Crisis at Garmil's Gate - 13

Hiding out in a hollowed-out asteroid on the outer edge of the system, Dashing Jack holds a tablet in one hand and a half-empty wine glass in the other as he looks out over the scene below: his ship held fast in the hangar as his crew scurries in spacesuits to fix it.

"Reporting, Captain!" Gori said as he walked into the office, saluting.

Jack turned out, put down the tablet, and sighed. "Is this about the revolt?"

Gori, stunned, answered: "Yes, sir, it is."

"It failed, didn't it?"

Gori dropped his head. "Yes, sir. It did."

Jack waived his Executive Officer over and handed him the tablet. "Now we know why."

Gori looked at the file on display. He recognized the face as that of Sir Ramsey, but what shocked him was the context for the photograph: his personnel file.

"It came with the regular courier drop a few hours ago, shortly before we recovered the survivors." Jack said, "The boss's man inside provided this to him, and he provided it to us."

Gori skimmed through the film, scrolling down. No mention of a father. No mention of a mother. No siblings. Only who recruited him into the Solar Guard, and later took him as a squire: Sir Aitkin Crow, Lord Michael. One of the three sitting Archangels of the Guard, and therefore one of the three Commanders of the Guard- one of the three greatest living Paladins.

"Since he was a boy, this Ramsey's been living a soldier's life. Learned everything at the knee of one of the living legends of Christendom." Jack said, "He's been doing this sort of thing for about 20 years, Gori."

Gori kept scrolling. No wife. No children. No other dependents.

"No leverage." Jack said, "He's a weapon, Gori, a living and thinking weapon. No wonder the Court of Stars sends him out here."

"He put down the revolt in about four hours, Captain." Gori said, putting the tablet on the desk, "Just him, his ship, and his squire."

"20 years of being, at the risk of being dramatic, a questing knight. Gori, we're in trouble."

"What do we do?"

"The ace unit isn't accounted for, is it?" Jack said, and Gori confirmed with a wordless nod.

"It won't be for long." Jack said, "That's his next play. He's use it to slip in under our noses and then sabotage us. He may even disguise himself as the pilot."

"So what's the plan?"

"We need to buy time before we can pull out of here for good." Jack said, "We still don't have what we came for, and because of this Paladin we need to step up the timetable. It's time to cut the dead weight loose."

"Lord Fang?"

"Outlived his usefulness. Time to give him a problem he can't browbeat away. Signal our man at the tomb to ready for our arrival, and ensure that the noble lord's activity get to our adversary's attention. That should keep him busy enough to let us finish our work and leave."

Gori looked his captain, unconvinced.

"Anything else, Gori?"

"If he's as good as our intelligence implies, it's still coming down to a fight at the end. You should have the data on his unit in yours."

"If it comes down to a fight, Gori, then it needs to be one far more crooked in our favor than having unit data."