The space elevators at each station would be very busy most of the morning moving troops down and returning with Longnae troops to fill the troopships back up. Hopefully, the only problems would be traffic jams at the dirtside stations.
Kris and Jack were hardly back from breakfast when Nelly informed them that the new Planetary Overlord for Longnae 4 demanded they visit him in his suite aboard the Golden Emperor of the Stars.
"Tell him we can see him at ten in my flag quarters," Kris snapped back.
"He insists you go to him," Nelly said a moment later. "He is, he reminds you, a Planetary Overlord and Clan Chief."
"How's his blood pressure holding up?" Jack asked.
"If Kris aims to give him a stroke, I'd say he's borderline already."
"Nelly, remind the jerk that I am the admiral that made him overlord of a planet. If he doesn't like matters, I have another Planetary Overlord in waiting on this station. I'll appoint him overlord for this planet."
Nelly was a bit delayed in passing along the answer to Kris's blunt statement. "Sorry for the delay, but it took a bit of time for his staff to talk him down from ordering the soldiers on the troop ships docked here to march over and take you captive."
"You're kidding." Jack said.
"Not a bit."
"We seem to have ourselves a two-bit dictator here," Kris mused. "Maybe I should find someone to take his place."
"Well, Kris, he now says he will be here for the ten o'clock meeting."
"With a division of soldiers to lock me in my own brig?" Kris said.
"I will monitor the net to let you know if he tries any such thing."
"Good, Nelly. Jack, I still feel the need for a long soak in a nice warm tub. Will you join me?"
"Don't you have some paperwork to sign? Maybe even read."
"Not that I want to."
"How about planning what we do next?" he asked.
"I can do that in the tub."
"Oh. So, you don't want me to bother you."
"I'm sure I can think while you bother me."
"Don't be so sure."
Despite Jack joining her in the tub, both of them were ready an hour later in full dress uniforms, sporting enough medals to sink a small battleship. Kris did not, however, have Nelly bother with remaking the ship into an Imperial bordello. The Princess Royal had fought hard to get this bozo his planet. He should know the price paid.
As it turned out, Nelly had her own idea of what Kris's flag should look like. She noticed as she strode onto the quarterdeck to greet the pain in the neck that the quarterdeck showed warped plates on the deck, bulkheads and overhead. Their "paint" was also scorched and flaking.
Kris greeted the future Planetary Overlord for Longnae 4 with the proper bland political smile she'd learned at her father's knee.
As they turned toward her quarters, the new Overlord glanced around. "Can't your computer clean up your ship? This looks disgusting. Totally inappropriate for a meeting with a Planetary Overlord."
"Sorry, Clan Chief," Kris said, using his present title rather than his not quite yet title. "My flagship was the center of attention for a major portion of the rebel fleet. Over fifteen thousand tons of her hull were burned away. We're not sure that part of the ship's Smart Metal wasn't overstressed by the heat and fear that it may have lost part of its programming. We don't want to order it to move and discover that it can't hold together."
"Oh," the civilian glanced around. "Is it safe to be on this ship?" he whispered, assuming this secret was for high clan ears only.
"That is why we aren't changing the ship around. To keep it safe."
"Good. Very good," he said, then stumbled over the uneven deck.
Kris offered him a hand as she ushered him into her day quarters. They now looked like they'd been through a hot fire. Even the wood of the conference table they sat at was charred around the edges.
After they sat, Kris asked, "Would you like coffee, tea, or hot chocolate?"
"Hot chocolate," the Clan Chief answered.
A mess steward wheeled a cart over from the wall to Kris's elbow and she served him hot chocolate, then added a dollop of rum to spice it up as he was wont to have it. She also offered him a bowl of fresh lollarm which she'd ordered up from the planet this morning.
"Very good," he said as he crushed the first one between his teeth. He swallowed the small crustacean, shell and all.
"It's from Landnae 4. I think you will find plenty of good food waiting for you in the Overlord's palace."
"Yes. How soon will my enthronement take place? How many rebel lords and lordlings will make a Most Sincere and Very Complete Apology to Me as the Embodiment of the Emperor?"
Kris opened her mouth, but the Clan Chief rushed on past his question.
"I only brought twenty Red-robed Ones. However, we can have two installments. There are a lot of people on my new staff who have bones to pick with some of the clans running this place. Some even by name. We made a game of deciding who got to choose someone. For a thousand gold gildons you got to put a name into the pot. I'll draw the names today at a grand banquet with my senior lords and lordlings. I'll definitely draw forty names. Maybe sixty."
No doubt if they got drunk enough, he'd just empty the bucket. Kris wondered who got to keep all the gold gildons the lottery brought in.
She let the fool run down. It took him a while to notice that neither Kris nor Jack were joining in his glee at the fulfillment of so many vendettas for so many enemies.
"Maybe I'll only draw twenty," he said, winding down like a child's toy with a dying battery.
"There will be no executions of the rebel administration on Longnae 4," Kris said.
"And why not?" the future overlord demanded.
"Because the Emperor has given me the power to award amnesties to officials who surrender their planets. The overlord surrendered this planet. I have given him and all those under him a pardon. They will be returning to the capital where their loyal clan chiefs will determine their punishment before assigning them to less prestigious jobs."
The new Planetary Overlord didn't look at all happy for the chance at long life that his predecessor now had.
"You are too easy on the traitors. Look, your ship bears damage from the resistance of the rebel fleet. Certainly, these rebels deserve no such mercy."
"The rebel fleet did not fight under the command of this Planetary Overlord," Kris shot back, "any more than my fleet fights for you. They were from the combined rebel fleets as I command the Imperial Combined Fleet."
The new overlord opened his beak, but Kris cut him off. "Positions will be exchanged on a one-for-one basis. As one administrator exits the ferry, his replacement may board the ferry for the trip down. Do you understand?"
"An admiral cannot command a Planetary Overlord and Clan Chief with the brazen arrogance you do. You promised me a system to rule over. Now you give me half a system. I demand what my clan ships fought for."
"You mean half a flotilla out of six thousand battlecruisers?"
The not-yet and maybe-never overlord blanched and said nothing.
"If you want, we have another Planetary Overlord waiting on another Battleship of State. He's Lista, the one that was promoted when Sam screwed up at the Balan system and earned a ride in my brig. If you don't want Landnae 4, I can give this planet to him and give you the next one we capture."
"What next one?" The whiner jumped at that thought.
"I told everyone I planned on capturing three planetary systems from the rebels. I still haven't decided which system to invade next."
"Will it have two planets?" he demanded.
"I don't know. It might. It might not. I'm not sure we have the forces to tackle another assault. I've got to talk to my admirals and find out the status of my fleet."
Kris had never seen such a sneer on the face of an Iteeche. "I'll take the planet below us," he snapped.
"We have such words of wisdom. 'The bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
'," Kris said.
"Yeah. Are we done here?"
"If you have nothing else to discuss with me."
"I don't."
"Then I will see you when next we come this way. Your dockyards are yielding eighty battlecruisers a month. I expect you'll continue to deliver them to the Combined Fleets."
"Maybe I'll build my own Clan fleet."
"I wouldn't suggest it," Kris said, softly.
"Or what?" he half-shouted back.
"I just would not suggest it."
Kris left it at that, and the new Planetary Overlord stomped straight from the Princess Royal to meet his retinue at the ferry station. They commandeered seats on the next ferry to drop and the station air suddenly became less oppressive.
Kris and Jack went off to the wardroom for lunch. They definitely needed to get that bad taste out of their mouths.
82
That afternoon, Kris scheduled a conference to determine what her fleet could do next. Soon, she, Jack, and Megan were seated around her conference table in her day quarters with Admirals Tong and Kitano. Her quarters no longer looked scorched and burned, but they were a tad smaller.
She left it to Admiral Tong to report the status of the fleet.
"We finished this battle with nearly 500 loyal Iteeche battlecruisers that were battle worthy. A few of those may need a few days to mend the damage. Several hundred more will require some serious yard time and a good dose of your magic metal to bring them up to battle readiness."
He paused for a moment to consult his commlink. "A bit over seven thousand rebel battlecruisers surrendered in or are close enough to fighting condition. They have docked and should be combat ready in a week, two at most. Another thousand or so will need serious yard time and magic metal to restore them to combat status. A thousand more are still headed for Longnae 8 and won't be here sooner than a month from now. Five hundred are too battle damaged. We'll have to write them off. Maybe we can convert them to fast attack transports for your army."
"Very good," Kris said. "Will you please pick out the best for my prize money? Assign them your best XO's who are ready for command. I may need some of them very soon."
"Of course, My Most Eminent Admiral," Tong replied.
"Admiral Kitano, what of my Human task fleet?"
"I'm down half a flotilla," she answered quickly. "Four battlecruisers were lost. Six more, including the Princess Royal, are too badly damaged to be brought up to battle ready condition. Sorry, Kris, but your flagship will have to be sent back to Human space. No doubt she'll be decommissioned. At best, her metal might be used to form two fast attack cargo ships. I wouldn't chance them as fast attack transports. They've got too much over-stressed metal in them for us to risk a large number of troops and personnel. I wouldn't trust my kids on them."
Kris glanced around at the four bulkheads of her day quarters, then the overhead. "No. I wouldn't either. Okay, six battlecruisers headed back to Wardhaven."
"Twelve, Kris. The other six are too badly damaged to be repaired this side of Human space."
"Okay, so you are down half a flotilla."
"Also, I've got a flotilla detached to bring the lost lambs from Longnae 8 back in."
"So, you're down to five and a half flotillas, huh?"
"Pretty much."
"How soon before you'd be ready to sail?" Kris asked.
"As soon as I can resupply, I'll be ready, but . . ."
Kris cut her off. "The ships with Human provisions will be coming in with the army cargo ships later today. Good. Admirals, I'd like to sail a mixed force of five thousand loyal and formerly rebel battlecruisers as well as the Human flotillas in no less than seven days."
"You intend to go ahead with the next invasion?" Kitano said, incredulously.
Tong looked like it took only years of carefully nurtured obedience to absurd orders kept his beak shut.
"Of course," Kris said, knowing that she was once again expecting agreement where no sane Human being would give it. "Admiral Tong reports that he has eleven thousand ships already docked that are available to sail. He has several thousand more that should become available over the next several weeks. More in the next month."
Kris paused but her subordinates did not respond with the expected acceptance of her logic. So, she continued.
"Admiral Tong, do you have a subordinate that you would trust with the defense of the Longnae System with the forces available?"
"I imagine so," still wasn't as enthusiastic as Kris was hoping for.
"Good. I'd prefer to have you in command of my fleet if we run into another fight."
"Are you expecting one?" Kitano asked.
"Not really. I think the rebellion will need some time to put together another major battle fleet. They'll also need time to figure out how to respond to this defeat. I didn't miss the four battlecruisers boosting for the jumps out of here. This time, they'll have a very accurate after-action report to examine. Our next fight is going to be a whole lot tougher."
"Really?" Tong asked.
"Either that or they won't figure out how we keep beating them and they'll throw in the towel," Kris said. "What do you think are the chances of that?"
Tong shook his head, which involved shaking his entire body. "Not bloody likely, as you Humans like to put it. No. Whatever they figure out, they'll be absolutely sure it solves their problems. They'll have to try at least one more roll of the die."
"I was afraid you'd say that. Still, I think we've stripped them of all available forces on this side of the Empire. We're leaving over seven thousand ships here. Five thousand should be enough to take on whatever is hanging around the Progsus system. Remember, there were only a thousand battlecruisers defending the Balan System. The rebels had to strip all the other systems to amass a defending force like they had here."
The two looked like they couldn't think of any argument to throw at Kris, though neither of them was happy with her proposed course of action.
She turned to Jack. "You going to lock me in my room?" she said, getting a smile from everyone but Admiral Tong.
The Humans knew that her Grandpa Trouble and King Ray, also a grandpa, had tricked Kris into commissioning Jack as a Marine and her subordinate security chief. Meanwhile, the old bastards had slipped in a new law authorizing the head of any security detail serving a member of the blood family to detain him or her if they proposed a course of action outrageously dangerous.
The law was clearly aimed at Kris. She was the only member of the royal blood on active duty in the Wardhaven military.
Jack had never actually locked up Kris, but it had been a close thing a few times.
Now Kris raised a questioning eyebrow at her husband and father of her children who still commanded her security detail.
"If you were anything less than a Grand Admiral," Jack said with a serious face, "I'd likely do just that. However, my beloved, you have pulled too many jackrabbits out of your cover for me to object to you rummaging around in it once again. Sorry, guys," he said, glancing at the two admirals around the table. "I'm not going to veto this lame brain Longknife crazy stunt."
"Thank you, hon. You say the nicest things," Kris said, then switched back to formal, iron-assed grand admiral. "Let me know if you come across anything that needs fixing before we sail."
"I most certainly will," Admiral Kitano said. She'd been with Kris through too many of crazy operations not to. Of course, she was still alive despite Kris's devotion to getting them all killed, so she really had nothing to complain about.
The meeting soon ended.
During the next week, Kris only had to make two trips down to the surface, neither of which she wanted to make.
The first was to have the new Planetary Overlord officially sign a commitment to the Emperor to provide 80 battlecruisers a month to the Imperial Combined Fleet. She had to hold his feet to the fire, but her officers now commanded the planetary ground forces and Kris made it clear to the new guy that those forces were Imperial force
s, not clan forces.
She said the same to the generals commanding the Army. They were delighted to receive the Imperial title and quickly had it sewn to the left arm of all their uniforms.
The second problem related to several hundred lordlings. There were more minor administrators on the planet than had been brought on the Battleships of State. The new overlord decided that meant these last lordlings had no one to be exchanged for.
He clapped them in some pretty dank jails. There was talk of formal apologies. Kris made the second trip down and returned with the lordlings.
They were delighted to see her and desperate for a bath. She sent them off to a Battleship of State and returned to her new flagship, the USS Stalwart, to issue the final orders to her fleet. They would sortie the next day.
Most of the fleet stayed at Longnae. They not only continued repairs, but also kept an eye on the new ten-penny dictator. Ready, Kris boosted her smaller fleet for the jump.
With her 5,000 battle cruisers were the fastest troopships in the invasion fleet. Any that couldn't maintain 3.0 gees Iteeche, got left behind. There were only 300,000 troops, but that was enough for Kris.
Also riding along with them as far as the jump out were the 12 crippled Human battlecruisers, 20 more fully combat ready Iteeche battle cruisers to round out a flotilla, and 3 Battleships of State. This force was headed for the Imperial Capital.
For the Human ships, Wardhaven was likely their next stop.
Kris intended to take the fleet through the jump at 49,000 kilometers an hour. That would put them on a fast course for the Progsus System.
As she was about to send the jump buoy through to warn all incoming traffic of a battle fleet coming through fast, a tiny currier ship jumped through instead.
"I have news for Imperial Admiral of the First Order of Steel Kris Longknife," the Iteeche captain of the messenger ship immediately announced.
This close to the jump, there was no time delay.
"I am Admiral Kris Longknife."
"My Most Eminent Admiral. I bear ill tidings," the Iteeche announced on the main screen, then hastily continued.
Kris Longknife Stalwart Page 47
