"How might I ask, did you manage this carnage without a weapon?" asked someone on the right side.
"I'm never unarmed. A little gift from Kali."
I could see they were wanting more, but I wasn’t feeling chatty.
"They also attempted to take Galactica and my ship, with the intention of destroying both of them, so no-one could go back through the jump point, thus keeping the secret of Gaia intact."
I had a thought. Always dangerous of course.
"Jane?"
She stepped forward so I could see her slightly in front of me and to the side.
"Sir?"
"Did any ship leave through the jump point while all this was going on?"
"No, but there is a freighter about twenty minutes away from it, heading out. Not one of ours. No flight plan."
"Group Captain?"
"Sir?" answered Lacey.
"Freighter outbound to the jump point. Interdict and return it here. If they refuse to co-operate, you have permission to destroy the ship."
"Understood."
I could hear him bellowing orders in the background, as I turned back to the council. They'd only heard my side of the exchange with Lacey, of course, but it was my orders that were what they needed to hear. Several mouths opened to ask questions, but I beat them to it.
"No point in destroying the ships here, if you leave people in Outback who know the secret of the jump point. Dock at the station, quick raid inside, kill everyone there, and/or plant explosives in a place which would destroy the station, and high tail it back through the jump point. Station goes foom, everyone dead, secret safe."
"Oh," said someone.
I forestalled the next question as well, as I could see it coming.
"Yes, I will be doing releases for those I killed."
"Just how many people have you killed?" asked Hindu Indian.
"I've no idea. My ship kills are on record, but I've no idea how many people were on the capital ships. I guess you need four digits for the number."
"And you call yourself spiritual?"
"I completed the first level of Ascension some months back."
"You expect us to believe that?"
"Hell no. Ask Kali when you talk next. I was taken to a large meeting place in Buddha Amitabha's Pure Land. Kali was there, along with a lot of other Ascended Masters and ArcAngels. In fact, I've been there several times now."
She closed her eyes for a moment, obviously communing. She opened them again, and nodded to both sides.
"What of the other people involved?" asked far left.
"I don’t know numbers, but there were no deaths on either ship or the mining station, other than those who attacked me. Probably some injuries from excessive gravity, but I've not been informed of deaths. My orders were to use stunners only. And for the record, had the kidnappers not searched me, or not given me reason to think I would be searched, and I could have smuggled a stunner in there, no-one need have died at all. Likewise, they could have surrendered when I told them my troops were ready to move in. Alas, there is no catering for stupid people. Actions have consequences. They acted, the consequence was death. They made the choice. I was just the messenger. They refused to hear the message. I offered them forgiveness, they chose suicide by the sword. I wielded it, but the choice was always theirs."
There was silence.
"Warrior of God," said the same one who'd said it last time.
The others nodded.
"What will you do with the prisoners?" I asked them.
"You're people arrested them," said Aboriginal woman, who had so far stayed silent. "What are the charges?"
"Attempted destruction of private property and Gaia property. Attempted murder. Unlawful imprisonment. Treason. Your ex-councilor friend can also be charged with kidnapping. Assuming he survives."
"What penalty do you wish?"
"I know a nice penal planet in the Corporate sector. Drop them there. No-one leaves."
"Can you arrange this?"
"Sure. Jane?"
"I can have a fast freighter here in several hours. I'll put security and combat droids on it, with some builder droids and resources to build drop pods. It can make the pods on the way."
"Do it."
"You will feed them on the way?" asked someone.
"Jane?"
"Boss?"
"Can we feed them as well?"
"Let me see."
She was silent for several minutes, and no-one moved the whole time. Except for the Keeper's smile which was back to being a grin again.
"Yes, we can do that. But if you're going to feed them, we better install life support as well."
Someone choked.
"Hmmm. Yes, I guess so. Not much point in running corpses all the way to Earth. But life support only on the decks they live on. Basic cots and amenities. Cheapest food. They need to know they screwed up in the worst possible way."
"On it."
She made herself look like she was giving orders by PC.
"Oh," I said, looking back at the council. "Did you want to give them a trial first?"
"They just had it," said American Indian. "Sentence is incarceration for life on this Corporate penal planet. Sentence to begin immediately."
I gave them a slight bow.
"As you wish. Anything else we can do for you? Or can we get a shower now?"
"Shower. You both definitely need one."
I didn’t bother commenting any further, but turned, nodded to the Keeper, and stalked out, Jane following along behind me.
Twenty One
I did the releases under the spray of water. The physical reaction was hardly noticeable.
After showering, I went to see Sarah. She refused to see me. I can't say I was surprised. Grace had reacted similarly after her ordeal. It bothered me that history had repeated itself. The little fella on the other hand seemed quite cheerful, and he had a tight grip on my finger for a while. Carter informed me they were both fine.
Objectionable was in a coma. They hadn't been able to save his elbow. In theory, if he came out of the coma, he had options. In practice, he was heading for the penal planet with only one arm. He'd have to learn to live like that. Carter was not impressed when I told her he left with the prison freighter, coma or no coma. Jane would monitor him while he was still in the care unit, for as long as it took for him to be able to come out. Chances are, he'd come out of it in time for a one way trip to the surface, where being one armed would add to his challenges there. Karma was a bitch sometimes, but if you kick it in the arse, the kick back could be devastating. He was alive, which was more than could be said for the rest of them in that room.
There had been some other injuries, notably limb breakages. Being hit by high gees unexpectedly, and smashed to the deck, wasn’t exactly good for your health. I left Carter to attend to people, but made sure Jane had enough security droids monitoring the patients. As soon as they could be safely moved, they were going into detention cells. The freighter was going to be cramped.
I headed back to my suite, but Bob intercepted me on the Cargo Deck, as I hopped off the trolley near the access shaft. He introduced me to Josh Baker, the local shipyard manager, and reminded me we needed to talk. I invited them up to my suite for dinner.
Aline was waiting in my lounge room, ticking Angel. She took one look at Bob, rose, and quietly left. She could have stayed, but most likely she would have been bored stiff. Angel looked at the three of us, and quietly headed into the kitchen.
We moved into the dining room, where Jeeves came in and took drink and food orders.
"How fast can you make Hubs?" I asked Josh. He hesitated, so I rephrased. "How many can you build in the next year?"
"Three? Maybe four?" he responded.
"Not enough," said Bob. "If the Darkness turns up before then, we're likely to need hundreds."
"Maybe not hundreds here," I said. "But certainly dozens. We will need hundreds of them. Certainly in Outback, but at key place
s along the spine as well."
"How?" asked Josh.
"Can you make station modules?" I asked.
"Sure. About the same speed as a Hub. The shipyard here is small. We've never needed anything bigger."
I looked at Bob. He looked at me. We both grinned.
"You tell him," I told Bob.
"You spend a couple of weeks building specialized build droids. I'll send you some specs. They will help you to build a shipyard module which specializes in station modules. You build one immediately, as fast as you can turn it out, along with more of the build droids. Churn them out. Both modules now build new modules. Then all four build new modules. Then all eight. At that point, half keep turning out new modules, while the rest start building Hubs. By years end, you should be able to have at least fifty completed Hubs. If the worst happens, you also have a huge shipyard to handle damaged ships and stations if need be."
Josh looked at us both.
"I'll be doing the same thing in Outback," he went on, "although I have a head start on you in terms of how fast I can churn out the new shipyard modules."
"We need probably a hundred or more Hubs on the other side of Earth before the Darkness comes," I added. "And another hundred on this side of Earth."
"How will they help?" asked Josh.
"Assuming we can get stations moving in time, the biggest slowdown is going to be the jump points. Each station leaving enough space between them to avoid collisions, will slow things down too much, once enough of them are on the move. By joining them with Hubs, we can jump groups of them together as a single ship."
"Brilliant!"
"Who came up with the Hub idea?" asked Bob.
"The Keeper."
"Odds are," I said, "if the Darkness comes up the spine, Outback will become full of stations and ships, all needing to jump here in the next five day window. Hundreds of stations and thousands of ships, might not have enough time for all of them to jump. Not to mention collisions if ship captains or station people panic and all try to do it at once. If we dock the ships, and Hub together the stations, assuming we don’t hit a size limitation on the jump point itself, we could speed up the evac considerably."
"It’s a plan," said Bob, and Josh nodded.
Jeeves brought dinner in at that point, and conversation became technical while we ate.
Bob and Josh left straight after dinner, without waiting for coffee. Bob was going to organize specs for Jane, to go to my shipyard down the other end of the spine. It was flat out doing ship upgrades at the moment, but when those were complete, it could start turning out Hubs and station tugs. Bob also promised to design a much bigger station tug, so even the very huge stations could be moved at least as fast as normal military ships. Anything going slowly was likely to be left behind. I didn’t even want to think about how many tugs we going to need. Fortunately Bob was on it, and he'd be talking to all the other shipyards as well. Up our end of the spine, we could be assured there would be enough tugs. Down the other end though, no-one was going to be making any. I'd pick up as much slack as I could in that regard.
After they left, I settled in a lounge chair with Angel on my lap, and tried to catch up on emails. The comnavsats worked while the jump point was there, so we had normal communications with Outback, and beyond.
One of the emails I’d missed from the day before was a beta test suit parameter change. Most notably, the design team thought they had made the suit triggers even more hair-trigger than before. They asked if I could test it for them. I responded with a yes, thinking it was probably a bit late, since I’d really needed it early in the day. Serves me right for not keeping up with my mail.
I didn’t notice Aline come in. I was starting to stretch a little, between emails, when she pulled me out of my chair. Angel had apparently jumped down at some stage without me noticing either. She pulled me into the bedroom.
"Where's Miriam?" I asked Jane sub-vocally.
"Galactica. On your games rig."
"Can you organize packing that room up please? Also my old bedroom. Once we get back to Hunter's Haven, can you recreate both rooms in my suite there?"
"Confirmed."
A fist pummeled me in the chest.
"Oi!" said Aline. "Pay attention."
I did so.
Twenty Two
First thing the next morning, while most others were doing breakfast, I went in search of Sarah. Carter told me she'd been released from medical. I took the opportunity to apologize to her. She forgave me. I had the impression she wanted to say more, but wasn’t sure it was a good idea. Probably very smart on her part.
The logical place to find Sarah was on Galactica, but instead I found my mother supervising the removal of the last of the family stuff. She informed me Sarah and the baby were down on Five, on the family estate.
I took the Gig down, and landed on the roof. Inside, I found family in full on moving in mode, with accompanying stress levels. It took a while to hunt down Sarah. In the process, I noticed there was little in the way of modern droids or bots around, so I told Jane to break out pallets of everything from Butler droids down to cleaning bots from storage, and send them down here.
Sarah wasn’t happy to see me, but she settled the baby in a crib, and waved me to a chair nearby.
For a few minutes we just sat there looking at each other.
"When did you become a stone cold killer Jonny?"
"Shit happened."
"Is that all you can say?"
"What else is there to say? For a year, people have been constantly trying to kill me. When it happens so often, you learn to deal with it on their level. I'm not stone cold. I burn hot. And I refuse to be a doormat."
"Wipe feet here. Yes I remember. You never did allow that."
"I never will. It's not me."
"No, you aren't you. Not the you I knew anyway."
"I told you. Not all of me survived being dead."
"I believe it. Now."
I sighed. She sighed.
"So what becomes of us now?" she asked.
"Now, you live here with your family and my family, and raise our son."
"And you?"
"I have to see if I can save humanity."
"Is that really all on you?"
"Apparently. Sux, but them's the breaks."
"What did you do to deserve this fate?"
"Was born it seems. Legacy and all that."
"Not fair."
I had a pretty good idea she was not referring to me.
"Are you going to be okay here?"
"Sure."
"I've sent for some support staff. Jane will assign a Butler droid to exclusively look after the two of you."
"You don’t need to do that."
"Least I can do."
We fell silent again.
"Will I see you again?"
"Probably not."
She came over and hugged me.
"Will you be alright?" she asked.
"Sure, Jane will take care of me. It'll be cool and hoopy."
"Huh?"
"Hitch Hikers."
"Where?"
"Frogstar World B, and man it’s a dump."
"Put your analyst on danger money."
"Exactamundo."
She obviously remembered some of what I was into, having been one of the few people who actually 'got' me, before I left. She mimed shooting me with a hand shaped into a gun, and my suit went full protection mode, making me look like a body builder on steroids.
"Jonny? Have you gotten weirder over this last year?"
I grinned at her. I shifted back to 'slinky red', hugged her once more, went in and kissed my son, and left.
The grin died on the roof. I knew I wasn’t going to see either of them again. I don’t know how I knew, I just did.
Twenty Three
Back in my suite, I went into the bathroom and stared into the mirror. I mimed shooting myself with my hand, and the suit triggered again. I shook my head, and sent a bug repo
rt off to the development team, before backing out the suit upgrade, and returning it to its previous state.
I headed for my Ready Room, and settled in to clear some of the backlog of work I’d been ignoring.
True to form though, I hadn't done much more than an hour's work, when I was interrupted.
"Your presence is requested in the main conference room," said Jane.
"Who's in there?"
"Everyone important."
"What are they doing?"
"Covering bases, dotting I's, and crossing T's."
"Fine, don’t tell me then."
She laughed.
I went on reading the current email.
"Ah Jon?"
"Yes Jane?"
"Now would be good."
I sighed, rose, and walked casually towards the conference room further back along this deck. I stepped inside and stopped.
At the far end of the table was the Keeper. Along the right side was the Gaia council, now back up to twelve members. On the other side facing them, and centered on the table, were Marshall Bigglesworth, General Patton, General Price, General Harriman, and Admiral Tremblay. The senior British, American, Sci-Fi, Australian, and Canadian officers present. This made sense to me, as each sector needed to be establishing a relationship with the Gaia council.
On either side of this senior group, were Admiral Jedburgh, Lieutenant General Wellington, Rear Admirals Hallington and Bentley, and Lieutenant General Smith. At the far end, making up the twelve for that side, were Group Captain Lacey, and Fleet Captain Slice. Wellington was three stars, while Annabelle was two, the discrepancy being the Hunter ranking system. Lacey was presumably there because he was the senior Fighter Command officer present, and Slice was there because of his Apricot Mapping Service, and its unique ability to find jump points and map space.
I wasn’t sure why they needed me.
All eyes turned to me as I started walking to the only empty chair, on this end of the table, facing the Keeper. I heard the door close behind me, gave it a quick glance, and saw Jane take up a position in front of it.
Hunter Legacy 11: Home Is Where the Hero Is Page 9