Reaper's Crossroad

by Timothy Ellis

  "What happened?"

  "Repulse had just come out of her own refit, and was flagship for a fleet on anti-pirate detail. I'd just turned down my second star for the third time, and was under a lot of pressure, including threats to remove me from Repulse and beach me. It made me focus on the pirates, and not what was going on in my own fleet."

  "You found some?"

  "There were always some around then. The Americans kept pushing them our way, and since we didn’t have the ships for permanent duty anywhere, we tended to miss them entering our space. And they were good at taking non-standard routes through systems. It was why we still needed fighters. It was the only way to cover more space. Normally a fighter flight would discover pirate ships, and we'd launch a squadron to either take them out, or ride herd until the fleet could catch up. It was a game of cat and mouse most of the time, and sometimes the tactics were complex."

  She paused, sighing.

  "Ark Royal's CO had been begging me to declare her unfit for service, and send her back to London for a refit. I kept telling him it had to wait until the admiralty released the fleet from current orders. In hindsight, I've always wished I’d paid more attention to him. I was a battleship driver, not a carrier jock. For once in my life I failed to listen to a subordinate who knew more than I did."

  "What happened?"

  "Fighters found a pirate cruiser, with destroyer escort, and a squadron of privateers. One flight of medium fighters wasn’t going to do more than die, so we launched Ark Royal's full complement of fighters. A second after the last squadron began to launch, the entire launch system failed, causing a cascade of failures right across the ship. The fighters in the tubes should have been alright. They were still on the catapults, which should have just stopped. We never found out what happened, but every fighter in the tubes was hurled into the tube walls, and only wreckage came out the other end."

  She closed her eyes for a moment, before continuing.

  "Half the pilots were killed immediately. Of the other half, only one survived unhurt. The rest suffered injuries sufficient to end their careers. One of them is the reason I'm here now."

  "I take it whoever it was is now using our new recruiting tool?"

  "Yes."

  "Call sign?"

  "Dreamwalker."

  "Ah. A fair pilot as far as I can see. Pilot training isn’t showing though. Is that because of injury?"

  "Yes."

  "How bad?"

  "He's blind."

  Fifty

  "Blind?"

  "He was unlucky on two counts. A piece of metal slashed across his face, taking his eyes, damaging his space suit, and it failed to seal across his face. It took them twelve long minutes to recover him. By the time they did, what was left of his eyes and everything behind them, was frozen. They regrew his eyes, so he looks normal, but nothing behind the eyes works, and the doctors have never figured out how to get his new eyes to connect to his brain properly."

  "Damn. That’s really unlucky."

  "Especially since it was his first launch as a rookie pilot. Day one on your first carrier, and it ends everything you ever wanted. Unlucky isn’t really the right word. Damned or cursed is probably closer to the mark."

  I made a leap.

  "Who is he to you?"

  "My nephew. My sister's boy."

  "Why didn’t he go to Gaia?"

  "The rest of my family did. I thought he had too. But after I left Repulse for Haven, I discovered he'd stowed away on my shuttle, and had been there since I’d seen the family that last time before their station went through the jump point to Gaia, even waiting on it until Repulse was about to jump, and I left her that last time."

  "How did he get around, being blind?"

  "Early on, he used a set of sensors designed for people who are born blind, which connects to the PC. It doesn’t give sight, but he could at least move around without banging into things. When the first of the civilian belt suits hit the market, I made sure he got one. The suit sensors are far superior to what he had, and connect direct to the PC. The first time he put it on, he told me he could see what was coming through the suit's cam. Ever since then, he's been much more mobile than he was, although the suit cam only gives a tunnel level of vision. He even uses the suit to give the illusion of wearing sun glasses, so people don’t know he's actually blind."

  "So how is he accessing the pilot simulator?"

  "The suit, and a PC upgrade I gave him for his birthday a couple of months ago, just before we deployed against the Darkness. Essentially, he connects directly into the station nets now, and uses his PC as a display tool, only inside his head."

  Which explained his boring a hole though fifty floors of a building. He had altitude from the ground, but not distance to the top of the building. The scenario was basic, and trying to teach a pilot to fly by the seat of their pants. His first drop had been pure guesswork, and he didn’t have the experience to know just how wrong his guess was. But he'd worked it out over the next few drops.

  "And he still wants to fly?"

  "He never stopped. It's been heartbreaking to watch. He's never given up on tech giving him his eyes back again."

  "But you want to save him the disappointment of us giving him hope, and having it taken away?"

  "Something like that. But part of me is hoping you have another rabbit you can pull."

  "How's his fitness?"

  "Reasonable. He made an effort to get his fitness back after the accident, and he tries to keep it up, even now."

  "Does he know you're here now?"

  "Hell no. I've not even talked to him about this. He knows you need pilots. His call sign came up in a conversation I overheard between Lacey and Bigglesworth. I thought I’d better discuss it with you before it went any further."

  "Do you think he's capable of being a pilot?"

  "I don’t know, and I've a bit too much emotional attachment to be part of any decision."

  "He's being considered. How about we call him in for a pre-enlistment physical? Doc Carter can determine he's blind, and assess him for fitness. Once he's in the system, Jane or Bob might be able to come up with something better than he's using now. BA might have ideas as well, so he can handle the marine training."

  "I don’t want to see his last hope dashed."

  "Jane?"

  "Yes Admiral?"

  "Your assessment?"

  "All he needs for being a dropship pilot is sensors dedicated to what he lacks."

  "Like distance to the top of a building?"

  "Exactly that, but more diversified. Might mean he needs some special PC software, and maybe a suit tweak, but it should be possible. His medical records are up to date, just not military grade. Once Carter gets done with him, we should know exactly what he needs."

  "Make it happen."

  "Confirmed."

  I looked at Susan.

  "What's his name?"

  "Christopher Ecclestone."

  My brain tried to make a connection and failed. I knew there was one though.

  "I know," said Jane.

  "What did happen to Ark Royal?"

  "The fighters in space made a no-help landing after forcing the pirates into heading where Repulse could catch them, and she limped back to London with most of the fleet as escort. I took Repulse after the pirate fleet, and vented my fury on them. Ark Royal was deemed too badly damaged to be worth another upgrade, and was scrapped a few months later. We never replaced her, instead attaching privateer squadrons to fleets."

  "How long after did you accept the second star?"

  "Two years. Bigglesworth made them stop offering me promotion. I managed to convince him I needed to relearn fleet management before moving up. Ark Royal should never have been operational, and had I been doing my job, she wouldn’t have been. It nearly cost me my nephew, and it did cost him his career."

  "Let's see about that. Shall we?"

  I grinned at her, and she couldn’t help herself mirroring it.

/>   "Jon?"

  "Yes Jane?"

  "Movement in the Ralnor system."

  "What are they doing?"

  "Pulling out."

  Fifty One

  Susan went back to her ship.

  Shortly after, she took out the remainder of the plants trying to jump through. Crossroad was now clear of enemy ships. As soon as the down jump lane was cleared, Jane began sending salvage droids into Crossroad to clear the debris and dust from the entire system.

  The roos were definitely on the move. All military ships were now powering towards the jump out, and over the next couple of hours, so too did most of the civilian traders. I waited until all were well away from the station, before loading all the marine teams onto BigMother's cargo deck, and rifting through to just off the station.

  Jane took a combat droid over to the nearest airlock, hacked the computer system, and confirmed only civilians remained. She suggested BigMother request docking the same as for any other normal station.

  Grace did the honours with docking control, who turned out to be a roo, and Jane docked the ship at the assigned airlock.

  The first out the airlock was Amanda, and she was greeted by the station's civilian controller. He also was a Ralnor. Greetings were exchanged, teams deployed to confirm the station was clear of military, and Annabelle took charge of the station pending Dick Burnside turning up.

  The change of ownership was done in a short ceremony, with Annabelle standing in for me, since for some odd reason, the Ralnor military had passed it on to me personally. While it was happening, I did the rifts where Jane wanted them.

  Dick, some civilians, and several platoons of security droids arrived as soon as the rifts were done, and Annabelle passed command of the station to Dick. By the time the teams were back on BigMother, Dick had sorted out who had responsibility for what, and quickly absorbed the roos into the station's operational shifts.

  Before leaving, my next task was rifting in the three battlestations for the system, and after we undocked and moved away, all four stations began the long trek across the system, a few hours behind the last of the Ralnor ships. It would take more time, but moving them direct to the jump point in front of the Ralnor would most likely be too provocative an action for them. Better to just follow them over, well out of missile range. Ours, not theirs.

  After opening the rift back to Redoubt, we had to wait for a squadron of fighters to come through for docking at the new station. Once we were through and docked, I stood all the teams and the entire fleet down, and we all walked through to Haven.

  If we'd had a threat level, it would have gone down a few notches.

  Mission complete.

  The three way war on our doorstep was ended. We had three enemies at the gate still, but the gates had moved back, and we'd added padlocks.

  For the first time since we'd dropped into the middle of a three way war, I felt we were now as safe as we could be. Time everyone got some proper sleep.

  Jane preempted me announcing a party, by informing me I'd been summoned by the new council. But not for a meeting, since Aline and I were invited to a dinner party being hosted by David, in one of the administration function rooms. Of course it was formal dress.

  It turned out to be the main ballroom, but partitioned off so it looked like a cozy dining area, only with the cosmos on display above. Aline and I were in our uniforms with ribbons showing, while everyone else was in business suits for the men, and gowns for the women.

  We mingled during pre-dinner drinks, and were escorted by butler droids to our places at table. David and his wife were on one end, Aline and I on the other, with the councilors and their partners along both sides.

  It was a formal five course dinner, and I was bored out of my brain before the main course arrived. When not eating herself, Aline held tightly to my arm, and stopped me drinking too much. We made it to the end of the dessert with me hoping we could leave straight after, but no.

  Last to be served was brandy, port, and sherry, according to tastes. My taste didn’t go towards any of them, but a large brandy was put in front of me. After several glasses of champagne already, the last thing I needed was more alcohol, especially more potent alcohol. I did a quick search on brandy, and reset a few of my medical monitor settings. The slight buzz going on in my head ceased, as the anti-alcohol setting neutralized what was already in my system.

  David rose his brandy glass high, and his voice was broadcast down the table.

  "A toast. To Admiral Hunter, and his creation of a safe place to live."

  The toast was echoed by everyone, and we all sipped at our glasses. Fire went down my throat, quickly put out by the suppression system. David went on.

  "Jon, if there was another rank we could promote you to, we would. Instead, we know you have a liking for tropical islands, so we have an award for you."

  Jeeves appeared at my elbow, now dressed in the new uniform, including all the award ribbons Gunbus and her crew had received, as if he was crew, which to me he was. He was carrying a purple cushion, on which was an old style key. And when I say old, I mean nineteen hundreds style.

  "Please accept this key from a grateful society. It looks antique, but has the same electronics used by hotels these days."

  "What's it for? Key to the city type thing?"

  Most of the councilors laughed.

  "No. Jane has the location for an island on the planet below, which you now own personally. A small mansion should be completed by the morning, very similar to the one you had on your island on Gold Coast, but with enough accommodation for your family and team to be in residence at the same time. Your corvette is receiving bedding, furniture, and fittings for the new building at the moment. The island and the sea around it are yours. The land and anything on it pass down your family line for as long as you or your descendants decide to own it."

  "Does it have a name yet?"

  "No. We left it for you to name."

  "Gold Coast. I assume it has beaches instead of cliffs or rocks?"

  "Would I give you a rocky outcrop?"

  I looked at him seriously, as if trying to figure that one out, and everyone laughed again.

  "Have you named anything yet?"

  "As it happens, yes. Announcements go out tomorrow. The planet below us, and this system is now officially called Haven. The planet below Terminus is now named Sanctuary, and we've confirmed Redoubt and Crossroad. The other habitable planets haven't been named yet, or the systems without habitable planets."

  "Have you decided on a name for all our space? Or what we call ourselves now?"

  "It's still being discussed. Most likely, we'll put it out for suggestions and a vote. Any suggestions?"

  "Not Hunter anything."

  The laughter started up again.

  "We do need to ask about the status of the three new systems off Crossroad, as you see things."

  "Apparently the Ralnor deeded the station to me officially, so a case could be made all three belong to me now. Although the Trixone station is barely usable, and Bob is making a new one. The systems themselves are not particularly useful for anything other than resources, although the planet in the Trixone system is habitable only if you like snow and ice."

  Maybe someone would build ski resorts there eventually.

  "Would you be happy with the same arrangement we have now? You own the stations, and our society owns the systems?"

  "Fine with me."

  "Any ideas for names for the new systems?"

  "How about Tiger's Leap, Kangaroo Hop, and Triffid Shuffle?"

  For some reason this caused most of them to laugh again. When David had himself back under control again, he tried to calm everyone else. I was surprised everyone knew the plant reference. While the story had been repeatedly remade down the centuries, there hadn't been a new version in over a hundred years now. Maybe the whole concept of a sentient plant had brought the old stories back into the public eye. Or maybe Jane had released them all, and I hadn't
noticed.

  "If we go with those, we probably should call Crossroad, Reaper's Crossroad."

  "Whatever."

  Aline was quietly chuckling beside me. David went back into serious mode.

  "Tomorrow the council moves down to the new city. Can you put your fancy doorways in place for us?"

  "Ask Syrinx and Jane to do it. Syrinx has been doing all the planetary building connections, and Jane makes sure the rifts go in the right places."

  "Fine. I assume you don’t want to be present for the first official meeting of the council on our new planet?"

  "Not my first preference. I hear the call of a beach coming on."

  "Do you have any recommendations for military awards?"

  "Not really. Everyone did their jobs. A campaign medal should be fine. If you're doling out islands, perhaps make another one available for military leave, and put a military hostel on it. We've enough pilots and marines to need a fairly big accommodation building if they're all there at once. It won't be long before we need a military headquarters anyway."

  "On our list of things to discuss. The suggestion has been made we allocate portions of Sanctuary for military use, or we dedicate one of the other as yet unnamed planets completely for military use."

  "Talk to the four stars. Let them check things out and make a recommendation. For now though, can you select an island here, so Jane can drop food and drink there for marines and pilots to get some beach time?"

  "Done. Jane will know where by the morning. What are your intentions now?"

  "I've stood the fleet down, so as far as I'm concerned, the entire military are on leave, at least for a few days. I'll be monitoring what the Keerah, Ralnor, and Trixone do next. I'm hoping the Ralnor will be coming back for diplomatic talks in the near future. I'm expecting the Keerah and Trixone to start testing our defenses again soon. If what I put in place works as expected, the fixed defenses at each jump point should be more than enough."