"First, I want to thank all of you for coming today. I also want to thank all of the chiefs of the clans, septs, cadets, and families who have contributed ships to the Combined Fleet for the next year. I hope to return your ships in less time. I also intend to return them to you as stronger fighting vessels with trained, victorious crews."
That got a cheer from both sides of the room. Kris let it go for a minute, then raised her hands again.
"We are gathered together today to divide up the spoils. Admittedly, we have yet to capture anything, so some might consider this optimistic. However, the last time I sailed from the Imperial Capital, I captured three planets and quite a few prize ships."
A loud and more raucous celebration of expectations interrupted Kris. She let it go on for a long minute, then cut it off.
"We will do this is by pulling chips from these two drums. In one drum we have put a collection of chips with the name of each clan that is loaning us a ship. For example, if you assigned a flotilla of thirty-two battlecruisers to the Combined Fleet, you have thirty-two chips in the huge right-hand drum. If your family or cadet has given us the use of one ship, you have one. Since we have a total of sixty-four hundred ships, there are a lot of chips in that one."
That got a laugh.
"The smaller drum is filled with chips that have the name of major and middle administrative jobs that need doing for a planet or a city. There is one with the title of Planetary Overlord on it. There are also chips with the titles of ministers of power, security, water, population, and housing; all the major and minor leadership positions needed to run a planet. We'll be assigning city positions, even though we don't know how many cities any particular planet will have. On average, you have about a hundred cities per planet, from large to average size. Any questions?"
"Who's gonna pull these chips out?" came from somewhere in the middle of the clan chiefs.
"How about me?" Kris offered.
Kris knew that the Iteeche equivalent of a boo was close to a Bronx cheer. The room rocked with them.
"You don't trust me?" Kris sniffed.
The "No!" came from both sides of the lounge and just about blew her back against the bulkhead.
When it quieted down again, Kris said, "Admiral Tong told me that you might react that way."
The admiral jumped to his feet and let everyone know, "I sure did."
There was more happy laughing.
Kris knelt down, and invited Ruth and Johnnie forward. They came to stand, one hugged to her right breast, the other to her left.
"I'd like to offer these two younglings for this job. Ruth, how old are you?"
"Seven," she shouted out through missing front teeth.
"Johnnie, how old are you?"
"Five," he announced, holding up a cookie-crumbed hand with all five fingers spread.
"Ruth, has anyone told you to pick a particular chip out of the drum?"
The seven-year-old turned in Kris's arms to look back at the huge drum. "How could I do that? They're all mixed up in there. I just reach in and pull one out. I'm even supposed to look the other way."
"Johnnie?"
"I do what Ruthie tells me to."
"Does anyone doubt that these kids are innocent of guile or instructions?"
The room was quiet.
"Now, since they're small, and this could go a long time, I'd like to offer you two other youngsters. Aroha and Asher."
Cara urged two more kids onto the stage.
"They're both ten and the children of some support staff at our embassy. Will you kids play fair picking out the chips?”
"Yes, ma'am," came from two nervous kids.
"Okay, shall we start?"
"Yeah." "Go." "You bet." And "Don't take all day," came back at Kris.
Marines helped the kids to the top of several steps until they were at a level where they could reach in. The large drum quit spinning. Ruth slid the door aside, looked away, scrunched up her eyes to keep them shut and then reached into the drum. She handed the chip to Kris.
Kris announced a clan. It was one of the minor ones that had provided two flotillas. There was no surprise that they'd come up.
Meanwhile, Johnnie had done his very best to do the same and provided Kris with a job. It was a minor office, sewers for a city, and it drew groans from some parts of the room and hilarity from other corners.
A clan lord made his way down the aisle. He took both chips, raised them high for everyone to see, then walked down the front row of clan chiefs so they could verify that what Kris had called was correct.
Kris was taking no chances that the Imperial Capital planet had a conspiracy clique.
"If anyone wants to take a look later at how many and what names are on the chips in the big drum, you're welcome to come up here and count all sixty-four hundred of them."
"I got a week I ain't doing nothin’," someone shouted.
The kids got back to choosing chips.
After thirty minutes, Johnnie was tired, so Aroha and Asher replaced him and Ruth for a break. Johnnie dashed off to find a bathroom with Cara right on his heels.
That set the pattern for the rest of the day.
There were some interesting surprises. Some of the minor clans won major fiefdoms. Of course, the larger clans with the most ships won most jobs. However, the biggest surprise of the day was when Ruth drew the chip for a minor family that had provided only one ship.
Then Johnnie drew the big one: Planetary Overlord.
There was dead silence as one rather unimpressive Iteeche made his way down the aisle from well in the back. He looked like he was in shock as he took both chips.
Then he turned to Kris. "My clan can't provide a Planetary Overlord. The other clans would walk all over us. What do I do with this?"
"First, may I suggest you take it over to the clan lords in the front row and show them that you actually won? Then come back to me."
He did. From the looks of avarice on the chieftain's faces, they all looked like they were about to come out of their seats and grab the job chit. Clearly, the fellow knew what would happen if his clan tried to rule any planets.
He returned to Kris.
"Now, this is no business of mine," Kris said. That got a laugh. "However, my father is a politician back on Wardhaven. He would tell you that what you have there is trading stock. What kind of job do you think your clan could handle well? How much gold or battlecruisers do you think you could swap that for? Are there any small families or cadet branches that might want to join with you to make a minor clan? You have all sorts of possibilities with that chip. I'd suggest you sit on it and see what other clans are willing to offer you for that chip. You might get two or three jobs you can do. You might get some other Iteeche to join with you in doing those jobs and crewing those new battlecruisers."
Kris paused for a moment, then asked, "Chiefs, would you like to make a place for this lord at your table?"
They quickly did, and the horse trading began. His wasn't the only minor group that drew a larger job than they could handle. They were quickly invited to the front tables and wined and dined.
However, when lunchtime came, Kris noticed that the lucky minor families slipped back to talk to those that they'd shared the distant seats with. Clearly, none of them wanted to be overwhelmed and swallowed up by the big fish.
The drawings went on through the afternoon and well into the evening. They went through the job drum three times. The clan chiefs clearly thought Kris was biting off more than she could chew, but if she was handing out jobs, they wanted them. The thought of capturing three large planets and taking them over for the smaller clans to manage had every one of them salivating.
It wasn't just that they'd have a new planet to rule. It also meant that they'd be tossing out the lords and lordlings of the defeated senior clans to make way for their own men. If they did manage to capture these planets it wouldn't be the larger clans replacing lordlings from one of their septs with someone from another on
e. No. This would be a major turnover.
Just as importantly, these minor clans would now have the wealth and industry from those planets to use in the search for and colonization of a new planet. They could fill that fresh planet up with their own chosen. If what Kris was offering them worked out, their future could be quite a bit different from their past.
Kris kept tabs on the small fish as he negotiated with the bigger fish. He did swap the Planetary Overlord chip. He got the Ministry of Power and several city positions for that one chip. In addition, he got three ships, complete with crews. That allowed him to promote his captain to commodore of a division. In addition to gold, he found himself lord of a very minor clan. Now he had the right to his own coat of arms.
Around midnight, he stood a lot taller. He'd not only had cadet branches and independent families join him, but two small septs broke away from their minor clans and attached themselves to him.
Two other tiny clans with big chips swapped them around for more minor jobs and ships and grew themselves.
Admiral Tong came up beside Kris as Abby brought up a new bunch of four Human kids from the embassy. They were the fourth bunch of the day. As they began pulling chips, Jack relieved Kris of calling the names. Her voice was beginning to get raspy.
Now, she listened to Tong.
"You do know that here you have subverted the Iteeche Way even more than you have at any other time since you arrived."
"Subverted?" Kris echoed, the sweet innocence in her voice reflected on her face.
"These clans will never be the same if you can indeed give them control over two or three planets."
"I went to the old clans first," Kris pointed out. "If they'd given me the ships they owed the Combined Fleets, this meeting would never have happened."
"What is it you Humans say? 'Give them enough rope to hang themselves.' They are very much hanging themselves."
"Oh, I think there's a better one. Have you heard about 'hoisted on your own petard?'"
"I've heard it, but I don't understand it."
"Before the cannon really got its act together, the best way to blow up a gate was to run up, hammer a nail in the door, hoist up a petard, or small keg, full of black powder then run away."
"But," Admiral Tong took over, "if someone were to hoist you up and hook you on the nail with your own sack of explosives . . ."
"Yep. You got blown up while you were trying to blow up the gate."
"Since the major clans refused to cooperate, you are hoisting them up by giving the smaller clans what you would have given the larger ones if they'd cooperated."
"You got it. They are blowing themselves up. Now, speaking of blowing things up, how are we doing recruiting soldiers and troopships to carry them?"
"The last hundred thousand were pledged today along with another quarter million yesterday. If I can find the troopships, you will sail with one and a quarter million soldiers."
"That might well let us garrison three planets. What about Battleships of State? What do we have, two? We need at least three."
"You good friend General Konga slipped an Imperial Rescript to our young Emperor. He was most happy to sign four of the largest Battleships of State over to the Combined Fleet for use in the coming year. For once, some clans are going to discover that the Emperor really does own those plush tubs, not them."
Clan lords from the wealthiest satraps competed in building the most luxurious and fancy Battleships of State. This, despite the battlecruiser having very much rendered them obsolete as fighting vessels. Still, all were “owned” by the Emperor. It had been a while since those clan lords had had their noses rubbed into that ownership. They were very much in for a surprise during the next week.
It was well after midnight when some very sleepy kids drew the last pair of chits. Kris expected horse trading to go late into the night. She'd arranged for Admiral Kitano to take over for her, watching to make sure there was no chicanery. Admiral Ulan replaced Admiral Tong. Knowing she and Jack could be woken on a moment's notice, they made their way to their quarters on the P Royal.
16
In the morning, a call from Abby awoke Kris. There were half a dozen requests for appointments from major clan lords, starting with Roth and going quite a way down the clan pecking order.
Kris was not surprised.
Her plan for today was to take the fleet out on maneuvers. This would not only introduce these new ships and admirals to Kris's way of fighting, but also give Nelly's kids a chance to sneak around inside the new battlecruisers and tweak a few things that were wrong in all the Iteeche made warships.
The Iteeche fire control computers were more Iteeche than Human. The changes made to provide an Iteeche interface added significantly to the time needed to come up with a firing solution. Nelly had found a way to keep the needed interface that didn’t slow down the fire control computers.
Also, Kris had long ago found that the lasers never came from the yards ready for fighting. Loose lasers meant wider salvo spreads and very few hits. Tightening the guns down as well as changing the fire control computers made her ships of the Combined Fleet equal to two or three of the rebel ships.
Kris arranged to have Nelly and her kids make these adjustments quietly, with no fanfare. That way, since no Iteeche knew about them, there was no way it could leak it to the rebels.
Now, with 6,400 ships to modify, Kris faced a major challenge. Rather, with her going dirtside, it would be up to Admirals Kitano and Tong to put the fleet through major fleet exercises while, all the same time, Nelly and her kids tinkered with their weapons systems.
Kris did a quick nose count of Nelly's children. Both Admiral Kitano and her wife were paired with one of Nelly's kids. All seven of the admirals commanding Human flotillas, as well as several admirals commanding their task forces, now had them.
Kris ordered Lieutenant Megan Longknife, her aide de camp, to bring her Lily up here. Ruth and Johnnie now also had a pair of Nelly's kids for their computers. The education of the two kids was hardly scratching the surfaces of what their computers could do. The attack on the embassy, however, had shown that the kids and their computers could be quite helpful. That also left retired Gunny Gabby Arvind, the senior Nanny. She could not only use her computer to help with the modifications, but also coordinate the kids' computers in the background.
That gave them fifteen of Nelly's kids to handle 6,400 ships. One computer for every 430 ships was going to be a bit of a stretch. They'd need more than a day. If Kris knew Johnnie, one day of excitement while the ships sailed around them would be about all he'd take before he wanted his mommy.
Clearly, this would take several days, and they'd have fewer assets for it as each day passed.
Kris called Admiral Kitano to give her a heads up about what was coming her way. She didn't seem surprised.
"Could I have Jack?" Amber shot back. "It will let him spend more time with the kids," she added, sugar coating her theft of Kris's husband.
Kris really wanted Jack at her elbow with these negotiations, but Amber had several good points. She needed all of Nelly's kids that she could get, and Ruth and Johnnie would consider this more of a fun time if they had their Dad along.
With a deep sigh, Kris gave in, then hurried to catch the next ferry to the surface.
As much as she despised the very thought of it, Kris spent the drop down to the planet thinking about what to wear. She really didn't have a thing to wear to an informal get-together with a dozen or so very snobbish clan chiefs. They'd be in several layers of fancy robes, sashes, and gold cloth.
The clan chiefs had seen her come formally as the Grand Admiral. She'd shown up to meet the Emperor in full and dirty battle armor. If this was a ball, she wouldn't mind wearing a lovely gown, either a slinky one that clung to her or that ballooned out like something from the court of the Sun King.
Declining all those options, Kris was left with nothing to wear.
She could make it very informal, hold it poolside
, and show up with just a smile, but she'd done that at the beach party by the lake.
No, this required something totally new. Something breathtakingly lovely, yet something very much Human.
"Nelly, I have an idea. Do you think you could patch this together out of Smart Metal?"
A few minutes later, Kris was smiling at just what her computer had come up with.
"Get me Abby," she ordered
A moment later, Kris was talking with her embassy's administrative chief. "Girl, have I got an idea for you. Old Roth has met me in his gardens. Could you arrange for us to view the flowers on a balcony somewhere around the hundred and fortieth floor facing the Imperial Precincts?"
"I'm suspecting that you want me and Mata Hari to see that every flowering plant in the embassy is out on that balcony."
"Yep. Oh, and plenty of water. Waterfalls. Ponds. Running brooks."
"Oh, my! Girl, you really are going all out."
"Yep. Oh, and I'd like to have you and Amanda as my ladies in waiting. You'll get to be just as fancily dressed as I am. Well, not quite, but close enough."
"Oh, this is going to be so much fun!”
17
The elevator opened at the one hundred and fortieth floor. Twelve clan chiefs with three young advisors found themselves gazing out at something they had never seen before in their long lives.
If they'd had the references, they would know it was a blend between a formal garden such as one might see at Versailles or Blenheim Palace. Blended into it were rock gardens in the best Buddhist style with the sand raked into waves and circles. Interspaced with the verdant plants or bushes were water displays: bubbling brooks, shooting fountains, and ponds with schools of Koi fish, both large and small. Meanwhile, the entire balcony had the fresh scent of water. This came from a ten-story waterfall that ended in a mist where rainbows danced on a pond before the white water rolled down over rocks, through a curling watercourse of smooth ponds.
The Iteeche might not know the name for what they saw, but they clearly saw it and were taken aback with the view. All of them had gardens on the roofs of their palaces. Still, their eyes grew wide as they gazed around in awe at what the Humans had done.
Kris Longknife Stalwart Page 12