Defender

32

Kris found Amanda, Penny, and Masao waiting in the passageway outside her quarters.

“Have you heard anything from the wild-wood expedition?” Amanda asked. Her Jacques was with Jack and two platoons of Imperial Marines.

“My last report is that they found some real ugly critters, some kind of cross between a kangaroo and a saber-toothed tiger.”

Amanda blanched.

“No casualties on our side. Several of the kanga-tigers have been invited to dinner. Jack hopes the aroma of a barbecue will draw out the locals.”

“But no contact?” Amanda said.

“They haven’t shot at us; nor have they talked to us,” Kris said.

“The first inning is over, and the score is nothing to nothing,” said Masao. “It looks to be a long ball game.”

“And now we have our own ball game,” Kris said. “If you will follow me.”

Kris entered her day cabin. Her chair at the table was empty, as were the ones at either elbow. As soon as one of the six private reps saw that another seat was needed close to Kris, he gave up his chair.

Nelly lengthened the table and added a chair for him.

“I can never get used to that,” one of those who hadn’t had to move muttered softly.

“There’s a lot to get used to on this side of the galaxy,” Kris said.

“Like nothing to eat,” said the young woman who’d done the best talking last evening.

“So you’ve heard?” Kris said.

“Why didn’t you tell us about that last night?” one of the men demanded.

“Because Amanda, here,” Kris said, indicating the lovely economist with a wave of her hand, “didn’t have a chance to tell me about what she found until after you left. I figured I could dump more on you or see what you have done so far, then let you adjust as you see fit.” Kris glanced around the table. “By the way, weren’t there fifteen here last night?”

“Six are working on refining what we are presenting you. I’m afraid the others are trying to drink the bar dry. I’m not sure how that will help any. No doubt they will soon be cut off.”

“I foresee career openings on fishing boats, as farmhands, and gathering wild roots, nuts, and berries,” Kris said.

“They weren’t bad men in human space. Your honest briefing last night was a shock to us all. I hope they’ll recover. Okay, let’s get started, I’m Pipra Strongarm, and yes, I can arm wrestle with the best of them. I thought I was number two in the Nuu Enterprises’ management, but then you pulled out your CEO status, and my boss adjourned to the bar. There has been some reorganization since last night. Two corporations, their top managers trying to drink my top management under the table, have resulted in their two-sixths of the enterprise being taken over by Nuu Enterprises.”

“How’d that happen?” Kris asked.

“With no leadership to notice, I kind of performed a gentle takeover. There are advantages, some think, to working for the company that the viceroy has control of. Also, in the mess we’re in, having a damn Longknife calling the shots, at least Kris Longknife, makes it seem like a good idea.”

Pipra paused. “However, there being no stock exchange or financial institution to fund anything, my hold on things is purely voluntary. If I were in your shoes, Your Highness, Viceroy of Alwa, I’d walk carefully.”

“Hard to believe as it may be, Pipra, that’s how I always like to walk,” Kris said.

“It just hardly ever comes out that way,” Penny said.

“Let’s pause for a moment and go around the table. I don’t think all of you have met my staff, and, other than Pipra, I don’t know your names.”

They did the round-the-table thing. Kris found that three large corporations were represented by two men and a woman. Nuu Enterprises had three present, one of which admitted to having been recently acquired from one of the now-defunct businesses.

Kris cut to the chase. “What can you do for us?”

“We like that large crater in the northern area of the moon. It’s rich in iron and has water. If we land the fabrication plants there, we can produce iron and steel almost from day one. That’s a basic commodity often ignored by developed economies, but it’s a good one if you’re starting from scratch.”

“As we are,” Kris said.

“On the approach here, we spotted lithium and other rare earths for electronics, superconductors, and just about everything a modern economy needs. They are not concentrated, so we’ll likely have to send two or three different mining operations out to get them, and that means three different ships and reactors. That’s a problem we’ll be dropping in your lap.”

“Sometimes I wish I had a bigger lap,” Kris said. “I’m told that there is one reactor ready to be dropped down to the colonials and go online immediately. There are two that will need some refurbishing that we will ship to the moon just as fast as the work can be done. The Navy yard is booked solid. Do you have any resources you could devote to the reactor project?”

“Don’t you just love it when management plays volleyball,” one of the other managers drawled.

“I’ll send out a call for help on that one,” Pipra said. “About the refurbishing process, does everything have to be built from scratch, or can we cannibalize the fourth reactor to get the other ones going?”

“I promised the fourth to the colonials, but they may have to wait,” Kris admitted.

“One of our batty ideas last night was to get cooperation from the natives. They seem to be taking a shine to our electric gadgets. Could we earn money by selling them windmills to charge them? Then use the money to hire them?”

“The windmills are a good idea,” Kris said. “That would cut down on the demands being made on the colonial power supply. However, the Alwans don’t have any concept of money. We’d get goodwill and some IOUs of a vague sort.”

“But if we got them planting extra food to pay us . . . ?” Pipra left hanging.

“And as I understand,” one of the other managers said, “our Marines are going to be taking out a lot of their big carnivores. That should leave them with wild woods that have been off-limits to them but that they can farm their own way. Maybe not as efficient as our way, but any food helps.”

The conversation went long and was surprisingly fruitful. Kris decided that even business folks, when faced with a “make it work or starve” situation, could do a good job of making it work.

That left Kris and her abbreviated team making plans to drop down and see what a meeting with Ada might produce. The survey of the planet had turned up a copper mountain that would provide wiring, windings for electric engines, all kinds of nice stuff . . . if the locals didn’t mind it being strip-mined.

Everywhere Kris turned there was more juggling.

Then, just as Penny, Masao, and Amanda were about to leave, Professor Joao Labao walked in. “Do you have a minute? I have some things you may find interesting.”

“By a minute, do you mean an hour or a half hour?” Kris asked.

“Hour, maybe less.”

“Staff, would you hang here for a few minutes? If he starts boring you, feel free to leave. If I fall asleep, you can definitely leave.”

“What I have to tell you will definitely not put you to sleep.”