"I don’t know. But as well as highlighting the potential problem, we also proved a station can be moved. Seems to me to be a very unsubtle hint from the cosmos."
I paused and he waited for me.
"Put it this way," I went on, "if one day you were told to evacuate, as fast as you possibly can, would you want to be forced to leave anyone behind?"
"No, I wouldn’t."
"I'm just pointing it out. We have time to prepare, maybe a lot of time, maybe not. But we were given this warning for a reason, and I for one, am going to make sure my assets can move in a hurry if they have to."
"Move? Where to?"
"It depends on where the threat comes from. Frankly, your people are the most likely to encounter the problem first. You’re the ones out there exploring. Where we move, is to the first choke point we can find. Midnight is one. There are others, but not many. You'd know them better than I would. If the threat comes up the spine, everyone retreats to behind Midnight, and we stand there. If the threat comes down the spine from an Australian system, we do the same the other way, taking refuge in Cobol and trying to hold in Midnight. If it starts somewhere in the middle and heads both ways, then we retreat both directions. The key thing is, if we need to move, we're able to. And the choke point systems are the logical places to retreat behind, so we can make a stand where they can't outflank us."
"I hope it never comes to that. But you make a good case. I'll upgrade my station so it can accommodate all my people if it has to, and can move as fast as I can make it so. I saw the way yours moves, so I know how to do it."
"Don’t forget the means to evacuate from the planet to the station in a hurry."
"I'm not one for doomsday theories, but, we've had a wakeup call, haven’t we."
"I'd say so."
"In that case, I think we need a party."
We grinned at each other, and he left my Ready Room.
By five thirty, we were in a shuttle heading down planet. Everyone came along, although Eric was the last aboard, since he'd needed to dock his Camel first, and had further to go to the shuttle dock than we did.
The air tour over the planet's sites took an hour, and I marveled at how much of the planet actually was coloured an intense apricot. It registered that for all my traveling, I'd not actually spent any real time on planets. If I had the chance, it might be good to try and play tourist the next time I was moving around a lot.
We landed on the roof of an imposing building, which turned out to be Slice's home.
We met his wife, children, and grandchildren; and Eric's wife and kids as well. Plus all the members of his board, and other prominent locals.
It did indeed turn into a big party, the sort which bubbles along so nicely, no-one wants to leave.
But leave we had to, and the shuttle took us back to BigMother around one in the morning.
Eric made a point of letting me know he'd be about two weeks behind us, having some much needed leave time, before he began his sweep of the Australian sector. He told me he'd check in when he arrived, and I let him know there would likely be a few things I wanted him to look out for as well. His purpose was ideal cover for completing the aborted mission I’d started out with - finding the pirate base which we still suspected was in the sector. I'd never finished the job, and now, it was unlikely I’d be able to move around freely enough to be able to accomplish anything. The trouble with being news, is it makes you visible. And this job needed invisible.
On the way up, I was thinking about what I was going to need on the new station, which hadn't been necessary before. Things like a grand ballroom, different sized entertaining venues, and VIP visitor accommodation. Possibly even areas set aside for diplomatic embassies. I made some notes and sent them off to David Tollin.
By one thirty, everyone else was tucked up in bed, while I was on the Bridge getting us moving. The 266 pilots had been dropped off on the station first, and were speeding on ahead as before.
We pilots were going to have an interrupted night, as the jump point was three hours away. But we could sleep in after.
Once away from the Orbital station, I crawled into bed beside Aline and Angel, and went to sleep.
Forty Five
The jump into Argon, a bit after four thirty, was routine. Jane got me up for it, and I went straight back to sleep afterwards. I guess I wasn’t really needed on the Bridge for a jump, but a jump point was the most likely place for something untoward to occur, and as captain of the ship, it was my responsibility if something went wrong.
When I next awoke, I was alone. Aline and Angel had presumably opted for breakfast, rather than waiting for me. I felt okay about it too. While I was enjoying being with Aline, the words 'Hunter's Harem' floated in now and again. It's funny how things said maliciously, stick in your head and take root. It had been a taunt, but there was something to it, and Aline was an embodiment of the taunt becoming true. I shook off the thought process, and headed for the shower.
The Argon system connected to Avon two ways. The next jump point connected both systems. But another jump point connected to Avon through four other systems. With a fifth system also joined to Argon, the group formed a sort of sub-sector within the Sci-Fi sector, named for the species in the X universe games I'd loved as a kid. Exactly why these names had been chosen had been lost. Some of the system ships which had joined the multi-sector force, had come from this area of space. As the ships showed, they were still serious about their science fiction origins, even if the history was lost.
Zippy was doing cargo runs. According to Jane, we had deliverables for Argon Prime, some of which would go on to the other X systems. The freighter was also collecting cargo. The ship account was looking very healthy, for such a little ship.
I spent the morning in my Ready Room with emails. Angel came in at one point and curled up on my lap. David was asking questions about the new station, and I answered them as best I could.
Among the usual junk, was a notice of an island resort on Gold Coast, for lease or sale. It was large enough for all of us, and I asked them for a six month lease. By the time I moved onto the Bridge for the next jump, the lease had been confirmed. I emailed David to arrange for it to be stocked with food and drink, so I wouldn’t need to worry about anything when we arrived. If nothing else, I intended using it as a regular getaway retreat. We all needed a decent holiday, and once the rest of the team arrived on Custer, they would as well.
The jump into Avon was also routine. 266 had it down now, and BigMother hadn't even needed to slow before jumping.
After lunch, the Generals and I spent the last couple of hours before arriving at Avon discussing inter-sector communications and other issues they'd thought of over the previous few days. I had Jane give Price an encryption key to use for future emails.
He belatedly passed on our invitation to an informal celebration to begin at three. I guess he hadn't wanted me to think about it too long, knowing how uncomfortable I was with celebrations now.
Almost exactly on two thirty, BigMother docked at Avon Orbital. I'd debated if we should dock in Gunbus, but an email from the station security office had assured me the docking area would be secure for our arrival.
It wasn’t.
We gathered near the main Cargo Bay airlock while Jane docked the ship. Nearby was an organized jumble of pallets ready to offload.
"Fighting just broke out in the docking area," said Jane. "Looks like a small ambush force is fighting with station security."
"Let's give them a hand then, shall we?"
"Confirmed," said Jane and the girls together. They all giggled, as we drew our guns.
I was on my scooter, and knowing how restricting this made my shooting, I stepped off it, and limped heavily to the airlock.
I was wearing the Long Gun on my right thigh, and a gatling stunner on my left. The second gatling stunner was on my left hip, positioned for a right handed draw. I drew Long Gun and stunner, as we waited for the airlock to open.
> We stepped through looking for targets, our suits went straight into protection mode, and were immediately hit with a barrage of heavy pulses.
Jane and I were the only ones not to go down. Jane because her droid frame could brace itself enough not to be affected by the momentum of the shots, and me because I was now in mid hop.
Target acquisition went primary. The gatling stunner spat in one direction, while the Long Gun sought the worst threats. It spat twelve times in as many seconds, before I holstered it and drew the other gatling stunner. Jane and I started moving forwards, taking fire, and dishing it out.
The twelve threats I thought I'd neutralized, rose up, and all fired Pulse Rifles at the two of us. I was in the air again before I knew it, spitting fire back at the closest one. It seemed ineffectual.
Time stopped.
I looked down on the situation from above. The twins, Alison, and Aline, were all out cold, sprawled out behind where they'd been standing moments before. Their suits were intact, but they'd each taken multiple Pulse Rifle hits. Abagail, and both Generals were down, but in the process of getting up. The Generals were wearing suits, I was relieved to see. Amy was curled in a ball, her suit intact as well. Petersen was trying to crawl away from the firing, her suit showing the first signs of shredding. Pyne had multiple serious injuries. He was bleeding badly from the chest, and not so badly in two other places. He hadn't been wearing a suit belt. The nearest security droid was in the process of changing back to a belt, and was moving towards him.
I'd screwed up again.
Gung-ho had overridden paranoid, and my team was down as a result, perhaps even badly injured. I couldn’t tell from this perspective.
There looked to be three groups of attackers. The group nearest us were armed with Pulse Rifles, and they were all wearing suits. I'd only seen twelve Rifles, but there were actually twenty five. Another twelve were armed with handguns. At a guess, the Pulse Rifles had been aimed at me and my team, while the handguns had gone for the Generals and their aides. Amy had simply been another target, even though it should've been obvious she wasn’t armed, and wasn’t military.
The third group were the ones attacking the station security force. Half of both sides were down, as none of them were wearing suits.
It was as nice an ambush as I would ever see, perfectly executed. Although three different groups seemed to be involved, the co-ordination had been spot on.
Jane and I were rushing into more trouble than we could handle.
Time restarted, and I pulled Jane to a halt, and turned us to retreat back to the ship.
"Jane," I said, as I hobbled back the way we'd come, still taking fire, each step ending in a hop as the suit took the hits, "get the team under cover and bring up the combat suits. We're outclassed as we are. Time to bring out the big guns."
We made it to the airlock as security droids pulled the rest around the side of the airlock, and out of the line of fire.
I took up position where the airlock gave me some protection, and continued firing. I pinged Price for authorization to use heavy weapons on the station. He gave it.
Jane had a line of combat droids across the airlock within another minute, blocking the way, in case whoever was attacking us wanted in. But they only held stunners, so their fire was ineffectual. All the same, no-one was going to get past them.
Twelve combat suits moved into position behind them, carrying two Pulse Rifles each. None of them were Jane specials. I raced to the nearest one, holstering as I went, and practically jumped in the back. It closed on me, the gun I'd holstered on my hip dug into my side, and the systems came online.
"Jane, leave the combat droids where they are in case anyone gets past us. Let's go get them with the suits."
"Confirmed."
"Charge!" I yelled.
I've always wanted to say that.
Twelve combat suits began moving purposefully towards the attackers, who rose from behind their cover, and blasted away at us with everything they had.
I used both Rifles as a single entity. Acquire target, lock, and fire both. The targets went down under the double hits, but some of them were able to rise again. They were given another dose.
By the time I reached the other side of the dock area, only four belt suited figures remained on their feet.
Three of them were only using one arm, while cradling some area of themselves, indicating heavy bruising underneath.
The fourth was standing there firing at me, screaming his defiance of my advance. He was a giant of a man, and he'd braced himself against a wall. He took my last double shot without flinching, firing once more at me, before I smashed the butt of my right hand Pulse Rifle into his head, followed by the left one into his chest. His head smacked back into the wall, before following the rest of his body down to the deck.
I looked around for the next target, and found them all down.
"Perimeter Jane. Interlace the combat droids. Have some security droids collect all the weapons. Move our attackers where they can be contained. Stun if they come to. If they won't stun because of a suit, pulse them."
"Confirmed."
I started looking for the local security forces.
"Jon," said Jane, "the team need medical assistance. I'm loading them up onto a trolley now. Jump on the back and ride shotgun as I go past."
I pinged Lance Freelander, the station's head of security, to find out where he was. He replied he was on his way, delayed by another group attacking his main security offices. I told him I was taking my team for medical help, leaving combat droids in a perimeter around the docking area. I also told him it looked to me like three combat teams had hit us here, and they would need medical help as well, since I'd used heavy weapons on them. There was damage to the station as well.
The trolley slowed as it came up to me, and I swung up on the back, sitting on the rear seat, towering over the others, a Pulse Rifle pointed front and back. A hole opened in the perimeter line, and we went through fast.
People jumped out of the way, as the trolley went full speed through the station. I looked at my team, while threat assessments came and went on my HUD. The girls were still out. Pyne was being carried by a security droid, its belt now configured as a bandage around his wounds. He looked the worst hit, even though he'd only taken handgun fire. I wondered why he hadn't had a belt. Maybe it was something to do with his dislike of droids and AI's. Whatever it was, he was going to regret his decision. If he survived.
The trolley pulled up outside the same hospital I'd been taken the last time we were on Avon. The security droid was the first off, sprinting Pyne inside. Jane must have called ahead, as medical people poured out the door. In quick order, everyone was taken inside.
I stepped down from the trolley, opened the back of the combat suit, stepped back out of it, and closed it behind me. Jane took control, and moved it to guard the hospital entrance. I hobbled inside, rubbing my left hip.
An administrator intercepted me before I reached where the girls had been taken, extracted the fast version of what had happened from me, and took me around so I could identify each person.
The girl's suits had all responded to medical requests to return to a belt form, and doctors were working on each of them.
Abagail had been the luckiest, taking one Pulse Rifle hit in the side, and several handgun hits.
Both the twins had three large welts in the chest area.
Alison had also taken three. Two were to the shoulder area, but the third had been almost exactly where her previous wound had been.
Aline had taken four, one of which had been directly over the heart, and another to the head. Her heart monitor flat lined as I reached her. The doctors reacted immediately. I felt a huge hand grip my own heart, and it felt like mine stopped as well. The monitor bleeped back into life, and I started breathing again.
The sound of another flat line came from the bed next door, but was quickly brought back to life. Pyne I guessed.
Jane came to
stand next to me, and gently pulled me away from the bed, out of the medical people's way. Armed as I was, I guess they hadn't dared tell me to move.
"That was the third time Aline's heart stopped," she said. "Her own Health Monitor restarted her the first time, and the second time was on the way in, before they had her on the monitor. She's in a bad way Jon. You better prepare yourself for the worst."
I looked at her, tears running down my cheeks. She wiped them away, and they were replaced with new ones.
"The others are fine though. The docs are talking about keeping them sedated until their bodies come out of shock. They're going to be out of action for a while though. But the boosters on their suits worked well enough to keep them alive. Aline was unlucky taking one directly over the heart."
I wondered about the unlucky part. More likely the cosmos was teaching me another lesson, at someone else's expense.
Walter came in at that moment.
"How are your people doing?" he asked.
Jane told him, while I stood there like a stunned mullet.
The flat line noise sounded again, and my heart skipped a beat, before I realized it was coming from the next bed. It restarted as I looked in. It was Pyne. He was hanging in there, but only just. The doc turned away from the bed, saw me standing there, and came over.
"Whoever configured that belt saved his life. I think we have him now, but he's lost a lot of blood. The belt on him stopped the bleeding flow outward, otherwise he'd have bled out before we could get to him. As soon as he's stable, he's going into surgery."
"Let him know an AI saved his life. It might change his mind about them when he finds out. Tell him he can keep the belt. He was the only one of us without one. If I’d had any inkling this would happen, I’d have made sure everyone had one on. But up until now, it's been me who was the target, and anyone with me hasn’t been targeted."
"Well at least you had a spare one available. It made the difference."
I nodded, and moved back to Aline's bed. She seemed to be stable now, but people were still fussing around her. Walter had vanished, presumably seeing how Petersen was doing.
Hail the Hero (The Hunter Legacy Book 5) Page 25
