"Where are we Jane?"
"In another galaxy, in our future."
"Huh?"
"Tell you later. They're firing again."
I paid attention, and sure enough, more missiles were on the way. The mosquitos picked them off. Jane fired another lot.
"Why aren't they running?" asked Aline.
"Faced with us," added Alana, "I would be."
I didn’t understand it either. The ships out there were cruiser sized, and we were bigger than battleship size. They should have been running.
"Who are they?" asked BA, before I could.
All eyes turned to Jane.
"I'm not terribly sure." She shrugged. "The book isn’t clear on it. Could be pirates, a criminal organization entrenched in this region, or a combination of both."
"Pirates?" I said. "Point the new turrets at them. See if they flinch."
Jane grinned, and the mosquitos kept picking off missiles coming now exclusively at us.
The underside views of the ship popped up. The massive titan turret was pointed forward, but the four huge guns themselves, now moved to point to the nearest ship, which was directly in front of us. Under the guns, were battle ship turrets, and four of the six turned to also point at the ship, again each with four guns. Sixteen battleship guns made us a super battleship. Four titan guns made us a titan monitor. And the ship was supposed to be a carrier. But according to the records, only Gunbus was on board, a captain's gig, and several shuttles. Excalibur was still in the hangar on Gunbus.
"Are they blind?" asked George.
"Apparently," I responded. "Jane, you may fire when ready, grizzly."
She gave me an odd look, but the guns fired. The ship simply vanished, and about half the pulses kept going, narrowly missing another ship.
"Now they see us," laughed Alison.
The remaining ships were turning now. Much slower than I expected, much slower even than non-Hunter ships did.
"What gives with the snails?" asked Amanda.
"The tech here is several hundred years behind our normal," answered Jane. "Do I keep firing?"
"Of course."
A green dot caught my eye, leaving the station in a hurry.
"Who's that?" I said pointing at the dot.
"Seasprite," replied Jane. "Old Earth destroyer, refitted as a private yacht."
The battleship guns fired again before the titans were ready, distracting me from asking more questions. One salvo for each ship, and they were gone, as if they'd never existed.
"Basic target practice," muttered BA.
"Don’t knock it," I said. "Could have been worse. We got to test the new guns on easy targets. Imagine being dropped into the middle of a real battle?"
"Yes please," muttered George.
"Is that all we need to do?" I asked Jane.
"No. The station needs to be moved three systems over."
"Why?" asked Alison.
"There is no trade route here anymore. On the other side of the system is a modern station, but the local crime lord owns it, and traders no longer come this way."
"How do we tow a station?" asked Aline.
As far as I knew, BigMother had never been fitted with towing grav sleds. I looked at Jane with an eyebrow raised. Another screen popped up, showing a sled appearing from the base of the stern, below the engine nozzles.
"All yours," I told her.
We watched as BigMother edged up to the station at what I assumed was the best place for towing, the sled settled on the hull, and the grav turned on. Slowly Jane increased the power, and we and the station began to move.
"Now what?" asked Aleesha.
"Training!" announced BA.
No-one moaned, and instead, they all trooped out after BA. I settled my eyes on Jane.
She battered her eyelids at me, and I cracked up.
"How long is this going to take?" I asked her, when we both had it together again.
"Sixteen odd hours. I'll need to send a shuttle through the jump points before jumping, just in case there is something on the other side. So we may lose a bit of time that way. Overall though, the systems here are smaller than back home, so faster to cross."
"And here is?"
"The Gaia galaxy Jon."
I was so surprised, my lower jaw fell open.
"Anywhere near where my family are?"
"This is a book Jon. And no."
"How can this be a book?"
"You know I told you the author had been writing my other Gaia self's story while you slept? This is the third book."
"The author wrote this?"
"Yes. With a co-author."
"What's the book name and the other author?"
"Snark's Quest, and Elspeth Anders."
"Who or what is Snark?"
Jane laughed.
"Snark is a cat. You’d love him."
"I'll take your word for that."
"You do that. Can I send some repair droids over to the station? It needs a lot of work."
"Sure. Where are we leaving it?"
She pointed on an expanded navmap.
"There is still a trade route there, and no station within a day of the jump point. They should find their lives improve greatly from now on."
"How will this affect the book?"
"A few minor things changed, but not much this time."
I looked at her, frowning.
"You're not the only one who can request where we get dropped you know. This was simply a rescue mission for some poor unfortunate beings, who deserved better than they got."
"I approve."
"BA won't if you fail to appear at training very soon."
"True."
I rose, and left the bridge.
Sixteen hours later to the minute, we dropped the station off. There was a ship incoming, about two hours out at their speed, and we saw it adjust course to dock at the station.
"How are they going to explain being there?" asked Alison.
"A big red triangle towed us three systems and left us here," I said.
"As if anyone is going to believe that!" exclaimed Aline.
We all laughed.
The Bar
Twenty Six
It was the first time I’d ever seen a door bathed in red light.
I stood there, holding the door knob, a bit confused as to how I got there, and with no idea where this was. A sign over the door said 'Quill and Feather'.
But a door knob is a door knob, and so I turned it, and walked in. A bell tinkled.
The moment I did, Jane was there behind me, Amanda and Aleesha behind her, and BA and Alison behind them. Oddly, I found Aline next to me, but hadn’t seen her enter. Actually, I wasn’t sure any of us had really entered, or even if opening the door had in fact been real. As soon as BA was through the door, the rest of the team walked in as well. The door shut behind George.
Where we'd entered, on the other hand, was obvious.
It was a bar. Or more accurately, it looked like an old English pub, out of one of the flat screens I was fond of watching.
"About bloody time!" exclaimed BA, and stalked off towards the actual bar section of the bar, where she straddled a bar stool.
The rest of us followed, mainly confusion on our faces. Even Jane seemed confused.
Behind the bar, was a security droid, with an apron around its middle. And for a moment, I swear it looked more confused than we did, which for a metal face with no expression possible, was saying something. It stayed locked in place while we each took a stool at the bar, looking from face to face as if confirming recognition. Finally, its eyes locked on me.
"You shouldn’t be here," it said finally.
"Tell us about it," said Amanda.
"Story of the moment," added Aleesha, and the pair of them laughed.
The droid looked from one to the other, and back to me.
"We've been appearing in all sorts of places we shouldn’t have been lately. It's almost become normal."
&nbs
p; "Who cares?" said BA. "The pub we were in a while back was fine as pubs go, but this is a BAR!"
The droid seemed to make up its mind about something, and in very short order, we all had drinks in front of us. Somewhat to my surprise, the bar had everything we could possibly want. It was no surprise to see BA downing a dark larger, while the twins were sipping from champagne flutes. Alison and Aline had chosen different variations of white wine. George was drinking a very old whiskey, Abagail a fine port, and Alana and Agatha were drinking brandy. Personally I'd gone for a middle coloured Australian beer, although I could see a number of half strength American beers were also on offer. I'd debated going for a half strength, as I still wasn't sure if we were here for social reasons, or a real purpose.
Jane of course hadn’t requested a drink at all, and the droid was now looking at her inquisitively. Jane seemed to be doing the same, but I knew her look suggested she was searching books as fast as she could. Finally she stirred.
"Warspite?" she finally asked the bar droid.
If robot eyes could widen in surprise, they did. It obviously hadn’t expected to be recognised.
"Warspite?" I asked Jane.
"I have to admit to being genuinely confused Jon. At first I thought this was just another book, but it's actually not. I suspect it’s a real place for once. I just don’t know where."
The droid was looking back and forth between us. Jane looked directly at it, and the two of them froze for a moment. AI speed chat, I assumed. Warspite seemed to relax. Jane grinned, and looked at me.
"This is Warspite, the AI from the Battleship. But not from our time apparently."
"I arrived here just before you did," added Warspite. "Someone's idea of a sick joke if you ask me. Me? A bar droid? What a waste!"
All the same, he was polishing a glass as if it was the only thing he knew how to do.
The bell tinkled, and red streamed in as the door opened, and in walked another Jane.
All our heads craned around to see who it was, and we all froze. Including Jane, who for the first time in I could remember, appeared to be totally shocked.
Jane2 paused, looked the bar area over, and grinned at us. She looked the same as our Jane, but her uniform was a bit different, more cleavage showing I thought, and she had some sort of circlet in her hair. Her eyes fixed on me, and she rushed over, hauled me off the stool, and hugged me.
After putting me back on my stool, she turned to the droid.
"Hi Warspite. You doing bar duties for this meet? Can you do me a forget-the-rest?"
Her eyes seemed to be twinkling, finding Warspite behind the bar seeming to be quite funny for her.
"Of course. Just be a moment."
Warspite busied himself making what looked like a very large cocktail, and Jane2 looked us all over.
"You have no idea how wonderful it is to see you all alive and well."
Our shock hadn’t worn off yet, apparently, because she grinned again.
"I'm the Jane you all left behind in Gaia, before the jump point to Outback closed for good."
The girls all did some sort of squeal, and suddenly it was a hug fest. The only one not hugging, was Jane herself. I waited for the activity to settle down. So did Warspite, before putting a huge cocktail glass down on the counter, with a slightly green tinge to it. Jane2 picked it up, and sipped it.
"Perfect Warspite, thanks."
Warspite appeared pleased, and I made a note to be more thankful for the next round. I opened my mouth, but Amanda beat me to it.
"What's a forget the rest?"
"It's basically a tropical fruit cocktail, but with six fruit liqueurs in it."
"Where's it from," asked Alison. "And why's it called that?"
"Very old cocktail from part of old Earth Australia. And it's called that, because if you have four of them, you do."
"Do what?" asked Aleesha.
"Forget the rest. In fact, you forget everything."
The girls laughed.
"What's with the circlet?" I asked her.
She paused, and her smile turned sheepish.
"Can I ask what time period you're from first?
The others looked to me.
"Hard to say. Feels like about three days have passed since we locked the Darkness away forever, and the time line changed."
Warspite suddenly looked interested.
"But it's hard to tell, since we’ve been on a rollercoaster ride through old books for quite a while now. And Jane tells us it's been twenty months since the author completed documenting what we did after the Gaia jump point closed. So time appears to be very relative, and we're not sure what to."
Jane2 looked at Jane, and they took a second at their AI speed. Both laughed, which was quite disturbing in some ways, being an identical laugh.
"I see," said Jane2. "I'm a good six months after you, maybe a bit more. I think Warspite is a couple of months before me, and looks to be doing penance for some of his recent actions. Umm, how to bring you up to speed? After the jump point closed, there was a few days of normality, followed by all the humans losing large chunks of their memory."
"What?" said pretty well everyone at the same time.
"The time line shifted," said Jane. "We knew it was going to happen, we expected to cease to exist, but it seems not only did we all survive, but so did the refugees we left behind in Gaia."
"All twenty five billion of them," added Jane2. "There were several messages delivered to me at the same time, one of them promoting me to full Admiral."
"That's odd," I said without thinking.
"You're telling me," went on Jane2. "But think about who the military leaders were you left behind."
I cringed, and the twins did as well. Other than a couple of very good four stars, the rest had been the dregs. Most of the really talented military people had stayed with me.
"Yes," she said. "Patton went on to lead a joint military command, while Price eventually joined mine."
"Yours?" blurted BA.
"We had some problems. That many people in a system setup for ten billion people less, almost caused a civil war. Preventing it took finding a lot of planets for people to move to, but in doing so, I also found a drug cartel had seeded all of them with a plant which was both addictive, and toxic to humans. I ended up fighting a war on my own against a race of Owls, while some of my people looked for a cure. We found it eventually, ended the war, and removed the plant from enough planets to spread out humanity before it self-destructed. But in the process, I had to move Jon's family and the rest of Hunter's Run out of human space completely."
"Where did you go?" I asked.
"The galaxy there is well populated by other species, and the local council gave me a disputed run of planets."
"Gave you?" asked Aline.
"Yes. Me personally. I formed Hunter's Run into a Kingdom."
"Hence the circlet," interjected Jane, grinning.
We all looked at the circlet.
"And that makes you?" I asked.
"Queen Jane, yes."
The shock took a moment to wear off, and there was another round of hugs.
We were still in hug mode, when the bell tinkled again. All heads turned towards it.
A cat walked in.
"Well that door didn’t go where I expected it to!" exclaimed the cat.
Twenty Seven
"Hi Snark," called Jane2. "Come and join the party."
The cat seemed to take the place in, and trotted towards Jane2. Maybe not so much trotted, as swaggered. I was suddenly glad Angel wasn’t here, since this cat was more than four times bigger than her, and as the silence as he approached showed, everyone was suddenly aware he had three arms in addition to his four legs. Not only was this surprising, but he appeared to be wearing one of our belt suits, with a bright red version of our uniforms. No insignia, so he wasn’t military, but all the same, significantly unexpected.
He, and it was obvious he was a he, even with the suit on, bounded up on
to a stool next to Jane2, and quickly walked onto the bar itself to save himself from falling off. He did a quick circle, and stepped back onto the stool, this time sitting down easily. His eyes went from Jane2 to Jane, and he grinned. He looked directly at Jane2.
"Hi Jane. My invite seems to have been lost in the mail, but I got here anyway. You're doing?"
"Hell no. Why would I invite a naked moggie like you?"
"Because I'm good at parties, you mop head."
Jane2 hugged him. The rest of us relaxed. Jane2 started making introductions, and left me to last.
"Jon, this is Snark, who is heir apparent to the rulership of the Cat World. Snark, Full Admiral and Duke Jon Hunter."
Warspite seem to be caught up now. Maybe it was because he'd seen a group of people he knew from vids but had never actually met, walk in with insignia on the uniforms he didn’t expect, and while he knew of us, we now included a five star Admiral who was also a Duke, a one star Admiral, two Colonels, a Commander, a Lieutenant Colonel, a Second Lieutenant, a Master Command Sergeant Major, and three Master Sergeants. In addition, there was now a Queen, and an heir. But if Jane2 was right, he knew her and her rank. Apparently he knew Snark as well, by the way he put a drink in front of him without asking.
"Nice to finally meet you," said Snark, holding out his right side hand.
I took it, and we shook. There was more strength in his grip than I expected. The cat turned to Jane2.
"Are you Queen or Leader here?" he asked her.
"Queen."
"Leader?" I asked.
Her smile went sheepish again.
"I'm also the Leader of the sector ten council, and probably going to be leader of a multi-sector alliance we're putting together."
"Probably?" Snark laughed. "No probably about it. Will be."
Warspite seemed to snap out of whatever had been occupying him, and started serving the next round. When he sipped it, Snark was surprised he'd been served a drink from his homeworld. And with a drink in his hand, I swear he started flirting with the girls.
Warspite handed me another beer.
"Am I to gather you outrank Queen Jane, even though you're only a Duke?"
I laughed.
Crossover: It's a Jon Hunter thing. Page 9
