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  “Hmm, I heard that the ship, Wasp is it, that brought you back from Alwa, was crystal clad. How did that happen?”

  Which led to Kris’s telling him how the Earth ships had not fared so well in their first combat and the changes the shipyards on Alwa Station had made to them. The yard then applied crystal to all the ships, including the new arrivals from human space.

  “My computer has the way we grow the crystals, sort them to an exact length, then apply them to ships quickly.”

  “Ha,” Al cackled. “I bet I can turn the tables on Earth with that package you’ve brought me.”

  “Likely you can, but I need eight armored ships right now. If I’m to have any chance of coming out of Greenfeld space alive, I need to survive being on the receiving end of a sneaky broadside and live to return fire.”

  “Maybe you’re not such an idiot,” Al allowed.

  “Can you armor my ships?” Kris asked, eyeing him over her near-empty cup of tea.

  “Will you give me the file?”

  “Nuu Enterprises on Alwa Station did most of this work.”

  “How is Irving doing?”

  “Irving?”

  “Yes, the fellow I put in charge of my interests out there.”

  “I think he drank himself to death,” Kris said. “Pipra Strongarm is running the show for Nuu and several other industrial interests.”

  “Who’s she?” Al asked.

  “Pipra Strongarm,” Al’s computer answered in a lush female voice, “was Third Vice President for Human Resources.”

  “Third Vice President!” Al didn’t quite squeak.

  Kris failed to suppress a smile. She’d taken Pipra at her claim to be next in charge. She’d never asked Pipra what she was in charge of.

  I’ve been jobbed, but you kept us all alive. Go, gal.

  “Do you want the files?” Kris asked.

  “Yeah. Yeah, give them to me.”

  “You will get the eight battlecruisers ready first and in time for my sailing,” Kris stated, not even adding please.

  “Yes, yes,” he snapped, “assuming the Navy gives me the bid. You know, it would be easier and definitely faster if you gave me a couple of kernels from your computer, so I could have a top-of-the-line computer, you know, and see that things go well for you.”

  “No,” Kris said.

  “Definitely no,” Nelly added from her collarbone.

  “But this is a complicated process, wrapping crystal armor around a ship the size of your battlecruisers. Especially one that keeps changing sizes, you know,” Grampa Al insisted. “Without something to do all the work and coordination like your Nelly, it could take us a year or at least six months.”

  “All the research and design work, even down to what is needed to quickly clad the battlecruisers, has already been done,” Kris pointed out.

  “And I would never allow you and your likes to have one of my children,” Nelly snapped. “Heaven knows what you would put the poor kid to doing. No. Never.”

  “Are you going to let your computer, ah”—Al struggled to get his mouth around what he needed to say, and settled for—“tell you what to do?”

  “I don’t usually, but in this, we are of an agreement. Nelly, what other shipyards do they have up on the station?”

  “Nazareth Steel, Shipbuilding, and Space Docks is building frigates,” Nelly informed Kris.

  “Steel is one thing. Growing crystal is totally different,” said Al, butting in.

  “Correct,” Nelly said, primly, “but they have an agreement with Arnell Electronic and Computer Fabrication. They have fabs bigger than the ones we have on Alwa Station. They can grow the crystal cladding.”

  “Damn your eyes, Kristine Anne Longknife,” Grampa Al growled. “You are a headstrong, foolish child. You trust my word: It will get you killed someday. You really must join me in here where it’s safe and—”

  “Considering how easily Jack and I breached your security, I wouldn’t bet on it.”

  “I’ve corrected those deficiencies.”

  “And likely replaced them with more. No, Grampa, I will not work for you. Unless you agree to clad the ships I’m being given and do it in one week, I’m heading for your competition.”

  Al’s scowl at her would have left any of his subordinates cringing on his knees. Kris returned it, unblinking.

  I’ve faced down alien wolf packs. What have you done with your life?

  It took Grampa Al a great while to work up to his surrender. “Yes, I will do it. Now, damn you, let me see my latest great-granddaughter before you get her and yourselves killed.”

  Ruthie took over the meeting at that point and did her best to wrap another of her cantankerous elders around her tiny finger. Even on grumpy Grandfather Al, it worked. He was smiling, making baby talk, and delighted at her strong grasp of his little finger.

  “You will bring her back again,” Al said. “Honovi so rarely brings his children by.”

  “I will try, Grampa, but you know I’m headed back out soonest.”

  “I would be glad to provide Ruthie with the finest care in the security of my own living quarters.”

  “Thank you, Grandfather, but I’m nursing Ruthie, so where I go, she goes.”

  “Even to Greenfeld?”

  “Now you know why I want those battlecruisers up armored.”

  “You are a fool,” was his parting shot.

  Jack waited until they were in the elevator before he could no longer suppress a question. “You aren’t serious about taking Ruthie with us, are you?”

  “Who would I leave her with? My mother? Your mother? Al here? No, I am Ruthie’s mother, and she goes with me. I trust you to keep us safe. Who else would you trust?”

  “Oh God.” Jack sighed.

  “Help us all,” Rick Sanchez added.

  “I will have to arrange for a bigger detail,” Special Agent Foile muttered.

  They considered all this while they went down three elevators and made their way to the limo surrounded by Marine gun trucks, police cars, and motorcycles.

  As soon as they were under way, Kris said to Nelly, “Have you got a contact in Nazareth Steel, Shipbuilding, and Space Docks?”

  “Yes, ma’am. I have even asked them if they would be interested in some additional work after they finish the two battlecruisers they are building for Tacoma. The rest of the squadron is to be built on the station that Tacoma is just putting the finishing touches to, complete with a shipyard.”

  So, Nazareth Steel was very interested in getting into the crystal-growing business.

  “Call the Chairman of the Board and CEO,” Kris told Nelly.

  They had an agreement and had given them a copy of what Grampa Al now had before their convoy arrived safely back at Nuu House.

  Kris waited until Nelly had hung up and assured them they were clear.

  “Now let’s see how fast Grampa Al is,” Kris said, and knew her smile was pure evil. She found she enjoyed it that way.

  10

  Grampa and Gramma Trouble asked to join them for supper. Lotty was delighted to serve dinner for more than just herself and her husband, Harvey. Kris asked Senior Chief Agent Foile to stay for dinner if he could.

  “Yes, but I hope you will let me go soon enough to help my kids with their homework. It’s rare that I make it home in time. It would be nice for just once.”

  Kris assured him dinner would be early and not run long.

  “What do you think of your new nannies?” Gramma Trouble asked, as she and Trouble came through the door.

  “I haven’t seen them yet,” Kris said, just as a new face in the gray-and-white uniform the nanny service seemed to require brought Ruthie down the stairs to meet the company.

  “You would be Akumaa Shalonda,” Gramma Trouble said.

  “Yes, ma’am,”
came with a slight dunk of the head. The woman was almost as tall as Kris. Her skin was a luscious chocolate topped by red hair, close-cropped, but long enough that Ruthie would, no doubt, soon be wrapping her fingers in it. She had a quick smile.

  “I saw your background when I first looked at the packages Brenda had,” Gramma Trouble said. “I don’t know what her criteria were, but they weren’t mine, or yours I see,” she said, nodding at Kris.

  “You are weapons-qualified?” Jack asked.

  “Pistol, rifle with sniper scope out to nine hundred meters, assault rifles, several rocket launchers, and mortars. I love those things. Will we be having any of those in the armory?”

  “We shall see,” Jack said, grinning. “May I ask how you happened to qualify with all these toys?”

  “I’m sorry, sir, but that is classified need to know. However, I will be glad to demonstrate proficiency.”

  “Gramma Trouble?” Kris asked.

  “Don’t ask me. Trouble vouched for her, and that was good enough for me.”

  Kris raised a questioning eyebrow to her troublesome great-grandfather. He shook his head. “Sorry, I had to call in some chits to verify her skill set, and I am not at leisure to say more.”

  “Will the rest be just as black ops?” Jack asked.

  “Oh, no. The other gals and their supervisor are all former service Soldiers or Marines. It will be interesting to see how a shooting match among all six works out.”

  “No doubt,” Kris said.

  Ruthie was hungry, so they adjourned to the library. It was a relief to be able to nurse Ruthie and not be ostracized from the conversation. She kept Ruthie under a loose blanket, but no one blinked when she switched from breast to breast. Kris had chosen a peasant dress that made it easy for her to put dinner before her infant.

  “If only the Navy would adopt a nursing mother’s uniform,” Gramma Ruth said.

  “It’s hard enough for them to tolerate a maternity uniform,” Trouble put in.

  Which led Kris to tell the full story of how she came to be a mother and continued to be an admiral commanding a fleet at the tip of a spear.

  “I wondered how that came down,” Gramma Ruth said. “I know all the trouble Rita got in for taking Al out on a heavy cruiser when she was nursing him. Oh, and the storm that blew in when the powers that be discovered she’d stayed at the head of her squadron while Alnaba was on the way.”

  “It hasn’t got any easier,” Kris said. “Oh, and I have Alnaba’s granddaughter on my staff.”

  “You do!” Gramma Trouble said.

  Lottie picked that moment to announce dinner was ready. Ruthie had just finished her supper and nodded off to sleep. Akumaa appeared instantly from out of nowhere to whisk the infant away, leaving the adults to enjoy dinner and old stories. Kris left it to Trouble to tell how, after Eddy died, he’d hauled her out of her drunken depths to soar as a skiff racer dropping from orbit to a small patch of ground that was the target.

  “I wouldn’t be where I am today if you hadn’t reached out to me,” Kris said.

  “You are where you are today because of you, and a whole lot of your friends, of which Ruth and I are proud to be two,” Trouble said, giving his wife a hug.

  “But if you get me kidnapped again . . .” Ruth said, and left it at that.

  “Don’t get too close to me,” Kris said. “It’s dangerous.”

  “I wouldn’t say that,” Jack said, and gave her a squeeze to match Trouble’s.

  Agent Foile took this all in and said little.

  It was only after dinner was over and a dessert tray that could not be passed up had been passed around that Trouble said, “I understand you visited with Al today. How is my former son-in-law?”

  “The same as he ever is,” Kris said. “A skinflint scared of his own shadow and grasping for everyone to come in under his umbrella. One that smells terribly like a spiderweb that once you go in, you would never get out.”

  Trouble shook his head. “I don’t know what got into that boy. I never did see what Sarah saw in him.”

  “They spent so much time growing up together,” Ruth said, “while we were all out making the galaxy safe from Iteeche. Left together, they kind of fell into something they both took for love. It might have become something if they’d been given enough time. Ray had been a bachelor way too long, and he just didn’t know how to give that boy the love he needed. There was a big splash when Alex married that young thing, but nothing afterward. Nelly, are you better than I am at chasing gossip?”

  “I’m sorry, Gramma Ruth, but I can find nothing about her. Two days after the wedding, they both entered a black hole as you might say. Grampa Al is often talked about in the media, but rarely because of anything he said.”

  “The man’s a hermit,” Trouble said.

  “After looking at his office today,” Jack said, “I’d say he leads a very opulent and indolent hermit kingdom.”

  They shook their heads at that, and Trouble changed the topic.

  “Excuse me for bringing up business, but would you like to meet the three people who volunteered to help you mediate?”

  “When could I?” Kris asked.

  “Would tomorrow be too soon? Say 1300 hours?”

  “Fine by me,” Kris said, as Trouble and Ruth stood. Agent Foile stood a moment later, not having the telepathy that the old married couple seemed to share.

  “How many people will we be passing through the perimeter?” Kris asked.

  “Likely a lot more than three,” Trouble said. “Most of them work with a team.”

  “So I’ll be the ringmaster of a real zoo?”

  “And that’s different how?” Trouble asked.

  “You’re mean to me, Grampa.”

  “No more than I have to be, young lady. Do you remember that zoo where you got your first medal, and I had you sit there with the rest of us old fogies with stars on our shoulders?”

  “How could I ever forget? Mother wanted me to put diamonds on my Navy and Marine Corps Medal and wear it as a pendant—and get out of the Navy immediately.”

  “I told you then that you’d have stars.”

  “Do I? My orders to get back here were addressed to a captain.”

  “Neither Mac nor Ray told you to get your uniform straightened out, did they?”

  “Nope.”

  “You’ve got it. Don’t let anybody try to take it back.”

  “And when payday comes, and the pay isn’t there for four stars?”

  “Tell Finance to straighten up the paperwork, then donate it to a good cause. It’s not like you Longknifes need the money,” the old general said.

  On that laugh, the wisest of Kris’s elders took their leave, along with Special Agent Foile. Kris and Jack enjoyed the rest of their evening, including time with Ruthie when she woke up.

  Akumaa got more pabulum into Ruthie after Kris allowed her to empty only one breast. She then slipped the baby out so Kris and Jack could get some sleep. Kris wasn’t woken up until two o’clock for a sleepy feeding. Akumaa again took Ruthie off for some play and let Kris go back to sleep.

  Kris felt very well rested when morning arrived. No doubt, it would be a busy day.

  11

  Kris had just settled into the breakfast solarium and managed a bite from a nut-and-bran muffin with marmalade when Nelly interrupted.

  “I have several requests from shipyard and space-dock companies for the package we gave Al and Nazareth. Should I give it to them?”

  “How many is several?” Kris asked through a full mouth.

  “Three. No, make that four. Another request just came through.”

  “How’d they find out?” Kris asked no one in particular.

  “I assume that’s a rhetorical question,” Nelly said, “but I suspect the answer has something to do with how much you human
s talk. Incessantly, I might say.”

  Kris ignored Nelly and eyed Jack. Swallowing, she said, “It was such a lovely morning. Well, no rest for the wicked. As I see it, we developed those production procedures and installation practices on Alwa Station. We don’t have any patent process on Alwa; we’re just doing anything we can to survive.”

  “Yeah,” Jack said slowly, “but we did start with Earth’s stuff, which they very likely did patent.”

  “But if we leave it to the lawyers, we’ll be years getting the warships we need,” Kris said.

  “You want to do it now and ask forgiveness later?”

  “I want to do it now, and let the lawyers figure out the mess. Isn’t that what they get paid for?”

  “God help us if you ever end up queen, my love.”

  “I’m sure she will,” Kris said, leaning close enough to Jack to give him a marmalade-sticky kiss. The essentials covered, Kris told Nelly to publish the files to the Wardhaven net with open access.

  “That ought to be fun,” Kris said.

  “No doubt,” Nelly agreed.

  They were enjoying one last cup of coffee before tackling their day when Nelly again broke in. “Grampa Al wants to talk with you, Kris. Indeed, he is trying to have his computer bellow his desire from every commlink in Nuu House.”

  “Can he do that?” Kris asked.

  “No doubt he could,” Nelly said, “if I weren’t blocking him. His computer, as he admitted yesterday, is not in my league.”

  “No question of that,” Kris said, to fill the time while she thought. “What do you think, Jack?”

  “We both know what he wants to talk about. We both know he won’t be easy to talk to. It seems to me that it’s just a waste of your time and his to take this call.”

  “That sounds about right,” Kris said. “Nelly, use your superior skills to break into his call and tell him I won’t be available today.”

  “Done,” Nelly said.

  Kris and Jack rose and were on their way out of the solarium when Nelly reported, “Grampa Al is not happy. I’m glad you didn’t have to listen to him. Such language!”