“None that I can project, Kris.”
“Then get started immediately. Nelly, change the screen to show all the systems we’ve put buoys in.” Nelly did. “We lost sensors in these two systems. So now we have two buoys waiting at the next jump. We only need one. Nelly, after you get the updated software to these two outer buoys, order one of them to duck back into the silenced system, do a reactor count for thirty minutes, then come back.”
“Good,” Jack said. “We’ll know if those systems are now bases or were just hit-and-run raids.”
“Do you think they’re playing with us?” Commodore Hawkings asked.
“I would be very surprised if the bastards even allowed their children to play,” Kris said. “No, I think they are feeling around our perimeter. They lost a mother ship and a whole lot of her little monsters. Now they’ve lost a few more. We would recon a target more thoroughly that gave us a bloody nose. Especially if this is the first bloody nose we’d had in a long time. They are feeling us out.”
“Do they have to come through all six layers of our buoys?” Commodore Miyoshi asked.
“No,” Nelly said. “There are several of the systems four out that they could jump into directly. That is why I recommended as thick a warning perimeter as we could make.”
The commodores seemed startled that Kris’s computer would answer them direct. All but Miyoshi, who only smiled at the others’ surprise.
“Exactly,” Kris agreed. “Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming. Now, I suggest we all get back to work. The bastards are out there. I’m not surprised they are threatening us. They won’t be here today. Let’s get ready for them when they do come.”
The commodores left with hurried steps.
Throughout the station, people walked faster, looked more intent. The enemy wasn’t something just seen in media reports. It was blasting human gear out of space scant jumps from them. Things needed doing that might just save lives, your own life. Time was blood.
The Altair finished unloading and was moved into the yard for reconstruction.
Granny Rita complained she had containers dirtside that needed to be on the moon. There were plenty of lighters going down, so that meant plenty to get stuff back up. Still, cargo masters were warned to be more careful.
The team of diggers who had just finished arming three moons around one gas giant took off at two gees for the other one a third of the way across the system. No one complained about the weight.
Even before the Algol was unloaded, it gave up a reactor to the Endeavor. That scout would still be underpowered compared to the Wasp, but that was the best Kris could do for Penny. Once unloaded, the Algol would take on two huge reactors from the former Kagu Maru and ship them to the factories on the moon. That would free up several ship-size reactors to power potential armed merchant cruisers.
The engines from the old Hornet could not be recertified for space. They also headed for the moon to release more power plants for ships.
A suggestion came from one of the loadmasters that the three cargo ships just park their containers in orbit a few klicks from the station. Then they could start splitting the cargo ships into smaller ore carriers and get them headed for the asteroid belt.
Kris slapped her forehead and agreed to the change. That likely meant more containers routed wrong, but there was nothing critical for the moon in the shipment, and the asteroid ore was desperately needed for the laser-building program. The change was made smoothly.
The ordered chaos lasted all day as decisions were made and their application identified problems. Those were examined by not only the command staff but the people doing the work and better ideas often came up. Kris was amazed at how fast the decision cycle could whirl through that process, but her people were good.
They knew their lives were on the line.
Jack took Kris to dinner. This time it was Kiet’s Thai Food, and the stir-fry was distinctively local. Even the spices had been replaced with things available dirtside. “Some of my customers are telling me I should change the sign to KIET’S ALWAN FOOD, but a couple of Alwans have dropped by,” Kiet himself explained to Kris as he seated them. “Both the Roosters and the Ostriches turned up their noses at my best.”
“No accounting for taste,” Jack said, and ordered from the menu for Kris. “One of my officers suggested this. I think I can trust her taste.”
As it turned out, they very much could. The food served them had the echo of ancient Earth behind it, but it clearly was something new. It delighted Kris’s taste buds.
“This is the first time humanity and another species have come together without trying to kill each other,” Kris muttered when the meal was done. “We’ve got to save these people.”
“That’s what you’re doing your level best to do,” Jack said.
The meal was wonderful, romantic, and relaxing, even if they were interrupted twice. Jack took Kris back to their quarters and insisted on taking his time to fill the evening with slow lovemaking. Kris smiled and relaxed into his arms, knowing full well they’d be interrupted before Jack got too far along.
Surprise! Kris’s expected calls never came. Next morning, Jack admitted to having bribed Nelly to hold all calls. How he bribed a computer he didn’t say, but Kris’s call-back list didn’t turn up anything during breakfast that hadn’t been solved without her.
“Who says you Longknifes are indispensable?” Jack said with a knowing grin.
The fleet sortied at exactly 0900. Division 10 with the Wasp and Intrepid dropped back to a trailing orbit while Div 9’s four frigates pulled away to form up forward of the station. That smartly done, the four battle squadrons began to spin off the station smoothly. Each BatRon was to form on the station at ninety-degree intervals—north, east, south, and west of the station’s long axes. Each rotation, a ship would spin off at each major point of the compass and head out to join its squadron flag. Eight rotations, and the eight ships of each squadron were in line.
Kris looked upon what she had ordered and found it good. “Deorbiting Burn 3 on my mark,” she sent. It had been years since battle fleets had formed up. And those fleets had been ponderous, ice-encrusted monsters that lumbered along in formation, hardly budging in their course, confident in their powerful lasers and thick ice armor.
Kris had never gone to war in such a line, and she had no intention of doing so now. She was a product of the fast attack boats: nimble, quick, thin-skinned but heavily armed, and deadly. That was how she intended to fight this new enemy. In a battle formation, but with each ship free to do its own dance with death, dodging and thrusting while laying on heavy laser fire at the longest range possible.
It had worked for her before. She intended to make it work now.
Nelly had come up with a series of fleet orders. Kris had reviewed them with Jack the night before and found them probably workable. Nelly had issued the fleet its new order books with graphics to show her dozen jinks patterns.
Now they would find out if it worked. Today, all ships were at triple intervals. If this didn’t work as well as it should, hopefully they wouldn’t dent any of their Smart MetalTM.
The deorbiting burn worked as planned. They dropped no lower than Kris wanted, then blasted off for the closest gas giant. Along the way, Kris had the fleet form a line ahead of her.
“Yes, Jack, I’m keeping my flag at the rear of the line,” she told her security chief.
“Fine, Admiral. I really don’t see any reason for you to be at the head of it. Do you?”
Kris didn’t offer an answer, but then ordered the fleet to Condition Charlie and upped acceleration to two gees. Not an engine sputtered. This was going better than she’d expected.