Hero to the End (The Hunter Legacy Book 13)

by Timothy Ellis

  "Confirmed."

  "Actually, I've a better idea."

  I told them. They went away looking suitably awed. I wondered why it was always me who had to come up with the good ideas. I was really tired of it.

  Jane took me back to Sceptre, and I walked through the airlock and the few more steps to my suite. I found Angel and Max asleep in her kitty room, on the nearest flat bit to the door. Jane started laughing. Typical cats. You build something special for them, and they ignore it.

  "Are you here for a reason?" I asked her.

  "Just handing you over."

  "What's that supposed to mean?"

  "Welcome home, Admiral, my Admiral of the Fleet."

  Aline was almost purring. Jane left with a grin on her face.

  "The fleet is ready to set sale, Mon Admirale."

  "That's Mon Capitan, not Admirale."

  She laughed.

  "You know what I mean."

  I poked my head around the door, in case 'fleet' had some hidden meaning. But no, we were alone.

  I sat on the edge of the bed. Aline was chuckling.

  "What's up chuckles?"

  "I was wondering what they'd promote you to the next time I get promoted. What's above Admiral of the Fleet?"

  Ascended Deity.

  "Was that Kali?"

  "Sounded like her. You heard that?"

  "Seems we all are now. I wonder what changed."

  "No idea, and I sincerely hope not."

  "Hope not what?"

  I fell over back onto the bed properly, feet still on the floor.

  "No you don’t!"

  I fell asleep.

  Twenty Three

  I woke sometime in the night, and found myself alone. No Aline. No cat. I was still lying on the edge of the bed, with my feet on the floor. I moved to my normal position, shifted to a belt, and went back to sleep.

  Angel was in her normal position when I woke again, but still no Aline. I padded into the bathroom without waking the cat, and shifted back into 'slinky red'.

  Still five stars.

  Damn. It hadn't been a dream. I cycled myself through the shower, and went in search of the training ranges. The whole team were there, and I followed BA's instructions without really listening to them. Aline hadn't even bothered to say good morning. Not that I was the good morning type, but I guess I was in the doghouse.

  An hour of rigorous, I don’t remember what, later, I found myself in a firing range watching Aline trying to hit long shots. As lethal as she was at short range, on the long range she was complete crap. For what she normally did, it didn't matter, but I could see why BA had her plugging away here.

  "Oh sorry Admiral," she said when she finished her set. "I didn’t realize you were waiting."

  "No problems Lieutenant. But perhaps we should check on your accuracy, before we start anything new?"

  She looked at me for a moment, and nodded. I followed her out onto the range, and we walked to the long targets. These targets were designed to mark themselves with a spot, wherever a pulse hit them, the guns being set low enough they wouldn't damage the target itself. We walked up to hers. The center was completely clean.

  "Is this usual for you?"

  "No, I usually get at least a few in the middle."

  "Something on your mind perhaps?"

  "Not really."

  "Nothing bothering you?"

  "Nothing out of the ordinary."

  "No biological urges upsetting your aim?"

  For a moment I thought she was going to hit me, and I cringed back from her.

  "Shut up and come here!"

  She grabbed me and we started kissing. I pulled her down behind a fake rock, and in seconds we were naked, and rolling around on fake grass.

  Sometime later I thought I heard noises, but when I raised my head to hear them better, Aline pulled it down again.

  Suddenly our suits triggered, and me still being inside her, they merged into a single suit around us both.

  I swore I heard laughing for a bit, before our suits shifted back to belts.

  "Jane?"

  "Jon?"

  "Did BA just shoot us?"

  "She did."

  "Stunner?"

  "Check your suit."

  I did.

  "Oh."

  "Jon?" asked Aline. "What was that?"

  "BA."

  "Oh."

  She kissed me again, and we picked up where we left off.

  After a shower in our suite, Aline went off to breakfast, and I spent some time with Angel.

  "Jon?"

  "Yes Jane?"

  "When are you going to the CCC? We do have things to do today."

  "I'm working on it."

  "Sorry, what? You're working on getting to the CCC?"

  "Yes."

  "What's there to work on?"

  "You do know where I am?"

  "Of course I do."

  "And?"

  "And what?"

  "How do I get out?"

  There are times, when you're being laughed at by an AI, for being stuck in the middle of a cat's play room, when you wonder if it was worth getting out of bed. Or going back to it.

  Several minutes later, Jane sent me a schematic, with a moving arrow on it.

  When I emerged from the room, Angel was sitting just outside the door, with a 'what took you so long' look on her face.

  Twenty Four

  In line astern, Sceptre, Hammer, and Orion, powered away from the jump point. We quickly accelerated to Relentless' top speed, and kept going faster.

  "Yee-hah!" exclaimed George, who was in the Captain's chair, his chair, on Sceptre, driving the ship, with me sitting above and behind him.

  "Let's not get too excited," Amanda said to him, as our speed matched what the Lightning could do.

  The whole team had arrived in the CCC, just as I was organizing the other two ships to follow me. Annabelle had taken the XO's position, and Jane was in the Second Officer's position. The twins were in their normal places on each side of the Helm, where Grace sat, her hands twitching as if she desperately wanted to control this ship. She probably did.

  On either side of the HUD, there were two holographic figures. To the left was Susan Bentley, and to the right was Lacey. Both were in their Admiral chairs, the same as I was. Both were linked in, like fleet coms, but just linking our three CCC's. Both could see me and the other, the same way I could see them.

  Lacey's face had already run through the whole gauntlet of emotions from 'How did I get stuck driving this big box', through 'Oh my, it might not be as a bad as I thought', to 'Hooley dooley', outright surprise and delight, and ending up with suppressing the need to echo George's cry.

  "Are we crystal powered?" asked Dick.

  "We are," I answered. "All three ships have one of the full crystals we took from Earth, and are practically built around them."

  "How far are we going?" asked Aleesha.

  "Just off scanner range from the fleet. I'd like to run these ships in without it being broadcast through what remains of human space."

  "Damn," said Amy from the back.

  "You can throw a lot of cam droids out there to record what we do, but the feeds go no-where but into storage here. The full capabilities of these ships are a secret for now, and will only be revealed in time of need."

  "Like tomorrow?" asked Grace.

  "Perhaps."

  We ran on for another twenty minutes, where we were outside of scanner range from the jump point, or any ship on a line from the planet, and I gave it another five minutes to be sure.

  "George, I have the con."

  "You take the fun out of everything. You have the con. Sir!"

  "I'll give you a turn, but I get mine first. Advantages of rank."

  He sniffed.

  I looked at both hollo's.

  "Try and stay with me," I said, and threw Sceptre into a downward spiral as if she was a fighter.

  Hammer missed the turn completely, and Orion swe
pt past her to dog my tail. I treated it like a fighter dogfight for a while, and three enormous ships tried to get firing sights on the others. Lacey was in seventh heaven. Bentley was sweating for about half of it, and was suddenly relaxed. At the same time, Hammer became much more aggressive and responsive. I grinned at Bentley, and she shrugged.

  At one point I nodded to Jane, and she yelled at George I was down and the ship was his, and switched control to him before he could get his hands back on. He took it in his stride, and we didn’t do more than a bobble in the switchover. A short time later, with George actually sweating to stay out of Lacey's firing line, I nodded to Jane, and she switched everything to the Helm, yelling at Grace she had command. We dipped badly for a moment, during which we nearly collided with Hammer, and within minutes we had Lacey lined up. At that moment, Jane pulled the same trick on both the other ships, and Hammer was being flown by her second officer, while Orion was being flown by Lacey's XO. Both ships wobbled around for a few minutes before they regained any confidence in their flying skills, during which Grace was merciless in lining them up for the kill over and over again. Lacey's Second also had the chance to fly the ship, and Grace was merciless with her as well.

  Eventually I called a halt. Grace rose from her chair, climbed up on mine, and hugged me. I had to tell George not to do the same.

  "Are we happy with our ships yet?" I asked.

  "Damned right!" came from Lacey and his XO.

  "Bloody Oath," came from George.

  "Yes thank you," came from Gillan.

  Susan just nodded, with a smile on her face.

  "Oh, I don’t know," said Grace. "Can I have a bit more time to figure it out?"

  The CCC burst into laughter, me with them. Lacey was laughing as well. But he sobered up very smartly, and told his two pilots they would be getting in some training time on the simulators later in the day. Grace after all, had whipped them, and she was the most junior of those who'd had the helms on all three ships.

  The wonder was, we'd only once come anywhere near colliding, while throwing these gigantic boxes around like fighters.

  "While we're sitting here recovering," said Susan, "is there any reason why Hammer's avatar is so strange?"

  I looked at Jane. She looked sheepish.

  "How so?" I asked.

  "Actually," interjected Lacey, "I was going to ask the same thing."

  "Why?" I demanded.

  Two more hollo's popped up. On the left was a claw hammer with arms and legs, the face on the hitting surface the only part which looked like a person. On the right was a dog. It was man sized, with a collar around its neck, on which was hung a globe from which bright light poured out. I choked. There were gasps from around the CCC, and quite a few chuckles.

  "JANE!" I yelled at her.

  "Spoilsport," she muttered, and the twins lost it completely.

  The hammer turned into Thor. Not the one from the nineteen hundreds comics, but from the original flat screens, complete with cape. The dog turned into a scantily clad female with green skin. The twins fell out of their chairs, and began rolling around on the deck. Most of the rest were laughing as well, but I'm not sure they were aware of the full implications.

  "Jane!" I said again in a warning tone.

  The scanty cladding turned into 'slinky red'. I looked at her, and then shook my head. It was after all her body, just coloured differently.

  "You do understand the green?"

  She nodded.

  "And someone tells me I watch too much Sci-Fi," I muttered.

  "I'm not sure I understand the green," said Lacey.

  "TOS," said Dick solemnly.

  "Toss?" asked Lacey.

  "TOS. Capital T.O.S." I spelt. "Get Orion to show you over dinner."

  "Fine," he said. "What's next boss?"

  "Space Commodore, send your pilots to their ships please. Battle simulation."

  "Aye sir. All pilots to your ships. Battle stations. This is a drill."

  "Lacey, once ready to launch, don’t launch them. Send them to defense station positions."

  "Defense station positions, aye sir."

  He nodded in the direction of his XO, who started issuing orders to the squadron leaders. It took five minutes before the word came back they were all in position. It was faster than I expected, but all the same, five minutes if you were ambushed was an eternity. He'd need to do better. I pinged him the suggestion, and he readily agreed.

  "Orion, Battle mode please."

  "Confirmed."

  Vids popped up showing doors opening around the sides of Orion's Belt, revealing her multiple Flight Decks. Dotted around were turrets and launchers of all sizes. More of the vids popped up showing the topside, where a thousand doors opened to reveal a ship sitting behind each. Decking moved, and the front end of each ship moved out into space enough for all weapons to be clear for firing. Between the bays were Cruiser, Destroyer, Corvette, and Point Defense turrets, and all the usual launchers. On the tactical display, I could see her shields were well away from the hull, so there was no danger to any of the ships now protruding out from it.

  Orion rolled the ship over, so all those fighters and guns, were now pointing at us.

  "Hey, point that thing somewhere safe," said BA.

  "Orion, please do so, then have all the ships do a test fire of guns only."

  Orion turned, but only far enough to avoid hitting us or Hammer, and she opened fire. A blinding amount of fire poured from Orion, merging into a jump point sized cone of destruction, at about the normal distance we usually were from a jump point in past defenses.

  There was complete silence as everyone took in the sight.

  "Cease fire," I said.

  "Ouch," said Dick.

  "Commodore, I left instructions about missiles on ships. Were they followed?"

  "They were sir."

  "Orion, test replenishment please."

  "Confirmed."

  More vids popped up to replace the outside ones, these ones being in the launch shafts. Doors opened, and cargo droids emerged. Some were carrying individual missiles which they attached to empty hard-points, and others were carrying reloads for missile and torpedo launchers.

  "All ships successfully reloaded," said Lacey, when all the droids had vanished again.

  "You may stand your ships down, Commodore."

  Lacey nodded to his XO again, and more orders were given. The same cams we'd been watching before, now showed each ship slide back fully into its launch tube, the outer door closing, and the ship begin to hover. Large cargo droids came out of the side doors, and pulled the ships back to their ready points. On the outside of the ship, turrets and launchers vanished, and the Flight Deck doors closed.

  I turned to Jane.

  "Jane and Orion, make the Hammer."

  "Confirmed."

  Orion began turning to face away from Sceptre. As soon as she was stopped again, Jane brought Sceptre in on Orion's underside, dead in the middle. There was a slight vibration through the ship, as the hulls touched, and both grav sleds and docking latches joined both ships securely. Both sets of shields formed a single shield around both ships.

  I nodded to Jane. Our engines fired, and we began to push Orion sideways in front of us. A vid popped up showing us why I'd used the code name Hammer, since that’s sort-of what we looked like. Not exactly Mjolnir, but with a longer handle, and a much wider, flatter, pounding bit.

  "How fast can you get us?" I asked Jane.

  "Let's see," she replied.

  Speed built up much more slowly than without the load, but it rose very quickly all the same.

  "Hammer, better follow us at a distance."

  "Roger that," said Gillan.

  As it happened, our top speed maxed out about the same as Relentless was able to do without Gunbus boosting her speed.

  "All stop."

  Slowing was still almost instantaneous, which when you thought about it, was better not thought about.

  "Detach an
d move to a safe distance," I said to Jane.

  "Confirmed."

  We didn’t feel anything as the ships separated.

  "Hammer and Orion, make the Hammer please."

  "Aye sir," said Bentley, and she nodded to Gillan.

  Hammer executed the same maneuver, identically to the way we had. They achieved the same speed, stopped and separated.

  "Sceptre and Hammer to Battle mode please."

  "Confirmed."

  Jane brought up a series of vids, showing turrets rising up out of every plane of the ship except the rear, and launchers appearing in every available space between them.

  "Holy Hell!" exclaimed Dick, George, and Lacey at the same time.

  "Exactly," I said in Cheshire cat mode.

  Bentley was speechless. She'd seen the display image. She'd looked at the specs, and she was still speechless.

  "Those are not Battleship turrets, are they?"

  Grace sounded awed.

  "No. If you look closely, you'll see Battleship turrets on the Titan turrets."

  Jane sent some cams in for closer looks. The size of the main turrets became more apparent, when compared to the smaller turrets on them, which were in fact Battleship turrets. Those turrets had smaller turrets on them.

  "Jon, only in a desperation war would you be allowed to build a ship like this. Even if you were a dark emperor, you wouldn’t be allowed to build something like this. Fiction be damned, it wouldn’t be allowed."

  I think Dick was shocked. I could see why. I’d been shocked when I first saw the original design. But we needed the firepower, and I wished I'd had it long before now.

  "You think so?" I grinned.

  "I know so. You’d be hunted down and destroyed at all costs, by every military there was."

  "Why do you think they were built in secret, and everything hides when not in use?"

  "Good point."

  "Jon, what are we looking at?"

  I think Annabelle was shocked as well. I looked around and they all were. Both Bentley and Lacey were looking at me the same way, and obviously also wanting an explanation.