The Honour of the Knights (First Edition) (12 page)

With the
ejection from the ATAF project and her dreams in tatters, Estelle
felt that her life was just about over. The greatest opportunity of
her career, gone; just like that. She tried to remind herself that
there was always someone, somewhere who was worse off than she;
though right now she was having trouble picturing it.

* * *

At the
edge of Imperial space, Natalia Grace had dragged a barely
conscious, dying man down the corridors of her stricken vessel for
what seemed like an eternity, doing her best to avoid the flames
that continued to erupt all around her. Twice, she had been forced
to change her route to reach the escape pods. The smoke was
starting to thicken now, making it difficult to see and
breathe.

To make matters worse, the man she struggled to bring with
her had fought against her throughout the journey, attempting to
shake her off. He had shouted at her to leave him, but she had
insisted on bringing him with her. The man
’
s clothes were bloodied, ripped and
burnt in several places, the flesh beneath raw and charred. Natalia
did not know the man
’
s name and he had been unable to tell her.

Finally,
she had made it to the escape pods. The ship that burned around her
was not a large vessel and there were only a handful of pods to
serve the crew. Here, there were just two. Both of them remained,
none of the other crew - if any were still alive - having made it
this far. Natalia had encountered numerous bodies along the way and
it appeared that she and the man she had fought to bring with her
were the last two people remaining alive on the ship.

The
vessel gave a sudden, violent lurch, knocking Natalia off her feet.
She struggled to stand as it continued to vibrate and
shudder.

What the hell was that?
she
thought.

“
… sh… ship’s coming apart…” the voice of her unknown
companion answered her thoughts, still lying on the floor where he
had been deposited. Now that he appeared to be at least
semi-conscious and talkative, Natalia hauled him over a bulkhead
and, with some effort, managed to help him up into a sitting
position. His breathing was heavy and rattling.

“
… you’ve gotta get into… one of… those quickly,” he
told her, gasping and staring at the escape pods. Natalia tried to
help him stand, but he cried out in pain, pushing her away as best
he could.

“
Please, you have to get up!” she begged him.

“
… i can
’
t,” he whined back to her. “i can
hardly… even breathe.” He looked into her eyes. “You have to go!
Now!”

“
No, I can
’
t go on my own!”

“
… if you don
’
t leave soon… this ship will come
apart… and you
’
ll be sucked out into space… unless they decide to finish
it off before then… you know they will… you, more than
anyone… should know that… this… this ship is useless… to
them now… they
’
ll come for you when they
’
re done with the
others.”

Natalia
knew he was right. The only reason their attackers had not
destroyed the ship already was because they were tackling those who
were still putting up a fight, and her own vessel was dead in the
water. But as soon as they became aware that it was no longer
usable, and not-at-all salvageable, they wouldn’t hesitate to blow
it to pieces.

“
I can
’
t go on my own,” Natalia repeated,
tears streaming down her face. “I wouldn
’
t know where to go or what to do.
I
’
ve never flown
a ship, let alone attempted to navigate in jump space.”

Through the flickering light, she could see a smile spread
across the man
’
s
face. “… didn
’
t… think you wanted me for my wit or good looks,” he said,
attempting not to cough blood over her.

Natalia
smiled back, though hers was
filled with sadness.
She knelt close to
him and took his head in her hands, kissing him on the
forehead.

“
… in my top pocket is… my id card… please make sure it
gets to my wife.”

“
I will, I promise.” Natalia took the id card from him - it
revealed his name to be David S. Porter - and slipped it into a
zipped inner pocket of her jacket. She recalled the man now: he was
always telling jokes to lift the spirits of all of those around
him. He’d made her smile on a number of occasions.

She double-checked to ensure that all her other important
data cards were safe and secure and still with her, before opening
the door to one of the escape pods and stepping across the
threshold. After everything that she had been through, she could
not afford to get away only to leave all the reports behind. She
could not remember all of what she had seen and done, and many
others
’
hard work
had been entrusted to her. She could not let them down.

From the
rear doors, she could see straight through the pod to the cockpit
windows at the front, the launch chutes of the main vessel open,
revealing the vast emptiness of space beyond. It was then that she
noticed the ship was spinning. Every now and again, scenes of the
on-going battle would enter into her view, burnt out debris from
other craft tumbling by in the immediate outside space.

“
… can you still see… the jumpgate?” she heard Porter ask
behind her, his voice weak.

“
Yes, yes I can,” Natalia replied. “But it
looks like we
’
re moving away from the entry point. I
’
m sure we were closer to it than
that.”

“
… it
’
s not getting… further away…
it
’
s… getting
smaller because it
’
s closing… soon it will be unusable…
you
’
ll… have to
hurry.”

Natalia hesitated. The thought of piloting a space craft, no
matter what type, made her sick to her stomach; like attempting to
cross a vast ocean, on a small raft using nothing but her own arms
for paddles. Looking around the pod an idea struck her and she
scampered back to Porter
’
s side.

“
… i can
’
t come with you,” he managed again,
as she tried to help him up once more.

“
I can put you in one of the stasis
capsules!” she enthused. “You
’
ll be fine once
you
’
re under. And
once we get to the other end, we can get you some medical
assistance.”

Porter shook his head. “… those ones
aren
’
t…
military-grade… they don
’
t work like that… they just make
you fall asleep… i
’
ll die in there… and then you
’
ll have to put up with a rotting
corpse… until you get picked up.”

Natalia
looked in anguish from her dying companion to the open
pod.

“
… the controls are clearly marked,” he assured her. “…
the pods are designed to be simple to use… smart girl like you…
should have no trouble working it out…” he coughed uncontrollably
and there was more blood.

The ship
rocked again, the shaking accompanied by a terrible grinding
sound.

“
Go!” Porter mustered enough strength to put emphasis on the
word.

Natalia
rushed back into the tiny, cramped pod, past the stasis capsules
that lay like small beds opposite one another, and up to the front.
She studied the control panel in the cockpit and discovered it was
indeed very basic and straightforward. There was even a brass plate
with engraved launch instructions on the main console. As Natalia
looked out for the jump point a thought occurred to her.

“
How can I reach the jump point with the
ship spinning?” she asked, returning yet again to the
pod
’
s rear
doors. David did not answer her; he was dead. The
man
’
s eyes were
closed and he was slumped forward, quite still.

Natalia
felt her heart rate increase, her breath coming quick. She was
alone. Wasting no further time she hurried to the front of the pod
and began working through the instructions on the plate one by one,
pressing buttons and activating systems in the specified order.
Behind her the rear doors closed and locked. As she continued
various instruments sprang into life, screens and monitors lit up
and started to tail system logs, statuses of essential parts and
other texts. The final instructions on the engraved plate
read,

Press
‘
Release
’
to
release locking clasps

Press
‘
Launch
’
to
fire engines

Ensure
autopilot is engaged 100m from host vessel

Looking
down the launch chute Natalia realised what she had to do and
pressed the release button whilst studying the spinning scene
outside. The now tiny jump point was coming into her view from
bottom to top. The vessel was not spinning very fast, but her
inexperience with starships had hit her confidence. She swore as
she missed the second spin… and the third. On the fourth pass of
the jump point, when it was more or less central in her view,
Natalia pressed the launch button. She felt the engines engage and
the pod shot forward. The jump point was now smaller than ever and
she prayed that by the time she reached it, it would not have
closed completely.

Looking
behind her to the tiny rear door window, she caught a glimpse of
what remained of the ship she had been travelling on. Compulsion
overtook her and she moved over to the small viewport.

As David
had said, her old ship was coming apart, small pieces breaking off
all the time, severing the links between the larger sections.
Around the vessel, Natalia could make out Imperial starfighters
weaving between other stricken craft, explosions ripping across
their hulls.

Her
ships, her allies, her friends. She would never see them again. The
tears came afresh and through her blurred vision she caught sight
of an Imperial frigate reigning over the carnage. As she watched,
she saw a starfighter deviate from its current course and move
towards her pod. Her tears of sorrow became ones of fear and she
gave a loud gasp. The starfighter approached and Natalia found she
was unable to tear her eyes away from it.

Two
green bolts of plasma issued from beneath its wings. Her pod was
bathed in a brilliant light. Moments later, the exploding, stricken
vessels, the frigate, and the fighter were gone, to be replaced by
the blue haze of jump space.

* * *

“
I think the
Red Devils
must have cheated. You
saw the way Andrea was sucking up during that presentation. She was
probably doing stuff like that the whole way through the
evaluation,” Estelle continued to chew on the bone of the
Knights’
exit from the
ATAF project.

The others said nothing, having since taken to just ignoring
her. Enrique was slouched in his chair asleep; Chaz was back to his
book; Kelly was taking the time to write in her journal; and Dodds
was back to his favourite activity of staring out the window. The
view was quite uninspiring, with nothing to see aside from jump
space
’
s blue
haze.

Estelle
’
s
misery was further compounded by the fact that the transport the
five now occupied was likely the last luxury they would be afforded
before arriving at Spirit. It could comfortably hold twelve
passengers, and was often used by high-ranking officials and
members of senior command. With no-one having acknowledged her,
Estelle slipped back into her own thoughts and went back over
everything that they had done in the past few weeks at the research
facility.

She could not think where they had gone wrong: her team had
been up to scratch on the TAF simulators; even Dodds, following his
lengthy absence from the cockpit, had performed well. There was no
weak link anywhere as far as she could determine. The ATAF
evaluations in the simulators themselves had gone without a hitch.
The team had not lost a single member during any of the missions
they had flown, an act that would have without doubt been a reason
for instant failure. They had not conceded very many allied
casualties during the assessments - in some cases, none at all;
neither had they wasted very much ammunition. All she could think
about was that they had not completed the tasks fast enough.
Stepping into Parks
’
office she had been confident that the
White Knights
would be charged with
piloting the ATAFs for whatever purpose the Confederation had in
mind. But she had instead seen her dreams go slipping through her
fingers.