Kris Longknife: Furious

by Mike Shepherd

  “The station will sync with your battle station. As you move your hands, finger, and feet, the station will react as if you were touching it.”

  Kris rolled over to her Weapons station, said “Sync” and immediately began moving her hands and fingers.

  And almost fired Laser 1.

  “Safety this station,” she snapped, and the firing sequence stopped. “Let’s try that again,” and Kris went through the motions of setting up a firing solution with the board flashing THIS IS A DRILL.

  Two hours, thirty-five minutes behind schedule, the Wasp kicked it up to three gees, took on 20 RPMs clockwise, and vanished into the Gamma Jump.

  * * *

  It took the navigator a few moments to identify the star field in front of them. The Sakura joined them as the young lieutenant at Nav announced, “We covered some six hundred light-years. We jumped right across the Iteeche Empire, I think.”

  “She’s got that right,” Nelly said. “This is within five light-years of the system I was aiming for. It should have two of the new jumps.”

  “I only see one jump,” the navigator said, more puzzled than disagreeing.

  “Turn up the gain on your atom laser,” Kris said. “The Mod 12 is very sensitive. We’re looking for only a breath of gravity disturbance.”

  The young woman adjusted her board, and two fuzzy points in space appeared in the space ahead of them.

  “Nelly, which one?” Kris said.

  “Aim for the farthest one,” Nelly said. “If we keep four-gee acceleration on, we should reach it in nine hours and be making close to five hundred thousand klicks per hour. Go to thirty-five revolutions per minute, but in a counterclockwise direction.”

  “For someone who’s guessing, your computer seems to be very exact,” Captain Drago said.

  “It’s a computer thing. So sue me,” Nelly said.

  The young lieutenant on Nav looked dismayed, but the skipper growled, “Make it so,” and she did. She also radioed the Sakura its new course. If there was dismay at the other end of the line, it was not given voice.

  Nine hours later, the Wasp disappeared into the fuzzy jump. Kris no longer had any idea whether they were on schedule or not.

  The Sakura had hardly had time to join them when the navigator said, “We have jumped three thousand light-years. And there are three of those strange jump points in this system.”

  “I show no activity in this system,” Senior Chief Beni reported to Kris’s relief. This far out, anything was possible. So far, her Longknife luck was holding.

  The good Longknife luck.

  “Time to head back, Nelly.”

  “Reduce acceleration to two gees. Head for the closest jump. We’ll be using 25 RPMs, still counterclockwise,” Nelly said cryptically.

  Kris did not ask if this was the system Nelly had been aiming for, and Nelly did not offer it. If where they were was close enough, it was good enough for Kris.

  Kris tried to catch a nap while they covered the distance to the next jump. She ended up sleeping through the next jump only to awaken to Nelly’s saying, “That wasn’t what I wanted.”

  “How bad is it?” Kris and the skipper asked together.

  “We’re farther out toward the rim of our arm,” Nelly said. “We’ve got the entire Iteeche Empire between us and M-688. It’s time to start decelerating, but if I’m wrong on this next jump, I may need to use my Iteeche.”

  Now the young navigator did look terrified.

  “Don’t worry,” Kris said. “I have friends at the Iteeche Emperor’s court.”

  Both the navigator and Katsu showed disbelief.

  “Nelly, try to aim us carefully this time,” Kris said.

  “I’m always aiming us carefully,” Nelly said. “If we decelerate at 3.85 gees and take the next jump at three hundred thousand klicks and 20 RPMs clockwise, I think we’ll be just one jump from M-688.”

  BUT WE WILL LIKELY BE ON THE ITEECHE SIDE OF THE LINE, KRIS.

  SO LONG AS IT PUTS US IN REACH OF M-688, NELLY, I’LL TAKE THE RISK.

  Which left Kris wondering if she should spend the remaining time checking out her Weapons station or composing a “We come in peace” speech in Iteeche.

  “Penny, let’s get the Wasp into a good defensive mode. At this acceleration, no one is using their bed or research station. We may have to fight at M-688.”

  “You think those merchant ships will be armed?” Penny asked.

  “With all they’re carrying and the problems we’ve had with pirates in out-of-the-way places, I certainly wouldn’t go out here unarmed. I can’t see my Grampa Al being any less ready to defend what’s his.”

  “You have a point,” Penny said.

  After giving all hands thirty minutes of warning, Penny selected CONDITION ZED on her board, and the Wasp began to change around them.

  “Did you ever test this change of system at near four gees, Katsu-san?” Kris suddenly thought to ask.

  “No,” he admitted.

  Kris adjusted her board to show defense on half of it. NELLY, HAVE YOU TALKED TO FUMIO-SAN ABOUT ALL THIS NEW STUFF?

  YES, KRIS. ALL OF MY KIDS ARE WORKING WITH FUMIO-SAN TO MONITOR THIS, THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR FINALLY THINKING OF THAT.

  Katsu only had to intervene twice during the five minutes the Wasp took to shrink down into fighting form.

  “I’m not sure,” Chief Beni reported, “but I think the Sakura just got smaller and tighter.”

  No one was asleep nine hours later as they took the next jump.

  “That’s not good,” Nelly said, even before the navigator made a report. “We’re in Iteeche territory. One advanced planet and some asteroid-mining operations. The jump we want is a normal one, and it’s three hours away, Kris.”

  “Chief, any Iteeche ships close by?”

  “None that I’d call close, but there are several deeper in the system near the colony.”

  “Nelly, send this message. This is Princess Kris Longknife of United Society. I am on a mission for Roth’sum’We’sum’Quin Cap’sum’We related to hostile alien sighting by Iteeche ships. We will be departing this system in three hours. Please advise the Imperial court of our visit.”

  “Think that will work?” Captain Drago asked.

  “We’ll know in what, forty minutes?”

  In twenty minutes, one of the Iteeche Death Balls well sunward suddenly went to two gees and headed in their direction. “They spotted us,” Kris whispered. “Now what happens when they get our message?”

  Ten minutes later, the Death Ball slowed to only one-gee acceleration. It was still headed their way, but they would be long gone before it got in range.

  Kris started breathing again.

  Katsu brought his egg close to Kris’s. “I saw that you had friends in high places in the Emperor’s court of Musashi, but the Iteeche high court as well?”

  “Sometimes I even surprise myself,” Kris admitted.

  Now only one problem remained. If the next jump went right, she’d be arriving a good hour before the exodus of the trading, or traitor, fleet began. How would she handle that?

  It was a sure bet that giving commands naked would not carry the full power of her convictions. The egg hardly could be better. She steered back to her cabin and, despite weighing three times normal, managed to put on undress whites with ribbons. If she had to make a statement, she’d have all of her history backing her up.

  And, of course, there would be the Longknife thing. She’d use everything in her quiver before she’d use the 18-inch guns.

  She motored back to the bridge a good thirty minutes before the jump. Katsu was right. The seams in the uniform, to say nothing of the belt and clutch backs on her ribbons, were a real pain. Clearly, for the foreseeable future, until someone came up with a seamless shipsuit, the new battle dress would be bare-ass naked in an egg.

  That was bound to cause talk.

  The time came for the jump. Since it was to be a more conventional jump, Kris ordered a messenger buo
y sent through three minutes before the Wasp. Its message was simple. Ship coming through. She’d let the folks on the other side stew about what ship and whose.

  At the right second, they entered the jump doing fifty thousand klicks an hour and with the ship rock steady.

  63

  On the other side of the jump, Kris found herself face-to-face with the flagship of Grampa Al’s fleet, The Glory of Free Enterprise. It was accelerating at 1.5 gees and already doing 75,000 klicks per hour. It was also just out of the 18-inchers’ range at 120,000 klicks.

  With the Wasp decelerating at one gee from 50,000 klicks, and the Enterprise accelerating up from 75,000 klicks, there would not be a lot of time to talk.

  Kris opened her egg and stood up to face the forward screen. “Glory of Free Enterprise, this is Princess Kris Longknife, Commander, Royal U.S. Navy. You are ordered to change course away from this jump and begin deceleration immediately.”

  A hard-bitten middle-aged man in full merchant-marine greens showing four stripes stared at Kris from the main screen. “I take my order from the old man himself, Alex Longknife. No girlie whelp is going to boss me around.”

  “Be advised, this ‘girl’ has four 18-inch lasers targeting your bucket. You’ll be in range in ten seconds. What part of your boat do you want me to slice off first?”

  “What kind of ship is that?” he was heard to mutter.

  “This is the frigate U.S.S. Wasp, and this is your final warning. Change course or be fired upon.”

  “You wouldn’t dare.”

  Kris stepped back and slipped into her Weapons station. Nelly had Laser 1 locked on the bell of the starboard-most rocket engine. THIS SHOULD ONLY NIP IT, BUT IT WILL KNOCK IT OFF COURSE, AND THEY’LL KNOW THEY’VE BEEN HIT.

  “Cease deceleration. Flip ship,” Kris ordered, and the Wasp did. “Fire one.”

  A second later, the scowling skipper on the screen was knocked sideways as his ship’s engines lost their careful balance.

  “I dared,” Kris said. “Fleet following the Free Enterprise, decelerate and change course, or I will disable your engines.”

  “This is Captain Christoph Guisan in the Pride of Zurich, and I fly the flag of the Helvitican Confederacy. You will not fire on me.”

  “Captain, Admiral Channing died fighting per my orders. I will fire on anyone who risks making those heroic peoples’ deaths be in vain. Don’t cross me.”

  NELLY, TARGET THE ENGINES OF THE NEXT THREE SHIPS IN LINE.

  ALREADY DOING IT, KRIS.

  Kris started a slow five count in her head.

  At the count of three, the next ship in line flipped and started decelerating and steering off to port. By the five count, all the ships were flipped, decelerating, and doing it in directions that would take them well away from the jump.

  Kris still had a problem. She was rapidly heading in the opposite direction from the others. If she didn’t do something radical, she’d be out of range, and these ships could thumb their nose at her and go back to their original course.

  She sat back into her egg. “Captain, put us into a four-gee deceleration. I want to stay in range of those ships as long as we can.”

  The orders were quickly given. As Kris expected, those ribbons and the belt really hurt. She’d be bruised in the morning. Too bad she hadn’t worn her spider silks.

  And then, Jump Point Alpha began to spit out ships halfway across the system.

  It took thirty minutes before their first message came through. It was brother Honovi demanding that the ships stay in the system.

  “You’re late to the party, Bro,” Kris sent, then attached a copy of her conversations with the merchant skippers.

  An hour later, Kris got a happy message from her brother. “Sis, the media types are really eating up your message. Did you really shoot up Grampa Al’s pride and joy? Where’d you get the 18-inch guns? Let’s rendezvous at the system’s big gasbag. I’m ordering the merchants to meet me there.”

  Kris waited until the various flags’ merchant ships began to set course for the gas giant, then was relieved to switch back to a one-gee acceleration.

  Kris was right. She was bruised on her belly and breasts. Which begged the question. Now that they were back on a warship, how could she manage to have Jack kiss them and make them well?

  Kris sighed, recalling the way the poor girl who had gotten pregnant was treated on Haruna. Maybe, once this cruise was over, she and Jack could take a month’s leave in an out-of-the-way place that had never heard of a damn Longknife.

  Yeah, right.

  But this cruise had hardly started and Kris needed to get ahead of matters before the alligators started chewing on her rump. She called a staff meeting in her new Tactical Center.

  As she settled into her place at the head of the table, she found herself staring at one whole wall that was totally blank. No lovely wooded mountain in a morning mist. “I guess not everything handled four gee as well as other stuff,” Kris said.

  “That is not made from my Smart Metal,” Katsu was quick to point out.

  “I’ll see if I can find a repair technician among the crew,” Captain Drago said.

  Kris went to the first item on her list. “We’re going to be meeting in orbit, which means a whole lot of no gravity. Do you think we could arrange to swing ourselves around the Sakura and get some down aboard the Wasp?”

  Kris quickly explained to Katsu Admiral Krätz’s idea of having two ships pass a long beam between them, head-to-head. As they swung around each other, you got a stronger and stronger sense of “down” the farther you were from the center of the beam.

  “We can do that,” the engineer said happily.

  “That will make us the most likely venue for a meeting to butt heads,” Kris said. “Do we have a Forward Lounge?”

  “It’s there but very empty,” Captain Drago said.

  “We’ll tell them to bring their own bottles,” Jack said.

  Kris nodded. “Moving right along, how are we set for food on a long voyage?”

  “Cookie brought on three months’ worth of good chow and another three months’ of beans, other dried goods, and canned meats. I figure everyone can eat in either the wardroom, chief’s mess, or crew mess. There aren’t that many of your boffins.”

  “You could store more,” Katsu offered helpfully.

  “Maybe we can buy some stuff off these ships,” Penny suggested. “They aren’t going anywhere but home.”

  Professor Labao cleared his throat. “I hope you can get some better food off those other ships, and maybe a few restaurateurs. There are a few more of your boffins than I think either one of you are aware of.”

  “More?” Kris said, raising an eyebrow. “How could there be more scientists? We got away from High Kyoto in four hours.”

  “And thirty-five minutes,” Captain Drago added.

  The professor cleared his throat again. “I put out a call to Kyoto University the night before. Then, when I heard you at breakfast in the wardroom, I made a second, more hasty call. Kyoto is a very cosmopolitan university. It has researchers from all over human space as well as some of the best that Musashi and Yamato have to offer. I have two hundred and fifty researchers aboard as you slipped the bounds of that friendly port.”

  “We’ve been running around with two hundred people I didn’t know about?” Captain Drago growled.

  “They might have slipped aboard, but they couldn’t have brought much research gear,” Penny pointed out.

  “Yes, they are aboard, dear captain, and yes, most of them are lacking essential instrumentation for their work. However, I overheard where we were going, and before the first jump, we placed orders for all the sensors and instruments we needed. There should be a merchant ship following behind your brother full of delicate scientific gear.”

  “Is there a merchant ship following Honovi’s cruiser squadron?” Kris asked.

  “Five,” the captain growled, still unhappy to have stowaways. “The heavy repair ship Vul
can is also along.”

  “The Vulcan?” Kris said. The last time she’d seen that repair ship, it had helped outfit her corvettes with Hellburner torpedoes. “What’s it doing here?”

  “Hopefully to help us fix things like your dead wall monitor,” Katsu said.

  “Hopefully,” Kris agreed, but hope was not what she was feeling at the moment. They went on for another hour, covering the adminutiae of running a ship far from its base, but there were no more surprises.

  Kris was getting to like no surprises. But it happened so rarely, she doubted she’d ever get used to it.

  * * *

  At the gas giant, the Sakura and Wasp connected and began their spin. That created a problem. Docking a longboat with a spinning target was a hard-learned skill, but it turned out that the heavy cruiser Exeter had quite a few Navy personnel from the old Wasp, including the eight bosuns who were already trained in catching the hook and being reeled into the Wasp’s spinning boat deck.

  When Kris was advised that Brother and all the captains were aboard, she headed to the Forward Lounge, prepared to play the congenial, if barless, hostess.

  That was just her first mistake of the evening.

  Glasses were clinking happily as she entered the lounge. To her right was the bar and a very familiar sight.

  “Mother MacCreedy, what are you doing here?”

  Said woman stood, three beer mugs in hand, filling them in sequence with hardly a drop spilled from the tapped keg. She didn’t look up from her work but called over her shoulder, “I heard you had a ship and a thirsty crew, so of course, I dropped what I was doing and came.”

  “Mother, we’re headed for the other side of the galaxy.”

  “Yes, I know. I’ve been there, and folks are just as thirsty there as anywhere else. What will you have?”

  “The usual,” Kris said, and turned to business, knowing that a tall soda water and lime would be showing up at her table. There were advantages to the familiar.

  Brother held down the table in front, with the view. He waved, and she joined him. “Nice place you got here. I especially like the down. Down is nice. My stomach likes down. Think I could stay here tonight?”