“We’ve already had this discussion,” Phil said. “No doubt you’ve had the same one with her,” he said, nodding at Captain O’dell. “If worse comes to worst, they don’t get our ship. They get an expanding ball of gas.”
“That’s why I’m sending you two,” Kris said.
“Will we be taking any other people?” O’dell asked.
Kris grimaced. “If we have space, I guess we could allow some. Likely, we wouldn’t have space enough for everyone who wanted to go. We could hold a lottery for them.”
“Do you really want to send back those who want to go back enough that they’d risk this passage?” Phil asked. “They wouldn’t likely be your best friends.”
Kris scowled. “I need you two to be my ambassadors of goodwill. To tell folks we need more help, and we’re doing good with what they’ve sent us.”
“I think we could be that,” O’dell said. “I’m not so sure that the folks who really want out of here would be much help if someone shoved a mic in their face.”
“More likely, they’d grab the first mic they could get their hands on and never let go,” Phil said.
“I may have to rethink sending you with excess passengers,” Kris admitted.
“If we’re going to be using the three gees you mentioned, I’d prefer a light ship,” Phil said.
“Thanks for giving me your thoughts, folks.”
“Always glad to help a Longknife out,” Phil said with a huge grin.
Rear Admiral Yi was waiting for Kris outside the new Officers’ Club. O’dell saluted him, but Taussig, being in the presence of a vice admiral, acknowledged him with a nod, then saluted Kris and headed into the club.
Kris returned Yi’s salute, the OCS cadet she’d been not all that long ago wondering who was saluting who, as Phil and O’dell slipped away.
“I’ve got good news for you, Admiral,” Yi said, handing Kris a package.
She opened it to find the flag and shoulder boards of a full, four-star admiral.
“You’re out of uniform,” Yi said with a broad grin
“Again,” Kris said, and sighed. “I take it this is still a frocking up? Nothing added to my base pay.”
“‘She’s a Longknife, she doesn’t need the money,’ was what your king told me.”
“That sounds like Grampa Ray,” Kris muttered. Admiral Yi was in Earth dress blues. Kris was in dress whites with all her medals and orders; most were human, but now some were feline.
It added quite a bit to her weight.
Jack was nowhere in sight, unfortunately.
“Yi, would you do me the honor of replacing my shoulder boards?”
“Gladly.” As he did, he spoke softly for her ears only. “There’s a major reinforcement fleet building up to ship out here. It’s holding for something. Just exactly what that something is, I don’t know, and I was specifically told that I didn’t want to know because if I even guessed about it, and guessed too close, I would no longer be deployable.”
“So, what is your best guess, now that you are deployed?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. What I do know is that there are three humongous ships taking shape in orbit over Wardhaven, Pitt’s Hope, and Savannah. No one can tell you what’s in them that makes them need to be so huge, but I can tell you, there are Iteeche crawling all over them right beside the humans.”
He paused to grin at Kris. “At least, that is what I hear.”
“Iteeche?” Kris said, with a raised eyebrow.
“I swear, the demilitarized zone is more like a transit zone these days. We shipped them the specs for Smart Metal. What they paid for it is likely what’s going on around those three monster ships.”
“But you don’t know what that is.”
“Really, Admiral, I haven’t a clue. I was told that when it gets here, you’ll fall in love with it, but until it’s here, they don’t want to risk anything’s being captured.”
“Well, that’s nice to hear,” Kris said. “Now, want to tell me why our radar and lasers are being so attenuated when they sweep your ships?”
“Oh, that’s a surprise of our own. I’m surprised you didn’t ask me on the way in.”
“If it’s a secret surprise, would you want it on the radio?”
“Right, well, quantum computers have been slowing down itty-bitty bits of light for years to speed up their computing. Ever wondered if we could slow down laser beams, spread them around, and maybe send them back the way they came?”
“The thought has crossed my mind,” Kris said. “I understand the small quanta of light in computing are a whole lot more manageable than an 18-inch laser beam.”
“That’s been the thinking for centuries, but back on Earth, we’ve had some of our best research centers and universities working on the concept. You know, not all the smart people are out on the Rim, no matter what you’ve heard.”
Kris knew that the Rim worlds prided themselves on their lead in most scientific and technological advances for the last hundred years or so. She’d never visited Earth, and never had a taste of its chauvinism. Hopefully, the admiral would not be a problem.
But he was still talking. “We made a major breakthrough last year just as we were designing this class of warships. My command is coated with hundred-millimeter-thick specially doped and grown crystals. Once we go to Defensive Condition 5, our whole hull is covered with that stuff, and you can’t get a laser range finder to locate us, and not a lot of radar will bounce off us. And if one of those bastards you’ve had trouble with out here should hit us with a laser weapon, you better believe they’re going to be in for one hell of a surprise.”
“Interesting,” Kris said, trying to stay noncommittal. “That’s wonderful, because I’m about to brief you on just how bad it is out here.”
“Worse than us having to save your bacon from a suicide attacks before we even got to Alwa?”
That wasn’t exactly how Kris would have put it, but she tried not to let her irritation seep into her words. “That’s just the battlefield prep.”
The Earth admiral just kept grinning. “Well, we came out here looking for a fight. It looks like we came to the right place.”
Kris could agree with that. “You most certainly did.”
66
“Atten’hut. Admiral on deck,” seemed to place a special emphasis on “Admiral.”
This was an Officers’ Club, and as such, honors were neither required nor expected. Still, the entire room was on its feet, even the civilians.
Kris didn’t stand them at ease, but began the long walk to the front of the room where Penny and Jack waited for her at a table below four large screens.
It might as well have been the Forward Lounge, but the Forward Lounge gussied up to be the king’s Officers’ Club. The long bar was to Kris’s right. Paintings were on the walls, and battle flags hung from the ceiling. It was exactly the way the Forward Lounge had looked to receive the king.
The only thing missing were pictures of King Raymond and his old commands.
Added were two huge mother ships painted above the screens . . . with bright red slashes through them.
Someone was keeping score.
The place was a whole lot larger. Each of the eighty-plus frigates was represented by its captain, XO, engineering officer, skipper of the Marine detachment, and science lead. Though most of the scientists were civilians, the new arrivals from Earth all sported a uniformed lieutenant commander in that slot.
For the fleet auxiliaries and merchant ships, there were a captain, second officer, and chief engineer. Some in Navy uniform, others in merchant marine colors. A few wore rough civilian clothes.
Kris was halfway to the front when the applause began. Kris had no idea where it started or why some of the Navy types concluded they could clap their hands at attention. However it began, the applause filled the room.