Kris Longknife #03 - Defiant by Mike Shepherd

Author:Mike Shepherd [Shepherd, Mike]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Adventure, Science Fiction, Military, Fiction, General, Life on Other Planets, Space Warfare, Women Marines, Longknife; Kris (Fictitious Character)
ISBN: 9780441013494
Publisher: Ace Books
Published: 2005-10-24T22:00:00+00:00

Kris’s next stop took her to Roy’s office. A runner led her to the shop floor where the acting super huddled with a small army of engineers over a hologram of one of the armed yachts. Kris watched as it blew away its outer shell, decoy, and power barge, emerging like a butterfly from a cocoon—and was then ripped apart by the flying pieces as they bounced off of each other and into the yacht.

“That ain’t gonna work,” Roy said. “Get another option.”

“We’ve already tried twelve.”

“So you shouldn’t have all that much trouble coming up with another twelve. Your momma didn’t raise an unimaginative engineer, did she?”

There was a general muttering about whether some managers had mothers. Roy chose to recognize Kris at that moment and by concentrating his smile on her, ignore the small mutiny among his people. “How’s it going, Your Highness?”

“Better than I might have expected. Has Captain Luna seen that little demonstration?”

“She and the other five skippers saw the first four versions. Doesn’t believe a pixel of them. ‘All engineering hogwash,’ I believe was their response.”

“Could they fire their lasers from inside that lash-up?”

“Not sure I’d recommend it.”

“How about a short, very low-power stutter burst to knock a hole where you want it, then a full power burst through that hole? I did a low-power burst on…” Right, her shoots were not in the history books, yet. “Well, I’ve dialed pulse lasers way down and used them that way.”

“Hardware’s not designed for that.”

“I did software mods. On the fly. Certainly you could do some with two days’ warning.”

“And test them, debug them, document them.” Roy sighed. “Oh, I hate dealing with software engineers. Especially when I have to tell them all we have is two days to do it in.”

“I could have Nelly do it before close of business today,” Kris said.

I COULD HAVE IT DONE IN FIVE MINUTES, IF I HAD ACCESS TO THE SHIP SYSTEMS. WHAT DO YOU THINK I AM, AN ABACUS?

I KNOW, NELLY, BUT LET’S NOT EMBARRASS TOO MANY PEOPLE.

YOU HUMANS AND YOUR FEELINGS.

Now Roy was grinning from ear to ear. “That might be fun. Challenge my software engineers to a race, them versus your computer. But no. Not a good idea. I’ll have to work with those guys long after you’ve sailed off into the sunset. Very bad idea. But it would be fun. Oh Lord, but I’m gonna be in trouble.”

He glanced back at his engineers. Another explosion was taking place in slow motion. Yes. Yes. No. The ship got nicked, then slammed, then the power barge bounced a girder and drove it through the bridge. Ugly picture.

“What a choice. Either these folks have to come up with something, or the software engineers. Looks like I’m damned either way.”

“What if you kept the false ship pretty much in one piece.” A small voice came from around Kris’s neck. “Blew the attachment points gently, and backed the yacht out of the cocoon?”

“What did you say, Kris?”

“You’re talking to Nelly, Roy.”

“Do you have to blow up the false ship?” Nelly asked.

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