Read Online Hunter Legacy 5 Hail the Hero by Timothy Ellis - Free Book Online

you want another station?
What else do you want?”
    She couldn’t say that with a straight face,
and continued laughing.
    “Actually, there’s something you can
do for me in that regard. General Harriman is going to be asking Sci-Fi sector
for permission for Hunter’s Redoubt to remain in Midnight as a control point
for ships entering Australian space. It could go in Nexus, but Midnight makes a
lot more sense, as it gives the sector a buffer zone if anything undesirable
gets past. The Orbital station is considerably larger, and is better suited to
the center of Nexus, which I have permission for already. If you could put in a
word on my behalf for permission to have a station in Midnight permanently, I’d
appreciate it.”
    The laugh died. She gave me a long
speculative look.
    “Done. And it’s my pleasure. It’s been
an experience working with you Admiral. I hope we cross paths again some
time.”
    “Likewise. If you’re ever in my neck
of the woods, you’ll be most welcome.”
    “On that note, I’d better get moving.
Take care of yourself Jon.”
    “You too Vonda.”
    We shook hands, and Vonda hugged me.

Ten

    I spent the rest of the morning on the Bridge,
monitoring the preparations to leave. It was just as well we didn’t need a CAP,
as most of the American pilots were in no condition to fly. Only the ones on
their Corvettes and Privateers were still fully functional. In a way, they were
a sort of CAP, but an unconventional one.
    Jane and I discussed the new station. She
displayed a schematic, and we looked it over, with a view to what work needed
to be done to bring it up to a suitable standard. She and Janice communed, and
Janice sent us a more up to date version, and a summary of the condition of
each area.
    It was almost identical to Sydney Station, except
it was much older. The design went back to old Earth days, and this one had
been among the last built there. So it wasn’t surprising it was showing its
age. It didn’t help having never been upgraded at all. Before it could be used,
it needed a complete makeover.
    I looked up Sydney’s station, and it turned
out theirs had been built in place from the now normal kits. I’d never paid
much attention. It was a station in space, was about as much thought I’d given
it when I was living there. Now, I paid attention to its design.
    Imagine you built a modern city of
skyscrapers on a round metal plate. Only because this is space, where there’s
no up or down, you built a second city on the other side of the plate. That’s
roughly what the station looked like. The plate itself provides a huge
circumference for a hundred docking ports, fighter dock, shuttle dock, and a
central strata of decks. In itself a major city, but each space-scraper is
almost its own smaller city. A bit like a city on a planet, the disk was the
city center, and the space-scrapers were suburbs.
    Jane and I started dividing up the space.
The central space-scraper on one side was designated administration. This would
include traffic and docking control. The largest one on the other side was to
be solely for the Hunter family and corporation. We assigned a whole section of
both sides for Military use, half being for Hunter ships, and the other half
for the Australian Militia. Each area contained a space-scraper, and a set of
docks. Control points were designed so each was self-contained, and access
could be limited to authorized people only. They would get Flag, Officer, and
Barracks accommodation along the same lines as Custer, but be able to house more
than five hundred people at a time. Accommodation also including office space
and the equivalent of a CCC for each. A General or Admiral would want a control
center and meeting rooms, as well as offices. Both needed armories. I set Jane
to design plans for them, taking into account any possible military scenario
the space could handle. The Hunter space would definitely include gun ranges.
    One of the smaller space-scrapers