Kris Longknife Indomitable Read online

  Kris Longknife: Indomitable

  Mike Shepherd

  Copyright Information

  Published by KL & MM Books

  May 2019

  Copyright © 2019 by Mike Moscoe

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher.

  This book is a work of fiction set 400 years in humanity’s future. Any similarity between present people, places or events would be spectacularly unlikely and is purely coincidental.

  This book is written and published by the author. Please don’t pirate it. I’m self-employed. The money I earn from the sales of these books allows me to produce more stories to entertain you. I’d hate to have to get a day job again. If this book comes into your hands free, please consider going to your favorite e-book provider and investing in a copy so I can continue to earn a living at this wonderful art.

  I would like to thank my wonderful cover artist, Kitty Niclain of Artistic Whispers Productions. I also am grateful for the editing skills of Lisa Müller, Edee Lemonier, Gwen Moscoe, and as ever, my wife Ellen Moscoe.

  Rev 4.0

  * * *

  ISBN-13: 978-1-64211-0432

  ISBN-13: 978-1-64211-0319

  Contents

  Praise for the Kris Longknife Novels

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Chapter 66

  Chapter 67

  Author’s Special Note

  About the Author

  2019 Releases

  More Books by Mike Shepherd

  Praise for the Kris Longknife Novels

  “A whopping good read . . . Fast-paced, exciting, nicely detailed, with some innovative touches.” - Elisabeth Moon, Nebula Award-winning author of Crown Renewal

  * * *

  “Shepherd delivers no shortage of military action, in space and on the ground. It’s cinematic, dramatic, and dynamic . . . [He also] demonstrates a knack for characterization, balancing serious moments with dry humor . . . A thoroughly enjoyable adventure featuring one of science fiction’s most interesting recurring heroines.” - Tor.com

  * * *

  “A tightly written, action-packed adventure from start to finish . . . Heart-thumping action will keep the reader engrossed and emotionally involved. It will be hard waiting for the next in the series.” - Fresh Fiction

  * * *

  “[Daring] will elate fans of the series . . . The story line is faster than the speed of light.” - Alternative Worlds

  * * *

  “[Kris Longknife] will remind readers of David Weber’s Honor Harrington with her strength and intelligence. Mike Shepherd provides an exciting military science fiction thriller.” -Genre Go Round Reviews

  * * *

  “‘I’m a woman of very few words, but lots of action’: so said Mae West, but it might just as well have been Lieutenant Kris Longknife, princess of the one hundred worlds of Wardhaven. Kris can kick, shoot, and punch her way out of any dangerous situation, and she can do it while wearing stilettos and a tight cocktail dress. She’s all business, with a Hell’s Angel handshake and a ‘get out of my face’ attitude. But her hair always looks good . . . Kris Longknife is funny and she entertains us.” - SciFi Weekly

  * * *

  “[A] fast-paced, exciting military SF series . . . Mike Shepherd has a great ear for dialogue and talent for injecting dry humor into things at just the right moment . . . The characters are engaging, and the plot is full of twists and peppered liberally with sharply described action. I always look forward to installments in the Kris Longknife series because I know I’m guaranteed a good time with plenty of adventure.” -SF Site

  * * *

  In the New York Times bestselling Kris Longknife novels, “Fans of the Honor Harrington escapades will welcome the adventures of another strong female in outer space starring in a thrill-a-page military space opera.” - Alternative Worlds

  * * *

  “Military SF fans are bound to get a kick out of the series as a whole.” - SF Site

  1

  Grand Admiral, Her Royal Highness, Princess Kris Longknife, Imperial Admiral of the First Order of Steel, and commanding admiral of the Iteeche Combined Fleets, presently in direct command of the First Imperial Battlecruiser Strike Force, eyed the main screen on the flag bridge of the Princess Royal. An analysis of the system they'd just jumped into was rapidly coming up for her review.

  The Glorious Golden Eel system was one of the most productive star systems in the Iteeche Empire. The various shipyards on the eleven space stations orbiting GGE-3 and GGE-4 were capable of commissioning a hundred battlecruisers every month into the rebel fleet. Kris definitely wanted to cut this one out of the rebellion.

  Adding that production to the Imperial fleet wouldn't be so bad, either.

  "Have the scans been updated yet?" Kris asked the commander on sensors.

  Sensors didn't raise her eyes as she half-muttered, "Admiral Kitano's flag, the Resolute, has been tracking and recording emissions since they got here. There is very little ship traffic in the system at present. No movement of warships."

  "That's not normal," Kris murmured through a deep frown.

  "No doubt, Admiral," the commander said. "There are several thousand battlecruisers and scores of battleships of state tied up at piers around the different stations. They're all powering up their fusion reactors and preparing to get underway."

  "How strong a force?" Jack asked.

  Lieutenant General Jack Montoya, who refused to be made a duke even if he was Kris's husband, was always checking on the worry end of business. That had been his job before Kris married him. Since then, he had only gotten more obsessed with it.

  It was to keep Jack happy that Kris's Princess Royal was back with the central force and not leading the vanguard wing right beside Admiral Kitano's Resolute.

  "You know, it was a lot more fun when
I was just an upstart lieutenant," Kris grumbled to Jack.

  "Which is why your great-grandfather, the king, went out of his way to get me in charge of your security. Between the two of us, we kept you alive until you reached this hardening-of-the-artery age of wisdom. I am looking forward to when Ruth is a boot ensign and you are trying to keep her from doing what you did."

  For safety’s sake, Ruth had been left back at the Iteeche Capital with her younger brother, Johnnie. When last seen, she was doing her best to sneak her tiny six-year-old body up the high diving board to hurl it into the Embassy's swimming pool.

  "No doubt," Kris answered, dryly,

  The commander on sensors interrupted this discussion of Longknife family values. "There is no way to tell if they've got more ships powered down and doing their best to hide," she said. “But the present count puts them at about four thousand ships."

  Jack raised his eyebrows. "For once, you have the enemy outnumbered."

  "What a unique experience," Kris said, dryly.

  Of course, of the eight thousand ships in her force, some 5,000 of them were recently surrendered rebels. They were still crewed by the Iteeche Sailors who had sailed them in the civil war against the Emperor.

  Kris had seen to it that the captains and a few senior officers had been removed. New loyalist officers had been hastily promoted and detached from their ships with a platoon of heavily-armed Iteeche Marines to help them sleep better at night. Thus, it was anybody's guess whether the odds were two-to-one in Kris's favor or three-to-one in the rebel’s. It all depended on who stayed loyal the next time they closed to firing range.

  Still, the Iteeche had a tradition for this. The Iteeche, based on ten thousand years of Empire, had a tradition for just about everything. Said tradition held that during a rebellion, lower decks fought for whom their officers fought. The price of losing for a clan chief or senior admiral might be torture and a horribly painful death. In defeat, the common warriors and sailors just submitted and switched the color of their dress uniform - assuming they weren't blown out of space first.

  Of course, if they were on a planet like the ones ahead of Kris, the fifty billion civilians might be gassed en masse so that the winning side could repopulate it with their loyal supporters.

  Kris considered the Iteeche slightly insane. Still, under orders from King Raymond the First to most, great-grandpa to Kris, she was fighting to keep the teenage Iteeche Emperor alive and safely on the throne.

  Which created a situation for which the Iteeche had no tradition. What did you do when serving under a hated two-eyed, two-legged human?

  Kris had all the rank and all the official command authority. A lovely calligraphy scroll hanging in her day quarters bulkhead said so. Still, there were quite a few Iteeche, loyal to the Emperor, wondering if having a loathed Human save them might cost more than losing.

  Kris had considered organizing her fleet around the potential loyalty of her different flotillas. Should she assign the recent "recruits" to three of the standard wings that fleets deployed in and hold her loyal ships in the other two wings? That way, if the ships switched sides again, she'd have at least two loyal wings.

  Of course, those with freshly turned coats might think that she didn't trust them.

  Alternately, Kris could divide her forces equally into five wings of sixteen hundred ships, say fifty of the standard Iteeche flotillas of thirty-two ships. Eighteen flotillas in each wing would be loyalists. The other thirty or so would be recent converts back to the Emperor's cause.

  That was the battle array Kris had chosen. Each wing was organized into six task units of eight or nine flotillas, the first three flotillas in each being those previously loyal.

  When you commanded thousands of ships, how to organize them weighed heavy on Kris's mind.

  Still, Kris had concentrated her hundred and ninety-two Human battlecruisers with their crystal armor in the center and van. The ten centimeters of crystal filaments allowed the Human ships to survive much longer under laser fire. What with the improved fire control and gunnery, these six flotillas should be able to hold their own against four or five times their number if trouble broke out.

  Kris also had one extra ace up her sleeve. Nelly. Kris's computer since first grade, and upgraded year after year, had, somehow after the last upgrade, began to tell horrible jokes and argue with Kris. Her children were better behaved toward the humans they were gifted to, but it was apparent to all and sundry that Kris's computer had made the breakthrough to sentience.

  Nelly lived by the nanosecond and could frequently spot problems long before a human eye. She'd spotted at least one developing incident when an admiral turned coat as he cruised off Kris's starboard bow. Unaware to her, he'd been readying to take her under fire.

  On her own, Nelly initiated defensive jinking. She'd advised Kris to get ready to return fire as soon as she was fired upon.

  It was a deadly mistake for the traitor.

  Kris had arranged for Nelly and her children to have access to the main computer in every Iteeche ship, both those loyal to the Emperor and those who had only recently become loyal again. If someone started funny business, Kris would know quickly.

  So, while Kris thanked her normal Longknife paranoia for keeping her alive this long, she wasn't feeling more than her usual amount of fear today.

  What she was feeling was curiosity. What were the fleets tied up to GGE-3 and GGE-4 planning to do? Kris had trained her Iteeche allies to fight outnumbered three-to-one and win. They'd proven they could fight outnumbered as much as four-to-one and still pull off a victory. Faced with odds of two-to-one against him, what could this Iteeche commander hope to achieve?

  2

  A day later, Kris's fleet was only twelve hours out from planet Glorious Golden Eel-3, the largest and most productive of the two planets. Kris, however, was no less curious and still no more informed.

  The planet's open net had told the people what was happening in the sky over their heads. They knew about the approaching battle fleet. Their own battle fleet had stayed ready for action, but was still tied up to the pier.

  "What is going on?" Kris muttered to herself.

  "Nothing," Jack observed, unnecessarily.

  Kris scowled his way. "But is that nothing really not anything, or is it a whole lot of exciting nothing?"

  Jack shrugged. "Hey, this situation has its good points. They aren't getting the people all riled up. No one is telling everyone we'll gas this planet. Most people are going to work. Although I understand the yard hands have been told not to come up the space elevator to the space docks."

  "Yeah. They've only commissioned three battlecruisers in the time we've been in the system. Want to bet that they've converted any partial hull into a glob of Smart Metal goo?"

  "Only if it involves me having to do something wonderful to you in bed tonight if I lose," Jack said, giving her an only slightly feigned leer.

  "Down, General," Kris said. "Let's not scandalize the staff."

  "You're turning into a prude in your old age," Jack said. He did pout, albeit poorly.

  "Just remember, boy. I can still put you on the mat if I have to."

  "Okay, since you insist on being a spoil sport and all business, our monitoring of all radio nets and visual observations show no sign of sabotage on any planet or station. They seem to be just holding their collective breaths. The common people don't have a lot else they can do."

  "The rebels can do everything or nothing. I hate it when this happens," Kris growled. "Meanwhile, we've slowed to a crawl and can't do a whole lot. We're half a day out from GGE-3. If they're going to do something, they better do it pretty soon."

  "Admiral, we've got activity on all the stations around GGE-3," the commander on sensors announced.

  Jack raised an eyebrow Kris's way.

  "Finally," Kris said in a long sigh.

  "The fleet is making to sortie," Sensors reported. "The entire fleet. Even the battleships of state are pulling out." br />
  That caused Kris to raise an eyebrow. The Iteeche Empire had been provided with Smart MetalTM technology by the humans and were building battlecruisers very much, but not quite, to the human designs.

  However, these battleships of state were something else entirely. They looked more like the battleships Kris's great-grandparents had fought nearly a hundred years ago in the Human-Iteeche War. There was, however, one big difference. They were huge, and they were decked out inside like armed luxurious yachts for the ruling class.

  Sensors had identified a dozen or more of these gold-plated tubs, including two of the largest ones Kris had ever seen. She was not at all sure that the Emperor's never-used barge was bigger than these.