Make or Break the Hero (The Hunter Legacy Book 4) (17 page)

I wondered why I hadn't seen an invoice for
all the work done, and what had been left on board. It had to have made a
sizable hole in Bob's pocket.

The two AI's and I debated ways of doing
what I wanted. What we settled on wasn't necessarily pretty, but it would work.

The builder droids began, supervised by
Jane. Cargo droids transferred everything the station could provide, and it was
stored in cargo bays until needed.

Discussion over, I went and played with
Angel for a while.

Once Angel went to sleep, I sat in a lounge
chair and waded through emails. There were a lot of new banking ones, advising
of bounty payments, on kills now weeks old. There were plenty of real estate
ads, investment advice, and more of the usual junk mail.

David Tollin responded to say he was moving
to the station as soon as my Liner arrived, with a core administration staff.
The family in residence on Outback Orbital would take longer to decide, but he'd
pitched the case, especially if the station ended up in Nexus.

He listed the freighters he'd received from
266 Squadron's efforts. These were a mixture of small and medium freighters.
All had been caught with drugs. He'd found crews for them all, listed 266
Squadron on each as a crew member, and set them to work. Now that the pirate
presence in the Australian sector had been eliminated, courtesy of my good self,
trade was back to normal amongst all the planets.

Hunter Trading was the name used for the
new company, keeping the mercenary and trading sides of my Hunter Enterprises
separate. As each captain was responsible for running his or her own ship, and paying
the owners percentage of profits to the company, the company itself had only
needed to borrow starting credits from Hunter Security, for food and
consumables for the ship crews. Once trading began, each ship had paid in
enough very quickly, to repay those loans.

Lacey, as Squadron Leader of 266 Squadron,
was receiving regular payments of their crew share from each ship. David made a
point of mentioning Lacey had been quick to divide each payment up with his
pilots.

I thanked him for the information, and sent
him General Harriman's aide's contact details, asking him to co-ordinate with
the General, as he set up the station administration. The station was going to
need a military only area, and only the General could provide the details for
creating it. 

I pinged the General's aide with the news
that David was coming to set up the station's administration, and giving his
contact details.

Next, I had Jane launch a Sabre, and take
it far enough away for an image to be taken of the Carrier from several angles.
The images appeared on my pad. I opened a vid.

"Hi Miriam. Like my new ship?" I
grinned at her, although I still couldn't help wincing after. "It's an old
Midway class Escort Carrier I captured a while ago. She's had some extensive
work done to her, and I'm in the middle of getting more done. She'll be a sort
of mobile base for me from now on. You did want me to be safer, so now I will
be." I grinned again. "I'm currently in the Midnight system. We'll be
leaving in a few hours to return to Cobol. Hopefully it won't be long now,
before we meet again in Midgard. See you then." I blew her a kiss, and
closed the vid. I attached the vid and images to an email, and sent it off.

The first of the Drone Freighters left on
its mission of deploying comnavsats and cargo delivery. It shot away from the
station faster than the Liner had, at an unheard of speed for a freighter.

An email came in from Bob.

"Well my very rich young friend, what
can I say?" He grinned. "I was watching my bank balance all morning,
as it steadily increased as the deposits you organized were processed. I've
never seen anything like this. Even my big break which allowed me to buy this
shipyard, wasn’t anything on this scale. Who'd have guessed by doing the
impossible for a youngster who didn’t know it was impossible, would pay off so
nicely? Did you get the notification for the payment from the Americans?"

I stopped the vid.

Mixed up in the notifications of deposits
from Sci-Fi and British sectors, was one from the Americans. They'd paid the
license fees for three John Wayne specifications. At a guess, that would mean
they were modifying the Tyr Missile Cruiser they'd purchased from me, into a
Pocket Battleship, and doing two of their Actor class Cruisers as well. Or three
Actor class. As muscle to support the Gunbus squadron, and Excalibur wing they
were building, they were a good idea.

I restarted Bob.

"I've sent you the invoice for your
Carrier refit, including all the equipment, fittings, and consumables left
aboard. I've reduced it as far as I dare, given that you made me a very happy
man this morning. Your ships are on the way to your new station, with all the
cargo, and I'm thankful to see them go. Now I have some space to do things in
again. I held back one of the freighters to wait for your droids. It should be
on its way this evening. Enjoy your new toy. Derr out."

The invoice was a little further down the
stack. I opened it, and read a huge long list of all the components and
equipment which went into the refit. At the bottom was an obvious mathmatical
error. The total read one credit. I laughed. I guess he was happy. I added a
million credits as a tip, and suggested he give his work force a bonus and a
day off. I paid it feeling just as happy as he obviously did.

I carried on wading the river of emails.
When I finished, I started watching the battle feeds of the first few attacks
on Midnight.

Even more now, was I confused about why
Lacey was just a Squadron Leader. His deployment had been very close to what
I’d have done, given the notice they had about the impending attack. And his
battle orders were decisive. He'd made a mess of his attack on me, the day we
met, but he'd been badly misled about my ability and my ship. Had he known how
good I was, and just what the capabilities of my ship were, I might not have
won that battle so decisively.

It was quite obvious I hadn't seen him at
his best. Now I was. His tactics showed he understood how to use the Corvettes
and Privateers he had.

With time to set up an ambush, he'd
positioned all of the ships with torpedo launchers, above and behind the jump
point emergence area. He'd had two Corvettes, Camel and Unthinkable. He'd also
had an Excalibur and the five Centurions. They'd formed a line, and as the
Cruisers down jumped, had all fired torpedoes. The Cruisers had died without
any possibility of doing anything. Some of the Talons had received the same
treatment.

At this point, the Gladiator wing had
simply rushed the Talons, which proved to be a stupid thing to do. Fifteen
squadrons of Talons, minus a few, can spam missiles in large quantities. The
Gladiators were overwhelmed before the larger ships could reposition themselves
to protect them. They'd lost a third of their number to missiles, before the
range closed enough for dogfighting.

It hadn't been Lacey's fault. The after
action report had clearly shown the Flight Lieutenant, acting as Squadron
Leader, had been openly critical of mercenaries before the battle, and had
deliberately disobeyed Lacey's orders to stay well outside missile range, until
the formations had been broken up by the bigger ships. He hadn't survived the
battle, and he wasn't replaced for the second battle, with all ships
specifically placed under Lacey's command.

They'd left the debris field where it was.
The battle the following day had been a repeat of the first, with the
exceptions of the debris field causing enough damage to the down jumping ships,
causing the Talon formations to fall apart quickly, allowing the Gladiators to
finish the job with missiles at long range, instead of dogfighting.

General Harriman had turned up in a medium
freighter during the afternoon of day two, with replacement ordinance. Each
battle after, had needed less actual action.

Lacey had performed the role of a Group
Captain, rather than a Squadron Leader. Once this war was over, I’d have to
think about promoting him somehow. The main trouble was, I didn’t think I’d
have a need for a higher rank than Squadron Leader.

By five, as I came to the end of the battle
feeds, Unthinkable, the Excalibur, and Centurions, were ready to transfer to
BigMother, but she wasn’t ready for people yet. I had Jane move them instead.

I thought about Lacey's face when he
thought he'd be going back to a Centurion. They really did deserve a reward. I
sent off another email.

I told Angel I would be out for a few
hours, and limped over to the still going party. As soon as I left the Cargo Bay,
Jane buttoned the ship up, and Gunbus undocked to move to BigMother.

Annette and the 266 squadron pilots were
sitting at a table when I came in, and Annette waved me over. I’d no sooner sat
down, than Jeeves had a ginger ale in front of me.

Jane's avatar also came in, and sat at the
table. I introduced her to the pilots, since they hadn't met her before,
although they'd been talking to her regularly on the two Camels, and the
Excalibur. They took some convincing she wasn’t human, even knowing she was an
AI. Jane was that good at the impersonation now.

I let them know their ships were now on the
Carrier, and once she was ready for people, we'd be leaving. The Camels would
dock before we went. They would have the choice of sleeping on their ships, or
moving into suites on the Carrier. The word 'suites' generated a lot of interest,
so I told them the layout and standard furnishings. They all agreed sleeping on
the Carrier was a good idea.

It had been ages since I was last at a good
party, and never at one this big. People seemed to be enjoying themselves. I
let the atmosphere flow over me. Jeeves brought the table a banquet of Chinese
food, and we all helped ourselves. Jane even managed the illusion of eating
with us.

Just before seven, Janet advised me via my
PC, BigMother was ready for people. I watched on a hollo screen only I could
see, while the two Camel's docked. Towards the rear, on each side, were now two
droid sized airlocks, at the Cargo Bay level. The two Camels had docked their
own droid airlocks to them, and they were now securely attached to the Carrier.
This would make large ship to Carrier transfers a lot easier in the future,
except where the main cargo airlocks could be joined. You could join my
Corvettes like that, but it was a waste of cargo airlocks, and at some time in
the future, I might be needing the large locks for bigger ships, while also
needing the smaller ones docked as well.

I pinged General Harriman we would be
leaving soon. He pinged back to wait for him.

A few minutes later, he came in followed by
his aide. She looked a bit awed by my head bruise, but the smile on her face
stayed in place. The last time I'd seen her, I'd been in a dark place, wearing
a thundercloud, and she couldn’t keep her smile going in my presence.

"Jon, I wanted a word before you
left," he said, as he came up to me. I stood. "I've had approval
given for your station to move to Nexus once the war is over. If you leave
where you want it with your Janet, I'll see the station there before I head
back to Sydney."

"Thank you sir."

"You made your point with your
original request. If you are seeing to the security of Nexus on a long term
basis, it makes sense you have a base there. In fact, once the station is
there, it makes sense that I move my HQ to your station, so I'm central to the
whole sector. Would you have a problem with that?"

"No sir. As long as the Militia pays
its rent, I've no problem at all." Everyone around us laughed, and we both
joined in. "Seriously though, I don’t see a problem. The station is large
enough to make a good central hub for the sector, and hosting Militia ships
shouldn’t be an issue. Talk to David Tollin about what you need when he gets
here, and have Janet do any work to provide it. She made the CCC without any
consultation, so she's quite capable of coordinating any building work you need
done. I'm taking the station's building droids with me, and most of the repair
droids, as the Carrier still needs a lot of work. But I've ordered more from
Bob, which should be here in a couple of days. There are also a hundred
security droids coming with belt suits, so they'll form the stations security
force, looking like normal people, but run by Janet. The few remaining ones,
will be left here for now."

Jane had used three more, for the Liner and
the two Drone Freighters. There were eight left to act as a security force
until more arrived. But if need be, the pilots remaining here could also act as
security.

He nodded, and I thought for a moment.

"If you need a ship to move around in,
use my Liner, once David is finished with it. It's a lot faster than it used to
be, and much more comfortable for travelling. Jane will be your pilot."

She grinned at him. I don’t think he knew
how to react.

"I'm thinking of posting a full time
fleet here at this jump point as well," I went on, "as long as the
Sci-Fi sector don’t object. If they do, the next logical place is the Midnight
jump point in Bad Wolf. We can screen everyone going in and out for contraband
and ID fakes. And keep a permanent pirate watch. It would be something like
three Pocket Battleships, and some Corvettes. A force no one in their right
mind would take on. Just a thought for now. Have to see the war through
first."

"Fine Admiral. I'll see what the
sector will allow. By the time you return, I should have an answer for
you." I nodded. "Keep me in the loop please. While I'm in contact with
the other Force leaders, hearing the news direct from you is better, and
faster."