“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.