Hunter Legacy 11: Home Is Where the Hero Is

by Timothy Ellis

  I turned to Lacey.

  "What are 266 doing at the moment?"

  "Not a lot. Augmenting patrols mostly. Why? Do you have something specific for them?"

  "I’d like to assign them to Fearless while she trains. They can pretend to be Corvettes and Frigates docked to the outer hull, and also be ground support fighters."

  "I think Brown and the lads will go for that."

  "Brown will need to report to George rather than you for the duration, as will the Dropship pilots."

  "No problem there. Be good for both of them."

  I looked to Annabelle.

  "George will report to you, but the ship and all the ships attached to it, will act as a small fleet, where George has the command. He needs to learn how to fight his ship as a Dropship, as well as it being a fleet flagship and a small Carrier. He has the fighter and marine part, but needs the command experience."

  "You realize George failed Dropship training?" laughed Amanda.

  "Better do some simulations before George does a real Cruiser Drop operation."

  We all laughed.

  "Talk to Carter as well," I said to Annabelle. "Her medical team need to be trained for almost anything a marine action might come across. And she probably doesn’t realize it, but she's the head of a medical division which is going to get a lot larger. Fearless will need a full time medical team."

  I changed track suddenly.

  "Is Alison doing a field medic course in this boot camp of yours?"

  "Yes, she is," said Amanda.

  "Have Carter oversee it, and look for recruits with the aptitude for being a field medic, or worth being trained to a higher level."

  "I have people I can send you for that training as well," said Walter.

  I chuckled towards Annabelle.

  "Well General, time to earn your second star."

  "Yes sir," she said deadpan, while rolling her eyes, causing the rest of us to laugh.

  "Contact Price and Patton as well. See if they want to be involved in some joint training. If they want to send ships as well, Greer's Gunbus squadron for example, co-ordinate with O'Neil and Lacey."

  "Me sir?" asked Lacey.

  "Yes. Anything below Destroyer size, with Gunbus specs is considered a fighter, and is therefore under your command."

  "Oh."

  "Bigglesworth would call it living up to your potential."

  "Everyone else calls it bollocks."

  Most of us lost it. He was serious, but the comment was just too funny.

  Jeeves brought in the first courses. As conversation lagged while we ate, Walter kept shooting me speculative glances. Finally I gave in, put down my eating irons, and turned to him.

  "You had something to add Walter?"

  "I've been thinking. Australian sector can't add much to an offensive naval force. We've simply lost too much over the last few years to afford to build capital ships. Not to mention the political willpower isn’t there. Officially, Prophesy is viewed as a sort of Duchy religion. As such, my hands are tied. But I have some ability to push. The new government knows we need some larger ships, and I've been talking to the PM about a half squadron of Corvettes. The only one we have went into Bob's shipyard in Sydney to be upgraded to Gunbus standard a week ago, and is due out tomorrow. If I can get approval for five more, they could be attached to Fearless as a defensive screen. We have good pilots ready to move up now, so commanders for them isn’t a problem."

  "Can Sydney Shipyard handle the load?"

  "It's grown a lot since you last saw it Jon. Bob had a huge number of orders for Camel's and Pythons, and he's been growing the shipyard steadily since you left down spine."

  "It shouldn’t be taking a week for your Corvette then."

  He laughed.

  "That was our problem, not his. As soon as the ship went in, an argument started over how it should be redesigned. It took me three days to get agreement from everyone."

  "You let the ship be designed by a committee?"

  Everyone laughed. Walter looked sheepish. The question wasn’t answered, but it hadn't really needed to be.

  "If you want to allocate the ships, I'm happy to have them work with mine. But George has the command of the fleet, at least as long as he isn’t put under someone else's command."

  "No problem there. The highest rank we have in space at the moment is Squadron Leader. So anyone getting a Corvette will become a Lieutenant Commander. Like I did for you. So they will automatically fall under George's command."

  "Works for me then."

  "Good, I'll organize it."

  Dinner plates were being collected now.

  "Are you joining Hunter Security sir?" Annabelle asked my father.

  "Don’t call me sir, Annabelle. You outrank me by rather a lot. I'm just a humble ship captain."

  "Humble my arse," muttered Thirteen. Everyone looked at him. "Sorry, did I say that out loud?"

  I couldn’t stop myself chuckling, and it proved contagious.

  "The question stands," said Walter. "You do bring a rather large asset to the table, even if it needs a lot of work. I could give you a Senior Commander rank off my own authority, just for the ship you captain. Which since Jon retired, would make you the highest rank in the space force of the Australian Militia. We only have a single Lieutenant Commander, and a Squadron Leader in each system."

  "Tempting offer, but no. If I'm to join the fight, I need to be where the action is. While my allegiance is to Gaia, a proactive defense is the best option, and that means Galactica goes where the action is."

  "What role do you see Galactica and her sisters playing?" asked Annabelle.

  "Maybe you should be asking my son that?"

  "Galactica and Enterprise are currently being gutted," I said. "All the tech needs replacing, and the structure needs to be fully assessed to determine if we need to rebuild at all. So it's going to be a few weeks before we need to have designs ready for interiors. Prometheus will be here soon, but she needs even more attention, given the state of her when we found her. The other ships we have are primarily assigned to a set of completed designs. But I'm still debating how to use the three biggest ships we have. So for now, I want to hear what everyone else thinks."

  All eyes turned back to my Dad. Dessert began being served.

  "The obvious need is Battleships I think. Since the first one was built, I don’t think there has been a time when all up, we had less than now. But the Explorer ships were not designed to be Battleships. They don’t have the external structure to mount huge turrets on. Not unless you stripped them back to the frame, augmented it and did completely new hulls."

  "It's an option," I said. "But is it the best use of the ships?"

  "Probably not. The overall shape isn’t consistent with the requirements of a Battleship. If anything, the design is more conducive to being a Carrier, but again, they weren't designed with that aim. The primary mission was explore and colonize. But how does that fit our needs now?"

  "We don’t need explore now," said Sam, "but colonize could be refunctioned to people movement."

  "Explain," said Jack.

  "How many people will be left behind? When all the ships are gone? When all the stations are gone? We may think we have a lot of ships along the whole spine, but in terms of moving the entire human population? Drop in the bucket."

  "And?" I asked.

  "And even with the stations each system has, no system will have enough lifting capacity to fill them, before they have to leave."

  "She's right," said my mother.

  "Lifting I think I have covered," I said. "But only for a limited number of planets at a time."

  "So you suggest converting the Explorer ships to be fast, armed, passenger ships?"

  Dad seemed a little incredulous. I didn’t blame him. He could see himself relegated to being a taxi driver.

  "I wouldn’t say that," said Walter. "I can see us evacuating planets as the Darkness starts to overwhelm them. We'll have troops on the gr
ound, protecting civilians being packed into lifter ships. The lifter ships have to offload somewhere and go back for more, for as long as they can. Where they offload to can't be a station, as it won't be able to get away fast enough. But whatever it is, has to be as fast as Jon's existing ships, be shielded well enough to escape, and be able to fight its way out at the last second if need be."

  "Sounds like a plan."

  There are times when fathers can surprise you. Mine just had. Mother on the other hand was desperately trying to hide her unease. The unspoken fear was whoever was captaining such a ship would leave it too late, and fail to escape. Her eyes flickered from him, to me, and then down to her dessert plate. You didn’t need to be psychic to understand her thought process in that moment.

  She knew her husband, and she knew me.

  Forty Seven

  After everyone but my parents and Aline had left, I convinced Aline to go play with Angel for a bit. I moved to sit opposite them.

  "Why did you leave Gaia Mum?" I asked her softly.

  "How could I not?"

  "It isn’t safe."

  "And that’s mostly why. I need to spend as much time as I can with you both."

  "Before we go off to war, you mean?"

  "Yes. And I might not let you go without me either."

  "Absolutely not!" exploded Dad. "When we leave, you'll stay here and wait for the Door to open."

  "Ah Dad? When did you figure out she hadn't gone down to Gaia Five after all?"

  "Not until we arrived at the shipyard."

  I raised eyebrows at him. He deflated.

  "Now that’s settled," she said, "what can I do to help?"

  "Mum, if you can convince any of my officers you can help them, you're welcome to do anything you want to."

  Dad did not look happy, but he kept his mouth shut. They'd had this argument many times in the past. She'd always lost. But for the first time, he didn’t have the last word. And he recognized it wasn’t going to be the last time either. I met his eyes, and he nodded slightly. Message received. She could try to help, but my officers needed to have some boundaries. Personally, I didn’t think I needed to say anything, as none of them would let her do anything dangerous. I pinged a message to Annabelle anyway.

  "Thank you dear. You've created a wonderful home here."

  "It hasn’t been much of a home so far. A few months before I left down the spine, and a week now. My suite on BigMother is more home to me than anywhere else."

  "Angel doesn’t seem to care."

  "She's a cat Mum."

  "True. But Siamese don’t like things changing too much."

  "She has the same things in each place we've called home over the last six months. Or they get moved around with her."

  "We know. Jeeves turned up with a cat tree last night, and all the stuff she needed for a sleepover."

  "Really?"

  I made a mental note to ask Aline where she'd slept last night. And cancelled it when it occurred she had her own suite. The word 'hooked' popped into my mind. I didn’t want to go there.

  "Does she always sleep next to your pillow?"

  "Yes. She slept that close to you?"

  "Indeed. Made me wonder if we should be getting ourselves another cat."

  I looked at Dad. He looked upwards for a second. I chuckled.

  "May as well. Cat World probably has kittens. Get Jeeves to assign you a Butler droid and it will take care of the mundanities of cat ownership. And Jane will get you a collar suit for it, to keep it safe on the station. When it wants company, bring it here to visit Angel, or let the Butler take it to Cat Zone."

  Her eyes had lit up. If it wasn’t for the fact of cat choosing being a very personal thing, just as much the cat choosing the person as the other way around, I’d have just gotten her one.

  "I'll look tomorrow dear."

  "Make sure you drop my name. They seem to like me there."

  She joined me in my chuckle.

  "I'll do that. Well, I'm off to bed. Don’t stay up too late talking you two."

  "Night Mum."

  Her husband pecked her on the cheek, and she walked out with a smile on her face. We heard her say good night to Aline and Angel. I looked at my father.

  "Sorry," I said. "I think she's feeling lost at the moment, and I thought a cat might settle her."

  "You're right. I never expected her to leave Gaia like that, but now she has, I think the magnitude of her decision is preying on her a bit. A cat might indeed help. Especially as I'm going to need to be away from here for a bit. I'll need a ride to your other station tomorrow morning."

  "I'd suggest catching a lift with Slice or Annette, but why don’t you take my Excalibur?"

  "You'd trust me with your personal fighter?"

  "You trust me to command the fleet you sail with?"

  We grinned at each other.

  "Jane?"

  "Yes oh magnificent one?"

  "Prep Excalibur for Dad in the morning."

  "Confirmed."

  "When you get back from Midnight Dad, why don’t you take Mum to Gold Coast for a few days? It'll do you both a lot of good to get some real sun. As it happens I have a nice beach shack there. Nice and cozy for the two of you."

  "It would be easier if you get her to ask me to take her."

  "Jane?"

  "Consider it done. Suggestion mode engaged."

  "Thanks."

  He looked at me strangely for a moment.

  "Does Jane observe everything on this station?"

  "Of course not. Janice does though. And I guess they share."

  Two different chuckles sounded through room coms.

  "Isn't that a bit inhibiting for you?"

  "Dad, having an AI watch everything you do is just the least of who is watching us all the time."

  "I guess while I know that, I've never had it demonstrated so vividly before."

  "You don’t have the contact with the highers the way I have. If being watched bothered me, I'd never get out of bed. It's just as well the average person is clueless about it."

  I'd heard the stories of people being visited while they were in the shower, and how they freaked out the first time it happened. It was very common with mediums who had just begun to work as one. It was like the moment they hung up an etheric shingle, they'd start getting visitations, often visually, more often than not while in water. One of the girls at school had been through it, and it took a group of us to calm her down, and help her set some boundaries.

  "I bet. I wish I didn’t know."

  "Just ignore it. I do."

  He looked like he was thinking about something, so I waited for him.

  "Would your George like some Bridge crew for a while?"

  "Ask him. My ships don’t really need crews because of Jane. But I have been thinking about there at least being an XO and second officer aboard each piloted ship. Just to cover bases. While I trust Jane to run the ship while I sleep, in a war, we probably should have a person on the Bridge all the time. Might be a good idea to start with George. Then use your people to train XO's and seconds for other ships."

  "My people are well trained."

  I had no doubts about that. I'd done Bridge time as early as six, and seen how well he trained his people.

  "We probably need to recruit as well. Liaise with Annabelle on that. While she's a ground pounder, she's the only two star I have, and recruiting falls under her purview. If we go the people mover route for the Explorer ships, we'll need security people as well to supervise squads of droids. So introduce yourself to Dick Burnside as well, and get him involved in that side. Dick is chief of station security, an ex-detective, and notionally a Colonel."

  I looked steadily at him for a moment.

  "Which brings up what rank you think you should have."

  "What's the space equivalent of a bird Colonel?"

  "Fleet Captain."

  "That will do me, for now anyway."

  "Do you accept a commission in Hunter Sec
urity?"

  "I do."

  "Then I commission you with the rank of Fleet Captain, and confirm you retain command of the Gaia ship Galactica. Until she comes out of the yard, you're on detached duties. Rear Admiral Susan Bentley sent me some training stuff for George and Annette. Jane has a copy. I’d recommend you go through it. Susan is the best Battleship driver this side of Earth, and commanded the second fleet during the Midgard War. I know you know that ship now, but she will be completely different when the upgrade is complete. Susan had Repulse upgraded to my specs after the battle of Avon, so she can help you prepare for how Galactica will handle when she comes out. Your helm people are going to get a shock when they handle Fearless for the first time, assuming George lets them. You can Captain a ship without needing crew as I said, but to fully understand the ship, you need to fly her from the Captain's chair yourself."

  "I'm hearing you, but it's hard to accept a ship that big will require that of me."

  "One reason I suggest you take Excalibur tomorrow. Have fun with her. Her handling set the standard for every ship design I've had a hand in since. Just don’t break her!"

  He laughed, and promised she would be safe. I pulsed him 'slinky red' with the correct epaulettes. He did a test activation, but returned to a belt over his civvies. I knew he'd be in uniform when he left in the morning.

  Aline poked her head in at that point.

  "I don’t want to break anything up, but I need to be up at oh four shake a leg tomorrow."

  Dad immediately jumped up, and with a nod to both of us, he strode out.

  "Sorry," she said. "But I need to be up early enough to get lazy sods out of their racks on time."

  "How did BA con you into that?"

  "Con me? I've wanted to be a drill instructor for a long time now. Just never had the chance. I volunteered."

  "Well you could have gone back to your own place straight after dinner, and been asleep by now."

  "Of course I could. But there are advantages to being here."

  "Really? Show me."

  She did.

  Forty Eight

  I didn’t even notice Aline vanish in the morning. I had this vague dream of being kissed which might not have been a dream, but it was impossible to know for sure.