Undaunted

12

Kris was back in the forward lounge as they approached High Chance station. If she’d had her way, they would have headed straight for the Alien 1 jump. However, two cruisers now guarded the jump, one flying Wardhaven’s colors, the other from the Helvetican Confederacy.

The people of the planet Chance below had voted not to join Grampa Ray’s United Sentients but rather the smaller confederacy. Something about not wanting to be too close to one of those damn Longknifes. It really wasn’t Kris’s fault. She’d only commanded Naval District 41 on High Chance space station for a couple of months. Hardly time enough to make a bad impression.

And she’d spent a big chunk of that time hunting for pirates and discovering two alien planets. Oh, and she’d also helped them stop a Peterwald takeover.

Kris had given up on justice in this world. Actually, on most of the worlds she’d visited.

But Chance did have some nice memories.

Not two minutes after the Wasp locked down to its berth on the space station, one of them followed Admiral Sandy Santiago into the lounge.

The Longknifes and the Santiagos went way back, to that incident that the tyrannical President Urm of Unity did not survive. Ray Longknife got the credit for killing Urm. His good friend Captain Santiago died getting it done for him. Since that day, the Longknife family had done what they could to make it up to the Santiagos. And Santiagos usually did the bleeding when the Longknife legend grew.

The first time Kris met Sandy Santiago, she’d been a captain, intent on seeing that a certain family tradition stopped with her. Then she got involved with Kris. So far, it had only cost Sandy a few broken bones. She was now an admiral, commanding Naval District 41 and doing a great job of it.

Still, she raised an eyebrow when she saw Ron standing next to Kris. “I wondered why the gunny sergeant just about had kittens when I brought President Ron Torn of Chance aboard. I believe you two know each other.”

President Ron had his hand out to Kris, but his eyes were busy taking in Ron the Iteeche. “That isn’t what I think it is?” he said, face still directed up at the seven-foot-tall Iteeche as Kris shook his hand.

“President Ron, I’d like you to meet Imperial Representative Ron. He’s got a lot longer name, but has allowed me to shorten it down to Ron. Oh, and he isn’t here. Remember that.”

“Not here,” the human Ron said, finally glancing at Kris. “Another Ron, huh?”

Kris remembered Ron Torn fondly, and had once had great hopes for the two of them. He’d gotten close to her, gotten a good look at what life around her was like . . . and run, not walked, to the nearest exit. “How’s the wife?” Kris asked.

She’d been invited to the wedding but had been forced to decline for reasons that, if Kris remembered right, hadn’t involved anyone dying.

“Oh, she’s fine,” he said, still half-distracted. “Oh, ah, she’s pregnant. We’re going to have twins in two months or so. Kris, what are you doing with an Iteeche?”

“He wants to talk to Great-grampa Ray.”

“So what are you doing here?” Admiral Santiago asked.

“I need to talk with Professor Tru Seyd. She’s on Alien 1, so I need your permission to pass through. You aren’t granting permission by radio.”

“No,” the admiral growled. “Not that it’s helping. Gold diggers will lie right to my face. I’ve taken to keeping them tied up until all their credentials check out. Do I need to tie you up to get you to hang around?”

“Longknifes don’t hang well. You must have noticed that.”

“Once or twice. You really need to talk to this professor?”

“Auntie Tru has been overseeing Nelly’s upgrades since I was six. I need for her to take a look at Nelly.”

“Her Highness here thinks I’m acting just sooo strange,” Nelly put in, sounding like your average implacable teen girl. “How could I totally go any other way being around her for almost twenty years. It’s like foreeever.”

Sandy shook her head, not even trying to suppress a wide grin. “I see what you mean, Kris. But Nelly does have a point. Do you really think your professor friend can do anything about your, ah . . . situation?” she finally finished with.

“I don’t know.”

“I think, if you ask me, but nobody’s said so much as a word to me, as if I wasn’t even here, like, that Auntie Tru is going to tell our little princess that she’s just got to ‘buck up and soldier.’ ” That last was delivered in Auntie Tru’s voice.

“For what it’s worth, you have my permission to take the jumps to Alien 1. I’ll post the order. You have time for lunch with me and Ron?”

“Sorry, I really need to rush,” Kris said, taking Sandy’s elbow and aiming her and the president of Chance out the door. The Iteeche stayed put, which meant Kris could turn the admiral down a wrong corridor as the Marine guide led the president back to the pier.

“Do you know what you’re doing?” Sandy asked.

“No more than usual,” Kris said.

“That bad, huh? The guy doesn’t look too bad, other than being Iteeche. Is he okay?”

“He’s not a bad guest. He’s pretty much house-trained. Doesn’t leave his dirty underwear in the bathroom. Squeezes the toothpaste from the bottom. Didn’t bring aboard any unannounced weapons or bombs that we can recognize.”

“Are you sure?”

“The Iteeche don’t have nanotech. At least he says they don’t. All our spy nanos have come back safely. We’re on them like fleas on a hound dog. I think they’re safe,” Kris tried to make it sound like she meant it. “Anyway, one of the reasons I’m taking Nelly to see Tru is to give us more time to do this search, get to know them. Check them out.”

“And so far?”

“They’re . . . pretty alien,” Kris said.

“I can see that. So, there’s nothing really wrong with Nelly.”

“Oh, she isn’t happy with me,” Nelly said. “Not at all. I know my jokes aren’t that good, but really. Would you turn yourself off just because your jokes stank, I ask you?”

“She wanted to fire on some Peterwald cruisers that were shooting at the Iteeche Death Ball and hitting us instead.”

“That could start a war.”

“Believe me, everyone has told me that. I know. Nelly is not permitted to start a war. I know that rule.”

“Nelly, I know that you won’t make the same mistake twice. It’s you making the first mistake and us not having time to stop you that I’m worried about.”

“I see your problem,” Sandy said.

“We need to talk to Auntie Tru,” Kris and Nelly said in cadence.

“Can you keep your Ron from talking about my Ron?” Kris asked the admiral. “It doesn’t have to be long. Just until I get my Ron to Grampa Ray, and they have their talk. I’ll flash you a message as soon as it happens.”

“You really think King Ray would want the word out that he’s opened discussions with the Iteeche? By the way, what does the Iteeche want to talk to Ray about?”

“He won’t tell us. His chooser, or grampa, is Roth, the Iteeche negotiator at the Orange Nebula, who helped Grampa Ray swing the peace treaty. He made him swear not to give out what it was except to Grampa himself.”

“Hum, and you’re sure this isn’t a decapitation hit to start off the next war?”

“No, I’m not.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re thinking about the possibility.”

“Lord am I.”

“Well, I’ll keep my Ron quiet.”

“How? You can’t arrest him.”

“No, I can’t. But I can tell him if he screws up your mission, you might very well be ordered back here. Last thing he’d want is a Longknife back running this space station. They still haven’t paid off the party and battle damage from the last time you were in command of Naval District 41.”

“I didn’t cause the trouble. Hank Peterwald did.”

“Yeah, but he’s dead. You aren’t. See the problem?”

Sad to say, Kris was very happy to be alive even if it did mean that a misguided boy like Hank wasn’t.

“Have you heard anything from Wardhaven? I haven’t gotten any mail since I reported my present situation.”

“Kris, when you came in all silent, just minimum business talk, I had my comm chief do a search on message traffic for the Wasp and you. We don’t have a thing in our buffer. Nothing’s come through for you.”

That didn’t make Kris feel any better. Then again, the more messages shooting around space, the more likely one was to be intercepted and have its codes cracked. “Thanks for everything, Admiral, I appreciate your help.”

“Anytime, Princess. Drop by whenever you have a chance. Things can get really boring when you aren’t around.”

“And I bet you love it.”

“Don’t I though.” The admiral gave the lieutenant a two-fingered salute and went on her way.