Kris Longknife: Defender (27 page)

The
trip back held few other surprises. The
Wasp
and the wreck held together. Nelly found a route that almost landed them in Alwa. They dropped into a system with a working jump buoy just as Captain Drago called time to refuel. While they used the jump buoy to message Alwa that they would be home in a just a few days, they settled into orbit around a gas giant, and the
Wasp
’s pinnace did two refueling runs.

That made it possible for Captain Drago to accelerate at one gee until halfway to the jumps, then decelerate the rest of the way. They went through dead slow and on an even keel. Three days later, they nudged their way into Alwa system to find the
Princess Royal
and the
Constellation
waiting for them.

“Good Lord,
Wasp
,” Captain Kitano said on screen. “What happened to you?”

“Look what followed me home,” Kris said proudly.

“More like what you pushed home,” Kitano replied.

“It does kind of look that way. Nelly, send to the professor. ‘Have I got an alien artifact for you to study!’”

“It doesn’t look in very good shape,” Kitano said.

“Again, no survivors, but this time I sliced the reactors off so they couldn’t blow themselves to dust. No one has been aboard the wreck, but our nanos report it’s crammed with bodies. They popped the hatches at the last second and spaced themselves.”

Kitano just shook her head. Then she seemed to change her thoughts. “Commodore, I hate to say it, but I’m very glad to see you back. Is it safe for me to come aboard the
Wasp
, or would you prefer to come to the
P Royal
?”

“The
Wasp
is quite safe. We’ve proved it through more jumps than I care to count. Come aboard, Captain. I would like a full report on what’s happened. By the way, we saved the
Hornet
’s crew. All but three. We arrived in the nick of time.”

“I’m glad to hear that, ma’am. I’ll be with you in fifteen minutes.”

“I’ll have Captain Drago delay starting our acceleration until you’re here.”

Ten minutes later, as the
Princess Royal
’s gig docked solidly with the
Wasp
, Captain Drago put on one gee of acceleration, and the deck was once again down. A few minutes later, Captain Kitano joined Kris in her day quarters. Jack and Captain Drago came in a second later.

“What’s our situation?” Kris asked, as the four of them settled onto the couch and stuffed chairs.

“We deployed the buoys, as you no doubt noticed. We’ve lost one, six jumps out from the one the aliens would have used if they made it past your fleet, Commodore.”

“So they’re out there and nibbling, but they’re keeping their distance.”

“It seems that way.”

“And our defensive efforts?”

“We’ve dug bases a thousand meters down on all three moons. One is mainly ice, but we found something solid. We’ve got two launch tunnels dug on all three and are working on a third one for each. The Hellburners have gone live on all those satellites. The crews are mainly the Ostriches with a few Roosters, colonial and Navy thrown in. The second division of the squadron is online and has shaken down very well.”

“Well done,” Kris said.

“I’ll leave the situation dirtside to Granny Rita, and the industrial situation to Pipra, but I think you’ll find them all satisfactory or better. It’s my handling of the Navy personnel that may be a problem, ma’am.”

“That app that opens doors between quarters?” Kris said, to save the young woman from beating around the bush.

“Yes, ma’am. I thought that when we off-loaded most of the boffins, our problem would go with them, but no. Many that went dirtside to work on the food supply came back with attachments. Some local, but lots of Navy. Once some officers relaxed discipline, others followed. I tried jacking up the security on the Smart Metal and having only the chiefs be able to move metal. But we want people to do damage control, and the chiefs don’t want to be answering calls for every little thing.” Katano shrugged.

“Beside, some smart Sailor cracked the new code. If I keep increasing it, ma’am, I run the risk of getting close to the hull algorithm, and I don’t want that. I’ve got morale problems with the Sailors, chiefs, and officers. We’re trying to follow the regs, ma’am, but it’s not working. Now, I don’t know what to do. It’s not like I can order half the couples ashore permanently. I’d be grounding twenty, thirty percent of our crews.”

“They sent us the younger officers and enlisted personnel, the ones with no attachments,” Kris supplied. “And now they’re forming attachments under the threat that any day could well be their last.”

“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that from my division heads and chiefs, ma’am.”

“Has it caused trouble? Damaged unit cohesion?” Jack asked.

“That’s what has surprised me,” Captain Kitano said. “There have been a few blowups, but not all that many. Where things went sour, I usually get a request from one or the other for a reassignment. So far, they’ve been few enough for us to handle, and they’ve had no impact on our battle efficiency. I don’t know how the folks back home would take to this, but here, just letting Sailors be boys and girls works best.”

“We are here, and we do have an alien something nibbling at our perimeter, and everyone knows that any day they could be fighting for their lives,” Kris concluded. “Am I missing something, or are all hands handling themselves to meet their needs and the needs of the mission?”

“I wouldn’t want to tell the king that, but yes, ma’am, it does look that way.”

“Let me handle my grampa,” Kris said.

“You don’t seem very surprised,” Captain Kitano said.

“The
Wasp
has had the same pressures on its crew, and they’ve been in two fights to boot. Captain Drago here issued his own order violating Navy policy before we started home. I would have been surprised if you hadn’t dropped this in my lap.”

“What do you plan to do, Commodore?” Captain Kitano asked.

“When we dock, I’ll call the captains and key staff together and hash it out. If we can come to a unanimous consensus, I’ll go that way.”

“I don’t think you’ll have too much of a problem,” Kitano said.

“Kris,” Nelly said, “there’s a message coming in from the jump buoy at Jump Point Beta. Ships from the U.S. have jumped into a system three jumps out.”

“Hmm,” Kris said, “Do we get our own consensus or wait for the new kids to arrive?”

“I’m glad I don’t have your job,” three voices said in harmony.

Half an hour later, Kris transferred her flag from the
Wasp
to the
Princess Royal
and headed for Alwa at 2.5 gees. That gave her time to get a report from her vice viceroy.

Alwa was producing a lot more food . . . if you liked fish. The Alwans were bringing a lot of forest edibles to market and did like the electronic goods the moon base was starting to turn out. Also, that copper mountain was slowly dripping copper into the nonpolluting catch basins.

There was grumbling from some of the old elders, but not from the new not-quite-so-elders stepping forward. They were more in step with the average Alwan on the path and only too aware the new humans were the only thing standing between them and the biggest “eats everything” they had ever dreamed of.

Pipra reported to Kris in her day quarters on the
Princess Royal
as soon as she docked. Kris invited her to take a comfortable chair away from the table. “The fabricators are starting to produce parts for weapon-caliber lasers. The miners aren’t interested in being in unarmed ships when the aliens show up.” The asteroid mining was going as well as could be expected. “I could use more ships to bring rare earths and other metals down system.” Pipra was sure her techs would be excited to get their hands on the
Hornet
’s reactors.

“So you found what you were looking for.” Pipra seemed quite surprised.

“They were on an island and near death. We got there just in time. Now, how are we coming on making our own reactors and Smart Metal?”

“We’re getting there. We’ve started a prototype reactor on the moon. Not much output yet, but it’s not breaking down, either. We’ve put out some Smart Metal. They’re using it for trucks dirtside, freeing up your metal to go back to the frigates. We’re having much better luck with aluminum and steel. We’re replacing the fishing fleet with them. Our main problem is getting enough rare earths to power things. We’ve got a solar-cell plant up, but without batteries, you can’t keep the ship out after dark. Same for trucks.”

“Keep on it, then. How are your personnel holding up to being on the front line of humanity’s next fight with the alien bastards?”

“I figured that would come next,” Pipra said, leaning back in her chair. “The three managers who tried to drink Canopus Station dry were cut off at the bar and sent dirtside. Two are working as farmhands. One disappeared into the forest. We’ve had a few suicides. Nothing above the average for folks in high-stress jobs. Since we started closing up the bars early, folks have been going home and finding their own comfort. Lots of marriages, handfastings, and civil unions for folks who don’t want a preacher involved. Not a few of our folks are bedding down with your Sailors, ma’am. I hope that isn’t a problem, Your Highness.”

“That’s my next meeting. Any of your folks want to ship on with the Navy if some of our folks wanted to try their hand at your trades?”

“Our skill sets are nowhere close, ma’am. We’re a pretty select set of specialists here. Retraining your folks to our jobs and our folks to yours would not be an efficient use of resources at this critical time. All of us heard about that buoy six systems out that went silent. We’re working twelve or more hours a day, six or seven days a week.”

“Work hard. Play hard,” Kris said.

“Yes, ma’am, and we treat them like adults. What they do on their own time, what they have of it, is their own business.”

“My next meeting may see that applied to the fleet as well.”

“Good. It’s about time if you don’t mind my saying so, that you uniform types treated grown-ups as grown-ups.”

“You tend to your knitting and I’ll tend to mine,” Kris said, dismissing the future CEO before she decided to give Kris more advice she didn’t need.

“Yes, ma’am,” Pipra said, standing. “Glad to have you back. Looking forward to working with you. How soon do you think we have before the bastards attack?”

“If I knew that, I’d be a lot more relaxed than I am,” Kris said as she ushered Pipra to the door.

That left her with exactly three minutes before her meeting with the frigate skippers. That was scheduled for the wardroom. XOs, chief engineers, and skippers of the Marine detachments had been invited as well as command senior chiefs and Gunnies. Kris was none too sure how far she’d go with this consensus process, but she wanted all her ducks in a row, where she could knock them down with one stone if she had to.

She got the “Atten-hut” and “As you were” over with as quickly as possible. Again, most of the audience were close to the coffee urns, so she took her stance beside it. She first announced that the crew of the
Hornet
had been found, starving and sick, but were on their way here. Those present cheered, only too aware that it could have been them, and they had a commander who would go the extra million light-years to find them.

That done, Kris glanced at Captain Kitano, half expecting her to report the issue that was to be the main topic of this meeting, but Kitano didn’t respond to a glance. When Kris opened the floor up for any problems, the captains only eyed each other. Then Kris saw the reason.

Lieutenant Commander Sampson, former skipper of the
Constellation
, had taken a seat at Kris’s far right, half looking at her, half eyeing the other skippers. When their eyes met, Sampson locked on her, a cruel twist to her lips. Was she daring Kris and the other skippers to step across the line, to violate Navy regs?

Kris had no intention of letting a failed skipper dictate policy to a Longknife.

As she took a deep breath to start, the door opened, and Admiral Benson, ret., stepped inside. He quickly but quietly covered the distance to the chair next to Sampson and settled into it.

The failed skipper did not look very happy to have her new supervisor seated at her elbow.

Kris took another breath and began to lay the problem out in a methodical way. She explained that most of them had been chosen for this assignment so far from any other humans because of their lack of personal attachments. Few had left wives, husbands, or significant others on the other side of the galaxy. All hands needed to be able to make quick, emergency adjustments to Smart Metal
TM
. That also made it easy to acquire attachments, and the lack of shore facilities made it hard, if not impossible, for commanders to respond to violations of regulations. That, and the total lack of any replacements to take the place of anyone detached for punishment put leadership in a lose-lose situation.

“So, what do we do?” Kris asked rhetorically.

“You don’t violate Navy regs,” Sampson snapped.

“Thank you, Lieutenant Commander, but I’d like to hear from officers actually facing this leadership challenge.”

“They should face it, but they’re not. They’re all in violation of Navy regs,” Sampson almost shouted, keeping the floor from any others.

Since she insisted on doing all the talking, Kris decided to give her the floor.

For a while.

“And how would you propose solving this leadership challenge, miss.”

Sampson cringed at Kris’s slap, addressed as one might a middy or boot ensign, but she charged ahead. “As I did with the
Constellation
. Open space barracks and bed checks.”

“And we saw how well it worked for you,” Captain Kitano shot back. “Most of your crew wanted off your ship.”

“Only because your love boats were out there for them to transfer to,” was her comeback.

“May I remind everyone that we’re here to fight a pretty nasty set of aliens, not bicker like kids in the sandbox,” Kris pointed out.