Two minutes later, they were there. Out of breath, but there.
“We got problems on Alwa,” Kris said.
“We knew they were having problems when we flew through here before,” Amanda said.
“Well, it’s worse,” Kris said, passing over the message flimsy to both of them.
“The old-line Alwans want their old ways back,” Kris said. “Only now, we’ve got new-line Alwans who like what they can buy with the money they earn working for the humans. Humans will slow down and stop if a Rooster type wanders into the road. Now Alwans are driving the big rigs instead of humans, and they don’t stop for nothing. Some old, bald-feathered Alwan wanders into the road in front of them, they don’t slow down. And if the old coot doesn’t get out of the way, they don’t go back to see if they hit him.”
“Ouch,” Amanda said. “That kind of makes it hard to figure out who did what to whom.”
“Exactly,” Jacques said. “So the old-liners hold all the new kids responsible for anything bad that happens to them.”
“It seems we humans have created a cash-based society that runs on a schedule,” Kris said.
“No wonder the old farts want their old world back,” Amanda said.
“That old world is not coming back. They have a choice between us and those bloodthirsty alien space raiders,” Kris said, and sighed.
“But how do you get them to see it our way?” Jacques said. “We’ve done just about everything we can to rub their noses in the facts. They just ignore what they don’t want to see.”
Kris leaned back in her chair and eyed the overhead. “Maybe we have something new for them to look at.”
Jacques raised an eyebrow at Kris.
“Nelly, get me Doc Meade.”
“Yes, Admiral,” came quickly.
“If I were to take the old woman alien down to Alwa, could you keep her sedated for the ride, then cut back on them when I wanted her in full rage?”
“I’ve got a pretty good idea on just how much to medicate her to keep her out of trouble,” the doctor said.
“I may want her to get in trouble,” Kris said, vaguely.
“I’m a doctor, Admiral. First, I do no harm. What kind of trouble do you have in mind?”
Kris told her.
“Yep, I think I can keep her meds at the right level for that without hurting her or her hurting anyone else.”
“Good. I’ll let you know when everything is arranged.”
“You think that will do it?” Jacques asked. From the look on his face, he seemed doubtful.
“Nothing beats a try but a failure,” Kris said. “Now, about this money-based economy. Amanda, are we doing this right?”
“Kris, you want production, you have to pay people to produce. There aren’t enough humans for all the defense you want, so you need to recruit Alwans. They’re new to this whole concept, but they like the TVs, computers, and amenities. I understand we’ve got a computerized egg warmer that is all the rage. I helped develop the advertising for it when it was still in R&D. You’re starting to sound like one of the old farts.”
“Oh, no, Amanda,” Kris said through a grin. “They don’t want to have anything to do with our cake. Me, I want it in my grubby little hands, and I want to gobble it down whole. We’re very different.”
“How’s the defensive effort going in general?” Amanda asked.
“Admiral Kitano seems happy. They’ve got the damaged ships back in full commission and spare Smart Metal to boot. I’ve already sent a warning ahead that the squadron got shot up badly and will need first call on the yards’ time. Admiral Benson says he’ll be waiting for us, and we can take the ships right into the docks. I’ve apprised Captain Drago, and he’s passed it along to the other ships.”
Kris’s grin got even bigger. “He doesn’t think our shot-up 20-inch lasers are worth fixing. He wants to scrap them and replace them with some of the new 22-inch lasers he’s now got coming out of the yard armory.”
“That ought to make you Navy types happy,” Amanda said. “You may not like businesspeople, but you sure like the toys they make for you.”
“No, Amanda, we like staying alive, which the weapons made by the industrial base does for us.”
“Same thing,” Amanda said.
“Very different,” Kris countered.
“Before you two get into a catfight, and may I point out, we now have cat allies to do that for us, may we take our leave?” Jacques said, standing. “Unless there’s something else?”
“Only other thing I’ve got is a rather short and cryptic message from Pipra Strongarm. You may remember her as the woman I left in charge of Nuu Enterprises,” Kris said.
“What’s her problem?” Amanda asked.
“She didn’t say. She did say that she needed to meet me as soon as I got in. Even said she wanted to be ahead of Admiral Benson.”
“But not why?” Jacques said, rubbing his chin in thought.
“No explanation.”
“You going to give her the honor of first meeting?”
“She’s got my curiosity up. I might put someone else last in line just for giving me that ‘I got a secret and I won’t tell’ kind of treatment, but I trusted Pipra.”
“If you trust her, you have to go with that trust,” Amanda said.
The two left, leaving Kris to wade through production reports from everywhere about everything. The good news was that there was a lot of it.
Kitano reported herself happy that the new squadrons were training up well since the first exercise, a quick trip to the moon and back. Their latest run out to the closest ice giant had been 4.0.
That was good to hear. Assuming every alien ship in the galaxy wasn’t standing in line to jump down her throat, she might have a fighting chance.
And if they are?
We’ll burn that bridge when we come to it.
61
They made orbit and, as promised, the Wasp-Hornet went directly into Benson’s yard. The Royal-Connie was assigned to the Musashi docks, the Intrepid-Bulwark was directed to the Yamato yard, and the Congress-Endeavor barely made it into the Portsmouth yard.
They only wanted one ship to a yard until they figured out if it was one ship or two they had.
Kris had signaled that she would move her flag to the Princess Royal and was on her way there when Pipra intercepted her.
“We’ve got to talk.”
“You’re talking,” Kris said. “I’m listening.”
“We’ve found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.”
“I take it that’s a metaphor. What are you really telling me?”
“When we got here, you pointed out, and you were quite right at the time, that there is nothing here that we could ship back to human space and make a dime off of.”
“The transportation costs alone would eat up any profit,” Kris said.
“Well, we’ve found something light enough and worth enough that we can make all our fortunes shipping it back there. Assuming that they don’t synthesize it or start growing it as soon as they get a good look at our first cargo.”
Kris slowly came to a halt. This could be a game changer. Assuming she could ever get Pipra to spill what it was.
“Okay, what is in this pot of yours?”
“It’s a plant,” Pipra said. “We found it on their south continent in a river. Can you believe it, it can uproot itself and move! Really move, like scoot out of the way of some hungry fish.”
“A plant,” Kris said incredulously, “that can move?”
“And has sensors. At least it can sense a fish moving toward it and run away.”