Hail the Hero (The Hunter Legacy Book 5)

by Timothy Ellis

  I moved to the spa, raised the scooter over the side, and lowered myself into the bubbling water. There was enough room to tilt enough to sit myself down on the ledge within the water. And I could leave my leg outstretched without needing to bend it. There wasn’t a lot of extra room, as this spa was only meant for six people. But it worked. I reversed the procedure and left the spa. My suit of course was dry. The scooter dried off almost as fast as the suit.

  I headed out into the bedroom again, laid myself on the bed, left the scooter sitting next to the bed, and went back to sleep.

  Pain woke me up an hour and a half later. I called for Jeeves and he gave me another shot.

  I used the scooter to get up, and went into the bathroom to use the facilities.

  When I came out, I visited the Bridge, practicing using the scooter in the access shaft to get up, which proved easy. It only needed a brief down thrust to push me up. At Deck One, I up thrust to slow, and side thrust out. Up and down over the cat wall was easy. Thrust wasn’t really the right word, since it was gravity manipulation, but it conveys what was happening.

  On the Bridge, I checked our status and found we were now in the Washington system. Washington was one of the few systems to have two Earth like worlds in it. Some others had a second through terraforming, but Washington had them both there waiting for us when the first survey team had jumped in. Predictably, the Americans had called the planets Washington DC and New York.

  We were going to pass reasonably close to New York, but Washington, in the inner orbit, was on the other side of the sun from us now.

  My chair had been altered I noticed. It now had an attachment on the left side, which would support my leg at the correct angle. Jane confirmed that Gunbus, Custer, and Excalibur, also had them available should I decide to fly them.

  Satisfied with where we were, and I would be comfortable on the Bridge for the next week, I headed into my Ready Room.

  The table was indeed damaged, as Jane had said. On each corner, was a figure about thirty centimeters high, looking exactly like the smaller ones on the Bridge console. I moved them so they were each in the middle of the table, a third the distance from each end.

  Alison's discarded unboosted belt was still on my desk. I picked it up and pondered it for a moment.

  I called for Jane to come in. It took her a minute to enter. I gave her the belt, and asked her to attach it around the scooter base. She did. I linked to it, took full control of it, and activated full protection mode. It shifted to cover the entire scooter. I changed it to chameleon mode, and it vanished. I shifted it back, and started custom building a new suit definition. When I activated it, the base unit looked bigger than it actually was.

  I asked Jane to get my three guns down, and to place them within a newly created hiding space, which sealed when they were inside. There was no way I was allowing myself to be disarmed while I remained as helpless as I was.

  The next thing I tried was a lot more complicated. When I activated the new definition, the suit around the scooter, flowed my guns up my body on my right side, leaving my Long Gun in its holster on my right thigh, and both stunners in upper arm holsters designed for opposing draw. So my right hand could draw the gun on the left arm, and left drawing from the right. After transferring my guns to my own suit, the scooter suit returned to its original shape. I practiced moving the guns back into storage, and up to my holsters a few times, until I was happy I could arm myself rapidly. There was no possibility of a quick draw, but I could now move around armed, without seeming to be so. Lastly, I had Jane scan for the guns using standard scanning techniques used by security forces. They weren’t detected.

  Being almost dinner time, I headed down to the Rec Room.

  Twenty

  There was no-one in the Rec Room, so I continued on to the Dining Room.

  Everyone was already seated, and conversation died as I scooted down the length of the table to the only empty seat, at the head of the table at the far end.

  Jason pulled the chair out for me, and I reversed myself into it. Showing more strength than I thought butlers had, he picked up the chair, and pushed me into the table, being very careful not to bang my leg. A pouffe went under my leg before holding it up could get tired. I noticed the next chairs along the table, were far enough away so no-one would knock my leg accidently. It left me a little isolated down the end, but it was better than running the risk.

  "Jane told us you were asleep," said Amanda.

  "I've had a couple of naps this afternoon, and as you saw, Jane did some shopping for me on Kansas Orbital." I grinned down the table.

  Alison opened her mouth to say something.

  "Yes," I said to her. There were a few smiles, as well as a few frowns from those not knowing what the byplay meant.

  Dinner was strange for me. I felt hungry and not hungry at the same time. I nibbled at my food without eating much at all. My ache increased the more I ate, so I stopped eating. Instead, I pondered if my bruising went further than skin deep.

  Well before anyone else had finished eating, I had Jason pull my chair out, transferred to my scooter, and headed into the communal bathroom. It contained two twenty person spa baths, an area for showering, space toilet cubicles, and several full fresher's. I shifted my suit to a belt, lowered myself into one of the spas, tilted the scooter to allow my butt to settle on the underwater ledge, and moved the scooter to the nearest wall out of the way. All my new bruising was under water. There was no way I could get my underwear off, so I didn’t try.

  Alison came in about five minutes later. Her suit changed to a belt, her underwear was tossed against the wall near my scooter, and she dropped herself into the spa near me.

  "You're feeling better I take it?" I said.

  "How can you tell?"

  "You didn't wince getting in."

  She laughed.

  "I hadn't noticed that. I guess I do."

  "So this is what that was about," said Miriam from the doorway.

  She came in and undressed, folding her clothes as she did, putting them in a neat pile on the other side of my scooter from Alison's. She dropped into the spa on the other side of me.

  The water hadn't stopped sloshing around from her entry, when Amanda and Aleesha came in, stripped, threw their underwear onto Alison's, and literally jumped in.

  BA and Abigail were in next, and the pile of underwear grew again. Aline, Alana and Agatha followed soon after, and the pile was now a junior mountain. Aline was last in the spa, as she stopped to start a new 'Who' episode first. She climbed in opposite me.

  There was silence for a while as we all watched the wall we could see well.

  "Jon," said Aline finally. "Show us your bruises."

  There was a general mutter of agreement, and nods all round.

  I put my hands behind me on the edge of the spa, gathered my good leg under me, and eased myself up so my butt was resting against the top, with my right leg straight and holding me up, and my left lifted slightly, trying not to hurt it. Even so, I winced as my left leg moved at the top of the thigh.

  There were a series of shocked gasps, as the girls saw the damage. The bruise was no longer blue, but a bright shade of purple. It ran from slightly above my heart all the way down to below my left knee. My left shoulder was yellow, and I still had other yellow bruises visible.

  "Someone's over dressed," said Aline with a sly grin.

  The rest of them grinned as well.

  Miriam moved in front of me, and without touching my bruises, pulled my briefs down. She moved back to my side, and pointed between my thighs.

  "Does that still work?" she said.

  "I've no idea," I replied.

  "Turn your override off," said Alison.

  I looked at her, somewhat shocked.

  "Jon," said Amanda, "if you're going to have a problem, its best you know now."

  I couldn’t fault the logic, but wasn’t sure the motivation for offering it was pure.

  I hunted the
menus for the PC's social setting called ‘suppress autonomic sexual reactions’. This was a very useful setting when you were a late teenager who kept getting aroused by the ways some girls dressed. Turning this override on, saved you a lot of bulges in your pants, which led to blushing and other embarrassment when noticed. Not even your belt suit would hide such a bulge fully. I left it on all the time now, except for when a sexual encounter came along. Due to bruising, I'd not had one since before the first Avon battle, when Alison had initiated it.

  I turned the override off. Nothing happened.

  Aline stood up, and deliberately sat on the edge of the spa, giving me a full view of the entire front side of her body. The rest of the girls did the same, moving so I could see everything all of them had.

  "No problems there," announced Miriam, and they all giggled.

  My blush suppressor failed again, as I realized they were all looking at the part of me now standing at attention. I went bright red, and turned the override back on, cancelling the error message from the blush suppressor. I really should log an error report about that, it kept on happening.

  "Aww, I wanted to play with that," said Miriam, Alison, and Aline together, as what had been at attention, stood easy instead.

  All eyes went to Aline, who blushed a deep red. I looked her in the eyes, and saw interest for the first time. My eyes flowed down her body to her breasts, and then down to her thighs. Both of us went even redder.

  She slid off the edge of the spa into the water. I did the same, and suddenly the water was trying to slop out of the spa as the rest did the same together.

  I pinged Aline.

  "I never knew you were interested."

  She pinged back, "I always have been. But unlike Alison and the twins, I'm shy."

  "What changed?"

  "You I guess. You died on me, and you never knew. This was just too good an opportunity to let you know, for me to pass up."

  "Oi!" yelled Miriam. "What's going on with you two?" She turned to Aline. "He's mine!" She paused. "Well for the next few days anyway. After I head back to Dallas, you can have your turn."

  I looked at her surprised. Miriam grinned at me.

  "Jon, I get it. We all live on the edge. None of us is capable of having a decent relationship while we might die tomorrow. None of us will begrudge someone living for today, even if we wish we could be monogamous with them. Our lives don’t work that way. Besides, in a few days I go back to Midgard, you go home to Nexus. Long distance relationships rarely work. I'm not stupid enough to think it would work for us." She turned to the other girls. "But that," she said, indicating my groin area, "belongs to me until I leave."

  "Pfft," said Alison, and splashed water in Miriam's face.

  The rest of them followed suit, and Miriam ducked under the water. When she emerged, and the water settled down, Aline restarted the episode, and we soaked while we watched.

  Before getting out, I called Jeeves to bring me a spare belt. The girls all pulled themselves out first, and stood there dripping and naked, watching me use the scooter to get myself out.

  They all laughed when I fully emerged from the water, with briefs around my ankles and socks still on. They deferred to Miriam as she removed the sodden socks, and briefs. Fortunately, the grav that held me off the base unit, allowed things to be pulled through the field, so I didn't need to move my leg.

  I scooted over to the shower, and was washed by Miriam, Alison, and to my surprise, Aline. The others washed themselves. Drying off was a group affair.

  Jeeves came in as we finished. He handed me the belt, and departed without a word.

  We all started pinging the underwear dispenser for what we wanted, and Miriam brought mine over, and gently dressed me.

  When she finished, I slipped the belt on around her waist. We talked her through the setup procedure, and she selected a very stylish cocktail dress as her first belt to suit change. The others did likewise. I chose a dinner suit and changed as well. We moved into the Rec Room as a group, getting comments from the others there, some of whom changed their suits to join us. Miriam was the last in, having dropped her uniform into her suite.

  I pinged her to bring it with her later, so I could scan her in it, and make a suit definition for her.

  By nine forty five, I was ready for another pain shot, but rather than advertise the fact, I took my leave of the group, and went to my own suite, before asking Jeeves to give me one. I patted Angel for a little while, having coaxed her up to the upper levels of her kitty castle so I wouldn’t need to bend.

  I had Jane add the special gloves to the scooter's hiding place. I practiced bringing them up to my hands, and back down to storage. Now as long as I had my scooter nearby, I had the ability to do things like dressing myself, without needing help. As helpless as I was, I was no longer as helpless as I was. I chuckled to myself.

  Miriam came in a short time later, carrying her uniform. I had her put it on, scanned her in it, and made up a suit definition for her, while watching her strip it off again. I pulsed her the definition, and she activated the suit. She went into the bathroom to see herself in the mirror, and came out laughing. I suggested she go get her dress uniform as well, and she ducked out and back really quickly. We duplicated the whole process.

  I used the facilities in the bathroom, and manipulated the scooter to lay myself out on the bed. It came to a rest by the wall.

  Miriam pulled my briefs and sock off, changed her suit to a belt, and pulled off her own underwear.

  It wasn’t easy to keep her from knocking my bruises, but we managed to find out that everything worked as it should.

  Twenty One

  Around two the next morning, I woke in a lot of pain, and called Jeeves for a shot. Miriam was asleep beside me, and Angel was curled next to my neck as usual.

  Jeeves came, shot me, and left.

  I lay there feeling bruised in both person and spirit. While the girls had cheered me up the night before, and our love making had been interestingly experimental to keep me from accidental extreme pain, my overall mood was down.

  I had a habit of rushing around without due caution. Each time I did, the damage I took to my body was worse. I needed to start using some healthy paranoia to stay safe. I needed to work on making myself feel better as well. I needed to keep a positive mental attitude, but that was hard to do when you ached constantly. I needed… I sighed.

  "Sitrep Jane," I said quietly.

  "The jump into London system was uneventful," she said through my PC. "We're two hours out."

  "Fifteen minutes out, contact Repulse and have them move away. Then contact Guam and release the tow. Once Guam is on her way, I want the four Guardians docked as we planned. To anyone watching us enter orbit, we should look like one big ugly ship."

  "Confirmed."

  "Dock us if they'll allow it, but keep us buttoned up until someone requests to leave. Once the airlock opens, I want all the security droids posing as human, and placed to cover the entire dock area out to the longest gunshot possible."

  "Confirmed."

  I lay there wondering what could possibly go wrong here. When I ran out of possibilities, I fell asleep.

  I dreamed of purple smoke, with unidentifiable shapes moving through it.

  I woke again around six fifteen, and called Jeeves in again. Miriam stirred next to me. Angel stood, stretched, and leapt off the bed, presumably looking for breakfast.

  Miriam grinned at me, and I had to stop her from rekindling the activity of the night before. She pouted at me, but I didn't share her mood.

  All I remembered of my dreams was purple smoke, and it was becoming a red flag to avoid at my peril.

  There were only two things I wanted to know. How was I going to screw up next? And what shit was the cosmos about to dump on me now?

  "It's not you," I said to Miriam. "I'm sore, tired, and wondering what else is about to go wrong around me."

  She hugged me gently, and moved out of my way so I could get mys
elf up. She followed me into the shower. The grav pad in the shower took her a moment to get used to. I was carefully washed, and was able to wash her upper parts. Back on my scooter, she carefully dried me off, and pulled on my briefs and socks. I shifted into 'slinky red', and she into fatigues.

  I had no appetite for food, so I headed up to the Bridge, while Miriam sought out the Dining Room. I could see immediately we were docked at a station.

  "Sitrep," I said to Jane, when I was seated in my chair.

  "We docked at four thirty, and are still buttoned up. You have emails to look at."

  I pulled out my pad, and settled in a lounge chair in my Ready Room.

  Jane had highlighted one from the British sector government. It contained a schedule for the next three days, beginning with an informal cocktail party at two today, and a formal dinner at seven tonight. Tomorrow there was an awards ceremony at two, with my attendance being expected. As the commander of the British troops, I was required to stand in the official party for the medal presentations. In the evening was another formal dinner. The following day was marked as 'be free for Her Majesties' pleasure'.

  I asked Jane who else had received official emails, and apparently everyone had received their own.

  I then asked her what the time difference was, expecting we were going to be very out of sync. I was surprised to find that the city of London was on Earth normal time, the same as every station and ship was. The planet itself had a rotation so close to Earth's, making the normal leap year adjustment keep the sync aligned. I wondered what the odds were of it happening, and if the British sector had deliberately begun here because of it. No time for history lessons though.

  The next email was from Marshall Bigglesworth, who had asked senior officers to a meeting at nine.

  There was an invoice from the local 'tool man', which I looked down before paying. I could understand him wanting payment before delivery, as it was a sizable total. It completed what I’d sent Annabelle to get on Dallas. All the team had their own combat suit except for Annabelle, including George and Alison. We now had another forty one combat suits, plus twelve specials for Jane to use, bringing us to a total of sixty three, including mine. The power backpack for the suits was also listed, and I noticed Jane had ordered twelve instead of one. There was also Pulse Rifles and Meson Blasters. The last items had to do with components for building an Armoury.