I sighed.
“No, but tell me anyway.”
“You’re being called the Duke of Norfolk and Hunter’s Run.”
I put my head in my hands.
“Speculation is rife,” she continued, “on how you structure the new mini-sector. King Jon the first is running at five to one. Duke Jon is at three to one. The next closest is Field Marshall Hunter, the military dictator, at nine to one.”
I bashed my head on the desk three times.
“What are you going to do, mini-sector wise?” she asked.
“I haven’t decided, and frankly, you’re the last person I’ll be telling.”
“I promise not to file anything until you say I can. I’m contracted to you at the moment, so you do have a say in it.”
“I don’t know, so there’s nothing to tell you. And if you report anything at all, I’ll boot your arse out the nearest airlock!”
“Yes Your Grace.” She grinned at me.
“Anything else I need to know about?”
“The government is tearing itself apart on the Outback issue. But those in the know are saying they really don’t have a choice. Outback has the right to leave the sector. Asking was only a courtesy on their part. What most of us journalists want to know though, is how the Outback government even knew about any of this, let alone issuing instructions and filing petitions, given they’re non-contactable for another ten odd months. As far as everyone knows, they don’t even have an operable receiver on the whole planet at the moment. Or so they tell anyone who asks.”
“That is a good question. I’d like to know myself. So Australian sector will allow Outback to leave the sector?”
“The smart money is on yes, but it’s going to cost the government big time if they do allow it. It’s one more hit on a shaky government. They came into office on the tails of the pirate threat, promising sector defense and stability, and promptly did almost nothing, leaving us at the mercy of Midgard. We dodged that bullet purely because of your forces, the use of mercenaries for sector defense leaving a very sour taste in a lot of mouths, on all sides of politics. The government can’t win on this issue. And that will make the Prime Minister a very unhappy man. You better watch out for him at the negotiating table. He’ll need to look strong to stay in power, and yet, the need to negotiate with you at all, will be perceived as his fault for giving away the systems in the first place. Makes a politician dangerous, being in that position.”
“I’ll keep it in mind. Why is giving away the systems a problem? Bad Wolf is practically useless to anyone, and Nexus only has a single ring being mined, which I’m not getting control of. So they gave away mostly empty space, useless rubble, and a few gas giants. What’s the big deal?”
“It’s the principle of the thing. Never give away territory. The trouble was, the war was kept away from the sector through your actions, and the reward had to match the potential sacrifice. They had no choice, and everyone knew it. General Harriman made enemies though, in proposing it in the first place. Once he suggested it in government circles, it had to happen, as there was nothing else of significant magnitude to reward you with. And as you said, they didn’t give away anything important. All the same, politicians don’t like being boxed into a corner and forced to do anything. Remember that.”
“I will. I guess I may need to call on your advice.”
“I’ll add it to my bill.”
She grinned at me, and I reluctantly grinned back. I waved her out, and she left.
I went back to emails.
The answer to the Outback question was in an email from David Tollin. His email was encrypted, and I had to get Jane to sort it for me. I threw his vid to a wall.
“Sir Duke Jon,” he began with a grin. “Congratulations. I think. Everything is running smoothly on Hunter’s Redoubt. Your new stations passed through with no problems, and should be in position in Nexus by now. Your AI’s have begun refitting work to Hunter’s Haven, although not much can be done without funds. I’ve setup accounts for all three stations, and for each ship of yours doing trading runs using the AI as captain. If you can drop a few hundred million into Hunter’s Haven’s account, I can get the material for the refit flowing.”
“Regarding your mini-sector, with your permission I’ll set up accounts at the sector level. We can talk about how best to structure the sector when you arrive back, but for now, you need accounts separate from your own. You will need them for tax collection, and accounting purposes. Start thinking about how you want to fund your sector, and what sort of administrative structure you want.”
He paused, and looked serious all of a sudden.
“No doubt you’ve heard about Outback filing to leave the Australian sector and join your new mini-sector. This is true, as far as it’s known. What isn’t known, is a closely guarded secret. I’m sorry to say I’ve been keeping a few things from you. The day after you left Outback, a Keeper arrived on the Orbital from Gaia. He had sealed instructions from the government, after having called a special session before the Door opened. They were to be opened only when certain events had occurred.”
“Jon, we could have brought you back, while you were unconscious in hospital, after Wanderer was attacked. The Keeper called the attack and your hospitalization a sign. He forbade us from bringing you home in a Care Unit, or telling you anything about this. I’m sorry, I know this’ll distress you. It made me really angry at the time, and I took a piece out of the Keeper. It made no difference to him.”
I stopped the vid.
So, I was sent here after all. It had never occurred to me I could have been taken home while the Door was open. For a moment it made me very angry to find out all of my suffering of the last two months could have been avoided, and deliberately wasn’t.
I’d always known I had something to do with Prophesy, but for them to just cut me adrift like that? Just how cold blooded were the Keepers? Just what sort of game were they playing?
I sighed. My anger dissipated. The answer was always, wait another ten months. Less than ten months now.
I started the vid again.
“Jon, this is where it gets really weird. The instructions were to be opened when word was received of two events happening close together. Knowledge of the two events was date coded as well, so we only found out the events were significant on the days they happened. The first was your being given ownership of Nexus, Bad Wolf and Midnight. The second was your being appointed Duke by the British Queen.”
“Jon, they knew! There’s no other explanation. If we ever needed something tangible to say you are entwined with prophesy, this is it.”
“Only the Keepers know what prophesy actually is. No-one knows if this is prophesy unfolding, or not. But whatever the darkness is, I think we can say for certain now, it’s coming. In any case, when news of you gaining ownership of systems reached Outback, I was called back to Outback Orbital, as it was another pre-instruction I be here when the instructions were opened, which happened when we heard you were now a Duke. Inside, we found the petition to leave the Australian sector, and another one to join ‘Hunter’s Run’. We didn’t know the name existed until media sources pointed it out to us when we asked them.”
“Jon, regardless of the Australian sector’s decision, we are instructed to join your mini-sector immediately. When the Door opens, the government will defer to you. Effectively, you are the government of Outback now!”
I stopped it again, and sat there in a state of total shock.
None of this made any sense at all.
After ten minutes sitting there with a non-functioning mind, I restarted the vid.
“I’m heading back to Hunter’s Redoubt as soon as I send this off to you. I used one of your fast freighters, which is run by your AI, and only has life support in the Bridge area. Not comfortable, but the fastest way to get about in a hurry. Outback’s administration on Outback Orbital will handle all contact with the Australian sector government. My job is to prepare your mini-sect
or to become an official entity. I’ll do some options for you to consider, and send them as soon as I can. The faster you get a structure in place, the better. Until you do, all sorts of things can’t happen, which need to as soon as possible.”
“I can see you sitting there as stunned as I was. I’m sorry I don’t have any real answers for you. But I can pick up one end of the burden for you. I suggest you return to Nexus as fast as you can get here. Pick me up on your way through. See you then.”
The vid ended, and I just sat there.
Every time I think nothing more can possibly be done to me, it turns out I’m wrong.
Hooley, bloody, Dooley.
Thirty Nine
It took me a while to get it together, and respond to David.
I told him to do whatever he thought was needed to be done, and I’d be there as soon as I could. I reminded him the shipyard could build droids, and all he had to do was ask Janine, the AI, to build what was required. If he needed to source materials, he was to go ahead and do so. I transferred five hundred million into the Hunter’s Haven account, as I wondered where the name had come from, since it hadn’t been me naming either of my stations. For now, it would suffice.
I also transferred one hundred million into the shipyard account for resources. It was going to need an upgrade at some point as well. The life support system was completely inadequate for a start, being manually looked after. Its building systems were far too manual as well. Before it could function as a modern shipyard, it would need to be modernized.
By eight I’d waded through a lot of bounty payments, real estate advertisements, porn links, and general junk. One of the real estate ads informed me for a measly fifty million, I could own my own island on Gold Coast. I took a moment to look at it properly. It was an interesting idea. What was a better idea, was renting one to use for a holiday once I was able to shuck everyone else’s responsibilities I kept having dumped on me.
Get back to Nexus, start the mini-sector ball rolling, sit on a beach, and watch the twins skinny dipping. Sounded like a plan to me.
As if the thought evoked their notice, I was pinged by Amanda.
“Come down to breakfast, Your Grace.”
The giggle on the end told me how seriously she took the title.
I scooted to the access shaft, dropped down a level, and missed the handrail. I twirled in the air, bounced off the wall, and dropped like a stone. I regained control only meters up from the Cargo Deck at the bottom. The scooter bounced, and I shot back up again, once again missing the Deck Two handrail, and banging my head against the top of the shaft, before starting down again.
This time I managed to grab the rail on Deck One, and slide myself out. I leaned against the wall and placed my forehead against it for a minute.
“Are you coming or not?” pinged Amanda.
I was really tempted to answer that, but thought better of it in time.
This time, I scooted down the stairs.
As usual, I was the last person there. I left my scooter in a corner, and hobbled over to my chair. I’d no sooner sat down, than a streak of white shot in the door, did a circuit of the room, and shinned up my left leg to plop down in my lap.
Meow.
There was a general titter of laughter as I patted the puss.
“Any word on when we can leave boss?” asked BA.
“Eager to be away are we?” I asked generally.
There were nods all round. I felt the same. We’d been here too long, even in spite of me sleeping a lot of it away.
“The Queen is here at ten. Once she leaves, assuming the Battleship is out of the shipyard by then, we can be off soon after. By the way BA, I meant to ask how your new toys are.”
“New toys? You mean the combat suits? Absolutely first rate!”
The grin told me more than the words. There were nods around the table as well. The pilot’s looked puzzled.
So was I. I hadn’t actually been referring to the suits.
“Jane,” I subvocalized, “did we get the special backpacks with the new combat suits?”
“Negative,” she responded through my PC.
I pinged the local ‘tool man’ to ask about them. He pinged back immediately saying they’d been harder to do than thought, and the order had been completed only the night before. I pinged him back I was sending a shuttle to pick up the order, and asked Jane to send an avatar with the shuttle.
I pinged the shipyard to find out about the Battleship. The response was more expansive than I’d anticipated, and made me realize I’d not checked up on the Guardians before now. All the Guardians were still at the shipyard, but would be ready to go in about an hour. The Battleship would be ready by noon.
“Battleship will be out by noon,” I said into a silent moment. Silent except for the chomping of food. “Give it an hour to dock all the ships, and assuming Her Majesty is gone by then, we can be off.”
“Good,” said Annabelle. “Can I see you after breakfast?”
“Sure, when you’re ready.”
She nodded and went back to eating.
“BigMother will be ready for docking by noon as well,” said Jane through my PC.
“Ready for docking?” I asked sub-vocally. “What have you been up to now?”
“I’ve had to make some changes to allow the Battleship to dock under BigMother. The middle two rear docking pods needed upgrading to be able to support one battleship instead of two Guardians. It means Custer won’t be able to dock underneath either. I assumed you still wanted to be able to dock BigMother at stations, so the Battleship will stick out the back a ways. The changes to the Battleship included a docking airlock in the topside, to match the one Custer uses. The Guardians by the way, are still there because I ordered docking ports on both sides, so they’ll dock with our Cargo Deck airlocks, and allow another ship to dock on the other side of them. Between the docking ports is now a life supported corridor, allowing people to walk through from an outside docked ship. So we dock two to the sides, and two underneath. The new Gunbus also has a new airlock on her other side, so she can also dock to both sides.”
“I’m glad you thought about all of that.”
“Someone had to.”
“True.”
“What’s all the nodding about boss?” asked BA.
“Jane was updating me with ship modifications. Oh, BA? After breakfast, take whoever wants to go down to the Launch Deck with you. There’s an order coming in on a shuttle, which will need transfer to the Armoury.”
“What sort of order?”
“Some new guns.”
“Do we need more?”
“I thought so.”
“Okay, will do.”
Annabelle met my eyes, and I gave her the double eyebrow raise. She smiled.
Angel launched herself off my lap and hit the floor running, shooting out the door, bound who knows where. Maybe she’d heard her own breakfast being opened or something.
I rose, hobbled over to my scooter, mounted, looked at Annabelle and nodded, and scooted out. I went up the stairs this time, rather than risk being found at the bottom of the shaft in a heap. In my Ready Room, I settled into my chair behind my desk, and carried on with emails.
Annabelle came in a short time later.
“You want to go collect your other teams,” I said to her before she could seat herself.
She grinned at me.
“Yes. Can I?”
“Take Custer. It’ll be good experience for George to captain her for a while. Act like an Admiral for him, but let him make as many of the decisions as you can, as well as flying the ship. That ship needs a full Commander as captain, but he hasn’t the experience yet. Maybe this trip will give him some.”
“I seriously hope not.” We both grinned. “Who can I take?”
“Abigail and Alison are needed here. Anyone else who wants to go, can.”
“I’ll find out. Can I take combat suits in case we need them?”
“Sure. Take wh
at you need. Be a good test for George if he remembers to make sure Custer has enough food to get you wherever you need to go and back. Actually, regarding that, I’ll drop some funds in the ship account in case you need to buy anything. Any idea how long it’ll take to return to Nexus?”
“Maybe a month, but I won’t know until I contact each team and find out exactly where they are, and any time constraints they have if they currently have contracts. I’ve let them run independently for a while now, so I’ve not been in touch as much as I should’ve.”
“Sounds like the sort of adjustment you make between being a Colonel, and a General.”
“Very true. Do you want me to continue to act as a General? I was thinking there wasn’t really much need now the war is over.”
“I’ll be thinking about roles on the way home, along with a lot of other things. Now I have my own mini-sector, the need for a properly organized military is even more important than as a Mercenary unit. So I can see a permanent role for a General. You may end up overseeing station security forces as well. There’s only so much an AI and droids can do as far as interfacing with humans, so we’ll need some security people. The General could supervise each station security head, as well as the Colonel in charge of each combat team.”
“Sounds feasible.”
“Are you interested?”
“It comes with the star. I always wanted the star, so I knew what I was wishing for. Besides, I’m getting too old for leading troops into battle. Azgard nearly killed me, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since.”
“Look out for good people to recruit. You heard the Marshall. They think my role is to bring all the best of the Mercs under my control. I’ll need you to tell me who they are, and do the recruiting.”
“Isn’t that a two stars role?” she said with a laugh.
“Find me a decent one star to lead the troops into battle, and I might just give you the second one.”
I grinned at her. She grinned back.
“I’ll go tell George to warm up Custer, and see who else wants to come along.”
I waved her out, and she left. I pinged Lacey to come see me.
Hunter Legacy 5 Hail the Hero Page 22