The Enclave (The Verge) (2 page)

Katherine clamped down on her rage.  Though it was tempting to delay and tarry here for the three hours it would take to get Hyde, she was a sworn officer and could not disobey Fleet Command orders.  They expected the
Adelaide
at Curtin in ten hours; she would be there in eight.

Katherine straightened her brown hair before tugging her cap firmly on her head and then took her black uniform jacket from the back of her chair and slipped into it.  Best to start practicing the façade of formality for the bureaucrat.  Her Executive Officer is going to
love
this, Richard can be a bit of a stickler for formal dress.  Her Second Officer on the other hand was
not
going to like this change in orders at all - a lot of the crew would be on the warpath once the order is given. 

Katherine glanced at herself in the mirror. 
Better show my face and get this over with
, she thought as she buckled her jacket and took one last look at her reflection in the glass. 
Let’s go then.

The AFV
Adelaide
was a compact deep space frigate that carried enough firepower to get out of a jam but not for a sustained battle.  Katherine was proud of her ship.  For the two years she had been its commanding officer, the
Adelaide
had seen Katherine and her crew through more scrapes, fights and tight escapes that she had lost count.  And now when the
Adelaide
was on the cusp of her greatest victory, it was to be ripped away to do a babysitting run for Fleet.

Stop it.  Don't let your thoughts go there.  Don't let the crew see your disappointment.
   Easier said than done. 

Katherine left her quarters and made her way steadily through the narrow corridors up to the operations deck, nodding at and accepting the salutes as she passed.  Everything looked and sounded normal.  But as soon as Katherine stepped into Communications a wall of silence hit her.  All eyes in the Comms Area were focused on one man.

Serviceman Johnson was sitting in his seat holding a datapad and looking at it in shock.

"Fred, t
ake it straight to the Captain," said the man in the seat next to Johnson.

Fredrick Johnson turned startled eyes to the sp
eaker.  "The Captain is going to have a meltdown when she reads this."

"That may be the case, but you still have to tell her that new orders have come in."

Katherine had to stop the smile that tried to appear on her face.  "Don't worry Johnson.  I already know about the orders contained on that datapad.  Admiral Baverstock just informed me of them."

Johnson's face quickly sagged in relief,
and then suddenly tightened again.  "Captain, if you don't mind my asking.  What do you plan to do?"  Johnson's eyes noted the rarely worn jacket and tidied hair and very obviously jumped to the wrong conclusion.

"I plan to follow those orders Serviceman.  They come directly from Fleet Command."

"But Commander, we are so close to getting Hy-"

"I know Johnson. 
I
know." 

Johnson had made his home at the same colony as she and her family had.  The same colony that Hyde destroyed.  About a third of
Adelaide's
crew was made up of Adveral Colonists - the place was attached to a military service base after all.  A lot of military families were killed or maimed and the military survivors on board signed with the
Adelaide
on the promise of personally being there to get Hyde.  Now she was being made to break that promise. 

Life can be a real piece of shit sometimes.

Katherine held out her hand and Johnson passed her the datapad, his face somber.  "Thank you Johnson."  The man nodded and quickly turned back to his console.  Katherine passed her eye over the rest of the Comms bay and watched as men and women guiltily turned back to their consoles as if they had been caught doing something they should not have.  Katherine tried not to sigh.  Speaking with Johnson triggered a guilty feeling of her own.  She should have fought harder with Admiral Baverstock to delay posting this order - but Katherine now knew deep in her heart that there was nothing she could have said or done that would change the outcome.  Though, Johnson's unvoiced suggestion that they deliberately disobey Fleet Command's direct order was tempting, it would have the flotilla that now had Hyde penned up, come after the
Adelaide
instead.

Walking quickly from the Comms bay, Katherine passed into what she thought of as the heart of the ship.  She stopped on the edge of the raised deck and gazed down at the men and women working in the bays around her.  She took a moment to glance at the orders on the datapad.  They were short, clear and straight to the point.  She was given no room for leeway or misinterpretation.

"Captain."

"Lieutenant Commander," Katherine replied.  She looked into Richard Coulthard's dark and frowning face.  The news from the Comms Bays had travelled fast.  Katherine watched as her Executive Officer took in the ridged stance, the full uniform and the white knuckled grip on the datapad.

"So, it
is
true.  We are being turned away when we are so close," he said quietly so that only she could hear.

Katherine wordlessly handed the datapad to her XO.  He took it and quickly scanned its contents.

"Babysitting! We are being ordered out so we can chauffer around some jumped up little diplomat?" he hissed.

"You do not ignore a direct order from Fleet Command Richard as Admiral Baverstock strongly reminded me."

"I see."

"No delaying tactics, no dawdling.  We have ten hours to get to Port Curtin and collect
our passenger."  She gave Coulthard a wan smile.  "Nothing in life ever goes the way we want it to."

"Occasionally something should go our way," Coulthard muttered as he moved passed her towards the helm.

God she was glad that he was the one to issue that order.  Coulthard had become a fast friend when she had taken command of the AFV
Adelaide.
  He was new to the ship himself then, having transferred from the AFV
Whyalla
to be the
Adelaide’s
new XO.  They were both born in South Australia and grew up in and around the Flinders Ranges.  It was what gave them their initial connection.  And she was thankful that Admiral Baverstock had assigned her an XO she could work with, that she could trust.

Katherine watched as Coulthard stalked down the gangway towards her before looking at the large vidscreen near the Command Centre.  Hyde's ship still lurked in the Aster Block in an effort to shield itself from their sensors, but it was only a matter of time before Battle Group Two would get him.  The first move to push him out was due to commence in less than three hours time.

She sighed and turned as Coulthard stopped behind her.  "Mr. Hunter says that he will have us at Curtin within six hours.  The quicker we shepherd this diplomat, the quicker we can get back to the Third Fleet to see what happens to Hyde."

Katherine smiled at Coulthard's optimism.  Everything will be finished and tidied up before they return.  Even the Admiral's promise of escorting Hyde to trial seemed like a pipe dream.

"I've shown my face in the CIC.  I'll return to my quarters now.  Ping me if I'm needed."

"Yes Captain."

Katherine gave Coulthard a flicker of a smile as she saw the clear concern on his face, "Don't worry Richard.  I'll be fine."  She straightened and found herself looking again at the vidscreen.  Battle Group Two must have already been informed that they were losing a frigate, the blockade was already beginning to re-arrange itself to cover the gap.  She quickly looked away.

Coulthard gave Katherine a nod as she left the Operations Deck.  Once she was back in the corridors, Katherine forced herself to keep to a brisk, measured stride.  It would not do for the crew to see their commanding officer fleeing to her berth.

Once inside, Katherine activated the privacy light on the door and slumped into her desk chair, rubbing her palms hard against her face to get rid of the frown she felt growing there.  As Katherine pulled her hands away, her eyes fell on the vidframes arranged neatly on her desk.  All the frames contained the image of a man and a little boy, the photograph closest to Katherine also had herself in the picture.  She was laughing and hugging her little boy, and her smiling husband was in turn hugging her. 
That was a good day.

Katherine picked up the vidframe and rubbed its soft surface with a thumb, ru
nning it along the edge of Brent's jaw and Adrian's little face.  Hot tears began to run down her cheeks but Katherine let them go.  How she missed them.

The door chime pulled Katherine's thoughts away from the photograph and she became conscious of the tears trailing down her cheeks.  Katherine drew a handkerchief from her pocket and quickly wiped them away, they would still be red but there was nothing she could do about that.  Only something important would impel a member of her crew to ignore the privacy light on her door and demand her attention.

Katherine placed the vidframe back to its position on her desk and keyed off the door privacy light from the desk console, "Come in."

The door slid open to reveal her Second Officer, Lieutenant Thomas Shepherd.  Katherine had known Tom a long time, they had gone through Duntroon together and it was t
hrough Tom that she had met Brent, her husband.  Through all her postings, Katherine had always asked for Tom Shepherd to be assigned as part of her staff.

Tom Shepherd let the door slide shut before he spoke his mind.

"I was in engineering when Coulthard gave the order to pull out,” Tom stepped angrily into the room.  "Then the whispers started that we are being taken away from the capture of Hyde.  Is it true?"

"We will not be there when they take Hyde," was all Katherine said.  She hadn't seen Tom this angry for a long time.

"Why the hell not?  Haven't we earned it?  We've spent the last three years chasing his tail, and the
Adelaide
has been on his butt for two of them.  They wouldn't even have his ship cornered if it wasn't for us.  If it wasn't for you."

"Fleet Command has issued the
Adelaide
with new orders Tom."  Katherine rose from her seat as she spoke and moved to sit in one of the padded armchairs arranged around a small table in the centre of the room.

"What new orders?" Tom asked as he sat down stiffly across from her.

Katherine looked hard at her Second Officer, he was all ridged muscle and tension and his face was flushed red and beaded with sweat.  He was furious.  But there was something else lurking in his expression as well; he was worried about her.  Richard and Tom had better things than her to worry themselves about.

"Orders you're not going to like.  I certainly didn't like them when Baverstock told me."

"What are our new orders?"  Tom leaned forward in his chair, resting his elbows on his thighs, his hands gripped tightly together.  Tom was a tall man and Katherine was always amazed at how easily he could sit and move in her low chairs.  Familiarity breeds ease she supposed.

"We are to head to Port Curtin and
chauffer a diplomat to Junter Three."

"We're being pulled away from the flotilla for that!"

Katherine nodded.

"This is bullshit.  They can't do that to us."

"They can and they have.  I'm as pissed off about it as you are Tom."  The Lieutenant opened his mouth to say more but Katherine cut him short.  "Don't say another word on the subject.  I tried to talk my way out of this but to no avail.  The Admiral told me Fleet sent the order with a veiled threat.  Be at Curtin in ten hours or else."

Tom rocked back in his chair as if he'd been stunned.

"They said that?"

"I checked the order myself when it came through."

"Are Fleet afraid that we'd do Hyde in before the Battle Group could get him?"

"I don't know.  Probably."  Katherine sagged in her chair, propping her head up with an arm.  "I didn't think that far ahead.  I was too angry about being denied Hyde."

Tom rested his arms on his thighs again, all his contained anger had evaporated.  "Would you?"

"Would I have killed him?"  Katherine took a moment to think.  If anyone else had asked her that question she would have automatically said yes.  But she couldn't do that to Tom.  Not after all they had been through together. 

When she answered it was with measured words.  "I would like to say yes, but truthfully I don’t know.  I really don't know."

Tom stared silently at her and Katherine saw the hard lines of his face soften.

"If you don't know, that tells me that you're not the ruthless killer that Fleet obviously thinks you could be.  I don't want you to become what you hunt."

Katherine pushed herself up from her chair to pour herself a drink from the side table.  As she moved passed she placed her hand gently on Tom's shoulder.  "I'll be fine as long as I have you around as my Conscience."

Tom looked up at her and smiled.