The jump back to the next system didn’t quite go as smoothly as Kris would have wanted. Two of the maskers failed to spin up as quickly as the rest. For a fraction of a second, two of the decoys did not have mass.
Hopefully, the rebels did not notice it, or choose to act on the discrepancy.
They did react quickly to the sudden arrival of the two hundred and fifty-six battlecruisers in the system.
The Iteeche rebel commander didn’t bother with a very strong code as he polled his commanders.
“Where did a fleet that size come from? There is only one jump in and out of that system!”
“Yes, sir. Only one jump.
“This must be a Longknife trick. You can’t trust your eyes around that human woman,” the commander snapped.
“Respectfully, Oh, Honored Admiral, I have read the report of Ron Who Eats Human Shit from when he traveled around the galaxy with the human Longknife girl. He reported that it appeared that they could see jumps where we saw nothing.”
“The human electronic gadgets are good, but not that good,” the commander insisted.
“Please excuse, Oh, Honored Admiral, but this may well be true. With our own ships, we surveyed the system where the Longknife ship fought the evil alien’s scout. There were only two jumps into the system. One led deep into space. One led to one of our planets. The Longknife ship did not go to our planet, however. It immediately made an unbelievably long jump deep into human space.”
“If that report is to be believed,” someone else said.
“We have solid reports that the Longknife ship was so wrecked that it was scrapped where it lay. It could not have made another jump.”
“So you are telling me that our battle plan has been leaked and Ron Who Eats Human Shit and that bottom feeder Longknife have planned an ambush for us as we planned one for them?”
“Are we so sure of our allies?” a new voice joined the discussion.
The answer to that question came quickly, only seconds after the discussion ended.
The closest rebel fleet slammed on the brakes. The sedate and comfortable one gee deceleration they’d been following jacked up to a more emphatic 2.75 gees within five minutes. The other fleet changed its course, now decelerating and adjusting its course for the other jump out.
“Nelly, how close will they be to us when they come dead in space?”
“We’ll be a bit less than eight million kilometers apart. We’ll close in on them as they accelerate away, but both fleets should reach that jump two days before and well ahead of us.”
“So, we have to maintain this charade for six days,” Jack said. “Nelly, how are the maskers doing?”
“All are working well within the parameters I have set for them.”
“If these do work for the next six days,” Ron put in, “we might as well keep them on until we are ready to jump into the Imperial system. If you don’t mind, Kris, I would very much like to collect all the maskers from your ships as well as keep the ones on mine.”
“I don’t foresee that giving up that much Smart Metal would be a problem,” Kris said. “May I ask why?”
Again, Ron had to twist his head like an owl to look at his two main advisors.
KRIS, WHAT I’VE TRACKED FROM RON THIS TIME IS QUITE DIFFERENT FROM WHAT I RECORDED LAST TIME.
GOOD, NELLY. I HOPE YOU CAN BUILD THAT DATA BASE QUICKLY. I REALLY MISS THOSE GILL COLORS.
WORKING ON IT.
Moments after Kris and Nelly finished their mental conversation, Ron turned back to Kris.
“Princess Longknife, I and my advisors have decided that it would not be too grave a matter for us to inform you that maskers are difficult to manufacture. At least, maskers that work. I will not tell you the failure rate of our production line, I will only say that we were quite amazed that your Nelly was able to construct two hundred and twenty-four systems and have them all work amazingly well. If we might keep the extra maskers, it would allow my Emperor to build two hundred or more battlecruisers without waiting for maskers to come for them from the factory.”
“Might that gift make it easier for some people to swallow that you allowed us to borrow this technology for even a brief time?” Kris asked.
“It might mean that I do not owe my Emperor an apology, at least not a most formal one.
“Good, then. Nelly, before you wipe all memory of the maskers and their technology from yourself, please arrange to transport the maskers to the Iteeche ships.”
“I will, Kris. However, Ron, I will need some time to make a minor modification to the maskers I made.”
“What did you do?” Ron asked. The tightening of his four eyes was not something that Kris could read very easily. Someone is concerned. Very concerned.
“I am operating all the maskers I made,” Nelly explained. “I did not build these maskers with either controls or instrument read outs for anyone to use for such controls. I am actively controlling the devices. I did not want anyone fiddling with my work or trying to steal it.”
Kris huffed in a failed attempt to suppress an outright laugh.
“I guess she’s telling us where we humans and Iteeche belong,” Jack said, a hand over his mouth to cover what sounded very much like a chuckle.
“I will never understand why any imminent lord would put up with such behavior,” came from the Imperial counselor. From Ron and the admiral came something that sounded like a strangling cat.
I THINK THAT’S A LAUGH, Nelly reported.
I THINK IT IS, TOO.
“I put up with my computer’s eccentricities,” Kris began, in a huff of injured pride, “because she has saved our necks too many times for me to count. Would you prefer to be in the loving hands of the rebels at this moment, because if she had not done what she did, that is exactly where we all would be. Can you see that, Imperial counselor?”
The advisor seemed to actually shrink in size, something not so easy for an eight-foot tall Iteeche.
Ron answered for his team member. “He sees it and offers apologies to Nelly if he has injured her in any way. And for our Emperor, that can include the respect he is due as well as worship. Nelly, is your respect uninjured?”
“I assure you, Iteeche Ambassador, nothing said by the ignorant could possibly injure my opinion of myself. I know what I am due.”
Ron swiveled his head to look hard at the counselor who turned and exited the screen.
“So, Nelly,” Ron began, “I understand that you are to make adjustments to the instruments that you have spun out of Smart Metal and we will collect them on my flagship.”
Ron paused for a moment. “Nelly, is it possible for you to isolate a portion of your memory? To store information there that can only be accessed under a codeword issued by a specific voice? Maybe two code words and two voices.”
“Anything is possible to a computer of my skill,” Nelly answered.
“I am thinking that it has been very beneficial to my Emperor for you to have temporary access to our masker technology. I am also thinking that it might very well benefit my Emperor if several Iteeche from both the academic and factory guilds were able to converse with you about what you just did.”
“I think that I might enjoy discussing such matters. As you are likely aware, all of the maskers in your fleet appeared to have been made to different tolerances. If I were to guess, I would say that they were made by hand. I might be able to offer some production methods that would allow some of the material to be machined and produced in standard jigs. I also have some thoughts on how your scientists might test the workings of the device and gain a better understanding of its inner workings.”
On screen, the admiral’s eyes were getting big around.
YES, KRIS, I AM NOTING THE ADMIRAL’S REACTION. NOW I KNOW WHAT HUNGER AND LUST LOOK LIKE.
NO DOUBT, NELLY.
“However,” Nelly went on, “if I were to follow my previous instructions and wipe this information from my memory and reorganize the matrix it was on, I could not have any such conversations.”
“Princess Longknife,” Ron began formally, “I request that you have your computer maintain the data on her that you formally ordered her to destroy with no chance of recovery. Would you please do that, then order her to allow me and my admiral to seal that data to our voice command and code words? I know this may tie up a portion of Nelly’s computational skills, but I believe it will be a move that will create a bridge of mutual trust between our two great peoples.”
“Nelly, would that be a problem?” Kris asked.
“Oh, my computational skills might be reduced to the point that it took me a millisecond longer to think of a sarcastic comeback,” Nelly said.
Kris looked Ron’s way. “I think that means that we have injured her pride and she will take it out on both of us.”
“No doubt,” the Iteeche agreed. Now he had one of his four hands hiding his mouth.
Kris knew a formal order had to be formally revoked. She and Nelly spent the next few minutes figuring out the precise wording that would tell Nelly to cancel one hard order and accept a second hard order to cover the same information. It was no sooner done than Nelly reported receiving voice codes from both Ron and the admiral and the data was now under lock and key.
“I know that I am saving information on Iteeche masking technology in that area of my memory, so that I will not examine it or remove it. It is not something I can access.”
“Nelly, would you please give me the code words the two Iteeche have given you.” Kris said, testing her computer in front of Ron.
“I cannot do that Kris, both because you have ordered me not to and Ron has given me the same order under your order.”
“I wish to countermand that order,” Kris said, pushing farther.
“I cannot allow you to countermand that order. You have ordered that no one can countermand that order except you with Ron and the admiral working in unison.”
“Ron,” Kris said, glancing at the Iteeche, “would you like to access that information at this time?”
“I don’t think so. I don’t know how much we are taxing Nelly’s internal locks, but I know that one of our computers would be ready to go into a long series of logic checks as well as system checks and might well stumble into an infinite loop somewhere in there.”
“That would never happen to me,” Nelly said, proudly.
“I am satisfied that we have made a good deal for my Emperor,” Ron said. “Now, I hope nothing else stands between us and the Imperial court.
“So do I,” Kris said, with a long sigh.