There was the sound of a throat being cleared noisily. Almost a cough, and not quite a choke.
Eyes turned to Magnus.
"Aren't you forgetting something?" she said.
I sighed.
"Probably."
"Prometheus?"
"Ah."
After the last couple of days, I'd begun to hope we'd not have to go there after all. It wasn’t as if our luck was solid at the moment.
Necessary.
"Did you find your people?" She nodded. "Can't you go after her yourself?"
"With what ship?"
"Jane can put it back together for you."
"Ah, no," said Jane.
"No?"
"No. I did an inventory of the ship parts, and it seems the special emitters are not here, and some other key sections are missing. There is no record of where they went, but I can only assume they were fitted to a ship which left before we arrived."
"So we can only use your ship," added Magnus.
"What about the special shield modifications?"
"We have the specs."
"I've already started modifying a standard emitter to the new specs," said Jane. "I think we can use a multi layered approach, by channeling the smaller ships into the special emitters, leaving our normal shields at full strength."
"I want to see the simulations."
"Now?"
"Hell no. In the morning."
"Confirmed."
"So what's next boss?" asked BA.
"Sleep. Tomorrow we take those who want out of here to Libya. If Ms. Ball has discovered a new jump point by then, we'll go see where it leads, otherwise we head for Last Hope."
"And hope it's not our last hope," said Alison.
No-one took her up on that conversational gambit. It didn’t even rate a chuckle. I looked around the table, and saw most of them were as tired as I was.
"Bed," I said. "Your own," I added.
I picked up Angel from my lap, draped her over my shoulder, and left them there.
Alone in my suite, I managed to get into boxers and t-shirt, but was asleep before Angel had completed her pre-lying down circles.
Thirteen
"What part of your own beds did you not understand?"
Aline gave me the don’t-be-stupid look. Amanda gave me the smug look, while Aleesha batted her eyelids at me.
Angel opened one eye, stared at me for a moment, and closed it. She at least was in the right bed.
I opened my mouth to say more.
"GOOD MORNING TREASURE CHEST!"
I thumped back down on my pillow, and pulled the sheet over my head.
There are some days when you shouldn’t get out of bed. Yesterday had been one of them. Today, the feeling was even more intense.
"Are you joining us in the shower Jon?" asked Amanda.
"No."
"Are you going to training?" asked Aleesha.
"No."
"Are you going to get up at all?" asked Aline.
"No."
Someone tugged on the sheet, and it was yanked off me. I sat up, reached down for the sheet, and tugged it back over me, thumping back onto my pillow again.
"Go away," I said.
They left. I heard them laughing in my shower, and the footfalls as they left the room after.
Sometime later, droid tread approached. Footfalls and droid tread are basically the same thing, with the former being a flesh and blood person, the latter being a mechanical person. I'm not sure why I differentiate, but it seems I do.
"Breakfast my Lord?" asked Jeeves.
I could tell it was Jeeves. While the butlers were all supposed to be the same, Jeeves had had the most interaction with Jane, and he sounded different to the rest now.
"No thanks."
"Yes, my Lord. There is water beside you, my Lord."
"Thanks. Bugger off."
"Yes my Lord."
"Wasn’t that a bit rude?" asked Jane through coms.
"Probably."
There was silence. Angel snuggled closer again, and the two of us went back to sleep.
"Ready to depart," said Jane.
"What time is it?"
"Ten, my Lord."
It had obviously taken all night, and half the morning, to process people. Just as well I hadn't been dead set on leaving first thing.
"Go."
"Going. You want the Lightnings trailblazing again?"
"Yes."
I flopped a hand out above the sheet to pat Angel, but she wasn’t there. I pulled it back in, and turned over.
"Lunch my Lord?"
"Finger food."
I said it without pulling my head out from under my sheet. I turned over again.
"Your lunch my Lord."
I pushed up the sheet on that side of the bed, and Jeeves slid a plate of food and a bottle of water in through the gap. I let the sheet fall again.
"Thanks."
"Should I bugger off again my Lord?"
"Please."
When the droid tread footfalls were gone, I sat up under the sheet, and let it form a tent above me. I munched on my finger food and drank my water. I tossed the empties out onto the floor, and lay back down again. I could remember tenting as a kid, back when I was reading books when I was supposed to be asleep. I'd been fifteen before I found out my parents knew all about it, and had simply made sure I had enough light to not damage my eyes, and enough sleep so they didn’t have to actually notice my nocturnal activity formally.
"Pirate alert," said Jane.
I startled awake.
"Huh?"
"Melissa just reported a pirate Cruiser in the Libya system. They overflew it per orders. What do you want to do about it?"
"Let me know when we catch up to it."
"Confirmed."
I turned over again.
"Five minutes to combat."
"Ugggggggg!"
I jerked awake again, almost losing the sheet, but settled it back over me.
"Jon?"
"What?"
"Are you going to the Bridge to deal with the pirate?"
"No."
"Would you like Lacey to handle it?"
"No. Give me a hollo combat system down here."
"In your room?"
"In my bed, under the sheet."
"I'd have to route it through your PC."
"Yes. Get on with it."
I sat up, adjusted the sheet back into a tent, and the hollo controls appeared before me. I had an intense feeling of déjà vu, and remembered the times when I'd been playing computer games under a sheet tent in the middle of the night, when my parents thought I was asleep. Or at least when I thought they thought I was asleep. They probably knew those times too.
The pirate Cruiser was coming head to head with us. I goosed the controls so we would pass over the top of it, and lit up the weapon systems. At maximum range for the Battleship guns, I opened fire. Before those pulses arrived, I fired off the Cruiser guns, and then the Destroyer guns.
The Cruiser must have had a death wish, as it made no attempt to change course, and avoid my fire. By the time the Destroyer pulses had hit, it was badly damaged, but still coming on. I put us back on a head on course for just long enough to send off a full salvo of torpedoes, after which I swung us well off the line the Cruiser was on. The torpedoes hit full on the front of the ship, and it simply disintegrated. It had made some hits on us, but our shields were only down ten percent.
I put us back on course for Libya Orbital. I'd not changed our speed at any time.
"Clean up Jon?" asked Jane.
"No time."
I switched off the hollo controls, and made myself comfortable again.
"Arrived at Libya Orbital," said Jane.
"Shit!" I yelled, as I fell out of bed, landing on my left side.
"Don’t roll in it."
"Won't."
"Ships undocking to transfer people."
"Fine."
I crawled back onto the bed, lo
cated the sheet, and pulled it over me again.
"Transfer complete."
"Can we go now?"
"Going. Where to?"
"Home?"
"Wrong direction for Prometheus."
"Oh that."
"Yes. Which direction should we take?"
"Which is fastest?"
"Jessie Ball found another jump point on the other side of the Treasure Chest system, leading directly to Morocco."
"Fine, go that way."
"Confirmed."
There was a light thump on the bed, as Angel jumped up. She curled up in her normal spot.
"Dinner my Lord?"
"Finger food."
"As you wish, my Lord."
There was the sound of Angel jumping off, presumably in search of her own dinner.
The sheet was lifted, and a plate of food and a ginger ale were pushed through. I ate without any enthusiasm, finished the ale, and chucked the empties on the floor again.
When I woke next, Angel was back in her usual spot. I cuddled her for a bit.
I wasn’t sure how much later it was, when I became aware of warm skin against my own. The sheet was still over me, but there was someone on top of me, also under the sheet. It was dark, so I must have slept into evening at least, when ship lighting was dimmed to simulate night time.
"Whose there?"
"Me."
"Me who?"
"Little red riding hood."
"Huh? What are you doing here?"
"Riding you."
"Oh. Okay."
I let my hands wander, but for the life of me, I couldn’t find a hood, red or otherwise.
But what was happening felt pretty good, so I let it happen.
I woke the following morning feeling great. I was instantly alert, and was the proverbial bright eyed and bushy tailed.
Angel was in her normal place, opened one eye, opened the other, and started purring. I obliged her with a good rub up the wrong way.
Aline woke on the other side of Angel. She smiled at me, and sat up, sheet flopping down to show me her naked breasts.
"I had the strangest dream," I said to her.
She laughed so hard she fell out of bed.
I'd have gone to check on her, but my medical monitor popped up an emergency red for my bladder. I jumped up and raced into the bathroom.
The laughing behind me intensified.
Fourteen
While we were in the shower, Jane filled me in on our progress home. Or lack thereof, since we were now in the Morocco system, and heading core-ward still. There had been nothing out of the ordinary between Libya Orbital, through Treasure Chest, and into Morocco. Jane had stopped us after the jump long enough for Jessie Ball to re-dock.
I threw myself into training for a change, coming out of the shower again after, feeling good. I bolted down a half decent breakfast, which was quite unusual for me. I could see some questions forming around the table, and cut them off before they could be asked, by heading for the Bridge.
I checked my seat for cat before sitting, and she looked up at me with an innocent expression.
"Off," I said.
Meow.
"Off," I repeated.
Her ears folded back slightly, but she reluctantly rose, shook her hind leg at me, and jumped down. She sedately padded into the Ready Room, tail held high.
I dusted off cat fur, and sat.
Jane nodded at me from her normal spot, and popped up the nav map before I could ask for it. From Morocco, the spine ended with the Last Hope system. Beyond, was nothing.
I asked Jane to whisper in Jessie's ear, and have her come up. If anyone knew what was ahead, she did. If not, I’d have to ask Magnus, and I didn’t particularly want to.
Morocco was the real end of the line for Human space. Heading core-ward, and in two dimensional terms, it was the last stop for the Latin American sector on the right, and the African sector on the left. I knew almost nothing about the sectors themselves, except what the nav map revealed, and the basic history which all kids learn, and normally forget.
Jessie bounded in, and I waved her to the XO's chair.
"You're still with us," I said.
"Indeed. Boss's orders. I'm to map where you go as much as possible. You're to consider it payment for my services."
"Fair enough. You haven’t been this far before?"
"Personally, I've been as far as Last Hope. As much as the boss wants to explore the systems after that, they've always been too dangerous. I notice you don’t have them on your nav map. I'll have Tag'Em release them to Jane."
"He's never considered making a custom big ship to do the job?"
"He's considered it, but it's never been justifiable. I think he's been pondering the job since he took delivery of Apricot One, but the reputation for the systems beyond Last Hope is so bad, I suspect he thinks even a Corvette to not be up to the job."
"How big is the jump point detector?"
"Not big. It's basically an add-on to a more normal sensor package."
"How well have the systems ahead been checked?"
"As far as the AMS knows, they've had the basic checks, going back as far as when Prometheus first went through, but no-one has had our level of detector in there before."
I looked at Jane.
"You won't want to stop to do the job properly," she said. "Or will you?"
"No."
"Use the Hives?"
"That was my thought."
"Hives?" asked Jessie.
"Drone fighters," I responded. "We link them up a dozen at a time to form a cluster, but each ship is basically an enhanced medium fighter. We could fit several dozen of them with advanced sensor packages, and bolt on your detector, and have them search each system methodically."
"That would require my boss signing off on it. But unmanned ships doing the scans would certainly be a quicker and safer way of doing it. I'll ask."
"If you get a yes, tell Jane, and she'll start the modifications immediately."
"One of the things my boss has always wanted to find is a bypass to the core. If we found one, I think we'd be heroes in a lot of circles."
I was suddenly seized by doubt. Finding a jump point which bypassed the blockage system might not be such a good idea. On the other hand, not knowing there was one could be worse.
"I'm not sure that’s a proper definition of hero, but since we're here, we may as well do the job as completely as possible, given the time constraints."
"I'll get us permission then."
She grinned, and hurried out.
"Better start making a search grid in case we get a yes."
"Confirmed."
The nav map updated. Four new systems appeared, forming a Z shape. I sat there looking at them for a moment, and a violent shiver went down my back. I really didn’t want to go there, but I had no idea why.
None of them were named. Inside each, there was a notation stating any information was to be considered unreliable. There wasn’t much, and if it was unreliable, it would be best to ignore it, and go in on the basis of knowing nothing, and expecting the worst.
All of them were designated uninhabited, and uninhabitable. The fourth one was designated lethal to all known forms of life.
"That’s interesting," said Jane.
"What is?"
"We had another system added to the nav map with these four."
"Where?"
"It's on the other side of Dead Man's Chest."
"Must be what Slice didn’t want to tell me about on a vid. Technically, it's my system, with only him having any claim as the one who found it."
"Oh."
"Please, not more oh!"
"That’s interesting then?"
"More interesting?"
"Yes, it’s a system with only two gas giants. Not a lot of them known."
"Hmmm, my nightmare is in a two gas giant system."
"As I said, oh, that’s interesting."
"If you think so."
> "I do."
That seemed to wrap it up for current conversation.
With nothing more to do on the Bridge, I moved to my desk in the Ready Room. Angel was asleep on the top of one of the lounge chairs.
As always, I was swamped with emails. Even being this far from home, I still had to handle Duchy administrative matters which David couldn’t.
One of the emails was a reminder of the date. I didn’t need a reminder. I was acutely aware of the date, and exactly how long we had for this jaunt, before I turned us around, and broke all the speed records for travelling the length of the spine.
Around an hour later, Jessie bounded back in.
"He agreed, but you may not like the price."
"Price?"
"You putting our detector on your ships effectively gives you the technology. To make them, Jane will have to have the actual spec for it. He'll sell it to you."
"How much?"
"You custom build him a Drone Cruiser to Unassailable specs, without the Battleship guns, with twenty four Hive fighters equipped with the sensors and jump point detector."
"Does he want a new hull, or can I use an existing one?"
"As long as the hull is not more than thirty years old."
"When does he want it?"
"A month?"
"Done."
"And done."
She grinned at me, and bounced out again.
Jane came in and took a seat opposite me.
"Drone Cruiser," she said, "should be able to take twelve full Hives, if all we leave is a single deck of life support, with access shafts for the usual airlocks, an aired up cargo bay, albeit non-standardly placed, and a hanger bay for normal shuttles. Still leaves enough room for standard Cruiser armament, plus the Mosquitos, and some capital ship missile launchers."
"Gives him a decent ship capable of surviving almost anything thrown at it. And that’s a hundred and forty four Hive fighters, with their missiles and torpedoes."
"Make him all of them?"
"Yes. But only include twenty four on the documentation."
"Confirmed."
"Do we have a suitable hull?"
"Yes. Several of the Cruisers we took on the way to Earth are more than suitable."
"Send yourself the specs, and have Janine put a priority on it."
"Confirmed."
Jane left, and I continued wading through the electronic verbiage.
I headed down for an early lunch, so I could be on the Bridge again when we jumped into Last Hope.
Hunter Legacy 9: Hero at the Gates Page 8