“I was wondering when we’d talk about those Hellburners I’m collecting,” the former admiral said as he quick-walked into Kris’s office.
Kris brought everyone up to speed on the ideas of burying the Hellburners deep under the surface of three moons close to the aliens’ line of approach from the jump to Alwa.
The mining boss, Berkant Fulan, a man with calluses on his hand and a quick eye for details, questioned the worth of Hellburners a million kilometers or so from the likely target.
“If we put them too close, they’ll get lased in no time flat,” Kris simply said.
“Well, I don’t see any problems. If you’d let us use one of your frigates, we could drill some good holes with their 20-inch guns.”
“But all we’d have to show for it is a fine dust,” Kris pointed out.
“And the problem with that is?” Berkant asked.
“I want gravel, rocks, pebbles, and other junk to toss into their flight path.”
“Woman, I bet you also want egg in your beer. Speaking of, I’d settle for just a beer about now.”
“I’m telling you what I need for a fight for your and my life. You can have a beer after we finish this meeting.”
“A big hole in three moons. Maybe with two or three ways out,” the miner said, starting a list. “Lots of messy stuff left over. It’s an unusual request, I must say, ma’am. You think the bastards might not trust any moon behind them. Maybe they’ll laser the whole surface?”
“I expect they will, so we may need to redig the hole before we can launch the Hellburners.”
“Which will tie up more of my equipment,” the miner grumbled.
“Do you have diggers to do this job?” the former admiral asked.
“I got them. I may need some support stuff I don’t have. A conveyer belt to get all those rocks this lovely lady wants.”
“More use for Smart Metal,” the admiral said.
“Lots and lots of uses,” Kris said with a sigh.
That meeting adjourned, but the yard boss stayed behind.
“You’re going to owe me one for taking Sampson off your hands,” he said.
“Send me the bill,” Kris said. “Just keep her too busy to cause me trouble.”
“I doubt that’s possible, but keeping her busy, that I can do.”
“You might also try to get her to take a fitness-for-duty physical. I can’t help but wonder if there’s more going on in her than she’s saying, and she said a lot.”
“You want me to order her to get one?”
Kris sighed. “Ask.”
“I’ll ask. Absent an order, I doubt she’ll listen.”
“Yeah. This why you stayed?” Kris said. Feeling suddenly tired.
“No. Actually the reason was quite different. When we finally get those four large frigates spun out of the Prosperity and Enterprise, we’re going to need to name them.”
“I suppose someone has already decided something.”
“Yes, Your Royal Highness, Viceroy of Alwa, but they are all to hell and gone on the other side of the galaxy. I figured you might have some opinions of your own.”
“What are the names?” Kris said, now feeling all the exhaustion of the day.
The yard boss handed her a short list.
She read down it. “Congress. Well, they appointed me and we’ve already got a Monarch, seems like a good idea. Royal. I guess that balances Congress, Constitution, and Constellation. Bulwark. That seems to be our job here. Ardent? Who came up with that one?”
The admiral shrugged.
Kris reached for a stylus and scratched through the last name.
In its place she wrote Hornet.
She handed the list back to the former Navy man. “There are the names for your new heavy frigates.”
He smiled. “Good fighting names. I’ll see that they are commissioned as such, hopefully before you get back from hunting for the old Hornet.”
Kris found herself finally alone. It had been an exhausting day. No doubt, a lot of people were cussing her name as they worked late cleaning up the mess they hadn’t known they had until she showed them.
“Nelly, did you ever get me an appointment with Ada?”
“Yes. You were tied up in meetings, so I held off. Is eleven o’clock too early?”
“No, it will give me time to get down and back and maybe have some meetings here to file the teeth down on the alligators up here.”
“Strange, Ada said something along the same line. ‘No doubt your princess will leave me with a whole lot of work to do. Better I find out early in the day, so I can get some of it done.’”
Kris read reports until she couldn’t keep her eyes open anymore, then shambled off to her night quarters and barely made it out of her uniform before she fell in bed already half-asleep.
Is this any way for a bride to behave? she asked herself. Her husband dirtside and she too exhausted to do anything if he weren’t. Of course, if he were here, he’d have to be one deck down and in the next frame.
She fell asleep before she could contemplate any further the unfairness of it all.
34
Nelly woke Kris at 0545. “Kris, Jack’s shuttle will dock in fifteen minutes. Do you want to be there to greet him?”
It was amazing just how fast Kris shot out of bed and pulled on yesterday’s whites. She had one of those female premonitions that new whites would be wasted on her returning husband. She was at the docking bay just as Longboat 2 locked in.
Jack was first off.
At this early hour, there were few personnel around to witness their commodore and the colonel of the Marine Strike Force throw themselves at each other and lock into a kiss that showed just how much they’d missed each other.
They weren’t alone, though. Amanda and Jacques were just as tightly intertwined.
And both of the men were as muddy and grimy as if they’d been on a four-week campaign. Kris’s day-old whites would need special laundering, but who cared?
“Was it dangerous?” both women asked their men at the same time.
“No” and “Not a bit” were their answers. The lie might have held if four Marines hadn’t exited the longboat at that moment with a pole stretched between them. Dangling from the pole was the newly named kanga-tiger.
“That’s huge,” Kris said.
“You shot that?” Amanda demanded of Jacques.
“Not me. Three or four Marines took it down.”
“Not a bit dangerous,” Kris said, elbowing Jack. Since he was in full battle rattle, the armor hurt her elbow more than it did anything to him.
“It’s all in your perspective. You’re a viceroy. You go to meetings, or so I hear. I’m a Marine. I get to play in the mud and kill really nasty things that need killing. A job’s a job.”
Kris kissed him again. “Want to trade?”
“No way would I let you go for a walk in those woods. It’s not just the big things. They got little things that will take your hand off before you even know they’re there. I can’t tell you how much I admire the Alwans who’ve set up camp in those woods. Or how glad they are to find Marines willing to help them. They may have survived, but they’ve got no problems with seeing some of these ‘eat’em-ups’ get their comeuppance from a Marine fire team.”
Another big thing with lots of teeth was carried out. It had six legs.
“How many of these ‘eat’em all ups’ are there?” Amanda asked.
“I’m sure we can find a biologist willing to categorize and name them all. For me, they’re just targets . . . and chow. They make good eating,” Jack said.
Kris adjourned to her cabin with Jack. They both needed a shower, so they saved water by sharing one. Abby was sent to get a set of greens and tans for Jack. He being her security chief, it seemed only appropriate that he accompany Kris back down to her meetings.