“That sounds like a great idea,” Jack said. “And I could use a shower about now.”
As soon as he had shucked his uniform, it was clear he needed a shower. A cold one.
Kris was only too happy to provide an alternate solution to his problem.
44
The trip back held few other surprises. The Wasp and the wreck held together. Nelly found a route that almost landed them in Alwa. They dropped into a system with a working jump buoy just as Captain Drago called time to refuel. While they used the jump buoy to message Alwa that they would be home in a just a few days, they settled into orbit around a gas giant, and the Wasp’s pinnace did two refueling runs.
That made it possible for Captain Drago to accelerate at one gee until halfway to the jumps, then decelerate the rest of the way. They went through dead slow and on an even keel. Three days later, they nudged their way into Alwa system to find the Princess Royal and the Constellation waiting for them.
“Good Lord, Wasp,” Captain Kitano said on screen. “What happened to you?”
“Look what followed me home,” Kris said proudly.
“More like what you pushed home,” Kitano replied.
“It does kind of look that way. Nelly, send to the professor. ‘Have I got an alien artifact for you to study!’”
“It doesn’t look in very good shape,” Kitano said.
“Again, no survivors, but this time I sliced the reactors off so they couldn’t blow themselves to dust. No one has been aboard the wreck, but our nanos report it’s crammed with bodies. They popped the hatches at the last second and spaced themselves.”
Kitano just shook her head. Then she seemed to change her thoughts. “Commodore, I hate to say it, but I’m very glad to see you back. Is it safe for me to come aboard the Wasp, or would you prefer to come to the P Royal?”
“The Wasp is quite safe. We’ve proved it through more jumps than I care to count. Come aboard, Captain. I would like a full report on what’s happened. By the way, we saved the Hornet’s crew. All but three. We arrived in the nick of time.”
“I’m glad to hear that, ma’am. I’ll be with you in fifteen minutes.”
“I’ll have Captain Drago delay starting our acceleration until you’re here.”
Ten minutes later, as the Princess Royal’s gig docked solidly with the Wasp, Captain Drago put on one gee of acceleration, and the deck was once again down. A few minutes later, Captain Kitano joined Kris in her day quarters. Jack and Captain Drago came in a second later.
“What’s our situation?” Kris asked, as the four of them settled onto the couch and stuffed chairs.
“We deployed the buoys, as you no doubt noticed. We’ve lost one, six jumps out from the one the aliens would have used if they made it past your fleet, Commodore.”
“So they’re out there and nibbling, but they’re keeping their distance.”
“It seems that way.”
“And our defensive efforts?”
“We’ve dug bases a thousand meters down on all three moons. One is mainly ice, but we found something solid. We’ve got two launch tunnels dug on all three and are working on a third one for each. The Hellburners have gone live on all those satellites. The crews are mainly the Ostriches with a few Roosters, colonial and Navy thrown in. The second division of the squadron is online and has shaken down very well.”
“Well done,” Kris said.
“I’ll leave the situation dirtside to Granny Rita, and the industrial situation to Pipra, but I think you’ll find them all satisfactory or better. It’s my handling of the Navy personnel that may be a problem, ma’am.”
“That app that opens doors between quarters?” Kris said, to save the young woman from beating around the bush.
“Yes, ma’am. I thought that when we off-loaded most of the boffins, our problem would go with them, but no. Many that went dirtside to work on the food supply came back with attachments. Some local, but lots of Navy. Once some officers relaxed discipline, others followed. I tried jacking up the security on the Smart Metal and having only the chiefs be able to move metal. But we want people to do damage control, and the chiefs don’t want to be answering calls for every little thing.” Katano shrugged.
“Beside, some smart Sailor cracked the new code. If I keep increasing it, ma’am, I run the risk of getting close to the hull algorithm, and I don’t want that. I’ve got morale problems with the Sailors, chiefs, and officers. We’re trying to follow the regs, ma’am, but it’s not working. Now, I don’t know what to do. It’s not like I can order half the couples ashore permanently. I’d be grounding twenty, thirty percent of our crews.”
“They sent us the younger officers and enlisted personnel, the ones with no attachments,” Kris supplied. “And now they’re forming attachments under the threat that any day could well be their last.”
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that from my division heads and chiefs, ma’am.”
“Has it caused trouble? Damaged unit cohesion?” Jack asked.
“That’s what has surprised me,” Captain Kitano said. “There have been a few blowups, but not all that many. Where things went sour, I usually get a request from one or the other for a reassignment. So far, they’ve been few enough for us to handle, and they’ve had no impact on our battle efficiency. I don’t know how the folks back home would take to this, but here, just letting Sailors be boys and girls works best.”
“We are here, and we do have an alien something nibbling at our perimeter, and everyone knows that any day they could be fighting for their lives,” Kris concluded. “Am I missing something, or are all hands handling themselves to meet their needs and the needs of the mission?”
“I wouldn’t want to tell the king that, but yes, ma’am, it does look that way.”
“Let me handle my grampa,” Kris said.
“You don’t seem very surprised,” Captain Kitano said.
“The Wasp has had the same pressures on its crew, and they’ve been in two fights to boot. Captain Drago here issued his own order violating Navy policy before we started home. I would have been surprised if you hadn’t dropped this in my lap.”
“What do you plan to do, Commodore?” Captain Kitano asked.
“When we dock, I’ll call the captains and key staff together and hash it out. If we can come to a unanimous consensus, I’ll go that way.”
“I don’t think you’ll have too much of a problem,” Kitano said.
“Kris,” Nelly said, “there’s a message coming in from the jump buoy at Jump Point Beta. Ships from the U.S. have jumped into a system three jumps out.”
“Hmm,” Kris said, “Do we get our own consensus or wait for the new kids to arrive?”
“I’m glad I don’t have your job,” three voices said in harmony.
Half an hour later, Kris transferred her flag from the Wasp to the Princess Royal and headed for Alwa at 2.5 gees. That gave her time to get a report from her vice viceroy.
Alwa was producing a lot more food . . . if you liked fish. The Alwans were bringing a lot of forest edibles to market and did like the electronic goods the moon base was starting to turn out. Also, that copper mountain was slowly dripping copper into the nonpolluting catch basins.
There was grumbling from some of the old elders, but not from the new not-quite-so-elders stepping forward. They were more in step with the average Alwan on the path and only too aware the new humans were the only thing standing between them and the biggest “eats everything” they had ever dreamed of.
Pipra reported to Kris in her day quarters on the Princess Royal as soon as she docked. Kris invited her to take a comfortable chair away from the table. “The fabricators are starting to produce parts for weapon-caliber lasers. The miners aren’t interested in being in unarmed ships when the aliens show up.” The asteroid mining was going as well as could be expected. “I could use more ships to bring rare earths and other metals down system.” Pipra was sure her techs would be excited to get their hands on the Hornet’s reactors.