Hunter Legacy 5 Hail the Hero (28 page)

I wondered about the unlucky part. More
likely the cosmos was teaching me another lesson, at someone else’s expense.

Walter came in at that moment.

“How are your people doing?” he
asked.

Jane told him, while I stood there like a
stunned mullet.

The flat line noise sounded again, and my
heart skipped a beat, before I realized it was coming from the next bed. It
restarted as I looked in. It was Pyne. He was hanging in there, but only just.
The doc turned away from the bed, saw me standing there, and came over.

“Whoever configured that belt saved
his life. I think we have him now, but he’s lost a lot of blood. The belt on
him stopped the bleeding flow outward, otherwise he’d have bled out before we
could get to him. As soon as he’s stable, he’s going into surgery.”

“Let him know an AI saved his life. It
might change his mind about them when he finds out. Tell him he can keep the
belt. He was the only one of us without one. If I’d had any inkling this would
happen, I’d have made sure everyone had one on. But up until now, it’s been me
who was the target, and anyone with me hasn’t been targeted.”

“Well at least you had a spare one
available. It made the difference.”

I nodded, and moved back to Aline’s bed.
She seemed to be stable now, but people were still fussing around her. Walter
had vanished, presumably seeing how Petersen was doing.

A doctor came in, looked at me, and
beckoned me out. Jane and I followed him.

“Your people?” the doctor asked.
I nodded. “They’re mostly out of danger now, except for Ms. Takai and Commander
Pyne. We’ll know for sure with both of them in the next half hour. The injured
from the other side of your battle were taken to a different hospital. They
have fatalities. So does station security. When were you planning on
leaving?”

“Straight after the celebration. I
guess that will be delayed now?”

“Do you have your own medical
facilities?”

“Yes.”

“We’ll keep everyone here for a few
hours to ensure they’re fit to move, then we’ll release them to your
facilities. Assuming nothing happens beforehand, Ms. Takai will need a Care
Unit transfer, so have one of yours prepped for her. With luck, she shouldn’t
need more than twenty four hours in one, after which she should only need
bedrest. But it might be best if they all stay in one for twenty four hours or
so, which we should’ve done with you last time, but didn’t. They’ll all need
monitoring, and pain shots for several days after that.”

“My AI can monitor them, and I have a
butler droid which has been giving me pain shots.”

“We’ll see how they are when they each
wake up. If need be, we’ll put them back to sleep before we transfer them to
your ship. I’ll ping you when they wake up, or when they can be transferred. If
you have anything else to do, you may as well go do it. And I’d rather you
removed that combat suit from the entrance. If anyone else was going to be
combative, I think it would have happened by now.”

“Fine. I’ll take it with me.”

He nodded to me and left.

I looked in on each of them, all apparently
sleeping. Aline was looking better now. Amy was awake and asking to be allowed
up. She’d taken several handgun shots, and had minor bruising only. The docs
wouldn’t let her go though.

Walter was in with Petersen. She looked to
be ok, but her belt was toast. I told him I’d get both of them new ones. I told
him what Amy had told me about his making enemies. He and his staff needed to
take that seriously from now on. He nodded to me.

Price was in with Pyne. I gave him the same
advice to take things seriously, on the basis the pirates could target him as
the only strong link in what they might perceive as a weak defensive chain now.
I made sure he knew about the boosters, and the new type of belt I was wearing.

He reminded me of the celebration, and
although I could be late, I was still expected to attend. I stared at him, but
reluctantly nodded. I might be inactive in the SFSF now, but I’d been the
Admiral in charge of the fleet which had defended here, and then fought its way
to Midgard. As such, I was the only officer from that fleet to return so far,
and I needed to put in the appearance on that basis.

I headed out with Jane following me. We
climbed aboard the trolley, the combat suit jumping up to take the same
position I had when I’d been in it, the security droid next to it. Jane took
the control position.

“Where too?”

“‘Tool man’.”

“Confirmed.”

The trolley moved off at a sedate pace.
Five minutes later, we stopped outside his place, dismounted, and went in. The
combat suit took up position outside the door.

He was waiting for us, a grave look on his
face. I held out my hand and he shook it. I threw the feeds for the recent
battle to his wall, and we watched the battle in silence. His face lit up when
he saw my hops, and he looked me up and down as well.

“It worked,” I said when the feed
ended. “I was the worst hit, and yet I took no damage. The suit lost some
integrity, but it’s already regenerating.”

“It was your idea. Without your
insight, I may never have figured it out.”

“Well you did. I want them for my
entire team, and all my security droids. So make me up several hundred of them.
Having spares may save some lives down the track.”

“Fine. You get them at cost plus five
percent. Everyone else will pay an arm and a leg for them, ten percent of which
you get as a royalty. I insist.”

“I won’t argue with you.” We both
grinned. “When can you have them for me?”

“That many? Lunch time tomorrow.”

“I’ll leave a ship behind for them.
Jane here will take delivery. Pulse me the invoice as soon as you have it
ready.”

“Certainly.”

“Can you do ten of them in the next
couple of hours? New belt merged with two normal ones, with three boosters
each?”

“Sure.”

“I’ll leave a security droid here
then. As soon as they’re ready and made up, give them to the droid. It’ll
replace the belts on my people still in hospital.”

“No problems.”

We did our farewells, and Jane and I started
to leave. He called me back before I reached the door.

“I think I have the very thing for
your minor walking issue. Be back in a sec.”

Walking issue? I couldn’t help smiling. I
was somewhere between a severe limp and a hobble. I didn’t feel like I needed a
pain shot, but my medical monitor was giving me some pain relief. I made a note
to get myself checked again once I was back at the hospital. My main problem
was not really pain, but my knee still didn’t work properly.

He came back in carrying a cane. It looked
like plain wood, with an ornate silver top.

“PC controlled ten shot laser,”
he said, handing it to me. “Default mode is stunner, so it’s legal on
stations.”

I shifted it to my left hand, let it touch
the ground, and put some weight on it. A pop-up asked to start a download,
which I accepted. A new menu was added. Under setup, was an option to match the
cane to the person. I activated it, and the cane lengthened a small amount,
making it the perfect length for me.

“Add it to my bill,” I said.

“My compliments,” he said with a
grin.

I nodded to him, and we left, sending the
security droid in to wait.

As far as shutting the barn door after the
horse has bolted was concerned, no-one was better at it than me.

Lacey and the other pilots met me just
inside the celebration venue.

Jane and I had a problem getting in. The
doorman had insisted we disarm first. I’d given him ‘the look’ and seen him go
pale, but he’d still held his ground. When the combat suit pointed a Pulse
Rifle at him, he’d fainted. The suit took up a position outside the door, and
Jane and I walked in wearing ‘slinky red’. We were the only ones not in Dress
uniforms or swanky attire, and the only ones armed. In the mood I was in, I
didn’t care. I was there, and that was as far as I was going to accommodate
anyone.

The pilots were shocked to hear what had
happened at our dock. Camel was on the other side of the station from us, and
the Excalibur’s were in the fighter docking area. They’d come straight to the
celebration, expecting to meet us here.

I pinged the ‘tool man’ for an immediate five
more belts, and instructed Jane to bring the security droid here with them
first.

Price and Walter came in with an armed
escort, saw me, and came straight over.

“I set the doorman straight,”
said Price. “Given what happened at the last celebration you were at, we
aren’t taking any chances at this one. If it makes anyone uncomfortable, too
bad.”

He went over to the same chairs I’d used
last time, moved people off them, and waved us over. We sat, with Jane and the
escort taking up flanking positions.

People politely ignored our guns, and
sought me out, chit chatting about the war, and inconsequential things I knew
nothing about. I made an effort to be polite, and if I wasn’t able to smile, I
at least kept the worry off my face.

Chief McLauchlan came past at one point,
mentioned new payments coming in soon, and moved on.

An hour into things, a man in ‘slinky red’,
carrying a bag, made his way over to us. Jane announced he had six belts with
him, and I sent Walter and the pilots to the men’s room with the security
droid, so they could change their suits over in private. Not something to be done
in public.

The ‘man’ left immediately after, to wait
for the new belts for the girls. No-one noticed it hadn’t been a man at all.

Sometime after five, platters of finger
food began to make the rounds of the room, starting with the group around me. I
couldn’t eat, and I hadn’t been drinking either. My gut was all knotted up.

I wasn’t paying attention to anything now,
and was finding any level of conversation difficult to engage in.

The ping to return to the hospital came in at
five thirty. I said my goodbyes to Price, suggested Walter stay with the pilots
until we were ready to leave, and with Jane, left the celebration feeling relieved
to be out of there.

Back at the hospital, I found Amy trying to
get out, and learnt the rest of the girls had all woken, and been put back to
sleep. They were going into Care Units for transport to the ship, and were
going to be moving delicately like me for a while. I sent Jane out to buy more
scooters, in case they couldn’t walk very well.

While I waited, one of the doctors gave me
the once over, and declared me to be in satisfactory condition.

The security droid turned up as the
transports arrived. I bullied the doctors into letting me change their belts,
before they were loaded up. I handed Amy her new belt, and she dived into the
ladies room to change it. The old ones went into the bag the droid was
carrying, which went onto our trolley. I’d get Jane to test them and see if any
of them could be salvaged. As Jane wasn’t back yet, the droid took the driver’s
position, with Amy and me sitting behind it, the combat suit again on the end.

We headed back to the ship at a sedate
pace. Once there, Amy took a small trolley onwards, heading for her bed. I
retrieved my scooter, and waited at the top of the ramp on it. Combat suits and
droids were still ringing the dock area. But all the cargo was now gone.

Shortly after, the transports arrived. I
dropped into the seat of another trolley, and let Jane drive it remotely to the
other end of the deck, with the transports following behind. I had to show
hospital people how to negotiate the access shaft, which was just large enough
for the transporting Care Units. One by one the girls went up, and along to the
Medical Bay, where they were transferred into the Care Units there. I retraced
the journey back to the airlock with the transport teams, and saw them off.

I pinged Lacey it was time to get going,
and headed back once more. On the way, I noticed one of the bays was full of
cargo, which had previously been empty. It was a mixture of containers and
pallets. Jane had obviously been busy while we’d been out.

Back in the Medical Bay, I stood there
looking at the active units. The girls had paid for my stupidity this time. I
wasn’t sure how I’d be able to face them when they came out. It wasn’t
something I could avoid though, so I instructed Jane to let me know when the
Care Units said they could be released.

I headed for the Bridge. Before I arrived,
Jane informed me her avatar was back on board, and Walter had just arrived as
well. I told her to bring the combat forces in, and close the airlock.

By the time we were ready to go, Lacey
confirmed they’d all launched, and were heading to the Atlantis jump point.

I pinged station control for the docking
invoice, including another day for a small freighter, paid it, and Jane backed
us out. Before turning us, Zippy launched out the front of the Flight Deck, and
angled around to enter the small ships dock.

By seven, we were on our way to the jump
point. Three hours to Atlantis.

Walter declined my invitation to dinner
saying he was for a spa, and then bed. I moved to a lounge chair in my Ready
Room, where Angel zoomed in and landed on my lap. I patted her for a while,
until she dropped off to sleep.

An email to Annabelle needed doing now. I
explained the ambush we’d walked into, and the condition of each of the team. I
included the combat feeds, so she could see what happened. I told her we were
on our way home, with no more stops until Hunter’s Redoubt, so she needn’t worry
about recovery time being interrupted. I also told her of the island retreat on
Gold Coast, and we would be heading there as soon as possible after arriving in
Nexus. Jane encrypted it, and it went off.

I entered a meditation state, and started
doing releases for the mercenaries I’d killed or wounded. After, I let the
angels pop in other things for me to release. The bully in first school who’d
tormented me until I’d reprogrammed his school desk computer to embarrass him.
The bully I’d come to blows with in second school. And the friend who kept
hitting me in the later years until I’d whopped him one in class. He never hit
me again, so being laughed at by the whole class had been worth it. Spiritual
community that we were, kids were still kids until taught how to be spiritual.
Some of us pick it up faster than others, and even in a spiritual community,
some never do.

Release followed release, going back and
forth along my life, obscure and obvious.

I found myself on the floor, curled up and
feeling like my chest had exploded from too much coughing. Angel was on the
back of the chair, sitting there looking at me. I sat up, smiling at her, and
reassured her I was fine. I felt lighter, like a lot of weight had been lifted
from me. I sat back down, and let myself sink back into the meditation state.

I didn’t know how I was suddenly sitting at
the table, but I was. I looked along it, and two shadowy figures solidified at
the other end.

“Now that wasn’t so hard, was
it?” asked Kali.

“What wasn’t?” I asked.

“The work you just did,” said
Ganesha.

“Oh, that. No, I guess not.”

“Plenty more to do,” said Kali.
“An hour a day for the next two months should get you there.”

“Get me where?”

“Ascended. The time for everyone
varies, and yours is shorter than most.”

“Do I need to be?”

“No,” said Ganesha. “But it’ll
make things easier if you are.”

“Easier for what?”

They looked at each other, and then at me.

“For what is to come,” said Kali.

“Obviously,” I said, with a lot
of sarcasm. “Why me? I nearly lost half my team today through stupidity.
I’ve risen to my level of incompetence.”

“Now Jon,” said Ganesha,
“don’t be like that. You trained yourself to be a combat pilot, and an
Admiral. And partly to be a Duke. So you know nothing about being a General, or
a Mercenary. Don’t beat yourself up for not being all things.”

“So my team was beaten up to point out
my shortcomings?”

“No Jon,” said Kali. “You
all needed a lesson in prudence. Each of them will be the first to admit they
made the same assumption you did. You were going to hit a minor force in the
rear. You all thought it, you all laughed at the prospect. None of you
contemplated an ambush for a second, even though you’d been through them
before.”

“Do the lessons need to be so
painful?”

They both laughed.

“Where do we go from here?” I
asked.

“Your beach resort seems a good place
to heal,” said Kali, with a smile.

“That wasn’t what I meant, and you
know it.”

“We know,” she said. “You
have some time to build now. Not a lot, but enough. When the time is right for
what comes next, you will know.”

I sighed.

Kali’s tongue extended to its full length
and she thumped the table hard with all four hands.

“Jon,” said Jane. “We are
almost to the jump point.”

I startled to awareness, sitting in the
lounge chair, Angel behind my head. I looked over at the table, and found the
end with the figures to be damaged again.

I shook my head, rose, and moved to my
chair on the Bridge. Angel bounced up onto her console pad. The jump point
showed no signs that a series of battles had ever been conducted here.
McLauchlan had obviously been cleaning up.

Lacey signaled the all clear for jumping,
so we went through into Atlantis without reducing speed. 266 were already
accelerating out in front.

By quarter after ten, I was asleep in bed,
Angel curled up by my neck.