Hunter's Terminus

by Timothy Ellis

  Thorn came in shortly after, looking rested. He took the empty helm seat.

  "I've arranged for you to meet the senior politicians from both ends of our space."

  "Why?"

  Jane chuckled.

  "You don’t wish to?"

  "Not really."

  He chuckled as well.

  "There is hope for you yet then."

  "I'm still meeting them, aren't I?"

  "Yes."

  "Why?"

  Jane was openly laughing now. Thorn looked at her for a moment, but said nothing to her, before looking back at me.

  "This is your time Jon Hunter. Mine is ending. Like it or not, but the task of defending all of known human space is falling now to you."

  "Bollocks!"

  Jane fell off her chair.

  "Bollocks meaning no? Or bollocks meaning 'I don’t want the responsibility?'"

  "Both."

  "Tough."

  We sat there in silence while Jane got a grip, and hauled herself back up into her chair.

  "You took on the responsibility of saving your own people. Did you not?"

  "Not."

  "I've seen you doing it."

  "No, you really didn’t."

  "What did I see then?"

  "You saw me being pushed into ever higher ranks until I was the highest admiral, when I never wanted to be more than a pilot doing my own thing. You saw me pushed into being a Duke, when I just wanted to be left alone. Sure I saved a lot of people, blew up a sun to keep them safe, and then buggered up the time line, but none of that was what I wanted."

  "Tell me about it."

  "I just did."

  Jane was laughing hard again.

  "No, I know what you mean. I too was carried along by events until I accepted my role in how things were."

  "At least you accepted it."

  "And you have not?"

  I sighed.

  "I've accepted the need to keep the people who trusted me to keep them safe, safe. I've accept as long as I keep telling the cosmos I don’t do rescues anymore, the more people turn up needing to be rescued. I'm working on that. But I've not come up with an affirmation yet which turns the law of attraction on its ear, and stops sending me rescue situations. I accept Kali has entrusted me with her toy, and the highers think I'm theirs to do their bidding. I'm not, but I do anyway, and I accept I haven’t figured out how to end that yet."

  I looked at him.

  "I never asked for any of this shit. Doubtless you didn't either. But I figure I've done my bit. I'm going to make safe my people's future however I can, and let other people take the lead. I have good people who can use the fleet I built better than I can. I have good people who are better able to govern than I ever could. In fact, I never have governed. I left it all to others to do, and they can step up and have the rank which goes with it."

  Jane had stopped laughing. She was looking at me strangely now.

  "I've already started the process of forming a new government. I've created a small military force which no longer needs me to lead them. I have a team of very good friends like Arthur does, and I have this ship I can go do anything I like in. I'm stepping back, not forward."

  Laughter seemed to be coming from above. I looked up, as did Thorn and Jane, all of us knowing this wasn’t coming from the com system. I looked from Jane to Thorn.

  "Bollocks!"

  Jane started laughing again.

  A flash of white shot past me, leaped up onto Thorn's lap, causing him to jump, and bounced from him to the console, sliding as far as it allowed, to finish up in a heap. Angel picked herself up, walked with dignity to her pad, and did her normal walk around it three times one way and one time the opposite thing, whereupon she flopped down, and curled up into a ball.

  "Where were we?" I asked.

  "Meeting politicians today."

  "Why?"

  Forty Four

  We met politicians.

  When everyone was once again on the bridge, we suddenly found ourselves in a large ballroom. It was set up with food and drink, and various areas for people to sit in. Arthur and his people turned up a few moments later, dressed in formal civvies. I sighed, and bade everyone to shift into dress uniforms.

  I was somewhat surprised to find Hobbes and Roo were with us, and even more so to find Hobbes wearing an elaborate baldric, and Roo in a sort of waistcoat. Both had insignia on them. Obviously some sort of official garb from when they'd been governors. Up until now, both had walked around in just their fur, and I think everyone had assumed they never wore anything else.

  Jane was grinning, while looking at both of them.

  "No," I said to her.

  "Spoilsport."

  Neither had full control of their suits yet, as Carter was still trying to get their PC's right. Which meant they were vulnerable to Jane doing things like covering them in canary yellow.

  Thorn vanished. But my eyes were now on Tanith, who was wearing a white suit, and Syrinx, who was wearing a black evening dress. The contrasts were startling, and I couldn’t help but wonder if they had kids together, would they be half and half colouring, or a shade of grey. I wiped the smile off my face as soon as it formed.

  Thorn reappeared holding one arm of his wife's, with the other three ladies around them. He was now in a charcoal suit, while the ladies were all in evening gowns. The four of them looked substantially younger now, and there was fire in Jen's eyes which hadn't been there the last time I saw them.

  The five of them walked over to me, and Thorn introduced his wife to me and Aline, who was now holding onto my arm. I noticed he made no attempt to introduce anyone else, and didn’t actually use Aline's name. It was a strange moment, and I wondered why. It was Jen who did the rest of the introductions as they worked the room. Lea saw my expression I think, and came over.

  "Thorn has a problem with names," she said. "Goes back to his teen years apparently, and is some sort of unfixable magic injury. He just doesn’t retain them. He'll remember all of you if he has enough contact in the future, but even then, if he doesn’t use your name regularly, even in his head, it fades. Consequently, he tends not to use them verbally at all, to prevent any embarrassment of the name just not being there when he needs it."

  "Magic injury? Among my people, not remembering names is actually fairly common. It's one of the reasons we developed in head computers, since it allows those with any sort of memory issue to access names and stuff through social features, and look up mechanisms."

  She looked blank.

  "Let me explain," said Jane, and led her away.

  Thorn had vanished again, leaving his ladies to continue working the room, and shortly after, he returned with a group of orange skinned people. Instead of introducing anyone, he vanished again, and returned again with another group of people. These ones had what I called a normal skin colour range, although twin's suntan brown was more common than not. About the only colours not represented in the room now were greens, reds, and blues, although Roo had a decidedly reddish tinge to his fur colour.

  Over in one corner were four chairs, and Thorn led three of us over to them, where we sank into them. The chocolate coloured woman turned out to be the Prime Minister of a democracy going back more than thirty two hundred years, while the orange coloured man was the committee chair of a democracy not yet a hundred years old. Both knew the other quite well it seemed, and appeared to be on good terms.

  "Jon Hunter," began Thorn, "leads a small population of humans from one of the outlying arms of the galaxy, moved into our region of space by a higher power. In some ways their tech is better than the Keerah for example, but in other ways it lags behind. Medical treatment, for example, is one of their specialties. I went to him to see if they could help Tasha. But I wanted him to meet both your peoples, for in the future I feel all humans will need to come together. His people have already been attacked by all three galactic powers."

  He looked first at me, then to the woman.

 
"Prime Minister Shanto," she said. "Ours is a complicated democracy which never did actually give ourselves a name. We never seemed to need one, at least until we met our neighbors, and ever since then, we've not been able to agree on one. Do your people have one?"

  "Not anymore," I said. "Our people used to identify themselves as sectors of man, named after regions of our home planet. We spanned a length of space more than two hundred systems long before the time line change, but those of us moved to this region of space only number about fifteen thousand, and while we had a formal name before, we no longer do. Nor do we have a system of government yet, although the majority belonged to a Duchy I was Duke of. We will be forming some sort of democratic system, but it may take a while to work out."

  "So you led your people, ah, general?"

  "Admiral. We fought a war recently which had galaxy wide implications. I was asked to step up until there was no longer another rank to step up into, and we prevailed. I intend putting that aside as soon as we can build defenses to keep our new space safe."

  "What sort of defenses," asked the man. "Committee Leader Tranallo. We too lack a name at the moment. We had one, but when our military overthrew our ancient line of kings, they dispensed with the name. Since becoming a democracy, we too have been unable to decide on a name. But it's only been eighty odd years, and these things take time to discuss."

  He seemed to be serious.

  "Defenses," he went on. "We need them too. Both our people have a single jump point with the Keerah on the other side, and while they allow traders to pass both ways, our admirals are telling us to prepare for new hostilities. Our biggest fear is they will finally work out Thorn here is our major defense, and attack both ends of our space at the same time. If you have defenses you can share with us, we would be in your debt."

  Shanto nodded her agreement.

  "For now," I said, "our defenses are ship based, and only just enough for us to keep our attackers out. We lack military tech, but are doing what we can to redress the imbalance. We have some advantages, and it may be possible these can make a difference for you. But we'd need to figure out how we can trade and keep in touch over the huge distance between us."

  Actually I had ideas already, but they needed more thought. A lot more thought.

  "I have some ideas though, and I'll discuss them with Thorn. We'll need communications first, some method of facilitating trade, and time to come up with effective defenses."

  Both were nodding.

  I looked at Thorn, and he was smiling at me. Bastard. He was sucking me in again. I made a mental note to fast track a new government, so I could retire, and let my new joint chiefs get on with all this defense stuff.

  He tapped his nose, and his smile grew wider. I kept a hold on my temper. Discussion continued, interrupted by plates of food, and various kinds of drinks turning up. I was surprised to find the local food from both groups of humans was not only palatable, but enjoyable. And I could tell from a number of the beverages I sampled, we had the basis of trade just from food and drink. The other leaders also sampled some of our food and drink, making me wonder where Thorn had taken it from, and we all agreed we had something to trade.

  The discussions turned to medical tech, and both leaders expressed wonder at how good all four of Thorn's women looked. Although when it was expressed along those lines, Thorn looked pained. I knew how he felt, since the female members of my team had once been called my harem, and it was just as well BA never heard about it. I looked around, and saw her talking to an obvious military type. Annabelle and Aidan Hobbs were talking to other military looking people as well, and it occurred to me Thorn had organized all our opposite numbers, and somehow made sure everyone met them.

  A sudden silence drew me back to my own group. The three of them were looking at me.

  "Sorry, did I miss something?"

  "I asked," said Shanto, "how you came to have a Keerah and Ralnor with you?"

  "How much do you know about the Darkness?"

  "It's a myth," said Tranallo.

  "It's a myth now. A week ago it was a serious threat to the entire galaxy. The Keerah and Ralnor joined forces to fight the Darkness, and were losing. I was fighting a rearguard action to save as many people as I could. In a last ditch bid to stop the Darkness ever finding where our people went, I did something which should have killed me. Those two turned up at the last second with two magicians, and saved us. With their help, we changed history so the Darkness could only ever be a myth, and in the process, all four of them, and us as well, became estranged from our own people. The Keerah and Ralnor went back to being enemies, but these two I think are trying to become friends, almost in spite of themselves."

  "The Keerah have never been our friends," said Shanto. "Thorn brokered a peace with them a long time ago, but they keep testing us. One day we fear they will overrun our space, and we will lose our independence."

  They both looked at Thorn. I could tell they worried about what would happen when he eventually died. The fatigue I'd seen in him the day before flashed across his face for a moment, and my mind went back to his assertion this was my time. I hoped he wasn’t going to be doing anything stupid any time soon.

  It was as if the cosmos had heard us.

  "THORN!"

  The voice was loud, and I saw Thorn flinch as much as I did. But the other two hadn't seemed to hear it. Nor had anyone else it seemed.

  "Yes Admiral?" I heard Thorn's voice in my head, and saw his lips not moving.

  "Come now."

  Thorn stood, and vanished.

  Forty Five

  He was back within a minute.

  He looked at Prime Minister Shanto, and then at me.

  "The Keerah managed to get a strike force through the blockade, and have taken our main trading station. The admiral in command has only just found out, after the station stopped communicating."

  "Why are you here then?" asked Shanto. "Shouldn’t you be removing them?"

  "I could, but Admiral Hunter hasn’t fought a face to face battle with the Keerah yet, and he needs to. The damage is already done, and the station taken. As far as I can tell, those going to die, already have. The opportunity now is with Admiral Hunter. I will go to the blockade fleet and make sure the Keerah fleet is unable to enter our space. Hunter's troops can take the station back."

  "How many Keerah?" I asked.

  "A large freighter full of them. Several hundred at least."

  "Armour? Weapons?"

  "Heavy weapons, and they have made a mess already. The Keerah have personal armour, based around what their ships use, but a lot of them choose not to wear it, seeing it as an affront to honor, so you have that advantage against some of them."

  I sighed. The last thing I wanted was to actually fight a ground war, even if it was on a station. The others were looking at me, waiting for a decision. As if I actually had a choice. I rose, and stood on the chair.

  "Your attention please," I yelled. The room quietened rapidly.

  "This party is over. Thorn will be returning everyone to their place of origin so form groups immediately."

  I shifted my suit to my normal uniform, with my guns showing.

  "General Smith?"

  "Sir?"

  "Saddle up. We're going straight into a battle situation, to retake a station from the Keerah."

  Within seconds, to gasps from around the room, all of my people were back in normal uniforms, with their sidearms showing. People moved quickly, with mine assembling around Annabelle. I turned to Thorn.

  "Put us back on BigMother. We'll do the rest. Could your fleet use our fighters?"

  "Yes. If you launch them when you get there, I'll move them to the fleet. I can shield them effectively. The massed torpedoes will give us an edge the Keerah won't be expecting."

  "Do we need to fight this at all? I mean you sent three fleets away last time. Why not this time?"

  "Because one day I won't be here to do it, and the Keerah only respect those with a mili
tary they cannot crush. Now is the time to start building that respect."

  "Fine. Let's do this."

  I nodded to the two leaders, and strode over to my people. I hadn't stopped walking when we appeared on the launch deck. My PC connected me to ship coms.

  "Now hear this. Saddle up, lock and load. Full deployment. Combat teams stand ready in their armouries. All pilots to their ships, and be ready to launch on command. Move."

  I dropped the connection, and looked around, people already running for the drop shafts.

  "Lacey!"

  He stopped, turned back, and when I didn't move, started running over to me.

  "Sir?"

  "When we arrive at the station, launch all fighters, and form up ready for jump point defense. Thorn will move you there, and you take your orders from him. Most likely he'll talk to you inside your head. Do what he says. The admiral on the scene may want to give you orders which Thorn may allow you to understand. Take them unless they they're bad ones. Your main weapon is rapid torpedo launches, so have your pilots ready, and make sure reloads are staggered. Thorn says he'll shield you, but don’t rely on it. Use their ships for shielding if necessary for recharge. Got it?"

  "Got it."

  He didn’t wait for me to tell him to move, but started running for a travel car, since his Excalibur was on the flight deck above. He'd have to launch out the front of the ship, while the rest of his people used the tubes out the sides. I made a mental note we needed the local languages added to the new translator. Relying on magic was starting to appear limited.

  I found George next to me.

  "Where do you want me boss?"

  "Where do you want to be?"

  "With the team."

  "Go."

  I respected his decision, and was a bit surprised he wasn’t joining the fighters. While he wasn’t officially part of team one anymore, they were his team, and maybe he was thinking like I was. It was time to get back to where we started from, and he'd been a marine before becoming a pilot. And it could be his experiences in our recent missions as part of the team again, had him thinking he preferred being back in the team. Maybe I’d need to shift him to be a Colonel instead of a Fleet Captain, and while the twins were also Colonels and joint team leaders, I knew George wouldn’t have a problem following their orders.