The Honour of the Knights (First Edition) (The Battle for the Solar System)

XVII - Of Cloaks

Chaz continued watching the security team that guarded the entrance to the cargo bay. He had noticed a new face arrive earlier. The head of the security team had exchanged some brief words with the man before the pair had departed together. It did not seem to Chaz that anyone else had noticed; little details such as that were apparently lost on them.

Estelle was staring at the floor, looking quite glum, though he suspected that her current state owed more to sorrow than to being restricted to the hold.

"... gonna be a lot of weeping mothers after this one, I can tell ya," one of the team's conversations had carried to the hold's current occupants.

"Tell me about it. They pulled out this one girl who had been buried under a collapsed ceiling. Legs were a complete mess. Even if she'd lived through that, she certainly 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."

Chaz had noticed Estelle's expression change as the two men had spoken, the woman lowering her gaze to the floor.

"You all right, Estelle?" Dodds had asked sometime later.

"Just thinking."

"Sure?"

"Yeah."

"Okay."

"Thanks, Simon."

Simon. That was a name he didn't hear used all too often.

The head of security was now back, and speaking with the rest of his team. As he did so, he looked around the groups of people sat in the cargo hold, but mostly at the Knights. The other members of the security team were doing likewise. It was clear to Chaz that the man was discussing the Knights and he'd guessed what was going on well before Wyatt strode over to the five pilots.

"Lieutenant de Winter?" Wyatt asked as he stood over them, flanked by two others from his team.

"Yes," Estelle said, getting to her feet.

"Commodore Parks wishes to speak to you immediately in his private office. Please come with me."

The Knights were escorted from the cargo hold by the head of the security team. As they walked through Griffin's decks towards Parks' office, they were at last able to see the true extent of the damage. There were still many safety and fire doors closed across every deck and as a result their journey was not straightforward. Parks had insisted that the security team avoid the use of elevators, in case they became stuck and delayed the meeting.

* * *

Parks turned back from where he was gazing out the window in the direction of Arlos as the six people entered his office.

"Thank you for being so prompt, Omar," he said. "Please wait outside. I have a confidential matter I need to discuss with the White Knights."

"Yes, sir," Wyatt nodded and departed the office.

"White Knights reporting as..." Estelle began, before Parks waved her down.

"At ease. Please excuse me for restricting you to the cargo hold. I intended to explain the reasons behind the move back at Spirit, but that is going to have to wait. You may have noticed that we are currently not in jump." He indicated to the inky-blackness of the world outside the carrier, the scene punctuated by tiny pinpricks of greys and whites from distant stars. "When we departed Aster, Griffin suffered a miss-jump and as a result we did not make it to our intended destination. Instead, we have become temporarily stranded in the Phylent system."