A doctor came in, looked at me, and beckoned me out. Jane and I followed him.
"Your people?" the doctor asked. I nodded. "They're mostly out of danger now, except for Ms. Takai and Commander Pyne. We'll know for sure with both of them in the next half hour. The injured from the other side of your battle were taken to a different hospital. They have fatalities. So does station security. When were you planning on leaving?"
"Straight after the celebration. I guess that will be delayed now?"
"Do you have your own medical facilities?"
"Yes."
"We'll keep everyone here for a few hours to ensure they're fit to move, then we'll release them to your facilities. Assuming nothing happens beforehand, Ms. Takai will need a Care Unit transfer, so have one of yours prepped for her. With luck, she shouldn't need more than twenty four hours in one, after which she should only need bedrest. But it might be best if they all stay in one for twenty four hours or so, which we should've done with you last time, but didn’t. They'll all need monitoring, and pain shots for several days after that."
"My AI can monitor them, and I have a butler droid which has been giving me pain shots."
"We'll see how they are when they each wake up. If need be, we'll put them back to sleep before we transfer them to your ship. I'll ping you when they wake up, or when they can be transferred. If you have anything else to do, you may as well go do it. And I’d rather you removed that combat suit from the entrance. If anyone else was going to be combative, I think it would have happened by now."
"Fine. I'll take it with me."
He nodded to me and left.
I looked in on each of them, all apparently sleeping. Aline was looking better now. Amy was awake and asking to be allowed up. She'd taken several handgun shots, and had minor bruising only. The docs wouldn’t let her go though.
Walter was in with Petersen. She looked to be ok, but her belt was toast. I told him I'd get both of them new ones. I told him what Amy had told me about his making enemies. He and his staff needed to take that seriously from now on. He nodded to me.
Price was in with Pyne. I gave him the same advice to take things seriously, on the basis the pirates could target him as the only strong link in what they might perceive as a weak defensive chain now. I made sure he knew about the boosters, and the new type of belt I was wearing.
He reminded me of the celebration, and although I could be late, I was still expected to attend. I stared at him, but reluctantly nodded. I might be inactive in the SFSF now, but I’d been the Admiral in charge of the fleet which had defended here, and then fought its way to Midgard. As such, I was the only officer from that fleet to return so far, and I needed to put in the appearance on that basis.
I headed out with Jane following me. We climbed aboard the trolley, the combat suit jumping up to take the same position I had when I’d been in it, the security droid next to it. Jane took the control position.
"Where too?"
"'Tool man'."
"Confirmed."
The trolley moved off at a sedate pace. Five minutes later, we stopped outside his place, dismounted, and went in. The combat suit took up position outside the door.
He was waiting for us, a grave look on his face. I held out my hand and he shook it. I threw the feeds for the recent battle to his wall, and we watched the battle in silence. His face lit up when he saw my hops, and he looked me up and down as well.
"It worked," I said when the feed ended. "I was the worst hit, and yet I took no damage. The suit lost some integrity, but it's already regenerating."
"It was your idea. Without your insight, I may never have figured it out."
"Well you did. I want them for my entire team, and all my security droids. So make me up several hundred of them. Having spares may save some lives down the track."
"Fine. You get them at cost plus five percent. Everyone else will pay an arm and a leg for them, ten percent of which you get as a royalty. I insist."
"I won't argue with you." We both grinned. "When can you have them for me?"
"That many? Lunch time tomorrow."
"I'll leave a ship behind for them. Jane here will take delivery. Pulse me the invoice as soon as you have it ready."
"Certainly."
"Can you do ten of them in the next couple of hours? New belt merged with two normal ones, with three boosters each?"
"Sure."
"I'll leave a security droid here then. As soon as they're ready and made up, give them to the droid. It'll replace the belts on my people still in hospital."
"No problems."
We did our farewells, and Jane and I started to leave. He called me back before I reached the door.
"I think I have the very thing for your minor walking issue. Be back in a sec."
Walking issue? I couldn’t help smiling. I was somewhere between a severe limp and a hobble. I didn’t feel like I needed a pain shot, but my medical monitor was giving me some pain relief. I made a note to get myself checked again once I was back at the hospital. My main problem was not really pain, but my knee still didn’t work properly.
He came back in carrying a cane. It looked like plain wood, with an ornate silver top.
"PC controlled ten shot laser," he said, handing it to me. "Default mode is stunner, so it's legal on stations."
I shifted it to my left hand, let it touch the ground, and put some weight on it. A pop-up asked to start a download, which I accepted. A new menu was added. Under setup, was an option to match the cane to the person. I activated it, and the cane lengthened a small amount, making it the perfect length for me.
"Add it to my bill," I said.
"My compliments," he said with a grin.
I nodded to him, and we left, sending the security droid in to wait.
As far as shutting the barn door after the horse has bolted was concerned, no-one was better at it than me.
Forty Six
Lacey and the other pilots met me just inside the celebration venue.
Jane and I had a problem getting in. The doorman had insisted we disarm first. I’d given him 'the look' and seen him go pale, but he'd still held his ground. When the combat suit pointed a Pulse Rifle at him, he'd fainted. The suit took up a position outside the door, and Jane and I walked in wearing 'slinky red'. We were the only ones not in Dress uniforms or swanky attire, and the only ones armed. In the mood I was in, I didn't care. I was there, and that was as far as I was going to accommodate anyone.
The pilots were shocked to hear what had happened at our dock. Camel was on the other side of the station from us, and the Excalibur's were in the fighter docking area. They'd come straight to the celebration, expecting to meet us here.
I pinged the 'tool man' for an immediate five more belts, and instructed Jane to bring the security droid here with them first.
Price and Walter came in with an armed escort, saw me, and came straight over.
"I set the doorman straight," said Price. "Given what happened at the last celebration you were at, we aren’t taking any chances at this one. If it makes anyone uncomfortable, too bad."
He went over to the same chairs I'd used last time, moved people off them, and waved us over. We sat, with Jane and the escort taking up flanking positions.
People politely ignored our guns, and sought me out, chit chatting about the war, and inconsequential things I knew nothing about. I made an effort to be polite, and if I wasn’t able to smile, I at least kept the worry off my face.
Chief McLauchlan came past at one point, mentioned new payments coming in soon, and moved on.
An hour into things, a man in 'slinky red', carrying a bag, made his way over to us. Jane announced he had six belts with him, and I sent Walter and the pilots to the men's room with the security droid, so they could change their suits over in private. Not something to be done in public.
The 'man' left immediately after, to wait for the new belts for the girls. No-one noticed it hadn't been a man at all.
Sometime after five, platters of finger food began to make the rounds of the room, starting with the group around me. I couldn’t eat, and I hadn't been drinking either. My gut was all knotted up.
I wasn't paying attention to anything now, and was finding any level of conversation difficult to engage in.
The ping to return to the hospital came in at five thirty. I said my goodbyes to Price, suggested Walter stay with the pilots until we were ready to leave, and with Jane, left the celebration feeling relieved to be out of there.
Back at the hospital, I found Amy trying to get out, and learnt the rest of the girls had all woken, and been put back to sleep. They were going into Care Units for transport to the ship, and were going to be moving delicately like me for a while. I sent Jane out to buy more scooters, in case they couldn’t walk very well.
While I waited, one of the doctors gave me the once over, and declared me to be in satisfactory condition.
The security droid turned up as the transports arrived. I bullied the doctors into letting me change their belts, before they were loaded up. I handed Amy her new belt, and she dived into the ladies room to change it. The old ones went into the bag the droid was carrying, which went onto our trolley. I'd get Jane to test them and see if any of them could be salvaged. As Jane wasn’t back yet, the droid took the driver's position, with Amy and me sitting behind it, the combat suit again on the end.
We headed back to the ship at a sedate pace. Once there, Amy took a small trolley onwards, heading for her bed. I retrieved my scooter, and waited at the top of the ramp on it. Combat suits and droids were still ringing the dock area. But all the cargo was now gone.
Shortly after, the transports arrived. I dropped into the seat of another trolley, and let Jane drive it remotely to the other end of the deck, with the transports following behind. I had to show hospital people how to negotiate the access shaft, which was just large enough for the transporting Care Units. One by one the girls went up, and along to the Medical Bay, where they were transferred into the Care Units there. I retraced the journey back to the airlock with the transport teams, and saw them off.
I pinged Lacey it was time to get going, and headed back once more. On the way, I noticed one of the bays was full of cargo, which had previously been empty. It was a mixture of containers and pallets. Jane had obviously been busy while we'd been out.
Back in the Medical Bay, I stood there looking at the active units. The girls had paid for my stupidity this time. I wasn’t sure how I’d be able to face them when they came out. It wasn’t something I could avoid though, so I instructed Jane to let me know when the Care Units said they could be released.
I headed for the Bridge. Before I arrived, Jane informed me her avatar was back on board, and Walter had just arrived as well. I told her to bring the combat forces in, and close the airlock.
By the time we were ready to go, Lacey confirmed they'd all launched, and were heading to the Atlantis jump point.
I pinged station control for the docking invoice, including another day for a small freighter, paid it, and Jane backed us out. Before turning us, Zippy launched out the front of the Flight Deck, and angled around to enter the small ships dock.
By seven, we were on our way to the jump point. Three hours to Atlantis.
Walter declined my invitation to dinner saying he was for a spa, and then bed. I moved to a lounge chair in my Ready Room, where Angel zoomed in and landed on my lap. I patted her for a while, until she dropped off to sleep.
An email to Annabelle needed doing now. I explained the ambush we'd walked into, and the condition of each of the team. I included the combat feeds, so she could see what happened. I told her we were on our way home, with no more stops until Hunter's Redoubt, so she needn’t worry about recovery time being interrupted. I also told her of the island retreat on Gold Coast, and we would be heading there as soon as possible after arriving in Nexus. Jane encrypted it, and it went off.
I entered a meditation state, and started doing releases for the mercenaries I'd killed or wounded. After, I let the angels pop in other things for me to release. The bully in first school who'd tormented me until I'd reprogrammed his school desk computer to embarrass him. The bully I’d come to blows with in second school. And the friend who kept hitting me in the later years until I’d whopped him one in class. He never hit me again, so being laughed at by the whole class had been worth it. Spiritual community that we were, kids were still kids until taught how to be spiritual. Some of us pick it up faster than others, and even in a spiritual community, some never do.
Release followed release, going back and forth along my life, obscure and obvious.
I found myself on the floor, curled up and feeling like my chest had exploded from too much coughing. Angel was on the back of the chair, sitting there looking at me. I sat up, smiling at her, and reassured her I was fine. I felt lighter, like a lot of weight had been lifted from me. I sat back down, and let myself sink back into the meditation state.
I didn’t know how I was suddenly sitting at the table, but I was. I looked along it, and two shadowy figures solidified at the other end.
"Now that wasn’t so hard, was it?" asked Kali.
"What wasn’t?" I asked.
"The work you just did," said Ganesha.
"Oh, that. No, I guess not."
"Plenty more to do," said Kali. "An hour a day for the next two months should get you there."
"Get me where?"
"Ascended. The time for everyone varies, and yours is shorter than most."
"Do I need to be?"
"No," said Ganesha. "But it'll make things easier if you are."
"Easier for what?"
They looked at each other, and then at me.
"For what is to come," said Kali.
"Obviously," I said, with a lot of sarcasm. "Why me? I nearly lost half my team today through stupidity. I've risen to my level of incompetence."
"Now Jon," said Ganesha, "don’t be like that. You trained yourself to be a combat pilot, and an Admiral. And partly to be a Duke. So you know nothing about being a General, or a Mercenary. Don’t beat yourself up for not being all things."
"So my team was beaten up to point out my shortcomings?"
"No Jon," said Kali. "You all needed a lesson in prudence. Each of them will be the first to admit they made the same assumption you did. You were going to hit a minor force in the rear. You all thought it, you all laughed at the prospect. None of you contemplated an ambush for a second, even though you'd been through them before."
"Do the lessons need to be so painful?"
They both laughed.
"Where do we go from here?" I asked.
"Your beach resort seems a good place to heal," said Kali, with a smile.
"That wasn’t what I meant, and you know it."
"We know," she said. "You have some time to build now. Not a lot, but enough. When the time is right for what comes next, you will know."
I sighed.
Kali's tongue extended to its full length and she thumped the table hard with all four hands.
"Jon," said Jane. "We are almost to the jump point."
I startled to awareness, sitting in the lounge chair, Angel behind my head. I looked over at the table, and found the end with the figures to be damaged again.
I shook my head, rose, and moved to my chair on the Bridge. Angel bounced up onto her console pad. The jump point showed no signs that a series of battles had ever been conducted here. McLauchlan had obviously been cleaning up.
Lacey signaled the all clear for jumping, so we went through into Atlantis without reducing speed. 266 were already accelerating out in front.
By quarter after ten, I was asleep in bed, Angel curled up by my neck.
Forty Seven
The girls came out of the Care Units at eight the next morning. Jane had let me sleep through the jump into Cobol, which hadn't needed my attention, especially since we had real time ship movements there. She bellowed me out of bed
with enough time to shower and make it down to the Medical Bay to greet them as they emerged.
Jeeves was on hand to give them pain shots. Petersen was embarrassed to find herself topless in my presence, but the girls helped her to laugh it off, as they all compared bruises. I pointed out their new scooters to them, and left them there to get changed into clean underwear.
We all met in the Dining Room for breakfast. I still didn’t feel like eating, but forced down what Jeeves put in front of me without asking.
We were all moving tentatively, and I had trouble meeting their eyes.
"Stop it Jon!" said Amanda. "We all screwed up. We all paid the price for rushing in blindly. We knew better, but we did it anyway."
"It was nothing at all to do with you," added Aleesha.
I looked troubled.
"Jon," said Walter. "Their right. Even I didn’t think twice about it. Admittedly, it's been a while since I was in a combat situation, but I have the experience to have known better than to walk into a classic trap. So stop beating yourself up."
"We all screwed up," said Aline. "But after that, you did everything right. We watched the ambush feed before we left the Medical Bay. You did exactly the right things, and got us to medical as fast as possible. We survived, and that’s all that matters."
Meow?
Angel was sitting on the table, and none of us had noticed her come in. We all laughed, and hands stretched out to pat her.
I left them there, and headed for the Bridge.
By nine, we were through into the Midnight system, and heading in to dock with Hunter's Redoubt. John Wayne and two Guardians had the jump point staked out, but were well clear as we came through.
David Tollin met Walter and I at the airlock, and buried us in catchup work for the next three hours. I'd rather have been in the spa with the girls, but duty calls. Especially since I owned this part of space.
The most urgent of matters were laws to be put in place. The station had been operating under Australian sector law, but without any real authority behind them, other than I had the last say, while not being here to say anything.
Hail the Hero (The Hunter Legacy Book 5) Page 26
