Legend of Dreamwalker (The Hunter Imperium Book 5)

by Timothy Ellis

  “So dedicate the deck zero marine barracks to the heavy squadron? Probably best they eat together even if they sleep on their ships, and can we build them their own simulator?”

  I looked at Jane.

  “Sure. There's enough space up there I can convert. Tomorrow sometime. I've been thinking about the pilot accommodations as well.”

  “And?”

  “There is the other marine barracks. I could redesign it to provide a dozen smaller shower areas, each with its own six person spa, and dry area for lockers and dressing. It would allow those with personal space and modesty issues to group how they'd be comfortable, instead of everyone being in the one shower space. There'd still be a larger space for the rest. I can also put in more water-less one person freshers if some prefer those. If anyone has suggestions for making a better pilot's mess, let me know and I can accommodate them at the same time. Day or so to do the changes after the flight deck elevators are complete, and you can move over there. Another day or so, and you can move back if you want.”

  “Is there enough space around to stop bunking, and each pilot gets a small room instead?”

  All eyes turned to Hawk, and back to Jane.

  “Take longer to do. But I can move things around to make a lot larger pilot and marine accommodation deck, rather than sections.”

  I looked around the table. They were all nodding.

  “Do it. Co-ordinate with the squadron leaders as far as needing to move people around while the work is being done. And give the pilots an input into the design process. We may as well do a new carrier accommodation design for the rest of the fleet to follow if they want.”

  “Or the Imperator wants,” added Jane. “What we have now wasn’t really designed for pilots. It was done based on marine team requirements. And they're used to being squashed into a space and living on top of each other.”

  I thought for a moment.

  “Anyone think scrapping the shower areas completely, and replacing with small Ensuite bathrooms for each room is a better idea? We could still keep common bathing areas for those who prefer it, and the big spa baths.”

  “Take a lot longer,” added Jane. “Maybe a day extra for each barracks. And we still need to be prepared for a hundred marines if we get them suddenly.”

  “Is there enough room?”

  “I can make the room. Each pilot will use more space, but the practical maximum for this ship is forty eight, since we can't fit any more Excaliburs on board. That's a lot less than we have room for now. And marines won't care about common facilities. So they just need five distinct barracks for twenty member teams.”

  She went silent, and no-one interrupted her. It only took a minute before she spoke again.

  “Redesign complete. If the big ship pilots can live on their ships and do without a simulator for a day or so, I can completely redesign deck zero to give a squadron mess and simulator. There's a cargo deck doing very little at the moment, and I can move the marine barracks down there, with access shafts direct to the launch deck, and to Monty, depending on where they deploy from. This frees up all the accommodation above the flight deck, both pilot and marine, for individual pilot rooms with basic en-suites, while retaining the main mess and simulator rooms. The pilots will need to put up with what's there for a day, and move to the new marine barracks for another one or two, while the work is done in two halves. Fortunately, both Claymore and Unassailable have a full set of builder droids on board. I'll get them working.”

  There were nods all round.

  “And the rest of the afternoon?” asked Vulture.

  “Sort out the squadrons. Get the pilots to the larger ships, and start drilling them in how to use them properly, and how to fight in formations while using strafe. When the elevator mods are complete, the other squadrons can start flying with their destroyers.”

  They all nodded again.

  “Are we calling the new squadron 'the heavy squadron'?” asked Knüppel.

  “You tell me.”

  She grinned.

  “How about 269?”

  Eleven

  Thirty Excalibur mark IV's turned up while I was eating dinner.

  The sixteen threes still out as CAP, which included the now repaired ones, were ordered to stop, whereby a four docked with them, the pilots transferred over, and the ship AI's transferred as well. The threes headed for Unassailable to have their sensors upgraded, and the CAP pilots progressively landed on the flight deck elevators which were now big enough to handle them effectively. The job wasn’t finished, but enough were to make the ship functional as a carrier again.

  The remaining new fours flew over to Unassailable, where they entered the drone hangar, and were racked for future use as replacements.

  A flight from 266 squadron launched to take on CAP duties, with the flights doing four hours before being replaced by the next flight on the new roster. One reason for just using a flight was to give the flight lieutenant independent command experience.

  The three standard corvettes were now docked in Blossom's hangar, and Jane was in the process of linking up the destroyers to one side of the deck zero hull, and the corvettes to the other.

  On a whim, I looked up why we had a deck zero, and found it was actually several decks high, and dated back to an earlier refit of BigMother. Since her decks were already numbered, the extra decks going on top of deck one had been called zero. Technically one of them should have been minus one, but it was a mouthful, and since the decks were marine based, it really didn’t matter to anyone. The original two Scimitars had been the same base carrier design as BigMother, and so received the same upgrades when they were refitted, although modified by the gun wings.

  After eating, I started touring the ship, using a small trolley Jane was controlling. I'd ditched the officer training stuff, and spent the remainder of the afternoon poring over the ship specs. The early evening provided me time to poke around. I'd never done this on a ship before, having never had the time. While I found it interesting, most of what I saw was beyond my understanding, or boring.

  One thing Jane did point out to me though was the now severely truncated cargo deck. Where before it had occupied almost an entire deck level with the standard cargo airlock all ships had in the nose, now cargo only had no more than one third of the deck space, and a lot of this was utilized for food and consumables. The thing I didn’t get was why we'd had all that cargo space to begin with, until Jane explained the original three carriers had been used by pirates as salvage base ships, and the cargo decks had been used to store everything salvaged and looted from other ships. The Imperator had never thought to use the decks for something else.

  On the maintenance deck at what I thought was the end of my tour, Claymore appeared before I could get off the trolley, got on herself, and took control from Jane. She accelerated the same way Jane did, and ran us straight onto a just upgraded elevator. I frowned at her, but she grinned back. The elevator started up.

  As a set of doors closed below us, the air began being pumped out, and my suit shifted into space suit mode. Another set of doors opened above us, and at the top, Claymore roared off along the side of the flight deck towards the rear of the ship. Almost to the end, she flipped a switch, I could feel gravity holding me in my seat now, and she drove us diagonally up the side wall, until we were at the top as the flight deck ended. Slowing down a lot, the trolley made the turn on to the rear hull of the ship, and we started up and accelerated again.

  My gaze was fixed on the cosmos visible above me. It was sensationally riveting in its beauty. Which meant I missed the turn onto the top of the hull, and the unexpected jerk to a stop, finding myself on top of deck zero, with a spectacular view along the entire top hull of Claymore. She got down, so I followed her, and we walked to where we could climb across to the top of General Montgomery. From there, I also had a great view across the tops of the destroyers lined up on one side of the ship, and the corvettes lined up on the other. Both looked like ill-fitting w
ings.

  Fifteen minutes later I heard the life support warning for the first suit, dragged my gaze from the view, and followed Claymore to a small top airlock, where we dropped gently in, and cycled through into Monty itself, where my suit went back to a uniform with only a minute to spare. From there we walked through the docking tube to deck zero, and down to deck one, finally ending up in my ready room.

  Jane was waiting for us, and we discussed when to get underway, and where we were going. Blossom and Unassailable were patched up enough to move again, but for now, other than through the next jump point, we still didn’t have a direction to follow to find where the plants came from.

  We decided to move the small fleet to where Slice had been jumped, and wait until the mark threes had found a jump point in that system. Both Lightnings sent out before had returned without finding one in the normal positions, so the AMS sensors were going to be essential. Jane figured we'd be on the other side of the jump point in the small hours of the morning, and by breakfast the threes would have found where we needed to go next.

  I figured other than CAP duty, everyone should get a good night's sleep, and we'd start behaving like a carrier group in the morning.

  Other than training, it'd been an easy day for me, in comparison to the previous week. All the same, by the time I went to bed, I was exhausted.

  My last thought was wondering what Grace was up to.

  Somewhere in the middle of the night, I woke suddenly, made a note I needed to send her a note, wondered idly why I hadn't had one from her, and was asleep again before my brain had time to engage properly.

  Kat woke me for training. I donned my glasses, shifted to a mask and flight suit, and headed for the marine training area. When I arrived I found a hyperactive gym, considered for a moment, and turned for the marine running track instead. One lap around, I was joined by a half dozen already sweaty pilots, and we paced ourselves around another five laps, where they continued on, and I headed for the courses. I ended by spending a half hour in my combat suit practicing with a sword.

  After a shower, I ate breakfast in the pilot's mess, before heading for the bridge. Both Jane and Claymore were there before me, and I settled myself in the center seat.

  “Status,” I said towards both of them.

  “We're where Slice was mugged,” said Jane. “We've found one non-standard jump point about five hours away. The threes will meet us there if we start now. One of them has already sent a comnavsat through, and the other side is clear. At least for now.”

  “Ship status?”

  “The elevator upgrade is complete,” said Claymore. “They've all been tested by landing birds, and we have a CAP still out. Internal changes are ongoing. Blossom is still undergoing repairs, but is now partially combat capable again. Unassailable is doing better, and has started making new Excalibur fours. Slice is coming out of the care unit in about an hour.”

  “I've converted one of the offices on this deck to house a simulator for you,” added Jane. “It's set up so you can get the hang of Claymore without upsetting the crew.”

  “Why would the crew be upset?”

  “The way you fly?”

  A puking mage came to mind.

  “Point.”

  They were both looking at me now. And it took me a bit to figure out why.

  “Line astern formation. Claymore, Blossom, Unassailable. Move us to the next jump point at normal cruising speed.”

  “The CAP?” asked Jane.

  “Can tag along. But start swapping them every hour. That way whoever is out when we go into combat next, will have been there for less than an hour and should still be fresh.”

  I thought for a moment, and they waited for me.

  “In fact, for now, make it a standing order for day time. One hour CAP on rotation. At night or when we're not going anywhere, move to four hour rotations. It will give everyone a chance to launch and recover while Claymore is moving at normal speeds. And use the bigger ships as well. Launch all the destroyers for one, and the corvettes for another. We may as well make sure they can launch under combat conditions, and re-dock while Claymore is moving as well, in case it's needed some day.”

  “Confirmed.”

  “Your will.”

  I gave Claymore a strange look, and she grinned at me.

  Twelve

  “They tell me you're in charge.”

  He was on the wrong side of sixty, still fit looking, but his hair was streaked with grey. The goatee beard was neatly trimmed, but almost completely grey. He looked like he'd been mugged. I waved him to the XO's chair.

  “They tell me that too.”

  “You don’t believe them?”

  “I'm waiting to wake up.”

  He laughed.

  “How long ago did you get promoted?”

  “Two days.”

  “And before that?”

  “Pilot officer to flight lieutenant in three days.”

  His smile turned into a frown.

  “What copybook did you blot to be a pilot officer at your age?”

  I shifted my mask to glasses and took them off, revealing my scar. He winced. I put them back on, and shifted again.

  “That looked like a serious ouch.”

  “I was on the Ark Royal.”

  He winced again.

  “Enough said. I take it Jane fixed you up with the tech?”

  “Yes. And I managed to fail upwards pretty quickly.”

  He laughed again.

  “We've all done that. Our beloved Imperator does like promoting people and throwing them in the deep end.”

  “You too?”

  “Hell yes. But I'm retired now. Group Captain if you must know. I was shanghaied as a Wing Commander for the Midgard War. And ended up fighting at the arse end of the Darkness War. I'm too old for this shit. And apparently too arrogant too. This was supposed to be a safe job. But I ignored everyone's advice to wait for my new ships to be built.”

  “Probably just as well. Otherwise the first we'd have known there was anything here would have been the plants hitting Lufafluf.”

  “True, but the price was a little high for my liking.”

  “Are you ready to take command of your ship again?”

  “I gather Eric has been doing a good job. Jessie as well.”

  “That wasn’t an answer.”

  “True. I don’t think I'm ready, but I get the feeling Jessie was drafted as well as Eric, and if you're in that chair, then you want him in another one?”

  “Both of them have destroyers now. Seriously upgraded ones.”

  “And you'd rather they were here.”

  “Yes. Somewhere within the next day I expect to hit at least a three fleet plant force.”

  “I can't disagree with you. I'm surprised they haven't followed up already. What do you want me to do?”

  “Our sixteen Excalibur threes have been upgraded with your sensor package. They're docking to Unassailable for now, but I'd appreciate it if you could continue your job of charting systems and finding the jump points.”

  “I was thinking of heading back to Lufafluf. But if you need the job done, I'm the one to do it. Until Blossom can start building new recon drones, I can dock the Excalibur threes when they're not out. At the least, they can also be a defense force if we get attacked.”

  “You have your three corvettes as well.”

  “Three? Oh. Eric's as well. Gawd help me if I lost his ship for him. Jessie's attached to hers as well. But with the Excaliburs, they should make an effective defense force.”

  “Not that I'm letting you get far away from me. It'll take a major threat to do that. And if it happens, I expect you to run.”

  “Not in my nature, son.”

  “I'll make it an order then. If we get into battle with a fleet seriously above our weight class, someone has to warn Lufafluf, and keep tabs on their advance towards them.”

  “Just a little disparity in our ranks son.”

  “I'll make it an ord
er then,” said Jane.

  “You take all the fun out of life m'dear.”

  “Not me. Jon's orders.”

  “He takes all the fun out of life too.”

  “He'd rather not see you get hammered again if it can be avoided. He actually likes you.”

  “Yes, well. The feeling is mutual. And I don’t want to get hammered again either.” He turned back to me. “Order accepted Commander. Anything else before I borrow a Lightning?”

  “No. Send the draftees back in the Lightning after the formalities are complete. Will you?”

  “Of course.”

  He rose, threw a grin at Jane, and limped out.

  Before I could even begin to think about what to do next, Shenaid came in, and sat in her normal seat, looking at me.

  “You wanted to see me?”

  I hadn't.

  Both the AI's were obviously avoiding my look, so one of them must have set this up. But as it happened, I knew absolutely nothing about what she could do beyond puking, so in the scheme of things, it was about time I found out.

  “I know nothing about magic, what you can do, or why you're here.”

  “As I was told, you pointed out a destroyer with fighters deployed alone, lacked a mage for saving ejected pilots. The Imperator requested one suitable for a one person ship, and since I'm somewhat of a hermit among my people, I was suggested, and agreed to a limited trial. Since we arrived on this ship, there's a lot more people around, but I can isolate myself when I need to, so I'm coping. What do you need to know?”

  “How do you save pilots floating in space?”

  “I move them.”

  “How?”

  “Magic.”

  “Not helping.”

  She sighed.

  “Trying to explain magic to the non-magical is pointless. But you know those popup screens you all do with the computer they say is in your head?”

  “Yes.”

  “It's like that.”