Make or Break the Hero (The Hunter Legacy Book 4) (15 page)

I woke naturally the following morning.
Angel was curled up next to my head as usual. I patted her for a couple of
minutes, and headed into the bathroom for a shower. I stopped at the mirror,
and pulled off my t-shirt and boxers. If anything, the bruises down my body
were much more spectacular than when I’d last looked at them. My left side, and
various blotches on the right, was a solid mass of variations of the colour
yellow, with two exceptions. My temple area was still purple, as was the large
bruise on my chest where the Meson blast, and solid projectile, had hit me.
There was also a large purple bruise on my left shoulder where I'd hit the
wall. Given my pain level, I changed my mind about the shower, and went to the
spa instead.

Half an hour of soaking later, I showered,
pulled on briefs and socks from the dispenser, changed my belt to fatigues, and
went out looking for breakfast.

Even after eating late last evening, I felt
hungry this morning. Jeeves put a light and fluffy breakfast before me, and I
polished it off.

Finally, I checked the time, and found it
coming up to nine thirty.

My pad seemed to be overflowing with unread
emails, which perhaps wasn’t so surprising, since I'd read very few last night.

General Harriman informed me the jump point
was now clear. I replied the station would be coming through very shortly.

I limped down to the Medical Bay, received
a new pain shot, and headed back up to the Bridge.

"Janet, let's get the station moving
please, nice and easy through the jump point."

"Yes my Lord."

"The station will be jumping in a few
minutes," I said into station coms. "Once in the Midnight system, the
station will be positioned for jump point blockade. Until the war is concluded,
it'll remain here. As this is on the direct route between the Australian sector
and the rest of the spine, and it'll be the only stop for several jump points
in every direction, there should soon be a lot of traffic passing through the
station. I'm hoping this station will become a center for trade before too
long. If you haven't noticed, communications are now fully restored. Hunter
out."

Several minutes later, as I watched the
station view feed, we jumped into Midnight.

The first thing I saw on the other side was
a huge red thing, in the shape of an arrowhead. Red? Not only red, but bright
red? Bob was obviously playing a big joke on me.

On both sides of the jump point, was a line
of ships, welcoming the station.

"Janet, move us to a point where the
Destroyer guns are at longest range of anything in down jump. Align us so all
the guns point there."

"Yes my Lord."

I opened a channel to everyone.

"Greetings Midnight blockade fleet. I
bring you glad tidings from the war. The Cobol system has been retaken, and the
Australian sector has rejoined the galaxy. I'm so glad to see you all still
here. Job well done! As soon as the station stops moving, can everyone please dock.
There'll be a gathering in the main eating area around midday. General Harriman
and senior officers to Gunbus please, as soon as you dock. Hunter out."

I closed the channel on a lot of cheering.

"Janet, can you whisper to all the
Promenade Deck food merchants to prepare for a celebration. The blockade fleet
needs a decent meal, and after the fight at Cobol, the station needs a decent
party. Tell the merchants they won't be charging anyone for anything, but to
send the bills to me, via administration. Put a message out on every display,
inviting everyone at midday. If there are any musicians or entertainers on
board, invite them to play."

"Yes my Lord."

"Jane, what's the status of the
Carrier?"

"I have control. It's structurally
complete as per your requirements, but only some of the internal work is
complete."

"So it has the usual large ship
docking connections and airlock?"

"Yes. It can dock with the station. Do
you want me to dock it now?"

"Yes, but be the last ship. Janet,
assign external docks so the Carrier has enough room to dock safely, without
preventing other ships from leaving."

"Confirmed."

"Yes my Lord."

"Oh and Janet, assign repair droids to
all the ships, and see what can be fixed without a shipyard."

"Yes my Lord."

"Where's the General?"

"On the Carrier," said Jane.
"Oh, and you might like to check the Carrier out." She ended this
with a laugh.

I looked at the HUD data.

"BigMother?" I said out loud.

Jane kept laughing.

Bob had changed her name from Junk Heap One
to BigMother.

"Don’t you recall when the Carrier
first docked with Sydney Shipyard? Bob asked you to dock that big mother so he
could come aboard and look at it."

I smiled at the memory. It wasn't that long
ago, but it felt like years.

"I guess there's an email on my pad
explaining it."

"Confirmed," she responded.

There was a series of emails from Bob.
Three of them were invoices for two Camels, and an Excalibur. Bob had built
Gunbus to my specifications. The Camel was a sister ship, with less armament,
designed to be a true Heavy Transport, or a really big, and well protected,
private yacht. He was charging me cost plus his share of the license fee that
the Americans were paying to make the Gunbus and Excalibur themselves. I paid
the invoices immediately. I was pretty sure John Slice was going to want to buy
both the Camels, and the Excalibur I had plans for.

"Station in position," announced
Janet.

I checked the view, and it showed the jump
point, with lines of ships about to dock.

"Liner away," announced Jane.

I watched it move back from the station,
turn on the spot, and streak off at a speed it shouldn’t have been able to
make.

"Been doing some tinkering with the
Liner, Jane?"

"Confirmed." It was followed by a
giggle.

Another email outlined the refit BigMother
had undergone, and apologized for the name if I didn’t like it. But he felt I'd
have enjoyed the joke, had I been there to hear it when he thought of it, so he
went ahead, and renamed the ship. It was now a BigMother class Escort Carrier.

He'd completed the twenty four fighter
launch tubes, twelve on each side. There were actually twenty four launch tubes
on each side, but only half of them had worked when I took the ship. He'd
alternated which ones worked, using the other tubes for heavy weapons, shields,
and magazines. The Carrier was designed for four squadrons of twelve short
range fighters. Launching that many would take longer now, but I hadn't
envisioned needing to. The idea was to keep a squadron or so for added defense,
and use the space for other things.

He'd crammed as many different sizes of
guns and missile launchers on her as he could. The email included the actual
specs of the new design, and a list of what hadn't been done. I'd have to go
over this later.

His last comment was, he'd decided to
repaint the Carrier, since it had looked so dilapidated. He'd tried to remember
the colour of my uniform, and match it as best he could.

I laughed, winced, and toned it down to a
smile. He hadn't even been close! My 'slinky red' suit uniform was a dull red,
not bright red.

Lieutenant Commander Annette Bronson
bounded onto the Bridge, pulled me out of my chair, and hugged me.

"Ugggggggg!" I cried out.

She let me go in a hurry, and I fell back
into my chair. My medical monitor tried to cope with the spike in pain, but
wasn’t up to the challenge.

"Sorry," she said. "What's
happened to you? Oh."

She'd obviously just noticed my head
bruise.

"Long story," I said. "How's
Unthinkable?"

Unthinkable was my formerly Lincoln class
Corvette, now also its own class, after a refit. I'd sent Annette back before
the blockade, to take command of her.

"A little dented in a few places, but otherwise
good. She handles so much like Nightshade, I hardly know which ship I'm flying
at times." Nightshade was her own Mustang class Heavy Privateer. "I
took your advice by the way. I sent Nightshade to Sydney Shipyard for a refit.
She's still there. I received one hell of a shock when your payment came
through, I can tell you." She grinned widely.

She'd salvaged some fighters in the Pompeii
system, which I'd subsequently sold to the Australian Militia. Since she worked
for me, the ships had become the property of Hunter Security. Her contract
entitled her to five percent of the sale price. Her cut of the sale was enough
for her to significantly refit her ship.

"You're welcome," I said.
"You followed my advice, so you reaped the reward of it. Actually, your
reaction was probably the same as the rest of the team, when they received two
payments for another lot of ships I sold. Not quite what you made, but still in
the seven digits range."

She laughed.

Squadron Leader Algernon Lacey came onto
the Bridge at that moment. He looked older than I remembered, but considering
the burden he'd had dumped on him, it wasn’t surprising. I felt a great deal
older than I used to as well.

He came over, and we silently shook hands.

"It's good to see you both
alive," I said. "We'd no idea what had happened here. I half expected
to find Midgard ships here, and you back in Nexus, or scattered about the place
here in small pieces."

"It was close the first couple of
attacks," he said, "but we held. Once we figured out how to do it
more safely, they didn’t really get much chance to take us."

"I'll look forward to studying the
battle feeds when I have the time."

"As will we, sir. I understand the
General has all of yours, and they're must see viewing. I'll borrow them when
he's finished with them."

"Ah, no. You won't have a chance. You
can watch mine."

"Sir?"

I didn’t have to respond to that, as just
then, General Harriman walked in.

I rose from my chair, and turned to face
him. He stuck his hand out, and we shook.

"Let's go into my office," I said
before he could say anything. I turned to the other two. "Can you give us a
half hour, and come back?"

They nodded, and left. General Harriman walked
next door, while I limped, and sat at my conference table.

"Welcome back Admiral," the
General said.

"Pleased to be back sir, and even more
pleased to find everyone in one piece."

"Call me Walter, Jon. We're only one
rank apart now." He was a three star, I was two. He grinned at me, and I
smiled as much as I could back. "I've not finished all the battle feeds
you sent me. Thank you for that, by the way. Even though I didn't get them
until early this morning, I'm glad you included me on the distribution
list."

"I couldn’t do otherwise. I might be
inactive with Australian Militia, but you're still my boss in terms of sector
security. One of them anyway. I have three now."

"I noticed." He laughed.

"I apologize for making you come here,
but I had an assassination attempt on me, that left me unable to get around
very easily."

"I saw the report. It was big news on
Avon apparently. As soon as communications opened again, it was one of the
first things the newsies wanted confirmation about. So I'm afraid you're all
over the news here again."

I groaned.

"What should I know now, before the
juniors return?" he asked me.

"General Vonda Wellington commands the
multi-sector task force rolling back the Midgard fleets, with me in operational
control. She's a three star with Sci-Fi sector. The force comprises The
Battleships Repulse and Warspite, eight Pocket Battleships, an Assault Frigate,
and an assorted mix of British and Sci-Fi Cruisers, Destroyers, and Corvettes."
He nodded. "I was going to suggest you take command of my station for the
remainder of the war. She has the firepower of a Battleship fleet, so can guard
the sector here at its natural choke point." He looked surprised.
"Actually, this the largest single seat fighter ever built." He
laughed, and I laughed, and winced, with him. "Seriously though, the
station now has the freight scanners mounted, so you can control what comes in
and out of the sector from here."

"Who will you leave when you go?"

"I was thinking of leaving your
Gladiators, and any Talons you base here. That should be more than enough for
sector protection, given the door from Azgard is blocked tight now. Your
biggest threat will be pirates. Even if they bring in a Cruiser, the station
will take it out easily. She mounts eight Battleship turrets.

I brought up the design layout for the top
of the station.

"You know this is completely
outrageous, don’t you?" He said it with a grin. I couldn’t remember seeing
him anything but serious, except for a few smiles on vids, so this was novel.