Jack shook his head. ''So that's what this is all about.''
''I'll give you a full briefing when I bring the captain and navigator in on the secret. My question to you is security. Do you feel safe spending weeks with this crew while we look at what Nelly thinks may be very unique alien finds?''
''What do you think we'll discover?''
''Your guess is as good as mine.''
''It could be valuable.''
''Or it could be dust. Most likely it will be somewhere in the middle. And most of what we see we won't understand.''
''Why do this all by yourself? And why not give us poor working folks some warning about what we're headed for?''
''I'm Great-grampa Ray's little girl. Maybe exploring is in our blood. I don't know. It's out there and I want to be the first to see it.''
''Me too,'' Nelly added.
''They don't pay me enough for this job,'' Jack moaned as he followed Kris into the captain's cabin. A moment later, Captain Drago and his navigator filed into the room, sat down across from Kris, and said nothing.
Kris eyed Sulwan. ''I was wondering whether Navigation Officer Kann noticed some strange objects in the Chance and neighboring systems?''
The navigator glanced at her captain before answering. ''You mean those fuzzy things on my screen.''
Yes!
Down, girl, we do this my way, so be quiet or forget about us going exploring.
You are mean to me and a slave driver and I will be QUIET.
''Yes,'' Kris said to the navigator, trying to keep two conversations straight. ''What do you take them for?''
''I don't know,'' Sulwan said.
''What fuzzy things?'' the captain asked.
''There's one in the Chance system,'' his navigator answered. ''Another one in the next. They show up on our scans just like jump points, but not. A jump point is a solid gravitational expression on my nav board. Every jump point I've ever seen looks the same. A point. These two aren't. Not exactly. I don't know how to say it, but they seem kind of fuzzy.''
''You didn't tell me about them?'' Drago frowned.
''They're not on the charts. The last thing you need is a navigator who's seeing things that aren't there.''
Drago's raised eyebrow showed agreement with that. ''So how come you, Most Princess of Longknifes, are asking about what my Sulwan doesn't want to talk about?''
''Last year, when my job was kind of boring…'' Kris started.
''You in a boring job,'' Sulwan said, failing to suppress her feigned shock.
''It only lasted a few seconds,'' Jack said, dryly. ''Less than a minute.''
''May I go on?'' Kris asked. They nodded. ''My old friend, Trudy Seyd, retired Chief of Wardhaven's Info Warfare, asked if I'd help with an experiment. She slipped a piece of rock from Santa Maria into my personal computer's self-organizing matrix, and added software to protect her while she tested this rock.''
''Rock?'' Captain Drago said.
''It was from the Northern Range of Santa Maria. The ones Grampa Ray blew away. Anyway, the folks doing research on Santa Maria thought those mountains had been nanotech-modified for data storage by the computer the Three put in charge of that planet.''
''We don't hear much about the Three species who some say built the jump points a couple of million years ago and then went away,'' Sulwan said. ''Unless we stop at Santa Maria. They've got festival days there about the Three. I was there once.''
''I still think the jump points are natural,'' Captain Drago said. ''I don't like the idea of trusting my ship to some highway other species built while we were still throwing rocks.''
''Lots of people share your view,'' Kris agreed, and let it hang there.
''But?'' Drago went on.
''Nelly has been finagling that rock, and she thinks she has found star charts. Charts with more jump points on them than my Great-grampa Ray saw when he was still able to see stuff on Santa Maria and drew up the star charts we use today.''
''You bet I have. And you have seen them, too, in your dreams, Kris.''
''Yes, I have, Nelly,'' Kris agreed. The others were staring at Kris's collar bone, where Nelly rested comfortably.
''Are you sure these are jump points?'' Captain Drago asked.
''They appear to be. The charts seem to show stars we've identified and connections between them. At least one connection for each point.''
''But why do these look different?'' Drago asked, his bushy brows coming down, nuzzling each other like two caterpillars that couldn't decide whether to fight or be friends.
''Your guess is as good as mine,'' Kris said. ''Possibly, they built most of the jump point net, the part we know about, using one technology. Maybe these points used a new technology and were built after Santa Maria U was closed down.''
''And you want me to risk my ship on those ‘maybe's'?''
''You got it in one,'' Jack said. ''Don't you love working for this young optimist?''
''Maybe, maybe not,'' Drago said, rubbing his chin.
''It would be interesting, giving those jump points a look,'' Sulwan said. ''And we have the jump buoys already aboard. We could send one through first. Us later.''
''You want to do this!''
''Why not, Skipper? How often does anyone get a chance to open up a chunk of sky? Who knows? Maybe this is the hole the Three crawled in and pulled the road up behind them.''
Jack shook his head. ''And Kris, here, wants to stick her head in the lion's mouth and count its teeth.''
Captain Drago raised an eyebrow, then seemed to make a decision. ''I'll need to bring aboard more food and supplies. Nine tomorrow morning soon enough?''
''Sounds fine, Captain.'' That would leave Kris time to explain to Penny why she again had Kris's command. Kris told her over salads at the New Chicago Pizza Place.
''I wondered what you'd do about Ron asking you to make yourself scarce,'' Penny said, biting into a small tomato. ''I learned you were leaving from Chief Beni when he came back, waving a check fit to choke a horse. Remind me to go out with you next time you go hunting.''
''We captured the ship. I paid fair market value and…'' Kris said, unsure if she should tell Penny where she was off to.
''If that admiral at Wardhaven had surrendered his ship, would we have sold it and split the profits?'' Penny asked, her voice distant.
''The engineer was supposed to blow up the Wasp. I think the battleships had the same orders. It was really a waste of time for me to offer them a chance to haul down their colors.''
''And while you talked, that SOB targeted the 109,'' Penny said in a barely audible whisper.
And Tommy died under that fire.
There. It was out. Kris had tried for something that wasn't even there, and it had cost her best friend his life. Or it would have cost Penny her life if Tommy hadn't knocked her out of the way… and died for it.
Their eyes locked. But today Penny didn't flee the room. There wasn't even a tear tracing its way down her cheek. I guess she's getting better. Maybe I should be, too, Kris thought.
Three of the old vets came in, waved at Penny, saw who she was with and took another table. Penny waved back. She did use the napkin to daub at her left eye. ''You know, Kris, you ought to hang around here a bit. These are good people. I've been working on the Patton with a whole batch of them. End up eating most of my meals with them.''
''They talk a lot?''
''They listen a lot. Really good listeners. Most of them lost buddies, lovers in the war. Eighty years later, they still remember them. They still hurt, but the pain's scarred over. I'm starting to think there's hope for me.''
Kris glanced out at the crowd in the place. It was filling up, but they had a quiet corner in the back and, though everyone who came in seemed to have a smile and a wave for Penny, none moved into their private space.
''I hear you've taken to shooting first even if you can't ask questions later,'' Penny said, then filled her mouth and leaned forward to chew… and listen.