(eng) Mike Shepherd - Kris Longknife 13 by Unrelenting

Author:Unrelenting [Unrelenting]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

41

“Kris, you need to wake up,” Nelly said.

Kris didn’t want to wake up. She wanted to see how her dream ended.

Kris was in an all-too-familiar position, flat on her back on an examination table. Her legs were up and spread. Only this was not an examination.

It had taken her a while to realize it, but the people busying around her were laying out instruments to perform an abortion on her.

Kris told them, in the most rational words she could come up with, that this was unnecessary. She had everything under control.

They ignored her and kept on laying out huge and horrible metal objects.

Sometimes, the nurse looked like her mom. Sometimes it was Admiral Yi or Commander Sampson. Whoever they were, they would not listen to her.

Even as Kris kept arguing her case, she came to realize that she was not tied to the table. She was free to get up and run for it. She stayed put, doing her best to dissuade whoever it was she was talking to, but in her heart, she’d already made up her mind.

If they picked up one of those horrible things with intent, Kris and baby were off to the races.

They would not take what she was becoming.

Even in her dream, she thought that strange. It’s not my baby they want, it’s me.

Kris struggled to wakefulness without learning the ending.

“Yes, Nelly, what time is it?”

“Way too early, Kris, but the duty section woke up Admiral Kitano, and she thinks you need to see this right away.”

“See what?” Jack asked.

“It looks like we have another fast-moving suicide ship coming in, only this one is different,” Nelly said.

“How different?” Kris asked as she rolled out of bed.

“They are coming in a lot faster. Faster and wilder. This one jumped into a system only seven out. It managed to skip five systems. The estimate is it’s doing four hundred and fifty thousand kilometers and accelerating at 3.45 gees.”

“Ouch,” Jack said, and pulled on a fresh set of khakis as Kris reached for whites.

Five minutes later, they were in Kris’s flag plot staring at a screen showing Alwa’s picket system while Admiral Kitano and the duty officer reported from another.

“This report arrived fifteen minutes ago,” the duty officer, a young lieutenant, reported. She looked very calm for a JO who’d just woken up a total of seven stars. Nine, if you counted Jack.

“I must point out that this report has been five days, eight hours in transit. It is possible that the suicider could be jumping into our system anytime.”

“Nelly?” Kris said.

“I’m working on it, Kris, with Wasp’s nav computer. We don’t do these kind of jumps, and I don’t have this stuff in memory.”

Kris raised an eyebrow. Nelly sounded sharp, harassed, and busy. Kris chose to cover another matter. “Kitano, who has jump-point duty?”

“BatRon 5,” she answered quickly, then glanced off screen to check herself. “Hispania has the Libertad and Federacion at Alpha, the Independencia and Union at Beta Jump. The Esperanto League was scheduled to relieve them next week.

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