Hunter Legacy 11: Home Is Where the Hero Is (7 page)

Miriam and Eric were the last ones into the
Theatre, and I’d been about to start without them. Both of them muttered a
sorry as they went past me. I shut the door after them, and walked to the
center of the stage.

The Gaia council had the first level of
seats. The Marshal, Admirals, and Generals had the second level up. My father
sat with them, as the highest local military rank. The Alpha team, and everyone
else who was a Major or higher in rank, sat on levels three and four. Amy,
Melissa, Bob, Carter, David, and a number of unknown civilians sat above them.

I pinged Bob to find out if the man next to
him was the local shipyard manager and received a yes back. I'd need to talk to
them both together sometime soon.

Behind me on the stage area was the Keeper,
Jane, Annabelle, and Jack. The latter two were going to repeat their earlier
briefings for the locals.

I introduced everyone on the stage, and
then had everyone else introduce themselves by name, rank, and position. I
learned the names of each council member, stored them in my PC, and promptly
forgot them.

The last civilians turned out to be senior
management for the Gaia government, here to learn how their respective
departments might be challenged by what we thought was coming.

Annabelle and Jack took us through the
events of the last year. Once again, I stood at the back, and observed
reactions. Unlike the last times, they played up the Midgard war, and at its
end, I emphasized their prophecy for the benefit of the Council. They needed to
know there was more than one Prophesy in play.

My major medal ceremonies and promotions
were played, also for the benefit of the Council. Objectionable wasn’t happy,
but there was nothing he could object to. Most of the rest of the Council
looked at me and nodded respectfully after each of the two highest medal
awards, my Knighting, which hadn't been mentioned before, and then Dukedom.

I was in 'slinky red', revealing nothing
except my four stars. No way was I going to flaunt my awards, as some people
might have done.

Eyes opened wide when Hunter's Run was
proclaimed a Duchy, and wider when Outback joined the Duchy. The Keeper
confirmed he had left instructions for Outback to join the Duchy, as Prophesy
had dictated he must do. We didn’t allow questions about Prophesy at that
point, and I waved Annabelle and Jack on.

The evidence we had collected fifty two
years into the future was presented and shock rippled through those who hadn't
seen this before. The Japanese Ambassador's pronouncement accepting the time
travel rocked them, as did the French reaction to seeing their planets wiped
clean. We showed actual vid of how Paris looked now, and how it looked in the
same places in the future.

They overviewed the entire campaign against
the Pirates, and showed some of the captured ships. When he saw the number and
size of the ships under my command, Objectionable showed fear for the first
time. Only for an instant, but fear I definitely saw. I made a note to try and
figure out why he'd felt that way. For everyone else, the size of my fleet was
a good sign that if the Darkness could be fought, we had the means to do so.
This wasn’t the case, but I saw no harm in civilians thinking that way. As an
added extra, we included vids of the American fleet at Miami, and Repulse and
Warspite in Avon before the first battle there.

And finally we came to the only uncovered
issue.

I took back the stage, after thanking
Annabelle and Jack, who took seats with the rest of the Alpha team.

"Keeper," I said to him without
looking his way, "please tell us about Prophesy."

"Boss," interrupted Amy,
"Can I ask why you use Prophesy as a verb, instead of as a noun? I've
noticed it before, and it's been bothering me."

"There are only two people who have
read Prophesy," I responded. "The Keeper, and this morning, Colonel
Jane on my behalf. I received a short summary of the highlights. I'll let the
Keeper explain."

I nodded towards the Keeper and stepped
back to allow him take the center stage.

"There are two versions of Prophesy.
The short one says, '
When the three who dream come to
Gaia on the red arrow, then must the preparations for Darkness begin.' You
could call this the noun version, since it’s a prediction predicated with an event.
This was necessary. It provided leaders with something to wait for, along with
the earlier signs to do with Admiral Hunter here, all of which have now
happened. But this version was created by a Keeper, not by the original author."

He paused, looking around the room.

"Prophesy however, is not a
prediction. It is a descriptive documentary of a series of events, written at
such a time as they could not possibly have been known. As such, its use as a
verb seems more appropriate than in context as a noun."

Ten books? Maybe not a verb as such, but
certainly verbiage.

"While we cannot be sure, the only
reasonable explanation is the whole document was channeled. The man who first
typed Prophesy by hand, was spiritual, and some of his spiritual writing is still
used here and now. And as Admiral Hunter can attest, there has been a large
amount of activity by higher beings such as Kali over the past year, including
saving the Admiral's life, from which the channeling could have been
made."

To everyone's surprise, with quite a bit of
shock mixed in, two large statues materialized, one on each side of the stage.
They were predictable enough, since there were already versions of these on my
ships, but not even I had any expectation of them doing something so dramatic.
It wasn’t their style to usually be this kind of obvious.

There were a number of 'what the fuck's'
from around the room, said more in quiet awe than anything else, and we ignored
them. Spiritual people do still swear at times, including me. Objectionable
looked like he'd been pole-axed. Given I suspected he was the representative of
those who were not spiritual, this was a level of in-your-face he wasn’t
equipped to handle. Not many were of course. Even spiritual people rarely
encountered anything this overt.

I could hear a chuckle in my head. Kali had
obviously enjoyed the reaction.

The Keeper bowed to each of them, as did
several of the Councilors. He looked upward.

"Thank you for joining us, Kali and
Ganesha."

He turned back towards the councilors.

"There are several things I can say
about Prophesy," he went on. "As well as providing the signs, it has
provided instructions for the Keepers. Outback joining the Duchy of Hunter's
Run was one such instruction. But unfortunately, it does not provide us with
any more information than we already have."

"What?" came from a number of
people.

"Prophesy does not tell us what the
Darkness is, when it will appear, or where."

I could see a mixture of emotions from some
of the four stars, which I understood since it now appeared coming here had
been a big waste of time.

I stepped forward.

"However," I interjected,
"we do have a positive lead."

This got everyone's attention.

"In a previous meeting, we decided to
send ships to the six known systems which my nightmares suggest could be the
entry point into our space by the Darkness, to gather data so we could attempt
to identify the where and when."

I nodded to the Keeper.

"One of our instructions," he
said, "was to seek that data, and we did so a year ago before the Door
closed on us, within hours of Jon Hunter leaving Gaia."

"The data arrived yesterday," I
continued, "and instead of a month's data, we have almost a full year.
Colonel Jane is overseeing the conversion of this data into something the three
of us 'dreamers' can view. If we can find the image of the system at the
instant the darkness appears in our nightmare, it can be dated. We will then
know where and approximately when."

This information changed the whole
atmosphere, which had been bordering on depressive, and now changed to cautious
optimism.

"Questions?"

"What do we know about the Midgard
Prophecy?" asked the American Indian councilor.

"Not much," speculated the
Keeper. "But I think it's safe to say, Prophesy is the same, but the Midgard
Seers only saw a truncated or summarized version of it. They made a lot of
incorrect assumptions, and allowed madness and greed for power overcome sound
judgement. That being said, the Midgard war was a necessary evil, and Midgard
played its part in Prophesy."

My guess was, and the Keeper couldn’t just
come out and say it, Midgard had a copy of only the first few books. Up to
whichever one showed them winning their way to Avon. Had they known what
followed, they never would have started the war.

"So the war could have been
prevented?" asked a different councilor.

"Yes. But to have done so would have
been disastrous. We are all here now because of the war. And being here now was
necessary. So for that matter was refusing to allow the injured Jon Hunter to
return to Gaia while the Door was open last. He had to perform the role his
legacy had prepared him for, or we would not again be here now. He has had a
difficult year, as have those around him, but it was absolutely necessary."

His eyes swept the room, daring anyone to
question his answer. No-one did.

"What can we do?" asked the
Aboriginal councilor.

I nodded to Jane, and the meeting of the
four stars on the way to Outback was replayed for everyone. As the best summary
of our options at this time, I could see it was compelling viewing for those
who hadn't been there.

"What is our role in this?" asked
the American Indian councilor.

"Gaia is our bolt hole," I said,
"assuming the Darkness comes up the spine. It provides a place the Human
race can survive in, with a defendable entrance. The three inhabited planets
can easily take up to five billion people each. Gaia itself, utilized wisely,
can feed all those people, without compromising itself. Beyond that,
potentially many billions of people can seek refuge here on stations. The means
to move those stations exists, although this will require a huge building
effort along the spine. We also have the specifications to build food
production stations."

I paused to gather my thoughts.

"Gaia's role is to provide housing for
the billions coming, in a sustainable format, which ensures what happened to
Earth never happens again. It needs to provide space based food production to
augment planet production. You also need to build Hubs, to join together
stations which arrive singly or in small groups. And you will need to police
the system effectively, since a large number of displaced people are going to
turn up feeling dispossessed, or believing they have the right to rule.
Ultimately, the council is going to need to come to grips with being a sector
level government."

There was silence. Objectionable broke it.

"You mentioned the need to police, and
yet you will be taking Galactica with you? What do we do without her?"

"I can replace her with a Missile
Cruiser. And I think we can also rustle up a squadron of light fighters."

I looked at Walter Harriman.

"General Harriman. Would it be
possible to call for volunteers among your Talon squadrons to immediately move
here to take up a role as system police, under the council's supervision?"

"It would," he replied. "I'll
send off the orders immediately, and have at least a Squadron here within two
days."

"Thank you General," said
Objectionable, still not looking happy. "There is one thing I don’t like
in all of this. So much depends on Admiral Hunter. What happens if he is killed
as soon as the Darkness appears?"

"Then leadership falls to the senior
Military officer in each sector," answered Marshall Bigglesworth. "We
have a basic plan. No one person is vitally important to the plan. Admiral
Hunter has committed himself outside of our space, should the Darkness appear
there. The rest of us here come into play should the Darkness appear inside our
space, or when it reaches the Hawaii system heading up the spine. That is our
first major choke point, where a good part of our forces will be waiting. If we
fall there, those who remain will take up the challenge."

"There are a number of choke points
along the spine," I said. "Each one will be prepared as best we can.
The last ones if the Darkness comes up the spine, are Midnight, Bad Wolf,
Nexus, and Outback. Each of those systems provides the Darkness with a single
entry point, and if the Darkness can bleed, we will make it bleed in each of
them."

I sighed, without realizing it was obvious
to others.

"What Jon?" asked Aline.

"If the worst comes to the worst,
Outback will become the staging area for stations and ships, waiting for the
Door into Gaia to open again. If need be, we'll need to hold those choke points
for as long as necessary to give our people time to escape. When the door
opens, Gaia will turn from a system with a few million to a system of more than
ten billion. You must be ready to cope with the influx. You may or may not get
military ships to help you at the time. But given as much of humanity which can
be made mobile will come through that jump point in a five day period, you must
be ready to receive."

"And if no-one comes through?"
asked the Indian councilor.

"We will all be dead. Humanity will be
dead. Each time the Door opens from now on, one of three things will happen.
One. No-one comes through, meaning you are all that’s left. Two. Billions pour
through from the moment the Door opens. Three. The Darkness pours through the
moment the Door opens."

A number of the civilians shuddered.

"How do we defend against the
last?"

"You don't. But I have some ideas to
prevent that scenario from happening."

Objectionable stood, and I turned to face
him.

"This is unacceptable. I insist this
system be sealed behind you when you leave, so nothing can come through ever
again."