I thought about it for a while. Being attacked was one thing. Going looking for them was another. It was not the Gaia way. Down that road was revenge. Revenge always made karma worse. I had enough trouble with my karma, doing the self-defense killing I had been forced to do already.
I sent him a polite reply saying that at this time, I was unable to help, but I would keep him in mind if things changed. In hindsight, I’d wish I hadn't said that.
Thirty
I went to bed with Amanda and Aleesha. It took a while before sleep happened.
I was woken up early by Alison, and it was somewhat later before we got up.
After showering, I dressed in real clothes. While Alison was eating breakfast, I pinged Bob to say I was coming over with the Moose crew, and could we discuss ship options then? He pinged back it was fine for him.
I asked Alison if she knew when they were going to the shipyard. She responded that she didn’t know, but they were on a short leash pending a ping to leave in a hurry.
On a whim of a half-thought-out idea, I pinged the ‘Tool man’ and made an order. He pinged me back an invoice and I made payment.
I settled down in my easy chair and threw my ship search onto the coms hollo. I was looking for a ship that was large enough to carry shielding that could handle being attacked by a dozen fighters comfortably, and had the defenses to make them wary of doing so. At the same time, I wanted cargo space for more than just a single Salvage Droid.
Alison pecked me on the cheek and left me to it.
The trouble with civilian ships was that they were all underpowered to run the shields and weapons I wanted. The trouble with military ships available to civilians was they were too slow. Yes, I was military, but as far as buying a ship, I was still considered a civilian. Anyone who wasn’t a government was considered a civilian where military hardware was concerned.
I flicked though ship designs until one caught my eye. The Centaur. Nominally a Corvette, she was larger than normal for that class of the smallest of capital ships. Crew of forty, comprising a Captain, three officers and thirty-six crew. It included a hanger for three fighters. Its shielding was what I needed, but had the wrong mix of guns. It also had the speed of a snail and the maneuverability of a cow wearing lead boots. But it had sleek lines and offered possibilities. It would depend on what Bob could do with it.
The ping came in to gather at the shuttle dock. I realized I had lost half the morning already. I tooled up and headed out. On the way through reception, I picked up my package from the ‘Tool man’ and took it with me.
I was not quite last to the shuttle.
Last one in was a pirate in full Eighteenth Century regalia including eye patch and parrot. I burst out laughing and soon the whole shuttle was laughing as well.
“Morning George,” I said. “Morning Jon,” he replied. “Squawk,” went the parrot.
When we arrived at the shipyard, Moose was at an external dock. I followed everyone there, and after a few hugs, watched them troop on board. When the hatch closed, I moved to an observation port and watched Moose undock and move away. Then I headed for Bob’s office.
He motioned me to a chair and said, “You want to watch their testing?” I nodded. A channel opened and gave my PC a feed from the station’s external sensors. I left it running as a small box, so I could monitor it.
“So my lad, what do you want to do next?” Bob asked.
“Are you familiar with the Centaur?” I asked.
“British military Corvette?” I nodded. “Nice all round ship, but not what I would expect to interest you.”
“I want something that can be pounded on by a dozen fighters without having to worry about a three missile salvo being a killer. I want something that has some serious point defense, and can punch a hole in a fighter in all directions at the same time. I want to be able to fight, trade, run passengers or a team of Mercenaries. In short, I want a multi-purpose ship that kicks arse and takes prisoners.”
“Well, the Centaur will certainly give you some of that. But it won’t behave like a fighter will.”
“Why not?” He blinked as if that should be obvious to me. “As I understand it, maneuverability is a factor of thrusters. Speed is a factor of power plant and engines. Thrusters tend to get the leftover engine thrust. To get her to go faster means upgrading power and engines. To make her as nimble as a fighter, needs more thrusters being fed from their own engine.”
He gaped at me.
“Why can’t we use power plants and engines from the fighters I brought in yesterday to augment the normal systems? Give thrusters their own dedicated engine. Put in a bigger engine to give fighter speed. Bigger or daisy-chained power plants to power it all.”
His eyes were wide and that predatory look was back on his face.
“Where would you get the extra space from?” he asked.
“There is crew space for thirty six. I’d only need space for twelve. There would be a proportional reduction in mess and bathroom facilities. Half the size of the existing Brig. That also reduces the requirements for food storage and life support.” He nodded. “I want to retain the docking for three fighters, but one of them needs to be Excalibur. The other two are most likely to be Dropship’s or fast scouts, so it should be doable. It would need a standard freighter dock on the front of the cargo bay, so I can dock to stations the same way medium freighters do, and be able to roll in and out standard containers.” He nodded again. “I’d want to carry four SD’s and a full squad of security droids. And all the maintenance and system monitoring would need to be done by droids. The Captain’s suite is where I’d live. The three officer’s cabins would need their own bathrooms, for passenger use.”
“I’ll see what I can do. What about armaments?”
“I’d leave the side turrets, but have them rigged as fighter killers. If I ever go up against a capital ship, I’ll have to rely on torpedoes rather than guns. I’d want four point defense turrets on top and another four underneath. All the turrets with manual controls on the bridge if there is room, but mostly they will be run by Jane.”
“Jane?”
“My AI on Excalibur. She will run both ships.” He nodded. “Then the same missile setup as Excalibur. Missile launcher and torpedo launcher in front, missile launcher in the rear somewhere. As many reloads as she will fit in. I see she has eight guns in the nose, although how they hit anything is beyond me. Use the same guns I have now, but I want them firing at least twice as fast. With fighter speed and maneuverability, those guns will become lethal to fighters, instead of just useful for capital ships. If you can double the speed of firing for Excalibur as well, I’d appreciate that.”
“You realize this will cost a pretty credit?”
He wasn’t joking. The Centaur in standard configuration came in around the one hundred and fifty million mark.
“Take what you can use from the fighters I brought in yesterday, as soon as they are adjudicated, and sell the rest to the General for whatever they are worth, or he will pay. I gather he is desperate for more fighters for the sector militia, so haggle until it hurts him.” We both smiled. “Anything left over that you normally buy, make me an offer and we can put it towards the cost. In the scheme of things it won’t be a lot, but I’ve got twelve more sets of bounties coming in at the moment, so between ships and bounties, I think I can cover this, even if it doesn’t leave me much left over.”
“I’ll do some designs immediately and let you know what I can do, and a ballpark figure as soon as I can,” Bob said.
“Great. Is Excalibur somewhere I can access?” I asked.
“Bay twelve. The hull work has mostly been done. Do you really need to go inside?”
“No, actually I wanted to get one of my security droids and talk to Jane.”
“You can talk to me anywhere,” said Jane unexpectedly, in my head. “Even though I’m here, I can still talk to you over on the station.”
“That’s fine,” said Bob. “I’ll get right
to it and let you get on with your day”. He turned to his computer and I left his office. I started towards bay twelve.
“Jane, can you get one of the security droids operational please. Take complete control of it and have it meet me at the bay door, armed and ready for bodyguard duties.”
“Confirmed.”
A short time later I was at the door to the bay. I could see Excalibur had a new wing, and the rear turret had been removed. The installation of the new turrets had not been completed yet.
The droid was standing waiting for me. It was like a stereotypical robotic representation of a human skeleton. I took a new belt out of the package I’d brought with me and secured it around the waist of the droid.
“Jane, how would you like a body?” I asked her.
“You mean a human look-alike body? Why would I want one of those?”
“I’d like the droid to blend in. Can you use the belt to create a realistic body using George’s programs?”
There was a pause. As I watched, the belt expanded to form a female human shape, about the same size as the twins. The face was blank, like a store dummy.
“Give it the same uniform I wear, the red slinky, as I call it.” The droid changed. “Now, can you model a face and have it imitate life?” The face became that of an attractive adult woman in her twenties, with collar length mousy brown hair, pale skin and blue eyes.
“Great!” I got two more of the guns I used out of the parcel and gave them to the Jane droid one at a time. A holster formed for each one and she slotted them in. The recharges and laser bolts followed. The droid was also carrying a laser rifle, so I had her make her suit form a holster for it on the droid’s back.
“Ok,” I said. “Let’s see how you do. Come along.”
We headed towards the shuttle dock. On the way, I told her what to do whenever I had company in the hotel or on board ship, and how to act when I was in public.
As we reached the dock area, a ping came in from the Colonel saying they had completed testing and were leaving for a job somewhere in the American sector. She expected they would be back in a week or two’s time. I pinged back a good luck farewell.
I threw the feed of the station’s sensors on to a view screen, and watched Moose heading for the jump point.
There went my friends.
For over a week, they had been almost family, filling a void I had not really felt.
Moose Jumped.
Now I felt that void inside me. I was finally alone.
People still wanted to kill me. I still hurt all down my left side.
But things were looking up. My bruises were fading. The upgraded fighter was due in the next day or so, and my new ship hopefully within several weeks. There was a kitten on its way, things to do and orders soon to carry out.
But for right now, there was just empty space around the jump point.
I stood there.
Watching the empty space.
For a long time.
Jonathon Hunter
will return
in
Hunted Hero Hunting
Acknowledgements
A big thank you must go to Helen Ellis, without whose encouragement and editing skills, this book would never have been completed.
I also wish to thank all the writers of science fiction that I have read, watched or played over the years.
In particular, I wish to thank the writers and programmers of the Computer Games; Wing Commander 1 through 5 and Privateer 1 and 2; and the Egosoft games, X2 The Threat, X3 Terran Conflict and X3 Albion Prelude which gave me the combat experience needed for a novel of this kind.
Also thanks to Egosoft for allowing me to use photos of their games to make the cover for this novel.
A Message to my Readers
I’ve had a lot of fun writing this novel, and it was written with being the first in a series in mind. It's been a long time in the making, having rattled around in my mind for many years, before I finally sat down to write it. There is a lot of story to come and I invite you to come along for the full journey with me.
If you have enjoyed this novel, I hope you will take the time to leave a review on the Amazon site. All reviews are greatly appreciated, as they help assist purchasing decisions by other readers. Sales and reviews will help me to focus on the next book in the series, which impacts how fast the next installment is released.
Please join me on the series Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/TheHunterLegacy
If you would like to be kept informed of new eBooks in the series, updates and information from The Hunter Legacy universe, join the mailing list at http://eepurl.com/bqMgVz
Feedback is welcome on my Games Forum. http://apricotmappingservice.com/X3forum/viewforum.php?f=46
The Egosoft website is at: http://egosoft.com
Thank you.
By Timothy Ellis
These Kindle eBooks can be found on Timothy Ellis’ Kindle Author page.
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00HRTTIJG
The Hunter Legacy
Hero at Large.
Hunted Hero Hunting.
Send in the Hero.
Make or Break the Hero.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WL26P8G
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00YPIKC6U
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B011FH7TSM
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B013LKL13U
PC Games
The X3 Handbook.
The X3 Handbook for Albion Prelude.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EV43G3Y
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B010VYG67A
Spiritual
The Wisdom of the Ages is available for the price of asking a question.
The Wisdom of the Ages Volume 2.
The Wisdom of the Ages Volume 3.
The Wisdom of the Ages Volume 4.
The Wisdom of the Ages Volume 5.
The Wisdom of the Ages Volume 6 Accrued Karma.
The Wisdom of the Ages Volume 7 Healing the Indigo.
I want to go home, Ascension for the travelling soul.
Personal Healing using basic meditation.
101 Tips for the John of God Brazil Experience.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HQSORZI
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HV5C6WC
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IJBWRP8
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KF6QARQ
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KNMV9TQ
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KP5OYT8
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KP9BIPM
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LJVW71E
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HT087E0
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XVA1BKY
Feng Shui
Life Harmony, Feng Shui in Plain English.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EX4Y07S
Hero at Large (The Hunter Legacy Book 1) Page 20