Hunter's Terminus

by Timothy Ellis

  "This way," she said in a voice which was also completely unlike Janes.

  She led us to a travel car stop, where one was waiting for us, and a minute later, after a transition I knew indicated a change in gravity direction, we exited onto a small island in the middle of the central lake. The lake was similar to the one Haven had, but not the same. The parklands in the distance were showing more brown than green, but there was green to be seen. Margaret was going to be in her element when she finished the survey work, and returned to her first love.

  Above the travel car stop, was what looked like an observation deck, and we climbed the path up to it. From it we could see a good amount of the center of the station, and looking up, we could also see space through a set of windows placed exactly for the purpose.

  "Everyone," I said looking around at my friends.

  They all turned to look at me.

  "Welcome to Terminus."

  Seventy One

  The travel car took us out to the outer hull of the station.

  Instead of airlocks, there was an outer and inner hull arrangement, with large observation windows through both, giving a view of space around in a ring which showed the true size of the station, even if it was smaller than Haven was. The internal skeleton which would become customs points, arrival and departure lounges, shops and offices, eventually obscured the view in the distance.

  On the inner hull were a series of pairs of large doorway sized boxes, which looked like embossed paint. Thorn concentrated, and the nearest of these became two rifts. We followed him around, missing several pairs, and he created the next pair.

  It wasn’t long before all of the Redoubt rifts which needed shifting had been done, and the new one joining Terminus to Redoubt was also complete.

  Builder droids turned up suddenly from Haven, and as we watched, signs began to appear in various languages, announcing where each pair of rifts were connected to, and which was for leaving or arriving through.

  Last thing before we headed back to Gunbus, two platoons of mixed men and women in Hunter uniforms with yellow epaulettes turned up from Haven, and one of them took up positions by each set of rifts. I knew they were security droids using belt suits to appear human, and I assumed everyone else did too, although Thorn might be the only one not to know. Their job was going to be traffic control in the first instance, and keeping curious people from going exploring.

  Following the security droids were two platoons of combat droids. Unlike the security droids who were not visibly armed, the combat droids had visible stunners. One platoon spread out into the station where they were quickly out of sight. The other platoon waited with the second platoon of security droids.

  Jane nodded to me, and she and Thorn started off to the rift to his new station, followed by the droids. If Thorn thought this was unusual, he didn't show it, and until his people actually took possession of the station and started taking on the roles, the droids made sense while the station was essentially uninhabitable.

  The rest of us took a travel car back to Gunbus, where Janette left us. She had a lot to do now. Communications were now available through the rifts, and soon there would be builder droids and raw materials flowing in at only a rate she could keep up with. Which was a good reason for us not staying any longer.

  I collected Angel on the way to the bridge, and plonked her down on her mat. With nothing to see but station hull, she curled up and went to sleep.

  Jane didn’t take very long, and had presumably left Thorn to rearrange the rifts on that end. She backed Gunbus away from the station, twirled us at a safe distance, and started for the rift back to Redoubt. I headed for my ready room, and sat behind my desk.

  Almost immediately, a hollo of David popped up.

  "I hear the new diplomatic station is complete."

  "As a station, yes. But it’s a shell at this point. The new AI is called Janette, so contact her about outfitting the areas we need immediately for diplomacy and committees. And all the accommodation people will need. Better bring Janice in on it all too. Janette is a completely new AI, so Janice will need to bring her up to speed on what Haven has, and Terminus needs."

  "You've gone with the name officially then?"

  "Yes, unless anyone has objections, or better alternatives."

  "No, no. Just needed confirmation. I'll get things rolling on this end. Most of the planning is complete, and Janice is already talking to Janette about it. Most likely finished already in fact. Leave it to us. When do you want to do a formal station christening party?"

  "When the station is ready for one, and you can get all the heads of governments here at the same time. Just tell me when to be here."

  "Being arranged now. Are you going back to Solidario now?"

  "Yes."

  The ship passed through the rift, and there was a momentary flicker of the hollo.

  "I'll let you get on with it."

  He waved, and the hollo vanished. I went back to my seat on the bridge. Angel was now sitting up and watching the view ahead intently.

  Ahead of us, a squadron of Brawlers in V formation was approaching the rift to Solidario. I watched them vanish through. The five titans caught my eye.

  "Did Bob name those two new titans?" I asked Jane.

  Bob had a habit of naming ships when they didn’t have one, or one he liked.

  "He did actually. He called them Trident, and Valkyrie."

  "Okay, they'll do. Let's get…hang on. What the hell is that?"

  That, was a battleship length ship which looked a bit like a dreadnaught, but wasn’t. Jane brought up a full image of it side on, and a set of specs. It was more or less the same size as one of my dreadnaughts, but where Relentless and Dauntless had four main superstructures with four main turrets each embedded in them, this ship had eight superstructures, with two main turrets each.

  Jane pulled the specs apart, and it became more obvious. When we'd turned battleships into dreadnaughts, we'd used a long oblong section to stick half a battleship to four sides of it. This one instead had an octagonal section down the middle, with sixteen half pocket battleships stuck to it, two per flat side. The result was a much rounder looking ship profile from the front or back, where the dreadnaughts were a cross shape.

  This new ship had sixteen battleship turrets instead of twelve for the other dreadnaughts, and its rear end looked like someone had cut off the engine sections of eight smaller ships, and stuck sixteen halves together in a huge circle designed for eight. It turned a sleek ship into one with a fat arse. And on closer looking at the specs, I could see it was simply bristling with cruiser guns, and smaller ones.

  "Guess," said Jane.

  My jaw dropped, and there was a titter of laughter seeing me so surprised.

  "Is that John Wayne?"

  "No way," exclaimed BA.

  Jane had stopped Gunbus by now, giving us a good close-up view. Looking close, you could see where seven pocket battleships of one design had been turned into a ship twice the length and width, with two of the sixteen sections being a completely different design.

  "Wow," said the twins together.

  "Jane?"

  "You want a channel to Redoubt?"

  "Yes."

  The screen popped up, showing Sato sitting in his chair in his office. He looked up, and sighed.

  "You want me back to doing something useful I assume?"

  "I'm afraid so. How soon can you be on John Wayne?"

  "Five minutes Admiral. I packed the moment she showed up here. I'm assuming I'll transfer to Dauntless."

  "Very likely, but we'll give O'Neil the choice."

  "No choice I think. I won't unpack. With your permission?"

  "Go."

  He was out the door before the channel closed. Less than two minutes later, an Excalibur launched from Redoubt, and another two saw it inside the hanger of John Wayne. Before he reached the bridge, a dozen of our older fighters came through the rift, and headed for Redoubt. They were quickly followed by
a convoy of three assault cruisers, and some large freighters, which all turned towards the rift to the new colony.

  I started paying attention to the navmap now, since rift movement was starting to be a matter of timing.

  "Is anyone coordinating rift passage through here Jane?"

  "Janet is. Mostly it's AI to AI coms, although the lot which just came through didn’t have a crew on them, so had to be."

  "I wonder if anyone on those ships knew that?" asked Aline.

  "Probably not," laughed Alana, who was usually the silent one of the group. "Be a riot if they knew."

  "I doubt that," said Agatha. "Those mages probably keep people in line."

  I thought she was probably right, but didn’t say anything. My eye had caught something else.

  A new white dot had emerged from the shipyard in Haven. I pulled up the info for it, and it revealed itself as Defiant. But not the Defiant I knew.

  "Bloody hell," I exclaimed.

  "Now what?" asked Amanda.

  Jane took her cue from me, and a new set of specs and an image popped up. Defiant was also now a dreadnaught, but totally different again, although somewhat similar to John Wayne, in she also used the octagonal center structure. But where JW had battleship guns, Defiant did not. Instead, her front half was bristling with thirty two cruiser turrets, and the rear half massed four hundred capital ship missile launchers. Plus the usual mosquitoes, smaller turrets, and point defense.

  Almost immediately, another white dot appeared, this one tagged as Undaunted, and also a dreadnaught class ship. But while it shared the exact same shape as Defiant, it had no main turrets at all. Instead, there were eight hundred capital ship missile launchers.

  I sighed, knowing what I had to do now. Jane had a grin on her face, and an eyebrow raised. I nodded. Susan Bentley and Chet Hallington popped up as hollos.

  "Admirals, I'm afraid I need to poach your XO's."

  "Saw that coming," said Chet.

  "Pretty damn obvious," said Susan.

  The team were all grinning as well.

  "What gave me away?"

  "Sato leaving Redoubt," said Chet.

  "Followed by the two new ships coming out of the shipyard," finished Susan. "Actually we knew the rough timing for all three ships yesterday, and it was pretty obvious you'd be needing captains for them, since their last captains already had new ships."

  "Who goes where?" asked Chet.

  "I thought Renaud should go to Undaunted, and Gillan to Defiant."

  "That would be my choice as well," said Chet. "Scott is a big ship driver, not a combat pilot. So with Undaunted, unlike the other ships, he holds off at a distance, and barrage fires. He can handle that."

  "Karen is ready for her own command too," added Susan. "Maybe not a dreadnaught as a first choice, but Defiant is also more of a hold off and barrage type, although her Cruiser guns would be useful for preparing for capture actions, if you do any more of them. Besides, those cruiser guns hit almost as hard as our battleship guns used to, and fire twice as fast. I think she's up to the challenge."

  "Before she leaves, put a bird on her shoulders."

  "With pleasure. When should they report to their new ships?"

  "As soon as Bob can get their personal Lightnings to them."

  "Be half an hour," said Jane. "They're brand new as well, and just doing flight tests now."

  "Their orders are to fast track acceptance testing for both ships, and join the rest of the fleet in Solidario as soon as possible."

  "Aye sir," they both said together, before also saluting together, and the hollos vanished.

  "I think the XO's got the better part of that deal," said Aleesha.

  "How so?" asked her twin.

  "The titans are stuck here defending the system, and we don’t want anyone to know we have them yet. So unless someone attacks, those ships are the most boring duty in the whole fleet."

  She had a point.

  Seventy Two

  Back in Solidario, I sent Sato and John Wayne after Dauntless.

  Gunbus was barely back on BigMother though, with us on our way up to the bridge, when a ping came in from Eric Neilson.

  "Contact made with a large Trixone fleet. Do I fall back? Or monitor them as they cross the system?"

  I popped up a hollo of the navmap, and found him two systems away, on the other side of the sun, with about a hundred drone scouts spread out around the system, and a dreadnaught shadowing him. And he wasn’t wrong about the fleet. It looked like a dozen warships, and two more dozen transports.

  "Drop a comnavsat out of their line of advance, and fall back," I pinged him.

  Back on the bridge level, I sprinted the rest of the way. I stopped next to my chair, and Angel launched herself off my chest to the chair, down to the deck, and up to the console. I sat.

  "Jane, channel to all ships beyond this system please. Include George and Miriam as well."

  Scimitar was back, and now flying a Brawler CAP. As was Katana, but I wasn’t sure why. When I checked, Apricot had Unassailable behind her, but I didn’t consider her enough protection. I shot a glance at Annabelle, and she shrugged.

  "Confirmed."

  BA was giving me an appraising kind of look, and when she saw me seeing it, she extended it to everyone else. I could see the thought processes in her brain churning towards announcing we needed to train more often. And she was probably right, especially in my case. But the plan was obscurity, and I didn’t think I’d need to be mercenary fit if I wasn’t going to be doing much more than sit on a beach for a while, or travel. I really wanted that beach time. The team deserved some beach time, but I knew them well enough to know more than a few weeks would begin to chafe. I was quite prepared to give them a ship and let them go.

  But now wasn’t the time to think about it. I sighed, and the channel opened.

  "All ships, fall back to this side of the Solidario jump point. That means you and your people too John. Leave enough comnavsats so we can watch the enemy fleet all the way here, but park your drones, and get back here as fast as you can. I especially don’t want them jumping into the next system before all of ours are out of it. When they get here, they should be totally clueless about what we have to fight them with."

  I paused. Nothing on the navmap changed.

  "Why aren't I seeing turning ships?"

  "Jon," said John Slice, "you take all the fun out of life."

  "Fun's over John. Seriously, you and your people are the only really vulnerable ones here, so get your collective arses back here on the double. In point of fact, you've been out there longer than I thought you would be. If you need an incentive, you and Bob need to design a new Explorer mothership, and adapt the new Brawler design for new drones. Something big and safe. Get me a design, and I’ll see it built for you."

  "Promises, promises. But, yes sir."

  Technically he wasn’t military anymore, so he didn’t need to sir me. In practice though, he was completely military in a civilian suit, and orders were orders. He knew that. I knew that. The banter was just because we were who we were. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. As far as I was concerned, it was another reason why I shouldn’t be leading anything, and a beach sounded good.

  There was a chorus of acknowledgments, and ships began turning for home across the navmap.

  "You want us and the Scimitars heading for the jump point?" asked Jane.

  "Yes. Plenty of time, but we better be seen to be heading in the right direction as well. How are the Scimitars loaded now?"

  George answered.

  "Two full squadrons of Brawlers here boss. The old fighters are all gone as well."

  "Ditto," said Miriam.

  "Didn’t I have you escorting Apricot?"

  She looked confused for a moment.

  "I had orders to come back here to load fighters. Slice assured me he was fine on his own."

  I bet he did. Technically, Slice, as a reservist, outranked Miriam. But she shouldn’t have been takin
g orders from him. I'd need to work on that. Miriam hadn't finished though.

  "And I know for a fact that chariot over yonder has two squadrons as well."

  "Really? Who's commanding the wing?"

  "Rodriquez."

  He was a mercenary Wing Commander, who'd joined us part way through the Darkness War. I’d kicked his arse during the Pompeii thing, while visiting Dallas in the American sector. I was surprised to find he'd not gone to Gaia.

  "And Jen agreed to that?"

  "Apparently."

  Annabelle was chuckling to herself. I threw her a glance. I suddenly realized Miriam had done a very nice conversation hijack.

  "I wonder what Chet said when his last Wing Commander left Orion?"

  She had a point, and hadn't been chuckling over the hijack. Now I'd need to check if Chet actually had any pilots left on the big carrier. Not that we had room for them here. All four carriers were now full. A thought struck me.

  "What's he calling his squadrons these days?"

  "Red and Blue."

  This time I couldn't stop myself laughing. The channels closed, and I had Jane put me through to Jen. Her hollo popped up.

  "Were you looking for Thorn, admiral?"

  "No. Why do you ask?"

  "He and Tasha went home."

  "We should all be so lucky."

  "Not today apparently. You want us to follow you to the jump point?"

  "Yes please. Are you happy taking orders from me?"

  "Wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t."

  "May I ask your actual rank before they retired you?"

  "Equivalent of your two star admiral. But I'm so long out to pasture, no-one pays any attention to the ex-rank now."

  "I do. Age is not a consideration for rank. Competence is. It makes you the ranking admiral, after me. But do you mind if I get O'Neil to plan the defense?"