“Same as always,” Enrique said, with a knowing shrug.
“Estelle’s just being Estelle,” Kelly added.
Dodds nodded and then followed Estelle out of the housing block, into the mid-morning sun.
*
He found her just outside the entrance. “Are you OK?” he started, before she stepped forward and tightly embraced him.
“It’s so good to see you again, Simon. I’ve really missed you,” she said, hugging him tight. “I didn’t think I would ever see you again.”
The embrace caught him a little off-guard, and for a second he didn’t quite know how to react. He hugged her back a few moments later.
“After they sent you down, they refused to tell any of us how to contact you. I tried going over their heads and contacting Huntington directly, just so I could let you know I was here for you, but I couldn’t get any further than a switchboard.” She broke their embrace, still smiling, though the smile she wore contained a little hurt. “So, you’ve been on Earth this whole time?”
“With my family,” Dodds said.
“You’ve not been in touch at all. Didn’t you miss me?” Estelle said, sweeping some of the hair that had fallen over her face out of the way.
“They told me not to,” Dodds repeated what he had told Enrique and Kelly earlier. “And to tell the truth, I’m not sure I would’ve, either. I needed time out. I needed time to think and get my head together; to get a clear perspective on life.”
Estelle was silent for a time, still seeming hurt.
“You know what I mean, right?” Dodds said.
“No, I do, I do,” she said, before waving a hand along the pathway. “Come, let’s walk. I’ll show you around and bring you up to speed.”
They started off down the brick path that led to their housing block, the walkway splitting and snaking its way about the research campus, to other buildings and areas contained within. They made their way down a set of wide stone steps, leading to the lower areas of the campus and towards the main research buildings. The vast majority of the construction was made up of tall glass buildings. Small trees and lamp posts lined the paths they walked, complemented by grass verges. Men and women, dressed in everything from suits, to casual entire, to white lab coats, walked past them, chatting to one another, drinking from polystyrene cups and going about their business.
“Are you glad to be back?” Estelle asked.
“I am, yes,” Dodds said after a pause. He wasn’t really sure.
“What have you been doing?”
“I just spent the time with my parents, picking apples.”
“How’s the business?”
“Steady. They think they’ll have a good harvest this year. How’s everything with you? Family okay? How’s Jed?”
Another short silence from Estelle. “Mum and Dad are okay,” she said. “Unfortunately, the last few months have been a bit rough for them. Someone broke into the house and messed the place up pretty bad, before making off with a lot of stuff they’d only just managed to finish paying for.”
“Sorry,” Dodds said.
“We think they must’ve been watching the house for a while, as they did it when everyone was out. Mum and Dad were hoping to start looking into getting some new physiotherapy for Jed, to make it easier for him to walk without a stick. But they’ve had to start buying back everything that was stolen. They had no insurance,” she added, a little gloomily.
Dodds began wishing he hadn’t asked. “Jed was working?”
“He managed to get some work in a post sorting office,” Estelle said.
“At least it’s something. Does it pay OK?”
“Less than I used to get as a waitress. The compensation package from the army ran out earlier in the year, too.”
Life for the de Winters never seemed to get any easier. “Is there anything I can do?” he offered.
“No, don’t worry,” Estelle shook her head. “I’ll just send back some extra money for the next year or so.”
Dodds should have known that Estelle wouldn’t have accepted the offer. She was too proud for that. He decided to move away from that whole subject. “How’s it going here?” Parks hadn’t been too forthcoming with details, only to let him know of a project briefing that afternoon and the start of the training program the following day.
“A little better than I expected,” Estelle said, again leafing through the wad of paper she still carried with her, “although there’s room for improvement.”
Dodds saw that the pages were packed full of graphs, pie charts and other statistical information, each headed with a different person’s name. He noticed that Estelle appeared to have already attacked them with a red marker pen, circling various numbers and writing scruffy and hurried notes.
“We’ve only been here for a few days,” Estelle went on, “but the training starts first thing tomorrow morning. You’ll need to get into a simulator for the rest of the day to get back in step.”
Dodds frowned. “I’m not sure I’ll be as bad as all that.”
“You probably will be,” Estelle said. “It happens to a lot of pilots who suffer injuries that put them out of action for several months. It takes them weeks to get used to flying again. It’s not like riding a bike.”
Dodds wasn’t so sure. He had doubts that his time away from the stick would’ve impacted his flying standard as much as Estelle was suggesting.
“What did you think when they picked us to come here?” he asked, moving the conversation on.
Estelle gave a small chuckle. “When they first told us that we were being transferred, I was worried we were going to get posted to border patrol duty. I couldn’t imagine anything worse. They’ve been shifting people over to the Temper system a lot lately. From what I’ve heard, they’re starting to shore up our borders, in case the civil war boils over. When did you actually get back?”
“Just this morning,” Dodds said. “I received the request from Commodore Parks to return to duty yesterday.”
“Just yesterday?”
Dodds nodded.
“You certainly jumped at the chance,” Estelle said. “Sounds like you were pretty keen on getting back here. Fed up with picking apples? Or was there another reason?” She smiled.
Dodds started to respond, then stopped where he was.
Estelle paused, and studied him for a moment, the teasing look slipping. “Did I say something wrong?”
Dodds sighed. “But I had to, didn’t I? I had to come back. I need to make amends.”
“Hmm, really?” Estelle murmured, once she understood what Dodds meant. She didn’t sound as though she quite believed him.
“I’m serious, Estelle. Hardly a day goes by where I don’t think about what happened.”
Estelle said nothing, but glanced about the campus. It didn’t look as if she knew how to respond. He couldn’t blame her. Though she wasn’t carrying the same burden as he, the incident at Peri hadn’t been easy on her. It seemed that Estelle, like himself, had been keen to skirt around the subject of his court-martial. They both knew it had happened, both been there, but neither wanted to discuss it directly. Though she hadn’t been on trial herself, he knew that the many hours sitting in the courtroom delivering evidence and being cross-examined wasn’t an experience she had relished, wanted reminding of, or ever wanted to go through again.
She turned back to him, looking quite sympathetic. “How are you planning to do so?”
“I don’t know,” Dodds shook his head. “I’ll find a way.”
“Well, if you ask me, a good starting point would be to just follow orders.”
So I keep getting told, Dodds thought to himself. But to be honest, it wasn’t exactly bad advice. He was aware that whilst he was a good pilot, he had a tendency to be reckless. A recklessness which, from time to time, led to undesirable consequences. He was silent for a time, then nodded in agreement. “Okay. We’ll start there, then.”
“Okay.”
With that, the
subject was closed.
Estelle jerked her head in the way they had been going and the two resumed walking. She pointed out some of the buildings on the campus – the housing blocks for the on-site staff; a number of research facilities, which they weren’t authorised to enter; a large lecture theatre, where they would attend the ATAF presentation; and a few large, square buildings that housed the simulator suites.
“Anything interesting happen while I’ve been away?” Dodds asked.
Estelle chuckled bitterly. “You mean aside from Jon and what happened to Dragon? No, not really. And I’m glad, too. I don’t think I could’ve handled any more bad news right now.”
“Dragon?” Dodds said. “What’s happened to Dragon?”
“What do you mean, ‘What’s happened to Dragon?’”
Dodds shrugged.
Estelle halted. “You mean no one’s told you?” she said, incredulously.
“Told me what?”
“Dragon’s gone missing! It was hijacked around four months ago. It hasn’t been seen or heard from since.”
“CSN Dragon? The battleship?”
Estelle nodded.
Dodds regarded her sceptically for a moment. “You’re being serious, aren’t you?”
“Very,” Estelle said, her expression deadpan. “It disappeared a few weeks after you left.”
“Are you sure it was hijacked? That ship’s not exactly small or defenceless. Did someone just take it out of dry dock?”
Estelle shook her head. “It happened in Independent space, near the Imperial border.”
“What the hell was it doing all the way out there?”
“No one knows. It seems that that information is classified. I’m surprised that Parks didn’t tell you.”
“He seemed … very distracted,” Dodds said, remembering how, after the two had departed the waiting room, Parks had seemed eager to return to other business. “He didn’t speak to me about anything other than getting through the medical and getting me down here.”
“But he told you about Jon?”
“Only in passing. I doubt he would even have brought it up if I hadn’t asked about the teams down here. He certainly didn’t mention anything about Dragon.” Dodds wondered what could’ve been playing on Parks’ mind that would cause him to neglect passing on such important news. “Tell me what happened,” he said.
“Not here,” Estelle said, looking around. “Over this way,” she prompted, with a tilt of her head.
They came to a large, circular fountain, water flowing out of the top and down into a series of tiered basins. A few people sat around it, enjoying a mid-morning break from their work, reading newspapers or chatting to one another. Dodds and Estelle found a spot with a good amount of space either side of them and where they could talk with a little more privacy.
“How do they know Dragon was hijacked and nothing else happened to it? Were there any witnesses or survivors?” Dodds asked.
“Only one,” Estelle said, “Commodore Hawke.”
Dodds tried not to roll his eyes. Figures. Out of all the people on the ship that might have survived …
Estelle went on, “He was undertaking captaincy at the time. They found him drifting through Confederation space in an escape pod, a week after they lost contact with the ship. The pod was devoid of any food, water and medical supplies, and the stasis modules had been smashed up. Hawke himself had been badly wounded and was suffering from blood loss. From what I’ve heard, he was lucky to be alive.”
Dodds could feel his brow creasing. First that incident with Patrick Dean and now this. Something very strange was going on. “You’re sure no one else survived?”
“No, they didn’t find anyone else,” Estelle said, shaking her head and continuing to keep her voice low. “He was the only one.”
Dodds was almost lost for words. Dragon was the Confederation Stellar Navy’s flagship, and though he’d never actually laid eyes on it himself, having only seen it in archive film footage and photographs, he knew enough about it to appreciate how unsettling the event of its theft really was. Dragon was the largest and most powerful starship in existence, second to none. Owing to its size, firepower, starfighter and troop capacities, its mere arrival within a conflict zone had been known to cause the opposing forces to make a hasty retreat or even surrender. Attempting to fight it was usually never worthwhile. It was so heavily protected that quite often the best defence against it was to be nowhere near it. Dodds knew of only one other ship that could possibly rival it – Minotaur, the flagship of the Imperial Naval Forces.
“Damn,” he said.
“Tell me about it.”
“Did Hawke tell anyone what happened?”
“He says he can’t remember very much before waking up in the escape pod. He says that while on Dragon, he recalls seeing a large boarding party suddenly appear out of nowhere and begin storming all the major divisions simultaneously. Dragon was operating with a near-full complement, but they were still completely overwhelmed. Hawke believes they were in jump at the time, so no one is quite sure how accurate his story is.”
“They were in jump?” Dodds exclaimed. He noticed a few heads turn to look in his direction. Estelle gave him a tap on the foot in response. He lowered his voice. “No, that’s … well, it’s not impossible, but it’s extremely dangerous. They could’ve stranded both themselves and Dragon in the middle of nowhere.”
Estelle nodded. “I know. I find some of it hard to believe, myself.”
“You’re not the only one. Exactly how did they get aboard a ship mid-jump in the first place? Who were these people?”
They spoke for a while, discussing the possibilities, none of which Estelle hadn’t already considered herself. They concluded that it may have been a faction involved in Mitikas’ civil war, though given Dragon’s almost legendary status throughout the galaxy, even that seemed rather far-fetched.
After some time, Estelle suggested that they leave the fountain. They resumed walking the campus pathways, Dodds noting the sizeable wall that surrounded the entire perimeter, effectively shutting it off from the outside world. Though he had only been at the research centre a little under an hour, he had counted no less than ten pairs of armed personnel patrolling the grounds. He said nothing, still trying to put together the pieces of a large and complicated puzzle.
“Would’ve really made your day if Hawke hadn’t returned either, wouldn’t it?” Estelle remarked.
Dodds chose not to respond to that. Though, yes, it would’ve. A somewhat dark thought perhaps, but one he suspected many secretly shared. Estelle herself had had her own brushes with Hawke, either as a result of her own actions or because of those under her command. Owing to her nature, she was much more adept at handling such meetings. Although those methods quite often came under many variations of “Yes, sir!”, “No, sir!”, “Sorry, sir!”, and “It won’t happen again, sir!”.
“So, what’s the new guy like?” Dodds asked.
“Chaz?”
“Yeah. I spoke to him a little before you arrived. He seems a little … distant?”
“That’s one way of putting it,” Estelle said, sounding as though she was still trying to figure the man out for herself. “He’s very quiet. A good pilot, though. Not as good as you or Kelly, but he still gels well with the team. He used to fly with a group called the Copper Beetles, before his team were shuffled around. They assigned him to the White Knights and the others were transferred to Earth.”
“Odd arrangement.”
“I thought so, too. But there’s probably a method to the madness.”
“Guess I’ll get to know him better during the training, then,” Dodds said.
“Wouldn’t bet on it,” Estelle shook her head. “He’s been with us for three weeks now and that’s pretty much all I’ve managed to get out of him. He’s nice, though, if a bit grumpy. Likes to read, too.”
They had walked a fair way around the campus now and Estelle suggested they head back.
/> “Hey, do me a favour, okay?” she said, stopping abruptly.
“Uh … sure,” Dodds said.
“I know you and Enrique haven’t seen each other for nearly six months, but please don’t start leading each other astray. This is a fantastic opportunity we’ve been given and we all need to act like true professionals. Don’t screw this up for me.” Though it was meant to sound authoritative, Dodds could detect the begging tone in her voice, asking him to push aside everything else and focus on helping her to fulfil her ambitions.
“I won’t,” Dodds said, “you have my word.”
“Thank you.”
*
Returning to the dormitory, Dodds found that Kelly and Chaz had returned to what they had been doing before he arrived. Enrique was towelling off his blond hair, the redness of his face having subsided. Dodds grabbed his bag from the bed he’d slung it on and began to sort through his belongings, pulling things out and dumping them onto the mattress. Estelle shuffled through the papers in her hands before clearing her throat in an authoritative manner and addressing the group as a whole.
“Okay everyone, listen up. We’ve still got a lot to do before tomorrow morning. The simulator results are extremely positive and we’re all doing much better than we were yesterday on the advanced courses, but there’s still room for improvement. We can get times down, minimise ally and ammunition losses, and improve our overall coordination. After lunch and the presentation, I want us to go back over simulation courses A4, A9, A15 and A19. Dodds, you need to get on those sims ASAP to work out the rust. Enrique, go with him and give him a hand setting up.”
“Right, come on, mate,” Enrique indicated to Dodds, as he walked over to join him. “Let’s get over there.”
“To the simulation suite, Enrique, not the bar,” Estelle remarked. She reached into her pocket and flourished a red pen. “Right, I’ve not been over everything,” she said, tapping the papers, “but I’m sure after I’m finished with these we’ll have a much clearer picture of what needs to be done. Who wants to help?”
There was silence in the dormitory as heads turned to avoid her gaze.
“Oh, I’d love to help, Estelle, but I need to go with Dodds to the simulation suite,” said Enrique, giving Dodds a push to hurry him up.
The Battle for the Solar System (Complete Trilogy) Page 7