Hunter Legacy 11: Home Is Where the Hero Is (12 page)

It hadn't been much more than two hours
since they'd left the ship. Presumably they'd reached some sort of decision.

I sighed. The load was getting too heavy. I
was beginning to be glad I'd be leaving some of it behind soon. The one thing I
wasn’t looking forward to, was saying goodbye to my family. Probably forever.

My mood darkened as the trolley took me to
the main airlock. The twins formed up behind me, and Jane fell into step with
me half way to the Council chamber.

"I need to speak to all three of
you," she said, "as soon as you're finished here."

"About?" I asked.

"The system data. Before I can do the
visuals from it, I need enough data from the nightmare to establish a context
and a viewpoint in the system. So I'll need to speak to each of you one at a
time."

"Would be easier if we could simply
record dreams," said Aleesha.

"Alas," responded Jane,
"while teams are trying to do just that via PC's, it hasn’t worked yet. So
we need to do it the hard way."

"Odd we haven’t had a nightmare
lately," pondered Amanda.

"I was thinking the same thing,"
I added. "But it's probably because nothing major is happening at the
moment."

Further speculation was interrupted by our
arrival at the chambers. The Keeper was waiting for us, and this time he was
not alone. A young woman was with him. He didn’t bother doing introductions,
but ushered me inside.

"You too, Colonels," he said as
the twins started to turn away.

I raised eyebrows at him, but all he did
was smile, and waved us all in.

On the left, was a slightly bigger table
with two chairs. On the right was a much bigger table with four chairs. The
Keeper sat on the right hand chair on his side, and so I sat on the left hand
chair on my side. Jane sat next to me, and the twins next to her.

The councilors sat there silently, waiting
for us to settle.

"Admiral Hunter," began American
Indian. "The council has endorsed your idea to promote Gaia and attract
people to move here when the Door opens in a year's time. We will be ready,
regardless of the situation we find at that time."

"Just so you know," said the new
Objectionable, "those who opposed all of this have been granted permission
to build a station, and move to the new system just discovered. We will have
first claim on any habitable planet discovered in the future, where we will
implement the same policy Outback has had."

I nodded. There didn’t appear to be
anything worth saying to that, and cheering would have seemed slightly
inappropriate. The malcontents who wanted solitude were moving on. Probably the
best thing all round. I wasn’t sure why I needed to know about it though.

"This council's business…"
started American Indian.

"…has several more items before concluding,"
said the Keeper.

"Proceed Keeper."

"Firstly, I’d like to introduce you to
Colonel's Amanda and Aleesha Peck. With Duke Hunter, they form the three
dreamers. I thought you should meet them, so that in the years to come, you can
at least tell people about them."

He looked to the woman at his side.

"This is the new Head Keeper."

There were shocked looks from some of the
councilors.

"My work here is done," he went
on. "The Keeper has now read the full prophecy for the first time. Nothing
has changed other than the voice who speaks for Prophesy. I will be leaving
Gaia with Duke Hunter in the morning. My work now is in helping out there to
prepare for the trials to come, and to be there for the first confrontation
with whatever the Darkness proves to be. I thank the council for their support
of me during my tenure as Keeper, and I wish all in this system the best for
the years to come. It is unlikely we will meet again. I bid you goodbye."

He stood, bowed slightly, and left.

I took it as our que to leave as well, and
stood. The girls followed me up.

"Duke Hunter," said the Indian
Woman. "Go with the full support of this council. Do what must be done,
even when others believe you are in the wrong. You have our blessings, and
those of the higher beings we commune with. Those of us who pray, will pray for
you and those with you. Save the ones who are savable. Leave the rest to the
cosmos, and their own karma. You more than anyone, walk the hardest path. But
know this. You are the one chosen to lead the human race into its next phase.
We will prepare, and welcome those who come. When the time comes, we will
ensure the family you leave behind thrive and prosper without you. Your line
will continue."

"As will all your families,"
added far left. "Those who arrived today, related to your crew, are
settling in as we speak, and are being made welcome. They will become the core
of a new city. In time, they will continue as you have, in service to the human
race."

I bowed slightly to them.

"We have a gift for you as well,"
said American Indian. "We have officially recognized the Duchy of Hunter's
Run, and in a gesture of appreciation for the role you have voluntarily taken
upon yourself, we have deeded the city which contains your parent's and the
families of your crew's homes to the Duchy of Hunter's Run as an Embassy. As
such, the land belongs to the Duchy, and you may appoint anyone you wish to
administer it for you, in perpetuity."

"Thankyou."

I was deeply touched. And now needed to do
some thinking.

"I have a personal message for you as
well, Duke Hunter," said the Aboriginal councilor. "Your skin may be
white, but your soul is of the Dreamtime. In the slack times between chaos,
visit the Dreamtime. The Elders wish to speak to you."

"Thank you," I said again.

I bowed again, and we made our way out.

The Keeper was waiting outside for us, and
fell into step with me.

"You have no idea what any of their
names are, do you?"

"Um, no. I can't seem to remember
them."

"Jon, their names were on plaques in
front of each of them."

Amanda sounded concerned.

"Really? I couldn’t see them."

"Didn’t you commit the names to PC
storage?" asked Aleesha.

"I thought I did. But if so, they
aren’t there now."

"Interesting," said the Keeper.

Enigmatic, and not particularly useful. He
didn’t say any more. Instead, he turned to Jane.

"Colonel, I'll need a suite on
BigMother please. And some help moving my stuff from my quarters here on the
station. I'm packed and ready to leave, so send the help as soon as you can.
I've been here for ten years, so I'm afraid I have a fair amount of
stuff."

"Confirmed. Anything down on a planet?"

"No. I moved here completely when I
was elevated to Head Keeper. I'll also need somewhere to live on Hunter's
Haven, at least for while we're there."

"How long will that be?" I asked
him.

"You tell me and we'll both
know."

"Swell."

The Keeper stopped, and waved to us as he
headed off a different direction. Jane led us back to the ship.

"When do you want to talk to us?"
Amanda asked Jane.

"I'll do Jon as we head down to the
planet. I'll come back for you two, and go back and collect him after."

"Where am I going?"

"Dinner with your family."

I sighed. Time to say goodbye to them. Last
time I left, it was goodbye for about four days. Instead it was actually
goodbye for a year. This time, it was probably for good. I started hunting for
an override on tears. I was likely to be needing one.

The twins caught a trolley to head up into the
ship, and Jane took me to the Launch Deck in another one. We took the Gig.

On the way down, I described everything I
could remember about the nightmare. The position of the sun, gas giants,
asteroid fields, and where the black dots started appearing. It wasn’t much to
go on. The only hope we had of advance notice of where and when, was if Jane
could come up with a realistic visual of how each system moved, which hopefully
all three of us would recognize when we saw it. To do that, she had to figure
out where the visions we'd had put us in the system. There was every chance
this wasn’t going to work, simply because we couldn’t provide Jane enough
details to present the right picture to us. With luck, the twins would remember
more than I did. After all, while I was a visually oriented person, I wasn’t
noted for being overly observant.

Had the nightmare only been once, or very
far apart, I'd have been useless as far as this was concerned. But I’d been
having the nightmare from a very early age, and the view across the system was
etched into my brain. The pity was, we couldn’t just connect my brain up, and download
the image. PC's had come a long way, and the integration of brain and computer
was advancing all the time, but we weren't yet at the point where an image out
of a dream could be captured by the computer. They were working on it.

Jane went over it from every angle she
could think of, until I snapped at her that the third degree was getting
tiresome. I apologized immediately. It wasn’t her fault. The timing was bad,
was all.

Jane dropped me off on the roof of my
parent's building, and was gone before I entered it. I sent an 'enjoy the
inquisition' ping off to the twins, and received a 'gee thanks' back.

Everyone was there, including my Dad, who
should have been on Galactica finalizing leaving. David was also there, so I
wasn’t the only one being fare-welled.

Dinner could only be described as painfully
awkward. Mum was dry eyed, much to my amazement. Saying goodbye to her husband
and son at the same time had to be tearing her up inside, but she put a brave
face on it. Grandma Violet on the other hand, had a wet face the whole way
through. Even Fred was unusually quiet.

We talked of family matters, politely
ignoring the real reason for the dinner. Other than David's family, who were
staying with him on Hunter's Haven, the rest of the family who'd been living on
Outback, the Orbital, or been working freighters, had all come home. The family
apartments had been emptied. As soon as David and I left the system, the
working members of the family would create a new business structure, working
towards what Gaia needed in place in a year's time, or whenever after. They
covered some of the basics with David, until impolitely told to shut up by
those not wanting to hear people talk shop at the dinner table.

After dessert, while most were enjoying
their coffee, and a few were indulging in what they said was a fine Port, I
stood. Talk subsided as people noticed me. I looked over to where Jane was
standing. She'd come in quietly a short while earlier, with a look which
suggested I needed to be gone soon.

"Jane, will you record this please?"
I sub-vocalized to her. "And can you get Sarah linked in so she can see
this too?"

"Confirmed," she replied through
my PC.

A few moments later, Sarah's face appeared
on one of the walls.

"I have some announcements to
make," I said, in a tone you usually used for making a toast. "David,
please stand."

He did so, looking confused.

"David Tollin, for your unstinting
work on behalf of the Duchy of Hunter's Run, especially when I wasn’t around to
carry any of the load, I hereby bestow on you the title of Earl of
Outback."

I'd chosen Outback instead of Nexus because
it had a habitable planet, and this technically speaking, was a granting of
land.

There was a shocked silence, almost
immediately followed by a room going crazy. I allowed the congratulations to go
on naturally, until things quietened down, and David gestured me to go on.

"I've not prepared any insignia as
yet, so we'll need to discuss this when we get home."

Home. The word echoed in my mind. Home wasn’t
Gaia anymore. It was Hunter's Haven, or BigMother, depending on where I was.
I'd known this, but at the same time, I hadn't. It hit home now. Some wit had
once suggested that home was where you parked your shoes at night. It wasn’t
here anymore. And actually, it never had been here at all, since I'd lived in
space. The whole concept of home began to slip away from me.

David nodded to me. I knew we had a lot to
discuss. I'd been away a long time, and needed to pick up the slack again. But
it had to wait until we left the Gaia system. He sat, and I remained standing.

"I want to officially acknowledge that
Sarah's son Michael is my son. We didn’t marry as she'd wanted, but he is a
Hunter, and with Sarah's permission, he will be Michael Hunter."

I looked to the wall, with a look asking
for her to agree. All eyes were on her.

"I have no problem with that,"
she said.

"Good," I said. "Because I
hereby bestow on Michael Hunter the title of Earl of Gaia."

Sarah was shocked. I guess it had never
occurred to her I could do such a thing. I went on over the hubbub.

"The Gaia council today deeded to the
Duchy the city around us, as an embassy for the Duchy. Everyone in this city is
now a citizen of the Duchy of Hunter's Run. The city is now an Earldom, and
Michael is its Earl. I won't be here to guide him, so the task will fall to the
family. In the event that all is lost on the other side of the jump point and I
don’t return, Michael will be Duke to replace me. In such a case, and should a
suitable planet become available in the future, I’d recommend the Duchy settle
such a planet."

There were nods down the table from the
more senior members, particularly those who administered the family businesses.
I made eye contact with them, and added my nod to theirs. But I wasn’t
finished.

"Fred. Stand please."

He stood, not knowing what to expect, and
he wasn’t alone in that.

"You're a bit young for this, but I
don’t have an alternative. As the only other Hunter male beside Michael and
myself, I bestow on you the title of Baron of the Run, equivalent to what the
British call a Baron of the Royal Court, when lands are not included in the
title. Further, when you reach eighteen, I appoint you Regent of the Earldom,
until Michael turns eighteen. Ages are to be in standard years, not Gaia years.
You will hold the title of Regent immediately, but under the guidance of the
family administrators."

He looked stunned, as did a lot of others.

"It's not ideal, but it’s the best I
can do the night before I leave."

I looked down the table at the few I knew
really ran the family businesses. I looked each of them in the eye, and waited
until they nodded. There was nothing I could do to make sure they guided Fred
rather than bossed him around until he turned eighteen, but I could at least
make them aware I knew what I was asking of all of them. The nods came, and I
had hopes this would work.

"You may sit Baron Fred."

I grinned at his discomfort, and he sat
awkwardly.  His mother hugged him, saw me watching and mouthed 'thankyou'. I
mouthed 'you're welcome' back. And it was the least I could do, given her
husband and his father had died a year ago, on my road to legacy.

Michael would be Duke one day. I had no
doubts about that. Fred would hopefully grow up into a wise advisor. I'd done
what I could for their futures, it was now up to them.

I nodded to Jane, and Sarah vanished from
the wall, and the recording stopped. I gave Jane permission to release the
recording to Amy. The council needed to see it, and it needed a combined
release to the media.

The final goodbyes were long and painful,
ending with Grandma Violet, and my mother. Neither wanted to let go.

I asked my Dad if he wanted a lift topside
with me, and he told me he was coming up in the morning, before breakfast. We
were scheduled to leave at nine. David told me the same thing. I assumed he was
going to be spending much of the night giving instructions.

With last kisses from Grandma and Mum, Jane
dragged me out of there. I hadn't found a tear override, but hadn't needed it.
Until now. The tears flowed all the way home.

Aline and Angel were waiting for me.