Defender

25

Commander Kitano met Kris at her quarterdeck and personally granted permission for her to come aboard. “I have your quarters ready. I’ve set up your office, but I understand more furniture will be coming along. There is a problem. The frigates were outfitted rather quickly. We don’t have a lot of spare screens aboard. To get you two, I’d have to borrow them from either the wardroom, chief’s mess, or the mess deck.”

“Nelly, tell Captain Drago to send along two of the screens from my office. I definitely want video to entertain my civilian guests, but I’m not about to cause a morale problem on my namesake ship.”

“Thank you, Your Highness. I’ve arranged for your office to be just off my bridge, same as Wasp, and your quarters, those of your maid, and Lieutenant Lien are right in a row.” She glanced at Jack. “Is it correct that your chief of security’s quarters are the deck below and a frame over?”

“Amber, my husband will continue to have quarters well away from me. What happened on Alwa stays on Alwa. What happens aboard ship is straight by the rules.”

“Thank you, ma’am. It will make things a lot easier.”

“Does everyone know about my wedding?” Kris asked.

“Just about.”

“Did it hit before or after the Monarch sailed?”

“Oh, after. Well after. And well before your official appointment came in. We all know that. Talk about Longknife luck and having the guts to take advantage of it.”

“I’ve fought that way. It seemed like a good time to live that way.”

NELLY, BENSON SAID SAMPSON WAS SHOOTING OFF HER MOUTH ALL OVER THE PLACE. WAS THERE ANY MESSAGE TRAFFIC BETWEEN THE CONNIE AND THE MONARCH?

YES, KRIS, BUT IT WAS IN A THROWAWAY CIPHER AND VERY SHORT. I DON’T SEE ANY WAY I COULD CRACK IT.

SO, WAS THE KING FULLY INFORMED OF MY ACTIONS? WHOSE IDEA WAS IT TO GIVE JACK A JOB THAT MEANS MOST OF HIS TIME IS DIRTSIDE? AND WAS THAT MIXED-UP LANGUAGE ABOUT DRAFTING PEOPLE A WEDDING GIFT FROM GRAMPA RAY?

KRIS, IF YOU SPEND YOUR TIME CHASING ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS YOU CAN’T FIND, YOU’LL GO AS CRAZY AS A LONGKNIFE.

With a sigh, Kris filed those questions in a pigeonhole marked “Ignore.”

“Commander, please have the P Royal send to the squadron: ‘Prepare for sortie, 0900 hours tomorrow. Exercises will extend up to four gees.’”

“Four gees, ma’am?” Captain Kitano swallowed hard.

“Is that a problem?”

“We did 1.5 gees at most on the way out, what with the Prosperity and Free Enterprise with us. Most of the cruise was at one gee.”

“Clearly, you didn’t come out the way we did.”

“No. I’m told that was intentional. That and taking it easy on the civilians.”

“Well, I’m glad things have been easy for them up to now. They won’t be from now on.”

The commander made no reply.

They arrived at Kris’s night quarters. Except for the tub, it was as spartan as ever and no bigger.

“We haven’t opened a door yet to your day quarters. Would you like a door to your maid’s quarters? They’re right next door.”

“You’ll have to ask her. I think she likes her privacy.” Then Kris caught the second part of the question.

“Can you open a door to the next quarters?”

“Most of my crew have apps on their computers to adjust the ship in minor ways. Create a massaging recliner to watch movies on the mess deck. Modify their work spaces for efficiency. Opening a door is one of the easy options.”

“Can they open the hull to space?” Jack asked. “A door into the brig, open the side of my safe?”

“Oh, no, Colonel,” the captain quickly put in. “Those are under higher security. But the normal internal bulkheads, yes. If there’s battle damage, anyone may need to seal a bulkhead.”

Kris nodded understanding. This new Smart MetalTM was making everything different. The captain looked like she wanted to say something more, but she didn’t.

Kris would have very much liked to know what she didn’t say, but she didn’t ask.

Some things smart officers ignored.

At least until they bit them on the behind.

“Nelly, give the commander a hint at the fleet maneuvers we’ll be using tomorrow. I don’t want to be embarrassed by my own flag falling out of line.”

Nelly opened a hologram before them and showed a ship going through a rather moderate jinking pattern. “We’ll use double intervals for safety,” Nelly pointed out, “and all the squadron will be executing the same maneuvers at the same time. That should reduce the chances of collision.”

“Do you think your ship can follow that evasion program?” Kris asked.

“I think so, ma’am. We’ll sure give it a good old Navy try. And thanks for the warning. Nelly, could you pass that holo to my computer? I’d like to show it to some of my officers. We may be in for a long night.”

“Do so, Nelly. You better pass it along to the entire squadron with my compliments. We don’t play favorites in this squadron.”

“Glad to hear that, ma’am,” Commander Kitano said.

Kris settled into her station chair in her night quarters. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to be thinking about my 2100 hour meeting. Please leave the door open when you leave. Colonel Montoya will be working with me.”

“Yes, ma’am. Doors open. Good idea.”

And the skipper of the Princess Royal left Jack and Kris alone.

“That seemed to go well,” Kris said.

“Anyone can open a door between rooms?” Jack said.

“You caught that, did you?”

“You think we might need to have a no-notice showdown inspection of berthing areas?”

“Jack, do you really think that’s the number one item on my to-do list?”

“No, but it’s going to have to be up there sooner or later. Maybe after we get back from the hunt for the Hornet’s fate.”

“Yes. That will give the skippers and leading chiefs time to handle it on their own. Meanwhile, how am I going to survive going into the lions’ cage this evening?”

“You think it’ll be that bad?”

“We told Grampa Al not to send a fleet of delectable merchant ships full of goodies out to hunt for the bastards and shot the engines out of them when they tried. Now, Ray, legend and all, drops them off here and bugs out. Jack, somehow I’ve got to get them to devote their full efforts to building up a defense here, and I don’t have a penny to pay them with.”

“Put it on someone’s charge card?” Jack suggested.

“Jack, what charge card is good this side of the galaxy? The colonists did what they had to do because the only alternative was starving to death.”

“By the way, where is this fleet of yours getting its chow?”

That brought Kris up short. “Nelly, get me Amanda Kutter.”

“Amanda here,” came a second later. “I’m busy at the moment.”

KRIS, I THINK SHE’S IN BED FROM THE SOUNDS OF IT, AND NOT ALONE.

NELLY, YOU ARE DEVELOPING A DIRTY MIND.

“Amanda, I have a very big problem. At nine, I’m meeting with a lot of business and mining types to talk about how they are or are not going to make a mint here in the Alwa system.”

“There’s no way they’re going to make a mint,” Amanda said.

“That’s what I was afraid you’d say. Would you mind heading up here, oh and bring that young man, Jacques la Duke with you. We may need some help explaining the sociology and psychology of both the birds and the colonials.”

“Ah, Your Highness, you could not have picked a worse time.”

“Oh, if so, I’m sorry, but I really need you.”

“Kris, Jacques and I just got married, and we’re on our honeymoon. Surely, you understand the problem.”

“It must be catching,” Jack whispered.

“I’m sorry, Amanda, believe me, I am so sorry, and I wouldn’t say this if I didn’t mean it, but I need to get these people working for our mutual survival, and I really need your help.”

“I think she really does,” came from Jacques.

“Yes. It’s worse than anyone could have guessed,” said Amanda back to her new husband. “Okay, we will be there before your nine o’clock meeting. You’d better hear what we’ve found out. It’ll be hard to believe.”

“Want to send us a report?” Kris asked.

“No, Your Highness. Truth like this is best delivered face-to-face.”

“Then Longknife out,” Kris said, and eyed Jack. “What do you think that’s all about?”

“Kris, there are a dozen horror stories chasing themselves around in my head. If there’s anything Gunny has taught me, a good Marine does not take counsel with his fears. What’s our next topic?”

Once again, Jack had the right idea. Still, Kris’s pigeonhole for “run in circles, scream and shout about it later” was getting awfully full.

“How do we get the next bastard’s mother ship close enough to the Hellburners for us to demolish it?”

“Oh, an easy one,” Jack said. “For someone, I hope. Because I have no idea.”

“Boy do I miss my screens. Nelly, project a holo of this system.” Nelly did, and filled the wall across from Kris with a full view of the system.

“Now, narrow it down to just the jump that the aliens would have come through, and the space between it and Alwa.”

There was a lot of empty space, but off a bit to one side was a gas giant. “Does that beauty have any solid moons?”

Nelly highlighted three of them, almost evenly spaced around the giant. For half a minute they orbited the giant in fast motion. As you’d expect, they raced around at different speeds. At one point all were close to the jump, a moment later, they all managed to be on the opposite side of their primary.

“Draw a course, half-gee acceleration, from the jump to Alwa. Assume a flip to deceleration at one-half gee at midpoint.”

Nelly did. “The base ship will never be closer than a million kilometers to any of the moons, at best,” the computer said.

“So, sneaking up is going to be a bit of a problem this time,” Kris mused.

“Anything on the surface of those moons is going to be lazed to dust,” Jack said.

“So we create battle stations deep underground that can survive the blasting.”

“And if they turn the surface to glass?”

“We drill out before we launch the Hellburners.”

“Then those mad monster ships are going to laser them again.”

“Not if we keep them busy. Keep them concentrated on a mobile strike force.”

“All four of your frigates?”

“Reinforcements are coming. Grampa Ray promised me reinforcements.”

“You trust a Longknife? No, excuse me, I love and trust a Longknife. Do you trust that particular Longknife?”

Kris sent a kiss Jack’s way but stayed in her chair. He stayed perched on her bed.

“We’ve got twelve Hellburners and four frigates, a total of eight frigates when they finished spinning the Prosperity and Enterprise into warships.”

“And there will be two hundred or more alien monster ships.”

“Can’t I plan for the future, when maybe we’ve got twenty or thirty frigates?”

“And the odds are down to only seven or ten to one.”

“We beat three to one.”

“Yes, you did. Okay, let’s say we can dig deep into these three moons and plant missile bases. Who mans them?”

“Colonials. Alwans. There are bound to be a few fighters among them.”

“And a few officers and good chiefs willing to lead them,” Jack muttered.

Penny walked in on them, her ever-present shadow and fellow intelligence officer, Lieutenant Iizuka Masao right behind her. “You two busy?”

“Only planning our next battle.”

“It look any better than the last few?”

“Not at the moment. What can we do for you?”

“Actually, we thought we should bring you up to date on some stuff we’ve been culling from the reports coming in.” Penny glanced around the room. “I know we can’t drop down to the Forward Lounge for a drink, but didn’t they give you a Tac Center or an office when you transferred your flag?”

“It’s next door. Nelly, open a door to it.”

Nelly did, just at the foot of Kris’s bed, and they walked into Kris’s office.

“That’s neat,” Penny said. “Who’d have thought you could use the Smart Metal to just open a door.” Penny actually did sound surprised. Apparently, the woman who could order the whole ship around wasn’t aware of the app that worried Amber.

“Hey! Nifty office you got here.”

“There’s supposed to be an actual carved wooden desk there”—Kris pointed at a vacant place on the deck—“and over there will be some sofas and chairs for when we just want to chat, you know, like when I make my social calls on the king.”

“That bad?” Penny said.

Her poor Imperial Navy officer seemed none the more informed but didn’t look all that interested in an explanation. Maybe Penny had warned him some questions were best left unasked around the Longknifes.

“We were trying to figure out how to get the Hellburners close enough to the bastard’s base ship to survive long enough to make a hit,” Kris said, as Nelly shrank the table down to be a perfect fit for the four of them. “Nelly, show Penny and Masao the moons we found and the problems with them.”

Nelly quickly brought them up to speed as all four settled into comfortable chairs that allowed them to rock back and forth as Kris tended to do, lean back as Jack did, sway from side to side as Penny was doing, or sit perfectly still as Masao did.

“You’re going to have to dig deep for those battle stations,” Penny said.

“That should leave you a lot of gravel and rocks, assuming you don’t just laser your way down as far as you want to go,” Masao pointed out.

“And rocks are good for?” Kris said.

“To throw at the aliens,” he said. “They don’t like anything close to them. Right? They even lazed that little rock that drifted near when they were attacking us last.”

“Yes,” Kris said.

“So we give them a lot of rocks out by that jump. Let them run into a few of them. Laser a whole lot of them. Lasers get hot when you use them a lot, right?”

“Right,” Kris said, starting to grin.

“They tend to go all in, feetfirst and overpower the opposition. Let’s see how they take to a war of attrition,” Penny finished for the both of them. Clearly, they’d given the situation a lot of thought.

Of course, Penny had a kind of glow about her, and the way Masao looked whenever his glance passed her way told a wonderful story.

Or maybe Kris was just so much in love, she wanted everyone in love.

“We’re still going to need some awfully brave people to man those missile stations,” Jack pointed out.

“We may have found some Alwans to fit that bill.”

“Fighting Alwans?”

“Yes. They hail from the south, down near the equator. They’re taller and thicker, and you have to watch their legs. They’ll kick your head right off.” A new picture showed up on the wall of something that might have passed for an ostrich from old Earth. It had the long legs but the neck and body were fuller. On screen, two of them ran at each other and butted their chests together. One fell down, and the one left standing clearly celebrated some sort of victory.

“They like to fight,” Masao said. “The scientists who made contact with them showed them the picture of the space battles we’ve had and they were all ready to butt chests with anyone who’d fight like that.”

“I like their enthusiasm,” Kris said.

“They’ll need a lot of education,” Penny said, “but they’re willing. A couple of them have been flown back to Haven, and we’re trying to master their language and see how well they do with technology. They’ve done well on basic aptitude tests.”

“By the way, the scientists are creating a problem for the Navy,” Masao said. “They want shuttles to bounce researchers from place to place, just short hops. What they really need are transport planes down there. It would save wear and tear on the shuttles and give scientists more control over their missions.”

“One of the many things I’m trying to balance. Right now, we have less than fifteen thousand tons of Smart Metal to meet all our needs. Maybe we can get more when we pull the Hellburners off the frigates.”

“But no frigate skipper or defense wants to give up a gram of the stuff,” Penny finished. She was not only Kris’s intelligence officer but usually handled defense for the Wasp.

“So what do I get the mining and industry guys working on first? Finding bauxite to make aluminum for aircraft and boats or the ingredients for Smart Metal to make more frigates? Of course, if we go for frigates, we better also find the stuff for lasers, reactors, and all the electronics that go into one of these war wagons.”

“You think you can build a frigate out here?” Masao asked.

“It’s my opinion that the only reason King Ray brought all this industrial stuff out here was so that, if the aliens do stomp us into the ground, they find enough high tech to fool them into thinking that Alwa made all of these frigates on her own, and there’s no need to look further. Nothing to see here. Move along.”

That left both Penny and Masao nodding gently. “Yes, it fits together.”

“So we can just let the business types run off and do what they think can make them a buck this far across the galaxy, or we can make them see that their necks are on the chopping block, too, and they need to get behind a defense program.”

“When are you going to try to do this?” Penny asked.

“Nine tonight.”

“You hungry?”

“I’m getting there,” Kris admitted to her friend.

“We’ll, we’ve found this place on B deck that serves really good Thai food. How about we discuss this more over dinner?”