I sighed. I should have been thankful I was alive, but I wasn’t sure why I was. But there was one thing bugging me.
"Sir? How come the fleet came after me?"
He laughed.
"Well now, we had a stroke of luck. The CAG and I were trying to get the Admiral to move the fleet to support you, but he was adamant. Worked himself up so bad, he actually had a stroke. Left me in command, and I got us moving. Probably saved your life too. They tell me you were only minutes from death when the SR bird got yours on board and down the lift. Had we not been as close as we were, we'd have been down yet another pilot."
"I guess you are anyway."
"Possibly. But heroes have options, where crash victims don’t. Just concentrate on getting well, and we'll see what the options are when you’re back on your feet. Yorktown is heading home for that refit we should have had last year. So no shuttle ride this time, you get a carrier ride instead."
"What about the German fleet? Won't they need us?"
He sighed.
"Well, they don’t tell us everything. Our job was to meet whatever advance force they were sending, and to delay it if we could. Thanks to you, we did our job. When we down jumped into Jamaica, we found the first elements of a battle fleet. Intelligence thinks they sent one of their own, and we’ve been trying to get everything we can here to meet it. Midway was sent in to reinforce us, and instead managed to save us. There were three battleships at the jump point when we came through, along with Lexington and Hornet. Midway is scouting to give us warning, and has orders to fall back without being seen. As far as I can see, there'll be another two Midway class here by then, and we already passed a cruiser squadron and another battlewagon."
He looked wistful for a moment. I didn't say anything.
"I'm sorry to be missing this fight. But they want us in the nearest shipyard for a refit, on the theory this war is only just starting, and another upgraded carrier needs to be ready before we can go on the offensive. Hornet won't be making that trip, she's older than Yorktown is. In fact, I thought they mothballed her. Anyway, we have our orders."
He stopped and smiled.
"On that note, the CAG has orders to leave you alone. You did the only thing you were trained to do, and if it trashed his ship in the process, then so be it. Speaking of trashing things, the rest of the pilots were transferred to Lexington as we went past. Thumper was furious she wouldn’t be here when you woke up, and had to be bodily forced back into her fighter. She sent you a vid after she landed over there. The docs will let you see it, when they think you're ready for it. Your job is done. At least for now, so the only thing you need to worry about is getting well again."
He saluted me, which wasn’t appropriate without a hat on, and in a sickbay. I appreciated the gesture though.
He nodded and left, leaving me to drop back into sleep. When I woke again, I found I could move, albeit painfully. The doc came and went, and eventually my nurse sat me up. I had mail in the inbox, as well as reports. The damage to the CAG's bird made me flinch, which hurt. The SAR crew report also made me flinch. Apparently the emergency life support did switch on, and I was breathing just fine, or as well as you could with one lung, but the rest of me was giving out.
The vid from Thumper was short.
"They tell me you're going to live. You better. We have a war to fight. But after that stunt you pulled, we're changing your call-sign."
She paused, and gave me a wicked grin.
"Get well Bunny Hop!"
Acknowledgements
Thanks go to –Jeff- for the cover of this book, and the ship design used on it.
A Message to my Readers
This was my second attempt at writing a short story for an Anthology, and it was published in The Expanding Universe, volume 4. (The first attempt didn’t get beyond the first chapter, but is there on my list of things to complete.)
I love writing fighter battles. Maybe you can tell, maybe not. And it was interesting to fill out a little bit of Hunter Legacy history.
If you have enjoyed this book, I hope you will take the time to leave a review on the Amazon site. All reviews are greatly appreciated, as they help assist purchasing decisions by other readers.
Sales and reviews help me to focus on my next challenge. In the time frame of this series, being both two years in book time, and two years of real time, I've changed into a full time writer. As such, sales pay my bills, and my ability to continue writing is dependent on sales of this series, and what comes after.
As well as individual book reviews, I hope you will visit the Amazon series page, and leave a series review. The series page can be accessed from any book page.
I thank you for your support, and hope you will continue to read the next book in this series.
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Timothy Ellis
Also by Timothy Ellis
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The Hunter Legacy Timeline
Approx. 3100 years before Hero to the End
Yesterday's Spacemage (chapter one)
Tomorrow's Spacemage
646 years before Hero to the End
The Long Road to Gaia
102 years before Hero to the End
One Last Battle (a short story)
82 years before Hero to the End
Yesterday's Spacemage
Today's Spacemage
Tomorrow's Spacemage
2 Years before Hero to the End
Hero at Large
Hunted Hero Hunting
Send in the Hero
Make or Break the Hero
Hail the Hero
Burnside's Killer
Hire a Hero
Jane's Christmas
Hero to the Rescue
Hero at the Gates
The Long Road to Gaia
1 Year before Hero to the End
Home is Where the Hero Is
Hero in Darkness
Hero to the End
Here be a time line shift.
Immediately after Hero to the End (Gaia galaxy)
Admiral of Gaia
Kingdom of Hunter's Run
Snark's Quest
Destiny Stone
Talisman of Tomorrow
Leader of Sector Ten
Immediately after Hero to the End (Earth galaxy)
Crossover
Hunter's Terminus
Reaper's Crossroad
Blind into the Breach
The Legend of Dreamwalker *forthcoming*
Imperator *forthcoming*
The Hunter Legacy Universe Series in the order written:
The Hunter Legacy
A.I. Destiny
The Spacemage Chronicle
The Hunter Imperium
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One Last Battle Page 3
