Defender

9

They came to a halt in front of a two-story adobe building surrounded by a wide, red-tiled veranda and a grove of trees.

“This is Government House,” Granny Rita said. “I do not live here despite the opinions of both of my late husbands. They have let me maintain an office, however. I must admit, though, that of late, before those nice pills you gave me, I was feeling kind of puny and not raising nearly the hell that I had been accused of.”

She grinned broadly, “I am so looking forward to getting back to normal.”

A delegation of a dozen humans and five Alwans filled the veranda. One middle-aged woman stepped forward and offered Kris her hand. “Please tell me that you haven’t turned back the clock for Rita. I can’t tell you how hard we’ve worked to run it down.”

“Kris, this is Ada, my best friend and constantly disgruntled coworker. She’s the new official chief cook and bottle washer. If you need anything, and I’m in the head, ask her for it.”

“I’m the elected Chief of Ministries,” Ada corrected. “Everyone except Rita treats me like I’m the boss,” she said with a sour grin that edged up around the ends as she let go of Kris’s hand.

“It sounds like your chain of command is as much a Gordian knot as mine,” Kris said.

“I don’t quite get your meaning, but our org charts look very logical and methodical,” Ada insisted.

“No they aren’t. They don’t have any place for me on them,” Granny Rita grouched.

“Hi, I’m Iago,” said a thin, young man with blond hair. “My job is to coordinate with Rita. Trust me, it’s a full-time job.”

“I find that easy to believe,” Kris said. “I know I’m going to end up meeting all of you, but I’ve got some working folks here who are eager to get working. Amanda Kutter specializes in strange economic systems. She’s quite interested in what you developed and how it interfaces with the Alwans.” Kris knew she’d given only half of the young economist’s subject of study, but something told her she needed to pull her punches.

Amanda stepped forward, all smiles, and said not a word in disagreement.

Ada turned to a young woman. “Baozhai, you’re the closest thing we have to someone who handles the economy, or what we have of one. She kind of collects taxes and figures out ways for us to pay for the common things, roads, bridges, and the like.”

“I wrestle people into donations and volunteering, you mean,” the woman said.

“Just people?” Kris asked.

“If I can persuade the Alwans there’s something in it for them, I get them.”

“That television camera that they used to interview me didn’t look like something volunteers knocked together,” Kris led carefully.

“Oh, then you also want Kuno,” Baozhai said. “He’s coordinator of Mining and Industry. He’s the one that works real close with the Alwans. Until recently, they’ve been death on anything like heavy industry or intrusive mineral extraction.”

“Yeah, I’m glad their attitude is changing,” Kuno, a tall, middle-aged man said as he took up the story, “because about all the nano miners we knocked together eighty years ago for low-impact leaching of metals are gone. You don’t happen to have more mining nanos with you, do you? It would make my job a whole lot easier.”

“I’ll have that checked on,” Kris said.

YOU NOT GOING TO TELL THEM ABOUT ME, KRIS?

NO, NELLY, FROM NOW ON YOU’RE MY TOP SECRET. IF GRANNY GIVES YOU AWAY, OKAY, BUT OTHERWISE, IT’S NOT HAPPENING.

AYE, AYE, YOUR TYRANTSHIP.

The gaggle of folks began to break up enough so that Kris’s team could circulate freely among them. Amanda and Jacques added to their circle of friends an Alwan who was something like Watcher of Wisdom and Traditions of the People. Penny and Masao latched onto Anyang, the Coordinator for Public Peace, as well as an Alwan who was styled something like Bringer of Harmony between The People and the Heavy People. Masao got to talking to the human who was the Historian of the Colony, and the Alwan Watcher of Wisdom. Through it all, Penny and Masao managed to not quite lose bodily contact in one way or another.

“I got to talk to those folks about scheduling a wedding,” Granny Rita whispered to Kris.

“Granny, it’s the modern age. Holding hands and even sharing beds does not mean a wedding has to be scheduled. We don’t have shotgun weddings anymore.”

“Honey, I told my great-granny the same thing, and she laughed and told me that she’d said the very same thing to her great-granny. You ask any bunch of kids, and they’ll swear to you that they’re the first generation to discover sex. And insist their parents never, ever had sex themselves.”

“Well, Granny, there are the fraternization rules.”

“Yes, that’s something I keep meaning to talk to you about. But correct me if these old eyes are totally shot, but isn’t that couple in civilian clothes?” she said, nodding at Amanda and Jacques.

“Yes,” Kris agreed.

“Now that other lass, Penny you call her. The guy who can’t take his eyes off her and vice versa are in uniform, but his ain’t quite the same as hers, is it?”

“He’s Musashi Navy. That’s where the Wasp fitted out. We didn’t become the USS Wasp until a bit later. Long story. We’ve got Sailors and Marines from Musashi and Wardhaven, contract personnel and civilian scientists aboard the Wasp, and a couple of restaurateurs subcontracted to the main contractor.”

“Child, how did you get yourself into a command structure like that?”

“Trust me, Granny, she had to work hard to do it,” Jack cut in.

“And where do you fit into this lash-up, if you think my old brain can follow it?” she asked Jack.

“I was Kris’s Secret Service Agent,” Jack started. “Grampa Trouble suggested Kris draft me into the Marines so I might provide for her safety when she was off planet.”

“Trouble, you say?”

“Yes, Granny,” Kris said, eyes sadly downcast, “I have learned that Trouble means Trouble even if he is my nice old grampa.”

“I warned her,” Nelly whispered, “but would she listen to me?”

QUIET, NELLY.

Jack continued. “As you may have noticed, she outranks me, and is a princess and all that. However, by law, I can countermand any order she gives that, in my opinion, could lead her into bodily harm.”

“And his opinion of what could hurt me is huge. Just huge.”

“This has the smell of Raymond wanting to make up for some of the more stupid things he did as a JO,” Granny said.

“Eighty years away from him, and you still can peg him on one,” Kris said.

Granny looked around. “Everybody looks awful busy. Let’s take a walk out among the trees.”

Kris checked around; all her team were busy. Even Abby and Sergeant Bruce had cornered a mixed trio of humans and Alwans and were deep in some conversation, helped along by Nelly’s kids using the translating app. In fact, a check of the group showed Nelly’s translation app was going over like the best thing since sliced bread.

No one seemed to need Kris Longknife for the moment. Granny was already leading Jack down a shady path. Kris hurried to catch up and got there just as Granny fixed the two of them, and asked, “So, are you two sleeping together?”

“Granny, what kind of question is that?” Kris answered, doing her best not to blush. Still, she felt her face go warm.

Jack just looked at Kris. Clearly, whether or not the question was answered was her decision.

“Honey, I’m old enough to ask the tough questions, and I’m experienced enough to know they need answering. I take it from your dodge that you and Jack have experienced each other’s company to the fullest. And from the red on your face, you thoroughly enjoyed it.”

Since Granny was doing such a good job of answering her own questions, Kris figured there was no need to risk either a lie or the truth.

Granny turned to Jack. “So, may I ask what your intentions are toward my great-granddaughter?”

Jack didn’t even flinch. “She’s already told me in the presence of her brother that I’m going to marry her.” He also failed to suppress a canary-ate-the-cat grin. “Ah, at least she will just as soon as things calm down, we can arrange things properly, and figure out how to avoid breaking the Navy reg on fraternization.”

“Wow, that’s a long list of requirements, none of which have anything to do with how much either of you love each other.”

Kris found herself eyeing the ground. “My brother, he’s a member of Parliament, offered to marry us the very evening that I proposed to Jack.”

“But it fell through when he chickened out,” Jack scowled. “You see, he has to share a planet with Kris’s mom, and if she was thwarted at arranging every little thing of Kris’s wedding, he figured he couldn’t go home.”

“Hmm. I see your problems. But it looks to me like they’re all on the other side of the galaxy. Nice things about that, I can tell you.”

“Granny, we’re still in uniform, and Navy regs apply. Very likely in this galaxy and the next thirty over as well,” Kris pointed out.

“No doubt you’re right about that,” Granny agreed. “I had to officially demob and decommission all the survivors before we could formally declare ourselves a colony and make our own rules. I was delighted to do myself out of the job of running the Furious, and the damn fools immediately elected me chief cook and bottle washer. Served them right that I’ve been a pain in their asses every day since.”

Granny found a stone bench and settled on it. Kris took the other end, and Jack settled cross-legged on the grass opposite them.

“So, tell your old granny about this fraternization reg. How’s it changed since my day?”

“I don’t think it has,” Kris said. “No officer can date an enlisted. No senior can date any junior.”

“No, Kris,” Jack corrected her. “No officer can date anyone more than two ranks down. Same for EMs.”

“You’ve been reading up, huh, son?” Granny said.

Jack just shrugged.

“But the big no-no is that you can’t date anyone in your chain of command,” Kris added.

“Ah, yes.” Granny sighed. “I remember that one. There I was, running my own battlecruiser squadron and married to the big Kahuna himself. They told me I was grandfathered in. I told them I was too young to be grandmothered into anything. But there was a war on, and they needed fighting captains and I had a reputation for doing the dirtiest jobs and bringing the most ships back. It was none of my doing, I just had the best damn bunch of gals in space. At least a whole lot more of my crew were gals, and we had something to prove to the boys’ club. There still a boys’ club?”

Neither Kris not Jack offered a comment on that.

“Some things never change,” the old woman said, raising her gaze to watch the wind ruffle the leaves above her.

“Enough of bitching about things that need changing but ain’t never gonna happen. Tell me about your situation, Jack.”

“I command Kris’s security detail,” he stated simply.

“And can lock her in her room if you think it’ll keep her safe,” Granny said with a wide grin.

“I have never done that,” Jack insisted.

“But you’ve wanted to,” Kris said.

“Why not? You’ve done some damn fool stunts. Like running out on your security team and getting bombed.”

“I’ve apologized for that,” Kris said.

“And getting us shot down on that no-name planet.”

“But I saved your precious Marines from flying into a trap.”

“Yes, I know.”

“So, not to cut in,” Granny said, cutting in, “but I take it you two have had a lot of fun disagreeing on just about everything. You ever had much time to talk, I don’t know, say, about how you feel about each other?”

“A few times,” both said at once.

“Ever over a candlelit dinner?” Granny asked.

“No,” again came from both of them.

Granny frowned. “When I was on your ship, Kris, I kept hearing about Captain Drago. Is he a Marine like Captain Jack here?”

“I thought I explained him to you,” Kris said.

“Maybe you did, but once you’re past eighty, you tend to forget important things.”

In a pig’s eye, Kris thought, but she answered like a dutiful great-granddaughter. “He’s the captain of the Wasp. Both this one and the previous one. He retired from the Navy after being selected for rear admiral and was hired by Wardhaven Intelligence to run my ship for me. Besides the hundred or more scientists I insisted on having aboard, he ran the ship with a contract crew, and for most of the last three years, there were only a few Navy types on the Wasp. Just me, Jack, Penny, and Chief Beni, God rest his soul. Then Grampa Ray, ah King Raymond to most, thought I was getting into too much trouble and Jack got a platoon, then a company, then a reinforced company of Marines.”

“Was it enough to protect her?” Granny said through a grin.

“Not even close,” Jack said.

Kris soldiered on. “And the ship’s company took on more and more Sailors as well.”

“How’d the mix of overpaid contractors and real Sailors work?” Granny asked.

“Not too badly. When we got into the fight with the base ship, Captain Drago brought me papers activating all their reserve commissions and enlistments. Every contractor on board was on the retired list. As he said, if they were going into a real fight, they wanted their honest uniforms on.”

“I bet that was something special for you,” Granny said.

“I’ll never be able to put it into words,” Kris said, eyes maybe misting a bit.

Granny let the trees whisper quietly for nearly a minute before she suddenly turned to Jack, and said, “So, Jack, who did you report to?”

“The ship’s table of organization says Captain Drago is my boss. Even after we got big enough to have an XO, I still reported to the skipper.”

“He do your performance evaluation?”

“I guess he would have if he ever did. We never had a sit-down on my performance, but I kept getting 4.0 ratings back from I never knew where.”

“Did Kris sign them?”

“I don’t think so,” Jack said, thoughtfully. “Sal, can you bring up a copy of the latest?” A moment later the standard four-page evaluation was projected onto the dirt in front of them. The first signature on the form was some general at headquarters. The last endorsement was Field Marshal McMorrison.

“Holy cow, I’ve been working at that level and never even bothered to find out.”

“Interesting,” Kris said.

“Very interesting,” Granny said. “Kris, what’s your position in the great chain of command?”

Kris took a second to think about it. “I don’t know how many times I’ve joked that my chain of command was tied up in macramé knots. Nelly, doesn’t Captain Drago have a ship’s table of organization on the wall in his in-port cabin?”

“Yes, Kris. I have a copy. Here it is.”

In the dirt between them now, a chart appeared. At the top of it was a box marked THE CAPTAIN with Drago’s name under it. Below, led to by solid black lines were the Division Officers, including the Marine Detachment.

“This must be before the crew was augmented and we got an XO and a command master chief,” Kris said.

“But Kris, I notice your name in a box off to the right side of the captain’s box. Is that a dotted line between the two of you? It looks like your box is dotted, too.”

“Yes, I think that was Grampa Ray’s idea. Let me give Drago my best advice, but if he didn’t like it, he was to provide what I jokingly called ‘adult supervision,’ and set me straight.”

“He never did,” Jack said, and there was pride in his voice and a vision of her reflected in his eyes that Kris only wished she could live up to.

She sent a kiss in his direction. He sent one right back.

“So, all this time, Kris, it looks to this old ship driver and commodore that you and Jack have never been in the same chain of command.”

Kris liked where Granny was leading, but she knew it wasn’t true. “For the last year or so, I’ve commanded PatRon 10. We took down some pirates. Went exploring the galaxy, blew the hell out of the alien base ship, and got wiped out. I watched two of my ships take on horrible odds, beat them for longer than the law of averages would allow, then be blown to bits. The Hornet went one way so the Wasp could go another. We never heard from the Hornet again, and the Wasp dragged herself into the first human port it could make, and they broke her up in place. As ComPatRon 10, Drago was under my command, and Jack was under his.”

“It doesn’t sound to me like there’s much of your command left. You still ComPatRon 10?” Granny asked.

Jack had the decency to chuckle dryly.

“Nope. Doesn’t exist. Not even the Wasp’s logs, as I understand it. My lawyer tried to get them, but the Navy insisted they had no logs from the Voyage of Discovery. The last job I have official orders for was in East Siberia. ComFastAttackRon 127. I think the leave I approved for myself has run out, so I’m AWOL from that job. Jack was sent to West Siberia, security on HellFrozeOver. I think his leave has run out, too.”

“No doubt about it,” Jack said with no contrition at all.

“They still have a base on HellFrozeOver?” Granny asked.

“Yes, and I have the frostbite to prove it,” Jack said.

Granny mulled that over for a few seconds. “But you’re both out here on another Wasp. How’d that happen?” Granny asked.

“It’s a long story involving Musashi children holding bake sales and donating their pennies to buy me a ship, and my not being found guilty of crimes against humanity.”

“But not innocent either,” Jack put in.

Kris went on. “Your darling little Alex, my grandfather Al, seemed hell-bent on sending out a trade fleet to make contact with the aliens and negotiate trade agreements.”

“I guess I did raise a dumb child. In my defense, I will point out, I’ve been on the other side of the galaxy during his formative years and all the rest of them.”

“Anyway, the Wasp managed to intercept and stop that dumb idea. Somehow. Captain Drago ended up back as contract skipper to the new Wasp. I’m back doing the princess thing, handling delicate political issues. Oh, and when the need arises to kill people, I have Nelly lock the crosshairs on the target, and I close the firing circuit.”

She gave Jack a forlorn look. He tried to give her a grin in return, but it was a weak one. “Other than that, I twiddle my thumbs and while away my time.”

“Honey, don’t kid a kidder. I saw the full show about how you had battleships running away from that monster, distracting it while your tiny corvettes got in their superpunches with those, what do you call them, Hellfires?”

“Hellburners,” Jack corrected.

“Ship wreckers,” Granny said.

She took a deep breath. “Okay, nobody asked me for my opinion, but you two are going to get it with both barrels. Captain Drago has the Wasp up there in orbit. I understand he’s going to be sending the crew down in stages to make sure they stay healthy.”

Kris did not ask her granny how she found that out, but said nothing.

“Your crew needs a break. You two need a break. If something goes all tits over ass, you’ll have some warning. I saw you deploying buoys at the jump points. Right?”

“Yes,” Kris agreed.

“The two of you are a couple of million words short of knowing how you feel about each other. Have you ever taken some time for each other?”

“Well, there were a couple of days while we were on the lam from the cops.” Kris coughed with ladylike delicacy. “That would be when we finally got to enjoy each other’s company.”

“You were busy staying one step ahead of the law!” Granny said.

“And planning how to break into the high-security tower your son Alex had built to keep him safe from anything,” Jack added.

“That must have left a lot of time for whispering sweet little nothings in each of your ears.”

Both Kris and Jack shrugged.

“Okay, has your granny got a deal for you,” Granny Rita said. “You two are taking a vacation. A two-week vacation.”

“I can’t do that!” Kris said.

“How come?” Granny shot back.

“I’ve got to get the reports from the boffins on what they find out about the ship. I want to know about the DNA from the one boot they found. It will tell me if this is a new bunch or more of the same that we’ve met before. There’s lots of stuff.”

“I get it,” Granny said dryly. “You’re irreplaceable. Nelly, will you get those reports?”

“Yes, Granny.”

“And will you be able to show them to Kris?”

“You bet I can. I do it all the time.”

“And how long would it take you to get a message from Captain Drago?”

“We’ve deployed the communication satellites in synchronous orbit. Delay can’t be more than two seconds,” Nelly tattled.

“Kris, there is no reason why you and Jack can’t take some time for yourselves . . . other than that you’re afraid of what you might find out,” Granny said. “Sometimes the human heart is the most terrifying thing in the world to face. I know. I’ve blown up ships and sent others to die in my place, and the three scariest times in my life were when I faced, really faced the men in my life that I loved.”

She paused for a second. “Did how I persuaded Ray Longknife to marry me make it into the history books?”

Kris thought for a moment, then shook her head.

“Ray had been to the war, and I’d personally flown the transport that held, long after the recall, so they could drag his sorry ass aboard. His back was broken. Some said he’d never walk. Some said he was dead from the waist down. The man who had loved me told me to walk away. Get out of his life.”

“What did you do?” Kris whispered.

“It was in the back gardens at Nuu House. Do they still have gardens there?”

“The most lovely,” Kris said.

“Do you know that there are no security cameras in one section?”

Kris shook her head; it was news to her.

“I paid off the guy who installed the security system to make sure I had one place I could take a boyfriend and not worry about being watched. I took Ray there one afternoon when the docs said he was healing, or should have been healing, but he wasn’t. He wasn’t letting himself heal. He didn’t believe he could. My war hero was afraid to try and fail.”

Granny was watching the wind in the trees again, far across the galaxy and years.

“I stood over him. Then slowly took my dress off and showed him that he wasn’t dead below the waist. I won, but dear God was I scared the whole time. Likely, little Alex was conceived that day. I was scared. So scared. I still don’t know how I did it.”

Granny paused, took a deep breath, and seemed to come back to her body.

“Okay. Now you know more about your family tree than you ever wanted to know. But I ask you again. There’s this little beach resort. I know the owner. I’m sure I can get the two of you a place for two weeks. He offers candlelit dinners and a small dance floor. The beach is sandy and white, and the water is so clear, you can go snorkeling and see the bottom twenty meters down. Oh, and it’s small, only twenty cottages. If I say the word, I can guarantee you that there won’t be anyone else from the Wasp staying there while you are.”

“Granny Rita, you’re a tyrant.”

“And I have the signed certificates on my wall to prove it. Some in blood. So, do I win this one?”

Kris looked at Jack. He gave her a tight little smile in return, but there was also a slight nod to his head, a lowering of his eyelids.

“Make the call, Granny. We’ll stay for two weeks or until Captain Drago announces all hell’s broken loose, whichever comes first.”

“Good girl!” Granny said with joy in her voice. Then she sobered. “And good luck to the both of you. I know. You’ll need it.”