Free Knight's Move by Christopher Nuttall

last thing she needed was a civilian officer convinced he or she knew better than the military.
     
    And yet her thoughts kept returning to Feingold’s question.  What side was she on?

Chapter Six
     
    “We're picking up a final signal from the dockyard, sir.” Lieutenant Danielle Lawson said.  The Communications Officer turned to face him.  “They have cleared us to depart.”
     
    Glen felt a frisson of almost childlike excitement.  Dauntless seemed to be humming as, one by one, the fusion cores were brought up to full power.  The engineering crew had insisted on carefully starting every system one by one, rather than a flash-wake, just in case something went wrong at the last minute, but everything seemed to be fine.

 
    “Break the umbilical cords,” he ordered.  “And then bring up the main drives.”
     
    A faint shudder ran through the ship as the connections to the dockyard were severed.  It was followed by a growing hum, a sense that the ship was finally drifting free in interplanetary space.  Glen monitored progress on his display as the drive field shimmered into existence around the ship, ready to take them away from the dockyard to a point where they could open a portal into hyperspace.
     
    “All systems report ready,” Lieutenant Helena Li reported.  The helmswoman seemed as excited as Glen felt, her fingers flying over her console as she shaped and reshaped the drive field.  “Power curves are precisely as predicted.”
     
    Glen nodded, unable to escape a flicker of relief.  An unstable drive field would set up harmonics that, at the very least, take years off the drive’s lifespan.  At worst, it would render the entire drive useless within a very short space of time.  No wonder that both sides in the war had experimented with weapons designed to set up such harmonics in enemy drive fields, even though they had been largely unsuccessful.  If they had succeeded, it would have been a neat way to shatter entire fleets with only small losses.
     
    “Excellent,” he said.  He keyed his console, linking to Sandy on the secondary bridge.  “Madame XO?”
     
    “All stations report ready,” Sandy confirmed.  “All systems are nominal; all non-assigned crew are off the ship.  We are ready to depart.”
     
    Glen looked over at Helena.  “Then take us out,” he ordered.  “Nice and gently.”
     
    Dauntless quivered again as her drive field slowly pushed her away from the dockyard.  Glen watched, silently praying that everything would work without problems, as the starship moved slowly through space towards the weapons platforms guarding the edge of the dockyard.  Partly civilian or not, the TFN was still responsible for its physical security.  The humming sound seemed to fade away slightly as the drive propelled them onwards, settling down into a recognisable pattern.
     
    “We’re picking up a signal from the convoy,” Danielle reported.  “They’re in position to follow us into hyperspace.”
     
    Glen scowled.  The flight to the Bottleneck would take upwards of a month even without the convoy.  With it, the flight would take six weeks if they were lucky.  He’d wanted to protest his orders when he’d been given the bad news, but apparently Governor Wu had organised the convoy herself and she didn't want to arrive without it.  There was no manifest – a breach of convoy regulations – yet Glen knew there was no point in lodging a complaint.  It was unlikely that the Governor would bring anything really dangerous with her.
     
    Maybe she’s smuggling drugs or alcohol , he thought, remembering some of the more amusing scandals that had gripped the Federation before the war had concentrated more than a few minds.  There were planets that banned drugs, alcohol, electronic simulation and VR porn, all of which had been smuggled in at one time or another.  But he couldn't imagine needing six whole freighters to carry anything of the sort.  Besides, surely that