The hollo vanished.
I walked out onto the bridge, and took my seat.
“Did Jill go back to bed?”
“No, she’s in her ready room.”
“Get her.”
The hollo popped up a moment later, and she looked up with surprise on her face.
“Did we get orders?” she asked.
“I did. You have squadron command for a while. I’m off to pick up some Excalibur fives.”
“Pilots too?”
“Not yet, but being organized.”
“I’ll hold the fort then.”
“What fort?”
She chuckled.
“Old Earth saying.”
“Seems to be the day for them. I’m going via Haven.”
“Oh good. Can you order pizza for lunch?”
I face palmed, and her chuckle became a full laugh.
“Order it yourself.”
“Aye, sir. Have fun.”
“Milk run. What could possibly go wrong?”
“Famous last words.”
I assumed that was another old earth saying, but her hollo vanished without me finding out. I looked over at Leanne, who was keeping her face straight.
“Corona, please. And no more old Earth sayings.”
“Damn,” she muttered, and this time it was Tamsin who laughed.
Within minutes, we were in orbit of Corona. It took longer to raise the planet itself to find out where we were supposed to be, and where the Excaliburs were. Leanne jumped us again, and this time we were right over where the ships were waiting in neat rows. They had neither jump drives nor AIs, so were not able to get up into orbit without pilots, which we didn’t have. Which is why the admiral had sent me, apparently.
With permission to take possession granted, I concentrated on them all as a group, and moved them into orbit next to Judge. Then I concentrated on each one in turn, and moved it to a fighter bay. Once done, I found a shipping container sitting on its own, and moved it to a spot on the cargo deck which Leanne had highlighted for me.
The manifest appeared on a screen in front of Tamsin, and seemed to be mostly varying sized seats for the fighters, from large ones for big cats, down to Lufafluf sized. The seats included appropriate sized controls. There were far more of them than there were fighters, so someone had over ordered.
“Who gets to check the ships out?” asked Tamsin.
“You can,” answered Leanne, “as long as Bud doesn’t mind.”
“Whoever. I wasn’t given any orders about delivery acceptance, just to pick them up.”
“All the same,” said Tamsin, “best we check them out before issuing them to pilots.”
“Probably true. I know if Jane was still my ship AI, she’d just do it without asking.”
Both of them smiled at this. They knew their mother. What I wasn’t sure if they were aware of, was the likelihood they would need to clone AIs for the new ships themselves, and I wasn’t sure if they were ready for that, or not. I wasn’t going to ask yet, though.
Ground control wished us a safe journey, and seemed to be assuming we’d be back for more sometime soon. Maybe we would be. But as I was about to tell Leanne to move us, I had a thought.
“Anyone know why Corona isn’t joining the Imperium?”
“Should be pretty obvious,” said Tamsin, grinning at me.
“Spell it out.”
“They won’t leave their planet, so there is no way anyone can attend Imperium meetings.”
I thought about it for a moment, and opened a coms only sized rift to Haven, to link the two systems. Then had another thought. Which was immediately answered when I thought about it.
“Get me a channel to the person we spoke to originally, on our first visit here.”
It took a few moments, but his full body half sized image popped up on the console.
“Hello again,” he said. “Can I help you with something?”
“You can. And maybe it’s me who can help you.”
“Do tell.”
“Can you change into a full hollo standing on my deck please?”
The hollo jumped a couple of meters, and now was full height.
“Thanks.”
He nodded, but I was looking at Leanne. She jumped us to Haven, putting us not far off the shipyard. The station AI supplied her the location of another container, and I moved it next to the other one. Both were close to shafts leading down to the hangar decks. Almost immediately, cargo droids opened both containers, and started moving the contents downwards.
The hollo hadn't so much as flickered when we jumped. He was now looking out the viewscreen with surprise on his face.
“What just happened?”
“I’ll explain in a minute.”
I made a head movement towards the Haven station, and Leanne started moving us that way. I left it to her to arrange docking. Curiosity swept over the meercat’s face as we approached the station. But I continued to say nothing until we were docked. A thought produced a rift down to the main airlock, and I unbuckled and rose.
“Please follow me.”
He nodded, followed me to the rift, and watched me step through, doing the same himself. Again, no flicker. I indicated the ramp in front of us through the open doors, and started walking down. He hurried to catch up, and side by side we walked around the station to the Terminus rift, with him behaving like a first time tourist, looking at everything. I noticed some degradation of his hollo in a few places, but near where the public information and media screens were, his hollo was as strong as back on the ship.
Through the rift, and once again walking around the station, and his hollo hadn't changed. My arrow was pointing me to an administration section, and we walked into an obvious outer office. The receptionist looked up in surprise.
“Can I help you gentlemen?”
“Is Councilor Tollin in?” I asked.
“Yes, but he has a full schedule.”
“You’re going to want to juggle it. Tell him Bud is here with a guest.”
She did just that, but the meercat had no idea she’d done anything. He was looking confused now.
David Tollin opened the door, looked at me for a moment, shifted his eyes to the meercat, and did a double take, before grinning.
“Come in.”
He waved us to follow him, and took the seat behind his desk, where there were already two chairs in front of it. We sat.
“Councilor Tollin,” I said. “I’d like to present the ambassador from Corona.”
“Welcome,” he said, to a now completely confused meercat.
“This isn’t a virtual reality? Is it?”
“No,” I said. “You appeared on my ship in your system, the ship moved to the Haven system, where we docked at the main station there, and walked to the Terminus system’s main station, which is the Imperium’s diplomatic hub.”
Confusion turned to amazement, and even Tollin was looking amazed now.
“How did you manage that?” they both asked together.
“It occurred to me with their superior bandwidth and the fact we put entertainment level holographics almost everywhere, if I put a com rift between their planet and Haven, we might be able to get them here using their normal hollo system. It appears to be working.”
“This is really real?”
I laughed.
“Yes, it’s really real. Your image suffered a bit in places on the way here where the holographics nearby wasn’t up to it, but no-one noticed anything but a new visitor shape they hadn't seen before. I’m not sure you even noticed the drop off yourself?”
“No. I was too busy looking around. That was two stations you said?”
“Yes. I’m not sure exactly how far along the network you can go, but I’d guess maybe another one or two stations without needing some sort of signal booster at your end.”
“Really?”
“Really. If you want to test it out, be our guests. Someone will be assigned to give you a tour if you
want one.”
“This changes everything!”
“Yes, I thought it might. Before you leave, and please do that where someone vanishing won’t freak people out, why not find out everything you need to know about Imperium membership.”
“I can help you with that,” smiled Tollin. “Thank you, Commander. I believe you have other duties?”
I stood, wished them both a good day, and walked out into the reception area. The receptionist was gone, so I jumped myself back to Judge, and then sent Jane a ping saying if she didn’t see it, she needed to talk to Tollin, and then start thinking about expanding the freight network to allow military sized loads to be sent to shipyards or wherever. She acknowledged, but said nothing.
Less than an hour after leaving, Judge jumped back to the same spot it had left.
Repair droids began completing the new fives, with the expectation of human pilots.
Twenty Three
We did have pizza for lunch.
Tamsin announced the delivery arriving in the mess, and within a couple of minutes, everyone had arrived from their ships, or in the case of Norden, by gig to a topside airlock. The whole concept of a large circular flatbread, topped with cheese, tomato paste, and varying kinds of extras, was something my people had never thought of. I’d seen it before on stations, but never tried it.
It was tasty enough, and filling, but some of the combinations were quite bizarre. I mean, who puts fish on cheese? Metunga of course had several large ones to himself, and they had nothing but variations of fish on them. Had to be custom orders.
Lunch over, and the fives all ready for pilots, I received orders for my next collection run. I assigned half the fives to Jill, and her AI took possession of them, and jumped them over. The other half went to Norden.
Three of us jumped this time, for Lufafluf. I brought Woof and Dorn with me. On the ground we found another four squadrons of fives, which I jumped into orbit. Tamsin looked over the first one, and withdrew, letting me know it was already fitted out for a Lufafluf pilot. So I moved them directly to the two destroyers.
A shuttle was already on its way up, and Tamsin directed it to Carved Boulder, where Woof was waiting for his own people. Once docking was complete, and the pilots aboard, the shuttle started back for the ground, and I sent Woof back to the squadron on his own, after moving a box of jump drives over for his repair droids to install.
Dorm and I moved on to her home planet, which still didn’t have a name, although was unofficially called Dragon’s Nest. There she met another shuttle, with a squadron each of wyvern and dragon pilots. This time I sent over dragon suitable seats with the jump drives. She also headed back to the squadron, with orders to send the dragons over to Fina.
Metunga met me at my next destination, which was his homeworld. Twenty four Excalibur fives were already waiting in orbit, having been flown there by cheetah pilots. I moved each ship into a bay on Metunga’s ship, transferred over the jump drives for them, and he headed back.
I moved on to the Bhockah homeworld, where twenty four more were waiting for me in space with panther pilots, and once on board, my next stop was the leopard and lion homeworlds, where shuttles were waiting with twelve pilots on each.
Haven was my next stop, where the shipyard AI jumped another twenty four Excaliburs on board for the unassigned pilots, and then withdrew from all of them. These ones were fitted out for big cats. Shortly after, another forty eight Excaliburs launched from the shipyard normally, and the senior squadron leader requested jump instructions. Tamsin sent them, and we all jumped back to the squadron in formation.
The four squadrons in space had to wait while AI’s, seats, and jump drives were installed on the forty eight ships I had on board, as needed since half of them had appropriate seats, after which the Bhockah ships jumped themselves to Jill’s destroyer, the leopards went to Fina, and the lions to Dorm.
Having panthers, leopards, and lions on board proved to be interesting while it lasted, as while they tolerated each other, they were not exactly friendly. Jill laughed when I mentioned it, saying that was common among species of cats, and the big cats being the same was no surprise. We’d just have to make sure they could work together in space.
The four squadrons of new pilots had been assigned to Judge, and I found out why when they assembled in their living room. Most of them were inexperienced pilots. I recognized all of the squadron leaders as having been promoted from Claymore or Katana, but the rest were either pilot officers just promoted from midshipmen, or flight officers I recognized as having been assigned to drop ships from midshipmen at the same time we’d made ensigns. I had no idea why I was getting them now.
With twelve squadrons assigned, and an abundance of inexperienced pilots, I was wondering what I was supposed to be doing with them. Which was when I heard footsteps entering the bridge behind me.
“I guess you’re wondering what to do with these squadrons,” said a voice, not unlike Eagle’s accent, but definitely not Eagle.
I looked around, and recognized him. Alexander Brown, and one of Eagle’s original 266 squadron pilots if my information was right.
“Wing commander,” I said to him, waving him into the XOs seat. “Are they all yours?”
“They are, but not the way you think. This is not Buzzard Wing, if that’s what you were thinking.” Buzzard was his callsign. “I’ve been heading up the training program. All the good fighter pilots went to Eagle Wing. There’s more coming along, but you won’t be getting them.”
“We know how that turned out, so I’m not surprised. What are we getting? Have got?”
“A bomber wing. You’re getting pilots who don’t have the fighter pilot mentality. The ones who are more than happy to sit in one place and rain the pain down where they’re pointed at. The ones who accept having a co-pilot who does most of the flying. And, some who will enjoy ground or station actions.”
“Hence the big cats?”
“And the dragons and wyvern. Instead of getting combat troops, you’re getting rookie pilots who will double as shock troops. The heavy weapons for all of them are in development, and you’ll be getting the first batches for your pilots. That includes new sidearms, by the way. Everyone in this fleet will wear two. A for Trixone designed rapid firer, and a heavy blaster for dinosaurs. By the time your pilots are up to speed, you should be fully equipped as well.”
I’d heard the Imperator had his own version of quick firer, but this sounded like something new was being developed.
“Are you staying?”
“Just until the wing is fully assembled and the in space training is completed. My Excalibur is parked where one of your Lightnings was. It’s doing a run for more pilots, along with your other three. I’m afraid these pilots are not even proper rookies. They’ve been in simulators on their home planets, but have never even sat in a cockpit before. I’ll get them up to speed, but this is your command.”
Once again, I was outranked, but still had the command. All the same, his oak leaf wasn’t that big a rank jump from my three bars. And he was used to being second in command, if what Eagle had told me about him was right. It might work.
“When do we get ships for them?”
“Over the next day or so. The ones you picked up from Corona were just the first batch, and they’ve been sitting there for a couple of days now while we worked out the logistics of setting up a second wing this big. You’ll be going back for the next batch later this afternoon. Pilots without them will be going back into the simulators here as soon as they settle in.”
“Who’s running the training now?”
“They imported a few wing commanders who’d been put out to pasture, who’re renowned for their training regimes. I’ve never heard of them, but I’m more than happy to get back to a front line squadron.”
“And yet, you’re not staying?”
“No. Algy and I are working on another new squadron idea. Once we get people capable of leading, we’re going to push that at th
e Imperator.”
“Good luck with that.”
“Yeah. We’ll need it. You taught Algy some much needed lessons, you know.”
“How so?”
“Your squadron is what he wanted to set up, but he now knows he had no idea what to do with it, and admits he wasn’t the right person to run it. He was pretty pissed originally when Jane formed Navy Mage One, but his time with you opened his eyes, and he freely admits now, fighter pilots are not the right people for what you’re doing. Hence you now getting a bomber wing, with pilots who have a different mindset.”
“As long as he’s happy.”
“He will be, once we get the next idea floated and happening. In the meantime, we’re collaborating on a new fighter design.”
“Have fun with that.”
“We will.”
“Lighting arriving,” said Leanne.
Twenty Four
The rest of our pilots arrived during the afternoon.
I was quite surprised to find Haynes now had two squadrons of his own Kelewan people, and Gitte had the same from Karn. Even more surprising was only one in each squadron was a mage, and both sets were a mixture of genders. As I understood it, Kelewan was still a patriarchal society, and Karn was very matriarchal, with both being dominated by mages. So getting non mages of both genders from both planets was a big step forward for both. But they were among the never having been in a fighter category, and only a few of them had ever flown something like a shuttle before.
Tamsin officially signed off on the first batch of Corona fighters, and the word was passed up the chain of command, and over to their production people. The authorization to complete the next batch was given at the same time. She insisted they were just as good as the fighters coming out of our own shipyard. As were the other not-Haven built fighters. Whoever did the quality control specifications had done a good job. Most likely Jane I expected. There might even have been an AI sent to monitor production.
Loren and Norden also received two squadrons of pilots from their societies, if not from their home planets. They were a mix of experience, some of whom had been in the original batches of trainees before the midshipman program had been established, and were now experienced fighters. Again, the squadron leaders had been promoted from the Claymore force. A good half were inexperienced though.
Lieutenant Commander Spacemage (Imperium Spacemage Book 4) Page 10