The Phoenix Project (43 page)

    
“Is that coffee?” Ranik asked, eyeing
Elliot’s beverage.

    
Lathiel placed a long hand on Ranik’s
chest. “Don’t even think about it.”

    
“Just one cup.”

    
“Not at this time of the morning.”

    
“Why wouldn’t you drink coffee in the
morning?” Elliot asked.

    
“It doesn’t agree with us. I need Ranik
sober right now,” Lathiel replied and removed the hand from Ranik’s chest.

    
“Sober?”

    
“Never mind,” Ranik said, “I’ll just have
juice.”

    
“Well I’m glad you’re here. I’m making a
call to Admiral Nelson.”

    
“Afterwards, you can have a cup of coffee,”
Lathiel said to Ranik who grinned in response.

    
“Commander Stuart, make the call to Admiral
Nelson,” Elliot ordered. Peter entered the command into his station at the
admiral’s left.

    
Nelson’s face stood nearly four stories
high on a screen which could show dozens of images and scenarios at the same
time. Ronnie Nelson looked like a giant peering into the room.

    
“Admiral, right on time.”

    
“Your message said you have news for me,
Sir.”

    
“Yes,” Nelson replied, “I’m glad Lathiel
and Ranik are there to hear this. The paperwork has gone through. We are now
officially allied with the Ferine. The Prime Ministers have given me the go
ahead to retrieve your people, Lathiel.”

    
“I’m very glad to hear that.”

    
“Good, because I’m going to need your help
to get them back,” Nelson said.

    
“My help? What can I do?”

    
“The prisoners know you. They trust you.
You’re our guarantee that they will leave with us. Eli?” Nelson asked, looking
to the man seated next to Lathiel and Ranik.

    
“Yes, Admiral?”

    
“I want you to spearhead this mission. Take
whatever you need and get our allies back.”

    
“We’ll need a ship,” Elliot said. “I was
thinking of the
Endeavour
.”

    
“I can’t do that. If any ship pulled out of
our battle groups right now the Coalition would be tipped off, but I do have
another option. We have a new ship, a prototype called the
Excalibur
. She
hasn’t left dry—dock yet and won’t be missed.”

    
“Does she have a captain yet?”

    
“As a matter of fact she does,” Nelson
replied. “A certain Maria Peterson. I believe you’ve heard of her.”

    
Elliot beamed. “How is she?”

    
“She’s more like her old self, but she’s
got an edge now. Don’t expect the same Maria you knew. Now, our intelligence
seems to confirm what you told us. The Ferine are being held at Waypoint Eleven
although why General Hanover told you this is beyond me.”

    
“She seemed resistant to revealing that
information to me. It was as if she was under pressure to intentionally tell
me where the prisoners were being held.”
 

    
“Do you think it’s a trap?”

    
“I’m not sure Admiral, but we don’t have
much of a choice but to go,” Elliot replied.

    
“I suppose so. Good luck.”

    
“Thank—you, Sir.”

    
The screen returned to a three dimensional
map of Alliance
space updated in real time.

    
“So what do we do now?” Lathiel asked.

    
“We go to the
Excalibur
,” Elliot
said. “We need troops and a command team as well. I think I’ve got a couple of
people in mind.”

    
“An alliance!” Catherine exclaimed in fury.
She threw the report to the floor. The other eleven council members jumped at
her passionate display. “An alliance. How could you have not seen this?”
Catherine demanded and looked to Alexander huddled in his chair.

    
“The symbols don’t always—”

    
“Don’t lecture me about symbols! You’re
supposed to be the expert at their interpretation! Still, I can’t fashion
culpability for this on you as I already knew of your ineptness in your field.”

    
She looked to the discarded report on the
floor. “Now we have a war we can’t fight and what’s worse? We, all of us, have
been practicing foresight. We all share the blame. When does this mission to
retrieve our detainees from the waypoint begin?”

    
“Peter was not specific but he did know the
mission starts soon,” Alexander replied.

    
“Another one of my failures is brought to
me. Is it too late to abort this operation?”

    
“It’s too far along for that, but any
military intervention on our part could plant the burden of war on our
shoulders,” Napoleon replied.

    
“A damned alliance. How can they admit a
nation from another planet, another system?”

    
“Perhaps that is our way out,” Elizabeth said.

    
“What do you have in mind?” Catherine
asked.

    
“Why do we need to recognize the Ferine as
an Alliance
member?”

    
“Their government recognizes whomever they
want to,” Henry said.

    
“We don’t,” Cleopatra stated.

    
“Ah,” Catherine said, “they may recognize
them, but do we? We need a basis for this beyond our own personal convictions
or that of the Coalition. Something concrete.”

    
“You said it yourself Catherine,” Louis said.
“How can they adopt a member from another species?”

    
“There is no precedent for it,” Victoria said.

    
“You,” Catherine said to Alexander, “what
little can you see of the future?”

    
“Great battles and birds flying away from
Earth,” Alexander replied after closing his white eyes briefly.

    
“You are, as usual, the ambiguous oracle. Can
this be done legitimately?”

    
“If we can convince the UN,” Napoleon said.

    
“The UN may be our affirmation,” Victoria said. “They did
add those clauses to the admission of Peru.”

    
“That was a century ago. Do they have the
power to act now?” Catherine asked.

    
“Powerless or not, they carry weight with
the public and that is all that matters. The public opinion of Alliance
civilians needs to be on our side,” Victoria
said.

    
“If we use the particle warhead to our
advantage, it has to be under the most beneficial conditions. Credibility is of
central priority. They will not believe anyone who has even the appearance of
cheating them.”

    
“Then this can be used to turn their people
against them. We could gain the Alliance’s
ships, technology, and their favor. What could be better?” Alexander asked.

    
“Don’t forget you were our teacher. Part of
this does trace back to you. How can the UN be brought to our way of thinking?”

    
“We use politicians and diplomats. The Alliance is on soft
ground in this matter. How do you so quickly and easily admit another race of
beings?” Napoleon asked.

    
“They may still not side with us,”
Catherine said.

    
“They don’t have to,” Alexander said and
stiffened with pride as inspiration hit him. This would cement his plans to
become head of the Council.

    
“Explain,” Catherine ordered.

    
“Ask the UN to suspend admission until they
can properly address our complaints. Their rescue of the Ferine becomes
illegal.”

    
Catherine nodded in appreciation of the
revelation. “Regardless of the outcome, they will have served our purposes. By
the time they arrive at their conclusions, the Alliance will have surrendered and the UN
will have become superfluous.”

    
“They’d probably be gone with the fallout
anyway,” Alexander said.

    
“True enough. Then put forward a motion,
Alexander and make it official.”

    
“All for submitting a legal complaint with
the UN?”

    
All hands raised into the air.

    
“Motion carried,” Alexander said with a
smile at Catherine.

    
“Now, as to this rescue mission.”

    
“We can’t look weak in the eyes of the
public,” Nicholas said.

    
“No, but we can’t let them get away
either.”

    
“What if their ships were destroyed in the
rescue?” Louis asked.

    
“Ambitious, but then we have our own fallout
to deal with.”

    
“Dead men have no testimony to offer,”
Alexander said.

    
“Live ones do.”

    
“Then make sure that there are none,” Elizabeth said.

    
Catherine put an index finger to her lips.
“This may work. It would scare the remaining Ferine out of the system. They
would never return after so many lives were lost. It certainly is more
effective than having to wait out all those trials.”

    
“And then we would have only the Alliance to deal with,”
Alexander said.

    
“That won’t be a problem,” Napoleon said.
“Can we do this? How will it look?”

    
“Put the brunt of the blame on the
hostages,” Elizabeth
said.

    
“What?” Cleopatra asked.

    
“I say there will be reports in the street
today speaking of the Ferine’s belligerence. They are aggressive and violent.
They abuse the guards charged with their care,” Elizabeth said.

    
“Will people accept this?” Catherine asked.

    
“Coalition citizens will. In concert with a
UN investigation and an illegal attempt on the Alliance’s part, we will look like the
victims in this,” Elisabeth said.

    
“Well said.”

    
“Escaping prisoners have been known to be
accidentally killed in the attempt,” Victoria
said.

    
“I don’t want them to escape at all. It’s
best to stop the Alliance
rescuers before they find the prisoners,” Catherine said.

    
“If we do that, then how will we convince
anyone that the ships were destroyed in the attempt?” Alexander asked.

    
“We don’t. We will have the prisoners moved
to ensure that the Alliance
members don’t find them in time. Then we will have the Ferine executed and have
all the time we need to examine their ships.”

    
“The Ferine will demand to have their ships
returned to them and they will want to know why we executed them,” Alexander said.

    
“As far as the Ferine and Alliance will know, the rescuers did find the
detainees and nearly got away with them. We tried to disable the escaping
Ferine ships, but we’re unfamiliar with their technology. It’s an
understandable accident. Alexander, have the detainees moved to another deck
tomorrow. Schedule their executions for tomorrow afternoon once Nadine has
finished with them,” Catherine said.

    
A small shuttle headed out into the
darkness of space beyond Earth. Mars began as one of many other specks of light
in the black veneer of space but quickly grew to a tiny glowing red ball that
eventually obscured the stars. The small group of people looked on in silence
while one of the many man—made objects in orbit became a large and multi—tiered
dock miles long. The new AWS
Excalibur
stood out as a bright white eagle
amidst the large grey frameworks at the dock.

    
“Is that it?” Madison asked. She and Joshua had been
quickly recruited from the
Endeavour
for the mission, much to Joshua’s
chagrin.

    
“That’s it. Eight hundred yards long and
with new weapons systems no one has ever seen in operation,” Elliot replied.