“I can’t do that, Ron,” Kris said. Once, the thought of going with Ron would have brought a rosy hue to Kris’s cheeks. Once, she’d thought that Ron might be the one man for her. But he’d gotten a good look at life around a Longknife, and he’d run, not walked, for the nearest exit. Next she heard from him, it was a wedding invitation that sadly lacked her name in the place of honor.
“Are you resisting arrest?” Ron demanded.
“No,” Kris said.
“Then explain yourself.”
Kris raised an eyebrow to Admiral Santiago and waited for her to do the honors of enlightening the governor of the planet below.
“What she means, Governor Torn, is that Chance never contributed a dime to the construction of this station. Wardhaven got it dumped on her when the Society of Humanity went poof. We’ve been defending it ever since. While she’s on High Chance, Princess Kristine is on sovereign Wardhaven territory. You can apply to extradite her, but it would be a waste of time. You’re way down the line of people demanding her scalp, and King Raymond I of United Society has staked his claim on the head of the line.”
“But my wife had a brother on the Triumph. What happened to him? That ship?”
“Last I saw of it, it was an expanding ball of glowing gas,” Kris said, making no effort to take the cruelty out of her words. “All our ships went out with a very big bang. I suspect they all blew their reactor containments to make sure the aliens didn’t have anything to examine.”
“Kris,” Admiral Santiago snapped, “you are under orders not to say anything.”
“Then, Ron, why don’t you head home. If you want, you can take the babies’ picture.”
He snatched it and stalked away. He had to pass a detachment of Marines to get off the pier, but the admiral did not order them to relieve him of his picture.
Kris waited until he was out of sight, up the escalator to the main deck, then began unzipping her suit. Jack followed her lead.
“Theatrics,” Sandy said.
“You got to dress the part,” Kris said.
“So those kids are not all that dangerous,” the admiral said, sounding like she’d need some serious persuasion.
“Penny’s taken the watch in the nursery. Her computer, Mimzy, has got a set of nano guards cruising that room that are guaranteed to let nothing in or out.”
“Mimzy, huh. I heard that Nelly got in the family way,” Sandy said. “Gal, who knocked you up?”
“I did it all by myself,” Nelly said proudly.
“It should be so easy,” Sandy drawled.
“She did have some help from my credit chit,” Kris said dryly.
“But you’ve been very glad I did,” Nelly shot back.
“We wouldn’t have made it back without her and her brood,” Kris said. “We lost three of them along the way. Chief Beni, you remember him?”
“Yes, brilliant, if somewhat weak in leadership traits.”
“We lost him and two others.”
“I’m sorry, Kris. From the looks of things, you lost more than just them.”
“I observed six of the battleships that came with me be blown to dust. The last two, Swiftsure and the Imperial Scourge, were running for all they were worth when we took our only chance to duck out of the system. The aliens chased down two of my ships and blew them to bits. Taussig on the Hornet led them in one direction, so I could go in the other. That did let us shake them.”
“Did you get the mother ship you were aiming for?”
“We chewed up the stern half of something that made a moon look dinky. I don’t know if that kept them from launching an attack on the avian race we were trying to protect. I need to go back,” Kris said.
“Not until you’ve seen the king.”
NELLY, SQUIRT SANDY THE TWO SHORT VERSIONS.
DONE.
The admiral’s eyes widened as the quickest read of Kris’s report came through to her. Kris reached over and slipped the tiny data cube into the admiral’s pocket.
Sandy’s hand slid in as Kris pulled out.
“What are you doing to me?”
“Read the whole report. Take special note of the DNA we took off the kids’ parents. The aliens that plundered the planet and the ones that first shot at me hadn’t intermarried for, say, ten thousand years. The kids’ folks haven’t met the other two populations in the last hundred thousand years. There are a whole lot of big uglies out there.” Kris paused to let her words sink in.
“If you want to after you read that, you can destroy it. I don’t think you will. If you can see your way through to it, deliver a copy to Winston Spencer. He won’t be able to use it, but it will help him know where to snoop.”
“You are going to get us into those adjoining cells in that deepest dungeon.”
Kris changed the subject. “Is it as bad as Ron makes it sound? Am I already being declared a war criminal?”
“Oh yes,” the admiral said. “Now, I’ve heard a whole lot more than I was supposed to, but then I’m a Santiago, and we’re used to getting the bloody end of the Longknife legend. I’ve got orders to put you on the first fast courier ship available. They yanked the nearest one off its run when they heard you were here, and it’s due to dock in five minutes. Right across from the Wasp.”
“I’ll need to take Jack with me.”
“Sorry, girl, your orders are to go alone and say nothing to any of the crew.”
“Jack’s my security chief. He’s kept me alive I don’t know how many times.”
“Kris, these courier ships are manned by people with the highest clearances. They carry packets that no one trusts to transmit in the securest ciphers. That, and you are ordered to go alone. Sorry, Jack, you stay here.”
Jack seemed to mull that claim over . . . and find it very lacking in substance. But several of the Marine guards were eyeing him with serious intent. Kris figured Jack could take them, but what would they do next?
With no good options, Kris let out a sigh. “Okay, Jack, you come along when the Wasp does. Or the Wasp’s crew. I’m none too sure the old girl has another trip in her.”
“I’ll get to Wardhaven as quickly as I can,” Jack assured her.
Across from Kris, a port opened, and a small young woman ducked out. “I’m supposed to pick up a Kris Longknife, whoever she is. I got a tight schedule, so let’s get a move on.”
Suddenly there was no more time. Jack stood there, arms at his side.
She stood there, arms with nothing to do.
And Jack raised his hands to her, and suddenly she was in his arms, holding him holding her.
For the moment nothing mattered. Not the war, not the politics, not the confusion and hatred.
She held him and he held her and there was nothing but the warmth of his embrace and the beating of their two hearts.
Jack’s fingers brushed her throat, sending shivers through her. She looked up at him. His lips trembled, soft and waiting. She kissed him.
Or maybe he kissed her.
All the wasted years and months and hours plunged into the seconds they had here and came away full of wonder.
“Pardon me. I’ve seen this kind of thing before, folks, and I understand, really I do, but I got my orders, and one of you needs to get his or her ass on my boat, pronto.”
The words of the skipper of the courier boat were insistent . . . and apparently well practiced.
The urge to tell the young woman what she could do with her orders was on Kris’s lips, but she didn’t want to break from the warmth of Jack’s kiss.
The thought of her refusing her orders came to mind, quickly followed by the vision of Sandy ordering her Marines to pick Kris up and toss her in the boat.