Kris Longknife 13 - Unrelenting (25 page)

Kris nodded. It was only human to protect yourself.

But Kris’s job was to protect everyone.

And that job started to get serious.

They’d sent Admiral Miyoshi back out to what was being called System X with his BatRons 3 and 9 to replace the jump buoys lost when the two alien ships cruised through three layers of pickets to take a second look at the large system. This time they picketed out four systems.

“That still means it will take four weeks for us to know they’d popped the outer picket. By that time, they’ll have gotten all the way into the system and left, if they’re doing what they’ve been doing,” Admiral Kitano growled.

“Or have set up shop in that crazy system,” Kris pointed out.

“We’ve got too much lag time in our warning system,” Admiral Miyoshi concluded.

“How can we get the word back here sooner?” Jack asked the screen they were all standing around showing System X and environs.

“Have we got some empty supply ships?” Kris asked.

“Most of them are empty,” Kitano reported.

“Okay, here’s what we’re going to do,” Kris said. “Admiral Miyoshi, I’d like you to take two of the Marus that came out with Yamato’s squadron and merge them into one fast merchant cruiser. I plan to take the 20-inch lasers off the last of your frigates when they come in to get crystal cladding over their armor. I’ve talked to Admiral Benson about putting 22-inchers on them as well as a fourth reactor to support them.”

“Good.” Miyoshi grinned happily. “I saved my flagship for last.”

“I’ll do the same with two of the Blossoms from Earth and leave them standing guard in the first system inward of System X. It has a fuzzy jump. With a bit of acceleration and rpms, they should be able to get a message back to us in only two jumps, a good two weeks before the speed of light will let us get a radio message.”

“Ships faster than radios,” Admiral Miyoshi marveled. “What will we humans think of next?”

He departed the next day, leaving the
Haruna
and
Chikuma
in the yard for armor and armament upgrades. He was back three weeks later.

“You know, that fast route out is not a bad way to go,” he reported to Kris.

Kris nodded. She didn’t tell him that she’d gotten the idea in a dream. She was dreaming a lot these days. What was unusual was that she was remembering them. Some were just dreams. Showing up late for formation at OCS . . . in her birthday suit. Others were more challenging, like getting into arguments with Father or Mother and not doing her usual run for her room and slamming the door.

She woke up a lot with Jack holding her.

Kris broached the topic of her active night life with Doc Meade.

“It’s not unusual for pregnant women to have lucid dreams,” she told Kris. “Mentally, you’re working out unresolved issues. Do you have issues with your folks?”

“Doc, I got whole subscriptions with my folks. Lifetime subscriptions.”

“Maybe your dreams will find a way to cancel some of those subscriptions,” Doc Meade said with a sparkle in her eyes. “After all, you’re going to be the mother soon.”

Kris found herself taking stock of her life, her command, and her situation. She looked upon her work and found it good. Very good, overall. Things were going so well, she was starting to think that everyone had the right idea. Here was a place to set down roots and relax.

She should have hunted up a sledgehammer to knock on the wood of her desk.

38

The
fast routes out and back gave Kris ideas. That and her dreams.

Six months into her pregnancy, she and baby were doing fine. Four months into the Roots Down Initiative came the first harvest. The new farms didn’t produce as much per acre as the colonial farms, but the food was a welcome addition.

It was during the harvest festival that Kris announced the names for the new eight frigates. Four were easy.
Furious
,
Enterprise
,
Audacious
, and
Resolute
were the ships that followed Granny Rita into battle for the last time.

Those drew cheers from the colonials.

After long and serious consideration, and letting a lot of people bend Kris’s ear on the topic, the other four would be the
Proud Unicorn
,
Lucky Leprechaun
,
Kikukei
, and
Temptress
. The last two had suffered the most casualties in the battle that caused the loss of the first two.

Those drew cheers from the yard workers, both the ones who’d come out from human space and the Alwans who were working beside them now.

“I’ll be wanting volunteers for those crews. We plan on a hard and long voyage for them after they shake down.”

Kris said no more, but she soon had plenty of volunteers. Apparently, farming wasn’t as much fun as getting killed. She explained the mission to the eight XOs who’d earned promotions to skipper the new ships.

“We’ve pushed the pickets out four jumps from System X. I want a pair of you to anchor just inboard of the third jump point. Keep an eye on the next system. If they try to pop our latest set of jump buoys, you pop them. It’s time they learn they can’t just waltz back and forth around our space.
However, if a whole alien clan shows up, run for home. Any questions?”

There were none.

Kris had come up with the idea one morning, lying in Jack’s soothing arms after a particularly hard dream. In it, she had not run away but had stood, toe to toe with both her mother and father and argued her point home.

Exactly what the point was and what she said had not survived waking. That she woke with her heart pounding had been evident to Jack. He said nothing, just held her.

So her mind had wandered anywhere but back to her family. She’d found herself mulling System X as her heart slowed.

Why not stay rather than run?

What had started as a muzzy-minded question turned into a serious thought and a policy before breakfast.

Why not?

Now Kris sent six newly built ships with the best Alwa had to offer to guard those outposts and bite back when the aliens tried to take a nip.

Whatever happened, it was likely to be interesting.

Two ships stayed at Cannopus Station to relieve the watch and allow a section to come back and resupply. Kris wondered how her plan would survive first contact with the aliens.

She hadn’t long to wait.

39

Commander
Alex Rogers had come out as the operations officer on the
Repulse
in Hawkings’s squadron from Wardhaven. He’d been promoted to XO when his skipper got command of a division. Having distinguished himself in the First Battle of Alwa, he now commanded the Alwa
Resolute
, second ship of that name in Kris’s fleet.

Having a fleet made up from many sources meant a couple of duplicates:
Resolute
and
Churchill
so far.

The
Resolute
and the
Audacious
had drawn the C approach route to System X.

At the moment, standing in Kris’s flag plot, Commander Rogers looked sure of himself but a bit nervous.

“We had just arrived at the jump from System C3 into C4 when the buoy came through to tell us that Jump Buoy C4c had been popped,” he reported, standing not nearly as “at ease” as Kris had ordered.

“We sent the periscope up to the jump, and it identified four fast movers from Wolf Pack Anton coming across the system at 3.25 gees acceleration. Captain Beaudette and I decided to wait for them on our side of the jump. It took them two days to come up to the jump, ma’am. When it was clear they were coming through, we recovered the periscope and made ready to receive them.”

“How’d that go?” Admiral Katano asked.

“As good as we had any right to expect. They came through one ship at a time. We stationed ourselves behind the jump so we had a good shot at their reactors. The first three were a bit slow, so we had no trouble firing, flipping, firing, and recharging in between.”

Commander Rogers eyed Kris. “We’d been warned to expect them to be shooting at anything and everything.”

“Yes,” Kris said.

“Ma’am, they must be getting sloppy. They weren’t shooting at all. We got the three of them. Then nothing. So we ran the periscope back through the jump. The fourth was sitting there, waiting for something.

“After a while, it moved around to behind the jump. No doubt, he intended to hit our sterns when we came through. When we didn’t, after a long while, it headed back the way it came. We waited until it was over a hundred thousand klicks out, then jumped through and shot out its reactors before it could flip ship and return fire.”

“So the aliens will get no report back from that bunch,” Kris said.

“Not a peep, Admiral. The rest of the system was cold and empty.”

“How did the mixed crew work out for the
Resolute
?” Admiral Kitano wanted to know.

“I couldn’t ask for better, Admiral,” Commander Rogers answered. “The Ostriches held off doing their chest-bumping thing until after the last alien was dust. The Roosters didn’t blanch at the lack of a dance. The colonial kids were delighted beyond words to be serving on a ship just like the old codgers had. Now
they
have tales to tell. The hands you let me bring from the old squadron clicked perfectly. Ma’am, I don’t know that all crews drawing one-quarter from each source will work as good as us, but it did for the
Ressie
in this fight.”

“Thank you, Commander. Does your ship need any yard time?” Kitano asked.

“No, ma’am. Let me take on some fresh food, and we’re ready to head back. The
Audacious
is holding the line alone. We didn’t have any trouble handling four ships together, but I wouldn’t bet one of us could. You got to hit them hard and fast.”

“We’ve got L’Estock’s Sharp Steel Squadron from Pitts Hope heading out to relieve the
Audacious
,” Kris said. It had taken a long and difficult talk with her key staff and admirals to get their agreement to send three of her thirteen squadrons out to the picket line.

“You’re dividing your forces,” Admiral Yi had grouched over and over again.

“They’re divided into three clans,” Kris had repeated. “They are probing us. I don’t want to miss a chance to bloody their nose while we’re in the scouting stage of this meeting engagement. Let’s use the advantage the periscope gives us for as long as we can.”

“Nip their whiskers as they come through,” Admiral Furzah had enthused.

With the cat behind her, Kris wondered if she needed to turn around, but the others came along with her.

“Letting them know we aren’t just sitting here waiting for them is good policy,” Admiral Bethea finally said for all. “We’ve got enough pickets out around Alwa. We can always fall back using the fuzzy jumps if they switch directions and come at us from somewhere else.”

So Zingi got a chance for an independent command, taking his Yamato squadron out to guard the B Approach to System X, while Shoalter’s New Eden Ghost Squadron would cover Approach A.

They were just approaching the Alpha Jump out of the Alwa system when the
Temptress
, under the command of Commander Lizzy Chekhov, jumped in ahead of them.

Kris got the report as soon as it came in.

“Three fast scouts from the Beulah Wolf Pack jumped into the next system out when we’d been on station at observation point B4b for five days. We blew them away as they came through the jump into our system. When I left to report, the next system out was empty. Request permission to return to station.”

Kris ordered the
Temptress
down to the yards for a quick reduced availability and amended her orders to the battle squadrons going out to send a scout into the next system and see if there was anything the next jump out. “Oh, and picket that system, at least the jump from four out to the fifth they’re using. If they keep using the system, we want warning when they head toward our pickets at Four.”

“They getting rambunctious?” Abby asked, as Kris enjoyed her lunch that noon. It was nice to eat for two and not have the extra passenger kicking about the chow. Speaking of kicking,
the little passenger has taken to fluttering a bit. Jack couldn’t feel it, but Kris could.

“Yes, Abby, our aliens are getting a bit rowdy.”

“You think it’s time to ramp up the Navy’s side of production to fifty percent?”

“Don’t tell me,” Jack said. “You’ve got a new plan ready.”

“Of course me and Mata have a first draft of a revised plan,” Abby said. “Every morning, Mata has a revised, defense-heavy production plan ready. I keep telling her no one can read a Longknife’s mind. I can never tell if you’ll want forty-five percent, fifty, or bigger.”

“What are we at now?” Kris asked.

“Thirty-two percent, with the consumer side getting forty-three percent, but that’s only because we’ve got the new light-industry side turning out that stuff. It will be wasteful to cut the civilian side down much more. We’ve got mostly Alwans and colonials working that side. The new trainees that aren’t ready for the heavy side or ship duty.”

“You plan it that way?” Jack asked, giving Abby a jaundiced eye.

“No, it just works out. Kids got to start somewhere. Light industry is easier. It’s kind of harder to get yourself killed making a TV. Try falling into a vat of Smart Metal. It not only kills you, but ruins that batch. Ugh.”

“Has that happened?” Kris asked.

“We had to pull an Ostrich out of a vat. He took it in his head to chest butt with a buddy and bounced harder than he figured. Now they sign a pledge, in blood, not to butt on the job.”

“That sounds reasonable,” Kris said.

“Even they think so. We run a film of what the Ostrich looked like when we fished him out of the vat. They’re cutting their finger before it’s finished to seal their pledge paper.”

“You tell Pipra that both of you need to stop by my quarters after lunch,” Kris said, as Admiral Benson came up behind Abby.