Free Kris Longknife: Tenacious (Kris Longknife novellas Book 12) by Mike Shepherd Page B

orbit and were finally able to pass cables of Smart Metal TM between them and swing themselves around each other. This brought a welcome sense of down and improved morale among those who didn’t much care for floating through their day.
    That day, they began the ground survey.
    Longboats from the
Wasp
drew the duty of entering the planet’s thin atmosphere and launching balloon surveyors from their open aft ramps. Nine of the ten successfully inflated as they tumbled free. The last just tumbled. When the
Endeavor
made orbit, before it paired up with the
Intrepid
, it lased the wreckage on the ground, burning it down to basic atoms.
    That would be the future fate of the other nine explorers: their reward for a job well-done. In one of her more reflective moments, Kris found herself wondering how Nelly felt about that.
    She did her best to keep that thought to herself.
    Nelly, however, was fully occupied going over the mapping survey with an intensity no human mind could match. Jacques had asked around if some of the other space slings might have made a fiery reentry. The question had drawn no interest from the scientists, but Nelly set a goal for her and her children to go over the map, quarter-meter pixel by pixel to determine if there were any new, smaller craters. It seemed to be keeping them busy when they weren’t otherwise at work.
    “I’ve found one,” Nelly reported the fourth day.
    “Found what?” Kris asked.
    “A new, smaller crater. Something that could have been made by the center weight of a space sling.”
    “Or by a meteorite that just happened to wander by,” Kris pointed out.
    “Yes. We’ll need to survey the landing site.”
    “Ask the scientists to add it to their survey.”
    “Yes, I guess I will have to get permission before I retask one of the balloons.”
    “Yes, you will, Nelly. Now, why don’t you and your kids find a couple more of those slingers? There must have been quite a few to strip this planet of water and air.”
    “We are still searching the maps, Kris.”
    “Keep it up. Maybe you’ll find one close to where the boffins already want to look.”
    Nelly got rather quiet for a long time after that. Kris hoped she was busy and not giving Kris the silent treatment. It had been bad enough for her computer to do that when Kris deserved it.
    The scientists tried to keep their work to themselves, but there were leaks. There had to be leaks on ships loaded with sensors and communication equipment and a lot of very inquisitive Sailors and Marines. It was basic to the scientific mind only to publish what they were absolutely sure of. Too many careers had been ruined by premature publicity.
    Kris, however, was not against some arm-twisting when she reached the limit of her patience.
    After all, this was a fighting squadron, and it was sitting here, in the mouth of the lion, so to speak. If there wasn’t a good reason to keep her people here in harm’s way, she’d take them back where they came from.
    Or deeper into the lion’s throat. Depending.
    Under pressure, Professor Labao relented and became more forthcoming with the results they were getting and the questions they were chasing.
    “The bombardment seems to have taken place in three stages,” he said. “We could see immediately that the area subjected to atomics had also been hit during at least a second strike by kinetics. Our questions centered on whether or not there were just two or maybe three waves of kinetic strikes.”
    “You say kinetic strikes,” Kris said. “Don’t you mean asteroids or meteorites?”
    “No,” the professor said, and then paused maddeningly to structure his further answer.
    “First, let us define our terms. An asteroid is a small solar body, likely left over from a failed planet’s formation. They come in several types: rock or mineral, though some prefer to add a third type, those rich in carbon or organic compounds. Many are covered with a thick layer of ice. Being natural, they tend to