Kris Longknife: Defender Read Free

planet murderer that tumbled and rolled in front of them.
    Old men’s plans for young people don’t always work out as planned.
    “Captain,” Kris said, “you can call me paranoid, but I’d like to approach the hulk, keeping it between us and anything that might suddenly pop out of that jump.”
    “Paranoia has kept a lot of Longknifes alive,” Granny Rita said.
    “Adjusting course,” Captain Drago said.
    “Nelly, how much of the
Wasp
’s Smart Metal do you want to use for explorer nanos?”
    “As much as Penny will let me, Kris. I’ll be controlling them with all the self-organizing matrix that I haven’t yet used for my next child.” In half payment on the
Wasp
, Nelly had swapped one kid to Katsu, with solid overrides if he, or his father, should ever try to duplicate her child. Having lived with Kris for twenty years, Nelly came by her paranoia honestly. Nelly’s price for that one had been enough matrix to birth three more children to replace those lost on the long, dangerous flight from this battle.
    She’d only granted two of the new personnel on the
Wasp
the honor of working with one of her children. That left one child yet unborn. Nelly was willing to divide that matrix up and share it out among the exploration drones to give them top-notch guidance and sensor suites to study the hulk.
    That still left the basic question: How much Smart Metal TM would there be for her matrix to fly?
    Penny took a while to talk to Mimzy, her own computer and one of Nelly’s offspring. “Kris, I’d like to shrink the
Wasp
down to Condition Baker.”
    Under Baker, the “love boat” proportions of Condition Able became a bit constrained. Passageways got narrower. Unused spaces shrunk or vanished. The reaction-mass tanks that had given up a part of their contents on the way out here would be resized. All that spare metal would be moved to the outer hull of the
Wasp
to form a reflective surface and a honeycomb through which cool reaction mass flowed. This sandwich of armor should protect the
Wasp
from laser hits as good as, if not better than, the six-meter-thick ice armor on heavy battleships.
    “I concur,” Captain Drago said. This meeting with the Alwans might not be taking place on the bridge, but clearly he was following it very closely.
    He was, after all, the captain.
    “Mimzy,” Penny said, “announce to all hands that we will be going to Condition Baker in one minute and that we may go to Condition Charlie without further notice.” Charlie was worse than Baker, but not as bad as Condition Zed. When Zed was ordered, people’s quarters were compressed down into a few lockers, and the entire rest of the room vanished. The same went for the scientists’ research labs.
    Boffins had complained loudly about Condition Zed. The scientists had been shown the fine print in their contracts and reminded that they were all subject to activation as reserve officers, and as such, would follow the proper orders of their duly appointed superiors.
    The scientists complained, but they knew it wouldn’t matter if ever Captain Drago, Kris, or Penny ordered Condition Zed.
    Around Kris, the Forward Lounge began to shrink. Empty tables melted into the deck. Folks in the middle of their dinner found their table and chairs moving closer together as empty places vanished away.
    All hands went through this drill once a week for Baker and once a month for Zed. Folks kept right on eating, drinking, and when a new couple came in, the lounge expanded to provide them a table.
    The Alwans were still fixated on the wreck ahead; they failed to notice what was happening around them.
    “Princess, my boffins have noticed something strange about the wreck,” came in the calm, aristocratic voice of Professor Joao Labao. He was on sabbatical from the University of Brazília and the senior administrator of the 250 scientists aboard the
Wasp
and the reason the frigate could honestly claim to be a research ship. “Have your examinations