. If I need you,
I’ll call.”

“Okay, good deal.” And with that, Miles was
gone. Off to get some much needed shuteye.

“That one is not very intelligent,” said
Alex, after Miles had gone.

“Oh cut him a break,” said Calvin as he
returned his attention to the flight controls.

“Did he seriously believe that?” asked Alex.
“That we’re not risking death on this mission? And what does that
mean anyway?—this is going to be a pastry?”

“Not pastry,
piece of cake
,” said
Rafael. “It’s an idiom, it means something is going to be simple
and unchallenging.”

“You don’t believe that, do you
Captain
?” Alex asked, hovering over Calvin’s shoulder. “That
this mission is going to be simple and unchallenging?”

“No,” admitted Calvin. “No, I don’t.”
But
I wish, I could
, he thought. “I expect it to be dangerous and
difficult and we’ll be lucky to get through it alive…”

“Good,” said Alex. “I can tolerate being
around a fool, but never being led by one.”

“Nothing to worry on that score,” mumbled
Calvin. Hoping he hadn’t doomed them all when he’d picked them for
this mission. He reminded himself of the larger picture, especially
the danger to the Empire, and how important any intel they gathered
would prove to be. He also had a strong hunch that whatever
mysterious events were happening in Alliance space were directly
connected to the conspiracy that had thrown the Empire into
disarray, though it was hard to guess how.

“All right, Alex I want you to be near the
comm system at all times. If we pick up anything over kataspace, I
need you to be ready to reply to any hails we receive.”

“Understood.”

“Rafael, I want you to broaden our scans. If
we see anything, I want to know about it right away.”

“Yes sir.”

“And keep a sharp lookout for any kataspace
activity.”

“Of course.”

Calvin sighed. They would be reaching Tybur
in only a few hours—assuming no one intercepted them. “Time to find
out why the Alliance has gone dark,” he said. Adding silently,
and whether or not we get to live
.

The Nighthawk’s brig was almost identical to
that of the Desert Eagle. Which wasn’t really surprising,
considering the two ships shared blueprints. But what did surprise
Nimoux was how eerily the similarities made him feel like he was a
prisoner on his own ship. And thinking about it made him miss the
Desert Eagle.
I wonder where it is now
, he thought.
Promising himself he’d be back aboard as soon as he could.

After fleeing Gamma Persei Three, the orbital
landing craft had docked with the Nighthawk. And once the away team
had returned to the ship, the Nighthawk’s soldiers had wasted no
time dragging Nimoux off to the brig and throwing him behind a
forcefield. One of the special forces soldiers was ordered to stand
watch and she didn’t look too happy about it. Nimoux had tried to
speak to her only once, asking for the time, and she’d barked at
him to remain silent. Not wanting to cause a problem, he didn’t
press the issue.