The Honour of the Knights (First Edition) (55 page)

He
looked back to the corridor and saw the soldier who had been
marking the door snap their gun back and turn back down the
corridor with his team mates.

“
They
’
re coming after us,” Chaz’s voice
came in his earpiece. “They
’
re not going to give up that
easily.”

“
Oh, hell! The
freighter
’
s gone!” Kelly said.

Dodds
looked all around himself, seeking to disprove her. Unfortunately,
she was right. The only visible vessel was one bearing the Imperial
coat of arms, docked onto the side of the port; likely being how
the soldiers had entered. They had all been relying on the
freighter’s presence to help them get back into the cloaked ATAFs.
But with their point of reference gone, finding the invisible craft
now seemed like an impossible task.

He tried
to think. He looked back to the starport and tried to trace a line
from the airlock to where the freighter might have been. But for
all his effort, he couldn’t judge the distance or the heading; it
was too hard.

“
Chaz, what are you doing?” he heard Estelle ask. He saw the
big man was aiming the plasma pistol, a small green bolt already
streaking away from him. There was no answer from Chaz, who seemed
to be concentrating at the task in hand.

He fired
several more shots, in seemly random locations. The three shots
sailed unhindered out into space. The man adjusted his aim to
target a different region, but, as before, the next two bolts also
failed to land a target. The next shot he fired also disappeared
into the depths, then, with his next attempt, his plan revealed
itself to all.

The
plasma bolt found its mark and, just as Parks had warned, the
unmistakeable form of an ATAF lit up before their eyes, the
shielding reacting to the hit and looking as if someone had thrown
luminous green paint all over it. There it remained but for a scant
few seconds before it began to fade from view.

“
There!” Chaz said, drawing
everyone
’
s
attention to the withering green ripples outlining the
fighter.

“
Stay here,” Estelle ordered the others and sped over to the
fighter before starting to ease herself through the shielding.
Despite the need to re-enter the fighter as quick as she could to
assist the others, she had to take her time pushing herself through
the layers of tough protection; a task that could not be
accomplished without patience.

Before
long, she disappeared from view. A short while later, the fighter
she entered was lit with waves of cyan ripples, blue bolts
streaking out from the nose of the craft. They hurtled forward,
striking objects not far away, revealing themselves to be the four
other ATAFs. Estelle was using the mag cannons; she wasn’t about to
dare using the main guns – they could do more harm than
good.

Dodds sped over to the nearest visible craft to him and, just
as Estelle had done, started pushing himself through the
starfighters
’
shielding, all the while glancing uneasily back at the
Imperial lander that was still latched onto the side of the port.
At any moment, it could detach itself and start after them. He was
surprised it was taking them this long.

He
guessed that the soldiers…

What was it that man had called them? Pandora..?
Pandoran?

…
had encountered refugees that
had escaped their attention before and wanted to finish the job
before giving chase, even if the airlock escapees were of a greater
threat. He was soon settled back into the seat of the ATAF and
began stabbing at the buttons and controls in front of him,
bringing the systems back on-line.

“
Everyone ready?” Estelle said. There was a
resounding confirmation from all and, as one, the
Knights
turned their
still veiled ATAFs around and moved away from the starport, and
back towards
Griffin
.

An explosion reflected off Dodds’ canopy and he looked around
to see the transport craft that had been attached to the port had
been destroyed. The port began to vent air, bodies, and other
materials as it depressurized. A black body spun out of the hole
that had been ripped in the side of the port, in wake of the
transporter
’
s
destruction. The figure made futile attempts to stop itself from
drifting further into space, but was unable to do anything about
their slide.

Dodds
caught the green outline of an ATAF just as it faded from view,
swinging around to rejoin the group.

“
Just making sure,” Chaz said.

As they hurtled away from the port, Dodds looked back around
to see that the black-suited body of the soldier was still moving,
a lot longer than should have been possible. In his
mind
’
s eye,
frightening images were painted:

T
hough the ATAF was invisible, the
soldier began to swim through space towards him, gaining on him
despite the incredible speed of his starfighter. After all, what
was the lack of oxygen and warmth to one who had survived injuries
that would have killed an ordinary human being? Latching onto the
ATAF
’
s canopy, it
punched straight through to him, the shields and the canopy itself
no match for its incredible strength. The soldier grabbed him by
his flight suit, wrenching him from his seat and out into space,
the buckles doing nothing to save him. Drawing again on its
unimaginable strength, the soldier punched easier through his
flight helmet, shattering the tough visor and draining away all his
oxygen. There it held him in an unbreakable grasp, waiting for him
to die; until finally releasing him and leaving his lifeless body
to float through space forever, his friends able to do nothing more
than look on in horror.

The soldier
’
s limbs did eventually cease their flailing, but by then
Dodds was not surprised by what he had seen. It would not have been
a shock to him if it had made an attempt to chase them, cloaked or
not.

* * *

“
He would make an excellent politician,”
Estelle said to Dodds. She had spent some of the journey back to
the carrier questioning Chaz and attempting to ascertain an
explanation for his behaviour at the starport. As expected, he was
not very forthcoming with answers and Estelle had soon given up.
She would get the explanation she was after once she had submitted
a report. No doubt senior command would be very interested in
Chaz
’
s
actions themselves and in the end she would get closure; even if it
took several months.

“
Managed to answer the question without actually answering
it?” Dodds said.

“
Precisely.”

“
I
’
m just grateful to get out of
there.”

He too had many questions of his own, none that he knew would
be answered any time soon. Most worrisome of all, Chaz’s
statement:
They’re a mistake.
If that was a mistake, he didn’t want to think
what the original intention was supposed to be.
The past few hours had been unlike any he had experienced in
his entire life.

The journey continued in relative silence, the five pilots
happy to take a breather from their recent experiences. Heading
back to
Griffin,
Dodds felt as though he was waking from a terrible nightmare;
albeit one with many memorable cuts and bruises.

XXIV

—
Friends Like These —

“
C
aptain.”

Parks
looked up from his musings, to see Liu swing around in his chair,
wearing a relieved expression.

“
Scanners are indicating that
CSN I
frit
has just jumped into the system and has started
making its way toward our position. Based on their current
velocity, they
’
ll
be with us in a little under thirty minutes.”

Parks
joined the helmsman by his console. Sure enough, the medium range
radar was showing a green triangle moving towards the centre of the
display.

“
Thank God,” Parks said. He felt some of
the pressure that had been weighing down upon him starting to lift.
In the hours following the
Knights
’
departure, Parks had overseen the crews
’
efforts to bring the ship back up
to a manageable, working condition. It had not been easy, but with
a lot of effort they had managed to restore shields, engines, jump
drives, and some weapons systems. And whilst they would not be able
to fend off any major attacks or launch fighters, they were at
least in a position to return home.

With the advent of
Ifrit
‘s
arrival, all that now remained was to await the
Knights’
return
and they could at last leave Phylent and begin
the journey home. Parks may not have managed to secure the
recapture of
Dragon
, but he would have prevented valuable information from
falling into the hands of the Enemy. That, at least, was something
to be thankful for.

He turned to Weathers, who had taken the place of
O
’
Donnell on the
bridge. “How are the comms systems?”

“
They should all be functioning correctly, sir,” Weathers
said. “We are still experiencing limited performance with
shielding, weaponry and engines, but communications are operating
perfectly.”

“
Good. Once
Ifrit
is close enough, send them a
welcome message on short range broadcast only. Relay our current
situation to them and let them know we are ready to leave as soon
as the
White Knights
return.”

“
Yes, sir,” Weathers said.

Parks returned to his seat to await
Ifrit
‘s
arrival. Their fellow Confederation carrier was travelling
towards them head-on and, from his seat, out the main viewport, he
was able to see various aspects of the ship springing into detail
the closer it grew to them.

But as
Ifrit
bore down on
Griffin
‘s
location, Parks started to grow uneasy and could
n
o
t shake the
feeling that something was wrong. The carrier was well within
visual range, now less than about twenty kilometres out, and
devouring the distance at a rapid pace. From the looks of things,
it would be on top of them much sooner than Liu had at one time
predicted. He subconsciously sat a little more upright and further
forward in his seat.

Parks looked to Weathers, “Karen, has
Ifrit
acknowledged our
HELO?”

“
Not yet, sir. Should I send it again?”

“
No,” Parks shook his head. “First, recheck the comms systems.
Mr Liu, perform a full system diagnostic. Let’s be sure that our
message was transmitted in the first place before we begin
bombarding them with repeat broadcasts.”

“
Yes, sir,” Liu said, then a minute later, “All tests have
completed successfully.”

“
Comms are still functioning correctly, Captain,” Weathers
added. “Though, it might have been a glitch in the
system.”

Parks wasn’t so sure. Something wasn’t right.
“Send the greeting again,” he said.

Weathers complied, but there was still no answer.
Ifrit
‘s
form continued to grow larger as it closed the
distance between the two carriers, showing no signs of slowing. It
was barely a few hundred meters from them now.

As Parks
rose from his seat and walked to the front of the bridge, he heard
consoles up and down the deck begin to whine, and knew right then
that his worries had been confirmed. He looked to Liu at the same
moment the man turned to him.

“
Captain,
Ifrit
is readying weapons!” Liu
said, t
he former look of relief wiped
clean and replaced by a picture of panic.

“
Red alert!” Parks said. “Full power to shields
now!”

The words hadn’t even left his mouth when
Ifrit
‘s guns
opened up, the full barrage directed straight towards its
almost defenceless former partner in battle. Bright green light
from bolts of plasma intermixed with thick red beams of laser fire,
the tiny blue and cyan particle trails of missiles almost lost in
between.

The opening volley hit
Griffin
‘s
shields hard and the already damaged power generators were
quick to buckle to the intensity of the onslaught. Parks found his
seat just as an enormous spray of bright blue splinters erupted
from
Griffin
‘s
bow, signalling both the collapse
of the shielding and the vulnerability of the vessel to the hail of
fire that followed.