Kris paused again. “If I had a ship, one of the first things I would do would be to take it back to that planet. To see if they were attacked by the surviving alien ships or if the aliens moved on to some easier target.”
Kris raised her hands in a shrug. “But I have no ship, and my movements are, at the moment, restricted by the law. So, no, I don’t know if the bird people still live. I only know a lot of good men and women died to give them a better chance than they had before we fought.”
The room broke into applause. Mr. Kawaguchi came up to stand beside Kris and made a show of turning the mike down; there would be no more questions. Several of the chosen reporters began to protest. Others began to shout their own questions. In the noise, Kris and her team left the stage.
The Marines formed a square around them and saw to it that they easily made it back to the waiting transport. Kris was on her way back to Fujioka House before she knew it.
“Do we know anything about the bomb?” Kris asked.
“I asked the police to report to us,” Tsusumu said. “Maybe they will. You did very well, young lady. Very well. I begin to think that you truly are Billy Longknife’s kid.”
Kris leaned back into the seat. She was getting the postbattle shakes. As inconspicuously as possible, Jack gave her a hug.
“You are a Longknife,” he whispered.
47
“You did much better than I expected,” Mr. Kawaguchi said later in the day as he handed Kris a blue envelope.
“What is that?” Kris said, eyeing it.
“It is a gag order from the judge. You are forbidden any more contact with the press. I think you did very well. By the way, do you have any other interesting conversations between you and your admirals?”
“As you pointed out, they are not my admirals. Vice Admiral Krätz was threatening to have his flagship shoot the Wasp out of space.”
“Oh, this just gets better and better. And why didn’t he?”
“Her Imperial Highness, the Grand Duchess Victoria Smythe-Peterwald was on the Wasp and objected to being blown to atoms with me. Admiral Krätz suggested she leave the Wasp.”
“Did she?”
“No, she was still on it when we finally made it back to human space.”
“Oh, I like this story. Now, how do I make sure the judges like it as well?”
“Don’t you mean the jury?”
“Not in Musashi, my dear. Usually, three judges hear cases. Since you face a capital charge, nine have been appointed for your trial.”
Actually, quite a few more judges had been appointed to try Kris. Several thousand to be exact. All in the media.
That evening, they gathered in the drawing room to watch several monitors. The news seemed to have nothing on but Kris’s presser, and all the talking heads had their own take on it. While they watched the four main news reports, Nelly collected them all and analyzed them. They ranged them from true to off-the-wall crazy.
“What’s the balance?” Penny asked Nelly.
“Not in our favor,” Nelly answered. “As usual, you can sell more soap the more outrageous you make your story. Take for example, your letting Sailors opt out of the battle. They’ve got a lot of old, retired generals telling everyone they can’t believe you did that.”
“Well, we’ve got a witness that I did,” Kris countered.
“No we don’t,” Tsusumu said, making a strange face.
“But Captain Miyoshi said—” Kris stopped in the face of her lawyer’s shaking head. “We don’t?”
“He said the young woman was pregnant. He didn’t mention that she was not married, and the pregnancy was initiated after Haruna departed on this mission.”
“Oops,” Jack said. “A lot of embarrassment all around, huh?”
“I can neither identify her nor get access to speak to her,” Tsusumu said, clearly disappointed in himself. “With her not talking, there are a lot of talking heads saying she does not exist and never did.”
“Is that the worst lie?” Kris asked.
“Sorry, Kris, no,” Nelly said. “There have been suggestions that you used, ah, sexual gifts, to keep the admirals in line.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Cara put in with full teenage outrage. “Why, she never even kissed Jack.”
Kris and Jack exchanged brief, very brief, eye contact. Fujioka House was full of servants. Abby had talked to several of them. Almost all were on retainer to one or more news sources.
Jack slept in the north wing of the house. Kris’s suite was in the south wing. They only met in the middle.
“I bet that sells lots of soap,” Abby said dryly.
“So there is a battle for my life going on in the media, and I’m gagged from fighting it,” Kris said, eyeing the table where the blue envelope with her gag order still rested. “What does the well-dressed innocent wear to meet the headsman these days? A white kimono? Should I start being fitted for one?”
“I hope not,” was all her lawyer said.
“You have a visitor. Several of them,” a Marine sergeant announced from the main hallway before quickly stepping aside.
A gray-haired man in what Kris took for very archaic Japanese garb stepped into the room. He held a heavy wooden staff, decorated with gold bands and designs that said nothing to Kris except that they were old, and this guy was important.
Everyone in the room was on their feet in a blink.
The man rapped his staff on the floor. In a booming voice, he announced. “The Princess Emiko comes. All who give her homage, give homage to the Emperor. Bow down in his honor.”
Beside her, Tsusumu bowed low. Remembering Captain Miyoshi’s comment about real princesses rather than jumped-up backwoods princesses, Kris bowed just as low.
48
“I’m so glad to meet you, Princess Kristine. Face-to-face. At least we’ll be face-to-face if you quit looking at the floor.”
Kris quit looking at the floor.
Princess Emiko proved to be a young woman likely a few years younger than Kris though it was hard to tell for sure. She was not only in full kimono but also the white face paint that Kris had only seen on vids.
There was no question that her arms were wide open, and she wanted to hug Kris. Her getas clopped on the hardwood floors of the drawing room as she hurried to engulf Kris in a hug that was as enthusiastic as it was careful not to smudge the makeup.
“I hate to wear this getup,” the princess whispered to Kris. “The kimono is nine hundred years old, would you believe, and my auntie will not talk to me for a week if it comes to harm.”
Kris eased up on her hug.
The princess took a step back and eyed Kris. “I’ve been wanting to meet you since, like forever. I’ve been a fan of yours since the Battle of Wardhaven. Imagine, taking on six pirate battleships with just your dozen little boats. Wow. They won’t even let me take a boat out on the lake at the palace. What are they expecting, a sea monster to gobble me up? It’s a lake, for Amaterasu’s sake.”
Behind her, the man with the staff cleared his throat.
“Okay, okay, Daisuke-san, bring it over here. I’m not clomping back over there to get it. A girl could break her neck in these getas. Kris, do you have any real clothes I could borrow? I can’t sit down in this getup, or anything. I just have to stand up or risk a seam splitting. They had a van bring me so I could just stand up the whole way.”
“Abby, could you find something? And get some of the household help. They must know how to handle nine-hundred-year-old clothes, I hope.”