“Hmmm. Anything I need to be aware of?”
“Well there was this.”
This turned out to be a vid. Three Excaliburs were obviously passing under Monty or some other larger ship, in a line abreast formation. Nothing unusual there. Suddenly the middle one slowed, making the other two pull ahead, and its rear grav sled popped out. Immediately everything loose on the ground below was pulled up to the sled, including rocks, dead branches, and madly flailing Trixone.
The other two swung around, formed up again, and also extended their sleds. They adjusted distance apart so as not to cover the same ground, and the three of them shot across a concentration of moving plants, grabbing all of them, and more, until the sled was becoming a burden. Together they shot up to three thousand meters, and the sleds released everything. Debris and flailing plants rained down across a wide area, but nothing moved after it hit the ground and stopped bouncing.
The birds returned to just above the ground, and did it again. The vid ended.
“It’s proving much more effective than just trying to shoot everything which moves.”
“I bet. Anyone think of getting salvage droids down there to do the same?”
“Jane had them down there as fast as she could get them there. Unassailable even went down into the atmosphere to release most of her spare ones.”
I nodded.
“General Hobbs arrive?”
“He did. Along with the two SAS teams. He met with the local governor, and spoke to the Keerah general you were talking to. He’s in an office on the station now.”
“What was decided? Anything?”
“Well, the tigers are still here. Apparently the local governor did a walk to Terminus station, met with some Imperium bigwigs, consulted more with the Keerah general, and came back. So while there’s been no announcement yet, the assumption is they’re staying.”
“Any idea how they’re going to secure the system? We’re not in fighting trim at the moment, and while Shenaid might be able to do the same thing we did with Unassailable, it would be a lot trickier to do.”
Unassailable had no life support. So the mage would have to be on another ship, maybe docked internally. I guessed it could be done. Maybe with a Lightning.
“I guess we’ll find out in due course.”
Which of course, we did.
The pilots came back just before lunch time, flight by flight so as to stagger their landings on the rear elevators only. I met them down on the maintenance deck, and while they seemed cheerful, they looked a lot like I felt.
After the last of the Excalibur pilots arrived, I went up to deck zero to greet the destroyer and corvette pilots, who were also docking.
“You broke the bloody ship,” yelled a British voice, and I turned from greeting Corbin to find Eric Neilson bearing down on me, looking thunderous.
I held up both hands palm out in an ‘I surrender’ pose, and he stopped short of knocking me over, grinning at me instead. Behind him, Jessie Ball was laughing, presumably at my expression. Vulture stepped up next to Eric.
“Actually,” said Eric, “I don’t understand how you got off so lightly. If I’d tried to pull that stunt, the ship would be in smaller pieces than those Trixone fleets.”
“Same for me,” added Vulture. “You do realize of course you warranted a call sign change with what you did?”
“Why? I just pointed the ship at each target and pulled the trigger. Shenaid did all the hard work.”
“You’ve got to be kidding. Sir. The only reason you’re not getting a call sign change is the two appropriate ones are already taken.”
“Which ones?” asked Jessie, who’d joined us, now with Knüppel as well.
“Chaos and Maniac,” said Vulture. “What else?”
“I don’t know,” said Knüppel. “I was thinking Madman myself.”
I looked at her, but she appeared to be serious. At least until the lot of them burst into laughter, and left me standing there as they headed down to the mess. Having missed the corvette pilots, I followed along behind.
Lunch was high spirited, and nothing at all was said about call sign changes.
Although I did hear the word ‘legend’ bandied around a few times, and felt very uncomfortable.
Forty Three
Everyone went back to bed after lunch.
And I mean everyone. For once, no-one was in the simulators, no-one was playing games. Everyone crashed out, including me. I managed a long cat nap, and headed back to the bridge
Jane was in her normal seat beside Claymore, and they both nodded to me as I came in and sat. Nothing much had changed, except the main continent below was dark. There were enough troops now to form a stable front line around the liberated city, and the civilians were now walking back from the caves in a long line, with some small vehicles among them.
Repairs were still ongoing, but the more I looked at the shattered front end, the more I could see we needed a shipyard. I suppose given time Jane could put the ship back together, but I didn’t think we’d get that time. If anything, we were due for the next fleet of plants to come through. Although for now, the next systems were still showing clear as far in as we could see.
“We have orders,” Jane suddenly announced.
“From the Imperator?”
“Who else?”
“What miracle do we need to pull off now?”
She gave me a long silent look. Okay, that comment probably showed I needed to talk to someone of the shrink variety. One would need to do house calls though, and I couldn’t see that happening.
“We’ve been ordered to Haven Shipyard as soon as we can get there.”
It took me a moment to process.
“I was right. That is a miracle. Are we getting relieved?”
“Unassailable is staying here for now. The destroyers and corvettes go with Claymore.”
“I wouldn’t call that being relieved.”
“What about these?” interrupted Claymore.
Two screens popped up, both showing rifts with stations coming through.
“Are those…?”
“Battlestations, yes.” Jane was being serious. “Negotiations with the Keerah have progressed. We don’t have a non-aggression treaty yet, but they’ve agreed the Trixone are a much bigger threat, and are in the process of removing fleets from adjacent to our space to where they can block the Trixone advances near Imperium space.”
“So we’re getting the battlestations which were on their frontiers?”
“Just one from each. The Imperator put three on each frontier jump point, and while two is a risk, it frees up two for each jump point here. If anything gets past them, Unassailable should be able to mop them up.”
“It still spreads us thin.”
“Thinner, yes. But the station battleship guns had another upgrade a few days ago. Someone’s suggestion to a mage to try duplicating crystals resulted in a lot of mages being tasked with trying. Shenaid isn’t the only one to have advanced what she can do now. And the extra crystals in the battlestations, along with some gun buffer upgrades, allows them to fire more pulses now before recharge is needed. So two stations are now as effective as three.”
“Are our ships getting the upgrades as well?”
“As they can get back to Haven. We’ll get our upgrade as soon as we get there.”
“How soon before we can leave?”
“Give me a few minutes to get the repair and builder droids inside, and the salvage droids on their way back to Unassailable.”
I watched as the second battlestations came through the rifts, and tugs moved them into positions guarding the jump points. The rifts remained until the tugs detached, and went back through them, after which they vanished.
A head popped up in hollo form on the console. It was General Hobbs.
“Commander, I hear you’re leaving us?”
“Apparently general. I just heard. A shipyard beckons.”
“Good luck where you’re sent next. You did fine work h
ere, and I’ll see the job is finished. I’m sure there’s a crisis point somewhere where they need you more than I do now.”
“Thanks sir. But what I need now is some decent training in how to be a senior officer.”
He laughed. Still laughing, he saluted me, gave me time to return the salute, and was gone. I shook my head wondering what that was about. Jane and Claymore were both smiling, and continued after I glared at them.
A rift opened in front of the ship, and I did a finger point forwards with my right hand. Claymore nudged us through.
On the other side I found we were not only in Haven system, but very close to the shipyard. But instead of one big shipyard, there were now two. One had grown exponentially since I’d last been here only twelve days earlier. The other was smaller.
Orbiting the small shipyard were what looked like three brand new Scimitars. Their names were AMS Endeavour, AMS Beagle, and AMS Pelican. Only they looked odd. A channel opened, and a head popped up on the console.
“Commander,” said John Slice, grinning. “I’d like my two pilots back now, if you please.”
“Not my call. I’ve no doubt they’ll want to rejoin the AMS, but it’s above my pay grade.”
“Don’t worry Commander. You’ll get replacement pilots before you’re out of the yard. The Imperator knows the importance of what we do. I’ve seen what you can do with a Scimitar class ship, and decided they were a better design for exploring. It’s had a few tweaks, and since Eric has flown one already, I need him back to take over one of mine. I have no doubt Jessie can handle the other one.”
The destroyer and corvette ship AI’s had begun undocking from Claymore, and moving off towards smaller repair bays. They all needed some work of one kind or another, and hopefully were all getting the new shield and gun upgrades as well.
“What did you do to the design?”
“We ripped out the launch tubes completely, along with everything from the flight deck down.”
Which explained the odd look. There were no launch tubes at all, and not even a front flight deck opening. Instead, I could see one long open bay on the side facing me, not unlike a long thin version of what Unassailable had, except apparently without doors.
I stepped up, found cams on the small shipyard, and looked closely. I could see into the bowels of the ships themselves, where there were docking points for the three Gunbus class corvettes, spare docking points, and rack after rack of Brawler drones, all set up for rapid launching. There were also a number of racks of what looked like a drone version of Excalibur fours. It looked like about two thirds of the ship had been gutted to make way for just drone racks.
Apricot One was docked inside Endeavor, Nascaspider in Pelican, and Tag’Em in Beagle. It made sense to me, as I knew the historical aspects, at least in the basics. Endeavor had been Cook’s ship, and I think Slice saw himself as a similar mold of man. Pelican had been Drake’s original ship name, and Drake was more in line with how I saw Eric. Jessie I wasn’t so sure of, but she wasn’t military, and neither was Darwin.
I stepped down again.
“How do they compare with your old cruiser?”
“Each one carries more drones than Blossom does, so we’ll be able to scout three adjacent systems at the same time now, and do it a lot safer than before. In time I’ll get something dreadnought sized built, but it’ll have to wait until the Imperium needs are done. Bob isn’t going to build anything bigger than a Scimitar in his civilian shipyard.” Popup reminder, Bob Derr, shipyard manager. “I only wish I could employ some mages to do rifts for me. Do you know any I can approach?”
He grinned.
“No sir, I don’t.”
“Didn’t think so. Maybe they’ll get this jump drive idea working and I’ll have those installed.”
“Is someone actually working on it?”
“Yeah. It was discussed in mage circles, more or less dismissed as impossible, and then some kid said he knew how to do it. He was able to demonstrate on a very small scale, enough so a master mage took the project on officially. I’ve not heard any more, but I live in hope. The ability to jump out of trouble would be a major advantage to exploring work, given how dangerous the galaxy is now.”
“That it would, even for combat ships. I think your pilots are still asleep, but I’ll have Jane get them moving your way.”
“No hurry. We’re still fitting out internally. Eric can have a couple of days with his family on Haven, and I’ll drop by and discuss things with him tomorrow. I’ll see you at dinner tonight.”
He waved, and the channel closed, before I shifted gears to wonder what dinner he was talking about.
Claymore was easing into her repair bay now.
“What dinner?” I asked.
Jane tapped her nose.
I was the last to leave, after everyone was woken by Claymore, and told to move out.
Shenaid opened a rift over to Haven, we all walked over, and went our separate ways. I stepped into a travel car, intending to wait out the couple of hours before the ‘dinner’ in my own apartment. But when I stepped out again, I knew this wasn’t the right place. Before I could turn, an arrow send me down a corridor I’d never been on before, and led me to a door. It opened.
“Howdy stranger,” said Grace, grinning at me.
Forty Four
The dinner was a floor up.
I quickly found out Grace had a full suite to herself in the Imperator’s tower. This was quickly followed by her throwing me down on her bed, where a cat jumped on top of me. I was introduced to Gingernut, who soon moved to an adjoining cat tree, where he hung upside down, and watched us bonk. The whole cat watching thing was bizarre enough in itself, but me being able to watch the cat watching me, and both of us not being right side up a lot of the time, took the sublime to the ridiculous. I don’t think Grace noticed, but Nut certainly did. What was it about me that fascinated cats?
The Imperator’s private digs were bigger than a ballroom, and the entire ceiling was station glass, offering an incredible view of the cosmos. Grace and I were running late for reasons which shouldn’t need explaining. We were both in dress uniforms, as was almost everyone else in the room. The few who weren’t, turned out to be politicians I knew by name, but not by sight, and diplomats from a number of species including several Keerah and Ralnor, who were doing their best to stay as far away as possible from each other.
John Slice, Eric, and Jessie, along with what looked like wives for two of them, and Blossom crew, were also there, as was a large rotund man a popup told me was Bob Derr.
The rest were all military, but some of them were from Imperium members who I now knew had ships and troops in combat areas.
Along one wall was a row of cat trees, and I saw several on there I’d not ever seen before. The Imperator’s cat wasn’t there. But a black one and a darker Siamese were. While I watched, a butler carried a cat cage in, and Nut joined the two on the tree, and the three of them started licking each other.
Grace saw me looking, and her tongue did a licking motion in my direction. Fortunately, we were interrupted before that became embarrassing.
“Chris!”
I turned to find my Aunt Susan approaching, with Marshall Bigglesworth behind her. She didn’t give me time to say anything, but seized me in a bear hug. It was good to see her. After she released me, I shook the hand the marshall was offering. They both nodded to Grace, with my aunt actually looking happy to see me with someone.
“Where did you two come from?” I asked.
“Evening off. Things have quietened down a bit today, so the Imperator allowed us to hand over to our XO’s for the evening, and join in this shindig.”
“Do you know what it’s for?”
The marshall seemed to find this funny, and Aunt Susan grinned as well.
“You should know,” she said. “You started it.”
“Started what?”
We were interrupted by a rift forming behind the small stage. All heads turned
to see who was coming, and team one stepped through, including General Smith. They started greeting people.
“Good to see you Commander,” said a voice behind me, and I turned to find Fleet Captain Murdock had joined us. “You look comfortable with that mask now. It’s working for you?”
“Really well, thanks.”
“Glad to hear it. Did I hear right that the jump drive suggestion was yours?”
“Apparently. I said something I don’t remember now, and it seems to have taken on a life of its own.”
“That happens with AI’s hanging on your every word.”
He was chuckling.
“So I gather. What’s your interest? Sir.”
“Call me George. Everyone does. This rank thing is something I can do without. We never paid much attention when it was just the alpha team. I’m the go to tech tester. So if they do get a prototype working, it’ll most likely be me doing the testing. Unless you want the job.”
“Hell no. Give me the production version when it’s proved to work.”
“I thought you might say that. I’ll see you get the first one. I hear your mage stepped up and can do rifts now.”
“Yes. With luck a lot more will learn now too. It’s a huge advantage to be able to randomly move around a battle.”
“I saw. When I grow up, I want to be you.”
My jaw dropped open, and everyone around me started laughing. Once more I was saved from answering.
The Imperator stepped through another rift, accompanied by Jane, the mage Syrinx, a male mage with black skin I recalled seeing at some point, and a Keerah and a Ralnor I’d also seen with the Imperator before. His cat jumped down from his arms, and shot between legs, racing up one of the cat trees to join the other cats up there.
The Imperator moved to the podium, and was joined by David Tollin, who as I understood things, actually ran the Imperium, as well as our little corner of it. I recognized the Imperator’s butler, and then silently groaned when I saw Kat was there as well. They both had trays with little boxes on them.
Hands gripped my arms before I could turn and leave. Grace grinned at me, and silently shook her head. There was no escaping my inevitable doom it seemed.
Legend of Dreamwalker (The Hunter Imperium Book 5) Page 20
