Hunter Legacy 9: Hero at the Gates (3 page)

The jump into Libya was routine, as had
passage across the Nepal and Egypt systems during the night.

The Bridge was full of the usual suspects,
with Grace the only notable absentee. She and Melissa were in the process of
landing.

Unapologizing was crewed and ready to drop
off. Jane had scanned every crew member, and created a duplicate using security
droids and belt suits. The ship to all intent and purposes, was crewed exactly
as she was supposed to be, even down to voices. All we needed to do, was dock
her to BigMother, to transfer over team six as their prisoners.

While we were waiting for Jane to isolate
where the pirate base was from Unapologizing's database, BigMother was on
course for the Algeria jump point, so as not to upset anyone whom might be
watching. As far as we could see, no-one was. There was not a lot of traffic
about in this system, and all of it was moving on the lines between jump points
and planet.

As well as Algeria and Egypt, the system
connected to Brazil. All three were spine systems, as it branched two ways from
here. Brazil led off into the Latin American sector, joined with Morocco. The
African sector began with Morocco on the core end, and rejoined the spine in
Egypt. Both sectors were the youngest of all of them, populated by necessity
rather than choice, once Earth had become too polluted and dangerous to live
on. As the last of those to leave, they'd had to go down spine to where the
other richer sectors had chosen not to go.

"It's not here," said Jane
finally.

"How paranoid can you be?" asked
BA.

"That paranoid," answered Dick.

"Jane, point us at the planet. I'll be
in my Ready Room, begging."

There was a mixture of puzzled looks and
grins as I rose.

Once seated at my desk, I opened a vid to
John Slice.

"John, old buddy, mate. Need a favour.
I'm in the Libya system. Yes, I'm going the wrong way, I know. It's important
though. Trust me. I'm still on timetable, but time is now a short
commodity."

"If you have an Explorer around these
parts which could get here inside the next few hours, can you please redirect
it as a matter of urgency? I guess you don’t, in which case, I humbly beseech
your indulgence to send us the specs for your jump point detector."

I paused to let him react to the request.

"I know this is unusual. Consider it a
one shot deal. I'll owe you a big favour, and I'll promise to destroy it once
it's done its job. But I need to find a jump point the pirates are using, and I
only have a rough idea of where it is. We know there's a base here somewhere,
suspect it has a battlewagon sized Shipyard as well, but the ship we just took
doesn’t have the location in its database anywhere. Presumably the captain has
it, but short of torture, he's not likely to give it up. I'd prefer not to have
to go there."

"So, I need your expertise, and since
you know my timetable verses where I currently am, you know I need it now. The
clock's ticking. Hunter out."

Melodramatic, but I sent it off anyway.

I sat there for fifteen long minutes,
drumming my fingers on the desk.

Finally, the email I was waiting for
arrived.

"Jon, buddy, mate."

Slice was milking it, I could tell.

"It so happens I have a Camel in the
Brazil system right this moment, heading for Columbia. I've turned it around.
If I did the math right, it should jump into Libya just before you reach the
jump point. You owe me."

He grinned, and the vid ended.

"Jane, Brazil jump point please. Move
us."

"Confirmed."

I checked the nav map, and there was a
Camel where he said there was, with the name of "Tag'Em". As a ship
name, and presumably a call sign as well, it showed a driver with a sense of
humour, and possibly also the ridiculous. Could be an interesting person to
work with.

We were a good four hours away from the
jump point, and going back onto the Bridge, I announced that.

"Good," said BA.
"Training!"

There were groans all round, but the Bridge
quickly cleared anyway. Annabelle and Jack remained. The twins thought about
it, but left. Dick pulled up a screen and started reading. Carter and Magnus
were conversing quietly at the back.

I moved to sit in my seat again, and
something made me hesitate. I looked down to find Angel curled up there again.

"Excuse me Miss Puss," I said to
her. "This is my seat. Yours is over there."

I pointed to the cat pad. She looked at me
innocently. I moved to pick her up, but she jumped down on her own, and stalked
into the Ready Room.

I cast around at those still on the Bridge,
and they were all trying to hold their grins in. I sat with all the dignity I
could muster.

The three of us discussed the impending
attack, as the next few hours wound forward. There were too many unanswered
questions to do more than contingency plan, but we had what we thought was a
solid plan. All we needed was a target.

Just after eleven, the Camel jumped through,
and altered course to intercept us. A channel opened, showing a mass of red
hair over an alive face.

"It's Auburn," said Jane via my
PC.

"What?" I subvocalized back to
her.

"Her hair is Auburn. Not red."

"You reading my mind now?"

"Of course not. Most men make the
mistake though, so I'm correcting you immediately."

"Gee thanks."

"You're welcome."

I concentrated on the screen, where she
appeared to be waiting for me to speak first.

"Greetings," I said. "You're
from the AMS?"

"Greetings," she responded, in
the same tone as my own, but with an impish grin. "Admiral Hunter I
presume?" I nodded. "Jessie Ball, AMS. I had a priority turnaround
from my boss a while ago to come meet you. Nice to meet someone with that kind
of influence. He doesn’t do that for anyone. What can I do for you?"

"We need to find a jump point in a
hurry. Does your jump point detector work if you're docked inside another
ship?"

"No, needs space around us."

"External dock?"

"That would work."

"Fine, stand by to become a bowsprit
for a while."

Her grin lit up further. I'd judged her
correctly it seemed. Wild spirit, running free.

"I have to say, I've covered this system
to death, so I can't see how my detector and I are going to be any use to
you."

"Can you send us a plot of where
you've covered?"

"Sure I can. Be there before I
am."

"I'll have someone meet you at the
airlock, and bring you to the Bridge. Can you run your detector from
here?"

"Sure thing. Be there pronto."

"Confirmed," added Jane.

The channel closed. I should have realized.
The Camel would have a second generation clone of Jane, so the two ships would
be able to fully connect.

"Data received," said Jane.

She threw the system to a side screen, and
merged it with the search data. As she'd said, the system had been pretty well
covered already.

"Can you put the plot on there for
when Homer last lost a pirate?"

"Confirmed."

BigMother was slowing now, as the Camel
drew near. Unfortunately, we'd need to stop to dock.

A course line appeared on the screen, and
Jane pulled the whole thing out into a large cube. I stood up and walked into
the cube.

"So Homer was on a course midway
between the Algeria and Brazil jump points, heading on an angle above the
plane, when she lost contact. We'll start looking there. It's on the edge of
the already searched area."

There was a snort from Dick, but when I
turned to look at him, he was engrossed in his novel.

Another screen popped up, showing the Camel
docking with our front airlock. As soon as it was secured, BigMother started
moving again, towards the starting point of our search. I turned back to my
chair, and stopped dead.

"Angel! Off!"

Dick couldn’t hold his laugh in any longer,
and everyone else caught it from him. Angel looked at me innocently, and
reluctantly jumped off my chair. In one big bound, she jumped up onto the
console, and resumed sitting on her pad, watching the view. I resumed my chair,
and ignored the noise.

About five minutes later, Jessie Ball
appeared on the Bridge, entering like she owned it. She was wearing a belt, but
what covered her was normal clothes, making her look flamboyant. For a moment I
wondered if she was Texan or something, but it was unlikely as Slice was a
Brit, and he was based in Sci-Fi. Still, she could be from anywhere, and I
wasn’t going to ask.

I stood as she came in, and we shook hands.
I checked for Angel before sitting again. I wouldn’t put it past her to jump
the distance from the console to my chair, and I knew she could do it in two
bounds. And I'd been up and turned just long enough for her to be able to. She
was washing her face as it turned out.

I waved Jessie to one of the empty front
seats, and she sat and swiveled to face me. I introduced her to the others.

"Tag'Em?" I asked.

"Well, you know the drill. In my
rookie days I had two sayings. I'd bash someone on the arm and say 'Tag, you're
it!', or when we went into combat, either for real or simulated, I'd say 'Tag
Em and Bag Em people'. I've been known to say "Tagged and bagged"
when making a kill as well. The name stuck." There was a chuckle from
everyone still there. "What's yours?"

"Maniac."

She laughed good and hard.

"Figures. If ever I was to be loaned
to someone, it would have to be a maniac. Boss obviously hates me."

"No, just a case of tag, you're
it."

We all laughed hard.

"It's about an hour to the search
area," said Jane, breaking into the good mood.

"An hour?" asked Jessie, with
disbelief in her voice. "How fast is this ship going?"

I pointed to the relevant part of the HUD.

"Hooley dooley! And here I was
expecting to have to get out and push to get there tomorrow."

"The old girl has legs."

"Confirmed."

We laughed again.

"I suggest we all get an early lunch
and be back here before we arrive at the search area," I said at last.

Jessie bounced out her chair immediately.

"Lead on McManiac."

I lead on.

An hour later the Bridge was full again.
Jessie had been installed on one corner of the console, which was now active
with the interface for her jump point detector. Within fifteen minutes, the
jump point was revealed.

"Shute!" Jessie said. "It's
just far enough outside the normal parameters for jump point placement for me
to miss it. Damnit, I hate that."

"Understandable," I said.

"Yeah, but not acceptable. I'm going
to have to let the boss know I screwed up here, and recommend we start
searching further out everywhere. It's going to slow down our searches
exponentially."

"Keeps you in a job though," said
Dick.

"That it does," she admitted with
a smile.

I turned to Annabelle.

"General, stand by for
deployment."

She turned to Jack.

"Colonel, stand by for
deployment."

He turned to the twins.

"Majors, stand by for
deployment."

The twins stood, and their eyes swept the
Bridge.

"You heard the man," barked
Amanda. "Stand by for deployment."

Most of those on the Bridge stood.

No-one went anywhere.

Dick was quietly killing himself laughing.

Annabelle looked at me.

"Deploy," I said.

Jack looked at her.

"Deploy," she said.

The twins looked at him.

"Deploy," he said.

Everyone looked at Amanda.

"You heard the man," barked
Aleesha. "Deploy."

The Bridge emptied rapidly, more or less in
increasing rank order.

"What's up chuckles?" I said to
Dick.

He made pointing motions with his hands,
but was completely unable to speak.

Annabelle was grinning as well.

"I am so going to enjoy this two star
rank," she said. "Or I will when you give it to me."

"Are you people normally this
nuts?" asked Jessie.

"Pretty much," I said.

"Confirmed," added Jane.

She let loose her own chuckle, but didn’t
comment further.

"Jane, stop us before the jump point,
and bring the Unapologizing around to a side Cargo airlock. Better deploy a
comnavsat, and have another one ready for Unapologizing to deploy on the other
side."

"Confirmed."

"Do you always say that?" Jessie
asked Jane.

"Confirmed."

"Why?"

"Ask your AI."

Jessie went blank for a moment.

"What does 'Grandma' mean?"

I lost it, and even Jane started laughing.

"Oh," said Jessie eventually.
"You're the AI here?"

"Confirmed."

"How does Tag'Em get his own
body?"

"Security droid, and a belt," I
said.

She looked at me as if I was crazy.

I stopped myself from asking Jane to show
her, as Jane could no longer do that.

"Talk to George on Custer. He's our
suit programming guru."

"Suit programming? Why do I get the
impression I'm in the wrong outfit?"

"Doesn’t Apricot One have its own
avatar?"

"Avatar? Oh. Yeah, it does. But I
never had the chance to meet it. The boss had me do the trials for Tag'Em, and
then carry right on down here to start work. I guess I missed a memo or
something."

"George will set you straight. But you
better hurry, because Custer will deploy as soon as the Cruiser is in place.
And before we jump, you should undock and go back to work."

"Work? I'm staying."

"It's not going to be safe."

"Safe? Don’t know the meaning of the
word. This is a new jump point. My job now is to completely map the system on
the other side of it, and determine if there are more jump points."

"Fine, but you might want to hold off
on that until we determine how many pirates infest the system. Might not be
safe."

"If I wanted safe, I'd have stayed in
the military."

Annabelle snorted.

"Fine. But I suggest when we stop to
move the Cruiser, you also move Tag'Em to one of the side Flight Deck
entrances. You go in with us, but can launch quickly if you need to."

"How long?"

"Not long. And Ms. Ball?"

"Yes?"

"If you want to party with us, you put
yourself under Wing Commander Lacey's orders."

"Understood."

She left running.

"That girl has spunk," said Dick.
"Especially given her lack of height."

I hadn't noticed.

It wasn’t long before everyone was ready to
go.

Unapologizing jumped.

The nav map expanded to show a new system.
There was nothing on the other side. The expected station and shipyard were not
there.

"How much of the system can you see
Jane?" I asked her.

"Not as much as I need. The next most
likely place for the base is a habitable planet, but I can't find it yet."

"Send Unapologizing on a direct route
in, until the sweet spot is revealed. If need be later, explain away not using
a direct course with battle damage. Might be an idea if you create some."

"Confirmed. It's probably safe to
bring BigMother through. There doesn’t appear to be anything here to raise the
alarm."

"Fine. Do so please."

I opened ship coms.

"We are about to jump into the pirate
system. There is nothing on the other side, but let's be prepared for anything
anyway."

I closed the coms, and waited while we
jumped.

As Jane had said, there was nothing of note
in the new system. Jane already had it mapped in terms of the outer planets and
gas giants, although she was guessing for half of them, being they were not in
visual range. As I watched, there was a sudden update of the system.

I raised an eyebrow at Jane.

"Tag'Em has better sensors. Jessie has
her nose poked out the side, and is mapping the system systematically."

"Let her do it. All the better if we get
it done faster. As soon as you have a location for the most likely inhabited
planet, change Unapologizing's course."

I half caught a mumble about something to
do with grandmothers and eggs, and suppressed a grin.

"Any chance you can upgrade our
sensors without upsetting friend Slice?"

"Maybe."

Ten minutes passed.

"Found it."

"Which it is this?"

"Planet, base, and shipyard it."

The new information updated the nav map and
HUD. We'd fluked the approach of the Cruiser to the base, it being almost on a
direct course.

Two hours passed as we waited for
Unapologizing to approach. The two ships were passing each other scan data, so
we could 'see' almost all the way into the system now.

"They demanded a password," said
Jane. "We went to Plan B."

Plan A had been built on a pirate ship
being able to dock without being challenged. Or at the least, some chitchat
between the station and the ship's captain, who Jane was impersonating.

Plan B was to pretend battle damage, and
the top order of officers being all dead. In this we hoped to bypass the
password, because no junior officer would know it.

"Docking approved," said Jane.

Annabelle let her breathe out noisily.

"They bought it," Jane went on.
"There are celebrations beginning on the station in honour of the
vanquishing of General Custer, and the capture of Hunter's team six. Seems they
think it’s a great victory over their most hated enemy."

I held my hand up, and Annabelle and I high
fived.

"Station defenses?" I asked.

"Formidable," said Jane.
"Two Battleships, three Cruisers, five Destroyers, two Frigates, and four Corvettes.
They have two squadrons of Gladiators on CAP. How many more is unknown. Oh, and
look what else there is."

"Is that what I think it is?"

"Junk Heap Three. Identical to Junk
Heap Two as far as I can tell. In other words, pretty useless. But they might
be using it as a Carrier, to augment the station fighter capacity."

"Ages?" asked Annabelle.

"Middling to old," responded
Jane. "Or in Junk Heap Three's case, really old. But they're still a
threat."

"Shielding?" I asked.

"Hard to say. The shields showing now
would be normal for a station this size, if this was a normal station."

"Explain."

"The station is a sphere. There appears
to be docking slots dotted all around it, rather than a conventional
ring."

"Is it armed?" asked Annabelle.

"No, unless guns and launchers are
hidden somehow."

"Computer?" I asked.

"I think this is a mid-range AI, but
it's hard to tell without giving myself away."

"Don’t do that."

"Can you take it?" asked Dick.

"If the security is lax, then an
unguarded data port will be all I need."

"And if it's guarded?"

"I'll need to do a brute force assault
from inside the computer room."

She paused, as if listening to something.

"Docking in progress."

"Get us moving."

"Confirmed."

The plan was for us to come in range of
their sensors about the time the station realized it had a problem. But the
timing was fluid, since we didn’t know what would happen once the ship docked.
While it had taken hours for the Cruiser to make the distance, BigMother could
do it in around forty minutes without pushing it. But they would detect us
around twenty.

"Docking complete."

"What's happening with the crew?"

"Security met the ship, and the
prisoners are being escorted off now. The crew seems free to do what they
like."

"Good. Primary targets please."

"Confirmed."

I opened ship coms again.

"Team six is in place. We have two
squadrons of Gladiators on CAP. How many are on station is unknown at this point.
Stand by for launch."

"We launch on my order people,"
said Lacey, "and not before. Two squadrons is missile chaff, not target
practice, so we wait for the real party."

There was a series of acknowledgements from
the squadron commanders, followed by George, Annette, and Jessie.

George had his own orders, but if need be,
he was allowed to join in a dogfight.

Another ten minutes passed, with our
approach still undetected.

"Team six's cover is blown,"
announced Jane suddenly.

"What happened?" asked Annabelle
before I could.

"The detention block guards wanted to
remove their suit belts. Six had to go hot. They're on their way to the Control
Center now."

"And team one?"

"Just leaving the ship now."

Team one had been hiding on board the Cruiser,
using their suits in chameleon mode. Their objective was the computer room.
Jane had a dozen combat suits with them.

"Crew?"

"In position. All docked ships have
their docking clamps locked down, and airlocks closed and code locked. The
connections for the AI have been severed."

"Good."

I love it when a plan comes together.