I dropped a million into Custer’s ship account. If they needed to buy food or ordinance, it should be enough. If they needed more, then something big would be going down, and I’d probably need to join them.
Lacey bounded in about fifteen minutes later.
“Sorry sir. The squadron was out doing a fly around. We were going stir crazy sitting here doing nothing, so I decided we should get some flying in, while you were entertaining the Queen.”
Come to think of it, I hadn’t seen them at breakfast.
“Sorry to call you in. Are the others still out there?”
“Yes. George is teaching the others the finer points of the Excalibur.”
“Ah. He’s about to be called in then. Custer is going off on a mission as soon as the Queen leaves.”
“Should I call them all in?”
“Up to you. But I called you here to give you orders.”
“Yes sir.”
“I want 266 to fly point for BigMother on the way home. I’d suggest a V formation on Camel, about half an hour ahead. Use your discretion though. I want anyone coming towards warned away from us, and the other side of jump points cleared before we come through. Use your AI to communicate with Jane, to co-ordinate the jumps. I don’t want a repeat of that idiot who collided with us on the way here. I want to get home in a hurry, but we’ll use a cruising speed, not top speed, so it’ll give you time after the jumps to reestablish a lead zone.”
“We can do that sir. I’d best get the lads to land then, as we’ll all need to transfer our gear to our ships.”
“Okay, better have them wait until the Queen departs before you launch again. Get a butler to organize the transfer of food and drink as well, and make sure you all have more than double you think is enough. Who knows what may waylay us on the journey.”
“You do seem to have that sort of luck sir.”
I looked at him to see if he was joking, but apparently not. I nodded to him.
“I’ll get on with it sir.”
He stood, saluted, and left.
Forty
By ten I was standing on my scooter down on the Launch Deck. The Queen’s shuttle was on its way down. Everyone was here, but milling about waiting.
BA came up to me, kissed me full on the lips, and hugged me, scooter and all.
“What was that for?” I asked her when she let me go.
“I’ve always wanted to be able to use a Meson Blaster, but it was never feasible to lug around a tripod for it when you’re running in a combat suit, and without the power unit in the tripod, one couldn’t be fired. Now I can. Annabelle told me it was your idea, so thank you. The backpack won’t upset the balance of the combat suit at all, and integrates so well, the only thing you notice is the power levels being much higher. I gave it a serious workout. I can carry two Meson Blasters now, while running flat out, and fire the inbuilt stunners at the same time. Seriously bad-arse!”
We high fived.
“I was thinking about what would happen if the team went up against another team with similar equipment. It seemed like an innovation which would give us an edge. For a while anyway.”
“That it will.” Her grin was Cheshire cat level.
The shuttle appeared on the lift.
“Ranks please General,” I said towards Annabelle.
She barked a command, and everyone formed up behind me.
A cargo droid pulled the shuttle towards us, and stopped it so the Queen could step down in front of us. Another cargo droid pushed a set of stairs into place. The hatch opened, and Queen Liz stepped out, followed by her entourage. General’s Harriman and Price followed along after, with aides in tow.
Annabelle looked ready to give another command, but was beaten to it by the Queen.
“No protocol please,” she said. “This is a social call, not a state visit.”
“Social call?” I said.
“Yes Your Grace, social call. In fact, I’m here on false pretenses.” She indicated a lady behind her, who was carrying a bag. “I’m actually here to make sure you get a proper medical checkup before you leave, and get yourself into who knows what kind of trouble next. This is Dr. Whiteman, my personal physician.”
I looked at her dumbfounded. Behind me I could hear sniggers being suppressed. I looked around sharply, and a sea of respectful faces stared forwards.
“Come along Your Grace, your quarters please.” She turned to Annabelle. “Could you give a tour to the rest of my entourage please?”
“Of course, Your Majesty.” She looked towards the group, and waved a hand towards the launch bays.
The two General’s came up to me before I could be hustled away.
“I offered General Price a lift,” said Walter. “Hope that’s okay.”
“Sure,” I said. “Follow us up, and pick a VIP suite each which doesn’t have a name on the door. Have a butler droid bring your stuff up for you. Your aides should be able to find spare suites further along the deck.”
“Come along YOUR GRACE!” bullied the Queen.
I scooted towards the access shaft, and they followed along after. At the shaft, I checked they all knew how to use it, and gently wafted myself up to the Cargo Deck. I was the first in, and the last out. But I wasn’t taking any chances with missing the exit rail.
The others boarded a trolley, and I scooted along next to them. I did think of scooting a different direction, but I doubted I could hide long enough for it to matter. It was a big ship, but not that big.
We all made the jump up to Deck Two successfully, with me again bringing up the rear. The Queen looked to be enjoying herself.
I waved the Generals on down the passage way, and entered my suite. The Queen and the doctor followed me in, the doctor shutting the door behind us.
“Please lock the door,” the doctor said to me. “I don’t want us being disturbed.”
I did so, sending it a lock code through my PC, but wondered why. No-one was going to disturb us anyway. If I was wanted, I’d be pinged.
Angel sat up from where she’d been sleeping on her kitty castle. Queen Liz and the doctor hurried over to her, and Angel was delighted to meet them. After a good pat, the doctor turned back to me.
“Bedroom?” she asked.
I sighed, and pointed it out. She waved me to go in, and followed me.
I spent the next fifteen minutes in my briefs and belt, being prodded and poked, tested, and investigated.
“You’re bruising is coming along nicely,” she said. “Try not to damage yourself again before they heal. You should have full movement of the knee again within a few days. Make sure you eat properly and drink enough.”
She went over to the door.
“He’s all yours ma’am,” she said as she went through, leaving me sitting on the bed in my briefs.
Queen Liz came straight in, and closed the door after her. She stood there looking at me, with a grin on her face.
“Actually,” she said, “my false pretense was a false pretense.”
She laughed and came over to me, pushing me back onto the bed. Her suit changed to a belt. She pulled off the skimpy top she was wearing underneath, and then the lacy knickers. She practically tore my briefs off me, jumped onto the bed next to me, and straddled over me. Without thinking, I checked her for hairpins, but didn’t see any. I relaxed, and switched off my arousal override.
“I just wanted to give you a proper send off,” she said huskily.
We just made it to the Dining Room for lunch, before everyone else started without us.
Aleesha opened her mouth to say something, and Amanda clamped a hand over it before she could. They silently did their communion thing together for a moment, and then pretended to be interested in their drinks.
The presence of the Queen put a bit of a dampener on the usual lunch atmosphere, but for all that, it was an enjoyable meal, in spite of an intense effort on both our parts not to make eye contact and exchange cheesy grins. All too soon it was over, and the Queen and her
party were departing.
I watched the shuttle disappearing up the lift with mixed feelings. She was a really fun person to be with. But she was Queen, and I needed to be somewhere else. It would never work. I sighed.
I turned to head to the Bridge, and Annabelle caught my eye.
“You can leave now if you want,” I said to her. “How did George go with preparations?”
“He remembered the food and the beer, but not the drinking water.”
We both laughed.
“Keep me informed of where you are please. Daily report. If I don’t get one, I’ll assume you’re in trouble, and come after you. Always have Jane encrypt your emails too. And don’t let anyone send unencrypted ones which give away your whereabouts or anything else important. Given recent events, let’s assume hostile intent is following us all the time now.”
“Yes sir. Good attitude. See you in about a month.”
The 266 pilots had already disappeared, heading for their ships.
The rest of us made the jump up to the Cargo Deck, where those going on Custer climbed on a waiting trolley. I watched it heading away. The last time I’d watched my friends go, I’d thought they’d died not long after. This time, I was sending them off. Part of me hoped it wasn’t going to be a one way trip for them. I told myself to get a grip. They had a well-protected Frigate for divine’s sake. In any case, this was something I was going to have to get used to, sending people off on missions without me.
I found myself alone, and scooted for the access shaft upwards.
When I arrived at the Bridge, I found more people there than I’d expected.
The two Generals were in the VIP seats. Jane was at the XO’s console, instead of her normal place next to the helm position. Abagail was at the Coms console. Amanda and Aleesha were on each side of the helm. Angel was on her pad, and the girls were tickling her. Aline was next to Amanda. Alison was next to Aleesha. Amy was in her usual seat at the rear. On the other side from Amy, was Walter’s aide, but I couldn’t recall her name. The man next to her, wearing what seemed to be a combined smirk, sneer, and frown, was presumably General Price’s aide. Slice and Eric made up the full company, seated in front of Amy.
I sat in my captain’s chair, and felt really glad to be back in it.
“Sitrep,” I said to Jane.
“Custer is away, and moving to the Washington jump point. The Battleship is about ten minutes out, waiting for us, as are the Guardians. Gunbus is on the rear right Flight Deck. Apricot One is on the left side. Midnight Orchid is above us for the moment, waiting for a place to dock. I had a new set of side airlocks put in her, so she can dock side on. Nascaspider is docked to her. There was a last minute request for us to take some cargo to the Australian sector, so I sent Zippy to collect it. It’ll take two trips for her, but she’ll complete the second one before we make the Verse jump point. I’ll dock her to the forward main cargo airlock, and offload onto the Cargo Deck. By the time we dock all the ships, it’ll be the only airlock left.”
“Move us out,” I commanded her.
“Confirmed.”
BigMother turned and started towards the Battleship, clearly seen in the distance. Price’s aide’s expression took on more of a frown.
When we arrived, I nodded to Jane.
“Let’s get the Hives bedded down in their new home Jane.”
“Confirmed.”
The twelve Hive clusters, docked on the top hull of BigMother, all launched. Jane threw vids up which allowed us to see them head around the ship, on both sides, and enter the side of Unassailable through six docking ports on each side of her.
It took Jane half an hour to line up and dock all seven ships.
The Battleship was down the centerline. She was connected to the same airlock Custer had just left, and to two support docks at the rear. She stuck out a long way behind us, being a good quarter longer than BigMother. I’d have to consider if I kept the name of Unassailable for her, or renamed her. It was a bit pretentious, even for a Battleship.
Two of the Guardians were docked alongside her. The other two were along BigMother’s sides. Midnight Orchid was docked to the side of the one on the right, and Nascaspider was now docked to the Guardian to the left.
“What did you do to the Battleship?” asked Walter.
“I redesigned her to be a drone Hive carrier. BigMother was designed for standard fighters, and can’t really carry enough of the drones. As a dedicated Hive carrier, the Hives can launch and dock without separating into separate ships.”
“Seriously?” asked Price. “What else did you do to her?”
I threw the specification to a side screen, and told Jane to get us moving to the Verse jump point.
“I left her original guns alone, but the inside was substantially gutted. The only remaining life support is Deck Three. It has a CCC, Ready Room, and Conference room layout, pretty much the same as what we’re sitting in now. Deck Two here is duplicated there, with accommodation for one hundred troops as well, with the normal Armoury, bathrooms, spa baths, and gyms. There are five airlocks, two in each of the sides, and one topside with an access shaft.”
“Along her sides has been put two hundred capital missile launchers in groups of twenty five, and six Hive docking ports for a full length storage and maintenance deck. The rest of the side space has as much Point Defense as could be fitted on. She has a full length Cargo Deck with the standard forward cargo airlock. The access shaft to Deck Three goes to the Cargo Deck to allow people to use the Cargo airlock to access stations, but seals to maintain air integrity, as that deck will normally be kept in vacuum when people don’t need to use it.”
“The power plants were substantially augmented, and the engines overhauled and updated. She matches BigMother for speed now, and if we fire up her engines while docked, we should be able to increase BigMother’s speed by twenty five percent.”
“That’s totally outrageous!” said Slice in an awed tone.
“Isn’t it just?” I said with a grin. “The destroyed Bridge area was replaced with a Mosquito firing system, with ten launchers. The idea was to make her into an all-purpose assault ship, with drone carrier being her primary role. It frees up BigMother to be a command ship with a conventional fighter capacity, and to be a central docking hub for her fleet.”
I popped the specs screen off, and looked around at all of them.
“Its four hours to the jump point, so do whatever you feel like doing. I’ll be in my Ready Room if anyone wants me.”
Forty One
The Generals followed me in, with their aides following behind. I changed direction from my desk to the conference table. The two figures were still at the end of the table, but I noticed the table itself had now been repaired.
“Nice figures,” said Price’s aide, now with a definite sneer, looking towards that end of the table.
“Gifts I was happy to receive,” I said, in a tone which indicated he was out of order.
“My temporary aide, Commander Pyne,” said Price. “My normal aide went down sick just before I was due to leave on this trip. The Commander’s last assignment was captain of a Destroyer, but he’s getting some administration experience now, in the hopes we give him a Cruiser next.”
Pyne opened his mouth, but Walter cut him off.
“I don’t think you ever met my aide officially, have you Admiral?” I shook my head in the negative, looking at her. I’d seen her a number of times, but didn’t know her name. “Lieutenant Colonel Petersen.”
“Gloria, when I’m off duty, Admiral,” she said with a smile.
She was a petite redhead. I idly wondered if the red hair was natural, and had to mentally slap myself back into the present. I smiled back at her, and waved everyone to the table. It occurred to me, I’d never actually noticed her rank before. It was always her dazzling smile I remembered. Concentrate.
“Let me guess,” I said. “You have documents for me, and want to talk about Non-aggression and Alliance treaties?�
�
Both Generals grinned at me.
“Let me get my aide up here to join us.”
I pinged Alison to be here five minutes ago. She walked in a few seconds later, so she must have assumed I’d call her when the Generals headed in after me. I introduced her. As a Major, she was low rank at the table.
“The British have already been talking to you?” asked Walter.
“Indeed. Alison has their documents for me to look over, when I get a chance on the way home.”
She nodded to me. I hadn’t actually checked before if she’d received them or not.
“So send her yours,” I continued, “and I can look them all over together. But it’ll be a while before anything can be signed. I need to sort out how I organize the mini-sector first, not to mention a name for it. I told the British we could hold a signing ceremony on my new station, once its upgrade is complete. About two months I would think, give or take.”
The General’s both nodded. The three aides took on a blank look as they pinged and pulsed each other. We sat and waited for them to finish.
Alison nodded to me again, indicating she had the documents.
“Do we need aides from now on?” I asked the Generals.
“No, I don’t think so,” said Price.
“Alison, you’re off duty for the rest of the day. We’ll make a time tomorrow for looking at documents.”
Both the girls rose and left, but Pyne lingered.
“Admiral, if I may ask a question?” he said.
“Sure. Questions cost nothing. Answers though, they can be expensive.”
He looked at me as if I was stupid. His boss grinned suddenly, and stifled it with a hand over a cough.
“I was wondering sir, why you don’t operate with a full crew? No helmsman for example. I was watching you and your XO, but I couldn’t see how the ship started moving.”
“Very simple Commander, the ship is run by an AI.”
“You trust an AI to run a ship?”
His surprise made a slight dent in the perpetual sneer he seemed to wear all the time. He reminded me a bit of Breckenridge when he’d first come aboard.
Hunter Legacy 5 Hail the Hero Page 23