“Hunter, sitrep,” said the Colonel.
“I’m inside, the pilot is dead. It’s not a pretty sight. I’ve got the clean-bots working on it. The ship should be fine. There are some holes in the bed, but I was not planning on a nap so it won’t matter. The hatch is toast. I’m on ship air. I suggest George comes by and Betty can dock the Dropship. If George takes you back to the station, I’ll take the Gladiator to the shipyard and take a shuttle to the station. I'll meet up with you there.”
“Approved.” She gave orders to George, who brought Moose to a stop directly above the Dropship. The ramp was raised, the Dropship rose away from the Gladiator, and slowly entered the hanger bay. The doors closed.
“How long will you be, Hunter?”
“Not sure. The bots look about half done. As soon as I can get into the seat, I’ll be along after you.”
“Good, don’t be too long.”
Moose accelerated away towards the station, and I checked on what the bots were doing. While I waited, I pulsed my overlays and preferences to the ship computer. It accepted them immediately. That bothered me as it was too easy. I added a code lock to my preferences so no ship of mine could be taken over by someone else so easily. When the bots finally finished, I climbed into the pilot’s seat, and set a course for the shipyard.
Nearing the shipyard, I called. “Hunter to shipyard.”
“Shipyard to Hunter. That you old son?”
I laughed. “Who else would it be wanting docking permission for a ship he doesn’t know the name of?”
“Too true. Dock in bay five, see you soon.”
Docking went smoothly. For the first time, I didn’t fall off the steps. Bob met me at the bottom.
“Another adjudication job I’m afraid. Not sure who it should be awarded to, though. I was part of a Mercenary outfit at the time, so it probably should go to them,” I said.
“Not a problem, I’ll send off the ‘paperwork’ immediately. What did you do to this one?”
“Just the hatch and bed. Oh, and the pilot. Everything else should be fine. Oh, one other thing.”
I told him what I wanted. He laughed and said he would get on to it. We parted and I headed to the shuttle bay to be taken over to the station.
They were waiting for me. They all looked angry. BA came forward and thrust her face right in front of mine.
“What in the name of tarnation did you think you were doing?” she yelled into my face. I flinched.
“First you start giving orders with no warning. That’s the Colonel’s job. Then you fly like a maniac so that your crew have to hang on like grim death to avoid being thrown out. THEN you jump off the damn ship and capture a fighter single handed. What sort of a damn fool stunt do you think that was? THAT’S MY JOB YOU PILLOCK!”
I stepped back from her in shock. Now that she wasn’t so close, I could see everyone else’s faces. They were all grinning.
BA grinned too. Then she stepped forward and hugged me. Everyone joined in.
As the hug broke up, I said “I feel like dinner.”
“Actually, it’s breakfast time,” said Amanda. We’d been gone all night. “You need your muesli.” I mimed gagging. Everyone laughed.
“Where’s the best place on the station for breakfast?” I asked. “I’m buying.”
“No,” said the Colonel. “I’m buying.”
She led us off, and we ate together as a team. Not my favourite meal of the day, but it was a good one all the same. While we were eating, an email came in from the Mercenary Guild, which I had now rigged for priority notifications. My kill score was now listed as six. I had several new notations on my profile. ‘Outstanding Dropship Pilot’ and ‘Proficient at ship boarding’. Colonel Smith caught my eye after I stopped looking glazed.
She winked at me.
Twenty Three
When we got back to the hotel after breakfast, I crashed. I’d no sooner stretched out on the bed than I was asleep. When I awoke, it was mid-afternoon. I was alone. I was still in my combat suit, so I changed it back to a belt, stripped off my briefs and went into the bathroom for a long hot shower. When I padded out in new briefs and socks, I found the clothes I’d left on Moose lying on the bed. I hung the jeans and shirt up to be cleaned, and put on new jeans and shirt, shoes and yesterday’s jacket, since it had my badges on it. I found Amanda in the sitting room, looking blank. I started toward her hoping to surprise her, but she looked at me before I got half way.
“Food?” I said.
“Get a snack, but we are all doing dinner in the hotel restaurant at seven,” she responded.
The makings of ham salad sandwiches were where I expected them to be and shortly after, I was sitting reading emails while munching away. It was the usual lot. More credits had gone into my account for the latest pirate. Which reminded me I needed to do a release. I stopped, did a mini meditation and the release right then. Amanda looked up as I started coughing but I gave her a thumbs up to say it was ok. I went back to emails. The Gladiator I had captured had been adjudicated to me. I pinged Bob to see if the project I’d asked for was on track. He pinged back that it was. I pinged the General’s aide to let the General know I was back from the Mercenary mission and there was another Gladiator available they could buy from Bob. Likely was they already knew, but it didn’t hurt to make sure. I got an acknowledgement back. I looked up the local badge maker on the station, and ordered another set of mine. Also the ribbon for my medal, so I could add it to appropriate ‘uniforms’, where a medal ribbon was expected, but the whole medal was not worn. I also ordered a medal case. The smallest held six, so that had to do. I figured my parents would love to see it, so I better keep it safe and sound to show them one day.
I looked up to see Amanda advancing towards me. I grinned at her. This time I wasn’t doing any jumping in surprise. She rolled her eyes at me.
“Civvies for dinner. You will be fine as you are. Give me a minute to wash up and change and we will head down. Everyone else is on the way already.”
I’d obviously lost some time again. What had been a bonus before exams was now proving to be tiresome. At this rate, I’d have to start setting alarms or I’d miss everything. I picked up a gun from the charger and added it to my right holster. Amanda came out wearing a very stylish outfit, somewhat marred by the gun on her thigh.
“Real clothes,” she admitted with a sly look.
“Fabulous,” I responded and offered her my arm. She took it, and we headed out.
The restaurant was filled to capacity when we arrived. The Colonel could be seen at a large round table, and we moved on over. She waved me to a spot at the table. I saw George was already opposite me, which must have taken creative place setting to achieve. There were eleven of us, so he should have been off center to me. The others arrived one or two at a time. I found Amanda on one side of me and Alison on the other. Aleesha was beside George, opposite Amanda. I gaped for a moment. Amanda and Aleesha were wearing different clothes!
Aleesha saw me looking and laughed. The rest joined in, so I did as well. It was a good start to a dinner party.
“How often do you two not wear the same thing?” I asked Amanda.
“Not often. Just special occasions like this one.”
“What’s the occasion?”
“New client. The one we rescued. She was so impressed with how Alison and George foiled the assassination attempt before anyone knew it was underway, and kept most of her party alive as they retreated up the building. Then, when all seemed lost, their miraculous, if terrifying, jump off the building to safety.”
Alison added “Apparently the media on Melbourne went wild over the footage of the rescue. Landing a ship on the side of the building has never been done before as far as anyone knows. And the wonder is that you didn’t break any glass at all. No one can work out how you did it.”
“Don’t look at me,” I said, “I’m just the pilot.” A chuckle went round the table.
“Our profile has increased a gr
eat deal. We are already receiving enquiries for our services. I’ve been putting off the media demands for interviews.” The Colonel was serious. I nodded. I didn’t want to be interviewed, and I figured I had too much attention already.
“It has leaked out that you flew the Dropship, so don’t be surprised if you get job offers out of it. Your escapades keep making headlines,” said Alison.
I winced. Everyone laughed.
“How did the ship pull up after the mission? Any damage?” I asked.
“None we can find. But the Shipyard has recalled Moose for some issue in the new engine they want to look for, and if need be, fix, before it actually becomes a problem. She is going in for the maintenance tomorrow first thing. So if you want to come over with us, you can check out the progress on your new ship.” I nodded. “Oh seven hundred then.” I nodded again.
“Does that mean I get out of flying her tomorrow, Annabelle?” asked George. I started at the familiarity, but then, it was a social occasion.
“No you do not,” she answered forcefully. George looked downcast until Aleesha hit him on the arm and he started grinning.
“When are we going to get a replacement pilot?” he went on.
“I have a job listing at the guild. There have been several applications, but no-one up to standard yet. Hopefully someone will turn up soon. In the meantime, if Jon is available, we will use him.”
“He better be,” said BA forcefully. She froze as everyone looked at her, then shrugged and started playing with her napkin.
“Depends when my ship is completed and what happens after that. The future is somewhat open-ended for me at this point,” I said.
“Why won’t you join us?” asked Alana.
“He has good reasons, and it isn’t because he doesn’t like us. So just leave it there,” said Annabelle.
“Actually, one of those reasons is to do with that pirate we encountered. Was he there by random chance, or did he know we were on our way back from Melbourne. Was he waiting for us, or was he waiting for me? Only one fighter suggests they considered us an easy target. Maybe they were just after me, or maybe it was all of us, because you escaped them once before and you have been protecting me since. Until this sorts itself, I’m a target. While danger is your business, there is acceptable risk, and there is stupidity, and for now, it looks like the more I fly with you, the more the latter will be the case.”
“Well said,” said George.
Alana nodded to me. As an explanation, it was nowhere near the whole one, but it seemed to be enough. I wasn’t sure how much they realized we had been lucky with that pirate - although luck for one often went with stupidity of the other. Had I been on the Gladiator, I’d have had the jump point staked out at point blank range, and taken us out before we could have reacted. He had to have been patrolling, and that seemed to indicate a lack of discipline. I’d take it if it meant surviving another day.
I flicked a glance at BA, and she nodded as well. I was turning back, when my eye caught the perfectly shaped pulse rifle sitting next to her cutlery. I’d never seen anyone do that with a napkin before. My eyes sought hers. She seemed to be daring me to say something along the lines of ‘tough guys don’t do origami’ but I was impressed and mouthed ‘nice’ to her with a nod. She nodded in reply.
All during this discussion, drinks had been served. The waiter came around taking our food selections. I again opted for the steak, chips and salad. It was a favourite of mine and I did tend to stick to the same food.
“How would you like your steak done sir?” I was asked.
“Medium to well done,” I said. “I don’t like it burnt, but I also don’t like it getting up off the plate.” It was my normal response.
The table erupted in laughter, with the exception of Amanda who had heard it before. The waiter gave me a look and moved on. Local conversations started up around the table. Alison leaned in close.
“I haven’t had a chance yet to thank you properly,” she said.
“No need. All in a day’s work, you know,” I said with a smile.
“Yeah right. For us maybe, but the way I heard it, you were not even asked to volunteer. You got shanghaied.” That stumped me for a moment. I hadn’t even noticed that, even though the Colonel had used that term.
“I’m a sucker for a damsel in distress,” I said.
Amanda laughed so hard everyone else stopped and looked at us. We didn’t bother explaining.
Alison leaned over even closer.
“Well this ‘damsel’ has a special thank you for her knight in shining armour in mind for later,” she whispered in my ear. And with that she leaned back and started talking to Abigail on her other side. I didn’t correct her that I’d been in dull red leather look at the time, and not shiny armour. But that was a thought. I pinged George to consider making up a medieval knight overlay for the suit. He glazed, chuckled and nodded to me.
Dishes started arriving and I dug into my food. As I ate, I watched the interplay going on around the table. This group were not only a team, they were good friends as well. I wondered how they were coping with losing their last pilot, if they were all this close. That however, was a question I was not going to ask. No point in reopening wounds.
I ordered desert. Chit-chat was going on around me and I participated as I could. Eventually the dishes were cleared away. A waiter appeared at my side again.
“Coffee sir?”
“Not unless you like cleaning up messes,” I said. A ripple of silence flowed out from the table as if I’d dropped a bombshell.
“What?” I said. “I loathe coffee. Even the smell of it makes me want to throw up.” Everyone looked at me as if I was nuts. Maybe I was.
“Tea sir?”
“No thanks. My parents made me make the tea when I was younger. One day I suddenly realized the reason I put five spoons of sugar in it was I really didn’t like the stuff.”
“Cocoa?”
“No thanks. I love chocolate, but I’m watching my waist line.” Amanda laughed so hard she fell out of her chair. BA had to help her up.
“I’m fine,” I said to the waiter.
“Did you know you are weird?” said Aline.
I looked at Amanda and raised my eyebrows at her with a smile.
“He knows. He embraced his weirdness and is now working on making it into an art form,” she said. The whole table laughed and I joined in with them.
As everyone was sipping their coffee, I pinged the manager to ask if the Colonel had asked for the bill yet. He pinged back in the negative. I told him to ignore any request from her and to send me the bill as soon as we were done.
The waiters did another round asking if we needed anything else and with a negative response from all, started clearing away coffee cups. The bill pinged in, I quickly scanned it, then trigged the payment interface, added a healthy tip and paid it.
“What did you just do?” demanded Annabelle.
“I fixed up the bill,” I replied. I held up a hand before she could protest. “It’s my pleasure too. I’ve always been credit-strapped and so was never able to do things for others. Well I recently came into a few credits, and since this is the first real time I could afford to do anything for others, and I might be dead tomorrow and not able to spend them, I’m enjoying being able to do so now. I really enjoyed tonight and it’s my way of saying thank you.”
“Group hug,” I said to cut off any further comment. Everyone gathered round and we hugged for a couple of minutes.
The Colonel said “Tomorrow is a free day for everyone except George, Amanda and Aleesha. You’re welcome to come over to the shipyard with us if you like, but by all means go do your own thing. I’ll ping you if the repairs take longer than expected.” I had a guess they would but didn’t voice it.
With that, they started drifting off.
Alison took me by the right arm, Amanda by the left. Aleesha came up behind me silently and goosed me. I jumped. They all laughed.
Twenty Four<
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“What next?” I asked. “The night is young, and so are we.”
“Night club?” suggested Alison. There was a mumble of agreement.
“Lead the way fair damsel,” I said, but she didn’t let go of my arm and it was Aleesha who led the way.
At the entrance to the night club, we had to surrender our guns.
“It’s ok,” said Amanda. “BA has the perimeter.”
We headed inside and found it was Disco night. Against all the odds, discos had survived for over six hundred years. It was one of those things no-one could explain. The DJ was still a disc jockey, even though there had not been a disc outside a museum in hundreds of years.
The floor was moderately covered with dancers all engaged in free form expression. The tempo wasn’t particularly fast but we joined them anyway. I found it a bit slow for my tastes. I pinged the DJ to ask if he took requests, and if so could I send him some files. A yes came back. I pulsed him three oldies but goodies, that I had stored in my old PC files. A little while later, on came ‘Sing Hallelujah’. The tempo was considerably faster and I started moving on the toes of my feet. There was a slight complaint from my left foot, but I was bouncing around so much that there was never much weight on it. The ladies started following my movements and soon the whole dance floor was moving rapidly and chaotically. The next song was ‘Baby Baby’ and by now I was really moving around the dance floor. No-one kept up with me, but that was ok because I needed space, as I was continually a split second away from being totally off balance. Immediately after came ‘Rhythm was a Dancer’. I moved into high gear and even got a three sixty spin in without falling over. Alison caught up with me as I began to tire. As the song ended, I stopped completely, beamed a smile around, flipped a wave at the DJ and limped off looking for somewhere to sit down. All I could find was a table with stools around it so I sat on one of those. The ladies joined me.
“What was that?” Amanda demanded loudly. “Let me guess, more twenty first century stuff?”
Hero at Large (The Hunter Legacy Book 1) Page 15