Hunter Legacy 11: Home Is Where the Hero Is Read online

  Home is where

  the Hero is

  By Timothy Ellis

  The Hunter Legacy, Book Eleven

  Copyright © 2016, by Timothy Ellis

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and events are fictional and have no relationship to any real person, place or event. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is purely co-incidental.

  The author has taken the liberty of using some recognizable names in a historical context or projected into the future as if such entities survive into the timeframe of this work of fiction. Such references are intended solely as a tribute to the entity so used and all such usage has an intended deep respect. The author has also deliberately chosen names for characters in tribute to the science fiction genre in all forms of media. Some may be obvious, others won't be. There is no implied connection, other than what the reader may make for themselves.

  The author is Australian and the main characters in this book are of Australian origin. In Australia, we colour things slightly differently, so you may notice some of the spelling is different. Please don't be alarmed. If you do suffer any discomfort, please take it out on the nearest pirate.

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any manner whatsoever without the written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotation embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  Contents

  Contents

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty One

  Twenty Two

  Twenty Three

  Twenty Four

  Twenty Five

  Twenty Six

  Twenty Seven

  Twenty Eight

  Twenty Nine

  Thirty

  Thirty One

  Thirty Two

  Thirty Three

  Thirty Four

  Thirty Five

  Thirty Six

  Thirty Seven

  Thirty Eight

  Thirty Nine

  Forty

  Forty One

  Forty Two

  Forty Three

  Forty Four

  Forty Five

  Forty Six

  Forty Seven

  Forty Eight

  Forty Nine

  Fifty

  Fifty One

  Fifty Two

  Fifty Three

  Fifty Four

  Acknowledgements

  A Message to my Readers

  Also by Timothy Ellis

  One

  It was good to be home.

  They say home is where the heart is, and my heart was on BigMother, but I’d grown up on Galactica, and she was a little ahead of us, leading the way to Gaia.

  I'd just dropped the bombshell about where we were, and sat back down. I closed my eyes and slipped into meditation mode, grin still plastered on my face.

  Home. Safety. No-one to shoot at me. Bliss.

  The last few months had been tough. In fact, it had been a long year, even though we'd time jumped over some of it. I guess I looked as exhausted as I felt. But the Door had opened, we'd made it on time, and now I could get the answers to a lot of previously unanswerable questions.

  "HUD and navmap updated," said Jane.

  "Tell everyone what you see Jane."

  "Missiles," she said. "Lots and lots of missiles."

  It took a moment to sink in. Meditation mode expired in a flash.

  "What?"

  If it was possible to double take with your eyes closed, I did a double take. I opened them, and shot Jane a look so fast, my neck hurt.

  She indicated the navmap. It had a seriously big yellow spot.

  "BLOODY HELL!" I yelled.

  I think everyone else was stunned, as the crowded Bridge was otherwise dead quiet.

  "Where are they aimed, and how long to impact?"

  "Us and Galactica. First wave are a minute out."

  "Mosquitos."

  "Confirmed."

  I had a quick flash of a middle aged oriental man in a red uniform jacket yelling "Shields!" I honestly never understood why the shields on those old shows were always down, and someone had to yell to get them up in time. Drama I guess. Adds to the danger quotient. Highlights the obvious.

  Get a grip!

  "Tactical," I snapped, instead.

  The nav map expanded to show only us and the vector the missiles were coming in on, and the first of the Mosquito launches heading outwards.

  There seemed to be three different launch points, but no ships or stations for them to come from. And so far, there were three distinct waves coming at us.

  "Move us alongside Galactica. If any get through, I want them hitting us. Dance us around if you have to."

  "Disco mode engaged."

  There was half a chuckle from somewhere, but I didn’t bother to look.

  "All fighters launch," I said into ship coms. "Target missiles, but stay out of my line of fire."

  Lacey's voice could now be heard barking orders, and the fighters spat out of the launch tubes as fast as they could go. The 266 Privateers were also launching. We might have been heading into where I thought was safe, but Lacey's pilots manned their ships before every jump. We'd had enough surprises to learn that lesson by heart. So launching took seconds, rather than minutes.

  "Group Captain, seek out the launchers. Disable but do not destroy unless absolutely necessary."

  "Roger that."

  About a dozen missiles made it through the first Mosquito firing, mainly because of the lack of warning, and the delay as more than half of them had to loop around the ship first. Nine of them crashed into our shields. The other three hit Galactica. Her shields went down to twenty percent. Ours to ninety percent.

  "Hard hitters," said Jane. "They're packing more of a wallop than the capital ship missiles we've been accustomed to. And they seem to be able to travel further as well. They're something new."

  "Launch the Hives. They're to protect Galactica at all costs with IR's and guns."

  "Launching."

  The second wave was incoming now. A fourth wave had launched. It showed exactly where they were coming from. But there was nothing there except some asteroids.

  Asteroids. The word echoed about my head for a few moments. I turned to Annabelle.

  "General, please take those missile asteroids."

  "My pleasure. Colonel, saddle up."

  Jack and the team jumped up and ran out.

  "George?" I said.

  "Boss?"

  George as usual, was in the Captain's chair on the Bridge of Custer, docked above and behind us. He more or less lived there now. It made launching the ship much faster than if he'd needed to run with the troops.

  "Troops on the way. Lock in where those missiles are coming from, and be prepared to drop troops to each one."

  "Locked and loading."

  The next wave of missiles landed their last three on our shields.

  I looked around to see who was still here. British, American, and Canadian Brass; Carter, Jill, and Amy; Slice, Eric, and Jessie; Bob and David; Greer, and Miriam. The latter two looked like they regretted leaving their ships behind. Grace had gone off with the troops. Melissa was sitting there, looking lik
e she'd like to be in on the action. But she wasn’t military, and had no combat training I knew about.

  "Ever flown a Dropship Melissa?" I asked her.

  My tone was conversational, as if nothing untoward was going on.

  "No, but I did try a simulation a couple of times."

  "How'd you do?"

  BigMother shifted drastically, and a couple of missiles hit our shields instead of Galactica's.

  "The same as your first time," she laughed. "Nothing bigger than a finger left after."

  I laughed with her.

  Eyes attached to stars sat there looking at us as if we were crazy. I was unique among this group. Three and four stars rarely commanded anything directly. They gave orders, and someone with command rank rather than flag rank actually made things happen. Bentley was a two star, but this wasn’t her ship. It was mine, and although I had four stars on my shoulders, I was also this ship's Captain. So they had nothing to do, except watch, and critique my performance. I turned my attention back to what was going on.

  A fifth wave was incoming now, but it was reducing in number very rapidly.

  "Dropship away," said Grace, followed by Custer's other two Dropships about ten seconds apart. I hadn't even noticed Custer had launched. But I didn’t need to. My people knew their jobs. If Grace had dropped, she had a full load of troops, a target, and George's go order.

  I opened a channel to Galactica.

  "Galactica, run for the Orbital as fast as you can. I've got your back."

  There was a moment of silence, as if her captain, my father, was trying to figure out how to reply.

  "Yes Admiral," answered someone I didn’t know.

  Galactica put on some speed, and I nodded to Jane. She turned us head on into the next wave of missiles, while at the same time, keeping us between them and Galactica.

  Between the Mosquitoes, Point Defense turrets, and the IR launchers, those which made it past the fighters were picked off, with only an odd missile hitting us. Our shields held, regenerating enough between hits. Without the Mosquitos though, we'd have been in serious trouble. Just as well whoever was shooting at us, didn’t know about them.

  "How many are there in each wave?" I asked Jane.

  "Twelve hundred."

  Someone at the back wolf whistled.

  The last of the fifth wave died just short of our shields. The sixth was incoming, but was a third less than before. We were lessening the distance all the time now.

  "Objective secured," said Amanda. "There's no-one here. It’s a major facility, but appears to be fully automated."

  There was a short pause, during which a single missile from the sixth wave hit us.

  "Objective secured," said Jack. "Ditto."

  The seventh wave launched with only a third of the originals.

  "Sorry," said Sam. "We just missed stopping the last launch. Objective secured. Also no-one here."

  "I have control of all three launcher sites now," said Jane. "But they will require some repairs before being used again."

  The last of the missiles died out in space. I nodded to Jane, and she sent the salvage droids out to clean up.

  "Colonel?"

  "Sir?"

  "Leave combat droids in each facility in case someone tries to take them back, and come on home."

  "Roger that, on way."

  I turned back to Jane.

  "Get some tugs in here, and send those launch asteroids to the shipyard. We need to study them. As soon as Galactica is docked, send the Hives out to cover the entire system." She nodded. "I don’t know where a battle fleet's worth of missile launchers came from, but we better make damn sure there aren't any more. For all we know, pirates found this system years ago, and are still hiding out here. As far as I can remember, no-one has ever thought it likely we got found, so the system has never been checked. Do the check."

  "Confirmed. Comnavsats?"

  "Yes, cover the whole system. No more shocks."

  The latter was said generally. More for upstairs than anyone else I guess. Or you could say it was in the nature of an affirmation. No more shocks. I won't say my nerves were shot from the continuous attacks on us since we left down spine, but all the same, I was aware my reactions to new shocks were not as good as they should be. But I really hadn't expected to be attacked at home. And I sincerely hoped that was the last shock I was going to get for a good long time.

  Clapping came from the back of the Bridge. I turned to see the Brass applauding. My eyebrows rose.

  "Nicely done," said Bigglesworth, who was senior.

  "Thank you sir."

  "Now perhaps you'd like to tell us where we are, and who was shooting at us."

  I sighed.

  Two

  I looked at Jane. She looked at me.

  "Take two," I said.

  She smiled. An eyebrow raised, I nodded. She left ship and team coms open.

  "Welcome to the Gaia system. I wish I could tell you where it is, but I can't."

  I grinned at those still on the Bridge, and got confused looks back. I grinned wider.

  "I don’t recognize the star pattern," said Greer.

  "Exactly," answered Jane. "We are no longer in our galaxy."

  The only thing worse than a deep shock, is some idiot grinning at you while it's delivered.

  "Which one?" asked Bigglesworth.

  "No idea," said Jane.

  When an AI tells you it has no idea, it's time to be afraid. But when some idiot is grinning at you at the same time, who knows this already, afraid becomes confused.

  "Maa Meow" said Angel, from her spot on the console.

  I ignored her. Whatever the galaxy's name was, it wasn’t Maa Meow.

  Maa Meow is on the other side of the universe.

  I took Kali's word for it.

  "Tell them about the system," I said to Jane.

  "Almost exactly the same sun as Earth system. Nine planets. First one is a baked rock. Second has a methane atmosphere. Third can only be described as a paradise planet by Earth standards. Fourth, fifth and sixth are practically Earth, and share the same orbit, equidistant from each other. Seventh is a small gas giant. Eighth is a large gas giant. Ninth is an ice-ball."

  "Four habitable planets?" asked Walter. "What are the odds?"

  "Do you really want a number?" asked Jane.

  "No," he replied rapidly. "But think about it. We've never found a system with more than two habitable planets before. Now we find one with four, behind a cyclic jump point? The 'this is evidence of the existence of God' people are going to go nuts over this."

  "Already been done," I said. "Several centuries ago. Except it was done behind a closed door, so to speak."

  "No-one knows it's already been done, and they won't care. As soon as the news breaks there's going to be some serious short stroking over it."

  Annabelle's expression hearing that was priceless.

  "Why hide it?" asked Miriam, with the effect of side tracking the conversation back to safer ground.

  "This system?"

  "Yes. Out of all the planets we now live on, very few of them are truly Earth standard or better. Why hide these behind Outback?"

  "I can only say what I was taught. When Galactica reached this end of the spine, and found the other near Earth planets, they let people believe that was all there was. At the time, the spiritual groups which had ridden Galactica out here, settled on Outback, having long sought a refuge they could hide in, where no-one would want to travel through, or want anything there. When scouts returned to share what Galactica found here, most people moved here instead. The leaders of the time decided this was a much better refuge. They left a few people behind to keep up the pretense, and keep the doorway hidden behind a visible lie. I can't say I blame them, but then, I'm biased."

  "So how many people actually live on Outback today?" asked Walter.

  "Not many. Mainly hermits. A few thousand on the Orbital, who keep up the pretense and act as a trade base for us."

&nb
sp; "What about the threat to stop people landing there?"

  I could see he wasn’t happy. I shrugged.

  "Big bluff mainly."

  "And yet," said Amy, "ships have gone missing, known to have been going to Outback. What happened to them? Were they shot down to keep the secret of Gaia?"

  "Everyone who leaves Gaia is carefully schooled on what to say, so we all say the same things. Reality is though, there are no missile launchers on Outback, no Militia force there, and no defenses of any kind. It's been a necessary pretense. Ironic of course, asking spiritual people to perpetuate a lie, but it was always considered a necessary evil."

  "And yet," persisted Amy, "there have been ships lost trying to land there."

  "Yes."

  "How were they destroyed?"

  I looked at her for a moment, before sweeping my gaze across the rest.

  "No-one knows. The ships vanish." I paused for a moment. "Well most of them do. The first ship to try, after Outback was declared to be a no landing zone, was found on the surface as a large debris field. And a few since have been found the same. But most simply vanished, and no-one knows how or why. Either disappearing or destruction. It happens, it feeds the stories which put people off trying, but we have nothing there to do it with. And never did."

  "A mystery," muttered Amy.

  "Yes. But one which those who go looking to solve, also tend to disappear from."

  "Bermuda triangle sort of thing?" asked Miriam.

  I shrugged with my hands palm upward.

  There was silence for a while, Jane distracting people with a monitor showing Custer re-docking.

  "What's the plan here Jon?" asked Patton.

  "We'll dock with the Orbital. I'm assuming from my father's comment a Keeper will be there waiting for us. I'll meet with the Keeper immediately, see what I can learn, and schedule a meeting for tomorrow so everyone can be briefed at the same time. I'll probably be having dinner with my parents, so I suggest everyone does their own thing tonight. There isn’t a lot on the Orbital station, since it's mainly used to co-ordinate system movements. You can go down to Gaia Four, Five, or Six if you want to, using one of the regular shuttles, but there's little in the way of accommodation down there, since there are not that many people who travel much."

  "How many people are there?" asked Walter.