Christopher Nuttall - The Nelson Touch

Ted watched, grimly, as the aliens fell back. It puzzled him for a long moment — were they actually letting the humans go? — then he thought he understood. They were heading back to their own ships in preparation for their own jump. The battle was far from over.

“All starfighters have linked to the hulls,” Lopez said. “We’re ready to jump.”

Ted wondered, for a long moment, if their mission would be counted as a success — or a failure. The aliens had taken a beating, they’d lost numerous ships and even a whole planet, yet in the end they’d booted the humans back out of Target One. But then, the humans had forced the aliens to react to them for once. It was worth the risk to make the bastards pause before they resumed their offensive.

But we lost the Prince and two carriers , the pessimistic part of his mind noted. Was it actually worth the material losses ?

“Jump us out,” he ordered, quietly.

The aliens, somewhat to Ted’s surprise, didn’t actually follow them through the tramline. At first, he suspected the aliens had deduced the presence of the minefield and altered course to avoid it, but as the hours wore on it became clear that the aliens had given up the chase. Ted ordered his fleet to continue moving towards the next tramline, then called a meeting in his office. Captain Fitzwilliam, his XO and the CAG were all invited to attend.

“I have reviewed all the records,” the CAG said. Kurt Schneider looked tired, but it would be a long time before he could sleep. “The last burst of data we picked up from Prince Henry’s starfighter stated that his plasma containment chamber had started to overheat. After that… nothing.”

Ted scowled down at his hands. “Is there any reason to believe that Prince Henry might still be alive?”

Schneider shook his head. “I don’t think so,” he said. “The plasma chambers are known to explode violently when they overheat. Even if the Prince did manage to eject, he’d be far too close to an exploding starfighter for his own safety. His flight suit might have been seriously damaged by the explosion.”

Killing him instantly , Ted thought. Or maybe he triggered his suicide implant .

It was the old nightmare, he knew. Trapped somewhere in space, the atmosphere slowly running out, without any hope of rescue. There were no figures for how many spacers had chosen immediate suicide rather than a slow unpleasant death, but he had the feeling that it was alarmingly high. Quite a few people had died through accidents in the early years of the expansion into space. He didn’t want to think of Prince Henry making that choice, yet every spacer knew it was a possibility. It was why they were given implants, after all.

“So we lost Prince Henry,” Captain Fitzwilliam said. “We will be lucky to see space again, sir.”

Ted nodded, grimly. Even if the Board of Inquiry agreed that the command crew of Ark Royal were personally blameless, they would still be tied up for months, if not years, while the investigation was carried out. Ted gritted his teeth at the thought, but he knew there was no way to avoid it. Prince Henry was dead and his death, no matter how unremarked, would have consequences. And there would have to be a public announcement.

“So,” the XO said. She ran her hand through her red hair. “What are we doing here? Making sure we get our stories straight?”

She sounded bitter. Ted didn’t blame her. She wasn’t the Captain, or the Admiral, nor had she had any involvement in the Prince’s assignment to the carrier, but her career was likely to take a blow anyway. It would have been different, he knew, if her incompetence or carelessness had got her into trouble, yet she was neither. She was simply the victim of a decision made far above her level, one that shouldn’t have impinged on her at all.

“They will blame us for this,” Schneider observed “And yet what were we supposed to do? Cuff him to his bunk and swear blind he was fighting alongside the rest of us?”

Captain Fitzwilliam tapped the table, hard. “I do not believe that we will be blamed for it, at least not in a serious manner,” he said. “It is human nature to seek someone to blame, but Prince Henry made his own choices. He wanted to be someone… common, someone who earned his position through his own hard work and merit, and he succeeded. His death came about as a result of his efforts. I believe it was what he would have wanted.”

Ted glowered at him. “How can you be so casual about a young man’s life?”

“We all knew, from the day we signed up, that there was a very real prospect of death while undertaking our duties,” Captain Fitzwilliam said, quietly. “No matter who we were, no matter where we came from, death was a very real possibility. For the Prince… his time simply ran out. He was likable and I will mourn, but I won’t allow it to overwhelm me.”

“If he’d been just another starfighter pilot,” Schneider snapped, “would you have cared?”

“Yes,” Captain Fitzwilliam said, sharply. “I would have cared.”

Ted nodded, knowing it to be true. On one hand, a senior officer had to be prepared to send his subordinates to their deaths; on the other hand, the officer couldn’t afford to start sacrificing his men lightly, without due consideration. Captain Fitzwilliam probably didn’t know the names of the other pilots on the ship, but he would never take their deaths lightly.

“But there is no blame, unless we wish to assign it to the Prince himself,” Captain Fitzwilliam added. “We should go home, make a full report and let the Privy Council decide how best to reveal the news to the public.”

The XO leaned forward. “And Lopez?”

“I will speak to her,” Ted said. He’d given her some time off after she’d seen the posted lists of dead crew and pilots. “After that, none of you are to discuss the matter with her or anyone else who doesn’t already know about her… relationship with the Prince.”

“Admiral,” Captain Fitzwilliam said, “there are protocols…”

“Her life will be destroyed when — if — the media finds out about her relationship with Prince Henry,” Ted said, firmly. “We will not report their relationship to anyone, but the King himself. She doesn’t deserve to have her life ripped apart and put on public display.”

He paused. “Besides,” he added, “do the protocols actually apply when she didn’t know who she was dating?”

“I don’t know,” Captain Fitzwilliam confessed. “It is unprecedented.”

“Then we will assume they don’t,” Ted said. Whatever happened to everyone else, it was unlikely his career would survive. God knew there would be some very nasty allegations about the loss of two fleet carriers. “That is an order, which you may have in writing if you wish.”

“And what happens,” the XO said quietly, “when it gets out?”

She looked up at Ted, grimly. “Someone will have seen them together,” she said. “Someone will have noted that they booked a privacy suite together. Someone will put two and two together when the media reveals the truth and starts pestering the crew for interviews. And you know just how much they would offer for a bombshell like this, sir.”

“When it happens, if it happens, we will deal with it then,” Ted said. She was right, he knew, but Lopez didn’t deserve to have her life ripped asunder. “Until then, not a word to anyone.”

He cleared his throat. “I expect all of you to go through the records and write up a full report, which will be submitted to the Admiral’s Chest,” he said, referring to his secure datacore. “After that, we will put the matter to one side until after we return to Earth. Dismissed.”