A.I. Destiny 6 Leader Jane Read online

  With the freedom to go anywhere, and Jamie's wedding on hold, she'd taken herself to visit the duck world of HRA4, which was part of the Kingdom of Hunter's Run. She'd been welcomed as a long lost cousin, but the novelty had worn off really quickly. Ducks after all, were very territorial, and she was rapidly viewed as an interloper. She moved on. But not before checking the local bounty hunter guild.

  The mission to bring in a rogue owl had been completed easily enough on HR14. She'd taken the opportunity to register with the new Federation embassy there as a bounty hunter, gaining admittance to human space. The blockade had now been removed, but those who wanted to cross the border needed to register with the embassy on each side. G036, on the Federation side of the border, did not have a habitable planet, but instead now had two stations not far from the jump point. One was purely military, being the main base for the Federation Navy, which had a battle fleet in the system at all times, mainly to show the flag as the only way into human space, but just in case there was ever an invasion.

  The other was civilian, and had a Kingdom embassy. All ships wanting to enter the Kingdom had to stop at this station, and receive formal permission to cross the border. Part of this permission was the agreement to stop at Hunter Prime for mandatory ship inspection, and galaxy orientation. Failure to stop would result in a bounty hunter being sent after you. Those heading for owl space, or beyond duck space, needed to have both done in HR14, where the process was slower due to a lack of civilian shipyard space, and very few inspectors and trainers.

  Dodgers caused a bit of a stir when she arrived in G036, and docked not at the civilian station, but at the military one. As Kingdom military, she had to check in when crossing into non-Kingdom space. Her bounty hunter credentials were civilian, and gained her entrance, but as Kingdom military, she had to also submit to an inspection by a Navy team.

  The Lieutenant Commander in charge had heard about the Excalibur class of long range fighters, but hadn't seen one before. He was amazed to find a duck as the pilot, and somewhat awed with the pilot's chair, which was designed specifically for the centaur shape of the aliens in this part of the galaxy, allowing them to sit comfortably, with legs supported on each side of the main chair, with controls set up for a three armed being. The ship was otherwise bog standard, and Dodgers received a quick clearance. The ship wasn’t as standard as he thought though, since the shower had been adapted to be a water one, with the ability to half fill, so a duck could have a good bath. This had required a larger than normal water supply, resulting in one of the missile launcher reloads being removed to make way for more water, and its recycling module.

  It was as she was preparing to leave, intending travelling to Gaia to sightsee the home of humans, she received the vid from Jane. It was a bounty mission specifically for her, and all she had to do was identify the ship, and shadow it until told otherwise.

  She waited off station for the liner to jump in, dock with the civilian station for customs and immigration formalities, and followed it after it went on its way. She had access to the Kingdom comnavsats still operating here, as no-one in the Federation could find them. They'd dropped their own comsats so they hadn't needed to pay the Kingdom for their com bandwidth, and the two sets didn’t interfere with each other, cross communicating at the twin stations jump point. She kept a reasonable distance from the liner, one of the first alien liners heading to Gaia with tourists, appearing to be just another ship flying the route into human space.

  Midway across G038, another vid came in from Jane. She received detailed instructions, and timing.

  Dodgers was a bit surprised at what she was being told to do, but she already knew just how all seeing the Queen of Hunter's Run seemed to be.

  She increased speed, and began overtaking the liner, coming up directly behind it. A channel opened when she was close behind, and a mushroom voice demanded to know what she was doing. She responded with a request to dock, to take a bounty off their ship. They had no choice but to agree, but weren’t going to slow down for her. Bounty Hunters were de-facto police force in human space, and had the right to follow a bounty almost anywhere.

  Dodgers didn’t usually use her ship computer for flying, enjoying it too much herself, but since she was leaving the ship, she brought it up to full operations status. Back on Concorde, Jane smiled to herself, as the feed came in from herself on Dodger's ship.

  Instead of docking, Dodgers brought the ship into a synchronous position above the top of the liner, about a third the way from the front. She engaged autopilot mode to keep it there, and jumped out of her chair. Back in her living area, she shifted the bandolier she wore across her chest into a full space suit, mimicking her feathers, but with a clear bowl-like helmet. She took the designated weapon down from the rack, and cycled through into the airlock. Once the air was removed, she cycled the outer door, and stepped onto the edge of the hatch frame.

  From inside the airlock, she pulled a tether gun from its holder, plugged one end into the socket for it outside, and aimed the gun at the hull below her. The line spooled out, and magnetically attached to the hull. She grabbed the line with one hand, and jumped, letting the line guide her down. On the hull, she changed her suit boots to magnetic, and let go the line. Her PC was showing her the direction to head in, and she began walking across the top of the ship.

  Two decks down the other side, she stopped at a cabin window, and peered in. An occupant was asleep inside. The head might have been a bat, but she couldn’t tell. She double checked she had the right cabin, even to the point of using facial recognition scanning to verify her target, to be compared with the bounty warrant. It checked out.

  She positioned herself to the side of the window, placed the gun against the glass, and pulled the trigger once. The meson stream cut a tiny hole in the window, and another one in the frame of the bed after passing through the head sleeping on it, and the cabin experienced explosive decompression. The door and air vents were instantly sealed to protect the rest of the ship, but the air emptied out of the room in a rapid hiss.

  The occupant died, not knowing it had been in any danger. Dodgers clomped back to the line, pulled herself up to her airlock, pulled in the line, and cycled through into her living area.

  The duck sized meson streamer went back into its rack, next to the pulse rifle, and a variety of duck sized sidearms.

  Back in her seat, she pulled the ship away from the liner, and informed them she'd seen a tiny meteor hit their hull, and was veering off. Given they would now have to stop at the next station to effect a repair, she informed them she'd meet them there. The pilot of the liner was not at all happy, but suspected nothing untoward, even though alarms had gone off, and it was obvious a passenger was dead.

  Dodgers grinned, increased to full cruising speed, and overtook the liner.

  Job done. One Brotherhood agent taken out, and no-one the wiser.

  She sent off confirmation of the kill.

  Four

  Jane stepped into the sector ten council chamber, and walked into the center. Duke Fred was in the number one seat, and they nodded to each other.

  "Thank you for attending this special session," said Jane. "Thank you also to the representatives of sectors eight, nine, and eleven, for their help over the last few weeks, and for attending now." She nodded in the direction of the special guest's area, where three distinct delegations were sitting.

  "Unfortunately, as of now, communications out of this chamber have been suspended, due to the nature of what we'll be dealing with."

  "What will we be dealing with?" asked Ganshura, in seat two.

  "Today we'll be dealing with the Brotherhood problem. It's taken weeks to set everything up, using intelligence from all sources, and today, we'll see the problem ended."

  "Ended?" asked the fuzzball. "How can you be so sure?"

  "Over the next few hours, coordinated action is going to be taken by Kingdom assets, sector assets, and some sworn to secrecy police forces across three secto
rs."

  Jane waited for the reactions to die down.

  "Hence the lockdown here. There will be no warning messages going out. No leakages from embassy staff for any reason. This is not a matter of trust, but operational security."

  "Is it really necessary?" asked the stick insect.

  "Yes. I could have simply informed you tomorrow of the results, but I thought you’d like to follow this as it happens, considering how much everyone has pulled together to set it up."

  Reaction showed many disagreed with her, but the majority did. The bat ambassador was especially unhappy.

  "For months now, we’ve been identifying Brotherhood members, agents, and those doing their dirty work. A short time ago, I set in motion the elimination of all of them." She held up a hand to stop responses. "We know Brotherhood commit suicide rather than being taken, so we're simply speeding this process up. This is not a normal response for the Kingdom, or this sector, but in this case, the faster we can hit them, the fewer of them will survive. We're well passed trying to take prisoners now. We don’t need more intelligence. This is pest control."

  She looked around the chamber, and waved at the wall screen. They watched Dodgers fire into the liner window.

  "This Brotherhood member was on his way to Gaia. He was the only Brotherhood we know of in Human Federation space. The operative in this case was a bounty hunter with a sector ten navy commission. The hit was clean, resulting in a tiny hull puncture which is easily repaired. The ship was otherwise undamaged, and no-one aboard has any knowledge it wasn’t an unlucky meteor strike."

  She looked at the Federation ambassador, who nodded his thanks. The Federation had so far been lucky, and not seen any Brotherhood activity. But now the doors were open, so to speak, it had only been a matter of time. Short of strip searching everyone coming in, there was no way of determining who was Brotherhood during immigration and customs. He knew Jane had other methods, but he wasn’t allowed to ask. Yet. And just maybe now, he wouldn’t need to.

  "How many more are to come?" asked the mushroom.

  "Get comfortable. We'll be here for a while."

  Five

  "I'm telling you," said Patchet. "The new front airlock, as per Kingdom requirements, is fitted and operational. But the rest of your airlocks are substandard to the point I wouldn’t trust any of them to get you out of this system. By whatever deity you believe in, please let me upgrade them."

  He stood there, and let the bat harangue him regarding overcharging and attempting to get them to pay for services they didn’t need.

  Patchet's Dock was currently holding position a safe distance from the jump point into HR1. His personal Corvette, Patchet's Workshop, now fully upgraded to Kingdom standards, was docked in the main hanger. His Dock was a full DSRV, deep space repair vessel, designed to his specs, and built by Jane. While technically Jane's ship, he ran it as if it was his own, and Jane shared in the profits.

  At eighty percent of the length and mass of a Kingdom Battleship, the DSRV was a huge ship, capable of docking an average Cruiser internally, as well as docking a dozen Cruiser or smaller ships nose in. Since the main job the DSRV was doing was front end dock and thruster upgrades to suit the Kingdom and Human Federation stations, he was, as he was apt to tell people, flat out like a lizard drinking.

  When most of these beings failed to understand the reference, since lizards here drank like every other being, using their third arm and a decent cup, and never from a lying down position; he'd point to the displays showing all the external docks full, and the internal dock nearly finished with building himself a Cruiser miner vessel to supply his Dock with resources. He was indeed flat out, with another dozen ships in a holding pattern nearby, waiting for a dock.

  The DSRV was in the next system to HR1, so ships heading into the Kingdom could be modified before entering, and by a private outfit instead of Kingdom yards. It was the only way of avoiding having your ship towed in to any station before you arrived in Hunter Prime, something most captains preferred to avoid.

  Patchet had never had so many people working for him. While the work was mainly done by builder and repair droids, he had people overseeing each job, marines making sure everyone was safe, combat droids making sure the marines were safe, catering staff for ship crews waiting for their ships and needing food, and even dozens of butler droids to service the suites and hotel style accommodation offered for when a ship needed to be open to space for work to be done on it.

  The ship's computer did all the coordinating work, leaving him free to do what he did best. Tinker. Occasionally though, he ended up discussing the work with clients, such as now.

  The bat was finally running out of steam.

  "Have it your own way," he said. "It's your lives on the line, and as long as your payment clears, it's really no concern of mine if you kill yourselves."

  The bat received the invoice for the agreed upon amount, paid it, and took his crew out of the waiting area they'd been arguing in, through the closed in workshop area, and in through the brand new front of ship airlock, which closed behind them.

  Patchet stood there, watching them on a wall screen, which also showed him the work-bay airlock status, and after the bay was open to space, the ship reversing out. Reversing was always new to ship crews, and Patchet was always a bit nervous watching them. This galaxy hadn't invented front thrusters and docking clamps under airlocks, and instead docked sideways on to a station, thus vastly increasing the likelihood of a collision. But they were used to doing it, and backing out the first time was always stressful for everyone.

  The ship backed away slowly but successfully, and Patchet let his breath out. The next maneuver to master was the ship twirl to put it on a heading away from the station, and for some ships, this took twice or three times as long as backing out. The ships here simply didn’t have human maneuverability either. The bat ship wasn’t too bad, and at last it was on its way towards the jump point.

  Patchet waited.

  Just outside the jump lane, the ship seemed to stagger, debris came hurtling out in a large jet of gas, and its heading changed dramatically away from the jump point. The ship began to tumble uncontrolled.

  Patchet sighed, and opened a channel to his ship computer using his new PC.

  "What did I tell them?"

  "You told them," said Jane, in a deep male voice.

  "Better send out the salvage droids."

  "Already on the way. I took the liberty of sending a squad of marines as well."

  "Let me guess. The marines were begging for something to do?"

  Jane laughed. Patchet joined in. He was correct, and they both knew it. He still wasn’t too comfortable having a ship computer which talked back at him, but he had to admit, it saved him a lot of work, and anticipated most of his needs.

  Having come out of retirement, the last thing he actually wanted to do was work full time, or even part time. But it was good having a ship which could go anywhere, do what he loved doing, tinkering with ship systems, and make him a good income at the same time.

  Patchet continued to wait. There was actually nothing else which needed his attention, and he wanted to see this one through to the end.

  He watched one of the salvage droids slap its sled down on the rear end of the ship, stopping its tumble, and the repair droid it was carrying found the nearest airlock, and went inside. A short time later, the engines died, and the salvage droid brought the ship to a stop.

  The marines went in through the hole in the side of the ship where an airlock had once been, their cam feeds popping up on the wall for Patchet. They found all the crew dead. On each body, they removed some clothing, and ruffled a few feathers.

  "It's confirmed," said the Lieutenant. "All Brotherhood."

  Patchet nodded. The ship would be towed in, he'd file for salvage rights, and modify it to service the DSRV. The bodies would be taken to the old council station two systems over, where the local authorities would deal with them.

  Pa
tchet smiled, and sent off a pre-prepared email to Jane.

  Mission accomplished.

  Six

  Seasprite was in orbit above the owl homeworld.

  Snark was on the surface, deep in negotiations for expanding his shipments of rodent delicacies, and coffee, to the cat homeworld. With a dozen planets all now geared up for production of coffee and cocoa beans for insatiable human consumption, Snark was quietly siphoning off a small percent for his own people, who had humans now to provide food and drink for, and who were slowly starting to enjoy both coffee and chocolate themselves, as humans taught them how to brew both successfully.

  The rodents were a bonus, since the plantations attracted almost plague proportions of different kinds of them, and were thus cultivated as extra product lines, and not just for the cats. A lot of species enjoyed rodent for dinner, and now mouse was off all their menus, non-sentient rodent was fast replacing mouse as the dish of the day. Snark was trying to fill as much of this market as he could. And since most of the owl merchant fleet was supplying human needs, as much because they were now fearful of entering sector ten space again, as being almost fully committed by Jane to moving coffee and cocoa into the Human Federation.

  Owls had once traded far and wide, and held influence over three sectors. True, it was because they addicted everyone to a poison, and this was the main reason they were fearful of heading out past Hunter's Run, at least until people forgot where the purple plant had come from. In the meantime though, they were making a bigger profit selling humans two of their weeds.

  In the distance, the noise of an explosion momentarily stopped discussions. There were some puzzled looks, but the momentary distraction was exactly that, momentary. The second explosion, a little closer this time, stopped conversation completely, and several owls contacted other owls to find out what was happening.