In this case, John Slice had dropped them using his drones. They were all using a modified belt suit to remain hidden, as extra protection against being found. Since they would not be moving, they should never be detected.
"We'll see one of my ships come through to do the same thing soon," said Roo. "If the Keerah ship is still there, they will ignore each other. If a Trixone ship jumps in, both will jump out."
"How will either react if I jump a ship in, and send missiles at them and their sensor drones?" I asked.
"Both will jump out," replied Hobbes. "We tired of that game a long time ago."
"And besides," added Roo, "if you do that you demonstrate you can see them now. Do you really want to do that?"
"No," I laughed. "I was just curious. But in theory, could I get a recorded message to either of your people via those drones?"
"Yes," they said together.
"But why would you want to?" asked Hobbes.
"Going to need to talk to someone high up eventually," said Jane. "Even if it's to beg them to stop sending ships to their deaths."
"That sounds cocky," said Arthur.
I sighed.
"You saw the recordings. Do you know of anyone, anywhere, who held off the Darkness like we did?"
I looked at all three of them, one by one. None of them answered.
"I'm not being cocky. I'm prepared for a lot more than what I expect, and I've already proved we can mount a defense even if our tech isn’t up to standard. Unless your people have hugely bigger ships I haven't seen yet, I'm confident we can prevail. Even if they do, I have a few other things up my sleeve you haven't seen yet."
Actually, they had seen them, but I wasn’t expecting them to make any connections. And of course they were in the wrong place at the moment. There were a couple of scenarios where I thought we might be in trouble, but I wasn’t voicing them. And I didn’t need to with Susan Bentley planning the defense. We'd be covered for whatever came through.
And seriously, with what I’d seen today, they were going to need to bring in much better Admirals before I even felt under pressure. Of course, it could be happening right now, and this was why there was a delay in hitting us.
"When do you think each fleet will be ready to hit us?" I asked them.
"Should have already," said Hobbes. "Only reason I can think for it not happening is you killed the Admiral."
"Same," said Roo.
I looked at Arthur.
"The Trixone wouldn’t have been expecting to lose a fleet. While that system is a constant battle ground, the only reason we got through it this time was we had the new blockade force following us, after they lost the last encounter. Had we had to fight through a full fleet to jump, we probably wouldn’t have made it. Getting refugees out is getting harder all the time."
A thought popped in, but I needed to think about it.
"There might be a way to help, but it needs developing. Let's talk about it when we don’t have imminent attacks in the offing."
Both big guys snorted.
Twenty One
Jane stayed behind, after the others left.
"You didn't get much time to yourself," I said.
"It was enough. It's only slow beings like yourself who need more."
She was grinning at me. But she was right, I did forget she thought at nanosecond or faster speeds. So even a few minutes was a sort of eternity.
"Your parents want to see us and the team after everyone leaves," she went on, but with a straight face this time.
"Any idea what they want?"
"They didn’t say. Should we be getting people back to their ships?"
"Yes. They can get some sleep, but be on hand if they need to be woken. Can you drop a whisper in ears please?"
"Confirmed."
"And can you ask Syrinx if she can open some rifts directly to bridges from here?"
There was a slight pause.
"No problems. Apparently she anticipated this request and has prepared for it. Janice is helping her targeting."
"Thanks. We better get back out there."
She nodded and led the way. People had already started to drift off, and the room was starting to seem sparsely filled now. This accelerated as ship crews said goodbyes, and left. They seemed to be going at a steady pace, so I assumed Janice was directing them as each new rift was formed.
Finally, it was just my parents and the team left. I could see most of them didn’t have their attention at hand, and suspected they were wanting to get away for non-military reasons, probably to do with Arthur's people. I suppressed a grin. Good luck to them. They all deserved to take some love if it was offered.
I sank back into my lounge chair, and Aline dropped onto my lap, pecking me on the lips in the process. But I had my eyes on my parents, who had that 'about to drop a bombshell' look on their faces. The others settled into butler organized chairs, and all eyes went to my father.
But it was my mother who spoke.
"It's time we told you something we did before the door to Gaia closed."
"What?" I asked.
But she turned to Jane without answering me.
"Jane dear, we heard you met your Gaia self the other day?"
"That's true."
"How much did she tell you?"
"Not much. Only how she'd been promoted to full Admiral, and found herself in charge of the entire fleet. Later being rewarded with a string of systems, and being made Queen. Why?"
"I promoted you to full Admiral," said my dad. "It was only for Hunter forces, mainly for the dreadnaughts and battleships built during that last year, and as a way of ensuring those ships were never usurped by the other sector fleets. They were Hunter property, and there was no way a one star was going to keep control of them, especially given who the Admirals there were."
I cringed, thinking about it.
"I also considered the possibility that as a four star, with the battle experience I knew you had, you’d make a far better commander than anyone else there. And while it might take a bit of persuasion, I was sure the rank would get you at least a seat at the main table."
"You were right," said Jane.
"But that wasn’t the only thing we did," said my mum.
Jane looked at me, and I could see she had no idea where this was going. Neither did I.
Both my parents looked at me. Then back to Jane.
"We adopted you into the family dear," my mum said deadpan.
There was silence for a moment.
"Jon always wanted a sister," said dad, smirking.
I had not.
Amanda whooped loudly, and suddenly everyone was out of their chairs, and Jane was hugged by everyone. Jeeves and several other butlers turned up with champagne flutes, and we toasted my new sister. She looked as bewildered as I was. Glasses empty, I sent everyone off to Sceptre, knowing most of them were most likely going anywhere but to Sceptre. From the looks on faces, I figured only Annabelle and Grace would actually be there when I got there.
My parents said goodnight, and left for their shuttle back to Galactica.
Jane and I were left alone, and we stood there looking at each other.
"What just happened?" she asked.
I started laughing, and she reluctantly joined in. Then we were hugging each other, and finally just collapsed into chairs.
"Hi sis."
"Hi bro."
We looked at each other.
"Let's not say that again," she said, "ever."
I held my right hand up, and we high fived.
"How much do you know about Gaia?"
"Not much. Your cousin Fred stepped up when he was needed, and apparently made a good diplomat, and combat team leader. Your grandma was fine at whatever time my other self was from, as were everyone else. I guess I now know why they retained the name Hunter's Run."
It did seem a bit obvious now.
We were silent for a few minutes.
"Are you going to call this space Hunter's Run?"
she asked.
"Hell no!"
Twenty Two
I was right, and both the big guys were wrong.
Odd. I'd accepted a tiger and a bigger than normal roo as just one of the guys, and it had happened way faster than I would have thought it would.
When I walked onto the bridge of Sceptre the next morning, Jane was at her station, Grace at hers, Annabelle at the XO's, and both big guys and the two magicians were sitting there impatiently. None of them had anything to do. Aline followed me in about a minute later, and Angel several minutes later again. She made an entrance at full speed, leaping from the deck onto Roo, across Hobbes, and sliding her way across the main console, where she fetched up in a heap. She picked herself up, daintily stepped across to her pad in the middle, and sat there looking pleased with herself.
Hobbes growled at her, but she ignored him, casting her eyes at the view, finding nothing of interest, and curled up for a nap. I looked at Hobbes. He wasn’t happy.
"You want a nap too?" I asked him.
"Don’t you people keep a regular bridge watch?" he grated out through clenched teeth.
"No," said Jane. "I'm on alert all the time. People are just a nuisance to have around."
I caught her quick wink, and waited to see how the tiger reacted. He gave her a 'just how stupid do you think I am?' look. Grace on the other hand, gave her a withering look, rose, and stalked out.
When the laughing stopped, the rest of the team started straggling in. They all looked like they'd had no sleep at all. And George wasn’t sitting very comfortably. Amanda was last, and she looked like she was in real pain, with an actual limp. Which meant she'd done something the PC pain meds wasn't covering properly. The lot of them reminded me of a deep space episode from back in the square screen days where inter-species mating had resulted in real injuries. I kept my face straight.
Annabelle and I exchanged glances. This was a first for the both of us. I gave her a small nod.
"Get the hell off this bridge!" she roared. "And come back when you look like marines."
Even BA flinched, and they all fled at different speeds. The rest of us managed to hold the laughter in until they were out of hearing range. When we got a grip again, I looked at Jane.
"Can we have a channel to Round Table please?"
Jane grinned, and nodded. A screen popped up, and a few seconds later, the bridge was visible, with but a single occupant. Arthur.
"I trust your crew are in better health than mine seem to be?" I asked.
We waited for the expected epithets, but none came.
"Did yours straggle in a few minutes ago?" he asked.
"Indeed."
"Did any of them mention where they left mine?"
None of us was capable of rational thought for a good few minutes, and I laughed harder than I had in a long time.
"Movement," said Jane unexpectedly, and the laughter died.
Three ships had jumped in the Trixone jump point. They were in a typical trio formation, and they turned directly for our jump point. Three more followed. And kept following.
The first trio launched missiles at both destroyers, and both decided retreat was in order, and vanished. By the time they'd gone, the plants had a fleet of two dozen in-system, and heading for us. The middle group of three were much larger. I put them at a quarter bigger than my battleships in all dimensions, while still looking like a tree. Just a different kind of tree. The others were all battlecruiser size.
I turned back to Arthur, who was now looking out from a side screen.
"We have time. You want to join us over here, since you don’t seem to have a crew?"
He looked thunderous for a moment, suddenly laughed, and nodded. I looked at Tanith, and a few seconds later, Arthur was standing by the empty helm chair. I waved him to one of the other front console chairs, now unusually empty, and he sat where Aleesha usually did. He swiveled to look at me. But I was looking at Jane.
"You want to sweat talk Grace back in here?"
"Already did. She'll be back when she stops laughing."
And so she was. She winked at Jane as she reclaimed her seat, and started studying the HUD and navmap. As a bridge officer, she was a damned good dropship pilot. But this wasn’t her lack. She'd started as a pilot, scared the shit out of a lot of other pilots in her first battle, and been seconded to the team as a dropship pilot, mainly because they needed one after first myself, and then George had become unavailable. The only reason she didn’t scare the shit out of the team while dropping, was they'd had experience of me doing it to take the kinks out. Grace was trained. I did it my first time after only simulations, and nearly smashed us into the top of a high-rise building.
Grace had simply been on hand when I took command of Sceptre during the war, and I’d been enforcing an at least one officer on deck at all times policy. And since most of the ships only had three officers, all pilots, or at most a skeleton crew, it meant a lot of solitary bridge watches. After a time I realized Grace had no navy training at all, so Alison had taken her under her wing, her being the only one I had who could train an officer with what they needed to know, and even though Alison was a marine, not navy. Still, between her and Jane, they'd done a good job with Grace, but it wasn’t finished yet. She was capable of flying the ship in combat though, although had never had the opportunity to.
"How long do we wait?" I asked Jane.
"Three hours. They don’t have our speed. The others when they come will be closer to a half hour extra."
"Just how fast are your ships?" asked Arthur, looking genuinely perplexed.
"The plant's maximum is about our normal cruising speed. Were you at full speed running from them?"
I thought Jane's question was a good one. It also told me she hadn't hacked Round Table's firewall yet. Or had, but was still trying to build a translator.
"Not quite our top, but we'd been going for so long, by the time you found us, we were redlining badly. The last thing I really want right now is a battle. The fighters can handle one, but Round Table needs some work."
"Not a problem," I said. "We've got this. There won't be anything for your fighters to do. You may as well park well to the rear, and let your people sleep."
"Are we letting ours sleep?" asked Annabelle.
"Hell no!" I grinned. "What you can do if you like is find us six teams for Custer, in case we get the opportunity to take another ship. Let ours sleep for as long as possible, but I want George ready to fly Custer in case we do get the opportunity."
I saw Grace's mouth twitch.
"Grace can pilot a Python if we need to launch one. I don’t want George leaving Custer this time."
"I'll get on that," said Annabelle, and left for her office.
Grace looked happier. The shy girl I'd rescued from a bombed building had become a total maniac in a cockpit. The only reason it wasn’t her call-sign was the Americans had given it to me first.
Twenty Three
"So why have the plants attacked first?" I asked.
Susan Bentley and Chet Hallington were looking on from three-dee hollos, where they sat on their respective bridges. Also visible near Chet, was a similar hollo showing Fleet Admiral Renaud, in his chair on Orion's Belt's main bridge.
"Well it's not availability of forces," said Susan. "The Keerah and Ralnor only took a single casualty, so have a fleet on the other side of their jump point. Given how long it took the Trixone to come through, they didn’t."
"The Trixone fleet looks like an attack fleet," said Arthur. "The force you destroyed was a blocking fleet, not supposed to go through the jump point. They were replacing a fleet lost a few days before. So where you see two dozen ships now, there will be another dozen on the other side of the jump point. They like their threes, the plants do."
"Why were they all strung out like that?" I asked.
"No two ships are identical. So while they have a normal cruising speed, it's practically top speed for them, but is set at the speed of the s
lowest ship. So the speed any given fleet does, is dependent on what ships are in it. Chasing us for as long as they did, strung them out like that, because they'd stopped trying to be a fleet. But don’t expect it to happen very often. They like their formations."
I turned to Hobbes.
"Your people are not attacking yet. Any reason come to mind?"
"No. It's not what I would expect."
"Nor I," added Roo.
I looked at them steadily, and decided they were telling the truth. They didn’t know. Possibly because both were regional governors, and not strictly military. But as I looked at them, I realized it was most likely a result of the time line shift. Their people didn’t act like the ones they knew anymore.
"Most likely," said Susan, "they're being sensible."
"How so?" asked Arthur.
I knew what was coming, but I nodded to Susan to go on.
"They know we have one ship with guns which can render one of their ships either destroyed or severely damaged, with one salvo. They have to assume we have more of the same guns. Even if they assume we have more of the same ships, it still makes jumping into our system like feeding a meat grinder. Why grind your own fleet when you can let your enemies go first? And in the meantime, you wait for reinforcements, and possibly a new admiral."
It made sense, and I could see everyone accepted it. The trouble was, nothing about that system made any sense. And my trouble was, I wasn’t sure what the right question was to ask, and if anyone here would actually have an answer. I kept it to myself for now.
We discussed the situation a bit longer, and Arthur went back to his ship, parked it well away from the jump point, and Tanith brought him back.
Susan and I tweaked the fleet deployment slightly while we waited for him to return. I had no doubts we could cope with the fleet coming at us, but I was wishing I'd kept some of the capital ships which had gone through to Gaia. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. All the same, most of them, even the battleships, would have been under shielded and under gunned here. But given time, those could be rectified. And would be with what I did have.
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