I mumbled appreciation and we all headed back out into the sitting room. Jason went to the door, opened it and stood there for a moment looking at me. Then he said “Please let the staff know if there is any way we can help you sir. Enjoy your stay.” With that, he was off and the door closed behind him.
I sank into the nearest chair, feeling quite bewildered. I glanced around for Amanda, and once again found her plastered against the wall by the door. I looked at her. She looked at me. Our eyes locked. A slight smile crossed her face and was gone, but there was a twinkle in her eyes now. I gave in.
“Why are you attached to the wall like a limpet mine?” I asked.
“It’s my job,” she replied.
“Your job is being a limpet mine on my wall?” That finally made her laugh.
“Aleesha and I are your bodyguards. One of us will be near you at all times and the other will be out of sight but anyone trying to get to you will have to go through us first.”
“Why do I need bodyguards?”
“Duh!”
I thought about that. I’d been out in public for only minutes before being knocked to the ground and almost shot. If only for the stupidity of the thugs who did it, I might actually be dead. Maybe I should reconsider that last statement. I pondered it for a bit.
“Ok, you got me there. But do you really need to be plastered against the wall to guard me?”
“Regs.”
“Regs?”
“Regulations.”
“I know what regulations are, I just don’t know why they…” I ran out of steam suddenly. I took to looking at her again. She stared back.
“Will you please sit down!” I yelled at her. She jumped. Then she smiled fully, relaxed and took a chair that gave her a view of the door, while she could still face me.
“That’s better. Now give, why do I need bodyguards?”
“Duh!” she replied again.
“We’ve done that already,” I said, getting annoyed. “Will you please supply some actual information?”
“You haven’t read your emails have you.”
I sighed. I hadn’t. Since I wasn’t expecting any, it hadn’t occurred to me that checking was any sort of priority. In fact, I hadn’t yet setup the new PC with my email details.
“Ok, got me there too. I’ll do that shortly, but how about you give me the quick overview?”
She looked at me. I looked back at her. She shifted uncomfortably.
“The person you really want to talk to is my boss, sitreps are not my speed.”
I sighed again. “Just give me the speeded up version will ya?”
“Ok. Scumbag attacks ships. Boy gets attacked, boy fights back, kills scumbag. Boy saves girls and a lot of others. Girls assigned to bodyguard boy.” As speeded up versions go, that was speedy.
“So you were on one of the ships?”
“The Military Transport.”
“So you are military?”
“Ex-military. We are a mercenary company. The boss is the Colonel and will want to meet you, but for now we've been assigned to keep your arse in one piece until you’re ready to go it alone.”
“Why do I need bodyguards?”
“Duh!”
“Just tell me, hey?
There was a definite twinkle in her eye and the hint of a smile.
“You have no idea who you took out, do you?” She looked at me for a time. “You took out one of the most wanted scumbags across human space. He has, had, a gang of serious muscle working for him, and they are going to want revenge on the person who took him out. That is you. Like it or not, you are number one on their hit parade. The local sector media has been calling you ‘hero’ but to them, you are the ‘hero at large’ and by all accounts they put a huge bounty on your head.”
I looked at her. She looked at me.
“Oh,” I said.
“The attempt on you today was the third we know about since you landed here. Station security got the other two attempts.”
“Oh,” I said.
She looked at me. I looked down. I took a moment to let that all sink in.
“So what’s the good news?” I eventually asked.
“Read your emails,” she said with a genuine smile. “I’m off to report in and scout the perimeter. One of us will always be close by you. Our contact details are on one of those emails, so read that first and make sure you can fire off a help alert if you need to.” She got up. “Oh, and the first thing you can do is enable the door for both of us, so we can set up our own codes for entry.” She hurried over to the door, opened it, gave me a quick smile, and left. The door closed with a thunk, and I was left alone, wondering what on Outback I had gotten myself into.
I sighed again. I let myself sink into the chair, and just sat there for a bit, trying not to think of anything. That was not a happening thing. Ok, work. I activated the room communications facilities, and threw my PC onto a wall screen. I found it easier to navigate and do things outside my head. I also activated the holographic controls, so the wall screen became fully interactive. Now I could wave my hands around instead of trying to do things in my head. First off, I connected to the hotel net and downloaded their guest PC facilities. I hunted around a bit before finding the door controls, and found how to set up for multi-person access. I needed to pulse them an authority. No can do without contact details. Next I looked for my email files from my old PC and found them in an archive instead of attached to the PC mail facility. A quick look at the mailer and the reason why was apparent. My old PC was so far out of date that very little on it was compatible with the new PC. My photos and files were there, and even if the format was out of date, they should still be usable. I’d have to try sometime, maybe setup a conversion routine. But first things first. Mail. I set up my email account, and linked it to Outback Orbital, which was where all my accounts were based, given that was my designated home. Mail started to download. And download. And continued to download.
I sat there watching the flow in sheer bewilderment. At 121 of 495, I shook myself and started paying attention to headers. “READ ME FIRST” caught my eye. I opened it and it was from a Colonel Smith. It was short and to the point, thanking me for saving their lives, and informing me that the Peck twins would be handling bodyguard duties for me for as long as they deemed I needed them. There was also a mention of a meeting being delayed by the need to get their ship repaired, and I would hear more at a later time.
The next email to catch my eye was from General Harriman. He had copied a number of media reports of my ‘heroic action’, which I played, wondering who this hero they were talking about actually was. He followed with a caution that the station had been receiving death threats about me ever since, and that station security had approved the Lieutenants Peck as official bodyguards for as long as I thought I needed them, or until Colonel Smith wanted them back. He included some of the death threats. There is nothing like a death threat to make your blood run cold, and I wished I hadn’t looked at them. He finished up by informing me the sector bounty on ‘The Pig’ had been paid into my Outback bank account, and he was passing on details to all other sectors, I could expect some other payments in due course.
There was a follow-up email down the list. He informed me that the Wanderer had been shifted to the Shipyard for repairs and that I could expect an email from the yard foreman about repairs and costs. As I was listed as an officer in the family company, I had been assigned as ship captain until I could return it to Outback Orbital. He went on to state that The Pig’s ship had been adjudicated to me as salvage, and it was also over at the yard being repaired. Ditto expect an email about repairs and costs from the yard foreman.
The next few emails to catch my attention were from various guilds. Each was inviting me to join the guild, upon which they would backdate my membership to when I left Outback, and be able to pay me bounties for my kill. I sent them each back an acceptance, and that I would be in touch in a day or so to complete the process.
&n
bsp; All this mention of bounties made me realize I had no idea what had already been paid into my account. When I’d left Outback, I’d had almost nothing. That of course was normal for me, being my first trip in space after having completed my space courses. Being a student does not allow you to accumulate much. And I’d spent most of my funds over the years on my PC’s and simulators.
I opened up banking and entered my account details, which were stored in a secure slot in the data from my old PC. I also moved that data into a secure slot within the new PC, so it would be easier to find in future. Banking linked with the local branch of the family bank and updated my account information. I went rigid in sheer shock.
I needed a drink, so I went into the kitchen and found a beer. It went down in one long swallow. I got out another and took it back into the sitting room. This one I sipped for a while as I studied my account information. There were four transactions in there and a total of just less than fifty million credits. The first was from the Australian sector government, the second from the Sci-Fi sector, the third from the American sector and the last and by far the biggest, was from the Earth sector government. Each was listed as ‘accumulated bounties’.
I went looking through the email headings again and yes, there was an email notification of each payment and an email from each sector government advising of the payments. The details were slightly different for each, but they were all payments from each system in each sector that had been affected by the actions of The Pig and that had issued bounties for his capture or killing. I was finally getting an idea of who it was I’d killed in self-defense and what all the fuss was about.
Five
I was interrupted by a call. The caller ID said simply ‘Aleesha’, so I answered it. Her face appeared in the caller picture box and I knew that mine was appearing in hers. Wherever she was, there must be a cam nearby picking up her image, or I’d only be getting a face photo. But this was live. I knew she was also seeing a live image of me, since I had all the communication features of the room active.
“Are you ok?”
“Yes,” I replied, “Why are you asking?”
“Amanda asked you for door access before she left you two hours ago and neither of us have heard from you in that time.”
“Sorry about that. I’ve been reading my emails and I’ve had a shock. I’ve not seen your contact details.”
“They would have been on the email from Colonel Smith.”
“Hmmm, I didn’t notice them, but I guess I had other things on my mind. Hang on, while you are on, I’ll send you the access.” I located the door access I’d been looking at before, and sent her the door authorization. At the same time, I added her contact details in to my address book.
“Did you get that?” I asked.
“Yes thanks. I’ll be back shortly. Amanda is walking the perimeter and the Colonel is sending me off to do some shopping.”
“Can you send me Amanda’s contact details? Save me having to look them up or send a request to the Colonel.”
“Can do. See ya soon.” The channel closed. A ping came in with Amanda’s details which I also added in to my address book. I pinged Amanda asking her why I needed a bodyguard. ‘Duh!” came back with a smiley attached, so I sent her the door authorization. ‘Ta’ came back.
I realized I was starving, and the combination of shock and two beers on an empty stomach was making me light headed. I went into the kitchen looking for food. I found the makings of a ham salad sandwich and made myself two of them. There was also a selection of deserts and I chose an apricot crumble. Back in the sitting room, I sat back in my chair. An alert popped up from the hotel system asking if I wanted a tray to eat off. I answered yes, and watched astounded as a tray table came up from the side of the chair and positioned itself so I just needed to put the dishes down.
While I was eating, I kept on reading emails. A lot of them were junk and I deleted them as I went. Some of them were simply congratulation type messages from people I’d never heard from, redirected from station management. Then there was one from Outback Orbital management. It informed me that Sydney station had notified them of my ‘situation’. Their standing instructions, from the family company, were for the Wanderer to be returned to Outback if possible. Preferably with a full cargo. Even though they realized the cargo could not now be delivered, it was still requested. I was authorized to draw on the family company accounts to complete the order, and Outback Orbital would ensure the order was paid for on delivery. Well that gave me something to do, although the way things were, I was not sure it was wise anytime soon. Still, I did have to make some decisions about my future, and flying the Wanderer back to Outback was something that needed doing.
I was half way through the apricot crumble, and really enjoying it, when I came across an email from the owner of the medium freighter I had brought back in from the battle site. The text was a simple thank you and apology that they could not afford to pay me for saving them as the cost of fixing their ship was going to take everything they had. Attached to the email were three individual recorded messages. Mr. and Mrs. Hurndall both spoke their thanks and it was interesting to put faces on those who had been in the same situation I found myself in but had not been able to do anything as I had. The third was from their eight year old daughter, Suzy. As she spoke, I froze in place, spoon still in my mouth. She ended by saying “Would you like a kitten? Our cat Mitzi was saved too and she had kittens a few weeks ago and we would love it if you would like one.”
I sat there for a long time, spoon still in my mouth. At last I replied to their email, thanking them for their messages. I then did a recorded message for Suzy. I said I would be delighted to have a kitten, since I was a long way from home and my family and I’d love to have the company only a kitten can offer. I asked her to let me know when the kittens would be old enough. I would then arrange with her parents for us to meet up and play with them together. It was only after I sent it, I realized that I’d replied with my spoon in my hand.
I finished up my food and deposited the dishes in the kitchen sink. As I turned away, there was a strange sound and I turned back to find the dishes had vanished.
I got myself some juice, thinking alcohol wasn’t really a good idea, and went back to my emails. There were several requests for my bank drop account details so that bounties posted by clients could be paid to me. That reminded me I needed to set up a bank drop account. It is not a good idea giving out bank account details to strangers, and one of the innovations banks had come up with several hundred years before was the bank drop. Essentially it was a deposit only account linked to a primary account. Anyone could send the bank drop funds, which were immediately transferred to the linked account. The bank drop thus never had anything in it, so could not be hacked. That took me a little while setting up the bank request, and I fired it off. I flagged the bank drop request emails and the Guild emails for later attention.
Near the end of the emails, was a recorded message from a John Norbett. He had a ‘business’ proposition for me, should I be interested in following up the rest of the pirate network. If so, he would be happy to meet me next time I was in the Brisbane system. I sent back a text only non-committal reply. At this point, I had no real idea of what I was going to do, and tangling deliberately with the pirates seemed a fairly stupid idea. It was nice someone thought I had the skills to take them on, but I thought he was too enthusiastic and assuming I had skills beyond the dumb luck I had shown so far. For future reference, I filed an alert to ping me if I did visit the Brisbane system. Wouldn’t hurt to hear him out.
A ping message came in from Amanda, saying she was almost at the suite and not to be alarmed when the door opened. A minute or so later, and the door opened and in she came. She was loaded down with packages, and I gave her a hand with them into the second bedroom. My attempt to find out what was in them was politely rebuffed.
“Are you ready for dinner?” she asked me.
I realized the day had rus
hed past as I was engrossed in wading through my emails. And in spite of having eaten earlier, I was hungry again.
“What do you suggest?” I asked her.
“Let’s order room service,” she replied. “What do you fancy?”
“I could go for a steak and chips.”
“How do you like your steak?”
“Medium to well done. I don’t like it burnt, but I also don’t like it getting up off the plate.”
“Veggies or salad?”
“Salad.”
“Coming right up.” She busied herself with the room service menu while I went into my bathroom and freshened up. When I came out, she wasn’t there, but I could hear noises coming from the other bedroom.
“Isn’t Aleesha joining us?” I called.
“She’s on perimeter patrol, until she's relieved later. We tossed for it, she lost. She'll eat when she's relieved. When you go to sleep, one of us will sleep in the sitting room in case anyone tries the door.”
She emerged from the bedroom and stood in the doorway with a smirk on her face as my jaw dropped. Instead of the black outfit, she was wearing a light dress in pale yellow, with a black belt cinched around her waist. Her legs were visible below the knees and she was barefoot. There was a slight bulge on the right thigh, where I guessed her sidearm was still located. I didn’t ask. I just quietly closed my mouth and waved towards a chair. She stepped lightly across the room and sank into the seat. For the first time I noticed she moved with the grace of a dancer.
“So,” I started, but without any idea where that was going.
“So,” she repeated back.
Hero at Large (The Hunter Legacy Book 1) Page 3