“Very well,” Nelly said. “Bring me the material, and you will have your Fumio-san at your side. But I must warn you. I and all my computers, in response to a recent attempt by the court to separate us from our chosen humans, are now protected. We will respond to the voice and brain wave of one, and only one, human. Your Fumio-san will respond to you. If your father seeks to duplicate it, something I and my children will resist, you will find that any second or third or fourth clone will still only respond to you. Do you understand, Mr. Kikuchi?”
“You have a wise computer, Princess-san,” the CEO said with a slight bow to Kris. “I should have expected nothing less.”
“A word of further warning, Mr. Kikuchi. If I or my children are ever tampered with, you may find us suddenly inert. You will get more results with an abacus than from us.”
“I think you have made yourself perfectly clear,” said a very unhappy CEO.
“Come with me. My station cart is over there,” Katsu said, pointing to where one was parked. “I have the matrix that Nelly-san wants and that for my Fumio-san. I can take you down to your Wasp. There are some people there that I think you will be very surprised to meet.”
Kris turned back to Rokuro.
“I’d best go sulk in my tent,” he said. “Doubtless there is paperwork that I must do.”
“No hard feelings?”
“Disappointment. I would have loved to have had one of those things at my beck and call. Imagine how green your Grampa Al would be at the sight of me with one of those. But no. What my son will do with his Fumio may amaze all mankind. And I think we will greatly need amazing.”
I TOLD YOU I DIDN’T LIKE THE GUY, Nelly told Kris.
NO WAY DO I WANT MY GRAMPA AL WITH ONE OF YOUR BROOD, NELLY.
Kris hastened along to where the station cart waited. Jack took charge of Nelly’s prenatal kids and Nelly began the process of bringing Fumio to life as Katsu expertly drove them to where the escalator would take them down to the Wasp’s quarterdeck.
The computer Fumio came to life quickly under Nelly’s expert ministrations. He seemed a bit shy at first, but since he and the young engineer had only words to communicate in, Kris could understand a certain slowness in the development of the relationship. Without the brain-to-machine interface that Chief Beni had created, it would take a direct hookup to Katsu’s brain for him and his computer to have the intimacy Nelly and Kris shared.
Nelly offered no suggestions, and Kris kept her mouth shut.
She and Nelly had built their partnership the hard way over years. Maybe that was the best way to do it.
Katsu and his computer were taking baby steps as they all rode the escalator down. Katsu pointed out one of the many benefits of Smart MetalTM. The quarterdeck was a gaping hole in the side of the Wasp, and heavy equipment and gear drove in and out with ease. Beside the hole, a pirate of a skipper leaned against the bulkhead.
“It took you long enough, Princess. I was starting to fear we’d be sailing without you.”
“Captain Drago,” Kris shouted with glee. “What ill wind blew you this way?”
“Hi, Jack, Penny, Abby. I see you didn’t take your chance to get well upwind of this bit of trouble when you had the chance,” Captain Drago said through a wide grin.
“It’s like an addiction.” Jack laughed. “One taste, and you’re hooked for life.”
“Well, welcome to my fine new web, said the spider to all the flies,” Drago said with a flourish, and bowed them all aboard.
60
“Really,” Kris said, “what are you doing here? I only found out about this ship, what, three hours ago.”
The skipper shrugged. “A whisper in certain dives frequented by Sailors. A wink here, a nod there, and word gets around. Cookie’s below, working on dinner. Have you eaten?”
“Not since lunch,” Kris said, and her stomach reinforced the comment with a rumble. “But who’s paying for all this? I’m not exactly broke, but I don’t have access to the funds I used to.”
“I have my retirement pay to tide me over, and I’m negotiating with someone we all know and hate, so your funding problem may not be as tight as you think.”
“Not Crossenshield,” Kris said, whispering the name of the chief of Wardhaven Security, maybe all U.S. security, as more of a curse than a name.
“The same,” Captain Drago said.
“What part of our soul does he want this time?” Jack asked.
“He hasn’t given back the part of my soul he lied about last time,” Kris growled.
“But he does have money, and we need funds to outfit this ship and hire a crew,” Drago said with a businessman’s honesty.
They stepped aside as a large something-or-other was guided past them on a large electric platform. Two men walked to either side to make sure nothing got hammered. A third man, with a large wrist unit, walked first. The ship parted before him like the Red Sea did for Moses, and a ramp down to the next deck opened as he tapped a few keys.
“One thing you have to remember about this Wasp—yesterday’s passageway may be today’s bulkhead,” Captain Drago said dryly.
“So sorry about that,” Katsu said, hurriedly. “All the work was planned out carefully so we could avoid things like that. It’s just that the Wasp is the prototype, and we are discovering that our planning could have been better. We will do better next time. The Kagero is taking less time than the Wasp. We expect to turn out the next four frigates in four months, from starting the seed to commissioning.”
“Four months to hatch a fully operational warship with half a battleship’s broadside!” Kris said.
“Four months, but the frigates do not have a broadside,” Katsu said. “All four of the guns are in the bows. The specs say you can deflect their beams by fifteen degrees up, down, or sideways. We are thinking of adding a fifth 18-incher pointed aft, but getting that much straight space through engineering and the rocket engines is a problem we haven’t solved.”
Kris shook her head. “Battleship lasers on a ship this size! The ability to change it from a comfortable cruise ship to a man-of-war with the flip of a switch, and another flip of a switch and you have two ships, one to take your civilians out of harm’s way and the other ready to fight tooth and nail. Please, Katsu-san, you have nothing to apologize for.”
“There are no switches on the Wasp,” Katsu corrected Kris. “You select what you want from a menu and tap the screen.”
“Never debate fine points of technology with an engineer,” Penny said with a laugh.
They followed Captain Drago up two flights of stairs. Stairs: nice, wide, and comfortable. No doubt in a more combative mode, they would be steeper and more naval ladders. The bridge Captain Drago proudly presented to them was more spacious than the old Wasp’s. There were several extra stations; Kris wondered if they’d be there in combat or were just for helping with the fitting out. Just now, they were being operated by shipyard personnel and seemed devoted to system tests.
“Guns is your station, Your Highness,” Drago said, pointing at a station where Kris’s old weapons position had been. “Defense is in the same place, Lieutenant Pasley. It’s a bit more complicated than the last one, but Katsu-san tells me it’s very intuitive. Don’t let him get away without giving you a full demonstration.”
“I would not think of doing so,” Katsu insisted.
“My cabin is just off the bridge,” Drago said, pointing at one door in the rear of the bridge. “Your Tactical Center is right next door. You should be able to hear me bellow for you. By the way, there is a back door into your center. Please don’t go traipsing around my bridge every time one of your team goes out for coffee.”