Kris Longknife 13 - Unrelenting (39 page)

All had the new reactors and lasers but no crystal protection.

Abby made another call to Pipra. The industrialist’s shout of dismay came loud and clear through the commlink.

“Nelly, advise Admiral Benson that we’ve got ships coming in that need to upgrade their armor. Tell him to get with Pipra about any ideas he has to make that go faster.”

“He’s been following the show. He has his folks working on it.”

“Good man.”

New Birmingham’s squadron was trailed by what looked like a repair ship and six freighters. They’d hardly cleared the jump when a mixed squadron started popping in. The first division was from Woolomurra. The flag
Warumungu
with the
Arrenrente
,
Canberra
,
Toowoomba
,
Te Mana
, and
Te Kaha
made for a six-ship division. The next division was five. From Tillamook came the
Ammanoosuc
,
Maawaska
,
Nashaminy
,
Popmanoosuc
, and
Wampanoag
.

“What kind of names are those?” Jack asked.

“I have no idea,” Nelly confessed. “Tillamook is famous for their light footprint on the planet. If I were to guess, and a computer never does, I’d say those are either the names of rivers or the larger of the small villages. Tillamook refuses to be mapped. If you want to travel, you hire a native guide. Some of you people are so strange,” Nelly concluded.

“Well, where did they get the ships?” Penny asked.

“I suspect, like Woolomurra, they bought them and provided the crews,” Kris said. “Interesting what that says about our support back home.”

“Very interesting,” Jack said. “They didn’t send four but rather five or six. Does anyone else want to hear the story of how they ended up with extra ships?”

“I suspect it is something totally human,” Nelly said, with a strong hint of a sniff.

“More ships,” Kris said, to end that. Four freighters and a repair ships followed the reinforced squadron, assuming Tillamook and Woolomurra were working together.

More frigates showed up; Kris actually clapped her hands. “Hikila has sent ships!” The lead ship was the
Hikila
, followed by
Port Stanley
,
Keokuk
,
Port Canterbury
,
Pukaki
,
Port Canberra
,
Taupo
, and
Port Adelaide
. Kris smiled. “Half named by islanders, half by folks from the big island. All likely built and crewed from Hikila.”

Six freighters and a repair ship followed.

Two huge ships followed the Hikila squadron. Kris didn’t panic this time. She was familiar with the stations they’d sent out. The first one identified itself as
Kiel
out of New Birmingham, the next as the
Gdansk
, from Sawa. Both quickly began to spin out piers.

Behind them were two equally large ships that Nelly
promptly identified as factories in flight, the
We Can Have That for You Yesterday
and the
Sacrificial Lamb My Ass
.

“Who came up with those names?” Penny asked no one.

“I don’t think we’ll have to tell them they aren’t going back,” Jack said.

If the last four ships were huge, the next ship through dwarfed them and brought everyone in the room to their feet.

“That ship must be double the size of one of the alien warships,” Penny said. “It has to displace a good million tons if it weighs a gram.”

It squawked as
Conqueror
from Wardhaven.

“An optimistic name,” Kris said.

“The sensor crews are going bonkers,” Nelly reported. “It’s got a dozen reactors the size big cities have, all located amidships. There are a lot of battleship-size ones aft for rocket motors. Kris, that ship makes no sense. I’d say it was a portable fabrication plant, only there’s no heavy machinery, and there’s something on the bow that doesn’t fit anything I’ve ever seen.”

“They said they were working on a surprise,” Jack said.

“Well, they surprised me,” Nelly shot back.

Hardly had that anomaly cleared the jump than a second came through.

“The
Ultimate Argument
from Savannah,” Kris said. “What kind of name is
Ultimate Argument
?”

“Cannon is the Ultimate Argument of kings,” Nelly answered back.

“
Conqueror
.
Ultimate Argument
,” Jack said. “Someone sounds awful confident.”

Then a third one, just as huge and full of question marks, jumped in. “
Opening Statement
from Pitts Hope,” Kris read from her board.

“The bastards will not talk to us, so we have an opening statement and an ultimate argument,” Masao said slowly.

“I don’t know what they are,” Kris said, “but I think folks back home expect them to settle someone’s hash.”

“I can’t wait to see what they are,” Jack said.

There was one final squadron, providing rear guard for the fleet. From Hekate came the
Diamond
,
Emerald
,
Garnet
,
Opal
,
Ruby
,
Turquoise
,
Sapphire
, and
Topaz
. All with the powerful guns. None with the new armor.

Kris did the tally. Forty-three new frigates. Three anomalies, a pair of factories to drop down on the moon, and two more station ships.

“Nelly, tell Admiral Tirpitz to prepare to have two docks mate with her station fore and aft of her present position. If she has any questions, contact Admiral Benson on the drill. Ask Admiral Benson how many of the new arrivals can dock on Cannopus Station. It’s my preferred place for them. I’ll need to brief them on our situation, and they sure as hell need to brief me on what they’ve got.”

“Doing it, Kris.”

“Oh, and send to Phil on the
Hornet
. ‘Please report with family to my quarters on
Wasp
soonest upon your arrival. I want a briefing on what followed you home.’”

“It’s on its way.”

Kris found she had stood about as long as her legs wanted. “Nelly, make me one of those comfortable chairs.” One appeared at the foot of Kris’s table, near the screens. She settled into it as her team found chairs and, together, meditated on what they had now.

“Abby, what can we do about crystal production?” Kris said. “Coordinate with Admiral Benson. I want to take Phil’s squadron directly into the yards for installation. Nelly, send to Phil. ‘What are the
Hornet
’s dimensions at Condition Zed? Are the other frigates the same?’”

“Sent, Kris.”

“Okay, crew, let’s think. What are we missing that we could do now before seconds cost blood?”

The conversation lasted half an hour and added nothing. The others went to do what needed doing and Kris found herself alone with Jack.

“You headed off for Marine stuff?”

“I don’t like the bastards attacking with small units and individuals. My Marines need to practice repelling boarders.”

“You go do that.”

“What will you do?”

“I think it’s time for me and baby to take a nap. It’s been an exciting morning.”

“I think the two of you have earned a break,” Jack said.
He gave her a kiss on the forehead, then baby a kiss on whatever end was up at the moment, and left.

“Nelly, does this thing recline as well as get my feet up?”

“How much do you want?” Nelly asked.

“Not that far,” Kris said as she found herself almost laid out flat. Slowly, Nelly brought the back up. “There, and take the lights down. Not on the boards, I want to see them,” Kris said, as the overhead lights dimmed.

Kris eyed her four fleets. Or was it five? How many squadrons would she have? That would depend on how soon the aliens made their move. Would they wait for the suicidal bastard to join them? That would get Kris more time.

It would also give them time. What would they do with it?

Kris found her eyelids heavy. She closed them, and slowed her breathing.

She was young again. At least everything at Nuu House was so much bigger than it had been the last time she was there. Her mother was a giant, nearly twice as tall as Kris.

And Mother was crying. Crying for Eddy.

Kris remembered this moment. She’d felt so lost. So guilty for being alive when Eddy was dead. Kris remembered going into a corner and crying.

It seemed that all of them, Father, Mother, Brother, and she had gone into their own separate corners and wept alone.

It was all Kris knew how to do. Mother and Father did it, so she did, too.

Now Kris knew that was wrong. Now Kris knew they should have pulled together and shared their grief. Now she wished they had.

In her dream, Kris found she wasn’t nearly small enough for that corner. She had to move furniture to get up, but she did. Funny, Kris was pregnant now in her dream, but still she managed to get up and make her way to Mother. She found herself hugging Mother, something she’d never done. Hugging her and patting her hair. “Now, now. It will get better. This will pass.”

Of course, alone, separated from each other, it had never gotten better.

But in her dream, Kris found herself sitting in the rarely used rocker, holding her mother in her lap, a mother that was suddenly so much smaller. She rocked her mother, soothed her.

“We can get through this, love. We can’t see it now, but we can,” she said softly to her weeping, shrunken mother. “Trust me. If we go out and meet this, we can get through it.”

Kris came awake, but the last words of her dream echoed in her head. “If we go out and meet this, we can get through it.”

What am I trying to tell myself? Is this one of those dreams Doc Meade warned me about? Am I just trying to resolve my life for me and baby? Or am I seeing something clearer here?

Kris’s eyes went to the screen that showed the star chart. System X was twelve jumps out from Alwa, two if you used the fuzzy jump in the next system and went directly into System X. Was that a bad idea, to have an entire fleet show up were the alien could see no jump?

“It depends on what we can do if we do it,” Kris said, rubbing baby gently as she thought.

“What are those monsters they’ve sent us? Nelly, are any of the new frigates from Wardhaven carrying Hellburners?”

“Let me check. No Kris. They did not bring out a new supply.”

“Interesting. Very interesting,” Kris said, and patted baby. “What is your great-great-grandfather shipping us for Winter Faire?”

As much as Kris, both the young one and the older version, hated it, she’d just have to wait to find out.

55

“You
wanted us to report as soon as we got in,” Commodore Taussig said as he saluted, the grin on his face pure joy.

A woman with lieutenant commander’s stripes stood next to him, saluting with one hand while the other held the pudgy paw of a four-year-old who struggled manfully to stand at attention and salute, too, while fidgeting only a little bit. His white sailor suit showed evidence that he’d managed to find dirt even on Kris’s pristine ship and station.

Well, that was what four-year-olds do, find dirt.
Kris found herself rubbing baby even as she returned their salutes.

“Sit down. So, you asked your wife, and she came. Tell me that you’re risking your family because what you brought will make it safer for us all.”

“It will, Kris. You won’t believe what they’ve done.”

“Try me.”

“You remember that question you raised when they briefed us on the Hellburners. ‘Can you bring out the thing that chips stuff off neutron stars and use it to shoot stuff at the bad guys?’”

“I seem to recall that question,” Kris said. “I also recall it would take a huge chunk of a planet’s energy budget.”

“Energy as we humans produce the stuff.”

“We humans?”

“We never asked the Iteeche how their electric plants work,” Phil said, beaming. “When your friend Ron took the Emperor the full report of what faced us, the old palace got hopping. Then we gave them Smart Metal. It was a huge trust issue and King Ray took a major hit. Some tried to impeach him.

“They might have, too, but Ron showed up at our side of the demilitarized zone with a ton of their own science. Now
we know how they managed to spoof our sensors during the war. Even better, we know how to get more energy out of the same power plant. Five times for a small ship reactor. Ten times for a huge city-size power plant.”

“And someone remembered the experiment that gave you the Hellburners,” his wife added. “I’m Bahati, Admiral, and this is Little Phil.”

“Hello,” the youngster said.

“And hello to you,” Kris said before returning to Phil.

“Those things can knock a rock off a moon or something and send it shooting out at, what’s the speed?” Bahati said.

“About .05 the speed of light,” Phil said. “Call it fifty-four million kilometers an hour, give or take a few millimeters.”

“Nelly, show that in comparison with the Alwa system.”

The number sounded huge, but a star system still dwarfed it. “They’ll see it coming,” Kris said, “and dodge.”

“Yes, but a whole lot of stuff can make dodging hard.”

“Yes,” Kris said, but she was looking at System X. It even had a neutron star right there waiting for them, not all that far from a fuzzy jump. It was quite a bit farther from a regular jump.

Something to think about.

Phil Junior was getting more of the fidgets. “Nelly, can you make a toy frigate for this little starship captain?” Kris asked, and just as quickly little Phil was squealing with glee.

“Phil won’t let us use Smart Metal to make toys for the kids,” his wife said.

“The kids?” Kris echoed.

“Several of the crew from the old
Hornet
brought their families with them. Some of the old chiefs complain the ship is as much a day-care center as a warship,” Bahati said.