The Honour of the Knights (First Edition) (8 page)

“
Hey…” Dodds called after her, stepping out into the warm
morning sun. Estelle turned around to meet his confused expression,
her own a picture of happiness. She walked back to him and put her
arms around the man, giving him a tight hug.

“
I
’
ve missed you,” she said. “I
didn
’
t think you
were ever going to come back.”

Dodds didn
’
t know what to do, though a few moments later he hugged her
back.

“
After you were suspended from duty, I
figured you
’
d give it a couple of months and then hang up your boots.
You
’
ve not been
in touch at all.” Estelle broke their embrace, looking up into his
face with a warm genuine smile, her dimples showing up as she did
so.

Dodds
said nothing.

“
Did you miss me?”

“
Well… sure I did.”

“
So why haven’t you been in touch?” She swept some of the hair
that had fallen over her face out of the way.

“
I needed time to think. I just wanted to get a clear
perspective on my life. What was all that about?” Dodds asked her,
referring to the way she had yanked him away from the others whilst
they were in the process of catching up.

“
Sorry,” Estelle said. “Right now I want
everyone to stay focused on what we
’
re doing here, and not get caught
up in emotional reunions that could have a negative effect on our
progress and training. But it is good to see you,” she added as
Dodds pulled a face. Estelle had a tendency to put her career
before her friends, something that appeared to not have waned at
all during his absence.

“
Let
’
s walk,” Estelle said.
“I
’
ll show you
around and bring you up to speed.” The pair started down the brick
path that led to their housing block, the walkway splitting and
snaking its away all about the research campus to other buildings
and areas contained within.

“
Good to be back?” Estelle asked.

“
It is, actually,” Dodds said with a bit of a sigh. “I spent
five months on Earth with my parents, picking apples.”

“
How
’
s the business?”

“
Steady. They think
they
’
ll
have a good harvest this year,” Dodds stopped short of telling
Estelle about how his parents had suggested he consider a career
change to work their fields, instead of returning to the
Navy.

They
made their way down a set of wide stone steps, leading down to the
lower areas of the campus and towards the main research buildings.
The vast majority of the construction was made up of tall glass
buildings. Small trees and lamp posts lined the paths they walked,
complimented by grass.

Men and
women dressed in everything from suits to casual entire and white
lab coats walked past them, chatting to one another, drinking from
polystyrene cups and going about their business.

“
How
’
s it going here?” Dodds asked.
Parks had not been too forthcoming with details, only to let him
know of the briefing that afternoon and the start of the program
the following day.

“
A little better than I expected, although
there’s still room for improvement,” Estelle said as she leafed
through the sheets of paper she was carrying. Dodds saw that the
pages were packed full of graphs, pie charts and other statistical
information, each headed with a different
pilot
’
s
name. He noticed she had already attacked them with a red pen,
circling various numbers and writing scruffy and hurried notes.
“We
’
ve only been
here for a few days, but the training starts first thing tomorrow
morning. You
’
ll
have to get into a simulator for the rest of the day to get back up
to speed.”

Dodds
frowned. “I’m not sure I’ll be as bad as all that.”

“
No, Dodds, you will be,” Estelle said. “There was a guy a few
years back who broke both his legs. When he eventually got back
into the seat it took him weeks to get used to it again. It’s not
like riding a bike.”

Dodds
wasn’t so sure. He had doubts that his time out of the cockpit, and
away from the stick, would have impacted his flying standard as
much as Estelle was suggesting.

“
What did you think when they picked us to come here?” Dodds
asked, changing the subject.

Estelle
gave a small chuckle. “When they first told us that we were being
transferred, I was worried we were going to get posted to border
patrol duty.”

“
That wouldn’t exactly have been much fun.”

“
Yeah. I couldn
’
t think of anything worse.
They
’
ve been
shifting people over to the Temper system a lot lately. When did
you actually get back?”

“
Just this morning. I received a request from Commodore Parks
to return to duty yesterday.”

“
That was quick,” Estelle said. “You must have been pretty
keen to get back here.”

Dodds
started to saying something, then stopped walking.

Estelle
studied him for a moment as he looked about. “What?”

Dodds
sighed, then shook his head. “But I had to, didn’t I? I have to
make amends.”

“
Hmmmmm,” Estelle scowled for a moment.

“
I’m being serious, Estelle. Hardly a day goes by where I
don’t think about what happened.”

Estelle
said nothing, but looked about the campus. She soon turned back to
him, now appearing a little sympathetic. “How do you plan to do
it?”

“
I don’t know,” Dodds shook his head again. “I’ll find a
way.”

“
Well, if you ask me you could try just following
orders.”

So I keep being told
, Dodds
thought.

Estelle
said nothing more on the subject and the pair continued walking.
They both knew that, whilst he was a good pilot, Dodds had a
tendency to be reckless, and it was that recklessness which from
time to time led to undesirable consequences.

Estelle
began to point out some of the buildings on the campus: the housing
blocks for the on site staff; a number of research buildings that
they were not authorised to enter; a large lecture theatre, where
they would attend the ATAF presentation; and a few large, square
buildings that housed the simulators.

“
Anything interesting happen whilst
I
’
ve been
away?” Dodds asked.

Estelle chuckled. “You mean aside from what happened
to
Dragon
?”

“
What happened to it?”

Estelle stopped walking. “You mean no-one
’
s told you?”

Dodds
’
initial belief that Estelle was about to regale him with some
useless trivia about the enormous battleship was quashed by the
look on the woman
’
s face. “Told me what?”

“
It
’
s been stolen! It
hasn
’
t been seen
or heard from for months!”

“
Dragon
?
The battleship?” he looked at her sceptically for a moment.
“You
’
re being
serious, aren
’
t
you?”

Estelle nodded. “Didn
’
t Parks tell you?”

“
He seemed… distracted,” Dodds said,
remembering how, after the two had departed the waiting room, Parks
had seemed eager to return to other business, saying very little.
“He didn
’
t
speak to me about anything other than getting through my medical
and getting me down here. What happened?”

“
It disappeared a few weeks after your court-mar… after you
left,” Estelle said. Dodds noted how she doubled back and skirted
around the touchy subject of his court-martial. Though she had not
been on trial herself, he knew the many hours sitting in the
courtroom, delivering evidence and being cross examined, was not an
experience she had relished, wanted reminding of, or ever wanted to
go through again.

“
It just disappeared?” Dodds said. “That
ship
’
s not
exactly small or defenceless. Did someone just take it out of dry
dock?”

“
It happened in Independent space, near the
Independent-Imperial border. From what I’ve heard it was a
hijacking.”

“
What the hell was it doing all the way out there?” Dodds
asked.

“
No-one knows. Seems that information is classified,” Estelle
said.

They
came to a tall, circular fountain, water spraying out of the top.
Estelle and Dodds joined a few people sat around it, enjoying a
mid-morning break from their work, reading and chatting to one
another. The two CSN pilots made sure they put a good amount of
space either side of them so they could talk with a little more
privacy.

“
How do they know
Dragon
was hijacked and
nothing else happened to it? Were there any witnesses or
survivors?” Dodds asked.

“
Only one: Commodore Hawke. He was captain
at the time. And
no
, Dodds, he
wasn
’
t involved,”
Estelle put in, as Dodds roll his eyes at the mention of the
man
’
s name. “They
found him drifting through Confederation space in an escape pod, a
week after they lost contact with the ship. The pod
didn
’
t have any
food, water or medical supplies, and the stasis capsules had been
smashed up. Hawke himself had been badly wounded and suffering from
blood loss. He was lucky to be alive.”

“
No-one else survived?” Dodds asked,
mystified. Though he had never laid eyes on the vessel himself,
having only seen it in archive footage and photographs, he knew
enough about the Confederation Stellar
Navy
’
s
flagship to know that the event of its theft was quite
worrisome.
Dragon
was the largest and most powerful starship in existence,
second to none. Owing to its size, firepower, starfighter and troop
capacities, its mere arrival within a battle zone had been known to
cause the opposing forces to make a hasty retreat or even
surrender. Attempting to fight it was usually never worthwhile. It
was so heavily armoured and shielded that the best defence against
it was to be nowhere near it. If a battle was unavoidable, other
capital ships, such as frigates and carriers, stood a much better
chance of survival due to their own increased capabilities, though
it would still be a somewhat one-sided battle. Dodds knew of only
one other ship that stood a chance of taking on
Dragon
:
Minotaur
,
flagship of the Imperial Naval Forces.

“
No, there weren
’
t any other survivors, he was the
only one,” Estelle said, keeping her voice low.

“
Did Hawke tell anyone what happened?”

“
He says he can
’
t remember much before waking up in
the escape pod. He recalls a large boarding party appearing out of
nowhere and storming all the major divisions simultaneously.
Dragon
was operating
with a full complement, but they were completely overcome. Hawke
believes they were in jump space at the time, so no-one is sure
just how accurate his story is.”

“
They were in
jump
? No, that’s… well, it’s not
impossible, but it’s extremely dangerous. They could have stranded
both themselves and
Dragon
in the middle of nowhere.”

Estelle
nodded. “I find some of it hard to believe.”

“
You
’
re not the only one. Exactly how
did they get aboard in the first place? Who were these people?”
They spoke for a while, discussing the possibilities, none of which
Estelle had not already considered herself. They concluded that it
may have been a faction from the Imperial civil war, though
given
Dragon
‘s
almost legendary status
throughout the galaxy, even that seemed rather
far-fetched.

After
some time, Estelle suggested to Dodds that they should leave the
fountain. They started walking along the brick pathways, Dodds
noting the sizeable wall that ran the entire perimeter of the
campus, effectively shutting it off from the outside world. Though
he had only been at the research centre a little under an hour,
Dodds had counted no less than ten pairs of armed personnel
patrolling the grounds. The young pilot said nothing as they
continued to walk, still trying to put together the pieces of a
large and complicated puzzle.