Hail the Hero (The Hunter Legacy Book 5)

by Timothy Ellis

  The rest of us made the jump up to the Cargo Deck, where those going on Custer climbed on a waiting trolley. I watched it heading away. The last time I’d watched my friends go, I'd thought they'd died not long after. This time, I was sending them off. Part of me hoped it wasn’t going to be a one way trip for them. I told myself to get a grip. They had a well-protected Frigate for divine's sake. In any case, this was something I was going to have to get used to, sending people off on missions without me.

  I found myself alone, and scooted for the access shaft upwards.

  When I arrived at the Bridge, I found more people there than I’d expected.

  The two Generals were in the VIP seats. Jane was at the XO's console, instead of her normal place next to the helm position. Abagail was at the Coms console. Amanda and Aleesha were on each side of the helm. Angel was on her pad, and the girls were tickling her. Aline was next to Amanda. Alison was next to Aleesha. Amy was in her usual seat at the rear. On the other side from Amy, was Walter's aide, but I couldn’t recall her name. The man next to her, wearing what seemed to be a combined smirk, sneer, and frown, was presumably General Price's aide. Slice and Eric made up the full company, seated in front of Amy.

  I sat in my captain's chair, and felt really glad to be back in it.

  "Sitrep," I said to Jane.

  "Custer is away, and moving to the Washington jump point. The Battleship is about ten minutes out, waiting for us, as are the Guardians. Gunbus is on the rear right Flight Deck. Apricot One is on the left side. Midnight Orchid is above us for the moment, waiting for a place to dock. I had a new set of side airlocks put in her, so she can dock side on. Nascaspider is docked to her. There was a last minute request for us to take some cargo to the Australian sector, so I sent Zippy to collect it. It'll take two trips for her, but she'll complete the second one before we make the Verse jump point. I'll dock her to the forward main cargo airlock, and offload onto the Cargo Deck. By the time we dock all the ships, it'll be the only airlock left."

  "Move us out," I commanded her.

  "Confirmed."

  BigMother turned and started towards the Battleship, clearly seen in the distance. Price's aide's expression took on more of a frown.

  When we arrived, I nodded to Jane.

  "Let's get the Hives bedded down in their new home Jane."

  "Confirmed."

  The twelve Hive clusters, docked on the top hull of BigMother, all launched. Jane threw vids up which allowed us to see them head around the ship, on both sides, and enter the side of Unassailable through six docking ports on each side of her.

  It took Jane half an hour to line up and dock all seven ships.

  The Battleship was down the centerline. She was connected to the same airlock Custer had just left, and to two support docks at the rear. She stuck out a long way behind us, being a good quarter longer than BigMother. I’d have to consider if I kept the name of Unassailable for her, or renamed her. It was a bit pretentious, even for a Battleship.

  Two of the Guardians were docked alongside her. The other two were along BigMother's sides. Midnight Orchid was docked to the side of the one on the right, and Nascaspider was now docked to the Guardian to the left.

  "What did you do to the Battleship?" asked Walter.

  "I redesigned her to be a drone Hive carrier. BigMother was designed for standard fighters, and can't really carry enough of the drones. As a dedicated Hive carrier, the Hives can launch and dock without separating into separate ships."

  "Seriously?" asked Price. "What else did you do to her?"

  I threw the specification to a side screen, and told Jane to get us moving to the Verse jump point.

  "I left her original guns alone, but the inside was substantially gutted. The only remaining life support is Deck Three. It has a CCC, Ready Room, and Conference room layout, pretty much the same as what we're sitting in now. Deck Two here is duplicated there, with accommodation for one hundred troops as well, with the normal Armoury, bathrooms, spa baths, and gyms. There are five airlocks, two in each of the sides, and one topside with an access shaft."

  "Along her sides has been put two hundred capital missile launchers in groups of twenty five, and six Hive docking ports for a full length storage and maintenance deck. The rest of the side space has as much Point Defense as could be fitted on. She has a full length Cargo Deck with the standard forward cargo airlock. The access shaft to Deck Three goes to the Cargo Deck to allow people to use the Cargo airlock to access stations, but seals to maintain air integrity, as that deck will normally be kept in vacuum when people don’t need to use it."

  "The power plants were substantially augmented, and the engines overhauled and updated. She matches BigMother for speed now, and if we fire up her engines while docked, we should be able to increase BigMother's speed by twenty five percent."

  "That’s totally outrageous!" said Slice in an awed tone.

  "Isn't it just?" I said with a grin. "The destroyed Bridge area was replaced with a Mosquito firing system, with ten launchers. The idea was to make her into an all-purpose assault ship, with drone carrier being her primary role. It frees up BigMother to be a command ship with a conventional fighter capacity, and to be a central docking hub for her fleet."

  I popped the specs screen off, and looked around at all of them.

  "Its four hours to the jump point, so do whatever you feel like doing. I'll be in my Ready Room if anyone wants me."

  Forty One

  The Generals followed me in, with their aides following behind. I changed direction from my desk to the conference table. The two figures were still at the end of the table, but I noticed the table itself had now been repaired.

  "Nice figures," said Price's aide, now with a definite sneer, looking towards that end of the table.

  "Gifts I was happy to receive," I said, in a tone which indicated he was out of order.

  "My temporary aide, Commander Pyne," said Price. "My normal aide went down sick just before I was due to leave on this trip. The Commander's last assignment was captain of a Destroyer, but he's getting some administration experience now, in the hopes we give him a Cruiser next."

  Pyne opened his mouth, but Walter cut him off.

  "I don’t think you ever met my aide officially, have you Admiral?" I shook my head in the negative, looking at her. I'd seen her a number of times, but didn’t know her name. "Lieutenant Colonel Petersen."

  "Gloria, when I'm off duty, Admiral," she said with a smile.

  She was a petite redhead. I idly wondered if the red hair was natural, and had to mentally slap myself back into the present. I smiled back at her, and waved everyone to the table. It occurred to me, I’d never actually noticed her rank before. It was always her dazzling smile I remembered. Concentrate.

  "Let me guess," I said. "You have documents for me, and want to talk about Non-aggression and Alliance treaties?"

  Both Generals grinned at me.

  "Let me get my aide up here to join us."

  I pinged Alison to be here five minutes ago. She walked in a few seconds later, so she must have assumed I'd call her when the Generals headed in after me. I introduced her. As a Major, she was low rank at the table.

  "The British have already been talking to you?" asked Walter.

  "Indeed. Alison has their documents for me to look over, when I get a chance on the way home."

  She nodded to me. I hadn't actually checked before if she'd received them or not.

  "So send her yours," I continued, "and I can look them all over together. But it'll be a while before anything can be signed. I need to sort out how I organize the mini-sector first, not to mention a name for it. I told the British we could hold a signing ceremony on my new station, once its upgrade is complete. About two months I would think, give or take."

  The General's both nodded. The three aides took on a blank look as they pinged and pulsed each other. We sat and waited for them to finish.

  Alison nodded to me again, indicating she had the document
s.

  "Do we need aides from now on?" I asked the Generals.

  "No, I don’t think so," said Price.

  "Alison, you're off duty for the rest of the day. We'll make a time tomorrow for looking at documents."

  Both the girls rose and left, but Pyne lingered.

  "Admiral, if I may ask a question?" he said.

  "Sure. Questions cost nothing. Answers though, they can be expensive."

  He looked at me as if I was stupid. His boss grinned suddenly, and stifled it with a hand over a cough.

  "I was wondering sir, why you don’t operate with a full crew? No helmsman for example. I was watching you and your XO, but I couldn’t see how the ship started moving."

  "Very simple Commander, the ship is run by an AI."

  "You trust an AI to run a ship?"

  His surprise made a slight dent in the perpetual sneer he seemed to wear all the time. He reminded me a bit of Breckenridge when he'd first come aboard.

  "You have a problem with AI's Commander?"

  "Yes sir. They're not human. They can't be trusted to look after the interests of people first. And if the ship loses its computer for whatever reason, you suddenly have a ship with crew who can't handle things manually."

  "So you follow the conventional military doctrine of no automation is the best automation." It wasn't a question.

  "Of course sir. I don’t understand why you don’t."

  "Because Commander," I emphasized his rank, "the Midgard war taught us that people don’t have the reflexes or brain power to protect us adequately."

  "I don’t believe that sir. People should always have total control."

  I looked at him.

  The lights flickered for a second.

  "Perhaps the Commander would like to go to his suite, and call up the battle feeds from the war. It's obvious you haven't seen them."

  "Ah, no sir. I mean, yes sir. I mean, no sir I've not seen them, and yes sir, I'll go view them now. Sir."

  He rose, looked to his boss for dismissal, received a nod, and left.

  I started chuckling the moment he was out of the room, and the Generals joined in.

  "In his defense," began Price.

  A long blood curdling shriek echoed into the room, abruptly cut off, which had all three of us on our feet in seconds.

  Price started for the door.

  "Wait a second General," I said.

  He stopped and turned back towards me, real concern on his face.

  "Jane," I said, "what did you do?"

  A pop-up on the wall showed a cam view of the inside of the access shaft, near the bottom. Pyne was hanging in space a meter off the deck, upside down, whimpering.

  I couldn’t help it, I burst out laughing. Harriman was right behind me, and Price joined in when he found he couldn’t help himself. We all sat again.

  "Are you going to put him down Jane?"

  "Not yet," came through the coms.

  Pyne suddenly shot upwards, feet first. He shrieked again, as his legs came to a stop at the top of the shaft, a hand's width from the top. Then he dropped again, arms and legs waving madly, mouth making incoherent sounds, before stopping abruptly half way down. He vomited the contents of his stomach in one projectile like mass, which sped away below him. But before it hit the deck, it seemed to congeal into a solid mass, and swept around the shaft before heading back upwards straight at Pyne's face. He desperately tried to protect himself with his hands, but at the last second it veered off, and started to circle around him. The whimpering grew louder.

  "Put him down Jane, gently please."

  "Yes, my Master," she replied in a voice several octaves lower than normal.

  Pyne dropped again, with another blood curdling shriek, stopping head down just above the deck. His body rolled so he was lying horizontal, face up. He wafted the remaining distance like a feather, and settled on the deck more gently than he ever did on his bed.

  The vomit mass streaked down, and hit him square in the face.

  We all lost it.

  Jeeves walked up to the hapless Commander, and looked down at him.

  "Oh dear, dear, dear," he said.

  He picked up one of Pyne's feet, and started to drag him along the corridor. Pyne struggled, but was unable to do anything except make his position worse. The screen followed them along, shifting from cam to cam, and into his suite. Jeeves took him straight into the bathroom and deposited him in the shower. The water started full on, right into his face. Pyne screamed again and desperately pushed himself out of the water flow.

  "Oh dear," Jeeves said again. "Someone left the water set to hot. Let me fix it for you."

  The water flow lessened. Pyne tentatively tested the water, found it acceptable and stuck his head under the flow.

  Jeeves left him there. The screen shut off.

  "And that gentlemen," I said, "is why you never insult an AI who controls the ship."

  "Confirmed," came through the room coms.

  We all lost it again.

  Forty Two

  I sent Alison in to see if he needed medical attention. It wasn’t clear from the vid if he was burned or not. She pinged me back he was fine. The water had been hot, but not scalding.

  The three of us spent the rest of the afternoon talking mini-sector stuff, although there wasn’t much brought up which hadn't already been by the Brits. Still, it was a very useful discussion.

  Just before six, the Generals headed down to dinner, and I took my chair on the Bridge. Custer would already have jumped out, because although the distances were about the same, and we'd been heading away from each other, they'd had a head start.

  The London system was a bit strange. The Verse and Washington jump points were opposite each other across the system. But if you stood at the Verse jump point and looked towards the Washington one, there were another three jump points to your right, and none to your left. The closest one to us now, was the one to Cambridge, with Norfolk on the other side of that system. The middle jump point led to Leeds, and the other one to Oxford. Bentley's fleet had headed out through Oxford on their wild goose chase the other day.

  266 squadron were already on the other side, in Verse. There were several ships coming towards, but all angled away from us, obviously warned to stay clear.

  By ten past, the trickle of ships coming through had stopped.

  Jane brought me up to date, with the only thing new being Zippy completing her two runs for cargo, and now being downstairs in her apartment sleeping.

  I'm not sure Jane's little episode earlier had been a good thing for her. If anything she now sounded more eccentric than before, and I hadn't thought that was possible.

  Lacey sent us the okay to jump, and we found a short line of ships waiting on the other side, well out of the way. 266 went to top speed, while Jane brought us back up to cruising speed. The latter was about eighty five percent of top speed, so we were still breaking speed expectations for such a large ship.

  I looked up the Verse system, since I had no first-hand knowledge of it. What I found amazed me.

  Verse is a huge system, one of the largest ever found. None of the now handful of planets and over a dozen moons which are habitable, were so to begin with. The system was terraformed in stages. The interesting thing was, there wasn’t very much terraforming needed to make them viable.

  The system has two suns. The first one was much bigger and hotter than Earth's, so the so called goldilocks zone was much further out than for normal Earth type suns, and much wider. Well beyond that zone, was a much smaller sun orbiting the first one, as if what might have been a gas giant had achieved ignition in its own right. It had its own goldilocks zone.

  The dynamics of the system were intense, and sometime in the past, there must have been major collisions, as what were in effect two solar systems, interacted with each other. But the forces operating in the system had either destroyed or moved anything likely to hit something else, resulting in the primary goldilocks zone having more tha
n a usual number of planets, and the secondary zone not directly interacting with the primary, although it rotated around the primary sun, which wasn’t itself affected by the second one. So by the time people found the system, it had two stable sets of planets and moons. But the dynamics of the system changed all the time.

  The planets and moons vary from one extreme to another as far as climates go, and it's a busy system. However, it's also a very insular system, in so far as not a lot of local traffic ever leaves. The main traffic heading out the two jump points on either side, are those heading up and down the spine on long hauls. A lot of in-system trade is handled by small freighters, who move what's needed from those settlements and cities with too much, to those with too little. The Firefly class small freighter, of which I had one in my trading fleet, was born here, and is a popular choice for a system where space stations hadn't been established as normal, and landing on dirt was essential.

  The position of the second sun dictated the best way to cross the system. It was going to take us twelve hours.

  I headed down to dinner.

  As there weren’t many of us now, everyone was sitting up one end of the table, leaving me with the head. I took my seat. A streak of white shot in the door behind me, did a circuit of the room, and ended up in my lap. A white head poked up over the edge of the table, and the rest of her boosted up onto it. She sat beside me looking very pleased with herself.

  Pyne's sneer became a frown. His experience of the afternoon hadn't done anything to change his attitude. However, when Jeeves appeared to take our dinner orders, he jumped and looked like he would prefer to be somewhere else. We all made a point of ignoring him, but several smiles showed an effort being made to not laugh out loud.

  Angel proceeded to wash herself, and gave those down the table an excellent view of cat butt. The frown deepened.

  Conversation was general, without ranks intruding. This brought on yet another deepening of the frown.

  When Jeeves and Jason brought us food, Angel's dinner bowl was put down in front of her as well. One would expect Angel to have been the messier eater there, but not so. Amanda recounted a particularly funny story, and Alison knocked her drink over while laughing too hard. The frown threatened to break the face wearing it.