Ruth glanced at the menu, then ordered something in Greek that made the owner smile. ''You have excellent taste, Madame.''
Kris ordered the same. As did Jack and Penny. The owner left promising them a magnificent experience. Around Kris, most of the Marines were ordering hamburgers, though a few did go for the lamb version of the familiar lunch.
As the waiters left, Gramma Ruth unfolded her linen napkin, sipped from her water, and asked, ''So, why are you here?''
Kris gave the usual explanation.
Gramma Ruth barely managed to swallow her water before she spat a mirthless laugh. ''No wonder Trouble was so mad at Ray the last time he messaged me. The love of my life was his usual coy self, refusing to tell me what Ray was up to. Said I'd find out soon enough. I guess I have.''
Now Kris demurely unfolded her napkin. ''So I take it you don't have sealed orders to hand me. I was so looking forward to Grampa Ray telling me just once what he'd sent me into.''
Gramma Ruth snorted several times as Kris finished. ''The problem is, Kris, that the old boy has no idea what he's doing. Don't you know that by now?''
''Are we talking about the same Ray Longknife, legend from one end of human space to the other. King of some sort over a hundred planets?'' Kris asked.
Jack and Penny looked a bit uncomfortable at what some might consider treason…if not to the putative royalty, at least to the historical legend. Around the room, Marines got very interested in the wall paintings.
''Kris, girl, haven't you figured out the truth here? Cause if you're still all starry eyed about your lineage, it won't do us any good for me to tell you the answer.''
Kris didn't shoot back an immediate response, but chose her words carefully. ''Gramma, I knew that what most people take for the Longknife facts are more a product of poor reporting and just plain luck. Unbelievable luck to still be alive, all things considered. We are flesh and blood like everyone else.''
''That is nice to hear,'' Gramma sniffed. ''So talk to me about Grampa Ray, named by some king of a hundred planets.''
Kris thought for a moment, then, without raising her voice, said. ''Marines, I really don't want to read about this in the media tomorrow.'' A few heads nodded, then she went on, ''Grampa Ray comes from a long line of barkers and biters. And if anyone in his lineage ever stopped by a church, it was only to nip and snap at the preacher's heels.''
Jack and several other marines looked likely to choke. Penny actually beamed. Probably the first smile Kris had seen on her face since the battle that made her a widow.
Gramma Ruth grinned from gray hair to gray hair. ''I don't believe I could have said it better.''
''So,'' Kris immediately went on, ''we're agreed Grampa Ray isn't some superman. Doesn't have a crystal ball, and sometimes shoots his way out of the messes he's gotten himself, and half of humanity, into. Stipulating that, why would he send me here?''
There was a harsh rap at the door. A moment later several waiters charged in carrying delightfully aromatic platters.
And Marines made automatics disappear as quickly as they'd appeared. For a long minute, Kris watched as an interesting array of food was set before her. As she had so often when on the campaign trail for Father, Kris prepared to see what and how a more knowledgeable elder ate, and would follow her lead.
When the help left, Gramma seemed to have other things on her mind. As she slowly ate from a strange-looking salad with a stranger-smelling cheese, she eyed Kris.
Kris let the silence stretch, then slowly twist itself into a pretzel. Finally, she grabbed the bull by the horns. ''Gramma, why doesn't everyone on Eden get to vote?''
Ruth laughed at that. ''Ask the old girl a question. Huh. That'll get her talking.'' She looked at the lunch, mostly untouched. ''Well, you folks fill your mouths. The lamb is especially good with the couscous. That's this stuff.''
Kris took a small bite to keep Gramma happy. It actually tasted good. Still, she put her fork down and gave the older woman her full attention.
''I can't answer one question without firing up more, so let me start at the beginning. The various space programs on old Earth had just about completed their first fusion-powered spaceships when a lunkhead on a quantum-gravity research grant spotted this weird something out Jupiter's way.
''The Chinese shot off an unmanned high-speed probe that somehow stumbled into the jump point and vanished. Suddenly, the mission to Mars didn't seem so interesting and all three, the Santa Maria from Europe, the Columbia from America, and the Smiling Goddess from China are not quite racing for this little bit of nothing orbiting Jupiter.
''And despite the calmer heads back on Earth telling them to be careful, the three ships, after ducking just one remote through the jump, went charging through themselves.
''You know about the Santa Maria getting lost?'' Penny and Kris nodded at that. ''That kind of set the others back a bit. But only a bit. Alpha Centauri is a bust of a system. But there, not a day's hop from Earth's jump, was this other one, and behind it was lovely, blue-green Eden.
''It took the Chinese all of five seconds to announce they'd be colonizing the place. Which meant the Americans had to. And the Europeans couldn't be left out. Now, who do you think was ready to come out here?''
''The best and the brightest,'' Kris said. That was the usual answer the teacher expected.
''Thank you for the textbook answer,'' Ruth drawled. ''Now, who do you really think got on the ship to leave Earth forever?''
''Didn't the Chinese basically just press-gang their transportees?'' Penny said.
''I expect that was in your schoolbook, if you grew up anywhere but the Chinese section of Eden, honey, but I don't think the old lords of Beijing were all that different.
''Eden got some folks that couldn't wait to see what's out here, but they aren't that many. Then came folks the old regime wanted to see gone. Some were in prison; others were just troublemakers. The Europeans and Americans emptied their jails of all but the worst offenders. And there were the religious zealots out to create a perfect world for their true believers.''
''That's not exactly the mix you hear about in the Lander's Day speeches,'' Kris said, having sat through many a long-winded one praising the gallant, foresighted founders of Wardhaven.
Gramma chuckled. ''Back on old Earth, the Americans were a lot like us, a population made up of folks who fled Europe. Some came on their own. Most were flat broke and came as indentured servants, in hock for their passage. Some were headed for jails when they signed their indenture. Two hundred years later, people might want ancestors from the early boats. But one American businessman of that time, a Benjamin Franklin, I think it was, had a different view. ‘We ought to thank King George for his new colonists by shipping him rattlesnakes in return.' ''
''Rattlesnakes?'' Jack said.
''Yeah,'' Gramma Ruth answered. ''Big, poisonous things. Not what you want to come across in a dark alley.''
''And it was like that here on Eden?'' Kris said.
''For a while. Then the Americans found their own planet, Columbia. The Chinese got New Canton all to themselves. Same for Europa with the Europeans. Yamoto got the Japanese into the act. And the less said about New Jerusalem, the better. So interest in New Eden, and New Haven, another one-for-all colony kind of dried up.
''And Eden was having enough trouble. Who's in charge? So once the banks weren't running things, the folks had a bit of a problem on their hands, figuring out just what kind of government they wanted telling them what to do. Did I mention that most of them didn't cotton to much telling?''
''So each set up their show to run their side,'' Kris said.
''With them setting the rules for their territory, and vetoing any law they didn't like for the planetary government. It worked fine at first,'' Ruth said.