“I don’t quite get your meaning, but our org charts look very logical and methodical,” Ada insisted.
“No they aren’t. They don’t have any place for me on them,” Granny Rita grouched.
“Hi, I’m Iago,” said a thin, young man with blond hair. “My job is to coordinate with Rita. Trust me, it’s a full-time job.”
“I find that easy to believe,” Kris said. “I know I’m going to end up meeting all of you, but I’ve got some working folks here who are eager to get working. Amanda Kutter specializes in strange economic systems. She’s quite interested in what you developed and how it interfaces with the Alwans.” Kris knew she’d given only half of the young economist’s subject of study, but something told her she needed to pull her punches.
Amanda stepped forward, all smiles, and said not a word in disagreement.
Ada turned to a young woman. “Baozhai, you’re the closest thing we have to someone who handles the economy, or what we have of one. She kind of collects taxes and figures out ways for us to pay for the common things, roads, bridges, and the like.”
“I wrestle people into donations and volunteering, you mean,” the woman said.
“Just people?” Kris asked.
“If I can persuade the Alwans there’s something in it for them, I get them.”
“That television camera that they used to interview me didn’t look like something volunteers knocked together,” Kris led carefully.
“Oh, then you also want Kuno,” Baozhai said. “He’s coordinator of Mining and Industry. He’s the one that works real close with the Alwans. Until recently, they’ve been death on anything like heavy industry or intrusive mineral extraction.”
“Yeah, I’m glad their attitude is changing,” Kuno, a tall, middle-aged man said as he took up the story, “because about all the nano miners we knocked together eighty years ago for low-impact leaching of metals are gone. You don’t happen to have more mining nanos with you, do you? It would make my job a whole lot easier.”
“I’ll have that checked on,” Kris said.
YOU NOT GOING TO TELL THEM ABOUT ME, KRIS?
NO, NELLY, FROM NOW ON YOU’RE MY TOP SECRET. IF GRANNY GIVES YOU AWAY, OKAY, BUT OTHERWISE, IT’S NOT HAPPENING.
AYE, AYE, YOUR TYRANTSHIP.
The gaggle of folks began to break up enough so that Kris’s team could circulate freely among them. Amanda and Jacques added to their circle of friends an Alwan who was something like Watcher of Wisdom and Traditions of the People. Penny and Masao latched onto Anyang, the Coordinator for Public Peace, as well as an Alwan who was styled something like Bringer of Harmony between The People and the Heavy People. Masao got to talking to the human who was the Historian of the Colony, and the Alwan Watcher of Wisdom. Through it all, Penny and Masao managed to not quite lose bodily contact in one way or another.
“I got to talk to those folks about scheduling a wedding,” Granny Rita whispered to Kris.
“Granny, it’s the modern age. Holding hands and even sharing beds does not mean a wedding has to be scheduled. We don’t have shotgun weddings anymore.”
“Honey, I told my great-granny the same thing, and she laughed and told me that she’d said the very same thing to her great-granny. You ask any bunch of kids, and they’ll swear to you that they’re the first generation to discover sex. And insist their parents never, ever had sex themselves.”
“Well, Granny, there are the fraternization rules.”
“Yes, that’s something I keep meaning to talk to you about. But correct me if these old eyes are totally shot, but isn’t that couple in civilian clothes?” she said, nodding at Amanda and Jacques.
“Yes,” Kris agreed.
“Now that other lass, Penny you call her. The guy who can’t take his eyes off her and vice versa are in uniform, but his ain’t quite the same as hers, is it?”
“He’s Musashi Navy. That’s where the Wasp fitted out. We didn’t become the USS Wasp until a bit later. Long story. We’ve got Sailors and Marines from Musashi and Wardhaven, contract personnel and civilian scientists aboard the Wasp, and a couple of restaurateurs subcontracted to the main contractor.”
“Child, how did you get yourself into a command structure like that?”
“Trust me, Granny, she had to work hard to do it,” Jack cut in.
“And where do you fit into this lash-up, if you think my old brain can follow it?” she asked Jack.
“I was Kris’s Secret Service Agent,” Jack started. “Grampa Trouble suggested Kris draft me into the Marines so I might provide for her safety when she was off planet.”
“Trouble, you say?”
“Yes, Granny,” Kris said, eyes sadly downcast, “I have learned that Trouble means Trouble even if he is my nice old grampa.”
“I warned her,” Nelly whispered, “but would she listen to me?”
QUIET, NELLY.
Jack continued. “As you may have noticed, she outranks me, and is a princess and all that. However, by law, I can countermand any order she gives that, in my opinion, could lead her into bodily harm.”
“And his opinion of what could hurt me is huge. Just huge.”
“This has the smell of Raymond wanting to make up for some of the more stupid things he did as a JO,” Granny said.
“Eighty years away from him, and you still can peg him on one,” Kris said.
Granny looked around. “Everybody looks awful busy. Let’s take a walk out among the trees.”
Kris checked around; all her team were busy. Even Abby and Sergeant Bruce had cornered a mixed trio of humans and Alwans and were deep in some conversation, helped along by Nelly’s kids using the translating app. In fact, a check of the group showed Nelly’s translation app was going over like the best thing since sliced bread.
No one seemed to need Kris Longknife for the moment. Granny was already leading Jack down a shady path. Kris hurried to catch up and got there just as Granny fixed the two of them, and asked, “So, are you two sleeping together?”
“Granny, what kind of question is that?” Kris answered, doing her best not to blush. Still, she felt her face go warm.
Jack just looked at Kris. Clearly, whether or not the question was answered was her decision.
“Honey, I’m old enough to ask the tough questions, and I’m experienced enough to know they need answering. I take it from your dodge that you and Jack have experienced each other’s company to the fullest. And from the red on your face, you thoroughly enjoyed it.”
Since Granny was doing such a good job of answering her own questions, Kris figured there was no need to risk either a lie or the truth.
Granny turned to Jack. “So, may I ask what your intentions are toward my great-granddaughter?”
Jack didn’t even flinch. “She’s already told me in the presence of her brother that I’m going to marry her.” He also failed to suppress a canary-ate-the-cat grin. “Ah, at least she will just as soon as things calm down, we can arrange things properly, and figure out how to avoid breaking the Navy reg on fraternization.”
“Wow, that’s a long list of requirements, none of which have anything to do with how much either of you love each other.”
Kris found herself eyeing the ground. “My brother, he’s a member of Parliament, offered to marry us the very evening that I proposed to Jack.”
“But it fell through when he chickened out,” Jack scowled. “You see, he has to share a planet with Kris’s mom, and if she was thwarted at arranging every little thing of Kris’s wedding, he figured he couldn’t go home.”
“Hmm. I see your problems. But it looks to me like they’re all on the other side of the galaxy. Nice things about that, I can tell you.”
“Granny, we’re still in uniform, and Navy regs apply. Very likely in this galaxy and the next thirty over as well,” Kris pointed out.
“No doubt you’re right about that,” Granny agreed. “I had to officially demob and decommission all the survivors before we could formally declare ourselves a colony and make our own rules. I was delighted to do myself out of the job of running the Furious, and the damn fools immediately elected me chief cook and bottle washer. Served them right that I’ve been a pain in their asses every day since.”