Tenacious

59

Kris sat in her day quarters, meetings done.

All four of the squadron’s ships now lay close to the station. The Wasp, Royal, and Intrepid were able to spawn pinnaces. They were out cloud dancing, gathering in enough reaction mass for the squadron’s needs to get them back to Alwa.

Hopefully, it would not take them long to refuel all four ships.

The idea of sending Sailor, Marines, and boffins to root around among all those bodies on the station to see if there was anything helpful left had caused Kris to blanch.

Professor Labao and Nelly had come up with a solution. As Kris sat here, nano scouts were zipping through the station, looking for anything interesting. Nelly and her brood were doing the oversight. Only if they found something really interesting did a human eye get brought in.

Thanks to a merciful God, the A deck with all the bodies seemed to hold little of interest. It was closer to the hub that the scouts found things to refer for human review. There was a file room, huge and full of actual print on paper. There was something that might be a library, but it didn’t have all that many books. There was also a series of large halls that might have passed for courtrooms with judicial chambers off them. In them were loads of officious-looking books. The scientists were all interested in these for lack of something better.

“What we haven’t found,” Professor Labao noted, “is anything like a research facility or labs. Interesting that.”

Kris was finding a lot of things interesting.

The ships swung at anchor as close to the station as was safe. Now there were air locks spaced along the station’s outer hull where longboats could easily dock. Inside, a small team had spread nets across A deck. If it worked as planned, the nets would hold the drifting bodies well back from the people who actually boarded the station to do the scavenger hunt.

Kris hoped they saw no more than was necessary.

For now, Kris stared at the screens in flag plot.

They were blank at the moment.

That was not what she saw.

Bodies drifted across them. Big bodies. Tiny bodies. Bodies that screamed blood at her.

No, none of the bodies had screamed. It was the live one that screamed defiances at her.

If Kris let them, these people would drive her crazy with their wish for death. Death for all living things except that tiny group that was enlightened just the right way.

Kris shook herself out of her reveries. She had things to do and decisions to make.

Not quite. If she was honest with herself, the things she had to do were pretty much already decided.

She needed to return three felines to their planet and get back where she belonged.

Getting there would be no easy job, what with her having only the wreckage of eight ships flying in four loose formations.

Traveling back to Alwa would have to be careful, and therefore slow.

Once she got back, she would, no doubt, face even more problems.

When hadn’t she?

She would also need to get a message back to human space. She’d found out a lot about the aliens. Oh, and she’d found a bunch of talking cats who will need protection, assuming they didn’t want to conqueror the whole human race.

If King Ray had been pissed with her the last time she came back from adventuring, he’d likely have kittens over this one.

Speaking of which, should she take the opportunity to deliver the message in person?

She’d offered the chance to Phil and his crew from the Hornet. They’d passed up the opportunity to get home, and now more of them had died. Maybe Kris could be the messenger.

Oh, right, Kris was the Viceroy and Commander of the Alwa Defense Sector. For her to go home would be to abandon her post.

She could order others home, but go home herself? Not so much.

Kris stared at the overhead. She was starting to sound crazy. Almost as crazy as that old woman.

The two of them were a matching pair.

Or might be if Kris didn’t get a hold on herself.

There was a soft knock at the door of her quarters.

I could use an interruption right about now.

“Enter.”

Zarra and her admiral came in.

“Do you have a moment?” Zarra asked, the epitome of politeness.

“Certainly. No one is scheduled to try their hand at killing me today, and I’m not planning on killing anyone myself.”

Zarra promptly passed those words along to her admiral.

She growled cheerfully and padded her way quickly to one of the stools around Kris’s conference table. She settled there, her tail lazily lashing back and forth behind her.

“Where is your general?” Kris asked for no reason other than it filled the silence.

“She does not take well to space. She is still recovering from, what do you call it? Zero gee,” Zarra explained. “I do not think we can get home fast enough to suit her.”

“We humans do not care very much for it either, but the early space travelers had to learn to survive it. We should be heading back to drop you off very soon,” Kris said.

“That is what my admiral came to talk to you about.” Zarra glanced at her admiral, who made a swatting motion with her paw. Zarra swallowed and went on.

“You have challenged us to a race to our moon. My admiral was wondering if there was any way for you to tow or push one of the dead alien ships into an orbit around our moon.”

“So if you got to the moon, you would also have a chance to look over all this advanced technology,” Kris said.

“Something like that.”

“And if one of these ships was orbiting your own moon, would the race to the moon turn into a real race, with all your zones trying to get their first and gain knowledge they could use to dominate the others?”

Zarra did not flinch. “We do not think so. When we left, the decision had already been made that Columm and the Bizalt Kingdom would working together to reach the moon. Since we have been gone, many others have joined in this group effort. Yes, it is the first such effort across zones that we have ever made, unless there was a war driving us to cooperate to bring down a stronger power, but still, it is happening as we talk here.”

Kris found herself again staring at the ceiling. Should she refer this to her staff for examination? What would Amanda and Jacques think of this idea?

Kris shook her head.

“Yes, the technology on the alien ships is well ahead of what you have, but no, I will not help you get access to it.”

Kris wondered if the admiral intended to roll her body up as if about to pounce, or if it was just ancient body language that no longer presaged attack.

“There are several reasons why I say that, and none of them involve a distrust of you or a desire to keep technology from you,” Kris went on quickly.

“First, the technology we have found in the alien ships is obsolete by our standards. Do you really want to begin building ships that you will quickly be tearing up or throwing away?

“Secondly, the technology these aliens use is much different from what we use. If you are to build ships to fight side by side with us, you will need our communications devices, ranging gear, and weapons. No doubt, you will give each of these devices a unique twist to bend them to your needs; however, a certain amount of commonality will be needed.

“Do you follow the logic of my position?” Kris asked.

Zarra turned to her admiral. The officer nodded as the translator spoke.

Zarra turned back to Kris and began to speak for the admiral. “We have found that to be the case with our own allies. And when one smaller power switches sides, it is often necessary for them to scrap their ships, airplanes, and armored fighting vehicles so that they can fit in with their new overlord. She means ally,” Zarra moved quickly to correct her words.

Kris wondered if the idea of first among equals was just catching on. Or if it would ever catch on.

“There is one more question my admiral asks,” Zarra said.

“Yes.”

“Can we join you? She and I. Can we travel back with you?”

Kris would often wonder why she did not reflect more before giving her answer.

“Yes, you may,” she said.

“Thank you,” Zarra said, and led her admiral from the room.

It would be two days more before Kris could order the squadron to get underway back the way they’d come: first to Sasquan, then to Alwa.

It would be a long voyage.

Kris wondered what she’d find at the end of it.