Read The Phoenix Project Online

Authors: Kris Powers

The Phoenix Project (4 page)

    
His slit irises immediately
tightened in the sterile white light of the medical bay. As his vision adjusted,
a doctor came to greet them. She looked them up and down for any obvious lacerations
or broken bones.

    
“Are you two in need of
medical attention?”

    
“No, we’re fine. You seem to
have the only power in the entire complex,” Lathiel replied.

    
“Emergency generators,” the
doctor said.

    
“Do you have a transmitter?”

    
“Yes, down the hall, third
door on the left,” the doctor instructed, pointing to a corridor to her right.
Lathiel followed the doctor’s directions at a brisk pace.

    
“I won’t keep you, doctor,”
Ranik said and followed Lathiel to the room she had indicated. He stopped
outside the door and listened to the crackle of static as a communications
console was turned on.

    
“This is Helas Base
broadcasting on the emergency bandwidth,” he heard Lathiel say. “We have taken
heavy damage and require assistance.”
    

 
 
 

    
“She’ll see you right away,”
O’Toole said the moment Elliot walked into the lobby of Admiral Peterson’s
office.

    
“Did you miss me?” Elliot
asked once the doors to her office had closed behind him.

    
“Very funny, Eli,” Maria
replied, narrowing her green eyes. “We’ve had something come up relating to
those Coalition sensor arrays.”

    
“I thought it might be something
important.”

    
“One of our ships is out there
right now. It was in the area so I told them to take a look. It’s a science
vessel: the ASV
Amazon
. They’ve detected a distortion out there. It’s
not natural and no, as far as we know the Coalition isn’t behind it and neither
are we.”

    
“So what’s the plan?” Elliot
asked.

    
“Fleet Admiral Nelson has
already contacted me. He wants to dispatch the Third Battle Group. I need an
admiral to command it.”
  

    
“Isn’t there an admiral already
commanding the battle group?”

    
“He’s on leave and
unreachable.”

    
“I see.”

    
“And you are free at the
moment,” Maria said.

    
“Oh no.”

    
“Oh yes. I’ve got no one else
available,” Maria said.

    
“I can’t.”

    
“You will. That’s an order.
Choose a cruiser to command and leave. The Coalition already has a head start
on us and I don’t want the
Amazon
confronting an entire battle group
alone.”

    
Elliot stood up to leave the
room. “Would you like anything while I’m out? Some coffee? Maybe some
compassion?”

    
Maria chuckled and looked back
to a fan of links in front of her. “I ran out of compassion a long time ago.
Good luck, soldier.”

    
Elliot lumbered to the nearest
shuttle and thought of a cruiser to command the fleet from. It would have to be
a newer ship with a good crew. A mischievous smile crossed his face. Elliot
turned on one heel and began walking towards the shuttle that would take him
back to the
Endeavour
.

 
 
 

    
"Was it something I said
to Eli?" Joshua asked after spending nearly a half hour in silence with
his wife.

    
“You weren’t much help in
making him feel welcome,” Madison
replied, “but he was called away.”

    
“What did I do?”

    
“Does cold shoulder mean
anything to you?”

    
“He deserved it,” Joshua
replied.

    
“You know how hard it is for
him. Lily’s death changed all of us.”

    
“You would bring that up,”
Joshua said. “Why do you think he was called away so fast?”

    
“Probably something to do with
the Horizon Project.”

    
“Do you have any idea where
that’s going?”

    
“Let me see,” Madison said and pulled a
link out of her pocket. She accessed the information in just a few seconds.
“Three months, five days until completion according to the latest update.”

    
“That was fast.”

    
“I’ve been keeping tabs.”

    
“You’re checking up on Eli?”
he asked in surprise.

    
“He’s a friend! It’s my way of
seeing how he’s doing.”

    
“How long have you been up to
that?” Joshua asked.

    
“Since he left the
Suffolk
.”

    
“Wow. You’d have to be an
expert by now. What’s the new fleet like?” Joshua asked, leaning back in their
booth.

    
“I have some information. Most
of it’s classified.”

    
“Tell me what you know.”

    
“It’s much more decentralized like
Eli said.”

    
“What about those new weapons
I heard rumours about?” Joshua asked.

    
“I’ve never heard the term
before. I think it’s called an anti—proton grid?”

    
“Well, what is it?”

    
“That’s a little complicated,”
Elliot interjected as he rejoined the conversation.

    
“Well, hello stranger,”
Madison said with a smile. Elliot took a seat across from her in the booth.

    
“Where did my drink go?”

    
“I’ll get you another one. We
didn’t think you’d be back,” Joshua replied and signalled a waiter.

    
"Short meeting with the
brass?" Madison
asked. Another draft appeared on the table from an attendant’s quick and
steady hand.

    
"That’s another story."

    
"So do you have some time
to visit with old friends?"

    
"Well, more time than you
think."

    
Joshua frowned and asked:
“What do you mean?"

    
"I've taken a few
liberties with your ship.”
   

    
"Are you going to call
her in the morning?"

    
"Smartass."

    
“You need the ship?” Madison asked.

    
“I’m now the temporary
commander of the Third Battle Group, but don’t worry, this is a short assignment.
I won’t be in command for very long and you’ll still have the captain’s chair.”

    
“Where are we going?” Joshua
asked. He got ready to use the small black bit of technology attached to his
ear.

    
“I have already instructed the
helm on where to go. It’s just outside of the solar system. The entire battle
group is leaving orbit to check on some sort of distortion out there.”

    
“You need the entire group for
that? Why not just send a science ship?” Joshua asked.

    
“We did. The
Amazon
is
surrounded by a group of Coalition warships. We’re going out to even the odds. But
that isn’t the interesting part: the distortion may be of alien origin.”

    
The couple looked at each
other with wide eyes. “We know what that means.”

    
“You know the way to the
bridge,” Elliot said, and gulped back the last of his draft.

    
Joshua and Madison led the
admiral to the command center of the ship. The commanding officer on duty
immediately vacated his position at the high end of the bridge and took his
place at the horseshoe—shaped helm at the front. Joshua took sat down in the
command chair. Elliot, knowing Joshua's possessiveness of his ship, took a
place at his left.

    
"Are we ready to
go?"

    
"Yes, Sir," the helmsmen
said and gripped the navigation control stick. It resembled the joysticks from
console games of the distant past.

    
"The Admiral tells me the
coordinates are already laid in,” Joshua said to the helmsman.

    
“Yes, Sir.”

    
“Take us to maximum FTL.”

    
“Aye.”

    
The stars on the monitor jumped
to tiny dashes as the ship went to one thousand times the speed of light. The
other thirty—nine ships of the Third Battle Group, including destroyers,
frigates, and a wide carrier, followed behind.

    
They spent a few minutes
waiting in the rectangular command centre, shining with blinking lights and
glittering consoles before the helm officer spoke again.

    
“Arriving at specified
coordinates.”

    
“Drop into normal space,”
Joshua said.

    
The forty ships jumped out of
faster—than—light speeds and took up positions around the blocky science vessel
to protect her from the olive coloured warships of the Coalition battle group.

    
"What is that?" Madison asked, staring out
at what looked like a flushing toilet bowl in space. The screen showed the
whole spectrum of light as well as the influence of gravity from the hole in
space, allowing them to perceive the strange event.

    
“Science, what are you
reading?” Joshua inquired.

    
“The entity is graviton based,”
reported the science officer, stunned by the information he was seeing. Ahead
of them in the blackness were the ships of the Coalition battle group. “It appears
to be accumulating energy.”

    
“What is it doing?” Elliot
asked

    
“I believe the anomaly is
actualizing. From what I can tell it’s almost at one hundred percent!” the
science officer exclaimed.

    
Joshua looked briefly to
Elliot, who nodded to him in confirmation of the silent question.

    
"Get the battle group to
a safe distance," Joshua ordered. The Alliance ships began pulling away from the
disturbance. Seconds later the anomaly flashed and then smoothed itself into a
blinding white light. The writhing force that had spent its time entertaining
them with magical displays had become a shining emerald beam of destruction
over a thousand miles in diameter.

    
The great beast swallowed up
the Coalition ships that had strayed too close to it and continued unabated through
space. Elliot was staggered by the event and found it difficult to speak for a
moment.

    
“Where is that thing going?”

    
The science officer shook his
head and looked up from the data on his screen. “It's going to hit the Moon.”

 
 
 

    
"What was that?"
Nadine demanded. She picked herself up from the floor of the bridge. The deck
plates of the
Daedalus
had stopped rattling now that the weapon had
rushed past. Sparks
flew from surrounding consoles and one of her officers lay dead a few feet
away. An enlisted officer occupying a rear station of the bridge replied to the
question.

    
"A massive burst of
energy from the wormhole. I can put it up on the main monitor."

    
“Do it.”

    
Nadine looked in awe at the
spectacular spear of bright green energy. It flew away from the collapsing sky—blue
aperture at light speed.

    
"What's our status?"

    
"Our sensor palettes are
damaged, shields are at one quarter power, but all other systems are
functioning normally,” the enlisted man replied.

    
A damage control team rushed
onto the bridge to attend to the fractured displays. A medical team followed on
their heels to tend to the injured. Nadine realized the peril of her forces
closer to the anomaly. "What’s the status of the rest of the battle
group?"

    
"Three frigates and two
destroyers were lost."

    
She cursed under her breath
and looked over to another manned console. “What about that thing? Where is it
going?”

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