Defender

24

Captain Drago met Kris in the docking bay. “Good afternoon, Viceroy.”

“Good afternoon, Admiral.”

“Say that again and, viceroy or not, I’ll wash your mouth out with soap, Your Highness.”

“I just wanted to see how it sounded,” Kris said, smile adding to her contrition.

“Come along, I want to show you your office.”

“My office?”

“Whatever you were before could get by with a Tac Center. A squadron’s commodore and a viceroy needs an office. Have I got the day quarters for you!”

It was where Kris’s Tac Center had been, still right off the bridge, but it had grown. “A wooden desk?” Kris said, then knocked on it. “Hey, that’s real wood, not Smart Metal faking it!”

“I spotted that lovely while I was down at your wedding. ‘I’m just perfect,’ it said to me. Same for the sofas and overstuffed chairs. They’re actual leather, hide of those elephants they have dragging wagons around.”

“They call them oxen,” Kris pointed out.

“They’re the size of elephants. Hasn’t anyone here seen an elephant?”

“No long trunk,” Kris added.

“And check out this conference table,” Captain Drago said, changing the topic. “Nelly, add four more chairs and room for them.”

“Aye, aye, sir,” Nelly said, and the table was suddenly a couple of meters longer and had four more comfortable-looking chairs.

“That should provide room for everyone you need to meet with,” the skipper said proudly.

“Is it my imagination, or did the room just get bigger for the table?” Jack said.

“Yes, the viceroy’s night quarters are right next door. Assuming you’re in your office, you don’t need all that room in your bedroom, so Nelly can swap space from one to the other. It goes both ways, in case you want to entertain anyone special.”

Kris eyed Drago. “I won’t be entertaining anyone, special or otherwise. What happened on Alwa stays on Alwa. What happens here is straight regulations.”

“Understood, Commodore,” Captain Drago said, almost bracing.

“Now, did you arrange that meeting I asked for?”

“If you mean me, Your Highness,” said a new voice, “I’m here.”

At the door of her office stood a civilian in casual clothes.

“Admiral Benson?” Kris said.

“Just Mr. Benson for the duration of this assignment running Canopus Station and its Navy yard. The king was rather definite on that.”

“And if I have to activate your reserve commission?”

“I’m a lieutenant, ma’am,” he said with a grin at Drago.

“Hold it, is everyone still stuck with a reserve commission of lieutenant?” Kris asked the two.

Both nodded.

“Nelly, do I have authority to promote people? It’s got to be in there somewhere as commodore or ComAlDefSec or viceroy.”

“You have the authority to approve promotions up through lieutenant commander, Kris.”

“Nelly, please do the paperwork to promote all my reserve officers to lieutenant commander.”

“I’ll have my kids get right on it.”

“Mom!” said Sal at Jack’s neck.

“I’m the viceroy’s computer. I get to delegate. Get used to it.”

“Yes, Mom, we’re getting right on it.”

“Now, Mr. Benson, about the reason I asked you here. I have several questions. Is Kikuchi Katsu still with us?”

“No, Your Highness, he didn’t much like leaving before he spun out those monsters aft of the station, but when the king took it in his head to rush out, he followed him.”

“Can you respin those ships?”

“Despite the engineer’s fear that me and mine can’t pound sand, I do believe we can, ma’am.”

“Good. Now, you have twenty fine 20-inch lasers on your station. Are you planning on using them for station defense?”

“Not likely. They only point one way and, as you may have noticed, we used the rocket engines to build the space dock on the station’s stern. We’re rock steady in orbit. Good for a space station. Bad for a fighting ship. Why? Do you have something in mind for them?”

“Up-gun the Wasp to a heavy frigate,” Kris said. “First the Wasp, then the Intrepid. We need everything we’ve got if the aliens come through the jump. I figured once we off-loaded the Hellburners, we could use the Smart Metal that’s supporting them to support ten guns rather than five.”

“Will it be too hard?” Captain Drago asked, a skipper concerned about his ship.

“No. I’d been expecting something like that since we fitted out. The 20-inchers are modular, even the capacitors plug and unplug with the unit. Same with your 18-inchers. The Monarch and the Fearless donated about fifteen thousand tons of Smart Metal when they gave up their Hellburners. I figured I’d use most of that to enlarge your two when I replaced your guns.”

“How much larger are the reactors on the heavy frigates?” Drago asked.

“Their three are about fifteen percent larger than yours. That’s something we can’t do anything about. You’ll take longer to reload, say five seconds more than your 18-inchers. You’ll likely need eight to ten more seconds for a broadside.”

That didn’t make Drago happy, and his face showed it.

The former admiral moved quickly to praise his guns. “The 20-inchers are good out to one hundred forty thousand klicks. Maybe a bit more depending on the armor they’re facing. You hit something at seventy thousand klicks with one of them, and you’re going to burn right through it.”

“Trade-offs, trade-offs, trade-offs,” Drago muttered.

“How soon can you start and how quickly can you finish?” Kris asked.

“We can start right now,” the yard boss said. “I’ll recall my folks from those two problem children trailing us and have you out in five days. May I ask why the rush, Your Highness?”

“When we went back to look over the wreck of the alien mother ship, near the far jump, we passed through two clouds of gas, not a whole lot thicker than normal space, but enough. I figure that’s what’s left of our last two battleships.”

The former admiral nodded sadly.

“I know our Fearless and Intrepid died fighting so the Wasp and the Hornet could get away. I know what happened to Wasp. I don’t know what happened to Hornet.”

“She likely ended up a ball of gas, too,” the former Navy man said.

“But I don’t know that. I have nightmares that years from now someone stumbles on the hulk of the Hornet and finds they were alive for five, six months after the fight but didn’t find some planet like Alwa or were unable to slow down like we almost did.”

“You’ve spent a lot of time with the Marines, haven’t you?” the former Admiral Benson asked.

“I’ve spent time with them,” Kris said cautiously. Was he headed for the fact she’d just married one?

“Marines never leave anyone behind.”

“You disapprove.”

“No, Commodore, I do not. It’s good policy. I’ll have the yard ready for the Wasp as soon as Captain Drago is ready to move ship.”

“I’m ready now, just as soon as I get Kris off my ship. Commodore, I don’t know if you’re aware, but we’ll be without gravity in the yard. Flags are traditionally transferred when a flagship goes in the body-and-fender shop.”

“Any suggestions?” Kris asked.

“Not the Constellation,” Benson said. “Sampson is all bent out of shape about your marriage and shooting off her mouth a lot. Unless you want to hear things you’ll have to ‘not hear’ or bring her up on charges, don’t go there.”

“The Constitution?” Kris said.

“Or the Princess Royal. All I hear are good things about Amber Kitano. Haven’t you fought with her before?”

“Kris,” Nelly put in, “Amber was Phil Taussig’s XO on his fast attack boat at the Battle of Wardhaven and Jack Campbell’s XO on the Dauntless.”

“Yes, Nelly, I remember Amber. She’s the one that refused to be the female lead in a panic party.” An honor Kris had failed to avoid and now, thanks to Cara’s skill with mash-ups, seemed to have gone viral in human space.

“Okay, Nelly, advise CO, Princess Royal that the commodore will be transferring her flag to her ship for the next five days. Send her schematics of my quartering needs, oh, and this office. Skipper, can you transfer this furniture?”

“Easier when we’re in zero gee, my princess.”

“Okay. Nelly, tell Abby to pack up and follow as fast as she can, same to Penny. Oh, and make sure Captain Kitano knows that Jack’s quarters are a deck below me and down the passageway.”

“Understood, Kris.”

“Drago, move my office as fast as you can, but don’t do anything that will delay the up-gunning. I’ve got to meet with our friends on the private side, and I like the idea of having an impressive office to meet them in.”

“Your Highness, your gear will be there by 2100 hours tonight at the latest.”

“Good. Nelly, pass the word to the civilian elephant that we’re having a powwow at 2100 hours on the Princess Royal.”

Kris headed for the Wasp’s quarterdeck. The ship was already making ready to move. Kris liked the pace.

Now. How would Amber Kitano take to sharing her ship with the original Princess Royal?