Kris Longknife 13 - Unrelenting (38 page)

“You won’t regret that, Your Highness.”

Kris weighed the switch from admiral to Your Highness, and decided the man from Earth likely meant well. Maybe a Rim princess was worth more than she gave herself credit for.

Kris had the chair cough her up. “Would you mind passing that app to my computer?” Kris asked.

“I got it when he created the chair,” Nelly said.

“Good, I’ll be seeing you around, Commodore.”

“I suspect you will,” the new commodore said, and bent his head back to his desk.

Outside, Kris found the ensign waiting patiently down the hall, across from two Marines. That door said ADMIRAL YI, COMTF 7.

Kris returned all three salutes and gave the corporal on duty a slight nod. He opened the door. “Admiral Commanding Alwa Sector,” he announced.

No voice answered.

The day quarters were elegant to the point of being out-of-date by a couple of centuries. The floors looked to have expensive Persian rugs. The walls seemed wood-paneled. The entire place was overstuffed . . . and empty.

Kris went to the night quarters and knocked on the door.

“Go away,” answered her.

“Admiral Yi, this is Admiral Longknife, and I have a job for you,” she said, and opened the door.

The room was only dimly lit. The admiral was in bed; he wore a rumpled nightshirt.

“I’m not well,” he said weakly. “They’ve got me on meds that make it worse.”

“No doubt. But I have a job for you. At least as soon as you feel you’re fit for duty.”

“What kind of a job?” he spat. “Shoveling bird shit dirtside?”

“No. My base establishment is threadbare. We didn’t know we had a logistics problem until it bit me on the butt. I need someone to help Admiral Benson stay ahead of our logistics and look at our total admin lash-up. We’re putting it together with spit, glue, and baling wire. I’ve looked at your file, and I think you’re just the man to get this thing shipshape.”

“I could do that,” sounded almost human.

“I think Pavlenski would be a good man to work with you, assuming you want him.”

“He knows his stuff,” Yi agreed. “I could do worse.”

“Think about it and let me know when you might be ready
to hit the ground and what you think your work might look like. We don’t have much for you to go on, so you’ll be pretty free to put your own stamp on things.”

“Will I report to you?”

“No, I’m establishing a Commander, Base Forces Alwa Sector. You’d report to him. He’d report to me.”

“That would work,” he agreed.

“Then I’ll be on my way. Things are moving fast. Take care of yourself and get well.”

“I’m feeling better already,” Yi said.

I wonder how Rear Admiral Benson will be feeling when I tell him.

“You’re putting me in command of what?” was his expected reply.

“Commander, Base Forces Alwa Sector. That will also make you Vice Admiral, Commanding Reserve Fleet,” Kris added this time.

“What’s the reserve fleet?”

“However many ships you can get out of these yards with however much of a crew you can patch together.”

“We’re working on the next squadron. We’ve been spinning out eight ships at a time. Tirpitz is getting her workers up to speed. Now that they’re building to our design with none of the junk they put on those Earth-built ships, she thinks she can get four out. Let’s see. Eight by the end of next week. Twelve two weeks after that and another twelve in a month. Hell, between our yard birds, the colonials, and real birds and some of the fab workers, we’ll be ready to answer bells anytime you call.”

“That will keep you busy. I’m getting you some decent admin support. Rear Admiral Yi. Make sure he doesn’t get us so overadministered that we can’t fight.”

“Don’t worry. I brought out a good deputy superintendent. If I don’t let him have the job I’m holding, he’s going to go sour, or full-time farmer, or ask to have a ship. Anyway, I’ll give him the yard. If I’m right, Hiroshi has someone like that at Kure Docks. Could I have a deputy?”

“So long as he’s not Yi.”

“You give me Rear Admiral Hiroshi as my right arm, and I’ll keep Yi and anyone else in line even if I have to rip
off their arm and beat them over the head with the bloody stump.”

On that note, Kris left Benson’s office to cut papers for a whole lot of promotions and reassignments.

Thank heavens, Jack came home horny, because she was not about to die without jumping his bones another couple of times.

Tomorrow’s problems would come soon enough.

54

Or
not.

“Hey, Kris, cancel the panic party. This is Commodore Phil Taussig, commanding Wardhaven’s Frigate Squadron 16 on the new and improved
Hornet
. Wait until you see what followed me home.”

Since the message, sent through Beta Jump buoy, was a visual, she could see what he had. Beside his command chair stood a woman and a boy of maybe four. She was in the uniform of a lieutenant commander. The boy wore a bright red shipsuit. Kris suspected that declared to one and all that he was not to be trusted near delicate equipment, nor much of anything else.

Phil was true to his word. He’d brought his family out.

God help all such fools,
Kris fervently prayed.

She was surprised to discover how much she meant it.

She patted her belly.
Baby, are you making mommy religious?

Or just desperate?
the snide part of her shot back.

Let’s see what else Phil brought,
Kris thought, cutting off her argument with herself.

The poor instrumentation on the jump buoys continued to go bonkers over the incoming ships.

“Some of the readouts were just plain unbelievable,” Nelly sniffed. “The sensor teams are pulling their hair out. Even the weaponry on the ships isn’t right.”

“Is it wrong?” Jack asked.

“It’s something,” Nelly answered.

“So, we wait,” Kris said. “I trust Phil with my life. He would not lead an alien sneak attack. Meanwhile, tell Admiral Benson to get the shipyards working even faster, if they can.
And tell Commander Hanson of the
Challenger
to meet me at Admiral Benson’s office at 0900.”

Kris found herself back with the former superintendent of Cannopus Docks. “Marty, I know you wanted the
Victorious
for your flagship, but I’m giving her away.”

“Who gets my pride and joy?” the newly promoted vice admiral demanded.

“I’m sending Commander Hanson back out, and I figure he and his crew deserve something more than a patched-together scout.”

Admiral Benson took the measure of the commander standing at stiff attention in the presence of the two admirals. “You cleaned up your act, son?” the crusty old Sailor demanded.

“Yes, sir.”

“You going to stay squared away?”

“I was stupid, sir. I am not an idiot. I’ve learned my lesson. Besides, if I screw up again, I know Admiral Longknife will have me shoveling bird shit, not bossing those shoveling.”

The old admiral laughed. “I doubt she’d let you have a shovel, either. She is one of those damn Longknifes.”

The commander made no answer, but from the look in his eyes, Kris was pretty sure there stood a man who would follow
this
damn Longknife into hell, with or without a map.

“Okay, Commander, you can have my flagship. What you going to use for a crew?”

“I was hoping to transfer over
Challenger
’s, ma’am, if I might,” he said to Kris.

“You’ll need more. I’ll put a draft on the Earth task force to get you about a quarter of your crew. The rest will have to be green colonials and birds. We don’t dare pull the best of them out of the yards or the fabs.”

“I understand, ma’am. Sir, when will the
Victorious
be ready?”

“She’s ready now, Commander. All she needs is a crew.”

“I assume you have a job for us,” Commander Hanson said, turning to Kris.

“I want you to check on that other mother ship that’s spawning suicide boats. There’s been a drop-off of incoming crazies. I need to know whether they have given up on this idea and are moving to join the others. A new mother ship and
wolf pack’s worth of warships will be a major reinforcement to those at System X. If that’s happening, I need to know.”

“I assume my mission is to go, see, and run away fast even if you are giving me a shiny new frigate,” the commander said.

“You got your orders in one.”

“Then, ma’am, if you’ll excuse me, my crew and I have a job on our hands. If possible, Admiral Benson, I’d like to have the
Victorious
away from the pier by this time tomorrow. Day after that at the latest.”

“Godspeed and a following wind,” Benson said.

The commander saluted, did a smart about-face, and marched with pride for the door.

“Young fool,” Benson added when the door had closed behind him. “He’s going to do his shakedown cruise on a course straight for the enemy.”

“You think I should have sent him back out on
Challenger
?” Kris asked. This guy had been Navy when she was still in diapers.

“Hell, no. In the fix we’re in, his cruise will likely be one of the more peaceful. Still, it gets you right here, or wherever an old pelican like me has a heart, when you see the likes of him. I’m glad you gave him a second chance.”

“He deserved it, and he’s earned his new frigate.”

“Damn right. Now, what can you tell me about what Phil is bringing in?”

“Not a damn thing. We didn’t put the best of sensors on the jump buoys. They’re pickets and likely to get popped by any passing bastard. They were programmed to spot the difference between our reactors and theirs, and identify several of the different signatures we’ve got on file. What they’re eyeballing is not in the database.”

“So I heard. Well, if you don’t mind, ma’am, some bossy admiral gave me a whole new set of problems, so if you’ll get your backside out of my visitor’s chair, I’ll get to work.”

“I treasure the courtesy you show me,” Kris said, and hauled herself and baby out of a rather comfortable chair, and noticed as she turned for the door that the Smart Metal
^TM
chair got a lot more utilitarian now that it wasn’t cradling her and baby.

She said nothing but went to see what chores she’d missed.

Abby and Pipra were waiting in her day quarters to go over production figures that would have been astounding a month ago. “We think we can get some parts for the lasers from the light fabs. It will cut down on the flow of consumer goods to the locals, but they can just suck it up.”

“Abby, have you told Granny Rita and Ada about this?”

“Hell, Kris, Ada and Granny Rita were the ones who suggested it. That suck-it-up idea came from Granny. That old girl is in full battle mode. God help any old bird that gets in her way, she’ll fry him up for a turkey dinner just by looking at him.”

“So it’s that way dirtside, huh?”

“They know we’re outnumbered, outgunned, and in deep shit. That don’t mean we’re outclassed. Outclassed? Never!”

“That Granny Rita?”

“Hell no, Kris. That’s pure me,” Abby said.

“We’ve got reinforcements coming in,” Kris said.

“So we heard. They going to be any good?” Pipra asked.

“I have no idea. There’s something different about ’em, but whatever it is, they aren’t talking, and I’m not asking.”

“Then, if you don’t mind, we’ll be on our way.”

“One thing,” Kris said, as a thought crossed her mind. “The Earth frigates brought out the crystal armor. We haven’t had any frigates from the Rim with it. Is there any chance you could jack up crystal production?”

“We could use light fabs for that,” Abby said. “It’ll mean more birds squawking.”

“Do it.”

“We’re on it.”

Kris found she’d done about all she could for now. That seemed to be the job of a senior admiral. Get everyone running off in forty-eleven different directions, then sit on your butt until some came back with a new collection of snakes.

“Baby, I think there’s time for you and me to have a nice slow bath.” It wasn’t as nice as when Abby ran the water and turned Kris’s hair washing into something luxurious and nearly sinful, but it worked out fine for the two of them.

The
Victorious
made it away from the pier late that night,
without alerting Kris. They did four gees to Jump Point Beta and got through just ahead of the incoming fleet.

Seeing that fleet up close and personal must have been something near religious.

It was quite a sight to Kris watching from her flag plot.

She had her full team: Jack and Admiral Furzah, Penny and Masao, Amanda and Jacques. Even Abby managed to show up.

It was a show worth going out of your way to see.

Phil’s
Hornet
led a squadron of Wardhaven frigates:
Courageous
,
Furious
,
Glorious
,
Formidable
,
Illustrious
,
Implacable
, and
Powerful
. All had the weird reactors, but the reactors were only the start of the strange.

“They’ve got twenty lasers,” Nelly reported. “Double our number with different capacitors. Chief Beni is driving the sensor crew crazy trying to figure them out.”

“Do they have crystal armor?” Kris asked.

“No.”

Kris scowled. Had Earth held on to the secret . . . or were the moneymen arguing over who got how many bags of gold for the patents? It didn’t matter, she’d fix that.

“Abby, tell Pipra we’ll need that extra crystal.”

“I already did.”

Four support ships followed Phil. The next warships were from New Birmingham, and the names said it:
Birmingham
,
Milan
,
Essen
,
Pittsburgh
,
Manchester
,
Newcastle
,
Yawata
, and
Jamshedpur
. Each the name of an industrial city of that planet. Most had been founded as New-Something, but the new wore off years ago.