Tenacious

45

Kris hit the deck both because that was what she’d been told to do, and because she had to. The force of that slug was that bad.

When the second slug hit her, she rolled both to make it harder to hit her again and because the round made her.

It also hurt like hell. Even the new spider silk was having a problem with the force of these slugs.

“Don’t shoot. Don’t shoot,” Jack shouted as he came to stand between Kris and the next round.

Around Kris, the Musashi Marines had their rifles up, but Jack was right. Whoever the target was, she was lost among all the people watching from above.

Who were now racing away, either because of the shots fired or the sight of a whole lot of Marine M-6s raised at them with intent.

“Penny, do you have an eye on the shooter?”

“I have her. A white with thin black stripes. She’s ditched her gun, but we have nano scouts following her. I don’t think she expected our technology. We’ll get her. No, make that we’ve got her. Five local blues—well, black and silvers—have her.”

That was followed by a “Damn.”

“What happened, Penny?” Jack demanded.

“She suicided. She slipped something in her mouth and now she’s down, kicking in convulsions and foaming at the mouth. We’ll get nothing from interrogating that one.”

By now, Marines had formed a protective wall around Kris. Only now did Jack kneel down beside her.

“I see you wore your spider silk today.”

“Damn right I did, nanny. And you didn’t even have to bug me about it.”

“That’s why I’ve decided to keep you, wife. You are proving to be very educable.”

“And I’m hurting like mad. Can you give me a lift up?”

Jack offered her both his hands. She swung herself around, tensed every muscle she could handle, and let him haul her up.

“Ouch,” she said through gritted teeth.

“Is it that bad?”

“I’ve had worse.”

Now both the translator and the Elected Speaker were at her side. One was babbling, and the other wasn’t making a lot of sense.

“Calm down,” Kris said, drawing a slow breath. “I am hurt but not injured.”

“You have skin tough enough to resist a slug thrower?” asked Zarra.

“Let’s just say that I do,” Kris said, not willing to give more away than she had to. “Where are the two I need to meet?”

The Speaker led Kris quickly to a door. It was opened by what Kris took to be a soldier. She had a slug rifle and her leather harness was brightly shined and sported several brass buttons.

The soldier stepped aside to let Kris and Jack enter but closed the door before any Marines came in. Since Jack took that as acceptable, Kris did, too.

Penny, in dress blues, allowed herself in a side door and trotted to meet Kris before she reached the two groups waiting at the end of a long hall.

It was quite a luxurious hall. Lined with marble pillars, the floor was a fine, golden hardwood. Between the pillars stood statues in perfect white marble of other felines. Some held spears. Others held books. The balance seemed about even.

As Penny joined them, Jack spoke through a hardly moving mouth. “Do we know anything about the failed assassin?”

“The official story is that it was a madwoman, driven around the bend by the shock of learning that there was life among the stars, something that wasn’t considered possible before a week ago. The most likely story is that one of the survivors of Solzen’s crew thought to get a leg up in the present intramural sport of offing anyone reaching for the fallen President for Life’s baton by offing you. The assassin was known to be associated with a spy network from Fearless Leader’s side.”

“They knew it and didn’t haul her in,” Kris said, trying not to lose her smile.

“If you’ve got them made, you never haul them in. You follow them and see if they take you to someone that you don’t know about.”

Spoken like a true intelligence officer.

Kris came to a halt an equal distance from the two groups as they were from each other. At the center of the groups were two females. One wore a blue coat, edged in gold. The other wore a red cape. As it turned out, President Almar of the Columm Almar wore the coat. The Prime Minister of the Bizalt Kingdom, Madame Gerrot, sported the cape.

Kris saluted. The two of them bowed from the neck. Those around them bowed from the waist.

President Almar stepped forward a pace. “I wish to greet you in the name of the Congress of Columm, in the name of our people and on my own behalf,” she said.

Kris heard the statement as an echo, one from Zarra, the other in her head from Nelly.

NELLY, LET ZARRA DO THE TRANSLATION. IF YOU IDENTIFY A MAJOR FAILURE, TELL ME IN MY HEAD AND LET ME FIGURE OUT WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT.

YES, KRIS.

Now Prime Minister Gerrot took a step forward. “I also wish to greet you in the name of the ancient parliament of the Bizalt Kingdom and in the name of our monarch and the people of our ancient land, as well as myself.”

Kris took a step forward. “I am Her Royal Highness, Admiral Kristine Longknife, Viceroy to the people of Alwa and Commander of the Alwa Defense Sector. I wish to greet you in the name of the people of the United Society, their congress, and my liege, King Raymond, the First of that name. And if I may, I wish to greet you in the name of all humanity as well as the Iteeche Empire, may we long share peace with them, and the people of Alwa.”

“There are three different races riding between the stars,” President Almar remarked.

“Yes,” Kris said, not putting too fine a point on the Alwans.

There was quite a discussion among their own advisors about that.

President Almar seemed to shush them with a scowl before turning back to Kris.

“I wish to apologize for the assault on your person,” she said.

“I understand the problem. President Solzen was foolish to fire on us the first time. To fire on us the second time was stupid. No doubt her continued silence is causing much confusion in many corners.” Zarra had liked the foolish, stupid meme. Kris was thinking of adding it to her speech if it went over here.

“In life, Solzen showed herself to be many things,” Madame Gerrot said. “No doubt she will meditate long and hard on her folly from where she rots in hell. Meanwhile, it leaves us with many things to contemplate. Can we expect attacks like you showed us from these aliens you say are coming?”

“I should think by now your own astronomers can see them,” Kris said.

Madame Gerrot glanced behind her. One of her advisors came up to whisper in her ear. “Why was I not told about this sooner?” she snapped.

The advisor gave what looked like a shrug and backed away. Kris eyed the two leaders. Neither of them showed any gray, but something about Madame Gerrot left Kris with a sense of age.

“We have seen the ships coming around the sun that you told us of,” President Almar said. “Will they pound us as hard as you pounded Solzen?”

KRIS, THE WORD FOR POUND THAT SHE USED HAS A NEGATIVE CONNOTATION. CATS CUT AND SLASH. DUMB ANIMALS HAMMER AND POUND, Nelly put in.

“Solzen behaved like a dumb animal, trying to throw rocks at what was not within her reach. I could have cut or slashed her. I chose to hammer her. I have enough weapons in easy reach that I can do whatever I chose to do.”

Both national leaders turned back to their advisors.

GOOD JAB THERE, KRIS, Jack said on Nelly Net.

THANK YOU, NELLY, FOR THE INPUT.

YOU’RE WELCOME, KRIS.

Now the top cats were looking at each other, as if to decide who was the top cat. Finally, Almar spoke.

“May I ask you a question? You don’t have to answer it.”

KRIS, THAT IS VERY TENTATIVE. ALMOST SUBMISSIVE, IF WE CAN TRUST THE SOAP OPERAS.

“You will have to ask the question before I can know if I can answer it or decide if I will,” Kris said, pulling herself up to her full height, which just about equaled that of the cat before her.

“Why are you here?” President Almar asked. “What brings you to our solar system now, just when we are being attacked? The timing seems much more than a coincidence.”

Kris had expected that question. She’d spent the better part of the last day going over it with Amanda and Jacques. Their final conclusion was that the truth would be better than evasion. Kris had harbored a hope that it would not come up.

At least it was raised in semiprivate.

“I am here because I chased a ship full of mutineers here,” Kris said slowly. “I caught them and would have gone back to Alwa except we discovered your radio and TV transmissions at the same time we identified the alien ships that had fled here to lick their wounds and regroup after the last time we defeated them.”

Kris paused to make sure her translator had stayed with her. Then she went on.

“Hard as it may be to believe, it is a long series of coincidences that led me here. After capturing my miscreants, I was considering going back to Alwa without making contact with you. However, when the aliens launched their attack, I chose to defend you.”

“There are twenty-two of them and only eight of you,” Madame Gerrot said. “Do you expect to win this battle?”

“I expect to, but one never knows in battle, does one?”

“No,” Almar said. “Lady Chance dances a jig in every battle.”

“What will you do if you win?” Lady Gerrot asked. Now her tail was twitching.

“I will return to Alwa, which I have a duty to defend on my honor,” Kris said. “But I think your question was what will I do about you here?”

“That is correct,” President Almar said, standing very still, as if waiting to pounce.

“I would prefer to leave you alone,” Kris answered.

“Alone?” came from both of them. Kris didn’t even need a translator for that. In their surprise and shock, both took a step back. Several of their advisors seemed to be pacing now, tails lashing their sides.

Kris went into her prepared speech. She spoke slowly both so the translator could follow her and so her words would have weight.

“You are at a precarious stage of your civilization. You are still divided into tribal factions. Only now, you are tribal factions with atomic weapons. You can destroy yourselves and everything that lives on this planet. I would prefer not to have anything to do with you until you decide for yourselves if you are to wipe yourselves out or will grow beyond your childhood.”

“That is an interesting perspective,” Almar said with a snort.

“You are where we were four or five hundred years ago. We chose one path. You are still at that crossroads. Which path will you choose?”

“Will these aliens you are about to fight stand by while we choose?” Almar asked.

Now it was Kris’s turn to frown. If she’d had a tail, she might have twitched it. “They create a problem.”

“Will you stay here and guard us?” Madame Gerrot demanded.

“No,” Kris said.

“And why not?” President Almar asked.

“I am charged to defend Alwa,” Kris said.

There was a long pause at that.

“And you do not have enough ships to do that, do you?” President Almar said slowly.

“What admiral ever had enough ships for her job?” Madame Gerrot said slyly.

“I think you are inviting us into a war that is still very much in doubt, isn’t it?” Almar said.

“I am not inviting you into any war. It is coming at you,” Kris said.

“But you cannot defend us,” Gerrot snapped.

“And you cannot defend yourselves,” Kris snapped right back.

The two leaders turned back at that and joined in heated conversation with their advisors.

THIS GOING WELL? Jack asked on Nelly Net.

ABOUT AS WELL AS I EXPECTED.

KRIS, I CAN FOLLOW MOST OF THEIR TALK. SOME WANT TO TAKE YOU HOSTAGE AND DEMAND YOU PROTECT THEM. OTHERS FEAR YOU. THAT SLAGGED MOUNTAIN REALLY IMPRESSED THEM. A FEW JUST WISH YOU’D GO AWAY AND TAKE THE OTHER ALIENS WITH YOU.

SO, NO CONSENSUS, NELLY.

NOTHING EVEN CLOSE.

JACK?

I’VE ALREADY ALERTED THE MARINES OUTSIDE. THERE DOESN’T APPEAR TO BE ANY MOVE TO CONTAIN THEM. I’VE GOT OTHERS MOVING INTO PLACE.

PENNY?

I’VE SET REPEATERS INTO MOST OF THE POLICE NETS. THEIR ELECTRONICS ARE NOT VERY SOPHISTICATED. THERE’S NOTHING ON ANY NET ABOUT MOVING AGAINST US.

SO IT’S JUST TALK. JACK, KEEP YOUR MARINES ON STANDBY. THERE’S NO TELLING WHAT ONE DESPERATE TYPE MIGHT DO.

TRUST ME, ADMIRAL, MY WIFE, I’M VERY ALERT.

Finally, the two statesmen stepped away from their advisors and faced Kris.

“What might we do to gain a defensive alliance with you and your king?” Madame Gerrot asked.

“First, let me be very clear. If any of you launch a nuclear war, or any war of conquest that exhausts your resources and lays waste your lands, all bets are off. You will be on your own.”

Kris paused. She knew she’d spoken too fast for the translator. Besides, there were several aides who were elbowing others in the ribs. No doubt, someone had brought up the idea.

“Secondly, yes, a planet must have a united government to apply for membership in the United Societies. It must be democratic and have arrangements to see that the will of the majority rules while protecting any minorities under a rule of law.”

Again Kris paused.

“It sounds like you have had plenty of experience with fractured governance,” President Almar said dryly.

“Yes, it lacks balance. Finding that balance is often bloody.”

“But you will not impose that single governance,” Madame Gerrot said.

“That always leads to more blood, not less,” Kris said.

That brought what Kris took for grim chuckles from both leaders.

“But you, yourself, have said that we cannot stand against these aliens. We might as well roll over on our backs, show our bellies to be scratched, and piss ourselves. What are we to do?” Madame Gerrot said.

“You have not yet sent one of your own to walk your moon,” Kris said.

“We have talked about it. It will be very expensive,” President Almar said.

“It will also be very productive. It will require you to advance your science and technology. It will put you into space.”

“But we still won’t be able to stop these attackers,” snapped Almar.

“But you will have started down that path.”

“And if we are attacked in the meantime?”

“Empty your cities. Spread out. Be prepared to be attacked with nerve gas. Fight them. Make this victory so expensive that they turn away in disgust,” Kris said.

“But you will not sign a defensive pact with us,” Madame Gerrot said.

“No,” Kris answered.

Madame Gerrot’s tail was thrashing now.

“Mort, don’t have yourself a coronary,” President Almar said to her sister politician. “She’s an admiral, for pity’s sake. Yes, she may be the whelp of her king, but still, she’s just an admiral here. Would you want some admiral, even of your royal bloodline, negotiating a military treaty for you to sign? And negotiating it with no authority and no guidelines?”

“Thank you for understanding the limits of my authority here,” Kris said.

“I think there are more limits here than you want to talk about. You are going into battle at three-to-one odds. Something tells me that you don’t have the resources to protect us if you did sign that treaty Mort is so hot to get your paw print on.”

“You will understand that such issues might be covered by the State Secrecy Act.”

“We have one, too,” Almar agreed.

“Just how much danger are we in?” Almar asked after a pause. “What do these aliens want? Slaves? Resources? Control of the means of production?”

“They want your heads,” Kris said bluntly. “They want to sanitize your planet down to the smallest signs of life.”

The big cat visibly gulped at that. Madame Gerrot had been consulting with her aides. Now she turned back to Kris. “Our heads?”

NELLY, PROJECT THE INSIDE OF THAT PYRAMID FOR THEM, Kris thought as she turned to face the opposing wall.

The hologram was very solid. Suddenly, the walls were no longer marble but lightly worked granite. The pillars became figures encased in cubes of glass.

The floor showed piles of heads. Skulls, carapaces, whatever.

“Sweet ancestors,” came from somewhere, but otherwise, the room was dead silence.

“These aliens are not like any other aliens my species has encountered,” Kris said slowly. “We enjoy encountering different species.” Unless, of course, they go to war with us, but the less said about the Iteeche the better. “These people hate all life not of their own kind. They search space, hunting for life, and then kill it.”

Kris let that sink in.

“Then, once they have plundered a planet down to even its air and water, they take one sample of that life, encase in this plastic cube, and a pile of heads, and take it back to their trophy room. Their room of horrors.”

Kris left the hologram up for a bit longer, then had Nelly kill it. She said nothing as she turned back to the two leaders of this planet’s most powerful governments.

“It seems we have our work cut out for us,” said President Almar, “if we are to keep our heads on our shoulders.”

“Yes. It seems we do,” Madame Gerrot agreed.

Kris’s address to the Associated Assembly after that was a minor affair. She gave the nice, generic speech she had planned, adding in the foolish vs stupid reference to Solzen. It went over big now that she was assumed dead.

Kris made no references to heads or raped planets but left it to her listeners to assume the worst.

No doubt, they would assume far less than what they faced, but hopefully, their fear would be enough to unite them.

She, Jack, and Penny were back aboard the Wasp before it was time for lunch.

Kris still hurt quite a bit from those two slugs. Nelly told her that several religious groups on Sasquan were claiming the miracle of her survival for their gods.

That was another opinion Kris was willing to leave open to whatever interpretation people wanted to put on it.

Captain Drago interrupted her lunch. “The aliens are braking as they come around the sun, but they have launched stone, iron, and lead bullets at the planet. These are not slowing. They’re headed our way at several hundred thousand kilometers an hour, and it looks like they are aiming for major cities.”

Kris tossed her napkin on the table. “Enough of diplomacy. Now we get to fight,” she said.