Walter was sitting with Vonda, O'Neill and Sam, and surprisingly, Hobbs and Mills. I looked around and saw what looked like six teams of the SAS troops intermixed with my own, and another six teams of Peacekeepers.
At another table I saw Slice sitting with his pilots, but next to him was his wife and kids. Further down the table I saw Eric Nielson with his wife and kids, and Jessie Ball. The latter two waved at me, and I waved back. I hadn't heard they'd returned from Gaia, but presumably they were reporting to their boss on what they'd discovered in the other galaxy.
I saw other groups too. Sato was sitting at a table of Japanese, which I guessed was about a dozen crews. The 'tool men' were all here, as were the other development teams. Seems they never left Redoubt. At another table I saw a large group of families, and with them was Richard Hurndall, his wife Mary, and their daughter Suzy. Suzy waved at me, and I waved back.
Neither Patton nor Price were here. Central Command had jumped through the day before. Both had sectors to represent. Walter I knew wanted to be last man out of the Australian sector. I'd be disappointing him about that, but he'd be close to it.
Janet whispered in my ear the podium was ready for me. I sighed, but stood, and walked over to it. For a moment I had déjà vu, remembering my past speeches here during the Midgard War.
I looked around at everyone. Jane stepped up behind me. We locked glances for a moment, and I turned back towards the crowd.
"We did it," I said. "We did the impossible. Congratulations to every single person here, and all those who contributed, and have already received the reward of safety in Gaia."
I stopped and began clapping them. Everyone stood and joined in. I let them go, let them express their relief and happiness at surviving. Janet whispered in my ear. I raised hands to get them to sit and be quiet again as the clapping started to wane. It stopped, and I went on.
"General Patton has a few words, sent from Gaia."
I waved to a screen Janet had just popped up, showing the General.
"Well done everyone," he said. "It's been a long hard slog, but we made it. Too many of us didn’t, and we will remember their sacrifice. To commemorate our achievement, the 'Upper Spine Defense' campaign medal has been issued. You will all find your medal in your quarters shortly, and will be receiving a pulse with the ribbon for your suit dress uniforms. I'd like to thank every single one of you for a job well done. Tomorrow, we begin the task of rebuilding in Gaia. Take some time now to rest, for the new day begins a new chapter of humanity."
He saluted, and the screen vanished. A pulse came in, and I updated the ribbon on my dress uniform, and shifted into it. I faced the crowd again.
"The human race survives because of us. At least for now. When the Door closes tomorrow, there is a year to come up with a permanent defense. There are worlds in a new galaxy to be explored, and more exploration beyond them. I already know the three Explorer ships will be in the front of this new exploration wave, as will the AMS. Good luck to all of you who choose to move on from Gaia."
"What will you be doing?" yelled a voice.
"Resting," I said, grinning. People laughed. "At least for a while. Exploration will tempt me sometime. But my first goal will be to find a new home for the Duchy. And I'll be consulting with whoever heads up the defense work."
"What's the plan for tomorrow?" asked Bigglesworth.
"Mid-morning, all ships except Gunbus will be jumping through into Gaia, and taking up blockade positions with the Gaia fleet. I'll be staying behind until the last minute, just to be sure the aliens don’t pull a fast one on us. They have the capacity to be here before the Door closes. I want to make totally sure no alien gets close enough to the jump point to find it. When I'm sure we're undetected, I'll follow you. By evening tomorrow, we'll all be in orbit of Gaia five. We'll party again on the planet. Talking of which, enough talk, let's get this party started!"
I stepped down as Janet began playing music, and butler droids unveiled a feast. I joined my team and parents at their table, and Jane sat down a short way away.
"So," said Dick. "What's the real plan tomorrow?"
Fifty Two
I hated lying to them, but it had to be done. It was time to end this, once and for all, and they were going to survive even if they hated me for it.
Four hours before the Door was supposed to close, I kissed Angel on her forehead, glanced quickly around the CCC mentally saying goodbye to everyone, and walked through the airlock into Gunbus. I checked on my combat suit, alone down in the Armoury, making sure it was one hundred percent. By the time I was back on the Bridge and settling in my chair, Jane still wasn’t finished the change to the ship suit I’d asked her for.
I looked at her suspiciously. I knew it was an avatar and not her primary, because I’d brushed past her and checked. She wasn’t pulling the imitation stunt on me again. Not this time. Suit pretending to be skin? Check. Metal frame underneath? Check. I felt a little guilty using sensors on her, but I wanted to be sure.
While I waited, I accessed the ship's sensors. Gunbus showed no other life signs. Sceptre showed everyone where I’d left them. I wasn’t taking any chances. It had been hard not saying goodbye properly, especially to Aline and my parents. I'd also had to guard my thoughts from the twins.
"Ready," said Jane.
"Launch."
Gunbus shot out the front of Sceptre, and we angled around towards the jump point to Nexus, where I'd said I'd be waiting in case anything last minute happened.
The HUD showed four white dots behind me. Redoubt's dot vanished first, followed by Orion, Hammer, and lastly, Sceptre.
I breathed a sigh of relief. Everyone I cared about was safe now. I nodded to Jane, and we changed direction.
I sat there going over things in my mind. The hours passed, and I stirred myself down to the barracks for one last meal.
It was ironic actually. All this started when I took delivery of Gunbus, when it was just me and Jane on a ship too big for us. And all this was going to end on another Gunbus, again just Jane and me. I sighed, finished off my ginger ale, and limped back up to the Bridge.
And waited.
"Door should be closed now," said Jane.
"Send the bird."
We'd left a cloaked drone behind us. It de-cloaked, popping up a white dot on the HUD, and moved to where the jump point was. Nothing happened. The Door was closed.
"Recall the bird."
Jane nodded, and the drone began to fly towards us. It was going to take a while, but I had time. I didn’t want to take the risk of it being left behind, in case what I was about to do didn’t work.
"Meow?"
For a moment I thought I’d started hearing things, but Angel jumped up onto my lap, and patted me on the chin, purring.
"What are you doing here?"
"She got away from me," said Jane, from behind me.
I jerked in my seat so violently that Angel squawked and jumped down, bounding up onto the console instead. I hardly noticed, as I watched Jane walk in. It was obvious this was her primary.
"What?" I stammered.
"Sorry Jon," said Aline, walking in behind her. "We're not letting you do this by yourself this time."
She came up to me, and kissed me, but I was too stunned to kiss back. She moved aside, and the rest of the team came in and took their seats. Grace was carrying Nut. Thirteen came in last, carrying Max. Jeeves slid a bottle of water into the holder on my chair.
I think I gibbered. Which they thought was hilarious. Finally, I managed to get a grip. I opened my mouth.
"No Jon," said Amanda. "We didn’t join you so we'd all be together at the shit end."
I tried again to say something.
"No Jon," said Aleesha. "We aren’t going to let you go on a suicide mission. Especially alone."
"Why?" I croaked.
"We figure if we're all here," said Annabelle, "you'll figure out a way to survive whatever it is you're planning."
I looked at all of th
em, mixed feelings raging inside me. I looked at Jane last. Her avatar had vacated the Bridge, and she was in her normal position.
"You lied to me. You faked the sensors."
I wasn't asking questions.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because they asked me to."
"Surely you didn't expect us to believe that story you tried to sell us last night?" asked Dick. "Did you? Because it was damned well obvious you had something else in mind."
I sighed. I hadn't sold it after all. And now they were all going to die with me. A tear went down my left cheek, and I swiped at it.
"This IS the shit end, isn’t it boss?" asked BA.
I nodded to her.
"What's the plan?" asked Alana.
I looked around at all of them. The Bridge was full. Amanda, Aleesha, Grace, George, Annabelle, BA, Alana, Agatha, Abagail, Alison, Dick, Melissa, and Amy. Thirteen too, but he didn’t really count. The three cats were sitting next to each other on the console, looking at me, as they all were.
I took a deep breath, and told them.
"Told you," smirked Dick.
"This is insane," said Agatha. "Even for you."
She wasn’t wrong. What shocked me the most though, was I was the only one shocked, at them not being shocked.
"How do we start?" asked Alison.
"With lunch," said Annabelle. "We haven't eaten yet Jon. We have time?"
Time was suddenly something we had plenty of.
Fifty Three
Late in the afternoon, Gunbus dived into the sun.
We had a triple layer of ship suit on, and Crystal based shielding. We were more protected than BigMother had been that first time we sun dived to test the new shielding before trying to get back from the future.
But this time we were going as far in as possible. The further in we went, the slower our speed became. Partly because of the sun, and partly because more and more power was being diverted to shields.
Jane's avatar and I were in the Armoury. I activated full protection and space suit modes together, and stepped in the back of my combat suit. It closed behind me, I powered it up, and checked all its systems carefully. When I was satisfied, I walked it to the main airlock. I had no actual vision, and was using external vid feeds to see with.
The inner doors opened, and we stepped through into the airlock. The doors closed behind me, and the air was pumped out. A screen popped up, showing me how far into the star we'd come, and I stood there watching our progress. And the shield indicator, which was slowly going down.
"Kali?"
Here.
"Staff!"
The staff I’d used on Denver appeared in my right hand.
"Sceptre."
It changed. The shaft became ornate pictorials of Kali. The top changed into a large ball of ruby red.
"Power."
I 'felt' a hand on my shoulder, inside the combat suit, inside the belt suit. Energy flowed into me.
"Split the outer doors please Jane."
"Confirmed."
The outer doors cracked slightly, and widened to just enough for me to push the ball end of the Sceptre through them, to bump against the ship suit. Filters activated to allow me to 'see' without damaging my eyes, even with it only being a vid image. The human eye is not meant to see within a sun. It was essential these were in place before we let the light of the sun become visible to the cams providing me with vision.
"Open the hole, Jane."
A hole appeared through the ship suit, and the image I could see changed with the internal light of a sun shining in.
"Extend to the shields," I commanded, and the Sceptre lengthened until it was just inside the shimmer.
I couldn’t see this, the light was too bright now, but sensors were showing me the tactical display. I adjusted the Sceptre's weight distribution with a thought, so it was effortless to hold in position.
"I'm about to do this," I said generally.
"Good luck Jon," said Amanda.
"Jane, open the hole in the shields on my mark."
"Confirmed."
I started giving the Sceptre commands. Immune to heat and anything the sun might damage it with. Indestructible, so pressure and gravity would not affect it. No passing of heat or any kind of matter down the Sceptre itself. Extend into the hole in the shields the moment it appeared, and expand to fill the entire hole, without being damaged by the shields themselves. Maybe redundant given who it belonged to, but I was taking no chances.
"Mark."
The Sceptre extended a short distance further, the red ball on top now outside the shields, and the shaft under it widened to fill the gap. All the same, in the brief moment, heat had poured through the small gap. Combat suit diagnostics threw up a warning. I ignored it.
There was a noise from Jane, and her suit failed. The droid underneath began to melt. Damnit. I’d forgotten to check which version of the suit belt the avatar was using. Obviously not the same as mine. The droid body itself wasn’t made of the same material as the combat suit, so I wasn’t too surprised to see it melt.
"Kali?"
Ready.
"Red Giant!" I commanded.
A massive amount of energy poured out of the Sceptre, and continued to build. But nothing seemed to be happening.
You know what to do.
I threw the Sceptre, at the same time mentally allowing it to change shape to pass through the ship suit and shields safely.
The droid melted into a puddle. Combat suit diagnostics changed to urgent attention, red flashing on the entire front side display. The one remaining cam in the airlock showed my combat suit glowing red, and then the vid died as the cam itself melted.
"Close the holes Jane," I yelled.
The shields and suit closed all at once, and the heat stopped. The airlock doors also snapped shut.
I closed my eyes, and in my mind's eye, I saw the Sceptre falling into the star.
"Exponential energy growth for as long as it takes," I commanded with a thought.
I turned to the inner doors, but they didn’t open.
"Get us out of here Jane!" I yelled.
"Moving," she replied through my PC. "It's going to take a few moments to get you out of the airlock. It's too hot in there to pump air into. Cooling it now as fast as I dare."
"How's our shields?"
"Below half already, and going down."
"Best speed you can make, but prop up the shields as best you can."
Air began to hiss into the airlock, and the combat suit was making cooling noises. I’d be lucky if it even moved.
The doors opened suddenly, with a puff of air flowing in, showing Jane hadn't waited for a proper balance. I walked into the Cargo Bay, surprised I could actually move.
"Jon, stop," said Jane.
I stopped.
"Turn back, open your combat suit, and then jump out without touching the sides. Jump as far as you can, and run for the door."
"Confirmed," I said.
I had a good idea of what she meant. So I did as she said. I wasn’t able to get out without brushing an arm against the suit, and immediately a warning popped up saying my belt suit was at less than half its integrity. I bounced myself as far as I could, but another warning popped up of damage to the suit's feet. But I made it to the door into the Armoury without any further problems. Looking back, I saw the inner airlock doors close, and seem to fuse together. The deck around the combat suit was slowly heating up. As I stepped into the Armoury, Jane started cooling down the Cargo Deck to prevent any serious damage, but I was pretty certain that airlock wasn’t going to open again, and would need a shipyard to replace it. We should be so lucky to get to one.
The suit belt wasn’t regenerating properly, so I replaced it from a set of spares kept in the Armoury. It had been a safe bet my suit was going to be stressed somehow.
By the time I reached the Bridge, I felt totally exhausted, as if all energy was draining out of me. I slumped into my chair, and
suddenly remembered to sever my connection to the Sceptre, and let it remain powered by Kali alone. I felt better immediately.
"Sitrep," I barked.
Everyone looked serious.
Jane didn’t answer, but merely pointed to a tactical display.
It was working.
The sun was expanding.
Outback's sun was about five billion years old, and had an expected life of at least another four. After which, it would have become a red giant on its own. Because of me, it was only getting half a life. All the laws of physics were gone, replaced by the will of a higher being wielded through me. Outback's sun was expanding rapidly now.
I looked at our shield indicator, and back to the expansion tactical.
I sniffed, and shook my head.
"So this is it, we're going to die," said Dick.
"Perhaps today is a good day to die," I replied.
Neither of us were asking questions. No-one answered us.
I'd known this would happen. The need for shields held our speed down. Lack of speed meant the expansion was happening faster than we could escape it. And even if we had the speed, it wasn't going to be fast enough anyway, given how far in we'd gone.
We watched the inner planets be swallowed up on the tactical display, and some visuals coming in from comnavsats. We watched Outback burn and vanish. And the jump point position. And still the sun continued to expand.
"Well," I said wistfully, "at least we die knowing humanity is permanently safe. If the Darkness jump in here, their ships won't survive being inside a sun. I made sure Jane in Gaia understood they needed to test to see if it was safe to use the jump point next time the Door opens, so only a drone will come through from Gaia, after which they'll know they're safe, but the jump point cannot be used. But I'm sorry I couldn’t find that happy ending you all wanted."
"We die a team," said BA, "knowing it took a sun to take us out."
There were a few nods, but no-one else spoke.
Aline unbuckled, came over to me, and sat in my lap. I put my arms around her, and looked at Angel. She leapt down, and jumped up onto Aline's lap, and I cuddled both of them.
Hero to the End (The Hunter Legacy Book 13) Page 25