"Good," said BA. "Training!"
There were groans all round, but the Bridge quickly cleared anyway. Annabelle and Jack remained. The twins thought about it, but left. Dick pulled up a screen and started reading. Carter and Magnus were conversing quietly at the back.
I moved to sit in my seat again, and something made me hesitate. I looked down to find Angel curled up there again.
"Excuse me Miss Puss," I said to her. "This is my seat. Yours is over there."
I pointed to the cat pad. She looked at me innocently. I moved to pick her up, but she jumped down on her own, and stalked into the Ready Room.
I cast around at those still on the Bridge, and they were all trying to hold their grins in. I sat with all the dignity I could muster.
The three of us discussed the impending attack, as the next few hours wound forward. There were too many unanswered questions to do more than contingency plan, but we had what we thought was a solid plan. All we needed was a target.
Just after eleven, the Camel jumped through, and altered course to intercept us. A channel opened, showing a mass of red hair over an alive face.
"It's Auburn," said Jane via my PC.
"What?" I subvocalized back to her.
"Her hair is Auburn. Not red."
"You reading my mind now?"
"Of course not. Most men make the mistake though, so I'm correcting you immediately."
"Gee thanks."
"You're welcome."
I concentrated on the screen, where she appeared to be waiting for me to speak first.
"Greetings," I said. "You're from the AMS?"
"Greetings," she responded, in the same tone as my own, but with an impish grin. "Admiral Hunter I presume?" I nodded. "Jessie Ball, AMS. I had a priority turnaround from my boss a while ago to come meet you. Nice to meet someone with that kind of influence. He doesn’t do that for anyone. What can I do for you?"
"We need to find a jump point in a hurry. Does your jump point detector work if you're docked inside another ship?"
"No, needs space around us."
"External dock?"
"That would work."
"Fine, stand by to become a bowsprit for a while."
Her grin lit up further. I'd judged her correctly it seemed. Wild spirit, running free.
"I have to say, I've covered this system to death, so I can't see how my detector and I are going to be any use to you."
"Can you send us a plot of where you've covered?"
"Sure I can. Be there before I am."
"I'll have someone meet you at the airlock, and bring you to the Bridge. Can you run your detector from here?"
"Sure thing. Be there pronto."
"Confirmed," added Jane.
The channel closed. I should have realized. The Camel would have a second generation clone of Jane, so the two ships would be able to fully connect.
"Data received," said Jane.
She threw the system to a side screen, and merged it with the search data. As she'd said, the system had been pretty well covered already.
"Can you put the plot on there for when Homer last lost a pirate?"
"Confirmed."
BigMother was slowing now, as the Camel drew near. Unfortunately, we'd need to stop to dock.
A course line appeared on the screen, and Jane pulled the whole thing out into a large cube. I stood up and walked into the cube.
"So Homer was on a course midway between the Algeria and Brazil jump points, heading on an angle above the plane, when she lost contact. We'll start looking there. It's on the edge of the already searched area."
There was a snort from Dick, but when I turned to look at him, he was engrossed in his novel.
Another screen popped up, showing the Camel docking with our front airlock. As soon as it was secured, BigMother started moving again, towards the starting point of our search. I turned back to my chair, and stopped dead.
"Angel! Off!"
Dick couldn’t hold his laugh in any longer, and everyone else caught it from him. Angel looked at me innocently, and reluctantly jumped off my chair. In one big bound, she jumped up onto the console, and resumed sitting on her pad, watching the view. I resumed my chair, and ignored the noise.
About five minutes later, Jessie Ball appeared on the Bridge, entering like she owned it. She was wearing a belt, but what covered her was normal clothes, making her look flamboyant. For a moment I wondered if she was Texan or something, but it was unlikely as Slice was a Brit, and he was based in Sci-Fi. Still, she could be from anywhere, and I wasn’t going to ask.
I stood as she came in, and we shook hands. I checked for Angel before sitting again. I wouldn’t put it past her to jump the distance from the console to my chair, and I knew she could do it in two bounds. And I'd been up and turned just long enough for her to be able to. She was washing her face as it turned out.
I waved Jessie to one of the empty front seats, and she sat and swiveled to face me. I introduced her to the others.
"Tag'Em?" I asked.
"Well, you know the drill. In my rookie days I had two sayings. I'd bash someone on the arm and say 'Tag, you're it!', or when we went into combat, either for real or simulated, I'd say 'Tag Em and Bag Em people'. I've been known to say "Tagged and bagged" when making a kill as well. The name stuck." There was a chuckle from everyone still there. "What's yours?"
"Maniac."
She laughed good and hard.
"Figures. If ever I was to be loaned to someone, it would have to be a maniac. Boss obviously hates me."
"No, just a case of tag, you're it."
We all laughed hard.
"It's about an hour to the search area," said Jane, breaking into the good mood.
"An hour?" asked Jessie, with disbelief in her voice. "How fast is this ship going?"
I pointed to the relevant part of the HUD.
"Hooley dooley! And here I was expecting to have to get out and push to get there tomorrow."
"The old girl has legs."
"Confirmed."
We laughed again.
"I suggest we all get an early lunch and be back here before we arrive at the search area," I said at last.
Jessie bounced out her chair immediately.
"Lead on McManiac."
I lead on.
Five
An hour later the Bridge was full again. Jessie had been installed on one corner of the console, which was now active with the interface for her jump point detector. Within fifteen minutes, the jump point was revealed.
"Shute!" Jessie said. "It's just far enough outside the normal parameters for jump point placement for me to miss it. Damnit, I hate that."
"Understandable," I said.
"Yeah, but not acceptable. I'm going to have to let the boss know I screwed up here, and recommend we start searching further out everywhere. It's going to slow down our searches exponentially."
"Keeps you in a job though," said Dick.
"That it does," she admitted with a smile.
I turned to Annabelle.
"General, stand by for deployment."
She turned to Jack.
"Colonel, stand by for deployment."
He turned to the twins.
"Majors, stand by for deployment."
The twins stood, and their eyes swept the Bridge.
"You heard the man," barked Amanda. "Stand by for deployment."
Most of those on the Bridge stood.
No-one went anywhere.
Dick was quietly killing himself laughing.
Annabelle looked at me.
"Deploy," I said.
Jack looked at her.
"Deploy," she said.
The twins looked at him.
"Deploy," he said.
Everyone looked at Amanda.
"You heard the man," barked Aleesha. "Deploy."
The Bridge emptied rapidly, more or less in increasing rank order.
"What's up chuckles?" I said to Dick.
He made pointing motions with his hands, but was completely unable to speak.
Annabelle was grinning as well.
"I am so going to enjoy this two star rank," she said. "Or I will when you give it to me."
"Are you people normally this nuts?" asked Jessie.
"Pretty much," I said.
"Confirmed," added Jane.
She let loose her own chuckle, but didn’t comment further.
"Jane, stop us before the jump point, and bring the Unapologizing around to a side Cargo airlock. Better deploy a comnavsat, and have another one ready for Unapologizing to deploy on the other side."
"Confirmed."
"Do you always say that?" Jessie asked Jane.
"Confirmed."
"Why?"
"Ask your AI."
Jessie went blank for a moment.
"What does 'Grandma' mean?"
I lost it, and even Jane started laughing.
"Oh," said Jessie eventually. "You're the AI here?"
"Confirmed."
"How does Tag'Em get his own body?"
"Security droid, and a belt," I said.
She looked at me as if I was crazy.
I stopped myself from asking Jane to show her, as Jane could no longer do that.
"Talk to George on Custer. He's our suit programming guru."
"Suit programming? Why do I get the impression I'm in the wrong outfit?"
"Doesn’t Apricot One have its own avatar?"
"Avatar? Oh. Yeah, it does. But I never had the chance to meet it. The boss had me do the trials for Tag'Em, and then carry right on down here to start work. I guess I missed a memo or something."
"George will set you straight. But you better hurry, because Custer will deploy as soon as the Cruiser is in place. And before we jump, you should undock and go back to work."
"Work? I'm staying."
"It's not going to be safe."
"Safe? Don’t know the meaning of the word. This is a new jump point. My job now is to completely map the system on the other side of it, and determine if there are more jump points."
"Fine, but you might want to hold off on that until we determine how many pirates infest the system. Might not be safe."
"If I wanted safe, I'd have stayed in the military."
Annabelle snorted.
"Fine. But I suggest when we stop to move the Cruiser, you also move Tag'Em to one of the side Flight Deck entrances. You go in with us, but can launch quickly if you need to."
"How long?"
"Not long. And Ms. Ball?"
"Yes?"
"If you want to party with us, you put yourself under Wing Commander Lacey's orders."
"Understood."
She left running.
"That girl has spunk," said Dick. "Especially given her lack of height."
I hadn't noticed.
It wasn’t long before everyone was ready to go.
Unapologizing jumped.
The nav map expanded to show a new system. There was nothing on the other side. The expected station and shipyard were not there.
"How much of the system can you see Jane?" I asked her.
"Not as much as I need. The next most likely place for the base is a habitable planet, but I can't find it yet."
"Send Unapologizing on a direct route in, until the sweet spot is revealed. If need be later, explain away not using a direct course with battle damage. Might be an idea if you create some."
"Confirmed. It's probably safe to bring BigMother through. There doesn’t appear to be anything here to raise the alarm."
"Fine. Do so please."
I opened ship coms.
"We are about to jump into the pirate system. There is nothing on the other side, but let's be prepared for anything anyway."
I closed the coms, and waited while we jumped.
As Jane had said, there was nothing of note in the new system. Jane already had it mapped in terms of the outer planets and gas giants, although she was guessing for half of them, being they were not in visual range. As I watched, there was a sudden update of the system.
I raised an eyebrow at Jane.
"Tag'Em has better sensors. Jessie has her nose poked out the side, and is mapping the system systematically."
"Let her do it. All the better if we get it done faster. As soon as you have a location for the most likely inhabited planet, change Unapologizing's course."
I half caught a mumble about something to do with grandmothers and eggs, and suppressed a grin.
"Any chance you can upgrade our sensors without upsetting friend Slice?"
"Maybe."
Ten minutes passed.
"Found it."
"Which it is this?"
"Planet, base, and shipyard it."
The new information updated the nav map and HUD. We'd fluked the approach of the Cruiser to the base, it being almost on a direct course.
Two hours passed as we waited for Unapologizing to approach. The two ships were passing each other scan data, so we could 'see' almost all the way into the system now.
"They demanded a password," said Jane. "We went to Plan B."
Plan A had been built on a pirate ship being able to dock without being challenged. Or at the least, some chitchat between the station and the ship's captain, who Jane was impersonating.
Plan B was to pretend battle damage, and the top order of officers being all dead. In this we hoped to bypass the password, because no junior officer would know it.
"Docking approved," said Jane.
Annabelle let her breathe out noisily.
"They bought it," Jane went on. "There are celebrations beginning on the station in honour of the vanquishing of General Custer, and the capture of Hunter's team six. Seems they think it’s a great victory over their most hated enemy."
I held my hand up, and Annabelle and I high fived.
"Station defenses?" I asked.
"Formidable," said Jane. "Two Battleships, three Cruisers, five Destroyers, two Frigates, and four Corvettes. They have two squadrons of Gladiators on CAP. How many more is unknown. Oh, and look what else there is."
"Is that what I think it is?"
"Junk Heap Three. Identical to Junk Heap Two as far as I can tell. In other words, pretty useless. But they might be using it as a Carrier, to augment the station fighter capacity."
"Ages?" asked Annabelle.
"Middling to old," responded Jane. "Or in Junk Heap Three's case, really old. But they're still a threat."
"Shielding?" I asked.
"Hard to say. The shields showing now would be normal for a station this size, if this was a normal station."
"Explain."
"The station is a sphere. There appears to be docking slots dotted all around it, rather than a conventional ring."
"Is it armed?" asked Annabelle.
"No, unless guns and launchers are hidden somehow."
"Computer?" I asked.
"I think this is a mid-range AI, but it's hard to tell without giving myself away."
"Don’t do that."
"Can you take it?" asked Dick.
"If the security is lax, then an unguarded data port will be all I need."
"And if it's guarded?"
"I'll need to do a brute force assault from inside the computer room."
She paused, as if listening to something.
"Docking in progress."
"Get us moving."
"Confirmed."
The plan was for us to come in range of their sensors about the time the station realized it had a problem. But the timing was fluid, since we didn’t know what would happen once the ship docked. While it had taken hours for the Cruiser to make the distance, BigMother could do it in around forty minutes without pushing it. But they would detect us around twenty.
"Docking complete."
"What's happening with the crew?"
"Security met the ship, and the prisoners are being escorted off now. The crew seems free to do what they like."
<
br /> "Good. Primary targets please."
"Confirmed."
I opened ship coms again.
"Team six is in place. We have two squadrons of Gladiators on CAP. How many are on station is unknown at this point. Stand by for launch."
"We launch on my order people," said Lacey, "and not before. Two squadrons is missile chaff, not target practice, so we wait for the real party."
There was a series of acknowledgements from the squadron commanders, followed by George, Annette, and Jessie.
George had his own orders, but if need be, he was allowed to join in a dogfight.
Another ten minutes passed, with our approach still undetected.
"Team six's cover is blown," announced Jane suddenly.
"What happened?" asked Annabelle before I could.
"The detention block guards wanted to remove their suit belts. Six had to go hot. They're on their way to the Control Center now."
"And team one?"
"Just leaving the ship now."
Team one had been hiding on board the Cruiser, using their suits in chameleon mode. Their objective was the computer room. Jane had a dozen combat suits with them.
"Crew?"
"In position. All docked ships have their docking clamps locked down, and airlocks closed and code locked. The connections for the AI have been severed."
"Good."
I love it when a plan comes together.
Six
Cams started popping up as we came within team coms range of the station.
Jane threw station schematics onto a side screen. Team six seemed to be advancing on the center of the station without any real resistance. Team one was fighting a pitched battle near the computer room.
I looked at it for a moment, confused at the priorities being shown.
"Jane? What's going on with team one?"
"It looks like the entire defensive force of the station is concentrated outside the computer room."
"That AI is protecting itself you think?"
"Seems to be. Odd for a mid-range version."
"Time to change tactics then. BA?"
"Boss?"
"Get Jane inside the computer room. Take the scenic route if you have to."
"Gotchya."
A flurry of commands followed. The twins and half the team stayed engaged with the defenders, while BA, half Jane's combat suits, and Aline's squad, turned, and together, punched a hole in the nearest wall. BA dived through first, and the rest followed. Inside the next room, they did the same thing. Three rooms later, and they broke through into the Computer Room. I watched one of Jane's combat suits go up to a data port, and plug in.
Hunter Legacy 9: Hero at the Gates Page 3