Hunter Legacy 11: Home Is Where the Hero Is (13 page)

"GOOD MORNING GAIA!"

I jerked awake at the sheer volume of it.
Next to me, Aline did the same, proving it wasn’t in my head, but had happened
for real. Angel yowled, her fur stood on end, and she shot off the bed.

"Jesus Christ on a bloody
crutch!" I exclaimed. "Jane!"

You rang?

"Jesus?" I said in my head.

Of course. You called for me.

"No I didn’t."

Yes you did.

"Sorry, no. Gut reaction to extreme
stimuli, leading to taking one's name in vain."

Ah. Well while I've got you, I have a
message for you.

"Shoot."

You wish me to take you literally?

"Err, no."

You wish the message?

"Please."

Take them.

"Take who?"

Them. All of them.

"Fine. Anything else?"

Yes. Leave those as well.

"Take them and leave those?"

Yes.

"Jon!" yelled Aline. "Get a
grip!"

"What?"

"You were muttering to yourself."

"No I wasn’t."

"Sounded like it to me."

"Whatever."

I fell off the bed.

"Jon," said Jane. "Get up.
Meeting in your Ready Room in ten."

"Can whoever it is come here? It feels
quite safe down here."

Aline hauled me up, and frog marched me
into the shower.

Nine minutes later, I was in my Ready Room.
Annabelle appeared before I’d settled into my desk chair.

The day was supposed to be so simple. Get
up, ignore breakfast, button up the ship, wait for Galactica to undock and
start towards the jump point, follow her, and together turn up at the Shipyard
in Outback somewhere before lunch. Transfer everyone from Galactica, with all
their stuff, and be back at Hunter's Haven for dinner.

"We have a situation Jon," she
said as came in and sat opposite me. "Actually, we have two situations but
they're really two halves of the same whole."

It took me a moment to take that in.

"Today was supposed to be
uncomplicated. We leave. We go home. How did complicated situations come into
this?"

"They just do. You know that as well
as anyone."

"Fine. What's the first half?"

"We have marines and pilots who don’t
want to leave."

I didn’t take it in.

"What?"

"Some of our marines and pilots want
to stay here with their families, now they've moved here."

"How many?"

"About a team's worth of marines, and
ten pilots. This includes the Major who leads team five, and one of the 617
squadron leaders."

I sighed. Obviously this was the 'leave
them' part.

"What do the marines plan to do
here?"

"Continue acting as one of our teams,
under Colonel Jane's command. Gaia has no marines, at least not trained to our
level. The local militia commander came to see me last night, and begged me to
leave someone behind who could train them to our level. The word got around. I
think it's worth doing. When push comes to shove in the future, we may need a
force of marines here, who haven’t seen any fighting elsewhere, and are fresh
troops for whatever situations occur. As well as training, they could also
recruit."

I sighed again.

"Fine. Approved. I don’t think they'll
find too many recruits here, but maybe some of the kids coming up through the
non-spiritual communities will want to train. What about the pilots?"

"They think Eric and Jessie need an
escort, and want to take Gladiators, so they can live on their ships for long
periods at a time."

"I doubt they want to."

"Well no, but they know you can't
spare anything better. It's not so much combat ability they want, as a ship
which can stay out there a long time. Actually, I think they want the
opportunity to be real explorers."

"I can understand that. Approved.
Jane?"

"Yes boss?"

"Do we have anything in Outback at the
moment which could be used as a support ship?"

"Not really. But we are leaving a
comnavsat freighter here. I can leave specs to have it upgraded to also build
missiles. Locals would have to supply the resources, but it could also carry
food, water, and other consumables for the fighters. They'd need to supply some
cargo droids as well. It won't be any use for the pilots themselves, since it
has no life support. Hence the need for cargo droids to do the heavy lifting."

"Fine, organize it please."

"Confirmed."

"Are you leaving a standard avatar
here?"

"I was. You think it should be
non-standard?"

"I was thinking its role is now
military commander for this system, and possibly this whole area of space. It
might be better if she looked older and more experienced than the sweet young
thing you usually are."

"Closer to D-Jane?"

"Yes, but look like a Colonel is
expected to look like."

"Buzz cut hairdo, severe face, and sun
bronzed leather-look skin?"

Anabelle laughed.

"Sounds about right."

"I can do that."

"Good. Better get quarters on the
station, and live like a normal person too."

"Confirmed."

I looked back to Annabelle.

"They have an hour to get their arses
off this ship."

"I think they're already packed.
Shouldn’t take that long."

"What's the other half of this
mess?"

"We have about two hundred people who
want to leave with us."

"Why?"

"Mixture of reasons. Some want to
follow you. Some want to be marines where marines are welcomed. Some want to
learn to fly, where they can use it to effect."

"Marines aren't welcomed here?"

"Nothing military is. You should know
that. The police are para-military, and there is a small army force in case one's
needed, without much expectation of it. But all the spiritual communities don’t
welcome them in. They co-operate, but begrudgingly. How come you don’t know
this?"

"I spent most of my life on Galactica.
We space borne people don’t do dirtside very well. It was somewhere to visit,
and as a kid, it was mainly with school groups, which wouldn’t have been
threatening, even coming from the space based community. I knew we had
something, but they mainly do relief work. Or at least, that’s all I heard them
ever doing."

"You know some of the feed from our
takeover of the mining asteroid made it onto media reports. It seemed to act as
well as a recruiting advert. Our CAP has been getting media attention as well.
People here are accustomed to Galactica, and shuttles flying around, but
Fighters zooming around at very fast speeds is something new. The media have
shown some of the training flights as well, and so we have pilot recruits who
want to do what they saw zooming around."

"What does BA think?"

"She's already planning boot
camp."

I couldn’t help but chuckle at that.

"Lacey?"

"Has already approached a couple of
his pilots to act as instructors."

"Fine. Approved. Camp them on the
Cargo Deck until we get to Hunter's Haven. Jane?"

"What is thy bidding…"

"Knock it off. Is the Hunter tower on
Hunter's Haven ready for a boot camp?"

"It can be very soon. Just needs
outfitting of one of the barracks we haven't needed yet."

"Talk to BA about how she wants it set
up. The pilots can be run through it as well as the grunts. Once they have the
basics, the training can be diversified according to what they aim to be. And
tell BA to be on the lookout for potential officers. Co-ordinate through
General Smith. BA can be as hands on as she likes, but if we need to be
somewhere else, it needs to run fine without her."

"Maybe you should tell her that."

"Chicken."

"Bruck, bruck."

Annabelle was laughing again.

"When you get a moment General, talk
to Walter Harriman. He might have some people who need or want the type of
marine training we can offer. Or he may have some recruits who want to start
from scratch our way."

"Will do."

I gave her raised eyebrows to ask if she
had anything more.

"There are also about fifty people who
just plain want to leave."

"Leave? What on Gaia for?"

"As I understand it, they want to see
the spine for themselves. Travel for as long as they can."

"Tourists?"

"Apparently so."

"Do they have permission to leave from
the council?"

"No idea."

"Ask the Keeper to find out. But I
have no objection if they don’t."

I thought about it a bit more.

"I have no objection even if the
council objects. It's very likely Galactica has stowaways already. May as well
make it officially okay. But make it quite clear they are on their own when we
get to Nexus. They either have to find accommodation, crew on ships heading
out, or buy passage to where they want to go. The free ride ends in
Nexus."

"I'll get on with it then. Thanks
Jon."

She rose and left.

"Can I go back to bed now?"

"No," said Jane.

I pinged Lacey to come join me. He bounced
in a short time later, interrupting my email processing. I waved him to the
chair across from me.

"How do you feel about the
deserters?" I asked him.

He laughed. I looked at him seriously.

"I have no problem with it, and happen
to agree with their logic. The two Camels really do need some support. Besides,
the ones going are the ones who have the hardest time with sitting around doing
nothing but boring patrols and training. Exploring is in their blood. Let them
do what they love, and it helps the AMS people at the same time. Anyway, you
never liked any of our people flying Gladiators into combat, so it gets rid of
a few of them."

"True enough. What do we do with the
squadrons? I hear we're losing a Squadron Leader?"

"I'm not worried. For now, I'll tack
the remainders on other squadrons. When we get some new pilots, I'll reorganize
to spread the rookies around. And there are a couple of lads ready for
promotion."

"Speaking of rookies, I told Jane they
could do boot camp with the marine recruits. We won't separate them until
they're ready for pilot stuff. Better think about what you need for training
purposes, and have Jane provide it in a separate area of the boot camp. When
the marines start in on purely marine stuff, the pilots can begin pre-flight
instruction. But they bunk together until they finish what BA considers a full
camp. I don’t want any marines verses pilot shit going on. They're all Hunter
recruits, until they earn rank, and formally join a unit."

"Wouldn’t have it any other way
sir."

"I told Annabelle to have BA look out
for potential officers. But the pilots will be officers, so there'll need to be
an officer training component to this boot camp anyway. Talk to Annabelle and
BA about it, and have Jane supply whatever you need."

"Will do."

"While you’re here, I'd like you to
think about something over the next week or so."

"Anything."

"I told you you'd end up flying a
Carrier." He cringed. "What we have isn’t adequate. BigMother makes a
good Command Carrier for the role we've had to date, but if we have to fight a
protracted war, she doesn’t carry enough fighters." He nodded. "Hell,
I don’t think the American Carriers are big enough either."

The Yorktown and Lexington were the biggest
ships I'd seen to date, bigger even than the British Battleships, excluding the
three original Explorer ships.

"I agree sir. In a war, we need to get
a lot more fighters into a combat zone than we can now. But is it possible to
build a bigger carrier than Yorktown?"

"Anything is possible. I have some
ideas of my own for custom designed Dreadnaughts. The ones being assembled now
are just reconstituted Battleships. We need to think outside the box, and
really come up with completely new designs. There is only so far we can adapt
the current designs, and most of them predate leaving Earth. The few really
innovative designs come from Science Fiction, and none of them are big enough
or have the firepower to be much use to us. We could upscale some of them, but
only to a point. They make good Cruisers, but making them bigger won't make
them more effective."

"Agreed."

"Go back to the drawing board Group
Captain. Hallington is the Carrier driver. Pick his brains. If you can't design
something between you, at least come up with a solid specification for
it."

"Guidelines?"

"Consider everything from a Frigate
size down to be a fighter. We want a launch platform to put as many ships into
a combat zone as fast as possible, while also allowing them to land or dock
rapidly, with all the necessary support functions, including making missiles
and replacing damage. Start by assuming you put two Yorktown's together, and
then keep adding to allow for Privateers, Corvettes, and a few Frigates."

"So if I understand you right, we'd
want to dock Commander Young's Excalibur wing, and Commander Greer's Gunbus
squadron, while at the same time launching and landing twenty squadrons of
heavy fighters, and a number of squadrons of bombers."

"That’s your starting point,
yes."

"Hooley dooley."

"Exactly. Get something back to me in
a week. By the time Bob has the upgrading of the existing ships complete, I
want designs for the new one's done."

"Aye sir."

He rose, saluted, and left with the same
bounce he had coming in.

"You know Jon," said Jane.
"We could really use a few Borg Cubes."

I laughed. Which I think was her intention.
But all the same, she wasn’t wrong.

I went back to work on my tablet.

Half an hour later, on the stroke of eight,
my Dad walked in. He took the chair without a second's thought.

"Galactica is ready to depart
Admiral."

"Good. We aren't yet. We had a
complication this morning. Leaving some people behind, and picking some more
up. I'm waiting to hear when loading is complete."

"I'll be ready when you are. Unless
you want me to leave immediately, given our slower speed."

I pondered for a moment, but another
question beckoned.

"How many stowaways do you reckon you
have?"

"Officially, none. Unofficially, who
knows? Given how much of the ship is empty now, could be hundreds and we'd
never know."

We both smiled.

"I'm letting anyone who wants to come,
come. We're getting some recruits, and giving a lift to some tourists. No
biggie."

I looked him in the eye. This wasn’t
something we did very often. We'd always been a bit aloof from one another. Him
being captain of Galactica, had always imposed some distance between us. And
I'd not always appreciated the discipline he'd imposed on me. In hindsight
though, he'd done all right by me.

"What do you want to do when we reach
the shipyard Dad?"

"What would you prefer?"

"I'm not taking Galactica away from you,
if that’s been bothering you."

"No, I never considered that
possibility. A few of your four stars might have though."

"Possibly. For top Brass, they seem to
be quite open minded."

"Tell me what you want son."

I hesitated.

"First, let me ask you a question. Do
you want to join Hunter Security, or remain Gaia Militia?"

"Is there much point in remaining with
Gaia forces, once the Door closes again?"

"Probably not. But if we do have to
fight the Darkness, any fleet is most likely going to be multi-sector. So one
Gaia ship in the middle isn’t going to be particularly noticeable. It'll be a
combined chain of command anyway. At least at this end of the spine."

"All the same, I better join the unit
which bares my own name."

"Fine, I'll organize it. Once we put Galactica
to bed at the shipyard, you can spend some time with my officers until you feel
integrated, and then I'll get you to spend some time with Fleet Admiral
O'Neil."

"Fleet Admiral?"

"Hunter rank. It’s the same as a Rear
Admiral, Lower Half. I redesigned the rank structure a bit. Fleet Admiral is a
mobile fleet commander rank, currently a Pocket Battleship billet. O'Neil
commands the Cobol jump point in Midnight. He also has command of the armed
station I have there. He can bring you up to speed with what my ships can do,
and how Galactica will perform once Bob is through with her. After that, you
can spend some time with General Harriman. Walter lives on my station now as
well, and runs the Australian Militia from there. He can bring you up to speed on
the sector, and anything else you want to know about."

"Fine with me. I'll need quarters on
your station then, at least until the upgrade is complete."

"Quarters, hell. You get a suite in my
tower. Jane will assign you a Butler droid. You just need to ask it for what
you need. It or Jane will provide. David has a suite in the administration
tower. He pretty well administers the Duchy for me."

"I gathered that."

He grinned at me. Of course he knew that.
He'd been there last night.

"Your crew will be assigned quarters
in the Hunter Security tower, according to rank. Your XO will get a suite much
the same as my Alpha team get. Talk to Jane about it, once you come aboard from
Galactica at the Shipyard. It may take a few hours after we arrive for fitting
out to complete, but Jane can get it going as soon as she knows who needs
what."

"Good enough. None of them are looking
forward to being beached though."

"Don’t let them worry. There are going
to be a lot of ships coming out of the shipyard soon. Your XO might end up
skippering a Destroyer for a while. I think we can assure them all of something
to keep them occupied, especially since they'll all need to update themselves
with the level of tech we have now. Send Jane the records for your crew, so she
can assess how to utilize them best while they're waiting for Galactica. In
fact, make any recommendations you want. If some of the command officers would
make good Destroyer drivers, say so, and we'll give them the chance to find
out. I'm short on good captains. I've moved two of mine up to Cruisers. One
from a Frigate, and one from a Corvette. Both were fighter pilots to start
with. George is getting a new design of Marine Cruiser. Annette is getting a
super-Cruiser. But I have updated Destroyers, Frigates, and Corvettes I need
captains for. Jane can run them as drone ships, but in combat, nothing replaces
a good captain."

He was grinning at me. I had to chuckle.

"You learnt well son, I'm proud of
you. I'll send Jane what you want once we're underway. You want us to leave
now?"

"You may as well. We won't be too far
behind you. Jane?"

"Yes oh magnificent leader?"

Dad cracked up. It was good to see him
laughing for a change. The years as Galactica Captain hadn't allowed him a lot
of laugh time.

"Whisper in Lacey's ear, and can 266
escort Galactica to the jump point please."

"Confirmed."

"Is she always like that?" my Dad
asked.

"More often than not, yes."

I chuckled along with him, and he rose.

"See you at the Shipyard son."

He departed, and I went back to work.