“You eavesdropped on our conversation. You tell me who gives the orders there.”
“But he’s the captain. So long as you’re in that dotted box, you can still marry Jack. By the way, how’d the vacation go?”
“Swimmingly. Often without swimming suits as you no doubt expected.”
“I think two of my kids were conceived there.”
“Too much information, Granny, and you are dodging the issue.”
“Okay. How do we do this the hard way?”
“We’ll have several liberty launches dropping down to pick up the crew. I can put a ship’s surgeon on one. He can give you a thorough physical to qualify you for space. You’ll fail, and then it’s official. Commodore Rita Nuu Longknife-whatever-else is grounded.”
“And Raymond isn’t grounded.”
“He’s been through several rejuvenation cycles. Not just some pills but the whole treatment, fix or replace anything as necessary.”
Rita leaned back in her chair and blew out a disagreeing breath. “You are not giving me the proper respect I deserve.”
Kris snapped right back. “You mean I should obey your whim and let you commit suicide by shuttle? Forget it. It ain’t gonna happen on my watch, and there is no other watch.”
“I’ll bet you don’t talk to King Raymond like this,” Granny pouted.
“Sorry, Granny Rita,” Jack said. “I’ve been stuck in meetings between those two. Subordinate is not Kris’s strong suit. Nowhere close.”
“If Grampa Ray had had his choice, I never would have been allowed to do the Voyage of Discovery, never would have spotted the alien invasion force, and never broken its back,” Kris said.
“Tell me something, young whippersnapper to a wise elder, what was the vote to launch eight battleships and four corvettes at that monster?”
Kris tossed the question to Jack and settled into a chair.
“Initially,” Jack said, “the admiral from Greenfeld, the Peterwald Empire, was all for collecting his four battleships and going home. Two other admirals from Musashi and the Helvetican Confederacy were willing to go along with Kris if she could come up with a decent plan. She did, and everyone followed it. At least until things came apart.”
“They always come apart,” Granny said, her voice years and light-years away.
“Yes, they always come apart,” Kris agreed. “Now, Granny Rita, there is a liberty launch holding at the landing for me and Jack. We have to be going. Feel free to do whatever you want to receive a visiting king, unless you can convince the Alwans to apply for membership in the United Societies, in which case he’ll be their king paying a visit. By the way, Grampa wanted to call his association of planets United Sentients, but his meeting with the Iteeche leaked out, and the name got changed. The Alwans might help him change it back.”
“The Alwans can’t agree on whether it’s day or night,” Granny Rita’s daughter said.
“Sadly true,” Granny agreed. “Okay, young lady, shoo. You have your irons in the fire. I’ll see what kind of fire I can light down here. You’re sure he’ll come down?”
“Absolutely,” Kris said.
“Then I got a party to plan, fit for a king.”
Kris was none too sure about the sound of that, but she had her own work cut out for her. She and Jack left. A car waited to hurry them to the fleet landing. They were the last aboard. The liberty launch started its takeoff run as they tightened their seat belts.
15
Kris went straight to the bridge as fast as she could bounce off one wall and hit another. She need not have hurried. Captain Drago had nothing new to report.
“They are squawking the exact minimum required by law,” the skipper said. “Their name, their home port, and that they are U.S. warships.”
“All of them, even the big ones?” Kris asked.
“Yes, but who would put just twenty guns on a battlewagon that huge. Oh, they also have 5-inch secondaries. Our gravity anomaly detector says those huge ships are heavy, but no masses like thick armor. Kris, these ships don’t make any sense.”
“So they’re something new. Jack wondered if they were transports to take the entire colony home. Could they do that?”
“Not empty enough,” Senior Chief Beni said, shaking his head. “There’s a lot of heavy stuff inside those ships, but it’s not where an armored belt belongs.”
The bridge crew looked around at each other, but Kris only saw faces as blank as hers.
“Captain, does your Navy experience include anything like this?” Kris asked.
“No, but I asked Cookie what he thought. He said, back in the day when he was a boot ensign, General Longknife’s flag came into a system, just as silent as this. No signal at all. The local admiral and every commanding officer pushed the panic button. Said it was something like a no-notice showdown inspection. Every elephant was running around like a chicken with his head cut off trying to make everything perfect.”
“An interesting mix of metaphors,” Kris said. “What happened?”
“The sector admiral ended up sacked, as well as the admirals commanding the Navy base and Navy yard. Several squadron and division commanders found themselves on the beach along with quite a few captains.”
Kris considered that for a long minute. Then shook her head. “We’ve got no admirals to sack and we’ve already been booted about as far as we can go and still be in the same galaxy. No. Something else is going on.”
She thought for a long moment as the bridge stayed silent. “Prosperity. What kind of a name is that for a warship?”
“There have been a few of them,” Nelly said. “Usually small auxiliaries.”
“Are you sure the Enterprise isn’t the Free Enterprise?” Kris asked slowly.
“You think your Grampa Al has something to do with those two?” Jack asked.
“Call it a hunch, but Prosperity and Canopus just don’t seem cut from the same cloth.”
“There have been several repair and depot ships named Canopus,” Nelly put in.
“And Princess Royal,” Kris said. “What kind of name is that?”
“The Royal Navy,” Nelly said, “I mean the British wet royal navy had a battlecruiser named Princess Royal at one of the greatest sea battles in history.”
Kris still scowled, but Jack was grinning.
“It would honor one of the fightingest captains in a long time,” he said.
Yesterday, Kris would have thrown him a kiss for that kind reflection of her. Maybe a lot more than a kiss. Today, she settled for a smile.
And turned her thoughts back to her problem. She needed more information. The ships were not talking.
“Nelly,” Kris said, “have you tried to contact those ships on Nelly Net?”
“No, Kris, all my kids are here.”
“All but Katsu-san’s Fumio-san.”
“He was on the Sakura,” Nelly said.
“Question, did it head back to Musashi direct or stop off at Wardhaven?”
“Wardhaven’s closer than Musashi,” Captain Drago said.
“Nelly, send to Katsu-san, ‘Ohio, Katsu-san. Doumo arigatou gozaimasu. Did you help design these ships? The new large frigates look just like the fast and heavily armed war wagons I’d want in a fight. The big ones like the Prosperity are a bit too big, don’t you think?’ Send that Nelly to Fumio-san and let’s cross our fingers.”
Nelly started a timer. It looked like it would take a while for the message to get there and more for a reply to get back. Frustrated, Kris headed for her quarters for a shower and a change of uniform.
Abby arrived on the second liberty launch, fussing about having a good night’s sleep interrupted. Cara was none too happy. She’d found kids her own age delighted to find out what computer games were and someone willing to share with them.