The babies were quickly hurried into isolation before they were changed. Their parents had taken along a bag with baby essentials in it. The surviving boffins immediately subjected it to a thorough analysis.
The diapers were cloth, very much like cotton. “We can match them.”
The rubber pants were made of some sort of plastic. Again, they could be replaced.
The formula was the big question mark. It seemed to be based on something like milk, with a lot of extras. The boffins were confident they could duplicate it from the Wasp’s shrunken supplies. That assumed that something humans called milk could be digested by someone with such different DNA.
First, they would use what the presumed parents had brought.
Kris left them to their work.
Which left Kris with nothing else to do but watch as the bridge crew prepared to blast for the other fuzzy jump point in the system.
She tapped her commlink. “Communications, have you heard anything from Launch 3?”
“Nothing, Your Highness. We’re guarding every frequency Chief Beni might use. We haven’t raised so much as a hum or a click that might be them.”
Kris closed her eyes as the breath went out of her. She wished she was like Penny. At a moment like this, she’d say a prayer and feel better for it. Instead, Kris struggled to bring in a deep breath, then let it out slowly.
She opened her eyes, and found that the skipper was staring at her. He had one of those “it’s time to go” looks on his face, but he didn’t say a word.
Kris gave him a short nod of thanks for the courtesy of his silence, and said, “Captain Drago, let’s see how far the Wasp can jump.”
“As you wish, Your Highness. Lieutenant Kann, if you will, bring us smartly to one gee and let’s see how much speed we can put on this boat before we hit that jump.”
“Aye, aye, Skipper,” Sulwan said. “Bringing her smartly to one gee. Course for the Jump Point Fuzzy Beta. Let’s see if we can pole-vault this puppy all the way across the Iteeche Empire.”
61
“Chief,” Kris snapped, and knew immediately that she’d made a mistake. “Nelly, where are we?”
“There’s activity in the system,” the new lieutenant announced a bit breathlessly before going on. “I think it’s ours,” he squeaked excitedly.
“Kris, we made it to Alien 1,” Nelly announced. They were in the system with the devolved aliens that Auntie Tru and Kris’s real great-aunt Alnaba were studying.
“I told you that eighteen revolutions per minute counterclockwise would give us just the right direction,” Nelly said proudly.
The computer had called it on the nose. The speed had given them the distance to jump clear across the rest of the Iteeche Empire. The rpms had pointed them in the right direction. Then again, maybe the new fuzzy jump points were a bit more controllable than the old ones.
Kris breathed a sigh of relief. She was joined in that by everyone else on the bridge and, most likely, the Wasp.
“Unknown ship in system, identify yourself,” came from the main screen. A bigger-than-life image of a quite earnest young lieutenant in U.S. Navy blues glared from that vantage point.
Captain Drago waved Kris’s way, allowing her the honors.
Kris stood and faced the screen. Her khakis were stained and rumpled from several days’ wear. She stank. The water Engineering had been able to produce still stank of ammonia and methane. What they drank was triple-treated, and still only met Cara’s “yuck” standard.
All that might be true, but she was still Princess Kristine Longknife, a lieutenant commander in her grampa’s Royal U.S. Navy, and the woman who led the great Fleet of Discovery.
And that was what Kris said to the young officer.
After which the screen went blank.
Vicky had joined Jack on the bridge. She giggled. “Do you often affect men that way?”
“I guess I should have brushed my teeth this morning,” Kris admitted.
“I don’t like the smell of this,” Jack said, “and I’m not talking about your body odor.”
“I agree, Jack, I don’t think this is some kind of joke.”
The young man reappeared on the screen; this time he looked like he was holding a dead rat at arm’s length. “You will exit this system immediately and report to Admiral Santiago on High Chance. If you deviate in any way from that direct course, I am authorized to use deadly force.”
“Hold it,” Kris said. “We’ve been struggling for the last I don’t know how long to get back to human space. We’re just looking for a dock, some food, a bit of water and reaction mass.”
“I am not to talk to you about anything other than getting you to High Chance. Can you identify the jump point out of here?”
“Mister,” Kris drawled, “we discovered the jump point into here and did the first explorations below, remember?”
The young officer showed red at the collar as he remembered the system’s recent history, but he went doggedly on. “Then you can point your ship at the jump point. My patrol craft will follow, and if you attempt to escape, I will disable your engines.”
“Kid,” Captain Drago growled, “the Wasp’s engines are damn near disabled. You throw even a hard word at them, and they’re likely to quit on us. You be careful. Relax. We will follow your directions to the letter.”
The screen went blank. The fast patrol boat fell in behind them, and they made for Jump Point Alpha. It was a slow trip because the skipper held the Wasp at .75 gee.
It gave them plenty of time to think. Jack rambled up to Kris’s Weapons station and leaned close enough to whisper. “That’s an FPB. Remember them?”
“All too well,” Kris said. She’d commanded twelve mosquito boats like that one when six huge battleships charged into the Wardhaven system and demanded its surrender. Because of several mistakes at the high command level, those twelve boats were all that stood between Wardhaven and a bombardment that would have put it back in the Stone Age.
Somehow, Kris had held them off.
“Isn’t there another system between Alien 1 and Chance?” Jack asked.
“Yes, there is,” Nelly said, while Kris was still trying to get that answer out of her own muzzy brain.
“Would you have taken one of those teacups through a jump point?”
Kris shook her head. She hadn’t taken one of them out of Wardhaven’s orbit.
“What do you think of us bugging out after we jump into the next system? Not going to Chance?”
“You don’t like the sound of our orders to High Chance?”
“Don’t like the sound, smell, sight, taste, and touch of it,” Jack said. “When some young lieutenant starts ordering around a Princess Royal and, maybe worse, a senior officer, there’s something he knows that we don’t.”
“Yes,” Kris agreed, “but what?”
Jack just shrugged.
“Any suggestion where we’d go?” Kris asked. “Although there are some six hundred planets in human space that I haven’t been banned from, I can’t think of any that would welcome me with open arms. None at least that have any decent ship-repair facilities.”
Again, all Jack could do was shrug.
Despite Jack’s carrying on their conversation at a whisper, the bridge had fallen silent enough to hear a sigh drop.