"Are they always like that?"
"Yep," I laughed. "Been that way since the first day I met them. Or was it second? Second I think. The twins didn’t let me shower alone back when they were my bodyguards."
"Is that normal for your society?"
"Hell no. But then, Grace adapted after she joined the team, and she went almost as purple as you the first time as well. So while not normal, it is the lifestyle of the mobile marines."
I'd dated Grace for a short time, but it was only after she ended it, I saw her naked for the first time. Now it was like everyone else. Normal. And of course that line from hitch hikers came popping back in telling me what was normal anyway?
He changed the subject.
"I went and saw your Bob Derr, and successfully copied the crystal on Orion. Bob cleared an area on the shipyard, and I've left magic in place to construct a hundred of them. It'll take a few weeks, but it should solve your power problems. I took the first one myself though, to go in Jen's ship, which is already being made, but your two Scimitars should be having them fitted by morning. Your dreadnaughts by lunch time."
"Good. Thanks. I think that covers the Scimitar designs, and two squadrons of the new fighters. Don’t you think?"
I grinned at him, and he smiled back.
"In your dreams."
After which he laughed as well.
"Talking of which," he went on, "I was able to downsize the copying of a crystal as well. Bob is putting it in your Gunbus at the moment, and the hope is, it'll give you the same level of shielding as the larger crystal did, but may not last as long before needing to recharge. But Bob seemed to think it would last long enough for the average battle, giving a corvette the same chance of surviving as bigger ships. I downsized it again for a fighter, and Bob is currently adding it to the new design. We should have some testing of a prototype in the morning as well. Both smaller sizes are being produced in quantity as well. So if it works in the new fighter, all the bigger fighters will get one as well."
"That's wonderful news. Any idea how they work?"
"Asking the wrong person. I still don’t understand technology very well. And crystal tech is way beyond what I'm used to using."
I sighed. The Atlanteans had vanished from Earth thousands of years before humans had any real technology. For most, they were a myth. I was one of the few who accepted they were real. And I was using their tech. It didn’t mean I understood anything though.
The sound of a gong reverberated from inland.
"We better rejoin the group," he said.
An eye blink later, we were standing near what looked like an outdoor BBQ. Everyone was sort of dressed, like I was. Belts had been shifted into bikinis, or shorts and crop tops.
George was cooking meat, beer in one hand, and tongs in the other. Everyone else was doing something towards meal preparation, and we were eating before I knew it. About half way through I wondered why this felt like a good old Aussie barby. The food was enjoyably plain, the beer was strong, and the company was about as excellent as company could get.
We talked late into the evening, hearing about events more than three thousand years earlier, and were directed to the rooms behind the dunes for sleep. Aline didn’t let me sleep for quite some time, but when I finally did, lying there hot and sweaty, I dreamed discordant images.
A sea of plants went on as far as the eye could see, and as if they could sense me, all the flowers turned to look at me. They surged forwards, and I ran.
A domed city under attack by pulse artillery, looking in a way like a middle ages walled city under siege. It morphed into a square screen I remembered where an energy shield protected a city under siege.
The shield collapsed and the city began to die. Plants surged into the streets, and people trying to flee were cut down by long tentacle like things coming from the flowers. One touch, and they fell. No-one touched got up.
I saw a man standing over a skrying dish. He looked me straight in the eyes.
"Come now. We can't hold out much longer."
And I bolted upright in bed, wide awake, icy cold, and shaking.
Aline was still asleep, so I eased off the bed, quickly doused my face in water, donned briefs, shifted into 'slinky red', and headed for Thorn's door. I didn’t know why, I just did.
He was already coming out his door as I arrived there.
"Did you have the same vision?" he asked me.
"Vision? I thought it was a dream."
He shook his head.
"Very powerful skrying combined with mind to mind talking. I've known a handful who could do it."
"What does it mean?"
"We need to go."
"Where."
"To a city about to be overrun by plants."
"That was real?"
"As real as it gets, yes."
"Jane?"
"Yes Jon?"
"What ships do we have ready to go out on a mission?"
"BigMother. Both Scimitars are ready but not tested. Unassailable ditto, but the Hives haven’t been replaced yet, pending the new fighter design working out. The dreadnaughts are still having the crystals fitted, and are at least ten hours away from launching. On the other hand, the two Gunbus on BigMother have been upgraded, but once again, not tested yet."
"Can't be helped. Full recall for them. Pilots and marines. Every single marine and combat droid we can fit on, and as many drop ships of both sizes as we can fit."
"Are you going to invade a planet?"
"Close. We'll be back shortly, and I want to leave as soon as we are."
"Confirmed."
Team coms came on.
"GOOD MORNING CAMPERS! SADDLE UP, LOCK AND LOAD!"
Sixty Three
As soon as everyone was outside Thorn's house, he shifted us to a ship in orbit.
It looked brand spanking new, and was. Jen led us out of the conference room, and onto her bridge. She sat in the captain's chair, Jess took the helm, and Lea took the XO's position. Before the rest of us could be seated, a rift opened, and Jess goosed the ship through it. We emerged not far from Redoubt, and Jess pulled us to a stop facing the station.
A hollo of Jane popped up.
"Permission to install an AI?"
Jen looked at Thorn, and then at me.
"These ships are designed to be run by an AI, except for actual combat, and they can do that too. Negates the need for more than a token crew. And if anything drastic happens, the AI can usually deal much faster than we can."
"Who will the AI take orders from?" asked Jen.
"Jane?"
"You as ship owner. But because it'll be a clone of me, it also has a loyalty to Jon, but having said that, it will have no memories, so the loyalty is like a sub-conscious thing. There should never be a conflict, unless you actively act against Jon or his people."
"Can the AI be removed at any time?"
"Yes. Make the request, and the AI will make an avatar, and transfer completely to it. Then leave the ship."
Jen looked at Jess, received a nod, and looked at Lea, getting another one. She didn’t look at Thorn I noticed.
"Alright."
Jane vanished, and a minute or so later, a hollo popped up of an older woman with silver hair.
"Hi," she said with a smile. "Someone like to tell me who I am?"
"The ship's name is Jen's Chariot," said Thorn.
"I assume I'm not going to be called Jen?"
"Got that right," muttered Lea.
"We'll call you Chariot for now," said Jen. "At least until we think of something better."
"Fine with me. Any orders?"
"Dock with the station," I suggested. "I'm assuming there are combat droids for you to load up."
"Confirmed," said Jane, over coms.
"Done," said Chariot, and the ship started moving in to dock.
"Did you copy the dropships as well?" I asked Thorn.
He looked a bit sheepish, but nodded. I shrugged, and Jess started looking at spec
s.
I noticed BigMother was still docked at Redoubt. And out a side window, saw the two Scimitars come through the rift to Haven, with Unassailable behind them. I was going to have to hope these ships were enough.
"Thorn?" said George. "Can you put me on my bridge please?"
He vanished. And a moment later, the team and I were on the bridge of BigMother. We took our seats. Thorn had stayed behind. I’d have suggested it anyway, as I'd no idea how good Jess was as a fighter pilot, and if the crystal failed to work, they'd need Thorn to keep them safe.
Jane pulled us back from Redoubt, and when far enough away to be safe, twirled us to face where she thought the rift we'd use would be. I realized I didn't know where we were going.
"Thorn?"
"Jon?"
"Have Charietta bring up the system we need to go to on the HUD, and give it to Jane."
"Ooh, I like that," said the voice of Chariot. "Can I keep it?" she went on, sounding almost French.
I didn’t even want to ask how she'd know what a French accent was. In the background I could hear them agreeing, but I was listening for Jane.
"Confirmed," said Jane, and the navmap highlighted a system in plant space.
A tactical plot of the system popped up, and there was even an approximation of where the planet was.
"Ready to go," said George.
"Ready to go," said Miriam.
"Ready to go," said Jen.
All three of them, and Thorn, were now showing as hollos. And the other four ships were now lined up behind BigMother, Unassailable bringing up the rear.
"Meow," bellowed Angel, as she streaked in, and landed on the console, dead center of her pad, and actually remained there.
She gave me one dirty look, as if to say 'where the hell were you last night?', and 'why didn’t you call me so I could watch the battle?', before sitting up straight, and looking at the view ahead. No-one was game to say anything, or even titter a little.
"Confirmed," said Jane.
Nothing happened.
I took it as a cue for me to open the rift myself.
Concentrating on the target system, I opened the rift, turning it clear so I could see what was on the other side. The tactical had almost been right, but the planet was a little further around its orbit than expected. In orbit of it were seven warships, six of them firing on the other one, with a set of fighters trying to keep the mothership safe, and not doing too well. There was also what looked like a dozen freighters. The latter didn’t seem to be armed, at any rate.
Position for emergence located, I moved the rift, and anchored it both ends.
"There are six hostiles and one potential friendly on the other side, plus fighters. Jane will allocate a target for each ship as soon as we're through. Take it out as fast as possible using your main guns."
I didn’t wait for the acknowledgments, but turned to Jane.
"Overkill on the mosquitos as soon as we're through, and fire on the closest enemy to the other ship as soon as you can get the main turret lined up, but it should be close. Go."
She didn’t bother confirming it. The ship almost jumped through, and with a quick lurch, practically every gun which could fire straight ahead, did so. The target vanished into dust. Jane brought us around after a second one, and on the HUD, I could see missiles winking out as the mosquitoes picked them off.
She fired again at pretty well the same time the other ships did, all but one of them vanished in dust like the first, and the last being targeted by Unassailable, turned into large debris.
"Thorn, what do you see on the freighters?"
"Looks like ordinary plant crews."
"Would they be more comfortable down on the planet?"
There was a short pause.
"I think so, although they seem to be a bit upset about it."
"Thanks."
"Can you take them over?" I asked Jane.
"Only if I send a combat droid over on a salvage droid."
"Do it. What's the other ship doing?"
I'd expected to hear from them by now, given it was the same design as Round Table, and had to be some of Arthur's people.
"Not a lot. It's been hit pretty badly. The fighters managed to land, but at least half their tubes look to be out."
"Send over repair, SR, and salvage droids, and see if they need help."
"Confirmed. Mind if I use a Lightning to take them over as fast as possible?"
"Go."
If they were having coms problems, a repair droid might be able to fix them. But if things were worse than that, the search and rescue droids could provide an alternative life support for evacuation purposes. Although, if they needed to evac, they still had fighters to do it with. But it wouldn’t hurt to send anything which might be of use to them.
I looked around the bridge.
"Saddle up. Take Custer, and use the dropships when I give the word."
The bridge emptied very quickly.
"Grace, you've got Custer." She squealed. "Take them down to above the firing range of the artillery, and wait for a drop go. Then take her down to five hundred meters, and let teams launch."
She ran off the bridge as fast as she could go.
"Put us in orbit Jane, over the city. And send down a cam probe. Let's see what's going on before we launch anything."
"Confirmed."
As ships reported in they were ready to drop, the probe went down. Annabelle and I were the only ones left with Jane.
There was a city down there, it had a shield over it looking like it was a glass dome, and it was being hit by pulse artillery fire. In all directions around the city, was a seething mass of plant life. It kept pressing against the shield, and wisps of smoke indicated where a Trixone got too close, and was incinerated.
I opened my mouth to order the drop.
"Hold on," said Jane quickly.
I looked at her, eyebrows raised.
"I think I can do some weeding before we send the troops in."
"Roger that," said Lacey, who I’d actually forgotten was on board.
I shook my head. It was easy to blame a lapse like that on lack of sleep, but it was just bad admiraling. I sighed.
"What did you have in mind Jane?"
"Can I borrow Gunbus?"
"Sure."
She didn’t move, but Gunbus launched immediately. Likely she had an avatar on board all the time she wasn’t, although technically, she didn’t need one to fly the ship.
"Launch fighters," I ordered. "Support Gunbus in any way Jane suggests."
"Roger that."
The HUD started lighting up with fighter dots, as three carriers launched them.
Sixty Four
A dragon flew down towards the city.
Once through the upper atmosphere, Gunbus had changed shape. She was the only big ship so far equipped with a ship version of the belt suit. And now I knew what Jane intended.
"I missed that one," said Annabelle, "but now I see what the girls were talking about."
Behind the dragon, and taking top cover for the moment, the squadrons were all in formations, Lacey leading in his Gunbus.
Annabelle and I watched in fascination as the dragon swooped down along a row of artillery pieces, and flames shot from its mouth, burning everything in its path. The artillery stopped firing momentarily, until plants swarmed back to them.
"Tallyho," yelled Lacey, and he and 266 squadron peeled off, and did a strafing run on the artillery pieces, while Jane started methodically working her way around the city shield, burning off a twenty meter wide swathe as she went.
Each fighter fired IR missiles at the artillery from a distance, and strafed them with guns and torpedoes. They were followed by 666 and 287 squadrons, all doing the same thing, and finally by the operational fighters of 617 wing, which not having any missiles now, only used guns and torpedoes.
It took three complete passes to take out all the artillery, after which the squadrons started on weeding runs, directed by
Jane, who was just managing to keep the plants away from the shield. And as far as I could tell, there'd been no AA fire of any kind from the ground.
"I think it's our turn," said Jack, his hollo popping up from the bridge of Custer, but I noticed he'd let Grace fly the ship from the captain's chair.
"Go."
Custer undocked above and behind us, and dropships started launching from four ships.
"Ground troops on the way down. As soon as they hit the ground, all fighters are to assume a support role. Jane will co-ordinate fighters with teams."
"Roger that," said Lacey, and he started giving orders breaking squadrons up into flights.
A voice only channel opened.
"Is that Admiral Hunter?"
"Yes. Who is this?"
"My name is Guinevere. We're Arthur's second ship. Your repair units were able to get us sort of functional again. Permission to use whatever that was you came though? We're in poor shape."
"Can you make it on your own?"
"Yes, as long as we can dock somewhere very quickly."
"When you get to the other side, there is a second rift there. Go through it, and you'll find our shipyard not far away. Contact Bob Derr, and tell him how bad things really are. He'll get you docked somehow. Even if you need to evacuate, he'll have the ship towed in somewhere. Take a shuttle over to Hunter's Haven, and the station AI will set you up with accommodation. We can talk when we get back."
"Our thanks. We appreciate your help. How did you know we needed it?"
The ship was moving towards the rift now, but not very fast.
"We didn’t. Someone down on the planet got a message out. We responded as fast as we could."
"We also responded to a distress message. Arthur is still too far away to respond himself, but we were close by. He sent us. Unfortunately, no-one else came, until you did."
"We'll touch base later, but for now, get your ship to safety, and your people where they can rest up. If you need medical help, just tell the AI when you arrive."
Hunter's Terminus Page 27