He braced before me, looking proud to be here.
"Commodore, you are promoted to the rank of Fleet Admiral, which is the equivalent of what other services call a Rear Admiral, Lower Half. You will take command of the station Hunters Redoubt, which will stay permanently in the Midnight system. You remain Captain of the John Wayne, and shall command the fleet stationed at the station. Congratulations."
He hugged me too.
He'd never expected to make Cruiser captain, let alone Admiral.
When he released me, I went on, "See me after lunch. I have orders for you and Lieutenant Commander Bronson."
I saw her nod at the mention of her name. Also recently promoted, she wasn’t expecting anything, as she already had what she wanted most. Her epaulettes had changed to grey as well, since she also commanded a Corvette.
"Are all your crew out of hospital yet?" I asked O'Neil.
"No sir, the last come out tomorrow. But I’d like you to meet someone who came out today."
He beckoned to a lady his own age, I’d not seen before. She walked over slowly.
"Sir," he said, "may I present my wife Leonie, my XO on Custer."
"I'm delighted to meet you," I said. "Will you join him on John Wayne?"
"I will," she said.
"Admiral, you'll need to get your last crew out of hospital this afternoon. If need be, move them to the Medical Bay here. Also have each one report to Alison, so they can be formally employed. As I told you, they'll be back dated so they began the day you did."
"Thank you sir."
He led his wife back to where they'd been. She patted his right star as if she couldn’t believe it was there.
"Jane please."
That surprised everyone.
Her avatar came to attention before me.
"Jane, you are given the rank of Fleet Captain. This avatar will wear the red epaulette with the full bird, as the Americans say." Her suit changed immediately. "Your avatar's running the Liner and freighters, will wear the four thick rings of a civilian senior Captain, on the dull red epaulette."
"Confirmed. And thank you."
"I don’t know about everyone else, but you're more than just an AI, or the ship's avatar. And I'm not just thinking about how much more than a normal AI you've had to take on, and master, to keep us alive. You're my friend, and your part of the team. You deserve an appropriate rank for what you do for us."
"Damned right!" said BA.
Everyone laughed. Jane returned to the corner she'd been observing from, a grin plastered on her face.
"There's one last thing before we have lunch. John Slice please."
He walked over and stood before me, but didn’t brace. I held out my hand, and he took it.
"John, we haven’t known each other very long, but it's felt like years. In my people's terms, meeting you was like two old souls meeting up once again in a new lifetime. I consider you a friend, and Hunter Security considers the Apricot Mapping Service a friend. If you ever need anything, we'll be there."
"Thank you Jon," he said with a grin, as we continued to shake. We broke the grip, and he went back to where Eric was standing.
"That’s all for this ceremony. There's a celebration on the Orbital station starting at four, with dinner after. Assemble at the main airlock at three thirty please. We'll move there in formation. Dress uniforms. We head to the London system at seven tomorrow morning. Pilots, I suggest you use the early afternoon to get your Trader and Bounty Hunter Guild memberships. Fleet Admiral, you too please. One of the pilots will explain it to you."
There was a series of nods.
"Now, let's eat!"
BA came up to me before I could move, with her hand raised.
We high fived.
Fourteen
Back in my Ready Room after lunch, I shifted my suit to 'slinky red'. I'd been pondering general protection levels over lunch, as something had reminded me of my dream that morning, and what it could be trying to tell me. I'd decided a test was in order. Jane came in when I called, and I had her change her suit back to a belt and remove it. I chuckled when the thought popped in about her now standing there naked. Of course, it was just a security droid now.
I changed my own suit to a belt. Taking hers, I put it around my waist as well. As I’d hoped, a pop-up asked me if I wanted to merge both belts. I answered yes, and the two belts became one slightly larger belt. I shifted back to 'slinky red' and checked on the integrity level. It showed a value two hundred and fifty percent higher than before.
I changed back to a belt again, accessed the suit menu in my PC, and separated the two belts, giving Jane hers back. She shifted back into her avatar again, and left. I shifted back to 'slinky red', and sat at my desk.
A memory tickled my mind, and I asked Jane if Alison had ever received boosters for the replacement suit belt she'd received just before the second Avon battle. She told me she hadn't.
I sent off an order to the local Mercenary Outfitters, for delivery as soon as possible. The local 'tool man' responded immediately with an assurance it would be delivered as fast as it could get to me.
I’d no sooner finished the order, when O'Neil and Annette entered. They sat in front of the desk.
"You wanted to see us sir?" asked O'Neil.
"Have your crew been officially employed yet?"
"Yes sir. I'm stopping by the hospital to bail the last of them out, as soon as I finish with the Guilds. Um, why am I getting Guild memberships?"
"Is this for the new HUD?" asked Annette.
"Yes. Jane updated all my ships with my own private HUD overlay. It shows a lot more detail about ships on the scanner and HUD. But a lot of the information comes from all three Guilds. So you need to be members of all three, and subscribe to their data feeds. Once you receive them, the HUD overlay uses the information. You'll see when you're back in space."
"It's brilliant sir," said Annette. "Take my word for it. As soon as I saw what the boss was using, I asked him for a copy."
"Understood," he said. "Bounty Hunter I understand, but how do I gain Trader membership?"
"You don’t have to be a trader to gain membership, just be the owner or captain of a ship which can trade. John Wayne has more cargo capacity than a large freighter, so you don’t have a problem. Being a senior military officer is enough to demonstrate big ship skills for them, and since you're driving a Pocket Battleship, I don’t think they're going to query your skill set. As it happens, you can demonstrate being a trader anyway."
"Sir?"
"Your orders are as follows. After the celebration is over, you are both to head back to the Azgard jump point in Midgard. By the time you arrive, there should be enough Station Tugs built to move both stations at a reasonable speed. You'll escort them both to the Nexus 618 system. Jane will supply JW with the co-ordinates they're to be taken to. All the ships there will go with you. John Wayne and the three Guardians will be the escort. Annette, you'll take point, and jump first at each jump point. Ensure the other side is completely clear before the stations jump through. If by any chance you find hostiles, you get help if need be to clean them away before the stations jump through. Questions?"
"No sir," they said together.
"Once they're in position in Nexus Annette, you and one Guardian stay with the stations as a guard. Each of you dock to one station. It's unlikely anything hostile will threaten you, but you're there just in case. There needs to be a presence there anyway, to ensure someone doesn’t claim they're derelict."
"Before you enter Midnight, be very sure the station there is well out of your line of advance. Once past, stop and confer with General Harriman. Take a security droid with suit belt from the station there, and have Janet use it for an avatar to put on the Guardian remaining in Nexus. It should fool anyone who tries to communicate with it."
They both nodded.
"Daniel, when the stations are in place, return to Hunters Redoubt, and take command from General Harriman. He'll instruct you on Au
stralian Militia procedures, and the sort of things you can do as an adjunct to the Militia. You should get a Militia feed as well, since part of your role will be a sort of sector police."
"Yes sir."
"If anyone there asks about moving to Nexus, take their details, but tell them the station there will be undergoing some significant upgrading, and won't be habitable for an unknown length of time. I'm going to offer anyone in Midnight the opportunity to move to Nexus, or operate their businesses from both stations. I'll make a proper announcement when I get back there. And by then, I should have a better understanding of how long the restorations will take."
"Understood sir. Anything else?"
"Yes. While you're at the Traders Guild, mention to them you have a good sized cargo hold, and are heading for the Australian sector. Make sure they understand it'll be a slow trip, but it's very likely they'll have cargo for you to take. They did last time I was here. Tell them you're leaving as soon as possible tomorrow, and to load anything they want shipped overnight. If they do have cargo, see if they can load on the Military Orbital. If not, have JW move John Wayne over here so they can. When you get to Nexus, JW can contact Jane's freighter avatars for pick-up and delivery. Jane will credit John Wayne with the delivery fees, and JW will set you straight on the account keeping for Hunter Security and your crew's share of the profits."
"Phew, learning curve," he said. I smiled at him.
"Yes. Oh, and on the way, clean up the debris fields we left behind. You can store it all on the station for now. Some of it might be useful. Get Jane to transfer the station's salvage droids I borrowed to John Wayne to speed up the clearing process. That’s all I think. If there's anything more, I’ll let you know."
"We'll be off to the Guilds then sir."
They rose and left.
I waded into emails. I threw a vid from Vonda to the wall.
"ADMIRAL, congratulations." She beamed at me. "I'm not surprised the Americans promoted you again. You'll be relieved they retired you at the same time though, I guess. I know you don’t like the responsibility we all keep heaping on you, as good as you are at handling it. I expect SFSF will do the same thing shortly, most likely when you get to London. General Price will be attending whatever they have planned there. It's all quiet here, waiting for the arrival of the diplomatic mission. I understand there's a celebration there tonight. Enjoy yourself. There and when you get to London. You've earned it. Again, congratulations. Wellington out."
I sent her back a brief vid thanking her, and expressing my absolute intention to enjoy myself from now on.
Jeeves came in with a package. Opening it up, popped up an invoice, which I paid. I unpacked six new suit belts, with three boosters for each. I added the boosters to each belt.
Again I changed my suit back to a belt, and added a second belt around my waist. The pop-up asked if I wanted to merge, and I answered yes. The belts merged. I checked the protection level, and it was as the test had shown. I also checked if the non-standard nature of my original suit remained active. It had, and in fact, the merged belt had adopted the characteristics of the original completely.
Now for the real test. I looped a third belt around my waist. Another pop-up, and another successful merge. The fourth one refused to merge, so it was the same as a fourth booster refusing to merge.
I set the belt back to 'slinky red'.
I checked the protection level, and was surprised to see it rated the same as a combat suit now.
Feeling adequately protected, I had Jeeves take two of the remaining suits down to my suite, and pinged Alison to come see me.
She limped in about five minutes later.
"Take your belt off please," I told her.
"Jon? Are you getting frisky?"
She grinned at me.
"No," I answered her. Her face fell. "I've a new one for you. You never received any boosters for that one, so I ordered you a new one. It just arrived."
I handed it over to her. She shifted hers to a belt, removed it, tossed it on my desk, and put the new one on. I watched as she went blank, obviously getting a PC upgrade for it. When complete, she shifted the belt to 'slinky red'.
"Good," I said. "I feel better now you're properly protected. I'm off to the hospital for a checkup. You should come with me for one as well."
She frowned, as if considering refusing, but nodded. She followed me out.
Amanda and Aleesha met us inside the Cargo Deck airlock, and took up flanking positions. I assumed Alison had pinged them I was heading out. Given what had happened the last time I'd gone out onto a civilian station, it made sense.
I stepped to the top of the ramp and took a step down.
My suit snapped into full protection mode with my foot still in the air.
Four golden threads came at me, slamming into my suit at the same place over my heart. Instead of being pulses, the shots continued to hit me in a continuous stream.
The suit reacted as I'd been told it would. The momentum of the hits was transferred down the suit, and into the deck below, lifting me clean off the deck, and propelling me into the air.
As I rose, the golden streams travelled down my body.
My Long Gun was in my hand seconds after the hits began. Targeting went primary. Four targets were identified. From right to left I tracked the gun to each target, squeezing off one shot at each. Four figures in the distance went down one by one. Each golden stream shut off as each target went down, the last one already past my knee and still going down when it ended.
Two meters off the ground, my rise halted, and I came down as fast as I’d gone up.
My feet hit the deck, and agony like I'd never felt before, shot up my left side.
I passed out.
When I came to, I was sitting in my Ready Room, at my conference table.
I was in no pain at all.
There were three of us sitting there. Me at one end, both of them at the other. I couldn't see them very well.
The woman smiled at me.
"Welcome Jon. You're dead."
Fifteen
"Dead?" I said. "What are you talking about?"
She waved her hand, and a screen opened on the wall.
Three people were kneeling over a fallen figure, while a line of combat droids raced past into the station.
Alison had my head in her lap, and was crying hysterically.
"What?"
"You're dead Jon. Accept it. Your suit worked as designed, but the trauma underneath it was so great, the pain of touching down stopped your heart. You were dead before your body hit the deck."
I stared at her, then back to the screen. A trolley was approaching at an insane speed.
I looked back to them.
"Where am I? And who are you?"
"You're in your Ready Room of course. We thought we'd borrow it to provide you with familiar surroundings."
"But who are you?"
"Don’t you recognize us?" said the man.
The trolley had stopped, and I watched Jane scoop up my body, dump me on the flatbed, force the girls on to hold me steady, and jump back into the driver's seat. The trolley took off down the ramp as fast as it could go.
I looked back at them. My vision started to clear.
The first thing I noticed was they both had four arms. And what was wrong with the man's face?
I squinted at them, but it didn't help.
The man waved a hand, and I suddenly saw them clearly. My breath would have caught in my throat, only I realized I wasn’t breathing.
The man had an elephant's trunk for a nose.
The woman was dressed in antique robes that vaguely reminded me of hollo's of the ancient Indian deities.
My eyes opened wide as I made the connection.
"Kali?"
She nodded.
"Ganesha?"
He nodded. I looked at her.
"Shit! You're the one who's been talking to me all these years."
"Now you're getting it,"
Kali said with a laugh.
The Norse and the Egyptians had their gods. The Indian's had their Deities. I was face to face with two of them.
People were diving out of the way of the trolley moving at an insane speed through the station, which only an AI was capable of doing safely. It pulled up outside a hospital. Jane jumped off, picked me up, and raced me inside. The girls followed.
"They won't be able to do anything," said Ganesha.
"You code locked your suit," said Kali. "They won't be able to get it off you."
A medical team took my body, and started to work frantically on reviving me. The suit hindered them. Alison was distraught, and the twins had to pull her away. One of the doctors gave my chest a solid thump.
I looked back at the two Deities.
"So," I said. "What's the deal? Why am I here?"
"There's no deal Jon," said Kali. "You’re here because it’s the only way we could get your attention fully. Up until now, you've not really been paying attention to us."
"I always follow what you say to me."
"Jon, you only hear me when I shout at you. You never hear anything we say normally."
"Why don’t I?"
"Your head is still too cluttered," said Ganesha.
"You do your releases," she said, "but you never take them to the next level and work on what else your mind is full of. Didn’t you listen the day they taught you all this? Or was your mind in your computer game at the time?"
I looked sheepish. It sounded about right for me.
"You needed a clear head Jon," he said. "Only then would you be able to hear those of us trying to help you. You muddle by as humans do, but you were capable of so much more."
"Capable?"
"You were special Jon," she said. "You carry my Sceptre."
"You're what?"
"Sceptre."
"I know something of Kali, and she's never been depicted with a sceptre."
"Very true. Do you want to know why?"
"Yes."
"Because the only time I carry my Sceptre is when I bring destruction at a cosmic level. For humans, this would be terminal. The species would end in a blink of my eye."
Hail the Hero (The Hunter Legacy Book 5) Page 8
