The Honour of the Knights (First Edition) (56 page)

“
Return fire!” Parks barked.
For what it
’
s worth
.

Griffin
‘s
own cannons trained themselves on
Ifrit
, but their efforts were futile
at best, the carrier never having made a full recovery from the
battle hours earlier. The rate of return fire
Griffin
was able to muster was
nothing compared to that which
Ifrit
continued to pour
on.

Explosions scorched the bow and top-side of
Griffin
, the impacts of
concentrated plasma fire ripping holes in the already vulnerable
hull. All about the ship, crew were thrown to the floor as the
carrier jerked with the unrelenting attack, Parks himself only just
managing to remain in his seat. The captain witnessed one of the
two plasma accelerators affixed to the front of the carrier
explode, the turret snapping apart and the mount breaking free and
spinning off into space. Green and blue chemicals vented from the
shaft. Missiles exploded all across the hull. Debris tumbled about
from where the attacks had shredded the more exposed and less well
protected parts of the vessel.

If Parks had considered his ship a mess before, then it was
nothing compared to what he was looking at now: the emblem of the
g
riffin
residing
across the topside of the carrier, stretching out away from the
bridge, was scarcely recognisable, now blackened and
charred.

Parks
braced himself. He wondered how it might all end. Would he see the
frontal viewport shatter and be pulled from his chair, out into
space? Would he feel himself engulfed in flames for a few moments
as the bridge exploded? Or would he hear only a sudden loud bang,
see his world go black, and then no more? Whatever it was, he was
sure he would find out soon…

And then, for the second time that day,
Griffin
‘s
lights shut off, plunging the ship into near-darkness.
Computer arrays and consoles followed in their stead. Some
exploded, adding to the causalities that had already built up
during
Ifrit
‘s
barrage, smoke once again
threatening to fill the bridge and suffocate its
occupants.

Half-light spilled into the bridge from the emergency
systems, relieving the crew of the momentary darkness. It was aided
by the small electrical fires that had sprung up from some of the
consoles, creating a smoky orange ambience about the bridge;
pockets of flicking blue light from sparking electrics dancing
across consoles. Crew members darted about to find firefighting
equipment.

With their power cut,
Griffin
‘s
weapons fell silent and Parks braced himself for
Ifrit
‘s
impending finishing blow. It was then that he
noticed that the carrier had stopped rocking and that missiles and
cannon fire no longer rained down on the ship.

“
Mr Liu…” Parks started.

“
They… they
’
ve stopped firing,” Liu said,
staring out at the Confederation carrier that had moments before
threatened to bring to an end
Griffin
‘s
long service.

Why?
Parks wondered. When
Ifrit
had ignored their
greetings but continued forward, he knew something was amiss.
Though he had been grateful for the carrier
’
s arrival, going by the information
that Turner had relayed to him
Ifrit
was many hours late. By now,
he would be expecting to see
Leviathan
,
instead.
Dammit, Aiden, where are
you?!

“
What’s our status?” he asked
Liu.

“
Power outage is temporary and is only affecting certain
systems, Captain,” Liu said, working at his console. “It can be
restored in a few minutes.”

Parks hesitated for a moment before responding to the news.
“Don
’
t bring us
back on-line, Lieutenant,” he said. Something told him that it
would not be wise for them to stop playing dead just
yet.

Weathers
’
console started to jingle in front of her.
“Sir,
Ifrit
is attempting to establish communications,” she
said.

So, now they want to talk
, Parks
thought. “Put them on.”

The holographic screen sprang up at the front of the bridge,
the quality of the picture and sound comparable to how it had been
just after the Imperial fighter had crashed onto the flight deck.
Parks heard a number of intakes of breath as he stood up and walked
closer to the projection of
Ifrit
‘s
bridge. Whilst the image was blocky, jerky and suffering from
crackling audio, it lost none of the impact it otherwise stood to
deliver.

Zackaria sat in the
captain
’
s
chair like a king upon his throne,
his face serious and stern. Just ahead of him, on his right-hand
side, stood Hawke, his expression deadpan in the face of his former
ally.

“
Anthony…” Parks began, the genuine shock
in his voice clear even to him. With
Ifrit
‘s
attack, Parks had thought of only two people who could be
commanding the carrier: Admiral Zackaria or Commodore Rissard. The
thought of Hawke alive and well and unharmed aboard the ship had
never occurred to him. And now, the sight of both Zackaria and
Hawke stood side by side, as allies, almost floored him.

“
This is where we part ways, Elliott,” came the scratchy voice
of Hawke from the holographic image. “I just wanted to take this
opportunity to bid you farewell.”

His face
had changed a lot since Parks had seen him, hours before: his skin
looked fresh and healthy, his eyes were bright, and his facial hair
was completely absent, as if he had just had a clean
shave.

“
My God, man! What are you doing?” Parks said,
flabbergasted.

“
My part to ensure the continued success of the Mission,
Commodore,” Hawke said with a clean expression. The man spoke in a
matter-of-fact manner, as if there was nothing unusual or
surprising about his nature.

“
The
Mission
?”

Hawke
nodded. Or, at least, what appeared to be a nod. “The Mission - For
the honour of the Senate. For the glory of the Empire.”

As Parks
continued to stare open-mouthed at the image that jumped, froze and
tore, the pieces of a great puzzle began to fall into
place.

“
You gave them
Dragon
, didn
’
t you?” Parks said.
“That
’
s why you
survived. You tried to bargain and they took it. They wanted a man
on the inside.”

Links formed in Parks
’
mind, everything finally starting to make perfect
sense: t
he Enemy had intercepted and
boarded
Dragon
-
how was not important - but he
hazarded that at that time it was not with Hawke
’
s consent. Though they had fought
hard to hold back the invaders,
Dragon
‘s
crew had succumbed to the boarders and the Enemy had made
their way to Hawke himself. Something else had happened then, a
point that Parks still struggled on, but in the end it had led to
Hawke
’
s
treachery. The man had then been beaten, starved, and thrown into
an escape pod, where he was left to drift in Independent space for
the allied forces to find him. It was meant to look as though he
had run away or had been saved by his crew, so that he alone might
be able to tell of the fate that had befallen
Dragon
, and therefore aid the
Confederation in its recovery. But instead, he had been working
against them.

How much information could he give them now, Parks wondered.
What had he told them already? That didn’t matter; the Enemy had
tricked him and they had
Dragon
.

“
That is correct, Commodore,” Hawke said.

Parks
’
mind
raced, searching for a way out. The Enemy have
Dragon,
and now they have
Ifrit
.
Dragon
.
Ifrit
. Something
occurred to him; he had to stall for time.

“
Anthony, listen: we can talk this through,” Parks said.
“Please; allow me to come aboard and speak with Admiral Zackaria.
We can work something out. We can end this without any more loss of
life. I throw myself upon the mercy of the Senate.” He knew it
sounded absurd; so very melodramatic.

“
There will be no discussions,” Hawke said in a flat voice.
“There has been too much talk already.” The holographic image had
stopped updating, and whilst the audio was still quite clear, the
video transmission had ceased.

Parks couldn’t be certain the same loss would be true
for
Ifrit
,
but he had to risk it. He was sure that Hawke
would continue his gloat undeterred by the sudden loss of visuals.
He just had to lure him in.

“
Your plans won
’
t work, Anthony,” Parks said.
“There are too many flaws, too many assumptions. We’re already well
prepared to exploit those weaknesses…” He started to back away
from the static holographic image, beckoning towards Liu with one
hand. The man rose from his seat and prepared to assist the
commodore as soon as he was prompted further.

“
It will work just as Fleet Admiral Turner described it,”
Hawke said. “The ATAFs will join our frontline forces and we will
use them to fulfil the Mission.”

“
It
’
s not
your
Mission, Anthony!” Parks
retorted. “Listen to me: you are not one of them.” He shuffled
Weathers out of her seat, gesturing to the woman to keep quiet. He
quickly took her place, his fingers racing across the surface of
her console, Liu giving him visual prompts as the
man
’
s plan began
to come together.

“
You are an enlisted officer within the Confederation Stellar
Navy,” Parks said. “You have spent a good part of your life with
the service and your time and dedication to serving the Confederacy
has not gone unnoticed. You have a wife and one daughter, who has
recently been accepted to study law at Cambridge University, thanks
to your own efforts to never give up on her and motivate her to
achieved her dreams.”

“
The Mission is more important than any of those things,”
Hawke’s voice came. “All of those who oppose the rule of the Senate
must be eradicated, as decreed by the Senior Magistrate. It’s time
for you to accept it: you have failed, Commodore. You never were
the man that Fleet Admiral Turner believed you were. Too much store
is put into the weak, into the lenient, into the modest and the
humble…”

Parks did not hear the rest, he was working too feverishly.
He was thankful that Hawke had taken the opportunity to gloat,
though he knew that time was short, and at any moment
Ifrit
would
finish
Griffin
off. He heard a new voice speak over the comm
link
’
s still
active audio channel. The words were unrecognisable and seemed not
to be directed at him.

“
Time
’
s up, Commodore,” Hawke
announced.

“
Captain,
Ifrit
is readying accelerators!”
Weathers said from her position at Liu
’
s console.

From where he sat, Parks did not need computer readouts for
that kind of information: at this range, he could quite clearly see
the green lights, running the length of the
weapons
’
turrets,
beginning to illuminate as they charged.
Griffin
was mere seconds away from
destruction.

Parks looked up from the console, towards the carrier ahead
where he knew both Hawke and Zackaria would be staring back
at
Griffin
,
preparing to witness its final few moments of service. Parks,
however, was not quite willing to give them that pleasure just
yet.

“
You know how the saying goes, Commodore:
fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice…” A single confirmation
request lay on the console
’
s screen, Parks
’
fingers hovering just above it.
“… shame on me!”

Parks
’
fingers tapped the screen, executing the command he had taken
the opportunity to set up.
Ifrit
‘s
plasma accelerators stopped charging, the lights along the
turrets extinguishing as if they were flames doused by
water.