The Honour of the Knights (First Edition) (63 page)

“
We
do
,
Lieutenant
,” Parks answered him. The
two men released their handshake and, putting on his best poker
face, Parks applauded Chaz along with everybody else.

Turner and Parks stepped aside and people surged forward to
hoist the
White Knights
up on to their shoulders. As he was picked up,
Chaz glared at Parks who continued to applaud undeterred, the
entire exchange going unnoticed by everyone except for Turner, who
had seen it all before.

The bottle of tequila was once again doing the rounds as the
merry troop began to make their way from the flight deck and
towards the space station
’
s bar. Kelly passed the tequila on
without drinking, something playing on her mind. Though she was
smiling and feeling rather jubilant in light of her promotion, she
was still concerned about seeing one of her
father
’
s
company
’
s ships
docked at a port in Imperial space. She would be speaking to him
about it the first chance she got.

But for
Dodds, Enrique, and Estelle there was nothing that could bring them
down, the thought of a celebratory drink very welcoming
indeed.

“
Lieutenant Dodds,” Turner called, his voice clear and
recognisable above the din of song, applause and
chanting.

Those
carrying the freshly-promoted first lieutenant stopped and turned
him around to face the admiral. “Sir?”

“
You did a good job today.”

Dodds
grinned back at him. “Thank you, sir.”

Acknowledgements

To Mum and Dad, for all their love and support. To Wes, Faye,
Ceri and Em for putting up with me over the years. To Ian and Rob
for all their encouragement and for being such good friends. To
Cheryl for always being there to talk to. And to my brother,
Richard, for always being willing to support every project I
undertook, no matter how steep or daunting the climb. We always got
there in the end.