That got a laugh.
“Nelly, if we find that a whole swarm of huge warships are heading for us ahead of the mother ship, can we break off and duck through another jump point before they get to us?”
“I don’t think so, Kris.”
“What’s the problem?” the colonel asked.
“I assume that you intend to establish your roadblock in either the system with the bird folk or the next system out,” the computer said.
“That’s my thinking,” Kris said. “We need time to prepare, then time to get there. I doubt we could get there any sooner.”
“Your problem,” Nelly said, “Your Highness, is that the jump point that the hostile aliens will be using is a dozen hours or more from any other way out.”
“That long, huh,” the colonel said.
“Yes,” the computer said.
“So if we station the three corvettes say ten thousand kilometers out from the jump and the battleships at thirty thousand, there’s no place to run to if things go bad.”
“It looks like that to me, Kris.”
NELLY, ARE THERE ANY OF THE NEW FUZZY JUMP POINTS IN EITHER OF THOSE TWO SYSTEMS?
KRIS, NO FUZZY POINTS IN THEM OR THE NEXT SYSTEM OUT. THERE ARE A FEW TWO JUMPS OUT, BUT YOU WON’T GET ANY HELP THERE.
“So,” the colonel summed it up. “If we go, we’re pretty much committed. I know if I was in charge of that mother ship, I’d never go through a jump point without ordering a couple of scouts through first and wait until at least one of them comes back to report all clear.”
The rumblings around the table pretty much agreed with him.
“Of course, I’m a human,” the colonel went on. “I’ve been raised on wars. I wonder how long it’s been since any of those BEMs met any real resistance?”
“I don’t think that’s a question we can answer,” Kris said, “but from what we’ve seen both in the ship that attacked us and the planet that somebody, person or persons unknown, I admit, Penny, massacred, it didn’t look like anyone was breaking a sweat.”
“An army gets slipshod if it doesn’t go up against a first-class fighting force every once in a while. At least human armies do. Lots of ways to get sloppy,” the colonel said.
“But that’s not something we’ll find out anytime soon,” Penny said. “Not before it’s too late.”
With that, they adjourned to the sundae bar. The Mess President had laid out all the trimmings to go with the steaks.
That brought a series of jokes about fattening the calf and last meals. Which ended when Kris noticed the looks her team was getting from the other officers dining in the mess.
Eighteen hours passed like eighteen endless days.
31
Kris continued to use the Forward Lounge for her Tac Center. It had room for Ron and his two advisors as well as Vicky and Maggie. The doctor was shocked to discover the topic of conversation and tended to sit one table away from them and look on with only slightly controlled horror. She would join in when Penny said something against the idea of going to war. Mostly, she just watched.
The Iteeche took over a corner and had their own long and occasionally loud argument. Nelly offered to eavesdrop, but Kris told her not to. They needed their privacy. When Ron was ready, he’d tell them what he and his advisors had agreed upon.
When the Iteeche meeting was done, the Army officer stomped out of the room, and Ron and Ted, his Navy officer, rejoined Kris’s team.
“You don’t have to tell us what that was about if you don’t want to,” Kris said.
“We swam in the same waters you muddied up during your feeding,” Ron said. “The Army advisor does not see that we have the will of the Emperor in what you are thinking to do. He is opposed to our riding along with you and insists that I either command you in the name of the Emperor to halt this plan or that we at least leave in one of your courier boats and return to the Empire.”
“Do you want to?” Kris asked.
“No. I do not like the choice of fish swimming upstream any more than you do, but it is the choice that has been given to us. We cannot turn away from it. Besides, these bird folk may be a helpful ally in the war ahead. Are we so plentiful that we can allow those who may swim with us to be eaten already?”
“A good thought,” Kris said.
“So we have a very unhappy Iteeche aboard,” Jack said. “Kris, would you mind if I check in on him?”
“Please do.”
“Captain Drago, an Iteeche just left the Forward Lounge.”
“Yes, our security team noticed him stomp out. We don’t have any experts at alien body language, but the betting up here is that he is not a happy camper.”
“Sad but true,” Jack said. “You know how our princess affects some people. Could you keep an eye on him?”
“Already doing it, Marine. Our disaffected Iteeche just locked himself in Iteeche country. If you’ll post some Marines as an honor guard there, we can make sure he stays there.”
“Done, and thank you, Captain.”
Jack’s next call was to his Marine duty officer. A watch was quickly posted.
An hour later, Captain Drago dropped down to check with Kris on the load for the 12-inch high-acceleration torpedoes.
“Load antimatter,” Kris said.
“How much?” the captain asked.
“How much?”
“I’ve been talking with some of the professor’s boffins, and they think we can double-load them. Maybe even quadrupleload them.”
“Is that safe?” Jack asked.
“Not for any length of time, no,” the captain said. “The containment systems in the warheads are lightweight, and that means limited strength and duration. However, if we load the antimatter just before we fire the warheads, they should be good for fifteen minutes. Maybe double that.”
“You’re taking a great risk,” Jack said.
“If Your Highness here has us hunting BEMs, I think antimatter warheads popping off early may be the least of our worries.”
“Do you disagree with us taking on the bug-eyed monsters, Captain Drago?” Kris asked. He was the contractor captain hired by her king. While Admiral Krätz’s threat to shoot the Wasp out of space seemed unlikely, Captain Drago could put an end to any of Kris’s plans by simply locking her in her stateroom and heading the Wasp off in any direction that pleased him.
So long as the captain didn’t do Kris any bodily harm, she sincerely doubted Jack would do anything to stop the Wasp’s skipper from doing something that probably would cut down on her likelihood of ending up suddenly dead.
The captain took in a long breath and let it out slowly. “I suspect your grampa may have me keelhauled for following you on this mission if you order us to take on the bug-eyed monsters. However, there are times when people do what they have to do. If you say it is war, I and my crew will follow you. If you say go home, I think we will all breathe a long sigh of relief and go home. However, if we abandon that planet of bird people to the tender mercies of those space raiders, I don’t think any of us will sleep all that well. Probably for the rest of our lives. Hell of a choice you have there, Your Highness. Glad I don’t have to make it myself.”
He snapped to and saluted her. He didn’t wait for her to return the honor but turned for the door of the lounge. “Let me know when you make your final decision,” he called over his shoulder.
“I wondered how he’d take to it all,” Penny said. “I guess that settled whether or not you find yourself locked in your room tomorrow and the Wasp headed for home.”
“I was wondering about that, myself,” Kris said, her voice not rising above a whisper.