Free Kris Longknife: Defender by Mike Shepherd Page B

Granny agreed. “I had to officially demob and decommission all the survivors before we could formally declare ourselves a colony and make our own rules. I was delighted to do myself out of the job of running the
Furious
, and the damn fools immediately elected me chief cook and bottle washer. Served them right that I’ve been a pain in their asses every day since.”
    Granny found a stone bench and settled on it. Kris took the other end, and Jack settled cross-legged on the grass opposite them.
    “So, tell your old granny about this fraternization reg. How’s it changed since my day?”
    “I don’t think it has,” Kris said. “No officer can date an enlisted. No senior can date any junior.”
    “No, Kris,” Jack corrected her. “No officer can date anyone more than two ranks down. Same for EMs.”
    “You’ve been reading up, huh, son?” Granny said.
    Jack just shrugged.
    “But the big no-no is that you can’t date anyone in your chain of command,” Kris added.
    “Ah, yes.” Granny sighed. “I remember that one. There I was, running my own battlecruiser squadron and married to the big Kahuna himself. They told me I was grandfathered in. I told them I was too young to be grand
mothered
into anything. But there was a war on, and they needed fighting captains and I had a reputation for doing the dirtiest jobs and bringing the most ships back. It was none of my doing, I just had the best damn bunch of gals in space. At least a whole lot more of my crew were gals, and we had something to prove to the boys’ club. There still a boys’ club?”
    Neither Kris not Jack offered a comment on that.
    “Some things never change,” the old woman said, raising her gaze to watch the wind ruffle the leaves above her.
    “Enough of bitching about things that need changing but ain’t never gonna happen. Tell me about your situation, Jack.”
    “I command Kris’s security detail,” he stated simply.
    “And can lock her in her room if you think it’ll keep her safe,” Granny said with a wide grin.
    “I have never done that,” Jack insisted.
    “But you’ve wanted to,” Kris said.
    “Why not? You’ve done some damn fool stunts. Like running out on your security team and getting bombed.”
    “I’ve apologized for that,” Kris said.
    “And getting us shot down on that no-name planet.”
    “But I saved your precious Marines from flying into a trap.”
    “Yes, I know.”
    “So, not to cut in,” Granny said, cutting in, “but I take it you two have had a lot of fun disagreeing on just about everything. You ever had much time to talk, I don’t know, say, about how you feel about each other?”
    “A few times,” both said at once.
    “Ever over a candlelit dinner?” Granny asked.
    “No,” again came from both of them.
    Granny frowned. “When I was on your ship, Kris, I kept hearing about Captain Drago. Is he a Marine like Captain Jack here?”
    “I thought I explained him to you,” Kris said.
    “Maybe you did, but once you’re past eighty, you tend to forget important things.”
    In a pig’s eye,
Kris thought, but she answered like a dutiful great-granddaughter. “He’s the captain of the
Wasp
. Both this one and the previous one. He retired from the Navy after being selected for rear admiral and was hired by Wardhaven Intelligence to run my ship for me. Besides the hundred or more scientists I insisted on having aboard, he ran the ship with a contract crew, and for most of the last three years, there were only a few Navy types on the
Wasp
. Just me, Jack, Penny, and Chief Beni, God rest his soul. Then Grampa Ray, ah King Raymond to most, thought I was getting into too much trouble and Jack got a platoon, then a company, then a reinforced company of Marines.”
    “Was it enough to protect her?” Granny said through a grin.
    “Not even close,” Jack said.
    Kris soldiered on. “And the ship’s company took on more and more Sailors as well.”
    “How’d the mix of overpaid contractors and