Those who had been out with Kris just quietly shook their head. They would learn, no doubt, soon enough.
When Kris passed close to the merchant sailors, she got called over by two captains. “You’re definite about us not going back?” one asked.
“You want to try it unescorted?” Kris asked back.
That got heads shaking. Still, one muttered, “I’ll try anything. Once.”
Kris frowned and went on. “Are you willing to swear on all you hold sacred that you’d drop your reactor containment if you are attacked? That’s what every one of our warships has done when it was disabled. The aliens shoot up survival pods. We haven’t given them any ships.”
Several listeners blanched at that.
“Didn’t any of you notice that no one came back from the last shipment out here?” Kris asked into their silence.
“I told you the pay was too damn good,” someone said, elbowing another in the ribs.
“The pay out here is as good as we can make it,” Kris said. “Folks working the mines, shipping the ore down here, and working the moon factories get the best of what we’ve got, right alongside the fighting crews. Right now, there’s not a lot of extra to go around, so it’s rationed. That may get better when the next crop comes in. If any of you have any experience fishing or farming, you might want to ask for a transfer.”
“Farming is real work,” one youngster said. “I got off the family farm and aboard ship as soon as I could.”
“Well, we’ll eat better when that hard work gets done,” Kris said, and, with no further questions, made her way to the door. Jack was waiting for her there.
“I was wondering if one of them might take a swing at you,” he told her.
“So was I. I’ve gotten away with being the bad girl for so long, I’ve almost forgotten what it’s like to be called on it.”
“You’re no worse than you have to be. Now, speaking of being bad, I’ve always wanted a vice admiral in my bed. I figure one of them must know some really kinky tricks.”
“Don’t I wish,” Kris said with a happy sigh.
“Let’s go see what we shall see,” said Jack with a willing grin.
8
Two days later, the Wasp led out the Intrepid, Constellation, Congress, Royal, Bulwark, and Hornet, now with some of the old Hornet’s crew recovered and aboard. The Endeavor brought up the rear, loaded with plenty of low-tech jump-point buoys.
The Wasp itself carried some low tech of her own. The moon factories had knocked together several drones from aluminum, ancient carbon fiber, and simple computer-chip technology. It had taken an extra day, but now they had them for surveys when they didn’t want to risk Smart MetalTM.
The low-tech gear would be left on the dead alien planet. Some might be left on what everyone called the alien home world though solid proof was still needed. Just ask any of the 250 scientists aboard each of the eight ships.
“Prove it. Prove it. No guessing allowed,” was their mantra.
None of the low-tech gear would be abandoned in place on the battered world. They planned to collect it all in one location and laser it from orbit. Someone following them might know there was a new burn spot on the planet, but what was incinerated there would tell them nothing.
On the putative alien home world, they’d crash them into the deepest abyss of its oceans and dare anyone to find them.
They were coming to see, not be seen.
The trip was fast. They accelerated at two gees and took the jumps fast and with high RPMs on the ships. They covered thousands of light-years on their long jumps. They followed the Endeavor course as it raced back with the news of its discovery. On the way out, they kept their eyes peeled but saw not so much as the hair on the back of one alien head.
Kris liked it that way.
Once they arrived at the system with the battered planet, the surprises came fast and plentiful.
Professor Labao, who would likely never return from his sabbatical from the University of Brazilia, and most certainly not on time, presented Kris with some requests from the expedition’s scientists before they’d been in system two hours.
“Our observations of the subject planet shows that its surface has been heavily bombarded. As yet, we are not prepared to say by what. However, we would like to have some samples taken from the asteroid belt so that we can identify the exact makeup of rocks from there and compare it to what we find on the bombardment sites. Could you detach a ship to do that survey?”
“That’s why there are eight of us,” was Kris’s quick answer.
She walked the short distance from her day quarters onto the Wasp’s bridge. “Captain Drago, would you please order the Intrepid and Congress to slow down and split up. We want them to take random samples of several asteroids’ composition. Please advise the Endeavor that we would also like her to take samples on her way to and from setting up a warning jump buoy at the other jump into this system.”
“Aye, aye, Admiral. I’ll get that off immediately.”
“Thank you, Admiral,” the professor said.
“Any more requests?” Kris asked.
“Not at this time. We are studying the planet and the entire system as we approach it, but we have nothing yet to report that is different from the hasty study done by the small science team on the Endeavor.”
Kris smiled at the way he gave her backhanded notice that he didn’t think much of what Penny had brought back. It didn’t matter to Kris. Penny had taken only what Kris could spare at a tough time. What she’d found out was all that Kris had expected.
As the professor left, Kris stayed with Captain Drago on his bridge. “Any activity in this system?”
“If there had been, you’d have been the first to know, and we’d be turning around and hightailing it out of here, I assume, by your orders.”
“We most certainly would,” Kris said.
Her thoughts were a tad different. Maybe. Depending on what we found. I’d still like to take a try at capturing one ship alone. Maybe someone would decide to live, not die. But to her flag captain, she said what was more to his liking.
“Yeah, right,” Captain Drago muttered, apparently no less deft at reading Kris’s mind now that her flag sported three stars.
As they approached orbit, Kris called a staff meeting. It was a small one. At her conference table was Jack, of course. He had two rump battalions of Marines, though what they’d do this trip was still to be determined. But then Marines were good at figuring out what was needed of them while others were still wondering why they were there.
Penny and Masao were there as representatives of the early survey, even if Professor Labao didn’t think much of it. His two thousand boffins, however, still had nothing new they wanted to report to Kris. Until they did, Kris considered her friend the expert.
Amanda Kutter and Jacques la Duke had also hitched a ride on the Wasp. Yes, they admitted, there was plenty of economic and anthropological work to be done on Alwa, but there were so many question marks about these two planets that they’d begged to be included. Never sure what kind of lion’s mouth she’d be sticking her head in this time, Kris had signed off on their inclusion and added them to her immediate staff.