"Team coms are now active. Prepare to jump into Atlantis. Wherever you are, buckle up. Signify your readiness by location."
Vonda, Alsop, Alison, and the Twins rushed in and took chairs. Alison was wincing as she rushed.
While they were all checking in, I buckled up myself. The straps hurt, so I loosened them.
"Jane, where's the Liner?"
"About an hour behind."
"Janet, align the station so the guns are pointing at the jump point. Once we jump through, check your target before you fire, in case we jump back in a hurry."
"Yes my Lord."
"All ships, form up."
We formed up into the two blocks, and moved towards the jump point.
"Ten seconds," I said.
Five seconds later, John Wayne and her escorts, jumped.
Another five, and we jumped.
I let out an audible sigh. The jump point area was clear. All ships moved out away from the jump point itself, to give the station room to down jump.
"Commodore, defensive arc please."
"Yes sir."
The Guardians moved into a semi-circle across the line where this jump point would intersect the Atlantis planet. The next fleet, had most likely left the Atlantis Orbital recently, or was on its way from the Cobol jump point. If the latter, they would be passing close by the planet anyway.
"Wing Commander, deploy the comsat when ready."
"In progress Admiral," Slice replied.
"Which jump point do you want to do first?"
Atlantis system had four jump points. We needed to place comsats at each of them, and join them up. For email communications, they didn't have to be close together, but it was a lot of travelling needed to join four jump points and a planet.
"I'd suggest Pegasus first, then Atlantis, Avalon, and finally, Cobol."
"Commodore."
"Sir?"
"Select two Guardians and form an escort for Apricot One. If you come across a fleet at the Pegasus jump point, attack at your own discretion. But your first priority is protecting Apricot One."
"Yes sir."
"Once Repulse and the station jump in, we'll move to Atlantis to find out what happened there, and reclaim the station. From there to the Cobol jump point, and close that door. Keep me up to date on what you find, as you can."
"Sir."
"Down jump was uneventful," I said through ship coms. "Everyone go back to what you were doing."
I closed team coms and ship coms.
I opened a vid.
"Marshal, Admirals and General. We're in the Atlantis system. No opposition at the jump point. We're beginning the task of replacing the comsats. When Repulse jumps in, we'll move to Atlantis, and find out what happened there. Hunter Out."
I sent off the email. It worked. The new comsat wasn’t operational yet, so the comsat built into Custer obviously worked, at least this close to the jump point.
I leaned back, and began to wait. There was always a lot of waiting these days.
"Jon," said Jane, "there's an email just arrived. I think you'll want to read it."
I plucked my pad out and looked at it. With eyes wide open, I tossed the vid to a screen.
"What took you so long?" demanded Eric Neilson. "I've been sitting here with a dead engine, waiting for you to come rescue me. And it hasn’t happened yet. I'm more or less on a line toward Avalon, slowly ballistic. A pick up would be nice." The date-time stamp on the email said it was a day old. Although it can't have left Eric's ship until just now.
"Jane, whisper in George's ear, and have him come see me."
"Confirmed."
He bounded onto the Bridge a few minutes later.
"Fancy a rescue mission?" I asked him.
"Sure, who's the damsel in distress?"
"Eric."
"That’s not a damsel's name."
"True. But he needs a rescue all the same."
"The Murdock rescue service is at your disposal." I suppressed a chuckle.
"Head for the Avalon jump point. At a guess, he'll turn up on the scanner not long after you leave. His engine is out, so he'll need a tow. Take his ship back to the station, and have Janet see if the repair droids can fix it. If he wants to stay, leave him there. But if he wants to come back with you, that’s fine. By the time you make the round trip, we'll probably be at Atlantis. If you don’t find us there, head next to the Cobol jump point."
"On my way," he said leaving.
I sent Eric an email saying his was received, and George was on his way. By the time I'd sent it, Excalibur had dropped out of Custer's hanger, and headed off.
I sent Admiral Bentley orders to jump straight through as soon as Repulse arrived at the jump point. Then told Jane to tell Janet, through her datalink, to bring the station through as soon as the Liner had docked.
I went back to emails. There was nothing of consequence, but wading through the usual stuff, took time. I had the time, so it kept me occupied.
Meow.
A white Furball shinned up my leg and landed on my lap. I spent some time dedicated to patting her, and she curled up, and went to sleep.
When I went back to emails, I found one from Chief McLauchlan.
He'd included an invoice.
The total on the bottom, was one credit.
I blinked rapidly for a minute. One credit? What nonsense was this?
His email included another attachment.
It was a breakdown of the refit costs, which ran close to two billion.
It was using full prices I noted, and not the at-cost pricing Admiral Jedburgh had promised me he would organize.
Subtracted from it, was the estimated salvage fee for all the Avon Orbital structures.
The balance was one credit.
I added a tip of one million credits, with the suggestion that all the workers received a bonus for working so hard over the four days of the refit, and paid it.
I pondered the ways people expressed gratitude for doing what you had to, just to survive. The stations had never been in any danger. But I guess if I’d failed when I’d flown the station solo, they very well might have been destroyed.
I kept reading emails. One brought me up speechless for a second.
"What the fuck?" I finally muttered.
"What's up Jon?" said Alison.
"Some woman wants to marry her daughter to me."
Alison lost it, clutched her hands to her side, and passed out.
I picked up Angel, and barely reached her chair in time to prevent her from sliding out of it. The movement cost me. Jeeves rushed in. He administered a pain killer to Alison, and waved something under her nose.
She groaned, and slowly sat back up.
"Jon, are you trying to kill me?"
I shook my head, not game to speak. That hurt, and I raised my other hand to my head bruise.
"Please don’t make me laugh like that again. Next time might be lethal."
"Sorry."
"Someone wants her daughter to marry you? For real?"
"Yes, she sent a photo too. Nice looking kid. Doesn’t look sixteen to me. I can't think why anyone would want to marry someone so young to me."
"Well, you're not that much older, are you. And don’t forget, some cultures marry their kids off at fourteen." We both shuddered. Eighteen was too young in my opinion. "I wonder how she obtained your email address?"
"No idea. I wonder how many other marriage proposals I'm going to get?"
"I said don’t make me laugh!"
"Sorry."
Sorry didn’t feel like it cut it. Trouble was, I wasn’t trying to be funny.
I flopped gently back into my seat, and let a disgruntled puss settle back down.
At one thirty, almost to the second, the fourth Midgard fleet popped onto the scanner. They were nothing, if not punctual.
Just after two, the station came through. Half an hour later, Repulse jumped in. She had two Destroyers and four Corvettes with her. They all simply bristled with Point Defense.
I moved the main fleet further out, and had the station and Repulse's fleet make up the defense perimeter.
I opened ship coms.
"We're moving to intercept the next Midgard fleet, eta in approximately thirty minutes. Buckling up is recommended." I closed ship coms.
Custer and the five Guardian's formed up into line abreast formation, Custer in the middle. We moved out to intercept the Midgard fleet.
Well before we were in range, the Missile Cruisers stopped and began to turn sideways. We kept heading towards them at full speed.
Jane fired off our three hundred missile broadside first. Each sixty missile salvo was aimed at one of the Missile Cruisers. As we came in range of the Battleship turrets, they all fired at the remaining Cruiser.
Before anything we'd fired arrived, six barrages of missiles started towards us. Twelve hundred Missiles.
Twelve Mosquito launchers fired immediately, and for the next twelve seconds, all our ships did was move towards the enemy, as Jane concentrated on aiming twelve hundred individual missiles.
A fire storm erupted in front of us, as missile met missile. Point Defense turrets opened up.
Five Missile Cruisers exploded at the same time. The sixth sparkled as the Battleship's pulses hit it. Its shields went down.
The Cruiser and Destroyer guns, now in range, fired at the remaining ship. The cloud of Talons fired at us.
Cruiser, Destroyer and Point Defense pulses intersected with anti-fighter missiles, and more than half of them winked out. The remainder of the capital ship pulses struck the remaining Cruiser, and it exploded. The remainder of the missiles were whittled down by more Point Defense fire, with some getting through to strike shields.
All ships now launched IR's, and continued doing so until there was nothing left to fire at.
Jane moved the fleet to one side of the remains of the Midgard fleet, and we kept going toward Atlantis.
I opened a vid.
"Marshall, Admirals, General. Afternoon tea was served by Midgard, and a good time was had by all but the host. Proceeding now to Atlantis. Hunter out."
There was a chuckle from several places on the Bridge. I looked around in surprise, having forgotten I was not alone. I made up the email, included Admiral Bentley this time, and sent it off.
I opened ship coms again.
"All clear. Two and a half hours to Atlantis. Combat teams should prepare for deployment when we arrive at the Orbital station. Stunners only. We don't want to damage the station any more than it already has been."
I closed ship coms.
"I'm not sure I liked you being tied up for that long," I said to Jane. "Twelve seconds was too long."
"The alternative is to clone me to the other ships."
"Can't you compartment yourself so you on each ship can do its own missile aiming?"
She thought about it. More than likely ran some tests as well.
"Yes, it can be done that way. Not as efficiently. It'll add half as much time to the task."
"Facing six Cruisers, if you fire two Mosquito launchers on each ship, the aiming would be complete in three seconds?"
"Confirmed."
"Much better. Do it that way."
"Confirmed."
I wondered what to do next. I sat there thinking.
Alison appeared in front of me, and took my hand. Angel jumped up as I moved, shinned down my leg, and ran up her ramp to sit on her cat mat. Alison led me out.
She'd solved the problem of removing underwear. She had me lie down on the bed, while she pulled mine off, and then lay down herself while I removed hers.
We moved to the spa and gently lowered ourselves in again. I sat on the ledge, slumped down so the bruise on my chest was underwater. Alison slid over and sat straddled over my lap.
"Jon," she said huskily, "turn your override off."
"I'm not sure that’s a good idea."
"Why not?"
"I hurt too much."
"Oh. Maybe you should go to medical and get another pain shot?"
"I may do that."
She leaned against me at the shoulder level, and laid her head next to mine. She kissed my ear.
"You kids back in the sp…" said Amanda from the doorway.
"Oops," said Aleesha beside her.
"Sorry," they both said together, before fleeing. Twin giggles followed them out.
"Now look what you did," I said.
Alison kissed me on the nose, and retreated to the other side of the spa. We soaked in silence for a while.
Twelve
I did take Alison's suggestion, and went to the Medical Bay. One of the auto-docs scanned me, asked about pain levels, and gave me a pain shot. The difference from what the PC medical monitor could do, was another order of pain relief. I was worried about needing it, as I didn't want my mental functions to be affected. The auto-doc assured me this wouldn’t happen.
I was back on the Bridge by five. Atlantis Orbital was on the scanner, so it hadn't been destroyed as I'd first thought was likely. Only time would tell what its condition would be.
"Thirty minutes to Atlantis," I said into ship coms. "Saddle up, lock and load."
I think the pain killer was affecting me. Either that or I’d been hanging around Americans too long. Or maybe one too many old flat screens.
My emails had a series of responses from various brass. None required responses. I was surprised the emails were still downloading this far from the jump point, but the ship version of the satcom was obviously still in range.
It would be nice to know what was going on at each jump point, I mused. Being a good idea, I sent off an email to McLauchlan asking if the satcoms could be modified to also include a standard ship's scanner, accessible by request. If so, what would we need to give the repair droids, to convert the existing ones we had with us?
Atlantis station was getting bigger on the forward view. Angel sat up and stretched, before settling herself in a sitting position, watching the shape getting bigger. She seemed to have an endless fascination with space travel. I knew the feeling.
"Jane, can you tell what shape the station is in?"
"It's basically a series of round shapes."
"Ha-ha. Answer the question."
"Most of it has been decompressed. There are six adjoining open airlocks. The small ship landing bay is the only place aired up."
"Put us at the middle airlock. Hold us in place for soft seal, even if we can't actually make one yet. You better go down and assess the damage yourself. If the airlocks can be sealed quickly, have the repair droids go ahead with the repairs. Even if we can't air it up properly, we should try and seal it up."
"Confirmed."
Her avatar left. Alison was sitting in a side chair where she could watch me and the screen.
I turned on team coms.
"Team coms are active. There are six destroyed airlocks as expected. Most of the station is in vacuum. The small ship landing bay is the only area aired up. Stand by for the air in the Cargo Bay to be removed."
I listened to General Smith giving orders. I turned on a cam to see what was happening. The combat suits were going in first, BA in the lead, followed by the combat droids. I noticed Jane's suit was with them. Behind them was the General, with her suit in space suit mode, an air backpack obviously on her back underneath it.
The air backpack was misnamed in my opinion. It didn’t actually hold much in the way of air. Instead, it was a miniature life support system, which maintained the integrity of the air you did have. It lasted as long as the micro-filters remained unclogged. It was rated for several hours. Being form fitting, you looked like you only had extra thick clothing on, or you worked out a lot.
Behind the General, were fifty troops in conventional spacesuits.
"Anyone not prepared for vacuum?" I asked.
Silence.
"Air being removed."
"Confirmed," said Jane.
Custer eased into position against the destroyed airlock. BA jumped
the gap before the ship met the station buffers. The other combat suits followed. There was no fire of any sort.
The General waited until the ship was hard up against the station, before jumping through herself, followed by her troops. We listened to her barking orders, and the area in front of Custer cleared. I turned down the sound a bit, to just enough to hear.
"Jane, can you take control of the station's computer?"
"Sorry Jon, there doesn't appear to be a working computer anymore."
"I guess we won't find an operational droid either." I wasn’t asking a question this time.
She didn’t respond to the obvious conclusion.
I opened a channel to the planet.
"Sci-Fi Space Force to any Atlantis military personnel. We're in orbit of Atlantis, and have begun securement operations on the station. Please advise your situation."
There was no answer.
"Admiral Hunter to General Connelly, please respond."
Nothing.
An email came in from O'Neil. There had been a two Cruiser, five squadron force at the Pegasus jump point, easily taken care of. The new comsat was in place, and it had been confirmed that the Pegasus system had working emails. He'd dropped several salvage droids to clear the jump point area. They were on the way to Atlantis. Working emails implied Pegasus hadn't been attacked. Midgard obviously wanted to take Avon first. With luck, the same was true of Avalon.
"Connelly to Hunter, sorry for the delay."
"Glad to hear your voice General. Sitrep please."
"We took the precaution of sinking our cities under the water, so they would not be a target for Midgard missiles. It worked, they didn’t find us. However, we only kept one receiver poked above the water, and had to raise a city before we could respond."
"Nice work General. Do you have shuttles?"
"Yes sir. We took everything we could off the station before we abandoned it."
"I'm aboard the Assault Frigate General Custer, with General Wellington. Please report here as soon as you can."
"Yes sir. How bad is the station?"
"As predicted, they destroyed six airlocks, and left most of the station in vacuum. They destroyed the main computer. If you've got the station's repair droids with you, send them up immediately. If you've also the means to re-air the station, bring that as well."
Make or Break the Hero (The Hunter Legacy Book 4) Page 8