Kris Longknife 13 - Unrelenting (42 page)

“
Ultimate Argument
, I have a computer over here that would like to have access to your fire control system. I think it can improve your shooting.”

“Nelly?” came back, not quite incredulously.

“Yes, the Magnificent Nelly,” Nelly said from Kris’s collarbone.

“Do we want a strange computer in our system?” came from a different voice. Someone had an open mic.

“We’ve missed twice,” said the first voice.

“I have been in your system for the last eight hours,” Nelly said, dryly. “You haven’t had any problems with me there.”

THEY DIDN’T EVEN NOTICE ME.

DOWN, NELLY. REMEMBER, TACT.

YES, TACT AND BUTTER-CAN-MELT-IN-MY-MOUTH NICENESS.

“Your Highness, if you wish to risk the systems on the
Ultimate Argument
to this unauthorized access of a computer that’s not test qualified to the system, you may.”

“How’s that for covering your ass?” Captain Drago whispered, but not too softly. More than one could play the open-mic game.

“This will not be an ‘unauthorized access,’” Kris responded. “I am authorizing it. Nelly, please do what you think necessary to put the next bullet in the middle of that star.”

AND KEEP IT SIMPLE, NOTHING FANCY. WE’LL SAVE THAT FOR LATER.

YES, YOUR HIGHNESS. KIDS, MAKE ME PROUD.

RIGHT, MOM, came in Kris’s head in two-part harmony.

“
Ultimate Argument
, you may fire when ready.”

“We’re ready now. Initiating primary ignition.”

And a beam reached out to slap the neutron star. A chip shot off from it and quickly covered the distance to the star next door.

And splatted it right in the center of its disk.

“Spectacular shooting,” came in awe from the
Ultimate Argument
.

“That was just lucky,” was again on an open mic.

“We should be able to check that out,” Nelly said, “as soon as you get another shot ready. What do you say you knock ten seconds off your recharge time?”

“We’ll see what we can do,” came back at Nelly.

“Initiating primary ignition,” came back in forty-eight seconds.

Again, the center of the sun’s disk took a hit. If it wasn’t the exact same spot, it was close enough to make no difference.

“Wow,” was in several-part harmony from the live mics on the
UA
.

“Do we need to do that again, or can I try an experiment?” Nelly asked.

“We know all about experiments,” the
UA
answered. “Bring it on.”

“Kris, we are pretty sure we can put a spin on the bullet. That should make it more accurate for long-distance single shots. What we want to do is score the surface of the bullet so that the spin will cause fragmentation along its trajectory. That way, the aliens may start to evade only to find themselves dodging more than they expected.”

“Try it, Nelly.”

“We’ll need to aim this bullet out farther.”

“Pick your own target.”

“How about that rocky planet on the other side of the suns?”

“Go for it.”

The beam was reloaded in thirty-nine seconds. They fired and watched as a single bullet sailed out from the neutron star. “It will be seventy-three minutes before we see if we hit it right,” Nelly reported. “Shall we try another ship?”

For the next hour, the three ships took turns firing under Nelly’s control. They also worked on getting their battle drill down, aiming to fire every fifteen seconds.

The
Ultimate Argument
managed to get off six shots in two minutes before a problem arose, and they had to drop out to fix it. After that, they were only able to manage a shot every thirty seconds.

“We’ll need to make a permanent fix. It will take the better part of a day to do that.”

“Do it when we’re done,” Kris ordered.

The other two ships never managed to get more than three shots off in two minutes and usually held to one every sixty seconds.

“You will get together with the fire teams on the
Ultimate Argument
when we are done here and see what they are doing that you aren’t.”

Sixty minutes into the shoot at the planet, Chief Beni on sensors announced in something only slightly lower than a shout, “The neutron bullet just split apart.”

“It should be in four sections,” Nelly said.

“Four it is,” Chief Beni answered.

“Yes!” Nelly exclaimed. “Now let’s see how we do.”

Thirteen minutes later, the four sections impacted in the exact center of the planet’s four quadrants.

“Bull’s-eye,” Nelly said, presenting a target she’d generated before and overlaying it on the planet’s now-dust-marked face. If there was a difference, you’d need a computer to spot it, and Nelly wasn’t talking.

“Very good, Nelly. Outstanding.”

“Thank you, Kris,” Nelly said, and you could almost hear her taking a bow.

“Let’s head back for Alwa,” Kris said, and the fleet lifted anchors and departed.

“You have a plan?” Jack asked, as they lay beside each other that night.

“I’ll have a plan to run by you and the staff when we get back,” Kris said. “Now, make me forget I’m an admiral planning a fight, but do it carefully. My breasts are sensitive and I think they’re starting to leak.”

Jack was very careful but very thorough.

58

Kris
let her eyes rove down the table. Her entire staff was here.

Jack sat to her right. Alone of those here, he knew what was coming. He’d helped her make this plan the best she could.

Admiral Furzah sat to Jack’s left, followed by Captain Drago and Abby.

To Kris’s left were Penny and Masao, Admiral Kitano, Amanda and Jacques.

At the foot of the table, on a hookup, was Commodore Rita. It might be eighty years since she had led BatCruRon 16 into battle, but she still had the steely eye of one of humanity’s most-fighting captains.

“We have to defend forward of Alwa,” Kris began. “Any fight should be as far from Alwa as we can make it. Alwa is their target. From what we’ve seen of their suicide attacks, we don’t want them close to Alwa. There is a second reason. Our most powerful weapon is worthless in this system.”

The screens on both sides of the room lit up with the same scene. The
Conqueror
knocked a chip off an asteroid. It shot out for several hundred thousand kilometers only to be converted to sand by the
Tenacious
and
Relentless
.

“Nothing in this system is hard enough to form the bullets needed to smash base ships. If we fight here, we will lose,” Kris said with finality.

“So, we don’t fight in my backyard,” Commodore Rita drawled, sounding way too much like the Granny. “Where
do
you fight?”

“In their backyard,” Kris said. “They’ve set up shop in System X, been exploiting it for resources and building a new, fast wing for their fighting force. We fight them there.”

Kris paused; the screens now showed System X.

“Here we have a neutron star, ammunition for the beam ships. The aliens are far enough away that we can make their approach march a grueling battle of attrition.”

“You will need that,” Admiral Furzah purred. “Surely you have learned that the ratio of the forces in a battle is the square of their size. You have two hundred ships. They have sixteen hundred at last count. By my reckoning, they outnumber you not eight to one but two hundred and fifty-six to four. Sixty-four to one.”

“We know that rule, Admiral Big Cat,” Granny Rita said, “and we’re going to beat them. Thank God that ex of mine is good at getting the best stuff pushed forward to where the fight is. You can always count on him for that.”

“But won’t the aliens dodge these neutron bullets if they see them coming?” Admiral Kitano asked. “I know I would be opening up my formation to let them pass. Incoming always has the right-of-way,” she added with a chuckle.

“Can you dodge a machine-gun volley?” Jack said softly.

“Machine gun?” Kitano asked, with a raised eyebrow.

“If the beam ships fire a bolt every fifteen seconds, that means a shot every five seconds. Nelly has a way to make the fifty-thousand-ton bullets splinter into four darts. Try dodging that.”

Admiral Kitano thought for a long minute, then shook her head. “That sounds great, assuming these three beam ships fire as fast as you say they can. Can they?”

“Someone read our report,” Kris said.

“Every inch of it. Out loud,” Kitano shot back.

“Okay, yes and yes. Yes, when we took the beam ships out for a test run we found they were still in the experimental stage, so we kicked butt, replaced personnel, mind-set, software, and hardware.” Kris paused to let that sink in.

“Right now, the repair ships
Vulcan
,
Arasi
, and
Artifex
are tied up alongside each beam ship. Those Navy hammer and screwdriver types are going over the ships, reviewing where the breakdowns occurred and toughening them to battle standards. We’ve got the fabs on the moon knocking out tons of critical spare parts. We will mate the repair ships permanently to the beam ships. In the coming fight, if they need something
fixed, those Sailors will have what they need to get it working in Navy time, not civilian time.”

Kitano considered that. “What about armor? Those beam ships are big targets.”

“I’ve talked to Admiral Benson about that. He says there’s no way to cram all that high-tech kludge into anything like Condition Zed.”

“Can we load them up with more Smart Metal?” Amanda asked.

Abby shook her head. “We’d be blending local Smart Metal with what they came with. That’s something we’ve avoided. And when we finished, they’d weigh so much, they likely couldn’t get under way. No, folks, what you see is what we fight.”

“Any delay,” Kris said, “would have the aliens charging into the Alwa system, where we’d be fighting with our backs to the wall.”

“My wall,” Granny Rita drawled.

“Glad I won’t be fighting in those big eggs with a target painted on them,” Jacques said.

“Unfortunately, you will be,” Kris said. “Everyone who has one of Nelly’s kids will be forming three-person teams to manage the fire control systems on those battlewagons.”

“Oops,” Jacques said. “Honey, you’ve been lusting after this computer around my neck. How about I give it to you?”

“I was lusting after the body under your computer, lover boy, and I’ll be right there beside you.”

“So I get to be the courageous warrior, but I don’t get to kiss you good-bye and go off to do fun guy things, huh?”

“Kiss me all you want, but never good-bye,” Amanda said, and leaned over and gave him a kiss that went way longer than a peck.

There are problems having civilians in war counsels,
Kris thought, not leaning over and giving Jack just as long a kiss, though she longed to.

“Moving right along,” Abby said. “I take it that me, Colonel Bruce, and Cara will have a beam ship of our own.”

“Yes” Kris said. “I know this will disrupt the colonel’s regiment dirtside, but if this works, they won’t have to fight.”

“And if it don’t, there likely won’t be much chance of their
winning. I suspect the aliens intend to sanitize Alwa right down to bedrock, like they did that first planet.”

“I’m getting that impression,” Kris admitted. “Those fast suicide boats didn’t mean to leave much standing.”

“Who does that mean I’ll be going out there with?” Jacques asked.

“Jack, Penny, and I will be on the
Conqueror
. You, Professor Labao, and Chief Beni will be on the
Opening Statement
,” Kris said.

“Retired Chief Beni who came out here to fight them that killed his boy? All three of us who got the new computers to replace the last three of Nelly’s kids that got killed in a three-way hookup.”

“I’m afraid so.”

“Honey, kisses or no, you stay here.”

“Kisses or no, I’m going out there with you,” Amanda replied.

“I’m being drafted into this.”

“And I’ve got a reserve commission that I’m sure the nice princess over there will activate if I bat my eyelashes at her husband a few times.”

“Activate her, Kris,” Jack said. “Torture by batted eyelashes terrifies me.”

“Consider yourself on active duty,” Kris said, smiling fondly at Jack.

“Foolish woman,” Jacques said.

“Foolish man,” Amanda said. “Now, if there’s nothing we can add to this meeting, I have a few words I want to exchange with this warrior of mine.”

“I doubt there will be words exchanged,” Admiral Furzah purred, as the two left.

“What have we got left to check out, Kris?” Granny Rita said. “You will defend far forward. That’s settled. What next?”

“How do we enter the system?” Kris asked. “The aliens don’t know that we can use fuzzy jumps. They don’t even know they exist. There’s a nice fuzzy jump near the neutron sun. The nearest standard jump is much farther away. Using that jump would have the advantage of getting them committed and headed our way before they have to face the full fury
of our neutron bolts. However, using that jump would also cut down on the time we have to hit them with those bolts.”

“Why not use the closer fuzzy jump?” Admiral Kitano asked.

“What are the chances we can annihilate every ship in the enemy horde?” Jack asked back. “Any one of them gets away, and the next alien ships will know we have some way of appearing out of space they don’t know about. At best, they get nervous. At worst, they go looking for the fuzzy jumps and discover a fast way around the galaxy. A fast way to the human side of the galaxy.”

“Not good,” Captain Drago said. “I, for one, vote for a normal entrance. The O club on Cannopus Station has the silhouettes of four base ships with a nice bright red line through them. When we finish these, I expect to add another four. Still, that leaves thirty to forty.”

Those around the table nodded agreement.

“We use the normal jump,” Kris said, ending that discussion.

“What next?” Admiral Kitano asked.

“This will be as much your decision as mine,” Kris said. “I will be commanding this fight from the
Conqueror
. You will have tactical command of the battle line. As I see it, that will consist of all four of the main fleets. I’m adding one of the newly arrived squadrons to each of the existing fleets, and one to Admiral Benson’s Fifth Fleet in reserve. Do we send it with you to make the interception or hold him back with the beam ships?”