Daring

by Mike Shepherd

  She shivered. That was a heavy burden to bear. If she’d followed a normal Navy career, at some point the Navy would have assigned her a ship, and she would have had orders promoting her to god for that ship and its crew.

  Nothing about Kris’s life had gone normal.

  She smiled to herself. She had a ship, and they were her crew.

  And after that wonderful moment, Kris found herself with time on her hands, where each minute seemed like an hour, and each hour flew like a second.

  She was already familiar with the irony of time in these situations. In a few days, lives might be lost for the lack of a few seconds. However, for now, they had to wait. Wait for others to do their job.

  And waiting took forever.

  Kris checked in with Nelly every hour to see how things were going on the translation effort. Every hour Nelly told Kris to hold her horses and not juggle their elbows.

  The first time it was funny. By the twelfth time it was starting to bother her. Checks with the Vulcan showed the usual problems, none a showstopper. Those who had work were lost in it. Those who had duties went about them, checking and rechecking systems, weapons, defenses.

  Kris would make the final decision whether many of them would live or die, but for now, she waited. Waited to verify that the mother ship shared a common ancestry with the space raiders. Waited to see if they had weapons that could make a difference.

  Waited. Waited. Waited.

  Reports came in from the other ships of PatRon 10; they had also built up their supply of antimatter during their walk-around. How should they distribute the antimatter?

  Kris ordered them to load antimatter warheads for their 12-inch high-acceleration torpedoes, but not a double load. The torpedoes would help the corvettes fight their way out of the close quarters she was about to order them into.

  All their other extra antimatter would juice up the neutron torpedoes. Those were her only hope of crippling the mother ship. If they could pull that off, they all just might live to tell their tales.

  The captains accepted her orders without question.

  To have such godlike power over other people’s lives sent a shiver up Kris’s back.

  Eighteen hours into the wait, Nelly interrupted Kris and Penny from another discussion of the right and wrong of their options.

  “Kris, Professor mFumbo wants to talk to you in person. He suggests you get the admirals on conference.”

  “Make it so, Nelly.”

  “Aye, aye, ma’am.”

  32

  “I have pictures,” Professor mFumbo told those gathered in the Forward Lounge and observing on net. “Considering all we had to go through to make them come out, I’m amazed at how clean they are.”

  “How did you translate them?” Kris asked.

  “There is not enough time left in my life for me to explain it to you. Please accept my word. These are complete and accurate video readouts of the data.”

  “We may see about that,” Admiral Krätz grumbled.

  “Could you please show us what you have?” Admiral Channing asked.

  “Chief, have your computer run the video,” the professor said, and Chief Beni said something softly to his computer, Da Vinci.

  A new window opened on the forward screen. It was a close-up of what looked like a male choir. The voices accompanying the video were deep and powerful, the tonals of their song made the hairs on the back of Kris’s neck stand up.

  This was not human music.

  The singers, though, looked very human.

  They’d been referring to the occupants of the huge mother ship as bug-eyed monsters. That would have to change. These people looked as human as the next person.

  So had the bodies from the ship that attacked Kris with no provocation.

  The camera zoomed out, showing how huge the choir was. Then it panned to the listening crowd in the audience. They were crammed into seven balconies, layer perched upon layer, leaving Kris to wonder how those in the back could see anything.

  The audience listened in rapturous silence.

  When the song ended, there was applause. However, the conductor did not take a bow; nor did he offer for anyone in the choir to do so.

  The applause grew, and the camera zoomed back down front to a single man taking his place before a podium. As Kris took him in, she realized that all the singers and most of the people in the crowd wore the same dark uniform. They were identical except for minor silver markings, which Kris suspected identified rank and maybe honors.

  The man at the podium wore the same clothing as the rest, but his uniform displayed much more silver, red, and gold. As he stood there, waving his right arm stiffly at the audience, the crowd went wild with cheering and clapping.

  It went on and on.

  “How much of this do we have to sit through?” Kris asked.

  “Five minutes, thirty-four seconds,” the professor said. “We timed it.”

  “Can we skip to the chase?” Kris asked.

  The chief muttered something to his computer, and the screen blinked. Then the man began his talk. One moment he shouted. The next moment his voice was little more than a whisper. Then he was shouting again. Sometimes the crowd shouted back.

  “Do we have a translation of what he’s saying?” Kris asked.

  “Sorry, Your Highness, not a word,” the professor said. “He goes on like this for three hours and ten minutes. He doesn’t even take a break for a drink of water.”

  “That’s better than my dad ever did,” Kris muttered. “Are there more pictures?”

  “As we speak, we are translating several hundred hours of video,” Professor mFumbo reported. “Much of it appears to be more speeches by this man although a lot of it is similar choir efforts. No evidence of musical instruments accompanying the choir, but a lot of singing, always in large groups.”

  “There was also a lot of what looked like news reports,” Nelly added. “Since there was little or no visual backup to the person looking into the camera, it’s hard to tell what he’s talking about, but he is very earnest about whatever it is.”

  “You didn’t get any DNA off the video, did you?” Kris knew it was a stupid question, but she had to ask it.

  “Obviously not,” the professor said. “We also found no pictures of anyone with their clothes off, no porn, so there’s no way for us to tell for sure if these are the same people we found before. I do admit they look like them.”

  “They look painfully like us,” Kris admitted before someone else could point that out.

  “So, what do we do, gentlemen and ladies?” Kris asked those gathered with her.

  “Go home,” Admiral Krätz snapped immediately. “We should inform our governments what we have found and defer to them. Let wiser people than us decide what all of humanity will do.”

  Vicky rolled her eyes.

  “If we do that,” Admiral Kōta said softly, “the planet they are heading for will likely be plundered down to its bedrock.”

  “That is not our problem,” Krätz shot back.

  “If it comes to a fight with these people,” Admiral Channing put in, “we might want all the allies we can get our hands on.”

  “We can’t declare war,” Krätz snapped. “We handful here do not have that authority. Our governments would not be happy to have us return with the first battle of the next war already fought. Maybe lost. We have a duty to those who sent us. If some of you don’t, I know that I and my battle squadron do,” he finished darkly

  “That’s so funny, Admiral,” Vicky said with an ironic chuckle. “You’re usually ready for a fight at the drop of a hat. You have a problem here because these people can shoot back?”

  “You can’t say that,” Krätz shouted at his protégée, his face going red.

  “That’s sure what it looks like to me,” Vicky snarled back.

  Kris wondered where that came from. Still she had no time for the issues that one admiral and one proud young junior officer had acquired while he br
oke her to harness.

  “Hold it, hold it, hold it, people,” Kris said, taking steps to put herself between the screen with its storming Greenfeld admiral and the equally angry grand duchess at Kris’s elbow.

  If she let this situation get out of hand, she could have the first battle of the next war right there in the anchorage . . . with no alien in sight. Kris hadn’t spent her entire life preparing for this moment to let it get bloody and out of hand.

  “We won’t get anywhere attacking each other,” Kris said in a voice as soothing as she could manage. “Let’s see what we can agree on.”

  She took a deep breath, all the time wondering what the great Billy Longknife would do. Then again, he’d never faced an angry political opposition that had loaded 18-inch lasers. “It looks to me that the aliens on the huge mother ship are the same type of aliens that attacked the Wasp and sucked dry the planet we found. Do we have agreement on that?”

  Professor mFumbo nodded. The skippers of Kris’s corvettes showed agreement as well. After a long moment, so did the admirals from Musashi and Helvetica.

  Admiral Krätz’s face was still an apoplectic scowl, but he grumbled, “It looks likely that they are.”

  That was more agreement than Kris would have expected a few moments ago.

  “Can we agree that they appear to be headed for the bird people?”

  That got nods all around.

  “Can we agree that if they do enter that system, it’s likely that they will plunder it of everything needed to support life?”

  The nodding continued . . . except for Admiral Krätz. “You can’t prove that,” he said.

  “No, but their previous practices seems to make that highly likely. Right?” Kris said.

  “It doesn’t matter. It’s none of our business. My emperor did not send me here to start a galactic-size war. None of our governments did. We would be traitors to our lords and our people if we did.”

  “Admiral, I can understand your point of view,” Kris said, trying to sound as reasonable and understanding as her father in a heated question time. Although, to be honest, serving the newly minted Emperor of Greenfeld was not something Kris had any understanding of, nor did she want any.

  “If these people would just talk to us. Let us exchange a few words. Even make an effort, I’d be more willing to go where you’re inclined.”

  The admiral seemed to relax at that, not much, but a bit. Kris hurried on.

  “But that’s the problem. When I tried to talk to them, they didn’t say a word, just shot lasers at the Wasp. When Phil here tried to talk to them, they sent ships off to chase after the Hornet . He got away from them before they got in range of him, but they weren’t making any effort to talk, and they sure looked like they wanted to shoot.

  “They aren’t giving us any good choices. As I see it, we can go away and hope they don’t drop in on any of our planets. Or we can look into whether or not we can do something to them now, before they can plunder another planet and fatten on its blood.

  “I hate those choices,” Kris said as she finished.

  The faces on the screen fell silent for a long minute.

  Admiral Kōta broke the silence. “My orders were to follow Commander Kris Longknife. So far, I have followed her.” He paused to let that sink in, before he finished. “I think that I will continue to follow her, wherever she may lead.”

  “Into a war?” Krätz snarled.

  “She is one of those damn Longknifes,” Channing said. “My government knew that ships were disappearing. They knew there were risks. This Longknife had shown herself to be levelheaded and not eager to go off half-cocked. You cannot have mistaken the fact that all our governments sent battleships. They sent battleships to follow a Longknife where ships had gone and failed to return.” The admiral paused for a moment.

  “No one told me what to do. But no one told me what not to do. I believe I know now what I will do. What are your orders, Commodore Longknife?”

  Kris was surprised at the nods that got. She was so used to being painted with the broad Longknife brush that she’d never considered that she might be earning a reputation of her own.

  “To put it simply, Georg,” Admiral Kōta said, “if she proposes to take the fleet into battle and has reasonable prospects for success, my orders are vague enough to allow me to follow her. I do not like the way these people will not open communications with us. I do not like the way they rip apart entire systems. I do not like the thought that my fair Musashi could be next on their dinner list. I think it is time that we put a stop to this, and I see no reason why we should let them fatten themselves on another system before someone does that.”

  He turned from facing the Imperial admiral to face out of the screen eye to eye with Kris. “Princess Longknife, if you can show me a way we might succeed in this endeavor, it will be my honor and privilege to place my battleships at your command.”

  “Me likewise,” Admiral Channing said. “Though it better be a very good plan. My people don’t like to throw money away on long shots.”

  This was moving faster than Kris had expected. She eyed Admiral Krätz.

  “Let’s hear what you have to say,” he growled. “It better be good.”

  Kris did have a plan. She would have preferred to run the main points by her staff and give them a chance to refine it. But there was no use wasting an opportunity like the admirals presented her.

  Kris took a deep breath . . . and started talking.

  33

  A plan is only a beginning. Kris had learned that at her father’s knee, watching campaign plans fall apart only to be hammered back into something else. She’d experienced it enough on her own as a Navy officer. Sometimes it had fallen to her to make other people’s plans implode.

  Other times, someone else had done the honor to her.

  Still, an entire civilization had never hung on any of the plans she’d made.

  And none of the plans had ever taken two interstellar races into a war with a third in order to save a fourth.

  But then, there’s a first time for everything.

  The Vulcan’s completing the installation of the neutron torpedoes on the Hornet, Intrepid, and Fearless was number one on Kris’s list of what needed to be done before she took on the huge mother ship. So when the skippers of the Vulcan and Fearless called an hour later, she answered the call immediately.

  “We’ve got a problem,” the skipper of the Fearless said.

  “Possible sabotage,” the skipper of the Vulcan said.

  “You’re not sure it’s sabotage,” said Fearless.

  “Those wires didn’t cut themselves,” replied Vulcan.

  “Hold it. Hold it,” Kris said. “What’s wrong?”

  The view changed to show a bundle of wires cut smartly in half.

  “How’d that happen?” Kris said.

  “We don’t know,” Fearless said.

  “Someone cut them,” was the Vulcan’s answer.

  “It does look like someone cut them,” Kris said.

  Silence answered her conclusion.

  “It seems we have a reluctant tiger,” Colonel Cortez said from behind Kris.

  “Reluctant tiger?” Kris said.

  “Someone doesn’t want to be in on this fight,” the colonel went on. “Be they a coward or just God’s anointed to keep two galactic species from going to war, they don’t want the neutron torpedoes to go active.”

  “Has anyone complained to you, Commander?”

  The skipper of the Fearless shook her head. “Everyone seemed excited to be taking on the planet rapers. Being the first to use these torpedoes makes it one for the history books.”

  “I think someone wants to skip their place in the history books,” Kris said, then came to a conclusion. “Nelly, put all the skippers online and the admirals, too.”

  “Do we have to involve everyone?” asked Fearless.

  “I’m afraid so.” Kris quickly filled in those who joined on net. Admiral Krätz seemed tor
n between indignant at the cowardly action . . . and strong support for the idea of the torpedoes’ not going live. The rest listened quietly.

  “I know that tradition requires us to hunt down the dog who did this and keelhaul him, but I don’t have time for tradition at the moment,” Kris said. “We also can’t afford to post guards at every point where a ship might be vulnerable. Therefore, I propose you offer anyone in your crew a ticket home. If they want, they can ask for a ride back to human space on the freighters, the courier ships, or the Vulcan. Those ships will not be going with us. Anyone who wants to skip the coming battle can go home on them.”

  “And if too many of the crew ask to use your ticket out?” Admiral Channing asked.

  “Ships that can’t be fought will escort the freighters.”

  “So you’re rewarding treason and sabotage.” Admiral Krätz exploded. “You will even let sailors vote to abandon their posts in the face of the enemy. Even take a ship out of my command!”

  “Out of my command,” Kris snapped back. “I thought you’d be delighted. Maybe even take the ride home yourself.”

  “I’ve already issued the orders to fight the fleet,” Krätz growled. “Now you’re inviting insubordination.”

  “It doesn’t lack for a historic precedent,” Colonel Cortez said. “A small detachment holding a fort on the frontier of a tiny country, fighting for its independence from a much larger one, had dissension in the ranks. The commander drew a line in the sand and announced that anyone who wished to leave could do so. Just cross the line.”

  “What happened?” asked Admiral Kōta.

  “Offered the chance to leave, every one of them stayed.”

  “How’d it turn out?” Admiral Krätz asked.

  “They were wiped out to a man,” the colonel said.

  “Banzai,” said Admiral Kōta. “An honorable death.”

  Kris let the thoughts sink in, then went on. “I suggest you draw a line in the sand for your people as soon as you can and get any reluctant tigers moving toward a billet where they can do your ship no harm.”

  The screen closed down, but before Kris could continue with a review of her plan, she realized she had forgotten to include Captain Drago and the Wasp in her line-in-the-sand offer. She quickly called the captain and brought him up to date.