Kris Longknife: Defender (28 page)

“But you’re all behaving like kids,” Sampson growled.

“More like teenagers,” retired admiral, now yard supervisor Benson put in. “These young men and women have a tough job to do, a deadly fate looming in their future, and the need to work it out without the external discipline that usually goes with this job. It’s not a good place to be.”

Sampson glared at her supervisor, who ignored her and gave Kris a placid look.

Jack and four Marines marched through the door before Kris said another word. Jack glanced around, spotted Sampson, and marched for her. “As I understand it, you are not on the approved list for this meeting. Would you please come with me?”

“I’m a serving officer in the U.S. Navy. I can go where I wish.”

“This meeting is for skippers and their key staff,” Jack snapped. “You are not in any of those billets. Either come with me now, or I will have my Marines remove you to the brig.”

Sputtering nasties under her breath that Kris was careful not to hear, Sampson went where Jack led. At the door, she whirled and pointed at the yard supervisor. “What’s he doing here?”

“I invited him,” Kris said. With that, Jack half ushered, half shoved the red-faced officer out of the room. The last Marine out closed the door.

Kris now turned to her officers. “Okay, let’s talk. Now that you’ve lived with the app that lets doors show up where we’ll never know, what problems have you identified, and what do you think we should do about them?”

Kris heard no surprises. The list of problems was what you’d expect to hear when men and women worked hard in close proximity. Admiral Benson was kind enough to point out that he was facing them at the shipyard where most of his personnel were civilian and living under looser rules.

Captain Kitano summed it up for all. “They’re grown-ups. They’re going to live or die because of what the Sailor or officer next to them does. They know it as well as we do. So, if they want to be treated as grown-ups, why shouldn’t we let them?”

“There are reinforcements coming, only a few systems out,” Sims of the
Constellation
said. “Shouldn’t we wait for them to establish policy?”

“We’ve been living with this for a lot longer than they have,” another skipper said. “Let’s do it and let them adjust to us. The more that show up, the more likely we are to get people like Sampson.”

“Besides, the commodore didn’t wait to get any chops on her marriage request,” someone in the back tossed in. It sounded like an old chief.

“Pipe down, or that Marine that frog-marched Sampson out of here may do you next,” an XO snapped.

Kris frowned; was she losing control of the meeting?

Kitano stood up. “Enough of that. Commodore Longknife had a narrow window when she could do what she wanted, and it wasn’t illegal. She grabbed it. I don’t know about you, but I like her style. She’s offering us a similar window. I say we take it.”

The room seemed to mull that over for a few seconds, then sounds of agreement filled the wardroom.

“If we’re going to suspend one set of Navy regs, we need to put something in its place,” Kris said. “I hate to do this, but I need a committee. Two or three skippers. Two from each of the rest of you: XOs, engineering, Marines. Chiefs. This policy will be yours to manage. I want the command senior chief and Gunny from each frigate working on this.”

“I think we need two from Weapons and two from Deck Division,” Captain Kitano tossed in.

“Okay,” Kris said. “I want names on my desk in an hour. I want a rough draft on my desk by 0800 tomorrow. If that means some folks miss a night’s sleep, so be it.”

Kris walked out while the skippers were volunteering either themselves or someone of their teams.

Jack was waiting for her outside.

“Sorry about not being there immediately. Nelly called, and I came running as fast as I could grab four stray Marines.”

“Nelly, thanks for the initiative, and Jack, thanks for the help. Where is our failed skipper?”

“I had the Marines escort Sampson to the brig to cool off. Once we had her in the passageway, she blew up. She started shouting stuff that, if I’d heard it, might make me have to bring her up on charges for Unbecoming and Prejudicial.”

“She did that to me last time we talked. Have a medical officer drop down to check her out in the brig. I have to wonder if something’s wrong with her.”

“Besides being just plain wrongheaded?”

“Yes.”

Superintendent Benson slipped out of the meeting. “Sorry about that. Sampson got away from her desk when I wasn’t looking. I’d heard you were back and figured you’d be trying to solve this matter. As soon as I spotted her missing, I came.”

“Thanks for the support. Tell me, in your previous incarnation as an admiral, and considering that an admiral might be included in the reinforcements headed our way, how would you take to what is going on here and what I’m doing?”

Admiral Benson, ret., rolled his eyes at the overhead. “I’d probably have an epileptic fit, to tell you the truth. Sampson’s problem is that she’s old school, like I was. We don’t handle some leadership challenges very well.”

“But you’ve got a similar situation at the yard.”

“Yes, but as I keep reminding myself, I’m a civilian, and so are those working for me. None of us have to get a laser on target the first time, every time. Don’t get me wrong. I never faced any leadership challenge like you’re up against, so I’m not going to tell you that you’re wrong. It’s just not something I would ever do.”

He paused, then looked Kris hard in the eye. “That’s likely one of the reasons why King Ray chose you for command here and not one of the more senior types around.”

Which gave Kris pause. Had her Grampa Ray once more handpicked her for one of his worst messes?

“Thank you, sir,” Kris said, “for your advice and guidance.”

“It’s worth every penny you paid for it. Now, where’s my gal, and how much will it cost me to bail her out?”

“She’s in the brig, Superintendent,” Kris said, “but I’d really like to have a medical officer look her over before we turn her loose. I’d hate to discover six weeks from now that she had a brain tumor, and we didn’t spot it after she acted up like that.”

“A brain tumor would be easier to handle than her just being old-line,” the former admiral said as he headed down to the brig.

“So, you got any more hand grenades to toss today, my lovely Viceroy and Sector Commander?” Jack asked.

“Nope, I can’t think of a thing more to do. Oh, when’s the
Wasp
due in with our prize? Have we arranged for it to dock?”

“I have arranged a dock for the
Wasp
,” Nelly said. “I’m assuming we’ll park the wreck in a trailing orbit fifty klicks behind the station.”

“Another well done, Nelly. Gosh, Jack, what can we do with ourselves?”

“How about me take you to dinner on the station?” Jack suggested. “It’s been a while since I had a date with my wife.”

Dinner
with Jack was beyond nice. They were ushered to a quiet corner and left alone for the evening. The meal was unrecognizable, but Kris enjoyed what the chef had done with meat, roots, and sprouts that had never seen Earth’s sun. And there was a band.

They danced to tunes from the present to long before humanity ventured from its home. “You know, we don’t have
our
song,” Jack said.

“I’m sure we’ll find one sooner or later,” Kris assured him.

They returned to Kris’s quarters and soon needed a shower. “You know, you have your quarters and I’m down a deck and around the other side, but I really don’t think we’ve quite got the spirit of the policy correct,” Jack whispered in Kris’s ear as he scrubbed her back.

“We’ll see what the policy is tomorrow,” Kris said, and started on his front.

Still, before 2100, Jack was on his way to his quarters and Kris was back at her desk going through reports. One caused her pause. Professor Labao thought they had matched the star fields that always decorated the overhead of sacred places on the alien ships. If true, it was about three thousand light-years back the way Kris and the Fleet of Discovery had come.

Interesting.

Kris pondered what to do. Knowledge was power. Would a visit to the alien home world give them power? Would any ship dispatched on such a recon mission survive? Kris would have to balance the risk against the return.

If she did choose to send someone, who should it be?

It would be nice to give Sampson another ship and get her out of Kris’s hair. The problem was, she was more likely to take off for home, whining all the way, rather than risk her neck to answer any questions.

Kris could think of at least one person who was good at asking and answering questions. The only question was, could she risk her?

Kris fell asleep at her desk, reviewing food production projections from both the colonial farms and Alwan.

Next morning, on her way to breakfast, Kris found a bleary-eyed XO with two senior chiefs at her side waiting outside the wardroom. “Here’s our draft policy.”

Kris flipped through it. “You left a place for me to sign?” she pointed out.

“Captain Kitano said we might as well do a full staff job. Whatever draft you sign will need a place to do it at, right?”

Kris thanked the chiefs for their effort and led the XO into the wardroom. She read the policy through, with Jack looking over her shoulder.

“You see a problem from the Marine side?” she asked him.

“Nope. I trust my Gunnies. Besides, if there is a problem, that’s what mod 1 and mod 12 are for.”

Kris signed it and handed it back to the XO. “See that this is published before noon today.”

The young lieutenant was grinning from ear to ear. “Yes, ma’am,” she said. “There is an upside to having a Longknife for a commander.”

“Not many,” Jack assured her, “but a few.”

The exec saluted and headed off at a jog.

“Is that your first policy?” Jack asked.

“Maybe,” Kris said around a bite of bran muffin. “Certainly my first to supplant a Navy reg. We’ll have to wait to see how that goes.”

“Yes, we will.”

Kris was back at her desk in her day quarters when the screens on her walls came to life. “Commodore,” Captain Kitano reported, “we’ve got activity at Jump Point Beta. Lots of it.”

“Show me what you’re getting.”

Jack, who had been going over his Marine reports on the couch, stood up to join Kris in front of her screens.

“Ships are coming through. U.S. registry out of Wardhaven,” Kitano reported. “
Renown
,
Repulse
,
Royal Sovereign
,
Resistance
, and
Resolute
. The chief thinks those are heavy frigates. They’re followed by the
Supply
and
Ajax
. Auxiliaries, but none of them are in our recognition books, nor are their pennant numbers ones we have.”

“Send my greetings. If we don’t hear something friendly from them in two hours, we’ll take the squadron to general quarters and sortie. Issue a preliminary order for a sortie.”

“Aye, aye, Commodore.”

Then another section of Kris’s screen lit up. “Commodore Hawkings, here. I hope we didn’t scare you, Admiral. Yep, it’s admiral. The king sends his compliments and your official promotion to captain and frocks you up to rear admiral. You’ll need the rank, I’m just the first division through the jump. Wait until you see what’s behind me. Over to you.”

K
RIS, THERE IS A
C
OMMANDER
H
AWKINGS IN OUR DATABASE.
F
ACIAL RECOGNITION GIVES A NINETY-NINE-POINT-EIGHTY-NINE-PERCENT MATCH TO HIM.
H
E WAS ON THE FAST TRACK, AND IT LOOKS LIKE THEY MOVED HIM AHEAD OF A LOT OF SENIORS TO COME HERE.

L
ET’S HOPE HE’S AS GOOD AS THEY THINK HE IS.
“Commodore Hawkings, good to see you. We’ve got plenty of seats by the fire. Come on down.”

Kris knew there would be a long wait for any reply.

“More ships,” Captain Kitano reported. “
Triumph
,
Swiftsure
,
Hotspur
, and
Spitfire
. All from the Helvetican Confederacy. They’ve got two ships following them,
North Star
and
Enchanter
. Heavy frigates and supply, too.”

“Let’s hope these
Triumph
and
Swiftsure
have more luck under my command than the last two,” Kris muttered. Jack came to rest a supporting hand on her shoulder.

“Captain Kitano, are all these ships Smart Metal?” Kris asked on net.

“Sensors say they are. Why?”

“Because we’re going to need more docks real soon. I hope some of the auxiliaries can be merged into Canopus Station, or it’s going to get downright cozy here. Pass that along to Admiral Benson.”

“Doing so, ma’am. Oh, and by the way, congratulations on your promotion, Admiral.”

“Let’s wait until we see the orders that come with it. I no longer trust my grampa, your king.”

“Yes, ma’am,” the captain said with equanimity. Apparently, she was getting used to Kris’s attitude toward the large herd of elephants she descended from. If she kept up with Kris, she might find herself commodore of a frigate squadron since there was now an opening for a new boss for the eight frigates who had held down the fort for six weeks.

“More ships coming through,” Kitano reported. On Kris’s screen, more green dots popped into view. Names quickly appeared next to them.
Haruna
,
Chikuma
,
Atago
, and
Tone
. There was a pause, then more appeared.
Arasi
,
Hubuki
,
Amatukaze
, and
Arare
. Musashi was making a major contribution.

Again, Kris’s screen came to life. “I am glad to greet you in a better space, Admiral Longknife,” said now Commodore Miyoshi. “I see something huge and mangled approaching your station with a ship I don’t recognize, but engines my sensor people say are Mitsubishi built. I hope you have left something for us to hunt.”

“I’m very glad to see you again, too, Commodore, as well as the ships you’ve brought. And yes, the space around Alwa is still a target-rich environment. Glad to have you aboard.” That message would also take a while to be received and responded to.

“Following those large frigates are four more ships.
Taigei
,
Soyo
,
Zingei
, and
Kagu Maru
. That last one is huge. As in Canopus size. They may be bringing their own space dock.”

“I’ll talk to Commodore Miyoshi about merging it with Canopus Station,” Kris said. “Or they can do what they want; I’m just glad to have them.”

“I heard there was a lot of fun going on,” Penny said, joining Kris and Jack in Kris’s day quarters.

“It looks like the cavalry just arrived,” Jack said. “Hope it’s enough.”

“Ever the pessimist,” Kris said.

“We need at least one in this shop,” Penny said.

“Be nice to her,” Jack said. “She’s now a permanent captain and a frocked-up rear admiral.”

“They’re fattening the calf before the slaughter,” Penny said wryly.

“The bastards will certainly know they’ve been in a fight this time,” Kris said.

“When we were picking the bones of the last mother ship, I didn’t notice that they hadn’t been in a fight last time. Don’t think we did either,” Jack said.

“Quiet in the peanut gallery. More ships coming through,” Kris said.

“U.S. from Lorna Do.
Warrior
,
Warspite
,
Nelson
, and
Churchill
. How very British of them,” Katano said. “
Argus
and
Activity
are their supply ships. Good show.”

“You think that’s the last of the parade?” Jack asked.

“I hope not. What’s that give us? Nine Wardhaven ships to start with plus five more. Eight Musashi, and four each from Lorna Do and Helvetica. Thirty to face two hundred or more, depending on how many mother ships hit us next time.”

“Now who’s the pessimist?” Jack asked.

“So we take turns. For the next five minutes, you be the optimist,” Kris said.

“Hold it, there are more,” Penny said. “Another U.S. ship, the
Lion
, from Savannah. That sounds familiar, but . . .”

“An industrial planet we helped train fast attacks for,” Kris said. “Until someone tried to bomb me, and we got the boot.”

“Right, I remember them. It was the second place we got bombed,” Jack said.

“And the fourth place we got the bum’s rush out of,” Penny recalled. “That was before we ended up on Chance. Now those were good times.”

“Good times,” Kris said. “The only thing good about them was we didn’t get suddenly dead.”

“Yes, but we survived,” Jack said. “And we went on to greater and more fun things, and now we can look back on them fondly. Just think. Five years from now, we’ll be looking back on this and saying, ‘Now those were the good times.’”

“Because we’re in worse trouble than this?” Penny said. “God help us.”

“Rest assured, He will,” Jack said.

“She will,” Penny shot back.

“Crew, crew, look at what Santa brought us.
Lion
,
Tiger
,
Jaguar
, and
Puma
.”

“What, no skunk?”

“Trust me, Penny, if it would get me another 20-inch frigate, I’d make it my flag.”

“Well, Savannah is adding a
Cougar
,
Cheetah
,
Lynx
, and
Leopard
,” Jack said.

“Still no skunk.” Penny sighed.

“No, but
Sirius
,
Regulus
,
Polaris
,
Castor
, and
Pollux
should help keep us supplied.

“Thirty-eight frigates and fifteen auxiliaries,” Jack said. “Now tell me, how are we going to feed them all?”

“You were supposed to be the optimist,” Kris pointed out.

“My time was up. I can go back to my default mode. An optimistic Marine is usually a dead one. You want me pessimistic. Pessimists are cautious and stay alive.”

“Okay, my love, you may be a pessimist if it will keep you coming home to me,” Kris said, and gave him a quick kiss.

Penny raised an eyebrow.

“Haven’t you read my first policy memo, Penny?”

The new lieutenant commander shook her head.

“Fraternizing is now allowed, so long as it is not harassment. If he harasses me, I get to shove him off to another ship.”

“But she only fraternizes with me,” Jack put in.

“You’re biting the bullet,” Penny said.

“Will this change anything between you and Iizuka Masao?”

“I don’t dare. The last time I loved a guy and married him, he got killed. I almost got killed, and Wardhaven nearly got pounded to dust. I’m unlucky at love for all those around me.”

“More ships coming through,” Captain Kitano announced on net.

“We’re not done,” Kris said, turning from her friend to the screen. More blips appeared identified as
Altair
,
Algol
,
Andromeda
, and
Diphada
of the Star Line.

“They’ve only got two reactors,” Senior Chief Beni, ret., announced on net. “I’m showing no lasers, but they’re big. As an old chief, I’d bet they’re transports. Big ones.”

“What has Santa Claus sent this good little girl?” Kris asked with a grin.

“Are you a good
little
girl?” Penny shot back.

Kris gave Jack a sideways glance.

“Well, she’s certainly a
good
girl,” her loving husband supplied, right on cue.

Kris rewarded him with another quick peck before turning to Penny. “We’ll find out what they are when they get here. Now, Penny, girlfriend to girlfriend, you can’t really believe you’re responsible for what happened at Wardhaven. Vicky Peterwald as much as told us that her old man was behind the whole attack.”

“I know,” Penny said. “In my head, I know. But somewhere between there and my heart, my gut, and lower down, I can’t seem to get it.”

The jump point had finished disgorging presents for Kris. She pointed Penny at the couch, and the two of them adjourned to the comfortable seats. Jack seemed to sense girl talk was on the schedule and excused himself for Marine business.

“Penny, how well is your head screwed on?” Kris asked. She’d planned to give Penny a job. A critically important and very dangerous job. However, if her friend was only holding on to herself by her fingernails, Kris might have to look elsewhere.

“Kris, I’m fine,” Penny said, folding her hands into her lap. “Have you had any problems with my work?”

“None whatsoever,” Kris said. “Are you up to commanding a ship?”

Penny made a face. “The last time I commanded a ship, I think I killed Hank Peterwald. Have you got another old boyfriend you want popped?”

“He was
never
a boyfriend, and
you
didn’t kill him. Whoever sabotaged his survival pod did that. But actually, this time, I would most definitely not want you to get in a fight.”

“You’re ordering me to command a ship but not get in a fight? Strange words from a Longknife. What’s my potential command, a garbage scow?”