The crowd dispersed, thinning out and moving off the flight deck, to return to their quarters and duties. Estelle looked over Jenkins as she waited for the mob to depart. She was a tall woman, with long brown hair and a persistent stern and serious expression on her face. Estelle was often reminded of a miserable school headmistress whenever she saw the fleet admiral. Like most people in her position, Jenkins cut the enlisted naval personnel precious little slack and stood for no excuses.
“Captain de Winter, are you okay?” Jenkins said, finally turning to her.
“Yes, Admiral,” Estelle said, rubbing at the side of her face where she had been struck. “It was nothing.”
Jenkins nodded, then turned to Meyers. “Commodore, good to see you made it back in one piece.”
“Thank you, Admiral,” Meyers said, “but not without suffering losses along the way.”
“I’m sure you did what you could, Commodore. What’s important is what we have now and where we go from here. Can you please bring a full list of all surviving vessels and personnel to my office immediately, as well as any battle reports you may have already prepared after the most recent encounter.”
“Of course, Admiral.”
“And I think after what’s happened here, it might be prudent for de Winter and Taylor to return to Leviathan,” Jenkins added.
“I’m afraid that an incident such as we just experienced here is why I brought the Knights off the carrier in the first place, Admiral,” Meyers said.
“Sir?” Kelly said.
“Tensions are running high on Leviathan,” Meyers said. “Have you not noticed the way people have been looking at you?”
“I have,” Estelle said, “though I thought it was for different reasons.”
“You think it’s a very real possibility, Commodore?” Jenkins said.
“Security have tipped me off that they believe an attempt might be made against the two pilots’ lives,” Meyers said.
Estelle’s jaw dropped.
“Oh, for the love of God,” Jenkins muttered under her breath. “That’s all we need.”
“Are you serious?” Kelly said. “Do they have no appreciation of all the work we’ve done, and everything we’ve been through?”
“No, they don’t,” Meyers said. “Obviously not every member of the crew is harbouring such thoughts, but there are enough of them to make me take the issue seriously. I’ve been posting security in close proximity of your quarters for the past six months. Trusted security, I should add.”
He eyed the two women closely with the last sentence, making it clear to Estelle that the hatred of herself and Kelly had spread as far as to some of the carrier’s security staff. Those individuals would be the most dangerous, as they would benefit excessively from misplaced trust.
“Fine,” Jenkins said. “In that case, collate me a list of anyone you think might have cause to make threats against de Winter or Taylor’s lives and bring it to me. I’ll take the appropriate action to deal with them. In the meantime, we can find you two a couple of staterooms in a secure part of the station.”
It was like Spirit all over again, Estelle thought, except this time it was to protect them from harm, rather than harassment from their adoring fans. Jenkins began to instruct the security team to escort Estelle and Kelly to an appropriate part of the station, when Kelly interrupted.
“Excuse me, Admiral, but I think that myself and Captain de Winter should join your meeting, as should the other White Knights when they return.”
“For what reason?” Jenkins said, folding her arms across her chest.
“We noticed something about the enemy tactics during the battle for Alpha Centauri and it could prove vital that we cross reference our theories with the rest of our squadron, since they might have come across the same thing during their journey to Kethlan.”
Estelle watched Jenkins for a moment, trying to gauge her reaction, knowing that the woman was no fool.
“What are you trying to avoid telling me, Taylor?” Jenkins said. “Have you become privy to some additional information about events in the Kethlan system that were strictly on a need-to-know basis?”
Not a fool at all.
Kelly was quiet for a moment, as if thinking of the best way in which to answer the question. “I received a message from another member of my squadron that suggested that the Enemy may be having difficulties in coordinating and maintaining their forces of late, due to issues with the technology that drive them.”
That was pretty much the summary that Estelle would’ve given for Enrique’s message, too. It said what it needed to, without either being too cryptic or too transparent. It would make sense to anyone who knew the other side of the story. Piece them together and you got the truth.
Jenkins considered for a moment, then said, “How many others know of this?”
“I shared what I knew with Captain de Winter after we departed Alpha Centauri, Admiral, but other than that I have kept it to myself.”
“It’s the first I’ve heard of it,” Meyers said, as Jenkins’ attention shifted to him. He appeared genuinely intrigued by what Kelly had said.
“Very well,” Jenkins said. “We’ll hold a full investigation once Griffin returns. They’re still a good eight hours or more away, however, so we might as well start collating now. Do you believe this presents us with a chance, Taylor?”
“Yes, Admiral,” Kelly said.
“A small one,” Estelle added, sceptically.
“A chance is still a chance, Captain,” Jenkins said. “Of course, that still leaves us with one major problem, though,” she added, “and that is what we do about Dragon.”
XI
— At Least There’s Chocolate —
There was never very much to see whenever a ship was in jump, just the phasing blue clouds of the suspension field that made up the inter-dimensional conduit, keeping the host vessel on the right side of this universe and preventing it from making a full cross-shift. Dodds managed to find things in the clouds sometimes – an interesting pattern, a shape that looked something like a face, an animal, an object, or something that reminded him of a place. Of happier times.
He sat in his usual place in the bar, on the starboard side, towards the front of the carrier. It was the position he tended to favour, the place he had sat many times before, including the days after the rescue from Mythos and around the period of Black Widow. Only one of those times had been a happy one, the time just after the completion of phase one of Black Widow. He remembered how he had smiled, how he had laughed. He remembered how they all had, thinking that the war was won, that the Pandorans had been crushed, and had turned tail and fled back to Imperial space, waiting for the allied forces to come and finish them off.
Oh, how blind they’d all been back then. What utter fools.
He snapped out of his daydream for a moment, taking in the rest of the bar. It was mostly empty, only the night owls like himself, the security on the night shifts, and those unable or unwilling to sleep, up here. Now that they were heading to Sol many had taken the opportunity to get some rest. There wouldn’t be too much else to do for the next few hours.
He caught the sound of a somewhat familiar voice as he looked about. Karen Weathers, Griffin’s CCO, was seated in the corner opposite him, talking to two men. In the relative quiet of the bar, her voice had drifted over faintly. He couldn’t remember seeing them when he had first come in; they must have done so while he was sat here, so caught up in his own thoughts that he hadn’t noticed them. He looked the two men up and down, recognising one as the man whom Christopher Weathers had saved from that fatal gun blast, at the expense of his own hand. He had forgotten the man’s name. He seemed to be attempting to comfort Karen, telling her of how he owed Christopher everything. Dodds caught some of his words – saved my life, morphine, great guy, piano, sorry, he was one of the boys, you should be proud. Dodds wondered who the other man might be. Another member of the same unit? The man then spoke and Dodds discovered
that he was in fact one of Griffin’s surgeons. His words were clearer, the man not speaking as quietly as Karen or the other had. Apparently, Christopher would lose his hand for good. The plasma wound had destroyed too much of the bone, nerves and essential tissues he would need in order for it to be reattached and function properly. It might be possible to grow the replacement tissues and reconnect it, but it had never been a very successful procedure.
Dodds turned away, not wishing to eavesdrop any longer on their conversation. He glanced down the side of the ship, to check out the vessels that Parks had acquired in Kethlan: two cruisers, of Independent design; one Independent frigate; one small battleship; an unusual gunboat; some kind of hybrid, constructed from the remains of a warship and a cargo ship; and several starfighters, which were being towed behind them. He found he couldn’t see any of them from here, the rear parts of Griffin obscuring his view. He knew that they were there, though, being brought back to Helios, back to Earth.
Back to the Solar System.
He guessed he should be happy. He was heading home for the first time in over seven years. He hadn’t been back to Earth since he had left the morning he had been summoned to take part in the ATAF project. It had been an early morning in April, and both his parents had been up to see him off. Since then, he had only ever spoken to them over video links and text messages. Not recently, though. He would make sure he did so as soon as they returned to normal space.
He took another bite of the chocolate bar he was eating. He was taking a long time about it, and the warmth of his hand was causing it to melt in the wrapper. It was becoming a little slippery. He’d finish it, though, every last lick. After all, what if this was the last bar of chocolate he ever ate? Isn’t that the reason he had instinctively picked it and kept it? It was his favourite brand, too, one of the two-finger varieties, meaning that after he had finished one piece, there was a second waiting to be enjoyed. Milk chocolate, caramel and biscuit; to him an almost perfect and irreplaceable combination. Strangely hard to come across now – he had been intending on saving it for the day of their true victory. But now it looked as if this really would be the last bar of chocolate he would ever eat. Now there was a sad thought.
“Why so glum?”
He gave a start, almost dropping the chocolate as he did so. Too distracted once more, he hadn’t noticed the approach of the person who now stood by his side, a slender woman with blonde hair and green eyes. He hadn’t seen her in many years, yet he had never forgotten that face. “Natalia?”
“Hello, Simon,” she said, smiling. “Long time no see. Oh!” she then gasped, eyes on what he was holding. “Is that chocolate? Do you have any more?”
Dodds stood, not hearing her request, somewhat confused by her sudden appearance here in the bar. “W … what are you doing here?” What was she doing here?
“Ha! Good to see you, too.” Natalia came forward and embraced him briefly.
Why was she on Griffin? Dodds wondered, as he returned the hug. How was she on Griffin? Had he fallen asleep?
“I came aboard at Kethlan,” Natalia said, as though reading his mind. “I was with the team that arrived on Cratos, looking for Zackaria.”
“I haven’t seen you since Mythos,” Dodds said.
“Nice to see that you still recognise me,” she said. She was still beaming. It was the most genuine smile that Dodds had seen in a long, long time.
“I could say the same about you,” he said.
“I used to be a spy,” she grinned. “It was my job to remember people.”
True.
“But if I’m being honest, you haven’t changed much and I also had a little help from Chaz. He said you’d be up here, most likely in this exact spot.”
Dodds had forgotten that Natalia and Chaz knew each other. He looked around for the big man, but he was nowhere to be seen. “Where is he? Sorry, would you like some?” he added, noticing how Natalia was still eyeing the chocolate. She nodded that she would and he gave her the second, uneaten finger. It left him with a little under one finger for himself. Not that it mattered. What were your favourites, if not for sharing?
“Mmm, thank you,” Natalia said, taking a bite and chewing contentedly. “I’ve not had chocolate in months. Bad when you love chocolate as much as I do.”
“I thought that was biscuits?” Dodds said, feeling himself smiling.
Natalia chuckled. “Funny that you should remember that. I’m actually not short on those. Chaz has gone back to your quarters, to sleep,” she added.
Dodds glanced once more down the side of the vessel, towards the rear where the rest of the fleet would be following. “Not that it’s not nice to see you again,” he said, “but shouldn’t you be on your own ship?”
“I came aboard to discuss our findings with Chaz. Since he’d been on Kethlan and we were posted there at the same time, I thought it might be useful for us to cross reference our findings. I should actually be back aboard Cratos now, but I … disappeared.”
“People will be looking for you, then?” Dodds said.
“Well, no one seems bothered about my extended stay just yet, but I imagine that Parks might have one or two things to say if he finds out.”
Dodds nodded. He remembered Parks and Natalia not getting on very well the last time the two had met. “Did you and Chaz manage to work out anything useful?” he asked.
“Aside from that Zackaria still acknowledges you, no,” she shook her head.
“Did Chaz tell you about the soldiers we found?” Dodds asked.
“He did, yes,” Natalia said. “We discussed it at length in the meeting. It’s incredible. I’m still not sure if it’s some sort of self-imposed off switch or whether it’s due to a malfunction in the replication programming. I’m willing to bet the latter, since the Senate did originally construct them in a hurry.”
“They did?”
Natalia nodded, munching more of the chocolate, a look in her eyes suggesting that she hoped it would never run out. “They cannibalised it from a project that had originally been set up in secret; one of those experiments that’s not supposed to go any further than the lab in which it was conceived. Proof of concept, internal research, etc. From what I understand, the nanites were only ever used in rats, mice and rabbits over short periods of time, so long-term effects were never evaluated. The Senate apparently decided that they could utilize what was there to build their army. Lucky for us they decided they wanted to act sooner, rather than later. It’ll probably give us the edge we need.”
“There are still God-only-knows how many of them still active, though,” Dodds sighed. “They sacked Alpha Centauri in a matter of hours. We were hoping to hold them there for at least a few days. A week at best.” He saw now how that had been extremely wishful thinking. He couldn’t believe they were still being overrun so easily, after all this time. He realised that he was being negative and decided to change the subject. Though when it was all around you, the war wasn’t exactly an easy topic to get away from.
“So, what have you been doing these last few years? You’re no longer a spy?” he asked.
“I’ve been doing pretty much the same as you, I imagine,” Natalia said. “Fighting. Are … your family still alive?” she then asked. She did so with some hesitation, appreciative of the directness of the question. She clearly meant well though, and was perhaps only being realistic. “They’re on Earth, right?”
“Yes, they’re still alive,” Dodds said. “Mum, Dad and Socks. I haven’t spoken to them for a while, though.”
“Socks is …?”
“The cat,” Dodds said, unable to help himself from grinning. “Though you’d think she was my little sister or something, by the way my mum always talks about her constantly.”
“How are they coping with all those people arriving?”
“It doesn’t seem to have affected them,” Dodds said. “They’ve not mentioned having any problems, so I think they’re okay. I know that lots of the cities are now packed out
and full to bursting, leading to riots, but apparently the farms and more out-of-the-way places have been left alone. People seem to feel safer in the big cities, rather than out in the open.”
“No guests?”
“Estelle’s family are staying with them. Captain de Winter, my former wing commander,” he clarified.
“I remember her,” Natalia said. “Her family are staying with yours?”
“Wouldn’t have been right to refuse,” Dodds said.
“Are you still with her?”
“Estelle?”
Natalia nodded.
The question caught Dodds a little off-guard. He remembered that night on Mythos, in the crumbling restaurant. He’d dreamed of his team-mates that night, and apparently he’d mentioned Estelle’s name a few times during his sleep. He had told Natalia the next day that she was nothing more than his wing commander. She’d clearly seen through his words and knew there was more to it than that.
“Umm … no,” he said, “we’ve not been together for a few years.” Well, okay, that wasn’t entirely true, but what he had with Estelle wasn’t really a relationship. It hadn’t been since they were both about twenty-two or twenty-three. They were more like lovers. He now remembered that he hadn’t heard from her since before he had dropped down to Kethlan. He’d sent her another message before they had commenced jump, but she hadn’t gotten back to him in time. He hoped that she was okay.
“What about your family?” Dodds asked, finishing his chocolate. “Are they still alive?”
“I’m actually not sure,” Natalia said, after a pause.
“You’ve not heard from them?”
“It’s more complicated than that,” Natalia said, taking another bite of what remained of her own chocolate. “I come from something of a broken home. My father walked out on my mother when I was just six and I used to spend time living between the two of them. My mum wasn’t happy that I was keeping in touch with him, but I said that I didn’t want to pick sides. My mum then got a new boyfriend, who was about as good a step-father as my real dad had been. I eventually decided to move out and get into a house share. I never stayed in one place for more than about six months, though. I learned to live with minimal possessions, being a bit of a nomad. I’ve never really felt as though I’ve had an anchor.”
The Battle for the Solar System (Complete Trilogy) Page 108
