Jane entered from behind as the Cruiser stopped just ahead of us. There was a slight clunk, as Gunbus undocked, and headed back to Nexus. BA wanted the twins back. There was a mixture of anticipation and dread on their faces. The whole concept of BA and boot camp certainly induced dread in me. But I wasn’t needed for it. They were.
Angel was sitting in Slice's chair. Slice seemed to think this was funny.
Apricot was Chinese looking. Small in most dimensions, with very pale skin, she was deceptively delicate looking. She stood where Jane normally sat when controlling my Gunbus. Slice caught me looking at her and grinned.
"Custom made droid underneath the suit," he said. "The standard security droid is too tall. I wanted a good looker, but in a shape my wife wouldn’t object to."
"She doesn’t like Chinese?"
"She knows I'm not attracted to them. Unlike you."
The grin turned into a laugh, and I couldn’t stop myself laughing with him. Aline wasn’t Chinese. She was Japanese American Australian. Although I wouldn’t have been surprised to learn there was some Chinese in there somewhere.
"Please don’t tell me you call her Blossom?"
Apricot Blossom? It was all I could come up with to needle him with.
His laugh became a roar, and it took him a moment to get a grip again. Apricot gave me an amused glance, but said nothing.
He nodded to Apricot, and the Corvette moved towards the Cruiser. It was a standard Cruiser design. The usual big turrets top and bottom, with hanger underneath instead of some of the smaller turrets. The main difference was the huge openings in her sides, to allow the Hives in and out. In addition to her normal armament, she was fitted with a dozen capital ship missile launchers down each side, with Mosquito launchers and Point Defense turrets covering all remaining empty space.
Apricot docked us neatly in the Cruiser's Hanger Deck. The Corvette only just fit. If Slice wanted a gig or shuttle, it would need to be hangered in the Corvette. She led the way out into the Hanger itself, and to the access shaft. We jumped upwards one at a time, me carrying Angel, much to her disgust. I had to tell her Jane had no control here, so she couldn’t do the jump herself. Jeeves brought up the rear.
There was only a single deck for living on with life support, plus a Cargo Deck, but this was more than enough space for a small crew. There wasn’t one, yet. Apricot lead us to the CCC. Not being the top deck, the ship didn’t have a standard Bridge. But the CCC was just as good, since the HUD and side screens displayed the same as you would have seen looking out windows.
I held on to Angel, in spite of her squirming to get down, until Slice took his captain's seat. When I did put her down, she immediately jumped up onto the console, and the forward facing guns fired. I hastily grabbed her and lifted her up again. Fortunately, the front of the ship wasn’t pointing at anything but empty space.
"Oops," said Jane. "Should have warned you about that."
"Console is now off," said Apricot.
I placed Angel down again, and she sniffed at the new ship smells. She turned towards me, and meowed loudly. Jeeves plopped a cat mat down beside her, she nodded to him, stepped on, turned around three times one way, reversed and did a turn the other, before sitting down, facing the view.
"Now the cat is settled," said Slice, "let's get on with the acceptance testing."
He gave me enough access to follow them through all the menus and systems. It took two hours before he was satisfied.
"What do you think?" he asked me.
"Looks good to me. But I can make a few software upgrades if you like?"
"What kind?" asked Apricot.
Jane looked at her, and they communed for a few seconds. She nodded to Slice and he nodded to me. I nodded to Jane, and she plugged herself into the data port beside Apricot. She and Apricot both changed into metal robots.
"You have been upgraded," said the one behind, in a grating metal impersonation of a voice.
"I am now designated Cyber Controller," said the other one, in a different version of the same voice.
"What the fuck?" yelled Slice, jumping up from his seat.
The two AI's shifted back into themselves, and giggled together.
I lost it looking at Slice's face.
The HUD suddenly changed with my enhancements, and Slice gulped.
"Nice," he said to me. "But why the sideshow?"
I shrugged.
"Jane likes doing things like that."
Jane and Apricot grinned at me.
Slice sat again.
"Let's get this show on the road then."
Apricot contacted Bob over on the shipyard with acceptance of the ship, and received blessings to depart shipyard space.
Once well away from both the shipyard and the jump point, Slice put the ship through its paces. It handled just as well as Gunbus did, and everything fired the way it was supposed to.
Shortly after, we jumped into Nexus.
Forty
"Let's see what we can see," said Slice, rubbing his hands together. "Launch the Hives."
"How many?" asked Apricot.
"All of them."
"You got it."
I watched his face, waiting for it. Jane was doing the same, trying hard not to smirk.
The first twelve Hive fighters launched. Followed by the second twelve. And the third twelve.
Slice's face changed from satisfied to amazed. When the fourth twelve launched, he turned to us. We grinned at him.
"Merry Christmas," I said.
"Happy Birthday," Jane said.
"Which one?" he asked.
"All of them," said Jane.
We kept watching until the one hundred and forty fourth fighter was out in space, forming up in the last squadron formation.
"They don’t launch as fast as we'd like," said Jane, "but they do launch. However, if you form them up into Hives before recovering them, they'll launch a lot faster."
"Noted," said Apricot.
"Is the new recon pattern ready?" Slice asked her.
"Just updating it for significantly more ships."
"Set them loose when you're ready."
"You got it."
Barely a few seconds later, the squadrons broke up, and ships headed in every direction.
"What did you decide to call the Cruiser?" I asked Slice.
"Guess."
"Apricot Two?"
"Close. Apricot Too."
"You didn’t?"
"No, I didn’t."
He laughed at me, and even Apricot chuckled.
"Ship isn’t named yet. But I might go with Apricot Blossom, as you suggested."
I stifled the urge to face-palm. His grin vanished, and he was all business.
"Tactical."
A popup now showed the system as a three dee map, with the position of each of the Hive fighters marked. We watched them as they expanded into the whole system, and way out beyond the ring of jump points. The Cruiser itself, headed for Hunter's Haven.
"These Hive fighters," said Slice. "Are they fully capable, like yours?"
"Confirmed," said Jane.
"You gave me more firepower than an American Fleet Carrier projects?"
"You have a problem with that?"
"Oh no. Very happy."
The grin was back again.
We settled in to wait. Even with so many fast ships doing the recon, it was still going to take time to see any results. Especially since Nexus wasn’t a normal system.
Lunch time came and went, and we docked at the Hunter docking side of the station, at the dock nearest the Australian Militia tower. Still we waited. I really did want to know if there was anything more to discover about Nexus. Especially if it was going to help us, or make our task harder.
In the end, it was an anti-climax. Slice sent the ships way out further than he had ever looked before, and found nothing.
Jane brought us a trolley, and took us to access points for our various quarters. I dropped off Angel in my suite, an
d continued on to my office in the admin tower.
I settled myself for a minute, forming in my mind what I wanted to say, and opened a vid.
"Marshall, Generals, Admirals. There is good news, bad news, and good news. The good news is, the system data has confirmed the Pestilence system as where my nightmare happens. The three of us agree without any doubt, that is where the nightmare occurs, looking towards the Death jump point. The bad news is it has also provided us with a time frame. Six months is all we have to prepare. The actual date is not precise, but I'm aiming to be there with a battle fleet in five months' time. I'll have ships in the War system very shortly in any case."
"Slice's new Recon Cruiser came out of the shipyard this morning. The other good news is the testing of its systems on Nexus resulted in the correct identification of known jump points, the identification and tracking of all system bodies, and finding nothing we didn’t know about. It's the first confirmation on the system data. Slice will be leaving here in a couple of days to recon the other four systems, to at least confirm they contain no additional jump points through which the Darkness might come."
I paused, and sighed.
"Six months is a lot less time than I was hoping for. My plans will not be complete by then, but I'll be there with whatever I have. The object will be to hold as long as possible at each rearguard point. And hope we can hold the line long enough to get the next generation of ideas into reality. In any case, the defense of the Hawaii system must be the priority for now. Everywhere else will have more time, assuming we can hold at Hawaii for long enough. We can hope it will take years to fall back that far up the spine. But we have to plan for the worst case scenario, which is I lose it badly early on, and whatever remains of my force and the sector forces at that end of the spine fall back almost as fast as they can move."
"I'll be revisiting some ancient history. I suggest you all do the same. The Alamo comes to mind. They lost. Why they lost is important. Why everyone who ever defended a fixed position lost is important. Maybe they all lost for us, to provide us with what not to do. Learn the lessons or be doomed to repeat the past. If you have military historians who understand battles as well as history, turn them loose on defense options. We need to develop all the ideas we've had so far, and we need new ones. I'll be working my people hard, but I'm the one with the least time."
"I'll send more as I have it. And I'll touch base with you as I head down spine again."
"Ka-Plaa!"
I closed the vid, viewed it to make sure I'd not missed anything important, and sent it off.
Then I did another similar one, but aimed at the few allies I’d made at the meetings held as I'd returned up the spine. They needed to know, in order to make their own preparations. It went off as well.
"Janice?"
"Yes my lord?"
"Can you get Amy in here please?"
"Now?"
"As soon as. While I'm doing vids, I may as well do the Gaia one as well."
"She's on her way."
While I was waiting for her, I made notes on what should be said, and how to back drop them.
"Boss?"
Amy came in and sat opposite me.
"We need to do an announcement vid to attract people up to this end of the spine."
"I've been thinking about it. What did you want to say?"
I told her. The discussion went on through dinner, which Jeeves brought us. After three hours, we figured we'd covered all the angles, and we began recording. We used images of Gaia Five, including the natural wilderness areas, and the partially built cities. When we finished, we played it back. I started off sitting in my office, with an image of the planet behind me.
"Hello. For those who don't know me, I'm Duke Hunter, of the new Duchy of Hunter's Run. I'm addressing you from my office on the station Hunter's Haven, in the Nexus 618 system, at the top of the spine. I'm delighted to announce that the Apricot Mapping Service have discovered a new jump point in the Outback system which is now part of the Duchy. In this new system, claimed by me for the Duchy and named Gaia, is the Earth type planet shown behind me. It is currently almost uninhabited, but the good news is it is capable of supporting more than five billion people without compromising the natural wilderness areas."
I paused a moment to let that sink in.
"We will have the planet ready for full scale colonization, at a high tech level, in one year from now. We invite anyone who wishes to emigrate to Hunter's Run, to apply now. The order applications are received will determine the order accommodation, land, and resources, are allocated to settlers. It's strictly a first in, first served basis. The sooner you get your application in and processed, the sooner you can travel here. The first to arrive, will have the best picks of where to live. You will need to rough it a bit for the intermediate year, but the rewards will be worth it."
"We want you here now. Are you out of work and willing to come here for it? We can guarantee you work. Much of it is initially in the Outback system, on the planet Outback itself. While not a paradise, the work you do there will guarantee you priority selection of accommodation on Gaia. Do you run a business which isn’t doing so well where you are? Move to Hunter's Run, and the first here will have the best opportunities to corner the new markets availed by the new cities."
I went on like this for a bit, targeting different segments of human society.
"For details, contact the Hunter's Run colonization office. We want you here now."
No, I wasn’t doing an Uncle Sam impersonation, but I have to admit, the image had crossed my mind.
Forty One
The day Annette had waited for since losing Unthinkable, arrived the next day. Jane took us to the Shipyard in Gunbus, both of us going to sleep in suites on board, to allow us to be there first thing in the morning. Jane slid the new Super-Cruiser out of its bay, and we stood off and looked at it.
Bob had used the same template as the first of the Dreadnaughts we'd seen on our way through to Gaia. It was back in its bay, still being fitted out internally.
He'd taken two of the badly damaged Cruiser hulls, cut them in half down their long length, and created four half ships, or what ships had looked like back in Earth water days. He'd then built a long thin rectangular central hull, the same width as the Cruiser hulls, and to each of its four long sides, he'd attached one of the half hulls. In effect, he'd merged two full Cruisers into a single ship, with the same length and width, but half again the depth. The central section provided the same space as a third old Earth ship, allowing additional engines, power plants and shield generators. With capital ship missile launchers, Mosquito launchers, and as much Point Defense as could be added, the result was a ship with the defenses of a Battleship, and the offense of two standard Cruisers and a Missile Cruiser.
Very little of the ship was habitable. Like Slice's new Cruiser, the Super-Cruiser had a single deck in the top hull section, with CCC and living accommodation. There were four aired up Cargo Decks, and two Hanger Decks capable of docking a standard Corvette each, or a small selection of fighters and shuttles. The habitable decks and associated airlocks, were joined by access shafts.
This was the first of its class to be built. We had Cruiser hulls for several more, and these were already in progress. After them, the same design was going to be used for some Super-Destroyers, and Super-Corvettes. The priority was on the larger ships.
We no longer had the luxury of time to test the design. We had to go with it, and hope it did its job. The object was to create a ship which could survive passage across the Death system if necessary, even the smaller ones. And fight while doing so. If things happened as we believed though, the added shielding should enable the new ships to fight longer and harder.
Annette's face was a picture of excitement. I waited until she'd had her fill of the externals of the new ship, and told Jane to dock us. We exited Gunbus into the lower hanger bay, and the access shaft took us straight to the main deck. I waved Annette into the CCC ahead
of me.
A security droid awaited us, standing next to the XO's console. I connected to its belt, and shifted it into the shape of a man in 'slinky red'. He was of average height and dark skin, with bald head, and a dark goatee style beard. He smiled at us.
I waved Annette into the captain's chair. She sat, almost reverently. I stood in front of her.
"Commander Bronson. You are hereby assigned as Captain of the Hunter Security Super-Cruiser, Defiant. You may appoint crew as you wish. You may dock Nightshade in one of the Hangers. Once you complete acceptance trials, you will dock at Hunter's Haven for final fit-out and supplies."
"Admiral, I accept command of Defiant."
I nodded towards the droid.
"This man-shape has relevance to the name Defiant. You are at liberty to shape the ship's avatar any way you wish. I thought this might be appropriate though. You can look up the original name if you want, but the avatar is usually the ship name. It's your choice."
"Thanks Sir, I'll see how we go together. What do we do when the ship is ready for space?"
"I have two sets of orders for you. Firstly, you are to escort Slice as he recon's the four other sectors we marked as possible Darkness entry points. He outranks you, but if it comes to a fight, you have command. Your mission is to ensure his is completed. Don’t let him linger anywhere. I need you down spine as fast as possible. Once he completes the final system, he returns to the AMS, and you are to proceed as fast as possible to Treasure Chest, where you will form a fleet out of whatever refitted ships are available there. You will need to leave enough in place to protect the shipyard, but everything else goes with you to the War jump point in Last Hope. You will blockade the jump point into War, and not allow anything to move either way."
"Understood Sir."
"I'll be sending ships down to you as fast as they come out of the bays here. The first Dreadnaught will probably have a more senior officer aboard who will take command from you. But you will then form a small fleet of your own for detached duty. At some point, someone has to go into War and find out what happened to that Battle…"
Hunter Legacy 11: Home Is Where the Hero Is Page 16