An elevator appeared on the side of the embassy and quickly whisked her to her quarters. No doubt, she faced more safety measures as she undressed tonight.
Kris hoped matters would go quickly. She was very tired.
9
Jack was waiting for her in her quarters as the elevator door opened. Behind him were both of her bat women, Alice and Jane. However, it was the figures a few steps farther back that told Kris how her night would go.
There was the fleet surgeon as well as a chief that Kris didn't recognize, but he held a large kit at his side. Likely he was her chemical honcho. Behind them were three people in full environmental suits, complete with their own air supply. They also carried several large cases.
Kris held her hands up. "Jack, if someone thinks I'm dangerous, all you not in an E suit step back and let's go a round or five with them. Okay?"
Jack backed up as Kris carefully strolled to the center of her day quarters.
"Nelly, do we have a tight filter on this room's vents?"
"Yes, Kris. We know the molecular size of the poison and have adjusted the filters for this room. The poison is similar to the puffer fish from old Earth. No doubt, the intent was for the Emperor to die and you to be held responsible for serving bad fish."
"That sounds like something the rebels might pull," Kris admitted.
Meanwhile, one of the people in an E-suit was fitting a plastic bag over the shoulder, sleeve, and chest of Kris's dinner jacket. A moment later, one associate cut the jacket off Kris. It slid off her and right into the plastic sack waiting for it. The hazmat tech quickly sealed the cut garment away.
Once the jacket was sealed in and the bag put aside, they repeated the process, cutting Kris's silk shirt off her body. That left her nearly fully dressed most places, but down to her spidersilk under armor around her right side.
"Can we cut that body stocking off?" a filtered voice asked.
"They haven't invented a pair of scissors that can cut this stuff," Kris replied. "Someone has to peel me out of the rest of this monkey suit."
A patch went over the place where the armor had stopped the dart. Then one of the three in an E-suit tried to undress Kris. Their thick gloves were never intended to support fine motor skills.
Next, one of the heavily protected safety folks produced a small and well-protected hand circular saw. He placed it carefully under the spidersilk at Kris's neck and turned it on. Diamond dust flew from the blade, but the spidersilk showed not a scratch.
More pressure on the neckline only produced a screech from the saw and the engine seized up.
"That saw can cut anything!" its startled wielder remarked.
"Not processed spidersilk," Kris said. She felt where the saw had tried to make a cut. "You also activated the second layer of armor. I don't know of anything that has managed to chew its way through both."
Without being summoned, Alice and Jane stepped forward and began to strip or cut Kris out of her formal dinner dress uniform. While they worked, Kris did her best to stand still as a statue.
She spent the time thinking through how she could get out of this tight body armor without doing her usual wiggle and waggle. She not only had too much of an audience at the moment, but the more she moved, the more likely poison was to flake off into the air of her quarters. In theory, the patch would hold in the poison.
Once Kris's shoulder was clear, the environmental people pulled a plastic over-sleeve up her arm and sealed it to her shoulder
The moment of truth came finally. Kris was down to bare feet and one body stocking. Very slowly, so as not to activate the armor, Alice and Jane began to peel Kris out of her armor. As usual, they began from the top. This time, though, Kris held as still as she could, wiggling as little as possible.
They started with her left sleeve and soon had her out of it. The right sleeve proved to be a sticking point. The plastic over-sleeve's seal made her shoulder too rigid to work with. The hazmat team gave up and removed the bag on Kris's arm.
With extra care by both Kris and her two body servants, the spidersilk began to slide off Kris. That is, right up until they hit the patch; it was too rigid.
"That's gonna have to come off," Alice said.
That led to more debate about safety that ended with the fleet surgeon providing Alice with medical gloves that she wore as she removed the patch. Then gloves, patch, and all went into its very own containment bag.
The Hazmat people wanted to paint the spot where the dart had hit, but no one at this point was very sure exactly where that was.
"Get me out of this thing," Kris grumbled. "I really need to pee."
Three minutes later, Kris was out of her body armor and headed for the head. She walked with Jack's arms around her. She closed out the noise from behind her and concentrated on feeling Jack's warmth.
In the head, Nelly was already filling a bathtub large enough for two. Jack shucked out of his dress uniform while Kris relaxed on the toilet for as long as she could remember. Done, she joined Jack in the tub.
"Do you want the jets on?" Nelly asked.
"Not now. Not just yet. Jack, please hold me."
"That's what I'm here for."
They lay, side by side in the water, his arms around her, her head rested on his strong chest. He stroked her back, helping her to calm. She felt the vibration, likely of her soul, slowly calm, suppressed by Jack's gentle touch.
Finally, she let out a deep breath.
"You better?" Jack asked.
"Much better," Kris admitted with a sigh.
"It was a crazy night," Jack commiserated.
Again, Kris let out a deep sigh. "Who would have thought the young Emperor would slip the leash of his guards and escape to my party?"
"Yeah."
"I was worried enough that I'd have another flop on my hands," Kris said, letting the words rush out of her. "You could have blown me over with a feather when we got hit with the first wave of lordlings. And then the clan chiefs!"
Kris paused to catch her breath and heave another deep sigh.
"When the Abba clan chief turned my lone greeting post into a receiving line, you could have blown me over with a feather. Then the Quo clan chief elbowed his way between me and the other clan chief. I felt fantastic. I haven't felt that good since I first got asked to dance."
"You never told me about that," Jack said, nuzzling that delicious spot on her neck.
"It wasn't much really. I found out later that the boy had done it to win a bet. Did he dare dance with the Prime Minister's daughter? You know, that kind of thing."
"I wish I'd been on your Secret Service detail. I would have boxed his ears back," Jack muttered into her ear.
"You would not have. Why do you think the boys were so scared of approaching me? What with the hulking big guys in dark glasses lurking around the gym, it's amazing that any boy worked up the courage."
"Are you feeling better?" Jack asked.
"Much better. Nelly, turn on the jets."
Water jets began to massage Kris and Jack’s back and shoulders. Two other jets did wonderful things for her tired feet. Nelly kept the jets moving up and down, then sideways, taking full advantage of the Smart Metal™ to reach exactly where Kris needed it.
Maybe the Iteeche had it right. It was magic metal, at least in Nelly's capable, ah, hands?
10
Rank does indeed have a few privileges. Kris and Jack slept in and barely made it to the final seating for breakfast.
Gramma and Grampa Trouble had gotten the kids off to school. They had wisely chosen to absent themselves from last night's festivities. Human and Iteeche relations needed to look to a bright future. They didn't need ghosts - even if they were legendary - at the feast.
When Kris did get to work, there was a bill for the last night's food and drink. Even for a Longknife, there were a lot of zeros and commas at the bottom of the annotated bill.
"Problem?" Jack asked.
"No. I’m just glad I've got all th
ose captured rebel battlecruisers. I'm going to have to sell one of them to the Imperium to pay this bill."
"You're kidding."
"Nope, look at this. I knew we were going lavish on the food and drink, but there were a lot of troops in the honor guards and even more slaves carrying those fancy palanquins around."
"I can't really begrudge what the slaves got," Jack said.
"Me either. I doubt if I'll get anything back from giving them a good evening. They are about as powerless as they come. Maybe it will just add a drop of good karma to my tiny bucket. The bad karma needs an eighteen-wheeler tanker truck to hold all that."
"That's strange, Admiral. I would have reversed those two."
"Sometimes I really like the way you see me, Jack. Now, the EMs, NCOs and JOs ate us out of a good chunk of a battlecruiser."
"The chiefs, lords, lordlings, and hangers-on didn't go light on the chow, either."
"The Emperor told me that he wished I'd have these parties more often. If we're gonna do that, I've got to go capture another rebel fleet."
"You've got plenty of prize ships," Jack pointed out. "Hundreds at last count."
"Yeah, but I may need them if we can figure out where the rebels are and bring their fleet to battle."
"They have been kind of running away from you of late," Jack admitted.
Buried among all the other bills was an order to resupply the battle squadron that had brought her here. They'd been eating from day-to-day, never ordering more than two or three days' worth of food at the most. Admiral Tong wanted to take on a full month's worth of supplies.
"Does he know something we don't?" Jack asked.
"Would you want your fleet tied to such a short string? We could end up with demonstrators blockading us in the embassy again," Kris pointed out.
"It would be kind of hard now that we've got an entire district to call our own, with it extending to say, seven or eight blocks on any side."
"Yeah," Kris admitted, but she signed the requisition anyway. At least this money would come out of the accounts for the Combined Fleets, not her Human embassy purse.
Below that were three more requisitions. One for reaction mass, one for fuel for the reactors and a last one for spare parts for the lasers and any other ship parts that were not Smart Metal™.
Jack looked at them over her shoulder. "Maybe he does know something we don't."
"He hasn't told me," Kris said. "Nelly, get me Admiral Tong."
"Yes, My Most Eminent Admiral," the Iteeche said a moment later from Kris's neck.
"Admiral, I'm looking at the recent requisitions you just sent in to outfit the fleet and resupply it. Do you know something I don't?"
"No, ma'am. But I would like to be ready if matters change. I have served around you long enough to know that this has been the quietest stretch since you took command."
"You are learning what it's like to serve with one of those Longknifes."
"Yes, My Most Eminent of Admirals. Something is bound to happen soon."
"I, for one, hope you are wrong," Kris said.
"It would not break my heart if I was."
Kris signed off and signed the requisitions. Kris found that she was adopting some Iteeche ways. Where anyone at Wardhaven Navy headquarters would text, email, or fax a packet to someone down the hall or on the next floor, she was now using Iteeche runners for priority mail. It moved faster than the interoffice mail and met with approval from the receiving Iteeche officers.
When in Rome, it's best to grow a Roman nose.
11
Kris continued to conn her desk until two squealing short people invaded her space.
"Mother!" Ruth leaned her elbows onto Kris's desk then bent her arms and put her chin onto her cupped hands, "Remember? We're having a beach party today!"
"Today?" Kris said, looking puzzled. "I thought it was yesterday and nobody came."
"Mommy," Johnnie said in a voice too high pitched, "It's today! It's today! It's today!" He, too, had rested his elbows on her desk, the spitting image of his sister, if a bit too short to pull it all off just right. However, the excitement took him as it can only take a five-year-old, and he jumped up and down with each exclamation.
"Okay, okay," Kris said, standing, "maybe it is today. Shall we go see if they'll let us onto the palace grounds?"
"They’ll just have to. The Emperor promised," Johnnie insisted.
"The Emperor's Guard general said we could. There's a big difference between a general and an Emperor," Kris said as her two children towed her out of her day quarters and toward the elevator. Abby was holding the door. Cara and a half-dozen other kids, some of which were Abby's, some were borrowed, raced after each other, shrieking with joy.
It was going to be a noisy afternoon.
Jack joined Kris, and Johnnie grabbed his hands and made to pull his father along faster. Neither Kris nor Jack could fail to laugh at the sheer joy surrounding them.
The elevator took them down to the fiftieth floor where more parents and kids were waiting for them. There were also some men and women with no kids attached and eyes that never stopped roving.
Kris had gotten a call from General Konga earlier in the morning. He had matched each of his Guardsmen with one of Kris's Marines. The two were making a good pair. "Can you send me over another ten so I can pair up all fifty of my lookouts?"
"I'll have them on their way, General."
The kids and parents would be well protected. Kris wondered if the protection was just for them. Might there be one more person at the beach party?
Once everyone agreed that the partiers were all present, Kris led them across the sky bridge to Iteeche Main Navy then down another elevator ride to the bottom. A long line of happy kids began to hike to the pond by walking across streets and through foyers of apartment buildings.
This was a risk that Kris chose to take. There was always a chance that the more exposed they were, the more chances someone had to take a shot at them. However, this was an embassy, the first Human embassy to the Iteeche Empire. The Iteeche needed to see Humans. They needed to become familiar with having Humans around them.
Kris knew she was risking children. Her own children! Still, she was willing to take that risk to close the chasm between the two former warring races. She'd done everything she could to reduce the risk. The only safer thing she could have done was move the kids to the Imperial palace in armored cars.
That was something she refused to do.
The excitement was contagious. Iteeche younglings ended up walking and skipping alongside the Human youth. Until you've seen a half-grown Iteeche skip along on four legs, you have no idea what coordination is.
The kids quickly raised the question, could their new Iteeche friends join them at the party? Kris had considered this as a low possibility, but still a possibility. Ruth and Johnnie, however, latched on to kids their own age and begged for them to be allowed to play with them.
Kris paused her parade just short of the Imperial Guard Barrack apartments. "They can come if their mommy or daddy says they can come. Okay?"
That got high pitched squeals.
"But their mommy or daddy has to come with them."
Many of the Iteeche kids had a little trouble understanding the concept of "Mommy or Daddy," but they raced off and over the next few minutes, Iteeche sailors, Marines, and Guardsmen were dragged out by children that really were telling the truth.
There was a lot of culture shock in the courtyard of those apartments, but soon the beach party had twice as many kids celebrating the bright sun and blue sky.
General Konga appeared at Kris's elbow.
"More of your sedition?"
"Please. I had nothing to do with this. This is kid-to-kid diplomacy. Besides, kids having fun want more kids to have fun. Isn't that universal?"
"Would you believe that this is the first beach party this planet has ever known?"
"But you have a lake with a sandy beach," Kris answered.
&nbs
p; "Yes. For poetry competitions by adults," the general said. "If your kids are still laughing as they enter the Palace Precincts, that may be the first laughter there in ten thousand years."
"Will you excuse me if I say then that the palace grounds need some laughter?"
"I have been thinking on that since I first offered you the opportunity to hold your beach party. Tell me, did you expect that your youth would sweep in to include our younglings?"
Kris shook her head. "I thought your younglings were still housed at the Palace of Learning?"
"Um," the general said. "Strange that. Being a Chooser is a major honor. After watching you humans and your kids, a lot of our people and their companions wanted to take a try at having kids in their quarters. I now have two. They'll be along shortly with my companion. It's an . . . experience."
"I would imagine so," Kris admitted. "You've got kids around your homes and my kids want to play with them. That's the way of it in Human space. If I'm honest, my kids do a lot to keep me human. They drive me insane," Kris added through a wide grin directed at her two kids, "but they keep me human."
"And now we will see what they do for us," the Iteeche general said.
"Yes, let us see what happens today at the lake . . . and through the years to come."
The parade was now a mixed bag of Human adults and kids, as well as Iteeche adults and kids. When the parade came out of the Guard quarters, they found Iteeche and Marines MPs ready to direct them as well as more MPs to act as road guards. Each Iteeche Guardsman was paired with a Human Marine.
This was likely the most combined troop movement in the long history of either the Iteeche Empire or the Human race.
Traffic stopped to let them pass. Drivers gawked at the strange sight of young and old, Iteeche and Human. There was an Iteeche there taking pictures, while another filmed the entire thing. Kris pointed that out to the general.
"Ah, yes. We do not have anything like your media. However, in between songs, our TV stations have been known to carry matters of interest to all proper thinking Iteeche. The Emperor commissioning a new ship, a clan lord opening a new apartment complex. This or that."
Kris Longknife Stalwart Page 7
