The thunderous look returned instantly to Jenkins’ face. “Admiral, I gave specific orders to the entire fleet that none of the alliance battle group vessels were to be removed from frontline defence!”
“Sorry, Amanda, but you are mistaken,” Parks smiled. “Cratos isn’t part of the alliance battle group.”
“What are you talking about? Since when?”
“Since around two minutes ago, when I commandeered her,” Parks concluded, before prompting Weathers to terminate the transmission and ignore any further communication requests.
“You know,” Weathers said, “we’re probably all going to get court-martialled for this when we get back.”
“There are worse things that could happen,” Parks said, turning to look at de Winter and Dodds.
“Captain, we’re being pursued,” Liu warned. “We’ve got a number of starfighters closing in on our position, as well as CSN William the Conqueror and CSN Colonel K. At least two more frigates are forming up.”
“They wouldn’t actually open fire on us, would they?” de Winter asked.
“No, Captain,” Parks said. “Or that would’ve happened already. Likely, they’re going to attempt to bring us down with their mag cannons. Only thing is that we’re not going to give them that chance. Tell me, Mr Liu, do you recall the opening phase of Operation Menelaus …?”
*
Jenkins swore as the vessels she had dispatched to tail and bring down the escaping dreadnought ground to a near-halt. Their safety systems had engaged the damper fields to bring their speeds down, then cut power to the engines altogether, extinguishing all running lights.
“Colonel K, Dust Storm, William the Conqueror and Crystal Shards are reporting loss of power to all non-essential-to-life systems,” the Tower reported through Jenkins’ console.
“What about the starfighters?” she demanded.
“Pilots are reporting similar problems, Admiral.”
Jenkins swore again. “That’s the same damn trick he used against Dragon and Ifrit! How the hell did he manage that from a UNF vessel?!”
“Via a proxy, Admiral. The commands were routed through from CSN Griffin.”
“Cunning bastard,” Jenkins glowered. “How soon can power be restored?”
“We’re working on it now. Unfortunately, I’m being informed we’re looking at a downtime of at least ten minutes.”
“Can’t you get it done faster?”
“I’m afraid not, Admiral. It’s part of the inbuilt security protocol.”
“Then hit Cratos with the same shutdown command!” Jenkins ordered.
“That’s a negative, Admiral, all attempts have failed,” she was told, not a short time later. “We can’t initiate remote shutdown of the target because it never completed its integration into the allied group. As far as our systems are concerned, that’s not one of our ships.”
Jenkins struck the desk in frustration, and Meyers watched through the window as a jump point formed in front of Cratos. A few seconds later, the massive dreadnought accelerated in and vanished from sight, the portal snapping shut behind them.
“Good luck, Elliott,” Meyers said. Jenkins glared at him, but this time he did nothing to stop his smile from showing.
XVIII
— Confessions —
Dodds had heard of Parks’ use of the security protocols in the past, the most well-known of those being the failed attempt at disabling Dragon, during Operation Menelaus. Parks had then gone on to apply the very same, with effect, against Ifrit, when Hawke and Zackaria had sought to destroy Griffin. It had granted the carrier a small reprieve, a window of opportunity in which to escape. Parks was clearly prepared to repeat the tried and tested technique, whenever necessary – a trick that hadn’t yet got too old. But Dodds was surprised that Parks had managed to get away with it so easily. Hadn’t the allied forces learned by now? Fool me once …
“Captain,” Estelle said. “Er … do you think that disabling all those ships was a good idea? What if they can’t get them restarted?”
“Don’t worry, de Winter,” Parks said, looking over to Estelle from the captain’s seat, “it’s simply a case of re-authorising all the core system services and bringing those components back online. A ten or fifteen minute job at most, to those who know what they’re doing.”
“No regrets about doing this at all, then?” Dodds said.
“Well, let’s put it this way,” Parks said, “it was either this or sit in a meeting with a load of insufferable bores like Adrian Parsons.”
There were murmurs of understanding from his co-conspirators. The hour Dodds had listened to Parsons more or less talking about himself had been enough for one lifetime.
“Any indication of pursuit?” Parks asked Weathers and Liu.
“None,” Weathers said. “But I’ll continue to monitor the situation.”
“Sorry, sir,” Estelle began, “but once we get to our destination, what’s our plan of action?”
“I’ll be getting to that in a while,” Parks said. “Right now, I have a few tasks for all of you. I can’t have you all hanging around the bridge for the next few hours, getting in the way.”
Dodds glanced around the less-than-spacious bridge. A true battleship this vessel was, barely room to swing a cat, and only if that cat was of operational value to the ship itself.
“de Winter,” Parks went on, “I need you to go with Mr Fox here and find out exactly who we have aboard, what their main responsibilities are and what other skills they have. Lovejoy mentioned during our initial meeting that he wanted to rotate the crew, as some of them were going a little stir crazy from being cooped up too long. If that’s the case, then we might not be playing with a full hand. We need to ensure we have engineering, maintenance, defensive and offensive capabilities all catered for. Understood?”
“Yes, sir,” Estelle nodded.
“Dodds, Koonan,” Parks said, turning to them, “I want you to check what we’ve got in the way of shuttles, in case we’ve ended up with a random assortment of craft, should logistics have been in the middle of swapping stuff out. It’s likely we’ll need something with a little more grunt than a mere transit craft, though; shielding, weaponry and speed could be of the essence. There’s also the possibility that one of you might need to fly it, so get yourselves a crash course in its handling.”
“Got it,” Dodds said. Chaz nodded, but said nothing.
“Todd,” Parks looked towards the sandy-haired man, “see what you can find out about weaponry, comms devices and other dispatch-related inventory. We can’t assume that, should we find the Elpis, she’ll have active life support. And neither can we guarantee that she won’t be in several pieces when we find her, either. We need to be sure we are prepared for such an eventuality. I know it’s not exactly a speciality of yours, but do what you can and grab Mr Koonan when he’s done, to give you a hand.”
“No worries,” Enrique replied.
“Taylor, have you brought that journal of yours with you?”
“Yes, sir,” Kelly answered, holding up the data card.
“Good. I want you to remain here with me, so we can extract all the information we can about the Elpis and what is known about where it was going. That is all, people. Report back here in an hour,” Parks concluded, before beckoning Kelly over to his side.
Dodds turned to leave, his eyes straying to the frontal viewport and down the seemingly infinite subspace tunnel, leading them to their destination. Might this be one of the last times he would ever see this conduit under such circumstances?
He was picking up a vibe from the other occupants of the bridge – a common thought that they alone had the responsibility for ending this war and saving the human race from extinction. After so many years, it had come down to this – seven people determined to stand in the way of an enemy that almost certainly couldn’t be stopped. It sparked that old question in his mind.
“Admiral,” said Dodds, halting as he was leaving, the others pausing along with him.
“Something I always wanted to know,” Dodds continued. “Do you think that knowledge of the Pandoran army and what had really happened to Mitikas was worth keeping quiet? Had we made it common knowledge from the start, might we have been more prepared to handle them?”
Parks was quiet for a time, not responding at all. Dodds wondered if he was going to be dismissed abruptly from the bridge. Everyone, including Liu and Weathers seemed to be eyeing Parks. Clearly, it was a question they were all interested in hearing the answer to.
Parks then sighed. “That’s probably one of the most difficult questions one might ever have to answer,” he said. “I’ve considered it a number of times over the years and can see both sides of the argument. On the one hand, we’d have been able to shore up our defences and maybe could’ve found a more workable solution to dealing with the advancement of the enemy forces before they had a chance to get started, or perhaps just after they had. On the other hand, we could’ve caused chaos. People would’ve been terrified by the news and turned the galaxy into a state of anarchy. They’d have thought that we’d have no way of controlling or dealing with the invasion, no matter what we told them. You saw how so many behaved during the Great Panic.” He shrugged, as if he no longer knew the answer. “The fact of the matter is that people were always going to die. We tried to deal with the problem in a way that we hoped would result in the least amount of bloodshed, but I’ll admit it’s possible that we backed the wrong horse. Unfortunately, we have no certainty that transparency is always the best way to deal with such things. I don’t think we’ll ever know which way would’ve been better.
“Right, get out of here, you lot,” Parks prompted abruptly. “We may have several hours to go until we reach our destination, but we need to be ready to act as soon as we arrive. I want to ensure that any complications that might arise in preparation for our arrival are dealt with well in advance of that time.”
“What about me, Admiral?” Natalia wanted to know. Dodds had noted how Parks hadn’t delegated any tasks to the woman.
“I think it’s best if you stand aside for now, Grace,” Parks said, over his shoulder. “Thank you for helping us to get aboard, but I’d prefer it if any further involvement was kept to a minimum, especially during something as crucial as this. I think we both know why,” he added, turning briefly in his seat to face her.
“I can still be of use, Admiral,” Natalia said. “I’ve proved that several times in the last two days already.”
“As I said,” Parks repeated, bluntly. “Please leave the bridge. That’s an order.”
Natalia stared at him, obviously dismayed, before turning on her heel and making for the lift. She slipped into it and sealed the doors behind her. Dodds looked to Parks, but the man’s attention was now focused on working with Kelly.
*
Dodds should’ve been heading for the hangar with Chaz, to check on Cratos’ shuttle offerings. Instead, he found himself needing to talk to Natalia and discover what it was that had upset her so. Sure, Parks didn’t want her to be involved, but why? He also found himself needing to comfort her. He wasn’t sure why that was. Something drew him towards her, had done from the moment he had first met her.
He remembered that day, all those years ago in Eastfields Park, on Mythos. He had subdued her in a fight, disarming the woman and preventing her from turning his own gun against him. He had released her as soon as they had discovered that they were fighting on the same side. Even then, her looks had captivated him and that night he had felt a great deal of comfort and joy from being in her company, her transgressions against him all but forgotten. It was something he couldn’t quite pin down. Natalia seemed to combine both steadiness and vulnerability, as if she were trying to deal with some terrible occurrence in her life. She had spoken of loneliness and was clearly something of a wanderer. Dodds sensed some indefinable bond between them, something he thought she must feel too. Why else had she had sought him out on Griffin, after everyone else had retired to sleep, and in so doing risked imprisonment in the carrier’s brig.
The lift he had been waiting for sounded its arrival and the doors opened. He would try the crew quarters first, to see if Natalia was there. She had served aboard Cratos for a good few years, she had said. One of the staterooms was probably still hers.
As he pushed the appropriate level button, he sensed that he wasn’t alone, and turning around he found that Estelle had slipped into the lift with him. The look on her face told him what was on her mind, even before she spoke. He didn’t need this right now.
“Estelle, what—?”
“No, please Simon, just listen,” she started, reaching for the lift control and stopping the car from descending. “What is it that you see in her?”
“I don’t know,” he said, fumbling uncertainly in his own mind with that same question. “Something,” was all he could answer.
“How can you be so vague?” Estelle asked.
“I don’t know,” Dodds repeated. “But isn’t that the point sometimes? You know the draw exists, without the need to define it. That’s what makes it special.”
“She was quite willing to let you just go to your death,” Estelle said. “Don’t you remember?”
She was standing close to him, almost as if she didn’t want anyone to get between the two of them. She had done so at Sol when they had been reunited, whisking him away from everyone else so that they could be alone. He remembered how dismissive Estelle had been of Natalia; how, when they were waiting out the resolution of Parks’ plan to get them out of Sol she had openly vied for his attention with Natalia.
It finally clicked what was going on. How had he missed it before? “Are … are you still in love with me?” he ventured.
Estelle hesitated for just long enough.
“You are still in love with me!” Dodds declared.
“I’ve never stopped,” Estelle said.
Great, but this wasn’t what he’d expected to hear today.
“Don’t you still love me, too?” Estelle asked.
“Of course I do,” Dodds said, “just not in the same way, any more.”
Estelle recoiled, looking hurt and frustrated. “What is it that you see in her?” she repeated once more. “Is it that she’s taller than me? Is it that she’s thinner or better looking or because she’s blonde? Is it that she doesn’t smoke or have a dependence on pills to keep her stress under control, and doesn’t need to use dye to stop people seeing hair that’s gone grey?”
“I didn’t think that was your natural colour,” Dodds said, his eyes flickering over the deep black strands of hair.
“You’re in love with her, Simon,” Estelle said, bitterly. “I can see that, even if you can’t.”
Dodds didn’t reply. It might’ve been true. He lowered his eyes for a time, not wanting to meet Estelle’s right now. Somehow he felt unable to confess to having been in love with only one person in his entire life. And she was standing right in front of him.
“I don’t know,” he said, raising his eyes to hers. “I mean, you and me … we’ve always been there for one another, but …”
Estelle waited as he fumbled for words.
“You always pushed me away, Estelle,” he found himself saying. “You didn’t seem to want me, but you didn’t want anyone else to have me, either. But Natalia did, Estelle. I know that we’ve only met twice in seven or eight years or however bloody long it’s been since all this started, but from the moment I met her I could tell that she would always be there for me when I needed her. It’s not because she’s tall or thin or blonde or anything like that, it’s because of what I can see inside of her. I just know the way she makes me feel and what I feel for her.
“Estelle, you can’t say that you and I have
had the most active relationship over the past few years, distance and duties aside, and you can’t say that what we’ve had over the last few years has actually been good for us either. We’ve been very on and off ever since we first got together. More than ten years of that, Estelle – not good for either of us.”
Estelle moved to speak, but Dodds pressed on.
“During Black Widow, I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you, settle down and find somewhere quiet to live out our days and start a family. But … you didn’t want that, and I could feel you hurting me. I let you break my heart once before, Estelle, and I don’t want you doing it again.”
Estelle took a step back, looking incredibly hurt, as if Dodds had seized the opportunity to rip out her heart and dash it to the floor. Indeed, Dodds was aware that he was laying it on thick, but he had just let his mouth carry on talking. His pent-up need to let Estelle know how she had always made him feel for years overwhelmed him.
But the hurt on her face was immediately more than he could stand and he tried to defuse the tension with a little diversion. “Anyway, Estelle, I heard that you’ve been seeing Marcus Willis for over a year now,” Dodds said. Somehow he managed to raise a chuckle in the silence of the cramped little lift car, still hanging between decks.
Estelle looked taken aback. “How …” she began, then twigged. “Enrique.”
“Enrique,” Dodds confirmed. “You told Kelly, Kelly told Enrique, Enrique told me.”
Estelle looked elsewhere, as though she had been caught lying and was too scared to admit her guilt.
“How are you and Marcus working out?” Dodds asked, genuinely interested to know.
“He’s a very nice guy,” Estelle said, lowering her eyes. “He’s funny, compassionate, kind, well-liked, a good listener … always knows the right things to say …”
“Tall, fit, rugged,” Dodds supplied, as Estelle fumbled for more to say.
She smiled sadly, looking back up at him. “Only … he’s not you.”
No. Of course not, Dodds thought. “But he’s what you needed back then,” he said, “and also what you need right now. We should both go along with what we need right now, provided it doesn’t cause too much hurt to others. Enough people’ve been hurt in this war. We shouldn’t be looking to add more.”
The Battle for the Solar System (Complete Trilogy) Page 122