"Give me a half hour Admiral. Zippy will need some food loaded, and the unloading will take at least that long."
"Let Admiral Klemperer know when the ship is ready."
"Confirmed."
"Admiral Klemperer, you are relieved of command effective immediately, and assigned to Central Command in the Dallas system, where you will continue the development of the Missile Defense Platform, as we've discussed. This is your only assignment, and failure to complete it may prove fatal to us all."
"Yes sir. Thankyou sir. I'll do my best sir."
"Admiral, before you go, talk to Admiral Jane. We'll need your recommendations for replacements for those going with you. The two of you should issue orders to everyone being relieved, and those being promoted, giving them half an hour to pack and be ready to move. The rest of your development team should also be reassigned. As soon as Zippy is ready, you will collect your officers, and Jane will see you to Denver. You will put yourself under General Patton's orders. I'll let him know you're coming."
"Yes sir. Thankyou sir."
He saluted, and I returned it. He did a parade ground turn, and marched out. I wished people would stop saluting me. Whatever happened to no salutes inside, or when you weren't wearing a hat? Or was it an order required a salute thing? I needed to issue orders doing away with the damn things altogether. I put the thought aside for later.
I did an email to Patton, telling him of the hot potato I’d dropped in his lap.
Thirty Four
We were six hours on San Diego. Six again on Texas and Phoenix. So it was only two days later we jumped into Denver. Not more than an hour later, Fleet One jumped in as well, having taken longer on each of their planets, but having one less to do. We had a ten day break on the aliens. We set about using it.
There were only two significant events before we lined up to deny the aliens entry into Denver.
The morning after arriving, I awoke to find Aline sitting there next to me.
"Hi," I said. "Feeling better?"
"Better? You make it sound like I had some disease."
"I was thinking more along the lines of major stress."
She looked at me as if she was considering walking out.
"I guess it was. You really do stress me out Jon. You go off and do these damned fool stunts, and apparently get killed. Or you go off and do these damned fool stunts because you want people to think your dead. How can it not stress me?"
"Wait. Want people to think I'm dead? Where did that come from?"
"I heard a rumour that’s what you did, in order to flush out the Nazis."
"Jane?"
"Jon?"
"Have you stooped to gossiping now?"
"Who? Moi?"
"It wasn’t Jane, Jon. One of the American PB captains, who chased the Germans, heard it from one of their captains, and talked to a friend who was a Major in their Peacekeepers; and I heard it from a Lieutenant of one of the other Majors."
"Huh?"
"Is it true?"
"Is what true?"
"You faked your death."
"Shit no! I had no idea those bozo's were planning anything. If I had, I’d have done something about it a long time ago."
"So you really did go off alone and get killed."
"What's this get killed business?"
"Well, everyone knows you died again, and one of the highers brought you back. Again."
I face-palmed.
She pulled my hand away and kissed me.
"For the record. Jane and I got the timing of pulling the Sphere out wrong, we took a major hit which also destroyed coms, I spent five minutes in the black, we drifted for a while, Jane managed to use a combat suit's coms to get a Lightning to us, we shifted the direction the Sphere was going to stop it colliding with the sun, and I was about to come back here when I found that stupidity going on."
I paused for breathe.
"At which point, I couldn’t break silence until after I’d dealt with those bozos, by which time it really didn’t matter when I announced I was okay."
"It mattered to me."
"From what I hear, you'd been in a care unit for hours by then."
"You didn’t know that."
"True."
"It mattered to the team."
"They quick frosted me when I got back. Bit hard not to notice they were narked."
"You left everyone behind."
"I had to do something immediately, and only George was there. He had to stay. Once I left, coming after me would have been worse than coming with me. So I told him not to tell anyone I’d gone."
"You have to stop doing that."
"So I've been told. The team goes in the shit end, or no-one goes in. I think I've got that now."
"You better have."
"Let me get this straight though. If I have to do something for the survival of humanity, which has absolutely zero chance of survival, you all still expect to go with me?"
"Especially then."
She looked at me in a speculative way.
"You're not actually planning a suicide mission, are you Jon?"
"Of course not," I lied. "But shit happens."
"Well get it through your thick head Jonathon Hunter. Shit happens at the shit end, and that’s where we go in. You got that?"
"Got it."
"Dammit Jon, I can never stay angry with you for very long."
It turned out all the novels were right. Makeup bonking is incredible.
The other significant event was the meeting to decide who went where after we abandoned Denver, given there were three ways to go, and only two fleets. Denver links to Manchester in the British sector, as well as Kansas. Kansas links to Washington, which is on the spine, and to Dallas and Atlanta leading to the back way to Cobol.
It had been intended my fleet would go the back way through Dallas, with the Enterprise evacuation fleet swinging through Atlanta, Boston, and New Orleans to meet us in Miami, while Galactica also did Oklahoma and Houston beyond Dallas.
Spine wise though, it was four jumps to London via Manchester, and three via Kansas. In all likelihood, both jump points would be discovered at roughly the same time. The critical timing was the shortest route, which meant it should get a fleet. But this left the entire British sector undefended.
It was proposed we leave the enlarged Sphere in Manchester to slow them up there as long as possible, but I argued we'd need it in Cobol to help us stop them breaking through there before the spine was fully evacuated.
In the end, Bigglesworth stated it wouldn’t matter to them, as the British sector was already evacuating, and would be gone by the time London was breeched by the aliens. There was already no-one beyond Leeds and Newcastle, except those who'd refused to leave, and Manchester and Birmingham were almost completely deserted as well. The Queen and the Royal Court were already on the other side of the Apricot system. The Prometheus evacuation fleet would be going through about half of British space on its own, just as a last check.
I could see Bigglesworth crunching the overall situation, and at one point he made eye contact with me and nodded. The critical path was not the spine. It was the faster back route through Midgard which was our main danger now. If the aliens cut off the spine before we were ready, billions would die. The burden of making sure that didn’t happen was mine. And although those suggesting we defend the British sector were well meaning, as long as the sector was evacuated in time, there was a more important task for my fleet.
I did ponder splitting the fleet into three, but Bigglesworth was already way ahead of me there, and shook his head when he saw me doing the math. Three ways would be cutting things too fine.
A few days later, Gunbus re-docked inside Sceptre. They'd replaced the entire rear end of her, and upgraded her power distribution system properly. The Crystal was now a proper part of the ship, instead of being an add-on.
Thirty Five
I still wasn’t sure this was a good idea, but the fleets formed up before
the Salt Lake jump point. The aliens were in Phoenix as well, but two days behind their forces in Salt Lake. In theory, if we held long enough, Fleet Two would need to move to the other jump point, but I seriously doubted we'd be holding that long. If we held for more than eight hours, I’d have been really surprised.
If anything, it turned out I was overestimating quite badly.
The first ten thousand odd alien ships streamed through as they arrived at the jump point, in dribs and drabs, and never more than we could easily handle.
Then they stopped coming.
An hour later, I moved all our ships back. An hour after that, I moved them all again. By the time the third hour with no aliens was coming up, I opened channels to consult with the other four stars. I'd been live with Susan and Lacey since before the first alien jumped.
Patton was on the other side of the system on the Central Command station. Bigglesworth was on Orion, Jedburgh on Hammer.
"I seriously recommend we get the fuck out of here," I said, once they were all showing as hollo's.
"What's the problem?" asked Patton.
I ignored him for the moment.
"Susan, move everyone back again immediately, and shift the formation into something they haven’t seen yet."
"Aye sir."
She started giving orders, and I turned back to Patton.
"They've spent the last three hours building one giant mass of ships. When they come, it's going to be with one hundred thousand plus, and our full firepower is only going to peel away the outside. At the very best, we'll have tens of thousands of ships loose in the system, because we'll have to deal with the ones targeting us, while the ones set to explore will flood off in all directions."
"Are you telling me you think our full fleet is now overmatched?"
"We always were. The difference was they couldn’t bring up reinforcements fast enough to kill us. They still have a speed problem, but they solved the numbers problem because of what we did in Hawaii. They know exactly what our fleet here is made up of. They're assembling something to take us out with, something we can't expect."
"You're guessing," said Patton.
"No, not really. They sent in expendable scouts to find out what we had here. They don’t know we can see them, and yet they're building the largest mass we've seen since Pestilence. The obvious aim is to catch us unawares and simply crush us on the jump. Any ship occupying the space of another one jumping in, would destroy both. They'd lose maybe half their mass to collisions, and we no longer have any kind of fleet. Problem solved for them."
"I thought two ships in jump never collided?"
"We're not in jump. Any ship in jump can collide on the other side with one that’s not. But something big enough will simply appear in the same space, and the matter will merge. Instead of two ships, you get… I don’t know and I don’t want to find out."
"Can't we keep moving back?" asked Jedburgh.
"Yes. But the further back we go, the less convergence of firepower we get, and the less ships we hit all at once. We're already at the point where if we hit ten thousand in the first pulse, then the ten thousand next to them could take out a Battleship if two or three ten thousands all fire at the same ship. We could lose a dozen ships in the time it takes to say Oops."
"Some of the Captains want to stand and fight," said Susan.
"All warriors do. It's what they train for. But you have to pick your fight. This isn’t it."
"When is the fight?" asked Bigglesworth quietly.
Never. The only way for us to win, is not to fight. But I didn’t say it. Couldn’t say it. It was vitally important no-one understood this.
"Thirty days," I said. "When the Door to Gaia opens, we stand and fight until it closes. We stand at the gates to the Australian sector. To lose ships now, might mean we lose it all now."
No-one said anything. The mass continued to grow.
"Jon?"
I swiveled to face Dick. I’d forgotten any of them were there.
"Why are you asking them, when you could be ordering this fleet away?"
I opened my mouth, and closed it again. I didn’t have an answer, so I faced back towards the hollo's.
"Orders Admiral," said Jedburgh.
"Orders Admiral," said Bigglesworth.
"Orders Admiral," said Patton.
I sighed. I didn't want this. I don't want this. Take this away from me.
Time stopped.
I stood on green grass. Endless green grass.
"What's the problem Jon?" asked Jesus.
"Why do they have blind faith in me? I'm nineteen years old for fuck's sake. Why does everyone look to me?"
"You're…"
"DON’T SAY IT!"
"I wasn’t going to. You're the one…
"Damnit you said it!"
"Stop interrupting, and let me finish. You're the one who was right all along. You're the one who's kept more people alive than anyone thought was possible. You're the one they all trust."
"Well they damn well shouldn’t. I'm going to get them all killed."
Kali appeared next to Jesus.
"Why are you so sure of this?"
"It's pure numbers. As far as we can tell, the aliens don’t have any kind of civilian. They eat a world, reproduce, and every single one of them is lethal. Only a small percentage of our population are warriors. At some point they'll simply sweep over us as if we're not even there."
"Jon, you're missing something important."
"What?"
"There is always someone behind you."
"Yes," said the twins, from behind me.
I jumped about two feet into the air, and landed on my butt, sprawling onto my left side. They both laughed at me, and Amanda helped me up.
Kali was grinning. Jesus looked concerned.
"Why can't this just be over?" I asked.
"It is over," said Kali. "In universe terms, what you call thirty days is but the blink of the cosmic eye."
"Did we win?" asked Amanda.
"It depends on how you define win," said Jesus sadly.
"Does humanity survive?" asked Aleesha.
Yes!
The word boomed around us, and the three of us looked up, and around, but there was no-one else there.
"So what we do here doesn’t matter?" I asked. "It's already determined."
"No," said Kali. "Like any game of chance, the hand must be played out to the last."
"So what matters most?"
"Life matters."
"All lives?"
"All life matters. But you have freewill. All lives must include choice."
"And so we return to where we started from. Me making a choice I'm sick and tired of making."
"Jon," said Kali, as she touched me on the left shoulder. I felt a jolt of hot energy flow through me. "You're not here to make a choice. You already made the choice. You're here to understand why you made the choice."
Jesus touched me on my right shoulder, and I felt cool healing energy flow through me. The energy flows met and merged, and I felt truly refreshed for the first time in months.
"Jon," said Amanda. "You don’t need to know why. You just do. You always have. You always will."
"Why do you question this?" asked Aleesha.
I looked at them both. I reached out and touched both of them on a shoulder, and the energy going through me, passed into them as well.
"Oh nice," I heard Amanda say.
"Nice isn’t the word sis," came from Aleesha.
Neither of their lips had moved.
"Weird," I thought to myself.
Their heads whipped around to look at me, eyes wide.
"We heard you Jon, like we've always heard each other. Can you hear us?"
It seemed to come in stereo.
"Yes," I thought. "I can hear you both."
They hugged me. I looked to Kali and Jesus, but the latter was gone.
"Remember Jon. There is always someone behind you. There is always something mo
re to draw on when it's needed."
She vanished as well.
Time restarted.
Thirty Six
"Orders Admiral?" asked Susan.
I glanced at the twins. They were both grinning.
"Look at your suit," I heard Amanda think at me.
I looked down, and saw a green grass stain from my left hip to my thigh. I grinned back at her, and opened fleet coms.
"All ships of Cruiser class or below, not protected by the shields of a larger ship, are to pull back to the Kansas jump point. As of now, the enemy are massing too many ships for Cruiser shields to hold against a single shot. Go now. Yorktown, this includes you. Everyone else, this is now a volunteer fight. One shot might take you out, so anyone who doesn’t want to take this risk, can leave now. This is still not the time to go down fighting. Today, we need to survive a completely new tactic from the enemy. None of us are going to be staying long. Go or stay, but decide now. For those who stay, the rules of engagement have changed. One hit, and you go. No arguments, no hesitation. Any hit, and you pull out for your waypoint immediately. Delaying could be fatal. Let's have no fatal today. Hunter out."
I closed fleet coms, and turned to Susan.
"Reform the large ships. The Titans must be in front so we present the only logical target. We alone will stay until we have to leave. Redoubt and Intrepid behind us, the Drone ships behind them, the Battleships further behind, and the remaining Cruiser hulls at the back. Use a wide arc, so everyone has a clear line of fire to a different part of the mass about to hit us."
And it was about to hit us, I suddenly realized. The fleet changed positions, or left. I started to count us down in my head, doing the math on when to fire, so the pulses arrived at the right time. Wait. Wait.
"Fire."
Ten seconds later, a small moon dropped into the space in front of us, and a split second later, most of the fleet's pulses slammed into it.
"Welcome back Jon," thought Amanda.
"Don’t jog my elbow," I thought back at her.
They grinned at me.
"What the fuck are you three doing?" demanded BA.
"Nothing," said Aleesha. "Just glad Jon's back from where he went to just now."
Hero to the End (The Hunter Legacy Book 13) Page 17