“How can I forget?” Kris muttered. “Thank you, Captain. Now, if you don’t mind, I have reports to catch up on. Running the fleet around on my string is fun, but I’ve got these two other hats, and I’ve got to wear them.”
Captain Drago withdrew.
“You know, Kris, you need a chief of staff,” Jack said.
“You applying for the job?”
“Nope. I got to drop down and do Marine stuff. The Alwans are now making hunting rifles and smokeless ammo. They’ve got a lot more power and range. They’re working night and day to arm the colonials and as many Alwans as want to fight. It’s surprising how many do. The hold of the elders is slipping away as the aliens get closer.”
“So what are you doing?”
“Ada has drawn up an evacuation plan. If the aliens get through you, we don’t intend to give them any big targets. And when they come dirtside, we’ll be waiting for them. My Marines are training the locals to hit something from four hundred meters.”
“Until they steal your air and water, or gas you, you’ll put up quite a fight.”
“Who knows, maybe you won’t be as dead as you could be. Maybe you can come charging back with a fleet to blast them out of orbit and save us poor settlers’ hides.”
“Happy thoughts. I thought you Marines were pessimists.”
“We just have to save our optimism for the right time.”
“Like when your back is against the wall, huh?”
“I’ll miss you while I’m dirtside.”
“I’ll miss you, too. And yes, I’ll try to stay safe and stay human.”
Jack gave her a kiss, then went on his way. She waited until the scent of him was pulled away by the air circulation, then dove into her reports. Good, the first 20-inch laser was up and holding a charge. It even worked when test fired.
While she was gone, the two last Star Line cargo ships had been respun into four smaller vessels and sent off to the asteroid belt. Big ships were nice, but when you needed them in four different places, smaller was better.
The miners had arrived at the second gas giant and were already digging into two moons. The third was a problem. It had a water ocean beneath a kilometer of ice. They were hunting for an island, but so far had found none. They doubted they would.
That gas giant might only have two battle moons.
So, of course, Beta Jump would be the one the raiders looked to use.
Kris sent a “well done” to all concerned with each project. It was nice to let them know the boss was watching and happy.
Kris went to sleep that night wishing Jack were in bed to distract her. She could not stop her mind from whirling from one project to another. She found herself staring at the overhead at 0200. She fell asleep only to find herself being chased by Vicky Peterwald and a dozen ugly bug-eyed monsters. Vicky insisted Kris dress for a ball. The monsters didn’t say anything but had huge teeth. Kris wasn’t about to let them get close.
At 0730 the next morning, Kris was awakened by a knock at her door. The aliens had made their move.
49
“The aliens have jumped from Hot Datum 2 to a system only three jumps out,” Captain Drago reported to Kris in her day cabin. She was still in her sleep shorts and tank top.
“How’d they go from five jumps out to only three?” Kris demanded.
“It was always possible,” Nelly answered. “We covered all the jump points in a system, but some of the jumps take you farther than others, even if you stay at half a gee and no spin. This was one of the long ones, and why I said we had to cover six jumps.”
“Thank you, Nelly. Are there any more surprise double jumps that I don’t know?”
“No, Kris. There were a few jumps outside the six that went to four. To get to the closer systems, you have to be in one we’re monitoring.”
“Okay, they’ve jumped closer, faster. What do the probes show?” Kris said, moving on.
“They blasted the buoy when they came through the jump. The reporter buoy across the system immediately jumped in to let us know we had a hot datum. The receiving buoy then dropped back into the invaded system. It’s likely filling up with lots and lots of reactors.”
“How soon before they can jump to the next system?”
“Assuming the mother ship doesn’t go above one gee, we’ve got four days plus before they get here. If the baby monsters put on two gees, we’ve got less than two days.”
“So we wait and see,” Kris said, and went to shower and dress.
She took the reports that had kept her awake most of the night to breakfast with her and was asking for updates even as she ate. Pipra must have gotten even less sleep because she had them flowing back to Kris before she finished eating. The diggers were working on both Hellburner bases. Still no luck with the third. The lasers were doing well. All the Smart MetalTM from dirtside was back. Did Kris want to return it to the frigates it had been borrowed from or spin out more ships using the new lasers?
Kris thought long and hard on that question but had no one to talk it over with. Jack was dirtside, and Penny was flossing some lion’s teeth. This issue didn’t seem appropriate to Abby’s pay grade. She was pretty sure Captain Drago would vote for getting his armor back.
When she dropped by the bridge to ask him, Drago surprised her by thinking long and hard. “Yes, I’d like the armor back, but that will take yard time, and it would be nice to have more targets to confuse the aliens’ aim. Hard choice. How will you crew these new warships?”
“Good question. Bring back the Navy folks dirtside. Throw in some Alwans. See if anyone in the yard or station wants to ship out for the fight. There are merchant crews on the ships we’re likely to spin into frigates.”
Drago grinned. “You think they’ll be any more enthusiastic than they were when you shanghaied them into staying here?”
“I kind of thought with the aliens this close, they’d see the benefit of fighting.”
“Or running.”
Kris had gotten used to thinking in heroic mode. Should she offer her civilians a chance to go home, like she had the Fleet of Discovery? She shook her head. Unescorted, any transport was likely to end up boarded and dead. It could also give away too much information.
No, Kris would have to figure out a way to keep those unwilling to fight somewhere out of harm’s way, or at least not in her line of fire.
“I take it that you’d like your armor back? If I can get any effective fighting out of these jumped-up merchant hulls, I should consider it a bonus.”
“Untrained. Inexperienced. No practice either as a ship’s company or in formation. They strike me as more a hazard to navigation than as a fighting force.”
“Thanks for your advice. I’ll talk to the yard about rotating BatRon 1 and Div 10 frigates through the yard.”
“You do that and make it happen soonest. The hairs on the back of my neck are standing at attention.”
Kris really didn’t want to do what she had to do next. Shipyard artificers were a limited skill set. Still, in a few days, she’d be desperate for war fighters. Kris found Admiral Benson, ret., in his office, with his feet up on his desk, watching the analysis of the latest laser test firings. He seemed happy.
“Admiral, have I got a deal for you.”
The old Navy man put his feet down, leaned forward, and scowled. “My wife warned me when I took this job that you’d be saying that to me one day.”
“We’ve got all the Smart Metal back from dirtside. I need it pumped back into the frigates. Can you do it in the yard, or should we try to do it pierside?”
“It will go faster in the yard, what with the new reactor Mitsubishi loaned me. Bring the ships in tomorrow, and we can probably do all nine in one day.”
“Good, that brings me to my second offer. Do you want to spend the next fight here, a sitting duck, or would you lik
e the plates of a fighting ship under your feet?”
He eyed her. “The answer is obvious, but, no doubt, the devil is in the details.”
“So true. Here’s the situation. We’ve recovered almost all the Smart Metal from the moon base. Can you believe some of it was replaced with stone?”
“The aliens are using stone for armor. What’s wrong with simple?”
“Well, we’ve got Smart Metal and reactors enough to spin out two frigates. When you add the ore carriers and mining ships, I think we could patch together another four.”
“Assuming the bastards give us time.”
“Yes. If we have the time, how many lasers can you produce?”
“I’ve got a dozen ready now and we’re doing four a day. We could go to eight if we got the materials.”
“Which are on the ore carriers we want to convert.”
“What about crews?” the retired admiral said, his face slipping into something sly and not at all ready to buy a pig in a poke.
“That is a problem. How many of your yard personnel are old Navy and don’t like being sitting ducks? How many Ostriches have you trained to fire the lasers? How many of the merchant crews will volunteer?”
“And are they any good? I’d trust a Rooster before I’d trust some merchies.”
“Down, Admiral. We’re all in this boat together, and we sink or swim together.”
“So I’ve heard. I haven’t heard it from any of them.” He paused, then said, “What do you propose to do with this bunch of untrained amateurs? I can’t picture Drago wanting them in a line with his Wasp.”
“He’s already suggested I not do that.”
“Smart man.”
“How about you commanding the auxiliary squadron?”
The old Navy man said nothing, just pushed back in his chair, gaining distance from Kris. “That’s what my wife warned me about. An offer of a fighting command in a hopeless situation. Damn you, Temptress!”
“It has been a long peace, hasn’t it?” Kris said. She knew she was talking to a highly trained and experienced leader of men who’d spent his entire career training for one thing that never happened. He had probably dreamed all his life of a fight in the worst way. And now Kris was offering him a chance to wade into a fight, but in the worst possible way.
He took a deep breath. “How long do I have to decide?”
“The longer you take, the less time you have to make it happen.”
“I hate your logic,” he said, as he tapped his wrist unit. “Send out Standard Memo A to all hands. Tell them they have two hours to volunteer or they get to wave good-bye to us warriors from the pier.”
“You already had the memo written!”
“The day after my wife warned me this would happen. She knew me better than I did myself. Smart woman. Promised she’d never speak to me again if I got myself killed.”
“I’m going to have Mitsubishi start spinning out the first two frigates, what with you up-armoring BatRon 1.”
“You tell Admiral Hiroshi that he can’t have more than one of those ships for his volunteers. And we all have to contribute crews to the other four.”
“The yard superintendent there is old Navy, too?”
“Who else do you think would volunteer for this kind of duty? The Emperor said there was a good chance of a hopeless fight with no survivors, and Hiroshi was out the gate a running. Just like me. Don’t worry, Admiral, Your Highness, Viceroy. You’ll have your ships.”
“BatRon 5,” Kris said. “In reserve, behind the line, and I’ll go easy on you old-timers when it comes to jinking.”
“You young brat. Remember, you’re getting older every day. Someday, you’ll be as old as I am if you’re smart enough to live that long.”
“No one is taking bets that I will,” Kris said as she headed for the door.
By the time she closed it, Benson was already talking to Hiroshi.
That evening, Kris got a surprise she didn’t want.
50
Kris was halfway through her supper when Captain Drago hurried in and took the empty chair next to her. “We’ve lost the probe in Hot Datum 3’s system.”
It took Kris a moment to switch gears. “Weren’t we supposed to keep that until tomorrow morning, even if they headed for it at two gees?”
“Yes, Kris,” Nelly said. “My calculations say they must have had a ship cross the system at 3.5 gees.”
“They either squished the dickens out of the crew of one of their monster ships, or they have knocked together some speedsters,” Drago said.
“Just a second,” Kris said, glancing down at where Nelly rode below her collarbone. “How come you’re telling me this, and not Nelly?”
“I told Nelly I wanted to tell you,” Captain Drago said.
“And I concluded,” Nelly said, “that no harm would come from this being delivered a bit slow. Having a human do it might help you.”
“I guess I thank you, both. Don’t do it when time matters.”
“I won’t,” both said at once. Maybe Nelly was a bit faster.
“Have they made the next jump?” Kris asked.
“No. I think they will wait until the mother ship is ready to go through with them.”
“Why?” both Nelly and Kris asked.
“We’re waiting for them here because you have the Hellburners up your sleeve. They don’t know that. They don’t know that you won’t cut behind them and hit their mother ship when the fleet is rushing off to meet us. No, if the mother ship has most of their people, they will protect it. Somewhere, there’s a report from the boffins on the wreck you brought in. When they sorted out the bodies, we found a six-to-four ratio of men to women. About like our warships. Want to bet the mother ship has more women and children?”
“No bet, Captain. You want to organize an attack from their rear?”
“No. Not unless they actually do move faster than the mother ship can. I think after the way you smashed up the last one, these folks are taking very good care of mother.”
Kris thought for a long minute. “Nelly, design me some low-tech probes that can do a good job of tracking them. That can get me a real count on the number of reactors; maybe lasers, too. Drago, alert the Intrepid that she’ll be sortieing at once to drop those probes off in the systems in the aliens’ direct path.”
“They’ll be tiptoeing right up to a jump the aliens could be on the other side of,” the captain pointed out.
“It’s a risk we have to take. Tell her to run if she sees anything. No fighting allowed until the rest of us can get a piece of the action.”
“You’re telling a lot of folks to get close but not touch.”
“Trust me, when the time comes, I’ll switch gears without a thought.”
The captain left to give the orders. Nelly went quiet for a while, then said, “I’ve got the shipyard knocking out six probes. They’re large and clunky with optics, radar, and a crude atom laser to count alien noses. An old type computer with plenty of storage. They’ll be ready in two hours. Kris, could the Intrepid be up-armored before she leaves?”
“Ask Superintendent Benson if he can do it before they finish the probes?”
“He says no. They aren’t ready to begin uploading the Smart Metal. They’d need two more hours.”
“I’m not willing to trust we’ll have those two extra hours. Tell the skipper to have the Intrepid ready to go in two hours and to put the spurs to it—3.5 gees or more all the way.”
“I passed along your order, Kris. Doesn’t it bother you to send them out to face the enemy with less than they should have?”
That was not a question Kris had expected from Nelly, but then, she’d never expected Captain Drago to persuade Nelly to hold her tongue so he could talk first. More surprises.
“Yes, Nelly, it bothers me, but the Wasp fought
its last battle with thin armor, and we had the wreckage of the Hornet aboard. In situations like this, risk is just a part of the job.”
“You have a dangerous job, Kris. But then, you usually have a dangerous job. I’m just now realizing how dangerous it is. I guess I’ll have to get used to it.”
“Sorry, Nelly. Next time we’re back on Wardhaven, would you like me to give you to one of my nieces? One of them should be getting school-tall soon.”
“No, Kris. I’m your computer, and you’re my person. I see the difference between me and my children growing every day as they relate to their own human. Your niece might be safer to be around, but I’d be so bored singing nursery rhymes like we once did.”
Kris did a walk-around after dinner. More material had arrived from the moon fabricators. Eight 20-inch lasers were laid out and under construction on the shop floor at one yard. Kris dropped in on all four of her commodores. Each was happy to see her but busy. Apparently more gear had come loose during yesterday’s training cruise than had been passed up the chain of command. The repair ships and ship personnel were busy.
In the Mitsubishi yard, two frigates were already spinning themselves into shape. It had taken months to build the Wasp. Admittedly, here they had the reactors, lasers, and merchant ships to form the seed around. Still, the speed at which they took shape amazed Kris.
One ship already had her name visible. Temptress, no doubt, would be Benson’s flag.
Kris crossed the brow of the Intrepid a good fifteen minutes before it was scheduled to depart. She found the young captain busy on the bridge and managed to suppress their immediate reaction before they started it.
“I want to wish you good luck and Godspeed,” she told the bridge crew. “I know this mission is risky, but we need to know what we’re facing. Is this one alien mother ship or two? How many escort ships do they have? Go quickly, avoid a fight, deploy your probes, and get back here fast. If your orders don’t fit your situation, please be guided by the principle of calculated risk. We need the probes out there, but we need you here when the fight starts.”
Kris Longknife: Defender Page 36
