Furious

55

The prosecution led off the next morning. His statement seemed much shorter. Gone were the hints at Kris’s sexual seduction of the admirals. The list of things Kris had done wrong was also a lot shorter. No longer was there a plea for the poor Sailors and Marines who were dragged against their will into a battle of annihilation.

The only leg the prosecution seemed left to stand on was that Kris had initiated hostile actions against the aliens without authorization and without making contact with them.

Even Kris couldn’t argue with that.

But then, she’d been more out of contact with her superiors than any ship’s captain had been since the invention of the wireless radio transmitter. Kris was left hoping at least a few of the judges would remember why ship captains had once been viewed as near gods in their independent commands.

She could hope.

Mr. Kawaguchi was magnificent in his closing argument. All the things Kris wanted highlighted were boldly stated for all to hear. Now he played for the court Admiral Kota’s “Banzai!” as he agreed to Kris’s battle plan. He even showed the court highlights of the admiral’s vanished report. Kota had made quite an impassioned plea to his Emperor for support for the course of action he was leading his ships into. There was hardly a dry eye in the court as the admiral himself posthumously made his case for placing his ships between the heavily populated planet and the space raiders bearing down on them.

Tsusumu was wise enough to let the admiral’s final words make the case for Kris and silently bowed to the court as the recording ended.

Even the Chief Judge seemed overcome by the silence. It took him a few moments to realize the ball was back in his court. He coughed, banged his gavel, and announced the court was adjourned until further notice.

Kris rose and waited for the nine judges to file out of the court. Several of them were already in animated discussion. She turned to her lawyer.

“Now what?”

Tsusumu shrugged. “If they’re back here in fifteen minutes, you better order that white kimono. The fix was in, and we just didn’t know it. If it takes longer, your chances are better. Sit down. We can wait a while.”

Thirty minutes later, Tsusumu stood up. “I think a couple of beers are in order, and some ice-cream sundaes for you and your young friend.”

With that, they adjourned to Fujioka House. The cook insisted the celebration be in the formal dining room since all the defense team was there, along with Kris’s team, and even Gunny Brown. Kris learned more about the political and legal situation on Musashi than she ever wanted to know, and the legal staff learned more about combat on land and among the stars than any of them cared for.

They ended up making quite a night of it. In the end, Kris found herself too tired to give Jack more than a warm hug and a lingering kiss before going off to the south wing and sending him on his way to the northern one.

The next day taught Kris that there was something as bad as waiting out the final moments for a battle to start.

Waiting for a verdict for a capital crime to be returned was just as nerve-racking, only with a whole lot of boredom thrown in.

Kris would have preferred to spend the time in bed with Jack, but instead she resorted to playing one of Cara’s computer games. It did not go well. The game was one that required lightning eye-hand coordination and motor skills. Cara clobbered Kris time after time. The final game ended with Kris’s winning, but she had resorted to using Nelly and the direct connection to her brain.

Cara considered that cheating and went off in a huff, despite Abby’s pointing out that the young girl had won on her own and forced Kris to use everything modern technology provided.

Kris was left wondering how she’d gotten so old and slow so fast.

Desperate for some distraction, she and Jack went for a walk, under the watchful eyes of the Marines. Jack pointed out a van located on the street with a high-power listening device on its roof and how the thing followed them.

At first Kris kept their conversation inane, then the Billy Longknife in her took over and she treated the listeners to a long defense of her actions in the battle for which she was presently on trial.

WE’LL SEE IF THAT SHOWS UP ON TONIGHT’S NEWS, she told Jack on Nelly net.

The walk did. Her defense didn’t.

They adjourned to lunch.

Kris passed on the offer of another ice-cream sundae; she had nothing to celebrate and enough to worry about without adding a threat to her waistline.

At the suggestion of the cook, Kris visited the zen rock garden in a hollow behind the house. Jack joined her, sitting silently on a stone bench. Kris let her eyes wander over the raked sand, following the furrows as they circled rocks or tiny shrubs. It seemed to calm her.

Then she remembered how she and Eddy had walked the spiraling black-and-white tiles of Nuu House. She tasted again the loss of her little brother but found that years had finally turned the deep cut in her heart into a bearable scar.

Or maybe she had too many new cuts. So many more deaths that she had survived to feel guilty for.

“Maybe meeting the headsman would be a relief,” she thought, and only realized she’d said it out loud when Jack squeezed her hand.

“It would be a pain beyond bearing for me,” he said.

“I didn’t mean to say that.”

“I suspected as much, but you did, and I meant what I said.”

Kris leaned against his strong shoulder. “I know you do.”

“So many fought and died for you . . . and me,” Jack said. “We can’t pay them back with a cheap death. When we finally go into that light, we owe them to do it for something worth all they’ve given up for us.”

Kris found herself considering that . . . and was at a loss. “You think there’s something big enough that we could die for?”

“I’ve seen those bastards’ mother ships, just like you have. You know they’re in our future. You know it, and unlike some fools who must know it, too, you know that we’ll be facing them much sooner rather than later.”

Jack turned to face her. “All this theater, this legal crap, is swallowing up our time, but it isn’t what we’re about. Not you and not me. Other people can fill the hours of their days with empty roaring and thunder, but you and I, we control the lightning. We burn what needs burning.”

He paused for a moment before going on. “I don’t know what’s roiling your gut, but what I saw in the last few days was you demolishing a lot of tired old men who more than likely wished they’d been there. That they’d been given the chance to die with half as much riding on it as Admiral Kota’s death. You have to feel sorry for the likes of them. They spent their entire life training and preparing for something that never came. Then along comes a kid like you, and you get it all, in big helpings.”

“I’d gladly have shared,” Kris said dryly.

“You and me both,” Jack said with a chuckle.

“But why are they attacking me? Why aren’t they shouting from the housetops that we need to get ready for what’s to come?”

“Do you look forward to the next time you have one of those monsters in your crosshairs?”

Kris shivered and took several breaths before she ventured an answer. “Nope, not at all. Never seeing one of those monsters again would be a nice rest of my life,” she admitted to Jack and the carefully raked sand, and maybe to a few of the rocks that stood up so proudly.

“You and me both, kiddo. But we both know there’s no chance of that.”

“Who says? I’m a commander without a ship. I’ve got everyone mad at me. I don’t have two pennies to rub together. Maybe . . .”

“You’re a Longknife,” Jack said, more as a sigh. “Trouble finds you, and you, inevitably, bat it out of the park. You can’t do anything else. Trust me on that.”

Kris nuzzled her head into the hollow of Jack’s neck. “I’d trust you on anything.”

“You feeling better?”

“I’m feeling less inclined to desire that headsman’s ax, and yes, I’m willing to say I did a very good job yesterday. Assuming the verdict wasn’t mailed in by the powers that be, I expect I’ll have to figure out what to do with the rest of my life.”

“Good, cause this rock is cold, and my bottom has taken about all of it I can stand.”

They headed back to the house.

“Kris, Abby wants to see you,” Nelly announced.

“About what?”

“She told me not to tell you.”

“Has the verdict come in?”

“No, not that, but something else. Something nice.”

“I could use some nice in my life,” Kris said.

She and Jack started jogging back.