Hunter Legacy 5 Hail the Hero (5 page)

I opened a channel to Custer.

“You can stand down General. There’s
no need for a ground action. We are however, going to visit a station, so we
may need you then.”

“Understood.”

The channel closed.

“What just happened?” asked Amy.

“Which part?” asked Alison.
“Someone being terrified of Jon? Or the war being based on a lie?”

“Both.”

I put my face in my hands, and just sat
there.

“Classic power play in my
opinion,” said Vonda. “Exploit something the people worry deeply
about, gain power for yourselves, create an enemy, and get rid of those people
who might threaten you by sending them to fight. It never occurred to them the prophesy
might contain a real person, who would stop them.”

“Doesn’t explain why he was terrified
of Jon though,” said Amy.

“I don’t know,” said Vonda.
“Wrath is a pretty powerful word to bandy about.”

“Who are you really Jon?” asked
Alison. “Or what are you?”

I let my hands fall away from my face, and
looked at her. She had her serious face on, but the twinkle in her eye, and the
twitch of her lips, told me she wasn’t being serious.

Vonda laughed at Alsop’s expression. He had
that swallowed-a-frog look on his face again.

“Email from Slice, Jon,” said
Jane.

I dug out my pad, and threw the vid to a
side screen.

“Admiral, first planet done, moving to
the second. Have you checked the tactical display for this system? If not, I
think you’ll find it interesting.”

“What’s he talking about Jane?” I
asked her.

“This.”

Another screen popped up showing the
positions of the planets around the star.

“Hooley, dooley,” I exclaimed.

“What are we looking at?” asked
Amy.

“This,” I said with a flourish,
“is how the system looks from above at the moment. All the planets are
almost lined up in one neat line, nearly ninety degrees around from the jump
points. There’s less than a five percent deviation.”

“Is this good?” asked Alison.

“It’s very rare,” said Jane.
“In some systems, it only occurs once in tens of thousands of years.”

“And it’s happening here now?”
asked Vonda. “Is that significant?”

“Could be,” I said. “For
Seers, it’s too obvious an omen to pass up on using to justify whatever you
want people to do for you. Wars have been fought before based on much less of
an omen than this one.”

“Makes Slice’s job easier too,”
said Jane. “Took him the same time as us to get to the first planet. Now
he can do all of them in the same amount of time, instead of having to cover
the entire width and length. Also means the Orbital station is not all that far
from us. Half an hour or so, depending on exactly where it is.”

“What do you want to do now
General?” I asked her. “The main fleet needs to find this missing
station, but you probably should remain here.”

“I could move to Custer.”

“No, better make it Warspite. They
need to see something significant in orbit for a while. When the rest of the
Sci-Fi fleet finishes their patrols, they can form a blockade around the
planet. I’ll leave the Americans here for now, in case any ships try to escape.
We didn’t detect any, but it doesn’t mean they don’t have some hangered
somewhere.”

“Fine with me. Who tells who
what?”

It took me a moment to shift mental gears.

“Your bailiwick, your
announcement.”

She nodded, and opened a vid.

“Generals and Marshall. While Midgard
hasn’t actually surrendered, their ability to threaten anyone has been ended.
They’ve agreed to accept a diplomatic mission, and I’m hopeful, this war is now
over. There remains at least one loose end, which Admiral Hunter will now
pursue. Governor Wellington out.”

She nodded to Alsop, and he went blank
while he assembled the email, and sent it off.

“Captain’s Gig for the Governor, please
Jane.”

“Confirmed.”

As soon as Alsop finished, the two of them
left.

I opened a channel to Greer and Miriam.

“Commanders, we’ve been given the
location of the Orbital station. General Wellington is remaining here, on
Warspite. I’m assigning the smaller American ships as a temporary blockade
force around Midgard. Commander Greer, deploy so no ship from the surface can
escape. Capture is better than destroying, but no ship leaves this planet.
Commander Young, dock with BigMother please, you’ll assume command of the
pilots still aboard.”

“Yes sir,” they said together.

I closed the channel, and opened another to
BigMother’s ships.

“Dock please people. As soon as you’re
all aboard, we’re moving out again.”

They acknowledged, and I closed the
channel.

A half hour later, we were on our way to
the fifth planet. The main wait was the Gig doing a round trip. George and the
266 pilots appeared on the Bridge, and took seats. Annette followed them in a
minute later.

There wasn’t any point in leaving the Bridge,
so pad still being in hand, I started checking emails. A number of invoices
were waiting for my attention, so I paid them. Seems Jeeves had ordered a few
things, given the opportunity the freighter runs provided. One of the invoices
was two complete sets of Angel’s stuff. It made sense. There was no point in
continually shifting her stuff around, especially the kitty castle, wall, and ramps.
Might as well have a set in Gunbus and Custer, for future use. Seemed Cat World
considered me a safe customer, as the pallets had been delivered to the
freighter, before the invoice was paid.

“Heads up,” said Jane.

We were about half way to the fifth planet,
Midgard having been the fourth in the system. Ahead of us, and somewhat below
our course line, was an asteroid belt.

A black dot was now showing on the scanner.
There were no ships showing, but this didn’t mean there weren’t any docked at
whatever station this was.

We watched as the station came into visual
range, and progressively grew bigger.

As we reached a point where the fleet was
about to pass it by, I called a halt. Jane took us down, relatively speaking,
and BigMother approached the station. It was located on the edge of the
asteroid belt itself, just far enough away to avoid any possibility of a
collision with a rock.

“Mining station,” said George.
“Looks like we found the Shipyard’s feeding ground.”

“Looks like it,” I said, with a
grin. “Jane, send the following. Midgard has surrendered, please do the
same, or you will be destroyed.”

“Confirmed.” There was a minute’s
pause. “The station has surrendered.”

“What ships are docked?”

“One super-freighter, and a mixture of
large and medium freighters. Nine in all.”

“Can you take control of them?”

“Yes, but for basic functions
only.”

“Anyone on them?”

“Not many.”

“Tell them to leave the ships
immediately. Once they’re empty, undock them.”

“Confirmed.”

“What are you up to Jon?” asked
Alison.

I gave her the Maniac grin.

“Oh, shit,” said George. He knew
that look all too well.

“Jane, take us back to the fleet
please. Have the freighters follow along behind us.”

“Confirmed.”

I opened a channel to the Mark Hamill.

“Captain Dunning, do you have towing
capability?”

“Yes sir. You want the station to be
moved?”

“Yes please. Take it back to Midgard,
and put it in synchronous orbit over the capital city. Inform General
Wellington she now has a base, with my compliments.”

“Aye sir. After?”

“Form up with Warspite, and wait for
us to return.”

“Yes sir.”

The channel closed. Mark Hamill peeled out
of formation, and headed down towards the station. When she was clear, I ordered
the fleet to continue.

Five minutes later, another black dot
appeared on the scanner. We made a slight course change to bring us straight to
it. I was surprised we hadn’t seen it already on the front view, as the HUD
details showed it to be huge. At least as big as the Sydney jump point station,
which being a combined military and civilian station, was bigger than most. All
the same, it wasn’t visible until we passed a small moon, and found it in orbit
of another moon. The planet the moons orbited was a large gas giant.

The fleet stopped at a healthy distance,
within weapons range.

“Same message Jane.”

“Confirmed.”

There was a very long pause.

“They don’t believe the planet
surrendered.”

“Figures. Can you clone yourself to their
computer?”

“Done. The clone’s name is Janice. Should
it get a little stuffy over there?”

“You couldn’t do that with the
shipyard.”

“No, but here we can. The life support
system here is a lot different.”

“Do so. Put a life support failure
message on every screen.”

“Confirmed.”

“What ships have they got?”

“The six Cruisers which evacuated the
Shipyard, and three medium freighters.”

“Are they enough to evacuate
everyone?”

“No. Looks like they have three full
fleets worth of people here, in addition to a crew. It will need most of the
freighters we took from the other station to carry them.”

“Dock them please. Suggest they have
only ten minutes to evacuate, before they lose air completely, and let them
know we’re sending them more ships.”

“Confirmed. Freighters will be here in
about five minutes.”

“What are you up to sir?” asked
Lacey.

“Just relocating Midgard citizens back
to their planet.”

“Bollocks,” one of the pilots
mumbled.

I grinned at them.

“That’s bollocks, sir,” I
responded, still grinning.

We watched as the freighters docked. The
first of the Cruisers pulled back from the station.

“Jane, tell the Cruisers to hold their
positions. When all ships are loaded, they’ll be escorted safely back to
Midgard. Any attempt to escape will result in the destruction of the
ships.”

“Confirmed.”

“Isn’t that a bit harsh?” asked
George.

“Sure. I wouldn’t do it though. They
only need to hear it. If need be, we can tow the lot of them back.”

There were a few relieved faces.

“There are some life signs on the
station which appear to be ignoring the life support failure,” said Jane.

“George, take Custer over to the
station, and have the team do a sweep through it. I want every civilian off
that station. If need be, stun them, and haul them to a ship.”

“You’ve got it.”

He stood, and ran out.

I opened a channel to Custer, and repeated
the orders to Annabelle.

In record time, indicating George must have
run the whole way he couldn’t trolley, Custer undocked, and moved across to the
station. I threw suit cams onto the view screen, and we watched as the team
were guided by Janice to where people gathered. All of them were wearing the
same sort of breathing gear we’d encountered when my station had been boarded a
week ago.

The biggest group was in administration.
Janice told them to surrender peacefully. They refused. We watched the team
taking ineffective fire from them, as one by one they were all stunned. Cargo
droids from Custer hauled the bodies off to the nearest ship.

It took an hour to subdue, and remove, the
remaining people. The freighters sealed their airlocks, and undocked. The one’s
Jane controlled, moved out to form a line behind the fleet. The others were
directed to join them. At first they refused. I had Jane threaten to destroy
them. It took all the turrets on the fleet pointed at them, to change their
minds. The ships moved into a rough formation with the other freighters. I had
four of the Guardians take positions behind them.

Custer undocked as well, and re-docked with
BigMother.

I stood, changed my suit to ‘slinky red’,
and sat again.

“You’re not,” said Alison, with
her mouth left open.

“I’m claiming this abandoned station.
Jane, have one of the Guardian’s take the station under tow please. Two others
for escort. Take it to where the Shipyard is. Get Janine to build more station
tugs, sufficient for moving both stations.”

“Confirmed.”

“Isn’t this piracy?” asked Lacey.

“No, Privateer Law. I captured the
station, in a time of war, using my AI, and my own troops, who were fired upon after
calling for surrender. No-one else is here to dispute the claim. It’s the same
principal as claiming a ship after a battle, except war claims need no
adjudication when abandoned.”