Hunter Legacy 9: Hero at the Gates (18 page)

I dreamt I was sitting in the sun, with a
fluffy white cat asleep on my lap.

It was a fine day. All was contentment and
serenity.

Until a black and white cat came along.

It jumped up onto the white cat, waking it
up, and both became feral fighting machines. On my lap!

Claws dug in, and I screamed, and flung
them both off me. They hardly noticed, and continued fighting. I tried to
separate them, but only succeeded in getting scratched and bitten.

The moon crossed the sun in eclipse, and
daylight began to fade. The fighting stopped. Everything stopped. Darkness.

When the eclipse ended and light returned,
there were no cats.

I awoke feeling very disturbed. I had
scratch and bite marks on my arms. Angel looked at them, and gave me 'the
look', the one which means what have you been doing with other cats, and serve
you right. She jumped off in search of breakfast. Aline kissed my injuries
better, but I still needed the Medical Bay. The doc on duty didn’t ask. I
skipped training and breakfast, and took myself to the Bridge, where I found
I'd made the news again.

HUNTER ON THE RUN, was the headline.

"Jon Hunter, self-styled Duke of the
Duchy of 'Hunter's Run', which now includes sectors at each end of the spine,
plus several in the middle; is currently making an attempt on the speed record
from one end of the spine to the other. The current record is sixty four
systems in thirty five days. We understand Hunter is attempting the same number
in under nineteen days, which is not only unheard of, but is widely regarded as
reckless and impossible."

"His ship, which looks like a giant pregnant
cat on steroids, is touted as the second fastest ship around, in spite of its
size. It's the second biggest ship, in terms of mass, on record, after the old
Explorer ship Enterprise, itself on a very slow trip up the spine to Hunter's
home shipyard."

"It is said that Hunter himself has
explicitly said he is stopping for nothing. To date we are only aware of some
minor collisions with ships as he was heading down the spine a few weeks ago.
But as he nears the core Earth sector worlds heading back up the spine at
previously unheard of speeds, people are urged to give way. Eccentric he may
be, but his ship masses more than an American Fleet Carrier, and as is the
custom, fail to give way to the larger ship at your peril."

I sat back, and had a very good laugh.

Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark all
sent me requests for information as we blew past. Amy by this time had prepared
data packages to send anyone asking, which included the Russian representatives
reactions, and the Japanese Ambassador's proclamation about our time travel.
Like Nepal, none of them had more than planetary police, and we urged them to
develop evacuation plans. What we sent included the specs for the station tugs,
and the recommendation their stations should be capable of housing their entire
populations, with plenty of shuttle capacity for moving people off-surface
should it become necessary to move in a hurry. None of these worlds were
particularly heavily populated, but all the same, their existing stations were
not up to the task of housing everyone on the ground.

HUNTER BECOMES BIG BROTHER.

"A leak from within a core system
sector government has revealed that self-styled Duke Hunter has satellites in
every system, monitoring the traffic flow of ships through the entire known
space. This follows an unconfirmed report the Australian sector has been using
the system to track and capture known pirates, criminals, and terrorists, as
they try to enter or flee the sector. While unconfirmed, it can be confirmed
that the arrest rate in the Australian sector has skyrocketed since Hunter made
his appearance less than a year ago. The Australian Militia refused to
comment."

"If reports are true, it partly
explains how Hunter is so confident in his ability to travel rapidly along the
spine. If he can truly see what is on the other side of a jump point, he is
able to adjust his speed to ensure there are no collisions. It also explains
the destruction of three ships several weeks ago, now thought to have been
pirate vessels, and the disappearance of a fourth, subsequently claimed by
Hunter as a pirate capture. With advance knowledge of their positions, Hunter's
forces would have been prepared for them well in advance of any combat."

"It remains to be seen what other
advantages this satellite network gives Hunter. While the satellites themselves
are confirmed, and appear to be identical to the ordinary communication
satellites, no-one has been able to access one to determine further
capabilities."

Which meant someone had tried. I had to
chuckle about it.

"Oddly, the expected outrage by sector
governments hasn’t happened. Which leads Public Freedom Commentators to
speculate the system is simply too useful for anyone to challenge Hunter about
having, some say illegally, placed his own satellites. A spokesperson for the
Earth sector Coms Company who place and service the sector's communication satellites
stated as long as the new sats did not interfere with the normal ones in any
way, the law allowed such placements by corporations or larger entities,
without being illegal. There was only illegality in the case where say a new
satellite was taking the flow of normal communications handled by another one,
and charging separately for the load."

Oops. Thin ice possibly. I had destroyed
normal comsats on the way down spine. I pinged Amy to view the vid, and find
out who the service company was, and tell them we had destroyed several comsats
while in combat with pirate forces, and would be happy to pay for their
replacement. In the meantime, we were carrying their communications loads,
without any charge. If they had a problem, I was happy to hear it. What I
didn’t want was lawyers. Lawyers were worth a Battleship response. Genuine
problems I could handle, and would.

The rest of the vid was of no interest, and
I tuned it out.

From there on, we made a pickup as we down
jumped into each system. Portugal was the spine end of a small Portuguese mini-sector.
Gibraltar fronted the Spanish sector. Switzerland was its own entity, as it
always had been, but it kept its own small space navy, and so we picked up an
Ambassador and an Admiral from them. The French delegation were waiting for us
in Paris, and the Italian delegation in Wolf 359.

Which brought us to Earth system, where I
was now obliged to stop for a formal meeting. I begrudged every second of the
time it was going to take, but it was necessary.

Jane brought us to a stop, at the
designated spot a safe distance from the Torus, and the remainder of the
delegations came aboard.

No fewer than five Arab delegations,
representing most of the Arab factions, arrived first, in an order previously
decided by random means. I dismissed the rumour about what exactly they had
tossed to establish precedence, as somewhat fanciful, and a definite case of
don’t-want-to-go-there.

The Israeli delegation were next. They'd
decided to come to us, instead of waiting for us to blow through. Technically
they were just an Earth sector system, but they'd heard enough so far to be
worried enough to join the biggest meeting planned along our route.

Next aboard were a half dozen delegations
from various Corporate sector worlds, and another one representing the sector
government itself. I'd never seen so many pin stripe suits in one place before,
and had to stop myself goggling at them.

Last of all was the Earth sector
delegation. It was large, noisy, pompous, and as soon as I saw the ranking
Admiral, I knew they in general, and he in particular, were going to be
trouble.

The Earth Admiral strode up to the podium
Jane had provided, for the meeting in the theatre on Deck Two, looking like he
owned the ship. It was obvious he was in a foul mood.

On his way up from the Launch Deck, he'd
been overheard by most of those nearby, including Jane, complaining about the
ship not having decent travel cars. Although he hadn't figured out who it was,
BA quietly commented this was a fighting ship and not a passenger barge, loud
enough for his nibs to hear it.

All the same, it looked like his normal
state was angry. I'd always wondered how people like him managed to be promoted
to the top spots. Enlightenment was not forthcoming.

The theatre was full. I’d considered
holding it in the conference facilities on the Launch Deck, but the amount of
brass and dignitaries present had necessitated its use for a short nibbles and
drinks session to get everyone comfortable and in one place. Once tongues had
been sufficiently lubricated, we'd moved everyone up. The theatre had been the
logical choice, as it comfortably sat everyone, was designed for long sitting,
and allowed the seniors to seat on the bottom level looking directly at the
podium, with juniors seated above and behind them by rank. Most of the second
level was one stars, with a smattering of twos, and a few junior ambassadors.

The mind boggled at how many people had
attended. I congratulated Jane via my PC in having correctly forecast the
seating we'd need in here, which until now, had never been even half utilized.

"My name is…" boomed out through
the speakers, which suddenly died in mid-sentence.

He banged on everything possible to bang
on, in the hopes of restoring sound, but alas, the problem wasn’t there. I saw
Annabelle suppressing a grin. As a one star, she was relatively junior, even
though she was giving the main part of the presentation.

I walked slowly up to the podium, with an
irate Admiral staring at me the whole way. He could stare all he wanted to, we
were the same rank, and this was my ship. I was also armed and he wasn’t, but
he couldn’t see I was. I kept my game face on.

"Maybe I can help," I said,
broadcasting perfectly.

"Please do," wasn’t heard beyond
the first level of seats.

He scowled at me. I matched his look. He
looked down first.

I indicated the empty seat at the front,
and he reluctantly sat, silently fuming.

"Greetings," I said. "Thank
you for attending this briefing. Earlier this year, one system, influenced by
prophesy, went to war with three sectors. The single system almost won. Had
they done so, they would have swept into the Earth sector and beyond, with a
force so great, none of you would have survived the onslaught."

I had to stop there, as the room erupted. I
let it go for a full minute and told Jane via my PC to get their attention.
Feedback screeched into the room, and everyone stopped talking and started
holding their ears. I stood there like a rock, PC suppressing the anticipated
sound.

"I make no wild claims. The Midgard
war as it is now being called, happened. We will walk you through it. We will
explain prophesy behind it. We will compare it to another existing prophesy
which is very similar. Next, we will show you the journey we took through the
Sirius system and what we found there. We have the reactions of the Russian
delegation, and a discussion with the Japanese Ambassador for you to
consider."

There were murmurings to the last two. The
Russians were not noted for reacting much to anything in public. And no-one
expected a Japanese Ambassador to say anything in public, let alone have a
discussion. I'd looked these things up, so I'd know what to expect when we
announced them.

"To my right," I went on,
"are Brigadier General Smith, and Colonel O'Neill. They will conduct the
bulk of this briefing." I looked at Annabelle and nodded slightly.
"General."

I stepped back to allow her to take the
prime position on the podium, and moved to the back and outer edge of it
myself, where I stood at parade ground rest, and locked my suit tight so I
couldn’t move at all from the shoulders down.

Annabelle started in on the Midgard war. I
stood there, my eyes moving around the room, gauging reactions. While the
delegates viewed vid from the war, I looked up key resumes, starting with
Admiral irate git. What I found changed my name for him to Admiral pompous git.
He had an okay record for a flag officer who'd never fought a war. But
strangely, his ship never seemed to be anywhere near pirate activity. When we'd
first arrived in Barnard's Star and found a war zone, his was not one of the
Earth Cruisers on the other side of the Earth jump point. He'd actually been
half a sector away. His ship, predictably, was the biggest and newest Earth
sector had, but it barely rated being called a Battle Cruiser.

In a war, he was one officer I wouldn’t
want in any active command. Knowing I’d probably never get the choice in that
matter, I filed everything I could find about him for later use if it happened
we ended up fighting in the same force. I seriously hoped it wouldn’t happen
though.

While I’d been looking up records, so had
others. The signs of data retrieval were there, if you looked for them. They'd
find my recent combat stats from the Guilds, my record being an open book. I
saw a few looks pass my way as they did so. More passed towards Annabelle and
Jack, as delegates discovered two distinguished combat records.

As the briefing went on, with Admiral Git
throwing in interruptions and asking stupid questions, more and more faces
showed serious concern over where this was going.

The last part of the Midgard presentation
was the interaction with the planet official, explaining about prophesy and my
role in it.

"Hah!" crowed Admiral Git.
"I knew it, this was all about blowing his own trumpet."

He shot a cold glance at me, which I
ignored completely. Others shot him varying looks, ranging from annoyance to
outright anger at the comment.

Annabelle nodded to me, and stepped back,
and I took her place again.

I spoke about Outback's prophesy, giving
what little information I knew, and ending with how both prophesies sounded
like they were about the same event.

I handed the briefing back to Annabelle,
and resumed my spot.

She and Jack walked them through how we
came across Homer, lost for ten years. They continued to describe what we
found, showing the same vids we had at the previous meeting, and ending with
the reaction of the Russians.

Now there was dead silence in the room.

Into which, of course, came an almost
expected interjection.

"What a load of complete
twaddle!"

I nodded to no-one in particular, and Jane
immediately showed the discussion with the Japanese Ambassador. His seriousness
in pronouncing our time travel as real, impacted those present quite
dramatically. For an Ambassador to come out with such a definite statement in
public was almost unheard of. For a Japanese Ambassador? No-one knew quite how
to interpret it.

Eyes looked around the room to see how
everyone else was reacting. I let them go, waiting for the mutterings to
subside on their own.

"It's still a load of rubbish."

"Admiral," said the French four
star, in heavily accented English, "with all due respect, SHUT UP!"

"I will not…" he began, stopping
suddenly with my Long Gun touching the end of his nose.

There were squawks of alarm at how a gun
had miraculously appeared in my hand.

"You will be silent," I said.
"This is my command, and you are behaving like a green Ensign. Be silent,
or I will shoot you."

He bristled, but when he saw he had no
support, not even from his own delegation, he subsided.

Actually, a green Ensign wouldn’t have the
guts to say anything, but I'm not sure he understood that.

My gun vanished as fast as it had appeared.
I moved back to my place, and nodded again to Annabelle. She moved into the
what could be done to get ready phase.

Most of them didn't get it. They started
arguing with themselves. It went on and on, round and around.

Eventually I lost it at them.

"What part of this don't you
understand?" I asked them.

No-one responded.

"Each of your sectors has the exact
same problem. If an invasion or celestial event happens up or down the spine,
as soon as your spine connection is lost, so is your whole sector, and everyone
left in it."

Some of them actually looked shocked.

"You need to do two things, and you
need to start doing them now."

I had their attention, if not their
understanding.

"One. You need to have a force in your
spine system, ready to defend it, whichever direction the threat is coming
from. The Corporate sector and the Arab sub-sector in particular, both need a
force permanently in a system on the other side of your space, which is being
highlighted on the wall now."

The nav map was showing the mid earth
sector section, which included the Corporate sector at the top, and Arab
sub-sector at the bottom. The two systems were highlighted in blue.

"If the threat comes through either of
these systems, whoever is there will be responsible for meeting it. You can do
so in the systems, or around your home planets. It's your choice."

I looked deliberately at each of the two
delegation's primary members.

Behind them, several of the one star
Admirals were nodding now.

"Two. You need to be able to evacuate
the entire sector population through your spine system BEFORE you lose
it!"

"Lose what?" asked one of the
corporate types.

"The spine system dummy,"
answered another one.

"How can you lose a spine
system?" asked a third.

I seriously needed to face-palm, or take a
moment.

"Are you people serious?" I asked
at them. "An enemy takes Barnard's Star. Or a celestial event of some
kinds renders it impossible to travel across safely. What do you do?"

"Why do anything?" answered the
original corporate.

"Because we've seen whole side-arms
wiped clean of all higher life, and this happened to be the entire French
sector."

The French delegation showed real shock for
the first time. In spite of the record before of what their planets would one
day look like.

"Once you lose your escape route, you
are effectively dead. It might take a while, but you will be dead."

"Oh," said someone.

I could see it in their eyes that most of
them still didn’t get it. The only ones who really did, were the one stars, who
still had enough contact with reality to recognize a brutal one when it was
presented to them.

"If anyone still has questions, please
address them to either General Smith, or Colonel O'Neill. Thank you all for
attending this briefing. This ship will be leaving up spine in one hour's
time."

I stepped back, and with Annette and Jack
at my back, stalked out.

They left in the reverse order of arriving,
with one exception, followed by the large shuttles we'd picked up on the way. The
Israeli delegation stayed aboard. We were going their way after all. The
Corporates and Arabs could have hitched a ride as well, but I don’t think it
occurred to any of them.

Before returning to their shuttle, where
they had their own accommodations, the Israeli Ambassador pulled me aside.

"You know our history?" I nodded.
"And yet you tell us to prepare to leave our hard won planet? To leave the
place God provided for us?" I nodded again. "You ask a hard thing my
friend."

"Good friends do," I responded.

"We have no space navy to defend us.
At least not enough to make a difference. Will you?"

"Yes, as long as I'm still alive, and
have something to fight with."

"Then we will prepare for a day we
sincerely hope never comes."

"As will we."

He did what no-one else had done. He shook
my hand.

With all the delegations back on their
ships, I headed to the Bridge.

"That went well," said Jane.

I gave her a dirty look. She grinned at me.

Magnus came in and we said goodbyes. Her
crew and scientists were already aboard a shuttle which had come for her. She
thanked me for saving them, for the bio samples her people had taken while we
moved Prometheus into her docking bay, and for the data which had been able to
be retrieved from backup devices which had turned out to have enough local
shielding to retain their data all these long years. From her perspective, even
with the loss of her ship, the mission had been worth it. I had to agree, as
Prometheus had certainly been worth retrieving. I still wasn’t sure how to use
her, but until she arrived at Nexus, I had time to think about it.