Hunter Legacy 9: Hero at the Gates

by Timothy Ellis

  Which meant someone had tried. I had to chuckle about it.

  "Oddly, the expected outrage by sector governments hasn’t happened. Which leads Public Freedom Commentators to speculate the system is simply too useful for anyone to challenge Hunter about having, some say illegally, placed his own satellites. A spokesperson for the Earth sector Coms Company who place and service the sector's communication satellites stated as long as the new sats did not interfere with the normal ones in any way, the law allowed such placements by corporations or larger entities, without being illegal. There was only illegality in the case where say a new satellite was taking the flow of normal communications handled by another one, and charging separately for the load."

  Oops. Thin ice possibly. I had destroyed normal comsats on the way down spine. I pinged Amy to view the vid, and find out who the service company was, and tell them we had destroyed several comsats while in combat with pirate forces, and would be happy to pay for their replacement. In the meantime, we were carrying their communications loads, without any charge. If they had a problem, I was happy to hear it. What I didn’t want was lawyers. Lawyers were worth a Battleship response. Genuine problems I could handle, and would.

  The rest of the vid was of no interest, and I tuned it out.

  From there on, we made a pickup as we down jumped into each system. Portugal was the spine end of a small Portuguese mini-sector. Gibraltar fronted the Spanish sector. Switzerland was its own entity, as it always had been, but it kept its own small space navy, and so we picked up an Ambassador and an Admiral from them. The French delegation were waiting for us in Paris, and the Italian delegation in Wolf 359.

  Which brought us to Earth system, where I was now obliged to stop for a formal meeting. I begrudged every second of the time it was going to take, but it was necessary.

  Jane brought us to a stop, at the designated spot a safe distance from the Torus, and the remainder of the delegations came aboard.

  No fewer than five Arab delegations, representing most of the Arab factions, arrived first, in an order previously decided by random means. I dismissed the rumour about what exactly they had tossed to establish precedence, as somewhat fanciful, and a definite case of don’t-want-to-go-there.

  The Israeli delegation were next. They'd decided to come to us, instead of waiting for us to blow through. Technically they were just an Earth sector system, but they'd heard enough so far to be worried enough to join the biggest meeting planned along our route.

  Next aboard were a half dozen delegations from various Corporate sector worlds, and another one representing the sector government itself. I'd never seen so many pin stripe suits in one place before, and had to stop myself goggling at them.

  Last of all was the Earth sector delegation. It was large, noisy, pompous, and as soon as I saw the ranking Admiral, I knew they in general, and he in particular, were going to be trouble.

  Thirty

  The Earth Admiral strode up to the podium Jane had provided, for the meeting in the theatre on Deck Two, looking like he owned the ship. It was obvious he was in a foul mood.

  On his way up from the Launch Deck, he'd been overheard by most of those nearby, including Jane, complaining about the ship not having decent travel cars. Although he hadn't figured out who it was, BA quietly commented this was a fighting ship and not a passenger barge, loud enough for his nibs to hear it.

  All the same, it looked like his normal state was angry. I'd always wondered how people like him managed to be promoted to the top spots. Enlightenment was not forthcoming.

  The theatre was full. I’d considered holding it in the conference facilities on the Launch Deck, but the amount of brass and dignitaries present had necessitated its use for a short nibbles and drinks session to get everyone comfortable and in one place. Once tongues had been sufficiently lubricated, we'd moved everyone up. The theatre had been the logical choice, as it comfortably sat everyone, was designed for long sitting, and allowed the seniors to seat on the bottom level looking directly at the podium, with juniors seated above and behind them by rank. Most of the second level was one stars, with a smattering of twos, and a few junior ambassadors.

  The mind boggled at how many people had attended. I congratulated Jane via my PC in having correctly forecast the seating we'd need in here, which until now, had never been even half utilized.

  "My name is…" boomed out through the speakers, which suddenly died in mid-sentence.

  He banged on everything possible to bang on, in the hopes of restoring sound, but alas, the problem wasn’t there. I saw Annabelle suppressing a grin. As a one star, she was relatively junior, even though she was giving the main part of the presentation.

  I walked slowly up to the podium, with an irate Admiral staring at me the whole way. He could stare all he wanted to, we were the same rank, and this was my ship. I was also armed and he wasn’t, but he couldn’t see I was. I kept my game face on.

  "Maybe I can help," I said, broadcasting perfectly.

  "Please do," wasn’t heard beyond the first level of seats.

  He scowled at me. I matched his look. He looked down first.

  I indicated the empty seat at the front, and he reluctantly sat, silently fuming.

  "Greetings," I said. "Thank you for attending this briefing. Earlier this year, one system, influenced by prophesy, went to war with three sectors. The single system almost won. Had they done so, they would have swept into the Earth sector and beyond, with a force so great, none of you would have survived the onslaught."

  I had to stop there, as the room erupted. I let it go for a full minute and told Jane via my PC to get their attention. Feedback screeched into the room, and everyone stopped talking and started holding their ears. I stood there like a rock, PC suppressing the anticipated sound.

  "I make no wild claims. The Midgard war as it is now being called, happened. We will walk you through it. We will explain prophesy behind it. We will compare it to another existing prophesy which is very similar. Next, we will show you the journey we took through the Sirius system and what we found there. We have the reactions of the Russian delegation, and a discussion with the Japanese Ambassador for you to consider."

  There were murmurings to the last two. The Russians were not noted for reacting much to anything in public. And no-one expected a Japanese Ambassador to say anything in public, let alone have a discussion. I'd looked these things up, so I'd know what to expect when we announced them.

  "To my right," I went on, "are Brigadier General Smith, and Colonel O'Neill. They will conduct the bulk of this briefing." I looked at Annabelle and nodded slightly. "General."

  I stepped back to allow her to take the prime position on the podium, and moved to the back and outer edge of it myself, where I stood at parade ground rest, and locked my suit tight so I couldn’t move at all from the shoulders down.

  Annabelle started in on the Midgard war. I stood there, my eyes moving around the room, gauging reactions. While the delegates viewed vid from the war, I looked up key resumes, starting with Admiral irate git. What I found changed my name for him to Admiral pompous git. He had an okay record for a flag officer who'd never fought a war. But strangely, his ship never seemed to be anywhere near pirate activity. When we'd first arrived in Barnard's Star and found a war zone, his was not one of the Earth Cruisers on the other side of the Earth jump point. He'd actually been half a sector away. His ship, predictably, was the biggest and newest Earth sector had, but it barely rated being called a Battle Cruiser.

  In a war, he was one officer I wouldn’t want in any active command. Knowing I’d probably never get the choice in that matter, I filed everything I could find about him for later use if it happened we ended up fighting in the same force. I seriously hoped it wouldn’t happen though.

  While I’d been looking up records, so had others. The signs of data retrieval were there, if you looked for them. They'd find my recent combat stats from the Guilds, my record being an open book. I saw a few looks pass my w
ay as they did so. More passed towards Annabelle and Jack, as delegates discovered two distinguished combat records.

  As the briefing went on, with Admiral Git throwing in interruptions and asking stupid questions, more and more faces showed serious concern over where this was going.

  The last part of the Midgard presentation was the interaction with the planet official, explaining about prophesy and my role in it.

  "Hah!" crowed Admiral Git. "I knew it, this was all about blowing his own trumpet."

  He shot a cold glance at me, which I ignored completely. Others shot him varying looks, ranging from annoyance to outright anger at the comment.

  Annabelle nodded to me, and stepped back, and I took her place again.

  I spoke about Outback's prophesy, giving what little information I knew, and ending with how both prophesies sounded like they were about the same event.

  I handed the briefing back to Annabelle, and resumed my spot.

  She and Jack walked them through how we came across Homer, lost for ten years. They continued to describe what we found, showing the same vids we had at the previous meeting, and ending with the reaction of the Russians.

  Now there was dead silence in the room.

  Into which, of course, came an almost expected interjection.

  "What a load of complete twaddle!"

  I nodded to no-one in particular, and Jane immediately showed the discussion with the Japanese Ambassador. His seriousness in pronouncing our time travel as real, impacted those present quite dramatically. For an Ambassador to come out with such a definite statement in public was almost unheard of. For a Japanese Ambassador? No-one knew quite how to interpret it.

  Eyes looked around the room to see how everyone else was reacting. I let them go, waiting for the mutterings to subside on their own.

  "It's still a load of rubbish."

  "Admiral," said the French four star, in heavily accented English, "with all due respect, SHUT UP!"

  "I will not…" he began, stopping suddenly with my Long Gun touching the end of his nose.

  There were squawks of alarm at how a gun had miraculously appeared in my hand.

  "You will be silent," I said. "This is my command, and you are behaving like a green Ensign. Be silent, or I will shoot you."

  He bristled, but when he saw he had no support, not even from his own delegation, he subsided.

  Actually, a green Ensign wouldn’t have the guts to say anything, but I'm not sure he understood that.

  My gun vanished as fast as it had appeared. I moved back to my place, and nodded again to Annabelle. She moved into the what could be done to get ready phase.

  Most of them didn't get it. They started arguing with themselves. It went on and on, round and around.

  Eventually I lost it at them.

  "What part of this don't you understand?" I asked them.

  No-one responded.

  "Each of your sectors has the exact same problem. If an invasion or celestial event happens up or down the spine, as soon as your spine connection is lost, so is your whole sector, and everyone left in it."

  Some of them actually looked shocked.

  "You need to do two things, and you need to start doing them now."

  I had their attention, if not their understanding.

  "One. You need to have a force in your spine system, ready to defend it, whichever direction the threat is coming from. The Corporate sector and the Arab sub-sector in particular, both need a force permanently in a system on the other side of your space, which is being highlighted on the wall now."

  The nav map was showing the mid earth sector section, which included the Corporate sector at the top, and Arab sub-sector at the bottom. The two systems were highlighted in blue.

  "If the threat comes through either of these systems, whoever is there will be responsible for meeting it. You can do so in the systems, or around your home planets. It's your choice."

  I looked deliberately at each of the two delegation's primary members.

  Behind them, several of the one star Admirals were nodding now.

  "Two. You need to be able to evacuate the entire sector population through your spine system BEFORE you lose it!"

  "Lose what?" asked one of the corporate types.

  "The spine system dummy," answered another one.

  "How can you lose a spine system?" asked a third.

  I seriously needed to face-palm, or take a moment.

  "Are you people serious?" I asked at them. "An enemy takes Barnard's Star. Or a celestial event of some kinds renders it impossible to travel across safely. What do you do?"

  "Why do anything?" answered the original corporate.

  "Because we've seen whole side-arms wiped clean of all higher life, and this happened to be the entire French sector."

  The French delegation showed real shock for the first time. In spite of the record before of what their planets would one day look like.

  "Once you lose your escape route, you are effectively dead. It might take a while, but you will be dead."

  "Oh," said someone.

  I could see it in their eyes that most of them still didn’t get it. The only ones who really did, were the one stars, who still had enough contact with reality to recognize a brutal one when it was presented to them.

  "If anyone still has questions, please address them to either General Smith, or Colonel O'Neill. Thank you all for attending this briefing. This ship will be leaving up spine in one hour's time."

  I stepped back, and with Annette and Jack at my back, stalked out.

  They left in the reverse order of arriving, with one exception, followed by the large shuttles we'd picked up on the way. The Israeli delegation stayed aboard. We were going their way after all. The Corporates and Arabs could have hitched a ride as well, but I don’t think it occurred to any of them.

  Before returning to their shuttle, where they had their own accommodations, the Israeli Ambassador pulled me aside.

  "You know our history?" I nodded. "And yet you tell us to prepare to leave our hard won planet? To leave the place God provided for us?" I nodded again. "You ask a hard thing my friend."

  "Good friends do," I responded.

  "We have no space navy to defend us. At least not enough to make a difference. Will you?"

  "Yes, as long as I'm still alive, and have something to fight with."

  "Then we will prepare for a day we sincerely hope never comes."

  "As will we."

  He did what no-one else had done. He shook my hand.

  With all the delegations back on their ships, I headed to the Bridge.

  "That went well," said Jane.

  I gave her a dirty look. She grinned at me.

  Magnus came in and we said goodbyes. Her crew and scientists were already aboard a shuttle which had come for her. She thanked me for saving them, for the bio samples her people had taken while we moved Prometheus into her docking bay, and for the data which had been able to be retrieved from backup devices which had turned out to have enough local shielding to retain their data all these long years. From her perspective, even with the loss of her ship, the mission had been worth it. I had to agree, as Prometheus had certainly been worth retrieving. I still wasn’t sure how to use her, but until she arrived at Nexus, I had time to think about it.

  Magnus took herself off to her shuttle, having apparently saved her goodbye with me to last.

  When all but the Israeli shuttle had launched, I nodded to Jane.

  "Get us the fuck out of here!"

  Thirty One

  HUNTER ON THE WARPATH

  "Sources inside Earth sector government have revealed that Jon Hunter, the self-styled Duke and boy-Admiral, has been holding meetings with sector and system representatives as he progresses up the spine. Unconfirmed sources suggest he is urging all sectors to prepare for war, and planetary evacuations."

  "In a surprise turn of events, Media leaders have admitted to refusing to release a statement made by Hunter w
eeks before, given the message was deemed fanciful, uncorroborated, and likely to cause mass panic."

  I still didn’t understand this. Since when has the media ever cared about things being fanciful, uncorroborated, or likely to cause panic? It was their bread and butter. The more fanciful and panic causing, the better they generally liked it.

  "With the number of sectors and governments now actively preparing defense plans and evacuation strategies, Freedom of Information Commentators are now calling for the release of the Hunter Memorandum, as it's now being called."

  One guess who the unconfirmed source was. I sincerely hoped he managed to kill himself long before I needed to have any contact with him again. The mangled nature of that thought, didn’t escape me. But it led to another. If need be, I might have to shoot the man, rather than be put under his command for an Earth sector defense. I seriously doubted he could mount a paper bag defense. Well, no-one could. There hadn't been a paper bag in centuries, outside a museum. But for some reason, the silly statement was still used. I forced myself to get a grip.

  On the other side of Barnard's Star, on our closest approach to their planet, the Israeli shuttle launched, and was left behind.

  We sent information packets to Kuwait, Bahrain, Latvia, Estonia, and Victoria, as we passed through. Each of them was in a similar situation to Israel.

  In Deutschland, we picked up a German shuttle at the jump point, and they stayed with us through Berlin, until just before the jump point to Fourth Reich. We played them the whole circus so far.

  They took us seriously. While not prepared to defend anyone else's space, they did commit to defending their own, to defend refugees fleeing in whichever direction they were going, and preparing to move their entire sector population if they couldn’t hold their two spine systems. If they still had forces which could fight after this time, they would place themselves under my command, and fall back with the blocking force, enabling other systems to flee ahead as well.

  I felt compelled to ask why they would put themselves under my command, and was bluntly told they bowed to nothing but demonstrated competence, and none of their military leaders had more combat experience than I did. They were also mindful that no-one in either Earth sector, or any other sector, was going to trust them to lead, so they may as well follow the only leader with proven experience.