Reaper's Crossroad (The Hunter Imperium Book 3)

by Timothy Ellis

  "Seems to be. Even if they're not spotting, messages just feeding back results would be all they need."

  "Who would do that?"

  "Traders most likely, ones friendly to the Keerah, or bought by them. Could even be other species infiltrators as well. Only needs one being holed up in a hotel somewhere, watching the media feed, and transmitting it on, or summarizing it in a short message."

  "Media feed?"

  "It's going out live. Seems there's a media crew on the defense flagship, and they're showing the explosions live using the ship's sensors and cams."

  "Show me."

  A screen popped up, and the next set of missiles could be seen leaving the jump point, beginning to fan out, before smaller missiles started hitting them, and suddenly the whole area of space started boiling. The screen split to show mosquitoes launching from both the stations and the two Scimitars, ready to meet the next broadside jumping in.

  The talking head was an attractive blonde with orange skin, and she was talking everyone through what was happening in a calm manner, and seemed to know what she was talking about. Another head, probably I thought her anchor in a studio, popped up during the next session of boiling space, and asked what seemed to be a very good question.

  "Is there any sign of Judge Thorn?"

  "No sign. At the moment the defenses supplied by our new allies seem to be holding."

  "What's the word from the Admiral? Does he think the defenses will hold?"

  "The Admiral is in the command center, and we don't have access, but the Lieutenant who's providing us our feeds is nodding. I take that as a sign the defense should hold until the Judge is able to show up."

  "He hasn’t done on previous occasions. Are the military expecting him?"

  "The Lieutenant is shaking his head now."

  "What about other magicians? It's been said the Scimitars have several magicians on board now. Will they be able to intervene?"

  "The Lieutenant just shrugged. I guess we just have to wait and see."

  The anchor vanished, and the blonde went back to describing the missile conflict.

  "Was that wise of them?" I asked Jane.

  "Talking about Thorn that way? Probably not. If the Keerah didn’t know magicians have played a role in battles there for a long time now, they either do now, or will soon."

  "So that cat's out of the bag."

  "Apparently so. Also apparently, Thorn is not going to show up. How do you want to play this?"

  "Play?"

  "The Keerah are playing the throw end of the military version of whack a mole. If we intend to continue playing it as long as they can keep it up, I need to start producing mosquitoes in much larger quantities, and getting them to the stations and ships which can fire them."

  "Hmmm."

  The word 'play' echoed through my head. If Thorn showed up, he could change the rules of the game. But he wasn’t going to, probably because he thought I could handle this battle conventionally.

  My mind went back to my game playing days as a kid. Conventional tended to be expensive. And this game was only slightly different from a set of defenses slugging it out with an attacking fleet. The only difference was the jump point in between, but it wasn’t really an important factor.

  What we should be doing was firing our own capital ship missiles into the gap between theirs, and making them defend as well. But this was presumably expected.

  But it was the unexpected which won battles decisively. Which is where Thorn came in for these people. But now, it was on me.

  I sighed.

  The math had defeated me, but I had no doubt even the worst of Earth's butchers through history, had nothing at all on me. We never really calculated how many hundreds of millions of beings I was responsible for killing in the last war. And here I was again, needing to fight back in order to make things as difficult as possible for an enemy who refused to talk.

  For now, it was all I could do.

  But I wasn’t going to do it the way they'd expect it.

  I pulled up a hollo screen of our side of the jump point, chose a spot just down the jump lane slightly, and placed an invisible rift there, sized to cover the entire jump point.

  The next lot of missiles jumped in, hit the rift and appeared to reverse themselves, flying back into the missiles following them, exploding many of them, before the survivors vanished back into the jump point.

  The media blonde started talking excitedly, and close-ups showed missiles seeming to do the impossible, heading back the way they came and vanishing.

  On the other side, the incoming dots intercepted the outgoing next wave, and thinned it some, with more than half continuing on towards ships. The next launch was ragged, as ships focused their attention on defending themselves unexpectedly.

  While the media were showing excited people being happy with Thorn's intervention, the Keerah at first appeared to be shocked missiles were coming at them, and only belatedly had point defense fire shooting at their own missiles. Several actually impacted shields.

  "Nice one," said Jane. "That ought to make them think."

  "I wonder how long they'll keep it up now?"

  "Let's see, shall we?"

  Thirty Five

  It wasn’t very long.

  A dozen broadsides later, and with eleven ships holed to some degree, the firing stopped.

  I discontinued the rift, and replaced it with another one on the other side. I didn’t want to do this, as it would prevent traders coming through now, but it was better than nothing. For now. In any case, there were no traders wanting to come through, most of them now docked at the station, or heading back out of the system.

  I sighed, made a decision, and looked at Jane, who was now sitting in the room with me.

  "Is Gunbus ready for deployment?"

  "Yes. Are we going somewhere?"

  I told her the idea.

  "Just us?""

  "Just us."

  "Well it can't be this evening."

  "Why not?"

  "Your presence has just been requested."

  "Who by?"

  "Our new government."

  "What for?"

  "A gala event apparently. For once, I'm not organizing it, and neither is Janice."

  "Who is?"

  "The new council."

  "So let me guess, dress uniforms?"

  "So I was informed."

  "Where?"

  "The main ballroom."

  "Any reason why Janice isn’t involved?"

  "Not that I know of, but the council is meeting without AI oversight."

  Something I should have expected. And it came as no surprise. David knew exactly how much the AI's observed things.

  "Any guess as to what it's about?"

  "Could be something to do with digging on the planet below. Isn't it normally customary to have some sort of ground breaking ceremony when building something completely new?"

  "Maybe they're going to vid it?"

  "I guess we'll find out soon."

  And so we did.

  The entire top floor of the administration tower was a single ballroom, windowed the same as my own suite, so looking up was looking into the magnificence of the cosmos. The floor below was completely used by support rooms, for food preparation and drinks storage, with everything needed above to consume or drink them.

  When I arrived, slightly late, with Jane behind me, both of us in red full dress uniforms, I found the room almost full. It seemed like everyone who had a uniform was here, from all services, as well as a good cross section of the civilian population. I also quickly noted Arthur and his people were here, as well as each of the diplomatic teams.

  Eating and drinking was well underway, and almost as soon as I walked in, Jeeves put a glass of ginger ale in my hand, and promptly vanished into the crowd again. I took the soft drink as a subtle warning.

  Jane led me through the masses towards a wall screen showing what was going on in Crossroad, where I found most of my flag
officers. I already knew there was no threat to us for the next few hours, with the damaged ships having left for the other jump point out, presumably heading to a shipyard in spite of the regenerative hulls, and the new fleet which had escorted in the freighters took up the slack opposite us. I’d not left my office for the shower until I was very sure we wouldn’t be attacked during whatever this gala was for.

  Jeeves reappeared with a dozen other butler droids, all carrying food platters, from which the admirals and generals helped themselves. It was standing room only, but the crowd left a small gap around the group of top brass. I noticed a similar group not far away comprised of ship captains, and another which appeared to be all the marine teams from Colonel down.

  Amanda caught my eye and gave me a 'what the hell is this all for?' look, and I shrugged. She looked even more worried than before, so I grinned at her to try and get her to relax. It only partially worked, as I wasn’t feeling all that relaxed myself. Annabelle caught the look, and smiled at me. Maybe she knew something I didn’t. Come to think of it, the four stars all looked more than comfortable, and seemed to be enjoying themselves.

  Susan didn’t look happy, but her responsibility was the defense of our jump point into Crossroad, and she'd obviously been ordered here against her gut feel. I knew exactly what she felt like, as I didn’t want to be here either, even if a threat screen had been provided, and it was just showing the usual fighting going on, with none of it near us.

  Oddly I thought, the civilians were more or less ignoring the only active screen in the room. The noise level was high enough to start giving me a headache, and I was using PC hearing boosting just to be able to understand what was being said to me.

  Finally, trumpets sounded, and lights lit up a raised area with a podium set up on it. The noise level dropped, as everyone looked towards it. David Tollin and the rest of the new council stepped up, and David stepped up to the podium itself, while the others formed a half ring behind him.

  "Welcome," said David, his voice being amplified by Janice, so everyone heard him at the same volume. "Before we begin the formal portion of tonight's event, I'd like to introduce our new council to you. We are going out live to everyone across our space who is unable to be here tonight, and this is the first time the council will be seen by all as a council."

  He went on to name all twenty, who I had stored in my PC already with mug shots, and hadn't bothered to remember names for. They represented just about every colour our brand of humans came in, and a variety of races, although not by any means all of them, since most of our people were either military, or some version of Australian. But like Aline was Australian Japanese, the Australian sector had included a good cross section of people from other sectors, and our little portion of them still did.

  A screen came on behind them.

  "Today, we began to build our first city on the planet below us." Builder droids could now be seen excavating a major hole. "The city has been designed, but for now, only the administration center is being built. Once complete, we will be seeking out those who wish to move down to the planet to live, and consulting on accommodation needs."

  "The planet and this system hasn’t been named yet, nor do we have a name for our new society. These are priorities and we will be seeking suggestions, and will convene a vote in due course. We live now on Hunter's Haven, and Haven has been suggested for this system and the planet below. Likewise, the other end of our little group of systems is currently called Redoubt, after the station there. This is a priority for us."

  "For now, can you all raise your glasses, wherever you are, and let us toast to the breaking of ground for our new capital city."

  Jeeves and several other butler droids appeared with trays of champagne flutes, and I suddenly realized Jeeves was still in old style dress uniform. I looked at Jane, shot a glance at Jeeves, and looked back at her. She nodded. Jeeves had earned himself his distinctive look, and deserved an upgrade now we had a new one.

  Dozens more butler droids were moving through the crowd, making sure everyone had a drink. David at last raised his flute.

  "Our new home."

  He drank, and everyone repeated the toast, and drank as well. David handed his glass back to Jeeves, who with the others, vanished quickly.

  "Over the next few weeks, we will also be negotiating with our new galactic friends, with the object of forming formal mutual protection treaties, hopefully leading to an alliance of some sort. We'll keep the media up to date with what is going on, and the votes will be organized at the appropriate times."

  There was a round of applause, and David waited until it died down.

  "Admiral Hunter, front and center please."

  "What the fuck?" I mouthed silently at Jane, who smiled, and made shooing motions at me.

  The crowd parted to let me through, finally leaving me in an empty space before David. He waved me up onto the rostrum, and I stepped up beside him, but a good pace away.

  "One of the first things your new government did was decide to award campaign medals for the Darkness War. As Admiral Hunter was the center of our war for survival, he will be awarded each medal as the representative for all those receiving them. The medals themselves are already being delivered to the accommodation of each recipient, and will be there when they return home. As Admiral Hunter is awarded his, recipients will be pinged the new ribbon for their uniforms. However, we ask you do not update your uniforms until all awards have been concluded."

  "That doesn’t include you," he pinged me. "Can you scan each medal, and update your uniform as we go please?"

  I nodded slightly, and brought up my uniform tweaking program, opening up the ribbons file. I changed my mind, and also opened up a new copy of it, so I could add full medals to it just for the ceremony. I nodded slightly again. I'd reorder things later, but for now, I was ready to add anything up to three new ones as the new second row. I figured only two, but three would be available.

  Janice stepped up onto the rostrum, carrying a tray with boxes on it. She stopped a pace behind and to the other side of David.

  "The first medal is being issued to everyone who fought during the Darkness War, including ship crews, staff officers and their staff who served on stations, marines and troops, and those civilians who served in any capacity on a warship, or on one of the many freighters who evacuated planets."

  He plucked the first box off the tray, extracted the medal from it, and held it up. On the screen behind, a close up was displayed.

  "This medal is made of silver, but coloured black, with a thin white stripe down the right hand side, with a similar ribbon. This represents the darkness, and the thin white line which resulted in twenty five billion people surviving, when only ten was forecast."

  The pulse came in with the ribbon for my suit, and I added it in first position on the new second row. David turned to me, held the medal out for me to scan, turned it so I could scan the other side, and I added it to the same place on the new ribbon row, hanging down over my previous ribbons, but below my ribbons for the Victoria Cross and Medal of Honour. Nothing went before them, ever, and not even new awards covered them up.

  I turned to the front, and my suit shifted to display the medal. There was loud applause led by David and then myself, which took several minutes to calm down. David plucked the second medal box off the tray, and extracted the medal, holding it up again.

  "This medal is made of gold, with a plain gold ribbon, and is awarded to the crew of the corvette named Gunbus. The last act of the human end of the Darkness War required an act of courage which defies belief. In order to keep the Darkness from discovering the Gaia jump point, Admiral Hunter and his crew flew into the system's sun, and detonated it into becoming a red giant, which expanded well past where the jump point was, ensuring the Darkness would never find it, and Gaia and the people we left behind would forever be safe. Admiral."

  He turned to me again, I scanned both sides, turned back to face the crowd, and shifted my suit agai
n. The crowd went totally nuts this time, and it was nearly five minutes before they were quiet enough to continue. Detonate wasn’t the right word for what I’d done, but there was no point in saying anything.

  "There are four others here who will also receive both of these medals. They fought the Darkness on the other side of human space, and they arrived in time to save Admiral Hunter and his crew from death. They are the Keerah Hobbes, the Ralnor Roo, and the Magicians Syrinx and Tanith. Without them, the War would be still be raging in the galaxy, and we would be cast adrift on the edge of the Outback system, without a leader. They shared our fate, and are forever exiled from their people, and these medals are a poor way of expressing our thanks. But we can do it another way."

  He started clapping again, I joined in, and soon the only noise was the thunder of hands. I found the four of them in a far corner, and nodded to them. They all looked very uncomfortable, especially when those nearby started shaking their hands.

  David plucked the next medal box off the tray, and held the medal up, signaling for the crowd to quiet.

  "This medal is made of platinum and is coloured pure white. When the war still raging in the rest of the galaxy was brought to our attention, many of the key military and some civilians made a decision which affected everyone in the galaxy. At Admiral Hunter's suggestion, an action was taken to change the timeline by locking away the Darkness in the past forever."

  He shifted, slightly uncomfortably.

  "But those who made the decision knew the consequence of doing so would result in most of them ceasing to exist, as the timeline reset to an earlier configuration. Admiral Hunter already knew his family would have died out six hundred years earlier, with no way of changing this. His crew also knew their families would have died out hundreds of years earlier as well. Yet all of them voted yes to cease to exist, along with those who didn’t know what their fate would be."

  The room was dead silent now.

  "Most of the people I've spoken to about that day remember a flash of white, before we found ourselves still here, and several days later found we orbited this planet. Hence the ribbon and medal being pure white. Those who were at that meeting are awarded this medal. Admiral."