Hunter Legacy 11: Home Is Where the Hero Is (22 page)

"Sounds like a plan."

There are times when fathers can surprise
you. Mine just had. Mother on the other hand was desperately trying to hide her
unease. The unspoken fear was whoever was captaining such a ship would leave it
too late, and fail to escape. Her eyes flickered from him, to me, and then down
to her dessert plate. You didn’t need to be psychic to understand her thought
process in that moment.

She knew her husband, and she knew me.

After everyone but my parents and Aline had
left, I convinced Aline to go play with Angel for a bit. I moved to sit
opposite them.

"Why did you leave Gaia Mum?" I
asked her softly.

"How could I not?"

"It isn’t safe."

"And that’s mostly why. I need to
spend as much time as I can with you both."

"Before we go off to war, you
mean?"

"Yes. And I might not let you go
without me either."

"Absolutely not!" exploded Dad.
"When we leave, you'll stay here and wait for the Door to open."

"Ah Dad? When did you figure out she
hadn't gone down to Gaia Five after all?"

"Not until we arrived at the
shipyard."

I raised eyebrows at him. He deflated.

"Now that’s settled," she said,
"what can I do to help?"

"Mum, if you can convince any of my
officers you can help them, you're welcome to do anything you want to."

Dad did not look happy, but he kept his
mouth shut. They'd had this argument many times in the past. She'd always lost.
But for the first time, he didn’t have the last word. And he recognized it
wasn’t going to be the last time either. I met his eyes, and he nodded
slightly. Message received. She could try to help, but my officers needed to
have some boundaries. Personally, I didn’t think I needed to say anything, as
none of them would let her do anything dangerous. I pinged a message to
Annabelle anyway.

"Thank you dear. You've created a
wonderful home here."

"It hasn’t been much of a home so far.
A few months before I left down the spine, and a week now. My suite on
BigMother is more home to me than anywhere else."

"Angel doesn’t seem to care."

"She's a cat Mum."

"True. But Siamese don’t like things
changing too much."

"She has the same things in each place
we've called home over the last six months. Or they get moved around with
her."

"We know. Jeeves turned up with a cat
tree last night, and all the stuff she needed for a sleepover."

"Really?"

I made a mental note to ask Aline where
she'd slept last night. And cancelled it when it occurred she had her own
suite. The word 'hooked' popped into my mind. I didn’t want to go there.

"Does she always sleep next to your
pillow?"

"Yes. She slept that close to
you?"

"Indeed. Made me wonder if we should
be getting ourselves another cat."

I looked at Dad. He looked upwards for a
second. I chuckled.

"May as well. Cat World probably has
kittens. Get Jeeves to assign you a Butler droid and it will take care of the
mundanities of cat ownership. And Jane will get you a collar suit for it, to
keep it safe on the station. When it wants company, bring it here to visit
Angel, or let the Butler take it to Cat Zone."

Her eyes had lit up. If it wasn’t for the
fact of cat choosing being a very personal thing, just as much the cat choosing
the person as the other way around, I’d have just gotten her one.

"I'll look tomorrow dear."

"Make sure you drop my name. They seem
to like me there."

She joined me in my chuckle.

"I'll do that. Well, I'm off to bed.
Don’t stay up too late talking you two."

"Night Mum."

Her husband pecked her on the cheek, and
she walked out with a smile on her face. We heard her say good night to Aline
and Angel. I looked at my father.

"Sorry," I said. "I think
she's feeling lost at the moment, and I thought a cat might settle her."

"You're right. I never expected her to
leave Gaia like that, but now she has, I think the magnitude of her decision is
preying on her a bit. A cat might indeed help. Especially as I'm going to need
to be away from here for a bit. I'll need a ride to your other station tomorrow
morning."

"I'd suggest catching a lift with
Slice or Annette, but why don’t you take my Excalibur?"

"You'd trust me with your personal
fighter?"

"You trust me to command the fleet you
sail with?"

We grinned at each other.

"Jane?"

"Yes oh magnificent one?"

"Prep Excalibur for Dad in the
morning."

"Confirmed."

"When you get back from Midnight Dad,
why don’t you take Mum to Gold Coast for a few days? It'll do you both a lot of
good to get some real sun. As it happens I have a nice beach shack there. Nice
and cozy for the two of you."

"It would be easier if you get her to
ask me to take her."

"Jane?"

"Consider it done. Suggestion mode
engaged."

"Thanks."

He looked at me strangely for a moment.

"Does Jane observe everything on this
station?"

"Of course not. Janice does though.
And I guess they share."

Two different chuckles sounded through room
coms.

"Isn't that a bit inhibiting for
you?"

"Dad, having an AI watch everything
you do is just the least of who is watching us all the time."

"I guess while I know that, I've never
had it demonstrated so vividly before."

"You don’t have the contact with the
highers the way I have. If being watched bothered me, I'd never get out of bed.
It's just as well the average person is clueless about it."

I'd heard the stories of people being
visited while they were in the shower, and how they freaked out the first time
it happened. It was very common with mediums who had just begun to work as one.
It was like the moment they hung up an etheric shingle, they'd start getting
visitations, often visually, more often than not while in water. One of the
girls at school had been through it, and it took a group of us to calm her
down, and help her set some boundaries.

"I bet. I wish I didn’t know."

"Just ignore it. I do."

He looked like he was thinking about
something, so I waited for him.

"Would your George like some Bridge
crew for a while?"

"Ask him. My ships don’t really need
crews because of Jane. But I have been thinking about there at least being an
XO and second officer aboard each piloted ship. Just to cover bases. While I
trust Jane to run the ship while I sleep, in a war, we probably should have a
person on the Bridge all the time. Might be a good idea to start with George.
Then use your people to train XO's and seconds for other ships."

"My people are well trained."

I had no doubts about that. I'd done Bridge
time as early as six, and seen how well he trained his people.

"We probably need to recruit as well.
Liaise with Annabelle on that. While she's a ground pounder, she's the only two
star I have, and recruiting falls under her purview. If we go the people mover
route for the Explorer ships, we'll need security people as well to supervise
squads of droids. So introduce yourself to Dick Burnside as well, and get him
involved in that side. Dick is chief of station security, an ex-detective, and
notionally a Colonel."

I looked steadily at him for a moment.

"Which brings up what rank you think
you should have."

"What's the space equivalent of a bird
Colonel?"

"Fleet Captain."

"That will do me, for now
anyway."

"Do you accept a commission in Hunter
Security?"

"I do."

"Then I commission you with the rank
of Fleet Captain, and confirm you retain command of the Gaia ship Galactica.
Until she comes out of the yard, you're on detached duties. Rear Admiral Susan
Bentley sent me some training stuff for George and Annette. Jane has a copy.
I’d recommend you go through it. Susan is the best Battleship driver this side
of Earth, and commanded the second fleet during the Midgard War. I know you
know that ship now, but she will be completely different when the upgrade is
complete. Susan had Repulse upgraded to my specs after the battle of Avon, so
she can help you prepare for how Galactica will handle when she comes out. Your
helm people are going to get a shock when they handle Fearless for the first
time, assuming George lets them. You can Captain a ship without needing crew as
I said, but to fully understand the ship, you need to fly her from the
Captain's chair yourself."

"I'm hearing you, but it's hard to
accept a ship that big will require that of me."

"One reason I suggest you take
Excalibur tomorrow. Have fun with her. Her handling set the standard for every
ship design I've had a hand in since. Just don’t break her!"

He laughed, and promised she would be safe.
I pulsed him 'slinky red' with the correct epaulettes. He did a test
activation, but returned to a belt over his civvies. I knew he'd be in uniform
when he left in the morning.

Aline poked her head in at that point.

"I don’t want to break anything up,
but I need to be up at oh four shake a leg tomorrow."

Dad immediately jumped up, and with a nod
to both of us, he strode out.

"Sorry," she said. "But I
need to be up early enough to get lazy sods out of their racks on time."

"How did BA con you into that?"

"Con me? I've wanted to be a drill
instructor for a long time now. Just never had the chance. I volunteered."

"Well you could have gone back to your
own place straight after dinner, and been asleep by now."

"Of course I could. But there are advantages
to being here."

"Really? Show me."

She did.

I didn’t even notice Aline vanish in the
morning. I had this vague dream of being kissed which might not have been a
dream, but it was impossible to know for sure.

Jane had me up early anyway. Annette and
Slice met me in my Hunter Security Admiral's office for a last minute chat
about what they were off to do. I stressed urgency and suggested they dock the
ships together if they could, to maximize speed. This could be done in theory,
since Slice's ship was fairly standard. They'd have to figure it out in
practice. The faster they could get around, the better, since knowing if we had
any concerns in the other four suspect systems would be better sooner than later.
The Canadians would certainly feel better knowing their system showed nothing
to worry about. It would free them up for joint operations with the Americans.
It was the next one on the list, to be followed by the system on the other side
of Dead Man's Chest.

It was ironic. I had two very habitable
planets in the Duchy, not including Outback, and I'd never get the time to
actually colonize them. There simply wasn’t any point now.

Excalibur left while we were talking, and
once again I pondered apparently drunk pilots. The two Cruisers were not far
behind, and travelling at the same speed. I let O'Neil know my Dad was on his
way.

I had breakfast with Walter, and we
discussed further what had been discussed the night before. I was just leaving
the Officer's Club, when Thirteen waylaid me, and we headed for BigMother.

"It's time we began your special
project."

"Which is?"

"The four crystals you retrieved from
future Earth."

They were still on Unassailable's Cargo
Deck.

"Would it be easier if we undocked
Unassailable, and docked her to the station?"

"It would."

"Confirmed. But I'll need to move
BigMother away from the station to safely undock her."

"Fine. Lead us to the dock she uses.
While you're at it, may as well undock the Guardians, and put them on the perimeter
patrol."

"Confirmed."

The three of us spent the morning looking
at the one I'd excavated completely. The others were still locked within
rectangles of earth. But it wasn’t worth the effort of getting them out, until
we had a way of connecting the one we did have to the power grid of the ship,
and have it actually generate power.

It didn’t take long to convince myself I
knew almost nothing about them. I obviously had a rudimentary awareness of them
brought forward from a past life, but it was obvious I had no knowledge of how
to use them. Jane was actually completely clueless for once. And Thirteen
proved to be no help either.

"We need someone with specialist
knowledge," I told him. "But I seriously doubt we'll find anyone
nearby who has it. At a guess, there hasn’t been anyone around for some twenty
odd millennia."

"I'll seek help then from the council.
If they can't help, I'll buck it higher up. Someone made sure you found these,
so there must be help around somewhere to get them working."

"Why the rush?" asked Jane.

"Not so much a rush," he said.
"But if I understand your nightmare," he looked at me,
"BigMother faces the Darkness alone at the beginning. In spite of the
augmented shielding that ship has, I'm not sure it'll be enough. Why go into a
situation like that deliberately, without making as sure as possible you'll be
coming back out of it in one piece?"

"There is that," I said.
"Someone has to be there when they come through. Maybe we can communicate
with them, maybe not, but someone has to try. And if that fails, we need to
determine the threat as much as possible, and get the information back to
whatever fleet we have there in time to be of any use. I know I'm there, so I
guess it's me. I’d say I go alone, only the nightmare makes it quite plain I'm
not."

"They'd never let you go alone,"
said Jane.

It was quite obvious who she was referring
to.

"Be back as soon as I can," said
Thirteen, and vanished.

"Can I call him a rude name?"
asked Jane.

"Why?"

"Because he can travel in time. He can
be back here already if he wanted to be, regardless of how long it actually
took him."

I shook my head and chuckled. Having a time
traveler on the crew was definitely different. But what really annoyed me
still, was the time travelers I knew about couldn’t fix this before it started.
It negated the whole point of time travelling to my mind.

"Get me a trolley, so I can go get
some lunch."

"Confirmed."

We locked up Unassailable on the way off
her. No point in tempting stupid people.

Bob messaged me after lunch about putting
engines around Redoubt. He'd had someone poke around in the mountains of hull
parts and debris which had been shipped back during the Midgard war, after the
British coup, and our trip down to Earth. It turned out we had quite a few rear
ends of ship hulls to choose from, including several Battleship, and quite a
few from Cruisers. Nothing worked in them, but the hulls could be worked with
to provide just engine and power plant spaces. Between them, ringed around the
lower docking ring of Redoubt, they'd provide her considerable bulk with
Guardian speed.

In theory.

Bits and pieces of smaller ships were also
available to provide a form of maneuvering thrusters. The resulting station was
going to look like a dog's breakfast, but it should be able to move and fight
like a true Battleship. While he was at it, it would get Point Defense and
Mosquito launchers all over it wherever possible, making it less vulnerable to
side and rear attack. He'd also add more Cruiser guns and capital ship missile
launchers where he could.

He proposed to completely re-hull the join
between the original stations, removing any form of join completely, and using
the space for middle of the station armaments, with an all-around coverage.

I told him to go right ahead. And I upped
the priority to just behind the Explorer ships. We'd get smaller ships out
while he prepared for the big job, but the Corvette conversions would have to
wait. At least until those parts of the shipyard dedicated to extending the
shipyard, provided additional bays, and the bays dedicated to turning out
mining ships to keep the shipyard fed, caught up with the demand for resources.

We were on the clock now. The curve of
things to do was exponential. The shipyard had too much to do. Bob's own
shipyard in the Sydney system was also expanding itself and building mining
ships as fast as it could, while still attending to Camel and Python orders,
Australian Militia orders, and producing the first station Hubs. The latter
would be needed for accommodation purposes in Outback very soon.

We also needed custom food production
stations, but had no capacity for building them yet. When refugees started
pouring into the Australian sector later in the year, we needed to be able to
feed them, and while the Australian planets over produced food now, it wouldn’t
be enough to last until the Door opened. This raised a thought about the
retreat. We really needed a raiding force with the sole task of retrieving
planetary food stocks as each planet was evacuated. And come to think of it,
there were other things which should be salvaged from abandoned planets as
well. I pinged the idea to Annabelle.

I was lucky I didn’t need to address all
this myself. Bob had people managing things. David had his finger on the pulse
as well. And my senior officers were managing what we needed to accomplish. We'd
get it done, I had no doubts about it. But I wasn’t going to be here to see it.

While I was thinking about stations moving,
my thoughts changed to how to preserve Haven. As well as all the other stations
in the Australian sector. Station tugs were fine for moving slowly, but we
needed to move other stations down the spine a lot faster. And as much as I
wanted this station to survive, I also could see a need for it to be amongst
the last to go through to Gaia, providing us with a last stand base. And if the
worst happened, and we arrived back here when the door was closed, the station
might need to be moved somewhere else to protect it. But converting it like
Redoubt wasn’t feasible. All the same, Bob's ideas for using junk hulls to make
station engines seemed like a good one. And it might be possible to make them
dock with the standard docks, but thrust in a useful direction. The docking
links would need to be much more solid though.

I spent time during the afternoon coming up
with ideas and sending them off to Bob. Eventually he told me to stop sending
them to him piecemeal, and to just send one message when I ran out of steam.
Which I did, after Jane reminded me I was having a one on one dinner with Aline
at one of the best restaurants on the station.

For the life of me I couldn't remember
being told about it in the first place.