Hero to the End (The Hunter Legacy Book 13) Read online

  "Sir?" he said at last.

  Space Commodore was a one star rank. He was officially no longer a pilot.

  "You have a problem Space Commodore?"

  "Yes sir."

  "Did you or did you not submit design specs for a new Carrier?"

  "I did."

  "And did you or did you not specify how such a ship should handle for the pilot?"

  "I did."

  "Have I ever disappointed you?"

  "No sir."

  "Do you have a problem Space Commodore?"

  This time he paused. I saw him shoot a glance at George, who was grinning wildly at him.

  "No sir."

  "Good. While in this system, all CAG's, detached Wing Commanders, or independent Squadron Leaders, will report to you. When the fleets diverge, you will retain the same command for Fleet Two. Marshal Bigglesworth will be transferring his flag to Orion's Belt. I'd offer you a Captain, but I know damned well you won't want one."

  There was a titter of chuckling around the room.

  "Yes sir."

  He too saluted and sat, but his eyes were on Bigglesworth. Oh to be a fly on the wall when those two sat the same CCC together. I gathered their relationship was a lot better than it used to be, but watching the fence mending might have been entertaining. Assuming they did.

  "Group Captain Greer."

  Greer startled so violently hearing his new rank for the first time, he almost fell off his chair. He rose and braced.

  "Group Captain, the consensus of opinion up your chain of command is your talents are being wasted."

  "Sir?"

  He was visibly shocked now.

  "You are transferred to Fleet, with the rank of Fleet Captain, and appointed to command the Dreadnaught Dauntless."

  Miriam, sitting next to him, grabbed him with both hands around his waist, to stop him falling over. It wasn't sure he would have, and those around him laughed quite hard. He made a big show of casting off her hands, dusting himself off, and bracing again. Except he also shot a glance at George, who was enjoying the show immensely. I suspect George was sending pings behind my back.

  "Thankyou sir."

  He didn’t look it.

  "Problem Fleet Captain?"

  "I don’t want to give up flying sir."

  "Are you happy with Chivalrous?"

  "Yes sir."

  "What's your choice of fighter craft these days?"

  "Excalibur sir."

  "You will have an Excalibur docked inside Chivalrous sometime tomorrow Fleet Captain. Once you pass control of Dauntless from Jane to Starman, you can decide how to dock Chivalrous, so you can fight both of them together."

  "Yes sir! What do I do with my Gunbus sir?"

  Now he was enthusiastic.

  "Are you collecting ships Fleet Captain?"

  "Yes sir!"

  Now he was grinning.

  "Your Gunbus belongs to the American Fleet. If you can convince Admiral Hallington to let you keep it, all you need to do is figure out where to dock it."

  He saluted and sat, looking like the proverbial cat which had just eaten the canary.

  Lacey was giving me the look.

  "You have a request Space Commodore?"

  "Ah, no sir."

  "As a flag rank, you rate a personal Lightning Courier now, or a flag officer's Gig. If you prefer to requisition an Excalibur instead, do so."

  "Thankyou sir!"

  "Lieutenant General's Smith and Hobbs."

  They rose and braced.

  "You will both report to Major General Wellington, who will report to General Patton."

  We'd spoken about the possibility before, so neither were surprised. I nodded to Annabelle, and she sat.

  "General Hobbs, unless you object, you are attached to Fleet One, with your flag on Hammer of Thor. However, your troops on Homer will be with Fleet Two, unless you wish to make other arrangements with General Patton."

  "Sir, I'll discuss it with the teams on Homer. I don’t have a problem with it myself, but I suspect the troops would prefer to see home on their way up spine."

  "See General Patton then. I have no preference either way, except for Homer staying with the Enterprise evacuation fleet. She will need some troops, but yours can be billeted on Hammer of Thor."

  "Yes sir."

  He sat.

  "Colonel O'Neill."

  He stood and saluted.

  "Colonel, you are promoted to Brigadier General. You will command any and all ground forces whilst on a planet, reporting to Lieutenant General Smith. You will remain with Fleet Two when the fleets diverge. At that time, an American Brigadier will take the same role with Fleet One, until such time as the fleets recombine."

  This was very non-standard. Effectively I was placing him in command over several American one stars with much more seniority. In practice though, Patton was going to keep those officers busy on other things, leaving most of the ground work to Wellington, Smith, and Hobbs, with O'Neill on the ground. The thing was, O'Neill was the best ground commander we had, and his rank wasn’t really relevant. He was overdue for promotion anyway.

  "You will billet aboard Sceptre of Kali, as will General's Wellington and Smith."

  "Yes sir. Thankyou sir!"

  He saluted again, and sat, to be hugged by his wife.

  "Fleet Captain Hunter, and Commander's Fox and Noland.

  My father stood and braced, looking surprised, but proud. Trisha Fox, CO of Enterprise, looked surprised, while Wayne Noland, CO of Prometheus, showed no emotion at all. Both had once been Bridge crew for my father, and both had already achieved their wildest dreams by captaining the other Explorer ships.

  "Fleet Captain Hunter, you are promoted to Fleet Admiral, and given overall command of the Evacuation fleets. Commanders Fox and Noland, you are promoted to Fleet Captain. Further, when operating under detached command, you will carry the brevet rank of Commodore, formalizing command of your evacuation fleet. Prometheus will be attached to Fleet One, under Admiral Hallington. Galactica and Enterprise will remain with Fleet Two. Fleet Admiral, you will report to Admiral Hallington when the fleets are merged, and myself when they diverge."

  "Yes Sir," said all three together.

  I don’t think I've ever seen my Dad looking prouder, having been promoted by his own son. Fox had looked for a moment like I'd kicked her cat, but quickly recovered. Noland was now looking happy. I understood both of them, having taken the time during the withdrawal to assess them as leaders. Fox was a good officer, her people loved her, but underneath, she still doubted she should be Captain of anything, let alone one of the Big Three. She'd never expected to be more than Second Officer on Galactica. Noland gave off an air of know-it-all, which I knew grated with some of his people, but he was extremely competent, having been Galactica's XO. Neither would have received a ship command of any kind without Dad having been completely satisfied they could do the job.

  The three of them saluted together, and sat.

  Seventeen

  "Lieutenant Colonel's Peck."

  The twins stood and braced, being very careful not to grin.

  "You are both promoted to Colonel, remain in command of Team One, and are jointly appointed to the command of the forces aboard Fearless, reporting to Brigadier General O'Neill. Fearless remains attached to the Galactica evacuation fleet, which will be attached to Fleet Two. You will billet aboard Sceptre of Kali, where Fearless will dock when not on active duty. At such times, your troops will also billet on Sceptre."

  Neither of them were game to say anything. They saluted, and sat. BA slapped both them on the shoulder so hard they were nearly knocked out of their chairs. The rest of the team were grinning. Alison leaned over and congratulated them. She'd already received her Oak-Leaf from Annabelle, when she accepted the aide role months ago. It was way too soon for her bird, but if Annabelle was ever promoted again, Alison would be as well.

  "Commander Bronson."

  Annette looked surprised, stood and braced.


  "You are promoted to Fleet Captain, and appointed Captain of the Dreadnaught Relentless."

  Annette was stunned. So were a lot of Captains, who might have expected a promotion to a Dreadnaught from their Pocket Battleship. A couple of the new Battleship Captains had obviously been entertaining the notion of moving upwards again, however nonsensical that was considering they had just been promoted to a larger ship already.

  I wasn’t going to explain this, but I made brief eye contact with Chet Hallington, and he nodded his understanding. He knew my reasoning for doing this, without us ever having discussed it. He'd seen Annette in action.

  "Aye sir."

  She saluted and sat.

  From the corner of my eye, I could see George, and it was damned hard not to burst out laughing. He was poleaxed I'd given a Dreadnaught to Annette instead of him.

  "Commander Young."

  Miriam stood, looking like she'd expected it.

  "Commander, you are being transferred to Fleet, and promoted to Fleet Captain, with appointment to command the Super Cruiser Defiant."

  Her mouth dropped open, this being the last thing she'd expected. She looked down at Greer beside her, and he grinned up at her, and nodded.

  "Thankyou sir."

  "Do you have a problem with remaining with Fleet Two?"

  "Wouldn’t be anywhere else, sir. Can I…"

  "Yes. An Excalibur will be acceptable as a Captain's Gig."

  "Thankyou sir," she said again, and sat.

  Chet Hallington saluted me from his chair, with very few people seeing it. I knew what he meant. In a Cruiser, Miriam was less likely to kill herself doing something reckless. And in a Cruiser, she'd be much closer under the eye of either Susan Bentley, or Daniel O'Neil.

  "Commander Murdock."

  George shot to his feet and went rigid.

  "You are promoted to Fleet Captain, and will be acting Captain of the Titan class ship Sceptre of Kali, when I'm not performing the role. You will remain Captain of Fearless, and this role will be the primary one when Fearless is on assignment. You can billet on either ship as you prefer. And yes, Gorilla can be your Captain's Gig."

  "Yee-Hah!" he yelled, causing the entire room to laugh, with the exception of a few straight laced Captains of the old school, which said Captains had to remain dignified at all times. I disagreed.

  "At ease Fleet Captain," I said when I could be heard again.

  "Ah, sorry sir," he said, before saluting and sitting.

  "Major Jackman-O'Neill."

  Sam stood slowly, as if she didn’t believe she'd just heard her name.

  "You are promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, and will be second in command of the troops on Fearless, while remaining CO of Team Six."

  She gave me a quivering salute, and sat, obviously not game to say anything.

  "The remainder of the Alpha Team."

  They stood as a group, with the exception of Alison, who knew better than to stand now. She had a wry smile on her face, as if she'd considered rising just to provide me with a problem.

  "The Alpha team has done the impossible over the last few months, mostly without anyone needing to give you orders. Millions of people owe you their thanks. For those of you not already recognized, I hereby advance you all one rank."

  This meant Agatha and Alana became Senior Sergeants, Abigail a Master Sergeant, Aline a Second Lieutenant, and Grace a Flight Lieutenant. They all looked happy, Grace most of all. Aline should have been advanced well before now. Sub-Lieutenant was only supposed to be an entry level officer rank, with promotion automatically upon showing basic competence. It hadn't crossed my mind until all this had started though. I'm not sure she knew it, since she'd remained really happy about just being the lowest of officers. I'd never intended her to remain as a Warrant Officer, the rank which normally bridged a senior NCO becoming an Officer, and we didn’t have the rank anyway.

  BA looked confused, and I almost lost it. I looked her in the eye.

  "CSM Baracas, you are promoted to the newly created rank of Master Command Sergeant Major. You will be the senior non-commissioned officer on the ground, reporting directly to Brigadier O'Neill. All other CSM's will report to you."

  "Sir!"

  She saluted with a quiver, and the rest of the team did likewise. They held them until I returned the salute, and sat.

  "All the teams have performed the impossible these last few months. General Hobbs, you will please submit your recommendations for promotions to General Wellington. Brigadier O'Neill, General Smith, and Commodore Lacey, please do the same."

  I looked at Admiral Sato, and he nodded. I looked at Greer, and he nodded. I looked at Miriam, and she pinged me her list. I sent it on to Vonda Wellington, with a nod to Miriam. She seemed much happier I noted.

  I turned to see who was taking the lectern from me now, expecting Patton to rise. But instead, it was Bigglesworth. He motioned me to step aside, but stay.

  "When the war started, the four star ranks who began this command made an assessment of the likely number of people who could be saved from down spine of this system, in the time frame put forth by Admiral Hunter. The best figure we could come up with was two billion people. Instead, we've seen upwards of ten billion pass through this system. It has been a major triumph for those fighting the war, to have saved so many people in such a short time."

  "From those of us who have watched the war from afar, so far, three cheers for everyone who has been fighting and saving people. Hip-Hip."

  "Hooray," roared half the crowd.

  "Hip-Hip."

  "Hooray"

  "Hip-Hip."

  "Hooray."

  "This is not to say the rest of us have not been busy, because we have. Where other promotions are warranted, they can be submitted up your chain of command. Particularly ship crews, who haven’t otherwise been recognized, and whose performance warrants recognition."

  He paused.

  "There is one last order of business. The room will come to attention please."

  Everyone rose, and braced. I braced where I was. Jane moved to stand slightly to the side, and behind me.

  Bigglesworth turned to me.

  "Admiral Hunter, you are hereby promoted to the rank of Admiral of the Fleet, and placed in command of this multi-sector fleet. Congratulations Sir."

  Eighteen

  "You didn’t see that coming, did you?" asked Walter.

  We were alone in a small lounge, not far from the auditorium, with Jane standing by the door. I was now wearing five stars on my shoulders, arrayed in a circle instead of straight.

  I think I’d covered my shock up with a bland face, as I accepted 'the honour', shook Bigglesworth's hand, and saluted him, at which point everyone had saluted me. I think they expected me to make a speech, but that was the last thing I'd wanted to do. I'd merely told them a thank you, asked them to keep up the good work, and dismissed the room.

  "No, I didn’t."

  "You should have. We told you back on the approach to Gaia last year."

  "I'd forgotten."

  "Ha. Sure you did."

  I looked at his grinning face. Actually I had forgotten. I'd been too ready to hand all the decision making back to them, now we'd met up again. Instead, they'd dumped it all on me.

  Maybe he saw something in my face, as he changed the subject quickly.

  "Nexus and Outback are chaotic, but we're coping with the influx. The AI's are constantly refining how to get so many stations and ships to jump through to Gaia in so little time. Our main challenge is feeding everyone. Last I heard though, all the Australian planets were over-producing, and once Bob had your three Titans underway, he turned some of the shipyard capacity to building food stations. It'll be a bit like closing the barn door after the horse has bolted, since they won't really start producing fully before they go through to Gaia, but we don’t know they'll be ready to feed us all when we get there. The original estimates we made there would appear to have been rather low. Your Borgcubi
a was a brilliant idea, but in the end, it might be stretching our resources too far."

  "Gaia will handle it. We'll also be able to help there as well. With less people to pick up, we'll be able to concentrate on stripping planets of all their food supplies. So at the last, instead of people, the evacuation ships should be full of food. When we get back home, the last act of the evacuation fleets will be stripping the sector of everything which moves. When are you heading back?"

  "Tomorrow morning. I only really came for today, although like you, I've taken the opportunity for a rest, where no-one at home could see me doing it. I brought my own Lightning, and it was augmented with a full communications setup. I've spent a bit of time each day giving orders and settling disputes, just to give the impression I am actually working."

  "You still want a vid from me?"

  "Yes."

  I turned towards the nearest cam, and opened a vid.

  "This is Admiral of the Fleet Hunter, in the Hawaii system. In fifty three days, anyone who hasn’t passed into the Gaia system will have a life expectancy of weeks, maybe days."

  I looked into the cam, giving them my serious Admiral's face.

  "GET OFF YOUR FUCKING ARSES, AND GET OUR PEOPLE TO SAFETY!"

  Walter had jumped at my change in volume, and now looked happy.

  "Do it now. When the Door to Gaia opens, the Australian sector should be the first through. If you’re not there, you won't be."

  "Let me tell you a few home truths. EarthGov doesn’t exist anymore. Why? Because Earth sector doesn’t exist anymore. Australian sector will likewise cease to exist, and so will its government. Government for the displaced now resides within each station. And only those who have effectively led the evacuation of people, and efficiently run each station, have remained in any leadership capacity. Each of you needs to be a leader now, as we have bugger all use for politicians. And for those who need an incentive, I will tell you this. When I get there, if I find any one of you has delayed or hampered the evacuation of our people in any way, I will personally put you up against a wall and shoot you!"

  Maybe not, but they weren't going to know that.