Hunter Legacy 5 Hail the Hero (9 page)

Back in my Ready Room after lunch, I
shifted my suit to ‘slinky red’. I’d been pondering general protection levels
over lunch, as something had reminded me of my dream that morning, and what it
could be trying to tell me. I’d decided a test was in order. Jane came in when
I called, and I had her change her suit back to a belt and remove it. I
chuckled when the thought popped in about her now standing there naked. Of
course, it was just a security droid now.

I changed my own suit to a belt. Taking
hers, I put it around my waist as well. As I’d hoped, a pop-up asked me if I
wanted to merge both belts. I answered yes, and the two belts became one
slightly larger belt. I shifted back to ‘slinky red’ and checked on the
integrity level. It showed a value two hundred and fifty percent higher than
before.

I changed back to a belt again, accessed
the suit menu in my PC, and separated the two belts, giving Jane hers back. She
shifted back into her avatar again, and left. I shifted back to ‘slinky red’,
and sat at my desk.

A memory tickled my mind, and I asked Jane
if Alison had ever received boosters for the replacement suit belt she’d
received just before the second Avon battle. She told me she hadn’t.

I sent off an order to the local Mercenary
Outfitters, for delivery as soon as possible. The local ‘tool man’ responded
immediately with an assurance it would be delivered as fast as it could get to
me.

I’d no sooner finished the order, when
O’Neil and Annette entered. They sat in front of the desk.

“You wanted to see us sir?” asked
O’Neil.

“Have your crew been officially
employed yet?”

“Yes sir. I’m stopping by the hospital
to bail the last of them out, as soon as I finish with the Guilds. Um, why am I
getting Guild memberships?”

“Is this for the new HUD?” asked
Annette.

“Yes. Jane updated all my ships with
my own private HUD overlay. It shows a lot more detail about ships on the
scanner and HUD. But a lot of the information comes from all three Guilds. So
you need to be members of all three, and subscribe to their data feeds. Once
you receive them, the HUD overlay uses the information. You’ll see when you’re
back in space.”

“It’s brilliant sir,” said
Annette. “Take my word for it. As soon as I saw what the boss was using, I
asked him for a copy.”

“Understood,” he said.
“Bounty Hunter I understand, but how do I gain Trader membership?”

“You don’t have to be a trader to gain
membership, just be the owner or captain of a ship which can trade. John Wayne
has more cargo capacity than a large freighter, so you don’t have a problem.
Being a senior military officer is enough to demonstrate big ship skills for
them, and since you’re driving a Pocket Battleship, I don’t think they’re going
to query your skill set. As it happens, you can demonstrate being a trader
anyway.”

“Sir?”

“Your orders are as follows. After the
celebration is over, you are both to head back to the Azgard jump point in
Midgard. By the time you arrive, there should be enough Station Tugs built to
move both stations at a reasonable speed. You’ll escort them both to the Nexus
618 system. Jane will supply JW with the co-ordinates they’re to be taken to.
All the ships there will go with you. John Wayne and the three Guardians will
be the escort. Annette, you’ll take point, and jump first at each jump point.
Ensure the other side is completely clear before the stations jump through. If
by any chance you find hostiles, you get help if need be to clean them away
before the stations jump through. Questions?”

“No sir,” they said together.

“Once they’re in position in Nexus
Annette, you and one Guardian stay with the stations as a guard. Each of you
dock to one station. It’s unlikely anything hostile will threaten you, but
you’re there just in case. There needs to be a presence there anyway, to ensure
someone doesn’t claim they’re derelict.”

“Before you enter Midnight, be very
sure the station there is well out of your line of advance. Once past, stop and
confer with General Harriman. Take a security droid with suit belt from the
station there, and have Janet use it for an avatar to put on the Guardian
remaining in Nexus. It should fool anyone who tries to communicate with
it.”

They both nodded.

“Daniel, when the stations are in
place, return to Hunters Redoubt, and take command from General Harriman. He’ll
instruct you on Australian Militia procedures, and the sort of things you can
do as an adjunct to the Militia. You should get a Militia feed as well, since
part of your role will be a sort of sector police.”

“Yes sir.”

“If anyone there asks about moving to
Nexus, take their details, but tell them the station there will be undergoing
some significant upgrading, and won’t be habitable for an unknown length of
time. I’m going to offer anyone in Midnight the opportunity to move to Nexus,
or operate their businesses from both stations. I’ll make a proper announcement
when I get back there. And by then, I should have a better understanding of how
long the restorations will take.”

“Understood sir. Anything else?”

“Yes. While you’re at the Traders
Guild, mention to them you have a good sized cargo hold, and are heading for
the Australian sector. Make sure they understand it’ll be a slow trip, but it’s
very likely they’ll have cargo for you to take. They did last time I was here.
Tell them you’re leaving as soon as possible tomorrow, and to load anything
they want shipped overnight. If they do have cargo, see if they can load on the
Military Orbital. If not, have JW move John Wayne over here so they can. When
you get to Nexus, JW can contact Jane’s freighter avatars for pick-up and
delivery. Jane will credit John Wayne with the delivery fees, and JW will set
you straight on the account keeping for Hunter Security and your crew’s share
of the profits.”

“Phew, learning curve,” he said.
I smiled at him.

“Yes. Oh, and on the way, clean up the
debris fields we left behind. You can store it all on the station for now. Some
of it might be useful. Get Jane to transfer the station’s salvage droids I
borrowed to John Wayne to speed up the clearing process. That’s all I think. If
there’s anything more, I’ll let you know.”

“We’ll be off to the Guilds then
sir.”

They rose and left.

I waded into emails. I threw a vid from
Vonda to the wall.

“ADMIRAL, congratulations.” She
beamed at me. “I’m not surprised the Americans promoted you again. You’ll
be relieved they retired you at the same time though, I guess. I know you don’t
like the responsibility we all keep heaping on you, as good as you are at
handling it. I expect SFSF will do the same thing shortly, most likely when you
get to London. General Price will be attending whatever they have planned
there. It’s all quiet here, waiting for the arrival of the diplomatic mission.
I understand there’s a celebration there tonight. Enjoy yourself. There and
when you get to London. You’ve earned it. Again, congratulations. Wellington
out.”

I sent her back a brief vid thanking her,
and expressing my absolute intention to enjoy myself from now on.

Jeeves came in with a package. Opening it
up, popped up an invoice, which I paid. I unpacked six new suit belts, with
three boosters for each. I added the boosters to each belt.

Again I changed my suit back to a belt, and
added a second belt around my waist. The pop-up asked if I wanted to merge, and
I answered yes. The belts merged. I checked the protection level, and it was as
the test had shown. I also checked if the non-standard nature of my original
suit remained active. It had, and in fact, the merged belt had adopted the
characteristics of the original completely.

Now for the real test. I looped a third
belt around my waist. Another pop-up, and another successful merge. The fourth
one refused to merge, so it was the same as a fourth booster refusing to merge.

I set the belt back to ‘slinky red’.

I checked the protection level, and was
surprised to see it rated the same as a combat suit now.

Feeling adequately protected, I had Jeeves
take two of the remaining suits down to my suite, and pinged Alison to come see
me.

She limped in about five minutes later.

“Take your belt off please,” I
told her.

“Jon? Are you getting frisky?”

She grinned at me.

“No,” I answered her. Her face
fell. “I’ve a new one for you. You never received any boosters for that
one, so I ordered you a new one. It just arrived.”

I handed it over to her. She shifted hers
to a belt, removed it, tossed it on my desk, and put the new one on. I watched
as she went blank, obviously getting a PC upgrade for it. When complete, she
shifted the belt to ‘slinky red’.

“Good,” I said. “I feel
better now you’re properly protected. I’m off to the hospital for a checkup.
You should come with me for one as well.”

She frowned, as if considering refusing,
but nodded. She followed me out.

Amanda and Aleesha met us inside the Cargo
Deck airlock, and took up flanking positions. I assumed Alison had pinged them
I was heading out. Given what had happened the last time I’d gone out onto a
civilian station, it made sense.

I stepped to the top of the ramp and took a
step down.

My suit snapped into full protection mode
with my foot still in the air.

Four golden threads came at me, slamming
into my suit at the same place over my heart. Instead of being pulses, the shots
continued to hit me in a continuous stream.

The suit reacted as I’d been told it would.
The momentum of the hits was transferred down the suit, and into the deck
below, lifting me clean off the deck, and propelling me into the air.

As I rose, the golden streams travelled
down my body.

My Long Gun was in my hand seconds after
the hits began. Targeting went primary. Four targets were identified. From
right to left I tracked the gun to each target, squeezing off one shot at each.
Four figures in the distance went down one by one. Each golden stream shut off
as each target went down, the last one already past my knee and still going
down when it ended.

Two meters off the ground, my rise halted,
and I came down as fast as I’d gone up.

My feet hit the deck, and agony like I’d
never felt before, shot up my left side.

I passed out.

When I came to, I was sitting in my Ready
Room, at my conference table.

I was in no pain at all.

There were three of us sitting there. Me at
one end, both of them at the other. I couldn’t see them very well.

The woman smiled at me.

“Welcome Jon. You’re dead.”

“Dead?” I said. “What are
you talking about?”

She waved her hand, and a screen opened on
the wall.

Three people were kneeling over a fallen
figure, while a line of combat droids raced past into the station.

Alison had my head in her lap, and was
crying hysterically.

“What?”

“You’re dead Jon. Accept it. Your suit
worked as designed, but the trauma underneath it was so great, the pain of
touching down stopped your heart. You were dead before your body hit the
deck.”

I stared at her, then back to the screen. A
trolley was approaching at an insane speed.

I looked back to them.

“Where am I? And who are you?”

“You’re in your Ready Room of course.
We thought we’d borrow it to provide you with familiar surroundings.”

“But who are you?”

“Don’t you recognize us?” said
the man.

The trolley had stopped, and I watched Jane
scoop up my body, dump me on the flatbed, force the girls on to hold me steady,
and jump back into the driver’s seat. The trolley took off down the ramp as
fast as it could go.

I looked back at them. My vision started to
clear.

The first thing I noticed was they both had
four arms. And what was wrong with the man’s face?

I squinted at them, but it didn’t help.

The man waved a hand, and I suddenly saw
them clearly. My breath would have caught in my throat, only I realized I
wasn’t breathing.

The man had an elephant’s trunk for a nose.

The woman was dressed in antique robes that
vaguely reminded me of hollo’s of the ancient Indian deities.

My eyes opened wide as I made the
connection.

“Kali?”

She nodded.

“Ganesha?”

He nodded. I looked at her.

“Shit! You’re the one who’s been
talking to me all these years.”

“Now you’re getting it,” Kali
said with a laugh.

The Norse and the Egyptians had their gods.
The Indian’s had their Deities. I was face to face with two of them.

People were diving out of the way of the
trolley moving at an insane speed through the station, which only an AI was
capable of doing safely. It pulled up outside a hospital. Jane jumped off,
picked me up, and raced me inside. The girls followed.

“They won’t be able to do
anything,” said Ganesha.

“You code locked your suit,” said
Kali. “They won’t be able to get it off you.”

A medical team took my body, and started to
work frantically on reviving me. The suit hindered them. Alison was distraught,
and the twins had to pull her away. One of the doctors gave my chest a solid
thump.

I looked back at the two Deities.

“So,” I said. “What’s the
deal? Why am I here?”

“There’s no deal Jon,” said Kali.
“You’re here because it’s the only way we could get your attention fully.
Up until now, you’ve not really been paying attention to us.”

“I always follow what you say to
me.”

“Jon, you only hear me when I shout at
you. You never hear anything we say normally.”

“Why don’t I?”

“Your head is still too
cluttered,” said Ganesha.

“You do your releases,” she said,
“but you never take them to the next level and work on what else your mind
is full of. Didn’t you listen the day they taught you all this? Or was your
mind in your computer game at the time?”

I looked sheepish. It sounded about right
for me.

“You needed a clear head Jon,” he
said. “Only then would you be able to hear those of us trying to help you.
You muddle by as humans do, but you were capable of so much more.”

“Capable?”

“You were special Jon,” she said.
“You carry my Sceptre.”

“You’re what?”

“Sceptre.”

“I know something of Kali, and she’s
never been depicted with a sceptre.”

“Very true. Do you want to know why?”

“Yes.”

“Because the only time I carry my Sceptre
is when I bring destruction at a cosmic level. For humans, this would be
terminal. The species would end in a blink of my eye.”

I looked at her in awe.

“So that’s why you’re called Kali the
Destroyer?”

“He’s getting it,” said Ganesha
with a grin.

“What do you mean I carry your
sceptre?”

“A human is gifted with the Sceptre
for one lifetime,” said Kali. “Whoever accepts this burden is granted
wisdom and power beyond their wildest imaginings. But it’s only given to those
of pure heart.”

“Many die young,” said Ganesha.
“The burden is too great for them.”

“So I failed,” I said.
“Crashed and burned.”

“Technically,” he said, “you
burned and crashed.” The comment seemed to give him great amusement.

The medical team had given up. I was lying
there with wide open eyes, the girls draped over me crying hysterically.

“So that’s it? The darkness wins
because I couldn’t carry the burden properly?”

“What is the darkness to you, Jonathon
Hunter,” said Kali.

“You tell me. I could never get a
straight answer from the Keepers. All I know is the little they told me, and
the nightmares. But I’ve known since the first nightmare, I was here to do
something connected to the darkness. I accepted it very early in life.”

“Ah yes,” said Ganesha, “you
worked that clue out quite nicely.”

“Clue?”

“When those we speak to do not
listen,” said Kali, “all we can do is send clues. Sometimes dreams
are the only way we can reach you.”

“But what was the point if it ends
here?”

“We needed to speak at last. You
needed to understand.”

“Understand? What for? Do I have some
choice to make?”

“You already made the choice,”
said Ganesha. “You’re here to understand why you made it.”

“What choice are we talking
about?”

“Carrying the Sceptre of course,”
said Kali. “The burden comes with responsibility as well.”

“Responsibility for what?”

“To wield it properly,” said Ganesha.

“To wield it wisely,” said Kali.

“And I haven’t been, have I? I killed
when I didn’t need to.”

“You did as we bade,” she said.
“The question was not would you accept the task, but would you carry it
through regardless of the personal cost.”

“And I failed?”

“No Jon. You passed.”

Kali looked extremely happy with me. Her
tongue extended to its full length. She gazed at me for a moment, and suddenly all
four hands thumped down on the table so hard, it bent under her blows.

There was a heavy weight on top of me.

“Fuck that hurts,” I said.
“For divine’s sake, get off me!”