The Honour of the Knights (First Edition) (62 page)

Stepping out of the transport, the
Knights
were met by an enormous
crowd of people, all eager to meet the mysterious fighter pilots
that had fought back against almost impossible odds. With some
hesitance, the
White Knights
walked towards the throng as hands thrust forward
to be shook, whilst others clapped them on the back in thanks and
congratulations.

* * *

Parks watched the scene unfold from an observation room,
reluctantly aware that he would not be able to keep the
Knights
a secret
forever. Whether he had brought them off first or last, it was
doubtful that someone would not have recognised them. He watched as
the coastguards – the orbital’s security staff - that had been
assigned to clear the flight deck and sneak the
Knights
away were overwhelmed by the
crowd. One looked up towards Parks, a defeated expression on her
face. She shrugged. Parks made no gesture. At least the
Knights
were
safe.

Turner stood behind Parks, at the back of the room, away from
the windows, waiting for Parks to present him with the data card
the
Knights
had
retrieved from Barber. Turner had waited at Spirit for his return,
so that he too could confirm the plans were safe before at last
notifying the President and her Office. Aside from the two senior
officers, the only other occupants of the observation room were a
team of six other coastguards, five of whom were well armed, the
sixth holding a large metal case.

“
How the hell did we miss Hawke?” Turner asked, sounding angry
at both himself, Parks, and the CSN in general.

“
None of the signs were present to begin with, sir,” Parks
said, turning away from the window, towards the admiral. “They only
appear to have fully manifested themselves within the past few
hours. It may well have been a result of being in a combat
situation with the Enemy, although it could have been some kind of
dormant sleeper system.”

“
If that is so, then
it
’
s very
worrying. How many more could there be who have slipped through the
net?”

“
All the standard tests came back negative. There was nothing
in his blood, and the retina and brain scans were as expected.
There was nothing unusual about him; he was perfectly normal,”
Parks said, repeating a belief the two men had at one time
held.

Turner tutted and shook his head. “When we pulled him out of
that escape pod my gut feeling was to suspend him immediately, or,
at the very least, hold him back from direct involvement in
critical operations. But as you know, we need every good man we can
get our hands on and I couldn
’
t risk removing someone like that
from service.” The admiral started to pace, looking down at the
floor. “Aside from his refusal to co-operate during the operation,
did he do anything else to rouse suspicions?”

“
No, he even went as far as to destroy an Imperial frigate
commanded by the Enemy,” Parks said.

“
Did you get a good look at that frigate?”

“
There wasn
’
t much time. Hawke destroyed it
almost as soon as it arrived.”

“
Then it was probably part of the ruse.
I
’
d bet
good money that it was worthless to them anyway. Was probably
completely unmanned, in a poor state of repairs, and ready to fall
apart any day now. You
’
re going to have to sharpen up about these sorts of issues,
Elliott.” Turner continued pacing back and forth in a small area.
“Was Hawke acting alone on
Ifrit
? Was anyone else
involved?”

“
It
’
s difficult to be certain. From
what we
‘ve
been
told by the survivors, Hawke surrendered
Ifrit
to the Enemy and allowed them
to come aboard. After that, the Enemy started to systematically
kill off the crew. We found the survivors hiding in the ventilation
units near the power cores. They weren
’
t even aware that Hawke had
survived.”

Turner
grunted his dismissal of the survivors’ statements.

Parks went on. “The Enemy abandoned the carrier when Zackaria
and Hawke were spaced. They picked both of them up in transports
and fled Phylent, along with
Dragon
and the frigates that had joined it. It looks
like he
’
s been
held in high regard for quite some time; certainly up there with
Rissard.”

“
You didn
’
t think to destroy the transport
before Hawke and the admiral could escape?” Turner stopped pacing
and looked up.

“
I… hesitated, sir,” Parks apologised. He had indeed held
back on destroying the transport, since leaving both men to escape
was, in his opinion, the lesser of two evils. Allowing Zackaria to
live would permit him to continue with the anticipated assault
against the rest of the galaxy, whilst killing him would extinguish
all hope of halting to Enemy’s advance for good. At the end of the
day, it came down to numbers.

Turner nodded. “I
’
m sure it was not without good
reason, Commodore. I may have acted in exactly the same way had I
been in your place. Whilst there is no reason to believe that upon
capturing Zackaria we could expect him to cooperate, there is no
harm in trying. It would have made everything that much easier
though. For now, it is important that we establish whether or not
Hawke was acting of his own free will.”

“
I will have a full background check made
against him immediately, as well as the survivors
from
Ifrit
,” Parks said.

“
We need every detail, Commodore. If there
is even the slightest shred of evidence to suggest that this thing
no longer affects purebred Imperials, then everything changes:
we
’
ll have
a full-blown galactic pandemic on our hands and we need to be sure
that we are able to control this thing.”

Both
Parks and Turner looked to the six other men occupying the room,
aware they should conduct the rest of the conversation in more
private and secure surroundings.

“
Someone should probably tell his wife, too,” Turner
added.

Parks nodded and glanced back down to the flight deck, where
the
Knights
were
still receiving praise and admiration for their
day
’
s work, the
five pilots having twice overcome next to impossible odds in the
space of just a few hours.

“
I never doubted their potential, Elliott,” Turner commented
behind him.

“
Neither did I.” Parks turned his back on
the scene below him and walked over to Turner, fishing the data
card out of a pocket and presenting it. Turner picked up a portable
device that lay on a table next to him and inserted the card into a
slot in the base. The device jingled and the screen informed him
that it was accessing the card, then set about decrypting the data.
Before long, it displayed the card
’
s content.

Several
dozen text options ran the length of the screen, along with options
to manipulate the card and its data. The device itself was little
more than a screen, the surface touch-sensitive. With his finger
tip, Turner tapped the only piece of text that mattered to
him,

Operation Sudarberg

More
words filled the screen. Amongst the text present were sections
entitled “ATAF”, with subsections detailing “Overview”, “Schemas”,
“Phase Analysis” and “Implementation”.

Parks stood in silence by Turner’s side, watching as the
admiral continued to tap through various sections and subsections
of the data. Images of the ATAF, concepts and blueprints flashed
across the device
’
s screen and Turner moved quickly through them, not lingering
long on the overview, schemas and phase analysis sections. Neither
of the two needed to see it all in detail. They knew what they was
looking at, having seen it almost every day for the past four
years.

Finally,
Turner tapped through the “Implementation” section and watched as
an animation played on the screen. It showed an overview of
Imperial space. Five star systems, Mekel, Carthege, Haylahe,
Atlante, and Codexa, were highlighted. They were positioned close
to one another and situated near the centre of Imperial-controlled
space. As the animation played through, the galactic map zoomed out
to reveal all of Imperial space and a small number of Independent
systems, running the border. Five pale yellow spheres expanded from
each of the five highlighted Imperial systems, engulfing all of the
Imperial-occupied territory and the handful of Independent world
systems. Statistics and other various items of information began to
fill the screen, though Turner did not wait to see it
all.

“
Good work, Commodore,” he said, powering down the device. He
removed the card and placed it into a small plastic container. He
then beckoned forward the coastguard holding the large metal case
and placed the data card within it. The size of the case was absurd
for the tiny object that it had been brought to carry, but the data
was deserving of the protection; for the time being at least. Both
Parks and Turner knew that it would be kept safe until its
retrieval was confirmed by government officials, after which it
would be destroyed. The security officer stood back with the others
and awaited further instructions.

“
We have also obtained full combat
statistics for the ATAFs,” Parks said. “They are currently being
correlated on
Griffin
. I should be able to have
them sent to you within a few hours.”

“
Everything?” Turner asked in surprise.

“
Everything.”

“
If that is the case, then we have all the information we
need,” Turner said, walking over to the window and looking down at
the celebrations and cheers that continued below him. He looked
over at Parks who had joined him. “We now have only one hurdle left
to overcome.”

Parks
nodded his understanding and together the two men left the
room.

* * *

A man took back a bottle of tequila that he had previously
thrust into Dodds
’
hand. He whooped and waved it around in the air before
noticing that the flight deck had fallen quiet. Dodds and Enrique
looked over at the parting crowds to see Parks and Turner walking
towards them. Personnel stood to attention and saluted the two men
that walked between them, the admiral
’
s expression one of slight
irritation at the rowdy behaviour of the spontaneous
celebration.

“
At ease,” Turner muttered, stopping in front of Estelle and
her team mates. “Lieutenant de Winter, you and your team have had
quite a day from what I’ve been told.”

“
Sir, yes,” Estelle answered, swallowing hard, her eyes
straying over to Dodds and Kelly.

“
Answering the call to stand in defence of
your carrier, your squadron and allied forces against overwhelming
and uncertain odds; risking your lives to go well above and beyond
the call of duty, at a moment
’
s notice…” Turner reached into a
small box that Parks held, removing a medal from within it. He
fastened it carefully to Estelle
’
s flight suit. “… whilst all the
time acting within the full interest of the Confederation Stellar
Navy and her government. Congratulations, Lieutenant Commander.” He
shook Estelle by the hand.

Kelly
gasped. Dodds’ jaw dropped and, meeting Enrique’s eyes, saw the man
mouth the admiral’s last two words to him.

It took
Estelle a moment for the realisation of her promotion to sink in.
“Th… thank you, sir.”

“
The paperwork will be officially dealt
with at Mandelah,” Turner said with a wink and a smile, as the
shocked woman shook Parks
’
hand. The admiral stood back and began clapping,
starting an applause that ran the length of the deck. Turner then
shifted his attention to Dodds and Enrique, presenting each of them
with a medal of their own, before shaking their hands and
applauding them. They, too, were promoted to the next highest rank,
moving from second to first lieutenant, the rank Estelle had
previous held. Kelly followed suit not long thereafter and then the
two men came to Chaz.

“
Congratulations, Mr Koonan,” Turner said
as he affixed the medal to the big man
’
s suit. The applause and cheers
grew louder now that the final member of the team had been
presented with their promotion. Chaz, however, was not smiling, and
as Parks took his hand to shake it Chaz leaned forward.

“
I thought you said you had the situation
under control,
Commodore
,” he said in hushed tones.
Parks met his eyes and for a brief period there existed some
extreme tension between the two men, each of their grips tightening
on one another’s hands.