Daring (21 page)

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Authors: Mike Shepherd

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BOOK: Daring
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“You humans are very strange. Your chooser could not or would not order a scout force out, even though he is king. Yet his subordinate violates his orders and because of that, a search fleet goes out. Very strange behavior.”
“You've got to give Kris credit for the scout fleet,” Vicky said. “The battleships showed up to go where she went. If Kris hadn't insisted her next mission was to do some snooping around the far end of the galaxy, I don't think anything would have happened. Really, Kris, do you?”
Kris shrugged. “I made up my mind that I was going out here once we cured the pirate problem out beyond the rim of your empire, Vicky. All the rest just kind of followed after me like a speckled giraffe on wheels that I had when I was a little kid.”
“Though it took a lot more pull,” Vicky said, grinning.
“I didn't pull anything. I went. They followed. Kind of like you Ron. I didn't do anything to have you here, but here you are.”
“I think my chooser and the Emperor did not want me at the court. No one wanted to talk
to
me, but the drift of the current was clear. People were talking
about
me a lot.”
“Boy, we girls can really relate to that,” Vicky said, with just the hint of a giggle.
“So, can we talk about what you found?” Ron asked.
Kris nodded. “I don't have a lot to add to it. What's in my report is pretty grim. What I wrote was just an effort to document what I saw on the ground.”
“Will I be allowed to take some of the bodies back to the Empire?” Ron asked.
“I'll let you take a complete set of bodies from the ship that attacked us,” Kris said. “If you want, you can have a complete exoskeleton from the murdered planet.”
“What about the other skeletons you found? Our scientists will want to make their own determination about who those people are.”
“That's a problem. There are only three of them. We've already found DNA in the pulp of some teeth. If you have the technology to identify DNA, I guess we could probably spare a few teeth for your Empire.”
“Yes, we can do the thing that makes the DNA tell its story,” the Iteeche said. “A tooth from each of the bodies would be a generous gift.”
“I imagine all the other governments who sent representatives to the Fleet of Discovery will also want teeth,” Kris said.
On the screen, a star lit up.
“There goes the
Mercury
,” Nelly told them. “It has Kris's report and some of the artifacts from the planet, including teeth.”
“Whoever those poor murdered girls were,” Kris said, “they're going to end up with their teeth scattered all across the galaxy.”
“They may be murdered souls, Kris,” Nelly said, “but they were murdering souls as well.”
“Too true,” Kris agreed.
“Kris, the
Hornet
just jumped into the system,” Nelly reported. “Phil Taussig has an urgent message for you.”
“Put him on.”
“Commodore, we have a problem,” Phil Taussig started without preamble. “I have seen the bug-eyed monsters, and they are even more huge than we feared.”
27
For a moment, Kris heard the words, but her brain refused to make sense of them. That state of affairs lasted for maybe two seconds. Then Kris jumped to her feet and pitched her voice to carry.
“People, I need this room. Please take your drinks and go elsewhere. Barkeep, this pub is closed.”
The folks on the
Wasp
were used to strange demands coming from their princess. With hardly a word, the place emptied.
“Nelly, tell my staff to get down here on the double.”
“They're already running,” her computer reported. “ All except the chief. I figured you'd want to let him keep working with Vicky's people.”
“Good call, Nelly. Yes.”
“Should I return to my quarters?” the Iteeche asked.
“Ron, you're the reason we're here. I don't see why you should get this report secondhand. Vicky, same goes for you.”
“I wish I'd brought Maggie with me,” Vicky said. “Would you mind if I sent the admiral's barge back to the
Fury
and picked her up?”
“Assuming your admiral doesn't confiscate his barge, do what you want,” Kris snapped, totally in combat mode. She thought for a second. “Nelly, you want to give all the admirals a heads-up? They can join us online if they want to.”
“Aye, aye, Commodore,” Nelly said. “I'll make it so. I like that phrase.”
Jack arrived at a full run, with Penny and the colonel on his heels. Abby, Kris's maid and spy, shuffled in a few seconds later, her hair up in curlers and wearing a housecoat and fuzzy slippers.
“This better be good,” she complained.
“Phil is back. The
Hornet
caught a glimpse of the bug-eyed monsters,” Kris said.
“How much of
him
did
they
catch?” the colonel asked darkly.
“I got a one-line brief,” Kris said. “I've only had time to sound officer call.”
“Should you sound ‘Boots and Saddles'?” Jack asked. “Now might not be a bad time to beat all hands to battle stations.”
“Phil didn't holler for it, but, yeah, there's no telling if he knows what's on his tail or not. Nelly, order PatRon 10 to battle stations. Tell the admirals that we are going to high alert, and I would advise them to all do the same.”
The Klaxon on the
Wasp
went off. “Battle stations. Battle stations. All hands to battle stations. This is no drill,” blared from the public address.
“Kris, Captain Drago for you,” Nelly reported.
Oops,
Kris thought. “Put him on.”
“Would you mind telling me why
you've
ordered battle stations for
our
ship. I may or may not be complaining, but when the captain's the last to know about something like this, it bothers me.”
“The
Hornet
just returned. Commander Taussig reports that they have seen the bug-eyed monsters, and they are huge. Until I know what all that means, we are at battle stations.”
“A very good idea, Your Highness. Thank you,” said the captain, and rung off.
Once again, the convoluted chain of command on the
Wasp
had gotten tangled and survived the experience. With any luck, and the goodwill of all involved, it would continue that way.
Kris eyed the screen, waiting for everyone to appear on it for the upcoming conference. It still showed the
Mercury
accelerating toward the jump point for home. Its report was still valid. However, it was now a touch out of date.
“Nelly, recall the
Mercury
. I think we'll need to add to her report.”
“Aye, aye, Kris, I've ordered the
Mercury
to return to the fleet area.”
“Kris, I don't mean to juggle your elbow,” Jack said, “but if we might have bug-eyed monsters charging though the jump point after the
Hornet
any second, wouldn't it be a good idea to have some report headed for home right now.”
Kris scowled at the screen. “Order, counterorder, disorder,” she muttered.
“But there's an exception to every rule,” the colonel whispered.
“Nelly, ask the skipper of the
Mercury
how long until they take the jump.”
“She says eight hours at their previous acceleration. She's just about to start decelerating to return to the fleet.”
“Tell her to maintain her course for the jump, but stay alert. Keep an eye out for fighting in the anchorage and record all message traffic. We may have an additional report for her.”
“Aye, aye, Commodore,” the computer said. A moment later, she added, “The
Mercury
is back to accelerating for the jump.”
The screen flickered and changed to show three admirals and Lieutenant Commander Taussig. Admiral Krätz was already talking. Maybe bellowing was more accurate.
“By what authority have you ordered my ships to battle stations?” he demanded.
“I ordered PatRon 10 to battle stations. I suggested you might want to follow our lead,” Kris said. “The
Hornet
is back, and Commander Taussig reports contact with the bug-eyed monsters.”
“You have found them,” Admiral Kōta said. “Did they follow you?”
“I think I gave them the slip,” Phil answered. “At least I didn't see anything of my pursuers in the last two systems I crossed.”
“But whether or not you shook them depends on their tracking skills,” Admiral Channing pointed out.
“There is that problem,” the skipper of the
Hornet
admitted.
“You want to tell us about the bug-eyed monsters?” Kris said.
“Not really,” Phil answered with a sigh. “Truth be told, I didn't spend any more time observing them than I had to.”
“Fill us in, Commander,” Kris ordered.
“We'd done our five jumps out and had nothing to show for it. We started back, following the new route the boffins said would bring us home. The second jump, three jumps out from here, we got a surprise.”
He took a deep breath before going on. “We came through the jump and headed for the next one. It was only three hours away. Thank God. Because our Sensor board started lighting up like it was Christmas. Reactors, thousands of them, all well down in the system, and headed for a different jump.”
“Thousands of reactors?” Kris said.
“I'll pass along our data. Maybe your boffins can make sense of it. There must have been three or four thousand reactors humming away at full power. There were even more trickling at minimum power. We finally located the source and got a fairly decent picture of it.”
The screen opened a separate window. It filled with something that looked like an elongated egg. An egg with a very bumpy skin.
“How big is that mother?” Admiral Krätz asked.
“We estimate it at over four thousand kilometers along its longitudinal axis. Not quite two thousand klicks at its widest. It's hard to tell because we don't know what is the main body and what are the ships docked to it.”
“Those knobby things come off?” Kris asked.
“Three of them took off after us.”
The pictures shifted to show three elongated dots detaching themselves from the main egg and making a straight line for the
Hornet
.
“How long did it take them to react to you?” the colonel asked.
“About an hour. Less, if you make allowances for the speed-of-light delay for them to spot us.”
“Did they try to communicate with you?” Kris asked.
“There was a lot of activity on the radio frequencies, but none was aimed at us, and we didn't identify anything as an effort to raise us. Once it was clear the ships were headed our way with a bone in their teeth, we did make an effort to open communications with them. If there was a reply, we couldn't identify it in the clutter.”
“You said a bone in their teeth,” Kris said. “How hot was their pursuit?”
“Three gees. I jacked the
Hornet
up to 3.5 gees and got out of there just as fast as I could.”
“Did you see any evidence of them in your next system?” Kris asked.
“Kris, when I got into the next system, I was very tempted to point the
Hornet
at the closest jump and see where it led me.” He swallowed hard at the thought. Only time would tell if it would have been better for the
Hornet
to disappear like the lost Flying Dutchman rather than come home with her report.
That decision might yet have to be made.
“Instead, I kept the boat at 3.5 gees and headed for the second jump like I was supposed to. We jumped out of there before we spotted any activity at the last jump point.”
He took a deep breath. “I don't know if they didn't pursue us or what. What I do know is that we didn't see hide nor hair of them in any of the systems we crossed to get here.”
“We've got to leave immediately,” Admiral Krätz snapped.
“I've still got a ship out there,” Kris said. From her point of view, there was now even more reason not to leave the
Intrepid
out here alone.
“We need to get this information back to our governments,” Admiral Channing said.
“Nelly, has the
Mercury
been taping this report?”
“Yes, Your Highness. She has been recording this and adding it to the report you filed with her.”
“Good,” Kris said. That took care of home as much as she could. She wasn't finished with Phil. “Commander, tell me more about this huge base ship. Did you get anything more on it?”
“It's dense. More dense than either of Wardhaven's moons. Much more dense than old Earth's moon. Almost as dense as, say, a planet.”
“And they needed thousands of reactors to power it.”
“Power it and propel it. It was leaving a plasma stream behind it that had to be seen to be believed.”
“How fast?” Kris asked.
“It was doing about half a gee acceleration away from one jump point and headed for another.”
“So it was going somewhere,” Kris said.
“Definitely.”
“Space rovers,” Penny said.
“But we don't have a picture of who or what is at the helm of this ship. Ships,” Kris corrected herself.
“Nothing, Commander. I've got recordings of what they were transmitting, but no one aboard the
Hornet
could make any sense of them.”
“Pass them to us,” Kris ordered. “Nelly, tell Professor mFumbo that he doesn't have any higher priority than extracting something useful from this data stream. I very much want to watch any video they have. Very much.”

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