The Honour of the Knights (First Edition) (38 page)

“
You
’
re right there,” Enrique said. “If
that civil war does boil over and they
’
re all as good as
that…”

“
No, something
wasn
’
t
right there. They were
too
good. You saw what they did to those other
fighter pilots. Their reactions were too fast and they were too
accurate. They were tearing those guys apart before we
arrived.”

“
Maybe they
’
ve all got some kind of computer
assistance?” Enrique offered. “Something that was helping them to
get the edge?”

Dodds noticed that Chaz
’
s head was tilted in their
direction, subtly eavesdropping in on their conversation. “Yeah,
something like that.”

* * *

In one of
Griffin
‘s
conference rooms, Parks sat down
at an oval glass table with a number of his senior staff. The wound
on his head had been bandaged and he’d given himself a general
clean up while he charged Liu with finding out where the carrier
had emerged. Many of those present in the conference room also wore
reminders of the earlier conflict, everything ranging from cuts and
bruises, to arms in slings.

Following their arrival into the unknown, Parks had requested
they gather as much information as possible pertaining to the
unexpected events. He had then called a meeting of the
carrier
’
s heads
of section.

“
Right, now that we’re all here: Mr Liu, could you please
start by giving us an overview of our current situation,” Parks
requested of the man sitting across the table from him.

“
Yes, captain,” Liu nodded. He picked up a small hand-held
device and tapped away at the screen, prompting a large holographic
projection to spring up in the centre of the table, displaying a
galactic map. It was cluttered with somewhat excessive amounts of
detail, highlighting trade routes, jumpgates and points, as well as
marking entire regions of space that were a part of the
Confederacy, and those that were declared Independent. At one end
of the map the Confederation star system of Temper was highlighted
and, at the other, the Independent system of Aster.

Liu continued to tap away at the device he held, dimming star
systems and removing trade routes, jumpgates and other pieces of
data that were of no relevance. Eventually, the Aster and Temper
systems were left as the main focal points of
Liu
’
s
presentation. He made some final adjustments, centring in on
Griffin
‘s
position on the map, located within the Aster
system, and then began to recount.

“
Following the previous operation, we prepared to make the
jump back to Spirit.”

A dotted
line made its way across the galactic map, from Aster back towards
the Temper system, illustrating his point.

“
As we witnessed, the jump point became
unstable and we were unable to prevent our descent within. The
‘jump’ we experienced threw
Griffin
‘s
navicoms out of sync and it took them quite some time before
they were able to establish a link with the nearest navigation
buoy. If we assume the data it has transmitted is accurate, then it
appears we arrived not back at Temper, but…”

He tapped at the device in hand.
The
galactic map zoomed out a long way, revealing yet more star
systems. The dotted line traced its way, not towards Temper, but to
a star system in the opposite direction to that which the carrier
had intended to travel.

“
… here,” Liu concluded.

The
section heads gathered around the table gaped at the holographic
display and the highlighted star system that the line had traced
itself toward. The system was named Phylent.

“
Phylent?” Parks asked in total surprise.

“
Yes, sir,” Liu said.

“
We
’
re in Imperial space?!”

“
I’m afraid so, sir.”

Parks
’
gaze
shot to the many windows of the conference room and to the space
outside that, thankfully, remained calm and uneventful. Even so,
there were mutterings and mumblings from the others at the table as
they stared in disbelief at the map. Parks
’
mind raced. At this very moment in
time, he and his ship were in the one place that they did not want
to be. He looked around those seated at the table knowing that,
whilst they were aware of the danger that they faced, being in a
part of space that was said to be embroiled in civil war, none
could confess to appreciating the danger more than he. The failed
operation to retake
Dragon
had merely hinted at what the Confederacy and her
allies were up against, and had it not been for the ATAFs no-one
would have returned home after the battle. They had to get away
from Imperial space as soon as possible.

After a
moment, Parks regained his composure and turned his attention back
to the meeting. At this time, more than ever, he must maintain a
cool, calm and collected conduct.

He
called for silence. “How is that possible, Mr Liu?”

“
I think that perhaps Mr Marsh could explain in more detail?”
Liu said.

Heads turned to a rather thickset man seated next to Liu, who
straightened up. As
Griffin
‘s
chief engineer, Matthew Marsh was in a far better position to
answer Parks
’
question.

“
It seems that there was a malfunction in the jump engines,
most likely caused by the damage we sustained during the battle,”
Marsh began. “Unfortunately, due to the nature of the issue it was
not something that we could have pinpointed until we attempted to
use them.”

Parks
scowled. It sounded like a very weak excuse for such a serious
issue.

Marsh
added, “Our pre-jump safety checks and individual unit tests
reported no faults and everything seemed to be working as
expected.”

“
But it
didn
’
t
work, did it, Mr Marsh?” Parks
said, irritably.

“
No, sir.”

“
When we get back to Spirit, I want a full
review of all jump safety checks. This could have destroyed the
ship and killed everyone aboard.” This was directed at everyone
within the room, though Marsh fidgeted as
Parks
’
eyes fell upon him. “How is it that we managed to get from
here to here so easily?” Parks asked after studying the galactic
map for a few moments, pointing from Aster to the Phylent system,
that lay close to the Imperial-Independent border.

“
Well, that is actually quite interesting,”
Marsh started, before back-pedalling upon seeing Parks’ stony face.
“Er… I think that the malfunction in the jump engines must have
thrown some of the astral calculations out. However, owing to some
other factors we have successfully compensated for those
miscalculations. The jump computers selected a cached version of
one of Phylent
’
s navigation buoys as their destination and dropped us in a
random part of the system.”

“
That actually fits in with what I was thinking,” Liu said.
“Phylent and Aster are more or less equidistant from Spirit.
Basically, we just went the wrong way; albeit exceptionally
fast.”

Parks
considered the explanation for a moment. “Fine,” he
said.

“
A shame we don
’
t know what the secret speed
ingredient is,” Marsh started to babble. “I have to say that I am
actually amazed at the distance we managed to cover in such a short
space of time. I
’
m planning on holding on to the data from the jump, so we can
analyse it once we return to Spirit. The findings could help to
revolutionize space travel and…”

“
Put it in a report,” Parks said, waving
away the rest of the comment. Right now he was not prepared to
allow the man to indulge his knowledge and enthusiasm for the inner
workings of interstellar transportation. “And I think
you
’
ll
also find that the secret ingredient you are searching for is just
plain dumb luck, Mr Marsh. By all rights this carrier should have
been ripped apart.” He looked back to
Griffin
‘s
navigator. “Mr Liu, from here how long would it take for us
to return to Spirit?”

Liu
frowned. “Under ideal circumstances? Roughly twelve, thirteen
hours.”

“
And with the engines in their current state?” Parks once
again addressed the chief engineer.

“
I would say we are looking at sixteen to twenty hours, if not
a little longer,” Marsh said. “However, the engines aren’t in a
state where we could safely make another jump.”

“
And how long before we can?”

“
I
’
ve not had enough time to estimate
the cost of the damage to all the dependent systems,
sir.”

Parks
sighed. “I realise that Mr Marsh, but I need the best answer you
can give me.”

“
I would reckon around nine hours.”

Parks
nodded as he digested the information. They were looking at a time
frame of more than a day before they were back at Spirit. If the
ATAFs had not been aboard, he could have ordered they jump back to
an Independent system. But he knew that such a move was not an
option, since that could result in the discovery of the advanced
starfighters by an Independent World state. The Confederation were
already hard-pressed to keep the fighters under wraps, without
dumping them in the middle of a random system for anyone to gawk
at. They would just have to take their chances here.

“
Okay,” Parks said to Marsh. “Begin the
work as soon as this meeting is over. Now, I need the rest of you
to find members of your respective teams who may be able to lend
their skills to repairs and maintenance. I
shouldn
’
t
need to reiterate to any of you that, in its current state,
Griffin
is a sitting
duck. Most of her major systems are operational, but shielding is
minimal and we have little in the way of offensive measures. We are
also unable to deploy what remains of our starfighter complement
easily; the cargo holds are simply not equipped to launch fighters
at the rate we’d need to fend off attackers.”

He thought of the cargo holds. Whilst those holding the ATAFs
contained nothing more than the five fighters themselves, the
others were crammed full of
Griffin
‘s
starfighters. Deploying them in an emergency would be next to
impossible.

Those around the table appeared to all be in agreement with
his plan, their eyes drifting from the holographic display, to the
quiet space outside. The words “Imperial Space”, “Phylent” and
“Griffin” were far too close together on the galactic map for
anyone
’
s liking;
especially his own.

Parks continued his delegation.
“I
need a seventy-thirty split in duties for repairs to the jump
engines and repairs to the flight deck. It is vital that we get out
of this system and away from Imperial space as soon as possible;
but it is just as important that, in the highly likely event that
we are discovered by enemy forces, we are able to defend
ourselves.”

“
Yes, sir,” came the resounding answer from those
assembled.

“
Lieutenant Weathers, have you managed to
contact either
Ifrit
or
Leviathan
?” he asked of a woman who
was sitting further down the table.

Weathers, now working as communications officer in place of
O’Donnell, flipped through some papers as she spoke. “We
don
’
t believe
that
Ifrit
and
Leviathan
are within range. It does not appear that they followed us
into the jump point and may not be aware of our current position.
It is unlikely that they were able to follow us either, given the
unstable nature of the jump point.”

It was as Parks had suspected: they were on their own.
“Very well. Is there anything else?” Parks’ query
was met by head shakes and silence. “Then let
’
s get to work immediately. We have
a lot to do and very little time to spare. Get moving,
people.”

As the
staff officers left, Parks noticed that Weathers was hovering,
waiting for everyone else to vacate the room.

“
Yes, Lieutenant?” he asked once they were alone.

“
An encrypted communication has come in from CSN HQ,
sir.”

“
From HQ? Are you sure?”