The Phoenix Project (48 page)

    
Lathiel nodded nervously and recited his
lines to the two Ferine in back of him, who nodded as well, and passed the
information on to the couple behind them. Elliot turned around and faced the
Major, who was at the forefront of his men in the center of the corridor. The
Major had exchanged his PBP for one of the hefty plasma assault rifles that Elliot
had examined earlier. He had his back to the corridor and waited for Elliot’s
go ahead.

    
Elliot gave a silent nod to the officer.
The Major turned around and raised his arm, bent at the elbow, with his forearm
pointing to the ceiling. The soldiers watched him intently until the arm
dropped forward.

    
The first five officers activated the
personal shields on their belts and walked at a quick march into the corridor.
They brandished their rifles and each line of officers turned away from each
other to face the unknown down the two ends of the corridor. The air crackled
as several pulses of destructive energy began to converge on the men who
leveled their rifles at a large group of soldiers on either side of the
passage. They returned the assault with discharges from their own weapons.
Their shields absorbed the incoming fire and several Coalition men collapsed face
down to the floor.

    
As the buzzing of fire played in the
background, the Major leveled the experimental weapon at the heavy reinforced
hatch. The Major aimed and discharged a brilliant beam of yellow starlight into
the airlock door. The hatch glowed from the stream of energy rushing into it
and soon after melted. A large hole with uneven edges grew into existence. The
Major let go of the trigger in satisfaction of his handy work and turned to Madison in triumph.

    
Madison
nodded with an appreciative smile at his simple approach and followed him at a
quick pace into the interior of the Ferine ship. The Ferine took their cue and
followed Madison
into the ship. As each soldier’s shield began to weaken, he exited the line.
 
They were thankful that the forty standing two
abreast were able to leave the station in a short time considering there were
only a dozen soldiers on each line. Two separate lines of soldiers became a
crescent receding into the airlock.

    
The last soldier into the airlock
discovered that his first sight of an alien ship was Elliot.

    
“You’re the last one?”

    
“Yes Sir,” the Second Lieutenant answered.

    
“Good,” Elliot said and slapped the button
to close the ship’s interior door. The melted door of the station didn’t pose a
problem for the ship’s hatch which closed with a swift movement.

    
“Seal that hatch,” Elliot ordered. The
officer obeyed and set his rifle to a solid beam. The right side of the door
turned into a bubbled vertical line under the weapon’s heat.

    
“That will buy us some time. Major, it’s
time to secure the ship.”

    
“What do we do with the Connies that are
onboard?” the Major asked.

    
“Stun them and put them all in the shuttle
bay. We’ll keep them there until we’re home. Are our scanners working yet?”

    
The Major held up a rectangular device that
had remained dark throughout their travails on the station. It now showed a
schematic of everything within three hundred feet.

    
“They’re working.”

    
“Then it’s time to use them. Have your men
locate all the Coalition people on board and escort them to the shuttle bay. It
shouldn’t be a problem now that we can detect them. If they don’t want to go,”
Elliot began.

    
“Make them into paper weights. Yes Sir,”
the Major finished and divided up the dozen men with him into pairs of two. The
half a dozen teams moved off to find the glowing bodies displayed on their
scanners.

    
“Major, come with me to secure the bridge.
Lathiel, you and Danniack will accompany us. Madison, stay here with the rest of the
Ferine until the ship is secured.”

    
A chorus of “Yes Sirs” answered him. Madison stayed behind
while the small task force headed for the command center.

    
They found the double door entrance
quickly. Danniack pressed his long fingered palm to the small panel glowing
bright yellow and the doors begrudgingly opened with a rattle from the damage
they had sustained from the seizure of the ship. Danniack jumped behind the two
officers, who had surprise on their side as six stunned Coalition scientists
looked up from the stations they were attempting to get functioning again.

    
Elliot stunned the man bent over the helm
console from behind. His body slumped across its amber displays. To Elliot and
the Major’s surprise, these scientists were armed and already drawing PBDs from
their belts.

    
“Stay out here,” Elliot breathed before
both he and the Major dove for cover inside the bridge.

    
Elliot jumped for the nearby couch at the
side of the bridge, while the Major crouched next to the science station. The
Major smartly took another man down with a quick shot to the chest, but both
found it difficult to hit the remaining men without sacrificing his limited
cover. The Scientists were firing lethal rounds and Elliot did not have a
charged personal shield to aid him.

    
The Major activated his shield that had just
seconds of charge left and dove into the fray. The personal force field
absorbed four shots from the remaining men. He took advantage of their
momentary confusion and took out two of them with pulses from his PBP. Elliot exploited
the distraction and was able to incapacitate another man at the communications
station.

    
The Major’s shield overloaded and winked
out, having reached its limits. The last man took aim at the Major who had no
cover and was open to attack. Before Elliot could intervene, a lightning bolt
of green energy struck the scientist in the chest. He crumpled to the floor,
paralyzed from the shot.

    
The man, intent on the two officers
attacking him, hadn’t noticed a tall Ferine at the doorway with a drawn PBD in
his hand. Elliot and the Major looked behind them to see Lathiel, frozen in
place from his actions.

    
“I didn’t know you had it in you,” Elliot said.

    
“Neither did I,” Lathiel said and slowly
lowered his gun.

    
“Captain Danniack, can you bring the bridge
back up?” Elliot asked.

    
“Right away.” Danniack accessed the nearest
station and within seconds, the bridge hummed to life. The amber monitors and
panels glowed again with their nearly organic light.

    
Having listened to reports over his
earpiece the Major relayed the information to Elliot.

    
“Both ships are secure, Sir.”

    
“Good news. Major help to remove our guests
to the shuttle bay,” Elliot said. The Major nodded and went to the nearest
scientist. He hefted his bulk onto a shoulder and left the bridge.

    
“Madison,”
Elliot said into his earpiece, “tell the Ferine they can move freely now. Let
them know that we’ll be departing soon and it’s best for them to report to
their stations so that we can get out of here.”

    
“You got it.”

    
“Lathiel, we need to get those docking
latches released,” he said to the Ferine. Lathiel marched to the station. A
quick set of commands from his fingertips brought a distant hum into existence.
“The shields are weakening the clamps. They’re starting to fail.”

    
“Excellent. Joshua, are you still there?”
Elliot asked of his earpiece.

    
“Alive and well. We’ve taken the ship and
Ranik’s cut the clamps with the shields. We’re ready to go whenever you are.”

    
“Well?” Elliot asked unsure of their
status. He waited for Lathiel’s next words while Ferine men and women streamed
onto the bridge and took their stations.

    
“The clamps are compromised. We’re floating
free.”

    
“We’re ready to go,” Elliot said.

    
“Then I’ll see you back at the
Excalibur
,”
Joshua said.

    
“See you then, I’m signing off,” Elliot
said, and shut off his earpiece.

    
“Where are we going?” Danniack asked.

    
“Coordinates are eighty—five point seven
two five degrees, fifteen point two up bubble,” Elliot replied.

    
“Distance?”

    
“Seventy million miles,” Elliot replied.

    
“I’ve got it,” the hulking helmsman said
from his console.

    
“Execute,” Danniack said.

    
Two small blue ships pulled away from the
station and turned towards a mutual point in space some distance away. The
ships jumped to their maximum sub—light speeds to meet the
Excalibur
. In
defiance of their escape, two heavy particle beams slapped the ships before
they could go beyond its effective weapon’s range.

    
“The stern shields just took a beating,”
Lathiel reported. Elliot joined him at the engineering console and looked at
the monitor displaying the status of the ship’s shields.

    
“Down to half strength.”

    
“I’m picking up small ships leaving the
station,” Lathiel said. The primary monitor at the front of the bridge showed a
group of tiny, olive colored craft appear around the station. It looked as
though a donut shaped hive had just spewed out a swarm of angry insects.

    
“Fighters,” Elliot sighed. “What’s your
maximum sub—light?”

    
“Ninety—seven percent the speed of light.”

    
“Bring your sunlight engines to maximum.
Can you transfer power from the bow shield to the stern shield?” Elliot asked.

    
“Yes.”

    
“Put as much into the stern shield as you
can. Communications,” Elliot said to the female Ferine on the opposite side of
the bridge.

    
“Yes?” She looked withered from her
stressful time on the station.

    
“Can you signal the
Excalibur
? I’d
like to talk with her commander.”

    
“Yes, yes, I can do that,” the disheveled
Ferine replied, and turned back to her station. She pressed a series of buttons
with trembling hands. The bridge speakers crackled to life and a familiar
female voice was heard.

    
“This is
Excalibur
.”

    
“We’re on our way Maria, but we’ve got
about twenty fighters chasing us,” Elliot said.

    
“Acknowledged. Come in on a wide course and
stay out of our firing solution. Have both of your ships fly under our wings
and we’ll bring you home.”

    
“Yes Ma’am,” Elliot replied and nodded to
the Ferine at Communications. She complied with his signal and shut off the
signal.

    
“The fighters have divided into two groups.
We have twenty ships chasing us and their catching up fast,” Lathiel reported.

    
“Were you able to put the extra power to
the shield?”

    
“All three weapons generators are connected
to the stern shield now,” Lathiel replied.

    
“Let’s hope it’s enough to get us to back
to the
Excalibur
.”

    
“Here they come.”

    
Has humanity learned anything from its First Contact
with alien beings?

    
We have the immediate result,
that’s for sure, but what of the age old problems of hatred, bigotry, racism,
homophobia, and everything else that is on the list?

    
The Ferine gave us an insight
into the galaxy. They showed us that all of our interior problems were a result
of internal Human fear, but many didn’t give up that fear in the greater
realization that we weren’t alone in the universe. Some of us merely expanded
our fear to a greater sphere.

    
Did we learn to hate with a
greater passion?

First Contact: A Lesson or a Matter of Speculation?

by Anders DeVries

Chapter XVI

“Arm forward
weapons,” Maria said and stood up from her command chair on the bridge. The
weapons officer complied and bent to fulfilling his task. “We’ll make short
work of them.”