Hunter Legacy 5 Hail the Hero (25 page)

By ten I was standing on my scooter down on
the Launch Deck. The Queen’s shuttle was on its way down. Everyone was here,
but milling about waiting.

BA came up to me, kissed me full on the
lips, and hugged me, scooter and all.

“What was that for?” I asked her
when she let me go.

“I’ve always wanted to be able to use
a Meson Blaster, but it was never feasible to lug around a tripod for it when
you’re running in a combat suit, and without the power unit in the tripod, one
couldn’t be fired. Now I can. Annabelle told me it was your idea, so thank you.
The backpack won’t upset the balance of the combat suit at all, and integrates
so well, the only thing you notice is the power levels being much higher. I
gave it a serious workout. I can carry two Meson Blasters now, while running
flat out, and fire the inbuilt stunners at the same time. Seriously
bad-arse!”

We high fived.

“I was thinking about what would
happen if the team went up against another team with similar equipment. It
seemed like an innovation which would give us an edge. For a while
anyway.”

“That it will.” Her grin was
Cheshire cat level.

The shuttle appeared on the lift.

“Ranks please General,” I said
towards Annabelle.

She barked a command, and everyone formed
up behind me.

A cargo droid pulled the shuttle towards us,
and stopped it so the Queen could step down in front of us. Another cargo droid
pushed a set of stairs into place. The hatch opened, and Queen Liz stepped out,
followed by her entourage. General’s Harriman and Price followed along after,
with aides in tow.

Annabelle looked ready to give another
command, but was beaten to it by the Queen.

“No protocol please,” she said.
“This is a social call, not a state visit.”

“Social call?” I said.

“Yes Your Grace, social call. In fact,
I’m here on false pretenses.” She indicated a lady behind her, who was
carrying a bag. “I’m actually here to make sure you get a proper medical
checkup before you leave, and get yourself into who knows what kind of trouble
next. This is Dr. Whiteman, my personal physician.”

I looked at her dumbfounded. Behind me I
could hear sniggers being suppressed. I looked around sharply, and a sea of
respectful faces stared forwards.

“Come along Your Grace, your quarters
please.” She turned to Annabelle. “Could you give a tour to the rest
of my entourage please?”

“Of course, Your Majesty.” She
looked towards the group, and waved a hand towards the launch bays.

The two General’s came up to me before I
could be hustled away.

“I offered General Price a lift,”
said Walter. “Hope that’s okay.”

“Sure,” I said. “Follow us
up, and pick a VIP suite each which doesn’t have a name on the door. Have a
butler droid bring your stuff up for you. Your aides should be able to find spare
suites further along the deck.”

“Come along YOUR GRACE!” bullied
the Queen.

I scooted towards the access shaft, and
they followed along after. At the shaft, I checked they all knew how to use it,
and gently wafted myself up to the Cargo Deck. I was the first in, and the last
out. But I wasn’t taking any chances with missing the exit rail.

The others boarded a trolley, and I scooted
along next to them. I did think of scooting a different direction, but I
doubted I could hide long enough for it to matter. It was a big ship, but not
that big.

We all made the jump up to Deck Two
successfully, with me again bringing up the rear. The Queen looked to be
enjoying herself.

I waved the Generals on down the passage
way, and entered my suite. The Queen and the doctor followed me in, the doctor
shutting the door behind us.

“Please lock the door,” the
doctor said to me. “I don’t want us being disturbed.”

I did so, sending it a lock code through my
PC, but wondered why. No-one was going to disturb us anyway. If I was wanted,
I’d be pinged.

Angel sat up from where she’d been sleeping
on her kitty castle. Queen Liz and the doctor hurried over to her, and Angel
was delighted to meet them. After a good pat, the doctor turned back to me.

“Bedroom?” she asked.

I sighed, and pointed it out. She waved me
to go in, and followed me.

I spent the next fifteen minutes in my
briefs and belt, being prodded and poked, tested, and investigated.

“You’re bruising is coming along
nicely,” she said. “Try not to damage yourself again before they
heal. You should have full movement of the knee again within a few days. Make
sure you eat properly and drink enough.”

She went over to the door.

“He’s all yours ma’am,” she said
as she went through, leaving me sitting on the bed in my briefs.

Queen Liz came straight in, and closed the
door after her. She stood there looking at me, with a grin on her face.

“Actually,” she said, “my
false pretense was a false pretense.”

She laughed and came over to me, pushing me
back onto the bed. Her suit changed to a belt. She pulled off the skimpy top
she was wearing underneath, and then the lacy knickers. She practically tore my
briefs off me, jumped onto the bed next to me, and straddled over me. Without
thinking, I checked her for hairpins, but didn’t see any. I relaxed, and
switched off my arousal override.

“I just wanted to give you a proper
send off,” she said huskily.

We just made it to the Dining Room for
lunch, before everyone else started without us.

Aleesha opened her mouth to say something,
and Amanda clamped a hand over it before she could. They silently did their
communion thing together for a moment, and then pretended to be interested in
their drinks.

The presence of the Queen put a bit of a dampener
on the usual lunch atmosphere, but for all that, it was an enjoyable meal, in
spite of an intense effort on both our parts not to make eye contact and
exchange cheesy grins. All too soon it was over, and the Queen and her party
were departing.

I watched the shuttle disappearing up the
lift with mixed feelings. She was a really fun person to be with. But she was
Queen, and I needed to be somewhere else. It would never work. I sighed.

I turned to head to the Bridge, and
Annabelle caught my eye.

“You can leave now if you want,”
I said to her. “How did George go with preparations?”

“He remembered the food and the beer,
but not the drinking water.”

We both laughed.

“Keep me informed of where you are
please. Daily report. If I don’t get one, I’ll assume you’re in trouble, and
come after you. Always have Jane encrypt your emails too. And don’t let anyone
send unencrypted ones which give away your whereabouts or anything else
important. Given recent events, let’s assume hostile intent is following us all
the time now.”

“Yes sir. Good attitude. See you in
about a month.”

The 266 pilots had already disappeared,
heading for their ships.

The rest of us made the jump up to the
Cargo Deck, where those going on Custer climbed on a waiting trolley. I watched
it heading away. The last time I’d watched my friends go, I’d thought they’d
died not long after. This time, I was sending them off. Part of me hoped it
wasn’t going to be a one way trip for them. I told myself to get a grip. They
had a well-protected Frigate for divine’s sake. In any case, this was something
I was going to have to get used to, sending people off on missions without me.

I found myself alone, and scooted for the
access shaft upwards.

When I arrived at the Bridge, I found more
people there than I’d expected.

The two Generals were in the VIP seats.
Jane was at the XO’s console, instead of her normal place next to the helm
position. Abagail was at the Coms console. Amanda and Aleesha were on each side
of the helm. Angel was on her pad, and the girls were tickling her. Aline was
next to Amanda. Alison was next to Aleesha. Amy was in her usual seat at the
rear. On the other side from Amy, was Walter’s aide, but I couldn’t recall her
name. The man next to her, wearing what seemed to be a combined smirk, sneer,
and frown, was presumably General Price’s aide. Slice and Eric made up the full
company, seated in front of Amy.

I sat in my captain’s chair, and felt
really glad to be back in it.

“Sitrep,” I said to Jane.

“Custer is away, and moving to the Washington
jump point. The Battleship is about ten minutes out, waiting for us, as are the
Guardians. Gunbus is on the rear right Flight Deck. Apricot One is on the left
side. Midnight Orchid is above us for the moment, waiting for a place to dock. I
had a new set of side airlocks put in her, so she can dock side on. Nascaspider
is docked to her. There was a last minute request for us to take some cargo to
the Australian sector, so I sent Zippy to collect it. It’ll take two trips for
her, but she’ll complete the second one before we make the Verse jump point.
I’ll dock her to the forward main cargo airlock, and offload onto the Cargo
Deck. By the time we dock all the ships, it’ll be the only airlock left.”

“Move us out,” I commanded her.

“Confirmed.”

BigMother turned and started towards the
Battleship, clearly seen in the distance. Price’s aide’s expression took on
more of a frown.

When we arrived, I nodded to Jane.

“Let’s get the Hives bedded down in
their new home Jane.”

“Confirmed.”

The twelve Hive clusters, docked on the top
hull of BigMother, all launched. Jane threw vids up which allowed us to see
them head around the ship, on both sides, and enter the side of Unassailable
through six docking ports on each side of her.

It took Jane half an hour to line up and
dock all seven ships.

The Battleship was down the centerline. She
was connected to the same airlock Custer had just left, and to two support
docks at the rear. She stuck out a long way behind us, being a good quarter
longer than BigMother. I’d have to consider if I kept the name of Unassailable
for her, or renamed her. It was a bit pretentious, even for a Battleship.

Two of the Guardians were docked alongside
her. The other two were along BigMother’s sides. Midnight Orchid was docked to
the side of the one on the right, and Nascaspider was now docked to the
Guardian to the left.

“What did you do to the
Battleship?” asked Walter.

“I redesigned her to be a drone Hive
carrier. BigMother was designed for standard fighters, and can’t really carry
enough of the drones. As a dedicated Hive carrier, the Hives can launch and
dock without separating into separate ships.”

“Seriously?” asked Price.
“What else did you do to her?”

I threw the specification to a side screen,
and told Jane to get us moving to the Verse jump point.

“I left her original guns alone, but
the inside was substantially gutted. The only remaining life support is Deck
Three. It has a CCC, Ready Room, and Conference room layout, pretty much the
same as what we’re sitting in now. Deck Two here is duplicated there, with
accommodation for one hundred troops as well, with the normal Armoury,
bathrooms, spa baths, and gyms. There are five airlocks, two in each of the
sides, and one topside with an access shaft.”

“Along her sides has been put two
hundred capital missile launchers in groups of twenty five, and six Hive
docking ports for a full length storage and maintenance deck. The rest of the
side space has as much Point Defense as could be fitted on. She has a full
length Cargo Deck with the standard forward cargo airlock. The access shaft to
Deck Three goes to the Cargo Deck to allow people to use the Cargo airlock to
access stations, but seals to maintain air integrity, as that deck will
normally be kept in vacuum when people don’t need to use it.”

“The power plants were substantially
augmented, and the engines overhauled and updated. She matches BigMother for
speed now, and if we fire up her engines while docked, we should be able to increase
BigMother’s speed by twenty five percent.”

“That’s totally outrageous!” said
Slice in an awed tone.

“Isn’t it just?” I said with a
grin. “The destroyed Bridge area was replaced with a Mosquito firing
system, with ten launchers. The idea was to make her into an all-purpose
assault ship, with drone carrier being her primary role. It frees up BigMother
to be a command ship with a conventional fighter capacity, and to be a central
docking hub for her fleet.”

I popped the specs screen off, and looked
around at all of them.

“Its four hours to the jump point, so
do whatever you feel like doing. I’ll be in my Ready Room if anyone wants
me.”

The Generals followed me in, with their
aides following behind. I changed direction from my desk to the conference
table. The two figures were still at the end of the table, but I noticed the
table itself had now been repaired.

“Nice figures,” said Price’s
aide, now with a definite sneer, looking towards that end of the table.

“Gifts I was happy to receive,” I
said, in a tone which indicated he was out of order.

“My temporary aide, Commander Pyne,”
said Price. “My normal aide went down sick just before I was due to leave
on this trip. The Commander’s last assignment was captain of a Destroyer, but
he’s getting some administration experience now, in the hopes we give him a
Cruiser next.”

Pyne opened his mouth, but Walter cut him
off.

“I don’t think you ever met my aide officially,
have you Admiral?” I shook my head in the negative, looking at her. I’d
seen her a number of times, but didn’t know her name. “Lieutenant Colonel Petersen.”

“Gloria, when I’m off duty,
Admiral,” she said with a smile.

She was a petite redhead. I idly wondered
if the red hair was natural, and had to mentally slap myself back into the present.
I smiled back at her, and waved everyone to the table. It occurred to me, I’d
never actually noticed her rank before. It was always her dazzling smile I
remembered. Concentrate.

“Let me guess,” I said. “You
have documents for me, and want to talk about Non-aggression and Alliance
treaties?”

Both Generals grinned at me.

“Let me get my aide up here to join
us.”

I pinged Alison to be here five minutes
ago. She walked in a few seconds later, so she must have assumed I’d call her
when the Generals headed in after me. I introduced her. As a Major, she was low
rank at the table.

“The British have already been talking
to you?” asked Walter.

“Indeed. Alison has their documents
for me to look over, when I get a chance on the way home.”

She nodded to me. I hadn’t actually checked
before if she’d received them or not.

“So send her yours,” I continued,
“and I can look them all over together. But it’ll be a while before
anything can be signed. I need to sort out how I organize the mini-sector
first, not to mention a name for it. I told the British we could hold a signing
ceremony on my new station, once its upgrade is complete. About two months I
would think, give or take.”

The General’s both nodded. The three aides
took on a blank look as they pinged and pulsed each other. We sat and waited
for them to finish.

Alison nodded to me again, indicating she
had the documents.

“Do we need aides from now on?” I
asked the Generals.

“No, I don’t think so,” said
Price.

“Alison, you’re off duty for the rest
of the day. We’ll make a time tomorrow for looking at documents.”

Both the girls rose and left, but Pyne
lingered.

“Admiral, if I may ask a
question?” he said.

“Sure. Questions cost nothing. Answers
though, they can be expensive.”

He looked at me as if I was stupid. His boss
grinned suddenly, and stifled it with a hand over a cough.

“I was wondering sir, why you don’t
operate with a full crew? No helmsman for example. I was watching you and your
XO, but I couldn’t see how the ship started moving.”

“Very simple Commander, the ship is
run by an AI.”

“You trust an AI to run a ship?”

His surprise made a slight dent in the
perpetual sneer he seemed to wear all the time. He reminded me a bit of
Breckenridge when he’d first come aboard.

“You have a problem with AI’s
Commander?”

“Yes sir. They’re not human. They
can’t be trusted to look after the interests of people first. And if the ship
loses its computer for whatever reason, you suddenly have a ship with crew who
can’t handle things manually.”

“So you follow the conventional military
doctrine of no automation is the best automation.” It wasn’t a question.

“Of course sir. I don’t understand why
you don’t.”

“Because Commander,” I emphasized
his rank, “the Midgard war taught us that people don’t have the reflexes
or brain power to protect us adequately.”

“I don’t believe that sir. People
should always have total control.”

I looked at him.

The lights flickered for a second.

“Perhaps the Commander would like to
go to his suite, and call up the battle feeds from the war. It’s obvious you
haven’t seen them.”

“Ah, no sir. I mean, yes sir. I mean,
no sir I’ve not seen them, and yes sir, I’ll go view them now. Sir.”

He rose, looked to his boss for dismissal,
received a nod, and left.

I started chuckling the moment he was out
of the room, and the Generals joined in.

“In his defense,” began Price.

A long blood curdling shriek echoed into
the room, abruptly cut off, which had all three of us on our feet in seconds.

Price started for the door.

“Wait a second General,” I said.

He stopped and turned back towards me, real
concern on his face.

“Jane,” I said, “what did
you do?”

A pop-up on the wall showed a cam view of
the inside of the access shaft, near the bottom. Pyne was hanging in space a
meter off the deck, upside down, whimpering.

I couldn’t help it, I burst out laughing.
Harriman was right behind me, and Price joined in when he found he couldn’t
help himself. We all sat again.

“Are you going to put him down
Jane?”

“Not yet,” came through the coms.

Pyne suddenly shot upwards, feet first. He
shrieked again, as his legs came to a stop at the top of the shaft, a hand’s
width from the top. Then he dropped again, arms and legs waving madly, mouth
making incoherent sounds, before stopping abruptly half way down. He vomited
the contents of his stomach in one projectile like mass, which sped away below
him. But before it hit the deck, it seemed to congeal into a solid mass, and
swept around the shaft before heading back upwards straight at Pyne’s face. He
desperately tried to protect himself with his hands, but at the last second it
veered off, and started to circle around him. The whimpering grew louder.

“Put him down Jane, gently
please.”

“Yes, my Master,” she replied in
a voice several octaves lower than normal.

Pyne dropped again, with another blood curdling
shriek, stopping head down just above the deck. His body rolled so he was lying
horizontal, face up. He wafted the remaining distance like a feather, and
settled on the deck more gently than he ever did on his bed.

The vomit mass streaked down, and hit him
square in the face.

We all lost it.

Jeeves walked up to the hapless Commander,
and looked down at him.

“Oh dear, dear, dear,” he said.

He picked up one of Pyne’s feet, and
started to drag him along the corridor. Pyne struggled, but was unable to do
anything except make his position worse. The screen followed them along,
shifting from cam to cam, and into his suite. Jeeves took him straight into the
bathroom and deposited him in the shower. The water started full on, right into
his face. Pyne screamed again and desperately pushed himself out of the water
flow.

“Oh dear,” Jeeves said again.
“Someone left the water set to hot. Let me fix it for you.”

The water flow lessened. Pyne tentatively
tested the water, found it acceptable and stuck his head under the flow.

Jeeves left him there. The screen shut off.

“And that gentlemen,” I said,
“is why you never insult an AI who controls the ship.”

“Confirmed,” came through the
room coms.

We all lost it again.