''Wondering,'' Kris echoed, trying not to give away anything more than the presence of her and Luna's crew did.
''Yeah. The Shipwright's Daughter just outside Nuu Docks' gate is the only place open an old man or his grandson can get a bite to eat. Luna and her cutthroats move their overstoked tubs there. And there's talk of a Longknife on the base.'' The man's grin at Kris was missing three teeth. ''I served with your great-grampa at the Battle of the Big Orange Nebula.''
He glanced over to where long, wide windows on the floor of the station showed row upon row of yachts tied up. ''Owners that buy armed yachts don't do a lot of talking about what they got under the hood, but I'll bet you that you've come for the five, six boats that are still parked and that have lasers behind their brightwork. And I'll bet you I know which ones they are.''
''Sorry, Gabby. Betting against you would be betting against a sure thing,'' Luna said. ''You gonna let us at them, or do we need to rough you up for appearances?''
At the suggestion of hurting his grandfather, the kid moved forward, a baseball bat with a lead weight ready in his hand.
''No, Cory,'' the old man said. ''She was just asking me what I needed for job security. Luna'd never hurt me more than she needed to, to get a job done,'' he grinned, gap-toothed.
''What do you say I let you in and we wait and see what comes of it. Who knows, we may all end up heroes. If it don't turn out that way, I'm sure me and Cory can find a couple of flights of stairs to fall down. Now come on, I know where they keep the spare keys to most of these.''
Unfortunately, getting access to the armed ships turned out to be the least of the problems. Getting into their systems, especially gun systems, turned out to be a lot tougher. Nelly did her usual hack effort and found them as well secured as Peterwald's yacht had been on Turantic. Rather than force them by raw power, Kris called Nuu Docks; all of them had started life there. All had a standard set of ship systems from the yard… and all had system back doors that all but one of the owners hadn't bothered to change. And that one had not bought nearly as good a security system as he thought. Well before lights out, Nelly had all six armed yachts and eight large runabouts ready to follow them back to Nuu Docks like nice little ducklings.
Next morning, the yard was a madhouse, with more ships to work on, more work to do, and more people doing it. At the 0800 stand-up beside the Cushing, Roy from the yard proudly reported the last discrepancies with the PFs had been cured during the night. The installation of AGM-944s had been successfully completed on Singh's boat, and they were ready to proceed with the rest. Tests with the new radiators had been completed in the yard. If Phil and Tom agreed, they'd start installing new ones by noon. Both Lieutenants agreed to make that review their first order of business after the meeting.
That meeting over, Kris headed for her next one with the armed yacht skippers trailing a fast-stepping Captain van Horn and Colonel Tye. Kris should have recognized that for trouble, but her lack of sleep or tendency to view higher-ranking officers as hopelessly harmless led her astray.
The 0830 stand-up was a mob scene. But then, Nuu yards now sported a rather large mob of ships. It had started with armed yachts learning to fake it as cruisers and battleships. Now there were more armed yachts, as well as rescue runabouts that had started life unarmed but looked to be acquiring Army rockets. A quick glance showed Kris that anywhere anybody could find a spare inch of deck was fast filling with rocket launchers. And four medium-size Navy container ships usually plying quiet resupply routes now occupied docks at Nuu and were growing antennas of several makes and many models.
''That yours, Captain?'' Kris asked.
''Ours,'' the Army Colonel cut in.
''Navy-Army combined effort,'' Van Horn agreed.
''Army-Navy,'' the Colonel corrected.
''As soon as we get the Navy sensor containers loaded, an idea left over from the Iteeche Wars, we'll take those four ships over to the Army Depot and start loading containers of the 832 missiles and even older birds. Anyway, between the Navy sensor suite to fix a target—''
''And the artillery crews programming missiles to go for targets without grid coordinates or GPS,'' the Colonel cut in, ''we should have a major annoyance for our uninvited guests.''
''We might even do a little damage if we get lucky,'' Van Horn added drolly.
''A lot of damage if they hit. Pile-driving warheads on those old 722s can cut through six meters of concrete. Wonder what they'll do to ice?'' The Army Colonel grinned. ''Who says old is useless?''
''Those missiles will definitely get those battleships' attention. Maybe five, ten percent,'' the Navy officer added.
''But sometimes, it's the last fraction of a percent that matters,'' the soldier whispered.
Kris nodded agreement.
That was the last bit of agreement she got for quite a while as she slipped into a knot of arguing yacht skippers surrounding Roy. The bottom line was there were a lot more spots on yachts where skippers wanted to mount rocket launchers than there were rocket launchers. So everyone wanted what there was to be had.
''Hold it, hold it,'' Kris said, raising her arms and shouting to be heard. ''First thing, you don't decide who gets rockets.''
''Who does?'' several of the skippers demanded, Captain Luna first among them.
''The battle plan does,'' Kris said.
''And what's it say?'' Luna growled.
''That some of you might get a chance to use those missiles, and others of you won't get any such chance. Nelly, show them a hologram of what those rockets can do.'' A sphere appeared in front of Kris. ''In space, these rocket seekers should be good for twenty thousand kilometers. But better to hold them until you're ten K out. You have to be close enough for the warhead's seeker to home on heat, like a battleship's engine.'' The hologram showed a battleship with a rocket heading for the medium heat around the engines, not the extreme heat of the thermonuclear exhaust.
''But the key words in what I just said were the ten to twenty thousand kilometers. If you go up against a fully operational battleship, it will shoot you down before you get anywhere near missile range. You've got to go in after other ships have taken a lot of the fight out of the battleships.''
''The Captain and the Colonel are making noises about using missiles. Lots of them, from a damn bunch of tramp container scows,'' Luna pointed out. ''Don't sound like they're planning on waiting for things to get peaceful.''
''We're putting sensors and guidance on those ships. We're going to use them different from you. We don't have enough of the stuff we're concentrating on those scows to share among all of you. You're gonna have to go in close and use the warhead seekers to get your job done. Sorry, that's just the way it's gonna be.'' Kris cut off further debate on that.
''So how many missile launcher boxes do I get?'' Luna said.
''None.''
''What!''
''Remember, you're faking it as a cruiser. Navy cruisers do not fire Army surplus rockets.''
''But once I shuck those duds, I could.''
''Not likely.'' Kris shook her head. ''Backing your boat out of the fake front is going to be hard enough without trying not to rip off the launcher. Face it, Luna, if you just knock it a bit, it's gonna break. No, the six of you that are pushing the drones will have your hands full during the early part of the fight just faking it. After that, you can do what you want with your lasers. The other yachts will get the launchers.''
''Damn.'' Luna looked around at the new skippers. ''Any of you want to trade ships?''
Kris suppressed a grin. What happened to all that ''I know my boat. I'm the best one to drive it.'' But she was busy counting noses. Yes, they did have a round dozen extra yachts. Half of them sported some sort of burst laser. The others had been planned for rescue, but maybe …
''There are twelve fast patrol boats. There are twelve yachts. That gives us a chance to complicate the battleship's firing solutions for the early part of the attack. If you're game.''