Intrepid

Kris allowed a smile only when he finally got around to saying just who was lacking in smarts. ''So you can see how I might put a higher priority on killing pirates even if I must leave some of the secrets of the universe to wait a bit longer.''

''Regrettable. Very regrettable.''

Kris managed to get three paces closer to the bridge, but the professor stayed right in step with her. ''Ever wondered why we didn't spot these fuzzy jump points before?''

He raised an eyebrow as Kris came to a halt.

''I have been kind of curious,'' Kris admitted.

''I have been very curious,'' Nelly said.

''I should expect you to be, Miss Nelly,'' mFumbo said, with a slight bow toward Kris's neck where Nelly rode. More of a bow than he'd ever afforded Kris's princess status.

''It seems that it was only five years ago that all our work with the alien technology on Santa Maria finally paid off with an improved atom laser.''

''I hadn't heard that we cracked any of their technology,'' Kris said.

''We didn't actually. It was something we discovered ourselves while trying to unlock something of theirs. Anyway, we discovered different harmonics in gravity waves and a way to sense them with a tuned atom laser. It should lower the cost of atom lasers in time, but right now, they're horribly expensive.''

''But the Resolute just happened to have one,'' Kris said slowly, wondering just who had been jobbing whom out at Chance.

''Yes. Interesting, that,'' mFumbo said.

''So if we had fired up the Patton's atom laser,'' Kris said, a smile growing, ''we would not have found the fuzzy jump points.''

''It was an old Iteeche war-era cruiser,'' he said, shaking his head. ''No, not likely.''

SO I WAS WRONG. YOU WERE RIGHT. SUE ME, Nelly shot back to Kris alone. Where had that come from? What had Kris set herself up for when she let one little twelve-year-old slip of a girl on board? That girl had to go.

YOU WILL NOT SHIP HER OFF THE WASP. CARA IS MY FRIEND. CARA IS GOING TO STAY HERE AS LONG AS I DO.

And was that a threat? Kris thought, careful to keep it to herself.

But before Kris could say anything, Professor mFumbo apparently mistook the silence between them to mean he was free to go on to a different subject, ''We've found out something interesting about these fuzzy jump points.''

''Yes,'' Kris said. ''What?'' Nelly demanded.

''They don't wander as much as the other ones do. Something about their harmonic nature allows them to stay closer to a single point. Either that, or the fuzziness around them helps us follow them more easily.''

''That should cut down on bad jumps,'' Kris said.

''Very likely.''

''So what are we going to find behind these jump points? New territory opened up toward the end of the Three's time,'' Nelly said pensively, ''or the center of their civilization, held together by the latest jump-point technology?''

''A very good question that I can do nothing to answer while the princess here is busy chasing miscreants. Or maybe I can.''

''Or maybe you can?'' Kris asked, wondering what sort of trap the professor had set for her.

''Since the jump points are more steady, we think we can send an automated probe to do an initial look behind them. You know there is a fuzzy jump point in this system?''

Kris admitted that she did.

''If we could send a remote probe to check out the other system, we could have it waiting here for us when we return and maybe save ourselves some wasted time.''

''But merchant ships don't launch probes. If a pirate ship enters a system and sees us and a probe in it, it will be a dead giveaway that we aren't what we're trying to appear.''

''Yes, but if you held off launching the probe until just before we jump out of this system …''

''And since you've already readied the probe?''

''Yes, there is that matter,'' the professor admitted, his hands open, palms up, in polite supplication to Kris.

''I'll tell Captain Drago that you want to launch a probe,'' Kris said.

''Thank you very much,'' Professor mFumbo said, and headed in the opposite direction from Kris.

Kris watched his retreating back. New technologies. Not so much our cracking the secrets of the Three alien cultures that built the jump points, as our discovering this or that on our own as we bounced our heads off the lockbox of their still-unfathomable knowledge.

Well, humans learned many ways.

No, human scientists learned. Others, like pirates, might upgrade their equipment. But the pirates Kris hunted weren't all that different from the cutthroats the Romans put down in the ancient Mediterranean Sea.

''Two minutes to zero gravity,'' the Wasp's MC-1 announced as Kris entered the bridge.

''Morning, Lieutenant,'' Captain Drago said.

''Morning, Captain, any unknowns in system?''

''The answer is the same as it's been the last two days. No, ma'am, though of course a hostile could have entered the system from the other jump point an hour ago, but we'll be another half hour finding out.''