Duty, Honour, Love
Chapter 18

Karasena and Mark watched them leave they were alone but not really guards and crew waited inside.

“Captain Stillway,” Karasena said trying hard to keep it on a professional level.

“Ma’am?” Mark responded instantly.

“We need to talk,” she said to him.

“About what? I can’t give away military secrets.”

Karasena frowned she wouldn’t ask him those questions although she doubted he had any. “About the attack on your ship. These Ulkoi may be a threat to everyone.” Ulkoi was the T’Arni word for what Terrans called aliens not from the Confederacy.

“You are right,” Mark said thoughtfully. “I did consider it but wasn’t sure if you would accept it?” Adding. “Comm Lieutenant Dareia and tell her to let Jane give full access to our systems.”

Karasena brought her comms band up and commed Dee. “Dareia.”

“Yes captain there a problem?” Dareia’s image stared at Karasena from her holo.

“Tell Lieutenant Walberg that she has my full permission to let you have access to our logs and reports.” Mark said.

Karasena knew Dareia had no need to get the access codes she could read the codes straight from Jane’s mind if she hadn’t done so already. She only let Mark say it to maintain their secret that Dee was a tepe. Karasena turned back to Mark. “Now Captain Stillway?”

“Just call me Mark or Stillway by surrendering my ship I’ve lost the right to be called captain.”

“Not by me,” Karasena said hastily and swallowed hard.

“Thank you,” he replied quietly. The tone of his voice making her heart race she was glad she was wearing her combat armour otherwise he would have seen the rosy glow in her cheeks.

To hide her flustering she gestured to a set of metal steps to the side of the hall and climbing above the hall. “Follow me,” she said leading him up the stairs.

The stairs crossed the roof of the extension and up to a door at the back. Looking down from here she could see all away across the parking lot. The protestors from earlier had gone. She strongly suspected that they had been there for the reporter to make her story news worthy. It had looked too staged to anything other than that and from the half-heart attempts at shouting and waving banners they had been people pressed into service. Karasena punched in the code to the door and ushered Mark in. He found himself on the mezzanine floor seeing what the guards could see. Karasena stepped round him and opened the door the glass fronted office above the stage.

“We can talk here without being interrupted.” She gestured to a chair in the room another leaned against the back wall. “Please start from the beginning.”

Mark glanced around the glass walled room it was only like that on three sides the forth had narrow windows same as the rest of the mezzanine floor. In the centre of the room was a desk Karasena had settled behind it. There was another chair in front of the glass wall overlooking the floor. Mark picked up the chair and sat down opposite the desk facing Karasena. As he sat she removed her helmet breathing a sigh of relief. Mark sat there for a moment staring at her. Like most T’Arni he had encountered she was pretty then all T’Arni had that ethereal charm. Her blonde hair was long and fell about her shoulders like a golden rain. Her pale hazel eyes regarded his blood shot grey ones with an interest that reminded him of someone he had once loved. He turned away from the way his thoughts were going and tried to be professional.

“As I’ve already stated,” he said to her. “I can’t divulge military secrets.”

A slight smile touched her lips and there was a twinkle in her eyes. Mark pushed himself from the way his thoughts were going it was too early for him to suffer from Stockholm syndrome.

Karasena leaned forward interested in Mark. “All I want to ask is about the attack on your ship?”

Mark felt slight relief here he was on a safer topic but thinking about the lives that were lost was nothing to be easy about. “We, I mean that my ship was part of a seven ship squadron led by the frigate Rodney. There had been reports of unusual activity in the system and sector 228 was part of our patrol zone.”

Karasena leaned further forward. “So you mind if I record this?”

“Oh I thought you were already, go ahead I’ve nothing to hide and I’d rather have this official.”

That hurt her a little but Mark was right they had to keep this official. “Thank you please go ahead.”

“We’d jumped into the orbit of Tribula a system on the edge of Imperial space near the rim.”

With what little Karasena knew that was far, far away too far for a ship the size of Mark’s to travel and yet try as she might there was no lie Dareia had confirmed that.

Mark continued with a frown. “When our long range sensors picked up a ship we couldn’t ID it. It was in any of our databases,” Mark paused his face going hard. “ I’m was putting too much assumption into that with what I’ve learned since. For the record I’ll just state we picked up an unknown energy signature in the system. As we got closer the Rodney commed that it was an unknown ship. Since we were unsure that it was hostile we approached in battle formation.” Mark’s expression was bleak. “Fat lot of good that did for us,” he said bitterly and hesitated giving Karasena an apologetic look. “Sorry.”

“Please go on I know this will be hard for you.” Karasena really felt for him. She shouldn’t have since she was trying to keep this professional but she was replaceing it really difficult since she had to admit she liked him.

“The rest of the squadron stood off at extreme range while the Rodney moved closer.” Mark halted and swallowed hard it was difficult to get the images of what happened next out of his mind.

“And?” Karasena said quietly her voice a mere whisper in the room.

“Everything seemed fine until the Rodney got within 10k’s of the alien. A beam of light shot out from the alien ship. There was no warning it vaporised the Rodney. We returned fire we might have been spitting at a wall for all the good it did, our weapons were ineffective. I doubt that even a capital ship would have any headway against that ship.”

Karasena could hear the despair in his voice. Without thinking she reached out and touched his hand the one gripping the desk edge like a vice. “We can take a break if you replace it difficult?”

Mark was thankful for her sympathy there was something about her that made him feel good despite what had happened. It had been a long time since he had felt this way. The two of them sitting like this felt so natural. He shook himself they could never be safe as long as that ship was out there. If the Orinoco could fly then he would have left this world behind and kept her safe. Briefly he wondered were that errant thought had come from and concentrated on the task in hand it was his duty.

“No I must go on. If not for me but for all those that have died.”

Karasena admired his commitment.

“Our 2iC Captain Jennings ordered the squadron to bug out when she saw our weapons had no effect.”

“Bug out?” Karasena asked puzzled.

“Old Earth phrase,” Mark apologised. “It means get out as quick as possible.” Mark halted and took a deep breath. Laura Jennings had graduated from the same academy a year ahead of his class and they had got close.

“Please go on if you can?” Karasena said to him. “We can stop if you need it?”

Mark nodded thankful for her understanding. “Very kind of you.” Her responding smile made him feel better. “Oh yes where was I? We lost Captain Jennings and two other ships the Severn and the Hudson before we jumped.” Mark scowled his face going bleak. “It was waiting for us when we dropped out of hyperspace like it knew where we would be. In the time it took us to calculate another jump it carved a chuck out of our hull. I lost a number of my crew in that moment.”

“Yes I saw the damage to your ship. Frankly I’m surprised it still flew.”

Mark nodded sadly his mind on those they lost not only on his ship but the others. “They disabled our comms array. We had no comms incoming or outgoing. Danielle did the best she could. The rest of her team was dead.”

“They must have deliberately cut you off from contact?” Karasena stated.

“And effectively cut the ship in half we were lucky the blast doors held we had no way of getting into the rear of the ship. Danielle had the forethought to cut into the rooms either side of the breech to bypass the damaged section.”