4
With three days of hurry up and wait ahead of her, Kris found she had a little time on her hands.
The Wasp had already been moved into space dock before Kris got back from her little confab with her great-grandfathers. With dockworkers crawling all over the ship, Kris moved herself and her staff down to Wardhaven. Nuu House was waiting for her.
It was also empty except for the old family retainers. Harvey, her driver since first grade, and his wife, Loddy, the cook, made Kris and her staff feel right at home.
For a change, Kris did the dutiful-daughter things. She called to see if she could have supper with Father . . . the Prime Minister . . . and Mother.
Unfortunately, both of their schedules were too full to make room for the prodigal daughter.
No surprise there.
She did call her brother, Honovi. She was dutifully invited over to hold the new baby. Brenda, named for Kris’s mother, allowed her newly minted aunt to hold her, then promptly spit up on Kris’s blues and was removed by a nanny for cleaning.
Honovi was on a slow burn; he had not forgiven Kris for being included in the meeting with the Iteeche while he was given the bum’s rush by Grampa Ray. What with a small fleet of ships headed for Wardhaven, he and the prime minister had finally been brought fully up to speed. Still, he was not happy to be so late to the party.
Kris left after barely fifteen minutes.
“Oh, sis, I hear you’re leaving to explore the very heart of the galaxy,” Kris muttered to herself in her brother’s voice as Harvey drove her back to Nuu House. “I hope it won’t be too dangerous. Do take care of yourself, little sister,” she finished with a sigh.
Brother had mentioned that Father had been forced to call for new elections. The opposition insisted the present Parliament could not ratify the constitution the old Parliament had negotiated.
To Kris, that seemed quite reasonable, but somehow Brother made it all sound like it was Kris’s fault.
Given a choice between helping Brother and Father run for reelection and hunting the galaxy for bug-eyed monsters, Kris found BEMs winning by a nose.
Chasing pirates was a runaway favorite.
Family duties fulfilled, Kris looked for other fun. Taking a now-thirteen-year-old shopping sounded like just the ticket. Besides, Kris had been promising Cara a trip to the malls. Kris remembered what it was like to be young and have a credit chit burning a hole in your pocket.
Somehow it didn’t come up in conversation until Cara was attacking several rows of very-cool-looking dresses that her credit chit was now zero. Nada. Empty.
“Auntie Teresa took me shopping while you were meeting with those old guys,” Cara admitted. “We got the most gad dress. It flashes lights, and you can have it send out messages. Dada can make them flash real fast.”
Kris raised an eyebrow to her maid, Cara’s only flesh-andblood aunt.
Abby shrugged. “Which of those unspoken questions do you want me to answer first. Nelly, it’s your kid that has my niece flashing ‘those’ words.”
“And I am not happy at all. At all at all,” Nelly said, sounding more like a granny than a proud mother. “I am trying to explain to Dada that humans have ‘things’ that are not at all logical. She is learning.”
“Mighty slowly for a supercomputer,” Abby said, dryly.
Kris wanted the other half of her questioning eyebrow answered. “About her zero credit balance? For a spy, you’re letting your boss get strangely surprised.”
“Oh, that,” Abby said. “Doctors shouldn’t operate on their own families, and you can’t expect me to be all that good of a spy where my own flesh and blood is concerned. Besides, that girl is learning from the best of us.”
“Worst of you,” Nelly put in.
“Whatever. She got in her shopping run with Teresa de Alva while I was biting my tongue and sitting on my hands listening to you and your family not communicate. Then we had to move down here, and when we got things all settled, somehow it didn’t come up. She didn’t lie to me. It just never came up.”
“Until we walked in here,” Kris said with a half smile teasing at her lips.
Cara was back with a surprisingly colorful and traditional peasant dress. The bustline highlighted that the twirling sprite wearing it was not a little girl anymore, but Cara didn’t seem to notice.
What Kris was delighted to notice was that Cara’s smile had come out to play once more.
After Kris and her Marines had liberated Cara and flattened Port Royal, Cara had been painfully quiet. Now she walked where before she skipped or ran. Worst, that infectious smile that played on her lips had gone away.
Kids have to grow up. Inevitably, they learn that the world is not as safe as the adults around them try to make it. Somewhere in the process, that childish laugh, the innocent smile, get lost.
Kris could only imagine what Cara had gone through as a slave on a drug plantation. Kris had feared Cara’s smile was gone forever.
Today, for this bangle or that glam, it came back out.
So Kris paid for the dress. And the skirt and blouse. And both pairs of shoes.
“Shopping therapy,” Nelly said, as they waited for Cara to try on “One, last dress. No more.”
“Where’d you hear that?” Abby asked the computer.
“I read it somewhere. Mind you, with this princess lady, I’ve never actually seen it in operation, but, hey, I can recognize it when I see it.”
The three of them fell silent. Somewhere back in the dressing room, Cara was singing. Kris tried to remember when she’d ever been so happy she just had to sing.
She couldn’t.
“Are you going to send us away now?” Abby asked.
“Send you away?” Kris started at the abrupt change of topic.
“There are not going to be many dress balls where you’re heading. And not a lot of snooping that a maid can do.” Abby swallowed something hard. “I figure you’ll want to leave me and Cara behind.”
Kris shook her head. “I don’t think I could afford to break your contract. You had a good lawyer draw it up, and my mom never did have a head for legalese.”
Abby snorted. “What paperwork have you been reading?”
“Maybe it wasn’t paper I was reading. Maybe it had something to do with a human heart. If you want to come, you’ll always have a berth by my side.”
“And Cara?”
“Do you really want to take her out on the limb I’ll no doubt be sawing off?” Kris asked.
Abby didn’t answer for a long minute. Her eyes were on the door to the dressing room, but Kris suspected, from the distant look, that she was seeing something else.
“Cara told me that when she was captured she kept going because she remembered Bruce saying ‘Marines never leave anyone behind.’ Poor kid, Cara was none too sure she qualified for that promise, but she kept holding to it, no matter what happened.”
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.