“No, I don’t,” Jack snapped.
“It says you can,” Anyang, the Minister for Public Peace, insisted.
“No, it says that I can train them if you, yourselves, vote to establish a draft. It also says I can train volunteers. It says a lot of things that aren’t going to happen because, right now this minute, I don’t have any weapons I can issue to you.”
Jack paused to let that sink in.
“You could all volunteer en masse. You could pass a law that drafted everyone from five years old to ninety-five, and it wouldn’t mean a thing. My Marines have the weapons they were issued before they came aboard and maybe a dozen spares in the maintenance section.”
Again Jack paused. Realization was dawning in a lot of eyes across the table.
Jack hammered it home. “Tomorrow, if the bastards landed an army on Alwa and you came begging me for weapons to fight them. To battle them. To stop them from killing your wives and children, I would not have so much as a slingshot to give you.”
That definitely turned the table.
There was a long silence as the reality of that soaked in. A moment before, they’d been all ready to chase Kris and Jack off a cliff. Now all they saw was a mountain up ahead that they all needed to climb together.
“That sure puts the shoe on the other foot,” Ada said.
“Yes,” Kris said.
“May I ask a few questions?” Jack asked.
“Of course,” Ada said.
“Anyang, how are your public-safety agents equipped?”
“Most have billy clubs. Occasionally, I issue longer staves. There are wicker shields from the early days, when Rita faced food riots, but they haven’t been issued since before my time.”
“Not in sixty years or more,” Rita said from where she sat against the wall at the head of the room.
“Do you have any hunters?” Jack asked.
“Bow hunting is very popular. There are some rifles, but they are all black-powder single-shot things. We haven’t been able to find any nitrate deposits. There are animals that even the Alwans can’t face. They run away from them fast or get eaten. Our rifle hunters go after them. It’s more of an even fight than I like. We lose at least one hunter every year, but there are some who like the excitement.”
“I’d like to talk to them,” Jack said.
“So,” Ada said slowly, “your job is to form some sort of fighting force that can stop the bastards if they land on Alwa.”
Jack shook his head, sadly. “No, ma’am. My job is to fight them on the ground if Kris’s ships are defeated in the space above you. Considering the odds and the weapons they use, right now, I and my troops are just here to die bravely, fighting beside you.”
That brought a deadly hush to the room.
“You don’t sound very optimistic,” Kuno, in charge of Mining and Industry, said.
“I’ve seen them fight. I’ve walked a planet they raped. If you want me to lie to you, you’ve got the wrong man in the room.”
“Kris,” Ada asked, “is it that bad?”
“I’m afraid so. If they came right now, I don’t know how I could use my ships to stop them. We ambushed them last time. We can’t use the same ambush this time. I’ve got a few ideas that might surprise them, but right this minute, nothing.”
Granny Rita spoke up. “Folks, honesty in your warrior class is something to be grateful for. It’s not a lot of fun to hear, though. Clearly, they’ve got the courage to speak the truth. Do you have the courage to hear it?”
“What can we do?” Ada asked.
“Right now, any minerals that you can mine is a start,” Kris said. “Whether we use it to make weapons, or factories to make more weapons is a question we can tackle when we’ve got something to deal with.”
“Alwans do not like digging in the ground and smoke-belching plants,” an Alwan said.
“Do you like living more?” Jack asked.
The Alwans around the table fell silent. At least these five weren’t running around like their elders.
“I’ll try to get mining nanos down here to help you extract minerals without gouging the mountains,” Kris said. “Do you know where there are mineral deposits?”
“The nanos would help. We have some deposits we haven’t touched because of Alwan protests. I’ll see what I can do,” Kuno said. “Can we count on you for anything?”
“Part of making me viceroy is that I get to deal with a lot of business and industrial types that came out with the fleet. They are also looking for minerals they can extract from asteroids and small moons. They have a couple of automated prefab plants to set up on your own moon. No belching smoke, but they do want to borrow two of the reactors off the Furious.”
“Two for us and two for them,” Granny Rita said. “They’re pretty old. Do you think they can make them work?”
“We’ve got some pretty sophisticated ship-repair and fabrication stuff on Canopus Station. I’m betting if anyone can, they’ll be the folks to patch things up and get them running,” Kris said. “I’m glad you’ve agreed to share the reactors. I’ll meet with those types tomorrow. That one will make this one look like patty-cake.”
“Why did Ray bring out a bunch of mining and industry types?” Granny Rita asked.
Kris didn’t want to answer that question. But since later today or tomorrow she’d be throwing it in the face of some real hard cases, she might as well let the locals know it first.
“Warships don’t exist in a vacuum. They need a base. If the aliens discover a preindustrial world protected by starships, they’ll know the ships came from somewhere and go looking for it. If these bastards are as hostile to life as they have seemed, they’re bound to have a special hatred for any life that can stand up to them in a fight. Ray’s given us the stuff to help us strengthen our defense, but it’s not just a nice thing he’s doing. He’s buying human space more time before the bastards come hunting for them.”
“Mighty nice of him,” Rita said sourly.
“Whatever his reasoning, it helps us. I’m grateful for it,” Ada told Rita.
“Maybe you’re right.”
“Folks, we’ve covered as much as we can just now. I need to get back in uniform and back to the fleet. I suspect there are even more fires to be put out there.”
With that, the meeting adjourned. Kris found herself in the ladies’ room, changing back into whites and wishing she had Jack to help. He was likely wishing the same.
What happens on Alwa stays on Alwa.
In the hall, they met. She helped adjust his collar and tie, no field scarf. Marines! He helped her get the fall of her dress whites shipshape. The fast car was still waiting for them. This time, Ada drove.
“I’m sorry we had to have that meeting, but I’m glad we did. You showed you know how to solve problems. Not all the people I have to deal with can do that. You also gave me the first honest report on how bad it really is. I can’t say I’m glad to hear it, but at least I know what is ahead of us.”
“Can I ask one question, Ada?” Kris said. “If things really do go downhill. If the aliens are headed this way, and there doesn’t look to be any way for us to stop them. If we could cram every colonial into our ships and take off for human space, would you come with us?”
Ada was shaking her head before Kris finished. “This may be hard for folks like you that get in spaceships and jump all over the galaxy to understand, but for us, this is home. Everything we know and love is here. I know what I’m saying sounds crazy, but where else would I go?
“And Granny Rita is right, the Alwans took us in when we were inches away from eating each other or dying or I don’t know what all ’cause the old-timers get suddenly quiet when you try to get them talking about what it was like the last couple of jumps before they found Alwa. The idea of running away from those crazy feather heads, even if it mea
nt my life, just doesn’t feel right.”
As they drove out on the long pier to where a gig waited for Kris and Jack, Ada said, “Jack, you’ll have your volunteers. I don’t know how we’ll arm them, but we’ll try. You get those mining nanos down here, and we’ll extract everything we can. And from what I hear, there are a lot of scientists from your ships exploring Alwa like it’s never been looked at before. They’re looking at animals, plants, minerals, you name it. I check in every day with Rita to see what new reports she’s got. Not every day is like today.”
They came to a stop. Kris could hear the shuttle warming up its reaction mass.
“We’re finding out more about Alwa than we’ve ever dreamed of. We will use what we find to fight. Jack, you say it’s a hopeless cause. Well, our folks have faced hopeless before, and we’re still here. Bring on your hopeless. We’ll show you how to beat the devil and find the hope you need.”
Kris was strapped down, and the shuttle was airborne before the goose bumps from Ada’s pep talk finally melted away.
Then she got busy with Nelly, planning the rest of her day.
24
Captain Drago met Kris in the docking bay. “Good afternoon, Viceroy.”
“Good afternoon, Admiral.”
“Say that again and, viceroy or not, I’ll wash your mouth out with soap, Your Highness.”
“I just wanted to see how it sounded,” Kris said, smile adding to her contrition.
“Come along, I want to show you your office.”
“My office?”
“Whatever you were before could get by with a Tac Center. A squadron’s commodore and a viceroy needs an office. Have I got the day quarters for you!”
It was where Kris’s Tac Center had been, still right off the bridge, but it had grown. “A wooden desk?” Kris said, then knocked on it. “Hey, that’s real wood, not Smart Metal faking it!”
“I spotted that lovely while I was down at your wedding. ‘I’m just perfect,’ it said to me. Same for the sofas and overstuffed chairs. They’re actual leather, hide of those elephants they have dragging wagons around.”
“They call them oxen,” Kris pointed out.
“They’re the size of elephants. Hasn’t anyone here seen an elephant?”
“No long trunk,” Kris added.
“And check out this conference table,” Captain Drago said, changing the topic. “Nelly, add four more chairs and room for them.”
“Aye, aye, sir,” Nelly said, and the table was suddenly a couple of meters longer and had four more comfortable-looking chairs.
“That should provide room for everyone you need to meet with,” the skipper said proudly.
“Is it my imagination, or did the room just get bigger for the table?” Jack said.
“Yes, the viceroy’s night quarters are right next door. Assuming you’re in your office, you don’t need all that room in your bedroom, so Nelly can swap space from one to the other. It goes both ways, in case you want to entertain anyone special.”
Kris eyed Drago. “I won’t be entertaining anyone, special or otherwise. What happened on Alwa stays on Alwa. What happens here is straight regulations.”
“Understood, Commodore,” Captain Drago said, almost bracing.
“Now, did you arrange that meeting I asked for?”
“If you mean me, Your Highness,” said a new voice, “I’m here.”
At the door of her office stood a civilian in casual clothes.
“Admiral Benson?” Kris said.
“Just Mr. Benson for the duration of this assignment running Canopus Station and its Navy yard. The king was rather definite on that.”
“And if I have to activate your reserve commission?”
“I’m a lieutenant, ma’am,” he said with a grin at Drago.
“Hold it, is everyone still stuck with a reserve commission of lieutenant?” Kris asked the two.
Both nodded.
“Nelly, do I have authority to promote people? It’s got to be in there somewhere as commodore or ComAlDefSec or viceroy.”
“You have the authority to approve promotions up through lieutenant commander, Kris.”
“Nelly, please do the paperwork to promote all my reserve officers to lieutenant commander.”
“I’ll have my kids get right on it.”
“Mom!” said Sal at Jack’s neck.
“I’m the viceroy’s computer. I get to delegate. Get used to it.”
“Yes, Mom, we’re getting right on it.”
“Now, Mr. Benson, about the reason I asked you here. I have several questions. Is Kikuchi Katsu still with us?”
“No, Your Highness, he didn’t much like leaving before he spun out those monsters aft of the station, but when the king took it in his head to rush out, he followed him.”
“Can you respin those ships?”
“Despite the engineer’s fear that me and mine can’t pound sand, I do believe we can, ma’am.”
“Good. Now, you have twenty fine 20-inch lasers on your station. Are you planning on using them for station defense?”
“Not likely. They only point one way and, as you may have noticed, we used the rocket engines to build the space dock on the station’s stern. We’re rock steady in orbit. Good for a space station. Bad for a fighting ship. Why? Do you have something in mind for them?”
“Up-gun the Wasp to a heavy frigate,” Kris said. “First the Wasp, then the Intrepid. We need everything we’ve got if the aliens come through the jump. I figured once we off-loaded the Hellburners, we could use the Smart Metal that’s supporting them to support ten guns rather than five.”
“Will it be too hard?” Captain Drago asked, a skipper concerned about his ship.
“No. I’d been expecting something like that since we fitted out. The 20-inchers are modular, even the capacitors plug and unplug with the unit. Same with your 18-inchers. The Monarch and the Fearless donated about fifteen thousand tons of Smart Metal when they gave up their Hellburners. I figured I’d use most of that to enlarge your two when I replaced your guns.”
“How much larger are the reactors on the heavy frigates?” Drago asked.
“Their three are about fifteen percent larger than yours. That’s something we can’t do anything about. You’ll take longer to reload, say five seconds more than your 18-inchers. You’ll likely need eight to ten more seconds for a broadside.”
That didn’t make Drago happy, and his face showed it.
The former admiral moved quickly to praise his guns. “The 20-inchers are good out to one hundred forty thousand klicks. Maybe a bit more depending on the armor they’re facing. You hit something at seventy thousand klicks with one of them, and you’re going to burn right through it.”
“Trade-offs, trade-offs, trade-offs,” Drago muttered.
“How soon can you start and how quickly can you finish?” Kris asked.
“We can start right now,” the yard boss said. “I’ll recall my folks from those two problem children trailing us and have you out in five days. May I ask why the rush, Your Highness?”
“When we went back to look over the wreck of the alien mother ship, near the far jump, we passed through two clouds of gas, not a whole lot thicker than normal space, but enough. I figure that’s what’s left of our last two battleships.”
The former admiral nodded sadly.
“I know our Fearless and Intrepid died fighting so the Wasp and the Hornet could get away. I know what happened to Wasp. I don’t know what happened to Hornet.”
“She likely ended up a ball of gas, too,” the former Navy man said.
“But I don’t know that. I have nightmares that years from now someone stumbles on the hulk of the Hornet and finds they were alive for five, six months after the fight but didn’t find some planet like Alwa or were unable to slow down like we almost di
d.”
“You’ve spent a lot of time with the Marines, haven’t you?” the former Admiral Benson asked.
“I’ve spent time with them,” Kris said cautiously. Was he headed for the fact she’d just married one?
“Marines never leave anyone behind.”
“You disapprove.”
“No, Commodore, I do not. It’s good policy. I’ll have the yard ready for the Wasp as soon as Captain Drago is ready to move ship.”
“I’m ready now, just as soon as I get Kris off my ship. Commodore, I don’t know if you’re aware, but we’ll be without gravity in the yard. Flags are traditionally transferred when a flagship goes in the body-and-fender shop.”
“Any suggestions?” Kris asked.
“Not the Constellation,” Benson said. “Sampson is all bent out of shape about your marriage and shooting off her mouth a lot. Unless you want to hear things you’ll have to ‘not hear’ or bring her up on charges, don’t go there.”
“The Constitution?” Kris said.
“Or the Princess Royal. All I hear are good things about Amber Kitano. Haven’t you fought with her before?”
“Kris,” Nelly put in, “Amber was Phil Taussig’s XO on his fast attack boat at the Battle of Wardhaven and Jack Campbell’s XO on the Dauntless.”
“Yes, Nelly, I remember Amber. She’s the one that refused to be the female lead in a panic party.” An honor Kris had failed to avoid and now, thanks to Cara’s skill with mash-ups, seemed to have gone viral in human space.
“Okay, Nelly, advise CO, Princess Royal that the commodore will be transferring her flag to her ship for the next five days. Send her schematics of my quartering needs, oh, and this office. Skipper, can you transfer this furniture?”
“Easier when we’re in zero gee, my princess.”
“Okay. Nelly, tell Abby to pack up and follow as fast as she can, same to Penny. Oh, and make sure Captain Kitano knows that Jack’s quarters are a deck below me and down the passageway.”
“Understood, Kris.”
“Drago, move my office as fast as you can, but don’t do anything that will delay the up-gunning. I’ve got to meet with our friends on the private side, and I like the idea of having an impressive office to meet them in.”
Kris Longknife: Defender Page 19