''Keep me company. Tell my mother there was nothing dangerous about how I won the medal my father is going to pin on me. You know. Provide moral support.''
Tom laughed. ''And your ma's going to believe me?''
''More than she will me.''
So it was settled. They dashed aboard the luxurious Swift Achilles a good ten minutes before the air locks were hatched down. Each ended up sharing quarters with six other junior officers headed for the beach, but Kris figured a cruise ship would be good for some serious relaxing. She was wrong.
At breakfast the next morning, she bumped into, literally, Commodore Sampson, the commander of Attack Squadron Six. He eyed her like she was something really hideous that had just crawled out from under a rock. Kris was getting used to senior officers giving JOs that treatment. Out of uniform, she braced and said, ''Good morning, sir.''
''Ensign Longknife, isn't it?'' the short officer rumbled. Kris agreed that she was. ''Interesting report on smart metal. Your grandfather's shipyards should find it informative.''
''Yes, sir,'' Kris answered, then headed for the other end of the dining room where the lowlifes and JOs hung out. For the next four days, she did her best to be elsewhere when her superior officer was anywhere.
Once the Swift Achilles docked at High Wardhaven, Kris had Nelly take charge of seeing that her and Tommy's luggage was shipped dirtside. She wanted her hands free as she moved about the station, hurrying for the elevator. It couldn't be that she was excited about being home. A sign at the elevator station proudly announced that the contractor had finally gotten the bugs out of the passenger cars on the orbit-to-surface elevator, a reminder that the Navy wasn't the only one with quality-control problems. Viewing cars were now available, and Kris and Tom grabbed tickets for one's fourth level, the one that gave a full view of Wardhaven as they dropped.
Once the car came out of the station, there were ohs and ahs at the view of the planet laid out 44,000 kilometers below them. Kris found tears forming in her eyes. Just four months ago she would have been glad to never see Wardhaven again. Today it was the most beautiful place in the galaxy. Its white clouds spread across blue oceans; its lands were green or brown or even bright yellow when the desert outback came in view.
''It looks just like Santa Maria,'' Tommy noted beside her, ''but not as beautiful.'' Did everyone in human space feel that way about their home planet?
At midcourse, the car began to decelerate; Kris went from being gently pushed back into her seat by the one-quarter g force to hanging on her restraints. A computer voice suggested they turn their seats around, but Kris was not about to give up this view. Now she could make out the particulars of home. Lander's Bay, a curving hundred klicks of water. Barrier islands had made this spot on the equator the choice for orbital landers until a runway could be built. The Old Miss, wide and reaching far back into South Continent had given the city of Wardhaven a boost for trade both off planet and up-country.
''What's that needle?'' Tommy asked.
''Grampa Alex's doing,'' Kris answered. ''Most of Great-I-forget-how-many Grampa Nuu's factories are off planet now. But we still own that chunk of land east of the river and south of town. He's turning it into one monstrous office and apartment complex and returning most of the land to parks. He bragged you'd be able to see the center piece of it from low orbit, and you can.''
''You own all that?''
''My family does,'' Kris corrected, not relishing the awe in Tommy's voice. ''We're a big family. I don't own all that much.''
''Yeah, right.'' Tommy didn't sound all that persuaded.
Kris suppressed a sigh; right about now was when she lost a lot of friends. Instead, she pointed. ''Those lakes out there beyond town. We used to have a sailboat. Honovi, my older brother, and Eddy and I would go sailing whenever we could. We would have sailed all summer if they'd let us. You ever go sailing?'' There, she'd said Eddy's name. She didn't choke on it. Her heart hadn't bled. She'd saved Edith; maybe now she could face Eddy.
''That pool back at OCS was the first time I saw water over my head,'' Tommy reminded her. Now, only a hundred klicks up, most of Wardhaven City was coming into view. Kris noted how much farther the city had spread around the bay since she'd seen it from Grampa Trouble's racing skiff. Well, Father's eight years had been prosperous ones. Good for Wardhaven. Good for his reelection campaign.
Now the car shuddered as the brakes were applied, and they slowed to a crawl to enter the station. As soon as the car turned level, riders were unhitching their harnesses, reaching under their chairs for their carry-on luggage even before the car announced such goings-on were safe. Kris was in no hurry. Even though Nelly had messaged ahead, there had been no one to meet her at High Wardhaven. She doubted there would be anyone here.
As she and Tommy looked for their luggage, Kris got a surprise tap on her shoulder. She turned and yelped with glee.
''Uncle Harvey.'' She threw her arms around the old chauffeur and gave him a hug and kiss on his scarred cheek. It took an effort to believe that he'd been younger than she was now when his one battle qualified him for disability and a plush job at Nuu House, as he called his work. To Kris, he'd always been old Uncle Harvey, and he'd always taken her to the soccer games, the plays, and all the other places a little girl had to go. And he'd stayed there to cheer her on, buy an ice cream to celebrate victory or take the edge off defeat. They'd been through Eddy together. Uncle Harvey was the one person she'd dare share her ''If only I had…'' horror with. And sharing, she'd discovered she wasn't alone with thoughts of what might have been.
''Where's Mother and Father?'' she asked.
''Now, you know they're busy, or they wouldn't be the important people they are,'' he said, taking her luggage.
''You're traveling light, only one bag. I haven't seen you manage that since you were shorter than my knee, and the bad one at that.''
''I'm an officer now, in case you haven't noticed.'' Kris did a quick whirl to show off her undress khakis. ''You always said you travel light in the Army, well that goes double for Navy.''
''And who's this other poor sailor hanging around an old man, looking eager for a ride?''
''Harvey, this is Ensign Tom Lien, the best friend I've made in the last five months. We're both kind of on the beach, and he's from Santa Maria. I thought we might have room for him for a couple of weeks.''
''Not at the Residency, they just hired two new special assistants. Damned if I can tell what's special about them. Anyway, there's no spare bedrooms anymore. It'll have to be the old Nuu House,'' Harvey said, reaching for Tommy's bag.
The young ensign swung it out of Harvey's reach, ''Da would tan my hide if I let a gray hair like you lug me bags.''
''If you can find a gray hair up there, you're welcome to it, but thanks for not saying old baldy. I suspect your folks raised you better than that.'' They exchanged grins. ''Come on, you two, the car's just a short walk. Let's get moving.'' The car brought more happy time. Gary was with it. A six-foot-four linebacker type, Gary was Kris's security detail at games and restaurants and whatever for the last ten years.
''What's Mother's schedule like?'' Kris asked as she settled into the backseat of the black limo. ''I was hoping for a quiet dinner tonight.''
''It's a state dinner tonight for the both of them,'' Harvey said. ''We've got a visiting delegation of firemen from old Earth, out here to talk and jabber and not do a thing. They've scheduled a quiet dinner tomorrow, only a dozen or so besides you and your brother.''
''Tell Mother I'll have Ensign Lien with me.'' She immediately silenced Tom's protestations with a wave. ''If you aren't there, the prime minister will have me paired with some old or young lecher whose vote he's chasing. With you, at least we can crack Navy jokes under our breath.'' That settled, Kris eyed the city around her. Everywhere she looked, something was being built out of stone and concrete. The red brick buildings that seemed so tall when she was just a kid were being replaced by buildings that soared out of her adult sight. Yep. Times were good, traffic was lousy, and Father was at no risk of losing any election he called. Five months ago, that was all she supposedly needed to be happy. How a little time had changed that.