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

XXVI - Too Little, Too Late

Natalia awoke, at first not remembering where she was or what had happened, suffering a brief period of morning amnesia. She became aware that she was lying on a soft, padded beige bed of some kind. Another lay across from her. It was then that she noticed that the acrylic glass cover of the stasis capsule was open. Fear gripped her and she sat bolt upright.

Looking out the front windows of her escape pod, she saw that she was no longer in space; the inky-blackness now replaced by what appeared to be the interior of a starship hangar. The light level was very low, appearing intentionally so. Other vessels, including what appeared to be starfighters, lined bays, with various pieces of loading equipment and tools just visible. Whilst everything she saw bore all the hallmarks as being of Independent design, her experience told her not to trust anything; she could well have been found by anyone.

She leapt out of the stasis capsule and scrabbled around for a place to hide. But where? It appeared nothing within the escape pod could provide her with an adequate means to secrete herself. To attempt to hide in the stasis capsule itself would only give her the option of pulling a blanket over herself. Under them? No, there was barely any gap between the capsule and the floor. The storage cabinet? Far too small; only an infant could fit in there.

The tiny cockpit area was her only option. There might be room to squeeze into the recess at the front, between the control panel and the chair. It became evident to her long before she started over and had begun crawling into the gap that she would be hiding in plain sight. But she really had no other choice. Her alternative would be to await whomever had found her escape pod and attempt to fight her way out, in which case she figured she would last maybe five or six seconds at most. Less if she had been found by a hoard of black-suited soldiers...

Natalia sat, still and silent in the alcove under the control panel, her back to the seat, unable to see the rest of the pod. As the seconds ticked by, she found herself wishing she had some sort of weapon to hand. For a moment, she considered jumping out and raiding the storage cabinet, to see if there would be anything she could use. There might be something she had overlooked, despite having dug through them on a number of separate occasions.

My jacket! My reports! Natalia thought, remembering that she had thrown it over the back of the cockpit chair. She turned around, seeing it hanging but an arm's reach from where she was hidden. She leaned forward to retrieve them. The sound of locks releasing made her pull her hand back quickly. No! Too late!

She heard the door at the rear of the pod open and a number of searchlights were shone into the dark interior. She watched as they danced around the surfaces, holding her breath and wishing that she could make herself even smaller. She imagined numerous pairs of ruby-red eyes shining just behind them.

"Come out," a female voice called. "You; at the front!"

Natalia's heart jumped at the sound, though she remained where she was, desperately trying to work out what her next move would be. A short period passed as Natalia's mind raced.

The spokeswoman then issued a threat: "If you don't come out, we will fire. I'm going to give you to the count of ten. Seven..."

"No, wait. I'm coming out," Natalia protested as she crawled out from the recess. The voice had never declared they would start at one. "I'm unarmed." She walked towards the rear of the pod, hands held high in surrender, at the same time shielding her eyes against the glare of the light that was being shone right into them.

Ahead of her stood five people, each armed with a rifle outfitted with a torch strapped to the underside. They were dressed in military fatigues, Natalia making out the light grey and brown colour schemes of their shirts and trousers.