Kris Longknife 13 - Unrelenting (21 page)

“Do we know the type of ship and reactors that dropped in?” Kris asked Kitano.

“The sensor people just finished analyzing the data,” Nelly said. “The signature of the ship matches the third ship that was observing our last system battle.”

“Likely all three have agreed on where to get together to gang up on us,” Kitano snapped.

“Likely,” Kris agreed, munching more of her salad.

“So?” Kitano left hanging.

“So, we still don’t know if this is an advanced guard or just scouts. Nelly, all three were single ships, am I correct?”

“Yes, Admiral. Three ships of three different patterns.”

“We need to know more about them and about that system. Nelly, how long will it take a base ship to get to us from there?”

“Do we assume single jumps through twelve systems or a faster approach?”

“Can they go faster?” Admiral Benson asked.

“Two-gee acceleration and 20-rpm spin can get them here in five jumps,” Nelly said.

“Hmm,” Kris said. This just got more and more complicated.

“Admiral,”
Kitano said. “We can’t ignore this.”

“I’m not ignoring it. I’m thinking.” Kris took another bite of greens and found it surprisingly tasty. Since Cookie had set himself up at a restaurant on the station, that couldn’t always be said of wardroom meals.

Captain Drago returned with an interesting dinner. It looked like liver and onions, but it smelled like nothing Kris could remember. She chose not to ask any questions.

“How are you liking Cookie’s salad?” Drago asked, opening his napkin.

“This salad is from Cookie’s place?” Kris said.

“He knew you were having a bad day and sent over the salad just for you.”

“Nelly, send Cookie a thank-you from me.”

“Done. He says great. He’ll try and have more salads for you whenever you’re on board. He says he can do it if I’ll just give him some advanced notice.”

“Nelly!” Kris said.

“You like the salad, don’t you?”

“Yes,” Kris had to agree.

“So much for operational security,” Admiral Kitano groused.

“My neck is stuck out as far as yours,” Nelly pointed out. “I know when to keep my mouth shut and when I can trust people to make a salad and keep their mouths shut.”

“I side with Nelly on this one. If I can’t trust her to protect me, whom can I trust?”

“Why do I feel like I’m being ignored?” Kitano asked the overhead.

“I’m sorry you do,” Kris said. “I’m not ignoring you, I’m thinking about every word you said while minor things keep my mouth moving on things I don’t have to think about. Now, what do we know about that system?” Kris said, eyeing her chief subordinate.

“Not a lot,” Kitano admitted.

“So, let’s change that. Please send a force out there to support our survey and buoy tenders. Survey the system in depth and outpost it for at least three more systems out.”

“And that would do what for us?” Kitano asked.

“It would give us more warning when the base ships start moving in, assuming that is the whole idea here. I’m betting that they won’t just show up in system, form up together, and start sweeping in toward us. If I’m reading the way those ‘Enlightened Ones’ work, they are pretty much gods in their own domain. Put three of them in the same system and there’s going to be fur that needs petting, and heaven help the one that pets the other one wrong.”

“You’re guessing,” Kitano pointed out.

“Yes,” Kris said, taking another forkful of greens, this time with extra berries mixed in. “Yes, I’m guessing, but I’ve been to their holy of holies. I’ve read the brags they post and the snide remarks some ships add to others’ boasts. I don’t think these folks play well together. They don’t have to.”

“What if the three we’re facing are children ships?” Admiral Benson asked. “Spawned off the same mother ship?”

Kris tried munching her salad and chewing her lip at the same time. Fortunately, one was figurative. “I don’t think so. At least one of the warships had eight reactors. Even the two that had six reactors had different signatures from them. No, I think we’re dealing with those that just happen to be in the area.” Kris eyed her supper guests. “Tell me, did any of you settle down right next to your folks?”

“We’re on the other side of the galaxy, for Pete’s sake,” Amber Kitano said.

“I rest my case. Some ‘Enlightened One’ gets his own ship, he’s going to go in the opposite direction from the old mother ship.”

“You betting the farm on that?” Amber said.

“As has been pointed out, I can’t keep people on the edge of terror every minute of their lives. I’ve got to let up before they fall apart. Or start shooting at me. I’d rather manage this a bit than have things crumble when I least expect it. If . . . no, when the aliens start causing trouble, we’ll change. But for now, we’ve batted three out of the park. We
will
take a break.”

“So we do nothing,” Kitano said.

“No. We dispatch Betsy Bethea with Task Force 4 to survey that system.”

“Those flakes,” Benson put in.

“I don’t think the ships from Hispania are flaky. And I think Bethea is perfect to see what the ships from the Esperanto League are good for. Put them through their paces. Add in the
Kamoi Maru
,
Activity
, and
Cherryleaf
to drop off buoys the next three systems out, and we’ll have a deeper picket line. You want to send Bethea her orders, Admiral?” Kris asked.

“Well, it’s something. Not enough, but something.”

“It gives us more time to get ready when things start going to hell,” Kris said.

Amber settled down to attack her hash and beans. Kris eyed Admiral Benson as if to say,
You really want to be next?

“Bad day. Maybe I ought to come back tomorrow.”

“You think it will be better? Especially if I don’t have Jack to bring me milk and toast in bed before I get up?”

“Hmm, you have a point. Okay, can I protect some of my work bosses from being hijacked by Pipra’s moon factories? If they start offering land grants, I’ll have my own people grousing.”

“So we offer them land grants, too.”

The retired and unretired admiral rubbed the stubble on his chin. “I’ll have to figure out a way to let folks have time off dirtside. I’ve been working two shifts, ten hours a day, six days a week. I’ve brought in Alwans to work with my crew. Learn the ropes as it were. I expect I’ll lose a lot of them to the moon,” he said slowly, thinking it through as he spoke.

“How much will you have on your plate if we cut back ship work?”

“But you said you wanted to up armor all your ships.”

“I didn’t say I wanted it tomorrow.”

“Good point. So, I’m hearing you’ll get us land grants, too, and put up with one shift a day until things pick up.”

“One twelve-hour, seven days a week to be followed by seven days off.”

Benson chuckled. “Tough, but there’s land in it.”

“I’m promising a lot of land. I may need to talk to the Ostriches. Make sure they know what they’re getting into. By
the way, will any of your crew want into a lottery for a ride home?”

“They knew what they signed up for. I suspect the land and some time to enjoy it will take a lot of the rough out of their backsides.”

“You going to offer land to the Sailors, too?” Admiral Kitano asked.

“My first answer is I don’t see why not. My second answer is I better talk to some Alwans before I give away their land.”

“Kris, how are you going to decide who gets what land?” Nelly spoke for the first time. “Without water, land is worthless.”

“Thank you, Nelly, for the complications,” Kris said.

“Everything comes with some,” Benson said, almost under his breath.

Kris finished her salad and stood. “Well, if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to tend to a few personal matters before its back to the Coliseum and the lions.”

Her subordinates allowed her to dismiss herself, and she headed back to her quarters. Nelly had managed to return her night quarters to some semblance of their normal size; Kris collapsed on her bed and slipped into a gentle nap.

32

“You
awake?” brought Kris awake, muzzy brain and all.

“Is it time?” Kris asked the overhead.

“About that,” Abby answered. “You want some milk?”

Kris took a survey of her stomach and found it good. “Nope. Nelly, send a second thank-you to Cookie and tell him that salad was not only good going down, it was nice to wake up to.”

“Done,” Nelly said.

“He promised me some ginger cookies for tomorrow morning,” Abby said.

Kris considered several answers, and decided, “Thank you, Abby, but you don’t have to.”

“You’re my boss, Kris. One of the best bosses I’ve had in a long line that included a few real stinkers. I like to think of you as a friend as well.”

“A friend who owes you her life,” Kris added.

“Well, that too. Still, I want to take care of you.”

“Thank you. It seems I need taking care of,” Kris said, ruefully.

“I don’t see a problem with that. How’ll you take care of the baby when it comes?”

“I don’t know,” Kris admitted.

“You’ll need a nanny.”

“I thought that was one job you’d never want.”

Abby dismissed that with a wave of her hand, the one not holding the milk. “Getting that pregnancy notice in my mail raised some strange thoughts.”

“Hmm,” Kris said. “I haven’t approved the removal of any birth-control implants, Abby. I wasn’t planning on approving any. You want an exception?”

Abby made a face. “I said I had interesting thoughts, not that I went stone-cold stupid.”

The two women enjoyed a laugh.

“On second thought, I’ll take that milk,” Kris said. It was locally grown, not powdered milk from across the galaxy, and someone had gotten it to just the coolness Kris liked.

“You want a fresh uniform?” Abby asked.

“I guess so. This one went through the wringer before I slept in it.”

Her maid helped Kris up, efficiently aimed her toward the shower, left her with a nice fluffy towel, then retreated to get her uniform ready.

Kris showered quickly, toweled off, and felt a hundred years younger. Abby greeted her with, “I got you a clean set of spider silks.”

“You think I need them up here on my own ship?”

“This morning, did you think you’d need them down on that beach? Don’t lie to me. I’ve lain on the same beach or one just like it with nothing on but a smile.”

Kris slipped into the silks, then into undress whites.

“I have an extension added to the Forward Lounge,” Nelly reported. “It’s big, walled off from the rest, and has glass-covered walls and tabletops. You should be able to break up into smaller groups.”

“Good, Nelly. Do you have enough computing power to run all that glass?”

“I was about to suggest that Sergeant Bruce and Cara attend tonight’s planning session as well as keeping Jacques in attendance.”

“Do they want to come?” Kris asked both Nelly and Abby.

Abby answered. “Steve will go anywhere I do. He’s been getting more interested in what I’m doing. Cara thinks this planning stuff is more fun than computer games.”

“It is,” Nelly said.

“So you’ll have six of your kids there,” Kris said.

“Seven. I’ve talked Chief Beni into coming, or maybe Captain Drago ordered him,” Abby said.

“That leaves out only Jack and Professor Labao,” Kris noted.

“Jack’s Sal is working with Granny Rita and Ada,” Nelly
said. “There is no way I’d include Professor Labao. He and my daughter that he only calls ‘computer’ have gotten quite unmanageable.”

“So, you’re happy with the attendance?” Kris said.

“Yes.”

“Then let’s go find some agreement.”

“Agreement the Alwans will approve,” Abby pointed out.

“You think they’ll push for more consumer goods?” Kris asked.

“Wouldn’t you if you suddenly saw more available?”

“But they have to earn them. It’s only for those working with us.”

Abby raised an eyebrow. “You sure some don’t see this as their fees for letting us use their land?”

Kris’s smile got evil. “How eager are Ostriches for us moving down there?”

“Good Lordie, but I see trouble rising,” Abby declared.

Then they walked into the extension to the Forward Lounge.

Nelly had outdone herself. It was spacious, secure, and quiet, although it seemed like everyone was talking at once.

It was also crowded.

Two dozen were in Kris’s initial meeting. Fifty plus had returned from supper.

“Nelly, you better double this place,” Kris ordered.

In a blink, the room was three times its size. “I think we’ll need the extra room, Kris, to keep tempers down.”

“No doubt,” Abby agreed.

Staff Sergeant Steven Bruce was there on the Navy side. From the looks of it, Admirals Benson and Hiroshi had brought half their estimators. They were intent on hard estimates to rearmor ships as well as feeding in the numbers for repairing those banged up during Kris’s last battle.

Even victories had their price.

Pipra had added planners and divided them into three groups: those for building plants, those for supplying the Navy, and those for providing more consumer goods for Alwans, colonials, and workers building their own bit of heaven dirtside.

People moved from one set of plans to another, passing ideas back and forth. Abby went to join those groups; Cara was already with them.

Circulating loosely among them were Penny and Masao, Amanda and Jacques.

Kris headed for Pipra and found Amanda and Jacques joining her as well.

“I’ve delayed the departure of the
Hornet
and
Endeavor
for human space,” Kris said. “I’m willing to organize a lottery for as many as thirty people to return home. They have to know that if the ships are in danger of being taken, they will be blown to atoms.”

“Right now, I’m not sure you’d find thirty takers,” Pipra said. “Us going to week on, week off and having land to farm or fish or hunt has leaked out with the subtlety of Vesuvius. We’ve got a call-in show on the moon. They haven’t had one naysayer. I never thought you could get everyone on the same page, but this land deal has done it.”