Kris Longknife: Tenacious (Kris Longknife novellas Book 12) (22 page)

They
hadn’t slowed quite enough to make orbit around the intended gas giant. They swung wide around it and did manage to aim toward its largest moon. A swing around it, and they were headed back to the giant. This time, they were slow enough to be captured by its gravity well.

They went into orbit, and the squadron anchored ship to ship.

While the pinnaces went cloud dancing to refuel the squadron, Kris had Sampson hauled before her. Since she wanted her entire gang to see this, Kris arranged the drop bay as a formal court-martial venue.

The aliens got herded off to the Forward Lounge. Penny modified a portion of it into something more to their liking, complete with fake fire and steaks to roast.

Which left Kris free to arrange a roasting of her own.

Longboats brought the crew of the
Sisu
aboard. As the odd ship out, the
Sisu
had not had false gravity, and the crew showed it as they stumbled aboard, adapting to normal weight again. There were low murmurs when they caught sight of Kris in starched whites seated behind a table with Captain Drago on her right, General Montoya on her left.

Gunny saw to it that the Marines herded the mutineers forward. When one held back, a nod from Gunny and a rifle butt hurried that one along.

Captain Taussig had been brought aboard to serve as prosecutor. He stood at his own table. He was still gaunt from his stay on what they now called Arsenic Island, but he had color back in his cheeks. If anything, he was showing an angry red.

He and his crew had almost died to keep information about humanity away from the aliens, and this bunch had almost given it to them on a silver platter.

He’d asked for the job of prosecutor. Kris would not have denied him for anything.

Finding someone to stand defense for them had not been easy. Penny had finally volunteered. “My dad was a cop, but he believed that even the most hard-hearted criminal deserved a fair trial.”

When the rebellious crew were huddled before them, Kris brought down a gavel. “This court is in session. Captain Taussig will read the charges.”

“You’ve got no right to try us,” Commander Sampson shouted.

“In truth, we have every right to try you,” Taussig snapped. “You and your civilians have mutinied against your lawful authority. You have also recklessly endangered the entire human race by your actions, presenting hostile aliens with not only the directions to human space but also making them a gift of our technology. Technology that is critical to the survival of the entire human race. As for you, Lieutenant Commander Sampson, in addition to the first charges, you have abandoned your assigned post in the face of the enemy. I won’t even bother with actions unbecoming of an officer and the rest of the book I could throw at you. Running away when your fellow officers are in a fight for their lives? That alone should hang you.”

“You wouldn’t hang me.” Sampson looked like she had just realized that she just might hang. “Capital punishment is outlawed,” she added, but gulping at the words.

Taussig turned that one over to Kris with a glance.

“You are right, Lieutenant Commander Sampson. The constitution of the United Society specifically bans capital punishment. However, you committed your crimes in the Alwa System, a system only in general association with your King Raymond. As such, part of what this court will decide is whether we have jurisdiction in the case or whether you should be turned over to colonial authorities to face these charges. Commander, the colonials on Alwa have hung people, and they may again.”

Kris had no doubt that Granny Rita, former commodore of BatCruRon 16, would be standing first in line to head the prosecution . . . and demanding death by hanging with every breath she took.

“You can’t let them have us,” one of the civilians said, stepping forward. “Please, ma’am. We just wanted to go home. This woman,” he said, waving at Sampson, “she said she could get us home. That was all we wanted. We didn’t know nothing about the aliens maybe getting us and our ship. Good God, woman, the aliens were what we were running away from. We didn’t know anything about mutiny.”

“Admiral, the man has a point,” Penny said, standing. “You talked to the ship’s officers when they arrived. May I have your permission to poll the defendants and see if any of them were there when you gave your orders?”

Kris had appointed Penny to defend. She hadn’t actually expected her to defend, but Penny was nothing if not loyal to the law.

“Please do, Councilor,” Kris said.

“Are any of you a ship’s captain, first mate, or chief engineer?”

There were a lot of mumbled no’s and shaken heads.

“Then who was running the reactor watches?” Taussig asked, saving an incredulous Kris from doing the same.

“I was,” a man said, raising his hand. “Me and a couple of others are certified to stand a reactor watch as second. I didn’t think it would be that much harder to stand first. Goes to show what I know, ma’am. We know, you know, ma’am.”

“Their engines’ performance showed the quality of those standing watch,” Penny pointed out dryly.

Taussig cleared his throat. “What did your officers tell you about you staying in the Alwa System?”

“That our job was now here and we could whistle for it if we didn’t like it,” the erstwhile engineer said. “I can’t say that we much liked it.”

“Kris, I mean, Admiral, that may have been a failing at the command level. We did not write out articles of war and have them read throughout the fleet. Nor did we have them signed by all the crews. I think we need to do that when we get back.”

Penny paused to let that hang for a while. Kris didn’t like it, but her friend had a point.

I
N ANCIENT TIMES,
K
R
IS, THAT WAS WHAT WAS
DONE ABOARD SAILING
SHIPS.
T
HEY DID HANG
ANYONE WHO VIOLATED
THEIR SIGNED ARTICL
ES.

T
HANK YOU,
N
ELLY.

Penny went on. “I’m not going to say my clients aren’t dumb. Stupid even, but they acted without knowledge of the consequences. That those consequences were known and recognized at the command level is not proof that they were known and recognized at the mess-deck level.”

Kris made a face, but even her own sense of fairness was being dragged kicking and screaming to Penny’s side of the court.

Vice Admiral, Her Royal Highness, Kris Longknife brought the gavel down for one firm knock. “You crewmen have a very effective defense counsel. What you did was stupid and put not only your own lives, but the lives of every man woman and child in human space at risk, not to consider the risk you brought to your shipmates back on Alwa who were waiting for the cargo you did not bring in.”

Kris eyed the crew before her. They were a pretty hangdog bunch. She’d made her point.

“Gunny, take these men to the brig. They will stay there until we return to Alwa. There, they will be turned over to colonial authorities and assigned to jobs that will not bring them back to space for the duration of the state of emergency.”

When Kris said “turned over to colonial authorities,” a wave of panic went through the crew, but the prospect of dirtside jobs for the rest of their life seemed preferable to other outcomes.

Gunny growled orders, and Marines began moving them off the drop bay.

That left Sampson to face the court alone.

“You have no excuse for your actions,” Taussig growled.

“That Longknife woman is nothing but a jumped-up corvette captain,” Sampson snapped. “She ran away when she faced those bastards. She can’t judge me for doing what she did. She . . .”

“Gunny, shut her up,” Taussig growled.

Gunny Sergeant Brown went to stand beside the defendant.

One look at the Gunny’s face, and she shut up.

“Wrong defense,” Penny said with a sigh.

“I was in the retrograde movement with Vice Admiral Longknife,” Taussig began. “We ran because there was nothing else to do, and the human race had to know what had happened on the other side of the galaxy. I put my ship between the aliens and Princess Longknife so she could get The Word back. And when she did, she came back for me and my crew. She had to fight an alien ship that outweighed her ten to one, but she did save us.”

“I would have come back,” Sampson snarled when Taussig paused for air. “I would have come back with a court-martial board to try that whore.”

“No, Gunny,” Kris said. He looked ready to slug the defendant in the mouth.

“Ma’am,” he said.

“I may need to amend my charges against you, Miss,” Taussig said. “Actions unbecoming and prejudicial to the service seem more and more appropriate.”

Sampson didn’t wait for Captain Taussig to pause for a breath before launching into a torrent of curses and invectives. Even when Kris hammered her gavel for silence, she raved on.

“Gunny, remove the prisoner. See that she is put in a cell separate from the others. Even they don’t deserve this kind of grief. And no, Gunny, I don’t want to see a mark on her.”

“Ma’am,” was a bit ambiguous. Kris wasn’t sure whether Gunny felt that her implied order was uncalled for, or out of order, all things considered.

It took two strong Marines to usher Sampson from the drop bay.

“That didn’t go as planned,” Kris said, standing.

“It never does, Kris,” Penny said, joining her. “That’s why my old man said Justice was blind.”

“Yes,” Kris said, still not sure she like the way her friend had jobbed her.

“What is it with that gal,” Taussig said, joining the main table.

“Nelly, the last time I had a run-in with Sampson, I ordered a full checkup on her before she left the brig. Did a doctor look her over?”

“Yes, Kris, but, if I may point out, the kind of exam that the doctor could do in the brig and the kind of exams that Dr. Meade did with the aliens have a level of magnitude in difference.”

“Good point, Nelly. Please ask Dr. Meade to do a full workup, to include anything she can do to look into that woman’s brain. There’s got to be a screw loose.”

“A bucket of screws,” Jack growled.

“Now, with that distasteful matter done, Captain Taussig, you were too sick last time to share my table. Cookie has found a stash of steaks. Could I interest you in one with all the trimmings?”

“I think you could. I understand congratulations are in order. Jack, you lucky dog you.”

“I’ll woof to that,” Jack said, and they adjourned to the wardroom.

The
steaks were good, and it gave Kris a chance to lay a proposal before Captain Taussig.

“Captain, there was no way that I could allow Sampson and a mutinous crew to take the
Sisu
back to human space. However, there is the matter of you and your crew’s survivor leave. We’re a good bit of the way across the galaxy. Would you like to take your ship the rest of the way?”

“Excuse me if I’m missing something, but why me and not them?” he said around a nice rare piece of dead cow.

“I can keep these aliens across the system off your tail,” Kris said. “Turnabout being fair play.”

“That would be much obliged,” he admitted.

“But if you did get caught, I trust you would blow the reactor and give them nothing.”

Phil Taussig leaned back in his chair. “We didn’t blow the reactors last time because there was hardly anything left to blow. We did destroy our computers. I don’t know if you noticed that.”

“I figured you did, but I didn’t have time to check it out,” Kris admitted.

“Yes, if we got caught, I’d blow the reactors. After seeing that house of horror, there is no way I want my head or body in their trophy room.”

“Do you want to go? If you do, I’ll send along a full report of what we found.”

“Do you think that would make any difference in the way your great-grandfather, my king, is building ships?”

“I can’t say that it would. I can’t say that it wouldn’t,” Kris admitted.

“So, it boils down to the original question. Do I and mine want to take this chance to get off the tip of the spear and back someplace that might or might not be safer?”

“Yes.”

“No,” he said right back.

“No?”

“No. No way. No how, Kris. Admiral. Viceroy, whomever I’m talking to. We’re out here, and we’ll stay out here, if you don’t mind.”

“I’m always glad to have fighting skippers,” Kris admitted.

“Kris, I have a message from Dr. Meade to you,” Nelly said.

“What does she have to say?”

“The examination Lieutenant Commander Sampson had earlier was very cursory. She’s just completed a full body scan, and the woman has a cancerous brain tumor. It’s a rapidly growing one, and she’s glad she managed to catch it right now. In another week or two, it would have been inoperable.”

“You may have just saved that woman’s life,” Penny said.

Kris considered that for a long moment. “I wish I could say that I felt better about that,” she finally admitted.

“I’ll wait to see how she acts when the tumor’s gone,” Taussig said. “There are bad actors, then there are people with an excuse for acting bad.”

They ate in silence for a while on that thought.

“Kris, would you like an update on the new alien planet?”

“Thank you, Nelly,” Kris said, then explained to the others at the table with her, “I’ve had her hold reports on the new aliens until we settled this problem with Sampson. I take it that the nasty aliens are still staying put, Nelly?”

“If they so much as budge, you will hear, even if you and Jack are . . .”

“Thank you, Nelly,” Kris interrupted.

“You’re welcome, Kris.”

Around the table, Penny was in a coughing fit. “Sorry, I was drinking when Nelly started giving way too much information.”

The recent defense counsel finished by taking a long drink of water.

“You may report now, Nelly,” Kris said, when Penny was settled and the rest were no longer looking at her and Jack in that most familiar way.

“We flung off a probe before we finished braking. It will use the fifth planet to brake before going into orbit around the fourth. The boffins are trying to use as much natural slowing as they can to avoid any bright lights. They suspect this civilization has enough technology to notice a sudden bright light in the sky.”

“I wonder what they’ll make of a fight between us and the bug-eyed monsters?” Taussig asked no one.

Nelly had mastered the rhetorical question. She let it go.

“The probe is not there yet, but the fourth planet is throwing off enough electronic media for us to do a major analysis of them without putting anything on the ground. There are several wars raging right now. It appears that the planet is just coming out of a colonial period. Do I need to explain what that is?”

“No, Nelly,” Kris said. “We all know what it means when folks one place think they should tell folks some other place how to run their lives.”

“The wars right now are being waged using conventional weapons, but, Kris, these people have fissionable atomics for power and hydrogen-enriched atomics for weapons.”

“Oh, so our bug-eyed monsters do indeed have a hot one on their hands,” Jack said, with a chuckle.

“And they have chemical weapons, too,” Nelly added. “Several of the larger armies have access to nerve gas and have fighting uniforms designed to handle the problem of it on the battlefield.”

“This just gets better and better,” Penny said. “Who are these people?”

“From the looks of them, we think they evolved from something more like an Earth feline. They have peaked ears, furry faces, and several still have tails.”

“The aliens found themselves a batch of tigers,” Taussig said. “And they sound like they’re at the technological level of the late twentieth century. Back at the Academy, I took a course on that century. It was such a train wreck that I couldn’t turn away from it. Some of our best alien-invasion literature dates back to that time. They spent a lot of their time scared, and space aliens were about the scariest thing around. That and zombies.”

“Zombies?” Kris said.

“Living-dead things,” Taussig said, “And don’t ask me how they square that circle.”

“Living dead,” Kris repeated.

“I have pictures,” Nelly said.

“Don’t,” came from everyone at the table.

“Now, about our feline aliens,” Kris said, “who appear to be armed to the teeth?”

“They are divided up into a hundred and fifty-seven different competing districts. Some much larger than the others. Some much more powerful than the others. Three appear to be dominant. Two share a similar language and call their planet Sasquan,” Nelly said.

“Well, if they are as combative as you say,” Jack asked, “why haven’t the larger ones taken over the smaller ones?”

“Some of the smaller ones can be quite nasty if you invade their territory. Do I need to explain guerrilla warfare?” Nelly asked.

“Oh, good Lord,” Penny said. “They’ve got that going on down there? Even when you win a war, you don’t win it. It never ends until you finally get smart and go home.”

“Something like that.”

“So let me sum it up,” Kris said. “Our big, bad, bug-eyed monsters have stumbled upon a really nasty bunch of cats that might just give them the fight of their life and not quit even when they’re beaten. I can’t think of a better future for them.”

“You all notice they are not tackling them,” Nelly said.

“I have one question that has been bothering me,” Taussig said, putting down his fork. “How come the BEMs are here? This is a long way from where we whipped their mother ship. How’d they get here?”

“Nelly, that sounds like a very interesting question,” Kris said.

“I already ran the necessary jumps, Kris, and I don’t much care for what they show. I was waiting for a better time to ruin your dinner.”

“Good turn of phrase, Nelly. My dinner is already ruined, I think. Finish it up.”

“If the defeated aliens cut across the Alwa System at one-gee acceleration, they would have hit our Jump Point Beta at about the right speed for a long jump, assuming they used at least ten RPMs at the jump and goosed it up to two gees.”

“I don’t like where this is going,” Jack said.

Penny grimaced. “We know where it’s going. Right here.”

Nelly waited for the chatter to die down, then went on. “They took four slower jumps to duplicate our one high-speed jump, but if they accelerated through two of them and began decelerating, they would have ended up here.”

“So the aliens know how to take long jumps?” Kris said.

“Yes, Kris. Apparently they don’t risk them with their mother ship, but the warships can do them.”

Captain Taussig was shaking his head. “There goes your twelve-jump-point-out warning system,” he said. “They can jump directly into Alwa from way out.”

“But,” Nelly quickly put in, “they will be coming in at several hundred thousand kilometers an hour. They would need the entire system to slow down, and maybe then some. They would have no fighting capability in that situation.”

“Maybe they wouldn’t want any,” Kris said. “Back in the Unity War, something like those almost wiped out Wardhaven. They were going to use relativity bullets. Huge iron slugs traveling at .05 or so percent of the speed of light can make a hell of a mess when they hit.”

“Like the bullets that hit the insectoid planet one out from the aliens’ home world?” Penny said.

“Exactly. Let’s say those speedsters they’ve got get themselves up to a really high velocity and don’t try to slow down before they hit Alwa. Or any human or Iteeche planet. Even this one.”

“I love you, Kris Longknife,” Jack said, “but you can come up with some of the most horrific ideas.”

“I didn’t come up with this one. It’s in our history books.”

“Jack, you’ve got to do something about her bookshelf,” Phil Taussig said.

“You try getting this woman to do anything she doesn’t want to do,” was Jack’s quick answer.

That got him nods of understanding.

“Getting back to our alien situation, and not all about me for a moment,” Kris said, “do all the aliens have this kind of knowledge, or just the one we scared into running away from us as far and as fast as they could?”

“She may have a point there,” Penny said. “They were running scared. Not just from us. Who knows what was coming down on them for not going with the rest and hunting up a horde that would take them in. Conflict management and resolution doesn’t strike me as their strong suit.”

“No, conflict avoidance seems to be their preferred way of living,” Kris agreed.

“And we know that the last time we passed Alwa,” Jack said, “it was still there.”

“We also know that the critters across the system from us haven’t rocked the critters down system from us.”

“Smart move. I wouldn’t piss off those kitties until I was real sure I could take them.”

“Does anyone wonder if there’s another mother ship headed this way to take out the, what do they call themselves, Sasquans?” Penny asked.

“At least in two of their zones,” Nelly said, answering one question.

“That is a possibility,” Kris admitted to the other question, “but they are a long way from their usual stomping grounds. There’s another thing. I could be wrong, but bragging rights for wiping out a planet seemed to be a big thing. Nelly, get Jacques on the line.”

“You called, Kris?”

“Do the alien ships claim bragging rights for the planets they kill?”

“Most definitely. They count the number they’ve bagged, like notches on their belt. There was a notation, not in stone, but in pigment, that we managed to read bragging that one ship had five and another ship only had four. By the way, those two weren’t even the high scorers. One had nine, but I think it may be the original ship, and it didn’t seem to need to brag.”

“In your opinion, if the aliens across the system from us didn’t join another horde, what are the chances they’d call in another ship to handle this planet?”

“Pretty low. No guarantee I’d be right. Understanding these aliens is a study in progress, and likely to be for a long time, assuming we don’t kill each other first.”

“I understand where you’re coming from, Professor. Thank you for your informed opinion,” Kris said, and rang off.

“Which leaves me,” Kris said, “with one big problem. Do we tiptoe out of this system and mark it on our map for later examination, or do we do something now?”

The table got very quiet.

“Thank you all very much,” Kris said. “Phil, can the
Hornet
do without you for a bit?”

“Hey, I’m just the captain. If we’re just swinging around the anchor here, she’s probably better off without me.”

“Have I told you how well you lie?” Kris said.

“My family’s been Navy for five hundred years or more, Admiral, of course we tell good sea stories. Or space stories.”

“I think they’re still sea stories,” Jack said. “So the rest of us can say, ‘Oh, I see,’ as you pull our legs.”

“Whatever works.”

“Nelly, get my key staff, and that includes Professor Labao as well as Amanda and Jacques. If I’m going to put my nose into a hornet’s nest, I want the most informed guesses I can get beforehand.”

“Hornets! I know a lot about hornets!” the skipper of the last two
Hornets
said through a grin.

They adjourned to Kris’s day cabin.