The Honour of the Knights, Stephen J. Sweeney [reading women .txt] 📗

involve the UNF any further at this point. So, until Meyers arrives you're on your own out there and will just have to wait it out.”

Parks nodded once more, relieved to hear that Meyers would soon be there to assist them. He then noticed Turner sit more upright, leaning forward in his chair. Parks had seen that look on the man's face before; he swallowed.

“But having said that, your current location could not be more convenient. Regarding matters within the Temper system some seventy-two hours ago: intelligence have managed to locate the raider who fled the Cardinal just before its destruction and discovered him to be travelling around the Imperial frontier systems. He arrived in Phylent sometime ago, so it's likely he won't be hanging around too much longer.

“Special agent Barber has followed the man to Arlos starport, where he has been attempting to offload various items of his stock. This whole thing could have ended up as a wild goose chase, which would have been all the better for us, but unfortunately Barber has confirmed to me that the man does indeed have the entire dump of Cardinal's databanks in his possession. And that means he has the ATAF plans.

“At least we now know he has them and they haven't already fallen into unwanted hands. Right now, he is struggling to find a buyer and Barber is currently attempting to verify whether he has them about his person or has stowed them some place else.

“She planned to make her own way back to Confederation space once she has secured the data, but I imagine this could prove a lot trickier than she thinks. And that's not a gamble I'm willing to take. I don't know whether to call your accidental winding up in the Phylent system luck or fate, but I know that we need to get those plans back, ASAP.”

Parks was getting a bad feeling about what the admiral was about to suggest. He began scratching at the stubble on his chin as Turner's request continued to unfold.

“Therefore, I will need you to bring her home with you or, at the very least, the data. If you cannot bring her, don't worry. You and I both know she is more than capable of getting out of there herself. I would rather this is done whilst you await the arrival of Meyers, so you can depart the Phylent system as quickly as possible. We cannot risk losing yet another of our most powerful weapons to the Enemy and as such this should now be your number one priority. I'm sure that I shouldn't have to remind you that those plans are worth far more than every life on that ship.”

Parks groaned as the admiral's request set him on very awkward footing.

“This may be an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone, Elliott. We can gain twice from this situation. With the Red Devils dead, we have to play catch up and an opportunity like this may not come by again any time soon, if ever. I have taken the liberty of transmitting the coordinates of Arlos starport to you, as well as extended intelligence concerning the Phylent system. I'm hoping you have all the information you need, since I do not recommend that you respond to this message. Although we still have a handful of comm relay points secreted around Imperial frontier systems, communications fed through subspace are minimal. Any increase in the tachyon streams could expose you to hostile tracking systems.”

Just as Parks began to wonder what had happened to Hawke in all of this, Turner answered his question.

“As for Commodore Hawke, he is much closer to your location than Meyers is. When he saw Griffin disappear into the jump point, with no clue as to your destination, Hawke took it upon himself to assume command. He ordered Meyers to return to Spirit to search for you there, whilst he took Ifrit to search all the star systems adjacent to Aster. He, like Meyers, is aware of your situation and that I have requested you perform a little errand for us before you are ready to return home. Neither of them, however, are privy to the full details of that errand, as I'm sure you can appreciate. Unless he runs into difficulties, or delivery of my instructions are delayed, you should expect Hawke to arrive at your location sooner than Meyers. If you are able, you should return to Spirit with him. Don't wait for Meyers, he will understand that you had to leave as soon as you were able. In such an event, we will let him know that you have been found and are returning home.

“There is more information attached in the brief I have included with this message. You will need to relay this information to the Knights. I realise that it does not paint the rosiest of pictures, but we need to make sure our bases are covered for all eventualities.

“Take care of yourself, Elliott. We'll see you soon,” Turner concluded. The message playback ended, and the screen displayed a number of icons, detailing the additional information that Turner had transmitted.

Parks sighed. At least one of his questions had been answered: the Confederation's comm points had sent information about Griffin's arrival in the system back to CSN HQ, via subspace channels - Turner had sent a message to the carrier in the same way. Though messages travelled far quicker through jump space than ships themselves, Parks was willing to bet that Griffin's most recent jump would give them a run for their money.

He stood up and paced beside the window. He knew what he had to do and didn't like it one bit. As the admiral had said, the ATAF plans were far more important than all of the lives aboard Griffin - in fact, more so than Griffin, Ifrit and Leviathan combined - and that fact terrified him.

He stared out the window at the endless void of space. Now that the blast screens had come down from the carrier's windows, Parks was able to make out a dull grey planet hanging all alone, not too far off. He did not need to consult a system map to know that that was where Turner needed him to go.

“Dammit,” he said in a low voice, placing a fist on the window and leaning against the glass. “There must be another way; there has to be a way for Barber to come to me, instead of us having to go to her.”

He racked his brains, giving full consideration to every possibility that he could think of, all the while staring towards the dull grey planet. But his attempts to find a workable solution all hit dead ends. Turner was right: he had little choice in the matter, and whether he liked it or not he was going to have to send the ATAFs and the Knights to Arlos alone, and leave Griffin all but defenceless. And the sooner that was done, the sooner they could all get home.

With his mind made up, he turned back to the console and closed the message, before rounding his desk and striding out the door to make for the bridge.

XVII

— Of Cloaks —

Chaz continued watching the security team that guarded the entrance to the cargo bay. He had noticed a new face arrive earlier. The head of the security team had exchanged some brief words with the man before the pair had departed together. It did not seem to Chaz that anyone else had noticed; little details such as that were apparently lost on them.

Estelle was staring at the floor, looking quite glum, though he suspected that her current state owed more to sorrow than to being restricted to the hold.

“... gonna be a lot of weeping mothers after this one, I can tell ya,” one of the team's conversations had carried to the hold's current occupants.

“Tell me about it. They pulled out this one girl who had been buried under a collapsed ceiling. Legs were a complete mess. Even if she'd lived through that, she certainly wouldn't be using those again.”

“Not sure I'd take that over being spaced, myself.”

“Nice looking thing, too.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“That's a shame.”

Chaz had noticed Estelle's expression change as the two men had spoken, the woman lowering her gaze to the floor.

“You all right, Estelle?” Dodds had asked sometime later.

“Just thinking.”

“Sure?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay.”

“Thanks, Simon.”

Simon. That was a name he didn't hear used all too often.

The head of security was now back, and speaking with the rest of his team. As he did so, he looked around the groups of people sat in the cargo hold, but mostly at the Knights. The other members of the security team were doing likewise. It was clear to Chaz that the man was discussing the Knights and he'd guessed what was going on well before Wyatt strode over to the five pilots.

“Lieutenant de Winter?” Wyatt asked as he stood over them, flanked by two others from his team.

“Yes,” Estelle said, getting to her feet.

“Commodore Parks wishes to speak to you immediately in his private office. Please come with me.”

The Knights were escorted from the cargo hold by the head of the security team. As they walked through Griffin's decks towards Parks' office, they were at last able to see the true extent of the damage. There were still many safety and fire doors closed across every deck and as a result their journey was not straightforward. Parks had insisted that the security team avoid the use of elevators, in case they became stuck and delayed the meeting.

* * *

Parks turned back from where he was gazing out the window in the direction of Arlos as the six people entered his office.

“Thank you for being so prompt, Omar,” he said. “Please wait outside. I have a confidential matter I need to discuss with the White Knights.”

“Yes, sir,” Wyatt nodded and departed the office.

“White Knights reporting as...” Estelle began, before Parks waved her down.

“At ease. Please excuse me for restricting you to the cargo hold. I intended to explain the reasons behind the move back at Spirit, but that is going to have to wait. You may have noticed that we are currently not in jump.” He indicated to the inky-blackness of the world outside the carrier, the scene punctuated by tiny pinpricks of greys and whites from distant stars. “When we departed Aster, Griffin suffered a miss-jump and as a result we did not make it to our intended destination. Instead, we have become temporarily stranded in the Phylent system.”

“Phylent?” Estelle and Kelly both said.

“We're in Imperial space?” Chaz asked, mimicking Parks' own reaction to the news the first time that he had heard it.

Parks nodded. “That's correct, and we will be remaining here until we either repair our jump engines, Captain Meyers or Commodore Hawke arrive to assist us, or we are discovered by hostile forces. The situation is not in the least favourable to Griffin from whatever angle you look at it. Whilst rescue is on the way, we cannot count on its arrival for at least several more hours.

“Griffin has sustained a considerable amount of damage and in the face of an attack would be almost totally defenceless. Our weapon systems are unreliable, our shielding is barely adequate, and we have no means of launching fighters.”

“Excuse me, sir, but we could launch the ATAFs from the cargo hold,” Estelle chipped in.

“Thank you for letting me know that, Lieutenant,” Parks answered with a hint of sarcasm. “But the situation is no longer as straightforward as that, and I have just received a communication from Fleet Admiral Turner that has further complicated matters. I believe you were all present when CSN Cardinal was boarded and destroyed by a raiding party?”

“Yes, sir,” Estelle said, the others nodding.

“We believe that the raider who escaped stole some highly classified and sensitive data that, if it were to fall into enemy hands, could spell utter disaster for the Confederation and all her interests.”

“What was it?” Enrique asked.

“As already stated, Mr Todd, that is classified,” Parks shot. “Now keep that big mouth of yours shut. This is very important and I need you all to listen very carefully.”

Enrique did so.

Parks pressed on. “All you need to know is that we have to get it back. As it happens, a government service agent has tracked the raider to this very system and is in the process of reacquiring the data. She planned to immediately return to Confederation space once she had done so, but the instability of this entire region could make that considerably more difficult than she first expected. And it