Hunter Legacy 11: Home Is Where the Hero Is (8 page)

I found out where Miriam and Eric had been,
which had made them almost be late for the meeting.

Miriam and I were sitting in a nice
restaurant down on Gaia Five, enjoying the long delayed Valentine meal I'd
promised her. It was just the two of us, and no-one except Jane knew where we
were. She was dressed in a lovely pale green evening dress, and I was in a
medium gray lounge suit, over a red shirt, minus necktie. The single red rose
I’d given her was sitting in a small vase in the center of the table, and the
heart shaped box of chocolates was sitting next to her. So far at least, I
seemed to have done Valentine's Day correctly. Albeit months late.

"We were in your room on
Galactica," she said with a grin, "playing Wing Commander. If it
hadn't been for Jane, we would have been late for the meeting."

"Who let you in there?"

"Your mother of course."

"Figures."

"I know you sent us both a computer
which could run those old games for Christmas, but it's not the same thing as
running them on your rig."

I opened my mouth to tell her I hadn't sent
her anything at all, and shut it again immediately. What was the point in
spoiling the moment?

"Different? How?"

"Your rig evolved. The computers we
received were custom built to the end result. Yours though shows how you built
it, and the mismatch of parts which you cobbled together over time. I also
loved your gaming chair, antique as it looks, with its joystick and keyboard
mounted on the arms, and the multitude of screens around it. I could spend days
in there, forgetting the rest of the universe."

"I did."

We both chuckled.

The main course arrived, and conversation lagged
as we ate. After, while we waited for dessert, the topic went back to the
afternoon's meeting.

"What gives with that councilor who
demanded the system be sealed when we left?" she asked me.

"I'm guessing, but I think he
represents the non-spiritual people who live here, who are so used to being
hidden from the universe, they can't cope with the whole concept of things
changing. He certainly ended the meeting on a way out note."

"Was that his intention?"

"I thought so. But it won't change
anything."

"Is there any way to seal up the
system? From either side?"

"I can think of some ways."

"Name one?"

I thought for a moment.

"In theory, on this side, we could
build a Dyson Sphere like station around the entire jump point, so anything
jumping in, would hit a solid object on down jump, or be shredded by as many
internal guns as would fit. But there are so many potential problems with doing
it, I'm not sure it's feasible. And it would certainly take months or even
years to get the engineering right and build it. Fine if the Darkness is years
away, we may solve the issues by then. But if we don’t have years, whatever we
put in place for next year, may not work because it was hurriedly designed and
built."

She went blank while I was saying all that,
but was nodding before I finished. She'd obviously been looking up what a
Dyson's Sphere was.

"What do you see as the main problem
with it?"

"Two actually. The first is that
continuous impacts on the inside of the sphere for five days straight, repeated
over a number of years, could weaken the structure enough that without yearly
strengthening, it would one day break."

She nodded.

"The other is what happens when the
interior becomes full of debris. The nature of the jump point would expel to
the originating side any debris in the jump point itself, giving warning on the
other side, and allowing strategies to be tried to break whatever was
destroying the ships going through. Eventually, something would work. And there
is a very real possibility the entire structure would suddenly jump to the
other side, if enough debris was crushed together so everything touched the sphere
itself, as if solid."

"That’s a depressing thought."

"Especially if after a few years,
complacency and cost cutting stopped or reduced maintenance to the point where
a weakness forms."

"And once there is a breach?"

"All is lost."

She shivered.

On that somber note, dessert arrived, and
our spirits were restored. Conversation turned to more general matters. I had a
second dessert while she lingered over coffee.

Jane picked us up at the spaceport using a
Lightning, and we were back on board by midnight.

Back in my suite, the dress slipped off her
easily, revealing lacy underwear underneath. My suit took longer, and for a
moment I regretted not having been a bit more creative with my briefs. They
didn’t stay on long enough to have bothered about though, and with both our
underwear in a pile on the floor with the rest of our clothes, such things as
what they looked like were quickly forgotten.

Angel came in sometime later expecting to
curl up next to me for sleep, but left again when neither of us would stay
still for more than a few seconds at a time, constantly threatening to roll on
her by accident.

Eventually, both of us intensely satisfied,
we went to sleep.

Miriam was still there when I woke in the
morning, as was Angel. We both made a point of stroking and tickling her to
make up for last night, before showering together. We shared a light breakfast
in my dining room. I was back in 'slinky red', and Miriam was in civvies.

On the tip of my tongue was the question of
how Aline felt about all this, but I didn’t have the guts to ask it, and I sure
didn’t want to spoil what we’d just shared.

Jane finally interrupted the conversation
of two lovers, who hadn’t quite finished getting ready for a new day.

"The Keeper obtained permission for us
to visit Gaia Three this morning. Interested?"

"Sure," we both answered
together.

"Small party only, so limited to the
Alpha team and Amy."

"Good," I said. "Where are
we going?"

"I thought a quick Lightning tour
around the planet, and then lunch at a Sacred Glade after a dip. The ship isn’t
allowed to land, but there is a place where we can step off a hovering ship,
and there is a lunch spot adjacent to the Glade."

"I think I've seen it, but never been
there."

"Part of why I chose it."

Jane was grinning.

"When do we leave?" asked Miriam.

"Nine."

It was already eight.

"Can you have Eric and Jessie report
to my Ready Room in fifteen minutes?"

"I'll need to dig them out of your
Galactica quarters. They spent the night using your game rig. Eric's wife is
not impressed with him not coming home, so he'll probably welcome something
legitimate to do while she calms down."

I grinned at her.

"If they have to fake being bright
eyed and bushy tailed, so be it. But I have a job for them which can't
wait."

"Confirmed."

I looked at Miriam. She looked at me. Jane
grinned and walked out.

"See you on the Launch Deck at
nine?" I said to her.

"Wouldn’t miss it."

I dragged my gaze away from her, and headed
for my Ready Room.

I’d been there only a few minutes, when
Walter came in the door.

"Got a minute?" he asked.

"Sure."

He sat opposite my desk.

"Your Missile Cruiser has arrived
already, and is patrolling the system. The first squadron of Talons will be
here in an hour. A second squadron will be here tomorrow. The squadron leaders
are still largely untested, but I can't see there being too much to do here, at
least until next year. One squadron will live on station, and rotate with the
other who will have quarters down on Gaia Four. There were no shortage of
volunteers. Apparently there is a Fleet Captain Jane on the Missile Cruiser,
and I've placed both squadrons under her command, as the senior officer in the
system. Any problem with that?"

"None."

"Thank you for your trust in me
General," said Jane through room coms.

"Well earned Colonel. And it allows me
to not have to leave an experienced senior officer here, who might be needed
elsewhere, so you are perfect for the job."

"Happy to help."

I chuckled. The General rose, and departed.

Eric and Jessie entered, and stood before
the desk. Both of them looked like they'd been up all night.

"I didn’t know you were into old games
Jessie."

"Neither did I," she answered
with a laugh. "Eric told me he was sneaking into your old haunt to use
your game rig, and invited me to see what I’d been missing all these years.
Damn me if I never noticed the night go by."

"Hope you didn’t mind," said Eric
with hope in his voice.

"Of course not," I laughed.
"I told you ages ago you could use it while you were here. I just hope
it's worth your marriage."

His smile died, and both of ours became
bigger.

"There is that. But she should be used
to me not being around by now."

"One would think so," I agreed.
"But reality?"

"Work boss?" he said, changing
the subject deliberately.

"You want us to survey the system for
jump points," said Jessie.

"Yes. It's never been done properly as
far as I know."

"And if we find any?"

"Go through and check them out. But
you only have about thirty six hours. Any later than that and you risk not
being able to leave for a year."

"What if we don’t find any?"
asked Eric.

"Expand the search well past your
normal parameters, just in case it’s a long way out, or on a different
plane."

"Do you think there are any?"
asked Jessie.

"I'd be surprised if there's not at
least one."

"Me too," said Eric.

"In any case, check back with me in
thirty six hours, and we'll decide if any further exploring is needed or
not."

"Aye sir," they said together,
and left.

I spent a short time checking emails.
Plenty there, but found nothing which needed immediate attention. So I headed
down to the Launch Deck.

How do you define a paradise planet?

Rainforests, endless rolling fields of
shaggy grass, forests, deserts, oceans, mountains, valleys, mighty rivers
across continents, snow fields, swamps. Ecosystems as nature intended. Birds
and bees, insects, animals, trees, plants, fish. Some heal, some taste good,
some kill. Did I mention shaggy grass? I like my grass shaggy.

Yes, but what makes it a paradise planet
for humans?

Earth like. About the same combination of
gasses in the air. About the same gravity. About the same magnetics. A moon
about the same distance away in the same orbit. About the same tilt.

Yes, but what really makes a paradise
planet?

No people!

Gaia Three was all that. And no-one was
allowed to live there. Once people live anywhere, they start cutting down
trees, killing things, digging things up. They turn things into other things,
and then pollute the area. Species die. The balance is upset. Do it for long
enough with an ever increasing number of people, and eventually the planet
dies. Remember the Earth. Less than three thousand years it took. And actually,
it was the last four hundred which did the real damage.

No-one lived on Gaia Three.

It was a true paradise.

We spent several hours flying around it. We
hovered over magnificent waterfalls, glaciers, coral atolls, jungle, and
savannahs. Melissa even dropped us into the caldera of an active volcano,
hovering mere meters above the highest reach of the lava. We marveled at nature
at its completely untouched.

As lunch time approached, Jane took over
the controls, and brought us to the Sacred Glade she'd selected. We hovered
over a small river, just before a waterfall. The airlock on the side opened,
and we stepped out onto a rocky outcrop, and started down a set of steps carved
into the rock, which took us twenty meters down to where a pool of crystal
clear water sat in a small clearing in the jungle, fed by the waterfall from
the river above.

Just the Alpha team had grown just a
little. On the Launch Deck I'd found not only the team and Miriam, but Amy,
Melissa, Grace, Jack, and Sam.

We filed down the steps. The Lightning
re-oriented so Jeeves could exit the small cargo bay with a number of grav
trunks, and returned to how it had been to let Jane step out behind us. The
ship then ascended to wait for us at a high altitude.

At the bottom of the steps to the left,
there was a small clearing set up as a picnic area. It was very clear it had
been setup in a way it wasn’t interfering with anything natural, mainly being
barren rock.

To the right was the pool and waterfall.

The twins pushed past me, and whooping
madly, in seconds they were naked, and jumping into the water. George was about
ten seconds behind them.

Amanda was in the center of the pool, before
more than Miriam and Aline had come down behind me.

"Everyone come in," Amanda
shouted up to us. "The water is divine!"

I bent down and dipped a finger in, and
found it to be a very pleasant temperature. Both twins were grinning at me, so
I shifted my suit to a belt, dropped my briefs, pulled socks off, dumped them
in a pile behind me, and jumped in after them. I swam out to the middle, and
turned to face the others.

The girls in the team were right behind me.
Grace hesitated for a minute, and then stripped and jumped after us, Amy only
slightly behind her.

Melissa's jaw was hanging open. It had
obviously not crossed her mind we'd be going skinny dipping. She must have made
a decision though, as her suit vanished and her underwear came off, before she
too jumped in.

This left Annabelle, Jack, and Sam.
Annabelle considered for a moment longer, shrugged, stripped, and joined us.
Jack stood there looking poleaxed, with Sam quietly laughing at his reaction. Her
belt changed into bikini bottoms, she pulled her top off, and moved a short way
away, where she stepped down into the water, and waded out into the middle to
join us. Jack watched her go, shifted his belt into shorts, and followed her.

Jeeves lobbed a large ball in after us, and
it began to be tossed around. I paid it no mind though, and headed for the
waterfall. I took a deep breath and swam under the falling water, eyes closed,
and letting it pound down on top of me. It was much heavier than a shower,
slightly cooler than the pool itself, but very refreshing. I stayed under as
long as I could, and then pushed up out of it between the flow and the rock
behind it. I was still getting spray here, but could breathe as long as I
wasn’t looking up. I looked around and found a ledge. I pulled myself onto it,
and sat there, in a few centimeters of water.

A head poked through the curtain of water
in front of me, and grinned at me. Aline pushed through, and joined me on the
ledge. Before I knew it, she was kissing me. I hastily checked I had my
override set on.

"None of that you two," said
Amanda loudly, her face poking through the curtain now. "This is a public
place. Shame on you."

She was grinning wildly. The grin faltered
for a moment as Miriam poked her head through as well, and saw us together. But
she laughed her head off when Miriam seized my leg, hauled me off the ledge,
and I disappeared into the waterfall. I not only went into the waterfall
without preparing for it, but I went under as well.

It was Jane who pulled me back to the
surface, where I promptly coughed up water and spluttered for a while. She
pulled me over to the easy steps in, and helped me out of the water.

Jane was naked too. She pulled me over to a
seat, and before I sat, I changed my suit into a pair of shorts. Jane remained
naked, and while I continued to cough, she fetched a bottle of water for me.

"When did you learn lifeguard
duties?" I asked her when I could talk again.

"I didn’t. I read about fifty books on
the subject before we left. Just in case."

"Glad you did."

"Someone would have pulled you out.
Eventually."

"Yeah, right."

"Sorry," said Miriam, now
standing in front of me, still naked.

Aline had come up behind her. Also still
naked. I made an effort to not notice. Especially as the others were starting
to come out as well.

"Lunch is served, my Lord," said
Jeeves. "Dress code is beach informal."

Everyone else made their way out, and
shifted to either bikini bottoms or shorts. Lunch was in the shade, so we
didn’t need to worry about sunburn. The humidity was high though, so most of us
started sweating. Lunch was a cold salad, with chicken and ham. One of the
trunks had cold beer, ginger ale and water.

George sat down next to me and began
eating. I waved a chicken leg in his direction.

"I've been meaning to talk to you
about something," I said to him.

"My new ship?"

"No."

"Damn. The suspense is killing
me."

I chuckled at him.

"Suit programming actually."

"What about it? Any new ideas for
me?"

"Not so much ideas, no. Are you aware
they're releasing civilian versions soon?"

"No, I hadn't heard."

"I assembled a team of 'tool men' to
come up with alternate versions, including civilian, baby and pets
versions."

"Good idea. What does it have to do
with me?"

"Clothes."

"You mean suits and dresses and
stuff?"

"Yes, but also baby clothes, cat and
dog clothes, and stuff like Halloween costumes. You could make up packs of
different types of clothes."

"Is it worth it do you think?"

"You know what suits come with. It’s a
very basic range. What you'd be offering is whole wardrobes of alternate clothing,
for people who live in dangerous places, but still want good civvies."

"That’s why I started programming in
the first place. There wasn’t anything in the default list I particularly
liked. And the girls wanted a better variation."

"There's also your scan ability. You
could license that for use by anyone selling the civilian suits. It would allow
them to sell suit versions of their own clothing labels."

I could see his eyes lighting up with
credit symbols.

"Why me though? You're the one who's
done the real work using the suit. You first used it for uniforms for
example."

"Put it this way. Once the civilian
suits are out there, someone is going to make the leap to scanning for them.
Why not get in immediately and patent the method?"

"Only if I can cut you in on it."

"Sure, if you feel better doing
it."

I laughed, and he joined in.

"How do I go about it?"

"Talk to David. He can get the legal
work done. Once you have the patent, all you need to do is package product, and
sell licenses to use it. Some of those licenses can go to each military that
start using the suit, so they can scan their own uniforms, and make up their
own insignia for them."

I pulsed him my suit overlay files.

"That’s how I make uniforms. The
epaulettes can be changed independent of the uniforms themselves, it would be
simple to do collar insignia the same way. Cut me in for that part of it."

"Done!"

He held out his hand, and we shook. He
immediately went blank, presumably contacting David, while I continued eating.

I was slurping at a ginger ale a short time
later when Amanda pinged me.

"Jon, Jane is really different now,
isn’t she?"

"Yes."

"That’s not a suit over a security
droid anymore is it? Is it real skin?"

"Not skin, but very close."

"How?"

"Ask her yourself. She may or may not
answer."

"Okay, I will."

"Be discreet. It's not something she
wants widely known I think."

"Oh. Yes, I will be."

She didn’t get the chance to ask.

Jane suddenly shifted back into 'slinky
red', and came over to me in a hurry.

"Jon, I'm not sure how to tell you
this."

"Spit it out."

"I lost Sarah."