Kris Longknife: Defender (17 page)

Captain
Drago met Kris in the docking bay. “Good afternoon, Viceroy.”

“Good afternoon, Admiral.”

“Say that again and, viceroy or not, I’ll wash your mouth out with soap, Your Highness.”

“I just wanted to see how it sounded,” Kris said, smile adding to her contrition.

“Come along, I want to show you your office.”

“My office?”

“Whatever you were before could get by with a Tac Center. A squadron’s commodore and a viceroy needs an office. Have I got the day quarters for you!”

It was where Kris’s Tac Center had been, still right off the bridge, but it had grown. “A wooden desk?” Kris said, then knocked on it. “Hey, that’s real wood, not Smart Metal faking it!”

“I spotted that lovely while I was down at your wedding. ‘I’m just perfect,’ it said to me. Same for the sofas and overstuffed chairs. They’re actual leather, hide of those elephants they have dragging wagons around.”

“They call them oxen,” Kris pointed out.

“They’re the size of elephants. Hasn’t anyone here seen an elephant?”

“No long trunk,” Kris added.

“And check out this conference table,” Captain Drago said, changing the topic. “Nelly, add four more chairs and room for them.”

“Aye, aye, sir,” Nelly said, and the table was suddenly a couple of meters longer and had four more comfortable-looking chairs.

“That should provide room for everyone you need to meet with,” the skipper said proudly.

“Is it my imagination, or did the room just get bigger for the table?” Jack said.

“Yes, the viceroy’s night quarters are right next door. Assuming you’re in your office, you don’t need all that room in your bedroom, so Nelly can swap space from one to the other. It goes both ways, in case you want to entertain anyone special.”

Kris eyed Drago. “I won’t be entertaining anyone, special or otherwise. What happened on Alwa stays on Alwa. What happens here is straight regulations.”

“Understood, Commodore,” Captain Drago said, almost bracing.

“Now, did you arrange that meeting I asked for?”

“If you mean me, Your Highness,” said a new voice, “I’m here.”

At the door of her office stood a civilian in casual clothes.

“Admiral Benson?” Kris said.

“Just Mr. Benson for the duration of this assignment running Canopus Station and its Navy yard. The king was rather definite on that.”

“And if I have to activate your reserve commission?”

“I’m a lieutenant, ma’am,” he said with a grin at Drago.

“Hold it, is everyone still stuck with a reserve commission of lieutenant?” Kris asked the two.

Both nodded.

“Nelly, do I have authority to promote people? It’s got to be in there somewhere as commodore or ComAlDefSec or viceroy.”

“You have the authority to approve promotions up through lieutenant commander, Kris.”

“Nelly, please do the paperwork to promote all my reserve officers to lieutenant commander.”

“I’ll have my kids get right on it.”

“Mom!” said Sal at Jack’s neck.

“I’m the viceroy’s computer. I get to delegate. Get used to it.”

“Yes, Mom, we’re getting right on it.”

“Now, Mr. Benson, about the reason I asked you here. I have several questions. Is Kikuchi Katsu still with us?”

“No, Your Highness, he didn’t much like leaving before he spun out those monsters aft of the station, but when the king took it in his head to rush out, he followed him.”

“Can you respin those ships?”

“Despite the engineer’s fear that me and mine can’t pound sand, I do believe we can, ma’am.”

“Good. Now, you have twenty fine 20-inch lasers on your station. Are you planning on using them for station defense?”

“Not likely. They only point one way and, as you may have noticed, we used the rocket engines to build the space dock on the station’s stern. We’re rock steady in orbit. Good for a space station. Bad for a fighting ship. Why? Do you have something in mind for them?”

“Up-gun the
Wasp
to a heavy frigate,” Kris said. “First the
Wasp
, then the
Intrepid
. We need everything we’ve got if the aliens come through the jump. I figured once we off-loaded the Hellburners, we could use the Smart Metal that’s supporting them to support ten guns rather than five.”

“Will it be too hard?” Captain Drago asked, a skipper concerned about his ship.

“No. I’d been expecting something like that since we fitted out. The 20-inchers are modular, even the capacitors plug and unplug with the unit. Same with your 18-inchers. The
Monarch
and the
Fearless
donated about fifteen thousand tons of Smart Metal when they gave up their Hellburners. I figured I’d use most of that to enlarge your two when I replaced your guns.”

“How much larger are the reactors on the heavy frigates?” Drago asked.

“Their three are about fifteen percent larger than yours. That’s something we can’t do anything about. You’ll take longer to reload, say five seconds more than your 18-inchers. You’ll likely need eight to ten more seconds for a broadside.”

That didn’t make Drago happy, and his face showed it.

The former admiral moved quickly to praise his guns. “The 20-inchers are good out to one hundred forty thousand klicks. Maybe a bit more depending on the armor they’re facing. You hit something at seventy thousand klicks with one of them, and you’re going to burn right through it.”

“Trade-offs, trade-offs, trade-offs,” Drago muttered.

“How soon can you start and how quickly can you finish?” Kris asked.

“We can start right now,” the yard boss said. “I’ll recall my folks from those two problem children trailing us and have you out in five days. May I ask why the rush, Your Highness?”

“When we went back to look over the wreck of the alien mother ship, near the far jump, we passed through two clouds of gas, not a whole lot thicker than normal space, but enough. I figure that’s what’s left of our last two battleships.”

The former admiral nodded sadly.

“I know our
Fearless
and
Intrepid
died fighting so the
Wasp
and the
Hornet
could get away. I know what happened to
Wasp
. I don’t know what happened to
Hornet
.”

“She likely ended up a ball of gas, too,” the former Navy man said.

“But I don’t
know
that. I have nightmares that years from now someone stumbles on the hulk of the
Hornet
and finds they were alive for five, six months after the fight but didn’t find some planet like Alwa or were unable to slow down like we almost did.”

“You’ve spent a lot of time with the Marines, haven’t you?” the former Admiral Benson asked.

“I’ve spent time with them,” Kris said cautiously. Was he headed for the fact she’d just married one?

“Marines never leave anyone behind.”

“You disapprove.”

“No, Commodore, I do not. It’s good policy. I’ll have the yard ready for the
Wasp
as soon as Captain Drago is ready to move ship.”

“I’m ready now, just as soon as I get Kris off my ship. Commodore, I don’t know if you’re aware, but we’ll be without gravity in the yard. Flags are traditionally transferred when a flagship goes in the body-and-fender shop.”

“Any suggestions?” Kris asked.

“Not the
Constellation
,” Benson said. “Sampson is all bent out of shape about your marriage and shooting off her mouth a lot. Unless you want to hear things you’ll have to ‘not hear’ or bring her up on charges, don’t go there.”

“The
Constitution
?” Kris said.

“Or the
Princess Royal
. All I hear are good things about Amber Kitano. Haven’t you fought with her before?”

“Kris,” Nelly put in, “Amber was Phil Taussig’s XO on his fast attack boat at the Battle of Wardhaven and Jack Campbell’s XO on the
Dauntless
.”

“Yes, Nelly, I remember Amber. She’s the one that refused to be the female lead in a panic party.” An honor Kris had failed to avoid and now, thanks to Cara’s skill with mash-ups, seemed to have gone viral in human space.

“Okay, Nelly, advise CO,
Princess Royal
that the commodore will be transferring her flag to her ship for the next five days. Send her schematics of my quartering needs, oh, and this office. Skipper, can you transfer this furniture?”

“Easier when we’re in zero gee, my princess.”

“Okay. Nelly, tell Abby to pack up and follow as fast as she can, same to Penny. Oh, and make sure Captain Kitano knows that Jack’s quarters are a deck below me and down the passageway.”

“Understood, Kris.”

“Drago, move my office as fast as you can, but don’t do anything that will delay the up-gunning. I’ve got to meet with our friends on the private side, and I like the idea of having an impressive office to meet them in.”

“Your Highness, your gear will be there by 2100 hours tonight at the latest.”

“Good. Nelly, pass the word to the civilian elephant that we’re having a powwow at 2100 hours on the
Princess Royal
.”

Kris headed for the
Wasp
’s quarterdeck. The ship was already making ready to move. Kris liked the pace.

Now. How would Amber Kitano take to sharing her ship with the original Princess Royal?

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.”

N
ELLY,
B
ENSON SAID
S
AMPSON WAS SHOOTING OFF HER MOUTH ALL OVER THE PLACE.
W
AS THERE ANY MESSAGE TRAFFIC BETWEEN THE
C
ONNIE
AND THE
M
ONARCH
?

Y
ES,
K
RIS, BUT IT WAS IN A THROWAWAY CIPHER AND VERY SHORT.
I
DON’T SEE ANY WAY
I
COULD CRACK IT.

S
O, WAS THE KING FULLY INFORMED OF MY ACTIONS?
W
HOSE IDEA WAS IT TO GIVE
J
ACK A JOB THAT MEANS MOST OF HIS TIME IS DIRTSIDE?
A
ND WAS THAT MIXED-UP LANGUAGE ABOUT DRAFTING PEOPLE A WEDDING GIFT FROM
G
RAMPA
R
AY?

K
RIS, IF YOU SPEND YOUR TIME CHASING ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS YOU CAN’T FIND, YOU’LL GO AS CRAZY AS A
L
ONGKNIFE.

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 Metal
TM
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.”

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

N
ELLY, 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.”