Hunter Legacy 12: Hero in Darkness

by Timothy Ellis

  It almost raised a smile.

  "How long before we reach the jump point?"

  "Half hour."

  "BA?"

  "Boss?"

  "Jump point in half an hour. I want everyone on Unassailable before we jump."

  "Gotcha boss."

  I turned down team coms to a dull background noise. My head was starting to hurt, and my eyes were losing focus. My medical monitor started popping up warnings. Low blood sugar. Fatigue. Yellow down my left side. I checked the time and found it well into the evening. I hadn't eaten in twenty four hours.

  "Can you extract their database, and bring it back with you?"

  "No, but I can send it. Why?"

  "The Admiral over there made a big deal of telling me the word 'data' before he died. Presumably there is something there we need to see as soon as possible. With luck, he was able to make some useful notes without his captor noticing."

  "On it. Jon, your vitals don’t seem very good."

  "Probably true. Get me out of here please."

  She took my suit hand, and led me to the nearest airlock. We cycled through, and an SR droid was waiting outside. Other than the Cargo Deck, Unassailable only had a single deck with life support. The SR took us to the nearest airlock to the CCC, cycled us in, and I clumped in far enough to not block the airlock, stood against a wall, and stepped back out of the combat suit. And promptly fell over. It turned out the suit had been what was holding me up.

  Jane pulled me up, and helped me into the CCC, where she practically dropped me into my chair.

  "Where's…"

  Jeeves dropped a ginger ale into the holder on the seat.

  "Thanks. Can you do some food Jeeves? Whatever is fastest? Bring it in here."

  "Yes my Lord."

  I turned team coms back up.

  "Everyone report to the Unassailable CCC as soon as you can. Except the pilots. Stay on your ships."

  There was a chorus of various forms of affirmatives.

  "BA? How are we doing?"

  "Five minutes boss. On our way back now."

  "Jane? Can you put the sleds on a monitor for me?"

  "Confirmed."

  A series of them popped up. Several from still working cams on the external side of BigMother, and some selected suit cams.

  Aline and her squad looked pretty beat up. I wondered if her quick report hadn't been missing a few key things, like having been bashed around by the ship as they jumped, and a rather bad set of landings. But it did explain her lack of coms. None of those suits looked like they were worth trying to save.

  Food arrived, and I started picking at a platter Jeeves left in my lap. It didn’t matter what it was, I simply shoveled it in. On his next pass by, Jeeves swapped my empty ginger ale for a full one.

  Jane walked in as I finished off whatever had been on the platter.

  "Two minutes to jump."

  She took her normal position at the front console. I looked around and saw everyone in their places.

  "Slow us right down Jane. We don’t know how much debris is in the down jump lane."

  "Confirmed."

  We slowed. I looked around at all the drawn faces, making eye contact one by one. No-one said anything, but I could see we were all emotionally exhausted, as well as hurting physically. Carter's eyes opened wide when she looked at me, and she started to rise. I waved her back again. Now was not a good time.

  "Buckle up."

  "Jon, you're bleeding."

  "Have to wait until after the jump."

  She had the good sense to shut up.

  "Jumping," said Jane.

  "Good call," said Amanda.

  The down jump area was strewn with debris. Jane had two shield values displaying on the HUD, and the Battleship's shields started going down as debris hit it and flared into nothingness. Now that we only had Pestilence to worry about, it wasn’t such a big concern. All the same, Jane brought us to a stop.

  It looked like a tornado had gone through a fleet staging area. Yes, I know that isn’t possible, but it's what it looked like. Then again, we had been the tornado.

  "What now?" asked Jane.

  "Any reasonably intact ships nearby?"

  "Some."

  "Collect them please. Tow them into the Flight Deck, and leave them exposed to space. We need to examine a few of them to find out how to fight them."

  "Confirmed."

  "I thought we did reasonably well," said Dick.

  "Huh?" said one of the media people. "How do you work that out?"

  "We're still alive, and we still have intact ships."

  "There's that," I added.

  "What do you mean 'we still have intact ships'? Isn’t this ship wrecked?"

  "BigMother is," answered Jane. "But we're now on a docked Battleship which is undamaged, and we have four Pocket Battleships which are also undamaged."

  "So why are we sitting on this asteroid still?"

  All eyes turned to me.

  "There wasn’t any point in going anywhere while we were still in the Death system. We had to stay within the Battleship's shield to stay alive."

  I looked around suddenly. Thirteen was standing by the door, but the old man was gone. Death had gone home. I sighed in relief.

  "As soon as have some enemy ships on board to study, we'll use the asteroid to get us out of this debris field safely, and then we'll separate. How long to Famine Jane?"

  "Hard to know without knowing where the enemy fleets are, but somewhere around twelve hours."

  BigMother could do it in eight. The battleship wasn’t as fast, and we had to take the long way to stay undetected.

  "Any reason for us to be sitting here?"

  "None I can see."

  "I suggest everyone sacks out then. George, can you handle it here while the Doc has her evil way with me?"

  "I have the con Admiral," he said formally.

  I stood creakily. I hurt. There was no denying it. I turned to go, and saw I was the only one standing.

  "Everyone out. Go on, git!"

  I waved my hand at the door. There were a few chuckles, and everyone left. Last out was Carter, who walked next to me as I limped along to the medical bay. I used the facilities there, while she opened up a care unit.

  "In," she said, as I came back out, feeling just slightly human again.

  I was too tired to argue, and pulled myself in, and lay back."

  "Belt."

  I shifted back to a belt, so the care unit could get to most of me if it wanted to. Most of my left side was yellow, and quite a bit of the rest of me as well. She shut the lid.

  "Night, night," she said, and waved to me.

  I passed out.

  Fourteen

  I woke in a bed, with Aline draped over me, and Angel by my head.

  "Sitrep," I said sub-vocally, so as not to wake Aline yet.

  "Two hours out of the Famine jump point," said Jane through my PC. "We are undetected. I undocked the five ships, and we've been in arrowhead formation in front of the asteroid since we passed out of the debris field. George has the Bridge, but I made him take a five hour sleep, so he's fine for now. I sent Phoenix about an hour ago, and you have emails waiting for you. I warned the fleet to give us room to jump in."

  "What sort of lead do we have?"

  "A good one. They're about two days behind us. I've got some Hive fighters shadowing at long range, keeping an eye on them. They've already determined there is no jump point in one of the usual positions, but the bulk of their ships are heading straight across the system, which will actually take them nowhere. They're going to find the actual jump point well before they find there are no others. I'd guess only a quarter of their strength will be available to jump to Famine, but that will still be upward of one million ships. We have to wait and see if they mass before jumping or not."

  "Get everyone up in time for the jump."

  "Confirmed."

  I gently disengaged Aline, and slid out from under her. Angel didn’t
stir either. I stood under the shower for a good long time. Aline came in just before I was thinking prune skin wasn’t a good idea, and wrapped her arms around my back, pressing her breasts firmly against me. I let her stay that way for a couple of minutes, loosened her grip, and swiveled around to face her.

  She kissed me hungrily, and I reciprocated. We bonked right there in the shower, as if we'd just met and hormones were the only thing functioning.

  A little later, I found we were back on the bed, and hadn't bothered to towel off first. And we needed another shower. But we lay there cuddling. Our eyes met.

  "I thought I’d lost you," we both said together, and laughed.

  "Why did you flip the ship over?"

  "We'd already lost the top two decks, and I mean they were actually not there anymore, so I figured since the top was already damaged, it was better to save the five ships we had underneath."

  "Oh. I didn’t think of that."

  "That’s why I'm the Admiral."

  She smiled, but it faded quickly.

  "Seriously Jon, when I hit the asteroid and saw the Bridge heading for disaster, I thought I’d lost you, because I knew you were still in your chair trying to keep control."

  "Thirteen found me lying on the asteroid under the remains of the Bridge."

  "I guess that accounts for all the new bruising."

  "In theory, the suit should have protected me better."

  "In practice, it kept you alive when you should have died."

  "Very true."

  She kissed me again, but I hustled her back into the shower, and this time we washed quickly, dressed, and headed for the Mess.

  We found BA there, lamenting the fact there were no training ranges on this ship. Everyone else but George came in over the next fifteen minutes, and the regaling of what happened to whom began, along with the comparison of bruises.

  It turned out the media people had the worst bruising, although none of theirs compared to mine. They had older version suits, since we'd never considered they might need the new full combat versions. Hence when they dropped down the access shaft with no Jane controlling their decent, the suits hadn't been quite enough protection to keep them from getting hurt.

  Amy also hadn't had the latest suit, and she was arguing over who had the worst actual bruise, claiming she had a blue one on one shoulder. In the end, several of them changed their suits back to belts, stood there in their underwear, and found Amy had been correct. It was a spectacular blue shoulder. They shifted back into their normal clothes.

  "I'm not so much bruised," said Aline, "as just feel raw."

  There was a moment's silence during which the twins looked at each other, then at BA, and the three of them burst out into laughter. Alison looked at them as if they were crazy, thought about it, and joined them. Annabelle was a second or two behind her.

  "What?" said Aline, and the laughter became infectious.

  I reached up and grabbed my top and bottom lips with my thumb and first finger, and squeezed them closed. There was no way I was going to comment. Fortunately Jeeves dropped food in front of me, and for once I ate the full porky. I wasn’t the only one either. We'd been through the wringer the day before, but spirits were now high, and stomachs rapidly became full.

  I left everyone to finish eating and headed to the CCC. I found George there sitting in the center seat, looking like wilted celery.

  "Thanks George. I didn’t intend you to do the whole night shift. But apparently no-one thought to wake me up."

  "Don’t look at me. Doc Carter threatened me with disembowelment if I woke you. Jane made me have a nap during the center hours, so it's been good."

  "Go and get a solid sleep now. I'm thinking of calling a captain's meeting around one. When you wake up for lunch, you'll probably be the last person on board, but after the meeting you can return to Fearless."

  "Sounds like a plan boss."

  He flipped me a basic salute, and left. I sat, and looked towards Jane.

  "Half hour to the jump point. Read your mail."

  "Yes ma'am."

  Most of them were 'glad you're still alive' messages. I read the one from my parents first, and sent them a quick vid so they could see I was alright. I'd see them soon enough anyway.

  There were a couple of surprises.

  There was a vid from Admiral Bentley telling me that while the British sector couldn’t spare any ships, they'd sent her, and she was bringing three dozen command officers with her on the understanding I had ships, but needed crews. According to her timing, she should be in Famine waiting for us already.

  She also had a battalion of SAS troops crammed into the same Cruiser freighter, one of mine, which had brought her, and where were they supposed to be barracked? I told her to divide the battalion in two, send half to Homer, and the other half to Bonko's Club. Both ships had been almost completely rebuilt, along the lines of Fearless, but remaining standard Cruisers. Both could land on planets now though, and while ready for troops, Homer was empty, and Bonko only had his team on board.

  I shuddered to think of their trip down the spine. While fast, it can't have been comfortable. Pallets on the Cargo Decks, and portable latrines. My Drone freighters were built for speed, not people. They'd obviously left well after I had, and Jane hadn't told me we'd lent a ship to them. Not that it mattered. I was gathering all my freighters down this end of the spine now. Some of them would be carrying people, and others had other things to do. The shipyard in Treasure Chest was in the process of preparing people modules for the freighters. Basic bunks six high, with shower and toilet facilities, and the connections to join to the ship's life support systems. Plus cafeteria style kitchen facilities dispensing basic food packs. Basically very basic. Cheap and fast to produce, and fit. If it had life support, it was getting converted. We'd be needing them soon.

  Admiral Hallington informed me he was on his way, and should arrive at the Pestilence jump point around noon. He didn’t say what he was coming on or with, but he was grinning. I'd known the Americans would be sending something. But I'd expected maybe four Pocket Battleships and Greer's Gunbus squadron. I hadn't expected an Admiral to come with them, especially one of their Carrier drivers.

  The Japanese had sent a Gunbus squadron. Since they'd put all of their eggs in one basket with the ship class, and upgrading their existing fleet to the same standard, they wanted to make sure they would be effective against the new enemy. If not, they wanted time to make changes.

  I'd already sent them suggestions for changes months ago, after I’d done some upgrades to Gunbus and Camel. Gunbus now had two Mosquito launchers, previously thought to be unsuitable for a Corvette, and more Point Defense. I’d upgraded Camel to the same spec as Gunbus. Greer's squadron had also been upgraded one by one, as they'd worked with Fearless as an escort, while the troops trained, and George became used to commanding a small fleet.

  "Five minutes to jump," said Jane.

  I looked up and saw everyone was there and seated. I'd not heard anyone come in. Angel was on a pad on the console in front of the Helm seat, where Grace now was.

  We waited impatiently. Jane closed up our formation, slowed us down, and we jumped through.

  Fifteen

  The sight in Famine was something which hadn't been seen since the twentieth century, and perhaps not even since the famous Battle of Jutland.

  Ships were laid out in formations in front of the jump point, but well back and leaving the asteroid plenty of room to go through.

  Redoubt was the biggest thing in the system, after the asteroid. The station's top deck was pointed directly at the jump point, within range of her Destroyer guns. But it was her Battleship guns which grabbed your attention. She was now a true Battle-station. Of course, the old line popped straight in there. "Witness the power of this fully armed and operational Battle Station!" Redoubt wasn’t exactly up to the object of that old line, but she made an excellent command ship, had the firepower of a Battleship, and a Missile Cruiser s
quadron. At the same time, she had shields beyond what even a Battleship squadron could boast, thanks to some ingenious pirates, and Bob Derr, who'd married two identical stations together to form what could be called a Behemoth class ship.

  I told Jane to dock us there, and have the Guardians form up with the other three, which were themselves formed up with John Wayne.

  "Did you get all our stuff off BigMother?" I asked Jane.

  "Yes. But there is a lot of material we should still take off her, before you send the asteroid to Treasure Chest. At the very least, we want all her ordinance, and I wouldn’t mind stripping out her shield emitters so we have some spares."

  "How long will that all take?"

  "Six hours? I'm going to have to do it the hard way, since nothing bigger than a Corvette will be able to dock with her side Cargo Deck airlocks. Can I borrow Camel as well as the small freighters?"

  "Group Captain."

  "Sir?"

  "Launch 266, and have them land on Redoubt. Dock Camel, and remove your gear please. Jane will be taking her over for a while."

  "Err, yes sir."

  "Don’t panic Group Captain."

  "No sir, I won't."

  I grinned at him. His screen vanished.

  "How many ships do you have here now Jon?" asked Amanda.

  I’d been sending ships here for six months, and sending some of them back again for refitting as they were replaced by newer designs. We'd been here a month ourselves, but Bob had continued sending ships down spine after we left Nexus.

  I enlarged the HUD to show details of just this area, thus allowing the HUD to show individual ship details.

  "Let's see. There's Redoubt, which is sort of a Behemoth class. Two Dreadnaughts, Relentless and Dauntless. The three Explorer ships, Enterprise, Galactica, and Prometheus. Two re-tasked Escort Carriers, the Preserver and the Deliverer, which can each carry 2 squadrons of heavy fighters. Each of them docks a Marine Cruiser, being Homer and Bonko's Club. Seven Guardians and John Wayne, which are Pocket Battleships. Twelve Drone Missile Cruisers. Four Super-Cruisers, although each is unique. Fearless you know about, being our main Marine Cruiser. Annette has Defiant, which is a full Super-Cruiser. Courageous is all Cruiser, but only one and half of them instead of two. While Undaunted looks like Defiant, she's one Cruiser married to a Missile Cruiser. Then there are six Super-Destroyers; Crusader, Chivalrous, Whirlwind, Wizard, Zealous, and Vigilant. And lastly, five Super-Corvettes; Tenacious, Redoubtable, Paladin, Pathfinder, and Rigorous. Not to mention 266's four Excalibur's and eight Centurions, 666's twelve Centurions, and 287's twelve Mustangs. And 617's four squadrons of heavy fighters on Redoubt."