"Ain't karma a bitch," said Dick.
The Latin sector survivors needed a new committee now. And a media company needed a new CEO and producer.
I'd call it an oops, but I wasn’t going to. They made their bed and I'd forced them to lie in it. Some people just couldn’t avoid their karma. They wouldn’t be the last by any means. And the karma count was going to be in the billions, I had no doubt. Pity about the Admiral and his crew though, but he also made his choice, and their sacrifice had saved another crew.
"Jane, we really need to fix those ships up, before we lose all of them one by one."
"Confirmed."
The Cruisers left next, followed by the Missile Cruisers, the Pocket Battleships, and Guardians. This left Redoubt, Relentless, Dauntless, and BigMother.
We hung on as long as I dared, and then BigMother and Dauntless withdrew, with Redoubt not long behind them.
Relentless was still doing well, with our Crystal augmented shields. I asked Jane if we were damaging the Crystal at all, or even worse, draining it.
"As far as the experts can tell, it's like a battery attached to a generator. On a planet, it taps into geothermal energy, through crystal threads which went all the way to the magma, being stored in the lower part. The top part of the Crystal uses what is stored in the lower part to generate even more energy, and it channels into our power system. Between uses, since it can't recharge itself anymore, I've been reversing the polarity of the neutron flow."
I laughed, and Dick joined me. That was so Classic Who. Total nonsense of course in a physical sense, but the word reverse was all we needed to understand the comment.
"How long would we last if we moved right up into the down jump lane, and let them impact our shields?"
"He's finally lost it," muttered Melissa.
"You're serious?" asked Dick.
Jane was silent.
"Only one way to find out," she said eventually.
"Do it."
We did it.
Relentless moved forward into the jump point lane, and with all guns blazing in all directions around us, missile launchers going flat out as well, we sat there and let ships smash into our forward shield.
Plenty managed to get past us, as we couldn’t block the whole width of the jump point, but we were taking out the entire middle of the cylinder and a slash and burn of the rest.
A half hour passed with eyes glued to our shield indicator, and finally the aliens wised up, and goosed our arse with a solid hit, which took us down below fifty percent.
"Go," I said.
We swiveled and shot away at an angle, moving up to normal fleet speed, and turned for the waypoint. We'd lasted four and a half hours this time, and lost one Cruiser, with a Destroyer damaged.
With the senior officer in the Latin fleet now a Captain, and with no actual higher command making themselves known, I placed the remains of the Latin fleet under the command of Admiral Sato. At least until the ships were upgraded, and then they'd be assigned with similar shielded ships for their size. Sato at least for the short term, would keep them alive, and fighting.
By ten thirty, Relentless had overtaken everyone else and arrived at Brazil. Everyone was coming here for the time being. I still had some thinking to do about dispositions.
I was in bed just before midnight and Aline walked in, stripped off, and flung herself down next to me. After we came up for air, I could see her consulting something on her PC.
"Happy New Year Jon," she said.
"Yeah, right."
Fifty Seven
New Year's Day, 2617, was the usual frantic day of getting people off a doomed planet. Usual? Already? It seemed so.
Rinse and repeat. The cycle was jump point battle, fall back and evacuate the planet, fall back to the next jump point, wait for the next battle. Rinse and Repeat.
I did the math. Assuming we could continue to slow them down, and stay ahead of them, the Door into Gaia would open and close, before we arrived in Outback. I'd call that a win. Even though I didn’t expect to make it there myself. We could make sure all the stations and ships fleeing up the spine made it in time. Or at least someone would. Harriman probably. At the last, he'd have the command, since he was the top local military. I had no illusions. Somewhere I’d make a fatal mistake.
"Jon?"
Just like Jane to break me out of a negative feedback loop in the nick of time.
"Jane?"
"There's some chatter happening on different ships you ought to consider."
"Example?"
"This."
"What's the point of fighting at the jump points Captain?" said a voice I didn’t know, in an American accent. "We've got a huge cargo hold. Why aren't we filling every ship in the fleet and just running for it?"
"It’s a fair question," said Jane.
I sighed. It was. Exactly what were we achieving at the jump points? We were bleeding them, but was it actually worth the risk? Yes, it was. Every minute gained at this point allowed Latin ships to escape. The dynamics would change as we went up the spine, but for now, time mattered.
Time does not matter. Only life matters.
But time gives life. At least now.
You're missing the point.
"Jane?"
"Jon?"
"Do we have any free fabrication capacity at all?"
"Actually yes. BigMother still has her fabricators. There were parts of the ship it wasn’t worth trying to convert for human habitation."
"Can she turn out basic sanitation facilities for cargo bays? In a hurry?"
"Sure."
"Do it. Work out how many people can cram into any available ship with spare life support, including cargo decks on the capital ships. Provide basic sanitation facilities adequate for say a twelve hour trip. Better do cleaner bots for them as well."
"Food and water?"
"If you can. But short duration stocks only, to be replenished after unloading."
"What if they don’t get unloaded?"
"Then we're screwed, and we go to plan B."
"What's plan B?"
"Make plan A work."
She giggled.
"Confirmed?"
"Confirmed."
I issued a fleet wide announcement that all ships which could take refugees for long enough to get them to the next planet, and those with cargo bays with life support, start preparing to receive. When we pulled back from Brazil, all ships with refugees would go directly to Libya, offload onto a station, and return to the jump point.
Not long after, I was greeted with positive media reports. Happy New Year Brazil. A few more, thousands, tens of thousands, would be saved. Should have thought of it back at Morocco. I wondered what a lot of people there had done karma wise for me not to have thought of this then. I busied myself with work to try and banish that particular thought.
Releases.
I busied myself with releases to try and banish that particular thought, and then dived into work.
"Jon?"
It came through ship coms.
"Yes Amanda?"
"What the hell was that?"
"What that is this?"
She sent me an image. It was a salvage droid leaving BigMother, with a load of … I started laughing.
"What's up chuckles?" asked Aleesha.
"Don’t you recognize them?"
"No, should we?"
"And you call yourselves Australians?"
There were two heavy sighs over the coms, and I laughed harder.
"You don’t recognize an authentic 'Outback Dunny' when you see one?"
"A what?" said BA.
"A dunny!"
"Make sense Jon," said Annabelle.
"You know what a 'Porta Potty' is?"
I could hear Dick laughing out in the CCC. He'd obviously looked it up.
"Potty's are for kids to go to the toilet on," said Aline.
For some reason her knowing this acted like a quick freeze on my laughter.
"
Exactly. The 'Outback Dunny' was an outside toilet. Basically three walls, a door, a roof, and a hole in the ground. These I hope are a little more sophisticated."
"You're shipping toilets into orbit?" asked Grace.
"Sure. Why not?"
"Put your analyst on danger money," said Aline.
I started laughing again.
"Seriously?" asked Annabelle.
I stopped laughing. It felt good to be doing so amidst all the gloom.
"Seriously. Jane's putting basic sanitation into all the cargo bays and other decks on ships which have life support, but no facilities for people."
"So keep em coming you're saying?" said BA.
"Yep."
The song Rawhide suddenly came to mind, and I wondered if I had indeed finally flipped. The image of people turning into cattle, and being herded into ships by cowgirls in combat suits had me giggling in spite of myself. I stopped giggling when Jane came in and slapped me.
Fifty Eight
A day later, with the fleet a couple of hours out of Libya orbit, the disc formed to signal the end of Brazil. We could see it wouldn’t be long before Algeria also received its disk. The planet was further away from the Morocco jump point than Brazil was, but the aliens hadn't had any opposition entering there.
Not five minutes later, and there were alien ships in Columbia. Freighters and private ships which had left things too late, started dying as the cylinder poured our enemy in unopposed. It was the first evidence they were going to overrun our entire space all at the same time. The 'experts' who'd claimed outlying planets would be safe, because the aliens would chase us up the spine, were silenced. So to were the ones who'd claimed the time taken to conquer whole sectors beyond the spine, would allow everyone else more time to move. The implications weren't good. Too many people had wanted to stay, to try and defend their homes. Too many had been left behind. Too many had taken too long to leave. They were all doomed.
They were in Nigeria as well. The African fleet hadn't been able to slow them down much, and after losing a few ships, had stopped even trying. They were running rearguard for stations and ships fleeing through the African sector, making sure no ship was left behind. More than one of their ships was towing others. I had a feeling we'd all be doing the same thing soon.
My shipyard had already moved into Egypt, and the navmap showed streams of ships moving from Libya to the Egypt jump point, and also ships still coming along behind us. There was a blip in Treasure Chest which caught my eye, but it wasn’t aliens. Maybe it would remain a safe haven after all? The blip gave me an idea, but it needed thought.
Well before we were in orbit, we could see the new station. It was a giant cube.
"What the fuck is that?" asked Grace, with wonder in her voice.
"That’s Jon's new station," said Jane.
"Holy hell!" said Abigail. "Who designed that?"
"Moi," said Jane. "It's designed to carry millions of people. This is just phase one."
"Phase one?" asked Amanda. "How big is it going to get?"
"As big as it needs to."
"Does it have a name?" asked Aleesha.
"Borgcubia," muttered Dick.
"It does now," I said, and we all laughed.
"Confirmed. I'll get it registered."
"While you're at it," I said, "we better rename BigMother as well. She isn’t anymore."
"What to?"
The team started making suggestions. But Dick seemed to be the namer today.
"Gatherer," he said.
"So be it."
"Confirmed."
"Does that mean we aren’t going back to her, ever?" asked Alana.
"Never say never," I said, "but it's unlikely. Relentless is home for the time being."
"We need to be," said Grace.
The nods all round seemed to agree with her.
As we entered orbit, the team left to go back to work, with Grace dropping them to the planet. Fearless and Homer were already dropping teams as well.
I gave my idea the thought it needed.
"What happened to the asteroid they used to jump into Death with?" I asked Jane.
"Still in Treasure Chest."
"Any chance of getting it here?"
"I'd have to divert some tugs allocated for other things, but it could be here tomorrow."
"Take it straight to the Algeria jump point. And I'll need a few alterations to Relentless."
"Thought you might. Confirmed."
For the next day, we packed people onto stations, emptying the fighting ships, which proceeded to the Brazil jump point after re-arming. The stations were all lined up and joined together, and when packed to the limit of their life support, they left to head up the spine, stopping only for supplies. In about six weeks, assuming no problems, they'd be in Outback, and become Walter and David's problem. We'd be sending them off now every few days.
What surprised me was how many civilian small craft were staying with us. They were invaluable in getting people in remote areas off the planet. But I’d assumed most of them would simply up and leave up spine. Many did, but we now had three planets worth of intrepid pilots, and their families and friends, all doing shuttle work because they wanted to help. Galactica had even had some of them sitting on top of her, since she'd run out of flight deck for them. I had Jane okay the practice. A lot of these ships were slow, and riding on our bigger faster ones kept them with us. I also heard many of these pilots and families had taken semi-permanent residence on the Explorer ships. It made sense, and allowed them to reorganize the internals of their ships to get more people in. By the time we made Outback, maybe the Explorer ships would be carrying just workforce for planet evacuations.
The civilians had spurred our smaller ships into action as well. Greer had his Gunbus squadron also picking up people from isolated places, and Miriam let her people do so as well. An Excalibur couldn’t pick up more than about a dozen, but every dozen people off the planet was a bonus. Sato soon has his ships doing the same. With somewhere for people to go, the urgency to get everyone off had gone up significantly. The Excalibur's delivered to one of the Carriers on the ground, and the Gunbus pilots burned for orbit and delivered to Sphere, which was now docked with Borgcubia and acting as a docking hub for the bigger station. Off duty fighter pilots were flying salvage droids, and picking people up from hard to get places. The droids didn’t really need a pilot, but a person directing them was more efficient. Or so the pilots said. I didn’t question it.
Borgcubia began taking on its first people, being the last ones from Sphere and the two Explorer ships, and the first loads of Gatherer and Preserver, once they were full. Followed by the first people landing on Sphere and being directed straight through.
I rethought Galactica and Enterprise, and gave orders for them to be at the Brazil jump point in plenty of time for the next fight. With Borgcubia now ready for people, neither were immediately necessary, so I could use their firepower. The whole fleet would return after, so they'd not really be missed. Another idea I should have thought about a lot earlier. But to be fair, no-one else had either.
By eight in the morning the following day, the aliens were in Bolivia. And by five in the morning the day after, they were in Argentina, and any hope of escape for those left on the other side of Brazil was ended.
By then, the fleet was formed up at the Brazil jump point, and the cylinder was forming on the other side.
Fifty Nine
"How close can you get us to the jump point without actually jumping?" I asked Jane.
"Do you want to reach out and touch it?"
"Can I?" asked Grace.
"No," said a chorus.
There'd been an unpleasant scene before Relentless left for the Algeria jump point. I assumed someone had overheard me passing command of the Brazil jump point to Susan Bentley, and the team had confronted me shortly after. I’d lost. It was nice to know I had friends who were under no circumstances going to allow me to go off and pull another s
uicidal stunt on my own. On the other hand, I had to question their sanity. Pot calling the kettle black? Probably.
"Fifty meters?" asked Jane.
"Can you hold that?"
"Possibly. But the closer we are the more likely it is we'll cause a connection chain that jumps us."
"Hundred then."
"Confirmed.
A hundred meters was so close it would take lightning reflexes and incredible maneuverability to avoid a collision. Which was the object of the exercise. A ship would need to come through almost not moving to avoid hitting us.
Relentless had an extension arm on the front now, on the end of which was a giant grav sled. Galactica and Enterprise had them as well, and between the three ships, Borgcubia would be pushed into the next system, so she didn’t have to rely on station tugs.
Firmly stuck to our grav sled was the asteroid the aliens had used to come here with originally. It was substantially bigger than the width of the jump point. Which was also the object of the exercise.
Jane moved us slowly into position. I'd debated putting shields around the asteroid, but decided not to.
We waited.
"Movement," said Jane eventually, but she highlighted both jump points, showing they were jumping in from both at exactly the same time.
For me that was final evidence the aliens had an instantaneous communication system which was unaffected by distance. In all likelihood, they'd known we'd taken the Battleship from them the moment that last one on board had died on the end of my sword. And they'd known what we'd done in War, as soon as it happened.
A vibration started up all through the ship, as aliens started colliding with the asteroid. It was just the right frequency to make us all extremely uncomfortable.
But it appeared to be working. A comnavsat placed where it could send us close up vid, showed a constant blur of motion ending in dust against the front face of the asteroid.
For five hours, we put up with the vibration, and not a single alien made it through intact. We were still there long after the fleet had withdrawn from the Brazil jump point, and after making their waypoint, were continuing their way back to Libya orbit to continue the evacuation.
Hunter Legacy 12: Hero in Darkness Page 26
