Furious

63

On the other side of the jump, Kris found herself face-to-face with the flagship of Grampa Al’s fleet, The Glory of Free Enterprise. It was accelerating at 1.5 gees and already doing 75,000 klicks per hour. It was also just out of the 18-inchers’ range at 120,000 klicks.

With the Wasp decelerating at one gee from 50,000 klicks, and the Enterprise accelerating up from 75,000 klicks, there would not be a lot of time to talk.

Kris opened her egg and stood up to face the forward screen. “Glory of Free Enterprise, this is Princess Kris Longknife, Commander, Royal U.S. Navy. You are ordered to change course away from this jump and begin deceleration immediately.”

A hard-bitten middle-aged man in full merchant-marine greens showing four stripes stared at Kris from the main screen. “I take my order from the old man himself, Alex Longknife. No girlie whelp is going to boss me around.”

“Be advised, this ‘girl’ has four 18-inch lasers targeting your bucket. You’ll be in range in ten seconds. What part of your boat do you want me to slice off first?”

“What kind of ship is that?” he was heard to mutter.

“This is the frigate U.S.S. Wasp, and this is your final warning. Change course or be fired upon.”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

Kris stepped back and slipped into her Weapons station. Nelly had Laser 1 locked on the bell of the starboard-most rocket engine. THIS SHOULD ONLY NIP IT, BUT IT WILL KNOCK IT OFF COURSE, AND THEY’LL KNOW THEY’VE BEEN HIT.

“Cease deceleration. Flip ship,” Kris ordered, and the Wasp did. “Fire one.”

A second later, the scowling skipper on the screen was knocked sideways as his ship’s engines lost their careful balance.

“I dared,” Kris said. “Fleet following the Free Enterprise, decelerate and change course, or I will disable your engines.”

“This is Captain Christoph Guisan in the Pride of Zurich, and I fly the flag of the Helvitican Confederacy. You will not fire on me.”

“Captain, Admiral Channing died fighting per my orders. I will fire on anyone who risks making those heroic peoples’ deaths be in vain. Don’t cross me.”

NELLY, TARGET THE ENGINES OF THE NEXT THREE SHIPS IN LINE.

ALREADY DOING IT, KRIS.

Kris started a slow five count in her head.

At the count of three, the next ship in line flipped and started decelerating and steering off to port. By the five count, all the ships were flipped, decelerating, and doing it in directions that would take them well away from the jump.

Kris still had a problem. She was rapidly heading in the opposite direction from the others. If she didn’t do something radical, she’d be out of range, and these ships could thumb their nose at her and go back to their original course.

She sat back into her egg. “Captain, put us into a four-gee deceleration. I want to stay in range of those ships as long as we can.”

The orders were quickly given. As Kris expected, those ribbons and the belt really hurt. She’d be bruised in the morning. Too bad she hadn’t worn her spider silks.

And then, Jump Point Alpha began to spit out ships halfway across the system.

It took thirty minutes before their first message came through. It was brother Honovi demanding that the ships stay in the system.

“You’re late to the party, Bro,” Kris sent, then attached a copy of her conversations with the merchant skippers.

An hour later, Kris got a happy message from her brother. “Sis, the media types are really eating up your message. Did you really shoot up Grampa Al’s pride and joy? Where’d you get the 18-inch guns? Let’s rendezvous at the system’s big gasbag. I’m ordering the merchants to meet me there.”

Kris waited until the various flags’ merchant ships began to set course for the gas giant, then was relieved to switch back to a one-gee acceleration.

Kris was right. She was bruised on her belly and breasts. Which begged the question. Now that they were back on a warship, how could she manage to have Jack kiss them and make them well?

Kris sighed, recalling the way the poor girl who had gotten pregnant was treated on Haruna. Maybe, once this cruise was over, she and Jack could take a month’s leave in an out-of-the-way place that had never heard of a damn Longknife.

Yeah, right.

But this cruise had hardly started and Kris needed to get ahead of matters before the alligators started chewing on her rump. She called a staff meeting in her new Tactical Center.

As she settled into her place at the head of the table, she found herself staring at one whole wall that was totally blank. No lovely wooded mountain in a morning mist. “I guess not everything handled four gee as well as other stuff,” Kris said.

“That is not made from my Smart Metal,” Katsu was quick to point out.

“I’ll see if I can find a repair technician among the crew,” Captain Drago said.

Kris went to the first item on her list. “We’re going to be meeting in orbit, which means a whole lot of no gravity. Do you think we could arrange to swing ourselves around the Sakura and get some down aboard the Wasp?”

Kris quickly explained to Katsu Admiral Krätz’s idea of having two ships pass a long beam between them, head-to-head. As they swung around each other, you got a stronger and stronger sense of “down” the farther you were from the center of the beam.

“We can do that,” the engineer said happily.

“That will make us the most likely venue for a meeting to butt heads,” Kris said. “Do we have a Forward Lounge?”

“It’s there but very empty,” Captain Drago said.

“We’ll tell them to bring their own bottles,” Jack said.

Kris nodded. “Moving right along, how are we set for food on a long voyage?”

“Cookie brought on three months’ worth of good chow and another three months’ of beans, other dried goods, and canned meats. I figure everyone can eat in either the wardroom, chief’s mess, or crew mess. There aren’t that many of your boffins.”

“You could store more,” Katsu offered helpfully.

“Maybe we can buy some stuff off these ships,” Penny suggested. “They aren’t going anywhere but home.”

Professor Labao cleared his throat. “I hope you can get some better food off those other ships, and maybe a few restaurateurs. There are a few more of your boffins than I think either one of you are aware of.”

“More?” Kris said, raising an eyebrow. “How could there be more scientists? We got away from High Kyoto in four hours.”

“And thirty-five minutes,” Captain Drago added.

The professor cleared his throat again. “I put out a call to Kyoto University the night before. Then, when I heard you at breakfast in the wardroom, I made a second, more hasty call. Kyoto is a very cosmopolitan university. It has researchers from all over human space as well as some of the best that Musashi and Yamato have to offer. I have two hundred and fifty researchers aboard as you slipped the bounds of that friendly port.”

“We’ve been running around with two hundred people I didn’t know about?” Captain Drago growled.

“They might have slipped aboard, but they couldn’t have brought much research gear,” Penny pointed out.

“Yes, they are aboard, dear captain, and yes, most of them are lacking essential instrumentation for their work. However, I overheard where we were going, and before the first jump, we placed orders for all the sensors and instruments we needed. There should be a merchant ship following behind your brother full of delicate scientific gear.”

“Is there a merchant ship following Honovi’s cruiser squadron?” Kris asked.

“Five,” the captain growled, still unhappy to have stowaways. “The heavy repair ship Vulcan is also along.”

“The Vulcan?” Kris said. The last time she’d seen that repair ship, it had helped outfit her corvettes with Hellburner torpedoes. “What’s it doing here?”

“Hopefully to help us fix things like your dead wall monitor,” Katsu said.

“Hopefully,” Kris agreed, but hope was not what she was feeling at the moment. They went on for another hour, covering the adminutiae of running a ship far from its base, but there were no more surprises.

Kris was getting to like no surprises. But it happened so rarely, she doubted she’d ever get used to it.

* * *

At the gas giant, the Sakura and Wasp connected and began their spin. That created a problem. Docking a longboat with a spinning target was a hard-learned skill, but it turned out that the heavy cruiser Exeter had quite a few Navy personnel from the old Wasp, including the eight bosuns who were already trained in catching the hook and being reeled into the Wasp’s spinning boat deck.

When Kris was advised that Brother and all the captains were aboard, she headed to the Forward Lounge, prepared to play the congenial, if barless, hostess.

That was just her first mistake of the evening.

Glasses were clinking happily as she entered the lounge. To her right was the bar and a very familiar sight.

“Mother MacCreedy, what are you doing here?”

Said woman stood, three beer mugs in hand, filling them in sequence with hardly a drop spilled from the tapped keg. She didn’t look up from her work but called over her shoulder, “I heard you had a ship and a thirsty crew, so of course, I dropped what I was doing and came.”

“Mother, we’re headed for the other side of the galaxy.”

“Yes, I know. I’ve been there, and folks are just as thirsty there as anywhere else. What will you have?”

“The usual,” Kris said, and turned to business, knowing that a tall soda water and lime would be showing up at her table. There were advantages to the familiar.

Brother held down the table in front, with the view. He waved, and she joined him. “Nice place you got here. I especially like the down. Down is nice. My stomach likes down. Think I could stay here tonight?”

“Just be sure to get ashore when we tell you to. Our next stop is a long way from your wife and kid.”

“Soon to be kids,” Brother interrupted.

“And as my captain likes to say, there be sea monsters where we’re going.”

“About those sea monsters,” Brother said. “I’ve brought you some gifts. Four of those transports are carrying Hellburners. A gift from Grampa Ray.”

“And what am I supposed to do with them this time?” Kris asked with a jaundiced eye. She was still wanted on 162 planets for what she’d done with the last three, and Grampa Ray, King Raymond to most, had been noticeably silent about what he’d intended her to do with those gifts.

“Maybe we should talk about this in private,” Brother started, then seemed to catch the full drift of Kris’s question. “No, I don’t care if everyone here hears this. Father was there with half his cabinet when King Ray told me you should use these where you see fit. ‘She’s going into hostile country. She needs the best we have.’”

The lounge had grown silent as Honovi talked. Half the people there were listening as Kris got her orders. Okay. Fine. Maybe.

“Four?” Captain Drago said.

“Two for the Wasp and two for the Sakura. I’m told the frigates can handle two each.” At the next table, Katsu was grinning from ear to ear and nodding.

“We are most definitely headed into ‘hostile country,’” Kris said. She’d first heard the expression “hostile country” in an ancient vid. It was 2-D no less. Then she discovered that the original words “Indian country” had been blocked out of the sound track. The blood of Apache, Sioux, Blackfoot, and Crow flowed in Longknife veins. Kris didn’t like the meaning of “Indian country” or “hostile country.”

Then she discovered the original meaning of “off the reservation.” The idea that human beings would lock other human beings up in such squalor! The more Kris studied old Earth, the less she liked it.

Kris chose to rephrase her orders, using an old sea dog for her guide. “Give me a well-armed ship, for I intend to go in harm’s way.”

“That’s my sis,” Bro said, raising his glass. Kris’s glass arrived just in time for her to share the toast. Then the work of the night began. Bro stood up, called for silence, and told the ship captains gathered there that they would be following him back the way they came.

A burly captain stood up and spoke for everyone. “I don’t take my orders from you even if you are one of those damn Longknifes.” The general rumble of the room strongly agreed with him.

Kris tugged at her brother’s arm. “Bro, let me handle this one.”

“It’s all yours,” he said, sounding relieved as he sat down.

Kris stood and eyed the standing captain. Under her glare, he sat down, and the room acquired silence. “Just for the record, would one of you mind telling me what you intended to do with all these ships loaded up with the best humanity has to offer?”

“We was going to find them aliens you pissed off,” a tall thin man said as he stood. “Show them us humans could be reasonable. That we all could benefit from trade.”

“And they would do what?” Kris asked, just as nice as a sweet princess could.

“Open trade. They’re not stupid. If we don’t go off shooting at them, they won’t go all bloody on us.”

Kris glanced back at Jack and the crew that had fought with her. As one, they shook their heads.

Kris thought for, oh, a second. She’d met a lot of folks who didn’t have a clue as to what happened out there. Maybe she could catch more flies with a little education. “Nelly, run the film of our first encounter with the small alien ship.”

The four forward screens showed the ship of connected spheres launch itself from the moon. The audio gave voice to the Wasp’s effort to establish contact.

Then the ship fired on them.

“Notice, we talked. They shot,” Kris said. In a few moments the ship exploded. “Note that my shots only damaged the ship. They blew themselves up.”

There were murmurs among the ship captains.

“Show the alien advanced guard,” Kris ordered.

The two aliens that came through the jump gate before the mother ship filled the screen. Once more, the audio was filled with different efforts to establish contact. On view, the eight human battleships did an about-turn and began to open the distance between them and the aliens.

Then, without a word spoken, the two aliens blew Fury out of space.

“You’ll excuse us if, after that, we blew them to pieces as quickly as we could,” Kris said, as the alien ships did, indeed, explode.

In a blink, Nelly let the mother ship fill the entire forward screens. Now the room was silent enough to hear several people chug their drinks.

The retreating battle line was still sending contact signals as the huge ship opened fire, and battleships began to explode.

“Nelly, zoom in on Chikuma.” The battleship was mortally wounded and spewing survival pods. Lasers swept through them, vaporizing all. “Under the laws of war, agreed to by all humans, and now, even the Iteeche Empire, survival pods are sacred and noncombatant. You can see how these aliens treated them.”

Now the screen showed the Hellburners smashing into the huge alien ship for a few seconds, then Nelly let it go to black.

Hands on hips, Kris eyed the merchant skippers before her. “You are not going out there. You aren’t going because I say so and because every one of you and all of your crews will be dead in a month, maybe in a week, if you don’t do what I tell you.”

The lounge got even quieter.

“But we aren’t warships. We’re unarmed merchant ships that just want to talk to them. Open trade negotiations,” the burly captain insisted from his chair.

“You think that will make a difference? Four times we met these vicious space raiders. Every time I did everything within my power to open communications. Three times they tried to kill us, and the fourth time, we ran away before they got the chance. You think I wanted to fight that huge bastard? I’m a Longknife. I’m not insane.”

The room stayed silent as what they had seen slowly sank into thick skulls.

“What am I going to do?” a captain grouched. “I can likely sell my cargo, but I signed on extra hands. Even if I lay the rest off, I got a year’s worth of food for my normal crew.”

“We can probably take some of it off your hands,” Kris said.

“Don’t you go paying too high a price for that,” Mother MacCreedy called from the bar. “We got a shipful of fine victuals. This is not a seller’s market.”

Kris let others handle the haggling. For once, she enjoyed kicking back and catching up on family matters. When was the new baby due? Had Grampa Ray actually sounded like he intended to take responsibility for what Kris did with this set of Hellburners? She introduced Honovi to Jack and let the two males do their thing.

“Inspector Foile is a good cop. A very good cop,” Brother said. “I understand that you and my sister are friendly. Very friendly.”

“She certainly can use someone covering her back,” Jack said.

Kris decided to cut this guy stuff out. “Brother, I intend to marry Jack. Assuming he’ll have me, and that things ever slow down so we can.”

Jack showed thunder at his brow for a second, whether because Kris had stepped into a guy thing, or because, as he said next, “I’m glad I’m not the last to hear about that proposal.”

“I said ‘if you’ll take me,’ Jack. And we haven’t exactly had two seconds to call our own since we quit being fugitives from the law and gave ourselves, well, myself up. I figured I’d better get my bid in before some other girl comes along and gives you a better offer.”

Jack squeezed her hand, what looked to be all the intimacy the Wasp was going to allow them. “There will never be another woman in my heart.”

“Hey, as a member of parliament, I can marry people. You want to do it now?” Honovi sported a wide grin.

“And have Mother never speak to Kris again?” Jack said.

“It sounds better and better,” Kris said.

“Um,” Brother switched to a frown. “But I share a planet with Mother and regularly work with the old gal, Sis. I’m afraid I’m backing out of my offer.”

“Coward,” Kris said.

“From the looks of things, you got all the courage in this generation, and I think you need it.”

Kris couldn’t disagree with that. So they talked the night away, and Kris stayed an unmarried lady. Jack did squeeze her hand regularly, and they managed a good-night kiss at the door to her cabin when they parted early the next morning.