The Honour of the Knights (First Edition) (21 page)

“
Yes, okay, I know I can be flaky
sometimes, but the others have accepted that and I
don
’
t see
why you can
’
t.
And to be fair, I think that I do make up for that in the
cockpit.

“
Look, you need to stop wanting so much, so
quickly. You said you want to one day command your own carrier, or
battleship or whatever; but if you keep on making enemies here then
you
’
re not
going to get there because people will find you difficult to work
with. Haven
’
t you
noticed how everyone in the dorm tip-toes around you? Doesn’t that
bother you? I mean, what the hell, Estelle, are you going to be a
bitch your whole life?”

Estelle
said nothing.

Kelly plunged on further.
“And to be
honest, we have had a rather intense few weeks with the training,
the back and forth transfers from Gabriel, to Temper, to here, and
then the constant up and down to the station. And
let
’
s not forget
the little incident a few days ago. I think we deserve to let our
hair down from time to time.
Lieutenant
.”

Her
tirade over, Kelly started to wonder if she had taken things a bit
far, Estelle still saying nothing, looking anywhere but at Kelly.
She caught the eyes of a group of people standing nearby, who were
quick to look away. The two women sat in silence for a time,
looking anywhere but at each other, and playing with their
drinks.

“
Sorry,” they both said at the same time.

“
I
’
m sorry,” Estelle said again,
sweeping her hair out of her face. “It
’
s just that…”

“
You don
’
t want to be here,” Kelly filled in
for her.

“
I look at all of this,” Estelle gestured
around herself. “And I wonder where I went wrong.
We
’
ve just
gone from being the pick of the best to some dingy backwater
system, shut away from the other squadrons, to a place where very
little happens. There don
’
t seem to be any prospects for
promotion, getting out or even any real recognition. I almost feel
like the only thing left for me to do would be to quit.”

“
Quit?” Kelly said, stunned.

Estelle
shrugged.

“
Estelle, look,
it
’
s just
a transitional period. We
’
re not going to be here forever,”
Kelly said. Despite her words, Kelly knew that Estelle would never
quit, the woman was far too proud to do something like that.
She
’
d sooner die
than admit it to her family or herself. “For now, this is just
something we have to do. Listen, why don
’
t you come running with me and the
boys tomorrow, instead of bothering yourself with so much flag
duty. It will help you to keep your mind off things like
that.”

Estelle
opened her mouth to answer and then fell quiet. Kelly watched her,
stirring her straw through the clutter of ice cubes, being all that
now remained of her cocktail.

“
Yeah, okay,” Estelle said. “I guess I have been neglecting
all you guys recently.”

“
Good, good,” Kelly smiled. Estelle smiled back. Satisfied
that even though she had been treading on very thin ice she had
made her point, Kelly relaxed more. She once again looked over in
the direction of Dodds, Enrique and Chaz who were sitting not far
from them, on a long couch in the corner.

Estelle began to chuckle. “Don
’
t stare at him, Kelly.”

“
I wasn
’
t,” Kelly said. “I was just
wondering who was winning their game.”

“
Hmmmmmm.”

“
Don’t you sometimes miss being with Dodds?”

“
My drink’s all gone, Lieutenant,” Estelle said, crunching at
the ice cubes with her straw.

Kelly
smiled. Estelle was playfully abusing her position. She stepped off
her stool. “Same again?”

“
Same again. And stop looking over there,” she added as Kelly
walked back to the bar.

* * *

Estelle
did, however, look over herself. She had noticed how Chaz was
sitting with Dodds and Enrique, and a number of other servicemen,
merrily enjoying the game. His usual cold demeanour seemed to have
evaporated tonight, making him a lot more approachable. Even so,
she could tell he was still keeping things close to his chest.
Tonight, he was neither being too quiet nor too loud, either of
which could cause one to stand out. He was acting like a real
blend-in, instantly forgettable. He also appeared to be drinking at
a modest pace; and disguising that well, too.

She could not figure the man out and had heard from Enrique
about how he had hacked the Ray
’
s on-board comms systems, to hook
into the
Merekat
.
Nothing more had been said, Estelle withholding his actions from
the post-patrol report. In any case, she was beginning to wonder
just who Parks had assigned to her wing. As she waited for Kelly to
return, she did her best to watch the group of men without making
it too obvious.

* * *

“
You in, Chaz?” Enrique asked as he shuffled the cards once
again.

“
Sure.”

“
Dodds?”

“
Yeah.”

“
How about you four? Who are you again?” Enrique asked the men
sitting on the couch opposite him. They burst out
laughing.

The
group were playing poker, with Enrique acting as dealer. For the
most part they were playing for fun, but one of the four men that
Dodds, Enrique and Chaz sat with had decided to sneak a bottle of
whiskey in with him, intending to use it as an ice-breaker. The
strong liquor had now taken on a new role as a penalty for anyone
who played an appalling hand. This was becoming quite a regular
occurrence for Enrique, who had failed to beat any of the other
players in the last few rounds.

“
You know, mate, if this were a casino you’d be looking for a
new job round about now,” Dodds said.

“
Dude, how much you ‘ad?” asked the first man.

“
Too much already, by the looks of things,” the second man
said. “Clearly can’t hold his drink.”

“
Oh, I can,” Enrique defended himself. “I’m not that
drunk.”

“
Okay, so what’s our names again?” the first man
said.

Enrique
paused for a moment. Dodds watched him thinking, stealing a glance
at Chaz who was taking a relaxing swig from his beer
bottle.

“
Tell you what,” Enrique said. “Why don’t I just call you Crew
Cut, Tubby, Irish and Shy Boy.”

The four
men exchanged incensed looks.

“
Well, you can’t say they’re not accurate,” Enrique slurred a
little.

“
Oi,” began Tubby, glaring. “My name’s Ian.”

Dodds
reached out and put a hand on Enrique’s shoulder. “No harm, boys,”
he said, giving his friend’s shoulder a little squeeze to stop him
saying any more. “Just some friendly nicknames, that’s
all.”

“
And besides, I’ve lost weight recently,” Ian
grumbled.

“
Where did you get Irish from? The whiskey?” the one Enrique
had christened said.

“
Your accent,” Enrique said.

“
My accent?”

“
Yeah.”

“
I’m Scottish, you cretin! I’m a McLeod!” the man
growled.

“
What should we call you two, then?” Crew said.

“
Hey, wait, I know these two,” McLeod interrupted. “You’re
Simon Dodds and Enrique Todd: The Odd Brothers.” A quizzical look
crossed the faces of his three companions. McLeod elaborated,
“These guys were pretty much inseparable at flight school. Never
used to be far from one another. We ended up calling them the Odd
Brothers because they were so much like family.”

“
Yeah, thanks,” Dodds said, holding up his hand as if to brush
away the conversation and the embarrassing memories that it
evoked.

“
Weren’t you dating that girl, Esther or something? The one
who thought the sun shone out of her arse?”

“
Estelle. Yeah, that one,” Dodds admitted, seeing McLeod look
around briefly in the direction of the woman sat at a table by
herself. “But, no we’re not seeing each other any more. She said
she didn’t have time for me and wanted to focus on her
career.”

“
Shame,” McLeod observed.

“
Why is she like that? So self absorbed, I mean,” Crew
asked.

“
She wants to make something of herself,” Dodds
started.

“
Yeah, that’s obvious,” Crew scoffed.

“
No, that’s not what I mean. She doesn’t come from a
particularly well off family,” Dodds said. “She was born on one of
colonies on Tilli; so you know how it is out there. They never had
a lot of money and had to get by mostly on state benefits. Her
parents worked whenever they could find it, but again, you’ve heard
how it is there. She quit school early so that she could try and
help bring in some cash, but it didn’t make a whole lot of
difference. They couldn’t even up sticks: they couldn’t afford to
settle down anywhere else, let alone afford the cost of transport
in the first place. So, she joined the Navy to prove to her family
and herself that she was worth more than all of that. She sends
most of the money she earns home to them.”

“
Ah,” McLeod said.

“
Hmmmm,” Dodds added. Whilst he was aware that he had just
dished out a great deal of very personal information about a friend
to a group of men he didn’t know, he was only trying to defend the
Estelle that he knew better than others.

“
Still,” McLeod said, glancing back over to Estelle, who was
taking a glass from Kelly, “Shame to have let that one
go.”

“
Oh, she’s been known to change her mind from time to time,”
Enrique said, with a grin.

“
Well, at least until the next morning,” Dodds finished. He
then wagged a finger at McLeod. “Getting back to things: Yeah, I
sort of remember you now, too. Been a long time; nice to see you
again.”

“
Yeah, you too,” McLeod said. “Drink this.” He thrust a
whiskey glass, half-filled with the neat liquor, toward
Dodds.

Dodds
withdrew and directed it towards Enrique. “You came up with the
names.”

Enrique
reluctantly took the glass and downed it in one, coughing a couple
of times before handing it back. “After this round, I will be
passing the dealing over to my good friend Dodds here,” he drawled,
scooping his beer off the table and knocking back a good amount of
the contents. “I really hate whiskey,” he said to Dodds.

“
Aw, God no,
come on
,” Ian said.

At
first, Dodds thought that the man was upset that he was not going
to get a chance to see Enrique make a speckle of himself. He then
saw that the eyes of the four opposite him were looking, not at
Enrique, but to his left.

Sitting next to Enrique were a couple whose public display of
affection for one another was beginning to encroach far too much on
the poker game and everyone’s enjoyment. When the male half of the
couple had asked if he could sit on the end of the couch, none had
expected that his companion was then going to be sitting on
him
for the rest of the
evening – although, from Dodds’ angle, sitting on him might not
have been the best way to describe the way the woman had been
clambering all over the man for the last fifteen
minutes.

“
Guys, guys! Seriously, Romeo, get a room!” Enrique scowled at
them.

“
And you
’
re the guy to ask about that, are
you?” the man answered him, managing to wrench his lips away from
those of his eager companion. “Don
’
t suppose you
’
ve noticed, but
there
’
s little in
the way of privacy around here, them not giving us private quarters
like that lot up on the orbital.”

“
No, I hadn
’
t noticed actually,” Enrique said.
“But I think you
’
ll find there are a few spare mattresses in the south block
storage room. Shouldn
’
t be too cold in there, neither.”

Dodds
found himself impressed at both his friend’s knowledge of
Mandelah’s logistical offerings and the fact that the tip seemed to
do the trick. The man whispered to the woman he was with for a
moment, before the pair got up. He clapped Enrique on the shoulder
a couple of times as they left. Dodds watched them go, his
attention straying to the two women seated on tall stools, at a
just as tall round table, chuckling to one another.