Defender

14

The days could have taken on a wonderful sameness, but Jack insisted they do something new every day. So one day they took out a sailboat. Kris showed Jack how to handle the sails while he struggled with the tiller. Then she took over the tiller and showed him how to catch the wind.

“Sailing is a dance between you, the tiller, the sails, and the waves.”

“I’ll take your word for that,” Jack said, looking rather pale. He wasn’t seasick. Not quite.

Kris chose to go with the waves, making the ride as smooth as possible, and he seemed to draw more joy from it.

As a teenager, Kris had fantasies of making it with a boy in a sailboat. She and Jack got some nice foreplay in, but the thought of lying down on the ribbed bottom or trying to do something on the thwart seats gave the mature Kris too many images of the boat taking off on its own, flipping over, or coming up with some other disaster her younger self hadn’t thought of.

They found a nice island and took advantage of its white beach.

The next day, they went snorkeling naked off their own private beach. Kris had a hard time dividing her attention between Jack and the beautiful undersea view. Jack seemed to be splitting his time pretty evenly between her and the scenery.

Was it lust or was it love?

Could love be served with a nice side dish of lust?

The more Kris learned about Jack, the more she shared about herself with Jack, the more sure Kris was that this was the man she wanted to share her life with. The man she wanted to have beside her as she grew old . . . assuming she dodged the bullets and the bombs that long.

She found herself wondering what their children might look like. What kind of adults would they grow up to be? A son like Jack couldn’t help but be as wonderful as his father. And a daughter . . . Jack wouldn’t drive his daughter to drink.

Kris let all these thoughts wash through her, mindful that her birth-control implant had about run its course and would need replacing soon. Yes, replacing.

Granny Rita may have had seven kids on the far side of the galaxy. Kris, however, had a couple of battles to fight.

Kids would have to wait.

They were dressing for dinner the fourth evening. Kris used that word loosely. Neither had worn a stitch all day, but it was the dinner meal and “Total Nudity Not Allowed” applied.

They were rather late, though.

Kris sidled over to lean her chin on Jack’s shoulder. “You’d look great in that lava-lava.”

“It’s so thin you can see right through it,” Jack said.

“Only if the light is right, and you know how dim the lights are by this time.” The lights were pretty bright when the muumuu teams arrived, dimmer for the shorts contingency and rather shady when the bikini-or-less brigade strutted in.

“What will you wear?” Jack asked with a raised eyebrow that wasn’t quite a leer.

“Not one of those string things. They ride up in all the wrong places and chafe me where only you should be.”

“Do girls wear lava-lavas?”

“Let’s find out.”

Jack chose her lava-lava, the most light colored one in the closet, not quite as thin as the one she’d picked for him. They spent a couple of minutes figuring out how you wore one, and that almost got dinner scratched for more bedtime, but Kris found that Abby had included a few pins, maybe earrings, in her “to go” bag, and they managed to get both of them arranged so they didn’t fall off at every opportunity.

“What are you wearing for a top?” Jack asked.

“What I got on. You seem to like it fine.”

He kissed her bare breasts, lovingly, and once again the bed started looking better than supper. Today, however, they’d again had nothing since their breakfast buns. Grumbling stomachs won out over libidos that were proving insatiable anyway.

They were late, very late. Most of the bikini brigade were already seated, but the owner had held their table for them. Kris walked through the dining room on the arm of the man that she loved.

Among this crowd, they hardly got a glance.

The waitress brought tea when she first came to their table. “Your usual, one of each type of fish?”

“What are you serving tonight?” Kris said.

The waitress named the two fish offerings.

NELLY, DO WE LIKE BOTH OF THEM?

NO, KRIS, THE SECOND ONE BOTH OF YOU HATED. YOU BOTH LOVED THE FIRST ONE.

Kris ordered two of the same dinners for them, much to the waitress’s surprise.

“I checked in with Sal, too,” Jack said. “If you hadn’t ordered, I would have.”

“I’m sorry. Did I violate male prerogative by ordering for us both?”

“Anytime you want to use Nelly to save our neck or get us a great dinner, you go right ahead. I’ve got more important things to do with my male ego than bend it out of shape.”

Kris put her hand out, palm up. He covered it, and began doing wonderful things to it.

“I like your male everything just the way it is,” she said.

“Your lady parts are mighty fine, too,” he answered.

“Kris, I have a message from Captain Drago.”

Kris found her back going ramrod straight. Damn near naked, she came to attention. “Hold the video, Nelly, but put him through.”

“Princess Longknife, Jump Point Beta, the one we used to jump in here, has started spitting out U.S. warships like a cat having kittens,” Captain Drago reported. “The first two through are squawking as USS Fearless and USS Intrepid. They’re a bit bigger than us, but the next one, the USS Constitution. It’s way bigger. We’re making out six loaded lasers forward, four aft. The chief says he doesn’t know what they are, but they’re bigger than our 18-inchers.”

He paused for a moment. “Here’s another big one, the USS Monarch. Oh oh, she’s squawking as the royal ship.”

“Aren’t we all Royal United Society Ships?” Kris asked.

“Yes, Kris, but this one is identifying herself as The Royal. It has the king himself on board.”

Dear Lord, Ray has come for his Rita.

The great Ray of legend was in for one hell of a surprise. The raised eyebrows from Jack beside her said he shared the same thought.

“Holy smoke on a stick,” the skipper burst out. “You got to see this next ship to believe it. You know those damn baby monster ships. Well we just had something come through the jump, claiming to be the USS Prosperity, with ten reactors and twenty charged lasers. It must weigh two or three hundred thousand tons if it weighs an ounce. Oh, and the chief tells me its all Smart Metal.”

Kris and Jack exchanged puzzled looks. The whole idea of the Smart MetalTM ships was to be fast, maneuverable, and not get hit. Something that huge defied any tactical application Kris could think of.

“We got a second one of those monsters, USS Enterprise. Nice name, and it’s got twenty huge lasers. And there’s a third, USS Canopus. I think the big show is over. Here comes another big frigate, USS Constellation, bringing up the rear. Oh, and another. USS Princess Royal. What are your orders, Your Highness?”

So, Granny Rita, tell me again exactly what is my place in the chain of command?

Kris gave Jack’s hand a sad squeeze. If the sorrow on his face was a reflection of hers, they were a pretty sorry lot. It looked like the clock had struck twelve, and Cinderella would have to turn back into a princess and the prince would have to turn back into a Marine captain.

There were several obscene things Kris would have liked to say; what she did say to Captain Drago was, “Get ready to receive the king. I’ll get back to the fleet landing as fast as I can. What acceleration is the fleet putting on?”

“One and a half gees. Somebody wants to get here quick. I’m told they’ll arrive in eighteen hours.”

“Issue a recall as gently as you can. Let’s not scare the natives, heavy or otherwise.”

“I understand. Prepare for a royal visit. Get the ship shipshape and Bristol fashion.”

“You know the drill. I’ll have to warn Granny Rita.”

“You forgot, Nelly put me on your net,” said Granny interrupting. “We’ll talk as soon as you get back into town.”

“We’ll see you soon, Granny,” Kris said.

“Damn,” said the old lady for Kris.

Kris looked at Jack. “The Sakura must have made a fast passage, and Grampa Ray must have left immediately.” She found herself shaking her head.

At that moment, their meal arrived. Kris gave the waitress a princess-caliber smile, and said, “I’m sorry, we’ll have to be leaving.”

“But why?” the young woman asked.

As Kris stood, a glance around told her that those at the table close by had heard an earful they didn’t know how to interpret. Never a good idea.

Kris cleared her throat and spoke in the voice that made crews snap to, even if it meant dying. “I appreciate the privacy that all of you have afforded Jack and me for the last several days. Many of you recognized me from the interview I gave the Alwan news media. I am Princess Kris Longknife, a lieutenant commander in the Royal United Society Navy and the senior Navy officer present on the research frigate Wasp, above your heads. The good news is that the U.S. has just reinforced its fleet presence in the defense of Alwa with over half a dozen ships. Humanity is not forgetting you, but coming to your defense.”

Kris paused while the dining room exploded with joyous shouts and applause.

“Please feel free to pass that information along to any of your friends. I’d appreciate if you could avoid mentioning that it came from a nearly naked princess.”

“And what’s wrong with being naked, nearly or totally?” a nearly naked woman asked.

“In some parts of human space, like wherever my mother is at the moment, anything close to naked is frowned upon.” Well, most balls Kris had attended had a few women in gowns that skimped on just about everything, but other than at formal occasions, Mother was quite sure of her dress code.

The woman who’d raised the question suggested that human space do something that, while Kris would love doing it with Jack, it was probably biologically impossible for a huge area of vacuum to manage.

When the general laughter died down, Kris held up her hands and got silence.

“The sad news is that with the fleet arriving, I have to cut my vacation short and go back to being a Navy officer. I’ve enjoyed your company, and I look forward to returning when my schedule allows, but I must leave immediately.”

Kris and Jack made their way to the door, slowly, shaking many a hand and getting lots of hugs. At the door, the owner waited. “You are welcome here at any time, and your money will never be good so long as I own this place, or my kids. Please come back when you can. We have a truck we use to make trips to town. My son will have it at your cottage in fifteen minutes.”

“We’ll be ready,” Kris said.

After another hug, Kris and Jack made their final good-bye and jogged toward their cottage, in step and by cadence.

Their vacation was vanishing by the second.

They hastily donned their uniforms. The spider silks were tossed in their bags; there was no time to pull themselves into that tight confinement. Besides, once topside, they’d need to shower and change into clean uniforms. Probably dress uniforms.

It was the king paying a visit.

And he very likely wouldn’t care for what he found.

“Do you think King Raymond expects to haul the entire human colony off this planet? Is that what the huge ships are? Transports?” Jack asked.

“Transports with a battleship’s broadside?” Kris pointed out.

“Nothing about this makes sense,” Jack concluded.

“In some weird way, it does to Ray Longknife,” Kris said.

They were dressed and packed in ten minutes. Kris glanced at the bed. Could they have taken a few moments for a fast one? Did she want her final memory of this to be something of sweaty haste? Better to go forward without looking back.

A teenager arrived early. They tossed their gear in the back of the truck and shared the narrow cab with a hero-worshipping young man who wanted to know everything about human space and repeatedly told them he planned to visit there. “But I’ll come back here. There’s no place better to live. Have you ever been to a better resort than Dad’s?”

Kris allowed that she hadn’t, and had to repeat it several times in the drive back.

Two hours later, they pulled up to Granny Rita’s home. It was a nice adobe two-story, built around an open garden court with a fountain and pond in the middle. Clearly, it had been meant to house a large family.

Three teenagers came out to carry their two bags. A mother provided supervision in case any should be needed.

Kris and Jack said their good-bye to the boy, who told them he wasn’t going anywhere until the truck’s batteries recharged. The mother gave him directions, needed or not, to the nearest recharging station.

An older couple, likely Granny’s own kid and spouse, hurried them inside and across the plaza. “You must do something,” the man said. “She’s insistent that she go up to the Wasp to meet Raymond. I think another shuttle launch could kill her.”

“I think she wants to go out that way,” the woman said. “Who can fault her for going? If it kills her, it saves her from having to confront him.”

The man did not dispute his wife’s opinion.

“Granny Rita is not getting on any shuttle I control,” Kris said flatly. “I will not have her death on my hands. God knows, I’ve got enough of them on my soul. Hers is not going to be added, and that is that.”

“You don’t know Granny Rita,” the man said.

Jack snorted. “You don’t know Kris Longknife.”

That settled the discussion until they got to Granny Rita’s suite of rooms.

The old woman was packing several bags. “I don’t know what Raymond will want to do. You say he’s a king. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a ball. Somewhere around here, I have a ball gown.”

“Mother, you cut it up to make clothes for me and Tina when we were small. I remember you telling us the story. We’ve handed them down, generation to generation.”

The old woman looked up. “I guess I forgot. Young woman, those pills you gave me don’t seem to be working as well as promised.”

“You haven’t been taking them as long as you were told,” Kris shot back.

“Well, however it goes, I must meet Raymond on the Wasp when he arrives.”

“No, Granny, you will meet Raymond here, on your own turf,” Kris said.

“I’m going up,” Granny Rita said with all the stubbornness of her years.

“We can do this the easy way, or the hard way, Granny.”

Granny Rita settled into a chair and eyed Kris. “The easy way is?”

“You will not be allowed on any shuttle under my command. Last time I checked, they’re all under my command.”

“So what happened to Captain Drago being the Wasp’s skipper?” Granny demanded.

“You eavesdropped on our conversation. You tell me who gives the orders there.”

“But he’s the captain. So long as you’re in that dotted box, you can still marry Jack. By the way, how’d the vacation go?”

“Swimmingly. Often without swimming suits as you no doubt expected.”

“I think two of my kids were conceived there.”

“Too much information, Granny, and you are dodging the issue.”

“Okay. How do we do this the hard way?”

“We’ll have several liberty launches dropping down to pick up the crew. I can put a ship’s surgeon on one. He can give you a thorough physical to qualify you for space. You’ll fail, and then it’s official. Commodore Rita Nuu Longknife-whatever-else is grounded.”

“And Raymond isn’t grounded.”

“He’s been through several rejuvenation cycles. Not just some pills but the whole treatment, fix or replace anything as necessary.”

Rita leaned back in her chair and blew out a disagreeing breath. “You are not giving me the proper respect I deserve.”

Kris snapped right back. “You mean I should obey your whim and let you commit suicide by shuttle? Forget it. It ain’t gonna happen on my watch, and there is no other watch.”

“I’ll bet you don’t talk to King Raymond like this,” Granny pouted.

“Sorry, Granny Rita,” Jack said. “I’ve been stuck in meetings between those two. Subordinate is not Kris’s strong suit. Nowhere close.”

“If Grampa Ray had had his choice, I never would have been allowed to do the Voyage of Discovery, never would have spotted the alien invasion force, and never broken its back,” Kris said.

“Tell me something, young whippersnapper to a wise elder, what was the vote to launch eight battleships and four corvettes at that monster?”

Kris tossed the question to Jack and settled into a chair.

“Initially,” Jack said, “the admiral from Greenfeld, the Peterwald Empire, was all for collecting his four battleships and going home. Two other admirals from Musashi and the Helvetican Confederacy were willing to go along with Kris if she could come up with a decent plan. She did, and everyone followed it. At least until things came apart.”

“They always come apart,” Granny said, her voice years and light-years away.

“Yes, they always come apart,” Kris agreed. “Now, Granny Rita, there is a liberty launch holding at the landing for me and Jack. We have to be going. Feel free to do whatever you want to receive a visiting king, unless you can convince the Alwans to apply for membership in the United Societies, in which case he’ll be their king paying a visit. By the way, Grampa wanted to call his association of planets United Sentients, but his meeting with the Iteeche leaked out, and the name got changed. The Alwans might help him change it back.”

“The Alwans can’t agree on whether it’s day or night,” Granny Rita’s daughter said.

“Sadly true,” Granny agreed. “Okay, young lady, shoo. You have your irons in the fire. I’ll see what kind of fire I can light down here. You’re sure he’ll come down?”

“Absolutely,” Kris said.

“Then I got a party to plan, fit for a king.”

Kris was none too sure about the sound of that, but she had her own work cut out for her. She and Jack left. A car waited to hurry them to the fleet landing. They were the last aboard. The liberty launch started its takeoff run as they tightened their seat belts.