Kris Longknife 13 - Unrelenting (14 page)

Mugeridge blinked several times, not following where this was leading.

“Dirtside, if you don’t work, you don’t eat. Good luck finding a job,” Kris said, knowing her smile was pure evil.

“You ain’t gonna have no such luck in my town, sonny boy,” Granny Rita put in.

“What do you mean?” the former Navy warrant got out, real fear finally replacing the smug gloat he’d had for his pregnant admiral since she stormed in.

“What I mean is that no farmer has a job for you,” Granny Rita snapped. “No Alwan will have one for you, either, not when the word gets out what you did here, asshole. Your next meal will be a long time coming.”

He swallowed hard, dawn coming up like thunder. “You can’t let me starve.”

“I would,” Granny said. “I’ve let bad apples like you starve in my day, but my kid here is too kindhearted. No, she’s got a job for you.”

“A job?” didn’t sound too happy.

“Yep,” Kris said. “Right beside your old buddy Sampson, shoveling bird shit.”

“You can’t do that to me.”

“I can and already have,” Kris said. “Gunny, this man is yours to transport.”

“Yes, ma’am,” she said.

Then Mugeridge lost it. The stream of invectives and downright nasty words started low and got louder by the second.

“Shut your mouth before I shut it for you,” Gunny growled.

He kept right on going, now screaming. His language ended with a whoof as Gunny buried her fist in his stomach just about the time Jack closed the door behind Kris and Granny Rita.

“I hope that kid just keeps making it harder on himself. I surely do,” Rita said through tight lips.

“He hasn’t shown much good sense so far,” Kris agreed. They took the elevator down and stepped out onto a crowded A Deck.

“Hey, I told you I seen that Princess Longknife. There she is.”

Kris found herself facing a crowd, growing by the second, as there were more shouts of “There she is!” and “She’s got to listen to us.”

21

Nelly.

JACK’S ALREADY ORDERED OUT THE GUARD.

A man stepped well into Kris’s comfort zone, and shouted, “You got to listen to us. Even a Longknife can’t ignore us.”

Jack made to shove him back, but Kris rested a restraining hand on her husband’s arm. This crowd looked ugly. Anything might set it off.

Granny Rita, however, was an elbow of a different gender. The old lady stepped forward, rested a hand on the man’s shoulder, and just kept on walking.

So the guy took two paces back, giving Kris some breathing room.

“What do you want to talk to me about?” she said, in her most reasonable voice.

“You got some ships headed back to Wardhaven.”

“I don’t usually comment on operational security,” Kris said, still reasonable.

“We know you do,” a woman shouted. “It’s all over the station. A whole fleet’s going back, and not one of us working stiffs got a billet on one.”

“I don’t know where you heard that rumor. We’ve got three fleets now and every ship in them is staying right here,” Kris said truthfully. The
Endeavor
and the
Hornet
weren’t assigned to any fleet.

“Maybe it ain’t a fleet, but you got ships going,” another man put in.

Kris had taken the time to check out the crowd. There wasn’t a Sailor among them. Likely not a yard hand. They were merchant sailors and production workers. Many wore shirts
with the insignias of one of the six big corporations that were doing the heavy industrial lifting here.

None had been given a decent briefing about what they were headed into. Not until they ended up in Kris’s lap, and she let them in on the secret that they had signed up for ten, fifteen, maybe twenty years on the tip of a spear that might be busted any moment now by a horde of bloodthirsty aliens.

Nope, they weren’t happy to start with, and the only thing that had keep them from downing tools and striking was the knowledge that they were all, from Kris Longknife down to the least of them, in the same boat.

Now they’d heard that the case might be different for some, and the herd was angry.

Kris pitched her voice to carry. “I am ordering two ships back to human space.”

“Yeah,” “I told you so,” and “Son of a bitch,” seemed to be the general reply.

“They are carrying some of the alien people that we have found as well as scientists that I have ordered home to share the results of their study of the aliens and the unique assets of the Alwa system. I am ordering them home with the expectation that they will build a fire under the folks back there to get more stuff out here.”

“Fat chance,” along with other nastier responses met that.

“The skipper of both ships intend to bring their ships and most of their crew back here. One skipper even wants to bring his wife and kid.”

“No way,” was the most repeatable response to that.

“I want on that ship,” growled the guy who’d first gotten in Kris’s face.

“Only those I order go on those two ships, and I’m not ordering you to go.”

“You better,” was backed up by a balled fist in Kris’s face.

Jack moved forward to involve himself, but someone got there first.

“Way, way,” an Ostrich shouted as he forced his way to the front of the crowd. As soon as he got there, he bumped chest with the human, knocking him back into those behind him.

“No way. No way,” he crowed, and was joined by a female
of his kind. They were bigger and meaner than their mates. She raised a knee menacingly.

Humans had seen those legs kick the head off their prey.

The crowd backed up.

Now a pair of Roosters were making their way through the crowd. They were young, the male still had his mating plumage, and the smaller female would not normally have risked herself in a crowded public situation, but she was right behind her male.

“Go way. Go way,” the Rooster crowed. “He one ah uh,” he said, failing to get the human S sound past his beak. Still, he flapped his vestigial wings, putting on quite a display. From the way the female was dunking her head, she was quite impressed.

The elevator door opened behind Kris, and a dozen Marines deployed in front of their admiral.

The crowd backed up quite a bit after taking one look at their M-6s with sheathed bayonets.

“Gunny, have your crew take a knee,” Kris said. Gunny, after giving her one of those glances NCOs give particularly stupid officers, obeyed.

Once the Marines had their weapons pointed toward the deck and were on one knee, Kris shouted, “Now listen to me, all of you. You and the Navy are doing a great job of protecting this planet, and your own lives. I don’t know if you heard, but we just got back from kicking some serious alien butt. Those nutcases who have been trying to crash into us or the planet below won’t be coming anymore. They’re dead. All fifty billion of them. Give or take a few million.”

That dry addition got a chuckle out of the crowd.

“Every time they come up against us, we knock them down. We do it with the gear and material you’re building here and the reinforcements we’re getting from human space.”

Kris paused to let that sink in.

“So far, we haven’t made any report back. Now I’ve got a couple of dozen aliens to show them, especially that old coot. I’m sending a ship back with a report on how we’re doing. I wasn’t kidding you when I said that both ships will be coming back with most of their crews and maybe a few womenfolk.”

“No accounting for sense,” a woman muttered loud enough for everyone to hear. And laugh at.

“The fleet is staying here. I am staying here,” Kris said.

“And I’m stuck here,” a guy added.

Now there was a real laugh.

“Sorry, folks. That’s the way it is. Besides, now that we know those bastards are prowling around the galaxy, you got to admit, no place is really safer than another.”

“And that place has my old lady, so maybe this isn’t so bad,” got a good laugh.

The crowd began to break up. One woman stayed where she stood. “Is it true you’re pregger, Admiral?”

Kris made a face. Were there no secrets around this place? “Yeah. Someone messed with my new birth-control implants. They didn’t work. My husband was kind enough to knock me up before we discovered the sabotage.”

“Bummer,” the woman shouted, as most of the men laughed.

“Let’s get you out of here,” Jack said.

“But not too far,” Granny Rita added.

“Why?” they both said.

“Because I’ve wrangled you an invitation to talk to the Assembly of Assemblies tomorrow.”

22

“I
can’t be talking to those birds tomorrow,” Kris said, as they walked, under close escort, to
Wasp
’s dock. The Marines stayed alert, but there were no more problems. No doubt people weren’t happy, but at least they had the truth and knew the same rules applied to them all.

“The flock of flocks,” Granny Rita said, “has been changing a bit. Some of the back-home assemblies have been seeing some rather spectacular shows.”

The Roosters among the Alwans did not fight. Instead, they put on wild displays of plumage and arm waving. Whoever put on the best show intimidated the others into surrendering.

“Feathers are really flying. Anyway, a lot of the old birds have withdrawn, and the latest Assembly has a lot of newer, younger birds. I told them you’d just kicked some alien butt, and they want you to show them how you managed it and talk to you about what they can do to get more of those nice things they like. Oh, and help your defenders as well.”

“I guess I know where I’ll be tomorrow,” Kris said, surrendering to her granny.

“And if you can stay down for the night, I know just the place to put you up,” Granny Rita said, only a slight leer in her smile.

“Joe’s Seaside Paradise,” Kris and Jack said in unison.

“You bet.”

“Okay, Granny, you win. One night and a bit of lying in the sun won’t hurt this girl at all,” Kris said. “But I have to be back in time to wish Godspeed to the ships I’m sending back to human space.”

“I’ll make sure you are,” Granny said.

Was there something more there? Kris thought, but Nelly interrupted.

“Kris, Admiral Kitano and your fleet commanders would like to come over for a quick staff meeting. Tomorrow’s likely to be busy. Do you have one more meeting left in you?”

“I guess I do,” Kris admitted.

“Well, I’ll go find a place to lay these old bones down,” Granny Rita said as they came to
Wasp
’s brow.

“You can lay them down in a room on board,” Kris said, tugging her granny’s elbow to drag her aboard.

A few minutes later, the JOOD was taking Granny off to a spare stateroom, and Kris was heading for her own quarters.

Surprise of surprise, her admirals were already there.

“What took you so long?” Admiral Kitano said. “It couldn’t have taken all that long to keelhaul the bastard.”

“I didn’t keelhaul him,” Kris said, innocently. “I let him go.”

“No!” came in shock from four admirals.

“To shovel bird shit.”

“That still sounds too good for him,” Kitano said.

“You can ask him in a month. From the paunch on him, he hasn’t done an honest day’s work in a while.”

“Oh,” seemed to settle that.

“So, did you come here to see if I was wearing his guts for garters, or is this a real meeting?”

“A real meeting,” Kitano said. “You know that
Wasp
,
Hornet
, and
Endeavor
are going out tomorrow.”

“Yes,” Kris said.

“I’m keeping the First and Third Fleets back to mend and make whole. The yard will take in the worst cases. I know that you likely want Admiral Miyoshi to stay close to ride herd on Yi as necessary.”

“Yes. I know you’re good, Betsy,” Kris said, eyeing her newest fleet commander, “but staring down the man who was your boss last week can get bad in a hurry, for both of you.”

“I understand,” Betsy said. “It’s as much to keep him out of troubled waters as it is to keep me from taking his head off, without proper authorization.”

“God forbid we do anything without proper authorization,” Kris agreed, dryly.

“Moving right along,” Kitano said, “I want to get a fleet of ships out to our friendly, neighborhood ice giant to collect reaction mass. I hear we’ll be wrapping a few ships in ice for our not so icy maidens.”

“You know, saying such things around your boss could get you in trouble, her being mentally unbalanced due to a physical impairment,” Kris said, smiling toothily at Kitano.

“What can my boss do to me that’s worse? She’s stuck me with this job.”

“I see your point,” Kris had to agree. “So, who has the water detail?”

“I’m sending Betsy. I know you’ve transferred the Task Force 4 to the Third Fleet, but it didn’t get banged up in the last fight. BatRon 3 and 1, now that the
Constellation
,
Congress
,
Royal
,
Bulwark
,
Resistance
,
Wasp
, and
Intrepid
are out of the yard, would make for a full fleet.”

“Obviously,
Wasp
will be otherwise involved tomorrow,” Kris said, “but Betsy, you can have the rest.”

Kris looked around the table and saw only happy faces. “If we’re done, I’m about dead on my feet.” The other admirals stood and headed for the door. Jack looked ready to order in a crane to haul her to bed.

“Kris,” Nelly said. “I’ve got a request for one more meeting.”

“Who dares risk my wrath? Or exhaustion. Exhausted wrath.”

“Abby says that Pipra, Jacques, and Amanda need to talk to you. All four.”

Kris let out a sigh. “They know where I live.”

“They’re outside the door, dodging admirals.”

“Bring them in.”

“I understand you got hit by a flash mob of unhappy workers,” Pipra said as soon as she was in the door.

“Hello. Come right in. How’s your day been? Had anything interesting happen to you?” Kris said, not making it sound at all jolly.

“Folks, I think she’s warning you that she ain’t happy, and we better make this fast,” Abby said.