The Battle for the Solar System (Complete Trilogy)

by Sweeney, Stephen

  *

  Compared to most of the rest of the ship, Parks’ office was far more lavishly decorated. A handful of small paintings hanging on the walls depicted Griffin and other vessels. His eyes strayed to the painting of Dragon as he made for his desk and he caught himself thinking of how different things might have been had their mission been a success.

  He found the communication waiting for him as he activated the computer terminal, the message encrypted and the screen challenging him to authenticate himself. It appeared that the system was still suffering, as both the iris scan and voice recognition took a number of attempts to verify. Eventually, he made it past the authentication systems and the communication playback commenced.

  “I hope this message finds you well, Elliott,” a grating voice began, “although from what I’ve heard, things could be a lot better.”

  Parks gaped as he realised he was looking at a video recorded by David Turner. Both the picture and audio were suffering, he guessed as a result of the damage to Griffin, rather than a problem with the message itself. He moved closer to the display, keen on listening carefully to what the fleet admiral had to say. Right now, he could do with all the advice he could get.

  “After you failed to return to Spirit with either Hawke or Meyers, we began an immediate galaxy-wide sweep. Luckily for you, it didn’t take very long for us to pin down your location. Since you arrived within a formerly inhabited Imperial system, one which was once subject to a great deal of surveillance by the CSS, we were able to detect Griffin quickly. In case you don’t already know, you are in the Phylent system, close to the Imperial-Independent border.

  “First of all, don’t concern yourself with the outcome of the attempt to capture Zackaria and retake Dragon. We both knew that this was never going to be an easy task to accomplish, and we’ve once again been given a truly unpleasant reminder of the kind of enemy we are up against.”

  Parks was in total agreement. He recalled how, when he had mentioned the appearance of Dragon within Independent space and his plans to ambush and recover the battleship, Turner had warned him of the risks. And though the admiral had given him his full support and backing at the time, Parks now wished he hadn’t been so hasty.

  “Secondly,” the video message continued, “I understand that Griffin has been heavily damaged. I have dispatched Meyers to your position, along with a number of SAR teams. They won’t be with you for several hours, however, so I need you and your boys to sit tight. Imperial space is certainly not a place you would wish to find yourself adrift and defenceless. I shouldn’t have to remind you either that, whilst you are close to Independent space, there won’t be any help coming from those frontier systems, since they have already been evacuated. And even if they could help, I imagine there would be great reluctance to do so, given the tremendous loss of life suffered today. At this point, I think it best that we do not seek to involve the UNF any further. So, until Meyers arrives, you’re on your own out there and will just have to wait it out.”

  Parks nodded once more, relieved to hear that Meyers would soon be there to assist them. He then saw Turner sit more upright, leaning forward in his chair. He had seen that look on Turner’s face before. He was about to say something either very profound or controversial. Given the circumstances, probably both.

  “But having said that, your current location couldn’t be more convenient,” Turner said. “Regarding matters within the Temper system some seventy-two hours ago – intelligence have located the raider who fled the Cardinal just before its destruction, and discovered that he is travelling around Mitikas’ frontier systems. He arrived in Phylent some time ago, so it’s likely he won’t be hanging around too much longer.

  “Special agent Barber has followed the man to Arlos starport, where he has been attempting to offload various items of his stock. This whole thing could’ve ended up as a wild-goose chase, which would have been all the better for us. Unfortunately, Barber has confirmed to me that our friend does indeed appear to have the entire dump of Cardinal’s databanks in his possession …”

  “And that means he has the ATAF plans,” Parks chorused along with Turner. Hell. And not only that, but the full implementation details as well. The solution to dealing with the Pandoran threat could very well be in the hands of the enemy themselves. The implication didn’t even bear thinking about.

  Turner went on, “But at least we now know he still has them and they haven’t already fallen into unwanted hands. Right now, he is struggling to find a buyer, and Barber is currently attempting to verify whether he has them about his person or has stowed them someplace else.

  “She planned to make her way back to Confederation space once she had secured the data, but I imagine this could prove a lot trickier than she thinks. That’s not a gamble I’m willing to take. I don’t know whether to call your accidental winding up in the Phylent system luck or fate, but what I do know is that we need to get those plans back, ASAP.”

  Parks was getting a bad feeling about what the admiral was about to suggest. He began scratching at the stubble on his chin as Turner’s request continued to unfold.

  “Therefore, I will need you to bring her home with you, or, at the very least, the data. If you can’t bring her too, don’t worry. You and I both know she is more than capable of getting out of there by herself, even if it takes her several weeks. I would rather this is done while you await the arrival of Meyers, so you can depart the Phylent system as quickly as possible. We cannot risk losing yet another of our most powerful weapons to the Enemy, and as such this should now be your number one priority. I’m sure that I shouldn’t have to remind you that those plans are worth far more than every life on that ship.”

  Parks groaned as the admiral’s request set him on very awkward footing.

  “This may be an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone, Elliott. We can gain twice from this situation. With the Red Devils dead, we have to play catch up, and an opportunity like this may not come by again any time soon, if ever. I have taken the liberty of transmitting the coordinates of Arlos starport to you, as well as extended intelligence concerning the Phylent system. I’m hoping you have all the information you need, since I strongly recommend that you do not attempt to respond to this message. Although we still have a handful of comm relay points hidden around the Imperial frontier systems, communications fed through subspace are minimal. Any increase in the tachyon streams could expose you to hostile tracking systems.”

  And what about Anthony, Parks wondered. Where had he got to? Had he bailed on him again?

  “As for Hawke,” Turner said, as if reading his mind, “he is much closer to your location than Meyers is. When he saw Griffin disappear into the jump point, with no clue as to your destination, Hawke took it upon himself to assume command. He ordered Meyers to return to Spirit and search for you there, while he took Ifrit to search all the star systems adjacent to Aster. He, like Meyers, is aware of your situation and that I have requested that you perform a little errand for us, before you are ready to return home. Neither of them, however, are privy to the full details of that errand, as I’m sure you can appreciate. Unless he runs into difficulties, or delivery of these instructions are delayed, you should expect Hawke to arrive at your location sooner than Meyers. You should therefore return to Spirit with him, if you are in a position to do so. Don’t wait for Aiden; he will understand that you had to leave as soon as you were able to. In such an event, we will let him know that you have been found and are returning home, so he can immediately turn around.

  “There is more information attached in the brief that I have included with this message. You will need to relay all this to the White Knights, as it is vital that they fully understand all of it. We need it drilled into their heads, Elliott, or, at least, de Winter’s, so she can keep everyone in line. I’ll leave the decision about whether or not to include Koonan in the party up to you. But keep in mind his past experiences when considering the option. I realise that all this does
n’t paint the rosiest of pictures, but we need to make sure that we have covered our bases for all eventualities.

  “Take care of yourself, Elliott. We’ll see you soon.”

  The message playback ended and the screen displayed a number of icons, detailing the additional information that Turner had transmitted.

  Parks sighed. At least one of his questions had been answered – the Confederation’s comm points had sent information about Griffin’s arrival in the Phylent system to CSN HQ, via subspace channels. Turner had then sent a message to the carrier in the same way. Though subspace messages travelled far quicker than vessels could do via jump space, Parks was willing to bet that Griffin’s most recent jump would’ve given them a run for their money.

  He stood up and paced beside the window. He knew what he had to do and he didn’t like it one bit. As Turner had said, the ATAF plans were far more important than all of the lives aboard Griffin. Hell, most likely more so than all those on Griffin, Ifrit and Leviathan combined. If the implementation details were also on the data card, one could add the population of an entire world to those numbers.

  Now there was a terrifying thought.

  He stared out the window at the endless void of space. With the blast screens having been raised from the carrier’s few windows, he was able to clearly see a dull grey planet not too far off. They were practically in orbit around it. He didn’t need to consult a system map to know that that was where Turner needed him to go.

  It never rains, but it pours, he thought. Turner delegating the full responsibility of the success of the ATAF program on to him; then the failure of Operation Menelaus; and now the need to coordinate a surprise mission to recover a stolen data card, get it back to Griffin and get out of the system before they were discovered by hostile forces.

  It was too much. He shouldn’t ever have allowed himself to be charged with all of this. He simply wasn’t cut out to do it. Hell, he shouldn’t even be captaining Griffin. Soon the fraud would be exposed, he was sure of it. Maybe he should’ve suggested that Hawke lead the ambush against Dragon instead …

  No, he told himself, snap out of it. Now wasn’t the time. People were depending on him. One task at a time. He had to think.

  He paced some more, before stopping and leaning against the glass, looking out at Arlos. “Dammit,” he said in a low voice, “there must be another way. There has to be a way for Barber to come to us, instead of us having to go to her.”

  He racked his brains, giving full consideration to every possibility that he could think of, no matter how far fetched. But all his attempts to find a workable solution hit dead ends. Turner was right – he had little choice in the matter. And whether he liked it or not, he was going to have to send both the ATAFs and the White Knights to Arlos alone, and leave Griffin all but defenceless.

  And the sooner all of that was done, the sooner they could all get home.

  He turned back to the console and tapped at the screen. “Security,” he said, “please send Omar Wyatt up to my office immediately.”

  XX

  — Of Cloaks —

  “What’s going on?” Enrique asked, as Dodds returned from speaking with one of the security team.

  “He doesn’t know,” Dodds said, rejoining the rest of his wingmates, sitting on the floor. “He thinks that that weird strobing thing was just a result of the damage that Griffin sustained during the battle.”

  “I’ve never felt a ship shake like that before,” Enrique said. “There’s certainly been a few very strange things happening today.”

  “Just a few?” Dodds gave a humourless chuckle.

  “You know, I didn’t want to say anything earlier, but what did you really think of those Imperial pilots?”

  Dodds thought for a moment. “They were good, perhaps a little too good. I don’t think we would have stood much chance without the ATAFs, to tell you the truth.”

  Both men turned to look at the ATAFs that were lined up along the wall of the hold. Dodds still couldn’t see any dents.

  “Tell you what,” Enrique added, “if that civil war does boil over and they’re all as good as that …”

  “No,” Dodds said, shaking his head, “their reactions were too fast and they were too accurate. Something wasn’t right there. You saw what they were doing to the other squadrons – 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?”

  “Hmm, perhaps.” Dodds noticed that Chaz’s head was tilted in their direction. He appeared to be subtly eavesdropping in on their conversation. He wondered for a moment about Chaz’s reaction earlier. Though the big man seemed somewhat short-tempered, Dodds couldn’t help feeling that there was something more to it than that. Was it that he and Parks had a history together? The commodore did seem to wind Chaz up very easily.

  His eyes then fell on Estelle, who was staring at the floor, looking quite glum. He guessed that since being ordered to remain in the cargo hold, she was feeling as though she had once again been shot down in her prime.

  “… gonna be a lot of weeping mothers after this one, I can tell ya,” one of the security team’s conversations carried over.

  “Tell me about it. They pulled out this one girl that a ceiling had come down on top of. Legs were a complete mess. Even if she’d lived through that, she wouldn’t be using those again.”

  “Not sure I’d take that over being spaced, myself.”

  “Nice-looking thing, too.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.”

  “That’s a shame.”

  Dodds noticed Estelle’s expression change as the two men spoke. Something was on her mind. “You alright, Estelle?” he asked.

  “Just thinking.”

  “Sure?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Okay.”

  “Thanks, Simon.”

  Simon. That was a name she didn’t use for him often. Something really was playing on her mind. He was about to check further, when Enrique nudged him, indicating towards the hold’s entrance. A number of the security personnel were being spoken to by the moustached Wyatt. He looked around the groups of people sat in the cargo hold as he did so, but mostly in the direction of the Knights. The other members of the security team were doing likewise. Wyatt then strode over to the five pilots, flanked by two members of his team.

  “de Winter, White Knights,” he said.

  “Yes,” Estelle said, getting to her feet.

  “Commodore Parks wishes to speak to all of you in his office immediately. Please come with me.”

  *

  “Thank you for being so prompt, Omar,” Parks said, turning away from where he had been gazing out the window, in the direction of Arlos. “Please wait outside. I have a confidential matter I need to discuss with the White Knights.”

  Estelle raised a salute and opened her mouth to speak, before Parks waved her down.

  “At ease,” Parks said. “Please excuse me for restricting you to the cargo hold. I intended to explain the reason for this when we got back to Spirit, but that is going to have to wait. You may have noticed that we’re currently not in jump.” He indicated the inky-black space beyond the window, the scene punctuated by tiny pinpricks of greys and whites from distant stars. “Griffin suffered a mis-jump when we departed Aster, causing us to miss our intended destination.”

  “W … where are we?” Estelle asked.

  “In the Phylent system.”

  “Phylent?” Estelle and Kelly repeated.

  “We’re in Imperial space?” Chaz said, concern edging its way into his voice.

  Parks nodded. “That’s right. And we will be remaining here until we either repair our jump engines, Captain Meyers or Commodore Hawke arrive to assist us, or we are discovered by hostile forces. As I’m sure you can already appreciate, the situation isn’t favourable, no matter what angle you look at it. While rescue is on t
he way, we cannot count on its arrival for several hours yet. Griffin has sustained a considerable amount of damage, and in the face of an attack would be almost totally defenceless. Our weapons systems are unreliable, our shielding is barely adequate, and we have no means of launching fighters.”

  “Excuse me, sir, but we could launch the ATAFs from the cargo hold,” Estelle chipped in.

  “Thank you for letting me know that, Lieutenant,” Parks answered, with a hint of sarcasm, “but the situation is no longer as straightforward as that, and I have received a communication from Fleet Admiral Turner that has further complicated matters. I believe you were all present when CSN Cardinal was boarded and destroyed by a raiding party?”

  The five pilots nodded.

  “We recently confirmed that the raider who escaped stole some highly classified and sensitive data, which, were it to fall into enemy hands, could spell utter disaster for the Confederation and all her interests.”

  “What was it?” Enrique asked.

  “As already stated, Mr Todd, that is classified,” Parks said. “All you need to know is that we have to get it back as soon as possible. Now, what I’m about to tell you is extremely important; you must listen very carefully.”

  Parks noticed a ripple of unease pass along the line of pilots at the same time.

  Parks pressed on, “Admiral Turner contacted me with the news that a government service agent has tracked the raider who stole the data to this very system, and is now in the process of reacquiring it. She planned to immediately return to Confederation space once she had done so, but the instability of this entire region could make that considerably more difficult than she first expected. It is that which has made my next decision difficult, because I need you five to go and get it from her.”

  He scanned the group as he finished speaking, noticing, as he had expected, Chaz’s eyes narrow upon him. He knew to expect Chaz to react in some way as soon as he revealed their contact to be a female service agent. The others said nothing, turning to look at one another.