Hunter Legacy 5 Hail the Hero (24 page)

“Jon, this is where it gets really
weird. The instructions were to be opened when word was received of two events
happening close together. Knowledge of the two events was date coded as well,
so we only found out the events were significant on the days they happened. The
first was your being given ownership of Nexus, Bad Wolf and Midnight. The
second was your being appointed Duke by the British Queen.”

“Jon, they knew! There’s no other
explanation. If we ever needed something tangible to say you are entwined with
prophesy, this is it.”

“Only the Keepers know what prophesy
actually is. No-one knows if this is prophesy unfolding, or not. But whatever
the darkness is, I think we can say for certain now, it’s coming. In any case,
when news of you gaining ownership of systems reached Outback, I was called
back to Outback Orbital, as it was another pre-instruction I be here when the
instructions were opened, which happened when we heard you were now a Duke.
Inside, we found the petition to leave the Australian sector, and another one
to join ‘Hunter’s Run’. We didn’t know the name existed until media sources
pointed it out to us when we asked them.”

“Jon, regardless of the Australian
sector’s decision, we are instructed to join your mini-sector immediately. When
the Door opens, the government will defer to you. Effectively, you are the
government of Outback now!”

I stopped it again, and sat there in a
state of total shock.

None of this made any sense at all.

After ten minutes sitting there with a
non-functioning mind, I restarted the vid.

“I’m heading back to Hunter’s Redoubt
as soon as I send this off to you. I used one of your fast freighters, which is
run by your AI, and only has life support in the Bridge area. Not comfortable,
but the fastest way to get about in a hurry. Outback’s administration on
Outback Orbital will handle all contact with the Australian sector government.
My job is to prepare your mini-sector to become an official entity. I’ll do
some options for you to consider, and send them as soon as I can. The faster
you get a structure in place, the better. Until you do, all sorts of things
can’t happen, which need to as soon as possible.”

“I can see you sitting there as
stunned as I was. I’m sorry I don’t have any real answers for you. But I can
pick up one end of the burden for you. I suggest you return to Nexus as fast as
you can get here. Pick me up on your way through. See you then.”

The vid ended, and I just sat there.

Every time I think nothing more can
possibly be done to me, it turns out I’m wrong.

Hooley, bloody, Dooley.

It took me a while to get it together, and
respond to David.

I told him to do whatever he thought was
needed to be done, and I’d be there as soon as I could. I reminded him the
shipyard could build droids, and all he had to do was ask Janine, the AI, to
build what was required. If he needed to source materials, he was to go ahead
and do so. I transferred five hundred million into the Hunter’s Haven account,
as I wondered where the name had come from, since it hadn’t been me naming
either of my stations. For now, it would suffice.

I also transferred one hundred million into
the shipyard account for resources. It was going to need an upgrade at some
point as well. The life support system was completely inadequate for a start,
being manually looked after. Its building systems were far too manual as well.
Before it could function as a modern shipyard, it would need to be modernized.

By eight I’d waded through a lot of bounty
payments, real estate advertisements, porn links, and general junk. One of the
real estate ads informed me for a measly fifty million, I could own my own
island on Gold Coast. I took a moment to look at it properly. It was an
interesting idea. What was a better idea, was renting one to use for a holiday
once I was able to shuck everyone else’s responsibilities I kept having dumped
on me.

Get back to Nexus, start the mini-sector
ball rolling, sit on a beach, and watch the twins skinny dipping. Sounded like
a plan to me.

As if the thought evoked their notice, I
was pinged by Amanda.

“Come down to breakfast, Your
Grace.”

The giggle on the end told me how seriously
she took the title.

I scooted to the access shaft, dropped down
a level, and missed the handrail. I twirled in the air, bounced off the wall,
and dropped like a stone. I regained control only meters up from the Cargo Deck
at the bottom. The scooter bounced, and I shot back up again, once again
missing the Deck Two handrail, and banging my head against the top of the
shaft, before starting down again.

This time I managed to grab the rail on
Deck One, and slide myself out. I leaned against the wall and placed my
forehead against it for a minute.

“Are you coming or not?” pinged
Amanda.

I was really tempted to answer that, but
thought better of it in time.

This time, I scooted down the stairs.

As usual, I was the last person there. I
left my scooter in a corner, and hobbled over to my chair. I’d no sooner sat
down, than a streak of white shot in the door, did a circuit of the room, and
shinned up my left leg to plop down in my lap.

Meow.

There was a general titter of laughter as I
patted the puss.

“Any word on when we can leave
boss?” asked BA.

“Eager to be away are we?” I
asked generally.

There were nods all round. I felt the same.
We’d been here too long, even in spite of me sleeping a lot of it away.

“The Queen is here at ten. Once she
leaves, assuming the Battleship is out of the shipyard by then, we can be off
soon after. By the way BA, I meant to ask how your new toys are.”

“New toys? You mean the combat suits?
Absolutely first rate!”

The grin told me more than the words. There
were nods around the table as well. The pilot’s looked puzzled.

So was I. I hadn’t actually been referring
to the suits.

“Jane,” I subvocalized, “did
we get the special backpacks with the new combat suits?”

“Negative,” she responded through
my PC.

I pinged the local ‘tool man’ to ask about
them. He pinged back immediately saying they’d been harder to do than thought,
and the order had been completed only the night before. I pinged him back I was
sending a shuttle to pick up the order, and asked Jane to send an avatar with
the shuttle.

I pinged the shipyard to find out about the
Battleship. The response was more expansive than I’d anticipated, and made me
realize I’d not checked up on the Guardians before now. All the Guardians were
still at the shipyard, but would be ready to go in about an hour. The
Battleship would be ready by noon.

“Battleship will be out by noon,”
I said into a silent moment. Silent except for the chomping of food. “Give
it an hour to dock all the ships, and assuming Her Majesty is gone by then, we
can be off.”

“Good,” said Annabelle. “Can
I see you after breakfast?”

“Sure, when you’re ready.”

She nodded and went back to eating.

“BigMother will be ready for docking
by noon as well,” said Jane through my PC.

“Ready for docking?” I asked
sub-vocally. “What have you been up to now?”

“I’ve had to make some changes to
allow the Battleship to dock under BigMother. The middle two rear docking pods
needed upgrading to be able to support one battleship instead of two Guardians.
It means Custer won’t be able to dock underneath either. I assumed you still
wanted to be able to dock BigMother at stations, so the Battleship will stick
out the back a ways. The changes to the Battleship included a docking airlock
in the topside, to match the one Custer uses. The Guardians by the way, are
still there because I ordered docking ports on both sides, so they’ll dock with
our Cargo Deck airlocks, and allow another ship to dock on the other side of
them. Between the docking ports is now a life supported corridor, allowing
people to walk through from an outside docked ship. So we dock two to the
sides, and two underneath. The new Gunbus also has a new airlock on her other
side, so she can also dock to both sides.”

“I’m glad you thought about all of
that.”

“Someone had to.”

“True.”

“What’s all the nodding about
boss?” asked BA.

“Jane was updating me with ship
modifications. Oh, BA? After breakfast, take whoever wants to go down to the Launch
Deck with you. There’s an order coming in on a shuttle, which will need
transfer to the Armoury.”

“What sort of order?”

“Some new guns.”

“Do we need more?”

“I thought so.”

“Okay, will do.”

Annabelle met my eyes, and I gave her the
double eyebrow raise. She smiled.

Angel launched herself off my lap and hit
the floor running, shooting out the door, bound who knows where. Maybe she’d
heard her own breakfast being opened or something.

I rose, hobbled over to my scooter,
mounted, looked at Annabelle and nodded, and scooted out. I went up the stairs
this time, rather than risk being found at the bottom of the shaft in a heap.
In my Ready Room, I settled into my chair behind my desk, and carried on with
emails.

Annabelle came in a short time later.

“You want to go collect your other
teams,” I said to her before she could seat herself.

She grinned at me.

“Yes. Can I?”

“Take Custer. It’ll be good experience
for George to captain her for a while. Act like an Admiral for him, but let him
make as many of the decisions as you can, as well as flying the ship. That ship
needs a full Commander as captain, but he hasn’t the experience yet. Maybe this
trip will give him some.”

“I seriously hope not.” We both
grinned. “Who can I take?”

“Abigail and Alison are needed here.
Anyone else who wants to go, can.”

“I’ll find out. Can I take combat
suits in case we need them?”

“Sure. Take what you need. Be a good
test for George if he remembers to make sure Custer has enough food to get you
wherever you need to go and back. Actually, regarding that, I’ll drop some
funds in the ship account in case you need to buy anything. Any idea how long
it’ll take to return to Nexus?”

“Maybe a month, but I won’t know until
I contact each team and find out exactly where they are, and any time
constraints they have if they currently have contracts. I’ve let them run
independently for a while now, so I’ve not been in touch as much as I should’ve.”

“Sounds like the sort of adjustment
you make between being a Colonel, and a General.”

“Very true. Do you want me to continue
to act as a General? I was thinking there wasn’t really much need now the war
is over.”

“I’ll be thinking about roles on the
way home, along with a lot of other things. Now I have my own mini-sector, the
need for a properly organized military is even more important than as a
Mercenary unit. So I can see a permanent role for a General. You may end up
overseeing station security forces as well. There’s only so much an AI and
droids can do as far as interfacing with humans, so we’ll need some security
people. The General could supervise each station security head, as well as the
Colonel in charge of each combat team.”

“Sounds feasible.”

“Are you interested?”

“It comes with the star. I always
wanted the star, so I knew what I was wishing for. Besides, I’m getting too old
for leading troops into battle. Azgard nearly killed me, and I’ve been thinking
about it ever since.”

“Look out for good people to recruit.
You heard the Marshall. They think my role is to bring all the best of the
Mercs under my control. I’ll need you to tell me who they are, and do the
recruiting.”

“Isn’t that a two stars role?”
she said with a laugh.

“Find me a decent one star to lead the
troops into battle, and I might just give you the second one.”

I grinned at her. She grinned back.

“I’ll go tell George to warm up
Custer, and see who else wants to come along.”

I waved her out, and she left. I pinged
Lacey to come see me.

I dropped a million into Custer’s ship
account. If they needed to buy food or ordinance, it should be enough. If they
needed more, then something big would be going down, and I’d probably need to
join them.

Lacey bounded in about fifteen minutes
later.

“Sorry sir. The squadron was out doing
a fly around. We were going stir crazy sitting here doing nothing, so I decided
we should get some flying in, while you were entertaining the Queen.”

Come to think of it, I hadn’t seen them at
breakfast.

“Sorry to call you in. Are the others
still out there?”

“Yes. George is teaching the others
the finer points of the Excalibur.”

“Ah. He’s about to be called in then.
Custer is going off on a mission as soon as the Queen leaves.”

“Should I call them all in?”

“Up to you. But I called you here to
give you orders.”

“Yes sir.”

“I want 266 to fly point for BigMother
on the way home. I’d suggest a V formation on Camel, about half an hour ahead.
Use your discretion though. I want anyone coming towards warned away from us,
and the other side of jump points cleared before we come through. Use your AI
to communicate with Jane, to co-ordinate the jumps. I don’t want a repeat of
that idiot who collided with us on the way here. I want to get home in a hurry,
but we’ll use a cruising speed, not top speed, so it’ll give you time after the
jumps to reestablish a lead zone.”

“We can do that sir. I’d best get the
lads to land then, as we’ll all need to transfer our gear to our ships.”

“Okay, better have them wait until the
Queen departs before you launch again. Get a butler to organize the transfer of
food and drink as well, and make sure you all have more than double you think
is enough. Who knows what may waylay us on the journey.”

“You do seem to have that sort of luck
sir.”

I looked at him to see if he was joking,
but apparently not. I nodded to him.

“I’ll get on with it sir.”

He stood, saluted, and left.