Kris Longknife: Audacious Part 50

The efforts to crack the newly discovered alien worlds were not going well. No surprise there.

In a similar vain, just about any s.h.i.+p that could hold air were being chartered and sent out to try to duplicate Kris's success at finding new worlds. Other alien worlds. Anything.

That also was no surprise. Before Grampa Ray's Treaty of Wardhaven there had been a similar explosion of discovery.

And humanity stumbled on the Iteeche and had almost been made extinct.

That was something to think about, but Kris begged off of lunch with Sandy and instead dropped down to Last Chance to see a certain Ron Torn.

He invited Kris to dinner at his favorite steakhouse and introduced her to Amelia Blang, the daughter of the new amba.s.sador from the Helvetican Confederacy.

Their wedding was in a week. Could Kris manage to attend?

Kris was pretty sure her heart did not skip a beat. Or at least not too many. And she did remember to breathe.

After only a moment's reflection, Kris found that she must beg off. She had immediate orders that would have her moving on before then.

The next day, the Wasp boosted for Jump Point Alpha at 1.5 g's.

Another good boyfriend lost. At least, on the positive side, this time Kris would not have to add another bridesmaid's dress to her collection.

61.

TheWasp made a comfortable 1 g as it covered the distance between Jump Point Beta and High Wardhaven. The entire time, the awaited message scheduling a meeting between Kris et al and General McMorrison and whoever showed up sober never came.

So Kris started planning how she wanted the meeting to go.

"Abby, we've got to get you in uniform," Kris said at breakfast.

"Why forever should we?" Abby said.

"Oh, Auntie, I think you'd look great in uniform," Cara said. "Can I have one, too? Everyone else has one."

"The captain doesn't," Abby pointed out.

"Yes, but he's special."

Having a twelve-year-old girl at the breakfast table...or dinner table...or just on board was a whole new experience for Kris. Course, at twelve, Kris had spent most of her time drunk. Thank heavens Cara did not have any vices like that.

Still, the girl was twelve.

"Now about that uniform," Kris said, trying to wrestle the conversation back where she wanted it...and feeling very much like one of those bull riders she'd seen on South Continent.

"I don't have a uniform," Abby pointed out with a sharp edge.

"I could sew you one," Nelly tossed out, ever helpful.

"You can sew?" came from several around the table.

"We have lasers aboard to cut out the cloth if someone will lay it out on a table for me. I can guide the sewing machine if someone works with me."

"Me, me," Cara squealed, raising her hand. "I've always wanted to sew and we could sew me some clothes. Something like pirates wear."

"You are evil," Abby muttered, scowling daggers Kris's way. And left to find the cloth Nelly claimed the Wasp had in storage.

TheWasp docked with still no word from Main Navy.

Kris decided two could play that game. She a.s.sembled her usual suspects. Jack and Abby in khakis, Penny and Kris in undress whites.

Gramma Ruth avoided even being asked by muttering that she'd better go hunt up that rascal Trouble.

They took the beanstalk down, hailed a cab at the station, and made their way unannounced to General McMorrison's office.

"He's expecting you," the secretary said without looking up. "Go right in."

Which begged the question of exactly who was gaming who.

Kris took three steps into Mac's office, and brought her little parade to a halt: Jack on her right, Penny and Abby on her left.

General Mac was at his desk, making a show of reading something. King Ray in civvies was sitting in the general's visitor's chair, turned around to face not Mac but the arrivals. A huge grin was spreading across his face.

On the other end of Mac's desk, Admiral Crossens.h.i.+eld, Chief of Wardhaven Military Intelligence was digging out his wallet and pa.s.sing a bill of unidentified value to the king.

"Abby, you're in uniform," King Ray beamed.

"A bit faster than one admiral expected," Kris said, betting she knew the bet the admiral was paying off.

"Never underestimate my great-granddaughter," the king said like any proud grampa.

"The day is coming when you'll wish she wasn't so smart," Crossie said, sounding rather cross.

"Yes, like today," Kris growled.

"You handled Eden just like I figured you would," King Ray said.

"Is that why you didn't give me some help? Like maybe tell me what I was headed into. Give me a chance to think through my options. Maybe get a few less people killed?"

"Is that what's bothering you? For what it's worth, the butcher bill on the Eden op is one of the lowest ever in a major political upheaval." The king sounded like he'd done a check of his library, or more likely, of his soul, before he came to this meeting.

"Maybe it is from where you sat," Kris snapped. "But you weren't stuck searching through a darkened, blown-out room to find enough arms and legs to fill a body bag."

"Is that what's bothering you, kitten?"

"Don't kitten me. I've had it with the way you use people. I quit. Mac, you got a resignation for me to sign?"

The general shuffled through his papers. For the first time in all these counseling sessions, he came up empty. "No."

"Well, get one typed up. I will not continue to work this way."

"Hold it, hold it." Now it was Grampa Ray's turn to backpedal. "It can't be all that bad."

"You send me out on missions telling me one thing and expecting another. Maybe it was fun at first. Me, a kid, working for the legendary Ray Longknife, but the new wore off in a hurry. I'm burying too many good people for things that might have gone different if I'd known what I was walking into. What I was walking them into. No, Grampa, the good old days are over between us."

The legendary Ray pursed his lips in thought, then nodded. "Okay, young woman, what do you want from me?"

Kris was surprised to see the matter coming to a head this fast. But then, Grampa Ray was not known for avoiding conflict.

As a matter of fact, neither was she.

Kris signaled her team to take seats on the couches in front of Mac's desk, and took the chair at the end that left her farthest away from the three she'd come to think of as the dirty trinity.

Everyone seated, if not comfortable, Kris lost no time. "I want to chose my next job."

"I still can't find you s.h.i.+p duty like you want," Mac pointed out.

"I think I've found my own s.h.i.+p."

Crossens.h.i.+eld put a hand over his mouth, but it did not hide his smile.

"Yes, Crossie, I want the Wasp, crew and all. I also want the Marine company presently on it."

"For what?" Ray asked softly.

"To be the law out past the Rim."

The trinity exchanged glances. Ray pa.s.sed the money back to his intel officer.

"You've talked to Sandy?" Ray said.

"I know that we've got problems beyond the Rim. It's gold rush days and there ain't no law in sight."

"That's a problem that hasn't gone unnoticed," Ray admitted.

"And I want to take the Wasp's guns out there. With my Marines I'd be in a perfect place to kick b.u.t.ts and take names. But not just Marines. I want a legally recognized judge with a broad writ. And researchers. There's a whole lot of unknown out there. Between some scientists and Marines, we should be in a position to tackle just about anything."

"There's rumors of pirates," Crossens.h.i.+eld tossed into the pot.

"I'll expect better intel from you than just rumors," Kris bit back.

"Sometimes that's the best we got."

"Just so long as you give me all you have. Nothing held back. Nothing in your pocket so you can see just how good the kid is at improvised dance and firefights."

"You'd write the book for the new Wardhaven Survey Agency," King Ray said.

"Something like that. Hopefully a day will come when there will be more researchers and less Marines aboard a survey s.h.i.+p."

"I keep forgetting how young and optimistic you are," Ray said.

"And how old and pessimistic you are," Kris shot back.

Most of the others suddenly found a need to study the ceiling. Abby discovered a loose thread around a b.u.t.tonhole and pulled. The room got very quiet.

"You aren't a little girl anymore, are you?" King Ray said with a deep sigh.

"No. I am grown. I've put three, four years in the Navy and I'm starting to understand why you and Grampa Al don't get along. It must have been h.e.l.l being your son."

Abby was pulling threads from her s.h.i.+rtsleeve. Several of the men were now studying the carpet. Penny looked desperate to be somewhere else.

The king stood. Everyone in the room stood with him. "I think we've done about as much as we can here. Crossie, you see to it that Penny and Abby have access to everything that this young Turk thinks she needs to be the law out beyond the Rim. Mac, I think a full company of Marines is a bit stiff for one s.h.i.+p, but I'm not about to arm wrestle my kid into giving up so much as a private. Who knows, that private might be important to her some day." Kris had never seen the scowl he sent her way.

But she refused to be quelled by it.

He looked back at Mac. "See that the Wasp is fully outfitted for discovery, keeping the peace, and stopping the odd and sod land grab by our Peterwald friends."

"That enough for you?" he asked Kris.

She nodded agreement.

"And get the Wasp out of here as quickly as you can. I'd prefer not to have a repeat of this conversation."

And the king turned to leave.

Kris felt the urge to run, to catch up with him. To hug him. To do something to bridge the chasm that had opened between them.

But she stood in her place as he left.

Hugs were not something Longknifes did.

As the door closed behind him, Kris turned to the now shrunken trinity. "We'll need to add a lot more containers to the Wasp. I'd like a whole new sensor suite. Have you given any thought to who the boffins are and what kind of caring and feeding of them we'll have to arrange for?"

And the room got down to serious planning.

The Wasp sailed within the week.

King Ray was known to have a special fondness for s.h.i.+ps of exploration. Back while he was President of the Society of Humanity, he regularly saw survey s.h.i.+ps off.

He was not there when the Wasp sealed locks.