Kris nodded. She’d found Cara a major pain in the neck . . . but there had been no question that the Wasp was going after the kid. Cara was one of their own.
“You should have seen the look on her face when Sergeant Steve and his team came charging into that drug field where they had her. She’d done her best to keep her head down and be good, but she’d just done something I would have done, and her luck was all run out. Then a Marine stomps in, and all bets are canceled.”
“I was kind of busy elsewhere,” Kris pointed out.
“You’ve got to change your scheduling priorities, Kris. You miss too much of the fun stuff.”
“Tell me about it,” Kris said with a sigh.
“Anyway, for the last two, three weeks, Cara has been kind of sinking into this idea that she does have a home. She does have people who won’t leave her behind. You know what I mean.”
“Sort of,” Kris said. “But Abby, this is not my usual kind of mess. If it’s a choice of leading monsters back to human space and not coming back at all, well . . .”
Abby snorted. “You done gone and changed on me, kid?”
“Changed?”
“Yeah. I’ve followed your sorry ass through all kinds of smelly hell. I’ve seen people do their absolute best to put an end to your breathing. And you refuse their kind offers and just keep right on taking in air and letting it out.”
“A habit of mine,” Kris admitted.
“Well,” said Abby. “You’re mighty good at it, and I don’t expect you to fail to keep on keeping on.”
“That’s very definitely my plan.” Kris admitted.
“So, there are billions of kids Cara’s age. Billions more that ain’t been born yet. I don’t see that we’ll be any less careful of their futures if we have one of them edging around the door, looking in on us while we decide if she and they will ever have a chance to grow up.”
“Now that you put it that way,” Kris said, “I don’t see any problem with you sharing your room with Cara.
Cara bounced out of the dressing room, wearing an ankle-length skirt that chimed like a mad carillon when she spun in it.
“I’ll have it put on our tab,” Nelly said without being told.
5
“I brought along three replenishment ships and a repair ship to accompany the four battlewagons,” Vicky said proudly, as Kris greeted her on the USS Wasp’s quarterdeck.
“I watched that parade the Fury led in,” Kris said. “Between the big guns and the big cargo capacity, you look ready for anything.”
“Her father, my Emperor, requires it,” said Vice Admiral Georg Krätz, commander of BatRon 12, all its supporting elements, and one Victoria Smythe-Peterwald, now a lieutenant in her father, the emperor’s, Navy.
“I think Dad was afraid I’d starve to death or run out of oxygen or maybe break a nail and not have a file,” Vicky said, dismissively.
“I think he’s more worried about why Iteeche scouts are not coming back at the end of their voyages,” the admiral said darkly, “and very much wants his daughter back after this voyage.”
Vicky gave him a sideways glance. “I wish I really believed that. I’m not at all sure his new wife wants me back. And her already preggers with a boy, not that she doesn’t mention that every five minutes.
“And it’s going to be a body birth. No auto-jug for my new brother. Dad is just always checking in on her. He has Brother’s heart monitor forwarded to his personal computer. Old men should not be fathers!” Vicky said in exasperation.
Kris had been delighted to have a younger brother. But then she’d been four and already being bossed around by a big brother. To her, Eddy looked like a chance for Kris to even up the bossing. Vicky’s experience of her big brother, now deceased thanks to Kris, had not been a topic for much conversation.
At fifteen, Kris had made the discovery that her family met most of the requirements for dysfunctional. Poor Vicky had only recently come to that conclusion.
From the sound of things, the Peterwalds were about to plumb new depths on the dysfunctional scale. In the back of Kris’s head, a small alarm went off. People died in the games Peterwalds played.
So how could Kris keep her distance?
Funny thing, people died around those damn Longknifes. Now it was Kris’s turn to watch her back around someone else.