Daring

37

The planet had an atmosphere, of sorts. The chief suspected you could almost breathe it. “It’s got oxygen and nitrogen, but there are all kinds of nasty things like sulfur and other irritants.”

“I don’t intend to breathe it,” Kris said.

“Right,” the chief said. “There’s some water, but it’s got a high acidic content. More likely than not, if you dip your little toe in it, you won’t have a toenail left. Maybe no toe.”

“I got the message, Chief. I’ll pick somewhere else for my honeymoon.”

“Fortunately, she has plenty of time to find someone to share it with.” It sounded like Jack, but it was on net, and Kris ignored it.

Sulwan turned to Kris. “Is there any chance that this could be one of those planets that they stripped of its air and water, then polluted?”

“Chief, can you spot any evidence of previous civilization on this rock?”

“Nothing that I can see, Kris, but if the air and water are this acidic, it might have eaten away at a lot of building materials.”

“So we’re left to guess. Nelly, get me the admirals,” Kris said.

“Do you have any plans for contact?” Kris asked Krätz.

“I thought you were the one with all the plans,” was his reply.

The Krätz Kris had grown to know and like on Chance was long gone.

“I think the solution to our problem is easy,” Admiral Kōta said. “We land an assault team and take some prisoners. How large can this outpost be?”

“If it were us down there,” Kris said, “my chief thinks there might be fifty. Probably no more than a hundred. But these people seem to need less personal space than we do. There could be ten times as many aliens down there. Maybe fifty times.”

“But they have no space weapons,” Krätz said. “Surely, seeing eight huge battleships over them will make them be reasonable. It’s not like that lonely little ship that chose to take on your Wasp. We are battleships.”

Commander Taussig of the Hornet cleared his throat. “Compared to the ships who gave chase to us, your battleships look kind of dinky.”

“They would be fools to test us,” the Greenfeld admiral rumbled.

“Whose assault team do we put down?” Kris said.

“Your Marines are the most combat experienced,” Krätz said.

“Against people who can shoot back,” sounded like Vicky’s voice.

Krätz turned purple. Everyone else seemed not to have heard it.

Kris went on. “Admiral Kōta, Admiral Channing, do you have Marine detachments aboard?”

“We do,” came from both of them.

“Would you care to share a drop landing and reconnaissance mission with my combat-experienced Marines.”

“It would be an honor,” said Admiral Kōta.

“Don’t mind if I do,” said Admiral Channing.

It would be nice to have the company, but Kris still felt like she was being railroaded into something that maybe wasn’t such a good idea. “Chief, I’d sure like to know more about that alien site.”

“So would I, Kris. It’s making a lot of noise on the electromagnetic spectrum, but I can’t make head nor tails out of it.”

“I believe you did say it was alien,” sounded like Abby on the net.

Kris ignored the comment. “I have no intention of dropping Marines into the middle of something we know nothing about. I need to get a good look at it before I approve a drop mission.”

“We can make a couple of orbital passes,” the chief said. “Drop a few remote eyes to get a good look at it.”

“I intend to put my battle squadron in a geosynchronous orbit above the target where I can keep it in constant observation,” Admiral Krätz said.

Which would keep him well out of harm’s way but in a great position to tell them what they were doing wrong. Kris also remembered recently being half a klick from a target when Krätz decided to laser it from orbit.

All the more reason to be careful with her Marines.

“I’m not putting my Marines anywhere near that site until I get a good look at it. Better yet, I want to keep getting a good look at it. Preferably with a load of ordnance I can do something with.”

“We have some ground attack craft aboard the Fury,” Vicky said.

“Ground attack craft?” Kris found herself once again echoing.

“Yes. Big ugly things,” the grand duchess said. “Thirtymillimeter Gatling cannon in its nose. Wings you can load with ordnance. I was told it was a standard design.”

“Nelly?” Kris said.

“The ground attack craft were built to provide close support to infantry during the Iteeche war. It was a standard design developed on Earth and built on several planets. If it has been properly maintained, this relic of the last war should still be functional,” Nelly said.

“Chief Mong,” Captain Drago said, “do we have mechanics familiar with a ground attack craft and able to check one out?”

“God, sir, did you find one of those old things?” didn’t sound encouraging.

“The Greenfeld battle squadron has a couple, and the princess wants to fly one.”

“I’ll put together a team immediately, sir,” he said quickly.

“Vicky, do you want to join me for a trip to the Fury?”

“No thank you. I’m comfortable here.”

“Jack, do you want to drop with your Marines or ride backseat with me?”

This put the Marine captain on the horns of a dilemma. As Kris’s chief of security, he shouldn’t let her out of his sight. As the commander of the Marine company aboard the Wasp, he really shouldn’t let them wander off without adult supervision. At the moment, he needed to be in two places at once.

Kris had read somewhere about holy people who were supposed to be able to be in two places at the same time. Jack didn’t strike Kris as anything close to holy. She waited for him to make his difficult call.

“Colonel, neither of my platoon skippers is experienced enough to lead the company,” Jack said. He didn’t have to mention that experienced platoon skippers around Kris tended to pay for that experience by ending up in hospitals somewhere and missing the Wasp’s next movement.

“This is getting to be a habit,” the colonel grumbled. “But I managed to walk away from the last drop mission. I expect I’ll survive this one.”

With her chain of command now wrapped into its usual macramé, Kris headed for a launch, leaving one final plea behind her for Chief Beni to discover something. Anything! About the alien site.