Hunter Legacy 5 Hail the Hero (10 page)

The three girls shot away from me as if
they’d been yanked off me. All three of them looked at me speechless. Their
tears stopped, but faces remained wet.

A doctor shot in the door as if propelled
from an antique cannon. Before he reached me, I changed my suit back to a belt.

He gaped at me without comprehension. But
medical instincts kicked in, and he started to work on me. I had a major pain
shot as fast as a nurse could bring one, and the agony in my body subsided to a
major ache.

From my heart to below my left knee, was a
solid blue bruise.

Miriam rushed in at that point, and had to
be restrained by Amanda. She was crying, and suddenly confused by the fact the
doctors were still there. Amanda told her I was alive, and she collapsed into a
chair. Alison sank down next to her, and the twins stayed standing. They were
all staring at me.

I was scanned and checked for broken bones.
And given another shot.

I woke to an empty room.

“Jane?” I whispered. “Where
are you?”

“Outside your door.”

“How long was I out?”

“Ten hours.”

“Where is everyone?”

“The celebration is still in progress.
The flag officers stepped in, and made sure everyone went.”

“What did the doctors say?”

“You have major bruising. They don’t
think you’ll be able to bend your left knee for at least a week, and they plan
to keep you under for the whole time.”

I did some basic math.

“Time for a midnight flit.”

“Jon? You can’t possibly by thinking
of leaving here.”

“Nope, not even thinking about it. Can
you get hold of a pain shot?”

“Already have one.”

“I need it.”

She came straight in and gave it to me.
Major ache became minor ache.

“What’s that you’re wearing?”

“Security uniform.”

“Good thinking. Go out and buy me the
best grav chair you can find quickly. One that allows a leg to remain
straight.”

“You said you weren’t thinking about
leaving.”

“It doesn’t require thinking. I’m not
losing another week of my life. Go.”

She went. I’d already lost a week two
months ago, when I’d first been injured. The doctors had kept me out because of
a head injury. My head was fine. It was just the rest of me that wasn’t.

A nurse came in, and I pretended to be
still asleep.

After what seemed like an eternity, broken
only by an invoice to pay, and actually being less than half an hour, Jane
returned with a grav chair. The left leg support was already in place. Jane was
dressed now in an orderly’s uniform.

She plucked me off the bed gently, and
placed me on the chair. The meds stopped any pain spikes.

I shifted my belt into chameleon mode.
Except for a faint outline, my body vanished.

“Home James,” I said to her.

She pushed me out of the room, and towards
the hospital exit. Heads turned as an apparently empty chair went past them,
but no-one seemed to notice anything out of the ordinary. It was just an
orderly going somewhere with a chair. Once outside, with no-one in view, she
shifted into the security uniform again.

Neither of us spoke again until we were
inside the ship. At the top of the ramp waited a trolley. Jane moved the chair
onto the trolley, took the driver’s seat, and the trolley started for the other
end of the ship. Once a reasonable way from the airlock, I shifted back to
‘slinky red’.

“What more did the doctors say?”

“They couldn’t understand how you were
alive in the first place. You were dead for fifteen minutes Jon. Total goner.
The next thing they couldn’t understand was why your heart showed up as being
normal for your age. Your heart stopped and wouldn’t start again. There should’ve
been damage preventing the restart. There wasn’t. They hadn’t a grip on that,
when someone pointed out your brain should have been fried by lack of oxygen. After
five minutes, brain damage is normal. Your brain was fine. They went through
the motions of scans, but except for major bruising, you were perfectly
healthy.”

“How will they explain it?”

“Not even trying to at the moment. You
do realize your midnight flit will cause a lot of trouble when they find you’re
gone?”

“Not my problem. Can you hack my
hospital record?”

“Sure.”

“Do so, and mark it ‘Patient
discharged himself’.”

“Confirmed.”

We arrived at the access shaft. Jane moved
the chair down off the trolley, into the access shaft, and gave a modest
push-off.

“Where to?”

“My suite.”

She deftly moved the chair out of the shaft
on Deck Two, and moved me into my suite. Angel woke as we arrived, looked at me
with an alarmed expression, and stood up.

“Hi sweetie. I got hurt badly. Come
into the bedroom and keep me company.”

I told Jane to take me to the shower. She
stood me up, held me upright, and carried me into the shower. I changed my suit
back to a belt, Jane removed my briefs and socks, and washed hospital off me.
After drying me, she pulled new briefs and socks back on, and laid me on the
bed.

She tossed the sheet completely over me.

I pulled it back from my head with my right
hand.

“I’m NOT dead Jane!”

“Could’ve fooled me. The only reason
they didn’t do that in the hospital is the girls wouldn’t let them.”

I sighed. Even that hurt.

Angel came running up. She sniffed at my
bruises, and her claws extended, as if to fight off whoever gave them to me.
She looked at me, I smiled at her, and she relaxed, moving to my neck on my
right side, and curling up as she usually did.

I woke at six to find four naked women on
my bed.

They were lined up next to me. Miriam,
Alison, Amanda and Aleesha. I looked across eight breasts in a row. It was a
sight to gladden any young man’s … well let’s not go there. It would hurt too
much anyway. Just as well it was a king sized bed.

“Jeeves,” I said softly.
“Pain.”

He came in within seconds, and gave me a
shot. Jane came in after him, helped me out of bed, and into the bathroom, where
she held me up while I used the facilities. My bruised side was in full Technicolor
now. The bruises on my head and shoulder were a dull yellow. I couldn’t bend my
left knee at all. It wasn’t that it hurt too much to try, it wouldn’t bend. I
pondered if the knee itself was damaged.

I shifted into ‘slinky red’, and she helped
me into the grav chair. Angel was eating her breakfast when we went past the
kitchen.

She took me to the Medical Bay, and one of
the doc-droids gave me the once over. I asked it to co-ordinate with Jeeves as
to when I could have pain shots. Going into a care unit wasn’t on my list of
things to do. Its response on my knee was the muscles were too traumatized to
be able to move. All of them were down the hit area, not just the knee. But it
was the knee, and thigh muscles I noticed couldn’t move. It would heal I was
told. Give it time. I had plenty.

I was soon on the Bridge. I bypassed
breakfast, even though I hadn’t eaten since lunch time yesterday. I wasn’t in
the least bit hungry.

Jane settled me in my command chair, and
used the grav chair to prop up my left leg. Jeeves came in with a pillow and
gently padded the top of the chair underneath my ankle.

Angel shot in, and took her usual place on
her console pad.

I opened a vid and recorded a brief message
to the effect that contrary to first reports, I was alive, if not kicking, and
functional enough that the trip to London was on schedule. I sent it to
everyone who mattered, and a few who didn’t, but would be wanting to know
anyway.

I pinged Admiral Jedburgh’s aide to say
BigMother was leaving on schedule, asking when the Admiral’s party would be
coming on board. It took ten minutes to get a reply for thirty minutes later,
putting him minutes ahead of official departure time.

I sat there checking emails, answering the
few that needed responses, and deleting junk. I lost interest quickly. As a
distraction, it wasn’t working.

“Jane, who were they?”

“Assassins. Apparently four who
usually work alone, banded together to make sure you were taken out this
time.”

“Paymaster?”

“Unknown. They haven’t said, even
under intense interrogation. Dallas military took them off station security’s
hands before they even woke from your stuns.”

I looked up my Bounty Hunter record. I
didn’t have any new bounties on me.

“Professional hit then,” I mused.
“I wonder who would go to all the trouble.”

“Unknown. Abagail has all the
information that could be found. The contact emails were untraceable.”

“Emails again. It always comes back to
dodgy emails. Have her and Amy come up here after they finish breakfast, and
after the brass are finished with me.”

“Confirmed.”

I thought it a pretty good assumption that
Admiral Jedburgh would be on the Bridge to see me as soon as he was on board.

“Jane, you better go down and welcome
the Admirals.”

“Confirmed.” She left.

I thought I better check what was docked
where. Custer was in her underside position. Camel and Gunbus were docked to
her, making her look like she had reversed nacelles. Apricot One was attached
to the left rear airlock, and Nascaspider to the rear right. Excalibur was on
the Flight Deck, and Gorilla was inside Custer, as were the three Dropships.
Jane had done some rearranging as the Corvettes had come back from the
Shipyard, but the configuration looked good to me. There were four more Excalibur’s
and five Centurions in docking bays along the inside of the Flight Deck.

A channel opened.

“Starman to BigMother, permission to
dock, and where please?”

It was Greer. I checked the scanner.
Starman was stopped not far away, and Stiletto was just entering the Flight
Deck from the rear.

“Starman, use the mid left cargo
airlock. Dock nose on, so the airlocks are the same size.”

“Is that really you sir?”

“No, this is my avatar pretending to
be me. Of course it’s me. Sheesh!”

“Roger that sir. Docking now.”

Station traffic control were probably
having heart attacks about now, as a Corvette sized ship moved too close to the
station for comfort. But Greer’s AI would be doing the actual docking, so there
was no risk.

Stiletto touched down inside a Flight Deck
Bay. Since I’d seen Miriam on board already, her AI must have done the
transfer.

Apparently they were both invited to London
as well.

With the thought of her, she bounded onto
the Bridge, with Alison, Amanda and Aleesha behind her. They stopped abruptly
when they saw my leg perched on the grav chair.

“What,” I said. “You’ve
never seen someone in a captain’s chair before?”

“That’s not funny,” they all said
at once.

I shook my head slightly. My women were now
speaking to me in quadrophonic. ‘My women’? Now how did that happen? That taunt
of ‘Hunter’s Harem’ popped back into my mind. Just as well the man who said it
was dead. If BA had ever heard of it, she’d have killed him.

Amanda took out her gun and wacked me on
the right foot with it.

She was angry again. Now what had I done?

“What?”

“Why didn’t you tell us you were
leaving the hospital?” demanded Amanda.

“Why didn’t you wake us up when you
woke?” demanded Miriam.

“What are you doing on the Bridge?”
demanded Alison.

“What’s wrong with your leg?”
demanded Aleesha.

I sighed.

Amanda took that the wrong way and whacked
my foot again.

“I didn’t announce it, you all looked
like you needed the sleep, this is where I’m supposed to be when the ship gets
underway, and it doesn’t work.”

Silence. They glared at me.

“Oh for divine’s sake. Why can’t you
all be happy I’m alive and sitting here?”

Miriam kissed me.

Alison gave her a full minute, hauled her
away from me, and kissed me. Amanda gave her thirty seconds and did the same.
Aleesha let her sister take as long as she wanted, and then as soon as our lips
parted, did the same.

“Go get some breakfast,” I said,
“before you embarrass me in front of the Admirals coming on board. We’ll
talk later.”

“Yes, we will.” Deadpan quadrophonic.

I winced. Then winced because wincing hurt.

“Admiral’s Gig is landing on the
Flight Deck now,” announced Jane.

“Oh hell,” said Miriam. “I
need to get down there.”

Two levels in her chain of command were
arriving. She raced out. The others followed her more slowly.

I watched the shuttle arriving on a side
screen.

“Is there any reason we can’t leave
yet Jane?”

“All present and accounted for. The
Battlecruiser will RV with us half an hour out.”

“Button us up and prepare to undock.
Advise Dallas Control we’re leaving and have them pulse me the docking
fees.”

“Confirmed.”

The invoice pulse came in a minute later,
and I paid it.

Precisely on seven, Jane backed us away
from the station. When there was enough distance to not upset the traffic
controllers, Jane spun us around, and set course for the Battlecruiser Guam,
which I could see in the distance.

I was now retired from the ASF, which was a
big relief. I had no responsibilities with either the SFSF or the AM. A weight
left my shoulders. For now, I was free to simply be the owner of a mercenary fleet.
I had four stars on my shoulders, and no-one was going to be able to promote me
ever again.

I could hear laughter in my head for a
brief moment, but couldn’t tell where it came from. Could have been Kali, but I
wasn’t sure.

The last promotion actually solved a
problem. I’d never have to worry about an employee being a higher rank than me
again. As soon as I could shuck the SFSF and AM as well, the happier I’d be.

I’d missed the celebration, which was
something of a relief as well. I’d imagined it to be something similar to the
one on Avon the night before we left, and I didn’t really need another one like
it. Getting shot the way I had, wasn’t the best way of avoiding people, but it
had done the trick.

Ten minutes out, the remaining four
Guardians formed up in diamond formation around us, top, bottom, left and
right. Repulse took station behind us, with her fleet around her.

Twenty minutes later, Jane slowed us to a
stop. The Guardians moved some distance away, as did Repulse and her fleet.

Guam was about the same length as Big
Mother, mid-way between a Battleship and a Cruiser. But she was taller than she
was wide. BigMother out massed her by a long shot.

Jane threw her specs on a screen and we
looked for the best way of linking her up.

A large group of people came onto the Bridge
behind me. I turned my head, saw the Admirals at the front of the group, and
waved them to the VIP chairs. They looked shocked to see me there, but didn’t
say anything. I guess they expected me to be in my bed for the next week.

Jane and I went on with our discussion. It
took us another five minutes to decide the best way to connect her was the left
middle underside dock point, grav’ed to the forward highest gun turret. I
opened a channel.

“BigMother to Guam. Captain to Captain
please.”

I was an Admiral in rank, but still Captain
of the ship. Rank and title, not the same thing. And my rank was no longer
active, so I was the Captain of a friendly ship, not a superior.

“Captain Patterson speaking. Admiral
Hunter?”

“Indeed. Captain, can you release
control to my AI please? We’ll grav dock you at the front highest turret, to
the underside of BigMother. My AI will ensure there’s no possibility of
accidental collision.”

“Aye sir. Control released.”

I nodded to Jane. A screen popped up and we
watched two very large ships come together. Guam moved into position beneath
the grav point, and slowly closed the distance until she was merely centimeters
away. The grav plate came on, and the ships kissed. Jane tweaked the attitude
so she was perfectly aligned with the underside of BigMother, and finally
increased the grav to hold her in exactly that position.

“Docking complete,” she
announced. The screen vanished and the channel closed.

Applause came from around the Bridge.

Jane accelerated us towards the Kansas jump
point. BigMother took longer to get up to speed, but our top speed wasn’t
affected.

Repulse took up the rear position, but
slightly above. I assumed Susan wasn’t game to be behind in case the dock
failed. The Guardians took up formation around us as before.

Another screen popped up with a cam image
of how we looked from one of the Guardians.

“Now I’ve officially seen
everything,” said Jedburgh. “Including the dead coming back to
life.”

Jane rose, moved to my chair, and swiveled
me around to face the rear, ensuring my leg didn’t move, by moving the grav
chair with me.

“I’m happy to oblige sir,” I
said.

We were the same rank now, but he had the
seniority, and we were in public. Everyone was there I noticed. And the two
Commanders from the medal ceremony were sitting off to one side.

It was Annabelle who broke the minutes
silence following my response.

“How are you alive Jon? Abagail looked
it up. No-one, and I mean absolutely no-one, ever, has come back after fifteen
minutes dead, where it didn’t involve hypothermia.”

“Just lucky I guess,” I joked. It
went over flat, not even gaining a smile. “How should I know?”

“What did you see Jon?” asked
Miriam. “Did you see the light?”

“Light?” I blinked rapidly.
“No light. Actually I spent the entire time in my Ready Room.”

“That’s not funny,” said Alison.

“I’m not joking. I guess you’d call it
an out-of-body experience. I was in my Ready Room, watching the girls take me
to the hospital on the wall.”

“That’s really weird,” said
Aline. “Even for you.”

“You’re telling me! I was there, and I
don’t know if I believe it or not.”

Check.

“Jane, is there anything different in
the Ready Room?”

“Affirmative.”