JACK, DO YOU HAVE A SHOT?
YES.
I’LL GO FOR THE BABY, Meg put in, putting her automatic down slowly.
GET READY EVERYONE TO MOVE WHEN I SAY SHOOT.
READY, Jack snapped.
ME, TOO, Meg added.
“How much you willing to offer?” sounded way too eager.
“How much is on the table now?” Kris answered.
The two thugs exchanged a quick glance.
THEY’RE GETTING SLOPPY, Jack thought.
GET READY.
“Fifty billion,” the guy holding the screaming Ruth said.
“Fifty billion what?”
“Gold Imperial marks.”
SHOOT.
Kris put two rounds into the center of her target’s mass, then two more right between his eyes. He crumpled where he stood.
Jack put one round in his guy’s pistol, knocking it into his chest and away from Ruth’s head. The thug got one shot off . . . it hit him, creasing his chest. Jack put two between the guy’s eyes next, then two more for good measure where his heart was rumored to be.
He dropped backward like a felled tree.
Ensign Longknife hurled herself across the space, sliding in under Ruthie and catching her before she hit the deck.
64
Kris managed to put her weapon down at the same time she swooped in to collect a screaming Ruth from Meg’s arms. She kept going until she fetched up beside the rocker and sank into it. While one hand held Ruth, Kris pulled down the top of her strapless ball gown with a bit of help from Mai Tiamat. Shushing her darling softly, Kris slid Ruthie to her other side and gave her a breast to suckle.
“There, there, baby. Mommy’s here. No one’s going to hurt you. There, there.”
Ruth was having nothing of that soothing stuff.
“Nelly, raise a wall between us and those bleeding corpses. This place stinks.”
A wall appeared, blowers went to high, and the smell quickly dissipated.
Kris kept trying to soothe Ruth, but inside she was seething.
NELLY, WE NEED TO TALK.
JACK’S HERE, TOO.
THEY WERE PAID IN IMPERIAL GOLD MARKS AND WANTED AN IMPERIAL COURIER BOAT FOR THEIR GETAWAY. THIS CAME FROM INSIDE THE EMPIRE. NELLY, IS THERE AN IMPERIAL COURIER BOAT IN PORT?
NO. NOT OFFICIALLY. BUT THERE IS A PIER AT THE END OF THE STATION. THERE ARE NO CAMERAS WORKING THERE, AND NOTHING IS OFFICIALLY THERE, EITHER. HOWEVER, THE WATER, AIR, POWER, AND SEWAGE USAGE HAVEN’T BEEN ADDING UP FOR THE LAST COUPLE OF DAYS NOW THAT I LOOK AT THEM.
CAN YOU GET ANY KIND OF READOUT FROM THAT PIER, NELLY?
NO, IT’S IN THE SHADOW OF THAT MONSTER, THE EMPEROR AND EMPRESS.
THAT DOESN’T MAKE ANY SENSE, TO HAVE NO WORKING CAMERAS ON THE PIER NEXT TO THE IMPERIAL FLAGSHIP, Jack put in.
JACK, I WANT A MARINE STRIKE TEAM DOWN TO THAT PIER FAST. CIVVIES AND CONCEALED WEAPONS.
It took a long moment before Jack was back on net. THEY’RE ON THEIR WAY. MEGAN IS LEADING THEM. SHE DITCHED HER BALL GOWN. SHE’S RUNNING BAREFOOT IN JUST A SLIP. Kris ignored the thought of Jack watching a half-naked version of her younger self. She gently stroked Ruth’s cheeks. She was hungrily sucking down her mommy’s milk, and her little tears seemed to be drying rapidly.
NELLY, WHAT OTHER SURPRISES ARE GOING ON AROUND HERE?
THE LONG-RANGE RADAR HAS BEEN ON THE FRITZ OFF AND ON FOR THE LAST COUPLE OF DAYS.
AS IN SINCE THE EMPEROR AND EMPRESS ARRIVED?
YEP. IT WENT TOTALLY DOWN AROUND NOON TODAY.
WAS ANY TRAFFIC LEAVING ABOUT THEN?
AN IMPERIAL LIGHT CRUISER.
Kris remembered Vicky telling how she and her second escort/bodyguard had slipped away from High Greenfeld Station when the long-range radar was down by snuggling up next to a light cruiser.
NELLY, HAVE CAPTAIN AJAX ACTIVATE THE P. ROYAL’S LONG-RANGE SCANS. FIND THAT LIGHT CRUISER AND SEE IF THERE ISN’T A FAST COURIER BOAT OUT THERE AHEAD OF IT.
SHE’S WORKING ON THAT.
Minutes passed. Kris found herself and Ruthie settling into their calm nursing routine. I’ll miss having you at my breast when it comes time to wean you.
The wall went away, giving Kris and Ruth back the whole nursery. The blood and stink as well as the bodies were gone. Ruth didn’t even notice the change, but Kris liked having Jack standing next to her.
“Kris,” Nelly said softly, “you will never guess what our Marines found at that pier.”
“Don’t keep me waiting, Nelly.”
“There is a fast Imperial courier ship, MC-410 by name, complete with crew and a whole lot of courtiers. I’ve already run them through facial recognition. They’re the Empress’s faction.”
“Did we get the Empress or Grand Duke?”
“Nope, Kris, but the pilot said a courier boat headed out around noon today.”
“And they stayed because?” Jack said.
“They were waiting for a ‘package.’ A certain count was to tell him when it was aboard, and they were to sail immediately.”
“Did he mention the name of that count?” Kris snapped.
“He certainly did. He’ll be in the first batch of prisoners Meg is bringing back.”
“Jack,” Kris said, “I think we have a good reason to send a strong Marine detachment to a pier very close to the Imperial flagship.”
“Thank you, my love. You call the Emperor, and I’ll get the Marines going and accompany them in case things get diplomatically challenging.”
Kris made a call to the Emperor that took a while to be answered and when it was had no visual. She briefed him on the attempt to kidnap her child.
“That’s unacceptable,” he huffed, not sounding at all like the man who had paid for Kris’s Grandmother Sarah to be killed or her brother, Eddy, to be kidnapped. “By the way, I have not seen the Empress since morning. Do you know anything of her whereabouts?”
“An Imperial courier boat left here around noon. We don’t know who its passengers were. I can get you a list of who was on the courier boat that was supposed to carry Ruth away. I am told there were several of your retinue aboard.”
“Say not my retinue but the Empress’s toadies.”
Kris ended the call and had Nelly pass along photos of those on the boat. Very quickly, she got a call back from neither the Emperor nor the prime minister. The fellow was middle-aged, just starting to gray, and his clothing was sober gray.
“I’ve looked at all the pictures you sent. They are fairly high up in the Empress’s faction, but not the top. We’ve looked around, and none of the senior supporters of the Empress, her father, or her brother are here although we have found the Empress’s mother, Grand Duchess Maude and her brother’s girlfriend. The Imperial Guard are interrogating them now, but their initial claim is that they have no idea where the others are.”
“So the dukes took off but left their ladies behind. Strange,” Kris said.
“Past strange.”
“Just a moment, I’ve got another call coming in. Will you wait?”
“For a short time.”
“Admiral, this is Captain Ajax. We found the cruiser. It was harder to find the courier; it was stealthy as hell, but we’ve got it.”
“Where?”
“The courier is boosting at four gees for Jump Point Gamma, the most direct one to Greenfeld.”
“Thank you, Captain. Hell’s a popping. Keep your eyes out for anything.”
“Aye, aye, ma’am.”
“Thank you for waiting,” Kris said to the man she’d kept on hold, and filled him in on what her ship’s sensors had to say.
“They’re running for home?”
“That’s their course.”
“Bruno can’t believe he can raise a rebellion with only the Empress a
nd child as a power base.”
“I’m not well schooled in these types of politics,” Kris said, and left the fellow to his problems.
A few minutes later, Jack asked if he could frog-march a certain count into the nursery. Kris handed off the now-slumbering little one to Fede Radko and met up with Jack and Megan. She really had stripped out of her ball gown to lead the Marines in just her slip.
I think I like this gal.
Kris left the count standing in the middle of her day quarters as she circled him, eyes hard.
He took one look at Kris and became very eager to tell his story even without her saying a word. He’d been left behind by the Empress and Grand Duke with orders to only leave when the package was delivered.
“I had no idea what the package was. They told me I’d know it when I saw it. I was told to shoot the messengers who delivered it, but I didn’t really plan to do that,” he insisted, groveling now at Kris’s feet.
“That’s pretty much what he’s been saying since the pilot pointed him out,” Jack said.
“Toss him in the brig,” Kris ordered. “I’ll talk to him some more while we chase down that other courier boat.”
“No. No. Send me ashore. You don’t want me messing up your boat. Look at me. I’ve wet myself.”
“Why don’t I want you on my ship?” Kris said slowly, studying this poor excuse for a human.
“Kris, Captain Ajax wants to talk to you,” Nelly interrupted.
“Yes, Captain.”
“The Gamma jump is spewing out ships like my brother’s momma guppy.”
“Ships?” Kris said, eyeing the count. He looked as if he wanted to crawl into the floor; he couldn’t get any lower.
“First through was a destroyer squadron, say twenty strong. It was followed by squadron of heavy cruisers. Now we got battlewagons following each other through like elephants the day I saw the circus come to town. Oh, my! Sensors say that last one is sporting twenty-four 19-inch guns. I think I’m scared,” was pure sarcasm.
“Captain Ajax, I assume our squadron has all hands aboard.”
“Since your Sailors can get a beer without going ashore, you bet, ma’am.”
“Order the squadron to be ready to sortie on one hour’s notice. I request your presence and that of your navigator in my flag plot in thirty minutes to plan our battle.”
“Aye, aye, Admiral.”
The count eyed Kris with eyes as big as saucers. “Will you put me ashore now?” he pleaded.
“Jack, see that this son of a bitch is locked up in the brig and throw away the key,” Kris growled.
65
Kris gathered her truncated staff in her flag plot. No surprise, Vicky and Mannie showed up with Admiral Bolesław in tow and added themselves to the small group with Kris. They stood around a plotting table that now showed the Cuzco system.
Between Cuzco and Jump Point Gamma was a light cruiser accelerating toward the jump at 1.25 gees. Well beyond it was the courier boat still maintaining four gees.
“There must be a lot of water beds on that boat,” Jack muttered. “Has the Emperor got back to us with a list of who he’s missing from the Empress’s faction?”
“Nope,” Kris said. “I think we can assume at least the Empress, Grand Duke, and Duke are aboard with the closest of their cronies. Captain Ajax, what have we got headed in?”
The captain touched the battle board, and a list of ships appeared. “We’ve got quite an interesting collection. Pride of place goes to the Terror of Space and Death to Traitors. Both of them are sporting twenty-four of those new 19-inch lasers. I have no idea how powerful they are. Since they were knocked together recently, I doubt they’re Greenfeld’s finest. With them are six with twelve 18-inch guns and another four with twelve 16-inch. The rest of the battle line is made up of ancient ships dragged out of mothballs. Heaven knows what they’ve got for crews, but there are twelve 15- and 14-inch battlewagons trailing the big punchers. Add to that a dozen heavy cruisers, a half dozen light, and forty tin cans, and you have a well-balanced fleet.”
“Who expect they are only up against nine frigates,” Kris said with a broad grin she knew was pure evil.
Beside her, Vicky shook her head and shared a tight smile.
“I think they expect so,” Captain Ajax said. “We’re all there is in town. Cuzco maintains no fleet, counting on its central place among three different competing alliances who presently seem happy with her neutrality. The Emperor only brought two light cruisers, and one of them seems to be in the Empress’s pocket.”
“Let’s talk to the Emperor,” Kris said. It took a few minutes to get him. The fellow who talked to Kris earlier took the call and asked if he might help. When Kris said no, he explained the Emperor had asked not to be disturbed again.
“He has company at the moment,” the man said with a soft cough.
Vicky scowled and rolled her eyes at the overhead.
Kris scowled, too, as she said, “He has a hostile fleet with twenty-four battleships headed for his bedroom just now. He might want to talk to me about it.”
The Emperor was quickly on the line, again with no video. “What’s this about a battle fleet?”
“There are twenty-four battleships headed for Cuzco led by the Terror of Space and another one just as mean. Do you know anything about them?” Kris asked.
The Emperor suffered a bad fit of coughing. Many soft feminine voices offered him several things to drink. It was a bit later before he could continue.
“The Empress kept telling me we couldn’t trust a Longknife. That Vicky was going to do something treacherous. She insisted we station some ships close by, and I finally agreed. She didn’t tell me how many ships she was going to haul out here or how close they’d be . . . and I didn’t ask,” he finished slowly, dawn coming up a lot sooner for him than most today.
“Well, we’ve got my nine frigates and one of your light cruisers between you and whatever those battlewagons intend.”
Captain Ajax cleared her throat. “The courier boat just flipped ship and is now decelerating at four gees.”
On the battle board, Nelly drew a line from the courier. It would put the boat dead in space soon enough that it could accelerate back up and match with the incoming battleships.
“It would appear that the Empress and Grand Duke intend to join those battleships,” Kris told the Emperor.
“Should I run? I have one light cruiser. It’s faster than that tub the Empress insisted on.”
“I’d really prefer that you didn’t, sir,” Kris said. “I can’t protect you if you’re out there in just a light cruiser.”
“But all you’ve got is nine little frigates,” the Emperor said, his voice squeaking.
“Yes, Harry, but I’ve blown a couple of huge alien base ships out of space with ships like these. I think I can stand my ground against a couple of dozen battleships.”
“Vicky?” he asked.
Vicky glanced at Kris, then said, “Father, I think we really need to trust Kris Longknife. She’s been in a lot more fights than anyone on your wife’s ships. If she says she can take them, I’d trust her.”
“If you say so, baby girl. You think I should stay, Kris?”
“You’re safer on the ground for now. Trust me, Harry,” Kris said. If she was going to save the dumb bastard’s life again, he’d better get used to her calling him whatever she wanted to.
The Emperor said nothing.
“Well, I have a battle to plan. I’ll get back to you when it’s over.”
“Nine frigates against a battle fleet?” the Emperor squeaked.
“Remember, I took twelve mosquito boats up against six huge battlewagons and won.” That will teach you to keep doubting me.
It was cruel of Kris to point out that mistake of Harry’s, but she was fresh out of the milk of human kindness wher
e he was concerned.
The Emperor said nothing. He was still saying nothing when Kris cut the connection.
“Is that off?” Vicky asked, nodding at the commlink.
“Dead as a brick,” Nelly said.
Vicky rolled her eyes. “I can’t believe my dad is still calling me baby girl. I haven’t wanted to be called that since I was five.”
“Maybe he’ll learn and give you the respect you deserve,” Kris said, wondering when she, herself, would get a little respect from her elders. Kris shook that thought off.
“Now, folks, we have a battle to win. Let’s see how we do it. Do we hang around here for a bit, then swing around the moon to take them down when they’re on final approach? Do we swing around some planet and come back at Cuzco on a parallel course and hammer them all the way in? Or”—Kris grinned—“do we charge right at them like a bunch of fools and wipe out a whole lot of battleships in one pass?”
Kris eyed her staff. They were grinning back at her.
Vicky wasn’t smiling. She blinked several times, then said, “As much as I hate my stepmother, many of those Sailors are loyal subjects of my father. I would prefer to give as many of them a chance to surrender as we can.”
She glanced at Admiral Bolesław at her side. “Can we cut out the rotten part of the apple without making applesauce of the rest?”
66
Three days later, Kris’s squadron sortied from High Cuzco Station.
As much as Kris had looked forward to winning this battle with the dumbest of attack plans, she’d dropped the idea. Captain Ajax pointed out that even if Kris did blast the flagship out of space and get the rest to surrender, they still might not get the results they needed.
With the hostile fleet in the final stages of decelerating toward Cuzco, they could hardly dump their reactor cores. Kris could never trust them to approach Cuzco except under her guns. This hour’s surrender could too easily be followed the next hour by their zapping the planet from orbit.
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